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.
yes it does, WILD still exists
In my opinion it is, its still quite long until rotation, I hope it will refresh the meta where these cards have played a big role for months already.
More than 3 months left until rotation, so it matters.
Cmon guys, this is shit!
Yes. Your comment is in fact shit
Conspiracy time...
Normally Blizzard posts a new update to do nerfs. But the timing of these nerfs, the short notification, and the lack of update makes me think that these nerfs were already planned. They were included in the RR update secretly, and after a short period of time, Blizzard realized that the new update was not going to fix Kingsbane, Odd Pally, Druidstone, and Shudderwock. So they unveiled the nerfs that they were planning to do anyway, and that would have only been delayed/canceled if the meta had shifted.
This is great, if true. Blizzard is anticipating what nerfs need to come and responding with foresight. I have no proof it’s true. But if it is, then we should expect that the pattern continues in the next expansion.
CAN'T.. D\E WILD GROWTH, MUST... PRESS.... HARDER..!
Most of the Wild ladder: *Laughs in Even Shaman,Big Priest and Odd Rogue*
WG & Nourish have been hit hard. Yet these nerfs are probably good and we might still see the cards being played.
Level-Up: basically the same change that happened to call to arms - CtA was taken out of reach for even paladin, level up is taken out of reach for odd paladin. the nerf to level-up was long overdue. i mean, boring odd paladin terrorized the meta for 8 months now. nerfing baku, however, might have been the better choice... now all you fixed is odd paladin. not odd rogue (quite a power house in wild), nor odd warrior (which is insanely polarizing aswell)
saronite: in wild there's still doppelgangster. this nerf apparently hit zoo warlock as well. saronite has been one of the most dominant rares in ages. Since ages it has been one of the most popular minions on any HCT tournament. Anyone remember Infested Tauren? ... almost same power level *cough*.
leeching poison: while i agree that KB is insanely polarizing (in wild, in standard it's ... ok-meh), this really kills the archetype completely. rogue is not supposed to leech life, i agree, but i see no way for the legendary named KB to ever see play again. (well, unless leeching poison is reprinted, that is ... e.g. as a battlecry minion :D). probably people will dislike me for that, but i really liked playing KB. it's quite polarizing indeed. but even just halving the life leech would give players like me a way to dream :D
I totally agree about Kingsbane, it was hella frustrating to verse, but playing with it against aggro was just a nightmare sometimes.
It beats a few popular decks like deathrattle hunter or even warlock, but it feels like a really fair fight against things like shudderwock shaman or malygos druid.
KB beats control that doesn't OTK you, and tbh, that's not a huge amount of decks these days?
Ha ha, okay now where are the Hunter changes-
Oh.
I will hunt you down
Why not taking WG and Nourish to the Hall of Fame instead?
Because ramp is still a vital theme for Druid and both are likely still usable if the deck needs ramp badly enough.
Is the Leeching Poison nerf really necessary? Kingsbane hasn’t been relevant for months. Even then it wasn’t a problem and was the only way Rogues could get healing.
Did you play ladder at all lately? It's infested with Kingsbane rogue.
This deck is everywhere on the ladder, like what? Give me your rigged matchmaking please.
Someone didn't log onto the game since Raiding Party came into being, it seems.
not trying to be a dick, this is a serious question:
What rank are you? 1 out of 15 games is kingsbane rogue for me. At 5-legend
Kingsbane rogue is 5.74% of the ladder and officially tier 2. Spell Hunter is 11.96% on officially tier 1. Facts are way more useful in a debate, FYI.