Gem of Ease Workaround, Ancient Items Clarification, Quinsane 2.1.2 Monk
Beta Patch 33684, Town Hall Heroes #40 - The New Patch!
Blizzard Sending Gift to Veteran Players
Update 3:33 PM EST: Added message from Ben Brode on Undertaker.
Update from Ben Brode on Undertaker
No changes to Undertaker... yet. The card is still being given lots of attention. Also, it appears the interview posted below is old.
Quote from Ben BrodeHey everyone!
Thanks for your thoughts on Undertaker. I wanted to mention that this interview actually took place close to the launch of GvG last year. Things have changed a lot in the meta, and we’ve been paying a lot of attention to Undertaker since I gave that interview. I just wanted to make sure you guys know that a lot of careful research goes into this stuff. We’re always keeping an eye on things, and we’ll make changes when they’re necessary.
Thanks!
Ben Brode on Card Nerfs & The Future
Ben Brode sat down with GameSpot's Rob Crossley to discuss the Hearthstone world after Goblins vs Gnomes. We've recapped the important parts of the brief interview below. To read it in full, head on over to the full article on the GameSpot website.
Quote from Ben BrodeLeeroy Jenkins
Leeroy did actually appear in the world championships, in a Miracle deck by Tarei, and I have seen it still around. It's certainly not as endemic as it used to be, but that was the goal in the first place.
Flare
We felt people were a little bit getting randomly screwed by Hunter if you had a secrets deck because it was no cost to the Hunter to remove them. Now at least you know that Hunter players need to make a sacrifice with Flare, in that they need to make their deck worse against non-secret decks if they want to keep that advantage over secret decks.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer
Auctioneer, mixed with the new Spare Parts cards from Goblins vs Gnomes, we thought that was pretty dangerous, and a change we had to make.
Undertaker
We did add some cards to Goblins vs Gnomes that are specifically good against Deathrattle decks. But The Undertaker is one of those cards that feels really powerful when he's hurting you, but if you draw him late in the game he's pretty terrible. We were paying attention to how people were using him, and looked at how we were playing against him, but we didn't feel he's nerf-worthy. He is very powerful, but it wasn't past the line for us.
Soulfire
We felt [it] was a little bit too efficient.
Starving Buzzard
Buzzard is a little bit more unseen now though, but its mechanic, where you could draw your entire deck fairly consistently early on, we felt we had to change that.
The "Having too many cards" problem
There are a lot of games in this genre that solve this problem already. Also we have some ideas that are unique to Hearthstone that we think could potentially resolve these types of problems. One thing we're aware of is new players could find the game harder to get into, and harder to learn, the more cards we add.
We have ideas to solve those problems, but I think we're a little bit far off from those problems today.
Hearthstone Bot Ban Wave
Another wave of bans have gone out today for Hearthstone bots, and this time, they're permanent.
Quote from ZeriyahIn our continued efforts to promote a fair play environment within Hearthstone, we have permanently banned Hearthstone accounts found to be using third-party programs that automate gameplay, which is a violation of our Terms of Use.
We will continue to closely monitor Hearthstone and take action as needed to protect the game environment. Hearthstone accounts found to be cheating in any form will be permanently closed without warning.
If you believe that you’ve encountered a possible bot or other form of exploitation, please let us know by emailing our hacks team at hacks@blizzard.com.This is a new wave of bans that has not affected those players suspended by the first wave. As we mentioned in both our Recent Actions Against Botting in Hearthstone and Continued Actions Against Botting in Hearthstone posts, those found to be botting after the first wave will receive a permanent ban from the game.
Accounts banned in this wave have been discovered to be botting after our warnings and not permanent bans against those already actioned upon in the first wave.
Era of Celestials Released on Android – PC / Windows & MAC
Era of Celestials Released on Android
A needed was nerf. No 1 mana common card should be able to snowball a player to win unless he is removed the turn he is played.
The devs pointed out the real issue with Undertaker: It was the health increase. For example if you had no Wrath as a druid on T2 versus an Untertaker it was not unlikely that the Wrath your drew on T3 might not be enough to remove him due to him ended up as a 3/4. Then it was not unlikely that by T4 a Swipe won't be enough as neither.
To include cards only to counter a 1 mana minion can't be the way to go. showed that there was obviously something broken.
Undertaker is so much balance man !
every rush/agro put it on every deck
it can snowballing and win the and really easy
otherwise i still trust in bliz i hope they will have new card to deal with it more
Ben Brode is a GOD! :D
I pray to him when I need a Fiery War Axe when Im facing a hunter...IT WORKS
I like this idea.
