Hearthstone Rolls Out Hotfix Patch 24.2.1 - Various Battlegrounds Quests Changes, Duels Buckets Adjusted, Bug Fixes

The 'new world order' Battlegrounds patch has changed several aspects of the game once it arrived on August 30 - for better or for worse. Naturally, a handful of issues have also followed in its tracks, and we've been detailing everything of note over the past few days.

• Hearthstone’s Patch 24.2 Is Now Live - Huge Battlegrounds Revamp, Runestones, Other In-Game Features
• Early Known Issues and Fixes for Hearthstone’s Patch 24.2 - Battlegrounds Disconnects & Disabled Heroes, Visual Bugs

And now we can witness the next expected step of this journey, with a small hotfix patch making an appearance just in time for the weekend (this is a different timetable from the upcoming Constructed balance patch). 

Quote From Blizzard

Patch 24.2.1, a server-side hotfix patch, is scheduled for September 2 and includes the following content updates and bug fixes.

A server-side hotfix, so traditionally no downloads should be necessary (and if you have been prompted for a client update recently, we have been told that had to do with the earlier fix for the missing Battlegrounds Weekly Quests). But it might take a little while before the changes are fully in effect across all regions; it's not really possible to tell until you've queued up some games and managed to spot the differences.

The main takeaway of this patch? A lot of Battlegrounds adjustments, especially everything that has to do with the new Quests mechanic. 

Hearthstone Battlegrounds Adjustments - Quests and Their Rewards 

Quote From Blizzard

• Several Battlegrounds Quests and Quest Rewards have been adjusted.
• The Witness Protection Battlegrounds Quest and Another Hidden Body Quest Reward have been temporarily removed from the Quest pool.

Surprise, no real details within as the patch notes continue being rather obscure. Luckily for us, invaluable Battlegrounds Developer Mitchell Loewen has once again come to the rescue by elaborating on the subject: 

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

Hotfix rolling out with some adjustments for BGs. Gonna highlight some of the quest/reward tweaks:

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

These Quests are now harder: Dust for Prints, Exhume the Bones, Sort It All Out, Follow the Money

These Quests are now easier: Cry for Help

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

These Rewards are now harder: Stolen Gold, Ritual Dagger, Devils in the Details, The Smoking Gun, Mirror Shield, Secret Sinstone, Victim's Specter, Yogg-tastic Tasties, Staff of Origination 

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

These Rewards are now easier: Snicker Snacks, Evil Twin, Ghastly Mask, Teal Tiger Sapphire, Red Hand, Wondrous Wisdomball

The ever important clarifications:

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

Harder/easier refers to the dynamic scaling of the numbers in the Quest textbox. We made no appearance rate adjustments in this hotfix.

(So basically difficulty to complete not to find)

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

Will Ghastly Mask and Teal Tiger Sapphire be easier to achieve in Demon lobby when murlocs are banned?

Currently, Ghastly Mask isn't directly affected by the minion pool (just whatever minion it offers).

Teal Tiger Sapphire is easier in non-Demon lobbies.

Murlocs don't directly affect either of them.

Here we also got a tasty tidbit from John McIntyre, Hearthstone Battlegrounds Lead Designer: 

Quote From John McIntyre

Fun fact, The Smoking Gun was the least picked reward but had the second highest average placement. It is one of many rewards that have been tuned to be more difficult to complete.

Quote From John McIntyre

When looking at average placement do you take into account people who picked it and never completed it?

Yes

If you knew, you knew. 

And if you ever need a reminder of just how all of the Battlegrounds Quests work or why they scale their requirements and rewards based on a number of factors (heroes, tribes, etc.), remember that it's all just a click away: 

• Detailed Look at Quests, New Gameplay Mechanic for Hearthstone Battlegrounds
• All Quest Types and Two New Heroes

Additionally, on the topic of the two options that have been removed: 

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

were witness protection and hidden body removed for animation reasons? if so, are we hoping for an eventual return with the next client-side patch with updated animations or are you still working through what the plan is

Another Hidden Body will be back once animations are a bit faster. Not ready to say what will happen with Witness Protection yet as the team is still deciding

A lot of the above was influenced by the player feedback in one way or another; something that we did talk about in our write-up about the initial major patch. Just so you know that it matters and makes a difference! 

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

Great to see adjustments and tweaks being made quickly and proactively to quests! They're a lot of fun and seem like they'd be easier to balance and change than previous aspects of BGs.

Yay! We try our best to listen to feedback and respond as fast as we can. We plan to keep making adjustments to Quests as needed to keep them fun and fair.

I also seek out other sources (reddit, YouTube, forums, podcasts, fansites, etc.), but Twitter has been great for fast feedback!

ALSO if you have more feedback on Quests/Rewards after this hotfix let us know! Your feedback is incredibly valuable and appreciated.

Here is one example of what is already on the team's radar: 

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

With the crazy power some have, and the increasing auto ghosts in lobbies, the game has become a bit frustrating, getting whacked with 36 damage left and right make me sad panda

That's really valid. It's something the team has been discussing

Other Battlegrounds Changes

Just your usual minor Armor Tier shifts for a couple of Heroes, and a relevant note on the live Leaderboards refreshing. Perhaps you'll be able to find your own name in there! 

Quote From Blizzard

• Lich Baz’hial was moved from Armor Tier 1 to Armor Tier 3.
• Fungalmancer Flurgl was moved from Armor Tier 2 to Armor Tier 1.

If you need to refresh your memory on the existing armor tiers (there are 7 of them, in the ascending order from 0 Armor to 10 Armor, with some of the values overlapping between the tiers), here are the updated numbers from when the whole system has made its grand return during Voyage to the Sunken City:

Quote From Blizzard

Tier 1 (0 Armor)

Tier 2 (2-5 Armor)

Tier 3 (3-6 Armor)

Tier 4 (4-7 Armor)

Tier 5 (5-8 Armor)

Tier 6 (6-9 Armor)

Tier 7 (7-10 Armor)

The values remain as is, but of course since then we've had a lot of various balance patches and hotfixes moving a number of Heroes up and down the tiers accordingly. 

And your friendly link to the live Battlegrounds Leaderboards goes here. 

Quote From Blizzard

• Adjusted the Battlegrounds Leaderboard logic to remove all players with 0 Rating from the Leaderboards and increase the number of games required before appearing on the Leaderboards.

Hearthstone Duels - Buckets Updated

This shouldn't have tremendous consequences on anyone's gameplay, but it's still going to matter to some extent:

Quote From Blizzard

• Adjusted the “Big Friends” and “Live to Win” Duels buckets and removed Sire Denathrius from the “Group Learning” bucket.

Plus the added context that we got from Matt London, Design Lead for Hearthstone Modes. These boars sure are persistent: 

Quote From Matt London

We changed the appearance rates of some boar-combo cards to make that deck worse.

Bug Fixes

Minor things, as it happens. 

Quote From Blizzard

• Fixed a bug where Ring of Tides would continue to update based on the original owner’s spells after stolen.
• Fixed a bug where the Imp generated by Imp Gang Boss lost its “Imp” tag.
• Fixed a bug preventing the Training Session Darkmoon Prize from working with the Sire Denathrius.

If you've been actively playing Hearthstone Battlegrounds ever since the big patch, what do you think about these Quests adjustments? Do you share the common sentiments when it comes to player feedback?