Hearthstone Nerfs Coming February 5 - Equality, Cold Blood, Hunter's Mark & More
Five Hearthstone card changes are coming next week in an update scheduled for February 5. The following cards have mana cost increases.
- [Discuss] Cold Blood - Cost increased to 2 mana. (Up from 1)
- [Discuss] Flametongue Totem - Cost increased to 3 mana. (Up from 2)
- [Discuss] Equality - Cost increased to 4 mana. (Up from 2)
- [Discuss] Hunter's Mark - Cost increased to 2 mana. (Up from 1)
- [Discuss] Emerald Spellstone - Cost increased to 6 mana.(Up from 5)
Check out Blizzard's post below for further information.
Quote from BlizzardWhen we talk about changes that are in store for Hearthstone cards, we normally talk about each card individually to explain why we think that change is needed.
This time, we’re doing things a little differently because most of the upcoming changes are happening for the same reason. Here’s why we’re changing these cards and our general philosophy behind this update.
We think Hearthstone is most fun when strategies are consistently evolving. When new cards are released, we’d like for older expansion decks to get a few interesting new pieces while also allowing you to experiment with the totally new archetypes that emerge. When Basic and Classic cards become so broadly effective—no matter what you’re facing—that they drive what deck styles are considered viable every expansion, then it makes that goal difficult to achieve.
Basic and Classic are sets that, ideally, should embody the flavor and mechanics of each Class. As we’ve mentioned before, cards in these sets can become an issue when they make all other strategies look less interesting. This doesn't mean is that all Basic and Classic cards should be ineffective, however. It’s hugely important to us that these sets contain a good number of cards that are great tools for different situations and deck archetypes.
We’re changing these particular cards because each one has been highly prevalent, regardless of what strategies have been popular or what other cards have existed around them. When Basic and Classic cards become this ubiquitous, they take away some of the flexibility players have when building decks, ultimately stifling the diversity of decks we see when playing Hearthstone.
The following changes are intended to shift these cards from general-purpose “auto-includes” into options that are more likely to be chosen for decks that are focused on strategies that capitalize on what these cards have to offer.
- Cold Blood – Will cost 2 Mana. (Up from 1)
- Flametongue Totem – Will cost 3 mana. (Up from 2)
- Equality – Will cost 4 mana. (Up from 2)
- Hunter’s Mark – Will cost 2 mana. (Up from 1)
Emerald Spellstone – Will cost 6 mana. (Up from 5)
The only non-Basic or Classic card in this round of changes. We want to position Emerald Spellstone as an efficient mid- and late-game threat, so we’re moving its cost up by one to reduce its utility as an early-game, aggressive tempo option. This change—along with the Hunter’s Mark change—is aimed at addressing Hunter’s prevalence, while still leaving it as a viable option.
We look forward to seeing how the meta shakes out in the coming months. Thanks for reading, and good luck on the ladder.
Once these updates are live, players will be able to disenchant the changed non-Basic cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.
Flametongue Totem and Hunter’s Mark are Basic cards, and cannot be disenchanted.
Iksar Talks About The Nerfs
Quote from IksarMidrange Hunter is still gonna be prevalent, that equality nerf though, ouch.
I hope so, the goal wasn't to completely invalidate Hunter archetypes, or really any of the cards we changed. When we make a balance change it's less about looking at the current environment and more about trying to understand what Hearthstone is like after we make changes. Statistically, Secret Hunter was the most powerful deck in the game and close to the most popular. We felt like there wasn't a huge long-term downside to changing the secret build-around card that is likely to get more powerful over time in Wild while we can protect against Secret Hunter separating itself from the pack even more than it already was. (Source)
Baku and Genn limit card design so much. Round up nerfing will always be a thing now that these two are a thing
I tried to touch on this a few places, but Odd Paladin and Equality not being three are unrelated. Classic and Basic cards that are so powerful they are in every archetype in every expansion is something that is very harmful to the goal of expansion metas feeling fresh and new. Equality at (3) mana in our playtesting didn't really solve this. The change to (4) was actually very jarring to us, but we wanted to try playtesting it in current and future environments anyway. After all those games, we felt like it was a reasonable option at (4) in control archetypes (now in in the future) but less reasonable in aggressive decks. That ideally where we'd like most cards to be, so (4) ended up being where we landed. If we thought (3) removed it from being in all paladin archetypes for the foreseeable future but Odd Paladin would get better in the short term, we would have just done that. (Source)
The funniest part is that even for 2 mana it is still looking vialable.
