Five Card Nerfs Coming in the Next Hearthstone Update - Druids, Win Axe, Murlocs, Hex
Five card changes are coming to Hearthstone in an upcoming patch which brings nerfs to several fan favourites, three being basic cards.
- The reason for nerfs to basic cards is due to too many cards from this set being included in those classes' decks.
- They're trying to limit additions to the Hall of Fame, so they're instead nerfing Murloc Warleader.
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Blog Post
In an upcoming update, we will be making balance changes to the following cards:
Innervate
Now reads: Gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only. (Down from 2)
Fiery War Axe
Now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)
Hex
Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
Murloc Warleader
Now reads: Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack. (Down from +2 Attack, +1 Health)
Spreading Plague
Now costs 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Developer’s Note: Basic Cards and Our Stance on Hall of Fame
After careful consideration, we chose to make changes to three Basic class cards: Innervate, Fiery War Axe, and Hex. While they can be regarded as staples in those classes’ card repertoires, too many Basic and Classic cards played in individual decks means less fun when new expansions are released.
Cards in the Basic set serve several purposes in the game, so we would rather make balance adjustments to them instead of moving them to the Hall of Fame, like we have done for cards in the Classic set. We are also trying to limit Hall of Fame changes to the start of each Hearthstone Year, which is why Murloc Warleader—a Classic card—is receiving a balance change instead of moving to the Hall of Fame.
Innervate
Several powerful variations of Druid are currently seeing play, and all of them utilize Innervate. Innervate creates explosive starts to the game that can be difficult for the opposing player to recover from. This change leaves Innervate as a simple Basic card and slows down the explosive start potential, while ensuring that it will be utilized in decks that revolve around playing inexpensive spells.
What other changes did we consider?
We considered a few other options for Innervate:
- Refresh 2 Mana Crystals.
- Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only and increase the mana cost to 1.
- Gain 6 Mana Crystals this turn only and increase the mana cost to 4.
Since Innervate is a basic card, we need it to be clear and simple. Along with Wild Growth, these cards inform newer players that Druids create mana as a part of their class identity.
We kept in mind that cards like Counterfeit Coin were strong in combination with other support cards, such as Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Edwin VanCleef, and Combo cards. With the right support cards for Innervate, it may end up still seeing play, but won’t be in every deck—which is ultimately what we’re aiming for with this change.
Fiery War Axe
Fiery War Axe has been a powerful Warrior weapon since the launch of Hearthstone. Already great tempo for its cost, Fiery War Axe is well complimented by Pirates and cards that synergize with weapons. Raising its mana cost by 1 will slow down the Warrior’s tempo and lower the overall power level of the card.
What other changes did we consider?
The other option we considered for Fiery War Axe was to lower its attack to 2, but that change didn’t feel intuitive enough. Generally, changing the mana cost of a card is less disruptive, because you can always see the mana cost of cards in your hand. Despite the increased mana cost of Fiery War Axe, we expect that it will still see play—other 3 mana 3/2 weapons, like Eaglehorn Bow, can be found in decks that may not have synergy with the weapon’s card text.
Hex
We’re not making the change to Hex due to a current power-level problem. Shaman is a class that currently has a lot of flexibility, but is lacking in both class identity and identifiable weaknesses. Changing Hex makes Shaman a bit weaker against big minions and worse at silencing—having both strengths and weaknesses in a class is important.
We are very wary of cards that also incidentally work as a silence. If a player wants to utilize a card with a silence effect, they should be giving up something else. For example, if a player decides to include Spellbreaker in their deck, then they are playing a card that is weak in some situations. Priest is an exception to this rule—silence is a part of their class identity.
Even though Hex is not always played in the more aggressive Shaman decks, we will be making this forward-thinking change with the overall identity of the class in mind. This includes avoiding Shaman cards that function as direct and powerful removal. We will continue moving forward with this design philosophy to help reinforce that ideal.
Developer’s Note: Regarding Murloc Warleader and Spreading Plague
Murloc Warleader
Murlocs are good at taking an early lead, and if a player can’t clear the board in time, the game can ultimately snowball to victory using cards like Murloc Warleader. Removing the Health buff from Murloc Warleader will make it easier for players to clear the board of murlocs, and still have it remain a Classic build-around card. Simplifying health buff interactions is an additional benefit of this change. For example, in its current state, having a Murloc Warleader in play then using Wild Pyromancer and Equality would not destroy other murlocs on the board, leading to unclear interactions for some players.
What other changes did you consider?
We considered changing both Rockpool Hunter and Murloc Warleader due to the current strength of Murloc Paladin in the early stages of the game. Changing either Rockpool Hunter or Murloc Warleader would accomplish this, but there are extra advantages to changing just Murloc Warleader: The simplification of health-giving buffs and additional room for future Murlocs since Warleader will be around longer than Rockpool Hunter.
