Balance Changes
Blizzard just announced the Balance changes going live later today. Read all about them below! This patch is now LIVE!
Quote from BlizzardThe 20.2.2 patch, which will release later today, includes balance updates focusing on Standard and Battlegrounds, as well as several bug fixes.
Standard Balance Updates
Refreshing Spring Water
- Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]
Dev Comment: Spell Mage currently exhibits many explosive turns, with Refreshing Spring Water playing a significant role. By nerfing Refreshing Spring Water to 5 mana, we're aiming to lower the frequency of extreme turns where Refreshing Spring Water draws cards and gains you mana in the process. By lowering the frequency of those gameplay sequences, we believe the deck's range of possibilities will be more in line with other current options.
First Day of School
- Old: [Costs 0] Add 2 random 1-Cost minions to your hand.
- New: [Costs 1] Add 3 random 1-Cost minions to your hand.
Dev Comment: As we look at Paladin's continued strong performance across multiple archetypes, we're nerfing First Day of School in order to hit Paladin's early-game strength. By bumping up First Day of School's mana cost and the amount of 1-Cost minions generated, we are moving the card to fit a value role rather than its initial position as an efficient curve enabler.
Hysteria
- Old: [Costs 3]
- New: [Costs 4]
Dev Comment: At 3 mana, Hysteria becomes an option before opponents really have the opportunity to consider how to best interact with it. Pushing Hysteria to 4 mana gives more space for those board-committal decisions to occur and also allows cheaper removal in Priest/Warlock to have a more distinct purpose.
Crabrider
- Old: Rush Windfury
- New: Rush Battlecry: Gain Windfury this turn only.
Dev Comment: Crabrider is too efficient in some of our board-based decks, clearing minions and dishing out a lot of Windfury damage. By changing Crabrider's Windfury to only last until end of turn, we're pulling back on the lethality it poses if left alone for a few turns. We aim for Crabrider to still remain a solid option for decks looking to swing back the board, especially when combined with buffs.
Olgra, Mankrik’s Wife
- Old: Casts When Drawn Summon a 3/10 Mankrik, who immediately attacks the enemy hero.
- New: Casts When Drawn Summon a 3/7 Mankrik, who immediately attacks the enemy hero.
Dev Comment: We are lowering the Health on Mankrik, Consumed by Hatred to soften the effect of an early Olgra draw. At 7 Health, the token will be more in reach of the mid-game removal that's available throughout turns 4-6.
Refreshing Spring Water, First Day of School, Hysteria, Crabrider, and Golden Mankrik will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks after Patch 20.2.2 goes live.
Dev Comment: We're issuing a number of buffs in 20.2.2, mainly focused on bringing up struggling classes and archetypes. One of our goals for a meta is to provide deck diversity: not only different class options, but also attractive deck options that play markedly different from one another. These buffs follow that goal, as each one is targeted at helping out an underrepresented archetype or play pattern.
Razorboar
- Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health
- New: 3 Attack, 2 Health
Dark Inquisitor Xanesh
- Old: Reduce the Cost of all Corrupt cards in your hand and deck by (2).
- New: Reduce the Cost of all Corrupt and Corrupted cards in your hand and deck by (2).
Unbound Elemental
- Old: 2 Attack, 4 Health
- New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
Tidal Surge
- Old: [Costs 4]
- New: [Costs 3]
Lilypad Lurker
- Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health
- New: 5 Attack, 6 Health
Fiendish Circle
- Old: [Costs 4]
- New: [Costs 3]
Deck of Chaos
- Old: [Costs 6]
- New: [Costs 5]
Whirling Combatant
- Old: 2 Attack, 6 Health
- New: 3 Attack, 6 Health
Shieldmaiden
- Old: [Costs 6]
- New: [Costs 5]
N’Zoth, God of the Deep
- Old: [Costs 10]
- New: [Costs 9]
Battlegrounds Balance Updates
MINION UPDATES
- Barrens Blacksmith will be removed from the minion pool.
Roadboar
- Old: 2 Attack, 4 Health
- New: 1 Attack, 4 Health
Prophet of the Boar
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- New: 2 Attack, 3 Health
Bannerboar
- Old: 2 Attack, 5 Health
- New: 1 Attack, 4 Health
Bristleback Brute
- Old: The first Blood Gem played on this each turn gives an extra +3/+3.
- New: The first Blood Gem played on this each turn gives an extra +2/+2.
Groundshaker
- Old: After a Blood Gem is played on this, give your minions +2 Attack for next combat only.
- New: After a Blood Gem is played on this, give your other minions +2 Attack for next combat only.
Dynamic Duo
- Old: 5 Attack, 6 Health
- New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
Bonker
- Old: 4 Attack, 7 Health
- New: 3 Attack, 7 Health
Bonker (golden)
- Old: Mega-Windfury. After this attacks, gain 2 Blood Gems.
