Patch 18.0.2 - Balance Changes - Kael'thas, Illucia & Battlegrounds
Blizzard announced the first Balance changes for Scholomance Academy, including some Balance changes for Battlegrounds.
Tuesday Update: Patch now LIVE.
Quote from Alec DawsonMindrender Illucia was quite strong, stronger than what we want out of cards like Mindrender Illucia (Star Student Stelina, Glide, etc.). We expected players to continue to learn how to take advantage of her, especially in the early game.
Quote from Alec DawsonKael'thas Sunstrider created too many turns that didn't feel like they should be possible. This change is aimed at eliminating some of those non-games that could occur because of his ability.
Quote from BlizzardIn the coming days we’ll be releasing a balance patch that includes a slew of Battlegrounds updates, adjustments for two minions in Standard, and handful of bug fixes.
Standard Balance Updates
Kael’thas Sunstrider
- Old: Every third spell you cast each turn costs (0). → New: Every third spell you cast each turn costs (1).
Mindrender Illucia
- Old: [Cost 2] → New: [Cost 3]
Mindrender Illucia will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks after the 18.0.2 patch goes live.
Battlegrounds Minion Updates
- Gentle Megasaur has been removed from the Battlegrounds minion pool.
- Arcane Cannon has been removed from Battlegrounds minion pool.
Rabid Saurolisk
- Old: 3 Attack, 2 Health → New: 4 Attack, 2 Health
Rat Pack
- Old: [Tier 2] → New: [Tier 3]
Pack Leader
- Old: [Tier 3] → New: [Tier 2]
Monstrous Macaw
- Old: 3 Attack, 2 Health → New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Primalfin Lookout
- Old: [Tier 5] → New: [Tier 4]
- Now only Discovers minions from your current Tavern Tier or below.
Nat Pagle, Extreme Angler
- Old: Overkill: Summon a 0/2 Treasure Chest. → New: After this attacks and kills a minion, add a random minion to your hand.
- Minions generated are from your Tavern Tier or below.
Mama Bear
- Old: [Tier 6] 5 Attack, 5 Health. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +5/+5.→ New: [Tier 5] 4 Attack, 4 Health. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +4/+4.
Goldrinn, the Great Wolf
- Old: Deathrattle: Give your Beasts +4/+4. → New: Deathrattle: Give your Beasts +5/+5.
Battlegrounds Hero Updates
- Lady Vashj has been removed from the Battlegrounds Hero pool.
Captain Eudora
- Buried Treasure
- Old: Dig for a Golden minion! (4 Digs left.) → New: Dig for a Golden minion! (5 Digs left.)
Reno Jackson
- Gonna Be Rich!
- Old: [Cost 2] → New: [Cost 0]
The Lich King
- Reborn Rites
- Old: [Cost 1] → New: [Cost 0]
Galakrond
- Galakrond’s Greed
- Now freezes the minion added to Bob’s Tavern.
Bugs Fixes & Game Improvements
- Fixed a visual bug with Archwitch Willow’s play animation.
- Fixed a bug where Southsea Strongarm was showing incorrect art.
- Fixed a bug where casting Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron with Rattlegore on board would cause the game to freeze.
- Fixed several technical bugs that would cause the game to crash.
I've been playing since Beta, and as a Priest main I'm very disappointed with Mindrender Illucia's nerf. I also believe Blizzard gave in to the community's backlash, which was too salty for my taste.
1. It's a high skill card to play consistently. It's not a card you just throw out hoping for the best, which describes the majority of cards in HS.
2. It's a tech card against combo decks. Useless against aggressive decks, midrange decks, and most control decks.
3. The card could be 1 mana and it would still be balanced, at 2 it was playable but not great. At 3 mana it's not a card you want to have in your deck anymore considering what it's core design is about.
4. At 3 mana it's a niche, very hard to play/low value tech card.
5. Dust it!
You gotta love the salty down votes with no arguments.