Spreading Plague
Spreading Plague is a great defensive tool for Druid to protect themselves against aggressive decks, but it was too efficient at 5 mana. Raising the mana cost to 6 will slow the card down slightly, while still allowing for the defensive minions Spreading Plague creates to be utilized in the later stages of the game.
What other changes did you consider?
We considered changing Spreading Plague to 7 mana rather than 6, since it is currently the top performing card in Jade and Taunt Druid decks. However, since we are also changing Innervate, we decided to only add 1 mana to the cost of Spreading Plague.
Developer’s Note: Regarding Other Community Card Discussions
The community has mentioned other cards in balance-related discussions, such as Ice Block and Ultimate Infestation, and we wanted to talk about those cards as well even though we are not making any changes to them at this time.
Ultimate Infestation
Our team has discussed making a change to Ultimate Infestation since it feels bad to lose to. However, our data shows us how good each individual card performs in a deck relative to other cards in that deck. Spreading Plague ended up being the best performing card in Jade and Taunt Druid, Innervate was in the top three, and Ultimate Infestation was somewhere around the middle—but it felt much more powerful since it has a huge effect when played.
We considered changing all mentions of the number 5 in Ultimate Infestation to 4, or removing one of the effects entirely. With the other changes we are making to Druid, ramping out Ultimate Infestation before turn 10 should happen less often, so we decided to leave it as is.
Ice Block
We’ve seen discussions about moving Ice Block to the Hall of Fame. As previously mentioned, moving cards to the Hall of Fame occurs at the start of the Hearthstone Year, which will occur with the first expansion release in 2018. Our general stance regarding Hall of Fame is that we want to avoid moving cards mid-year.
We are excited for these changes, and we look forward to seeing how they will shake up the game.
Once these card changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the changed non-Basic cards (Murloc Warleader and Spreading Plague) for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks. Basic cards cannot be disenchanted and will not be available for an Arcane Dust refund.
At this point all i can think is that they see the Jades are rotating out in about 6 months or so and just don't care to bother with the cards. I guess that's good for the rest of us on our wallets seeing as how nobody will want to spend money in a one deck environment.
If there had only nerfed jade cards at least big druid would still be viable :/
yea i guess but they might have went from tier 2 to tier 3 or something
None of that affects Jade Druid, in some places just makes them stronger, but sure... i'll take what I can get.
Maybe they dont want to tackle Jade Druid.
So Bad
So when is the next patch
Anyone else sad they are killing the midrange warrior archetype? Now it's either full on aggro or full on control warrior since fiery waraxe is crucial in all tempo oriented decks in the 2 cost slot
Drawing Win Axe turn 1/2 also improved full controll warriors win rate by a huge amount against aggro. (usually this was even the main reason for winning/losing against aggro)
Yeah yeah we nerfed all useful basic cards.
You want to be good? Buy new card then LUL
What? Nerf Ultimate Infestation? Hell no, we don't want to give you guys free dust! 4Head
My idea for Ultimate Infestation, even though it could never fit on a card, would be to balance it by replacing wherever a "5" currently appears on the card with "x" where x is the number of empty mana crystals gained during the game through Wild Growth, Jade Blossom, Mire Keeper and Nourish. Make the player build the major tempo reward through slower plays earlier in the game.
Part of the fun with Yogg was that it was dependent on your actions throughout the game. Make UF the same way.
Search the sales technique “Disrupt & Reframe”. It’s exactly what blizzard has done since WOW with most of their game’s new content. It’s so consistent it’s hard to not believe they are doing it. This is a subconscious technique to boost sales temporarily. It’s why they wait 1-2 months to nerf. It’s when the sales actually start to decline.
Now there’s truly broken things that slip through, and those you’ll see get ninja patched. It occurs much less often now because I believe they have gotten so good at being subtle with this sales technique.
Not all. We are still waiting for a change/nerf: Fireball, Flamestrike, Truesilver Champion, Water Elemental, Animal Companion, Arcane Intellect, Kill Command and many, many others basic cards...
I like the nerfs. I like that they are hitting the basic set cards that are auto-include in most decks. I know they are considered "core", as some people complained, but that's the point. The basic set isn't supposed to have cards that are deck defining, otherwise it gets stale and the same decks appear over and over. Murloc decks have been carried by Murloc Warleader for years, for instance, and that change is long overdue. All the other cards are staples in nearly every deck of their respective classes, due to the power of the cards
The concern, of course, is if they hit Druid enough. However, while I know everyone wants Druid nerfed hard (especially Jade Idol, IMO), it is better to nerf too little than too much, because you can't buff later, but you can nerf again if it is needed. And I know I'm in the minority here (and no, I don't play druid), but I actually agree with Blizzard on UI that it's not the real problematic card in Druid.
But yeah.... I wish Jade Idol was nerfed somehow....
Jade Idol did get a nerf. It's called Skulking Geist. Thanks to that card, Gadgetzan Auctioneer is no longer played in that deck. With the meta considerably slowing, expect Skulking Geists to be popping up like weeds against Jade Druids.
You just have no idea what you're talking about.