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Hearthstone | Posted by | 2 years, 2 months ago

Reactions to Patch 28.4.1 Nerfs

For your convenience:

  • 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)

Here are my thoughts:

Velarok, the Deceiver: Took me by surprise. I rarely see this card played, and when I do, it isn't super impactful.

Shattershambler: A good change. I've been on both sides of this cheating out Scourge Illusionist which then cheats out Drilly the Kid. It's still a strong combo, but not quite as fast.

Cactus Construct: This card is absurdly good for a turn 1 play, and I think the nerf is appropriate.

Herald of Nature: Also a really powerful card, and I like the change. I've played a lot of Priest recently, and with this change, Lightbomb will clear a lot of boards it couldn't before.

Pendant of Earth: I have no opinion on this one. Haven't seen it played at all yet.

Shattered Reflections: I think it's a fair nerf. I've used this card quite a bit as a Priest, and it can be pretty busted at times. After this nerf, it's still playable.

Dew Process: I have no idea why this card has been nerfed, and I don't think it's going to change much.

Boogie Down: This card has been one of Paladin's best tools recently, building strong early boards and streamlining your deck for bigger, better draws later on. I'm glad it's getting toned down.

The Garden's Grace: I would have liked to see a change to its cost or cost reduction, rather than the stats. When this gets played for free, it feels REAL bad. I guess it's more fair now, but will still be oppressive.

Thaddius, Monstrosity: Ok, this guy HAS to be dead now, right? The previous nerf seemed to have killed it, but no, people found a way to do some crazy OP stuff with it anyway. In its new state, I can't imagine it gets much play at all.

Deepminer Brann: LOL, no nerf for you. Come on, Blizzard, this is just ridiculous.

What does everyone else think?

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  • Dew Process was probably nerfed for how effective it is in mill druid's combo with Solar Eclipse.
    Slowing that deck down a little gives the opponent a chance to actually play something during those games.

    Brann dodged the nerf-hammer, bit time!

    Friendly

  • That is a crazy nerf to Thaddius but it looks quite warranted when you look at the card's winrate stats on HSReplay.

    Diamond through Legend tells us the card had a bit of a rise in January but ultimately wasn't that big of a deal and it's fizzled out.

    But when we look at Bronze through Gold, it tells a different story. Players are having a rough time with the card and even though both the top and bottom of the ladder see Thaddius at a popularity score of 1.38% and 2% respectively, so a small number of decks, the card is clearly a winrate outlier in lower-end play so if not many are playing it, nerfing it sounds like it will only improve those weird one-off games where he's just such a powerhouse and can't be dealt with.

    Neat!

  • Huh, it definitely changes your perspective a lot when you're playing different game modes (and servers?). I'm a Wild main playing on EU, most months climbing to Standard D10 or D5 depending on the meta and how much time I have. Here are my thoughts:

    • Velarok, the Deceiver: I'm surprised you're surprised Pezman, Hat had announced that nerf during the holidays. I'm very happy with it because I do not care about the guy's stats at all and the effect has not been touched. I have never been a Thief Rogue player, but the Badlands expansion made me fall in love with a fun version of Excavate Rogue (no Shattershambler, no Scourge Illusionist, but 2x Wishing Well). Great nerf!
    • Shattershambler, Cactus Construct, Herald of Nature, The Garden's Grace: What Pezman said.
    • Pendant of Earth: Thank Yogg for this nerf. This has been absolutely absurd from the perspective of an aggro player. I have seen a lot of this in Wild, where it's mainly used to discover Naga Giant or Crypt Keeper. Good nerf from a balance perspective and also flavour-wise imo! Some people also use it in Standard for a better chance of Eonar, the Life-Binder shenanigans with...
    • Shattered Reflections. Seems to be fair in Priest, but said combo with Eonar leads to very crazy turns, especially if the Druid was able to ramp before that. Good nerf target, not sure if it's enough though.
    • Dew Process has been the center piece of Mill Druid in Wild which was a very viable archetype there. I hear it got some traction in Standard as well and believe me when I say you're lucky they nuked it before it became popular. I guess there's a high chance they'll revert it upon rotation, but I'm glad about the breathing room we got in the meantime, however short it may last.
    • Boogie Down: Losing Taunt is huge imo, I'm not sure if the card survives this. Might have been enough to just adjust the cost. Overnerf for the sake of not touching Shroomscavate (yet)?
    • Thaddius, Monstrosity: I've hated this card since the first time I saw it. Let's hope it stays dead this time.

    Deepminer Brann? I will read your deck spotlight article next but from my limited perspective I don't see much of a problem here (maybe because my favorite Standard deck is Excavate Plague DK). I'm more concerned about Sludge Warlock and maybe Naga DH but let's wait and see how the meta shakes out.

    Most important change for me: The Mine Rogue bug got fixed, Wild is playable again!!

  • One more thing: The initial reaction of a lot of pro players and other experts on Twitter has been very negative while most "ordinary" players seem to be happy with the changes. I'm very interested to see who's right here in the long run.

  • You haven't seen much of Velarok, Pendant or Dew process? What rank are you, because most opponents (that aren't Warlock) I encountered on Diamond and Legend were Mill Druid and Excavate Rogue, which really abused these cards.

     

    Edit: Also, Brann didn't need nerfs, but he might if Warrior gets crazy. First tho, I think they should change the 8-mana Astalord manathirst to not stack with it (change 'instead' for 'additional').