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!
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)Despite feeling Small-Time Buccaneer is the better choice for a nerf, I was really hoping for Patches. I really wanted to gain full dust for the golden Patches I opened in a pack shortly after the expansion came out :(
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)...and, as a pleb, I'm excited about the changes to ladder. For highly skilled players that reach legend every season, the change doesn't affect your monthly climb. For casual players, it improves the climb, allows you to try different decks with mitigated risk, and increases your chance of reaching legend. I can't imagine why anyone cough aivdov cough would disapprove of a change aimed at creating a better ranking experience for all players. Many players possess the necessary skill but fail to reach legend because of time constraints.
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Posted Feb 17, 2017 (Gadgetzan)>"improves the climb"
translation: makes it easier and devalues the meaning of it
>"allows you to try different decks"
you are allowed to try different decks now, too and the risk is exactly the same as before
>"increases your chance of reaching legend"
translation: makes it way easier and once again devalues the meaning of it
>"better ranked experience"
Totally. Facing delusional scrubs in my games for a longer time is such a better experience, can't wait! Oh and I also can't wait for the spam of "LEGEND" decks on hearthpwn!
>"Many players possess the necessary skill but fail"
If they fail they don't have the skill and it's definitely not a time cosntraint. I've reached legend in 2 hours from rank 5 ~3 months ago on the 8th day of the season. I've reached legend last season in 2.5 hours from rank 5 on stream on the second half of the month. I don't play much, but I don't complain about not having enough time to reach legend because it's skill that defines where you end up in the long run.
Also by removing combo decks and making this game about curvestone it reduces the value of skill and pushes the winrates closer to 50% regardless and simply makes you spam games. Idk how you think all of this makes the ladder better.
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Posted Feb 17, 2017 (Gadgetzan)I'm truly sorry Blizzard is devaluing (in your mind) the sole thing you're good at in life. Next time you're on the big stage at Blizzcon make a comment about it...oh wait you probably barely reach legend every month and fall slightly above the plebs you're so against.
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Posted Feb 17, 2017 (Gadgetzan)Nice assumptions and a personal attack on me when I didn't say a word about you except stated the obvious results from those changes. And clearly you didn't read. Reaching it from rank 5 in 2 hours isn't "barely". And I'm sorry to tell you, but I don't have to be in blizzcon on the main stage to make observations. Blizzard is as low as it can get for a company right now.
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Posted Feb 17, 2017 (Gadgetzan)The basis for your first post was a personal attack on a good number of players because you hold the false belief that lack of skill is the sole reason people don't reach legend every month. It's not. Helping other people get a little more out of the game without taking away from the competitive aspect is a good thing. You won't see a huge influx of people hitting legend because of the change. It simply makes it a little easier to move from one plateau to another. Moving past 10 without the fear of falling back doesn't mean a player will suddenly gain the ability to hit legend. The same is true for rank 5. Blizzard chose the levels with purpose. You're argument is equivalent to saying the achievements of a successful person with money and nice home are some how devalued by putting steps in place to bring everyone above the poverty level, despite the fact that his house and bank account won't change. I guarantee you won't notice a significant change in your experience on ladder. Don't worry, you won't have to interact with the plebs as often as you fear.
I apologize for narrowing the attack on you personally. I should have started by insulting a large portion of the player base.
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Posted Feb 17, 2017 (Gadgetzan)>lack of skill is the sole reason
No. But if you have skill you won't complain about being unable to reach legend. There are people who reach legend with the same amount of time on average. If you can't reach it in that amount of time that means you actually do lack skill.
And the comparison is incorrect. If you're given welfare to get out from poverty – you didn't have to do anything at all and you didn't get to impact the person who has built a bank. Now when you play football but the gate becomes twice as big. Many more players will be able to score a goal and the meaning of a hat trick devalues by a lot.
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Posted Feb 17, 2017 (Gadgetzan)Although I'll keep disagreeing with you about skill being the sole reason, it doesn't really matter. In fact, your stance on skill contradicts your original complaint. Allowing a person to remain at a certain rank helps alleviate the stress of laddering for a small subset of players. An even smaller subset of players will actually get enough of a boost from the change to move into the legend ranks. Mostly players able to reach rank 5 that typically fall short of legend. Players without the ability to reach rank 5 on the current ladder won't suddenly gain the skill reach the rank 5 plateau, and they definitely won't find themselves reaching legend any time soon. The only aspect of ranking the change could possibly improve is the amount of time needed to level, which by your own repeated argument doesn't really matter in the end.
