25.0.4 Patch Notes - Many Balance Changes - Arena and BG Changes Too & More
These are the patchnotes for a HUGE balance patch touching Constructed, Arena and Battlegrounds. Read about them below!
Patch is LIVE!
Quote from BlizzardPatch 25.0.4 is a data-only patch, launching today, that includes balance changes to Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, and Arena, as well as bug fixes and more!
Hearthstone Changes
Dev Comment: Balance changes at this point in an expansion are made with early, somewhat limited data. For these changes, we like to address the most egregious power outliers and play patterns that we know we don’t like—cards that we’re likely to adjust down the line anyway as the meta evolves over time. We hope and expect to make some spicier changes in our next balance pass, once we have more data.
The following cards are being adjusted to be less powerful:
Unleash Fel
- Old: Manathirst (4)
- New: Manathirst (6)
Relic of Dimensions
- Old: [Costs 5]
- New: [Costs 6]
Dev Comment: The Manathirst on Unleash Fel felt like a non-factor that was almost always on anyway when you wanted to play the card. This change makes the card more interesting and helps reel in a Demon Hunter power outlier. Relics are prevalent and powerful—we like them and didn’t want to fully revert their power level, so we’re just touching the strongest Relic to make it a little less explosive.
Anub’Rekhan
- Old: Battlecry: Gain 8 Armor. This turn, your minions cost Armor instead of Mana.
- New: Battlecry: Gain 8 Armor. This turn, your next 3 minions cost Armor instead of Mana.
Dev Comment: This Brann-Anub’Rekhan combo is not a big winrate outlier, but it represents a play pattern we don’t like. We wanted to reduce lethality and remove the ability for the combo to let players dump their entire hand, while still allowing ramp strategies.
Boon of the Ascended
- Old: [Costs 4]
- New [Costs 5]
Priestess Valishj
- Old: [Costs 0]
- New: [Costs 1]
Dev Comment: Boon Priest is not common or overly powerful at most levels of play, but it is the best performing deck at high legend and it wins through frustrating play patterns. We wanted to give it a couple small adjustments to make it more in line with the rest of the meta, especially after the other adjustments in this patch.
Necrolord Draka
- Old: [Costs 4]
- New: [Costs 5]
Sinstone Graveyard
- Old: [Costs 2]
- New: [Costs 3]
Sketchy Information
- Old: [Costs 3]
- New: [Costs 4]
Forsaken Lieutenant
- Old: [Costs 2]
- New: [Costs 3]
Dev Comment: There are two Rogue decks that we want to adjust this patch. Deathrattle Rogue is a deck that can do some cool, fun things, but it’s too fast for most decks to deal with. We don’t want to destroy these synergies, but we do want to slow them down. Similarly, Miracle Rogue makes for very bad play experiences when their pop-off turns are too powerful too soon. We think it is fun and thematic for Rogue to have those turns where they play a bunch of cards and get rewarded for it, but we want to slow that turn down a little.
Prince Renathal
- Old: Your deck size and starting Health are 40.
- New: Your deck size is 40. Your starting Health is 35.
Dev Comment: Renathal had its run. He’s the most played card in the game and the meta has warped around him for a long time, so we are making this change to open the meta back up. At the same time, we know he’s one of the most popular cards we’ve ever made, so we wanted to preserve his core effect as an option for his fans.
Tome Tampering
- Now banned in Wild.
Dev Comment: Discard is a thematic Warlock archetype with many tools over the years. Those tools have combined into a disruptive force in the Wild meta. Tome Tampering is the powerful enabler that puts this deck over the format’s power level; banning that enabler will let players continue to use those thematic discard Warlock tools, but at a level that is more in line with the rest of the format.
The above craftable cards will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks following Patch 25.0.4 (Signature versions of Anub’Rekhan and all versions of Prince Renathal are not craftable).
We're taking a hard look at what systemic changes we want to make to Signature cards in the future, and have not finalized those decisions. This time, players who have the Signature version of Anub'Rekhan as of December 20th at 10am PST will receive a grant of 1600 Arcane Dust at login, later that week. Things may work differently in the future. We will share more information on those future plans once they're finalized.
