Hearthstone Patch 30.0.3 Brings Nerfs, Buffs, and Battlegrounds Updates

Based on the teaser we received yesterday, Blizzard has dropped a new patch with a plethora of card changes! Here's a few highlights of what to expect:

Nerfs

• Hydration Station and Inventor Boom now require different minions to be in the resurrection pool.
• Zilliax Deluxe 3000's Ticking Module now depends on friendly minions only, instead of all minions on the board.
• Lamplighter is now a 4/4/3, instead of 3/3/2.

Buffs

• The Ryecleaver now costs 5 Mana (was 7), although the Minion Sandwich costs 4 (was 2).
• Buttons is a 4/4/4 instead of 5/5/5.
• Tsunami now costs 10 (was 8), but now summons four Water Elementals (was three).

We also have a ton of changes for Battlegrounds, as well. For the full quote, read on!

Quote From Blizzard

Patch 30.0.3, launching today, includes balance changes to Standard, Battlegrounds, and more!

Hearthstone Updates

Dev Comment: Since the launch of Perils in Paradise, we’ve been happy to see a lot of evolving strategies—but we think there’s still room for more new and interesting cards to get a chance to shine. Our main goal with this patch is to add more competitive options from Perils in Paradise. We’re doing that by curbing a few cards that are showing up too often and by buffing some new cards that have some room to improve. We’ll see how the meta reacts to these changes and make further adjustments, if needed, in about three weeks.

 

The following cards have been adjusted to be weaker:

Hydration Station

• Old: Resurrect your 3 highest Cost Taunt minions.
• New: Resurrect 3 of your different highest Cost Taunt minions.

Inventor Boom

• Old: Resurrect two friendly Mechs that cost (5) or more. They immediately attack random enemies.
• New: Resurrect two different friendly Mechs that cost (5) or more. They attack random enemies.

 

Dev Comment: Hydration Station and Inventor Boom are adjustments to reduce repetitive and meta-warping gameplay around the Virus-Perfect Zilliax combination (sometimes called “Unkilliax”). While this Zilliax is powerful on its own, it isn’t proving to be a problem outside of decks that can repeatedly resurrect multiple copies of it. These changes will make that play pattern weaker and less repetitive.

 

Zilliax Deluxe 3000 (Ticking Module)

• Old: [5 Mana] Costs (1) less for each minion in play.
• New: [4 Mana] Costs (1) less for each friendly minion.

 

Dev Comment: On the other end of the spectrum, the Ticking-Pylon Zilliax combination has continued to be very popular in more aggressive, board-flooding decks. Perils in Paradise added some great board-building cards, and now this Zilliax is a bit too much of a good thing. This change makes the card a little less powerful in those decks, and also shifts the play pattern so that Zilliax no longer punishes other board-centric decks for fighting back on the board.

 

Lamplighter

• Old: [3 Mana] 3/2
• New: [4 Mana] 4/3

 

Dev Comment: Lamplighter was made a bit strong to intentionally give an infusion to Elemental strategies that never landed in prior expansions. We love that it successfully brought multiple decks in this archetype to the meta, but it has turned out to be a little too strong. This adjustment should make it a little slower and clunkier to combine with other cards on the same turn.

 

Concierge

• Old: [3 Mana]
• New: [4 Mana]

Chia Drake

• Old: 3/5
• New: 2/4

 

Dev Comment: Concierge Dragon Druid is a deck that can follow-up early tempo plays with lots of burst damage from hand, sometimes a little too early in the game. The deck is very powerful, but we like that it’s a new deck and that the metagame has been adapting to it, instead of folding. These changes slow down the deck’s early combo turns a little and weakens midgame plays, but maintain the basic play pattern of the deck. If these changes aren’t enough, we’ll make further adjustments in our next balance window.

The above disenchantable cards will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 30.0.3.

 

The following cards have been adjusted to be stronger:

Dev Comments: We’ve noticed that some of the archetypes from Perils in Paradise didn’t land where we wanted them to. We normally don’t do buffs in the first patch after an expansion, but since we gave ourselves more time for this patch, we have more confidence to take a few swings at underperforming cards and archetypes from Perils in Paradise. We hope these buffs will open up some new and exciting options for players.

 

The Ryecleaver

• Old: 7 Mana base weapon and 2 Mana Minion Sandwich.
• New: 5 Mana base weapon and 4 Mana Minion Sandwich.

Ranger Gilly

• Old: [6 Mana]
• New: [5 Mana]

Razzle-Dazzler

• Old: [7 Mana]
• New: [6 Mana]

Natural Talent

• Old: Get a random Naga and a random spell. They cost (1) less.
• New: Get a random Naga and a random spell. They cost (2) less.

Buttons

• Old: [5 Mana] 5/5
• New: [4 Mana] 4/4

Cruise Captain Lora

• Old: [7 Mana]
• New: [6 Mana]

Tsunami

• Old: [8 Mana] Summon three 3/6 Water Elementals that Freeze. They attack random enemies.
• New: [10 Mana] Summon four 3/6 Water Elementals that Freeze. They attack random enemies.

