The card changes that were announced last night are now live. Shamans are the primary target with today's balance patch.
Mobile users, your update will take some additional time before it is available, as is always the case.
The Card Changes
- (Discuss Nerf) Corrupt Elementalist cost is now 6 (up from 5).
- (Discuss Nerf) Sludge Slurper attack is now 1 (down from 2).
- (Discuss Nerf) Faceless Corruptor attack is now 4 (down from 5).
- (Discuss Nerf) Mogu Fleshshaper cost is now 9 (up from 7).
Remember, these cards are all disenchantable for full value for the next two weeks.
More Changes in the New Year?
Frodan and Dean Ayala has a short discussion on Twitter about the balance patch.
- They wanted to patch before everyone went on vacation.
- The team is back around January 5th. Another patch will arrive after that if needed.
Quote From Dean Ayala @Frodan: Not touching Necrium Apothecary is disappointing. That card almost warrants an immediate hotfix imo. We already learned several times over the years that game-deciding swings as early as turn 4 (i.e. Barnes) makes gameplay feel lopsided and high-rolly, even if stats say otherwise
@Frodan: Maybe they legit need more time to evaluate everything instead of shipping a patch. Still possible that yet another undiscovered OP interaction exists in this set. Might be worth evaluating the release cycle entirely because we're soon stuck with this as the holiday creeps up.
We wanted to get out a patch before holiday break. We get back around the 5th of January and will patch again soon after that time if necessary. More time to collect data. Deathrattle rogue is fairly low population and dwindling win rate. (Dean Ayala)
@Frodan: Yeah still lots of goodies here – shipping a patch in 1 week is unprecedented, BG got a good shakeup, and the other known problematic cards got targeted. I don't think we expect you to nail it on the first try so don't take the heated criticism to heart :P Have a great break
@musicalcolin: …or maybe the heated criticism is wrong because Blizzard has a lot of data and players are reacting poorly to a patch based on guess work.
People will agree/disagree with any decision. It’s fun to critique decisions, fans have been doing it in sports for centuries. We don’t get too worked up over it, you just have to try and make the best decision you can and learn from it each time. (Dean Ayala)
You mentioned win rate doesn’t matter that much, which is true. Only perception matters. I mention win rate because dwindling win rates usually follow with dwindling population. When things are very low pop there usually isn’t a perception issue. It’s really early though. (Dean Ayala)
We’ll evaluate again when we get back from holiday with friends and families. (Dean Ayala)
Comments
Merry Christmas and a happy cancer rogue meta!
And, I'm still waiting a rule change that The minion played keeps the discounted cost of the card when it is played like "play Mogu Fleshshaper for 0 mana, it is also 0 mana on board."
This was why Conjurer's Calling was problematic with Mountain Giants also. It was an ok card but has been nerfed just because of this.
Mogu Fleshshaper is also problematic because of this. It will be more problematic when they produce cards like this.
I really can't understand why they are still embracing this rule. I mean, ok, I can understand that they like the mechanic and it feels more hearthstone-ish than other card games but they should abandon that rule in my opinion because it is mechanically problematic.
If they won't change the rule, they will have to nerf similar cards again and again. Why do they that stubborn !?
probably because its fun to pull out bs combos. Some cards does it better, some others with more toxic sprinkles. Mogu Fleshshaper with those bs grommash-al akir evolves on 3 was probably of the more toxic variety.
Don't know about you, but when I first managed that Khadgar-giant + frost nova combo for the win I was pretty happy and couldn't stop playing cyclone mage for quite some time.
Can't help but feel way too many players don't want balance patches to balance out the game, but more that they don't like any of the decks currently on top and/or are bored with the meta (imagine that with still a fairly new meta) and just want to nerf everything on top to reset the entire meta.
Now I do agree that it is easy to see shaman had/has things that are too overtuned and would become a problem unless addressed, but wanting things like rogue nerfed too when it isn't even the top deck just really sounds like people are wanting nerfs to be used in a way that they aren't meant to be used (ie a whole meta reset).
Its mostly on perceived fairness of decks, from my own observations.
On that note, getting your tush handed to you from multiple 1 mana 7/7 charge minion is not likely to be fun for anyone. Its the crystal caverns issue again; where a low win rate deck is creating mountains of problems for certain archetype and the community being hell bent on neutering it.
Still, those high rolls don't happen that often and deathrattle rogue still needs to first draw those cards, I don't really see the problem with it. More to point, its not anywhere near the levels of idiocy from crystal caverns where control decks might as well auto concede on turn 1.
They deserve to spend some time with their families and not have to focus on a game that already takes up alot of their attention.
This was a smart move, it doesn't gut shaman, just slows it down and gives you much needed time to mount a counter.
While Apothecary can lead to big swing turns, its a gamble. Don't draw them and you're looking at a handful of bad plays. It will probably go to 5mana eventually though.
But will this be enough to take down shaman from the Supreme Tier?
I don't see any of these nerfs changing anything. They should have changed the text for corrupt elementalist to only invoke once. They have a quest reward that isn't hard to complete that lets your battlecries trigger twice. Now they just gave the player more time to complete the quest and invoke 4 times with one card.
Honestly, I feel invoking twice is fine as long as it only procs Krond once. (
I like it that they are at least looking at patching cards more often. That changes meta and keeps it from going stale too much.
Oh, and I'm still waiting for that nerf to Ramming Speed. Please address this team5, really really terribly powerful card that must be stopped at all costs.
Special mention goes to Chromatic Egg, which I have 3 copies o...its too powerful, must be nerfed NOW!
As a totally unbiased person who definitely isn't motivated by self interest I heartily agree with your Ramming Speed nerf demand.
*checks collection* I am less concerned with Chromatic Egg though :)
Ramming Speed is overly problematic indeed - almost as problematic as the stack of 9+ I got - Blizz please
I hereby invite you to join the "Nerf Ramming Speed now!" action group. We have members all over the world and have many high profile (grim) patrons.
I am currently engaged in commissioning Ben Brode to write and perform a "Nerf Ramming Speed now!" rap video set in a balloon factory.
It will happen for sure. Meanwhile, I'm still holding out for Doomsayer (8 copies) and Twisting Nether (5 copies) to be nerfed.
Hopefully, Faceless Corruptor will be nerfed again.
HOw AbOUt nO!!! I ThINk ThAT We NeEd iT tO CoST 4 ANd be A 5/4 BeCAuSe A 4 MaNa CaRD sHOuld Be A 5/4 oR a 4/5.
They should add a search word like 'nerfed' or 'changed' to make disenchanting cards that got hit recently easier, for the 2 week period of full dust refund.
They definitely recently added a new sorting method in the bottom left - where you can sort by sets - that let you see recently changed cards, but it doesn't seem to have been activated for these changes.
I don't remember when it was last there for changes, just that it was a thing at some point. They should bring that back.
I think last time it was active for Wild cards, that came to Standard.
I really like their approach this time
"nerf the obvious and keep monitoring so we can nerf again if necessary"
Personally I'm really concerned with how Face Hunter is turning out so far...there doesn't really seem to be a good enough defensive counter so all you can really do is race them, at which point it all comes down to the luck of the draw.