Rogue Quest Nerf Incoming! Un'Goro Q&A this Friday!
The Caverns Below will require that Rogues now play five minions with the same name. Finally?
In addition to this upcoming change, Ben Brode and Mike Donais will be holding a live Q&A this Friday, June 30 at 10:30 AM PDT (1:30 PM EDT, 7:30 PM CEST) on the PlayHearthstone Twitch.
Poll: Is this a Good Balance Change?
What do you think? Let us know more about your opinion in the comments below.
Nerf Announcement
Quote from KeganbeIn an upcoming update, we will be making a balance change to the Rogue card: The Caverns Below.
The Caverns Below now reads: Quest: Play five minions with the same name. Reward: Crystal Core.
Since the release of Journey to Un'Goro, Hearthstone has enjoyed a wider variety of competitively viable classes and decks than ever before. We’ve been monitoring overall gameplay, and we’ve decided that—even though everything is varied and many decks are viable—a change to The Caverns Below is still warranted.
The Caverns Below is uniquely powerful versus several slower, control-oriented decks and played often enough that it’s pushing those decks out of play. This change should help expand the deck options available to players both now and after the release of the next expansion.
Blog Announcement
Quote from BlizzardThe elementals are calling! Join us June 30 at 10:30 a.m. PDT for a live Q&A session where Game Director Ben Brode and Principal Game Designer Mike Donais will be answering your questions about Journey to Un’Goro and the upcoming balance changes.
Want to learn more: Check out the forum post!
Have something you'd like to ask? Here’s how you can be part of the conversation:
- Tweet @PlayHearthstone with the hashtag #QA with your question
- Post a question below in the blog comments
- Join us live in Twitch chat and direct questions to us @PlayHearthstone
Can’t make it? Don’t worry – we will be posting the full video on the PlayHearthstone YouTube channel after the Q&A has completed.
Follow the official Hearthstone Twitch channel to be notified when the stream begins.
We’ll see you there!
No. Maybe at low ranks (15-25). Beyond that, I never see it. I see almost exclusively mage, shaman, and hunter now, with a little paladin and once in a great while, aggro druid or jade druid.
Fuuuu** yeah
Eventhough i don't think it's the proper nerf (they killed it completly) i couldnt be happier, i have 2 that are going to be disenchanted
Why is it that notable/key WoW characters such as Illidan Stormrage, Rhonin, Bol'var, Vol'jin, Anub, Cho'gall and many more, they're pretty much just joke cards, whereas the most OP cards have been Dr. Boom and Patches the Pirates. Will we ever see a revamp of the original set? I, like many who play this game also love WoW and to see characters like Dr. Boom, a level 70 NPC in Netherstorm be a card literally everyone ran apart from the most horrible of face decks, but then someone as huge as Illidan be literally unplayable. Why couldn't Illidan have been a 7/7 who summoned two Flames of Azzinoth that did the same effect, I mean sure it would have been nerfed by now but it'd be nice to see more notable WoW characters being played for many reasons, even if they are 1 mana 1/1s that do something. I get that there are some minor exceptions to this just like Tirion, Rag and Sylvanas but hearing 'I'm in charge now' got old when face warrior was popular (darkest days of Hearthstone) whereas 'you are not prepared' or doing some of the epic voices like Bol'var/Varian Wrynn did, it's a shame these characters/cards are wasted upon the game.
Now that Quest Rogue runs backstabs and tar creepers, the deck only has a minor disadvantage against aggro. Although the nerf is stupid, they should have made the quest a minion that has the same effect, so it can't be prepped. They also should have made the minions 4/5's, but thats my opinion to make it balanced. Anyways, free 1600 dust, doubt this deck will ever see the light of day again.
And after 1 month we have only quest rogues, pirate warriors and flappy bird druids. Voila!
I don't play rogue, let alone quest rogue, but will the fifth minion be that hard to get? I feel like some of the tricks I've seen can get a mionion back numerous times.
Balanced and needed. Hopefully this doesn't kill QR, just encourages more creative decks than "spam bounce plays and ram face before turn 6"
I think it will kill the hyper aggro QR that threw the whole meta towards even more aggressive aggro decks instead of the balance we enjoyed while the meta was still settling and we saw viable control decks that didn't rely on RNG to overcome mirror matches and aggro *cough control mage cough*
The community is smart enough to build a viable post-nerf QR, but idk if we're necessarily willing, since the extra bounce is more work, and climbing ladder is more of a numbers game than one of skill (up until maybe Rank 10+, then the sheer power of any deck can't overcome a skilled player who draws reasonably well).
I wouldn't mind the dust, tbh, but I'm holding out to see what I or someone else can come up with for a new take on this quest!
I honestly believe the quest didn't need a Nerf but she could of had a rework.
It wasn't op in any sense it counters control and get is weak against aggro ( that is most of the ladder).
Yeah it was annoying to be against quest rogue but also satisfying.
How about buffing Warlock quest ?
See, this is the way nerfs should be done. It's reasonable (i.e. doesn't just make the card unplayable) and it makes sense.
except for the fact that it does make it unplayable. QR is at best a tier 2 deck and is already extremely unfavored against the most common decks being played in the meta today. this change makes it virtually impossible for QR to win against these aggro decks. so once again, Blizzard decides to nerf a deck that's not near the top of the pecking order either in terms of power or prevalence and lets the aggro decks run wild. smh.
I suppose that's true, but that's assuming that the meta stays exactly the same as it is currently. It seems like the reasoning behind the nerf is to allow more control-oriented decks to survive, which if it works should make aggro decks less prevalent, thus allowing quest Rogues to still be viable. That's all theoretical, of course; we won't know for sure until the nerf actually drops.
ideally you'd be right, but the thing is QR is probably not even in the top 6 most common decks played on ladder right now (i'm pretty sure its less played right now than jade druid, which is just as oppressive to control decks if not moreso, and far worse designed, but somehow has gone much longer without a nerf), so I really don't think there's anyone not playing control right now because of QR, and thus it seems extremely unlikely to me that control decks will see any significant bump when QR dies completely. people like to blame blizzard for them playing aggro, but if you eliminate one of their excuses (QR) i think you'll see that its a lot of BS - its not blizzard's fault so much as their own weakness.
Now its actually their last chance to nerf legendaries. Starting from next expansion it will be too easy to abuse "no duplicate" system with dust reward. Since if you have all of the legendaries from given set you can manipulate what legendary you will open next by disenchanting it and thus making it only one eligible for opening. Obviously it wont have any use for normal players, but some dust moguls like Kripp will have option to buy 1000 packs and get insanely disproportional amount of dust from it.
That's an interesting strategy, but it will impact only a very small fraction of the playerbase. I don't think Blizzard particularly cares about those edge cases - what does it matter if someone who opens 400 packs at a time gets extra dust? It doesn't have the slightest impact on their bottom line, because he's still buying 400 packs!
That is a great idea
After thinking it over I realised it even complemints Blizzard - cause that way they can squeeze out a lot of money from collectors, which they otherwise wouldnt have spent.