Patch Notes about the Balance changes in Constructed, Battlegrounds and the Battlegrounds Buddies. Read on to learn more!
Quote from BlizzardPatch 30.0.3, launching today, includes balance changes to Standard, Battlegrounds, and more!
Hearthstone Updates
Dev Comment: Since the launch of Perils in Paradise, we’ve been happy to see a lot of evolving strategies—but we think there’s still room for more new and interesting cards to get a chance to shine. Our main goal with this patch is to add more competitive options from Perils in Paradise. We’re doing that by curbing a few cards that are showing up too often and by buffing some new cards that have some room to improve. We’ll see how the meta reacts to these changes and make further adjustments, if needed, in about three weeks.
The following cards have been adjusted to be weaker:
Hydration Station
- Old: Resurrect your 3 highest Cost Taunt minions.
- New: Resurrect 3 of your different highest Cost Taunt minions.
Inventor Boom
- Old: Resurrect two friendly Mechs that cost (5) or more. They immediately attack random enemies.
- New: Resurrect two different friendly Mechs that cost (5) or more. They attack random enemies.
Dev Comment: Hydration Station and Inventor Boom are adjustments to reduce repetitive and meta-warping gameplay around the Virus-Perfect Zilliax combination (sometimes called “Unkilliax”). While this Zilliax is powerful on its own, it isn’t proving to be a problem outside of decks that can repeatedly resurrect multiple copies of it. These changes will make that play pattern weaker and less repetitive.
Zilliax Deluxe 3000 (Ticking Module)
- Old: [5 Mana] Costs (1) less for each minion in play.
- New: [4 Mana] Costs (1) less for each friendly minion.
Dev Comment: On the other end of the spectrum, the Ticking-Pylon Zilliax combination has continued to be very popular in more aggressive, board-flooding decks. Perils in Paradise added some great board-building cards, and now this Zilliax is a bit too much of a good thing. This change makes the card a little less powerful in those decks, and also shifts the play pattern so that Zilliax no longer punishes other board-centric decks for fighting back on the board.
Lamplighter
- Old: [3 Mana] 3/2
- New: [4 Mana] 4/3
Dev Comment: Lamplighter was made a bit strong to intentionally give an infusion to Elemental strategies that never landed in prior expansions. We love that it successfully brought multiple decks in this archetype to the meta, but it has turned out to be a little too strong. This adjustment should make it a little slower and clunkier to combine with other cards on the same turn.
Concierge
- Old: [3 Mana]
- New: [4 Mana]
Chia Drake
- Old: 3/5
- New: 2/4
Dev Comment: Concierge Dragon Druid is a deck that can follow-up early tempo plays with lots of burst damage from hand, sometimes a little too early in the game. The deck is very powerful, but we like that it’s a new deck and that the metagame has been adapting to it, instead of folding. These changes slow down the deck’s early combo turns a little and weakens midgame plays, but maintain the basic play pattern of the deck. If these changes aren’t enough, we’ll make further adjustments in our next balance window.
The above disenchantable cards will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 30.0.3.
The following cards have been adjusted to be stronger:
Dev Comments: We’ve noticed that some of the archetypes from Perils in Paradise didn’t land where we wanted them to. We normally don’t do buffs in the first patch after an expansion, but since we gave ourselves more time for this patch, we have more confidence to take a few swings at underperforming cards and archetypes from Perils in Paradise. We hope these buffs will open up some new and exciting options for players.
The Ryecleaver
- Old: 7 Mana base weapon and 2 Mana Minion Sandwich.
- New: 5 Mana base weapon and 4 Mana Minion Sandwich.
Ranger Gilly
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [5 Mana]
Razzle-Dazzler
- Old: [7 Mana]
- New: [6 Mana]
Natural Talent
- Old: Get a random Naga and a random spell. They cost (1) less.
- New: Get a random Naga and a random spell. They cost (2) less.
Buttons
- Old: [5 Mana] 5/5
- New: [4 Mana] 4/4
Cruise Captain Lora
- Old: [7 Mana]
- New: [6 Mana]
Tsunami
- Old: [8 Mana] Summon three 3/6 Water Elementals that Freeze. They attack random enemies.
- New: [10 Mana] Summon four 3/6 Water Elementals that Freeze. They attack random enemies.
Service Ace
- Old: [3 Mana] 3/3
- New: [2 Mana] 2/3
Twilight Medium
- Old: [6 Mana] 5/6
- New: [5 Mana] 4/5
Nightshade Tea
- Old: [2 Mana] Deal 3 damage to a minion. Deal 2 damage to your hero. (3 Drinks left!)
