A couple of days ago we've shared a small compilation of the ongoing known issues for patch 22.0, and it didn't actually take long for the first bug resolutions to start rolling in. We've already had an official start to the Battle for Alterac Valley event, in the wake of that partial unintended release of the Honor system.
As has become the recent tradition, there is a dedicated forum thread that attempts to keep track of everything (it's where leaving your own reports helps), and we've also heard of a few other problems via several Twitter sources. In most instances, the developers and QA folks were kind enough to take notice and tell us what's going on.
We were also provided with a larger update on how certain card effects are going to be resolved going forward. Let's put all of this into context:
Card Effect Priority Update
This one might require more than one careful read in order to wrap your head around the new priority rules. Even though there shouldn't be any drastic changes to the vast majority of card interactions:
Quote From Blizzard With Patch 22.0, we did a sweeping review in order to bring more cards into alignment with the general rules about priority order when card effects conflict with each other. That general order is the same as before:Cards referencing their own properties (e.g. Eye Beam) take priority over cards referencing other cards’ properties continuously (e.g. Taintheart Tormentor), which then take priority over cards referencing other cards’ properties in a single instance (e.g. Freezing Trap).
For many cards, this review resulted in no changes—they either had no overlapping effects, or their effects were already working in this way. For example: Lady Anacondra is a card that continuously references other cards’ properties (second category), so it should further reduce costs after Celestial Alignment, a single instance reference (third category).
We’ve also updated a few cards and how they resolve damage. For some cards, this will end up with a different result than before. For example: Moonfang is a card that references its own properties, while Mo’arg Artificer is a card that continuously references other cards’ properties, so now Moonfang will take 1 damage from spells, even when doubled by Mo’arg.
When cards in the same category interact with each other, then priority is based on the order the cards are played, with later cards applying on top of earlier cards.
As with many sweeping changes, we have also seen a few bugs that we’re working on smoothing out (including that Lady Anacondra – Celestial Alignment interaction, the hotfix for which is going out now). As always, there may also be some special cases where certain cards break the general rules so that they can work as intended. We encourage you to continue to let us know if a specific card interaction doesn’t match what’s expected.
That's quite a few categories and layers upon layers (and there still might be a few exceptions, as the post makes sure to note). Cards like Eye Beam being consistent enough to stay at (1) mana cost when in Outcast position regardless of other effects in play (such as Skull of Gul'dan discount) is something most everyone should be familiar with already.
Now, the Moonfang + Mo'arg Artificer interaction has been causing quite a few headaches for players and casters alike for a longer while. If you've been regularly tuning in to Grandmasters or Masters Tour streams, chances are you heard it being explained and mentioned more than once as games played out. It wasn't always the most intuitive order (such as when Mo'arg Artificer being played second caused Moonfang to take increased damage). Pro players took notice of this recent stealth change first. So yay, a consistent buff to the wolf is now in place!
Alas, we do not have any sort of comprehensive list that would track all such potential card interactions, as it might prove rather difficult to put anything of the kind together:
Quote From DeckTech I think the problem with that ask is that it looks at how this was done from the wrong end. They updated cards across the board, not specific interactions, so it's really hard to then go back and catalogue exactly what scenarios each change might entail.
Lady Anacondra not lowering Nature spells in hand to 0 after Celestial Alignment was played with her already on the board was also the fault of this change, now succesfully hotfixed as noted above.
Meanwhile Southsea Captain has decided to remain naughty and doesn't apply its aura correctly in all instances (one example of a faulty interaction with Lord Barov, another one with Ancient Reflections in Duels). Be wary when using the card for the time being - the developers are already aware of the situation.
Mercenaries Bugfixes and Compensation
As we've covered at the time, there were some problems with PvP Season 1 of Mercenaries coming to an end prematurely for many EU players. You can imagine that leaderboard climbers were quite upset about it. The planned compensation for that issue had been announced soon afterwards, and anyone eligible should've since received 3 packs upon logging into the game:
Quote From Blizzard Update: The compensation for affected players has now been distributed.
