We've got a Hearthstone patch hitting this Thursday which brings in Battlegrounds buddy balance changes, standard card nerfs, and some bug fixes. Read on for a quick overview and the full patch notes.
Update: The patch should now be live on all devices! It's a client update, so a small download is going to be required.
Patch 22.4.3 Quick Info
- Kazakusan has had LOCUUUUSTS!!! removed from his treasure pools. (Refundable after patch)
- SI:7 Smuggler's wording and effect has changed to "account for improper wording on release". (Refundable after patch)
- SI:7 Informant is receiving a card text adjustment for clarity.
- 8 Battlegrounds Buddies are receiving updates.
- 5 bugs have been squished.
Full Patch Notes
Quote From Blizzard Patch 22.4.3, launching tomorrow, includes balance changes to Battlegrounds and Standard.
Standard Updates
The following cards have been adjusted down in power:
Kazakusan
- LOCUUUUSTS!!! Has been removed from the pool of Treasures that can be Discovered.
Dev Comment: We’re making a small adjustment to reduce the amount of focus that Kazakusan’s treasure hoard has on from-hand damage. Removing LOCUUUUSTS!!! from the Discover pool will allow for a bit more back-and-forth for both players after Kazakusan has been played.
SI:7 Smuggler
- Old: Battlecry: Summon a random minion with Cost equal to the amount of SI:7 cards you’ve played this game. → New: Battlecry: Summon a random 0-cost minion (Upgraded for each SI:7 card you have played this game).
Dev Comment: Smuggler is receiving an effect change to account for improper wording on release. The new wording should now properly track the Cost of the minion which will be summoned while Smuggler remains in hand. Along with this, SI:7 Informant is receiving a wording change to correctly state that it only counts other SI:7 minions that have been played.
The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 22.4.3 patch goes live.
The following card’s text has been adjusted for clarity (no functional change):
SI:7 Informant
- Old: Battlecry: Gain +1/+1 for each SI:7 card you’ve played this game. → New: Battlecry: Gain +1/+1 for each other SI:7 card you’ve played this game.
Battlegrounds Updates
General Update:
- There is now a Buddy Meter bonus granted when you defeat Kel’Thuzad (a dead hero).
Hero Update:
Tamsin Roame
- Fragrant Phylactery
- Old: [Costs 1] Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to all your others. → New: [Costs 0] Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to four friendly minions.
Buddy Updates:
Elder Taggawag (Queen Wagtoggle’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 4 Attack, 3 Health. Whenever you play a minion of a type you don’t control, trigger your Hero Power. → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health. Whenever you play a minion of a type you don’t control, trigger your Hero Power. (2 left this turn.)
Unearthed Underling (Lich Baz’hial’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 4 Attack, 4 Health. Whenever your hero takes damage, this minion gains +2/+2 instead. → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 3 Attack, 3 Health. Whenever your hero takes damage, this minion gains +3/+3 instead. (2 left this turn.)
Master Gadrin (Vol’jin’s Buddy)
- Old: 8 Attack, 5 Health. At the end of your turn, adjacent minions copy this minion’s Attack. → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health. At the end of your turn, the minion to the left of this copies this minion’s Attack.
Spirit Raptor (Bru’kan’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Barov’s Apprentice (Lord Barov’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 3 Health. → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health.
Dev Comment: Although Lord Barov’s average power level was reasonable, some games had extreme results when enough wagers were won. This change aims to slow down the power spike in those cases.
Monstrosity (Tamsin Roame’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 0 Attack, 12 Health. → New: [Tavern Tier 4] 0 Attack, 14 Health.
Jr. Navigator (Elise Starseeker’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] At the start of your turn, get a ‘Recruitment Map’ and reduce the cost of your Maps by (1). → New: [Tavern Tier 3] At the start of your turn, get a ‘Recruitment Map.’ Your Maps cost (1).
Hunter of Old (Tess Greymane’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 6 Attack, 4 Health. → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 5 Attack, 3 Health.
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
- Fixed a bug where Elder Taggawag was able to trigger limited-use Hero Powers when you’re out of charges.
- Fixed a bug where Mysterybox (from the Wheel of Yogg-Saron) and Elder Taggawag did not function with Hero Powers that target specific minions.
- Fixed a bug where Mysterybox did not function with the “I Spy” Hero Power.
- Fixed a bug where the Twice as Nice Hero Power could give buffs to minions in Bob’s Tavern (such as when a Mama Bear is in Bob’s Tavern and a Beast is copied).
- Updated Yu’lon’s “Enveloping Mist” Ability from Arcane to Nature Spell School.