That's the goal. We knew going in that the Equality nerf was going to be really jarring to look at, it was to us, too. We played so many games in current and future environments and it led us to believe that (4) was the right call even if it reads poorly. (Source)
Nerfing Equality that hard though is gonna kill any possibility of a competitive Control Paladin deck in the future if it doesn't get any great control cards in the next expansions. I hope you have something planned for that, so that we don't go back to having only Aggro pally's be competitive in both Standard and Wild.
We like Control Paladin, I expect it to do just fine in the future. We've been playtesting a lot of the first set of this year with Equality at (4) and there are still powerful Control Paladin archetypes. (Source)
Kibler & Iksar Talk
Quote from IksarKibler: “Should we listen to Kibler and make a rotating core set like he suggested when we first introduced Standard?”
Kibler: “No let’s just slowly nerf every Classic card into the ground!”
Kibler: These changes also don’t address what are IMO the biggest problems with Heartstone right now, which are OTK and Genn/Baku decks making games play out super similarly every time. If anything stuff like Mechathun gets better with the aggro nerfs, even if OTK Paladin is hit.
Kibler: Also worth noting that the Equality nerf to 4 is likely also Baku’s fault, since giving that deck such and easy answer to big minions would be a disaster
We don't make short-term quick fixes that are damaging to the long-term. At least we try not to. If one of the issues with Equality was that it goes in most every Paladin deck forever, I don't think (3) mana solves that.
Kibler: Cards going in every deck forever has a variety of ways you can solve it
Totally true. One of the most painful moments both anecdotally and statistically for players is when they have a deck they are playing that breaks. Literally breaks by the game saying the cards they have it in are no longer valid.
We try to come up with solutions that don't violate that when they can, but it's not always possible. Set rotation hits a large number of players but also misses a huge pool of players that are using 'forever' sets and don't have rotated cards.
I'm not saying having a rotating core set is absolutely right or wrong, but one of the reasons not to do it is that theoretically we would invalidate nearly all players decks, very casual, very competitive and all in between.
Scott Lynch: Apologies for butting in, but that literally happens every time expansions rotate out. If your core set rotated at the same time the expansions rotate out, I don't see the difference.
Kibler: Yeah I don’t really see how this is different from any set rotation unless someone literally has a deck with all classic cards.
rayC: The reason @bbrode gave in one of his interviews was that they want the game to feel familiar to casual players who come and go
Kibler: Does making all of their best cards bad do that?
Our goal isn't to make all good cards bad, it's to make cards that go in nearly 100% of archetypes and make them go in archetypes that make sense for them. There are plenty of powerful cards in basic and classic set we'd rather not change. These weren't on that list.
Kibler: I didn't say all good cards - I said best cards. Also, I don't feel like Equality or Flametongue fall into the 100% of all decks category. I also feel like hitting them so hard has a hugely detrimental effect on Wild's ability to be a place where you can play all your old decks.
100% is a big number, I should probably just be using 'almost all'. There will always be a deck someone will copy paste me that doesn't include those cards. The point is they have been and will be in almost all Paladin/Shaman decks forever given no other changes.
For what it's worth, we've been playing Equality at (4) in both the current environment and in future set playtesting and it feels like a pretty reasonable option for Control archetypes and less so for aggressive ones. Generally a healthier place for cards to exist.
remember when hunter's mark costed 0? those were the good times
Because some part of me still hoped they would pull their heads out of their ass and fix the game with how pack sales have been down. But it's clear Activision has fully taken over, and any chance of Hearthstone returning to it's former glory is gone.
Instead of discussing the game, you focus on the parent company which only a person with the IQ of a House Plant thinks is involved with the decisions.
imagine being such a brainlet that you actually think Activision is directly involved with Hearthstone balance changes.
I find it hilarious when most people who hate nerfs are not only the exploiters of the nerfed cards, but also the REASON the cards get nerfed in the first place. Space out your tier-1 deck spamming if you want less nerfs, it's not alien logic.
I don't hate any of these nerf's, and I spend most of my time playing Tier 1 decks. See the flaw in your logic.
