Five Card Nerfs Coming in the Next Hearthstone Update - Druids, Win Axe, Murlocs, Hex
Five card changes are coming to Hearthstone in an upcoming patch which brings nerfs to several fan favourites, three being basic cards.
- The reason for nerfs to basic cards is due to too many cards from this set being included in those classes' decks.
- They're trying to limit additions to the Hall of Fame, so they're instead nerfing Murloc Warleader.
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Blog Post
In an upcoming update, we will be making balance changes to the following cards:
Innervate
Now reads: Gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only. (Down from 2)
Fiery War Axe
Now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)
Hex
Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
Murloc Warleader
Now reads: Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack. (Down from +2 Attack, +1 Health)
Spreading Plague
Now costs 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Developer’s Note: Basic Cards and Our Stance on Hall of Fame
After careful consideration, we chose to make changes to three Basic class cards: Innervate, Fiery War Axe, and Hex. While they can be regarded as staples in those classes’ card repertoires, too many Basic and Classic cards played in individual decks means less fun when new expansions are released.
Cards in the Basic set serve several purposes in the game, so we would rather make balance adjustments to them instead of moving them to the Hall of Fame, like we have done for cards in the Classic set. We are also trying to limit Hall of Fame changes to the start of each Hearthstone Year, which is why Murloc Warleader—a Classic card—is receiving a balance change instead of moving to the Hall of Fame.
Innervate
Several powerful variations of Druid are currently seeing play, and all of them utilize Innervate. Innervate creates explosive starts to the game that can be difficult for the opposing player to recover from. This change leaves Innervate as a simple Basic card and slows down the explosive start potential, while ensuring that it will be utilized in decks that revolve around playing inexpensive spells.
What other changes did we consider?
We considered a few other options for Innervate:
- Refresh 2 Mana Crystals.
- Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only and increase the mana cost to 1.
- Gain 6 Mana Crystals this turn only and increase the mana cost to 4.
Since Innervate is a basic card, we need it to be clear and simple. Along with Wild Growth, these cards inform newer players that Druids create mana as a part of their class identity.
We kept in mind that cards like Counterfeit Coin were strong in combination with other support cards, such as Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Edwin VanCleef, and Combo cards. With the right support cards for Innervate, it may end up still seeing play, but won’t be in every deck—which is ultimately what we’re aiming for with this change.
Fiery War Axe
Fiery War Axe has been a powerful Warrior weapon since the launch of Hearthstone. Already great tempo for its cost, Fiery War Axe is well complimented by Pirates and cards that synergize with weapons. Raising its mana cost by 1 will slow down the Warrior’s tempo and lower the overall power level of the card.
What other changes did we consider?
The other option we considered for Fiery War Axe was to lower its attack to 2, but that change didn’t feel intuitive enough. Generally, changing the mana cost of a card is less disruptive, because you can always see the mana cost of cards in your hand. Despite the increased mana cost of Fiery War Axe, we expect that it will still see play—other 3 mana 3/2 weapons, like Eaglehorn Bow, can be found in decks that may not have synergy with the weapon’s card text.
Hex
We’re not making the change to Hex due to a current power-level problem. Shaman is a class that currently has a lot of flexibility, but is lacking in both class identity and identifiable weaknesses. Changing Hex makes Shaman a bit weaker against big minions and worse at silencing—having both strengths and weaknesses in a class is important.
We are very wary of cards that also incidentally work as a silence. If a player wants to utilize a card with a silence effect, they should be giving up something else. For example, if a player decides to include Spellbreaker in their deck, then they are playing a card that is weak in some situations. Priest is an exception to this rule—silence is a part of their class identity.
Even though Hex is not always played in the more aggressive Shaman decks, we will be making this forward-thinking change with the overall identity of the class in mind. This includes avoiding Shaman cards that function as direct and powerful removal. We will continue moving forward with this design philosophy to help reinforce that ideal.
Developer’s Note: Regarding Murloc Warleader and Spreading Plague
Murloc Warleader
Murlocs are good at taking an early lead, and if a player can’t clear the board in time, the game can ultimately snowball to victory using cards like Murloc Warleader. Removing the Health buff from Murloc Warleader will make it easier for players to clear the board of murlocs, and still have it remain a Classic build-around card. Simplifying health buff interactions is an additional benefit of this change. For example, in its current state, having a Murloc Warleader in play then using Wild Pyromancer and Equality would not destroy other murlocs on the board, leading to unclear interactions for some players.
What other changes did you consider?
We considered changing both Rockpool Hunter and Murloc Warleader due to the current strength of Murloc Paladin in the early stages of the game. Changing either Rockpool Hunter or Murloc Warleader would accomplish this, but there are extra advantages to changing just Murloc Warleader: The simplification of health-giving buffs and additional room for future Murlocs since Warleader will be around longer than Rockpool Hunter.
Spreading Plague
Spreading Plague is a great defensive tool for Druid to protect themselves against aggressive decks, but it was too efficient at 5 mana. Raising the mana cost to 6 will slow the card down slightly, while still allowing for the defensive minions Spreading Plague creates to be utilized in the later stages of the game.
What other changes did you consider?
We considered changing Spreading Plague to 7 mana rather than 6, since it is currently the top performing card in Jade and Taunt Druid decks. However, since we are also changing Innervate, we decided to only add 1 mana to the cost of Spreading Plague.
Developer’s Note: Regarding Other Community Card Discussions
The community has mentioned other cards in balance-related discussions, such as Ice Block and Ultimate Infestation, and we wanted to talk about those cards as well even though we are not making any changes to them at this time.