Comments
I loved Battlegrounds. It is really hard for me to get into these Buddies. I think it was turning all heroes on their head that has made it harder for me to adapt. A lot of what I've spent years learning needed to go out the window. Still winning with similar builds, just getting there in bizarre ways.
I haven't played in a couple weeks. Maybe I'll give it a go with this new patch.
Getting 24 damage on turn 7 doesn't feel like a nerf.
Feels really more like Kazakusan correction than a nerf (which is fine btw, I'm certain he'll have to be reassessed post rotation anyways, no point in just gutting him right away). No idea why they thought it would have been a balanced card in the first place though. Maybe the programmer didn't read it and thought it couldn'T go face :^)
Also the Smuggler nerf feels a bit harsh. Like, I get it was a bug before but you could have at least set the baseline to 1-cost. I guess it was designed with the next year in mind and would be too strong otherwise. Just a shame Quest Rogue probably goes away for now though, Smuggler really helped it's tempo game.
Quest rogue has always been competent at tempo (it is rogue after all), and pretty good overall, so Smuggler being corrected isn't going to be that big a deal. I think the more noteworthy part of the change is that they are offering a full dust refund after a bug correction.
Well the main reason why it's currently seeing a surge in play is because Smuggler gave it more options to close the game with tempo and now Smuggler has been slowed down considerably in its ability to dump stats on the board so I'd say that's gonna be relevant for the next month until the new expansion.
The dust refund is a no-brainer in this case because you shipped the card in a buffed state and are now undoing that buff, which is effectively a nerf and should be treated as such.
I think you're over-stating how big a difference it is. It's on average -1/-1 on each minion summoned by Smuggler, which is significant, but not often game losing when it only applies to a couple of minions in the mid game (when stats start to matter less). Ultimately quest rogue has plenty of routes to victory without ever drawing a Smuggler, so it'll do just fine.
It's effectively a nerf, sure, but it's also not actually a nerf. So the dust refund is setting a precedent for all future cards that have a bug that makes them more powerful. In the grand scheme of things, that precedent is the bigger deal imo.
Damn these are insane nerfs to Wagtoggle and Baz'hial. Rip strats revolving around not levelling the Tavern, though Elder also broke some other heroes too when stolen.
Well, it was only inevitable, because even druid mains will easily point out that an 8 mana deal 14 damage that cannot realistically be avoided by most classes, and a chance to do it again the following turn, is a cancerous piece of shit that dwarfs any impact that quel'delar can muster. Hell, even embers of rag can at least be played around and costs 10 mana.
The Kazakusan dust refund is a smart way to not nerf druid's insane mana ramp, by reducing its play rate so we're not facing druids 24 hours a day. While I dont think its the end for kazakusan as a deck, its surely going to push it down the tier lists, enough that I think druids will be going back to the old gods while relegating the dragons to a niche.
Is the taunt from Niuzao's Bullish Fortitude bugged? Half of the time it is not applied for me. That was before the patch, but since they changed Yu'lon, I was expecting a fix for Niuzao as well.
I never had a problem there. Are you sure that Yulons 2. ability(+10 for board and blocks taunt\stealth for 2 turn) wasn't active?
Ah, that blocks your own taunt as well? In that case, that likely explains it, since I'm leveling up both of them in the same party.
Did they fix Saidan?
Aw... I know this Kazakusan nerf makes sense, still it feels bad to see hit the only card of this miniset I was excited about.
It feels even worse to get hit by 56 damage straight to the face that you can't actually counter unless you're Shaman or Hunter. Don't worry, he'll still be insanely powerful and more than playable, potentially even worthy of nerfs again if the rotation doesn't have enough comparable win conditions.
With this update the chance to get Quel'Delar will increase slightly. Something to think or worry about every time the Duels treasure pool of Kazakusan gets a bit smaller.
But you can only realistically go for Quel'Delar if you get one component in the first 2 offerings. Otherwise you're just throwing away a choice for a gamble. (and Quel'delar is far easier to outlast than Locusts anyways so it probably doesn't matter)
Compared to a deal 14 damage instantly and death the next turn if you dont heal or kill them now? I'll take it over queldelar any day.
Besides, its still scary to try assembling queldelar, because there's no guarantee you'll get the two pieces too.
True, but in this specific case they removed a pretty high chance of 28 face damage over two turns while slightly increasing the chance of 32 face damage over four turns, so overall the power level should drop.
It could become a factor if they reduce the pool further in the future. However, Rustrot Viper will be in the Standard card pool just as long as Kazakusan, so if it becomes an issue, you can tech against it.
Thought if that right away too.
I still can't believe they thought Locusts was a-okay for Constructed when it had to be removed from Duels. Duels. Yeah guys, the problem was it costing 7 mana. Bumping it to 8 fixes it!