Tomorrow's Hearthstone patch brings the largest Battlegrounds update yet. Here are the key updates:
- 37 new minions are replacing some old ones.
- Format-specific keyword: Avenge
- Does something after (x) friendly minions die.
- The length of turns 3-9 has been increased by 5 seconds.
- Damage taken is capped to 15 until first player gets eliminated.
- 2 new heroes: Master Nguyen and Cariel Roame.
- Darkmoon prizes are disabled.
- Rating reset.
- New cosmetics. Today is your last chance to buy the Beach Party and Shadowlands cosmetics bundles.
You can find all the details alongside the new and removed minions from the quote below.
Quote From Blizzard Are you ready for the biggest Battlegrounds update to date?! To start, we’re introducing an entirely new Battlegrounds specific keyword, Avenge, that does something after (x) friendly minions die. Then, we’re replacing 37 minions with new ones and adding two new Heroes! You can get an idea of how the Avenge keyword works by checking out those new minions below.
Before you do, we’ve made a few fundamental changes we want to make you aware of. We’ve added a damage cap of 15 damage until the first player dies, meaning that no player can take more than 15 damage from combat until the first player in a lobby dies or disconnects. We’ve also increased turn timers so that everyone has time to get familiar with the new content: the length of turns 3-9 have been increased by 5 seconds. Everyone will start fresh with this update as ratings will be reset with the 21.2 patch to make way for a new season.
General Updates
- Battlegrounds Specific Keyword added, Avenge: Does something after (x) friendly minions die.
- The length of turns 3-9 have been increased by 5 seconds. We may further adjust the length of turns sometime in the future.
- Darkmoon Prizes have been disabled.
- All players’ Battlegrounds ratings have been reset for a new season.
- Damage cap of 15 damage has been added after the first player dies. Please note that the damage cap does not check for player deaths until the start of each Recruit Phase, meaning if someone concedes, disconnects, or dies during the Recruit Phase (Is Wrath Weaver ever really on your team?), the damage cap will still be present for that combat.
- Players with Battlegrounds Perks are now more likely to be offered new Heroes during the two-week early access period that follows their initial announcement. In every lobby during the two-week early access period, the option to play with new Heroes will be distributed at random between players with Battlegrounds Perks. No player will be offered more than one new Hero.
New Heroes
Master Nguyen
- Power of the Storm [Passive]
- At the start of every turn, choose from 2 new Hero Powers.
Cariel Roame
- Conviction (Rank 1)
- Give a random friendly minion +1/+1. (Upgrades at Tavern Tier 3.)
- Conviction (Rank 2)
- Give three random friendly minions +1/+1. (Upgrades at Tavern Tier 5.)
- Conviction (Rank 3)
- Give five random friendly minions +1/+1.
Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to the Heroes above before they’re formally released on September 14.
New Minions
BEASTS
Leapfrogger
- [Tier 2, Beast] Deathrattle: Give a friendly Beast +2/+2 and this Deathrattle.
Sewer Rat
- [Tier 2, Beast] Deathrattle: Summon a 2/3 Turtle with Taunt.
Bird Buddy
- [Tier 3] Avenge (1): Give your Beasts +1/+1.
Reanimating Rattler
- [Tier 4, Beast] Battlecry: Give a friendly Beast Reborn.
Palescale Crocolisk
- [Tier 5, Beast] Avenge (2) and Deathrattle: Give another friendly Beast +6/+6.
DEMONS
Impulsive Trickster
- [Tier 1, Demon] Deathrattle: Give this minion's maximum Health to a friendly minion.
Icky Imp
- [Tier 1, Demon] Deathrattle: Summon two 1/1 Imps.
Impatient Doomsayer
- [Tier 3] Avenge (3): Add a random Demon to your hand.
Kathra'natir
- [Tier 4, Demon] Your other Demons have +3 Attack. Your Hero is Immune.
Insatiable Ur'zul
- [Tier 5, Demon] Taunt. After you play a Demon, consume a minion in Bob's Tavern to gain its stats.
Famished Felbat
- [Tier 6, Demon] At the end of your turn, each friendly Demon consumes a minion in Bob's Tavern to gain its stats.
MECHS
Pupbot
- [Tier 1, Mech] Divine Shield
Mechano-Tank
- [Tier 4, Mech] Avenge (2): Deal 6 damage to the highest Health enemy minion.
Grease Bot
- [Tier 4, Mech] After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, give it +2/+1 permanently.
