Some changes to Standard and Battlegrounds have been announced for a patch that will be announced this Thursday.
Demon Hunter, Mage, Priest, and Shaman are receiving a buff for Standard, although they didn't announce any cards in specific that will get a buff.
On the flipside, Warlock is getting a fairly substantial nerf with 3 cards being changed. Blindeye Sharpshooter and Shattered Reflections are also getting a nerf.
On the Battlegrounds side, 4 cards are getting a buff, 5 cards are getting a nerf, 2 cards are being added back into the rotation, 2 cards are being removed from the rotation, and 1 card appears to be getting both a buff and a nerf.
Quote From Hearthstone Patch 28.6.2 is bringing balance changes to both Standard and Battlegrounds—rolling out this Thursday.
What do you think of the cards that are being changed? How will they affect the mode(s) for you? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments
Nerfing Sharpshooter and buffing the rest of DH sounds like a dream come true for me. The class needs some serious help. Fingers crossed they come up with something that's ladder viable, fun and non-toxic. Probably too much to ask, but it's a start and then maybe the new expansion brings us a win condition for Illidan.
No matter what, people will always find something they deem "toxic."
That said, they might buff Gunslinger Kurtrus since his damage is a bit too low for an actual payoff. Fel Fissure and Fan the Hammer are some other candidates.
Maybe "toxic" was the wrong word here. For me, stuff like Sharpshooter and S'theno combos are neither much fun to play, nor to play against and I get the impression that's a common sentiment. At the same time, Demon Hunter has no clear win conditions outside those. So while a buff to the cards you've mentioned would be very cool, I'd still be very concernced about the overall viability of the class if that's all that's coming.
So the Standard nerfs will be:
I'm not surprised that Sludge Warlock is getting hit: I've been playing my own list (mixed in some discard stuff) which is likely sub-optimal, but it still felt very powerful.
Somehow I barely run into Sludge Warlock on EU ladder; Control Warrior and Plague DK seem to be much more popular.
I am getting sick and tired of Plague DK now to a point where it's ruining the game for me. I'm also on the EU ladder and would much prefer running into Sludge Warlock than that annoying as hell DK deck.
I'm just hoping it gets killed come standard rotation even though the plagues remain in standard for another year.
I've never been able to actually get a positive win rate with Sludge Warlock coz of those filthy plagues...
Run double Steamcleaner. Kills the plagues, and sets off your sludge barrels.
In particular I stopped playing highlander decks, because Helya on turn 4 means your highlander cards are never going to be active.
I agree, out of 10 games in EU it is 6 Death Knights, 1:1 Plague/Rainbow, 3 Warriors and 1 the rest of classes
How the actual heck aren't they changing anything about warrior? I creep at gold with every second opponent drawing brann perfectly...
Because brann warrior is not very good.
Sure theres always a chance they trigger brann early but then that's obscuring the fact that most games they dont. And if you face DK then that's usually about it for your chances.
Odyn warrior is by far the superior warrior archetype. And even then its not perfect in any respect. Most of the time youd win just putting up tempo consistently and playing around their removal.
I don't know. I mostly face the non-highlander variant myself, but it's very frustrating to play against, since it's just turn after turn of you putting something on the board and them wiping it off the board. In the old days you could eventually run them out of removal, but that is very difficult with the amount of card draw of today combined with Odyn, Prime Designate as a single-card win condition (thus having fewer draws that are not removal).
While I don't miss the days when a turn 1 Mana Wyrm or a strong Murloc opener would snowball the game, we've now gone to the other extreme, where it's rare for a minion to survive a turn.