Today's Hearthstone patch will bring some Battlegrounds balance changes with it, as promised. No prizes for guessing which tribe is being targeted the most. In short, the changes are:
- 9 minions, 7 of which are part of the Naga package, are seeing changes in their stats or effects.
- Most Naga nerfs are just stat changes.
- Stormscale Siren is being moved to Tier 5.
- Fungalmancer Flurgl is getting a nerf.
- Hero power now requires selling two minions before giving you a Murloc in shop.
- Hero armor changes and bug fixes.
Quote From Blizzard Battlegrounds Updates
Hero change:
Fungalmancer Flurgl (Gone Fishing hero power)
- Old: Passive: After you sell a minion, add a random Murloc to Bob’s Tavern. → New: Passive: After you sell 2 minions, add a random Murloc to Bob’s Tavern.
Hero Armor changes:
- Al’Akir, Galakrond, George the Fallen, and Malygos have been moved to Armor Tier 1.
- Death Speaker Blackthorn, Fungalmancer Flurgl, Ini Stormcoil, Lord Barov, Maiev Shadowsong, Queen Azshara, Rokara, and Tickatus have been moved to Armor Tier 2.
- Endwin VanCleef has been moved to Armor Tier 4.
- Deathwing, Elise Starseeker, and Kurtrus Ashfallen have been moved to Armor Tier 5.
- Aranna Starseeker and Skycap’n Kragg have been moved to Armor Tier 6.
- Onyxia and Queen Wagtoggle have been moved to Armor Tier 7.
Minion changes:
Snail Cavalry
- Old: 5 Attack, 2 Health → New: 4 Attack, 2 Health
Lava Lurker
- Old: 2 Attack, 5 Health → New: 2 Attack, 4 Health
Shoal Commander
- Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 1 Attack, 2 Health
Stormscale Siren
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health. At the end of your turn, your Spellcraft minions cast their spells on themselves. → New: [Tavern Tier 5] 6 Attack, 5 Health. At the end of your turn, you cast your Spellcraft minions’ spells on them.
- Dev Comment: The effect text update is not a functional change, but just a rephrasing to make the card text better match how the effect currently functions.
Critter Wrangler
- Old: 5 Attack, 7 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+2. → New: 5 Attack, 6 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+1.
Tidemistress Athissa
- Old: 7 Attack, 8 Health. After you cast a spell, give four friendly Naga +1/+1. → New: 7 Attack, 3 Health. After you cast a spell, give three friendly Naga +1/+1.
Orgozoa, the Tender
- Old: 5 Attack, 9 Health → New: 3 Attack, 7 Health
Darkgaze Elder
- Old: After you spend 4 Gold, play a Blood Gem on four friendly Quilboar. → New: After you spend 5 Gold, play a Blood Gem on four friendly Quilboar.
Young Murk-Eye
- Old (normal): At the end of your turn, adjacent Murlocs trigger their Battlecries. → New: At the end of your turn, the Murloc to the left of this triggers its Battlecry.
- Old (golden): At the end of your turn, adjacent Murlocs trigger their Battlecries twice. → New: At the end of your turn, adjacent Murlocs trigger their Battlecries.
Comments
I guess they don't want to change too much at once but some buffs are in order I think. But Naga threw everything out of whack so yeah stabilize them and then hopefully other tribes can be addressed.
Wat? They left Lava Lurker on 2? Are they mental? That needs to be at least a tier 3, possibly a 4.
Also the butchering of Murlocs and Quilboar didn't seem warranted, the Tier 6's seemed to just about make them competitive. Obviously Nagas are taking a hit, but cutting endgame Murloc scaling in half does not seem a commensurate change.
Also Pirates are still a joke and have been for ages, even after the introduction of the new minions (Peggy, avenge, etc.), surprised they're not getting anything.
Nah, Lava Lurker by itself isn't a problem. It only starts to scale once you find Shoal Commander and by that point you also need the Siren or else the Lurker is your only big minion.
Rushing Lurker isn't as broken a strategy because you don't really start scaling until turn 6-7 unless you get super lucky.
Disagreed. If you start with the Mini-Myrmidon you can have persistent, free scaling from turn 3, which no other tribe has. With that line of play, you're also mostly safe from damage on turns 1 and 2 as the Mini-Myrmidon only loses to exactly 1 minion (Scallywag), and either ties or beats the rest. So an early play that is quite logical immediately follows into permanent scaling that will keep you afloat until you get the Shoal Commander, which, funnily enough, seems to also come earlier than it should. Compare this to Prized Promo Drake + Tarecgosa. Dragons get this scaling engine at Tier 4 + 4 where Naga get it at tier 2 + 3, in addition to already having the buff target potentially prebuffed from previous turns, while Dragons sit on fuck-all for scaling outside of Chromawing until they reach Tier 4.
No other tribe can get a surefire-keep scaling target plus a free (as in, no need for repeated investment) targetable scaling engine going before tier 3. Even Demons have to keep buying demons AND paying health to scale Wrathweaver. Most tribes get it around tier 4, Quilboar at tier 3 (Bannerboar). Meanwhile in Naga-land you can just sit on your hands and the Spellcrafts just keep piling up every turn....
Nice! This changes and the buffs/nerfs really made my day. Mostly drekthar as I bought it with gold.