Card Balance Updates August 26th
These are the patchnotes for the Balance Patch announced last week, which does not only have balance changes to several Standard cards and Barnes, but also bug fixes and optimizations for Zephrys the Great as we posted about last week.
Learn more:
Quote from BlizzardNow that Saviors of Uldum is live and new cards have been introduced, a few decks have surfaced which we feel need to be addressed in order to make for a better ladder experience for Hearthstone players. Read on for more details on today’s balance adjustments:
Card Changes
Mage
Conjurer's Calling – Mana cost increased from 3 to 4
Luna's Pocket Galaxy – Mana cost increase from 5 to 7
Warrior
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius – Mana cost increased from 7 to 9
Priest
Extra Arms – Mana cost increased from 2 to 3
Neutral
Barnes – Mana cost increased from 4 to 5
As with previous changes, players will be able to disenchant these cards for full Arcane Dust value for the two weeks following this update.
For insight into why we’ve decided to make these specific card changes, check out our announcement blog here.
Game Improvements & Bug Fixes
- Fixed several bugs involving weapon removal:
- Acidic Swamp Ooze was sometimes not offered against 1-Durability weapons.
- Harrison Jones was sometimes offered against 1-Durability weapons when he could not be played that turn.
- Weapon removal cards were not offered against 0-Attack weapons.
- Weapon removal cards were not offered when it would prevent your opponent from having lethal on their next turn.
- Fixed several bugs involving certain cards not being offered:
- Fixed several bugs involving Hero Powers:
- Hero Powers were sometimes assumed to be usable, even if they had already been used that turn.
- The current cost for Hero Powers is now considered, instead of assuming a cost of 2.
- Damage and healing modifiers on hero powers are now accounted for.
- Upgraded Hero Powers (such as through Sir Finley of the Sands, or Justicar Trueheart) are now considered.
- If your Hero Power has been replaced, Zephrys the Great will no longer assume your base Hero Power is still usable.
- Fixed a bug where Betrayal was not appropriately counting as a single-target removal option when it would only damage one target.
- Fixed a bug where Alexstrasza was being offered based upon the opponent’s combined Health and Armor, instead of only their Health.
- Fixed a bug where silence cards were not offered to unfreeze your own minions for lethal.
- Among potential lethal options, silence cards will now be favored, in order to help minimize potential interference from Deathrattles or other unique card effects.
- Fixed a bug where Zephrys the Great did not properly consider multiple Deathrattles on the same minion (most commonly from Magnetic minions).
- Improved Zephrys the Great’s evaluation of the value of healing this turn vs next turn.
isn't this patch suppose to be the big arena changes that they talked about last time?
why the hell nerf extra arms? It makes minion based priest decks semi-viable. There is nothing you can do with priest besides that lame otk combo... i think they are trying to get rid of Priest, by making it such trash that only degenerates in wild play it. What good is healing if you can't get things to stick around on the board?
Extra arms with 2 mana is op and with 3 mana too weak. They should make it 3 mana and more arms 2 mana..
If you don't realize how much of a difference 2 mana can make, maybe you should play this game a bit more.
Cool argument. So instead of actually saying why does it make such a huge difference that it makes or breaks the whole deck, you just stoop to "git gud nab". Maybe you should be the one to actually learn a thing or two about the game...
I have a feeeling these nerfs will only make Aggro decks even more prominent
Ok, why exactly? What makes it so much worse?
First of all, 2 mid-game turns is enough time for A LOT of things to happen, not to mention 2 extra turns to draw these minions and have them stuck in your hand costing full mana.
Playing Luna's Pocket Galaxy was always a "pay mana, do nothing" turn. It's just much less punishing to lose your turn 4-5 than to lose your turn 6-7 (providing you can even keep the coin until turn 6). by turn 7, the game can snowball out of control completely against many decks.
I agree, a lot can happen, but you have to realize that many cards in HS that are played are of same mold - use your mana and wait. Dr.Boom on 7 was the same thing, people dreaded it and called for the nerfes all the time. It's the value you gain after that makes that card so strong. Luna is the same thing. You could have drawn all those giants, Antons, Alexes etc before turn 5, that's not really an argument.
Conjurer's was nerfed, not it's that mch harder to make explosive turns, so it's actually better to have Luna's and thath 0 cost giant or Kalecgos. These types of deck simply don't care about tempo that much. What does Reno Mage do? You wait, remove, then you play one strong turn and you win, that's it. You can't do that with 8 mana giant...
Whoa, there.
Comparing Playing a 7/7 minion +2 1/1 minions that explode for an average 2.5 damage each to a card that actually doesn't affect the board at all is so wrong I can't even begin to describe it. And despite all that, it was still buffed in RoS to summon up to 6 Boom Bots with very little deck manipulation.
Also, Luna's only real weakness was drawing the creatures beforehand, adding 2 turns to increase that probability is not only a valid argument, but a very large part of what made it unplayable at 7 mana and OP at 5 mana. You also usually, espeically in Reno mage, draw only 1 card every turn, and playing huge minions for no mana, while great, is a few times more powerful at turn 5 than at turn 7.
Mage is not a tempo deck, but it struggles against decks that ARE. In this meta, you really can't afford to do nothing on turn 7 and then one big play every turn and remain alive, it was even hard for mages when it was 5 mana.
But you're wlecome to try it, I'm sure other people will too, I highly doubt you will still see it played in GM, when you might find yourself facing hunter, and then your pocket galaxy is a dead card, because if you play it, you're a dead hero.
Ok, how exactly?
What a fucking shitshow.
Everytime there is a new article about literally anything on this website, crybabies feel OBLIGATED to tell everyone how much they hate Blizzard and how the world would be a better place had they been hired instead of the current team.
Nobody cares. Grow the fuck up.
You forgot to mention them threatening to quit the game in each thread but never actually doing so.
Okay fanboy...
Ah yes, the usual fanboy argument you throw at someone when their opinion differs from yours and you don't have anything to say.
I don't even play Hearthstone anymore. Try again.
Got it, so u're just a sick kid trying to draw some attention to you. I know your kind, find a doctor.
So you don't play, yet you come here to bash people who do for their opinion?
Somehow i suddenly care even less about your opinion then i do about the people you whine about.
At least those people usually still play the game so they have some genuine feelings about the current state of the game.
im glad they fixed emperor wraps bug. before copies of immortal prelate would turn into 2/2 after you hand buffed them
Is it worth to dust normal dr boom and craft a golden version ?
why would it be?