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!
It's soo hard to balance 1 drops tho; think about it, 1 hp is the difference between broken OP and just a "meh" 1 drop.
It's a response to the guy saying 1 hp makes a difference at any mana cost.
Aggro shaman joins the Hunter club. Mid Jade Shaman is the only tier 1 deck now.
There's a Confuse Priest list that has been giving me fits as when I play my Jade Shaman.
I hope they reprint pre nerf Small-Time as a Rogue class card one day.
I really like the play floors. I like to climb the ladder but always had a weakspot for hunter. Glad to know that I can play hunter more often without being punished to hard!
Well, better later than never...
I really like the change in ranked play, great idea.
All very reasonable and needed changes. Here's to a more diverse meta!
I'm pretty there will be another nerf/rotation of Classic cards once we're closer to the next expansion.
Yes! I'm very excited about these changes. Particularly the nerf to STB and the ranked play changes. STB getting dropped to 1 health is, in my mind, the best way to go. This will make a significant change to the tempo balance with the pirates package.
I like the rank changes, will have 2 wait and see how things work out as far as STB nerf.
I am quite surprise that they only did reasonable nerfs that did not destroy the cards at all. Both are still very much playable.
Nerfing without killing the cards and easier laddering, I approve this!
These changes are smart, well-targeted, and likely to achieve the effect. A lot of people predicted both. I also like the floors because it makes ladder seem like there are goals besides legend. Nicely done.
All three are fantastic and much needed updates. In particular, introducing more ranked play floors is great because it really will promote more deck experimentation at different ranks. Before, de-ranking always stopped me from trying wacky decks after I reached upper ranks.
YES!