Nerf patch that was hinted at last week was just announced! It will drop down tomorrow (on December 19). Here’s a full list of card changes we’re going to see:
- Corrupt Elementalist – Now costs 6 Mana (up from 5).
- Sludge Slurper – Now has 1 Attack (down from 2).
- Faceless Corruptor – Now has 4 Attack (down from 5).
- Mogu Fleshshaper – Now costs 9 Mana (up from 7).
Once the changes go live, players will be able to disenchant those cards for full Dust crafting cost for the next 2 weeks.
There’s also a bunch of Battlegrounds changes coming in the patch:
- Heroes:Â Brann Bronzebeard removed, Bartendotron added back again.
- Nightmare Amalgam removed from Battlegrounds.
- The Boogeymonster – Moved to Tavern Tier 4 (down from 5).
- Mechano-Egg – Moved to Taven Tier 4 (down from 5).
- The Beast – Moved to Taven Tier 3 (down from 4).
- Coldlight Seer – Moved to Tavern Tier 3 (up from 2).
Update: Dean “Iksar” Ayala mentioned that they wanted to get the patch out quickly before Christmas, and that another patch might follow in mid-January if necessary:
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.
— August Dean Ayala (@IksarHS) December 18, 2019
I was talking about the non quest version of oasis. 5 mana two 3/3 with rush (and more flexibility as you can choose a 5/5 with rush) would be still way better than two 2/4 with rush and a token to sacrifice . Even at 3/4 it would be significantly worse because of the requirement to have a token to sacrifice. Yes oasis is a class card and faceless neutral but still oasis probably wouldn’t see play without the quest.
Honestly, I find half of these comments beyond stupid.
Firstly, don’t write “blizzards done this wrong” you are a player… compared to a full team of developers who have been doing this for years you are nothing. If anything comments like that expose how dumb you are to the point where you think your opinion trumps a whole company.
Secondly, play with the nerfs, find out whats good and new counters – change keeps the game fresh. stop moaning like children, honestly its embarrassing. This is topdecks, a place for great info and improving your play – respect that and comment accordingly; spark discussion.
Leave your pointless moaning to twitter.
I’ve always found the underlying philosophy of balance changes interesting. Blizzard’s approach has traditionally been hesitant, careful and slow; in Starcraft and Warcraft 3, balance patches were few and far between, leaving it to players to figure out counters to 4-pool zergling rushes and mass gryphons, which led to a cool dynamic where players evolved the metagame through trial and error, a long-time pursuit of mastery and perfection of a game whose rules remained mostly consistent, where an innovative build from 2010 could be faithfully replicated in 2015.
League of Legends, another game I intermittently follow, has a radically different philosophy. They regularly and purposely upend the game’s balance, making different characters and items overpowered, just for the sake of novelty and player engagement. It keeps the game fresh and novel for highly engaged players… but it makes the game completely unrecognizable from what it was like a couple years ago. If you stop playing the game for a year, you pretty much have to start over from scratch if you want to get back in, and if you quit for a few months, you either have to read through six patch notes upon your return or prepare to be surprised in-game by all the things that have changed.
Metagames used to last four months and more, with two expansions a year plus an adventure which had a lesser, sometimes negligible impact. This year, metagames have lasted roughly one month. As the meta gets figured out more quickly thanks to resources like hsreplay, Team 5 has resorted to shaking up the meta more quickly.
Today, you get an expansion release, then a nerf patch hits within the month. Then a month later you have card buffs, like in Rise of Shadows, or cards being temporarily moved back into Standard like in Saviors of Uldum. Then maybe there’s another nerf patch the next month, followed by the next expansion just ahead.
The benefits of increased novelty are obvious, but there are drawbacks to this approach as well. Sometimes, the hurried balance patches leave one or more classes in the gutter, and if you don’t have the cards to play another class competitively, then you’re screwed. You can invest a ton of dust on a deck you find powerful and fun, and a month later it might not be competitive any more. Unless you invest in Hunter, apparently.
Faceless will still be OP. Missing nerfs to Dragon’s Pack and Galakrond. I don’t see how this would affect the meta that much.