Provide this as an option on a poll I posted a few days ago:
http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/29907-poll-how-should-undertaker-be-nerfed
One thing that worries me about nerfing undertaker, is that he is kind of holding aggro decks together. Really, if you look at the number of viable control decks vs. the number of viable aggro decks, it's pretty lopsided. You have hunter and zoo and that's about it. You can consider mech mage aggro as well, but I feel it's more a tempo deck, but even included, that's three viable aggro decks on the ladder.
Exactly. Nerfing Undertaker is like saying that Aggro has no place in Hearthstone. I mean, the Aggro classes need to build their entire decks around AoE cards like Hellfire and Consecration. I feel like it's fair enough that Control should need to commit a couple deck slots to be prepared to face the Aggro decks with appropriate early game plays. Nerfing Undertaker leads down a road where Aggro just isn't viable and Control decks don't even need to consider Aggro.
havent looked at it that way... It seems like you have a point.
mech mage is aggro and has no undertaker??? Aggro druid uses 1 undertaker, Its not needed for aggro but it is definitely super crucial for many designs.
I'm actually glad that Blizzard hasn't nerfed the Undertaker yet, and I don't think he's overpowered. I must admit, when I mostly played Druid, I wanted him nerfed, but now that I've learnt Zoo and Hunter, the Undertaker doesn't seem that strong at all from the other side. He's very fragile and easily countered, and he rarely seems to snowball out of control. Honestly, if a slow deck has no answer to Undertaker in 3 turns, they were probably going to lose anyway, but Undertaker just makes it a lot more spectacular. I feel like this makes Undertaker feel a lot more powerful than he actually is.
If you have a slow deck with Zombie Chow, Ironbeak Owl, and a 2 mana removal spell, amongst other things, I feel like you should be able to deal with the Undertaker consistently. I do agree that Hunter as a class is overpowered, but I don't think that's because of Undertaker. He feels fine in Zoo and Deathrattle Priest. If Hunter is going to get nerfed, I'd rather see the Savannah Highmane or something like that be nerfed instead.
Just my 2 cents.
It's not hard to build a deck that can deal with undertaker. You dont "auto lose" if it's played turn 1 by a hunter followed by a death rattle minion. I personally don't play hunter that much, nor do i play aggro decks, but I would be disappointed if undertaker gets nerfed because it would remove some of the challenge out of some matchups. Same goes for Dr boom. He's just a really good 7 drop, like rag is a really good 8 drop, and vol'jin is an awesome 5 drop.
I have to admit I laugh at the comparisons to magic the gathering. Hrsrthstone has balancing issues? Takes THREE WHOLE MONTHS to implement a change? Try playing mtg around the urza block (before many of you tykes were born). That block practically broke the game. Put off players for years. In mtg, overpowered cards don't get nerfed, you just have to deal with it or wait out a ban. That can take a lot longer than 3 months.
this whole idea of changing cards after they come out is unique, and a great way to ensure balance, but it can so easily be overdone. I think blizz has made good decisions so far, pretty much by not listening to the vast majority of complaints. the challenge is what attracts me to this game, and yeah, I might lose 1 out of every 3 games I play against hunter, but that makes winning all the more satisfying.
if I could change any hunter card, i would make kill command cost 4 or deal 4 instead of 5 with a beast in play. That would kill off a lot of frustrating losses against the class.
A fair nerf for Undertaker would be that his health does not increase. Would still be good but not deciding the game on turn 1. He could be removed later on and still remain a threat.
I agree with Blizzard here, they don't need to nerf Undertaker quite yet. They know what they are doing and people are freaking out that they don't have a clue how to balance their game.
Really hope that blizzard does a legacy ranked ladder.
Blizzard makes too many op cards and also alot of garbage cards. That is why most of the deck lists have the same cards.
Blizzard is way too slow to move on things. Looks at how long it took to deal with Unleash the Hounds? It was a problem for months and only in May 2014 did they decide to do something. They need to be more decisive and act faster at dealing with imbalances or problematic gameplay elements.
The reason those nerfs come so late is they're trying to avoid kneejerk reactions. A lot of times something looks overpowered but it turns out there's a good counter for it, or they may be planning to release a counter for it in an adventure or expansion.
Also, while Blizzard would never admit it, I think they will hold off on nerfing Dr. Boom longer than they otherwise might because they're currently making money off people buying GvG packs in the hopes of getting Dr. Boom. I'm guessing similar reasoning might be why they're loath to nerf Undertaker, not to mention you can't dust Undertaker because he's a Naxx card, so there'd be no way to compensate players for it like they usually do when they nerf cards.
Since when big amount of cards did become a problem? O_o