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.
Okey so they nerfed druid , shudderwock , kingsbane which wasn't that strong >_< made odd paladin unplayable and gave even paladin a new tool to experiment with . Interesting thing is Deathrattle Rexxar was consistently battling Tier 1 place with odd paladin . This nerf just remove his competition and made him obsolute
UNPLAYABLE LOL, are you serious?
Odd Paladins are very much still playable. They can't hide behind 7 3/3 taunts for a grand total of 13 mana, but they can still pull off enough shenanigans to stay competitive. Slap on the wrist, but it makes other classes much more competitive against Odd Paladin.
We will see, im predicting it will drop down to bottom tier 2 , barly a 51-52% winrate. I mostly played control decks this season and you could still lose even above turn 10 becasue you used up your removals, on clearing the 4*board of 1-1 with the possibility of the opponent having lvl up on his turn 5-6-7-8 ...
But it wasn't a problem cause hey you could just keep lvl up and wait for opponent to run out of board clears and then use Vinecleaver or Lost in the Jungle with heropower and Boom insta board of 3/3.
Now you will save that board clear cause hey its turn 5 , his got nothing to increase his dmg by +8/+10 , a normal nerf would have been 7 mana LVL up and Odd pala would be fine to play
Which deck can beat hunter now?
The more I think about it the less I love those nerfs, you can't do half a job. we don't want 1 class dominating the meta.
Odd paladin was hunter only weakness and now it's gone.
Spellstone should be nerfed to 1-3 wolfs.
play dead should be nerfed to 2 mana.
Odd warrior is a hard counter to spell hunter, and a soft counter to secret hunter. And if you want to tech vs rattle hunters you just throw in 2 ironbeak owls.
Odd paladin was NOT hunter's only weakness what are you, dense?
What are you talking about?
Odd warrior can't beat DK Rexxar
Only an hunter can beat another hunter i think... xD
Idk about other decks but I rekt it everytime with my Even Warlock.
So, is even paladin a thing now?
Revenge of the Mana Wyrm
Any advance notice would have been appreciated, Blizz... Previously, any changes were posted at least a week before they went live.
The timing for the nerfes is strange and questionable. Why didn't you nerf these cards a couple of months ago? Half a year ago? They were played as much and in the same decks as now. Was it really necessary to wait for a new expansion and change the cards just two weeks after its lauch? The meta is a week old at most, even if it didn't change much.
Pretty sure it's just 2/3 with taunt.
It will not keep any enchantments, it will summon a regular 2/3 taunt. Pretty brutal.
Oaken Summons Branching Paths Ferocious Howl Lesser Jasper Spellstone Wrath Earthen Scales Spreading Plague Swipe
Oh mY GoD BLizArD DruID is So WeAk vs AgGro
yeah all of those wre playable ONLY because of wild growth on 2
Ferocious Howl Lesser Jasper Spellstone Wrath don't have any synergy with wild growth turn 2.
Oaken Summons is a huge middle finger for agressive decks even if played 1 turn later.
Branching Paths generally is casted when you stabilize the board/after Spreading Plague
delaying "some" cards from druid does help out the aggro player, but it still is a difficulty match up.
and btw i really do hope the first guy is correct, playing against druid is one of the most unfun experiences you can have on this game.
They're nerfing Leeching Poison now??? Now??? They had to test the deck with ONE SINGLE NEW CARD! ONLY ONE, to know it would be this strong! And instead they do the nerfs just after TWO WEEKS from the release of the expansion... TWO WEEKS! When people have just crafted their decks. Team 5 is just a bunch of incompetent people... That's all. I suggested many people to craft the deck and now it will be unplayable.
I think I'll quit HS right now. Not because my favorite deck of all time was hit by a nerf (for the second time, remember Coldlight Oracle), but because Hearthstone has become a sh*t game, with terrible developers. Why nerfing 2 classic cards just after 2 weeks from the release of the expansion??? Why not before, when there were Token Druids everywhere? And Shudderwock? Why was it a problem now? Wasn't it already a problem from day1? It shouldn't had never been created in the first place!
No one mentions big/resurect priest :) So i guess i'll play that with no more kingsbane :)
#wild
Kind of split to see Shudderwock take one in the groin. I hated the constant hero damage from that dang 3/3 bug (whose name escapes me currently), but I'd fallen in love with armor shaman...