Blizzard Addresses Problems - Tess Greymane, Shudderwock, Quest Druid at HCT Seoul
- An update on June 8th, PDT, will change some cards.
- Tess Greymane's Battlecry will once again continue even if she is destroyed, silenced, or removed.
- Shudderwock's Battlecry limit will be increased to 30, from 20.
- Players with Quest Druid decks at HCT Seoul are allowed to submit a new list if they wish due to changes.
- Ultimately, they only want to give out dust refunds if a card has a "decrease [in] their overall power level for balance purposes".
Quote from Jesse HillGreetings,
Thank you for your feedback regarding the recent Update 11.2. We apologize for not offering notice in advance of these changes before they went live. We understand that this wasn’t a good experience and that it also had an impact on some of our esports competitors as well. This wasn’t an acceptable situation all around, and we’ll do better in the future.
Update 11.2 brought with it some changes as part of our ongoing, overall goal to make card interactions more intuitive across the board. The intention of some of those changes was to align four similar cards (Tess Greymane, Lynessa, Shudderwock, and Yogg-Saron). If you’re familiar with the way that one of these minions works, you should be able to guess how the others work. We added a cap to the maximum number of effects that can be generated by these Battlecries, and made Tess’ Battlecry end if she was destroyed, silenced, or otherwise removed, just like Yogg-Saron.
After hearing your feedback to that change, we initially considered offering a full Arcane Dust refund for Tess. We also read feedback from players who use Tess in their decks asking for her to be reverted to her old functionality. In this case, we agree that it’s worthwhile to sacrifice some consistency so Tess is more fun to play, especially since our priority wasn’t to decrease Tess’ power level. With that in mind, instead of offering an Arcane Dust refund and encouraging players to disenchant the card, we’re reverting one of the changes to Tess Greymane so that her Battlecry will continue even if she’s destroyed, silenced, or otherwise removed from the board.
This situation has also raised discussions regarding the definition of a card fix versus a dust-refunding nerf, so we thought this would be a good time to talk about our stance on the subject.
We will continue to provide full Arcane Dust refunds for changes to cards that decrease their overall power level for balance purposes — in other words, card nerfs.
We’re working to improve Hearthstone and make the underlying mechanics more intuitive. Bug fixes or system-wide mechanics changes to improve the game will not be grounds for a full Arcane Dust refund on a card. System-wide mechanical updates affect many different cards in ways that could make some more or less powerful, such as the interaction between Jungle Giants and Faceless Manipulator.
Lynessa Sunsorrow was never intended to apply her buffs in the order they were cast, so the update to her functionality in 11.2 was a bug fix for that card. The cap of 30 effects is a system-wide change intended to protect the service and players from potentially bad play experiences that have minimal player value. We’re planning to raise the cap of Shudderwock’s Battlecry from 20 to 30 when we implement the fix that reverts Tess, as well.
We’re currently planning to revert the change that caused Tess Greymane to stop casting her Battlecry when destroyed, silenced, or otherwise removed on June 8th PDT.
HCT Seoul and Quest Druid
We also would like to take this moment to apologize to our player community for this update’s impact on the HCT Tour Stop taking place in Seoul this weekend, specifically the 15 players who brought Quest Druid decks.
After considering recent feedback and significant discussion, we felt that Quest Druid decks were most directly affected in terms of viability as a result of the changes that were introduced with Update 11.2. As such, we allowed players that brought Quest Druid an opportunity to resubmit their deck.
Balancing the health of the game with the needs and calendar of a global esport like the Hearthstone Championship Tour is always challenging. This wasn’t an acceptable situation all around, for us, our players, and competitors, and we’ll do better in the future.
Thanks again for your feedback and your understanding, and we'll see you in the Tavern.
So they just rather revert a change they made, which they made for a reason (i imagine), than just give us dust if they do. Classy.
Nope, not at all what they said. But way to have a totally unoriginal take.
/facepalm
Neither of these cards are changing this is a game mechanics change to make things more intuitive. Just because this change has some negative impact on previous interactions the cards themselves have stayed the same.
Learn the difference.
Ok, great for Tess. But why the hell are they buffing Shudderwock?
It's not going to affect the current versions you can find of ladder where the game is already decided before you can reach 20 battlecries.
cuz his jaws that bite, his claws that catch.
“..and remained the meme-Master he was meant to be..”
Did you know that Blizzard are the ones who make this game, make the cards and decide which cards go into which expansion?
If you answered yes, then you also know that since Yogg became a tier-deck then Yogg was not ‘meant to be’ only a meme card since they designed everything.
"Yogg became a tier-deck then Yogg was not ‘meant to be’ only a meme card since they designed everything."
You're assuming Blizzard has the ability to foresee every card's power level in every meta and how the cards will be used. OF COURSE Blizzard did not intend for Yog to be a tier 1 card. The moment it did, they nerfed it, because they know as well as anyone else that it would be unacceptable to have Yogg define actual competitions. You really think that just because Blizzard designs the cards, the cards will be used as Blizzard intends?
Why don't they just give you free dust for EVERY card that's not getting a nerf? Why not 100 free packs while they're at it, if making people happy should be their main goal? Wait, 100's not enough, greedy Bli$$ard, give me 300 free packs!
Will anything ever be enough?
The reason they give dust refunds in the first place is to help the players affected by the nerf. If you are not affected by the nerf then why do you believe Blizzard should bend over backwards to help you instead of just reverting the nerf so the people that were actually affected by the nerf can go back to playing the deck they built?
If you hate it so much, stop playing and go troll another forum. Easy, dawg.
Why sacrifice consistency instead of just give a dust refound? They always talk about "confusing players" and then they decide to keep cards with the same mechanics working differently.
I think this is the right approach, considering the number of quest druid decks it also doesn't seem to be too much of an issue really.
Why???
Wait, so they're still going to leave Shudderwock broken ?!
once it hits the board, it's pretty much over.
It looks like they agree that their games are to end in an entirely unbalanced fashion, either as quest druid, or as Shudderwock.
...and at least 3 other cards have previously been played and the game lasted for 9 turns. Doesn't seem that crazy tbh.
Either we won, or this was their play all along and something is coming. Blizz don't just usually do us a favour. Something is fishy for me, but who knows
The community has won!!
blizzard win
No, why should you?