A new blog post has just released, detailing a dozen card changes coming to the game on Monday 18th.
Nerfed cards will be eligible for a refund until June 1st.
The patch also brings a bug fix for Ethereal Conjurer, which was causing the game to lock by not offering any Discover options.
Quote From Hearthstone On May 18, we’ll be releasing a 17.2.1 balance patch that includes updates for a dozen cards in Standard, as well as a bug fix for Ethereal Conjurer.
Balance Updates
Old: [Cost 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Cost 1] 1 Attack, 3 Health.
Old: [Cost 5] → New: [Cost 4].
Old: 4 Attack, 6 Health → New: 5 Attack, 6 Health.
Old: 6 Attack, 3 Health → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health.
The 8 cards below will be eligible for a full dust refund until June 1.
Old: 6 Attack, 7 Health → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health.
Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 1 Attack, 1 Health.
Old: Draw a Beast. Give it +3/+3. → New: Draw a Beast. Give it +2/+2.
Old: 1 Attack, 5 Health → New: 1 Attack, 4 Health.
Old: Battlecry: If you control a Secret, return a minion to its owner’s hand. It costs (2) more. → New: Battlecry: If you control a Secret, return a minion to its owner’s hand. It costs (1) more.
Old: Dormant for 2 turns. When this awakens, give all minions in your hand +2/+2. → New: Dormant for 2 turns. When this awakens, give all minions in your hand +2/+1.
Old: 6 Attack, 8 Health → New: 5 Attack, 8 Health.
Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health.
Game Improvements and Bug Fixes
- Ethereal Conjurer will now function correctly and will no longer lock the game state when played.
Comments
Every Patch that nerfs Priestess of Fury is a good Patch.
Didn't expect any of these Changes, but they seem pretty interesting! Was already trying to make a Standard Control-Shaman work and these Buffs definitely help with that. Also the Buff to Libram Paladin seems nice. I don't play that Class, but I hope for Pally-Mains that they'll get an Archetype that'll stick around.
Shadowjeweler Hanar is my favorite Card of this Expansion, but I can see why they nerfed him. The Change to Blackjack Stunner is a more significant Nerf to Secret Rogue though. Still a good Card for Tempo, but it's now way harder to leave your Opponent with unplayable Cards behind in slower Matches (which is probably healthier fir the Game).
Sad to see Scavenger's Ingenuity getting hit. It's really good in Midrange and Combo. I'd assume the main Reason they nerfed it is Stonetusk Boar.
The Rest of the Changes are alright.
Not sure what's going on in standard, but none of these cards were problems in wild.
It will be a shame to see scavenger's ingenuity get nerfed, it was a good enabler for slower hunter strategies.
The buffs will also have nearly no effect. I maintain my theory that libram paladin was the best deck in standard in playtesting and they are confused by its failure.
By the way they released the DemonHunter class, OP, they are confused by a lot of things!
Yet again they've refused to act on my nerf Ramming Speed campaign.
At this point I'm starting to think they won't ever nerf it. They don't seem to care I have 5 copies of it. I know I know I am just as disappointed about it as you are.
Okay, this just came out of left field. No doubt its main purpose is to make shaman and paladin more viable rather than completely destroy the current meta game.
Just my opinion on the impact of the changes;
- Changes to Crimson Sigil Runner is more impactful than Priestess of Fury. I think its fair to compare the nerf to sigil runner with Sludge Slurper, in that the -1 to attack is small but impactful. Sigil runner on 1 can easily frustrate other aggro classes, especially with dhunter's efficient 1 mana hp and curve Umberwing, basically shut off any 1 drop from other classes. Priestess of Fury might just be dropped now, but since there's already a strong list not playing that, players will just move on to a much more aggro tempo dhunter than the somewhat midrange option now. I'm more worried over the priestess nerf, since it effectively means anything other than tempo dhunters just got shot down hard. If it was ever viable before, its a lot less now.
Oh, and a little strange to me that they don't just hit Warglaives of Azzinoth rather than priestess, if the intention is just to weaken tempo dhunters.