The following cards are being adjusted to be more powerful:
Dev Comment: Death Knight is the cool new class that many players want to try out, so we’re making some adjustments to open them up a little and give them more toys to tinker with. Like with the nerfs, these buffs are designed to be higher confidence; we specifically looked for low playrate Death Knight cards that seemed primed for upgrades. We plan to take another look in the next balance pass.
Corpse Bride
- Old: Battlecry: Spend up to 8 Corpses. Summon a Risen Groom with stats equal to the amount spent.
- New: Battlecry: Spend up to 10 Corpses. Summon a Risen Groom with stats equal to the amount spent.
Malignant Horror
- Old: At the end of your turn, spend 5 Corpses to summon a copy of this minion.
- New: At the end of your turn, spend 4 Corpses to summon a copy of this minion.
Meat Grinder
- Old: Battlecry: Shred a random minion in your deck to gain 3 Corpses.
- New: Battlecry: Shred a random minion in your deck to gain 4 Corpses.
Blightfang
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
Stitched Giant
- Old: [Costs 10]
- New: [Costs 9]
Ymirjar Deathbringer
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Rime Sculptor
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- New: 4 Attack, 3 Health
Obliterate
- Old: Destroy a minion. Your hero takes damage equal to its Health.
- New: Destroy a minion. Your hero takes 3 damage.
Blood Tap
- Old: Give all minions in your hand +1/+1. Spend 3 Corpses to give them +1/+1 more.
- New: Give all minions in your hand +1/+1. Spend 2 Corpses to give them +1/+1 more.
Battlegrounds Updates
Quest Reward Updates
- The Kidnap Sack Quest Reward has been made harder to earn.
- The Hidden Treasure Vault and Teal Tiger Sapphire Quest Rewards have been made easier to earn.
- The Partner in Crime, Pilfered Lamps, Wondrous Wisdomball, and Yogg-tastic Tasties Quest Rewards will appear more frequently.
Dev Comment: As we approach the end of the season, we want all players to have a chance to experience some of the rarer Quests they may or may not have been able to find. Enjoy!
Minion Updates
Toxfin
- Old: Tavern Tier 4
- New: Tavern Tier 6
Dev Comment: Though not a power outlier at most levels, Toxfin has a limiting effect on what playstyles feel viable in Murloc lobbies. We are pushing Toxfin up to Tier 6 as a way to open up some space for more diverse strategies.
Minion Pool Updates
- Mechano-Tank and Interrogator Whitemane have been removed from the minion pool.
- Witchwing Nestmatron, Mechano-Egg, Mythrax the Unraveler, and Seafood Slinger have been returned to the minion pool.
Arena Updates
Arena draft appearance rates have been adjusted as follows:
- Death Knight and Paladin cards that generate more cards will appear less frequently.
- Death Knight cards that remove opposing minions and leave a board presence will appear less frequently.
- Low winrate cards from low performing classes will appear less frequently.
- High winrate cards from low performing classes will appear more frequently.
- Some Neutral cards will appear more or less frequently, depending on their performance in a given class.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Potion Belt could not Discover two of the same Concoction.
- [Hearthstone] The wording on Astalor, the Flamebringer has been updated for clarity; this is not a functional change.
- [Hearthstone] Grim Patron and Gruntled Patron will now once again leave Corpses. Adjusted the Corpse Explosion interaction so that it no longer chains infinitely.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where Greatsword of the Ebon Blade would lose Durability whenever any card was played, not just minions.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug that made Scourge Strike unable to be played.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where the Scourging Hero Power doesn’t work if your board is full.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where Hematology and Unholy Embrace did not count as consuming Corpses.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where Unholy Embrace always filled your hand if you had any Corpses to spend when you played it.
I can already feel the meta shifting into something more enjoyable - good bye rogues hope you will only have tier 3 decks the next many expansions. Deathrattle rogue was annoying.
Feels very sad that they had to nerf my boy Prince Renathal - I will still play him, but it will be more of a struggle.
