17.0.2 Balance Patch - All the Nerfs and Buffs - Including BGs
Blizzard just posted the details of the upcoming Balance changes, scheduled for early next week. Details found below!
Quote from BlizzardIn our recent Reddit AMA 5, we spoke on a few balance updates we intend to make soon. We’re now ready to share the full details of these updates, which will be included in the 17.0.2 patch planned for early next week.
Balance Updates*
Neutral –
Kael'thas Sunstrider Old: Cost 6 mana → New: Cost 7 mana.
Bad Luck Albatross Old: Cost 3 mana → New: Cost 4 mana.
Frenzied Felwing Old: 3 Attack / 3 Health → New: 3 Attack / 2 Health.
Demon Hunter –
Altruis the Outcast Old: Cost 3 mana, 3 Attack / 2 Health → New: Cost 4 mana. 4 Attack / 2 Health.
Battlefiend Old: 2 Attack / 2 Health → New: 1 Attack / 2 Health.
Glaivebound Adept Old: 7 Attack / 4 Health → New: 6 Attack / 4 Health.
Warlock –
Sacrificial Pact Old: Destroy a Demon. Restore 5 Health to your hero. → New: Destroy a friendly Demon. Restore 5 Health to your hero.
Bloodbloom Old: Cost 2 mana → New: Cost 4 mana.
Paladin –
Libram of Justice Old: Cost 6 mana → New: Cost 5 mana.
Mage –
Open the Waygate Old: Cast 6 spells that didn’t start in your deck. Reward: Time Warp. → New: Cast 8 spells that didn’t start in your deck. Reward: Time Warp.
*Bad Luck Albatross, Bloodbloom, and Open the Waygate will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks after the 17.0.2 patch has been released.Battlegrounds
Millhouse Manastorm Old: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Start with 3 Gold. →
New: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Tavern Tiers cost (1) more. Start with 3 Gold.Bug Fixes
- The Lurker Below is now properly tagged as a Beast.
- Fixed a tracking issue that prevented 500 wins with Demon Hunter from being achieved.
- Fixed a bug where Zephrys the Great would not offer a lethal option if your hero had a large amount of Attack.
- Zephrys the Great has been updated to accommodate the Sacrificial Pact and Glaivebound Adept changes.
I really like how fast Blizzard reacted to all the nerfs, and hopefully this will make for a healthier meta for both standard and wild. Few thoughts:
The nerfs to Sacrificial Pact, Bloodbloom and Open the Waygate are about as good as they can get. Kael'thas, Frenzied Felwing and Altruis nerfs don't seem to be enough and they will continue causing trouble. Bad Luck Albatross, Battlefiend and Glaivebound Adept are much closer to being fair for their cost but I could see Albatross still in to many decks. Also good to see some love to Libram Paladin.
Not huge on battleground balance but Millhouse should be much more on par with other heroes. He was always able to rapidly level up while keeping a huge board which is just unfair. Overall some very good changes.
The cool thing about Sacrificial Pact is that allows Lord Jaraxxus to see play someday... with Zepherys as meta, Jaraxxus wouldn't be viable ever again in Wild, and in standard, while Zeph is in.
These aren't the best nerfs, but the team is trying hard and actively listening to the community and the data.
I'm surprised anyone on the Hearthstone team is able to motivate themselves to work with how ungrateful people are. They've really stepped up their game over the years. Previously it would have been months before we got a balance patch and now we get 2 balance patches within 3 weeks and they still aren't good enough.
they have big money in their accounts, thats why they tolerate the "ungratefulness"
Agreed. I was pretty disappointed when the nerfs got revealed, because I thought they're kinda lame, but I'd never go as far as spill insults just because some changes haven't met my expectations, that's as rude as it can get, since it's impossible to meet everyone's expectations all at once.
People are almost always negative about nerfs, especially if they're on the receiving end. They're either too harsh or too lax. But I guess that's just how forums work.
Why is everyone complaining so hard over these nerfs? DH got hit by pretty hard with 3 cards changing. 4 if you count Frenzied Felwing, which is mostly played by DH and face hunter.. The nerfs might not be very big, but getting 3 or 4 cards nerfed is very significant.
Bad Luck Albatross had enough time in the meta. It's a good nerf, well deserved. It's still a very good tech card, but just less powerful like it's supposed to be.
Sacrificial Pact I don't know what you guys were expecting other than this.
Libram of Justice buff feels great. It's not a big buff and it's not really the card that i expected to see buffed. But i'll take it. I've had several instances where i needed that removal 1 turn earlier to survive. And generally, you will already survive longer, because DH got nerfed. Which means you can build your deck a little greedier!
Kael'thas Sunstrider still looks super powerful though. It's not a very big change for druid. Basicly one more turn to build your own board or search for removal.. However, it's a really big change to DH, who now can't combo him with Kayn Sunfury anymore. So your taunts will actually matter.
I don't play wild, so I won't touch on the other cards.
All in all, I think demon hunter will be a lot more balanced this way. These changes look very small, but they really do matter when you're playing the game!
So powerful buff for DH.
See you soon warlocks. :D
I think Demon Hunetr will dominate even more and will need a third nerf.
mechatun warlock must now include drakkari enchanter as an extra combopiece... to have emperor thaurissan double tik.
You say that like it's a good thing...
Not Overkill at all. At 4 mana the card is still an insanely strong turn 8 play that can fill your whole board with minions. A 3 mana nerf wouldn't do jack-shit MechaThun could still easily discount and Darkest Hour could still pull bullshit way to early. 4 mana actually does something, which is a good thing.
Well for me that means + 2800 dust. I'm okay with that.
Crafts open the waygate, defeats all heroic boss, disenchants, Profits.
So the only chance you had to deal with a DH's Demons was Pact and boom there goes the card..
lol.
I think we'll be fine.
I'm actually...... socked?
These are VERY GOOD nerfs. All of them! Reasonable, not killing any cards that are not oppressive, just making them what they probably should have been to begin with. Nice surprise, specially the DH card changes.
Not all of them. Kael'Thas and Open the Waygate nerfs are pretty lame and barely there.
DH changes is needed but they didn't touch on the core problem the draw power as well as having insane early drops/aggressions. You cant have both! Its like having only good of hunter and warlock -oh wait thats DH... Omg
I would not say they are very good it's hard to predict how much impactful that will be but i'm amazed of how many pseudo prophet's are here claiming that it wont change anything or even make DH stronger/more represented. It's actually hilarious.
Time will tell, i'm not sold in many of those nerfs but i dont mind them aswell.