We've got word from the balance man himself, Alec Dawson, Hearthstone's Lead on Final Design. Note that Alec is not the only person who does balance, it is a team effort, but normally is the one who communicates changes or the announcement of them to the public.
Don't expect any balance changes this week since the meta is still evolving. The Hearthstone balance team will be settling on changes in a few days though and release them to us early next week.
Quote From Alec Dawson No constructed balance changes this week, target is early next week. Meta has been evolving quite rapidly since United in Stormwind launched and we'll be finalizing decisions in a few days.
Which balance changes do you think Hearthstone should deliver? Is it too early for balance changes or are there too many disruptive cards? Let us know your thoughts, and predictions, in the comments below.
Comments
Ignite is not cool. I think this is %100 nerf.
dont really mind anything that much except for the warlock quest, that stupid incanters flow shouldve never been in the game and maybe another look at gadgetzan auctioneer. rest seems somewhat ok-ish to me. nothing that really screams for a nerf, yet ofc...
I hope warlock quest will read "damages opponent too" and not "damages opponent instead" as it does now
That would kill its viability in Standard until it rotates.
Here's my dream, ban cards in wild semi frequently, then release a format even wilder than wild with no banned or nerfed cards.
I hope not; it should just be slowed down
and making it hit you makes its pretty darn terrible.
I think the quest is intresting/unique, and i think shoudl remain playable and not be gutted or get warsonged
I think immunity is just that bad... even if it is "during your turn" only it is still bad
My wish:
Changing Flesh Giant to 10 or even 12 mana.
This would nerf Darkglare Warlock and Quest Warlock at the same time while the giant should still be playable, but not be "op" anymore.
I would like this:
Battleground Battlemaster - change to battlecry: give another friendly minion WF
Kolkar Pack Runner - change to 2/1
Trampling Rhino - change to 4/5
Wailing Vapor - change to 1/2
Incanter's Flow - 3 mana
Backfire - 4 mana
+ also make the rewards from Warlock, Mage and Druid quests more expensive
I agree with you except for the following ones:
Battleground Battlemaster I believe it should cost 6 or 7 instead of changing it's effect.
Kolkar Pack Runner should cost 3, don't think smashing the stats would be too much, the big issue is playing it with coin and 2 or 3 more spells.
I also think they should change Conviction. Don't know how a 1 mana Pyroblast/Fireball has missed the mark on THAT many nerfs.
Well that Backfired
I have absolutely no idea about Standard, as I only play Wild, but I hope they are going to tackle it:
Warlock Questline is dominating in Wild and is pretty strong, so if they target Wild as well with Balance Changes, I could see them changing Crystallizer - I have no idea how they would nerf it, but 1 Mana to deal 5 damage to yourself is almost enough to complete a part in the questline...
There's also Questline Hunter, and I mostly see (and play it myself) Odd Hunter. They could easily take away some of its power by increasing the cost of Clockwork Automaton by 1, making it unplayable in Odd Hunter.
crystalizer shouldnt be changed, its a balanced card outside questlock.
and imo better idea (for now and future) would be to make the quest require taking dmg on your turn a certain amount of times. Say 4/5/6 times then crystalizer would still help with molten and/or flesh giant but not almost complete a step of questline on its own.
Why would you nerf fringe wild cards that see almost zero play outside of given decks? Why not nerf questlines itself or newer and stronger cards like, you know, Darkglare?
Darkglare has already been nerfed in the past and I don't think it's that powerful anymore.
I feel like they are better off with nerfing cards that abuse the quests, not the quests themselves so they become unplayable.
I'm actually quite surprised at how the meta is still evolving. I refreshed HSreplay and saw warrior and rogue are in the dumpster (probably coz some players are still learning the bleed deck for rogue).
And finally, after 4 year, Blizzard has made hand buff paladin actually viable and a T1 deck. Wouldn't be surprised to see Alliance Bannerman targeted along with some non-interactive stuff from Mage and Warlock.
Incanters Flow, Battleground Battlemaster, Keeper of Souls and Kolkar packrunner
good predictions, and I think that maybe they will find something to nerf on rogue too
Not balancing the quest line if all the classes that can be achieved so fast? really? They should increase the final minion to 7 or 8 mana. I guess you are playing a quest line yourself, I bet on warlock..
I have played all of them for fun, but I reached legend this month with Paladin. From the quest locks I faced, most of them run the zoo version now and they win with Flesh Giants instead
Unsurprising that they decided to wait because the balance is currently too delicate for a hasty decision.
Its not merely Incanter's Flow that twists all games in mage's favor, its also the fact that most games barely last beyond turn 7. Battleground Battlemaster and quests kinda ensures that the match never reaches the late game so many late game cards simply vanished like new alex, Illidari Inquisitor, and the old gods.
Pretty sure the change will be aimed at slowing all the quests down (maybe changing the mana cost of the quest rewards), a nerf to battleground battlemaster, and if we're lucky we get some buffs to cards too. Perhaps team5 might consider banning Incanter's Flow or doing something to it, because we can't keep having the same problems over and over until rotation.