Surprise! Blizzard has released a Friday balance patch with no warning today. We've got a nerf to Edwin VanCleef, one of Hearthstone's original legendary cards, and to Boggspine Knuckles, a problematic Shaman weapon. We've also got a change to Elistra the Immortal in Battlegrounds. Read on for more details!
Update: Cora has stated that the change does not mean Edwin won't be Hall of Famed and potentially unnerfed if they determine he should be moved there in the future. This is good to hear as Edwin has been on the desired Hall of Fame list for quite some time.
Update 2: Alec says that Edwin is rotating this year and he will be unnerfed.
Update 3: Please read our dedicated post concerning Edwin and the new year.
Quote From Cora You can only run from us for so long, Edwin.
In all seriousness, I'm seeing questions about why we would nerf Edwin instead of moving him to HoF. This nerf doesn't mean he won't be moved, and potentially even unnerfed at that time if it's the right call. This is a fix for now.
Quote From Alec Dawson Also sorry this didn't get into the notes but: Yes Edwin will still rotate later this year and yes we will be reverting the nerf (along with others) at that time.
Quote From Blizzard We’ve got a small balance patch with a few big changes planned for release this Friday, January 8!
Standard Balance Updates
Edwin VanCleef
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
- Dev Comment: The last few weeks have been the best Edwin has ever performed as an individual card (the highest win rate card in multiple Rogue archetypes). Alongside cards like Foxy Fraud and Shadowstep, the frequency of early 8/8 or 10/10 Edwin VanCleefs reached a point we are no longer comfortable with. We want to evaluate how the rest of Rogue's kit performs without this very powerful iteration of Edwin. Cards like Foxy Fraud, Swindle, and Prize Plunderer are important pieces for future expansions and card interactions, so we'll be keeping close tabs on how they perform with the influx of new cards and Edwin's nerf.
Boggspine Knuckles
- Old: 4 Attack → New: 3 Attack
- Dev Comment: We're lowering the attack on Boggspine Knuckles in order to cut into the fluidity of Evolve Shaman, increasing the required investment of playing a 5-mana weapon without a free Dread Corsair, and reduce the overall damage output the deck is capable of over multiple weapon charges. This change lowers the amount of explosive plays available to Evolve Shaman and should create an overall healthier meta.
Edwin VanCleef and Boggspine Knuckles will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 19.2.1 patch goes live.
Battlegrounds Balance Update
Elistra the Immortal
- Old: 7 Attack, 7 Health → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where Infinite Toki’s Temporal Tavern would not function correctly with the New Recruit Darkmoon Prize.
- Fixed a bug where Ysera’s Dream Portal, when used with the New Recruit Darkmoon Prize, would not offer a Dragon when Bob’s Tavern is full.
Comments
FUCK OF
Well, sometimes the game helps you making up your mind. When I saw the news, I decided to make the most of the fact that mobile always gets patched later and played about 10 games of Miracle Rogue. I've won one of them. Bye, Edwin! The Knuckles will have to go, too. I don't enjoy the archetype very much and two free epics is very tempting with the mid-expansion cards around the corner.
Dang, looks like the patch bugged out on Mac and I can't open the game. I was looking forward to throwing Big Eddie in the dust bin.
I have a normal Edwin, should i desenchant it, craft it in gold when HoF comes then disenchant again to craft a normal one for a 3200 free dust?
Taking the steps in the order you said it, the maths is: +1600-3200+3200+1600-1600=+1600. I.e. the same as if you just keep it now and get HoF dust.
Or you could disentchant it now (+1600) and once it rotates craft it golden (+/- 3200)...
Sure, and that would be better unless you dislike golden versions. I was just putting numbers to @shky's proposed process.
Ah at last, a balance patch! Wild is sav....oh...oh, never mind then. I guess I can find solace in the fact I don't have to climb anymore this month.
Im happy is no wilds nerfs, the format is egenrly if blizz doesnt touchit(rto much) and if anythign we neds huffs and unenrfs and give all their tolsl(again) for wild not destory more cards/nerf for the sake of it.
Wild also certainyl deosnt needs nerfs to something jsut casue tis good/been around for then 1expac. If anything that belogns in standar btu really shouldnt be mentatlity for any format.
It`s obvious that you don`t play Wild...
I FUCKING DO,ive played wild since been a thign Wild.
I WANT BUFFS AND UNNERFS AND MORE SUPPORT MORE DECKS/THEMES/ARCHETYPES
I WANT AS LITTLE NERFS AS POSSIBLE
I want wild to be crazy,i want all to ahve their best stuff as it shoudl in eternal format.
ANd ive reached legend multiple times in wild so i know whats its like I JUST GOT A DIFFERENT IDEA OF WILD THEN THE PEOPLE ON THIS SITE and according to people here im prolyl objectivly casue i dont like them and want blizzard to make more decks/archetypes/cards playable instead of NERF EVRYTHING mentality.
