17.2.1 Patch Notes - Balance Changes & Bug Fixes
Blizzard has just announced patch notes for patch 17.2.1 featuring Balance Changes and Bug Fixes.
The patch will be released on May 18.
Quote from blizzardOn May 18, we’ll be releasing a 17.2.1 balance patch that includes updates for a dozen cards in Standard, as well as a bug fix for Ethereal Conjurer.
Balance Updates
Old: [Cost 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Cost 1] 1 Attack, 3 Health.
Old: [Cost 5] → New: [Cost 4].
Old: 4 Attack, 6 Health → New: 5 Attack, 6 Health.
Old: 6 Attack, 3 Health → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health.
The 8 cards below will be eligible for a full dust refund until June 1.
Old: 6 Attack, 7 Health → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health.
Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 1 Attack, 1 Health.
Old: Draw a Beast. Give it +3/+3. → New: Draw a Beast. Give it +2/+2.
Old: 1 Attack, 5 Health → New: 1 Attack, 4 Health.
Old: Battlecry: If you control a Secret, return a minion to its owner’s hand. It costs (2) more. → New: Battlecry: If you control a Secret, return a minion to its owner’s hand. It costs (1) more.
Old: Dormant for 2 turns. When this awakens, give all minions in your hand +2/+2. → New: Dormant for 2 turns. When this awakens, give all minions in your hand +2/+1.
Old: 6 Attack, 8 Health → New: 5 Attack, 8 Health.
Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health.
Game Improvements and Bug Fixes
Ethereal Conjurer will now function correctly and will no longer lock the game state when played.
The "Why did they nerf Aldor Attendant?" comments point to something interesting. Maybe these commenters just missed the mana reduction, but there's room to debate whether a 1-mana 1/3 is really better than a 2-mana 2/3. Given that Dire Mole saw more play than River Crocolisk, I think things lean pretty heavily towards the 1-drop being better, but I still think there's room to disagree.
We've got a metagame where it's really important to be able to do 2 damage to minions like Satyr Overseer or Battlefiend. Aldor Attendant--which used to be able to trade into one of those--can't anymore: it'd need to be buffed. One of the weaknesses in Libram Paladin is that you can get really hosed by a bad draw, and if you don't draw the librams, you're useless.
Flip-side is that with things like Shotbot, Paladin didn't really have a dire need for more 2-drops, but was missing a good 1-drop that could be followed up by a Turn 2 Hand of A'dal. Maybe Call to Adventure becomes a better fit, since it can reliably fetch Aldor (but probably not).
Overall, I think this is going to wind up improving paladin, but it could wind up being pretty small potatoes, and barely making an impact on Paladin's performance.
It's definitely a buff, the cost/stats ratio gest better, and it makes it easier to play. If it was a nerf there would be the dust refund, also.
I mean, it's clear Blizzard intends it as a buff, and I think it'll work out that way. However, I'm sympathetic to folks who might rather have a 2-mana 2/3 in this meta.
A 1/3 is smaller than a 2/3, and sometimes raw size matters more than ratio. I'm optimistic that having a better curve will improve Paladin decks. I can't take it as given, and we'll need to see how it shakes out in practice.
The fact that they're even buffing Librams mulitple times probably means they're going to keep supporting it throughout the year. This makes me happy not only because they're being consistent, unlike before, and I like buffing my minions.
I really think every card change should be elegible for dust refund , but since im getting 8260 dust this patch im not complaining at all.
Why would they refund you for a buff?
Oh, sorry, the card you bought is now better, here's your dust back!
I have two reasons for refunding on buffs.
First, Its a change on a card you owned, since it's not the same you got previously you should get dust back and get the chance to decide if the new is worth to you. Maybe lurker and shattered cant be considered nerfs in any stance; But mana changes can be a buff aswell as a nerf. I.E: let's do some assumptions, Im a really casual player that plays wild, since entering into standard its pretty hard (was in other expacs at elast), and i use the dust that i barely have to craft two torrents to play them in an odd-shaman deck, now i would be screw cause the card is cheaper but unplayable to me.
And second, if you make the buffs refundable, you encourage people to try the cards when they change, since they can just disenchant 'em if they didnt enjoy.
If you think its too much to refund all buffed cards if you have more than 2 copies, i guess thats fair, so lets do the same that in hall of fame, just refund the two best copies (i would also be ok with that decision passing into nerfs, only two refunds per card so you can disenchant your extra copies at the start of the expansion and dont feel punish afterwards).
Not sure if I'm more amazed by the balance changes themselves or the fact they were announced on a FRIDAY evening. I can't recall the last time we had big news on a Friday. :o
The nerf to Rogue was completely unneeded. The deck with secrets is basically the only one competitive and worth spending dust on. They Hof-ed the Vanish and they now nerf the card that helped by a margin to fill its role. Blizzard just as braindead as always when touching Rogue. You are free to downvote as u like rogue haters and go back to your auto pilot classes.
Well thought and balanced changes...?!? Nerfs AND buffs...?!? What kind if sorcery is this...?!?
This is fucking awesome.
that Priestess nerf and Hannar is gonna balance those classes. warrior is gonna be more dominant.
libram Pally's buff is huge for Pure path; this lets you run all those good 2 drops plus that 3 mana spell draw your lowest cost minion, its gonna be a good consistent opener
Not the mention turn 1 new Aldor Attendant into turn 2 Hand of A'dal. Paladin getting a solid one-drop is huge if you ask me.
That part is really the biggest deal about all of this.
When Hand of A'dal was spoiled, my first comment was that the card would be nuts if they gave paladin good 1 drops, since any sort of high health minion buffed with it is going to dominate the early turns even as far as into turn 3, and now Attendant just perfectly fills that slot.
libram pala was already playable it is only matter of time when someone gets the right list.. I believe in my control libram pally !
I believe Thijs was playing a libram pally list before all the buffs and it had pretty good winrate.
Holy smokes buffs and nerfs, and they’re all fantastic?! What madness is this?!
great changes cant wait
What's up with buffing librams paladin at every balance patch? Other than that, I'm glad none of these buffs made cards broken and neither of the nerfs killed the cards. I know they wont, but I wish they add new DH cards with Solo Adventure, since that class lacking a lot compare to other classes.
Because Paladin doesn't have any even vaguely competitive decks except Murlocs and the "BRAND NEW MECHANIC!" that they introduced with this set (Librams) is subpar, just like almost every mechanic they've introduced for Paladin for three years now? (Think of both Paladin quests, for example.)
I don't think even this change is going to move Paladin forward, since Librams depends on card combos (i.e. you need to play the cost reducers and the Librams in the proper order to make them efficient) and that requires the one thing Paladin doesn't really have: draw. At the very least, it will mean that midrange Paladin, which is what most Libram decks aspire to be, will have something (Anything!) to do on turn 1 and which will then get them started on making their Libram spells worthwhile. It's still not going to make the class or the mechanic competitive, but it's a start.