The Patch Notes for Patch 29.2 and Battlegrounds Season 7 are here!
Quote from BlizzardPatch 29.2, launching on April 16, brings Battlegrounds Duos and Season 7, Once Upon a Tavern!
Battlegrounds Changes
For all the Battlegrounds Changes please click HERE to see our dedicated article.
Hearthstone Updates
Umpire’s Grasp
- Old: [3 Mana]
- New: [4 Mana]
- Dev Comment: Since our last balance patch, Demon Hunter has been a clear power and playrate outlier, warping the meta across all ranks. Pushing back its ability to cheat out powerful demons should bring it more in line with the rest of the meta. We’re accelerating our normal balance patch window to address this one outlier with Patch 29.2, but are keeping our normal post-patch hotfix balance window to give us a chance to make wider changes in the coming weeks, once the meta is less warped around one dominant interaction.
Arena Updates
On April 16, all ongoing Arena runs will end, and a new Arena season will begin. Like the current season, this next season will include cards across all Hearthstone expansions and each class will get their own curated list of cards in their card pool. Those curated card pools will be adjusted with the seasonal update. The first pick of each Arena draft will still be a Legendary card and the only Legendary card you will be offered during your draft.
Twist Update
Twist will return in June. We’re working on a huge new Twist season with several unique decks and new hero powers—all of which needs just a little more time to cook. We look forward to sharing more with you about the upcoming Twist seasons in the coming weeks, before the next season begins.
In-Game Event: Double Trouble
Celebrate the launch of Battlegrounds Duos with a special split-track in-game event! From April 23 to May 7, you can choose one of two rewards tracks to earn Event XP towards. One track focuses on Traditional Hearthstone, granting 4 Whizbang’s Workshop Packs, 2 Standard Packs, and the Yrel the Knight Paladin Hero Skin for completion. The other track focuses on Battlegrounds Duos, granting a Whizbang’s Workshop Catch-Up Pack, a Standard Pack, and a Golem Curator Battlegrounds Hero Skin for completion.
Heroic Tavern Brawl Returns
It’s back! Heroic Tavern Brawl returns for the week of May 1-May 8. Compete in fierce, high-stakes Standard games for your shot at glory and amazing prizes! Pay the entry free and then play against other players until you get either 12 wins or 3 losses.
New Cosmetic Type: Diamond Hero Skins
Introducing new Diamond Hero Skins! Diamond Hero Skins include a 3D portrait and animations, new voice lines, and unique visual effects. Ner’zhul, our first ever Diamond Hero Skin, is for the Shaman class and will be available starting April 16.
Just like on the ladder, we see these Diamond Hero Skins as just below Legendary. Additionally, going forward, our plan is for Legendary Hero Skins to feel truly legendary, like C’Thun does.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [General] Duels Mode has been removed from the game. Players who had ongoing Heroic Duels runs have had their runs prized out in the same way as is done during a seasonal reset. Tavern Tickets can continue to be used in Arena.
- [General] We’ve updated the minimum specifications to run Hearthstone on iOS and Android, requiring 3GB of RAM and no longer supporting iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, or iPhone 8 base models.
- [Hearthstone] Actually removed the tip that read, in part, “This tip was removed. Translators: please leave this blank.”
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Splendiferous Whizbang only used the basic hero skins.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Queen Azshara’s Ring of Tides counted as a 1-mana card for purposes of cards like Pip the Potent and Skulking Geist, even before transforming.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Astral Automaton would appear as a 0/1 when transformed into.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where several totem-summoning cards still generated Strength Totem instead of Wrath of Air Totem.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Khadgar’s Wisdomball could target friendly targets if all enemy targets were untargetable.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where a High Priestess Jeklik discarded with Soularium would keep the Soularium discard enchantment, leading it to be discarded and multiply every turn.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed various wording, text, and tooltip errors on several cards.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Harth Stonebrew didn’t have his Golden animation or his Battlecry animation.
- [Hearthstone] Whizbang the Wonderful has been reverted to its normal effect (it was temporarily changed due to March’s Twist season).
- [Battlegrounds] General performance improvements and fixes for bugs causing crashes.
- [Battlegrounds] Dinotamer Brann’s Hero Power will now wait until you have handspace.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Plunder Seeker couldn’t be played if there were only Tavern Spells in the Tavern.
- [Collection] Fixed a bug where there was only one non-golden Vampiric Blood granted in Core.
- [Collection] Fixed a bug where players got an error message when attempting to craft certain Golden versions of Wild Demon Hunter cards.
- [Solo Content] Fixed a bug where the Mechwarper change made an adventure encounter unable to be solved.
- [Progression] Some Daily and Weekly Quests have been adjusted to be harder to complete but will grant more XP.
- [Progression] Fixed a bug where Mini cards granted by Botface didn’t give progression for the “Play Miniaturize or Mini cards” weekly quest.
