Upcoming Changes to Hearthstone
Another set of balance changes are coming to Hearthstone. The post states that this should be the last big set of balance changes.
Quote from BlizzardHearthstone Update: Upcoming Changes 1/13
Thank you so much for continuing to play, test, and give feedback on Hearthstone as the closed beta testing phase begins to draw to a close. We are monitoring card balance over time, and without your continued testing efforts, we wouldn’t have the necessary data we need in order to make changes to cards that may warrant them. This should be our last big set of balance changes; once we go live, we plan to make very few card changes, and only if they are absolutely necessary.
We will be making changes to the following cards: Unleash the Hounds, Sylvanas Windrunner, Blood Imp, Defender of Argus, Pyroblast, Dark Iron Dwarf, Abusive Sergeant, Warsong Commander, Charge, and Novice Engineer.
Unleash the Hounds’ mana cost is now 2 (down from 4)
- Unleash the Hounds was intended to give Hunters their own form of AoE and to have synergy with other beast cards, but its old cost was too prohibitive.
Pyroblast’s mana cost is now 10 (up from 8)
- The 8-cost Pyroblast made for an un-interactive experience where the Mage only needed to do 10 damage during the course of a game and then double Pyroblast you for the win. We want Mages to be more interactive with the opponent to achieve victory, rather than delay the game until they can Pyroblast.
Blood Imp is now a 0/1 and now reads: Stealth. At the end of your turn, give another random friendly minion +1 Health.
- The Warlock has three very strong 1-cost minions and that made the Warlock rush deck slightly stronger than we were comfortable with.
Warsong Commander has been reworked and now reads: Whenever you play a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge.
Charge (the spell, not the keyword) has been reworked and now costs 3 mana. The card’s new power reads: “Give a friendly minion +2 Attack and Charge”.
- Both of these cards were key components in “One Turn Kill” or “OTK” decks that kill your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. We want the game to be about playing minions and fighting for board control rather than just waiting until you can play your big combo and win in one turn with no interaction from your opponent.
Abusive Sergeant now reads: Battlecry: Give a minion +2 Attack until end of turn.
- Abusive Sergeant was changed to make its power the same as the Dark Iron Dwarf and to give it additional versatility.
Dark Iron Dwarf’s buff now only lasts until the end of the turn.
- This change was made to reduce the Dark Iron Dwarf’s overall power slightly. We also wanted to make the Battlecry effect the same as Abusive Sergeant‘s as to not force you to permanently buff one of your opponent’s creatures.
Defender of Argus is now a 2/3 (down from 3/3)
- Defender of Argus was a card that found itself automatically included in many decks due to its power and stats. We want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks, so cards that feel like they must be in all decks (especially Neutral ones) are not ideal.
Novice Engineer is now a 1/1 (down from 1/2)
- The Novice Engineer was played in most non-rush decks (and even some rush decks) due to its cost and power. Similar in reasoning to our Defender of Argus change, we want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks.
Sylvanas Windrunner’s mana cost is now 6 (up from 5)
- Sylvanas had power and stats that made it a bit too powerful compared to other 5-cost cards, which made it automatically included in many decks. We want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks, so cards that feel like they must be in all decks (especially Neutral ones) are not ideal.
Expert cards that are being changed can be disenchanted for their full cost for a limited time when the patch goes live. We hope these changes will increase the variety of cards you will see at all levels of play, and make playing Hearthstone a more fun and interactive game for everyone.
Are you fucking kidding me? If this is how they're going to "balance" the game, why not make every single card 1/1 for 1?
I have a feeling that Blizzard is always 1-2 months behind the meta.
Blizzard always has to nerf things after the meta shifts to deal with the top dogs
Mages have a hard time due to the late aoe´s. If your early wasnt good and the opponent is ahead, your chances of coming back are really bad.
Arcane Explosion - Who needs an aoe dealing 1 damage?
