In recent game: Korrak buffed to 7/7 using Bless; Subsequently he was hit by a likewise buffed Arcane Overflow (for 8 damage). Net result: Korrak gone and opponent has a 1/1. Question: Why didn’t Korrak return?
Korraks text specifies he returns ‘unless honorably killed’. AO says you get a remnant with value equal to the excess. BUT Korrak has to have been hit for 8 in the first place. AO doesn’t say ‘deal damage EQUAL to a minions health.’ Now unless I am getting my numbers wrong 8 doesn’t equal 7. Therefore Korrak should have returned (as a 3/5) and opponent got a 1/1.
Am I making any sense? Is this a bug, as it seems like a bug to me.
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You’re absolutely right. You should get the 3/5 back.
Logically it shouldn’t work this way but it does. It seems that Arcane Overflow does variable damage based on the target’s health and then the rest is used to generate a minion. Which is counterintuitive and not really what the card text describes.
I guess piercing shot probably works the same way.
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As it stands the spell should be working correctly. There are other spells that partition a part of their damage before they activate their secondary effects or apply things like doubling of damage and spell power.
While it’s working as intended, I do agree that people may be right in saying that it shouldn’t work this way.
If it’s changed, it’d’be possible for the spell to summon a minions that can be 39/39 and bigger xD.
As for Korrak himself, I wonder if he’d still die if the opponent had spell power.
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Every card that has the “deal excess damage to the hero” works this way; from the text is not intuitive at all.
If it was a real card game, i would probably return korrak, but it is probably not going to change.
Moarg + piercing shot can’t deal x2 damage to the enemy hero for the same reason and the devs said it was intended
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It does sound like a bug, as going by the wording, Arcane Overflow is supposed to work differently from Piercing Shot.
Piercing Shot says it converts the excess damage into hero damage (it says the excess damage goes to the enemy hero after all). As such, Piercing Shot deals X damage to a minion with X health.
Arcane Overflow on the other hand, does NOT say it converts the excess damage. It doesn’t say the excess damage becomes a minion, it says a minion is summoned with stats equal to the excess damage. Those are 2 different things (“I fill 1 cup of water, then measure how much water I spilled and fill another cup with that same amount” vs “I fill 1 cup of water and fill another cup with the exact same water I spilled”). Going by the wording, Arcane Overflow should always deal 8 damage (+ modifiers) even if a minion has less health.
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If you think of Honorable Kill as no “wasted” damage then it makes sense the way it works now.
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Because arcane overflow hit him for the exact damage needed to kill him. It didn’t over kill him.
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The answer to this dilemma lies in the words “excess damage”. Only the minions’ health is dealt as damage. The rest is excess. Perhaps changing the wording to “deal up to 8 damage” would alleviate some confusion but I believe the card is working as intended.
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“Arcane Overflow on the other hand, does NOT say it converts the excess damage. It doesn’t say the excess damage becomes a minion, it says a minion is summoned with stats equal to the excess damage” - by that logic any spell that does enough damage to kill Korrak shoul permanently remove him, as he was killed by the required amount (and ‘excess damage’ was generated as a by product). The fact is AO doesn’t say it generates excess damage… Just that you get a minion with stats equal to the difference between the damage dealt and the tagets health. 
check honorable kill keyword
at least posts like this explain why my korrak glows red almost every time someone tries to kill it without reading the card
AO says excess damage what did you think it meant?
Had my own 3/5 Korrak die to a Unstable Shadow Blast the same way.
Seems cards that have a “excess damage” effect hit Korrak for exact because the secondary effect of the card is coded to figure out how big the extra “damage / minion” needs to be… no matter how asinine that is
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I believe the spell deals the exact damage for the kill and the excess is calculated after to create the minon etc. It’s not a flat 8 damage to Korrok. Behind the scenes, the spell determines how much health the minion has, does the EXACT damage to it, then creates the after effect (if there is one).
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AO, however, specifically says 'Deal 8 damage to an enemy minion. Summon a remnant with stats equal to the excess." So if we followed the exact wording of the card, when directed at Korrak, he would return as he was hit with 8, not 5, damage. The summon part is completely separate from the damage portion of the card. ‘AO deals 8 damage. Period. Summon… Period.’ Now in my long experience of CCGs a period denotes a separate action, so when you get the remnant, Korrak has already taken 8 damage. Therefore Korrak should return.
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100% agree.
It’s not honorable if you legit do MORE damage than required.
UsB does 6 dmg.
AO does 8.
Piercing does 6. Etc etc.
These cards have set damage and then a secondary effect with the excess.
Wonka coding at its finest
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I’m not talking about generating excess damage, I’m talking about where the excess damage goes. Piercing Shot says the excess damage goes to the hero, and as such, Korrak properly takes the exact damage required to kill it. But Arcane Overflow doesn’t say the excess damage goes anywhere else, instead it says it does an additional action based on how much the card overkilled, as such it should deal the full amount of damage on Korrak.
Excess damage becoming something (Piercing Shot) is different than doing an action based on how much excess damage has been dealt (Arcane Overflow). If you have 7 liters of water and I turn any water over 5 liters into ice, you have 5 liters of water and 2 liters of ice. But if you have 7 liters of water and I give you just as much ice as you have water over 5 liters, you have 7 liters of water and 2 liters of ice. See the difference?
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Any card that has an effect based on “excess” damage is automatically a Honorable Kill (assuming it meets the minimum damage to kill the minion in the first place). It will never deal too much damage, aka the older keyword Overkill, because the only way to calculate “excess” is by determining the minimum amount of damage to apply, and that’s the amount of damage it does before triggering the secondary effect. The text for AO might be a bit confusing on this score, but that’s how all of the cards that deal with excess work.
This. The first stage of damage (minimum required) is applied, and then the second stage triggers whatever effect it has to do with the excess damage present in the scenario.
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but you dont
didnt you see the game shows the exact damage ? if i hit a 4 health minion with overflow it shows the damage was 4
We notice there is a bug in Arcane Overflow. So we fix it:
Previous:
Deal 8 damage to an enemy minion. Summon a Remnant with stats equal to excess damage
After
If enemy minion has 8 less Health, deal that exact damage and summon a Remnant with stats equal to the different. Otherwise, deal 8 damage.
Bug fixed.
~ Probably a Hearthstone Developer
No need for that big a wording, they can just word it like Piercing Shot: “Deal 8 damage to a minion. Excess damage becomes a Remnant”. That would make it clear the excess damage is transformed instead of an action being performed equal to the excess damage.
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