In a thread on Twitter this afternoon, Hearthstone Game Designer, Alec Dawson, talked about the upcoming changes. Here is what he had to say.
Quote From Alec Dawson Balance changes are coming early next week! For this balance patch, we were looking at three main categories: Demon Hunter, mana reduction, and setting up classes for the remainder of the year.
Demon Hunter is still the number one force in the meta and has a great role in determining whether or not a deck is competitive on the ladder. The changes to Kayn Sunfury and [Hearthstone Card (Metamorphasis) Not Found] are slight adjustments focused on Demon Hunter's reach and ability to control the board.
Warglaives of Azzinoth was one of the best cards in the class, especially in aggressive decks. In the future, we want to be able to push Demon Hunter into archetypes other than aggro/tempo.
As for mana reduction, we want to lessen some of the giant swings currently in the game.
Swing turns will still be present in Hearthstone, there's a healthy medium there, but not to the extent of Dragonqueen Alexstrasza or Galakrond Rogue. Dragoncaster moved to 7 mana to make that turn a bit more appropriate as to when it's occurring in the match.
Fungal Fortunes and Corsair Cache were both strong performing cards that limit some of our ability to extend those classes into different spaces later in the year. These changes should make it easier for future archetypes to take shape and be competitive.
Finally, thank you all for the feedback throughout the last few months. We're always listening so keep it coming.
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Comments
u right. less dmg to face is irrelevant but less dmg to control enemy board is fundamental and it will have an impact.
Just happy to see Warglaives of Azzinoth nerfed. Its been a while since I last saw a weapon that can do literally anything.
More changes, any changes, more frequently.
I have to wholeheartedly disagree with this. Changes things just for the sake of change is actually bad for the long term health of the game and players' collections. Not every player likes the throwaway mentality when it comes to cards (i.e. That when you get bored of a card or deck you never want to play it again, and thus don't care if the card or deck gets over nerfed). It also hurts players, both the players that don't pay real money for their cards and those that do, because you can never really count on any deck being consistent or viable due to it randomly being changed out of the blue, in a world where changes happen just for 'reasons' and not actual balance concerns.
One question. Would you or your friends/family be more or less likely to spend money on HS if any of your decks / cards you bought could lose the 'random weekly roulette of nerfing' and make your deck fundamentally different or weaker than what caused you to love that deck or card in the first place?
EDIT: Also, if you make nerfs and changes to the game super constantly it essentially means players do not have to think of counter plays and strategies to any particular deck. After all, why think of ways to counter your opponent if their deck is just automatically going to get nerfed in 1 or 2 weeks? Imo games should be both fun and reward deck tinkering/countering at the same time.
I honestly think that they are updating the game at a pretty comfortable rate. This is going to be what, the fifth balance patch since the last expansion? Any more might be a bit too much.
But that is just how I feel about it.
This last patch is especially good in preparation for a new expansion. Rogue Galakrond and Alextrasza are dominant cards that are relatively independent of the meta. This might open a lot of breathing room for new decks.
I agree. It keeps the meta fresh, but at the same time allows enough time for players to come up with new decks before the next nerf hits. I like it!