Hearthstone Developer Alec Dawson Discusses Upcoming Changes
Hearthstone developer Alec Dawson just posted a bunch of tweets about the upcoming changes and his reasoning as to why they got changed.
Quote from Alec DawsonTons of amazing content coming out over the next few weeks. You may have also seen some balance changes. Overall, the meta is very balanced so our approach will be light unless there are greater gameplay concerns.
Quote from Alec DawsonFirst up is Secret Passage, one of the top cards across all Rogue archetypes. Going down to 4 cards takes some of the raw power out but still gives you a solid draw option for a more aggressive package. Some future protection in this change, the question was when not if.
Quote from Alec DawsonMoving on to Cabal Acolyte, going to 4 Health will tone down some of its defensive capabilities on turn 4 and post-Spellburst effect. Acolyte was one of the best performing cards in Priest and we want these sort of effects (mind control-esque) to be a deckbuilding choice.
Quote from Alec DawsonThen there's Darkglare, this is a change mainly done for Wild. In Wild, Darkglare Warlock is fairly rampant and creates early board states that make for a lot of non-games. The change to 2/3 and 1 mana being refreshed is aimed to retain some of its identity in a smaller form.
Quote from Alec DawsonFinally, we have two buffs! With the Darkglare change, we wanted to give Warlock a buff. Willow going to 8 mana makes for an intriguing late game option for heavier Warlock builds. We played at this mana cost for much of development and thought it was right to go back.
Quote from Alec DawsonThe change to Totem Goliath is more of a correction, the 2 overload was too limiting for a deck that wants to follow up with another strong play for 5 mana (bloodlust, second goliath). We'll continue to monitor how Shaman performs in the meta and see if other buffs are necessary.
Quote from Alec DawsonThanks again for the feedback throughout the first month of Scholomance. Excited to see how the meta continues to develop!
These are the nerfs Alec is talking about
(you can click on the image for the full image version)
No, the card will be changed for all formats. Dawson was speaking of the reasoning behind the change.
Though there are cards much more problematic in Wild than Darkglare, so I'm not sure I follow the reasoning.
Still, it is a welcome nerf.
So they are nerfing a standard card because in wild is problematic?Wild is created to be problematic!Wild is not a competitive mode only for casual players, so wild is a relevant format now??Master tours are going to be in wild format??I am so confused with Alec Dawson's answers?!
Wild is not for "casual" players lol... What an absurd thing to say.
Indeed, and shouldn't be affecting a standard card that almost not see play just 'cause it's unbalanced in wild. Wild is like the name says: WILD.
I've seen many decks countering this deck of warlock, I don't understand the competency lvl of those devs nowadays.
Wild is still a game mode which people play. Sure, it's allowed to operate at a higher power level than Standard is, but if there's a card that's really causing a problem then it needs to be dealt with. This isn't the first change they've made based on the Wild format.
Everyone is saying Willow won't see play, but I've been playing a Big Demon build for the past couple days with her that I'm probably running at least a 60% winrate with... If they add more 6-8 cost demons, it's going to be nuts.
Anything about Battle Pass? :S
I'm just going to leave this here.
THe biggest cancer that need to be nerfed is Raza the Chained
Yeah... no
Yeah, new approach:
9 mana 7/7 -> 8 mana 5/5: say it is a buff and you have not to give dust refund. $$$
Never played so less matches in a meta in 4 years. The "nerf" won't change anything :/
so nerf darkglade for wild and destroy a deck for standar gj Blizz
zoo just got nerfed...
Not real sure Warlock is going to be running Witchy anytime soon given that zoo is so much more powerful an archetype...
Prefered more a mana increase for Secret Passage rather than the draw quantity.
Cuz there is 2 options
-get it to 2 mana and reduce the quantity of cards you can throw in that passage phase
-get it to 4 cards to simply deny some plays.
I prefered more the mana increase (2 mana on turn 4 or 5 is a huge mana loss but still, if you had prep, you can somehow think in advance what you are going to do, risk the bisquit or get kekked). I simply think now that rogue will likely see less skillful plays as an aggro archetype)
So, in other words, you already knew that with the cards coming in a future (next?) expansion, Secret Passage would be too strong anyway, and it was going to get nerfed no matter what. If you already know that, why do you release this version of the card in the first place? I'd rather know in advance if cards are not meant to stay the way they get released. especially before crafting a deck.
And it seems even weirder when compared with Willow's case:
Why was it ever raised to 9 mana then? Why do you weaken an "intriguing" 8 mana legendary before launch, but release a "too good" 1 mana spell anyway?
I mean, I don't know what other demons are supposed to come out later this year or next year. But if you have no problem releasing cards in a state that will be problematic, and have no problem changing cards every couple weeks anyway, you might as well give every card the same treatment.
Just feels inconsistent.
Wow that Totem buff is really good. The 2 overload was so crippling ,
This means you can always follow it up with Bloodlust. This is huge!
Finally, we have two buffs! With the Darkglare change, we wanted to give Warlock a buff.
PepeLaugh
So it's confirmed that the Darkglare nerf is for wild actually. Seems like their design philosophy about standard and wild really changed a lot nowadays then...