Just a week after Hearthstone Battlegrounds entered Open Beta (and became available to everyone), we already have a first bigger update (extra note: it will be done server-side, no need to download anything). This time around, we’re getting 4 new Heroes, as well as a few balance changes and bug fixes. If we add those all together, they should make a solid impact on the Battlegrounds meta. Here’s a quick summary of this patch:
- MMR changes – in the current system, players gained 240 points for 1st place (+-, based on MMR of other people you’ve played against) at the beginning, and then down to 24 after 150 games. In the current system, players will start with 190 points for 1st place, which will gradually go down to 95 after 150 games. It means that your first games will have slightly lower impact, but later games will move you up or down by a lot more. The reason for those changes is so players will be able to get to their “true” MMR quicker, even if they started with a big win/lose streak.
- Four new heroes – Brann Bronzebeard, Elise Starseeker, Sir Finley Mrrgglton and Sindragosa (you can find them below).
- Four heroes rotate out to make place for the above – King Mukla, Millificent Manastorm, Giantfin and Lich Baz’hial.
- Junkbot moved from Tier 4 to Tier 5.
- Coldlight Seer moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2.
- Primalfin Lookout moved from Tier 5 to Tier 4.
- Voidlord moved from Tier 6 to Tier 5.
- Bug fixes – Triple Infested Wolf & Rat Pack will be in the correct Tier, Plant & Snake Tokens are now properly Tier 1 for the sake of damage.
What’s important to mention is that another patch will come out in just over 2 weeks – on December 5 (confirmed recently by Mike Donais). It will most likely also be a Descent of Dragons pre-patch, adding all of the expansion’s assets etc. into the game. When it comes to Battlegrounds, December update should add three new heroes (“some recognizable faces”) and two new minions (King Bagurgle – a Battlegrounds-exclusive Murloc buffer + Floating Watcher for Demons). We should also see more balance changes, although we don’t know which minions (or heroes) will get affected yet.
Team 5 is also working on the first version of Stats feature, which should give you both insight into your performance (such as top five Heroes), as well as give you some fun stats (e.g. how many triples you’ve created). First iteration of Stats MIGHT be available in December, but we’ll have to wait until next year for an updated version.
Read full patch notes in the official blog post below!
Bob the Bartender has been hard at work keeping the tavern tidy for Hearthstone’s heroes, and it appears that the news has started to spread. Hearthstone Battlegrounds is about to add some extra chaos—and a few Explorers—with a new update coming to the mode today.
Sindragosa, Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard, and Sir Finley Mrrgglton are the latest heroes to enter the Battlegrounds. Each one comes with a new hero power to give you more options to push toward a first-place finish. Read on for details on these new heroes, as well as some additional updates coming to Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
Please note that these updates do not require an additional download.
Heroes Entering the Battlegrounds
The following Heroes have been added:
- New Hero: Sindragosa
- New Hero: Elise Starseeker
NOTE: The “Recruitment Map” recruits a minion from your current tavern tier after upgrading Bob’s Tavern.
- New Hero: Brann Bronzebeard
- New Hero: Sir Finley Mrrgglton
Heroes Leaving the Battlegrounds
To make way for new challengers, the Heroes below have left Hearthstone Battlegrounds for the time being. We may see them return in a future update.
- King Mukla
- Giantfin
- Millificent Manastorm
- Lich Baz’hial
Balance Updates
Minions:
- Primalfin Lookout
- Moved from Tavern Tier 5 to Tavern Tier 4
- Voidlord
- Moved from Tavern Tier 6 to Tavern Tier 5
- Junkbot
- Moved from Tavern Tier 4 to Tavern Tier 5
- Coldlight Seer
- Moved from Tavern Tier 3 to Tavern Tier 2
Developer comments: We wanted to buff both Demons and Murlocs, so we moved those minions down a Tavern Tier. Junkbot was a bit too strong for Tavern Tier 4 and often made it so mech players never had a good reason to upgrade to Tavern Tier 5. With these changes, we think the minion types are closer together in power level.
Ranking System
We’ve made adjustments to the number of points given for first place. In the original system, you got 240 points for a first place on your first game, and 24 pts for a first place on your 150th (or later) game. Now, you will get 190 pts for a first place on your first game and 95 pts for a first place on your 150th (or later) game.Bug Fixes
- Infested Wolf
- The Triple version of Infested Wolf has been moved from Tavern Tier 2 to Tavern Tier 3, consistent with its base form.