- New: [1 Mana] Deal 2 damage to a minion. Deal 2 damage to your hero. (3 Drinks left!)
Conniving Conman
- Old: Battlecry: Replay the last card you’ve played from another class.
- New: Battlecry: Replay the last card you’ve played from a non-Rogue class.
Battlegrounds Updates
Armor Changes
The following heroes now have less Armor:
- Ozumat has 12 Armor at higher levels, 7 Armor at lower levels, and 10 Armor in Duos
- Captain Eudora and Jandice Barov have 16 Armor
- Cariel Roame has 17 Armor
The following heroes now have more Armor:
- Aranna Starseeker has 13 Armor at higher levels, 15 Armor at lower levels, and 10 Armor in Duos
- Sylvanas Windrunner has 20 Armor
Hero Changes
Ozumat – Tentacular
- Old: Passive. Start of Combat: Summon a 2/2 Tentacle with Taunt. (Gains +1/+1 after you sell a minion!)
- New: Passive. When you have space in combat, summon a 1/1 Tentacle with Taunt. (Gains +1/+1 after you sell a minion!)
Buddy Changes
Shadow Warden (Maiev Shadowsong’s Buddy)
- Old: Battlecry: Your next Hero Power makes the target Golden and awaken 1 turn faster.
- New: Battlecry: Your next Hero Power makes the target Golden.
Maxwell, Mighty Steed (Sir Finley Mrrgglton’s Buddy)
- Old: Battlecry: Get the Buddy of your Hero Power.
- New: When you sell this, get the Buddy of your Hero Power.
Dagwik Stickytoe (Captain Eudora’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 3]
- New: [Tier 2]
Captain Fairmount (Cariel Roame’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Spirit Raptor (Bru’kan’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 3]
- New: [Tier 2]
Kil’rek (Lord Jaraxxus’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 4]
- New: [Tier 3]
Mawsworn Soulkeeper (The Jailer’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 2]
- New: [Tier 1]
Jandice’s Apprentice (Jandice Barov’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 3]
- New: [Tier 2]
Crabby (Tavish Stormpike’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Crimson Hand Centurion (Kael’thas Sunstrider’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Karl the Lost (George the Fallen’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 3]
- New: [Tier 2]
Lucifron (Ragnaros the Firelord’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Tentacle of C’Thun (C’Thun’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 3]
- New: [Tier 2]
Faceless One (The Nameless One’s Buddy)
- Old: Battlecry: Get the Buddy of your teammate’s Hero Power.
- New: When you sell this, get the Buddy of your teammate’s Hero Power.
Glorious Gloopling (Flobbidinous Floop’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tier 5] 5/1
- New: [Tier 6] 6/1
Card Pool Changes
- Primal Staff has returned to the Tavern spell pool.
- Dev Comment: This is a temporary boost to some underperforming builds. We are planning to remove it from the Tavern spell pool again with the next Battlegrounds Season (Patch 30.2), coming soon.
Card Changes
Backstage Security
- Old: 4/5
- New: 4/4
Ghoul-acabra
- Old: 3/12. After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, give your minions +2/+2 permanently.
- New: 4/13. After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, give your minions +2/+1 permanently.
Shellemental
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 6]
Cultist S’Thara
- Old: 11/3. Stealth. Deathrattle: Summon your first Demon that died this combat. It keeps enchantments.
- New: 12/3. Stealth. Deathrattle: Summon your first Demon that died this combat with its maximum stats.
- Dev Comment: The resummoned Demon will have the maximum stats it had at the moment it died. So if it was stat-buffed in the Tavern or in combat, it would come back buffed, but if it was set to 3/3 by Transmuted Bramblewitch, it would come back as a 3/3. In either case, it wouldn't come back with extra keywords it gained. With this change, The Curator is no longer banned from Demon lobbies.
Murky
- Old: 4/4. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +4/+4 for each one you control.
- New: 3/3. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +3/+3 for each one you control.
Nightbane, Ignited
- Old: [Tier 4] 6/3
- New: [Tier 5] 10/6
Living Azerite
- Old: [Tier 3] 3/3
- New: [Tier 4] 4/4
Portal in a Bottle
- Old: [Tier 3]
- New: [Tier 5]
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Progression] Fixed a bug where players could get Demolition Renovator from random Standard card-grant rewards, like End of Season rewards and Arena winnings. Affected players will be given a compensatory dust grant in an update after the patch is live.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Crane Game was accidentally given the Shadow Spell School.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual bug where Languagehacker’s name wasn’t capitalized correctly in his Mage deck recipe deck’s title. Sorry, Languagehacker!
- [Hearthstone] Pitting Carefree Cookie and Bayfin Bodybuilder against each other will no longer cause an infinite loop and crash (now Bodybuilder is capped at 15).
