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.
Where are the hunter nerfs ?
No heal for rouge , now slower druidstone and shuterwork is dead , So you killing some of the biggest control and OTK deck but it is fine cause they got odd paladin the biggie aggro deck out the For Now mankaHmmm , it is time for the greed mata to rise and inner fire priest to return cause f** my dust
I don't know why people want a refund. If I watch and invest into, lets say for argument sake a television show, and they cancel in the middle of seasons or during a season, it's not like they refund me back my time invested in. Even if I just got told about the show a week ago and just went out and bought all the seasons on dvd to get caught up.
WHAT THE F*CK DID I JUST READ??!
Is this a dream? Am i dreaming? Is it 1st April?
Holy moly... these nerfs are... how can I describe it....
A W E S O M E ! ! !
Finally breaking the ever lasting ramping in druid -> Check.
Decreasing powerlevel of Shudderwock through an in direct nerf -> Check.
Giving Kingsbane Rogue A WEAKNESSS WOOOHOOOO THIS IS THE BEST ONE FOLKS! Now I can finally play Wild wild again without the need to puke when I see a Rogue player!
Seriously though, these nerfs had to be done and I'm sure they are much MUCH appreciated by the community.
After reaching Legend the first time last month my motivation to play the game was already not that high, but nearly nonstop queueing in the same decks and sometimes feeling helpless regardless what deck type you are playing (Kingsbane was by far the worst deck to face for me, especially in Wild) made me think os maybe quitting Hearthstone for some time.
On a negative note I have to say that I don't really get why they didn't announce upcoming nerfs 1 or 2 weeks ahead like they usually do, just insta dropping them feels kinda weird, maybe some players wanted to experience the power level of some decks before they get nerfed.
Nonetheless I'm pretty happy with these sudden nerfs, pleasant surprise Blizzard!
It's amazing that these nerfs might impact the meta more than the last 2 expansions.
Unequivocally great nerfs: Leeching Poison, Saronite Chain Gang, Level Up! Good riddance to Kingsbane, Shudderwok, and Odd Paladin.
Nourish and Wild Growth: I think these mana-change nerfs make both cards unplayable in a ramp deck, and thus any deck, which goes against the design of the card. The problem with both cards is that they're ramp cards with an extreme upside if you draw them in the late game. I would rather see Nourish changed from draw 3 to draw 2 instead of the mana nerf. I would like to see Excess Mana simply removed from the game rather than the mana nerf to Wild Growth (especially because Excess Mana is extremely confusing to new players). The problem was with the flexible card draw, not the curve at which players ramped.
Thanks for the nerfs Blizzard! Now I can just concede all games I play with mill against aggro in wild again! It sure is great to neuter Kingsbane for control players who will still never even have a chance to win games because of cards like Deathknight Rexxar providing infinite value!
Lol decks like Kingsbane Rogue killed control in Wild. I'm happy it got nerfed.
They nerfed it because it was overtaking Wild. If you played control to climb and you queued into a Rogue and they were Kingsbane (which most Rogues in Wild are that or Odd) you might as well just auto concede because of how polarized the matchup was. Nothing was interesting about playing against Kingsbane smacking you in the face for a billion damage a turn, removing any minion you put on board through sap, vanush or killing it with the weapon and just healing through all of it. The deck single handedly made control bad in Wild. So with that being said good riddance
Fuck yes! Balance changes are the best time of the new expansions!
That's pretty cool. There is only one where I may have done something different. Instead of Level Up! getting moved to even, I would have just removed or replaced divine shield from Unidentified Maul. 5-7 1/1's with DS on turn 4 or 5 can be game over for a lot of decks.
These literally came out of nowhere, but I'm glad they did.
No nerfs to zoolock?
Saronite is potentially a nerf depending on how the mechanic plays out.
well the saronyte chain gang tecnichaly counts as a little nerf, it wont be a 4 mana for 2 3/4 taunts with keleseth and a 4 mana for 2 4/5 soul infusion (or 6/7 if you played both soul infusion, or 7/8 with kelesth)
Second copy of saronite doesn't keep buff anymore... so a little nerf there...
Now I really regret that Prince Liam craft, LoL. Then again, perhaps even paladin is now a thing, oh wait, Liam is odd. It's not like there is much else to craft, except maybe Da Undatakah
Play it with Hakkar, the Soulflayer for the memes.
I get the leeching poison nerf as it’s pretty fair. Nourish will still survive I think, one more mana might not kill the value you can get from it. Saronite chain gain nerf more or less killed the classic Shudderwock deck, which I do use but to be honest it’s a pretty frustrating deck to play against. Classic Shudderwock was one of those decks which can make the opponent feel completely useless if the combo properly goes off, which is not healthy for the game. Level up is the best nerf I have ever seen in my life, thank you blizzard <3
BUT WILD GROWTH????? This card is now dead. 3 mana to gain one crystal, lol.... you have to also look at its alternative use which is for drawing a card. It will now be a 3 mana draw one card without any other effect. Pure garbage. This card did not need a nerf as it provided flavour for the Druid which is ramp. The Druid starts out slow and deals with the board and takes damage but will grow stronger and stronger. Bad choice bliz.
Best nerf ever. Thank you Blizzard.