Blizzard Addresses Problems - Tess Greymane, Shudderwock, Quest Druid at HCT Seoul
- An update on June 8th, PDT, will change some cards.
- Tess Greymane's Battlecry will once again continue even if she is destroyed, silenced, or removed.
- Shudderwock's Battlecry limit will be increased to 30, from 20.
- Players with Quest Druid decks at HCT Seoul are allowed to submit a new list if they wish due to changes.
- Ultimately, they only want to give out dust refunds if a card has a "decrease [in] their overall power level for balance purposes".
Quote from Jesse HillGreetings,
Thank you for your feedback regarding the recent Update 11.2. We apologize for not offering notice in advance of these changes before they went live. We understand that this wasn’t a good experience and that it also had an impact on some of our esports competitors as well. This wasn’t an acceptable situation all around, and we’ll do better in the future.
Update 11.2 brought with it some changes as part of our ongoing, overall goal to make card interactions more intuitive across the board. The intention of some of those changes was to align four similar cards (Tess Greymane, Lynessa, Shudderwock, and Yogg-Saron). If you’re familiar with the way that one of these minions works, you should be able to guess how the others work. We added a cap to the maximum number of effects that can be generated by these Battlecries, and made Tess’ Battlecry end if she was destroyed, silenced, or otherwise removed, just like Yogg-Saron.
After hearing your feedback to that change, we initially considered offering a full Arcane Dust refund for Tess. We also read feedback from players who use Tess in their decks asking for her to be reverted to her old functionality. In this case, we agree that it’s worthwhile to sacrifice some consistency so Tess is more fun to play, especially since our priority wasn’t to decrease Tess’ power level. With that in mind, instead of offering an Arcane Dust refund and encouraging players to disenchant the card, we’re reverting one of the changes to Tess Greymane so that her Battlecry will continue even if she’s destroyed, silenced, or otherwise removed from the board.
This situation has also raised discussions regarding the definition of a card fix versus a dust-refunding nerf, so we thought this would be a good time to talk about our stance on the subject.
We will continue to provide full Arcane Dust refunds for changes to cards that decrease their overall power level for balance purposes — in other words, card nerfs.
We’re working to improve Hearthstone and make the underlying mechanics more intuitive. Bug fixes or system-wide mechanics changes to improve the game will not be grounds for a full Arcane Dust refund on a card. System-wide mechanical updates affect many different cards in ways that could make some more or less powerful, such as the interaction between Jungle Giants and Faceless Manipulator.
Lynessa Sunsorrow was never intended to apply her buffs in the order they were cast, so the update to her functionality in 11.2 was a bug fix for that card. The cap of 30 effects is a system-wide change intended to protect the service and players from potentially bad play experiences that have minimal player value. We’re planning to raise the cap of Shudderwock’s Battlecry from 20 to 30 when we implement the fix that reverts Tess, as well.
We’re currently planning to revert the change that caused Tess Greymane to stop casting her Battlecry when destroyed, silenced, or otherwise removed on June 8th PDT.
HCT Seoul and Quest Druid
We also would like to take this moment to apologize to our player community for this update’s impact on the HCT Tour Stop taking place in Seoul this weekend, specifically the 15 players who brought Quest Druid decks.
After considering recent feedback and significant discussion, we felt that Quest Druid decks were most directly affected in terms of viability as a result of the changes that were introduced with Update 11.2. As such, we allowed players that brought Quest Druid an opportunity to resubmit their deck.
Balancing the health of the game with the needs and calendar of a global esport like the Hearthstone Championship Tour is always challenging. This wasn’t an acceptable situation all around, for us, our players, and competitors, and we’ll do better in the future.
Thanks again for your feedback and your understanding, and we'll see you in the Tavern.
Best card Printed
=)
Gonna cry?
OK, help me understand why trying to make money off of their investment in this game is a bad thing. Do cheaper boosters decrease the value of the cards you already own? There is no secondary market, so I have to say "no". If anything, it increases the pool of cards that all players have, thereby allowing more even footing and (therefore) more players able to compete at a higher level. Why is that bad? Blizzard can't just give stuff away all the time and not make any money on this product. Companies that do that go out of business.
x2
The biggest thing that I can think of was Faceless Manipulator. Since the game now counts stats at the moment it's played, it would not count towards Jungle Giant's condition even if it transforms into something with 5 attack, because when it was played it only had 3 attack.
I'm not sure about Adapt but it may work the same way, so if you got +3 atk off of the little dino it also wouldn't count.
They reverted one change, chill the fuck out
Why did Blizzard get into bed with Activision?
Dumbest fucking move ever, they will leach the popularity and profitability of Blizzards games and give them fuck all in return.
Acti: Fire Brode
Blizz: Why?
Acti: Because he is good at his job and cares about the community that plays his game
Blizz: Ok
It's all downhill from here lads better get used to this shady shit, secret nerfs and no dust from legendaries its got Activision written all over it.
Now I miss Ben Brode, he would've listened to the community at least! Revert Lynessa back or refund!!!
why did they not refund dust for tess. feels bad man.