- New: Mega-Windfury. After this attacks, gain a Blood Gem.
Charlga
- Old: 7 Attack, 7 Health. At the end of your turn, play a Blood Gem on all friendly minions.
- New: 4 Attack, 4 Health. At the end of your turn, play a Blood Gem on all other friendly minions.
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
- Fixed a bug that removed Glaivebound Adept from the game. It will now be back in your collection, safe and where it belongs.
- Fixed a bug where Sparkjoy Cheat would draw a card whenever you had a Secret in your hand, even if the Secret was not castable (such as if the Secret was a duplicate of one already in play). Sparkjoy Cheat will now only draw a card if a Secret is cast from your hand.
- Fixed a bug where using Vol’jin’s Hero Power on Goldgrubber would sometimes result in Goldgrubber’s stats being reset each round.
- Updated language on certain Amalgam cards to properly include all Minion Types.
- Fixed a bug related to in-game notifications.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Battle-Ready Decks from being accessed if Dame Hazelbark was opened first.
- Fixed various bugs related to properly displaying pricing on items in the in-game shop.
I see some love for odd warrior <3
Pretty good, especially because of not killing the crab rider, but making it balanced, that's the way blizz!
On the other hand, not enough... Keep it up!!!
trash changes
WOW, this is garbage.
Paladin remains basically untouched, I mean they nerfed 2 cards, but I'm sure we can find easily some replacements.
Meanwhile Priest getting slower (thank God), Mage too.
Other classes remain in the Garbage Can.
They "buffed" elementals, hahahaha.
They printed Caravans for us to burn some gold / money.
At least I don't have to craft new cards.
LOL... priest was one of the best clsses
i was expecting Hysteria to be nerfed but damn..that will have big impact to all warlock decks. Crabrider and spring water is more than welcome. I clap to the shaman buff. There could be more but ok :-)
I guess i can now put this n'zoth in my frenzy odd warrior lol.
Well so much for hoping for a competitve HP mage archetype, just keep a jumble f*ck of support cards but no real deck.
The buffs on the other hand are rather underwhelming. They seem like they just targeted random cards that were overcosted, and made them generically good.
Zoo isn't going to suddenly become viable with Fiendish Circle. Nothing is going to become viable with Deck of Chaos. Shaman isn't going to become viable by buffing those cards, since they rarely appear in the same type of deck. The Demon Hunter boar becoming slightly better isn't going to save deathrattle Demon Hunter either. Whirling Combatant seemed fine as it was, not sure why it needed a buff.
So what was the purpose of these buffs really? It doesn't seem like it's to shift the meta. Meanwhile I haven't seen a single watch post played since you destroyed them. I haven't seen a single caravan cards from Barrens played. You made them for multiple classes, did you intend this new card type to be completely unplayable? How about you buff some of those cards?
Fairly good round of nerfs and buffs.
I was worried they would buff some aggro/face stuff and just make the game even less enjoyable, but they largely just buffed mid range cards.
The only thing I didnt like was the Hysteria nerf. I didnt think warlock and priest were doing all that hot to deserve one of their best cards getting nerfed.
But, hysteria will still be run in those decks, it is just too important not to.
I would have nerfed oh my yogg instead.
And for buffs, i would have given the 3/4 secret tech card some different text. Anti-secret tech is pretty needed and the one they gave us isnt what we need.
The nerfs are good.
The crab rider nerf is particularly good because it effects the other cases where it gets pulled from decks or revived - it doesn't get windfury now in those cases.
Hysteria was absolutely deserved and it's been grossly imbalanced for too long.
Spring Water got hit as expected.
First Day of School is kind of interesting...it might actually make it stronger in certain Wild decks based on hand buffing, but the main purpose is to slow down the ability to use it on turn 1 and select the "best" of the 1 drops to immediately play and begin steamrolling board advantage - now you have to wait.
Mankrik was clearly too strong, but I doubt this nerf isn't going to do THAT much or even stop any decks which currently use him from including him.
No nerfs fror wild, guess Blizz doesnn t care. Me too then. Guess i ll quit until Mercs release. Thank you very much.
Fiendish circle will be played somewhere. Probably not in this meta, but it will. 4\4 stats for 3 mana is no joke
The real problem here is there is no conviction and incanter's flow on list. Gj btw for dodging the real problem. Well done i quess for crabrider was about fking time. And first day of school is buff to handbuff paladin in wild.Yes am playing wild I quess lets give him additional minion for buffing so he can be more consistant... like its not enough consistent on ladder
The buffs are pretty insubstantial. I was hoping for more.
So i quit WoW 2 months ago after being subbed from release till april 2021, decided ill pick up Hearthstone as they surely won't be out of touch with the player base in two game, right? Boy was i wrong!
I expected nothing and still got dissapointed.
Guess is time to take a hiatus from bg till next update.
I, for one, welcome our existing paladin overlords
lol that's a buff for handbuff paladin