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.
You don’t lose the card. Why do you need a refund? 30 packs worth of gold while you also can dust any other copy… Seems good to me.
Card's effect is halved, it will be surely unplayable. But the diamond card was directly sold for cash, all cash purchasers deserve full cash refund. I expect some serious backlash over this.
Golden copy is still un-dustable, i didn't expect refund for it anyway.
While I agree about deserving a cash refund, we knew that wouldn’t happen. The gold refund was far more generous than I thought. Selling exact copies of cards for fiat currency is a bad tactic, let’s hope they learned their lesson.
If you paid cash for this card (which you shouldn’t have, but I’ll save the “told you so” rant) and are upset about it still, and you purchased it on mobile, I would look into contacting apple or google for a cash refund. Their terms of service are similar, but essentially you can say that you can no longer access the product you paid for in it’s purchased state and that the state the product is in currently is not the agreed upon product at time of purchase. They will likely refund your money, I’ve seen cases of people blatantly violating TOS and getting banned from mobile games receiving a refund because they can no longer access the product they paid for. I have no horse in this race, I purchased Drek’thar for gold, get to keep the card and receive a gold refund.
For anybody who spent money on "whatever hearthstone value" it's more than great, but from a consumer-ethics point of view, it's still a dick move.
People didn't spend 25$ on random cards, they bought a game cosmetic with play value. If I order a 1000$ designer lamp and get a 2000$ couch/sofa I'm still being fucked over as a customer, no matter the objective value of my final product. And it's always a good display to offer a full refund :)
Wow. Big hit to quest Hunter, but they leave wild rogue intact... Great as always. Welcome to wild roguestone!
Grumble, grumble... Blizzard didn't nerf that card I dislike. :(
Drahonbane shot is now unplayable but as a Wild player tired of quest hunters I welcome this
of all nerfs that deck could get I'm a little surprised, but I guess they just had to nerf something :)
It's the second-best card in the deck. That nerf will hurt. Happy to see the beast hunter buffs; better than simply nerfing questline, give hunters a competitive alternative.
too bad dragonbane was cool in a lot of different decks, not only quest hunter
also i thought quest hunter omnipresence in wild was over with the successive expansion and rapid fire nerf