UPDATE
See Blizzard's new update here.
Quote from @PlayHearthstoneThank you for your feedback regarding our recent update. We saw a lot of feedback regarding the recent change to Tess Greymane and are currently discussing this change further. We will provide an update once we have more information to share.
Tess Greymane is Not Disenchantable for Full Value, Clearly a Mistake, Right?
Sigh. We had an amazing Hearthstone patch earlier today which gave us new Arena cards, plenty of bug fixes, and a new upcoming event that's going to give us a ton of dust and gold, but Blizzard really dropped the ball on Tess Greymane.
As you may be aware by now, Tess Greymane was changed in today's patch with the following adjustments.
- Tess will now replay hero cards with her Battlecry.
- Tess’s Battlecry is now limited to 30 cards, and will stop if she is silenced, killed, transformed, leaves the battlefield, or if any hero dies.
Do these changes ring a bell? It sure sounds like the nerfs we saw back in late 2016 to our favourite cuddly old god, Yogg-Saron, Hope's End.
- Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End now stops casting spells when it leaves the battlefield or is silenced.
The Change is the Same!
It should be painfully obvious at this point that these two changes are the same only we ended up getting a nice refund for Yogg if you wanted to partake in the disenchantment of our tentacled friend. Why is this different this time around? So far, Blizzard has not made a statement on the, very clear, nerf to the card and we're not sure if they are even going to.
One thing we can say for certain though is Mike Donais admitted Tess would work like pre-nerf Yogg when she was originally revealed. That right there admits their original intentions and they're now backing down on them.
Quote from Mike DonaisDoes Tess Greymane work like pre-nerf Yogg or post-nerf ?
Pre-nerf Yogg currently.
More Bologna
I wasn't letting them off that easy though. It still makes me, and plenty of you, sad that Blizzard refused to give us a dust refund for changing how Shudderwock worked. Although it was without a doubt a necessary change to preserve some sanity, many players crafted the legendary with the assumption it would go on forever. If people are wasting their expensive dust on a card, they should expect it to behave the original way. This is the whole reason why Blizzard does dust refunds in the first place - you can do cool stuff like that in a digital game.
We also need to bring up Lynessa Sunsorrow who received a major change in the patch which also is a total nerf. Previously, the buffs she received would come in the order you played them in, allowing skilled players to get crazy amounts of value out of her. Now everything is going to come down in a random order which could very easily turn out not at all in your favour. Oops. Another huge change to a card that wasn't properly handled.
While we're here, let's also go back to early 2016 when Mekgineer Thermaplugg's token, Leper Gnome, received a hit from the nerf bat. When a card calls out another exact minion or spell, and they change that card, it is a fundamental change which should have also qualified the card which spawns it a dust refund. This is different from random effects though, those pools should not move down the card chain.
But don't worry, they're giving us discounts on a pack bundle so we don't need that dust, just toss 'em some dollars!
Moving On
If they want to make this a thing going forward, that's fine, but cards need to have these same rules in place before they get released to the masses. Limit "stupid" combos to 30 maximum card plays, make things random if you're afraid of an effect. Most importantly though, give people refunds if you screwed up. Changing the card already admits you made a mistake with the original design of the card, now players need to be reimbursed for that.
Sincerely, one frustrated Hearthstone player to another.
Should Tess Greymane be Disenchantable for Full Dust Value?
Tell us what you think. Answer our poll below and leave a comment if you want to tell us more.
Also Kingsbane nerf FailFish. Deathrattle triggers without weapon being destroyed. Clap
1366 Blizzard employees and stakeholders voted no.
Well, I haven't heard this nerf was comming to Tess... And now I'm really sad I crafted a golden copy of it... Rlly wish I could get those 3200 dusts back, now...
Now, why this nerf all of a sudden? Was there any wombo-combo going on with this card lately? Tess-rogue never seemed to be a force in any meta I've seen so far...
