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.
Actually the Hex "nerf" is actually a buff because now you can play Hemet, Jungle Hunter without having to worry that Hex is gonna get destroyed.
Kappa
Or u can play 2-mana prince and get all your pirates buffed.
Brilliant.
gg axe should be 3/1 so you can kill at least a 1 or 2 mana drop and you would need synergy to get value. still better than rockbiter.
innervate is still broken t1 or t2 and pretty much useless in ramp. not sure about this change. the refresh nerf would be better imo.
spreading plague wasnt the problem at all. jade idol should be at 2 mana or get more expensive for every reshuffle and the taunt buff card should only buff the attack value
Blizzard's bullshit reached a new a level.They downright lie to us now,forgetting that we all have access to data now.As you can see from hs replay net, Spreading Plague has the least win ratio and Ultimate Infestation the highest
With Aya Blackpaw second.
HSReplay dosn't show the data what Blizzard have. It gives overview of meta, but only for the players who send data to HSReplay.
So we can't get totaly accurate picture of the real meta from HSReplay I think.
Because Spreading Plague is good against aggro and bad against control. UI is good againt both of them.
So much fail...
Thanks for doing nothing about the broken mechanics in the game, Blizzard. Infinite, increasingly large minions that cost 1? No problem, but we'd better nerf Fiery War Axe just in case.
Just to make a point - Warrior is my least favourite class. It's the only one I have with a level under 50 (7 of the other 8 are at max level). I understand how powerful Win Axe is and was, having faced it many, many times. But this is WARRIOR. They are supposed to have good weapons, hello? It's their identity! Comparing it with Eaglehorn Bow is blatant stupidity. Why not compare it with other basic set cards that are used all the time in their class, like Kill Command or Backstab. War Axe is not more powerful than these.
Here's a thing. Click the icon on the bottom left of your collection book. Select "Basic Set". Take the nerfs in mind. How many cards are used heavily in their their class? Druid: 2 (Swipe, Wild Growth - both of which are on the "watch list" as we know). Hunter: 4-5 (Animal Companion, Kill Command, Houndmaster, Tundra Rhino sometimes Hunter's Mark which was already nerfed once). Paladin 2-3 (Consecration, Truesilver Champion, sometimes Blessing of Kings). Shaman 2-4 (Flametongue Totem, Fire Elemental, Bloodlust and probably still Hex because it's control Shaman's only hard removal). Warlock 2-6 (Mortal Coil, Voidwalker, and often Soulfire, Shadow Bolt, Hellfire, and Dread Infernal). Warrior 7 (all useful depending on archetype, except Cleave and the two nerfs Charge and Warsong Commander). Mage. 7 (Fireball every deck, Frostbolt every deck etc). Rogue 8-10 depending on the meta, but all have seen high level play. Priest ALL TEN just not all in the same deck. Does this mean Priest is the most busted class? NO! Merely the most versatile! Druid and Hunter have a complete lack of versatility, which is WHY their few signature cards are used all the time - not because they're good, merely because it's all they have. Wake the hell up! Card counts are not a way to decide what is broken.
So remind me why Blizzard are nerfing Innervate DUE TO HOW OFTEN IT IS IN DRUID DECKS, again, and seriously considered nerfing the other two playable basic set Druid cards? Maybe the PROBLEM is not the basic set, seeing as every Priest card sees play, and very nearly every Rogue, Warrior and Mage Basic set card. Maybe the problem is not how often the Basic set is used in serious decks. After all, if we didn't have the basic set or the cards in it were all trash, what would new players use? Maybe the problem is simply a complete lack of understanding of how to design card sets? Maybe the problem is a continued refusal to acknowledge that flagship but broken mechanics dominate play? Ultimate Infestation, Shadowreaper Anduin, cards like Doppelgangster that makes EQUAL costed minions for no good reason in combo with Evolve and Thrall, and obviously the entire Jade mechanic (especially Aya Blackpaw and Jade Idol).
C'Thun is busted as hell but it is WAY below the power level of Jade which is why it doesn't see play now and Skulking Geist is a joke. Spreading Plague was supposed to help Druid survive against Aggro - making it cost 6 (or 7!) is a really good way to demonstrate that was why the card was designed. Sorry, Ben - that's got FAIL written all over it. If you wanted an anti-aggro card that did what the plague does then you reduce the health of the minions or give them 0 attack instead of making the card unplayable against aggro! You yourself acknowledge that Hearthstone's dumb-ass system of "healing" minions when their health is lowered causes a lot of trouble - why not fix that instead of nerfing Murloc Warleader, which would be balanced otherwise?
So much fail....
just kill iceblock alrdy...
The Murloc nerf is ridiculous.
They not only dont nerf Jade, the nerf one of the bests counters to Jade at the moment that is murloc paladin.
Murloc paladin is getting good winrate because of the meta full of jades and control priests, versus pirates and most forms of fast agro the winrate goes down, at least in wild (i dont play standard).
And RIP Anyfin pala decks, water rogue, other Finja decks...
"welcome to priest stone, we have seen that priest is really strong right now, but has 2 bad matchups, so we decided to nerf those 2 decks. Now you can all savely enjoy 80 min games"
If that happens I'll load up my exodia mage. Not that that is any better though
These are all fine. I'm personally happy nothing gets nerfed into the ground.
Hello? Fiery War Axe
Also Finja is less playable in many decks...