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 am glad they took reasonable approach to the Refreshing/Spell Mage. Its nowhere near overwhelmingly strong, this hurts it a bit but doesn't destroy the spirit of the deck. Despite numerous whiners.
...what the f. are these class nerfs?
Water instead of Incanter's Flow?
Sidegrading First Day of School?
Hysteria? Thanks, cause everyone wanted an even bigger aggro fiesta...
No Conviction? No Paladin draw? No Oh My Yogg?
At least the neutral ones are good. The buffs are underwhelming as well. Shaman still has no card draw/generation and Overload is still a terrible mechanic. Control Warrior still has nearly no armor gain and Shieldmaiden at 5 is OK at most. Xanesh is still too unreliable.
I don't think the meta would change. Without touching Incanter's Flow or Paladin's insane burst/draw, it would still be the same shitshow.
bro it took 8 years to buff unbound elemental. I appreciate that :D
Lmao
Please allow me to succinctly express my opinion - WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?
Nerfs my ass
Not sure why they're still allowing Mage to be so powerful in Wild
I guess Refreshing Spring Water costing 5 was supposed to kill APM Mage, but that won't work when the deck already has a total lf FOUR cards that can discount spells and also the mana refresh from Conjure Mana Biscuit and RSW itself. The truth is that they don't care if Wild is almost unplayble for over a month now. RSW was only nerfed because Standard also had some problems with it.
Wild is wild, that's why.
First day of school - round 2 - three Reliquaries of souls! Niiice
n'zoth no longer corrupts clowns !!!<claps> the one deck I'm having fun with, you just f*cked it <claps>
You're not alone, my Kazakus Warlock is also dead (Hysteria is now 4...).
I'm actually very surprised with the nerf to Hysteria
I'm disgusted. Hysteria could be problematic in future expansions, but now? When Priest and Warlock are struggling to survive? Unnecessary.
It's objectively broken right now. It's very often a board clear for 3 mana. It rewards you for doing nothing while your opponent plays the game. There's nearly nothing you can do to play around it.
Way too powerful. My preferred change would have changed it so the target can only attack each minion once, but +1 mana is the Blizzard way.
"rewards you for doing nothing while your opponent plays the game"
so a sweeper card, the backbone of any viable control archetype.
Yes, except big board clears usually cost 5 mana or more, not 3 mana. It can clear too many varieties of board - if there's 3 or more minions on the board you can almost always engineer it so it clears 3 minions if not all of them. That's why it's broken for its cost. Now it's far more fair, but STILL good.
These nerfs won't affect the meta at all though. Conviction still left unnerfed, Tickatus ignored while singlehandedly making the meta unable to have any control decks apart from Priest and Warlock. Mage nerf is very very very minor. At 5 mana Spring Water still does everything it did at 4, especially since it can still be reduced by Incanter's Flow to give you +1 mana and draw 2 cards.
>we're aiming to lower the frequency of extreme turns where Refreshing Spring Water draws cards and gains you mana in the process
are you fucking dumb or what?
Hope I'm wrong but I don't see Spell Mage being any less toxic.