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.
Brainless balance team, 10/10 RnG game.
I am so disappointed. I wanted to see some wild nerfs.
These cards are also in wild...and 4/5 of the nerfed cards see significant play in wild.
Don't bother man. I gave up hope on that and moved to standard because they clearly don't give a damn about wild. They achieved what they wanted.
Nzoth Odd Warrior!
crab rider nerf is underwhelming, still too many stats too much impact for murlocs. No nerf for flamewaker or sorc appreant. no nerfs for secret mage, no nerfs for pala 4 mana wins the game.
Maybe these nerfs will be fine for standart, but for wild - it is bullshit.
Why not Nerf Tickatus? Because Control Warlock already isn't a very good deck.
Why not nerf Incanter's Flow? Because Spell Mage already isn't a very good deck.
Control Warrior is better. Midrange Shaman is better. Corrupt Priest is better. Maybe see how the meta pans out before making your judgments.
Your Incanter's Flow argument is directly contradicted by the Refreshing Spring Water nerf.
(Which, to be fair, may be enough.)
Refreshing Spring Water was seeing play in decks that weren't actually that invested in spells. If that's not an indicator, I don't know what is. As you say, it may be enough to weaken Spell Mage where it's played, whilst also giving other mage archetypes room to exist.
No one really felt bad about RSW in non-spell decks, so it's hard to believe those had much bearing on the decision.
Incanter's Flow, on the other hand, provides such an insanely high return on the initial investment in an all-spell deck that it's easy to see why the mulligan win rate and played win rate are through the roof. Playing it early is a highly polarizing move that flat-out shuts out a lot of opponents. You literally win two-thirds of your games by finding it in your opening hand. That is not healthy for Hearthstone.
Bumping up the mana cost would not keep it from being played in spell-heavy decks, but it would give opponents time to actually start playing before the onslaught begins.
I liked the Crabrider change, it's still a very good controlling tool but not nearly as aggressive, it will still see some play. I also think that N'Zoth, God of the Deep costing 9 kills the Old God flavor and still doesn't make the card strong enough. The minions should have rush OR you should be allowed to ressurrect two minions of the same type if there's a free spot in the pool. If anything it's actually worse because it can't corrupt Carnival Clown. And damn, no Caravan buffs? I guess they're fine with a type of card being unplayble as a whole...
Shaman= still crap.
Thank you Blizzard
While this is probably true, you have to think that there's a mini set coming in a couple of weeks and this buffs plus the new cards can bring shaman to a competitive level again.
At least make hysteria targets own minions again
It will never happen.
:(
That would still allow for the wretched tiller OTK
LOL that paladin change actually seems more like a buff than a nerf... Ok i cant play 0 cost into 1 cost turn 1, but i basically get my hand full of value...
lmao huh? how is that a hand full of value if its the same effect? you just made no sense
It now adds 3 minions instead of 2, so different effect.