Blizzard just posted an unexpected hotfix patch notes. Hotfix Patch 29.6.2 is rolling out later today and it contains a couple of bans and bug fixes.
From my understanding, the next balance patch window was supposed to be 2 weeks after Perils of Paradise (so ~4 weeks from now). However, it seems like Blizzard decided that the current meta situation is dire enough that it needs a faster answer. Since they can’t push out proper nerfs without a full client patch, they went with bans instead.
In Standard, Splish-Splash Whelp is now temporarily banned. This is an answer to Hybrid/Tempo/Combo Druid (however you want to call it) that has been all over the ladder for the last couple of weeks. It peaked at over 35% popularity in high Diamond this weekend, which is an insane number for a single deck. Not only it’s insanely popular, but also the best deck in the game right now, pushing out most of the other builds out of the meta.
While Whelp might not seem like the main offender, it was by far the highest mulligan win rate card in the deck (with around 70%, the second-best card being just over 60%), a card that made a lot of the other shenanigans go down a turn earlier. When picking a single card to ban, it’s good to nerf the foundation of the deck instead of hitting some mid/late game win condition that can just be replaced with something else. The ban will be lifted in the first balance patch of Perils in Paradise where this card or maybe some other Druid cards will be adjusted if necessary.
The second ban is for Thorim in Twist. This ban is a result of the Hero’s very high power level caused by a bug. Once most of the Twist players have found out that Hero Power gets stuck on the upgraded version and it keeps summoning two Totems, they have been abusing the bug a lot, which lead to Thorim being the strongest Twist Hero even after the Health nerf. This ban is expected to be lifted in Patch 30.0 (so in about a week) after the bug gets fixed.
Other than those, the patch also contains a couple of bug fixes (Twist Hero Health and Battlegrounds crashes).
Learn more:
Today we will be rolling out a small server-side hotfix patch with a couple bans and a couple bug fixes:
- [Hearthstone] Splish-Splash Whelp is banned in Standard.
o Dev Comment: Since our last balance patch, Druid has emerged as a warping force in the meta, and both a power and play experience outlier. We’re banning Splish-Splash Whelp as one of the class’s strongest cards for accelerating them to their early power plays. This is a temporary emergency action that we’re taking until we’re able to re-evaluate and adjust in our next planned balance pass (after the launch of Perils in Paradise). Any cards that are weakened at that time will get our usual dust refund treatment.- [Twist] Thorim, Stormlord has been temporarily removed due to a bug. He is expected to be returned to the Hero Pool with Patch 30.0.
- [Twist] Fixed a bug where some Heroes sometimes had the wrong Health.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause crashes.
