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.
none of the legendaries they targeted are dead. Shudderwock is still used in a tempo version, Kingsbane can go in an aggro variant, Baku is still played, and for druid....FUCK DRUID.
Holy Mother of Yogg-Saron
Praise Yogg
I don't play any wild (so probably talking rubbish here) but I would assume Doppelgangster is probably less of a problem than Saronite Chain Gang was? Firstly because it costs more and is a worse card in isolation, but mainly because the lack of taunt means it's much less useful in helping you stall out to combo time. Right?
Any wild players here, feel free to flame me for my ignorance!
you re right, plus shudderwock in wild is not at all a good deck, it gets destroy by almost every deck in the meta right now
and Dirty Rat exists to counter the OTK version, so Shudder was used has a value bomb in decks like jade shaman.
Blizzard doing good nerfs? It's christmas already?
Happy Winter Veil to all!
Blizzard tkx!
I like all the nerds except druid ones. What are druids supposed to play now ?
Treant druid.
im happy to play against anything that don't Ultimate Infestation me on turn 5
Biology Project, they want ramp to feel risky
I think with these nerfs we might be able to see only hunter in standard.....and i'm really afraid of it.... : /
Will there be Dust refund?
On the cards that are being nerfed, yes. But not on Shudderwock or Kingsbane.
Well, I have a golden Shudderwock but looks like there is no hope :(
Well they didn't take Deathstalker Rexxar as well... So what beats T1 Hunter? Odd Rogue and Keleseth Zoo maybe? Aggro shaman might be good as well.
Also don't tell me my Odd Dragon Warrior will be even better. They nerfed almost every bad matchup for it. Kingsbane, Druids (Toggwagle especially) and Shudderwock are gone, leaving only Mecha'Thun and APM priest as the unwinnable matchups. Seems like I will be tanking up for the next couple of months.
HOLY SHIT. THEY ACTUALLY REMOVED SHUDDERWOCK. THANK YOU SO MUCH BLIZZARD.
And to top it all off, Odd Pally nerfs? Druid nerfs? KINGSBANE NERFS?! BEST BALANCE PATCH EVER.
only for standard, we can still play it in wild thanks to [card]Doppelgangster[/card]
Echoing ooze too