Service Ace

• Old: [3 Mana] 3/3
• New: [2 Mana] 2/3

Twilight Medium

• Old: [6 Mana] 5/6
• New: [5 Mana] 4/5

Nightshade Tea

• Old: [2 Mana] Deal 3 damage to a minion. Deal 2 damage to your hero. (3 Drinks left!)
• New: [1 Mana] Deal 2 damage to a minion. Deal 2 damage to your hero. (3 Drinks left!)

Conniving Conman

• Old: Battlecry: Replay the last card you’ve played from another class.
• New: Battlecry: Replay the last card you’ve played from a non-Rogue class.

 

Battlegrounds Updates

Armor Changes

The following heroes now have less Armor:

• Ozumat has 12 Armor at higher levels, 7 Armor at lower levels, and 10 Armor in Duos
• Captain Eudora and Jandice Barov have 16 Armor
• Cariel Roame has 17 Armor

The following heroes now have more Armor:

• Aranna Starseeker has 13 Armor at higher levels, 15 Armor at lower levels, and 10 Armor in Duos
• Sylvanas Windrunner has 20 Armor

 

Hero Changes

Ozumat – Tentacular

• Old: Passive. Start of Combat: Summon a 2/2 Tentacle with Taunt. (Gains +1/+1 after you sell a minion!)
• New: Passive. When you have space in combat, summon a 1/1 Tentacle with Taunt. (Gains +1/+1 after you sell a minion!)

 

Buddy Changes

Shadow Warden (Maiev Shadowsong’s Buddy)

• Old: Battlecry: Your next Hero Power makes the target Golden and awaken 1 turn faster.
• New: Battlecry: Your next Hero Power makes the target Golden.

Maxwell, Mighty Steed (Sir Finley Mrrgglton’s Buddy)

• Old: Battlecry: Get the Buddy of your Hero Power.
• New: When you sell this, get the Buddy of your Hero Power.

Dagwik Stickytoe (Captain Eudora’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 2]

Captain Fairmount (Cariel Roame’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 5]
• New: [Tier 4]

Spirit Raptor (Bru’kan’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 2]

Kil’rek (Lord Jaraxxus’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 4]
• New: [Tier 3]

Mawsworn Soulkeeper (The Jailer’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 2]
• New: [Tier 1]

Jandice’s Apprentice (Jandice Barov’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 2]

Crabby (Tavish Stormpike’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 5]
• New: [Tier 4]

Crimson Hand Centurion (Kael’thas Sunstrider’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 5]
• New: [Tier 4]

Karl the Lost (George the Fallen’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 2]

Lucifron (Ragnaros the Firelord’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 5]
• New: [Tier 4]

Tentacle of C’Thun (C’Thun’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 2]

Faceless One (The Nameless One’s Buddy)

• Old: Battlecry: Get the Buddy of your teammate’s Hero Power.
• New: When you sell this, get the Buddy of your teammate’s Hero Power.

Glorious Gloopling (Flobbidinous Floop’s Buddy)

• Old: [Tier 5] 5/1
• New: [Tier 6] 6/1

 

Card Pool Changes

• Primal Staff has returned to the Tavern spell pool.
• Dev Comment: This is a temporary boost to some underperforming builds. We are planning to remove it from the Tavern spell pool again with the next Battlegrounds Season (Patch 30.2), coming soon.

Card Changes

Backstage Security

• Old: 4/5
• New: 4/4

Ghoul-acabra

• Old: 3/12. After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, give your minions +2/+2 permanently.
• New: 4/13. After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, give your minions +2/+1 permanently.

Shellemental

• Old: [Tier 5]
• New: [Tier 6]

Cultist S’Thara

• Old: 11/3. Stealth. Deathrattle: Summon your first Demon that died this combat. It keeps enchantments.
• New: 12/3. Stealth. Deathrattle: Summon your first Demon that died this combat with its maximum stats.
• Dev Comment: The resummoned Demon will have the maximum stats it had at the moment it died. So if it was stat-buffed in the Tavern or in combat, it would come back buffed, but if it was set to 3/3 by Transmuted Bramblewitch, it would come back as a 3/3. In either case, it wouldn't come back with extra keywords it gained. With this change, The Curator is no longer banned from Demon lobbies. 

Murky

• Old: 4/4. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +4/+4 for each one you control.
• New: 3/3. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +3/+3 for each one you control.

Nightbane, Ignited

• Old: [Tier 4] 6/3
• New: [Tier 5] 10/6

Living Azerite

• Old: [Tier 3] 3/3
• New: [Tier 4] 4/4

Portal in a Bottle

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 5]

 

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Progression] Fixed a bug where players could get Demolition Renovator from random Standard card-grant rewards, like End of Season rewards and Arena winnings. Affected players will be given a compensatory dust grant in an update after the patch is live.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Crane Game was accidentally given the Shadow Spell School.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual bug where Languagehacker’s name wasn’t capitalized correctly in his Mage deck recipe deck’s title. Sorry, Languagehacker!
• [Hearthstone] Pitting Carefree Cookie and Bayfin Bodybuilder against each other will no longer cause an infinite loop and crash (now Bodybuilder is capped at 15).

How do you feel about the card changes for Constructed? Ready for Season 8 of Battlegrounds? Let us know in the comments below!