I wish the nerfs were live this morning. The Faceless corrupter nerf could have saved me. I couldn’t play my Faceless Corrupter since the opponent could easily trade in the Necrium Apothecary (with Anubisath) and won. If my Faceless had only 4 attack I would have been able to inflict more damage to the opponent before their minions being buffed.
However overall I am fine with the nerfs. I think people are over reacting. Lets see what the meta does over the next couple of weeks and then if still unhappy, complain to your hearts content. Complaining about the change in the standard meta now or how money is being taken from you (there are few comments like this), etc is not productive without seeing the consequences of their action first.
The only thing from this patch which somewhat concerns me is the removal of amalgam without adding some other minions to help make up for the loss. The upside is that this might force more menagerie style decks instead of one tribe. This way people can work to get all the buffs they need. I think this will overall be a more interesting way to play the game.
Shaman, Rogue, err …
Nothing about Hunter? Face Hunter holiday is not fun; having to wait on control builds to diminish their winrates so people MIGHT stop playing them.
Not to mention, it’s still among the best classes. Been for over 2 years. I hope rotation puts a break to it like it did to Warlock.
Not even a Nerf to Galakrond??? Seriously? I would’ve liked to have seen the double invoke card become a death rattle instead of a battlecry, and I think Galakrond should’ve changed to summon either two 2/1s, 4/2s, or 8/4s. It fits with the hero power but doesn’t completely kill the card. Shamanstone is here to stay!
i can actually agree with this nerf
most people say to reduce the power of the battlecry to such low lvls that its practically powerless
this though lets them keep their power but more likely to die in the trade
1) Sludge slurper: this change make no sense to me, warrior is plenty of broken 1 drop (for not to mention northshire cleric of priest), it’s not a problematic card;
2) Elementalist: it’s ok i guess, it’s still playable, if they had opted for one less invoke, they should have too stat or mana cost (and the audio voice of course), this is more easy;
3) Faceless: This card it’s still broken op, must be nerfed in giggling or corridor creaper manner, so must cost 7 (like giggling) or stat must be 2/4 (3 attack less like creeper).
4) Mogu: Why i have to play again this card? For one mana more I just play Giant, sure it has not rush but it’s a safe 8/8 that don’t need another card (mutate) to be effective. And you can replace the card with some heal that guarantees you to survive to aggro deck.
5) No amalgam in battleground????? WTF?
Faceless at 2/4 would be rediculous, compare it with oasis surger with only one option AND requiring a token to transform for even less damage. Even as 3/4 would be just ok. Now it is still good but significantly worse than before. Nerfing attack to rush minions is more significant than it seems. Imagine restless mummy as a 2/2… It would be a disaster. Though i think it would be better if they nerfed it at 4/3
Oasis surger need a quest to be effective and its a class card, now the card its like the deer of the druid (2 4/4 rush when you have healed for 5), it’s still too strong imo. 4/3 yes, its would become a neutral mummy version that require another card, it should be ok.
This is totally ridiculous. This game has become irritating and the way developers are handling it is totally wrong. Come on guys every time there is a new expansion, a Nerf will follow afterwards. This is unacceptable. We are trying to adapt within the META and after a few days we have to find new solutions again. And I have noticed that Blizzard always Nerfs low cost cards so the dust we are getting back is nothing. Honestly I am playing HS for 4,5 years but now I am seriously considering to stop it once and for all. Enough. After Ben Brode left, everything is going down. And I cannot accept that Shaman for example (and to be honest I never crafted the deck) is so overpowered atm. In the same sense, Highlander Hunter should have been nerfed HARD during the previous 3 months, but I never saw Blizzard doing this. They are seriously kidding us.
they nerf the cards whose percentages lead to the best results
legendaries being a 1 per deck have less chance of getting that insane % and they have to be really broken like dr boom was to warrant the nerf.
Ordinary and casual hilarious nerfs from “Hearthstone team”. Still shamans can destroy you without do nothing.. Just they play 30 cards per turn or summon 100 minions on the board with 3 mana. Still quest shaman is broken and also galakrond.. If shaman play this galakrond card, you dead no matter what. You just dead.. Dead.. Also deathrattle rogue has become a real nightmare and reminds us the old disgusting “Quest Rogue”..
