Small-Time Buccaneer & Spirit Claws Are Being Nerfed, Ranked Changes Incoming
Nerfs are coming! Hopefully there's going to be a little less Yaaarrrr and guiding spirits in the future. The Patch does not yet have a release date, but is scheduled for the end of February.
- Small-Time Buccaneer's Health is now 1. (Down from 2)
- Spirit Claws's Mana is now 2. (Up from 1)
Discuss This Nerf
Discuss This Nerf
The new and improved cards!
Oh yeah, there's a wicked ranked change too.
- Once you hit Rank 15, 10, or 5, you cannot de-rank past that rank - exactly how it works at Rank 20 today.
Quote from ZeriyahUpdate 7.1 Ranked Play Changes – Floors
We’re continuously looking for ways to refine the Ranked Play experience. One thing we can do immediately to help the Ranked Play experience is to make the overall climb from rank to rank feel like more an accomplishment once you hit a certain milestone. In order to promote deck experimentation and reduce some of the feelings of ladder anxiety some players may face, we’re introducing additional Ranked Play floors.
Once a player hits Rank 15, 10, or 5, they will no longer be able to de-rank past that rank once it is achieved within a season, similar to the existing floors at Rank 20 and Legend. For example, when a player achieves Rank 15, regardless of how many losses a player accumulates within the season, that player will not de-rank back to 16. We hope this promotes additional deck experimentation between ranks, and that any losses that may occur feel less punishing.
Update 7.1 Balance Changes
With the upcoming update, we will be making balance changes to the following two cards: Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws.
Small-Time Buccaneer now has 1 Health (Down from 2)
The combination of Small Time Buccaneer and Patches the Pirate has been showing up too often in the meta. Weapon-utilizing classes have been heavily utilizing this combination of cards, especially Shaman, and we’d like to see more diversity in the meta overall. Small Time Buccaneer’s Health will be reduced to 1 to make it easier for additional classes to remove from the board.
Spirit Claws now costs 2 Mana (Up from 1)
Spirit Claws has been a notably powerful Shaman weapon. At one mana, Spirit Claws has been able to capitalize on cards such as Bloodmage Thalnos or the Shaman Hero power to provide extremely efficient minion removal on curve. Increasing its mana by one will slow down Spirit Claws’ ability to curve out as efficiently.
These changes will occur in an upcoming update near the end of February. We’ll see you in the Tavern!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3M2qGurv-I
Kibler also suggested this about a month ago.
Both good, sensible nerfs that leave the cards playable, but leave room for other card choices.
I look forward to getting faced down by dragons.
Seriously though, props to Blizzard. We'll see if we see more control on ladder with new floors.
At 1, with Patches, this isn't going to kill Pirate Warrior, and they'll still play it. And if there's anything we've learned over the past few months, potential 90% of the time may as well be all the time.
It might not be playable in shaman.
Imo, while the Buccaneer nerf does help somewhat, I don't think it's enough. Warrior and Shaman have just way too much burst.
I think Shaman decks that use Spirit Claws will only run one copy of it now. The nerf is fair enough I think
Not entirely sure. Both nerfs together hamper aggro shaman a lot. The fact of the matter was, their 4 weapons together with the strong Patches package made Spirit Claws good enough to also play Bloodmage Thalnos and Azure Drake in your deck. Now, I'm not sure anymore.
Definitely love the Ranked Play Floors idea! I've been wanting to jam some not-so-overused classes to try to get golden portraits (also because I enjoy playing control and don't mind losing a bit with it just so I don't have to play SMOrc Warrior and SMOrc Shaman all the time) but then I can never rank up.
As for the nerfs, Small Time Bucaneer at 1 health means it trades with a Patches in the mirror which is kind of sweet. As for Spirit Claws, I would have preferred a nerf somewhere else, either making it a 1/3 -> 2/3 or a 1/2 -> 3/2. Having it cost 1 is pretty important and works well alongside the nerf to STB, so not too thrilled with that. Good to see Blizz trying though.
you mean 2 new cardbacks a month, or 2 new cardbacks like the legend one, obtained just once?
if the first case, i can't see that happening
Thanks blizzard, this is a great decision. You got my support on this update
Why? If they moved Small-Time Buccaneer to Rouge specific card problem would be solved (and Shadow Rager to neutral). Spirit Claws wasnt broken, but combo of Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws was. I didnt used that combo, but I used Spirit Claws in my shaman deck, I hate you Small-Time Buccaneer thanks.
yes but its highly unlikely you could get a winstreak to rank 10 unless youre good like me. I get winstreak from rank 20 to 5 ez
I'm not sure I agree that it's a terrible idea (I know you said that it's a good idea after all but you also said it's a genuinely terrible idea :-P). As a new player myself I'm happy about the change, ladder anxiety is a real problem for me LOL. Getting really lucky is not a common thing for new players I would say - the most I've ever won is like, 5 or 6 games in a row. Not enough to hit higher ranks where I shouldn't be. And, there's a big difference between Rank 10 and 5 in terms of skill. The way I look at it, this means I can practice more and not worry about my ranks dropping a ton. Learning a new deck on casual is not the way to go.. I want to learn it on ranked because that's the best place to learn. And if I get stuck at a higher rank? It means I have better players to learn from.
Of course, the only real problem this creates is like the low ranks in legend. There will be dumpster decks at the bottom of each "floor". Oh well though, that's no different than playing casual or the lower ranks of the ladder.
Oh okay, I see what you're getting at. Hmm. I guess for new players that could be a problem (like me). I'm not big on Casual for the fact that its less competitive (and more dumpster decks) and Arena is tricky for me (not something I've delved into yet). BUT... I guess time will tell right?
I still think Jade Lightning is a problematic card. Shaman has a bit too much burst damage.
Now we have no warrior class. So we can't play control cuz of jades and pirate will be less effective and more like piracle rogue even he will be better now i guess.
Good. Warrior has had too many good decks over the last year. Time for a change.
Unfortunately I don't think this will have as much of an effect on the pirate warrior meta as we probably needed.
I haven't played Hearthstone in a month or so, because I was sick of rank 20-15 with perfectly completed decks. With the new rank milestone, I might start playing again. Love this changes!
Rank floors are awesome as a player that only hits rank 5 in Standard and Wild, I can play classes that don't necessarily top the meta and grind my golden portraits. I have Druid (275ish), Hunter (275), Priest (400) and Rogue (100... <.<) to go.
Not sure how weeks and weeks of testing or deliberation was needed for two small card adjustments that were so obviously needed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The speed at which Team 5 moves is concerning for the long-term health of this game.