Funny enough there suddenly was a rise of blood dks.
These go crazy
Bye renathal... dont let the door hit your ass on the way out
I personally dont think Renathal needed this nerf, even with 40 health you could be evaporated by some aggro decks, and it did nothing against OTK... Now putting 10 extra cards into your deck for 5 extra health is horrible
If you're putting Renathal alongside 9 extra cards in your decks just for those 10hp extra, then you're doing it wrong ;)
The relevant part is the 10 extra free HP. The extra cards just make your deck inconsistant. Renathal is meta just for the 10 health he grants. It would see no play (no competitive play) if it didn't give extra health.
Imho, original idea behind Renathal was to be put only in decks where those 9 extra cards will make a difference. Extra hp was just a nice bonus. And I think that Blizzard agrees, because they didn't reduce number of cards, only hp bonus.
I didn't play much of standard lately so I don't know how are things there atm, but in wild Renathal was in almost every deck. Even aggro and combo decks were running it. It was funny to see them struggle with all those extra dead weight cards for no benefit whatsoever. Those 10 hp extra won't save you if it made your deck worse.
quitting the game, until they make renethal 40 hp again
It's funny. They've nerfed a bunch of cards that create "very bad play experiences" but have continued to print cards which create "very bad play experiences". It's almost as if they don't know what these cards will do, then they have a shocked Pikachu face when busted stuff happens.
The change to Anub’Rekhan is fine, but the real problem was the combo with Brann, both in generating twice the armour and in doubling the subseqeuent "very bad play experiences". Obviously this is facilated by another "very bad play experience" in Guff.
The change to Renethal is mis-guided imo. People play him because you need to have 40 health to survive the absurdity of the aggro decks these days. Even with 40 health you can easily be dead on turn 5 and it does nothing to protect from OTK. I think this change will kill priest who will now extensively have (you guessed it) "very bad play experiences".
Exactly. The game has been so hyperpowercrept that any deck that wasn't aggro NEEDED 40 health to be able to survive aggro or the crazy reach of Bless Priest. Imp Warlock and Token Druid puts out an insane amount of damage very quickly.
The Prince Renathal nerf is horrible. Classes have gotten cards allowing them to deal 30 damage orders of magnitude faster than was possible before, and yet all classes still start at 30 health, like they did at the beginning of the game. That's the real issue here.
Kinda wish they'd done something more with Renathal than a straight nerf. Maybe give him Battlecry: Give your hero +5 health.
I think this will make running Prince Renathal an actual decision rather than an auto include for most decks. Making a deck 10 cards less consistent for an Iron Hide is much less appealing.
I Don't get why you got downvoted so hard...i totally agree making him a 7 mana or 6 mana with bad stats like 4/4 would have been a decent nerf ,this just makes the card terrible , and for what? so we can have more aggro decks??
So instead play on 11 mana brann, anub'rehkan, spend armor for BM'ing and playing 1 extra minion, I can play on 11 mana brann, anub'rehkan, second version of alastor and 2x the last alastor version, which I can still OTK my opponent
Yeah but it does prevent you from playing Zola and more Astalors
Most druids will kill you with just the 11 mana combo which is easy as fuck to do.
Brann is the problem.
I like Renathal, I hope he will still be viable.
His effect for sure was big, but at this point I think he's more than a regular card, he's a choice you have to do whenever you make a deck that will affect your gameplay depending what you want more. Baku/Genn were similar a bit, but not exactly, they were more of build around for powerful effect, unlike Renathal, you had to put them in their respective decks, and would never put them in decks not built with them in mind.
5 health is not enough to justify the inconsistency. Especially because the inconsistency is particularly harmful against quick decks. Sure, he will give you an advantage over attrition decks, but those aren't exactly commonplace in this meta. Some people will probably still play it, but they'll be worse off for it.
Tell that to everyone who played aggro against Beast Hunter in CN meta. Renathal didnt increase controls winrate against aggro much, but midranges winrate did increase, A LOT. Midrange had time to stabilize and pressure aggro back thanks to Renathal. But ofc you know that, you're a good player right?