Creativity level has dropped to zero
The nerf seems like a tap compared to the scorched earth approach they took to Paladin. Those nerfs killed pally though, there’s no Paladin on ladder anymore. This will at least keep DH alive because if they nerfed the hell out of it like they did Paladin, it would be dead too. This nerf at least ensures that a quartzite crusher can be played before the umpires grasp deathrattle triggers. It also means that Zarimi will likely get a turn and shaman likely lives long enough to do the nature spell shenanigans. It’s going to be impactful but not devastating. Personally, I would have liked to see the stats on umpires grasp swap, making it a 2/3 instead of a 3/2. After the patch, there really isn’t a good turn 3 play for DH.
Was hoping they would take away the stupid mana cheat but I guess they still haven't figured out that mana cheat is ALWAYS bad for the game.
Keep repeating that silly complaint without providing reasons for another 10 years, I'm sure they'll listen eventually.
Alternatively, you could start getting over the fact that cost reduction (or whatever you call "mana cheat" these days) as a mechanic is part of the game since Beta, and a design angle that you see utilized in some way in just about every card game.
Also, please provide a list of decks you've used over the last 3 months. I just want to know, for once, what the people who constantly complain about stuff actually play themselves, and consequently would deem perfectly reasonable.
Is the only good thing for the game is vanilla minions? Should we just be playing spider tanks and yetis forever?
Powerful mechanics are what make a game fun. They're not just good, but necessary.
Yeah, the game is dropping players (or players moving to bg:s) because the player base lives the power creep, seems correct.
There are more ways of making cards that are fun than mana cheating.
Yeah, and the ones from the beginning have been nerfed. See the problem with them yet? It was not as much of a problem when classes has an identity. But now, when every class can draw infinite cards and have infinite removal it is a major problem, and that's why mana cheat keeps breaking the game expansion after expansion.
In other card games, like for example magic the gathering, green is the ramp colour, and because of that they have some other major weaknesses. In hearthstone every class does everything.
What I play does not matter. It does not change the fact that mana cheat breaks the game expansion after expansion. It does not change the fact that they need to nerf cards with mana cheat over and over. I rarely even play constructed anymore, lesser and lesser for every expansion because of the power creep that is slowly killing the game. When I do I am playing the same broken shit as everyone else. Just because I destroy people with Zilliax Rogue It's not a fun game. A game is fun when It's fun with fun mechanics, not when I win the most.
IF you want a list it will be at least 10 pages long. I mean giving Zilax 3000 a double buff and perament stealth is great for the game, especially when it ends on turn 6, where he gets windfury for 2 mana and yet shrooms wiht windfury for 3 mana is a bad for the game.
I've made a similar comment about mana cheat and people responded in a similar manner to you. "You must love yeti's bumping..!"
Why does it follow that because they mana cheat isn't a good thing for the game that they only want to play vanilla minions? I'm not entirely against mana cheat, but it's become one of the main ways that you win in hearthstone - either through tempo that can't be overcome, or through OTK's.
Neither of these approaches are particularly interactive, and what's the point of the game if you don't interact with your opponent?
The specific issue with DH isn't just mana cheat on the weapon though. It's the tutored weapon draw into tutored demon draw into the discover effect into the mana cheated demon which removes your board and does face damage into another mana cheated demon (neither of which can be interacted with) ....And it can all be repeated again. Oh - and they get to play Reno and Kurtis to!
Powerful mechanics do make the game fun - I agree with you on that. But they still need to balanced and mana is the way they do that. Window shopper would see a lot less play if you had to pay full mana for it. The mechanic is still the same though, so it should be just as much fun!
Nobody said that. I am fine with power turns and board swings. But that doesn't mean we can't be critical about cards that have no business hitting the field 3 turns early.
So they butchered Paladin by making 4 nerds to them but only give DH one tiny nerf? Ok, Jan…
It's actually a pretty substantial nerf to the weapon. Playing it on 3 was huge. Playing it on 4 is much less pressure.
Shaman buff where ?
I should start a petition to make the Healing Totem also heal your hero.
Were diamond hero skins not already a thing?
So, I know some folks play a lot less where the card packs are required to play (like me, but I still like opening packs), but why is the 2nd rewards track that is focused on battlegrounds overall worse than the first track focused on Standard? Same amount of points required, but only 2 Packs and a BG hero skin vs 6 packs and a standard hero skin?
I mean at least change the 2 packs out for some emotes or something? Maybe just 2 packs on the 750 tier, 2-6 emotes, and a BG hero skins or a Bob skin?
What do I know though... I'm still mad I can't buy 4 hero's to pick from for gold anymore.
Keep in mind, catch-up packs can have up to 50 cards (based on how many cards from the expansion you have)
up to. you must've missed 5 or 6 expansion altogether to reach 50 cards in one pack. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
so, in reality, again. picking 6 packs is a lot better.
My source:
https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24008690
*A player with no current Standard collection who opens 30 Catch-Up Packs will receive over 1000 cards!
means, you get on average 33 cards per packs when you have none.
in theory, if you miss 2 expansion (half right now), you probably earn 16 cards per pack or even less.
if you miss 1 expansion, 1/4, you probably earn 8 cards per pack.
"Some Daily and Weekly Quests have been adjusted to be harder to complete but will grant more XP. "
Do not like. Do not like at all.
Quests are the annoying but necessary nonsense you put up with, making them harder to complete is the wrong direction to take.