Upcoming Hearthstone Balance Changes - Wild Growth, Nourish, Level Up!, Saronite Chain Gang, Leeching Poison CHANGES ARE NOW LIVE
Five card changes are coming to Hearthstone on December 19th, which is... today!
- [Discuss this Change] Wild Growth now costs 3, up from 2.
- [Discuss this Change] Nourish now costs 6, up from 5.
- [Discuss this Change] Level Up! now costs 6, up from 5.
- [Discuss this Change] Saronite Chain Gang now summons another Saronite Chain Gang, instead of a copy of the minion.
- [Discuss this Change] Leeching Poison now costs 1, down from 2, and only gives Lifesteal for 1 turn.
Check out Blizzard's post below for more information on each of the changes.
Quote from BlizzardIn an update scheduled to arrive December 19 PST, the following cards will be changed.
Developer’s Note: This balance update is focused on improving the long-term health of both Standard and Wild. We've opted to make these changes earlier in the expansion cycle than we normally consider; we'd like to hear your feedback on the timing of this update, in addition to what you think of all the individual card changes.
Wild Growth – Will cost 3 mana. (Up from 2)
Nourish – Will cost 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Wild Growth and Nourish have been present in every mid-range, combo, and control Druid deck since their introduction in the Basic and Classic set. When cards from the Basic and Classic set are too powerful, they can have negative long-term effects on the game. Continuously playing against these cards can start to feel repetitive, and they can feel so mandatory that they stifle creative deckbuilding decisions. By increasing the mana cost of both cards by one, we expect them to be considerations in late-game control Druid decks, but more difficult to fit in strategies that don’t directly take advantage of ramping mana.
Level Up! – Will cost 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Odd Paladin has consistently been one of the most powerful and most played decks since its introduction in The Witchwood. By removing Level Up from Odd Paladin, we still expect it to be a competitive board control deck, just with more consistent damage output that should be easier to play around.
Saronite Chain Gang – Now reads: Taunt. Battlecry: Summon another Saronite Chain Gang.
Shudderwock brings an interesting combo to the table, but playing Shudderwock multiple times in a single game can be frustrating. Changing Saronite Chain Gang makes playing multiple Shudderwocks in a game much more difficult. Shudderwock should now exist as a powerful one-turn effect rather than constantly copying itself with Saronite Chain Gang’s Battlecry.
Leeching Poison – Will cost 1 mana. (Down from 2). Now reads: Give your weapon Lifesteal this turn.
We love the fantasy of building a powerful weapon over the course of a game with Kingsbane, but granting it a permanent Lifesteal effect with Leeching Poison resulted in an endgame with few weaknesses, as well as conflicting with our philosophy that Rogues should not have persistent self-healing effects. Making the Lifesteal effect only active for one turn should address some of the power level issues with Kingsbane Rogue’s late game.
Kiwii's Thoughts
Resident deck architect Kiwiinbacon had some thoughts on the nerfs.
Yea, and all of those classes have problems dealing with DK Rexxar's Hero Power. :P
I can't believe that blizzard finally respond to the community I'm going back to play the game again best news ever
The era of Druidstone has ended. We are now entering the age of the Hunter.
People are bored of seeing druid, so some will attack me for saying this, but:
Nerfing Nourish and Wild Growth at the same time isn't necessary. These are the only ramp cards druid has, w/o giving your opponent some free crystals, and I thought one of them should be unaffected by these nerfs. Plus, only real problem with these ramp cards are how strong druids late game is with UI, Hadronox, Master Oakheart shenanigans, and possibly Tyrantus but all 4 are rotating out, and the new druid cards already signal a midrange-y beast druid kinda deck after rotation. Therefore, nerf to both cards seemed unnecessary
Other changes are really good though. Especially killing Kingsbane, which is a cancer in both standard and wild feels good. I am a rogue main, it is the card I hate the most. This with Quest rogue shows that, when you give strong build-around cards to rogue, it gets out of control.
Wild Growth and Nourish are needed changes, only because otherwise you need to fix druid in general (which may be needed again, but anyway). All druid decks has about 20-24 same cards. And as you said the problem is in druid late game cards, but than you need to redesign much more cards. Unfortunately WG and Nourish fall in battle in order other broken cards to live. I would otherwise agree, that I would prefer to have ramping, without unbalanced late game cards, because in late game druid continue to be awful.
It is super rediculous that you dont get dust refund for a legendary that gets destroyed by the nerf of another card. Totally apalling.
Other than that, the nerfs look great.
Name ONE legy which got "destroyed" by the nerfs? Yes, there is no one! All legys are less strong for sure, but not destroyed.
Kingsbane is kinda destroyed
Kingsbane and Shudderwock. That was easy. :3
Kingsbane?
Shudderwock still has plenty of tools in wild
Christmas has come early! Above all else I just like that the devs are being more proactive. Good Job!
Great changes imo. But I am a bit sad that there are still no changes to Big Priest in Wild. But there is still hope. :)
A bright day to be sure, they should refund kingsbane anyway.
It's unbelievable that Hunter dodged the axe.
As much as I'd like to agree, Hunter didn't really need it. Since Druid and Kingsbane Rogue got axed, you can start playing controllish, AOE-heavy decks and Spell/Secret Hunters are gonna struggle against them, so I suspect that deck to loose popularity. At least I hope so :P
Hunter got the Big Axe, though
Removing shuderlock, ramp from druids and Kingsbane rogue, dont make hunter much different. Non of this decks I think was really some counter to hunters, even if they play good against him. Zoolock is owning hutner much more. What is good actually, that we may found more control decks, which actually may do hunter worse. The problem right now is that combo decks can't really play, while shuderlock own them every time. Of course if we remove Mecha'Thun, and Test subject from priest it would be even better, but I think that at least this is right direction. Good changes. There are more broken cards, but for now I think this is good as a start at least.
and zoolock being good means control decks become good and playable without kingsbane, i'm far more scared of wild big priest than any standard wet noodle deck
A very serious nerf to Druid, removal of Shudderwock Shaman and Kingsbane Rogue from the game, hit for Tempo Rogue and Zoolock with the Saronite nerf, hit to Odd Pala. There are so many Hunter decks on the ladder, whats stopping them now?