22.2.2 Patch Notes - Balance Changes for Battlegrounds and Duels!
New Balance changes to Battlegrounds and Duels, read all the changes below!
UPDATE:
Blizzard just posted about having received reports about the Honor Track prematurely ending with this patch for some people. This bug, as well as a bug with Vanndar in Duels are now fixed.
Quote from Blizzard2/9 Update: We’re in the process of rolling out a hotfix that will turn the Honor Track back on for players who haven’t yet completed it. Players are expected to pick right back up where they were before it ended early. This hotfix also includes a bug fix that will stop Battle Tactics (Vanndar’s Hero Power in Duels) from improperly being able to reduce the cost of Neutral Spells as well as minions.
Quote from Blizzard2/8 Update: We’ve just released Patch 22.2.2. This Patch includes a few bug fixes, but it is primarily a scheduled balance Patch for the new content that was added in Patch 22.2. Earlier this morning, we rolled out a refund for a small number of players who received a regular Lok’holar prior to claiming the Lok’holar on the rewards track.
We are also aware that the the Alterac Valley event rewards have ended prematurely for people who have not yet completed their Honor Track. We are investigating the issue at this time.
~~
We will continue to monitor the patch launch and update this post when we have more information.
Quote from BlizzardPatch 22.2.2, launching today, includes balance changes for Battlegrounds and Duels, along with a handful of bug fixes.
Battlegrounds Updates
MINION POOL CHANGE
- Archdruid Hamuul has been removed from the minion pool.
BUDDY CHANGES
Elementium Squirrel Bomb (Millificent Manastorm’s Buddy)
Eclipsion Illidari (Illidan Stormrage’s Buddy)
- Old: Deathrattle: Deal 4 damage to a random enemy minion. Repeat for each of your Mechs that died this combat. → New: Deathrattle: Deal 3 damage to a random enemy minion for each of your Mechs that died this combat.
Snack Vendor (A.F. Kay’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] “Wingmen” also gives “Immune while Attacking” for one attack only. → New: [Tavern Tier 3] Your first minion that attacks has “Immune while Attacking” for one attack only.
Captain Fairmount (Cariel Roame’s Buddy)
- Old: At the end of your turn, give your Tavern Tier 3 minions +1/+1. → New: At the end of your turn, give your Tavern Tier 3 minions +1/+2.
Ticket Collector (Tickatus’s Buddy)
- Old: At the end of your turn, give three random friendly minions +1/+1. → New: At the end of your turn, give five random friendly minions +1/+1.
Muckslinger (Shudderwock’s Buddy)
- Old: Battlecry: Discover a Darkmoon Prize from the most recent Prize turn. → New: Battlecry: Discover a Darkmoon Prize from the next Prize turn.
Crabby (Tavish Stormpike’s Buddy)
- Old: After you play a minion, add a Battlecry minion to Bob’s Tavern. → New: After you play a minion, add a Battlecry minion to Bob’s Tavern. Give it +2/+2.
- [Golden version] Old: After you play a minion, add two Battlecry minions to Bob’s Tavern. → New: After you play a minion, add a Battlecry minion to Bob’s Tavern. Give it +4/+4.
Karl the Lost (George the Fallen’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 4] 2 Attack, 3 Health
Baby Elekk (Xyrella’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 7 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 4] 3 Attack, 4 Health
Mishmash (The Curator’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Valithria Dreamwalker (Ysera’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 2 Attack, 2 Health
Master Gadrin (Vol’jin’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 4] 6 Attack, 4 Health
Arfus (The Lich King’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]
Tuskarr Raider (Patches the Pirate’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Bilgewater Mogul (Trade Prince Gallywix’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]
Sparkfin Soothsayer (Fungalmancer Flurgl’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]
Asher the Haberdasher (Dancin’ Deryl’s Buddy)
- Old: 7 Attack, 5 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health
Magnus Manastorm (Millhouse Manastorm’s Buddy)
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health
Unearthed Underling (Lich Baz’hial’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Hunter of Old (Tess Greymane’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 4]
Warden Thelwater (Scabbs Cutterbutter’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 4] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Flight Trainer (Galewing’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 4] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Baby Kodo (Guff Runtetotem’s Buddy)
- Old: 4 Attack, 3 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health
Lady Sinestra (Deathwing’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 4] → New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Lil’ K.T. (Mr. Bigglesworth’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 3 Attack, 8 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 1 Attack, 6 Health
Jr. Navigator (Elise Starseeker’s Buddy)
- Old: 5 Attack, 2 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health
Sklibb, Demon Hunter (Aranna Starseeker’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 4 Health
Piloted Whirl-O-Tron (Sneed’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 4 Health
Apostle of Galakrond (Galakrond’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] → New: [Tavern Tier 2]
Sr. Tomb Diver (Reno Jackson’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 7 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 3 Attack, 5 Health
Evergreen Botani (Forest Warden Omu’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 7 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 1 Health
- Old: 7 Attack, 6 Health → New: 9 Attack, 7 Health
Duels Updates
Battle Tactics (Vanndar Stormpike’s Hero Power)
- Battle Totem, Disks of Legend, and Totem of the Dead were are all moved from Treasure Pool 2 to Treasure Pool 2 Ultra Rare (for real this time).
