Ben Brode Discusses the Warsong Commander Nerf
A new Designer Insights vlog from Ben Brode discussing Warsong Commander has made it to PlayHearthstone's YouTube channel. We've recapped and embedded the video below.
Warsong Commander now reads (in the next patch): Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.
Quote from Ben Brode
- Warriors are already pretty low on the Arena tier list, and this change does take them down further. This will have to be addressed in future sets.
- Charge and Direct Damage are two of the least fun things in Hearthstone. You can't react to them, you must be proactive.
- They wanted to make the card less complicated because it is in the basic set.
- Warsong Commander was nerfed instead of Grim Patron or Frothing Berserker because the biggest issue now, and going forward, was Warsong.
- It was important to keep the identity of the card intact as much as possible.
- They tried 30 or 40 different designs to see which ones felt the best for the card.
- Dreadsteed was originally going to be released in Naxxramas as a Neutral Minion. Warsong Commander prevented that due to their interaction.
Neutral Spells - Card Design Competition Finalist Voting
For this week's Card Design competition, contestants ventured into contested territory as they were tasked with introducing Neutral Spells to the game... Okay, so creating a cute, punny ad for this competition theme is pretty difficult, but thankfully all of our finalists are more creative than I am, so come visit us over at the Finalist Poll Topic and vote for your favorite submissions!
You're right, I failed to see that as I was focused (too focused, arguably) on the face :P
Making dreadsteed a neutral minion would've made no sense. It's not the same as the mounts of the Four Horsemen (which they did replicate properly in a neutral minion. The Dreadsteed is a mount unique to the warlock class in WoW, much like the paladin's Charger.
I guess, they just considered a minion with Dreadsteed's effect for Naxx, but didn't print it, because of the interaction with Warsong Commander. Whether that is true or not, Ben Brode took it as an example to explain how the old version limits the design space for future releases.
Make Dreadsteed neutral now, lol.
I wish he had brought up Raid Leader. Why would you ever play a class card that is strictly worse then a neutral card? I think if they had to nerf it, making it "your charge creatures have +2 attack" would have made much more sense. It could be a card you might consider building a deck around, instead of a card you'd never consider.
Ahem, Patron Warrior was one of the most successful decks on the ladder, keeping its Tier 1 spot for many months. Is that what you would call "not close to higher ranked on lists"?
I agree that Warsong was the correct card to nerf, but saying they wanted to keep it a 2-3 for sake of not confusing new players is the dumbest shit ever. Once again they've nuked a card out of existence instead of merely nerfing it, which is a blunder and the worst way to handle a nerf. 2mana UTH to 3mana is a nerf, 2mana Buzzard to 5mana is a nuke. Leaving Warsong as a 3mana 2-3 with such a situational and weak cardtext is a nuke. STOP NUKING SHIT BLIZZARD, WTF!?
I agree that Patron warrior is strong but this is just killing the deck maybe the right nerf is on the Frothing Berserker, making it less unbalanced, maybe consider new effect, where he gains damage only from your own or only from opponent minnions, but making the Patron deck still viable, I don't really love this deck that much but I would be sad to see it get just removed, this way.
yep key of the making patron deck still viable but less stronger was the Frothing Berserker nerf. but they destroy whole deck instead of nerf it.
Raid Leader. nuff said.
"Direct damage isn't fun."
So why don't you remove cards like fireball? It's direct damage..
Or nerf freeze mage also to the ground. With their fireball, frostbolt and ice lance combo.
Or Doomhammer into 2x rockbiter weapon for a whooping 16 dmg for only 7 mana in 1 turn. You don't even need minions on the board.
I could give much more examples.
And if you want warsong commander to be like this, just make it 2 mana.
Freeze Mage was nerfed with mana increase on three of their cards:
Cone of Cold
Frost Nova
Blizzard
and not to mention Pyroblast as well.
Don't focus on the freeze mage part, but on the direct damage part of my post. He says direct damage is not fun, than why is it in the game?
Ben Brode is contradicting himself.
Looking forward to seeing the future card designs that convinced them to nerf Warsong Commander.
Ben Brode is a clever guy and I totally agree with him on what he says about charge minions.
There are only butthurt Grim patron warrior players in this comment section
[card]Warsong Commander[/card] was nerfed because it is in the basic set, and thus does not give free dust if nerfed...
totally agree with you!