Upcoming Hearthstone Balance Changes - Wild Growth, Nourish, Level Up!, Saronite Chain Gang, Leeching Poison CHANGES ARE NOW LIVE
Five card changes are coming to Hearthstone on December 19th, which is... today!
- [Discuss this Change] Wild Growth now costs 3, up from 2.
- [Discuss this Change] Nourish now costs 6, up from 5.
- [Discuss this Change] Level Up! now costs 6, up from 5.
- [Discuss this Change] Saronite Chain Gang now summons another Saronite Chain Gang, instead of a copy of the minion.
- [Discuss this Change] Leeching Poison now costs 1, down from 2, and only gives Lifesteal for 1 turn.
Check out Blizzard's post below for more information on each of the changes.
Quote from BlizzardIn an update scheduled to arrive December 19 PST, the following cards will be changed.
Developer’s Note: This balance update is focused on improving the long-term health of both Standard and Wild. We've opted to make these changes earlier in the expansion cycle than we normally consider; we'd like to hear your feedback on the timing of this update, in addition to what you think of all the individual card changes.
Wild Growth – Will cost 3 mana. (Up from 2)
Nourish – Will cost 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Wild Growth and Nourish have been present in every mid-range, combo, and control Druid deck since their introduction in the Basic and Classic set. When cards from the Basic and Classic set are too powerful, they can have negative long-term effects on the game. Continuously playing against these cards can start to feel repetitive, and they can feel so mandatory that they stifle creative deckbuilding decisions. By increasing the mana cost of both cards by one, we expect them to be considerations in late-game control Druid decks, but more difficult to fit in strategies that don’t directly take advantage of ramping mana.
Level Up! – Will cost 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Odd Paladin has consistently been one of the most powerful and most played decks since its introduction in The Witchwood. By removing Level Up from Odd Paladin, we still expect it to be a competitive board control deck, just with more consistent damage output that should be easier to play around.
Saronite Chain Gang – Now reads: Taunt. Battlecry: Summon another Saronite Chain Gang.
Shudderwock brings an interesting combo to the table, but playing Shudderwock multiple times in a single game can be frustrating. Changing Saronite Chain Gang makes playing multiple Shudderwocks in a game much more difficult. Shudderwock should now exist as a powerful one-turn effect rather than constantly copying itself with Saronite Chain Gang’s Battlecry.
Leeching Poison – Will cost 1 mana. (Down from 2). Now reads: Give your weapon Lifesteal this turn.
We love the fantasy of building a powerful weapon over the course of a game with Kingsbane, but granting it a permanent Lifesteal effect with Leeching Poison resulted in an endgame with few weaknesses, as well as conflicting with our philosophy that Rogues should not have persistent self-healing effects. Making the Lifesteal effect only active for one turn should address some of the power level issues with Kingsbane Rogue’s late game.
Kiwii's Thoughts
Resident deck architect Kiwiinbacon had some thoughts on the nerfs.
no Shudderwock ?
I can't agree with the lifesteal one, they killed the entire kingsbane type. Could've just nerfed it, although, imho it wasn't necessary ( I may be entirely incorrect here, I don't have analytics data, just a humble opinion as I enjoyed playing kingsbane ).
wow, i'm actually quite surprised that these are a) necessary and b) good
just took waaaay too long
only things i'd like to see is change UI to all 4s, not 5s and a couple zoo fixes, but alright
All the last nerfs were pretty close after expansion releases. I think they might hope something stops the cards from the new expansion, see that they don't and nerf after that.
Ballin' nerfs.
Kingsbane decks will be completely dead. Leeching poison gave the deck incredible survivability and extremely important to have it early and throughout the match especially to win against aggro decks. This is a nerf that I'm SO glad has happened, and I'm glad they went about it perfectly.
As for Shudderwock...I mean kinda unnecessary since Saronite rotates next expansion but eh better late than never I guess. I always felt that the Shudderwock otk combos should have been exclusive to wild because it is just so degenerate.
Druid Ramp nerfs..I actually don't agree with Wild Growth going to 3 mana but I do agree with the Nourish nerf.
Level Up - Much easier to prepare for this, I agree it feels too powerful on turn 5, kinda like how spreading plague was. Too powerful for Odd Paladin and now that it's even cost even Paladin will play this but again won't be as powerful as turn 5 level up in odd paladin.