- Scavenger's Ingenuity nerf will only slow down the burst potential from the current boar dragon hunter list which is a big plus to other classes. Maybe now people will start moving from Kill Command to Scrap Shot, but more likely nothing will change. I personally think dragon hunters don't get their wins from a massive boar as much as they get from Stormhammer.
- Shadowjeweler Hanar will still be viable, nothing will change here. Maybe that play on 2 option is no longer an option. Blackjack Stunner nerf is big. Its bad enough you got to have a secret before she gets out, now its just strictly a poorer removal option that kinda makes Sap a little more attractive since its not a conditional card.
- Imprisoned Scrap Imp nerf a little too small to stop the current zoo list. In most cases, scrap imp on 2 with Hand of Gul'dan...in hand still bulldozes most classes. But after watching Wolfrider value trade with other minions, yes this means the nerfed zoo list is just a little less annoying to deal with.
- Bloodboil Brute and Bloodsworn Mercenary will still see plenty of play since the nerf barely touch upon its power turns. Surprised that the hit wasn't to cards like Inner Rage, which would at least hit them where it hurts most. Bloodsworn was never played as a 3/3, and if it ever comes out at 3 its usually because there's already a big target to copy so I dont think making it 2/2 makes much difference. Would have been much more impactful if it gets a mana nerf, but that would make it fair and therefore unplayable.
Buffs;
- Changes to Aldor Attendant is good, but the hurdle to beat is still dhunters, and 1/3s are much less effective than 2/2s in that matchup. What it does do is that it now curves into Hand of A'dal neatly and that's scary for other classes. I dont think there's any effective answer against that by other classes, and it makes the aggro pure list a little more dangerous. This change is necessary anyway, paladin's the only class currently that has no effective 1 drop.
- Change to Shattered Rumbler and Torrent is insubstantial but the change to The Lurker Below is big, especially since its now a viable minion on 6. Removal of board plus a 6/5, that's basically Rotnest Drake level of swing.
My prediction is that paladin will no longer be a joke, shaman still sucks, tempo dhunters still very scary, and rogue will still be rogue. Paladin might move in on face hunter's place, dragon hunter overtake face hunter, warrior still does broken stuff, and if you think priest was annoying, the sample size will now increase much to my own personal annoyance.
Just a minor note, I think the health nerf might be more impactful than you think. On the skipper turn, that 1 less health can mean 1 less proc from skipper, 1 less card drawn, or 1 less discount from brute.
I will agree on the discount for brute.
But if you have enough minions to proc skipper twice, you'll not play bloodsworn first. Bloodsworn is almost always the last minion to play, making way only for brute or Bomb Wrangler
I think if you can reasonably pilot enrage warrior, then bloodsworn shouldn't be dying for nothing. At the moment, I'm not convinced that the health nerf is stopping warrior from doing what it has been doing before the announcement.
Finally!!
Some of these nerfs should have happened the last time, and it's nice to see some more buffs to try to help out Paladin and Shaman.
Buffs:
Aldor Attendant is a good buff. One of Paladin's biggest issues right now is having no good turn 1 play. Being able to start reducing the cost of your Libram's on turn 1 is a big deal.
Torrent buff is pretty cool, and makes Flame Lance and Crushing Hand cry in the corner.
Shattered Rumbler buff... ok? Not sure adding 1 attack to this is what Shaman needed. But ok.
The Lurker Below I always thought was stupid at 3 health. This is a good buff to help out a really cool legendary.
Nerfs:
Priestess of Fury is a good nerf. Should have happened sooner. Not as heavy of a hammer that I would have liked to see, but this helps A LOT! This makes it easier to answer a turn 5 Priestess from Raging Felscreamer. I would have liked to see a mana bump to 8 to prevent that on-curve play to begin with. But this opens up a lot of cards that can answer to a Priestess, making this a less game-ending play.
Crimson Sigil Runner also should have been sooner. Glad I've held on to all my golden copies! I would have preferred a nerf to 2 mana instead so it would be more on-par with Novice Engineer and Loot Hoarder, but this works. This might help make this not be such an auto-include.
Scavenger's Ingenuity - NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I love this card!! But I get it... This was too powerful. Still powerful as a tutored card draw with the +2/+2. Still way better than Call to Adventure.
