With the brief accidental release of the planned patch - and its consequent rollback over the past weekend - we've been given an unexpected preview of some of the upcoming balance changes coming to Constructed Hearthstone. Following the rumors and glimpses shared by various players, Team 5's Final Designer Aleco has decided to partially lift the curtain and tell us about certain nerfs and buffs in greater detail. But we still didn't get to learn everything there was. Until now, with the patch notes hot off the press!
We've known about all of the planned nerfs already, so there are no great surprises here. But the full extent of the class buffs has been shrouded in mystery, and it turns out there are a lot of them headed our way! The balance patch is already live - it's also 'data-only', with mobile clients able to start downloading straight away from within the game rather than having to wait for their storefront's approval.
Quote From Blizzard Card Updates:
Dev Comment: The current power level of the top decks after the launch of Murder at Castle Nathria is pretty close to the level that we’d like it to be. We’re happy with decks like Imp Warlock and Control Shaman being powerful, but we’re less happy with the power level of the weakest classes. So while we did a few touches to the top decks with the goal of reducing play-against frustration, the primary goal of this patch was to elevate the classes that are struggling in the current meta.
You can find all the exact details below, along with relevant developer commentary:
Constructed Hearthstone - 5 Card Nerfs
A few of the card nudges here are surprisingly tame, considering Team 5's track record with heavy-handed nerfs. But changing some of the functionality for Druid's and Shaman's staple choices goes a long way.
Quote From Blizzard The following cards have been adjusted down in their power:
Celestial Alignment
- Old: Set each player to 0 Mana Crystals. Set the cost of all cards in hands and decks to (1). → New: Set your Mana Crystals to 0. Set the cost of all cards in your hand and deck to (1).
Dev Comment: We hear you. Alignment has been a frustrating card to play against for a while now and has remained that way after the release of Murder at Castle Nathria, even if it is not a balance outlier. This change is targeted at removing as much of that frustration as possible while still retaining the primary effect for players who enjoy the big turns it can allow.
Stag Spirit Wildseed
- Old: Dormant for 3 turns. When this awakens, equip a 4/2 Greatbow. → New: Dormant for 3 turns. When this awakens, equip a 3/2 Greatbow.
Dev Comment: The Wildseed package has been a fun addition to Hunter, but Stag Spirit Wildseed has been putting out more face damage than we intended. We hope Wildseeds will remain a key part of Hunter decks going forward, but will be a little less ubiquitous across all Hunter archetypes.
Snowfall Guardian
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health. Battlecry: Freeze all other minions. Gain +1/+1 for each Frozen minion. → New: 5 Attack, 5 Health. Battlecry: Freeze all other minions.
Dev Comment: Control Shaman has been one of the most dominant decks since the expansion launch. A big part of their power comes from their ability to repeatedly freeze enemy boards while also pressuring their life totals, thanks to Snowfall Guardian. We hope that by removing the pressure this card applies, it will be less difficult for players to navigate.
Vile Library
- Old: Give a friendly minion +1/+1. Repeat for each Imp you control. → New: Give a minion +1/+1 for each Imp you control.
Dev Comment: We’re happy to see that Imp Warlock has been one of the top performing decks in this expansion, but a little bit too much of its power is coming from the burst damage this single card allows. We’re lightly touching Vile Library because we don’t want it to go away, we just want to bring the deck more in line with the other decks in the meta.
Kobold Illusionist
- Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]
Dev Comments: Big Rogue has developed into a powerhouse that too consistently summons powerful minions too early in the game for players to meaningfully interact with. We’re adding a mana cost to Kobold Illusionist to slow the deck down and break up some of its consistency.
The above craftable cards, as well as Spirit Poacher, Stag Charge, Wild Spirits, and Ara'lon will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 24.0.3.
As some people were expecting (or at least hoping for), that's the entire Wildseed package eligible for dust refunds! We've seen this happen before with Kargal Battlescar and Watch Posts during Forged in the Barrens.
And yes, it means you could effectively craft these cards (if you don't own either) and play with them 'free of charge' for about 2 weeks (while also ensuring your Standard/Castle Nathria packs won't pull them due to existing duplicate protection). There are relevant XP achievements to hunt down for the class meanwhile!
However, don't do it outright if you wish to maximize your potential dust numbers by still finding Epics Stag Charge and Wild Spirits or Legendary Ara'lon. And if you end up following through with this, just don't forget to disenchant them back before the time is up! We'll be sure to keep our usual reminder at hand.