In short, blow by the players the change is meant for in the first 5 hours, and you won't be affected by the change at all. The point of my argument was the change is aimed at helping the casual player enjoy the ladder, while maintaining the skill cap inherent in the game separating players that reach legend every season from the player base benefited by the new ranking system.
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Posted Feb 18, 2017 (Gadgetzan)>helping the casual player enjoy the ladder
How does that help the casual player to enjoy the ladder? If he feeds wins away with a trash deck it insanely inflates the amount of stars and that's nowhere close to enjoying the ladder. And why is a casual player supposed to be playing ladder in the first place? And why would a casual player care about reaching legend? And the people who would reach legend will claim to be legend at hearthstone when it will mean jack shit compared to previous iteration of ladder. You clearly don't get the implications this change sets for the future. Also "your false belief" remark isn't true just because you've said it. I'm done talking to a delusional wall like you. I'm not here to pull you up while wasting my time. You have to pull yourself up.
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Posted Feb 18, 2017 (Gadgetzan)Thank you for talking to me. You sure pulled me up. I'm glad you hold such a high opinion of yourself. Come back in a couple of months and tell me if see a noticeable difference in your game play as such a high legend player. You think it's the truth simply because you say it, despite proving you wrong based on your own argument. Enjoy your devalued game.
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Posted Feb 20, 2017 (Gadgetzan)Very well said. I play the game since day 1, and have managed to reach Legend rank just once, despite being close several times. I'm 45 years old with a job, wife and three kids. Always loved games, but time to play is not on my side these days, hehe. I don't like how you are forced to stick with the meta if you are really serious at climbing the ladder every month. The game gets repetitive, especially with aggro decks like pirate warrior and shaman. I think we all wonder sometimes during that tedious climb: "What if I try that deck I created..." But would I dare? Risk getting pwd with several losses in a roll while adjusting the gameplay? Falling, no, rocketing down the ladder just because you dared try something outside the box. So thanks Blizzard for the Milestones. Rank 20,10, 5. Oh and that Legendary month of mine? I was home sick and with the kids at school, the force... time was on my side.
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)I like how plebs eat this up while in reality this ranked change means you just have to spam games to reach legend regardless of how bad you are. Bad players will have easier time to get to rank 10, thus to rank 5, thus to legend. Devalues the meaning of legend and devalues the meaning of ranks while keeping bad players delusional about their skill. LMAO
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)a lot of games are losed because of your opponent's luck, it prevents good players to not de-rank because of lucky bast*rds
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)This is called dunning-kruger. Look into it. I never had any problem at all in regards to derank. I even deranked from rank 1-5stars to 6 in one season and didn't reach legend that month in the past. But it's not the system. It's my play that made me derank.
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Posted Feb 15, 2017 (Gadgetzan)These cards needed to be nerfed, but two things:
#1 Patches should give you a full dust refund, as the STB nerf is likely going to kill the pirate decks as we know it.
#2 Im really afraid Jade Druid is going to come back in a big (annoying) way. When MSG first dropped, you saw so many Jade Druids.. the only thing that phased them out was the rise of pirate warrior and then aggro shaman... If Jade Druid comes back, ... RIP renolock
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)-
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)Good. Reno is one of the most cancerous additions to this game they've ever made and I hope it dies. Can't believe they encouraged such a stupid mechanic that just gives second chances to people that don't deserve it. It's just as bullshit as healbot was. Large heals should be restricted to classes that were designed around having such just like weapons and secrets are. Reno matches are always lopsided and stupid. Either he swings the game completely around and rewards the player playing the shitty deck by giving them a win they shouldn't get or the other player is already so far ahead that the big heal doesn't matter. One time I played a renomage in wild that had duplicates in his deck and got an echo of medivh off a babbling book. 4 renos latter, I still managed to beat him. Sure, that makes the card look like shit, but when you can get someone playing reno one turn away from death, then they heal back to full and overpower you, it feels like shit to be on the receiving end of it. It is not a well designed mechanic. It is cheesy idiotic and they need to stop designing around that style of play.
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)lets nerf everything and play basic cards only, oh wait, wisp is too strong
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)My warrior and shaman decks should give me a full dust refund. as Small-Time Nerf is likely going to kill those decks.
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Posted Feb 16, 2017 (Gadgetzan)