Hearthstone Developer Cora on Recent & Upcoming BG Changes
Hearthstone developer Cora shared some interesting insights regarding the recent Battlegrounds changes (Patch 18.4.2) and also possibly hinted a few upcoming changes.
Recent Changes
Quote from CoraBartendotron: Feels like budget Omu right now, so we removed him. Would love to update and bring him back at some point. He's a great character.
Quote from CoraSindragosa Buff: Awesome character, slightly underwhelming HP. Wanted to put a little power here so we gave it a stat.
Quote from CoraKing Mukla Buff: Mukla would like Big Bananas because they are bigger than regular Bananas. Only about 1 in 5 times though.
Quote from CoraWhirlwind Tempest Removed: Mega-Windfury can feel really not interactive, and we felt it wasn't a particularly fun minion to have in the pool.
Quote from CoraPogo-Hopper Removed: This was a tough decision. It hurts Brann and Shudderwock slightly, but Jandice and Pogos can't exist in the game in the same way any longer. Ultimately we decided to preserve Jandice's HP because it's really unique and interesting if Pogo just isn't there.
Quote from CoraSelfless Hero to Tier 2
Deadly Spore to Tier 5Divine Shield/Poison endgame comps are super powerful and can feel a little like old Murlocs. We think this is good to an extent, but the appearance rates for these 2 cards were just a bit too high.
Quote from CoraSalty Looter Buff to 4/4
Bloodsail Cannoneer to 4/3We have more work to do with Pirates, and probably will give them some new pieces in time. For now, though we wanted to just give them a few stats to hold them over while we can design and test internally.
Quote from CoraParty Elemental to 3/2
Arcane Assistant to 3/3Some of you are probably confused as to why we buffed Elementals at all. With Rag going to tier 6, they're going to be noticeably weaker, so we wanted to give the early game a little help. This is still overall a nerf to the type.
Quote from CoraMajordomo change: This is a functional change. He will now give +1/+1 even with no Elementals having been played during the turn. He felt pretty useless at times, and with Whirlwind Tempest being removed, wanted to put a little more power at Tier 4 for Elemental synergy comps.
Quote from CoraLil Rag to Tier 6
Gentle Djinni to Tier 5These were the 2 big minion changes that we based most of our decision making off of. Ultimately, Lil' Rag was just too much of a power spike at Tier 5. He'll still be strong, but harder to find. Djinni at 5 should be fun and quite good.
Upcoming Changes (hints)
Quote from CoraHey, get back to work! We need to fix Demons next! :P (An answer to a Kibler comment on Reddit: "These changes look familiar ;)")
Quote from CoraTbh Infested Wolf annoys us too. Haven't had time to design a better minion for that slot but it's on the list.
Please read this. You should fix the game inmediately, elementals are absurdly strong. Why pogo is a problem as a big minion (or 2) when another deck has 7 mega-overstated minions? Delete Nomi
Never thought I'd see the day when one of the most gimmicky battlegrounds cards, Pogos, would be removed for being too oppressive. Honestly surprised they don't see Jandice as the problem, she can just repeat the same BS with Amalgadon/managerie or elementals. Maybe statistics are telling them something different from what the players experience.
It's just like when Dreadsteed was nerfed into the ground when Defile came out. An unfortunate case of a fun gimmick being destroyed because of a broken interaction.
HS "Developer" Cora...
What joke is this, she's not developing anything, just giving ideas. Developers are programmers, you can't become an experienced programmer just like that
I hope this outburst made your life a little less pathetic
he's right, simp
Nope. Developer is not the same as programmer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_developer
Also the OP does not know what level of programming skills Cora has.
Anyone who uses the word simp is a pimple faced obese incel. Prove me wrong
Seems Battlegrounds is more important to the devs than ladder / casual.
Battlegrounds gets like regular updates. Normal play is more like release an expansion > do nothing > next expansion.
This is just simply not true lol. Standard gets multiple balance patches every single expansion. Every single (EXPANSION)
In 2020 we got a bit more balance changes yes then in 2019 (also because DH got released).
Nothing like what the do with BG's (balance, new heroes, new cards).
On average we got like 5~6 balance changes a year for normal play...
Changing the numbers a bit never did much to the meta imo.
Also some balances changes are waaaay to late. Like doing nothing about DQ Alex for over a year...
While i'd prefer if they just nerfed Jandice HP to make minions swapped lose their enchantments, rather than removing Pogos entirely, i gotta say this patch looks really good. The latest Elemental patch broke the game by a lot.
My big wish is they finally address some more core issues of the game, like the matching RNG which can be improved and the damage you take in the early game. But having those balanced patches often definitely keeps the game fresh and fun.
Yup. Pogo-Hopper [/card] are innocent. [card]Jandice with just battlecry is plenty of strong. Easy golden from token. Just need to remove buff when it swaps to Bob. But oh well, with that nerf, Pogo-Hopper is not playable also anyway.
Wow, so many upcoming changes info...
Pogo hopper immune to Jandice's hero power = easiest solution ever
Why is amalgadon still in the game?
Because menagerie builds
it's not about menagerie only, amalgadon feels great in many other builds
It's not used in menagerie builds, it's used in every build.
can little rag or amalgam be dropped from jinji even if you are tavern 5?