Patchnotes 23.2.2 - Drek'thar Nerf & more Buffs and Nerfs - Battlegrounds too
Blizzard published the Patchnotes for the upcoming Balance Patch, lots of changes, both buffs and nerfs!
See all visuals for the constructed changes at the bottom of this article.
This Patch is LIVE!
Quote from BlizzardPatch 23.2.2, launching May 19, includes bug fixes and balance changes to Battlegrounds and Standard!
Card Updates
The following cards have had their power adjusted down:
Drek’Thar
- Old: Battlecry: If this costs more than every minion in your deck, summon 2 of them. → New: Battlecry: If this costs more than every minion in your deck, summon one of those minions.
Multi-Strike
- Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
Dragonbane Shot
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 3]
The above craftable cards will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 23.2.2 (the only version of Drek’Thar that is craftable is the normal, non-golden version). Any players who own Diamond Drek’Thar at the time that the patch goes live will automatically receive 3,000 Gold when they log in as a refund.
The following cards have been buffed:
Xhilag’s Stalk (part of Xhilag the Abyss)
- Old: At the end of your turn, deal 1 damage to an enemy. → New: At the end of your turn, deal 2 damage to an enemy.
Harpoon Gun
- Old: After your hero attacks, Dredge. If it’s a Beast, reduce its Cost by (2). → New: After your hero attacks, Dredge. If it’s a Beast, reduce its Cost by (3).
Pet Collector
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health
Azsharan Saber
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Sunken Saber (generated by Azsharan Saber)
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Blackwater Behemoth
- Old: [Costs 8] → New: [Costs 7]
Whirlpool
- Old: [Costs 9] → New: [Costs 8]
Shadowcloth Needle
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
Serpent Wig
- Old: Give a minion +1/+1. If you played a Naga while holding this, add a Serpent Wig into your hand. → New: Give a minion +1/+2. If you played a Naga while holding this, add a Serpent Wig into your hand.
Tooth of Nefarian
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]
SI:7 Smuggler
- Old: Battlecry: Summon a random 0-Cost minion. (Improved for each other SI:7 card you have played this game). → New: Battlecry: Summon a random 1-Cost minion. (Improved for each other SI:7 card you have played this game).
Wildpaw Gnoll
- Old: [Costs 6] 3 Attack, 5 Health → New: [Costs 5] 4 Attack, 5 Health
Tess Greymane
- Old: [Costs 8] → New: [Costs 7]
Hench-Clan Burglar
- Old: 4 Attack, 3 Health → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health
Sira’kess Cultist
- Old: 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
Dragged Below
- Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 3]
Azsharan Scavenger
- Old: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Costs 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health
Sunken Scavenger (generated by Azsharan Scavenger)
- Old: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Costs 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health
Bloodscent Vilefin
- Old: [Costs 4] 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health
Battlegrounds Updates
Hero change:
Fungalmancer Flurgl (Gone Fishing hero power)
- Old: Passive: After you sell a minion, add a random Murloc to Bob’s Tavern. → New: Passive: After you sell 2 minions, add a random Murloc to Bob’s Tavern.
Hero Armor changes:
- Al’Akir, Galakrond, George the Fallen, and Malygos have been moved to Armor Tier 1.
- Death Speaker Blackthorn, Fungalmancer Flurgl, Ini Stormcoil, Lord Barov, Maiev Shadowsong, Queen Azshara, Rokara, and Tickatus have been moved to Armor Tier 2.
- Endwin VanCleef has been moved to Armor Tier 4.
- Deathwing, Elise Starseeker, and Kurtrus Ashfallen have been moved to Armor Tier 5.
- Aranna Starseeker and Skycap’n Kragg have been moved to Armor Tier 6.
- Onyxia and Queen Wagtoggle have been moved to Armor Tier 7.
Minion changes:
Snail Cavalry
- Old: 5 Attack, 2 Health → New: 4 Attack, 2 Health
Lava Lurker
- Old: 2 Attack, 5 Health → New: 2 Attack, 4 Health
Shoal Commander
- Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 1 Attack, 2 Health
Stormscale Siren
- Old: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health. At the end of your turn, your Spellcraft minions cast their spells on themselves. → New: [Tavern Tier 5] 6 Attack, 5 Health. At the end of your turn, you cast your Spellcraft minions’ spells on them.
- Dev Comment: The effect text update is not a functional change, but just a rephrasing to make the card text better match how the effect currently functions.