Holy Mecherel
- [Tier 5, Mech] After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, gain Divine Shield.
Omega Buster
- [Tier 6, Mech] Deathrattle: Summon six 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn't fit, give your Mechs +1/+1.
MURLOCS
Saltscale Honcho
- [Tier 2, Murloc] After you play a Murloc, give two other friendly Murlocs +1 Health.
Swolefin
- [Tier 3, Murloc] Battlecry: Gain +2/+1 for each other friendly Murloc.
SI:Sefin
- [Tier 5, Murloc] Avenge (3): Give a friendly Murloc Poisonous permanently.
Seafood Slinger
- [Tier 6] Battlecry: Make a Murloc Golden.
DRAGONS
Evolving Chromawing
- [Tier 1, Dragon] After you upgrade your Tavern Tier, double this minion's Attack.
Whelp Smuggler
- [Tier 2] After a friendly Dragon gains Attack, give it +2 Health.
Tarecgosa
- [Tier 3, Dragon] This permanently keeps enchantments from combat.
Prized Promo-Drake
- [Tier 4, Dragon] Start of Combat: Give adjacent minions +1/+1 for each friendly Dragon.
Prestor's Pyrospawn
- [Tier 4, Dragon] Whenever another friendly Dragon attacks, deal 3 damage to its target.
PIRATES
Defiant Shipwright
- [Tier 2] After you upgrade your Tavern Tier, add a random Pirate to Bob's Tavern.
Briny Bootlegger
- [Tier 3, Pirate] At the end of your turn, if you have another Pirate, add a Gold Coin to your hand.
Peggy Brittlebone
- [Tier 4, Pirate] After a card is added to your hand, give another Pirate +1/+1.
Tony Two-Tusk
- [Tier 5, Pirate] Avenge (5): Make another friendly Pirate Golden permanently.
Nosy Looter
- [Tier 6, Pirate] Every two turns, add a random Golden minion to your hand.
ELEMENTALS
Smogger
- [Tier 3, Elemental] Battlecry: Give a friendly Elemental stats equal to your Tavern Tier.
Dazzling Lightspawn
- [Tier 4, Elemental] Avenge (2): Elementals in Bob's Tavern have +1/+1 for the rest of the game.
Recycling Wraith
- [Tier 4, Elemental] After you play an Elemental, your next Refresh costs (0).
Master of Realities
- [Tier 6] Taunt. After a friendly Elemental gains stats, gain +1/+1.
QUILBOAR
Gemsplitter
- [Tier 3, Quilboar] After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, gain a Blood Gem.
NEUTRAL
Budding Greenthumb
- [Tier 3] Avenge (3): Give adjacent minions +2/+1 permanently.
Witchwing Nestmatron
- [Tier 4] Avenge (3): Add a random Battlecry minion to your hand.
Updated Minion
Arm of the Empire
- Old: 5 Health → New: 4 Health
Removed Minions
Tavern Tier 1Tavern Tier 2
- Fiendish Servant
- Vulgar Homunculus
- Micro Machine
- Murloc Tidecaller
- Dragonspawn Lieutenant
Tavern Tier 3
- Pack Leader
- Kindly Grandmother
- Steward of Time
- Waxrider Togwaggle
- Southsea Captain
- Tormented Ritualist
Tavern Tier 4
- Arcane Assistant
- Imp Gang Boss
- Infested Wolf
- Iron Sensei
- Hangry Dragon
- Bloodsail Cannoneer
- Warden of Old
- Crystalweaver
- Thorncaller
Tavern Tier 5
- Virmen Sensei
- Hexruin Maurader
- Junkbot
- Toxfin
- Herald of Flame
- Qiraji Harbinger
- Bolvar, Fireblood
- Security Rover
Tavern Tier 6
- Sneed's Old Shredder
- Nat Pagle, Extreme Angler
- Seabreaker Goliath
- Ironhide Direhorn
- Mythrax, the Unraveler
- Mal'Ganis
- Faceless Taverngoer
- The Tide Razor
- Lieutenant Garr
Comments
Are the Warlock neefs in place with this patch? If so, odd it wasn't announced in this article.
As Caro said, these are not full patch notes despite being so lengthy, merely a blog about the Battlegrounds revamp. The nerfs will still happen with the patch as well, they just decided not to announce them beforehand for some reason.
The quote from blizzard are not patch notes. The warlock nerfs would be added to patch notes when released along with the above battlegrounds changes and sometimes some bug fixes and improvements
Is the PupBot running away from exploding sheep? Adorable!