- Rat Pack
- The Triple version of Rat Pack has been moved from Tavern Tier 3 to Tavern Tier 2, consistent with its base form.
- Plant tokens spawned from Adapt effects are now Tavern Tier 1.
- Snake tokens spawned from Snake Trap are now Tavern Tier 1.
Future Updates
As of today, we are planning our next Battlegrounds update for early December. Below is a brief preview of some of the things we’re working on.
- We’d like to continue balancing minions and Heroes based on how they’re performing. We don’t have the changes solidified yet, but we’ll be watching things closely and will have more to say soon.
- We’d like to continue rotating new Heroes into the game while rotating some existing Heroes out. We have some recognizable faces we’re working to include in December.
- We have two new minions in the works that we’re currently planning to include in the December update: King Bagurgle, a brand-new card, and Floating Watcher, which you may recognize from the Goblins vs. Gnomes set.
- We have been working on the first iteration of the Stats feature, to give you more insight into your performance. We’d like to surface some fun stats, like how many Triples you’ve created, your top five Heroes by wins, and more. An updated version of Stats will be available next year.
Good Morning. The win counter has stopped at 11. I have won 2-3 more and confirmed. counter stopped. Has anyone happened the same?
You mean stats on the main screen? Or aren’t you getting any rating for the wins?
The number of victories has stopped adding up.
Really nice changes… Btw I tried Sindragosa once alredy and she seems quite good in first few turns, but quite useless in mid and late game when you are actually looking for some specific cards – like for example I roll card I’m looking for with still 2 coins left – in this situation I much rather just sell something and buy the one I need, rather than just freezing it and wasting coins for it to get +1/+1.
Finley I haven’t tried, because he seems really terrible – refreshing tavern or giving +1/+1 randomly? I would choose refresh in like 99% of times.
Bran is really good though, one of the best currently in my opinion.
That Junkbot nerf was seriously needed, I think now it will be much more fun, I’m just not sure about that Floating Watcher – it could make demons too OP, but it depends what tier it will be (I hope it will be 5)
Btw I’m also curious what tier will be the new Murloc King (has to be at least 5 of course, but maybe he will be 6)
Actually Finley is OK – but you have to play a bit weird to get the most out of his hero power. I got a first place finish with him last night using a menagerie board and at the end of the game I still had several early-game cards still on the board including a Murloc Tidehunter (sold the scout) and a golden Rockpool Hunter (literally the only triple I managed to make all game).
It’s all about keeping 5 or 6 core cards and cycling buff minions… and getting Lightfang Enforcer can really, really push the menagerie finish – I had Murlocs that would give the Ancient One pause for thought 😉
does this mean the brawl event wont include King Mukla? oh. why did this happen? I had such a good run with beast and K.Mukla.
time to start going mech then.
I’m reading the Sindragosa hero power wrong.
Every Tavern minions you freeze will get +1/+1 in the next Tavern Recruits.
It make sense more, rather than every minion that got freeze in the battle get the +1/+1…
Yep, they seem to be keeping only 24 Heroes at the same time – when introducing new ones, they remove some of the older ones (mostly strongest & weakest ones).
I’m not sure why, maybe to make balancing them easier. But they have confirmed that those should be rotated back in at one point (possibly with changed Hero Powers to balance them more). Although I have to say that I would like more variety, something like ~40 Heroes so that you won’t see the same ones every run.
And no wonder you had great runs with King Mukla – it was one of the strongest Heroes after the buff 😀
I think this is a huge buff to Murlocs. Cold light being cheaper helps them snowball the early game even harder so you can really push up to tier 6 fast for Megasaur. Additionally Mechs being slightly weaker is a huge boost too because Murlocs can much more easily dominate the early game without mech builds being finished on turn 8
Overall I’m really impressed with what they’re doing here, especially considering that its “just” a low-stakes mini-game. My biggest irritation is that so much is Feast Or Famine, and it sounds like they are trying really hard to make it so contingency plans are viable while still allowing you that rush when you do hit the perfect combo.
Think Elise will be top tier, Finley pretty much pre buff mukla, I have no idea about sidragosa, could be bad or insanely good, brann depends as well.
Actually i see brann as the new mukla, since You commit to battlecrys almost always and Will be a consistent buff all the time. Nice early and late Game development.
Elise Will be much like AFK… But worse because You get 4 or 5 Minions for free, but they are recruited, not discovered, si pretty much Random Minions
Finley could be good also, but don’t know because You could put the buff on the Minion You want to sell and basically just wasted 1 gold. Could potentially show ball massively in the end Game tho…