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.
Ah. Thank you so much for this comment. I realy like it.
I agree with every part. I like druid archetype like you. At the same time - I do not like Hunter. Hunter is direct, easy to play and I have every important card for the most of key deck. But I do not play him because of borring.
I do not play my lovely druid because of too many nerfs and expensive cards. No I feel, that the Druid is leaving definitely.
I feel you fellow class enthusiast. As a Hunter lover I've been plagued with the same experiences, albeit those are already years past. In a same vein I loved the beast themes surrounding that class, but that has dwindled more and more over time. I loved call pet, old buzzard, actual big cool stuff like gahzrilla, the worm twins, savannah even when it was the premium 6 drop. A time where you could make multiple versions of 25 minion decks that were beasts but still had spell like effects. Things change though. My personal opinion on this matter however is that druid has simply been overtuned since the very beginning, weaknesses created for the sole purpose of the strengths that the class inherently had due to its core mechanics. In this case ramp is simply not isolated in what the class itself can do, with every expansion these cards become innately more powerful due to them affecting every card released since every card costs mana. I feel wild growth was fine, nourish I can understand the change. Definitely overgutted in this instance with a double swing. One can only hope that part of this decision was in favor of future design space.
This is one of the best thought-out and logically assembled arguments I've ever seen on Hearthpwn. Druid is probably the least played class for me as I simply lack too many critical legendaries, but I fully empathize with your position now.
I liked your comment and understand where you're coming from! But from my end I am happy for these changes! It's not ok in my opinion for a class to bring the same decks and style of play over and over! For the moment with UI and the other supporting cards, Druid will be still a force imo, despite these nerfs.
We don't know wht the next expansion will bring, and perhaps we should wait until then. In theory other cards with sinergy should be available then, but that is another discussion!
I'm not happy about Saronite Chain Gang nerf, the two turn kill shaman wasn't tier 1 deck, but it can block part of decks like rogue with weapon, controll warior, part of warlocks & spell hunters, now all of them except rogue will go up huge, also mages will be tier one and we'll see them a lot on my opinion.
The nerf of paladin should be hafl a year ago, we see the same situation as with 1 mana legendary pirate, when they nerf this broken card when it'll go out of the standart soon.
The nerf of the druid and the rogue's lifesteel is good I guess
you still have Biology Project and Greedy Sprite to ramp, they just made ramp riskier
Greedy Sprite will be gone next rotation. Unless they plan to seriously bolster Druid it'll be far too weak of a class to be competitive.
Seems strange that hunter is left alone.
Hunter and Warlock, who were already Tier 1, are not going anywhere. Odd Paladin will just be replaced by Even Paladin. Combo Druid and Shudderwock Shaman will just be replaced by OTK Paladin and (perhaps) Mage. I don't really understand all the joy here about the nerfs. You will have new decks to hate in a week.
Zoo warlock is going to be hit by the nerf to Saronite Chain Gang: now only Doubling Imp will summon a copy with buffs. I think this is a pretty big deal since the deck relies on getting a lot of stats on the board quickly.
A hunter spellstone nerf would have been appreciated, but solid list otherwise.
I gotta say i craft odd paladin just a few days ago using 3500 dust and i'm not even mad of those nerf, it will give a more healtty game. And thks god i didn't actually craft kingsbane instead.
I'm having a blast already but with these nerfs, I can't wait for the next meta!
Ahem, you do realize you will get your dust back ONLY from directly nerfed cards? Shudderwock isnt nerfed itself.
I just crafted golden kingsbane, now i dont even get my dust back for indirect nerf
Its still going to be good. The meta is going to be control heavy because 2 of the best combo decks just died. And with pirate kingsbane you can beat both control decks and the decks trying to beat control (deathrattle hunter, etc)
Your Innkeeper doesn't agree with you.
Is it possible that you're just tilted by the nerfs and you want some compassion?
Havent installed inkeeper since boomsday, pretty obvious dats why i dont have rastakhan cards on my profile. I dont get why all the negative votes really, lol wtf why are people so toxic? bad hearthstone matches??
Amazing nerfs all round - super happy!
cuz baku can be used still in other decks if not any odd pala exist so no