Details have arrived on this week's Hearthstone balance changes. We do not have a date confirmed yet.
- Seven cards are getting nerfed in constructed.
- Patches and Pyramad are both returning to the Battlegrounds hero pool.
- Shudderwock, Queen Togwaggle, and Infinite Toki have all had their hero powers adjusted.
- Golden Soul Juggler now deals 3 damage to a minion twice instead of 6 damage once.
- Arena received some card appearance adjustments.
- Druid, Hunter, and Paladin winrates in Arena should be decreased.
- Priest, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock winrates in Arena should now be increased.
The Card Nerfs
All will become disenchantable for full value when the nerfs hit for 2 weeks.
- (Discuss Nerf) Fiendish Rites cost is now 4 (up from 3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Scion of Ruin cost is now 4 (up from 3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Ancharrr durability is now 2 (down from 3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Dragon's Pack now gives +2/+2 (down from +3/+3).
- (Discuss Nerf) Invocation of Frost cost is now 2 (up from 1).
- (Discuss Nerf) Necrium Apothecary cost is now 5 (up from 4).
- (Discuss Nerf) Dragonqueen Alexstrasza can no longer generate herself.
Quote From Kaeyoh Welcome to a new year in the tavern, everyone! We have a balance update in the works that will go live later this week which includes the following changes, primarily for Standard and Battlegrounds:
Warlock
- Fiendish Rites: Mana cost increased from (3) to (4).
Warrior
- Scion of Ruin: Mana cost increased from (3) to (4).
- Ancharrr: Durability reduced from (3) to (2).
Shaman
- Dragon’s Pack: Now reads, “…If you’ve Invoked twice, give them +2/+2.” (reduced from +3/+3).
- Invocation of Frost: Mana cost increased from (1) to (2).
Rogue
- Necrium Apothecary: Mana cost increased from (4) to (5).
Neutral
- Dragonqueen Alexstrasza: Battlecry effect can no longer generate Dragonqueen Alexstrasza.
Once the update is live, adjusted cards will be eligible for a full Arcane Dust refund for two weeks.*
Battlegrounds
This update includes several adjustments and gets more Heroes brawling in Bob’s Tavern than ever before! Further Battlegrounds balance changes are coming very soon, in addition to the exciting new content we have in the pipeline… we’ll have more to share in the near future!
Heroes
- Shudderwock
- Burbling: Cost reduced from (2) to (1).
- Queen Wagtoggle
- Wax Warband: Give a random friendly Mech, Demon, Murloc and Beast +2 Attack. (instead of +1 Health)
- Infinite Toki
- Temporal Tavern: Cost reduced from (2) to (1). Now reads, “Refresh Bob’s Tavern. Include a Minion from a higher Tavern Tier.”
- Patches the Pirate
- Has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.
- Fire the Cannons!: At the start of next combat, deal 4 damage to two random enemy minions. (increased from 3 damage)
- Pyramad
- Has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.
- Brick by Brick: Give a random friendly minion +3 Health. (increased from +2 Health)
Minions
- Golden Soul Juggler
- After a friendly Demon dies, deal 3 damage to a random enemy minion twice. (instead of 6 damage once)
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- Battlegrounds: Selfless Hero’s Deathrattle will now only affect minions that do not already have Divine Shield.
- Arena: The appearance rate of cards in the draft has been updated to ensure class balance remains close to the ideal 50% win-rate. Specifically, the win-rate of Druid, Hunter, and Paladin should now be decreased. The win-rate of Priest, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock should now be increased. Card appearance rates for Mage and Warrior remain untouched.
Comments
THANK YOU FOR THE ARENA BALANCE CHANGES! SOME OF US STILL PLAY THAT GAME MODE! UNNERF THE ARENA MENU BUTTON!
Which heroes are gonna rotate out in Battlegrounds, I don't see it mentioned?
None are rotating out, apparently. There will now be more available heroes.
The fuck did Fiendish Rites ever do to anyone? Zoo is barely playable as is.
4th best deck in the meta based on today's Vicious Syndicate meta report.
Moreover, the three archetypes above it (Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior and Deathrattle Rogue) will be nerfed.
But yeah: devs bad, nerf Priest.
Agreed zoo is being played a little less and will get played even less now
A series of entirely unnecessary nerfs; the one card that needed a beating (Apothecary) wasn't really hurt all that much.
The Fiendish Rites nerf made me laugh, though. Conjured pictures of Gul'dan finally about to climb out of a hole, only for Blizz to kick him right back down into it again.
