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.
True story.
On first look I thinked - WTF!
But after reading full blue post, I found chages realy reasonable and totally ok.
I hope for an expansion that bring legendary class weapons, (i have a theory with next expansion, it can be in "Booty Bay" ), and warriors weapon should be a very strong one
There's still plenty of ramp in druid to play ultimate. Until they change it in some way you would be a fool not toplay it.
Fiery War Axe didn't really need a nerf, there are so many more cards that should get priority nerfs. And this might completly destroy the card.
On the other hand Murloc Warleader probably took the biggest hit. It makes Murlocs weaker trades are becoming clumsy, it will become harder for murlocs to stay on board, Finja took a hit as well. In the past every time when you pulled Murloc Warleader with Finja, Finja would survive which was +2/+1 for a potentially 0 hp minion. I don't know how good murlocs will be after this nerf.
Spreading Plague nerf is barley even a nerf. Druid runs 4-6 ramp cards and it's fairly easy for Druid to cast a 6 mana spell. Every now and than that 1 mana nerf can cause some problems, but in most cases it wont even be noticable. More logical nerf would be for minions to be 1/4 instead of 1/5. Comparing Spreading Plague to Protect the king you'll see how this card is problematic in any class especially in class that ramps. For 2 (3 now) extra mana you are getting +0/+4 on every minion. Introduction of Spreading Plague was a mistake by Blizzard.
worst nerf i've ever seen
even worse than warsong commander's
Blizzard, how about Jade Idol? Oh, and fok you
From an Arena perspective, Warrior just became dogshit. Wonder if they care?
Innervate, the counterfeit Counterfeit Coin
I'm done with this game, nothing they do makes the game better, just making more reasons to stop playing. Well have fun others who still enjoy this game.
Why nerf Hex though? The only viable shaman deck right now doesn't even run it.
They deliberately don't mention Jade Idol. Sad.
So basically now if you don't buy 40+ packs from either KFT or Ungoro you literally can't play ladder? Really Blizzard? Stop nerfing cards that are good for players that want to get into the game
Data clearly shows Priest isn't "the real problem".
This change is about balance, not about fun.
The data is being misinterpreted then. If Priest draws Raza and DK by turn 8, then they crush everything in a no-skill, non-interactive manner. If they don't draw Raza and DK, then they get crushed. This might make the win rate appear more balanced, but doesn't change the fact that Priest is a broken deck overall. Swingy decks like this hurt the game. Did you check the data to see how many times playing Raza on turn 5 and drawing DK by turn 8 occurred and what the outcome was? I doubt it. Also fuck Barnes + that 4 mana card that discovers a fallen minion and revives it to the board. That type of swingy randomness is stupid regardless of overall win rates.
I wanted to see Innvervate become a legendary card, take away the consistency of having it and potential to use it twice in a turn to gain an unreasonable amount of advantage.
Cursed Blade: it's my time to shine!!
Cursed Blade: oh wait, im in a wild set, shet :(
pd: dont misunderstand me, was a fun coment xd
R.i.p. druid
This song is not for the living
WTF, the most needed nerf card is Ultimate Infestation. Why nerf the axe, hex, and warleader?
Am I the only one to actually like the changes? The only thing im not a big fan as a control shaman player is hex but i agree - mana cost was too low. Edwin shouldnt be problem still thanks to devolve.
Overall im looking forward to seeing how the game will change.
Anyway... I dont play constructed because you have to be mental to enjoy facing the same shit all over again LUL so dont care about jade druid nor other broken, boring, monotonous meta decks. Dont meet any of them in casual. And even if i do, concede is pretty easy to find and people sometimes even change some cards in meta decks brought to casual, which makes them more acceptable to play against :)