This game almost feels like I'm required to have my own personal lawyer in order to protect my account and best interests. The fact that they are reverting the changes so quickly, which were supposed to be bug fixes, shows that they were indeed stealth nerfs and they should have a class action dustsuit filed against them for their blatant lies and total disregard for adhering to their own policies.
I cannot fathom how they can sit back and think it is justified to only give dust refunds if they "nerf" a card. They need to wake up and realize this is a digital card game where you are not limited to only getting the cards you open in packs and you can't trade with anyone. So for that reason, if I crafted Lynessa, it was because the way she worked was what I wanted and I expected her to work that way. So, if they were to change her and she doesn't perform the same way any more, I should be able to disenchant her and get my full dust back since it is not the card I originally spent dust on.
I think it is fairly obvious that the whole reason they are not giving dust for these nerfs is made present by their slap in the face that is the "everybody get in here" pack sale. Why in the world would they want you to get 3200+ dust back when they are trying to sell you a package of cards an unlimited number of times (which is also despicable, they need to go back to one awesome deal you can only buy once, this just straight up screams money grab)?
Maybe tournament mode can help save the game when it finally gets released, but I am sure it will inevitably by underwhelming and a huge missed opportunity on features. With the pathetic showing of Witchwood and all these recent shortcomings by the team, I hope the game really starts to see a dive in popularity and Blizzard actually does something to improve it that shows they care about the player base and not just about making money...
Nowadays Shudderwock is one of the worst player experiences from the game, but hey let's make his battlecry effect longer
I don't know what you're talking about. Brann & Dirty Rat are best friends with Shudderwok Shamans in wild ;)
I'd consider Kingsbane Rogue much MUCH worse of an experience than about any Shudderwork deck. Even when using Reno/Big/Control mage, all of which have access to many Water Elementals that can permanently freeze the weapon swings, the match-up is almost an unwinnable match-up for control decks without an OTK alternate win condition built in.
That's not what most players want though.
Boycotting them doesn't make the game more enjoyable for us, and it takes a mass to have any effect anyway so the individual still suffers.
Even if limiting yourself with the game would "stick it to Blizz" (it would not), how does that make it a better experience for you the player? If you think Blizzard needs anybody's money besides the pros that they cater to then you're mistaken, it's just gratuitous for them so why should they give a shit if you're not buying packs anymore, plenty of people are still buying.
You're only limiting your own experience because you think you're teaching them a lesson or something.
Draw 5 cards deal 5 damage summon a 5/5 gain 5 armor.
The Jungle Giants tweak killed my Shaw Monster Hunt run.
The Lynessa "bug fix" is a nerf: Buff Paladin can no longer reliably run Dark Conviction or Blessed Champion, because the order in which those cards are played is critical to their power level. This absolutely decreases Lynessa's "overall power level," so regardless of why Blizzard changed the card, it should still be subject to a full dust refund.
Blizzard printed cards with certain mechanics, and players crafted the cards, with the expectation that the mechanics would stay the same. If Blizzard later goes back and says, "whoops, our bad, that was just a bug," then that's on Blizzard.
Own up, Blizz.
There was no reason to change it so that Faceless no longer activates Jungle Giants when copying a 5 attack minion. The quest is suppose to trigger when any 5+ attack minion is summoned. The new way is less intuitive.
Also, I don't get the logic in allowing esports player to change their decks because they weakened a deck, but not giving people who may have crafted cards for that deck a chance to change their decks(buy allowing full value disenchantment) as well?
I'm assuming they want to make a distinction between Transform/"Become a Copy" and Summon. You summon the Faceless Manipulator, but it Transforms itself into that other minion, no Summoning involved.
Also, it's not a nerf, but a change to how the cards operate behind the scenes. However it does affect how the card interacts with current strategies, so something needs to be done for fair tournament play.
Honestly I think they should just have a way to keep certain builds of the game available for the tournament scene. Changes to cards during tournaments has happened before and really should not affect them at all.
mainly they made it so faceless minion or other battlecry minions that raise their attack to 5 or above can't trigger the quest, making the only viable quest druid deck right now a lot less consistent. No reasoning on why.
Arguments around this latest patch making the game more "consistent" seem to be quite inconsistent. If that truly was the case: why not ECHO to Unstable Evolution or make Charged Devilsaur a RUSH card? Not saying that they should change these cards, but following their logic these cards should be targeted first. NOT legends that players spent A LOT OF dust to craft.
Lynessa Sunsorrow plays her cards in order because she's a paladin card, that makes total sense to me! Yogg-Saron kills itself because it's a god of randomness, it does whatever it wants because we will never understand its logic. Shudderwock is a creature of horror, a bit unpredictable, and therefore goes more in line with Yogg-Saron. Why Tess can kill herself, or why she doesn't play her cards in order, since she's a mastermind of organized crime, is a bit confusing though...
But if PRO PLAYERS COMPLAIN, then Blizzard listen. When REGULAR PLAYERS COMPLAIN then Blizzard don't care. Lynessa was a cool card to me as it was.
AND, Blessed Champion became a bit more playable because of Lynessa. I mean, Lynessa isn't OP, and now she's nerfed. Why?
It's quite obsious that Lynessa is nerfed...