I doubt Level Up will be played at all at 6 mana. It wasn't even played at 5 mana until Baku (the card has been around since Kobolds). At 5 mana, you need at least 3 dudes to make it worth it, and only Odd Paladin can ensure that consistently. At 6 mana, you need 4 dudes to make the card worth it stat-wise, and a regular paladin is just not capable of making that happen.
I'm not here for discussion I'm just giving my thoughts....
Lol I'm guessing the downvotes belong to salty Kingsbane and Odd Paladin players.
Probably, I never take them seriously, it's usually more emotion than logic.
It was played in normal aggressive paladin before baku, it was part of the murloc package, and level up was so strong alone side call to arms that they put in some other silver hand recruit synergies to make them better. It was a strong card, just baku abuses it. I think it'll still be playable, just not to its power level.
Level up is even now. Can’t be played in odd decks...
Never liked Odd Paly, whether playing it or facing it, so I'm glad that's getting a nerf. Always had to be careful with Silver Hand Recruits getting their extra stats, and boy were there a lot of them. Sure, it was possible to clear them before there were too many, but the fact that they had to be focused down to that extent showed just how much of a swing Level Up! could provide, especially paired with a Vinecleaver or Lost in the Jungle. We don't see as many Odd Paladins as we used to, though, and it's a shame nerfs are coming only when rotation is coming.
I know Druid should be getting a nerf, having played quite a bit of Togg Druid, but it's still sad seeing nerfs hit the entire class so close to rotation. Class flavor hasn't been the thing Blizz focused on these days, but how is Druid going to be played after their armor and draw disappears? All they'd have left is their nerfed "ramp" cards. I'm still debating whether or not they actually play test their nerfs, but perhaps I'm just overthinking them.
Saronite Chain Gang, I mean, I get that Shudderwock can be a clown fiesta, but did they really have to nerf it to this extent? They could've at least let the copy keep the buffs of the original, or was Blizz too much of a small indie company to make that change? Now, there's no more handbuff/Val'anyr shenanigans, effectively ruining the flavor this card was once a part of. And this mainly hits Shudderwock in Standard. Sure, Wild may also get hit by this, but they at least have the alternative of Doppelgangster, even if Shudderwock Shaman will suffer a lower winrate regardless.
Kingsbane Rogue.... well I haven't played this in a while. Maybe it'll be alright, forcing Rogue to think further ahead and not rely on 11+ lifesteal every turn while their opponent is taking huge amounts of fatigue. Maybe it'll be as people say as they autoconcede against aggro. I dunno.
Exactly my thoughts. Kingsbane was unique, but not entertaining to play against. Now things should change. Well, or Kingsbane will become a history (I hope it wont).
About druid, I just lost to Malydruid on turn 7. It was like turn 5 that 4-4 dude, turn 6 Maly + Swipe and shit. I don't like this kind of games tbh. Druid has few very strong archetypes, they have ramp, ton of armor, Maly, Togg, Hadronox. Also tokens is a thing. Now they will have at least some struggle in ramp
Paladin, rot in hell.
Don't celebrate too early, Even Paladin is secretly good already and got a huge buff...
I meant odd paladin.
Exactly, I don't know how the hell people don't realise this. I posted this below and got downvoted so hard, my ass hurts. Even is arguably getting stronger than Odd already, and this could just make the deck intolerable.
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! I literally had just uninstalled yesterday but we’re back! It’s like Blizzard knew! Now if we could get a proper Deathstalker Rexxar nerf (8 mana, cough...) and a healzoo nerf (happy ghoul?) all would be right in the universe. If cube got touched too, I might just instantly transport to heaven.
Are you f***ing kidding me? I just mass DE'd yesterday, and every single one of them (except Wild Growth) was a multiple duplicate. Thanks for the heads up, T5.
Also, while I'm kind of sad Odd Pally is nerfed to oblivion, hello OP as hell Even Pally. The smarter nerf would've been +1/+1 so that lesser board clears could hit it. The Saronite nerf is just completely and utterly dumb.
Oh, I'm seeing posts about no refunds - are they not being refunded when de'd?
Dude: if they'd announced it today but set the date for a week from now, guess what? You'd be in the same boat. Someone will ALWAYS get screwed by announcement timing. Today it was you. Take the L.