We've got several hotfixes rolling out today to Hearthstone to balance Battlegrounds through Armor Tier changes and adjustments to the difficulty of earning Quest Rewards. We've also got some bug fixes which include another fix for the annoying Theotar, the Mad Duke client crash. Read on for all the details.
Some of the above is closely connected to the previously talked about known issues and everything related to the new patch. Certain problems still remain, for which you can find a detailed overview over here:
- Hearthstone Patch 24.4 - Maw and Disorder Mini-Set, Mercenaries & Battlegrounds Updates, AI Opponents, & More
- Updated Early Known Issues and Fixes for Hearthstone's Patch 24.4 - Theotar Bug, Disabled Packs & Max Stats for Mercenaries, Battlegrounds Quest Removed, Mini-Set Cards
The following changes will take some time to go out to Hearthstone in all the regions. If you don't see them live yet, that's because they aren't but will be coming soon! Since this is a server-side patch, no client download will be required.
Quote From GnomeSayin Patch 24.4.1 is a server-side hotfix scheduled for this afternoon that includes the following game updates and bug fixes:
Battlegrounds Changes
Armor Updates
- Bru’kan is now Armor Tier 3 (3-6 Armor).
- Deathwing, Lich Baz’hial, and Sneed are now Armor Tier 4 (4-7 Armor).
- Onyxia and Tavish Stormpike are now Armor Tier 5 (5-8 Armor).
- Aranna Starseeker, Greybough, and Guff Runetotem are now Armor Tier 6 (6-9 Armor).
Quest Reward Updates
- Teal Tiger Sapphire, Snicker Snacks, Yogg-tastic Tasties, Devils in the Details, Evil Twin, and Another Hidden Body have all been made slightly easier to earn.
- Stolen Gold, Ritual Dagger, Tiny Henchman, and Secret Sinstone have all been made slightly more difficult to earn.
- Stolen Gold will now be offered significantly less frequently.
- Mirror Shield is now banned in Murloc lobbies.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Hearthstone] Updated Theft Accusation’s effect timing to match the text of the card (“after” instead of “whenever”).
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Theotar, the Mad Duke would cause crashes if the card swapped was a “Choose One” card.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Parrrley would not enter the opponent’s deck if the card swapped was a hero card.
Comments
Speaking of bugs, anyone see how bad Dew Process is. Fatigue your opponent in no time
Maxed stats are also back in Mercenaries.
Yeah, and pretty stealthily too. Likely a hotfix on server side, because I was midway through a bounty and suddenly I get stats out of nowhere. Didn't even realised it until the boss battle.
It wasn't so stealthy, just a rolling gradual hotfix (they did announce or let's say noted it down on their forums). And we've had it mentioned and updated in our "Early Issues" thread for most of the day actually.
"Mirror Shield is now banned in Murloc lobbies." Thanks, I guess? I can see how stupid that would be, but you really shouldn't have to be in a position for specific Quests to be shut off depending on who's in.
Not like Mirror Shield ever got me anywhere, so I guess this is all upside on my end *shrugs*
It is really hard to balance around poison, but you might need poison to battle trillion of stats. Feels bad to be on receiving end in any scenario, but this Quest reward was good even without poison, it is a pretty good change.
From day one, there were calls for counters to poison to balance both poison and stat bloat -- and calls to make combos of poison, stat growth, and divine shield nonviable. (There were also calls to less painfully and successfully counter divine shield.) The players are the BGs playtest team and fundamentals of design receive zero attention and gimmicks receive all. So if a gimmick exposes a fundamental flaw, the gimmick gets tweaked and design moves on. Same thing happens when the gimmick gets old even if it's healthy.