Patchnotes: Third Time's the Charm - Wait Nope, Still Just An Announcement of an Announcement.
The Balance patch we have been hearing about since early January will have the official patchnotes revealed on Thursday. For now we have to make do with these Twitter Images which showcase the cards being buffed and nerfed.
The Constructed images are (best as we can make them out):
- Wildpaw Gnoll
- Sinstone Graveyard
- Final Showdown
- Sinful Brand
- Glacial Advance
- Shockspitter
- Astalor
- Unholy Frenzy
- Battlefield Necromancer
- Boneguard Commander
- Vengeful Walloper
- Wither
- Vast Wisdom
- Energy Shaper
- Time Warden
- Haunting Nightmare
- Basaleph
- Bonecaller
- Infantry Reanimator
- Darkhan Drathir
- Asvendon
- Last Stand
- Disruptive Spellbreaker
- Remornia
- Nellie
Nerfs:
Buffs
Honestly, looks like Undead in BG's is going to be pretty unplayable, but I understand potentially removing the Eternal Summoners cause there is not really way how to change it (maybe I just don't see it). Anyways, I'm looking forward to be able to play another tribe without losing to undead in TOP 2 most of the time.
Here is the post from other guy here, but I linked the cards (also fixed many of the names in process), so you can actually see the current state of the card (cause I don't remember all cards by name anymore) :D
Nerfs
Wildpaw Gnoll Gnoll now only gets discounted by non-Rogue cards. Maestra no longers works to discount this card
Sinstone Graveyard Ghosts no longer have stealth.
Final Showdown 1st stage requirement has gone from draw 4 cards in a turn to draw 6.
Sinful Brand 1 mana → 2 mana
Astalor, the Flamebringer Manathirsts have gone up from 4/7/10 to 5/8/10, Final stage now deals 7+7 damage
Shockspitter from 3 mana to 4 mana 3/3
Buffs
Bonecaller 2/4 → 2/5
High Cultist Basaleph 5 mana → 4 mana
Haunting Nightmare Base minion and Token from 3/3 to 4/3
Unholy Frenzy from 3 mana to 2 mana
Battlefield Necromancer and Boneguard Commander Tokens from 1/2 Taunts to 1/3 Taunts
Vengeful Walloper 7 mana to 6 mana
Wither from 2 mana to 1 mana
Shallow Grave from 2 mana to 1 mana
Last Stand From 4 to 1 mana, Now reads: Draw a Taunt minion. Manathirst (8) double the stats.
Remornia, Living Blade From 4/10 to 5/10
Asvedon, the Grandshield Now 4/3 with taunt
Infantry Reanimator From 6 mana to 5 mana
Nellie, the Great Thresher Reduces Pirates cost by (2). From (1)
Timewarden From 4 mana 3/5 to 3 mana 3/4.
Vast Wisdom From 3 Mana to 2 Mana.
Energy Shaper From 4 mana 3/5 to 3 mana 3/4
Dar'Khan Drathir From 8 mana to 7 mana
so this is my hot take on everything given by the SUSPECTED LEAKED CHANGES in a comment below
miracle rogue is basically left unchecked the ghosts dont have stealth anymore...ok?? that doesnt fix anything when you have a 10/10 to kill on turn 4 with your cute 3/3s and 3/4
quest demon hunter possibly gutted like a pig
shockspitter pretty much dead and WILL BE dead once brann rotates out of core set
astalor is still going to exist in every druid and rogue deck ever because Guff didnt get nerfed wich means mana cost means nothing to druid and rogues can still discount with shadowstep yeah its only doing 14 damage on turn 10 but do either of those classes care when they have excessive mana discount or 20 mana
nellie will give pirate warrior a slight breathe in standard but thats all it is
i would love to see dragon pally flourish as dragon decks are what got me into hearthstone in the first place
last stand i feel they made even worse now with the manathirst on it
the battlefield commander and bonefield necromancer buff is gonna change the value of those cards in a big way and for the better espically commander in late game
the rest we will see what happens
Questionable -> Strange -> Baffling -> Absurd -> Ridiculous -> Bli$$ard.
Caveat - I don't know what the nerfs or buffs will be!
So - I think this looks a bit disappointing to be honest. The nerf targets are all well and good (and quite obvious), but the bigger problem with both rogue and DH is the ability to generate/draw cheap and free cards, and that probably isn't going to change a great deal unless they gut the DH quest and some of the rogue staples. The problem with frost DK is the fact that it never runs out of resources, and how powerful discover effects are in that class. Sure you can tweak the burst damage from glacial advance, but in my experience frost DK is more attrition based that OTK (although objectively it is a busted card - functionally often 1 mana 4 damge). As for shockspitter - I hope they change it to something like "increase damage for each minion killed by your hero". Keeps the theme and gives it a drawback and a means to play around it and slows it down substantially (and reduces the "me go face" reward).
Also sad not to see Brann, but maybe he will get HoF'd instead of nerfed, and he just doesn't fit in the graphic...I can dream...
As for the buffs, I think a lot of these cards are actually fine as they are, but they have no viable decks to fit into. A buffed Battlefield Necromancer has potential to be really anoying and very strong. The game doesn't need another snowbally 2 mana card that if you cant deal with it straight away you're in trouble. As it stands he is currently (and often) a 2 mana 3/5 with taunt. My concern is that these cards, if buffed, change the meta in a a entirely unhleathy way.