Cone of Cold - Way too slow with bad damage. Yes, you can stall the board for 1 turn, but you lose your turn, too! You cant play a minion and have to watch the opponents board getting bigger. With a cost of 3 mana you were able to stall the board as it was small and set with weak minions. Playing anything on turn 4 could turn the tables. Paying 4 mana now makes it really useless, because you cant change the board with a minion of your own and the 1 damage is simply to low.
Blizzard 6 mana for half the damage of a flamestrike ist way to late. You can keep the damn freeze! Gimme aConsecration and Im happy.
Flamestrike Yay I can finally play this really strong aoe, but wait, I already lost 20 health thanks to the enemy minions...
As a result of that the many aggro mage decks came to live. Pyroblast is esentiel there and had to be used on turn 8 or 9 at the latest. Since you didnt/couldnt clear the opponents board, most games were really close. Pyro now at 10 mana ends every aggro mage deck.
Even the midrange deck with many buffed minions often needed a Pyro on turn 8 to finish the game.
I really do understand, why non mages dislike Pyro, hell I hate to see it, too, if im playing another mage, but what should we do from now on? Play this secret style mage? It can be fun for sure, but viable in higher ranks? I dont think so!
My mage is level 57, so I played her quiet a bit. I was high ranked, too and did have opponents from LG to rank 25. After the patch we wont see many mages up there. Even more druids will rise and the hunter will party some I guess.
Arcane explosion is pretty strong with any combo spellpower minion.
Consecration on the other hand wont get that same effect without two spellpower minions out, which would be rare with 4 mana.
You need two cards to make it work and you have to play both in one turn, because spell damage minions usually die the next turn. Consecration is way better, because you only need one card for the same cost
Is the nerf to Sylvanas serious enough to warrant her removal and disenchantment?
Yes. Worst case scenario you can just remake it once people decided whether she's still good or not. You get the same amount as the cost of making it if you disenchant after a nerf.
Already been decided that she is still good
They should undo the Freeze card changes back,Blizzard to 5 and Nova to 2.
This otk will not be possible with Pyro anyway.
This is by far the most retarded patch that blizzard has done to Hearthstone.
Changing Dark Iron, Defender and Novice with reasoning (Players choose from other cards) so retarded, players will just find new best cards and use them all the time, the reasoning should not be nerfing but making other cards that suck better. Sylvanas change is fair. Pyro change is sooo stupid, you should leave it at 8 mana and have it deal 8 damage instead of 10, most mages will still run at least 1 pyroblast. Novice change is pointless because that cards basically becomes useless right now and everybody will run loot hoarder instead. This just makes game harder for people who don't spent money, they will have to craft loot hoarders now. Blood imps are basically useless now and will be removed from any aggro warlock deck for something better for 1 mana. Hunters hero ability is retarded it forces them to play agressive all the time instead of going for control so no fixes to that makes me sad because I like hunter as class and their cards. Overall this update while fixes some issues brings a lot more than it fixes I think and I am really dissapointed.
this doesn't actually stop warrior otk, they'll just switch to raging worgen/faceless manipulator might make it a bit less reliable though
It makes it as gimmicky as windfury double rockbiter weapon leeroy jenkins OTK
But I can already see hearthstone becoming extra bland now with this great line "We want the game to be about...."
The direction they are taking is far to narrow its just "play creature attack mid-range/control" and leaves nothing else(especially because its your turn speed). Combo: Nope, Direct Damage: Nope, Weenie: Nope.
In my day of playing competitive card games, we would design decks to specifically defeat popular/overplayed/gimmicky decks. This is what the meta is all about. It seems this game is about crying on the forums until Blizzard caves and changes the cards you refuse to adapt around.
Well the "We want the game to be about" tips it off
Poor Novice Engineer, so unfair.
Should change the text of the card to "So you wanna tap like a Warlock, eh?"
0/1
Take 2 damage and draw a card. =P