As was teased earlier in the week, Hearthstone has revealed a new patch, and bringing some major updates. This includes lessening the requirements for four Weekly Quests, and nerfing three cards in Standard. Some highlights:
- "Win 10 games of Ranked Hearthstone" and "Win 10 games of Arena, Tavern Brawl, or Battlegrounds" now only require you to play 10 or 5 games respectively.
- Showdown! now costs 3-Mana (was 2).
- Thirsty Drifter now costs 7-Mana (was 6).
- Molten Giant now costs 22-Mana (was 20).
And a bunch of Battlegrounds changes! You can see the full quote below:
Quote From Blizzard Patch 29.4.2, launching today, brings the following balance changes, Weekly Quest updates, and more!
Weekly Quest Updates
Before the Weekly Quests changed in Patch 29.2, we didn’t adequately communicate the changes that were coming, or our reasoning for them. That’s something we’ll keep improving on.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been listening to your experiences and looking at our data, and it’s clear that the new Weekly Quests didn’t do their job of rewarding you for your time playing the game. Going forward, we want to strike a much better balance between your time spent in Hearthstone and the rewards given by Weekly Quests.
So we’re making some more updates in this patch, reducing the requirements on the Weekly Quests that seem to be blocking player progression for many of you, while leaving the increased XP where it is. We hope these new changes will still reward you more while keeping Weekly Quests an attainable and fun goal for all players. We look forward to seeing how this iteration works out. Please keep the feedback coming! Thanks for playing, and we’ll see you in the Tavern.
- Tyler Bielman, Game Director
Win Games of Ranked
- Old: Win 10 games of Ranked Hearthstone.
- New: Play 10 games of Ranked Hearthstone.
Win Games of Arena, Tavern Brawl, or Battlegrounds
- Old: Win 10 games of Arena, Tavern Brawl, or Battlegrounds.
- New: Play 5 games of Arena, Tavern Brawl, or Battlegrounds.
Play Miniaturize or Mini cards
- Old: Play 32 Miniaturize or Mini cards.
- New: Play 10 Miniaturize or Mini cards.
Spend Mana
- Old: Spend 750 Mana.
- New: Spend 650 Mana.
Hearthstone Updates
Dev Comment: It’s early after the launch of the Dr. Boom’s Incredible Inventions Mini-Set and the metagame is still developing, so we’re making just a few balance adjustments in this patch, aimed at addressing early outlier decks. All three of the target decks are a little too good at flooding the board too early and too efficiently. The Molten Giant change slows Warlock down slightly and also makes the play pattern a bit more dangerous, allowing more room for a counterswing. Showdown is an enabler for Zilliax, Sea Giant, and Prismatic Beam in Paladin, so we think it could be less efficient for that deck. Finally, Thirsty Drifter is another strong swarming card, particularly at higher levels of play, and our data indicates that deck would likely trend upwards if we didn’t adjust it here, too.
Showdown
- Old: [2 Mana]
- New: [3 Mana]
Thirsty Drifter
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [7 Mana]
Molten Giant
- Old: [20 Mana]
- New: [22 Mana]
The above craftable cards will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks following Patch 29.4.2. (Core Set versions of cards can’t be crafted or disenchanted; access the craftable version of Molten Giant by selecting the “Legacy” filter in the Collection).
Battlegrounds Updates
Minion Pool Changes
The following minions have been removed from the minion pool:
- Kindly Grandmother
- Sly Raptor
- Gentle Djinni
The following minions have been added to the minion pool:
- Manasaber
- Rat Pack
- Lil’ Rag (with updates, see below)
Battlegrounds Card Changes
Rylak Metalhead
- Old: Taunt. Deathrattle: Trigger the Battlecry of the minion to the left of this.
- New: Taunt. Deathrattle: Trigger the Battlecry of an adjacent minion.
- Dev Comment: If there are Battlecry minions on both sides of Rylak, it will randomly trigger one. This is primarily a quality-of-life change after lots of reports from players frustrated that they or their Duos partner accidentally put Rylak in the wrong position and got no effect.
Pokey Thornmantle
- Old: 4/5. At the end of your turn, your Blood Gems give an extra +1/+1 this game.
- New: 6/7. At the start of your turn, your Blood Gems give an extra +1/+1 this game.
Party Elemental
- Old: 4/2. After you play an Elemental, give a friendly Elemental other than it +1/+1.
- New: 3/2. After you play an Elemental, give a friendly Elemental other than it +2/+1.
Deadstomper
- Old: 2/6
- New: 4/11
Whirling Lass-o-Matic
- Old: 9/5
- New: 7/4
Scrap Scraper
- Old: 5/5. Battlecry and Deathrattle: Get a random Magnetic Mech.
- New: 6/5. Deathrattle: Get a random Magnetic Mech.
Winged Chimera
- Old: 1/5. When this takes damage, give a frliendly minion of each type +1/+1. (3 times per combat).
- New: 1/6. When this takes damage, give a friendly minion of each type +1/+1. (Twice per combat).
Deep Blue Crooner
- Old: 4/4
- New: 2/2
Spellbound Seafarer
- Old: 4/6. After you buy 4 cards, get a random Tavern spell.
- New: 3/5. After you buy 3 cards, get a random Tavern spell.
Gunpowder Courier
- Old: 2/6. After you spend 5 Gold, give your Pirates +1 Attack.
- New: 1/6. After you spend 4 Gold, give your Pirates +1 Attack.
Sister Deathwhisper
- Old: 4/10. After a friendly minion is Reborn, give your Undead +1/+3 permanently.
