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 like how even with all these nerfs absolutely nothing has changed. Every game of BG filled with 60/60 quillboars lmao
RIP my even Mage deck :( Refreshing Spring water is the only even cost card draw; I'd rather it stay at 4 mana and only refund 1.
Starscryer? Great for pulling those Wildfires
I play even mage too and this is not the only one card draw I play. Novice Engineer and Starscryer. Also Runed Orb for discovering some spells.
I'm sorry, why am I being downvoted when someone else said the wrong thing?
Quillboar tag got added to main game minions last patch. Stands to reason that, even without synergies, it'll resurrect as an extra tribe.
In the game but they haven't updated the deck menu as of earlier.
Also please report Crabrider as not counting on Shaman Quest yet.
lmao still die turn five from combo mage
Why no Full Dust for disenchanting ?
It literally says in the post that you get full dust, read the post
Well, currently after the change, I atleast still to get full refund on the nerfed cards. There might be a bug or delay. I think that is what he is refering to.
The nZoth buff feels more like a nerf. I can’t guarantee pulling him off of Taelang Fordring.
totally agree !! Makes no sense to play him a turn earlier, and all other gods are 10 mana ! He was psuedo buffed with Quilboar family tag anyway
now Juicy Psychmelon can draw it as well as Scrapyard Colossus, or N'Zoth, the Corruptor
I don't think quillboars are in the main game...
EDIT: Ok, seems like quillboars are in the game but no one plays them so I had 0 idea.
quillboars are 100% in the main game
I dislike the change due to flavor but It totally makes sense to play him on turn 9 as a tempo play. Not all games require full N'zoth. 5/7+two minions with taunt or rush is a good turn 9 play
I feel - and this could be wrong and we'll see a meaningful difference - that the Shaman changes missed the mark a little bit, ya know?
Lilypad Lurker wasn't underplayed because its stats were bad, it was already solid on its own. It was underplayed because elemental synergies are just kind of bad. They're inflexible and reward making suboptimal plays sometimes.
Tidal Surge should never have costed 4 in the first place, so this is a great change - though I don't think Shaman has the tools to take full advantage of having a decent anti aggro card. The things Control Shaman needs are absent from the game.
Unbound Elemental is also just... a suboptimal card. It's a slightly worse Questing Adventurer that demands you play cards with downsides. Just kind of stinky on the face of it, a single additional attack is nice but I don't see that pushing it into viability.
I wasn't expecting much for Shaman, tbh. It needs changes way closer to the roots of its design, nothing they could possible change with a regular balance patch. I'm not disappointed, but I hope more changes come next expansion that involve the whole class, not just cards that don't do well. Ya know... since the whole class isn't doing well.
Actually i got a friend that's doing really well with midrange elemental shaman, i think people are just lazy to experiment with shaman they give up way too easily...
I have a deck that's elemental shaman with weapon buffs and direct damage and it does pretty well. I made it to diamond 3 last month with it.