Ultimate Infestation
Our team has discussed making a change to Ultimate Infestation since it feels bad to lose to. However, our data shows us how good each individual card performs in a deck relative to other cards in that deck. Spreading Plague ended up being the best performing card in Jade and Taunt Druid, Innervate was in the top three, and Ultimate Infestation was somewhere around the middle—but it felt much more powerful since it has a huge effect when played.
We considered changing all mentions of the number 5 in Ultimate Infestation to 4, or removing one of the effects entirely. With the other changes we are making to Druid, ramping out Ultimate Infestation before turn 10 should happen less often, so we decided to leave it as is.
Ice Block
We’ve seen discussions about moving Ice Block to the Hall of Fame. As previously mentioned, moving cards to the Hall of Fame occurs at the start of the Hearthstone Year, which will occur with the first expansion release in 2018. Our general stance regarding Hall of Fame is that we want to avoid moving cards mid-year.
We are excited for these changes, and we look forward to seeing how they will shake up the game.
Once these card changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the changed non-Basic cards (Murloc Warleader and Spreading Plague) for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks. Basic cards cannot be disenchanted and will not be available for an Arcane Dust refund.
Anyone have an idea about when the nerf might actually go live? Thanks in advance
I want to know too, my golden Spreading Plague is waiting
Psst the problem is and always has been Jade Idol, it baffles me that they're nerfing the druid's class identity instead.
Killing druid identity instead of dealing with the problem. I'm totally with you! 100%
Exactly mate. Like Not a single Jade card was affected, but they are putting out this whole TnC style document on what they wanted to do with innervate and all. I mean ramp druid is a good identity, but atleast touch jade a bit, a bit. Nothing! Sad
There was nothing wrong with the true identity of druid. Ramping was always what druid did. Jade Druid is a broken mechanic, they're just too proud to state they were wrong, they'll eventually nerf all the jade cards, but by then people have stopped playing HS. I'm one of them. I refuse to play until Jade druid isn't as powerful. Join me in Elder Scroll Legends, guys. It's great, and you get rewarded for being F2P. Arena isn't shit like HS Arena. I'm really enjoying it.
I'm pretty convinced they will not touch jade cards, as they are rotating out around April 2018.
jade druid only started having a winning record on average in the new expansion
Completely disagree with you on Murloc Warleader card. Murloc tribe was in the meta several times actually, and it was always the problem when Murloc Warleader was dropped as it nullified several boardclears that rely on minions having 1 health. I am glad they change it so it only buffs attack now. Also Vilefin Inquisitor having a 4 cost would completely kill this card and maybe even kill paladin murloc. 1 cost 1/3 minion is excellent value and every class should have such a minion - and for paladin it just seems right it's related to murlocs.
Regarding your comments on other cards, most of them are on spot, apart from Preparation and Edwin VanCleef, which once again, I completely disagree :) They are both rogue identity cards, and without them I hardly see how any rogue deck would be viable.
The only nerf I agree with is the Spreading Plague one, this card could be excessively valuable in the right moment. Well, actually I have to agree that maybe Hex did deserve it too, since I think that at 3 mana was the most convenient removal of the game.
But the others? Blizzard did fairly try to weaken the two unfair decks that ladder presents, Pirate Warrior and Jade Druid, but sadly they did miss the right nerf target.
Fiery War Axe nerf will not be enough to stop the overpower of this pirate s**t, and also this kills even more the poor control Warrior, already wounded by the Execute nerf.
And actually I feel even more sad thinking about the Innervate nerf, that not only will ruin the Druid archetype, but wasn't even the real problem of the Jade Druid overpower. The card that deserved the nerf is Jade Idol, that alone drives to an unfair late game, better not thinking even about the combos with Fandral Staghelm and/or Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
And don't tell about Skulking Geist, please, that is just a bad designed card.
I'm actually quite happy with the nerfs. Maybe it's just a personal issue, but the three archetypes I dislike playing against the most (PW, Aggro Druid and Murloc Pala) are all affected and might at least be slowed down a bit.
I'm a little unsure about the Hex nerf, though. I felt it has been quite balanced already, because you create a taunt-minion you have to get out of the way afterwards. Imo that was reason enough for the card being one mana cheaper than the mage-spell.
But maybe that's just me...
Hex is still playable and I don't think I'm going to change a lot in my shaman decks just because of the nerf.
Innervate was fine until they started all this powercreep. Nowadays 2 mana is much more of a jump than 1 year ago.
Problem is not Innervate, it's Blizzard. Next time let's nerf Blizzard instead of ruining a great class card.
And no I don't Jade...
The innervate nerf is the most stupid i have ever seen. They nerfed a basic card, which has always been part of druid's identity because of their bad card design (Jade Idol & Co.). Blizzard doesn't realize that innervate is NOT the problem. Stuff like Innervate + BATSHIT OP VICIOUS FLEDGLING is cancer. No one complained about innervate until now, because it is not the core of the Druid problem.
It's now on the same powerlvl as Counterfeit Coin which is a rare card that goes out of Standard next year. Why should a card that is in Standard forever and has technically a lower budget be twice as good as another card with a higher budget that cycles out of it?
You are comparing rogue with druid. Druid is based on ramp. Innervate would be nuts in rogue.
war axe is now just a worse rallying blade/eagle horn bow/king's defender. Not that any paladin plays rallying blade unless they have divine shields.
MIdrange Hunter has used Eaglehorn Bow without the secret package before.
Fiery War Axe deserves no place on this list. Warrior is supposed to have the best weapons...that is part of its class identity. If you really wanted to hit pirates then how about actually nerfing the truly OP cards like Nzoths First Mate and Bloodsail Cultist.
Lol but instead you hit Fiery War Axe?!?!
Fail.
Not only that, but nerfing war axe makes slower warrior decks worse against Pirates and other aggro. Those aren't that common nowadays, but I certainly don't expect a resurgence now...