To big surprise of everyone, Blizzard decided to bless the beginning of February (and the Lunar Year) with a small patch, containing balance changes directed towards the Battlegrounds and Duels game modes.
In this article, we'll focus on the latter, which are already live and consist of what follows:
- All Together Now - Moved from Passive Pool 1 to Passive Pool 2.
- Battle Totem - Moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
- Disks of Legend - Moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
- Totem of the Dead - Moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
As preliminary thoughts to this balance patch, we are glad to see the position Team 5 took regarding certain strategies that are currently overperforming in the Duels meta - something had to be done, and fortunately for us it didn't take too much for them to step in.
What's interesting is that three of these four changes were brought up during last week's Duels Feedback Thread (here's the summary: for this specific piece of information look at the "Passive Treasures" section) held by Ates 'Tabayrak' Bayrak, Hearthstone Associate Designer with a focus on Duels.
On a side note, "Passive Pool 2 Ultra Rare" feels like nothing more than a temporary solution, that just delays the problem without solving it: just like in the past with Oops, All Spells! and Party Replacement, we suspect that Team 5 decided for these changes in order to have time come up with a long-term answer without leaving the mode on fire (or Fire Eye?).
Finally, new content cannot possibly have success if the previously released one is too consistent, too omni-present and too meta-warping. That is, unless you decide to go full "powercreep mode", but then Shadowcasting 101 happens and you're not going to like it.
Duels Achievements Fixed
Before focusing on the four balance changes brought by this patch, there's a Duels-related bug fix that may interest some of our tryhard folks out there.
In fact, the bug that prevented Duels achievements to not properly track runs is now fixed. This means that, from now on, runs with Vanndar Stormpike and Drek'Thar will be correctly tracked in your profile journal, and you'll be able to earn the respective achievement points and bragging rights!
Quote From Blizzard Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- Fixed a bug where Duels achievements were not properly tracking runs.
- Fixed a bug where Duels Health totals did not match the Health totals intended for run progress.
Please, note that these are not retroactive fixes, so you'll have to earn these achievement one more time for them to appear in your profile journal!
Quote From Fusrohdaniel The fix should apply to both heroes. The fix is not retroactive unfortunately, but these two are permanent so youll have time to earn them again. If any treasure/win combinations still experience issues please screenshot/record it and let me know!
On a last note, this bug fix does not include Diablo, whose achievements are still bugged and will be fixed one he'll come back in the future.
Quote From Fusrohdaniel Diablo is another matter, but his achievements will be fixed whenever he ends up wandering in to Duels again.
Moved from Passive Pool 1 to Passive Pool 2.
Probably the least expected change out of the four this patch brings, but we take it: even in its weakened form (it previously could discount until 1 mana), All Together Now was still too generally good - unless you were looking for another specific Passive (Righteous Reserves, Grommash's Armguards, Dragon Affinity, Starving), picking ATN was almost never a bad choice, as it provided at least a tiny bit of mana-cheat, which is what makes Hearthstone decks going.
While moving this Passive Treasure to pool 2 can be seen a indirect buff to all the other tier 1 Passives (as well as a nerf to those Battlecry-focused builds like Hero Power Mage, Soul Warlock and Elemental Shaman), getting offered ATN as tier 2 option is going to feel extremely unrewarding, even more with Battle Totem being obtainable at a lower rate. We ask ourselves if removing it directly wouldn't have been a better solution.
Moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
Out of the three tier 2 Passives being bumped to Ultra Rare, it's easy to say that Battle Totem is the one that deserved to be addressed the most, and that's because Battlecry is the most common keyword in Hearthstone and gives immediate upsides (unlike Deathrattle which, most of the times, is slow). Hence, being able to consistently duplicate all said benefits was bound to reach a saturation point from which there was no return other than addressing its source - as it should be, Battle Totem bites the dust.
While it's still going to appear in your (or your opponents') runs, Battle Totem's presence will be a lot less dominating and a lot less meta-defining, leaving space for other tier 2 Passive Treasures (Rally the Troops, in particular, for Battlecry decks) and giving certain archetypes a higher chance to miss out on their power spike.