This Mindrender Illucia nerf is not targeting standard. But even in wild she is not that OP. I put her in my wild highlander priest deck mostly for stopping aggro and killing combo. But actually,she is situational in stopping aggro even with 2 cost. With this nerf, maybe she is still fine with killing the key cards in some combo decks, but she basically cannot fight against aggros anymore.
Finally some love for Beasts despite Baron polarity.
I hope to see this kind of love for demons.
Can somebody explain how murlocs got nerfed in BGs? I rarely play BGS, so i'm not familiarized with the system. The change seems like a buff to me. You get it a tavern tier earlier, the tradeoff doesn't look that bad.
"Gentle Megasaur has been removed from the Battlegrounds minion pool."
the only way to give murlocs divine shield has beeen removed.
Aside from the change to primalfin, Gentle megasaur has been removed from the pool.
Kaelthas nerf should have been
"The third spell you cast each turn costs 0"
1 time effect per turn.
ugh
Most of the bg changes seem to go in the right direction. I really expect to see token damage being addressed some day. The only thing that bugs me now is that rat pack and infested wolf both exist on tier 3 and they are basically the same minion when it's unbuffed, but rat is much stronger buffed. I don't see a reason to have both.
seems to me you want X card(s) to be nerfed only because you lost to them at some point with no other valid argument.
seriously, you want Disciplinarian Gandling and Cult Neophyte to be nerfed? These two cards aren't problematic now and highly doubt that they would create anything broken in future expansions.
The problem is that it is a self-included card in all aggro decks. Don't you know the HoF philosophy? If a card is very played and self-included in all the decks it deserves to go to the HoF. Also there are people who ask for a nerf for Sorcerer's Apprentice that sounds more stupid. It doesn't surprise me that you don't care about balance. Loatheb is fine because it is only one card in a whole deck of 30 cards, not 2 copies.
Not because I lost you need a nerf, I'm not surprised that you want a nerf from those cards because that happened to you. It is typical of people who say that to others, I don't care about your baby rage.
Honestly pissed at the illucia nerf was not needed it’s already a dead card most of the time this seems to be brought on not due to the power of the card but the communities stupid overreaction to priest despite it never truly being a tier one class in standard
no wild contra decks combo ela faz muito estrago e é justo o nerf
exactly. Have you seen so much hate for a class and card that isn't even that great tbh? It was a decision based purely on some of the community crying which explains why they didn't even touch druid or paladin
What rock do you live under. Priest is tier 1 right now in grandmasters too.
and priest was tier 1 / best deck during the entire saviours of uldum expansion.
you cant count this expansion as it only just started so the meta has not settled uldum priest was only "tier 1" when it was res priest which no one not even most priest mains wanted to play it the point is so many other cards in the game get away scot-free because people don't have some stupid hatred towards the class all I'm saying is the push to 3 mana was unneeded and a reaction to the hate towards the class as a whole and not the actual card since most of the time its a dead card that only works out well with skilled players at very certain points in the game otherwise it can have a huge backfire
Cards should never allow to set to cost of other cards to 0. Cards that reduce cost are okay. Moreover, stop printing 0 mana spells. Every time there is a 0 mana spell around there is another problem looming.
RIP vegan gameplay (and the jokes about it)
but change is good, at least most of the BG ones I welcome
Standard, however, had very surprising changes to me
I mean, sure lowering the nuts draw of a druid, so he probably don't insta win on turn 3/4 is nice, but it wasn't that common
Priest, everyone hates to play against, so I can see, where they coming from, but at least for now, I didnt feel it was so high on the list
I'm mostly surprised, that Libram Paladin was not touched, I would have bet it would be the first - after seeing like over 60% winrate for a while, and being the only Tier 1 deck
I wanted a Kael’thas nerf, but this isn’t what I had in mind. I would be fine with the cost remaining zero if it was THE third spell and not EVERY third spell.
And thank god for tier 3 Rat Pack and good riddance to Battlegrounds Megasaur. You will not be missed.
Look for doctor my man...u want all game nerfed. nerf u first, need to learn how to play the game.
U want Neophyte to be nerfed? What? HAHAHAHAHA