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.
Also Blizzard Log: After 4 1/2 years we finally realized we should nerf Wild Growth
Who says that the Dev team is slow to react?
Happy about all the changes! Don’t play any of those decks(have all the cards though), so it’s a thumbs up from me. Although I’d like to have seen a Barnes change still.
Why 2 nerfs on druid? I play druid and I agree with the nerf on nourish, but nerfing wild growth too is unecessary. It can break the class
So, basically admitting Druid was misbegotten from the beginning.
get punished for becoming part of the kingsbane cancer
i feel you, this sucks
The changes are good but they should have notified players at least 3 days in advance that’s all I’m asking for
you get full dust refunds for nerfs....
Have you played as a Kingsbane rogue vs aggro like Odd Paladin, Secret Hunter, Zoo Lock, the new spirit of the shark tempo rogue?
There's a reason it's like a 28% win rate against odd paladin, for example..
Kingsbane rogue also gets beaten by Maly Druid, Shudderwock shaman, Big priest, topsy priest. Virtually anything that can OTK you.
You just think it's cancer because you probably play something like deathrattle hunter, which it performs really well against.
That's the problem, 28% winrate in a matchup shouldn't exist, that's why paladin is nerfed. And the fact that it has a 85% winrate agains OTK priest is the same. The problem is that those aren't tech decks. they are supposed to give players a fair chance. And 15% winrate is not "countering", it is called not having a chance. 15% is that game where kingsbane draws terrible and priest gets the perfect hand. That's not skill
I started playing again about 3 months ago. Collecting good cards (legendaries) and decks without spending to mutch money is very difficult. After last expansion and reviewing my available cards i decided to craft kingsbane + cards to go with it. This is just 2 weeks ago..
Is it a standard thing to nerf cards, and in this case a whole deck, without pronouncing this a few weeks ahead???
Refund on kingsbane's crafted in the last weeks? me: unhappy
Okay but what am I going to do with the Kingsbane that I crafted yesterday ?
Dust it for full-value when the nerfs are live? Is this your first patch?
Kingsbane is not nerved though?
Edit:
Yep, Kingsbane itself isn't nerfed, but the deck is nerfed super hard.
The strength of Kingsbane is to hold off fatigue whilst hitting for 12,13,14,15 etc WITH lifesteal everyturn in the late game.
Take away the consistent heal and Kingsbane will end up hitting itself to death.
Noticed Kingsbane and Leeching Poison are two different cards ? Is this your first patch ? :3
Use it with all of the other buffs and weapon draw mechanics? Make a pirate deck? MAKE A NEW DECK THAT NOBODY HAS SEEN YET!?
Only the changed cards get full value. Not the ones the indirectly nerf. Feelsbadman.
No, I'm definitely dumb, not going to edit to leave evidence of my foolishness. Regardless, dust it for a loss and hold the L if you don't feel like building a deck around it anymore. At the end of the day you have to accept the consequences of spending your dust on a deck that was in the nerf crosshairs. Maybe crying to Blizz support might get you something but I don't know if there's any precedent for it.
Chief Inspector meta lads