A new Hearthstone balance patch is launching today, bringing bug fixes and balance changes to both Constructed and Battlegrounds. Check out all the details below:
28.4.1 Constructed - Nerfs
- Velarok, the Deceiver's stats are now 3/3 (down from 3/6)
- Shattershambler now reads: The next Deathrattle minion you play immediately dies. (no longer costs (1) less)
- Cactus Construct now summons a 1/1 copy of the discovered minions (down from 1/2)
- Herald of Nature now gives your other minions +1/+1 (down from +1/+2)
- Pendant of Earth now restores Health to your hero equal to its Cost (previously gained Armor instead of Health)
- Shattered Reflections now only adds a copy of the minion to your deck and battlefield (previously also to your hand)
- Dew Process now costs 4 Mana (up from 2)
- Boogie Down now costs 4 Mana (up from 3) and its Finale effect now reads "Summon another." (previous "Finale: Give them Taunt")
- The Garden's Grace now gives a minion +4/+4 (down from +5/+5)
- Thaddius, Monstrosity's effect now makes your odd / even cards cost (2) less (previously (4) less)
In addition, Pyrotechnician is no longer banned in Standard.
28.4.1 Battlegrounds Tier & Cost Changes
- Land Lubber has returned to the minion pool and is now Tier 3 (up from 2) and has 4/5 stats (previously 3/4).
- Hawkstrider Herald is now Tier 6 (up from 5) and has 6/2 stats (previously 5/2)
- Fleeting Vigor is now Tier 3 (down from 4) and gives a minion +7/+7 until next turn (previously +6/+6)
- Shiny Ring is now Tier 2 (down from 3)
- Staff of Enrichment now costs 2 Gold (down from 3)
- Primal Staff is now Tier 5 (up from 4)
- Dreamer's Embrace is now Tier 4 (down from 5)
- Planar Telescope is now Tier 3 (down from 4)
- Overconfidence is now Tier 3 (up from 2)
In addition, Reckless Investment, Leaf Through the Pages and Titus' Tribute have been removed from the Spell Pool.
28.4.1 Battlegrounds Nerfs
- Moroes, Steward of Death's stats are now 5/1 (down from 6/1) and its Deathrattle gives your Undead +1/+5 (down from +2/+6)
- Mystic Sporebat's stats are now 3/1 (down from 5/1)
- Natural Blessing now gives minions +2/+2 (down from +3/+2)
28.4.1 Battlegrounds Buffs
- Moon-Bacon Jazzer's stats are now 2/3 (up from 1/3)
- Geomagus Roogug's stats are now 4/6 (up from 3/6) and now has Divine Shield.
- Prickly Piper's stats are now 5/1 (up from 3/1)
- Paint Smudger's stats are now 5/3 (up from 3/2)
Quote From Blizzard Patch 28.4.1, launching today, brings bug fixes and balance changes to Hearthstone and Battlegrounds!
Hearthstone Updates
Dev Comment: This is our first balance patch after the launch of the Delve into Deepholm mini-set. The overall goal of the patch is to help the mini-set launch in two ways: 1) reducing the power and popularity of some of the dominant decks from before the mini-set that are continuing to see lots of play; and 2) toning down some mini-set cards that didn’t land how we wanted.
It’s too early in the new meta for buffs, but we’ll keep an eye out for those opportunities in our upcoming balance patches. Looking a little further ahead, some of the cards we’re adjusting are cards that will be rotating out of Standard with the next expansion—we'll take another look at them when the time comes to see if they should be reverted once they’re out of Standard.
Velarok the Deceiver (created by Velarok Windblade)
- Old: 3/6
- New: 3/3
Shattershambler
- Old: Battlecry: Your next Deathrattle minion costs (1) less, but immediately dies when played.
- New: Battlecry: The next Deathrattle minion you play immediately dies.
