Balance patch notes

https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-us/news/23840665/24-0-3-patch-notes

24.0.3 Patch Notes
Blizzard Entertainment08/16/2022
24.0.3 Patch Notes
Patch 24.0.3, launching today, includes adjustments to Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, and Duels, as well as a couple bug fixes!

Card Updates:
Dev Comment: The current power level of the top decks after the launch of Murder at Castle Nathria is pretty close to the level that we’d like it to be. We’re happy with decks like Imp Warlock and Control Shaman being powerful, but we’re less happy with the power level of the weakest classes. So while we did a few touches to the top decks with the goal of reducing play-against frustration, the primary goal of this patch was to elevate the classes that are struggling in the current meta.

The following cards have been adjusted down in their power:

Celestial Alignment

Old: Set each player to 0 Mana Crystals. Set the cost of all cards in hands and decks to (1). → New: Set your Mana Crystals to 0. Set the cost of all cards in your hand and deck to (1).

Dev Comment: We hear you. Alignment has been a frustrating card to play against for a while now and has remained that way after the release of Murder at Castle Nathria, even if it is not a balance outlier. This change is targeted at removing as much of that frustration as possible while still retaining the primary effect for players who enjoy the big turns it can allow.

Stag Spirit Wildseed

Old: Dormant for 3 turns. When this awakens, equip a 4/2 Greatbow. → New: Dormant for 3 turns. When this awakens, equip a 3/2 Greatbow.

Dev Comment: The Wildseed package has been a fun addition to Hunter, but Stag Spirit Wildseed has been putting out more face damage than we intended. We hope Wildseeds will remain a key part of Hunter decks going forward, but will be a little less ubiquitous across all Hunter archetypes.

Snowfall Guardian

Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health. Battlecry: Freeze all other minions. Gain +1/+1 for each Frozen minion. → New: 5 Attack, 5 Health. Battlecry: Freeze all other minions.

Dev Comment: Control Shaman has been one of the most dominant decks since the expansion launch. A big part of their power comes from their ability to repeatedly freeze enemy boards while also pressuring their life totals, thanks to Snowfall Guardian. We hope that by removing the pressure this card applies, it will be less difficult for players to navigate.

Vile Library

Old: Give a friendly minion +1/+1. Repeat for each Imp you control. → New: Give a minion +1/+1 for each Imp you control.

Dev Comment: We’re happy to see that Imp Warlock has been one of the top performing decks in this expansion, but a little bit too much of its power is coming from the burst damage this single card allows. We’re lightly touching Vile Library because we don’t want it to go away, we just want to bring the deck more in line with the other decks in the meta.

Kobold Illusionist

Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]

Dev Comments: Big Rogue has developed into a powerhouse that too consistently summons powerful minions too early in the game for players to meaningfully interact with. We’re adding a mana cost to Kobold Illusionist to slow the deck down and break up some of its consistency.

The above craftable cards, as well as Spirit Poacher, Stag Charge, Wild Spirits, and Ara’lon will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 24.0.3.

The following cards have been adjusted up in their power:

Relic Vault

Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]

Relic of Extinction

Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

Dev Comment: Relics are a fun and flavorful new archetype from Murder at Castle Nathria, but they haven’t had their chance to shine. We’re hoping that a couple buffs will make these cards easier to squeeze into turns and make the whole package feel better to try in a variety of decks.

Bibliomite

Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health

Magnifying Glaive

Old: 2 Attack, 2 Durability → New: 3 Attack, 2 Durability

Dev Comment: We were a little too safe on the numbers for the new Aggro Demon Hunter cards. We hope these buffs will make the low-hand-size deck a little more appealing!

Abyssal Depths

Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 3]

Battleworn Vanguard

Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health

Irebound Brute

Old: [Costs 8] → New: [Costs 7]

Dev Comment: Demon Hunter has been struggling in a big way this expansion. We felt that changes to new cards alone might not be enough to bring the power level of this class in line with the rest of this meta. So we’re buffing a few older cards to help bridge the gap. We’re hoping that Abyssal Depths can now function as a powerful tool for a variety of Demon Hunter decks, new and old alike. The reverts to Battleworn Vanguard and Irebound Brute should make them more attractive options for the class. Broot me dood!

Legendary Invitation (generated by The Countess)

Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]

Dev Comment: As the big reward for the Pure Paladin archetype, the Countess wasn’t, well, rewarding enough. This change should make her feel better in decks that are willing to pay the cost of cutting all Neutral cards.

Stand Against Darkness

Old: [Costs 5] → New: [Costs 4]

Warhorse Trainer

Old: Your Silver Hand Recruits Have +1 Attack. → New: Your Silver Hand Recruits have +2 Attack and Taunt.

Promotion

Old: Give a Silver Hand Recruit +3/+3. → New: Give a Silver Hand Recruit +3/+3 and Taunt.

