16.0 Hearthstone Battlegrounds Patch – 3 New Heroes, Hero Rotation, 2 New Minions, Balance Changes (Lightfang Nerf), Statistics

Patch 15.6 is out, and besides all the things around Descent of Dragons expansion, it also introduced a lot of interesting Battlegrounds changes! Here’s a quick recap of what you can expect:

• 3 new Heroes – Edwin VanCleef, Sylvanas Windrunner and Arch-Villain Rafaam. On top of that, Millificent Manastorm and Lich Baz’hial are coming back after some balance changes.
• 5 current Heroes rotate out – Patches the Pirate, Bartendotron, Pyramad, Professor Putricide and Trade Prince Gallywix.
• 2 new minions introduced – King Bagurgle (5*) and Floating Watcher (3*).
• Lightfang Enforcer got nerfed – it now gives +2/+1 instead of +2/+2.
• Patchewek, A.F. Kay, The Rat King and The Great Akazamzarak also got some balance changes.
• Early version of Statistics got introduced for players who bought 10 or more Descent of Dragons card packs. They will include stats from all of your matches played since November 5.
• Performance upgrades.
• Bug fixes.

Read more in the official blog post below!

The skies above Dragonblight stir with tension as the League of E.V.I.L. eagerly seeks to resurrect Galakrond, Progenitor of all Dragonkind, and use his great power as a tool of destruction in their sinister plans. To answer the impending threat, the League of Explorers are calling upon powerful allies, the same Dragon Aspects who defeated Galakrond once before. To turn the skies in their favor, both good and E.V.I.L. are unveiling some fresh tactics of their own…

Read on for the full details of what’s coming to the tavern with the Descent of Dragons expansion, including a major update to Battlegrounds, and how to claim the Tyrande Priest Hero and Card Back for free with the launch of the new in-game shop!

Hearthstone Battlegrounds Updates

New Heroes:

• Edwin Vancleef
  • Sharpen Blades
    • Costs 1. Give a minion +1/+1 for each minion you’ve bought this turn.

• Sylvanas Windrunner
  • Banshee’s Blessing
    • Costs 0. Remove a friendly minion to give adjacent minions +1/+1.

• Arch-Villain Rafaam
  • I’ll Take That!
    • Costs 1. Next combat, add a plain copy of the first minion you kill to your hand. (Note: this is an unbuffed, non-golden copy.)

Heroes leaving:

• Patches the Pirate
• Bartendotron
• Pyramad
• Professor Putricide
• Trade Prince Gallywix

Heroes returning:

• Millificent Manastorm
• Lich Baz’hial

New Minions:

 

• King Bagurgle
• Floating Watcher

Balance Changes:

• Minions
  • Lightfang Enforcer
    • At the end of your turn, give a friendly Mech, Beast, Murloc and Demon +2/+2. → At the end of your turn, give a friendly Mech, Beast, Murloc and Demon +2/+1.

• Heroes
  • Millificent Manastorm
    • Tinker
      • All Mechs in Bob’s Tavern get +1/+1. → All Mechs in Bob’s Tavern get +1 Attack.
  • Patchwerk
    • All Patched Up
      • Starts at 60 Health. → Starts at 50 Health.
  • A. F. Kay
    • Procrastinate
      • Skip your first 2 turns. Start with a minion from Tavern Tier 3 and Tavern Tier 4. → Start with two minions from Tavern Tier 3.
  • The Rat King
    • King of Beasts
      • Whenever you Hire a Beast give it +1/+2. Swaps type each turn. → Whenever you Hire a Beast give it +1/+1. Swaps type each turn.
  • Lich Baz’hial
    • Graveyard Shift
      • Get a Coin and take 3 damage. → Get a Coin and take 2 damage.
  • The Great Akazamzarak
    • Prestidigitation
      • Will now be harder to get Ice Block consecutively.
      • Removed Hand of Salvation as a possible secret.

Advanced Stats v1:

Advanced Stats are now live for players who own 10 or more Descent of Dragons Card Packs, which will retroactively include data from matches played since November 5. From the Battlegrounds lobby screen, advanced stats can be accessed by clicking “More”. We’ll be continuing to add more features and stats with future updates!

A Note on Performance:

With this update, players on low-end devices may experience degraded performance. We’re continuing our efforts to address this issue and optimize Hearthstone Battlegrounds – and we’ll have more to share soon.

• Battlegrounds
  • Fixed an issue where tripling Replicating Menace could add the incorrect stats to the target Mech when magnetized.
  • Fixed an issue where tripling Replicating Menace did not double its card effects.
  • Fixed an issue where Ice Block could trigger during the Recruit phase.
  • Fixed an issue where players could sometimes not recruit a minion during their first Recruit phase.
• Fixed an issue where Poisoned Blade would get replaced by Ancient Blades instead of getting +1 Attack.
• Shirvallah is now discounted by spells that get countered, but will no longer be discounted by spells that are paid for with health.
• Fixed an issue where minions summoned from Deathrattle effects would sometimes not appear in the correct position.
• Fixed an issue where taking Fatigue damage would improperly extend the current turn.
• Shadow Reflections generated by Valeera the Hollow now function properly if discarded and then created by Soulwarden.
• Fixed an issue where shapeshifted Druid cards had a last known in-hand cost equal to 0, which triggered Darklight Torch when looking at even cost cards. Shapeshifted Druid cards now retain their pre-transformed cost.
• Buffs made to C’thun while it is still in the deck (and not from Ritual cards) now count towards all “If your C’thun as at least 10 attack…” effects.
• Fixed an issue with Curator, in the One Night in Karazhan Adventure, where Rush minions would forget to check if the opposing hero had Taunt when looking for valid targets.
• Fixed an issue where the client was not considering cards that read a value from a variable rather than the card text when determining spell damage. The damage itself was calculated correctly but the visual indication of spell damage was missing.

Source