Or is pupbot herding/leading the sheep to somewhere? Regardless looking forward to meeting!
Cora has confirmed that the Pupbot is herding the explosive sheep in the art.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flavour is strong with that Sewer Rat. Love it!
I thought "Why would it summon turtles now?" and you made me realize how slow I was.
It has been a while since I played Battlegrounds, but most of these seem really strong to me. Pirates, not so much, but I may just lack the experience to see it.
good thing I got the battlegrounds weekly quest
I'm kinda sad that Warden of Old, Iron Sensei, Nat Pagle, Extreme Angler, and Faceless Taverngoer are being removed, but all these new cards should keep things fresh for a while!
Yay, demons are cool now!
I wonder if Demon/Elemental hybrids would work, using Dazzling Ligthspawn and Nomi to buff Elementals for Demons to consume.
That has anti-synergy with itself: You want to buy them for the elemental part, but eat them with the demon part. Just buy them and go full elementals.
that seems like a pipedream. You'd essentially put extra effort into beefing up a minion type that you're not going to use while also trying to cultivate another one when you could just...go Elementals and win straight up.
Whoaaaa I expected much but this .. I love how they cemented clear identities for the different tribes!
Also, they cut lose from most standard cards, which is obviously a natural evolution when you want to create interesting cards that fit the game mode - let alone a separate keyword.
patch sucks! why? tide razor is no more, my favorite card in the entire mode
PS: balls
Wow did Pirates get the short end of the stick. Demons and Mechs got some serious lategame scaling now, Dragons now scale without Kalecgos and can now also pop Divine Shields. Meanwhile in Pirate town: well...I guess you can scale your Pirates...if you already have Hoggar...
Also, Elementals now have a tier 4 Nomi?
They still have Looter, Hoggar and Goldrubber, which will have even more support due to more Golden minions to collect. Brittlebone also solves some problems, because with the Hoggar build, you will add cards to your hand non-stop, thus getting TONS of buffs.
I feel like Menagerie got the shortest stick with the loss of Mythrax.
EDIT: Pirates may aswell turn to another Murloc-like tribe in a sense that you can easily stay on Tier 5 to scale up your units - Nosy Looter can generate tons of cards, but with Hoggar at your disposal, she will not be as necessary.
That's my point though. Pirates already essentially cannot function without Hoggar, what with Southsea Strongarm and Salty Looter heavily pushing you to just spam Pirates like there's no tomorrow (or turn timer). And the only new thing they got for scaling is another card that's only really any good with Hoggar. So you have to get Hoggar to really be able to scale those cards but since those cards are so bad without Hoggar, you're more often than not gonna find yourself in a situation where you can buy or triple into a Hoggar, but you don't have any of the cards that combine with him because they were so bad on their own. You don't even really have a good early game progression, since Southsea Captain and Bloodsail Cannoneer are now gone. A stupid little Sewer Rat on Beast Tier 2 is better stats than most of the stuff Pirates have up to tier 5.
When you look at Elementals, those bastards scale on Tier 2 with Party Elemental (and Molten Rock self-scaling), Tier 4 with Majordomo and now the new Nomi, Tier 5 with actual Nomi, Tier 6 with Rag. Not gonna count the new Master of Realities cause I think that's gonna be trash. In addition, Elementals have access to Divine Shield, Windfury and pseudo-Cleave. Pirates now only have stats, cause they lost their one Windfury minion, and they have a harder time scaling those stats at most points in the game it seems to me. We'll have to see how good the economy aspect of Pirates is, but from what I'm seeing right now, it's not great. At least not great enough to make up for the inability to scale properly without one key card. Dragons had that same problem but at least they were unstoppable in the lategame if they got there. Pirates fold to a couple poisonous Murlocs with more than 50 health.
Essentially, what I'm getting at is: Pirates are by far the worst tribe in the game right now. And yet they seem to have gotten the least out of the patch beside Quillboars. All the other tribes are getting some pretty revolutionary stuff, mostly through new ways to scale or new ways to even build a composition from the ground up. Pirates are mostly stuck to what they were already doing (economy and Pirate churning), and what they were already doing wasn't working before all this new stuff came in. Why should it work now? The only tribe that may potentially end up taking a drop in power is Beasts because almost everything they're getting seems to be heavily dependent on things dying in the order you want them to and they lost Pack Leader. Then again, if the Reanimating Rattler works the way I think it does (i.e. permanent Reborn), Beasts are gonna be insane.