22.6.1.1.1.1 Patch Notes

Blizzard just dropped full notes for Patch 22.6.1.1.1.1. It’s the final patch before Voyage to the Sunken City releases. It comes with tons of interesting changes for both Standard and Wild.

Be sure to read full patch notes below:

This update, going live alongside the launch of Voyage to the Sunken City, includes numerous balance and system changes across Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, and more!

General Updates

• The Priest class has been removed.
• The following cards have been banned from ALL formats: Forbidden Ancient, Forbidden Flame, Forbidden Healing, Forbidden Shaping, Forbidden Words, Forbidden Ritual.
• If you manage to have in hand the Skull of Gul’dan, two Hands of Gul’dan, and two of the rarely seen Legs of Gul’dan, the enemy hero will now be immediately destroyed.
• All players have been granted one (1) gold.
• The main Collectible Card Sets (3 per year) are being discontinued.
  • Dev Comment: Alongside this new expansion cadence, we’ll be introducing “Mega-Sets”! These card sets are comprised of 135 cards that will be released in-between Mini-Sets.
• New Keyword: Taunt Taunt
  • Dev Comment: Minions with Taunt Taunt protect Taunt minions. You must destroy all Taunt Taunt minions before you can attack Taunt minions.
• The number of deck slots has been reduced to 9
  • Dev Comment: We’ve found that players have been too confused by the deck slots increase.

Balance Updates

Animal Companion

• Old: Summon an Animal Companion → New: Summon Leokk.
  • Dev Comment: Rexxar has finally decided on his new favorite pet, so we’re updating Animal Companion to reflect that.

Core Rager

• Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: 5 Attack, 1 Health.

Toxic Reinforcements

• Old: Sidequest: Use your Hero Power three times. → New: Sidequest: Use the “Oops” emote three turns in a row.

Blightborn Tamsin

• Old: Battlecry: For the rest of the game, damage you take on your turn damages your opponent instead. → New: Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.

Tickatus

• Old: Battlecry: Remove the top 5 cards of your opponent’s deck. Corrupt: Your opponent’s deck instead. → New: Battlecry: Remove the top 10 cards of your opponent’s deck. Corrupt: Your opponent’s deck instead.
  • Dev Comment: We’ve seen a lot of complaints about Tickatus, and we agree. A 6 mana 8/8 is way too overpowered, so we are increasing the drawback to compensate.

Kayn Sunfury

• Old: Charge. All friendly attacks ignore Taunt. → New: Charge. Your opponent has Tauntn’t.

Shudderwock

• Shudderwock will now update its text dynamically in-game based on which Battlecries you’ve played this game.

Boulderfist Ogre

• Old: [Cost 6] 6 Attack, 7 Health. → New: [Cost 4] 7 Attack, 7 Health, renamed to Flamewreathed Faceless, reads “Ogreload: (2)”
  • Dev Comment: Boulderfist Ogre has been a key player in several decks for its entire existence in Hearthstone. We didn’t want to remove the card completely, so we felt a redesign was necessary. Moving the card to Shaman limits which classes have access to it, but it was still too powerful, so we gave it the downside of “Ogreload: (2)” to add more decision making when including it in a deck. Adjusting its stats and cost helped push it into a more balanced space, but the name no longer made sense, leading to the new name you see now.

The Juggernaut

• Old: Start of Your Turn: Summon a Pirate, equip a Warrior weapon, and fire two cannons that deal 2 damage! → New: Start of Your Turn: Summon Mr. Smite, equip Gorehowl, and deal 4 damage to the enemy hero!

Dinosize

• Old: Set a minion’s Attack and Health to 10. → New: Set a minion’s stats to 7/14.

BEEEES!!!

• Old: Choose a minion. Summon four 1/1 Bees that attack it. → New: CHOOSE A MINION!!! SUMMON FOUR 1/1 BEEEES THAT ATTACK IT!!!

Shimmering Courser

• Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health.
  • Dev Comment: Unicorn Priest has been much stronger than anticipated. While this change seems to be out of the blue since no one has found the deck yet, we feel it’s better to make this change sooner rather than later.

Genn Greymane, Baku the Mooneater

• Old: [Cost 9], [Cost 6] → New: [Cost 8], [Cost 5]
  • Dev Comment: Baku and Genn should always be a mainstay of competitive Wild, but we’ve recently seen them fall off in favor of stronger strategies. Buffing both of them should bring these strategies back to relevance and really open up the format.

Worgen Greaser

• Old: 6 Attack, 3 Health → New: 6 Attack, 4 Health.

Echoing Ooze

• Renamed to Repeatable This Turn-ing Ooze.

Battleground Battlemaster

• Old: [Cost 6] Adjacent minions have Windfury. → New: [Cost 5] Battlecry: Enemy spells cost (5) more next turn.

The Darkness

• Old: 20 Attack, 20 Health → New: 20 Attack, 22 Health.
  • Dev Comment: The Darkness has fallen behind other strategies in the current year of Hearthstone, and we feel that it’s only fair to keep it up to date.

All affected cards above will be valid for a Special Dust Refund rate of 0%.

Battlegrounds Updates

• Explosive Trap has been added to The Great Akazamzarak’s Secret Pool.
• Fixed a bug in Battlegrounds where Jandice Barov was sometimes offered in lobbies without tokens.
• Fixed a bug in Battlegrounds where Pyramad was sometimes offered.
• During her first 2 turns, A. F. Kay can no longer Freeze, emote, send messages to friends, change settings, concede, or quit.
• Diablo has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.
  • Dev Comment: Diablo returns as permanent addition to Battlegrounds! He was a bit overtuned last time, so we’re toning him down a bit in the special combat. (600 Health, down from 666)
• All Murlocs now have Charge.
  • Dev Comment: People have been asking why Old Murk-Eye has charge, so we’re updating all other Murlocs for consistency.

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• Fixed a bug where casting Windchill on a Chillwind Yeti would crash the game.
• Fixed a bug where Tyrantus couldn’t be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
• Fixed a bug where certain accounts would always queue into unfavorable matchups.
• Fixed a bug where Luna’s Pocket Galaxy could also put lint and loose change into your deck.
• Fixed a bug where Golden cards didn’t have +1 Attack.
• Fixed a bug by restoring a damaged Venomous Scorpid to full health.
• Fixed a bug where Crackle would deal less than lethal damage.
• Fixed a bug where Priests would sometimes not generate multiple copies of Soul Mirror. They will now always generate at least 1 extra copy.
• The Priest class has been re-added.

Source