Critter Wrangler
- Old: 5 Attack, 7 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+2. → New: 5 Attack, 6 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+1.
Tidemistress Athissa
- Old: 7 Attack, 8 Health. After you cast a spell, give four friendly Naga +1/+1. → New: 7 Attack, 3 Health. After you cast a spell, give three friendly Naga +1/+1.
Orgozoa, the Tender
- Old: 5 Attack, 9 Health → New: 3 Attack, 7 Health
Darkgaze Elder
- Old: After you spend 4 Gold, play a Blood Gem on four friendly Quilboar. → New: After you spend 5 Gold, play a Blood Gem on four friendly Quilboar.
Young Murk-Eye
- Old (normal): At the end of your turn, adjacent Murlocs trigger their Battlecries. → New: At the end of your turn, the Murloc to the left of this triggers its Battlecry.
- Old (golden): At the end of your turn, adjacent Murlocs trigger their Battlecries twice. → New: At the end of your turn, adjacent Murlocs trigger their Battlecries.
Duels Updates
- Removed the Dragon Affinity Passive Treasure.
- Dev Comment: Good night, sweet prince. Till we meet again.
- Tuned the synergy rules for Emerald Goggles and Fire spell school Passive Treasures.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- Improved connectivity surrounding Discover effects.
- Fixed a bug where a temporary Divine Shield from Glowscale could remove a minion’s permanent Divine Shield.
- Fixed a bug where applying a Spellcraft to a magnetic minion in Bob’s tavern then makes that buff permanent.
- Fixed a bug causing Mercenaries Portraits (mostly Rexxar Portraits) to disappear. Players who earned an additional copy of a Portrait while it was temporarily missing will receive a random Portrait from that Merc, instead (or Coins for that Merc if all Portraits are already owned).
- Updated the text in the Upgrade to Golden feature U.I. to better match functionality.
- Fixed an error that caused people who selected the “random” card back to have that function unchecked when they first logged in after Patch 23.2.
Warlock will be the new meta, Hold my Beer!
Hopefully enough to stop the entire lobby in every game pushing for Nagas on 6. I am confused by hte Murloc nerf - I don't think I've seen a single player use that tier 6 murloc yet... it can't be that good cause I haven't seen anything but Nagas win. Atleast I have seen that quillboar work, but surprised that is being nerfed too, becasue even though pure boar builds are strong, top 4 was always Naga naga naga naga.
I guess I'm just not sure where they got the data from...no one was playing these cards.
There were probably at least two more Naha builds in the bottom 4 too.
That one version where Beaststalker Tavish is played before quest completes and you're throwing down 0 cost Hoggers multiple times in slow-mo
I'm so happy Tess buffs, HYPE only for that pogggggg
Nice nerfs. Could have been more, but i take it at first. BUT hold on a minute. No shaman buffs? Not a single one? Shaman is dead this expansion. And mechashark dodges another bullet. Holy duck.
Big beast hunter has already been a very strong deck, now it becomes a real t1 material
I always beat big beast hunter with curse warlock
lmao people who bought diamond Drek'Thar for gold get to keep him for free now
fking blizzard..
Being a consoomer whale was the Chad move all along.
got 3k refund + I still have diamond drek´thar, not bad
dragon affinity removed but marvelous mycelium remains untouched? that's funny
I knew I should've bought diamond Drek'Thar
They really like their shitty pirates.
Its amazing how they didnt nerf pirate warrior.That deck is cancer
bronze deck
The buff to Dragged Below is huge. For 9 mana, you can now combo with tamsin to give 4 curses in a turn, similar to the azshara combo now without needing azshara… but of course you’re going to run azshara still because now you can give an opponent 6 curses for 10 mana. If you have cast no curses that game, it does 21 damage, if you cast two curses earlier, it does 32 damage. That’s if the opponent has the space in hand and you have the targets, but the ring remembers spells between turns and tamsin’s copies cost 0 between turns, so it doesn’t have to be all at once. Curse warlock might not be a thing, but this is insanely good lethality for control warlock using cards that you were putting in your deck.
The problem is that against any control deck it's an auto loss because there's not enough threats in the deck to touch controls defenses. Thus the control player just sits on 9 or 10 cards for the whole match and your curses are worthless. The deck is also still an auto loss to Quest Hunter. Nothing they do changes the power of that curse deck because the mechanic is bad. IT should have always shuffled into the opponents deck.
No.