That is what I got, at the very least. If you haven't and believe yourself among the affected players, it would be a good idea to file a report.
There were also a couple of other issues we've received relevant updates on:
Quote From Blizzard
(Partially Resolved 12/1) Loading into the final boss on the Level 21 Regular Felwood Mercenaries Bounty (“The Anointed Blades”) causes the game to get stuck while waiting for the fight to load and then remain stuck until the run times out and ends automatically. Update: In today’s hotfix, the team replaced an Ability that was causing most of the issues. There is an underlying issue that the team is still investigating, but we believe that replacing the Ability should prevent most crashes and players should no longer be locked out when met with this issue.
- We are aware of an issue that sometimes caused a Vanessa VanCleef Card or Portrait to appear in Mercenaries Packs. Vanessa VanCleef is currently intended to not appear in packs for at least the length of the Fractured in Alterac Valley expansion (the base Card is in the Rewards Track and the Portraits can be obtained with the Tavern Pass). This is a visual issue only—you are actually receiving Vanessa VanCleef Coins.
Duels Treasure Fix and Goblins vs Gnomes Set Added to Buckets
Just straightforward good news:
Quote From Blizzard
- Fixes the Glacial Downpour bug
- Adds Goblins versus Gnomes to Duels card buckets
Glacial Downpour, for reference. Some other Treasure bugs still remain, such as the one with Ring of Black Ice. The proper people are already on it. We talked more about all the other new Treasures the other day.
Misbehaving Battlegrounds Perks and Visual Bug with Alterac Valley Packs
When the recent patch went live, eagle-eyed people noticed there were new Battlegrounds Perks already being offered for the upcoming expansion, even though the "old" (current) set was still available and in effect for one more week. It turned out that was actually intended:
Quote From DeckTech It's just a bonus for people who want to buy the BG perks now, so they don't have to buy perks that are expiring in a week. There's this one week overlap period where both sets of perks are active.
All good then, right? Unfortunately, the good intentions were quickly met with unfriendly reality:
Quote From Blizzard There was an issue where people purchasing the Fractured in Alterac Valley Battlegrounds Perks were then blocked from purchasing the pre-purchase mega bundle (which includes the Battlegrounds Perks). We will be temporarily removing the Fractured in Alterac Valley Battlegrounds Perks from the store until the expansion goes live.
Oh well. Also, there is currently just this small visual issue with any received Fractured in Alterac Valley packs:
Quote From Blizzard We are aware that in instances where you are awarded Fractured in Alterac Valley Packs, like at the end of a ranked season or Arena run, you can see a “Temp” art afterglow coming from the pack. The fix for this is expected in the next major patch (22.2).
If you are curious how that looks like, go here. Doesn't really break anything, so we'll consider it very minor.
Game Crashes and Mobile Issues
There are a few culprits who are very likely to hang your game once played, sometimes under specific circumstances. Most recent with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius - as seen here, Zeddy took it rather well. Then there is a case of Bloodsworn Mercenary and friends (example). And finally, our good old friend Zephrys the Great has been known for crashing the client for a while. The Hearthstone team is aware of the reports in all of these instances, and we've been given an update on the latter one:
Quote From Celestalon Yeah, update on Zephrys crash: We tracked it down to a problem with the visual. We have a client hotfix coming soon that'll disable the visual, until the next major patch where the visual can be fixed.
We also know of an ongoing bug with Flightmaster Dungar since a couple of patches ago, where picking the first Westfall option ends up just doing... nothing. Don't try it in your Arena runs for the expected early tempo!
As for mobile issues, we still cannot properly filter and search our collection whenever the Wild check mark is set, which is very annoying. And there have been usual reports of people having problems updating to patch 22.0 or logging in once it's been applied. Some workarounds were being shared in the bug report thread we link to at the top. For myself, installing the update on the desktop client and then logging in from an Android device seemed to do the trick.
That covers our roundup for the past couple days! We will likely have an opportunity to return with more news before the expansion arrives. Keep safe from pesky bugs!