Dev Comment: Excavate Rogue is an example of a pre-mini-set deck that we wanted to tone down a little to make room for new strategies. We’re happy that our recent buff to Velarok has facilitated this deck that people clearly love playing, and we don't want to undo that, but it’s just a bit too powerful and popular. These changes to Velarok and Shattershambler reduce the early-game blowout potential of Excavate Rogue to keep what’s fun about playing the deck, but give opponents more of an opportunity to respond.
Cactus Construct
- Old: Discover a 2-Cost minion. Summon a 1/2 copy of it.
- New: Discover a 2-Cost minion. Summon a 1/1 copy of it.
Herald of Nature
- Old: Battlecry: If you’ve cast a Nature spell while holding this, give your other minions +1/+2.
- New: Battlecry: If you’ve cast a Nature spell while holding this, give your other minions +1/+1.
Pendant of Earth
- Old: Discover a minion from your deck. Gain Armor equal to its Cost.
- New: Discover a minion from your deck. Restore Health to your hero equal to its Cost.
Shattered Reflections
- Old: Choose a minion. Add a copy to your hand, deck, and battlefield.
- New: Choose a minion. Add a copy of it to your deck and battlefield.
Dew Process
- Old: [2 Mana]
- New: [4 Mana]
Dev Comment: There were a few powerful Druid archetypes that we wanted to address in this patch. Cactus Construct is a powerful card across Druid decks that had room to be a bit weaker. The Herald of Nature change makes early Treant Druid boards a little easier to react to. Pendant of Earth was adjusted so that it can still be a strong defensive tool later in the game, but isn’t as strong as an early, proactive stall tool. Shattered Reflections was causing too many reflections, leading to repetitive gameplay—so we took one reflection away. Finally, we weakened Dew Process because the game is less fun when decks like Mill Druid are extremely competitive and meta-warping—we still want cards like that to exist for players who like that type of gameplay, but we don't want them to be the prevailing ladder strategy.
Boogie Down
- Old: [3 Mana] Summon two 1-Cost minions from your deck. Finale: Give them Taunt.
- New: [4 Mana] Summon two 1-Cost minions from your deck. Finale: Summon another.
The Garden’s Grace
- Old: Give a minion +5/+5 and Divine Shield. Costs (1) less for each Mana you’ve spent on Holy spells this game.
- New: Give a minion +4/+4 and Divine Shield. Costs (1) less for each Mana you’ve spent on Holy spells this game.
Dev Comment: Paladin is looking strong after the mini-set. Boogie Down is a card that we’ve seen in almost all Paladins since it was released, so we’re making it a little bit slower and adjusting the Finale to partially compensate for the later play. We’re also hitting Garden’s Grace to reduce some of the deck’s from-hand burst potential. To that end, we’ve got our eye on cards like Shroomscavate, but we like that players are trying out the new cards, so we’re making just these changes for now and we’ll make further changes later if needed.
Thaddius, Monstrosity
- Old: Taunt. Your odd-Cost cards cost (4) less. (Swaps polarity each turn!)
- New: Taunt. Your odd-Cost cards cost (2) less. (Swaps polarity each turn!)
Dev Comment: We don’t think combo play patterns are inherently bad, and Thaddius isn’t a power outlier right now, but he has been in Standard for a long time and has facilitated several decks with early one-turn kills and low feelings of agency. We think it’s time to make another adjustment to Thaddius and see what Standard looks like when he’s significantly weaker. Now that we’ve been able to make this change to Thaddius, we're unbanning Pyrotechnician.
The craftable versions of the cards listed above will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 28.4.1. Additionally, there was an error with the dust refund periods for patches 28.2.1 and 28.2.3, so the cards eligible for dust refunds in those patches will also be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 28.4.1. For clarity and simplicity, we’ll be returning to the consistent two-week full refund period from this patch going forward.
Pyrotechnician is no longer banned in Standard.
Battlegrounds Updates
Dev Comment: We’ve made changes to Land Lubber and some economy-related spells to address an unintended play pattern where players could stay on low Tiers and buy dozens of spells in a turn. We’ve also adjusted Hawkstrider Herald and removed Titus’ Tribute to lower the frequency and power spikes of late-game Beast strategies.