- Old: Reduce the cost of Neutral minions in your hand that cost (4) or more by (2). → New: Reduce the cost of two Neutral minions in your hand that cost (4) or more by (2).
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- Lowered the difficulty of the Snowclaw, High Justice Grimstone, Captain Galvangar, Lokholar the Ice Lord, and Drek’Thar Heroic Bounties, and both Normal and Heroic versions of the Louis Philips Bounty.
- Increased the maximum number of Bladestorm activations from 30 to 50.
- Fixed a bug where Golden Kil’rek would always give two copies of the same Demon when its Deathrattle was triggered.
- Fixed a bug where Spirit of Air’s Deathrattle would sometimes apply to enemy minions.
Why doesn't it mention the golden copy of Elementium Squirrel Bomb (Millificent Manastorm’s Buddy) does that imply that the golden copy still deals 3 Damage vs 6 Damage?
Same for Eclipsion Illidari (Illidan Stormrage’s Buddy) no golden info so is it always Your first minion that attacks has “Immune while Attacking” for one attack only.
They mention the golden copy of Muckslinger (Shudderwock’s Buddy) since its no longer adds 2 battle cry minion and had to make the clarification?
It's an odd decision to make to only show the one golden copy.
It does make sense, and kinda necessary, because otherwise you could justfully think everything doubles, so you'd get 2 minions and each of them would get +4/+4.
And yes, golden milli buddy is 6 dmg, and illidian's golden buddy gives first minion 2 immune attacks.
After pulling some games, Hammul's absence is felt, I'd give Guff that ability on tt4, one minion of each tier from your common tribe, except, again - don creates a problem here, unlike getting e.g. collier from baby kodo even if it's a nonbeast lobby.
Just watch Kripp's videos from yesterday. You'll see why.
There's a,lot of good here, BUT
Barov avoided being nerfed, so did Malygos, and Chenvalla although not played - needs a nerf to tt3, and same for Kael'thas - a buff to tt3.
But, as long as Guff can get useless 5/6 randomly a turn earlier I guess, not to mention Tess is still two tiers lower than Scabbs... the facepalm is strong here.
Onto the real business - Hammul was so easy to manipulate it was stupid, just get all (or 6) dongs by turn 8 and win. Even without brann you auto-win. They hurt pirates very badly with this, not to mention demons, but as long as we have braindead milli mech players...
They could've just fixed dong rather than it being the end-all-be-all minion, rendering half the tier6 as "ok, this isn't a dong, so chances at 1st place went down to single digits". The 'all' tag needs to be 'minions from tribes available in this lobby' so dong doesn't "read" murloc off of Cookie and therefore hammul fetches an empty board. So would pumba in +Quilboar/no beasts, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.
You guy have seen the Mercenaries inbox message?
Chi-Ji is comming soon to the village.
Next expansion could be Pandaren themed?
Unlike many players, I actually loved Mists of Pandaria in WoW, so I am very looking forward towards a Pandaria Expansion.
Hm, interesting. If we also take into account the various portraits with pandaria themes.... I think we will have a pandaria-related expanions this year. Probably we will even see monk at the end of 2022? Who knows. Let's just focus if the upcoming mini expansion brings anything new to the table to shake the meta a bit for the following two months+
Xuen was also a recent Druid hero you can purchase, so that’s two of the four August Celestials. I would love to venture into that realm
Tamsin Roame was one of the worst heroes before buddies. Then she got one of the worst buddies. And now they gave up on fixing her in this patch.
Poor girl. Feelsbadman
Does that mean I can still get the final HonorTrack reward?? Or was it on planned to end
Afaik, the honor track should stay up for completion until next expansion hits. So probably, yeah.
I hope so. Not only can I no longer earn any honor, but for some reason my rank has dropped from Warlord to Scout...
Mind boggling decision. One that only accentuates divine shield poison meta
wild? that's like the 6th most relevant game mode
It's more relevant than duels, arena and mercenaries.
I doubt either one of you has a reliable source to back up these claims.
There was absolutely no reason to remove Archdruid Hamuul from Battlegrounds
You can get hammuul to give you nothing but amalgadons if you have a buddy that is part of a tribe that's banned.
So yeah, there's a reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzf8bXrjL4
Pretty much everyone on the higher MMR figured this out.
Hopefully they'll reword and bring him back later since most people will agree he was completely fine aside from this abusive behavior.