First off, I'm starting to seriously wonder whether you spell as an 8 year old on purpose or you really give that little of a fuck about what you're saying. Either way, your arguments would be way more compelling if they were actually possible to read.
Secondly, had you played any serious amount of Wild you'd be singing a different tune. Darkglare Warlock is arguably the best deck Wild has ever seen because of all the powercreep introduced in Scholomance and the way they nerfed it has done pretty much nothing to stop it. And they've not touched it since, just let it eat the whole legend rank alive. Similarly, Raza Priest has been choking down the format for like 9 months now so don't talk about 1 expansion.
From what I've been able to decipher from that puddle of letters you placed next to each other, what you want is endless, unbridled power creep. If you want to see an example of how that winds up going, read up on what happened to Magic the Gathering during the Urza's Saga. Long story short, it nearly killed the game cause all the heavily invested players started leaving in droves. Games ended so fast that Naga Warlock would seem glacial in comparison. The tournament scene devolved into nothing but non-games because whoever drew the better hand won, often as soon as turn 1.
You cannot keep introducing new and new stuff and providing "more options" as you say, if all the old stuff, all the old design mistakes remain in the game. If you can never correct what you messed up in the past, and you instead build on it, over and over and over, then you're building on a rotten foundation and the whole thing comes crashing down real quick. You need to fix what's busted to make space for something new. You don't fix a game by breaking it more. Here's your free design lesson for the week.
I want nerfs to be FUCKING RARITY for the most extreme Cases.
ANd i want all classes to have good stuff have their iconic old cards playable and not gutted,or onyl a few classes have actual good cards/support/synergy and rest is left in the dust
I Want wild to be ppwefull and all classes to be powefull btu aslo stay fuckign true to its eterla/legayc format and be where can playyour odlc ards/decks instead of them being/staying gutted and total worhtless trash FROEVER
ANd fight fire with fire works fi actulyl do,blziz doens,t they give some fire and otehrs dried wood or something
Blizz does neither the extreme or the super balance they do a bad and awkard in between.,they allwoed some to be isnane but dont let others. They dotn comit to balance Nor FIgth fire with Fire. And do the worst of Both. ANd buffs/unnerfs are absolutly relevant aswell adn give more options/Make new things apear blizz just sucks at doing all of it,the nerfs,unnerfs and buffs.
Notably, a Rogue can still go Coin, Fraud, Shadowstep, Fraud, Edwin for a 10/10 and a 3/2 on turn 1. Still, it seems like a good nerf to keep him in check.
So, do we get refunds on these? If i'm a standard only player, do you think it worth it to go ahead and disenchant Edwin?
You should keep it and disenchant it after rotation. That way you get 1600 from HoF + 400 for disenchantin
The safest thing to do when you don’t play him rn is to disenchant him anyways. If you want to make profit on a future HoF Rotation, you still can craft him with no loss. (You just reinvest the 1600 dust you got today). This even would allow you to craft the golden version for the HoF rotation wich is a bigger profit.
Well, Edwin VanCleef 's finally getting the nerf hammer and shaman's slap in the wrist nerf will at least see its play go down ever slightly. Let's have a look.
That Edwin one mana nerf is huge, but not huge enough for the card to die. Considering that most decks still run Questing Adventurer is testament that a late game big Edwin would still in someway be helpful enough that he won't be dropped immediately. But no more turn 2 shenanigans with the coin, now you'd have to wait at least until turn 3 before you start dumping everything down. Would this be a significant? Yes. Just about every class no longer gets cheesed, particularly for shaman and druid, and it may also mean that priest don't need that mandatory Shadow Word: Death now.
Boggspine Knuckles nerf however, I'm less impressed with. Essentially what is being done here is removing that Dread Corsair spam on turn 5, and by allowing that dust refund, team5 may have pulled a fast one by virtually guaranteeing that its play rate will come down while keeping the essential strength of the card. I don't have a problem with evolve shaman in general, but I think the attack should be dropped to 2 instead of 3 to weaken its ability to take down minions, which should theoretically force evolve shaman to reduce its usual reload cards bs and start including cards that actually help its early game to compensate, which will change the meta significantly. But hey, I'm not discounting the possibility that this will happen anyway.
What I like would be to see is Kobold Stickyfinger no longer a mandatory inclusion. But likely its going to stay that way until rotation.
So what's changing? Druid, warrior, dhunters, might move slightly up. Shaman and rogue to be slightly weakened. Warlock might change up its cards to remain relevant, while mage will likely duke it out with priest for dumpster, but I'm open to being surprised here. Hunter or paladin on top. Likely its going to be paladin.
Small edit: You can still manage that cheesy turn 2 Edwin, but you need both Foxy Fraud and Shadowstep to do that. Its a massive highroll that can happen, but at the same rate of getting mauled by poodle.