Constructed Hearthstone - 22 Card Buffs
At least three of these classes have definitely needed a helping hand. It will be very interesting to observe just how much the metagame and power levels are going to shift following various card updates.
Quote From Blizzard The following cards have been adjusted up in their power:
Demon Hunter
Quote From Blizzard Relic Vault
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]
Relic of Extinction
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
Dev Comment: Relics are a fun and flavorful new archetype from Murder at Castle Nathria, but they haven’t had their chance to shine. We’re hoping that a couple buffs will make these cards easier to squeeze into turns and make the whole package feel better to try in a variety of decks.
Bibliomite
- Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health
Magnifying Glaive
- Old: 2 Attack, 2 Durability → New: 3 Attack, 2 Durability
Dev Comment: We were a little too safe on the numbers for the new Aggro Demon Hunter cards. We hope these buffs will make the low-hand-size deck a little more appealing!
Abyssal Depths
- Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 3]
Battleworn Vanguard
- Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health
Irebound Brute
- Old: [Costs 8] → New: [Costs 7]
Dev Comment: Demon Hunter has been struggling in a big way this expansion. We felt that changes to new cards alone might not be enough to bring the power level of this class in line with the rest of this meta. So we’re buffing a few older cards to help bridge the gap. We’re hoping that Abyssal Depths can now function as a powerful tool for a variety of Demon Hunter decks, new and old alike. The reverts to Battleworn Vanguard and Irebound Brute should make them more attractive options for the class. Broot me dood!
Paladin
Quote From Blizzard Legendary Invitation (generated by The Countess)
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]
Dev Comment: As the big reward for the Pure Paladin archetype, the Countess wasn’t, well, rewarding enough. This change should make her feel better in decks that are willing to pay the cost of cutting all Neutral cards.
Stand Against Darkness
- Old: [Costs 5] → New: [Costs 4]
Warhorse Trainer
- Old: Your Silver Hand Recruits Have +1 Attack. → New: Your Silver Hand Recruits have +2 Attack and Taunt.
Promotion
- Old: Give a Silver Hand Recruit +3/+3. → New: Give a Silver Hand Recruit +3/+3 and Taunt.
Dev Comment: The new Silver Hand archetype has come up much shorter than we hoped it would. Cards like Stand Against Darkness and Warhorse Trainer were simply not at the power level of modern Hearthstone, so we're buffing them up to see what they can do in this new age. To top it off, Promotion now comes with a raise!
Rogue
Quote From Blizzard Edwin, Defias Kingpin
- Old: [Costs 4] 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 3 Health
Sprint
- Old: [Costs 6] → New: [Costs 5]
Silverleaf Poison
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
Halkias
- Old: Deathrattle: If you control a Secret, store Halkias' soul inside of it. It resummons Halkias when triggered. → New: Stealth. Deathrattle: Store Halkias's soul inside of a friendly Secret. It resummons Halkias when triggered.
Dev Comment: Card draw has traditionally been one of Rogue’s strengths, but it doesn’t feel like a strength in the current meta. The buffs to Edwin, Sprint, and Silverleaf Poison are all made with the intention of reinforcing card draw as a strength of the class. Miracle Rogue has not been overperforming in power, but we are aware it can win in frustrating ways, so we’ll be keeping an eye on how it develops following these buffs. We also wanted to show a little love to the new secret package. We’re starting with a buff to Halkias that makes him feel better to play, but we may revisit this package later if it needs additional support.
Warrior
Quote From Blizzard Sanguine Depths
- Old: Deal 1 damage to a minion and give it +1 Attack. → New: Deal 1 damage to a minion and give it +2 Attack.
Imbued Axe
- Old: After your hero attacks, give your damaged minions +1/+1. Infuse (3): +2/+2 instead. → New: After your hero attacks, give your damaged minions +1/+2. Infuse (2): +2/+2 instead.
Cruel Taskmaster
- Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 3 Health
Dev Comment: Along with Demon Hunter, Warrior has been struggling this expansion. A big part of that is that their new Enrage Warrior archetype hasn’t been nearly as powerful as we’d hoped it to be. These three buffs are targeted at improving the Enrage Warrior archetype, which we hope to see become a player in the metagame.
Tidal Revenant
- Old: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 5 Armor. → New: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 8 Armor.
Shield Shatter:
- Old: Deal 4 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have. → New: Deal 5 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have.
Slam:
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
Bash:
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]
Dev Comment: We may have been a little over zealous when we were addressing Control Warrior in the last balance patch. We’re correcting that here. We’re also giving them a couple new tools in Slam and Bash, which might even make their way into non-control Warrior lists.