Card Changes
Archlich Kel’Thuzad
- ld: At the end of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this a resummon it.
- New: At the end of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this and resummon an exact copy.
- Dev Comment: This is a text-only change for clarity, not a functional change.
Moroes, Steward of Death
- Old: 6/1. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +2/+6.
- New: 5/1. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +1/+5.
Hawkstrider Herald
- Old: [Tier 5] 5/2
- New: [Tier 6] 6/2
Mystic Sporebat
- Old: 5/1
- New: 3/1
Land Lubber
- Old: [Tier 2] 3/4
- New: [Tier 3] 4/5
- Dev Comment: Land Lubber has been returned to the minion pool.
Moon Bacon Jazzer
- Old: 1/3
- New: 2/3
Geomagus Roogug
- Old: 3/6. Whenever a Blood Gem is played on this, play a Blood Gem on a different friendly minion.
- New: 4/6. Divine Shield. Whenever a Blood Gem is played on this, play a Blood Gem on a different friendly minion.
Prickly Piper
- Old: 3/1
- New: 5/1
Paint Smudger
- Old: 3/2
- New: 5/3
Fleeting Vigor
- Old: [Tier 4] Give a minion +6/+6 until next turn.
- New: [Tier 3] Give a minion +7/+7 until next turn.
Shiny Ring
- Old: [Tier 3]
- New: [Tier 2]
Staff of Enrichment
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [2 Gold]
Primal Staff
- Old: [Tier 4]
- New: [Tier 5]
Dreamer’s Embrace
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Planar Telescope
- Old: [Tier 4]
- New: [Tier 3]
Overconfidence
- Old: [Tier 2]
- New: [Tier 3]
Natural Blessing
- Old: Choose a minion. Give all minions that share a type with it +3/+2.
- New: Choose a minion. Give all minions that share a type with it +2/+2.
Spell Pool Changes
- Reckless Investment, Leaf Through the Pages, and Titus’ Tribute have been removed from the Spell Pool.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Shadestone Skulker could cause infinite loops. Now, when the weapon is “given back,” the Skulker will no longer have it—meaning it will only return a weapon the first time the deathrattle is activated on a particular Skulker.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Lightshow showed the wrong text and functioned incorrectly when cast from somewhere other than from hand (like through Void Scripture).
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the enchantment banner for Golden Sprightly Scarab showed the wrong buff amount.
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
I, for one, am glad the following sequence won't happen again:
-Okay, so I'm up against ramp druid, I'll need to push tempo and get them down quick before...
-*Druid gains 20 armor for three mana*
-...well, so much for that.
so fucking insane that blizzard is chill with any deck being meta except for mill (and combo but thats a different conversation). why even print cards that support mill if you're going to nerf it every single time it becomes popular purely because bad players will cry if they lose to it?
Because no one in the history of hearthstone said "oh great it's my favorite opponent, mill _insert class_". Even when you win it just feels like you played a pointless game. When a mill deck is played only one person enjoys that matchup 100% of the times.
just because you suck at beating mill decks doesnt mean everyone else does. i have no problem playing against mill decks because ive played and understood them for years now. i would say get better at the game instead of expecting blizzard to compensate for your shortcomings by nerfing every deck that requires you to think about the matchup, but apparently they'll just do that for you.
The patch notes provide the exact answer to your question.
the players that enjoy the cards that they print that support mill deserve to be able to play them at the same level as everyone else. i genuinely could not care less if people dont enjoy playing against mill, if they wanted to enjoy it then they should have played better and beat me. im not even against nerfing mill druid, doubling the mana cost is just ridiculous. the design philosophy of nerfing things because some shitty players think they arent fun is braindead. in that case, we should nerf control warrior and control priest into the ground. hell, we should nerf every control deck. who wants to play against a deck whose entire purpose is to slow the game down every step of the way?
do you see how stupid this logic is?
You lost me with the word 'deserve'.
