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!
Smells like salt
Blizzard managed to balance a card without completely destroying half of the universe while at it? Both cards are still playable and strong!
Being unable to fall from rank 5 ??
That is not the company i know. Did somebody ate Team5 and now pushing the changes while SWAT team is trying to blast through a door?
Time to test that murloc,volaj, curator priest in rank 5!
Small-Time Buccaneer should be a 2-mana 1/3. The entire problem with him is that he has 3 attack for 1 mana with no drawback, and making him a 1/1 instead of a 1/2 doesn't really fix anything. As for Spirit Claws, that nerf is pretty solid and I feel like it's balanced now.
And I think important, he's killable for cheap in the mirror now, creating a more control-oriented mirror rather than lucking out with Buccaneers.
I actually agree. People are saying just because the deck isn't wrecking ladder it isn't a problem for the meta. Rampant Jade Druid kills all conventional control decks. Jade Idol needs to go to 2 mana imo. Most Jade effects are priced at ~2 mana.
Kinda aggre too.
It might not be strong, but it puts the meta on a kind of check that if something control-y were ever to be good this deck would just crush it. Slower decks lose quite a few percent of win rate just for a very small portion of the players on ladder being Jade Druid because it's not a 40/60 matchup, it's pretty one sided.
If aggro really goes away Jade Druids will be quiiiite a pickle to beat.
I wouldn't care if it was a rogue thing. But having Shaman and druid and warrior be the top decks for over an year now is getting old.
Yep. Aggro actually made it so the likes of control warrior saw a tiny amount of play, because it was good enough against aggro and Jade druid itself was crushed by aggro. In a meta without aggro, control warrior would see zero play.
But that price also comes with a removal tool. Look at shaman: a 2 mana 2/2 weapon that can be used to remove some minions and develop your board - Check. A 4 mana 4 damage spell seem to be underpower but it can kill/weaken many thing and develop your board as the same time (jade shuriken is a little weaker because it requires combo to work)- Check. These cards strong on it own way while Jade idol only either develop your board or must be used with another card. It seem to be fair - I think most jade cards are fair.
Answer: Turn one dragon-activated Twilight Welp, turn two dragon-activated Wyrmrest Agent. Game over if you don't trade and go face from that point on. Or any Aggro deck.
I'm pretty sure the current Midrange Shaman completely destroys Jade Druid. Miracle Rogue, Aviana Kun Druid (depending on the Kun combo) and Freeze Mage also win, as well as Anyfin Paladin (from experience). Aggro is probably the most efficient way to deal with Jades, but it's not the only way.
Kinda feel like they took the wrong direction on both of those. Small time buc should have gotten an attack nerf rather than health, 1hp makes it likely not worth it. Spirit claws change is okay I guess, problem with that card is it has always been too swingy with rng rolls on spell power. It also feels wrong they didn't touch anything with Kazakus, I have felt like the 5 mana potions are for sure too strong and possibly his mana cost should go up.
The swing wasn't the problem with the claws. 1 mana 1/3 weapon is already almost good. It's decent enough in a pinch where you can clear their 1 health dudes. But once you got a 3-attack hit on it, it was already worth it. Like Kibler said, low-mana weapons don't have the conventional "sacrifice early tempo for later game tempo" you just immediately get an amount of damage that's almost the same as a burn spell of that cost, plus you get additional tempo with later swings.
I know a lot of basic cards that could be nerfed still and wouldn't give anyone any dust.
Just saying...
This may be a stretch but here's hoping the smaller batch of changes could speak to their willingness to change small things more often rather than big changes once every 4-5 months!
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buc will get killed by, ping, rogue hero power, etc etc
But seemingly you're still not smart enough to see how much of a dent that will be to pirate warrior. I guess the new pirate decks will likely require 2x Southsea Captain and be a bit of a slower deck.