Comments
Yeah there are a LOT of bugs right now. Also i accidentally found out about the Dr. Boom, Mad Genius crash ingame. Let's say i was.. not happy about my game crashing. But on the other hand i thought it was hilarious and ironic that a HERO card crashes your game, while the main gimmick of the next expansion is new Hero cards.
Also has anyone ever mentioned that Flightmaster Dungar has been broken/bugged for a while? The westfall option doesn't give you the 2/2 adventurer with a random effect after you wait 1 turn. Flightmaster Dungar wakes up and nothing happens when picking the westfall option.
Ah yes, Flightmaster Dungar has been malfunctioning in that way for a good month, if not more. Arena people were certainly not happy, even if getting a Legendary there doesn't happen that often. I couldn't recall whether we might've mentioned this before, but will add a note as well just for reference.
Just to make sure, does Mo’args interaction with excess damage remains the same? (Excess damage is determined before damage to the minion is doubled)
I would think so since it’s not a matter of priority to my understanding but to how the calculation works.
I haven't played with any Mo'arg decks since the change, but I'd imagine the known interactions we are used to should remain largely the same, if there are no stacking card priorities in play. Is there anything specific you had in mind?
I'm talking about Unstable Shadow Blast specifically since this is a frequent interaction in Questlock.
Notable mentions would be Piercing Shot and Arcane Overflow.
As an example: You target a 2-health minion while Mo'arg is in play.
The excess damage gets calculated first, so your hero takes 4 damage.
And then Mo'arg doubles the damage taken by the minion from 2 to 4.
It always bugged me since the minion takes excess damage after all.
I find it more intuitive and logical to calculate excess damage last.
Ah, that's actually intended just so players couldn't abuse Mo'args to deal excess damage to enemy heroes, or self for speed quest completion in case of Questlock (and the card text technically specifies that "only minions take double damage from spells"). Otherwise it probably wouldn't be long before somebody finds some wacky OTK potential.
Now that is truly a huge pile of bugs. I can't imagine what kind of problems we'll have in the next 3-4 years. Probably monumental.
They ought to spend more resources on coding and play testing. It's a must have anyway, since this is not some indie game company we're talking about.
On the upside, they seem to have become really good at acknowledging reports and catching them fast enough to somehow roll out hotfixes even within days. So many separate game modes now, all with their own interactions that could break things.
But their QA and engineering teams could use more backing and resources, definitely.
Southsea Captain is indeed a buggy interaction. My experience with him is that any minion that gets damaged while buffed does not lose the health buff after the captain is removed, ie a 2/2 that is buffed to 3/3 and takes one point of damage goes to 3/2. Once captain is removed it debuffs to 2/2. Quite frustrating.
As Skorpionex points out, that part is indeed working as intended. Temporary auras always did that. If a minion was a 2/1 and then got increased to 3/2 for a moment, then removing the effect will cause them to effectively gain a Health point and go to 2/2. Also with good ol' Stormwind Champion for example. Admittedly it isn't the most intuitive interaction in the world.
It always worked that way.
It is possible that my memory is buggy, but I thought it used to be different. I know that a minion with a health buff aura that is damaged down to one health won't die when the aura is removed, but I thought it used to remove it from damaged minions that were above one health. It just seems an odd interaction. If you remove the aura before damaging a minion it goes back to normal but if you damage it while aura buffed the health buff ends up being permanent. Kind of an unspoken benefit for any whirlwind style effects.
Of course it won't. The second Vanndar would likely detect cards lower or equal 4 cost since the first discount.
Was every minion in your deck still cheaper than Vanndar, even with their cost reduced by three?
Thanks for this well written article and explanations, Aesan! You seem to out do yourself each time you contribute a big article
Now i need to go read it again... me head is a spinning....
Edit: sure hope there is a fix soon for the mobile search functionality. It is very frustrating!
Much appreciated! One thing somehow seems to lead to another whenever I set out to put something together, even if it's not always intended. ;)
And hehe, I feel you. That card priority update has really made me have to go over everything more than once. Not exactly the most straightforward info to internalize.