My golden copy of Shadowjeweler Hanar rejoices! This was a much needed nerf. Coining this out almost always wins the game. Still playable at 4 health, but more of a chance to get answered before it snowballs out of control. It's going to be hard to let go of the golden copy though... so many golden secrets. I love golden cards that give you extra golden value. But a free legendary is hard to pass.
Blackjack Stunner should have also been nerfed sooner. This card is just way too powerful for 1 mana. I would have preferred a bump to 2 mana instead, but this helps.
Imprisoned Scrap Imp I guess makes sense. Probably a proactive nerf fearing Zoolock would overtake the meta after the nerfs.
Bloodboil Brute and Bloodsworn Mercenary I will talk about together. I have played A LOT of warrior this month, and neither of these changes are going to do anything. I was fully expecting Risky Skipper to get nerfed to 2 mana. That card combined with Armorsmith are in every single warrior deck. Slowing down the ability of that combo I feel should have been the more important Warrior nerf target.
Overall a lot of good nerfs, excited for these changes to hit to help freshen up Standard. It has gotten extremely stale.
I like this flexibility. Take some chances, fix your mistakes.
About time they did something about Priestess of Fury. Although I am mega bummed about the rogue and warlock nerfs.
I personally thought they will nerf Raging Felscreamer to a 5 mana 5/5 instead of Priestess of Fury, because I thought the latter was alright, but broken by Felscreamer and the ability to cheat the card on turn 5.
Also no nerfs to Altruis the Outcast where he should never damage your opponent's face? And no change to Kayn Sunfury where he either only has Rush or only he can avoid Taunts?
I also don't think there was anything wrong with Crimson Sigil Runner.
But buffs are nice. And other nerfs are decent too. But I was disappointed with DH nerfs, though nerfing Priestess is not a bad move.
The goal isn't to delete the class from the game, but to tone it down more.
Regardless of how people feel about Kayn Sunfury one way or the other doing either of those nerfs breaks the point of the card. The latter of the two ideas you mentioned always makes the card an extremely lackluster legendary that you feel bad about pulling. It becomes a 4 mana Fireball for only half the damage if it is answered immediately. Even if it would stick on the board for one turn it still only does as much as Fireball, just twice as slowly as the mage spell. You'd be better off running a silence that allows more than one minion to ignore a taunt.
Nice to see some buffs, especially the Attendant. I think the nerfs are all warranted except Scavenger's, it was fine as it was. I'm still not sure how the Stunner is better than sap, it shouldn't be. Imprisoned Warlock still feels bad to play against imo. I'm not sure Warrior is losing much.
Great changes! I love all of them
The Lurker Below might actually be viable now becuase it will no longer be insta ko'd by Eye Beam overall the balances seem really good Aldor Attendant might be good/strong because like Northshire Cleric is 1 cost and does a pretty good effect however i do belive the dh nerfs are a little bit weak the again i gont know how good a 7 mana 6/5 is in standard but i have a feeling dh will still be running Priestess of Fury after its nerf and 1 final note even with the buff Torrent will still be a bad card because now the mana reduction is less for torrent which gives shamans less reason to run the card
thats all i have thank you for coming to my ted talk
edit: while reading again torrent i didnt see the less part of the card which made me thought i saw cost 3 if you casted a spell last turn but now i realize a 4 mana deal 8 is on and a 1 mana deal 8 is pretty good
How is making Torrent cost 1 worse than making it cost 2?
How is a 1 mana deal 8 damage to a minion a bad card?
i did my math and reading wrong i thought i saw cost 3 if you cast a spell last turn totaly negated the less part now that its been brought to my attention a 1 mana deal 8 is goo
Depends on the meta, a 1 mana deal 8 does not fit in any Shaman decks right now. Quest Shaman is minion based and can't reliably run this card for the discount, and a 4 mana deal 8 is not needed right now since Priestess just got nerfed. Totem Shaman also does not need this card right now, as you would rather draw a totem card or spell than this.
This buff could create a new spell Shaman that would be cool, but we will have to see if more tools are needed to combat the meta.
I disagree... in Wild, Torrent will probably make it's way to Even Shaman now since can be cast for 1 and get rid of something in the way of their minions.