Overall i’m not surprised people leave the game once again like the old druid days in “Frozen Throne” expansion.. Great Job hearthstone.. Keep going like that. Bleeding people and money!
My thoughts on this:
Sludge Slurper- this isn’t a huge change. Sure, Galakrond Shaman and Quest Shaman won’t be able to get as good of trades (Murloc Shaman doesn’t care due to buffs), but overall it has the same use- a more versatile Evil Cable Rat.
Corrupt Elementalist- I’m not sure if this is going to turn out a buff in the end. Thanks to Evolve. Yes, it’ll be difficult to not be able to play this turn 5, but the overall change isn’t going to impact the deck too much.
Mogu Fleshshaper- HA! In exchange for having to pay a couple mana for it sometimes, Evolve will be getting something better then the King Togwaggle (how am I rolling Togwaggle half the time? RNGsus, we need to chat.)
Faceless Corruptor- still really good, but not busted. If they had removed Rush from the second version, it would be balanced, but for now it’s still good.
time to craft deathrattle rogue.
So much dust incoming!
Galakrond Shaman is still the strongest archetype easy – the Invoke tokens, Galakrond battlecry and Dragon’s Pack were its main strengths – all completely untouched.
Deathrattle Rogue would like a word with you. ;p
This is the advantage of a digital card game. They can do a quick nerf because of the holidays and if it isn’t good enough they can change it after the holidays. What difference does it make, if they need to nerf again you will get full dust refund again. no matter what team 5 does it will never be good enough or quick enough, or maybe too quick?
I agree. They’re doing some small changes now to see how it affects things, with more to come if it’s not enough.
I think you have to look at this in the context of the nerfs to Mage back in Uldum. While Mage had some ridiculous plays before the changes (5 mana Pocket Galaxy, Conjuror’s Calling combos), the nerfs were too strong and basically made the class non-existent. I think it’s good that they’re trying to bring Shaman back in line with the other classes without destroying it.
congrats blizzard. making a record nerf patch even beating the Rastakhan.
At this time, I’m not even surprised about the little nerfs they have for Shaman.
I’ve got 2 reasons.
1. Too many nerfs can cause unbalance throughout the expansions, and we still haven’t unlocked every build yet.
2. It might’ve have something to do with those 35 incoming cards in January. We still don’t know how it gonna work, perhaps, more invoke cards, more synergy, etc. Shaman may be the only one right now, but only until January Solo Expansion. And again, too many nerfs can cause improper build later on.
How the hell does nerfing Sludge Slurper make any damn sense?
I total miss by Blizzard. IMO: all the Galakrond need to be nerfed. Namely Elementalist. With that ability in Quest Shaman, one can charge up Galley in one turn. Instead of twice, it should be once.
I completely agree with sludge slurper. The only problem i’d say with elementalist is that it if they did make it once than they’d have to change her voice line because it wouldn’t be double the power anymore.
Like they did to patches… No longer in charge…
This is the worst balance patch ever, completely destroyed Battleground in one move.
Now please tell me how can Beast and Demon compete when they have no access to shield and poison?
Time to sell my account
What a joke, so wait until the next balance update after 5 January… no way i will play before that
Oh no. What will blizzard do?
Keep taking money from clowns, i guess, but not mine
I don’t know, invoking twice seems like the real problem with Elementalist. It’s still a 6 mana 7/5, 4/2 of which has Rush, and it takes Galakrond half way to maximum for only one card. Even without Galakrond, a 6 mana 3/3 with “Battlecry: Summon two 2/1 elementals with Rush” doesn’t sound unplayable. That’s +3 stats vs Giggling Inventor, for one less mana.
Wait, isn’t that a low-key buff to Mogu Fleshshaper? It heavily reduces the variance of Mutate and basically guarantees you get 8/8 worth of stats at least (excluding King Pharosis). The +2 cost is rarely going to prohibit playing it the turn you would’ve before given how easily Shaman and other classes flood the board.
