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.
spell mage is here to stay lmao i dont understand how incanters flow escape the nerf, are they seeing what we are seeing xDD
Pretty sure Blizz are just trying to make the game as unfun as possible at this point. Leave all the anti fun cards untouched. Pathetic.
Now i get why they didn't show patchnote until last minute. Cause it's dogass
Ezekkel a cigokkal mindig csak a baj van
Mage will remain dominant.
but the real problem with QUillboars was the 5 stars 1 that massively boosts everyone when you play a bloodgem on him, that one should've been the 6 stars instead of Charlga
the most underwhelming nerfs lol xDD, expect paladin to stay top tier for more months to come lmao xDD
Ahaha, they completely destroyed piggies, I bet no one expected them to nerf almost every minion...
Why did they need to make First day of school generate more cards? So stupid. Paladin will continue to dominate the meta.
No nerf to Incanter's flow or Conviction. BS.
Shaman will still be trash tier and absolute garbage.
I'm disappointed.
Also WHERE THE F*CK IS SHAMAN CARD DRAW?? I don't understand.
i dunno man i really think something is super strange with how paladin is being handled i feel like its a scam, 1 mana get 3, 1 cost cards
FDOS highrolls better 1 cost cards than jandice because you can still trigger the battle cry effect if it was a nerf it should say summon a 1 cost minion not PLAY a 1 cost minion because the card effects of 1 cost minion last very long especially after paladin buffs them because it sticks. i dont understand how devs approach a nerf really they are very bad
The class is literally designed around a lack of conventional card draw. So I'm not sure why that's what you were waiting for, since card draw literally doesn't exist for the class currently. In a new set maybe.
It is virtually unplayable at 1 mana in current archetypes. At 0 it was the perfect curve enabler. At 1 mana it is very difficult to use even if it gives you 3 1-drops. It is not a good t1 play, and later in the game it is not impactful. Paladin win-rate should go down a point or two because of this nerf I believe. Still too oppressive imho, specially in wild with those anti-fun tax tactics.
I went 22-10 with Shaman last season. It's a viable class, just not the best.
My expectations were low, but I should have sent them to the bottom of the earth
The nerfs are all legit. Kinda agree with changing Refreshing Spring Water. Nerfing Incanter's Flow would absolutely kill the archetype.
As for the buffs... They seem nice. But I think they missed caravans. Such a cool mechanic but they are always destroyed almost every single time you play them.
So be it , kill the archetype. Mage can play minions too it's not even a bad deck.
And do you think that balancing a game implies killing specifically what you don't like?
Really surprised how they nerfed Crabrider. Its still going to be insanely good and its battlecry will simply be ignored when he is pulled by Call to Arms
yes, like no windfury at all?