- New: 5/9. After a friendly minion is Reborn, give your minions +1/+3 permanently.
Trigore the Lasher
- Old: 8/3. Whenever another friendly Beast takes damage, gain +1 Health permanently.
- New: 5/3. Whenever another friendly Beast takes damage, gain +1/+1 permanently.
Iridescent Skyblazer
- Old: 3/8. Whenever a friendly Beast takes damage, give a friendly Beast other than it +1/+1 permanently.
- New: 3/7. Whenever a friendly Beast takes damage, give a friendly Beast other than it +1/+2 permanently.
Murky
- Old: 6/4. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +10/+10.
- New: 4/4. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +4/+4 for each one you control.
Hungering Abomination
- Old: 6/7. Avenge (1): Gain +1/+1 permanently.
- New: 4/5. Avenge (1): Gain +1/+2 permanently.
Molten Rock
- Old: 3/2
- New: 3/3
Flourishing Frostling
- Old: [Tier 4] 1/1. Has +1/+1 for each Elemental you played this game (wherever this is).
- New: [Tier 5] 2/1. Has +2/+1 for each Elemental you played this game (wherever this is).
Lil’ Rag
- Old: [Tier 5] 6/6
- New: [Tier 4] 4/4
Roaring Rallier
- Old: 3/4. Whenever a friendly Dragon attacks, give it +2/+2.
- New: 3/5. Whenever a friendly Dragon attacks, give it +2/+1.
Amber Guardian
- Old: [Tier 3] 3/2. Start of Combat: Give another friendly Dragon +2/+2 and Divine Shield.
- New: [Tier 5] 7/7. Start of Combat: Give another friendly Dragon +7/+7 and Divine Shield.
Timecap’n Hooktail
- Old: 2/5
- New: 1/4
Impulsive Trickster
- Old: 2/3
- New: 3/3
Oozeling Gladiator
- Old: 1/2
- New: 2/2
Wrath Weaver
- Old: 1/3
- New: 1/4
Backstage Security
- Old: At the start of your turn, deal 1 damage to your hero.
- New: Battlecry: Deal 1 damage to your hero.
Fire Dancer
- Old: 5/2
- New: 6/3
Defiant Shipwright
- Old: Whenever this gains Attack, gain +1 Health.
- New: Whenever this gains Attack, gain +1 Health permanently.
- Dev Comment: This means it will now keep Health gained with this effect during combat.
Fiery Felblood
- Old: 3/2
- New: 2/1
Underhanded Dealer
- Old: 4/4
- New: 6/6
Bream Counter
- Old: 5/5. While this is in your hand, after you play a Murloc, gain +3/+2.
- New: 4/4. While this is in your hand, after you play a Murloc, gain +3/+3.
King Bagurgle
- Old: [Tier 5] 6/3. Battlecry: Give your other Murlocs +3/+3.
- New: [Tier 4] 5/3. Battlecry: Give your other Murlocs +2/+2.
Cloning Conch
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Dreamer’s Embrace
- Old: [Tier 4]
- New: [Tier 5]
Scavenge for Parts
- Old: [2 Gold]
- New: [3 Gold]
Plunder Seeker
- Old: Steal a random card from the Tavern. Repeat for each friendly Pirate.
- New: Steal a random card from the Tavern for each Pirate you control.
Duos-Only Card Changes
Orc-estra Conductor
- Old: 4/2. Battlecry: Give a minion +2/+1. (Upgraded for each Orc-estra your team has played this game).
- New: 4/4. Battlecry: Give a minion +2/+2. (Upgraded for each Orc-estra your team has played this game).
Man’ari Messenger
- Old: [Tier 4] 8/5
- New: [Tier 5] 9/6
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Battlegrounds] Removed Drakkari Embalmer from the Professor Putricide Hero Power pool due to an undesired interaction.
- [Collection] Fixed a bug where Standardized Pack wasn’t showing under the “NEW” tab in the Collection.
What do you think of this latest patch? Were there any changes you think they missed? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Too late, Tyler Bielman! We see right through your gaslighting. You made a huge anti-consumer change, and you've been slowly walking it back ever since, to see just how much you can get away with. Joke's on you -- I've already uninstalled Hearthstone and the Battle.net launcher. I will not be doing business with your shady company ever again.
The only reason I'm looking at this article is because I was curious to see just how far you'd have to back down. I do find it hilarious that the weekly quests are now actually easier to complete than they were before the initial change. I guess you must have lost a LOT of players over this. Too bad you won't have anything left to save by the time you actually learn your lesson.
The fact that weekly quests are easy to complete now means that recent HS players interaction went down significantly in their game metrics. Clearly, they overplayed their poker hand by a country mile and lost big time.
Even though this whole debacle has left a bittersweet aftertaste, I do like the weekly quests now more than ever before. If only this was done in the first place, it would have gained them much goodwill instead of the avoidable backlash. It will take some time to heal these self-inflicted wounds.
"Trust arrives on foot and leaves in a Ferrari."
I really wonder how many players have left Hearthstone forever and this latest wonderful news will sadly never reach them.
This is a gentler hit to warlock than expected. It won't change the games where warlock dips way down then drops INFERNAL! to restore, but it *will* change the games where warlock is sitting at 11 or 12 and drops Giants there. We'll see.
Prediction: fewer flood Paladin players, more handbuff Paladin players, net neutral.
Thirsty Drifter is just more fuel for my stance of never underestimating a card that can be played for free.