This nerf obviously hits Hero Power Mage, whose power level is going to decrease significantly: the archetype's still going to be playable with Rally the Troops, but you're never going to see 8 mana Mordresh Fire Eye killing you and your entire board from 20 (or 40, in case Freeze Solid shenanigans) - there's no way this is a bad change.
Moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
In case anyone's been living under a rock since Vanndar Stormpike and Drek'Thar got released a week ago, Disks of Legend was pretty insane combined with Vanndar's Battle Tactics. While this is true, it's not the first time this Passive Treasure resulted to be very powerful: previously, Paladin and Warrior were able to exploit it fairly easily, and provided those classes much success during the previous metas.
With this change going live, we suspect Big Battle Tactics Vanndar will slightly (although not exponentially) decrease in both power level and popularity, as well-equipped opponents will be able to contain the flood of Neutral minions with more ease than in the past.
On a final note, in case you think Big Vanndar's supremacy won't stop nonetheless, here's what Tabayrak had to say on the matter.
Quote From Tabayrak Still looking into Battle Tactics, I suspect this change [the one to Disks of Legend] will mitigate it a little but yes, the power itself needs an adjustment.
Moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
Tired of being scammed by turn 1 The Coin into Nerubian Egg into Death Games into bottom right (or top right if you play on mobile)? Well, guess what: that thing's going to happen way less frequently from now on.
While we appreciate the fact that Professor Slate now has access to Deathrattle-related Passive Treasures, we feel like the entire roster of heroes is paying the price for one's sins.
As mentioned before in the Duels Feedback Thread's summary, doubling things that are supposed to happen only once is scary, so we're glad to see Totem of the Dead being bumped up to tier 2 Ultra Rare, a change that will leave more space to Deathly Death! and Mummy Magic, still powerful tools in the right decks, but with more room for the opponent's counterplay. We take this one too.
What do you think about these changes? Let us know in the comments below!
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Comments
Just finished my first 12-win run in a while with a solid deathrattle druid (crystal gem, mummy magic). On my way to the top? Played against 5 hunters with totem of the dead and 2 mages with battle totem. I don't think "ultra-rare" has actually been applied yet. Imagine if after Oops All Spells went ultra rare and you saw 5 priests in a row with that passive...
Altogether now moving to pool 2 is a little strange, given that its not really that good ever since the last nerf. In many cases, its just permitting you to put down big threats a turn earlier, a not insignificant thing for sure but compared to other pool 2 passives, it'll only ever be chosen because the other stuff are crap.
One way this might turn out as a buff is in dragon priest since you can now choose dragon affinity in pool 1 and altogether now in pool 2 for a massive 3 mana reduction (most dragons have battlecries) and that's about it.
As for battle totem and totem of the dead, its a fine change, but Im not a fan of it. Certainly people build their decks to get a chance at a good passive, and now one of the few better ones is directly competing with broken stuff like shadowcasting 101 and stargazing. Its just incredible. Almost seems like team5 is trying to make duels less about big turns and more about who has the least shittiest buckets/passives throughout.
I don’t know how to feel about these changes. Battle Totem could certainly be problematic when combined with damage cards (looking at you Mordresh!) but was such a fun treasure otherwise. Totem of the Dead only happened because of Death Games and Deathstrider, just ban it for Slate and let me play deathrattle rogue or priest. Disks was strong before but only felt like a problem because of Vanndar, I don’t like this change. Nerf Vanndar instead.
As for other treasures, I personally hate playing against Flame Waves and even more so Unstable Magic. It’s really not fun to just build a awesome board only for the opponent to cast a bunch of spells and turn my board into a hoard of sheep.
A passive I would like to see buffed is Elixir of Vigor, I don’t understand why they changed it when it got moved to pool 2 it felt fine with 1 costs. It was already really slow, could we at least get a middle ground and make the copies cost 2?
Are the achievements not still broken? Finished a run yesterday with Vandar and still got no progress. Do we have to wait till an actual patch for that fix?
Today this happened to me as well. I played a 7win clasual run with Drek`Thar and didint count for the achievement...
Did that run start before or after patch 22.2?
I know there are more than a couple reports of achievements still not working though.
I started and finished yesterday, saw All Together Now offered in the 2nd tier, so it should have been live.
All necessary changes to keep the format healthy, albeit stop-gap solutions until those treasures are re-designed or removed entirely.