Datamined Balance Changes for 22.2 - Sorcerer's Apprentice - Rapid Fire - Rogue Changes & More!
After some sites jumped the gun, here are the Balance changes as datamined from an upcoming Patch, before Blizzard reveals them in the Patchnotes scheduled for tomorrow. Notable is that The Rapid Fire change for Hunter is not just a cost increase but also a Damage increase and that on top of all the nerfs, there is a buff to Rokara, the hero, going from 5 armor to 10 armor.
Quote from HearthPwn[EX1_608] [Sorcerer's Apprentice] [MODIFIED] COST: 2 => 4
[DAL_373] [Rapid Fire] [MODIFIED] COST: 1 => 2 (note: not just the cost was increased, damage too, from 1 to 2)
[DAL_373ts] [Rapid Fire] [MODIFIED] COST: 1 => 2 (note: not just the cost was increased, damage too, from 1 to 2)
[BT_002] [Incanter's Flow] [MODIFIED] COST: 3 => 4
[DMF_512] [Cloak of Shadows] [MODIFIED] COST: 3 => 4
[SW_028t] [Create a Distraction] [MODIFIED] QUEST_PROGRESS_TOTAL: 2 => 3
[AV_202] [Rokara, the Valorous] [MODIFIED] ARMOR: 5 => 10
[AV_203] [Shadowcrafter Scabbs] [MODIFIED] COST: 7 => 8
[AV_298] [Wildpaw Gnoll] [MODIFIED] COST: 5 => 6
[AV_298] [Wildpaw Gnoll] [MODIFIED] ATK: 4 => 3
Mage Changes
Hunter Changes
Of note, not just the Cost was increased, so was the Damage, from 1 to 2.
Sorcerer's Apprentice finally got touched, and they basically remove it from the game. I absolutely don't understand Activision. After years and years they thought it was ok, and now suddenly it's not? So broken that they kill the card entirely? Were they incompetent then, or are they now?
The Rogue changes are decent, but I think Secret Passage is still busted and needs a complete rework of the card. (It should swap entire hand back, and fix the horrible slow animation)
Quest Warrior was correctly nerfed. The Rapid Fire change is directly targeted to nerf Odd Quest Hunter in Wild, and this severely damages the deck.
This will not stop rogue in the least bit. Weapon is still the best deck combined with garrote. You can pump out upwards of 100+ dmg from the deck played correctly. Garrote needs to be removed from the game asap.
Its max 40 spell dmg with current builds of the deck and not above 100.
This is far from the first time a nerf like this has happened and the answer is that no, there is absolutely no chance they will give refund for related cards. Heck, does anyone else remember when they nerfed leper gnomes but didn't give refunds on mekgineer thermaplugg? That's how you know 100% this won't happen
But they did gave full dust refund for Kargal (the Watchpost legendary), because they nerfed watchposts. But this was different, he was very strongly tied with them being power to play, after that they become bit lacklustre with low health.
Standard gonna be quest lock and.mozaki mage again.
Both are dead againts poison rogue that is by far the best deck in game
The Sorcerer's Apprentice nerf was needed, but I'm hoping there will at least be some dust compensation for cards like Mozaki and Antonidas that depended directly it. You can even make an argument for Open the Waygate and I'm sure other cards I haven't thought off
The nerf to Apprentice is about 7 years too late, but it's good to see nonetheless.
Wow killed rogue back to trash tier here come the Druid and warlock zzzz
And it's the wrong nerf. They again went the laziest route of making it so expensive no one will play it, rather than correctly adding "And not lower than 1" to the card like they should to EVERY card which provides perpetual passive mana discounts.
I think 4 mana version will still see play as a tech to the meta, unlike you 'smartasses' suggest. "Not less than 1" doesn't scam people, which means it's useless, where the 4 mana one can still otk.
No one would play apprentice with not less then one on it. It has better chances at 4 to see any play
I love that Rogue is the most hated class by the Dev team, never seen a class nerfed left and right for no reason. IMO (u r entitled to ur own opinion too) Rogue is never toxic, yes its annoying but thats fine, while Mage / Priest / Warlock even Quest Pala back in the day was just Toxic, poor Rogue throughout HS history been trying to always have "mircale" (pun intended) ways of winning matches.
Was Gnoll Strong sure but it had nice flavour with the masquerade legendary tbh, it was powerful but not toxic, and like double nerf on a card both cost and AP, pretty sure they could have just increased the cost but no lets whack a gnoll (another pun, sorry I'm done).
Meanwhile toxic brainless solitare pirate warrior just gets a slight nerf to slow them by one turn, which is ok.
Priest is actually the most hated class by the Dev team. Whenever the class has the Top tier deck in Standard, it will be nerfed very fast to the ground right away... Priest is not allowed to have top tier decks and never receives any strong cards, no solid win conditions. Always rely on stealing, luck-based OTK, uninteractive win conditions, random generators, fatigue games, weak AoE spells, etc....
Sorry saying 0 Mana Yeti's with Rush weren't toxic getting abused by almost 50% of Legend ranked players (Yes actual data) all playing Rogue because of it is beyond any common sense.
Double Agent wasn't even touched, which is another borderline problematic card.
**Gnoll's. If you are going to whine, at least get the card's name relatively close. Unless you are indeed talking about Coldtooth Yeti...
u dont seem to understand the diff between toxic and powerful cards. Powercards are there for a reason, u cant have vanilla stuff anymore , double agent is more problematic because with being on the coin not many classes can deal with 2 3/3 that early.
While Gnoll although powerful helps u clear stuff up just like any other rush minion, i dont see ppl complaining about the druid rush minion which for druid ramp+early spells is just as easy to activate btw. Yes legend ranked players were having fun with Rogue but Rogue has always been a competitive class, it will find a way back again and will be whacked again.
The Druid rush minion isn't getting played on turn 2.
So playin 2 minions 4/5 in turn 2 is good but not toxic? How can you answer to that before being dead cause of infinite 0 mana face damage?