The reality is that most people care about WINNING. I realize this is a hard concept for you to understand. Salmon gotta swim upstream.
Oh, I swam downstream this far. Even Shaman all the way in Wild ladder where the walk is cakest. This would apply to you if you bitched about nerfs, but I suppose you just felt attacked for... no reason?
Damn...most of the time I have been good with nerfs but I think I might have disenchanted equality and cold bloods when seeking for dust. I might be wrong tho, I slightly remember not dusting equality of it would get nerfed for some reason
Odd paladins have not been hit, and they have the highest winrate even after the latest nerfs :P
I bet they couldn't nerf Equality to 3 mana because it would make them far to powerful
Odd Rogue and Even Shaman were two really powerful aggro decks in wild as well (not just standard), with less aggro to keep combo / OTK decks in check, the triangle (combo beats control, control beats aggro, aggro beats combo) can get wrecked a little bit...
My interest in Hearthstone has been decreasing for a while. I'm just playing my daily quests and logging off at this point. This only makes things sound worse to me. So glad that dota 2's auto chess came out of no where. That game is even more addicting than beta hearthstone to me.
I really don't buy the Equality explanation. There's no way it wasn't odd Paladin that forced their hand up to 4 mana. Like Kibler said, odd Paladin with Equality at 3 would be horrendous. Now, at 4+4 mana it makes it way worse than Twisting Nether, in that 2 cards instead of one are required for a full clear. Sure Equality and Consecration can both be useful independently, but I get a feeling people will now need to make a choice between one or the other.
Anyways, odd/even design is clearly to blame on this one.
I'M gonna disagree because consider this:
Odd Paladin as it exists now dies with the rotation, simply because its snowballing core cards ill rotate (Corridor Creeper, Fungalmancer, Righteous Protector, Vinecleaver, Unidentified Maul)
Wild Odd Paladin doesn't need a comeback tool, they can already snowball out of control anyways.
Equality was never a problem purely based on the fact that its usefulness depends on being comboed.
The only reason why they would even nerf it in the first place is because there are cards coming up that will make control Paladin much stronger than before and having access to too much reliable board clears would make them overbearing. At least that's what I expect.
IN the end it feels like they no longer want board clears to be too cost-effective (and thus invalidating decks that rely on getting ont he board early)
Just saying, Aggro Paladin decks of the past never really used Equality at 2-mana, so why would ODd Paladin use it at 3 when they can just as easily run Owls
It seems like it is finally time for me to switch from Odd-Rogue to Kingsbane-Pirate-Rogue in Wild. I am ok with this. ^^
It`s not the first time and it will not be the last time...
This series of nerfs is just another chapter in the shitfest caused by Baku and Genn limiting the design space for Hearthstone. Normal balance changes are out of the question because Team5 has to jump through all sorts of hoops to avoid making either side of the Even/Odd decks too powerful. I'm also really abhorred at how they nerf Basic cards (ergo cannot be crafted or disenchanted) all the while fully crippling certain deck archetypes. It reminded me of the sly trick they played when they nerfed Leeching Poison instead of Kingsbane, resulting in a net Arcane Dust loss of 1560.
i dont know you, but i'd rather get excited and feel like my time was worth it when i see that really rare orange glow in my opening, and get something at least playable instead of getting some harbringer celestia level of garbage, pulling a legendary already takes a lot of either time or money, so it'd better have a nice and viable use, because pulling garbage legendaries that cant be even used for memes is one of the worst feelings of the game.
More proof that design has ZERO idea what they are doing. They make it clear at least 3 or 4 times that Genn and Baku are a severe issue with design in the game. If that's the case why not just eliminate those 2 cards from the game completely and refund the dust to everyone? Players have been saying for a long time those two cards are a big issue and still design thinks the best thing to do is change all the card that compliment the problematic cards as opposed to dealing directly with the problem. It's like they are just burying their head in the sand and praying for the best.
Oh man, they finally took care of the auto-include cards! Except... the single best card in hunter's collection: Deathstalker Rexxar.
And they didn't touch Genn / Baku / OTK. In fact, they weakened the main rival to combo decks: aggro.
It's not that these nerfs are bad, it's that they aren't what's needed, just part.
Do you guys not play Mecha'thun?