Agreed.
I don’t know what they are expecting with the The Ryecleaver “buff” but it is still hella slow to play and clunky to set up.
Dont worry - lamplighter is fixed now. I only got hit for 26 in one turn against a mage but he didn't have any mana left so that was OK. Shame really - it was an interesting game with a lot of back and forth..and then it wasn't.
Sigh...
i dont see any changes , warriors are just higlander and summoning ziliaxies every turn anyway , that card is real problem not the taunt support ,
The buff to Cruise Captain Lora is funny. I don't think the card would see played competitively even if it's buffed to 4 mana.
Well I do think it would see play if it costed 4 its a good statline for a 4 mana card and two random locations might not be awesome but its worth at least something so it would see play I'm sure of.
that's because druid legendaries are bound to be trash.
I think it would be fine if was Neutral. The real problem with the card is that you don't care about that effect in Druid. Yet, at least.
Lamplighter and Concierge will still be disgusting, and I think we'll see a lot of aggressive decks shoot up into broken winrates now that Warrior isn't as bad of a matchup.
The fact that Seabreeze Chalice avoided a nerf is absolutely insane. The three most toxic and non interactive decks in the game (spell mage, spell druid, and lamplighter rogue) were all barely touched, if at all. Then at the same time they nerf warrior (which already lost to all 3 of these decks more often than it beat them) into the absolute ground. Literally the worst meta in Hearthstone history.
Lamplighter Rogue was definitely not "barely touched." It's taking a big hit from its best matchup (Warrior) getting nuked, and it'll feel the +1 mana on Lamplighter much more than other Elemental classes because it's actively aiming to bounce and play Lamplighter multiple times a turn, and that adds up quickly - Lamplighter -> Shadowstep -> Lamplighter now costs 6, from 4. You cannot use Shadowstep to get more copies of Lamplighter with Sonya Waterdancer, you must use Sandbox Scoundrel for that, which most lists aren't running. This is in addition to the fact this deck struggles against rival aggro decks, as it's otherwise just a pile of Neutral Elementals and bounce effects.
Rogue did take quite the hit I would imagine, the mana nerf will affect it not only in pure terms of mana but it wont make it have the interaction with Sonya etc.
OMG - how will rogues cope having only...*counts*...7 potential copies of lampligher excluding Sonya copying lamplighter or bounce effects...
*plays tiny violin*
Nothing against you (or rogues) but I really wish lamplighter had been nuked. Nothing about that type of gameplay is fun. It wasn't fun when Astalor killed you from hand (got nerfed), it wasn't fun when Denathrius killed you from hand (got nerfed) and it's not fun when Lamplighter does it either (got nerfed). You see a pattern here? Shame Blizz didn't.
I wonder if the change to Nightshade Tea will enable another burst deck with Concierge and Aranna, Thrill Seeker.
Probably not any better than the fatigue version but who says you cant do both.
Sure would be fun if it did..../s
Oh ffs Concierge is still stupid, boring and unfair to play or play against.
And im saying it as a main druid who didn't and never will play it.
Why Tsunami has been nerfed?
Can someone explain the "nerf" to Ticking-Pylon Zilliax to me? As I'm understanding it, the change was from 5-mana down to 4-mana, which sounds like a buff. Reading the explanation, it sounds like their reasoning is that they want non-board-centric decks to be able to compete (i.e., play with Ticking-Pylon Zilliax as well?? Wouldn't they just play Virus-Perfect Zilliax instead?).
EDIT: just noticed that the nerf specifies FRIENDLY minions. This explains a lot!
Everything here is okay except concierge and tsunami.
Concierge is still gonna be stupid and all they had to do was (not less than 1). It'll just get nerfed further until 5 mana and then they finally add the minimum mana reduction, and the card is forever dead.
Tsunami change makes it harder to play on curve and more inclined to cheat the spell out. So when you DO land it on turn 5, it's more powerful and more of a "haha I did something stupid and highrolled you out of the game". Not very fun.
What a great buff for Conniving Conman... Now it will definetely see play (sarcasm).
I don't know, this round of nerfs seems a bad joke. Can't believe that Congierge can still make cards cost 0... Can't believe they touched the ticking module instead of the Virus one... As a result, i will now cut Zilliax from my Excavate Rogue, were it acted as a simple stabilizer/ board swing, only busted if comboed with Sonya, but still manageable.
No buffs to Maestra or Treasure Hunter Eudora, two of the worst PiP's legendaries. Bah
They didn't nerf druid at all... like WTF Blizzard... Standard shouldn't have one turn kills (When I have 35 life)... ever...