I wouldn’t call it a buff. It will be comparable with Sea Giant now IMO. Guaranteed 8/8, 1 card instead of 2, only 1 mana more. Mogu still bette because 1 mana cheaper and has a chance to high roll, but it’s class card and not Neutral + requires 2 cards and not 1. Might be slightly stronger, but not by a lot.
The biggest strength of Mogu was it coming down so early, sometimes as soon as Turn 4 (even 3 when Evolve Shaman played Desert Hare, lol). Delaying it by a turn or two will hurt. It’s generally harder to deal with an 8-drop on T4 than with a 10-drop on T6.
Those…sound nowhere near significant enough to change the meta. I’m not even sure they are worth dusting, TBH: Faceless Collector as two rushing 4/4s still sounds broken, and Mogu coming out ~1-2 turns later in exchange for evolving into a 10-mana sounds like a sidegrade more than a nerf. (For context: most 10-mana are either vanilla 8/8 or 4/12 on board; you do have a 1/13 change of “low rolling” a King Phaoris = 5/5, but you have the same odds for Archmage, Deathwing, and Colossus.) The Sludge Slurper and Corrupt Elementalists are obviously worse now, but just barely: you played Slurper for the lackey, not for its attack, and most Galakrond Shaman decks are more than comfortable playing the long game so they are find either waiting an extra turn to play the Elemantalist or taking it out entirely for something with more survivability like Witch’s Brew or Hex.
Overall: extremely disappointing.
yea 1 mana nerf to elemntalist wasnt that strong wont effect it much other that the occasional on curve stop to board control
7 mana would of been balanced IMO or lower to 4 mana and invoke once
Or nerfing its ability. I mean, seriously, one turn Galley gets a supercharge in Quest Galley Shaman. I’ve seen it happen, and did it myself. IMO: all the Galley Cards needs to be nerfed.
Can’t wait to get free 10 cast minions from the buffed fleshshaper.
Cost*
Dear god what have they done
Poor slurper, now he is just an Evil cable rat with murloc tag.
1 + Overload (1) is generally better than 2, but yeah, it’s a weird card to nerf… It was strong, but not problematic in any way.
yea that nerf surprised me
being a class card its no better than neutral cable rat now
think with the change they should of removed the overload
Aggro overload Shaman actively seeks out cards that have overload and cards with overload synergy, so at least in that deck archetype, Sludge Slurper is still way, way better than Cable Rat, even after the nerf.
maybe but that archetype isn exactly problematic like galakrand is
Will it be enough?
Welcome back HunterStone, i missed you!
Priest still the crap on earth… holy cow.
Warlock, Mage and Rogue will profit the most.
Deathrattle Rogue Tier 1, Facehunter Tier 1, Galakrond Zoo Warlock and Hand Lock Decent Top of tier 2. Pirate Warrior Tier 1 too.
Oh dear….
What do you guys really want them to do? everyone is such crybabies … first they took too long to nerf, now they are nerfing too quickly. Now they didnt buff the deck YOU like the most … like just shhh and play the game jesus. The nerfs are obviously targeting shaman who has been TOO strong on a consistent basis … we arent even a month into the meta and youre complaining the other tier 1 decks will run rampant. We have 30+ cards coming in the new year with the PVE expansion so once again just shutup and play or dont play at all … no one likes a crybaby
Tksamuel, do you even play this game. The problem is they nerfed inconsequential cards and the mogu nerf isn’t even a nerf. The only real nerf they made was to the corruptor. Shaman Galakrond is still way over the top and this will do little to change that.
Lol yes I play the game and i think you totally missed my point. In no way did i say they hit the mark on the nerfs, i agree with you that there could of been better targeted nerfs. My point was to stop crying and that point still stands. I do not play shaman nor will I but i in now way think it’s unbeatable. You know all 30 cards they have in their deck which makes it very easy to counter play as opposed to an off meta deck that you have no idea what they are running. Obviously if they draw the nuts thats another story, but that goes for a couple decks in the game. You realize shaman is one hard counter away from coming back down to reality right? on top of that we have 30 new cards coming that we have NO idea what they are.
What do we want them to do? They had one job, to nerf the right cards and not F up, yet they seem to fail every time lol.