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
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'cause there's no Ben brode or the older developers of the original game anymore. Wich means these new people are really incompetent by the time being and they have no clue how to make the game playable anymore without power lvl cards. Also they care too much about wild 'cause many players still play this mode due too many losses on standard, the difficulty to learn or play new metas and the $$$$$ issue that's to collect new cards. So many of the players go there, but still, it's wild, it shouldn't be affecting the general game. They unnerfed that trash raza of course people would play with a giant deck...it's very hard even with darkglare to win against control tools of priest in wild.
Willow will not see serious play not matter the cost until we have new demons
Willow : Honestly card needs to be 6 to 7 mana to see any play and have like 4 6 taunt body else its too slow.
Totem golem: It does not need overload at all. Even with 6 hp it wouldn't see much play as long it has overload.
Having overload 1 isn't really a downside for it since you can follow Cumulo-Maximus next turn with 5 mana or combo with Vessina played last turn.
Pure speculation here, but I think the overload tax is simply due to the totem creature type. The only other non hero power totem with attack also has an overload, although it's debatable since the stat distribution is different than the golem. It's possible Shaman will be seeing more totem centric strategies or cards that make having a 5/5 totem for 5 really strong.
The key, as with most Overload cards, is tempo. Totem Golem was an acceptable Overload card because it created a tempo advantage. You could put a Spider Tank out on turn 1, so it was OK to pay for it again on the following turn. But most Overload cards ruin tempo play because you can't keep up with what your opponent is playing next turn. They're not catching up to you. You have to catch up to them because most Overload cards are only barely worth the mana you're paying in the first place and certainly not the extra. Goliath was insult to injury, because first you were overpaying for a Chillwind Yeti and then you were paying two MORE for it next turn. Even if your opponent was a fool and decided to kill the Goliath and gave you your board of totems, you couldn't Bloodlust to take advantage of them. With the buff, you'll be able to do that and your opponent will actually have to pay attention to a 5 strength minion, which means you might actually get to take advantage of the deathrattle, where you almost never would have before. I think they fundamentally misunderstood both this particular card and the way Overload is currently functioning in the game. You would think that Shaman's performance for the past year (since the Galakrond nerfs) would be a clue.