Patch 23.0.1 Patch Notes - Balance Changes BG & Duels - Pandaren Importer Change & Bug Fixes
Blizzard put some Patch Notes live on forums tonight, to adress some Battlegrounds balance concerns and a particularly problematic OTK with the new Core Set.
Some creative streamers found a new OTK with extremely high APM requirement. The idea was to use Brann Bronzebeard plus Pandaren Importer and Fogsail Freebooter and perpetually cycle the latter 2 with Shadowstep (created by Pandaren Importer by having every other spell in the deck, meaning it showed up guaranteed), for a very slow 4 damage a pop OTK.
There was bound to be a reaction by Blizzard, and there was: Pandaren Importer is now a 3 Mana minion, meaning she can't be perpetually cycled back and forth with Shadowstep. Crisis averted!
Quote from BlizzardPatch 23.0.1 is a server-side hotfix, deploying right now. The patch includes balance changes to Battlegrounds and Duels, a pre-emptive balance change for Standard, and bug fixes.
Balance Changes:
- In order to prevent an unintended interaction after Standard rotation, Pandaren Importer is changing from a 2-mana 1/3 to a 3-mana 2/4. Because this is a server-side patch, Pandaren Importer will appear as though its stats have been affected by an in-game effect. This will be updated in an upcoming patch. Because of this change, regular copies of Pandaren Importer will be able to be disenchanted for their full dust value until April 20 at 10 a.m. Pacific. (Golden copies of Pandaren Importer are not craftable because they were on the United in Stormwind rewards track).
- Sub Scrubber (Ini Stormcoil’s Buddy) has been moved from Tavern Tier 2, to Tavern Tier 4. Because this is a server-side hotfix, the Tavern Tier will not appear correctly at hero selection or when hovering over the Buddy Meter. This will be updated in a later full patch.
- Varden Dawngrasp and Ini Stormcoil have been moved from Armor Tier 2 (2-5 Armor) to Armor Tier 1 (0 Armor).
- Wildfire and Malygos are banned from deck creation in Duels.
- The Legendary Loot and Unstable Magic Passive Treasures were moved to the Ultra Rare Pool 2.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements:
- Fixed the visual bug that caused the Ranked Season Rewards celebration to appear blank.
- Fixed a bug where Kurtrus, Demon Render counted times your hero was attacked as well as times you attacked with your hero.
- Fixed a bug where secrets played after Freezing Trap would not trigger after Freezing Trap activated to remove the trigger condition. For example, after this bug fix, if a player plays Freezing Trap and then Explosive Trap, and the enemy attacks the player with a minion, the Freezing Trap will activate to return the attacking minion and then the Explosive Trap will trigger.
- Fixed a bug where Emergency Maneuvers could cause an enemy minion to go Dormant.
- Fixed a bug where Pathmaker would create extra history tiles throughout games.
- Improved Battlegrounds performance related to when minions buffed “for the rest of the game” appear in Bob’s Tavern during the Recruit Phase.
- Temporarily removed the “The Good Stuff” Darkmoon Prize from Tickatus’s Prize pool in order to avoid a bug. The Prize is expected to be returned to Tickatus’s Prize pool in a later patch, when the bug is resolved.
- Fixed a bug where the game would crash if you got a Mysterious Stranger encounter after already completing all Tasks for all Mercenaries you own. Now, if there are not enough visitors with available Tasks to fill the three options, it will select random Mercenaries to fill those slots. You will then be able to select a Mercenary as normal and, if that Mercenary does not have any Tasks to offer, you will get Coins for that Mercenary.
- Fixed a bug where the Reshape Deathblow would copy the target’s Equipment twice.
- Fixed a bug where the “Mecha Magic!” Duels card bucket was inaccurately labeled as “Big Spell.”
- Fixed a bug where players who already had a complete Curse of Naxxramas collection when Patch 23.0 went live could not claim the Diamond Loatheb reward that was added in the patch.
Fractured in Alterac Valley Card List & Expansion Guide
Learn more and see all the cards in our dedicated Card List.
Thank god they disabled Wild Fire in Duels... that was broken as hell with Reno's repeating hero power.
It would take more to play but it can still be done with mailbox dancer in the rotation.
Ha! Creative streamers, never heard of that.
Nice, I have like 20 copies of Pandaren Importer, free dust.
Just nerf the brann into 5 mana, every problem will be solved automatically.
It won't solve this one. Just means have to wait until turn 7 for infinite damage.
Only two ways to nerf it. One they already did and it will work. The second was to nerf Shadowstep so it doesn't go under 1 mana or make the cost 1 mana to play it.
I would be better a nerf to Shadowstep..Pandaren is not a problem on its own...
lol so they bring Brann back to Standard just to nerf it instead of looking at the "evergreen" Shadowstep which has always been utilized in every Standard year since the beginning? Do you see where the problem came from?
Wildfire ban in duels because of Reno is a giant middle finger to Mozaki. I don't understand why they can't implement hero specific bans
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/ty8epi/good_vibes/
Oh true. Now the 1 mana cost increase makes a lot more sense
I saw the combo with Pandaren Importer while watching some of the streams. It's a rogue combo, as:
All that it required was that you had a weapon equipped, and had all possible spells in your starting deck except Shadowstep
The combo is still going to be possible after the nerf, since Brann is 3 mana, Pandaren is 3 mana and Fogsail is 2 mana. But it does mean loading your deck up with a lot of spells that you probably will never use.
It's possible after the nerf but not infinite damage. You're paying 1 mana for the Pandaren Importer and you'll eventually run out of mana.
OH WOW they found a new way to Nerf (Quest) Priest. If Priest get those exploits they will always nerf the class card first at all cost.
I'm honestly flabberghasted they didn't forsee the problem with Ini's buddy before she even hit live servers. It's a self-buffing minion almost exactly like Xyrella's, but with even less of a restriction. Has Activision been supplying lead paint for the water coolers in the Blizzard offices?
Ini's HP is bad tho
They keep having to do these garbage band aid nerfs rather than addressing the core problem. Every single card that discounts needs the text "But not less than 1"
Because we clearly can't nerf shadowstep to "cost (2) less, but not less than (1)"
Could Shadowstep be creating broken loops? Impossible, clearly Pandaren Importer is the problem.
Man, I'm bummed. Importer was such a reasonable card to fill a lot of decks' flex slot. It's like Dreadsteed getting killed for Defile's sins all over again.