The upcoming Hearthstone patch is coming with a few important changes to Battlegrounds! We thought it might be useful to provide some insight as to what these changes mean for the game mode, especially since it can be tough to get a good understanding of their impact when Battlegrounds is, well, always changing at a rapid pace.
Let's dig into everything changing with Thursday's patch, from Anomalies, to minion balance changes to minion pool changes.
Anomalies
We've got two important changes to the Anomaly pool to get us started: Finicky Hourglass is being removed from the pool, while Anomalous Twin is being added back.
Goodbye to the left, hello to the right.
Overall, Finicky Hourglass wasn't the most interesting Anomaly and its impact was barely felt past the first few rounds. Anomalous Twin, on the other hand, does have the potential to shake up players' board strategies, and with the upcoming hero bans depending on active Anomaly, it should be a fairer match for all (more on this soon!).
Also suffering a change this upcoming patch is Shackles of the Primus, whose occurrence in higher-rated lobbies will be reduced, and outright removed in lower-ranked lobbies. We assume this is due to its effect being far too abnormal compared to how a BG match usually goes, for newer players to understand how to make good use of its effect.
Can't blame them, imagine your first Battleground game having this as an Anomaly.
Additionally, lots of Anomalies will prevent certain heroes from being present in the lobby going forward. We've set up a table with the Anomaly Name, Effect and Banned Heroes to make things clear:
| ANOMALY NAME | EFFECT | BANNED HEROES |
| Audience's Choice | At the start of each turn, one player chooses a card for ALL players to get at end of turn. | Tess Greymane | Scabbs Cutterbutter | Reno Jackson E.T.C., Band Manager | Sneed | Millhouse Manastorm Lich Baz'hial |
| Anomalous Wisdomball | Starting on Turn 6, you occasionally get helpful Refreshes! | Infinite Toki |
| Anomalous Twin | Start of Combat: Summon a copy of your highest-Health minion. | Lady Vashj | Ini Stormcoil | Death Speaker Blackthorn |
| Anomalous Bribe | After you sell a minion, give its stats to a minion in the Tavern. | Dancin' Deryl | Death Speaker Blackthorn | Mutanus the Devourer Professor Putricide |
| The Keys to Victory | After you play a minion, give your other minions +1/+1 for each Keyword they share with it. | Ini Stormcoil | Infinite Toki |
| Bring Home the Bacon | Start with two upgrading 'Piggy Banks'. Break them open to gain Gold! | Alexstrasza | Overlord Saurfang |
| Temperance of Aman'Thul | Start at Tavern Tier 4. Gain 10 extra Gold on your first turn only. | Kurtrus Ashfallen | Rakanishu | Lady Vashj | Overlord Saurfang | Tavish Stormpike | C'Thun | Cariel Roame | Rock Master Voone | Maiev Shadowsong | Cookie the Cook | Tickatus |
| Path of the Treasure Seeker | After you Refresh 5 times, find the Golden Monkey! | Scabbs Cutterbutter | Tess Greymane |
Minion Pool Changes
There's a few minions rotating out as well as another minion coming back in:
- Rotating out of Battlegrounds are Gusty Trumpeter, Mannoroth and Amalgadon.
- Rotating in is Gentle Djinni.
Until we meet again, you three!
It won't be the same without Amalgadon, who's been with us for a long long while! He used to be Tier 6! Mannoroth's presence will also be missed, as his ability could enable a player to have a fighting chance against an overwhelmingly strong opponent. I've personally had success with applying Divine Shield on him and having him turn into a 250/250-ish juggernaut, enabling a win!
Minion Balance Changes
We've got a couple buffs as well as a couple nerfs to go through here!
Buffs:
- Gentle Djinni - Our returning minion is now Tier 5, down from Tier 6, making "elemental hand generation" a little more reliable early on.
- Admiral Eliza Goreblade - Now gives all friendly minions +3/+1, up from +2/+1.
It's nice to see Eliza getting a little extra power here, and knowing how easily numbers scale up in Battlegrounds, even a +1 can be extremely powerful if utilized properly. There are, however, plenty of roads to take for hitting huge damage numbers, and few for hitting large health numbers. Perhaps a +2/+2 would have made Eliza a more attractive option, but let's see what this change brings first!
Nerfs:
- Relentless Mur'ghoul - Now Avenge (5), up from Avenge (4).
- Piloted Whirl-O-Tron - Now only copies other friendly minions' Deathrattles.
Relentless Mur'ghoul will now require an even more bulletproof board in order to get that rebirth and second Venomous minion, but we hope the nerf isn't too strong. In a board with no extra minions being summoned during combat, having 5 of your other 6 minions die before this Venomous minion even gets to attack, in order for it to attack once more, is a big ask. Some creativity will be required to get the same value of of Relentless Mur'ghoul.
Meanwhile, Pilored Whirl-O-Tron has had a bit of its fun removed, as I'm sure we all enjoyed stealing our opponents' Deathrattles. The minion should, however, still perform well, and this nerf is an opportunity to control exactly what a player would want the Whirl-O-Tron to do, randomness be damned!
What do you think of the Battlegrounds changed coming soon? Any cards or Anomalies you're happy to see go/return? Let us know in the comments below!
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