I'll give you the same answer I wrote to a guy above you:
"[Galakrond ZooLock] is the 4th best deck in the meta based on today's Vicious Syndicate meta report.
Moreover, the three archetypes above it (Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior and Deathrattle Rogue) will be nerfed."
The deck is strong right now, but they probably predicted it could have become too oppressive in the post nerfs meta, thus the change to Fiendish Rites.
On a side note, if you really think Necrium Apothecary won't be hurt that much from its nerf, I'm afraid you're dramatically wrong.
Re: Warlock - my point was more that warlock has been viable for like a week before it's kicked back into the corner again. It simply amused me.
Re: Apothecary, we'll have to disagree on this one. Increasing the mana point by one isn't going to have a significant functional effect on how it plays against most decks - the only matchups it'll really hurt are midrange ones, most of which are eating nerfs here too. It's not like the rogue archetypes using it care about tempo much - they're about the swing turn, and that turn coming a turn later really isn't going to make much of a difference.
Now, if it'd gone to six mana, that might be something - it'd stop on-curve Apothecary into Whelp. But, y'know, it didn't.
Warlock - on which basis are you saying that Warlock won't be viable after Fiendish Rites' nerf? This is more of a preventive change than a deserved one, but I hardly believe that Gul'Dan will not be among the best classes next week.
Apothecary - it's not just a 1 mana bump, but it's a 1 mana bump on a combo card, which is a huge deal: being it so expensive now, you'll be less incentivized to run 0 and 1 cost spells in order to trigger its effect. Moreover, now that Necrium Apothecary is a 5 mana minion, you'll be less likely to play it before turn 6 right? Then why running him together with Mechanical Whelp, a 6 mana unit with not summoning conditions (you just play it: no need to play a card before)? Do you see it now? Apothecary is much slower, and you can't curve Necrium Blade into it anymore.
I think I made my point.
Warlock - I think you're exaggerating what I'm trying to say. I'm not saying it won't be viable, necessarily. I was simply expressing amusement that a deck that's been viable for a miniscule amount of time, and at no point oppressive, is immediately eating a nerf regardless.
Apothecary - I would agree with you if the current Apothecary-centric Rogue decks were at all tempo-oriented, or indeed, if they ran many combo cards at all. I don't consider that Rogue decks will be disincentivized to run low-cost cards as a result of the change, because their deck's focus hasn't changed at all - the earliest possible turn they can start doing it has shifted back by one turn, and that's all. With so few combo cards in a typical DR Rogue list (meaning limited competition for activators) there really isn't much impact at all.
Regardless, arguments are getting circular. The meta will tell.
Dragon Pack should have been the 1st thing nerfed when they nerfed Shammy at the end of last year.
4/5 Galakrond's deck are playable, what's the point of keeping priest as it is?
Make the hero power "Discover" please.
Not enough nerf to Ancharrr IMO. They should have increased the mana cost by 1 so it comes into play 1 turn later. It's still too strong of a tempo play on t3. Mark my words, Pirate Warrior gonna rule the meta (at least until the 35 new cards hit).
Other nerfs seem OK.
Sigh. And still no buff to Galakrond Priest
I don't expect there will ever be any buffs for it. Having 4/5 Galakronds be competitively viable (3 of which concerningly so, and one of those to a ridiculous degree initially) is already a much higher success rate than main set mechanics normally get, but people never expected buffs for the weaker quests or legendary weapons.
In any case, what would you actually buff? You cannot really improve the priest invoke cards without them becoming stronger than the usual power level (which invoke cards are decidedly not meant to be), and I very much doubt they'll change the hero power. I guess you could tweak a number on Fate Weaver.
Stopped playing but I still keep an eye on the game. Glad I stopped playing before this expansion because this seems to be a mess. They had done such a good job of fixing balance problems and making some tough decisions to stop power creep. Even when seeing the previews of this expansion I could see some obvious issues of balance and I can't believe they didn't play test this better. 2 major nerf patches not even a month in.
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They could've just doubled down and not do the nerfs.
Play testers are still human, and I'd much rather that they actively correct mistakes with little tweaks rather than let this simmer down for 2 months before announcing nerfs the size of nukes.
Fiendish Rites and Invocation of Frost are the suprise nerfs this time around. Both nerfs look like they were intended to slow down the tempo of both decks, but they are still powerful, especially with Invocation + Zentimo. Overall, decent nerfs.
Also, I'm quite happy that Zentimo sees competitive play now since I've been trying to make it work since it was released.