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.
Okay I haven’t played in months okay? So I dunno what’s happening with the meta.
I don't think the deck is 'pathetic', some people might really like to play this deck.
The reason why Im happy that it's gone is that its a deck that really unfun to play against, whenever they play the first kingsbane it already wants to make me concede just for the sake of not having to play the game.
Standard player?
so .... if the changes would not hit the market today, but on the 22nd of december, then you would have been fine with them?
It wouldn’t have a made a difference to me but maybe to other players who would have not crafted it if they got notified … I mean it’s a small thing to ask and would help some people
it's an arbitrary thing to ask. 3 days? yeah, that helps all those that want to craft the card max 3 days before the nerf. the others have 3 days to enjoy their bad investment.
don't get me wrong, I also think that balance changes should not just come in an instant, at least gives everyone the chance to craft the cards that are being nerfed and enjoy them for a few days. but your comment sounded mostly bitter to me and not very helpful. i feel for you, though, crafting a legendary just to see its value go from very high to very low by a simple change to a common card :/
i loved KB, luckily i opened it by luck and could enjoy KB for a long time. the massive change to leeching poison saddens me, though. (it would also be a crappy card if they had made it a 2 mana, life steal for one turn and draw a card effect. as it is now it's a completely useless card...
happy about the wild growth nerf, because it buffs my odd druid deck. Pissed about nourish though because it nerfs my odd druid. Pissed about saronite because that card's insanely unfun and busted, but not because of shudderwok, and this nerf doesn't affect how unfun it is to play against in every deck it's in. I'm SOOOOO happy about king'sbane nerf though because SCREW that deck! Only problem is that those people will just play quest rogue which abuses the other lifesteal card. It's a nerf though boys. Once they axe cube-lock, I'll be happy!
On a side note, yet another patch where they let Prince Keleseth live though, the worst designed HS card ever concocted....
Certainly druid was a broken class with the ramp archetip, but now it will be a dead class with no identity at all. Nevertheless I feel that this changes were good but not outstanding.
FINALLY!!! FINALLY!!! THE ONLY QUESTION IS:
WTF THIS TAKE SO LONG???
"How long can this go on".
-Till 19th of December
Yes! Goodbye golden nourish! Thank you for the 800 dust!
A truly shitty nerfs, if you ask me.
Except from Saronite Chain Gang and Level Up! nerfs, which I agree with (even if I crafted Shudderwock not long ago after unpacking a Grumble, Worldshaker and even if I think Level Up! will not be enough to stop the Odd Paladin), I don't really like this continuous attack to the Druid class identity (also, what about the comparison between post nerf Wild Growth and Jade Blossom?). Kingsbane decks are powerful, ok, but a lot of people still misses that you need to GET to the ultra-powerful weapon, and believe me, facing all the brainless aggro decks on the ladder makes this VERY hard; most of the times you are dead way before you can even try to power it up.
But the worst about all of this is what has NOT been nerfed. Big Priest is still untouched, and is still one of the most unfair non-aggro deck that you can play against: no skill, 100% luck, extremely performing. Aggros, on the other hand, fill the wild ladder and just Odd Paladin is receiving a minor hit.
Bad job.
Wait what big Priest? lmao
The problem with druid IS its identity. All druid decks had to have two copies of both Wild Growth and Nourish, and it made every combo druid basically the same deck but with different combos. It made other druid decks not worth playing. Now that these cards are considerably worse, it encourages diversity, because now including them can be bad for your deck. Jade Idol isn't objectively better than Wild Growth, because it doesn't draw you a card if you play it when you have 10 mana, it's only good in a Jade Druid deck. Also, a common wild card being a little better than a basic card isn't a problem, even if that was the case.
Kingsbane decks aren't fun to play against. Dealing with the constant threat of consistent damage output from them without the lifesteal is hard enough for a control deck. With the lifesteal, you can't even kill them if it's not in one turn. Kingsbane isn't very consistent against aggro anyway, so its existence encourages combo decks (not fun to play against due to little interactivity) and aggro decks (not fun to play against due to their matches being heavily reliant on draw RNG, and as a result, leading to uninteractive gameplay). Blizzard don't like no uninteractive gameplay, so they encourage decks that don't ruin the game for other players. That means decks that are too consistent, therefore being better than any other deck, and as a result leading to uninteractive gameplay and less diversity in the meta. Most aggro decks aren't as consistent as Odd Paladin. They are easily countered by control, midrange or other aggro decks that happened to have better draws. If you really hate aggro, play a heavy control deck. Play a midrange deck that can deal with aggro consistently. Modify your deck of choice to better counter the decks you're facing. That how you play the game.
It is a staple in card games with a limited number of copies to offer alternatives that are worse in all senses, because now you can have 4 Jade blossoms, although two of them are worse. It lets players decide if the card is worth more slots, even if those versions are sub-par.
Magic does this all the time, and I find it very interesting and fun
I find it fun that they nerfed rogue by removing the thing that doesn't belong to rogue: healing
RIP Kingsbane. Thank god
Idk who downvoted you, probably will do mine too but I agree with wild growth. You're better off playing the Sprite. At least you get a body with it.
Wild Growth will always ramp you up to 5 mana, letting you play a 5 mana card on turn 4
Greedy Sprite is a deathrattle, that doesn't always let you do that. They don't always kill your Greedy Sprite the turn after you play it, so you still have a 4 mana play on turn 4, then you get a 6 mana play on turn 5. Sure you get the body, but if you have a 5 mana play that you want, you play Wild Growth. If you have a 6 mana play, then you play Greedy Sprite.
Also Wild Growth gives you the option to draw a card. Greedy Sprite doesn't.
And Greedy Sprite is rotating in 3 months.
Blizzard Diary Log: After 48 weeks we discovered that shudderwock and saronite is a broken combo