22.4.3 Patch Notes - Standard & Battlegrounds Balance Changes, Bug Fixes
Blizzard just published patch notes for an unexpected patch that will be live tomorrow, let's take a look at what's in there.
UPDATE: Patch is LIVE!
Quote from BlizzardPatch 22.4.3, launching tomorrow, includes balance changes to Battlegrounds and Standard.
Standard Updates
The following cards have been adjusted down in power:
Kazakusan
- LOCUUUUSTS!!! Has been removed from the pool of Treasures that can be Discovered.
Dev Comment: We’re making a small adjustment to reduce the amount of focus that Kazakusan’s treasure hoard has on from-hand damage. Removing LOCUUUUSTS!!! from the Discover pool will allow for a bit more back-and-forth for both players after Kazakusan has been played.
SI:7 Smuggler
- Old: Battlecry: Summon a random minion with Cost equal to the amount of SI:7 cards you’ve played this game.
- New: Battlecry: Summon a random 0-cost minion (Upgraded for each SI:7 card you have played this game).
Dev Comment: Smuggler is receiving an effect change to account for improper wording on release. The new wording should now properly track the Cost of the minion which will be summoned while Smuggler remains in hand. Along with this, SI:7 Informant is receiving a wording change to correctly state that it only counts other SI:7 minions that have been played.
The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 22.4.3 patch goes live.
The following card’s text has been adjusted for clarity (no functional change):
SI:7 Informant
- Old: Battlecry: Gain +1/+1 for each SI:7 card you’ve played this game.
- New: Battlecry: Gain +1/+1 for each other SI:7 card you’ve played this game.
Battlegrounds Updates
General Update:
- There is now a Buddy Meter bonus granted when you defeat Kel’Thuzad (a dead hero).
Hero Update:
Tamsin Roame
- Fragrant Phylactery
- Old: [Costs 1] Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to all your others.
- New: [Costs 0] Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to four friendly minions.
Buddy Updates:
Elder Taggawag (Queen Wagtoggle’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 4 Attack, 3 Health. Whenever you play a minion of a type you don’t control, trigger your Hero Power.
- New: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health. Whenever you play a minion of a type you don’t control, trigger your Hero Power. (2 left this turn.)
Unearthed Underling (Lich Baz’hial’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 4 Attack, 4 Health. Whenever your hero takes damage, this minion gains +2/+2 instead.
- New: [Tavern Tier 3] 3 Attack, 3 Health. Whenever your hero takes damage, this minion gains +3/+3 instead. (2 left this turn.)
Master Gadrin (Vol’jin’s Buddy)
- Old: 8 Attack, 5 Health. At the end of your turn, adjacent minions copy this minion’s Attack.
- New: 6 Attack, 5 Health. At the end of your turn, the minion to the left of this copies this minion’s Attack.
Spirit Raptor (Bru’kan’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2]
- New: [Tavern Tier 3]
Barov’s Apprentice (Lord Barov’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] 4 Attack, 3 Health.
- New: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health.
Dev Comment: Although Lord Barov’s average power level was reasonable, some games had extreme results when enough wagers were won. This change aims to slow down the power spike in those cases.
Monstrosity (Tamsin Roame’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 0 Attack, 12 Health.
- New: [Tavern Tier 4] 0 Attack, 14 Health.
Jr. Navigator (Elise Starseeker’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 2] At the start of your turn, get a ‘Recruitment Map’ and reduce the cost of your Maps by (1).
- New: [Tavern Tier 3] At the start of your turn, get a ‘Recruitment Map.’ Your Maps cost (1).
Hunter of Old (Tess Greymane’s Buddy)
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 6 Attack, 4 Health.
- New: [Tavern Tier 2] 5 Attack, 3 Health.
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
- Fixed a bug where Elder Taggawag was able to trigger limited-use Hero Powers when you’re out of charges.
- Fixed a bug where Mysterybox (from the Wheel of Yogg-Saron) and Elder Taggawag did not function with Hero Powers that target specific minions.
- Fixed a bug where Mysterybox did not function with the “I Spy” Hero Power.
