Balance Changes to Wild

Community Discussion
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For anyone who missed it, the devs recently announced:

“Hi All! Recently we’ve seen a lot of passionate conversation regarding the Hearthstone Wild format. Thank you for that. Today, we kicked off a “Wild Summit,” a big internal discussion about the state of the format and how we can bring you the best possible experience.

Wild has a lot of moving parts. It’s unlikely adjustments will happen this week, but we’re committed to building a great plan for Wild and sharing more info once we do. Thanks!”

Certainly, some player do not trust the devs to do a good job when it comes to better balancing Wild:

“77rvg77 from HearthPwn:

Yeah, the retards that introduced turn 2 Thaddius in standard are gonna balance wild…”

Although there are some Wild players making suggestions about what and when Wild should be balanced:

“Tarious from HearthPwn:

Neptulon has been in the game for exactly 9 months without a single thing being done about Big Priest summoning it endlessly turn 2-3. Blizz needs to be quicker on the trigger when it comes to stuff being broken. I quit wild during Castle Nath cause it was clear nothing was going to change anytime soon.”

“CaHgo from HearthPwn:

Quest mage parrot nerf. If they survive till turn 5, which is extremely easy, then you stop playing and it’s endless turns for your opponent. This is uninteractive beyond broken.”

Personally, I think the devs should begin by focusing on nerfing the most egregious cards and combos for which there is no adequate counter-play.

They should also use this opportunity to nerf a few cards that are way too impactful in BOTH Wild and Standard—this way, even Standard can benefit from a few Wild nerfs.

I also think the nerfs should come in several waves so that the changes can shake up the Wild meta in a way that breathes new life into it.

So what cards do Wild players think should be nerfed? Let’s get a list going. And if a player suggests a card to be nerfed, then maybe they should also suggest how it should be nerfed or fixed.

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cards they banned are about to rotate out
they told us when they banned those cards ( warlock quest , switcheroo) they were going to change those cards on rotation to remove their bans

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just dig my nerf threads posted like 1-2 years ago

while it does not include all new cards those were in dire need then

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I might get around to looking at that, but let’s first take a short trip down Memory Lane:

Prior to the release of Wild, a group of us were warning players that Wild would mostly be a “dumpster mode” for old cards, which the devs would do very little to balance or fix. To which the devs responded with this statement:

“We will monitor the balance of both Standard and Wild formats once they arrive. We want players to choose the format(s) that fit how they want to play the game and will continue to ensure that all modes of play are an enjoyable experience.”

Ben Brode also tweeted comments to ensure players that the devs would not neglect Wild:

https://twitter.com/bdbrode/status/695459697625726976

https://twitter.com/bdbrode/status/695429963558682625

https://twitter.com/bdbrode/status/695624420862271488

Overall, I think players, like myself, have been correct in our predictions that little effort would be put into balancing Wild, which is why Wild is in such need of a large overhaul.

And keep in mind that despite Wild being created in 2016, old Wild packs and content were not made available for purchase again until 2019–something that I had been vocal about making happen, despite the fact that I did not even play Wild.

“ThOtKilEr_69 from Reddit:

However most players want balance, we want a meta that allows us to play a different variety of decks, not just combo decks and hyper aggro. Nevertheless, for that to ever become a reality we need occasional balance changes, like in standard. So how can we fix this problem and cater to both spectrums of the wild player base?”

If players agree that Wild could greatly benefit from a large balancing overhaul (players have discussed that 30 or more cards need to be changed to fix Wild), then now is the time for Wild players to share opinions and suggestions
about what needs to change to fix Wild while such feedback has a chance to influence or guide the devs into making the best improvements.

Personally, I have never got into playing Wild, because I cannot become invested into a format that the devs are not also invested into maintaining its balance. If the devs became better stewards for Wild, I might finally want to play the mode.

If Wild is going to remain a dumpster mode for old cards, then I would advocate for some new constructed modes, which featured or utilized a composition and rotation of old sets, possibly mixed with new sets, as a part of their formats—giving us some additional modes with characteristics between what Wild and Standard offers.

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Wild is a place where players can play decks that they used to play. It isn’t about some forum goer’s or a certain youtuber/streamer’s idea of “balance”.

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I would agree with you if that were true, but the lack of diversity outside of hyper-aggro and combo-decks means that most old archetypes are not viable in Wild for climbing the Ladder. Many players who have the mindset that Wild is fine as it is, just do not want their “pet deck” to be nerfed, because they realize if the devs start balancing a lot of Wild cards, it’s going to impact their favorite broken deck.

There is no doubt that a lot of players want Wild to get a balance treatment or there would be no need to have a “Wild Summit” to discuss the issue. Some Wild players have been strongly demanding balance for Wild for quite some time:

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As I begin sifting through old threads to get a better understanding of player opinions about Wild, a few things jump out to me:

1). This quote from Reddit:

“Some will disagree, but I think Wild Hearthstone is dead. It’s clear with the lowly Polkelt change they have no intention of making things better, and I think even SN1P-SN4P meta was far more fun than this. Curious to hear the community’s opinions & if there’s anyone out there who agrees.”

This ^ made me wonder where Wild ranks in popularity to other modes, and I think the following Firestone graph of “Total Hours Played Per Game Mode Per Day” from January gives some idea:

https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/1039yyo/time_spent_on_each_game_mode_over_2022_firestone/

So the most popular Hearthstone game modes in January (in order) were:

  1. Standard
  2. Battlegrounds
  3. Arena
  4. Ranked Wild
  5. Duels
  6. Mercenaries

Mercenaries aside, I would say that game balance is an important factor in the popularity of most modes, with Duels and Ranked Wild being the least balanced and least popular constructed formats. If Battlegrounds were better balanced or contained more fun elements right now, then it would probably surpass Standard in popularity like it has for most of the last year.

2). There are some expectations that the devs could and should make some balance fixes to Wild:

3). Ignoring broken cads in Wild or Wild as a mode of play does nothing to fix Wild. Only by redesigning broken cards can design mistakes be corrected:

4). Brann has come up a lot in balance discussions for Wild over the last five years, it’s probably time to neutralize the card. Brann should probably cost 4 or 5 and it should only be able trigger other battlecries on the same turn that Brann is played on—or maybe Brann should only be able trigger the next battlecry that is played.

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More than just banning cards, I would ban hearthstone as one of the biggest gaming scams ever

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its all jade golem mill druid. get out of here

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limiting Brann to only work with battlecries from cards that cost 5 or less(original cost, not modified) would already balance him a good chunk(no more Brann + disgusting 10 mana card combo)