Dev Comment: The new Silver Hand archetype has come up much shorter than we hoped it would. Cards like Stand Against Darkness and Warhorse Trainer were simply not at the power level of modern Hearthstone, so we’re buffing them up to see what they can do in this new age. To top it off, Promotion now comes with a raise!

Edwin, Defias Kingpin

Old: [Costs 4] 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 3 Health

Sprint

Old: [Costs 6] → New: [Costs 5]

Silverleaf Poison

Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

Halkias

Old: Deathrattle: If you control a Secret, store Halkias’ soul inside of it. It resummons Halkias when triggered. → New: Stealth. Deathrattle: Store Halkias’s soul inside of a friendly Secret. It resummons Halkias when triggered.

Dev Comment: Card draw has traditionally been one of Rogue’s strengths, but it doesn’t feel like a strength in the current meta. The buffs to Edwin, Sprint, and Silverleaf Poison are all made with the intention of reinforcing card draw as a strength of the class. Miracle Rogue has not been overperforming in power, but we are aware it can win in frustrating ways, so we’ll be keeping an eye on how it develops following these buffs. We also wanted to show a little love to the new secret package. We’re starting with a buff to Halkias that makes him feel better to play, but we may revisit this package later if it needs additional support.

Sanguine Depths

Old: Deal 1 damage to a minion and give it +1 Attack. → New: Deal 1 damage to a minion and give it +2 Attack.

Imbued Axe

Old: After your hero attacks, give your damaged minions +1/+1. Infuse (3): +2/+2 instead. → New: After your hero attacks, give your damaged minions +1/+2. Infuse (2): +2/+2 instead.

Cruel Taskmaster

Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 3 Health

Dev Comment: Along with Demon Hunter, Warrior has been struggling this expansion. A big part of that is that their new Enrage Warrior archetype hasn’t been nearly as powerful as we’d hoped it to be. These three buffs are targeted at improving the Enrage Warrior archetype, which we hope to see become a player in the metagame.

Tidal Revenant

Old: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 5 Armor. → New: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 8 Armor.

Shield Shatter:

Old: Deal 4 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have. → New: Deal 5 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have.

Slam:

Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

Bash:

Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]

Dev Comment: We may have been a little over zealous when we were addressing Control Warrior in the last balance patch. We’re correcting that here. We’re also giving them a couple new tools in Slam and Bash, which might even make their way into non-control Warrior lists

6 Likes

Is the whole wildseed package refundable?

The above craftable cards, as well as Spirit Poacher, Stag Charge, Wild Spirits, and Ara’lon will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 24.0.3.

Oh hell yeah


DH buffs are scary.
They buffed already good cards just because it wasn’t doing good… This reminds me of the “pirate warrior incident”

6 Likes

Cant say I love some of the warrior unnerfs…
Also no Thief Priest buffs smh…

…Warhorse Trainer is in Standard?

3 Likes

They don’t nerf Guff and implock can still draw the entire deck before turn 8 with insanely overpowered 2 manas draw.

Why they thinking buff Sprint will do any good? Rogue can’t pay 5 manas to draw 4 cards if implock already does much better than that for only 2 and set lethal in turn 4-5.

WHAT THEY THINKING???

These “changes” will do absolutely nothing.

10 Likes

well guff doesnt need at nerf at all so thats why they didnt nerf it

2 Likes

Guff for 5 manas is “only” the most powerful hero card ever released in this game, period.

If that abomination don’t need nerf nothing else in the entire history oif this game never does.

14 Likes

They weren’t good cards, though…

2 Likes

seems like i´m out for rest of the year. Great job creating a draw 1 card game devs. apparently people don´t want to interact, they just want to flip some coins.

6 Likes

Laughs in big spell mage.

1 Like

loving the updates to wild cards

1 Like

Yeah, here comes DH at tier one. For sure. Definitely. Yup.

i got more wins with FLJ and bloodreaver guldan than guff

in standard cariel magister tamsim and scabbs are way better their batlecries can help you win games and save you from your opponent board

with guff you only gain 5 armor so its always a bad play if the opponent has a board
the rest of the heroes can be good plays in response to the opponent boards too

1 Like

Lol what a massive FU to the players. This clown show dev team just buffed aggro decks (like they always do) instead of nerfing their favorite classes in any impactful way. Like we need another hyper aggro meta.

7 Likes

Revenge of the Face. It needed to happen, because Druid hilariously dodged nerfs (apart from one already crap card) but the backlash is going to be very cringe.

Edit: it already started. ^^^^ this guy lol.

2 Likes

well, classic case of expecting the worst and getting sth even worse. Should´ve known better than to come back just because the game is playable two weeks in a year.

1 Like

What is your issue with the patch in particular?

they buffed a control deck…unless you think warrior wants to run tidal on an aggro deck

2 Likes

I dont think any of those cards they buffed were considered good. The only card that gives any worry is Battleworn Vanguard. Rogue and Warrior buffs look much scarier than anything DH got buffed.

2 Likes