- Fixed a bug where the Twice as Nice Hero Power could give buffs to minions in Bob’s Tavern (such as when a Mama Bear is in Bob’s Tavern and a Beast is copied).
- Updated Yu’lon’s “Enveloping Mist” Ability from Arcane to Nature Spell School.
Everybody: Nerf DH
Literally Everybody: Nerf DH
Blizzard: Rogue.
Rotation when,. Standard is dead.
All cards I've acquired since the mini-expansion arrived are highlighted as "NEW" again whenever I open Hearthstone. They are marked as "NEW" even after I removed the highlighting in my previous session.
I see that the update has not fixed this.
This is annoying, and it makes it harder to manage my collection.
Anyone else have this problem?
Same here.
This happens very frequently when a new set is released. It eventually gets fixed, but for some reason they keep breaking it again.
Same same, only it's not a bug that is going to have them bringing in less money, so a fix may.......maybe not come.
Had it been something with the shop......would have been fix minutes after it was discovered.
/shrug
I'm sorry, but was quest rogue really that oppressive?
Not at all. This nerf seems wholly unnecessary. The card was fine as it was. I don't understand the dev's demonstrated hostility to powerful effects in rogue decks, especially in a meta where druid can play completely busted cards by turn 3.
It's not a nerf, it's a wording change.
It wasn't nerfed because it was oppressive. It changed because it was a bug. Normally a battlecry triggers first and then the minion drops. With this card the battlecry would count the smuggler even though technically hadn't been played yet (i.e. landed on board). To be seems still strong and i love the card. Anyway nobody plays that on turn 3 except if u literally had nothing else and even then u might had to wait.
I think it's a mix of the devs having a distaste for rogue and a majority of the playerbase hating when anything but "me go face" hunter and "I have 10 mana on turn 3" druid are at the top of the meta.
Minion drops first then the battlecry.
Oh yeah, my mistake there. Sorry I came back after a year break and forgot about that technicality. That is why leeroy would die before even u can select it against a knife juggler. So, it was just a change that Blizzard wanted before card was released and didnt work as it should i guess. Anyway, still a good card.
Yeesh... Tamsin was already a pretty bad pick before, but this change basically snaps her in two.
Also, still no fix for the fact that Bru'kan murders the between round timer? I mean having nice long recruitment phases is nice, but when they're over 2 digits fairly often it's beyond stupid.
I stumbled upon your comment regarding Tamsin and had to re-read the patch notes. Somehow they missed out the „start of combat“ part for the new hero power and for a second I thought she is like mutanus now but quadruple :D whatever, in the source „start of combat“ is not missing, but for a brief moment I was very confused
Kazakusan power level is still too high. Everyone play the card which makes the game random, daunting and boring.
guaranteed to get a bigger nerf around the time the next expansion is about to be released.
Indeed, it is as powerful as any 10-Cost old god, yet it costs only 8. That's just dumb.
So they kept Embers of Ragnaros, which will still be the highest "burst from hand" especially with Solar Eclipse. At least with Locusts you only took 14 in one turn as opposed to 24- 48 with solar. I mean it's a step in the right direction, but I fear it won't really change much in terms of matchups/variety of decks being played. It seems pretty ridiculous that Blizzard nerfed a bunch of OTK strategies in recent patches and decide to just make more cards that create the same problem.
That was 100% the right decision. Embers represent a lot of burst, but they're much, much easier to play around. Any minion you have will reduce the potential damage you're taking, and having a big board means the only way Embers do anything is if they combo it with a board clear effect. On the other hand Locusts costs 2 less, there's no way to play around it, it's a more powerful effect since it develops a board alongside just dealing damage, and it represents more potential damage since it's a twinspell (14x2x2=56, compared to 48 with two copies of Embers). And that's not even counting the damage of any Locusts hitting the face again if the opponent doesn't clear them.
I'm not saying Embers aren't a potentially problematic card, personally I'd much rather have another cool board development Treasure instead, but Locusts was definitely the major problem with Kazakusan imo.