Cards which I think do merit a buff Haunting Nightmare, Asvendon, Last Stand. I've literally never seen anyone play them (unless discovered). A card like Energy Shaper should always be a meme. If you make it viable it's probably going to end up broken, just like Luna's Pocket Galaxy was when it got buffed. Maybe make it a 4/5 but keep its effect the same?
The bigger question to me though is where is the buff to fiery war axe? Doesn't the weapon and armor class deserve a 3 mana 3/2 weapon with a tempo effect like everyone else (or just a plain 2 mana 3/2 like it used to be)? Why does To the Front! have "not less than 1" when virtually no other mana reduction cards do (I know it would allow broken stuff - lots of classes can already do broken stuff!)? The balance is completely shot and "class identify" doesn't cut it anymore as none of the classes have any identity except overpowered or dead in the water.
Abyssal Curses deal enough indirect damage. I hope the 6/6 that Smorcs with Lifestealing Fireballs doesn’t end up being good.
People are saying these are the leaked changes. Take it with a grain of salt.
Nerfs
Wildpaw Gnoll: Gnoll now only gets discounted by non-Rogue cards. Maestra no longers works to discount this card
Sinstone Graveyard : Ghosts no longer have stealth.
Final Showdown: 1st stage requirement has gone from draw 4 cards in a turn to draw 6.
Sinful Brand: 1 mana → 2 mana
Astalor: Manathirsts have gone up from 4/7/10 to 5/8/10, Final stage now deals 7+7 damage
Shockspitter: from 3 mana to 4 mana 3/3
Buffs
Bonecaller: 2/4 → 2/5
Basaleph: 5 mana → 4 mana
Haunting Nightmare: Base minion and Token from 3/3 to 4/3
Unholy Frenzy: from 3 mana to 2 mana
Battlefield Necromancer and Boneguard Commanders: Tokens from 1/2 Taunts to 1/3 Taunts
Vengeful Walloper: 7 mana to 6 mana
Wither: from 2 mana to 1 mana Shallow Grave: from 2 mana to 1 mana
Last Stand: From 4 to 1 mana, Now reads: Draw a Taunt minion. Manathirst (8) double the stats.
Remornia: From 4/10 to 5/10
Asvendon: Now 4/3 with taunt
Infantry Reanimator: From 6 mana to 5 mana
Nellie: Reduces Pirates cost by (2). From (1)
Time Warden From 4 mana 3/5 to 3 mana 3/4.
Vast Wisdom: From 3 Mana to 2 Mana.
Energy Shaper: From 4 mana 3/5 to 3 mana 3/4
Darkhan Drathir: From 8 mana to 7 mana
Shallow grave isn’t getting a buff and doesn’t need one. You left off disruptive spell breaker.
If that Final Showdown nerf is real, that's nuking the quest from orbit. It's going to be so difficult to get the first stage done before turn 5 or earlier.
From 4 cards to 6 cards wouldn't just nerf the card, it would nuke the card into oblivion. Stages 2 and 3 are already hard enough to get between turns 4-6 without a decent card discount in the first stage. An extra card on top of those for the first one is honestly overkill and anyone suggesting that is seriously tilted from losing to DH.
The rest of the suggested "leaked" nerfs are honestly okay. Only Death Knight and Priest will still be able to directly kill Ghosts with Mage and Shaman —maybe a few other classes— being able to delay slightly better than most. Gnoll is frankly reasonable and has been what most were asking for since the first gnoll nerf. Sinful and Shock are cards I've never fully gelled with so I'm okay with theirs.
If that's Astalor's then I'm perfectly fine with that too since that was the most reasonable of the astalor nerf predictions.
I don't care for any buffs— I have priest and mage at 1,000 wins already and Warlock and Warrior aren't classes I have any intentional desire to play so their "buffs" mean nothing to me.
I really hope the Astalor nerf's better than that. The amount of damage you'd get from Druid combo or Rogue just shadow stepping it a bunch is still enough to stomp slow decks.
I noted on a prior thread that they would keep buffing DK, and got bunches of downvotes. I have no inside info, and yet this was easy to predict. Why? Because Blizz wants to sell Path of Arthas sets. You cannot get all DK cards unless you buy that set. 60% WR for DK ought to lead to a bunch more sales of the set.
Seems fairly obvious the boneguard lieutenant and Battlefield Necromancer buff is bringing the token up to a 2/2. It’s an easy buff that effects both targets, so it’s less work.
It's a long time coming but I fully agree with all of the changes.
I'm hoping that the Astalor nerf will include making the battlecry of his final form not work with Brann, so we can finally get rid of OTK Druid.
Of course Shadowstep dodges the nerfs YET AGAIN
im looking at this deeply and yeah i have to agree miracle rogue has basically gone unnerfed so the ghosts dont have stealth anymore how ya killing a 10/10 on turn 4
Pretty funny that it’s a ghost without stealth.
the only change that annoy me is the buff to the guy from warrior that discard a spell
It's the one good one.
warrior is doing so god awful right now they need all the help they can get
Timewarden buff? Hmm as a Paladin main I love it but how can such a card be buffed. The only acceptable change would be to decrease cost and -1/-1 stats to make it playable a turn only, but if they make it a 2 mana 1/3 that would be INSANELY good and not overpowered, what do you peeps think?