Are you satisfied with this first round of nerfs and buffs for the new expansion, or do you believe something else might be still missing? Which improved class cards are you going to take for a spin as soon as you can?
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
Oi, are these quips really necessary? Usually a slippery slope.
TinTin, people took some umbrage with the "bronze players" comment, because it's really not the bronze casual players (who often just play, have fun, mind their business) complaining on Twitter or Reddit. It's more like your very invested hardcore crowd, lots of Legend holders. Make of that what you will.
Now not liking the direction of nerfs or whatever else in terms of balance is anyone's right and a fair argument, but that's different from the direction this took. With these changes it often seems like something will annoy one person while pleasing another.
You'll probably put a better argument if you actually name those nerfs that were done apparently because of 'bronze players' so everyone here can have a cogent argument.
Because from what Ive seen I can't exactly argue with team5's decision here, with the exception of stag nerf.
The game has to be fun for everyone, even for the "bronze" players
i suppose who like to play cards that "feels unfair" is not included in everyone
Mixed feelings. The nerfs seem solid. The buffs are actually choosing better targets than normal, but I have a minor nitpick with Demon Hunter.
DH has a lot of completely dead spells that never had the mana cost they needed but would otherwise be playable. The buffs here are to cards that don't have the support needed because Team 5 exiled said support out of rotation (Irebound Brute) or hit a card that would have to be ludicrously cheap to justify its very weak effect (Abyssal Depths). Still, the fact that it occured to the devs to buff a card that saw no play is a very good thing. There's a possibility that a big DH could happen with Vanndar Stormpike coming out consistently because of Abyssal Depths.
They're using a very light touch on Relics, which stink on ice; not too sanguine about that. They did pick a set of buffs that help you defend from Imp Warlock (location plus buffed relic does 6 to the enemy board on turn 3) so that could be effective despite my reservations.
Warrior buffs have something more ambitious: buffs to ancient cards that are being updated for modern Hearthstone. That's an attitude we wish could be extended to all the dead neutrals that were never good but are inevitably put into the core sets, so that's very promising.
The only Pally archetypes that looked decent to me were handbuff and holy and the buffs don't directly help those archetypes. The buffs might justify combining them with pure or dude. I doubt it, but again, I appreciate them hitting some old cards with buffs.
Rogue bucks the trend and gets a buff to an already-strong card: Edwin, Defias Kingpin. Not a fan of that, but the other buffs are fine and, tbh, Edwin isn't a particularly toxic card.
The philosophy behind these changes is actually good and that's something I almost never say about Hearthstone changes.
Going to give a little update here, having played with these changes. Despite the herculean effort to maintain positivity, what was almost completely obvious turned out to be true: Relics are still absolute shite and are conceptual failures. Combined with Renathal making 40 the new 30, DH has no real ability to hit hard enough early to matter, no ability to stick a board (Deathrattle is trash both mechanically and thematically) and the Relics cause -- and this is literal -- more problems than they solve.
This puts the devs in an interesting position. DH will continue to be trash as will Relics but they've shown a willingness to buff the latter. Will they continue to buff them or simply abandon them? I expect the latter; the kind of cost reduction Relics would need to be viable is staggering.
"Card draw is a strength of rogue but we noticed it hasn't been drawing cards"
Yeah. It's because discover is so stupid.
Also not even mentioning big priest when they nerf kobold illusionist lmao
I mean, I liked the changes, but IMO at least give Guff a empty mana crystal when ramping, feels a bit unfair playing with/against someone with double the mana.
I dont like the interactivity that shaman have with battlecry having 2x maccaw, brann and bolner, but I'm a shaman hater so in this matter my opinion does have a little value.
I didnt liked the Edwin change, is to much power for a single card, but the draw cards for rogue is pretty bad, so maybe is justified? I still believe that the secret package is bad, really bad (kidnap is a joke), so the Halkias change doesnt change much, but a will give a try, I didnt enjoyed miracle rogue and playing thief rogue for 3 expansions in a row feels bad
When I saw the updates to Warhorse Trainer and Promotion I thought, "The Odd Paladin list I've been messing around with just got better!"
Meanwhile, I saw the buff to Stand Against Darkness and thought "I have to try this card in Even Paladin!"
Boy I sure hope they playtested that Abyssal Depths buff. There was a reason they shipped it at 4 and I'm worried we might regret this down the line.
The great thing about the current Hearthstone team is they are not scared of buffing cards and then nerfing them back to previous version later. They have done it multiple times. Buff cards and see what happens that is a great design.