Patch 20.8.2 - Balance Changes for Priest and Druid - Bugfixes
The Balance Changes coming in tomorrow, Thursday July 15th, for Priest and Druid, as well as some bug fixes. Check out the changes below!
This Patch Is Now LIVE!
Quote from BlizzardThe 20.8.2 patch, releasing on July 15, includes changes for three cards in Standard and three bug fixes for Battlegrounds.
Standard Balance Updates
Apotheosis
- Old: Give a minion +2/+3 and Lifesteal. → New: Give a minion +1/+2 and Lifesteal.
Dev Comment: We’re doing two Priest changes, targeting the burst healing available in the class and their generation capabilities. Let's start with Apotheosis—we are moving the buff down to +1/+2 to hit the card's general power and combo capabilities. While healing will always be a strength of Priest, we want to reduce the urgency felt when dealing with Priest's minions. Currently, it can feel like you must remove every Priest minion because of the threat Apotheosis poses. A slight reduction in the buff here should lessen that urgency and make the minions post-Apotheosis easier to deal with. The other side of this nerf is the Samuro + Apotheosis combo. The punishment for playing minions into this combo is too much at the moment, so while we'd like to keep some of that tension of resource commitment, we don't want the punishment to be a full heal for the opponent. The reduction in attack here helps get that combo into a healthier push/pull state.
Renew
- Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
Dev Comment: Renew is going to 2 mana. Heading into this patch, we wanted to knock some of Priest's generation potential as one of our main goals in Hearthstone is to have the cards you chose to include in your deck matter. We decided to change Renew specifically because we believe this change makes the largest impact towards curbing the chains of generation in Priest. At 2 mana, Renew has to be more thoughtful inclusion during deckbuilding, won't be generated by Wandmaker, and takes another mana reduction to get to 0. While Priest's identity looks different in future expansions, we wanted to take this opportunity to reign in their card generation and build a better match experience for both players.
Gibberling
- Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
Dev Comment: Gibberling is moving to 2 mana. Currently Gibberling is the cause of many "non-games", matches that are heavily lopsided in the early game and can have their outcome decided far too early. We want to lower the frequency of this occurrence and Gibberling at 2 mana should result in many more games where opponents can respond to an early board of this little menace.
The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 20.8.2 patch goes live.
Game Improvements & Bug Fixes
- Updated the wording of Kurtrus Ashfallen’s fully upgraded Battlegrounds Hero Power to clarify its one-time completion (no functional change).
- Updated Archdruid Hamuul in Battlegrounds so that when your minion types are tied, he will not refresh Bob’s Tavern with minion types that are not in the pool.
- Adjusted Darkmoon Prizes to offer better Prizes for players on the bottom half of the leaderboard.
United in Stormwind Card List & Expansion Guide
Learn more and see all the cards in our dedicated Card List.
I dont like these changes. Appo chould be also lowered in mana cost because at 3 mana its almost unplayable. Renew should be buffed to 5 health to fit the 2 mana stat line. Gibb nerf just delays the spread by 1 turn and gives decks time to breathe.
This is what I was trying to say before the nerfs came out and i was shocked that shaman wasn't in the mix to be nerfed
bravo blizz
KAPPA
Both discover spells and one has the ability to be regenerated a seemingly endless amount of times.
yes
I feel as though lil’ Al’Akir and Demon Hunter’s King Krush are a bit more concerning than nerfing healing in the healing class.
the nerfs will slow priest... and keep it at top spot
the lifesteal one is ok, but will hardly be noticable, its one damage less, it still heals.
Renew is still good and will still be played...
token Druid oh well no more gibbercrap, it was just an extra, they can perform as well without, just a lazy turn 2 win less
I still wonder who is in the test team... you guys know how to play right? cause there are a ton of other issues...
Nerf shaman and 8/8 rush face dh card.. urgh..
Yeah... of the entire DH class, I think the only real problem card is that one. Idk what the answer is, though... 10 mana, to require a weapon be already equipped? Making it 9 wouldn't do anything. Lowering it's attack by 1 wouldn't do anything, but lowering it more than that would make it bad.
Demon Hunter's King Krush should be 10 mana and increse it's stats to a 10/10 maybe for justifying the change. King Krush costs 9 mana, but it doesn't allows you to trade at the same time. And also, Hunter is a class that just can't play N'Zoth that reliably as Demon Hunter.
How is Renew same cost as Runed Orb?
Are you out of your minds, Blizzard? 2 dmg is awesome, 3 heal is worthless.
I actually agree with you, they hit the 3 main aspects of priest:
Control (since the combo potential just died), Healing and Card Generation.
They should had left at least the healing part. A priest that can't heal has no sense at all. Renew should heal 5 instead of 3. And I actually don't like priest, but it's simple math. Discover effects tend to cost 1 mana and healing 5 costs 1. That would sum 2 mana. Right now the actual value from the card is 1.5 mana. It's stupid.
Isn't Gibberling a bit useless now? I think it would be better if they also increased it's Attack or Health to 2.
Yeah, wow, they actually did nerf Apotheosis that hard.
The renew nerf makes sense (though I would have maybe increased the healing a little bit), but the Apotheosis nerf is *intense*.
Gibberling nerf... whatever. Probably could have made that a 2/1 honestly.
For me the biggest issue right now is Shaman.
I don't like the Apotheosis nerf. aggro decks can deal so much damage now but a healing class shouldn't heal? aggro players won again.
Renew got what it deserved. It's somehow STILL usable. Gibberling isn't though. Card is 100% dead now.
Apo...I dunno. We'll see.
Who The Fk Cares Burry Priest ... More Nerfs for Priest Hell yea !!!!
100% agree. Ppl complaining about dh and shaman xD
The Priest nerfs basically kill the Control Priest deck. Guess we go back to playing dueling aggro decks against each other until the next expansion. Who am I kidding? Next expansion will be another face aggro meta also.