It is impossible for every deck to be perfectly balanced against every other deck. Some will be stronger than others overall. If we accept this premise, then on what basis does Blizzard choose which decks should have an edge and which should be on the weaker side? If you're in the business of selling a game, then you will tend to favor playstyles that more people enjoy. It's not "braindead" to make weaker those things that are less fun to more people; it's business. The company follows its incentives.
Why do you expect to be able to play it when Blizzard has clearly stated multiple times that they will nerf it whenever it's competitive?
It exists as a "just for fun" archetype for players who want to play it for fun, not for climbing.
it shouldnt have to be a "just for fun" archetype, its only made that way because blizzard would rather cowtow the demands of little babies pissing and shitting their diapers because their favorite card got milled than actually expect those people to play better and learn the matchup so that they lose less. i expect to be able to play it because competently balanced video games dont make huge sweeping balance decisions based on what is fun, they do it based on what is fair.
In a game with no "casual" or "just for fun" mode. ok.
and when casual mode existed before, there was only bots and people who tries to complete quests and concedes, or people who tries their "competitive" decks there, so why people can't play their "just for fun" decks in a competitive way ?
That decision of blizz is ridiculous if you ask me. It's nothing different to lose to The Azerite Snake or Boomboss Tho'grun or mill.
At least mill is more creative than Astalor, the Flamebringer. How many times we saw the same finisher in 10 years? Sire Denathrius ? C'Thun ?
You can't deny a complete archetype from ladder, you shouldn't. Well, if you do, you can't balance the game completely and people can climb with their %80 win rate Highlander warrior because that archetype is counter of another.
Shitty decisions.
Oh btw, somehow, Boomboss Tho'grun or Symphony of Sins or Patchwerk can't count as mill when they are control cards right so they shouldn't nerf them? same was for Tickatus. They are winning with those cards but they are not mill decks, they are controls... When a deck is complete mill it is problem but when win condition is milling it is not ? That's the weirdest shit in the universe.
fucking nuts that this site still has a like/dislike system so everyone that isnt sucking off blizzards terrible design decisions gets downvoted into the negatives by all the sweaty battlegrounds players who care more about whether or not they're having fun every single match they play than they do about whether or not a deck is actually unfair or not. thank you for actually giving a fuck
Aren't we playing for fun? I don't understand how fun is the enemy.
of course we're playing for fun, but you have to understand that just because someone else's deck isnt fun to play against when you're losing doesnt mean that deck shouldnt exist because for every mill/combo/etc. deck that makes people rage theres a whole community of players that are passionate about that deck and the different complexities to playing it, and those players shouldnt just be disregarded.
best example would be combo decks in mtg. in the eternal formats there are plenty of combo decks like storm or charbelcher that can combo off and kill extremely early (as early as turn one in the case of my beloved belcher). no one losing against that is going to have fun. however, instead of just ruining those decks, wizards of the coast prints cards like countermagic that give others the ability to stop those decks from going off in an interactive way.
Tickatus Warlock actually had only a slight positive win rate to a negative win rate for most of its time in Standard, and then it was still nerfed, and the deck's winrate dropped even further. Your own example is a perfect reference to the same attitude Blizz is displaying now.
It is just an insincerity of how they treat Boomboss Tho'grun and Dew Process.
Somehow "expensive" control decks has seen nerfs less than those rare/common cards. I really wonder why !?
They justify that as if they made a decision against mill. You can't expect them to say "Hey, we just can't give you 1600 free dust just because we are against mill on competitive side of the game. Also the card is just so new, let people play and we nerf it after a new expansion comes, just like we did on Tickatus"
How you fall into this tactic is beyond me tho. Yeah, I surely bought that hiding behind that decision, they are surely against "uninteractive and unfun to play against decks". Poor rare and common cards are always those.
Insincere and dishonest. "Hey we care our community, look we nerfed Dew Process but you can still do that with Boomboss or patchwerk, you can steal max health of your opponent with The Azerite Snake, they are not uninteractive or unfun, but Dew process was..."
Don't get me wrong, I am fully against killing cards by nerfing them, but if you say that you have a decision, you have to treat all the same. They simply think they can make a fool of us and we bought these claptraps. well seems like you did tho.