No offense but if you crafted Tess in gold (like I did), then you clearly won’t stop playing her because of a minor change. I’ve played her probably 20 times in this xpac and she’s never once killed herself. Most of the time she just brings back minions anyway. Yogg only casted spells so there was far higher of a chance for him to die.
I did asked Ben Brode about the full DE value on Thermaplugg, he didn't answer though.
I own Tess, I crafted Tess, I will not disenchant Tess even if full refund is offered (the card and decks that revolve around it are fun to play with).
With all this said...this is BS and Blizzard should offer full dust value to those that want to dust her post nerf.
In order to promote the illusion of neutrality you need to be consistent.
If they released Tess as an equal to Yogg from the beginning, it would have been ok.
But she was actually claimed, explicitly, as different, and it made a whole difference.
Now the change is possibly good for consistency with new Yogg, but it is a nerf nonetheless.
If i steal a Fireball, i will obviously cast it for good. But then Tess has high chances of suiciding with it and i have no control on that.
It`s a garbage crybaby post, terrible "article". Go cry into your mommas saggy titties more Flux ya bish
Give full dust or Riot :GOWKratos:
not only they absolutely need to give full dust, but why are they changing her ?
i can understand the 30 card (its still clearly a nerf) but the yogg treatment is terrible !
she was not even part of the meta ! she wasn't a problem at all why nerf her ?!
Obviously the Tess change is a nerf, but the change is almost a non-factor in terms of Burgle Rogue/Tess's viability. I couldn't really care less either way.
What you care about is irrelevant, it's the impact it has on the community that matters. Saying you couldn't care less means we shouldn't care what your opinion is since you only care about your own opinion.
Couldn't care less, but showed up to comment anyway...
It's worth remembering that the Yogg nerf wasn't just about balance--it was about the perception that even high-level pro Hearthstone was just RNG. Tournament winners (who had actual good play) would blow it off saying, "well, I got a good Yogg." This was kind of a problem aside from balance. The percentage of the time Yogg actually won a game wasn't really the point. Both in E-Sports (where Yogg undermined the intended professionalism Blizzard was trying to promote) and in the general user population (where Yogg was a desperation play, which regardless of whether it was successful could bring about bad feelings), Yogg's win rate was the secondary concern.
That... isn't really an issue with Tess. Thief Rogue isn't a powerful enough archetype to really see too much tournament play, and isn't common enough and can't easily do as many off-the-wall things as Yogg. The perception issues with Yogg aren't really an issue with Tess. So the nerf probably didn't need to happen. However, I guess I understand the logic of Bliz in wanting all their Yogg-like cards to behave the same way. That's probably not ultimately unfair. But it is a lot less cool in cases where cards are both more fair than Yogg, and not as harmful to people's view of the game.
But at least they ought to give a full-dust refund. C'mon.
The problem is not just about a nerf, but the fact a card was changed. Some people dedicated several hours/days of their life to craft a card that "they wanted", and if the card "they wanted" changed in any way, then there should be a refunded.
Its the same thing as buying a Coke and then waking up and you suddenly have a Pepsi. It is a small change, but you do not have what you paid for. Same situation as Tess.
Didn't Shudderwock have a faster speed in compensation for his limit? I mean if anything that's a buff since usually you would have to wait forever to replay him using grumble, but with the speed change it would let you try things again. You don't need to necessarrily need the 20 battlecry overkill on him, you just need to be able to get to play him before rope
except it is impossible for shudderwock to suicide or otherwise take him-self out of play,
being a different card and having different mechanics probably means it needs different rules
Sorry if this is dumb, haven't opened Shudderwock yet but could you in theory play 2x Hagatha only and kill it? I feel like there's certainly a way the minion itself can die but iirc the battlecries continue to activate. Genuinely curious though, can't test myself :)
I know people are ragging on this post but I would like to thank you for writing it as it is at least partially responsible for getting a response from blizzard.