Nerf Patch Early Next Week – Battlefiend, Altruis, Glaivebound Adept, Kael’Thas, Bad Luck Albatross, Frenzied Felwing, Sac Pact, Open the Waygate and Bloodbloom

Yep, that’s a long title. Dean “Iksar” Ayala has shared details about the upcoming balance update. First of all – it’s coming “early next week”. More details should be shared soon through official channels (right now we know WHICH cards will get hit, but not what they will do about them). Also, nerfs should slow down after that, they don’t plan anything for now (so you will finally be able to craft new cards safely).

Interestingly, the patch will also include a buff to Libram of Justice.

And here are the cards that they are looking to change (keep in mind that it might not be a 100% final list, although it should be).

Standard

Wild

Battlegrounds

  • Nerf to Millhouse Manastorm.
  • Larger update planned for mid-expansion.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

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Leave a Reply

46 Comments

  1. DogeDogeDoge
    April 19, 2020 at 1:31 AM

    >Be me(F2P)
    >Craft Mechathun Warlock(Last week)
    >Bloodbloom gets nerfed
    >Think about life choices
    >Cry inside

  2. X15d
    April 17, 2020 at 3:53 AM

    Very happy about wild nerfs but I’m hoping they don’t go overboard with dh nerfs, like i get battlefiend and i kinda get altruis but glaivebound adept is kind of streching it

    • Tksamuel2
      April 17, 2020 at 8:03 AM

      What do you mean, currently it’s a 6 mana 7/4 that deals 4 damage, 5 mana if you have the 0 mana hero attack … that doesn’t sound busted to you?

  3. Repellista
    April 17, 2020 at 3:14 AM

    Interesting choices for the wild nerfs. Honestly, I would have gone for Rite of Flames, 1 mana Spell far better than 8 mana spell Twisted Neither but that’s ok as well.

  4. Yggdreigon
    April 17, 2020 at 1:05 AM

    Honestly I’m not playing until then. Neither battlegrounds nor standard I’m not touching anything related to hearthstone. These past weeks has been the absolute least fun I’ve had playing this game in my entire life

  5. PitLord
    April 17, 2020 at 12:11 AM

    My personal nerf:

    1) Altruis: simply remove the face damage, damage all enemy minions, it’s still a good card against flooded board;

    2) Battlefiend: make him start as a 1/2, every other tipe of nerf like rise mana cost, or decrease health to 1 make the card unplayable;

    3) Glaivebound: Maybe reduce the attack or the battlecry damage, or you can target only minion (another piece of face damage that goes off);

    4) Kaelthas: it’s pretty simple or you raise the cost or make every fourth spell cost 0, that should be pretty bad ;

    5) Bad Luck Albatross: Make him 3/3 and the 1/1 have battlecry draw a card, now the card it’s to disadvantageous, at least if you draw a card you don’t miss your card draw (and pay 1 mana to do so), and if you are a control deck, you prefer to win the fatigue game without play the 1/1;

    6) Felwing: Rise the cost, but no so much to make unplayable the card;

    7) Sacrificial Pact: Target only demons that cost only 3 or less, so you can heal with your 1/1 and illidan can play someting different of aggro DH, it’s a great nerf also for wild, so you can’t kill your void caller (BTW i will rise the cost to 5 of this card);

    8) Open the waygate: 12 spell to complete the quest, and 7 mana cost for the quest… DIE MAGE;

    9)Bloodbloom: Raise the cost.

    P.S. Plague of flame should be in this list it’s stupidly broken, you may reverse the fiendish rite to 3 again, but this card must be raise.

  6. PhoenyxSam
    April 16, 2020 at 11:59 PM

    While I agree with all the other potential nerfs, I don’t quite understand the nerf to Bad Luck Albatross. Why is it getting nerfed? I know its a counter to highlander decks, but whats the big deal about that?

    • Skaro
      April 17, 2020 at 12:57 AM

      It also (maybe unintentionally) counters any pure deck also, which is significant for those decks. Due to lack of card draw for classes like warrior it can make for some pretty brutal top decks in those matches.
      Feels unfair that a class like warlock can run two of them, and still play highlander cards, while ruining majority of other classes game plan each match.

      • Yggdreigon
        April 17, 2020 at 1:07 AM

        It’s WAY too cost efficient. Not only does it come down too early it also has premier stats. 3 Mana 4/3 is way too good and it shows because any deck can just squeeze it in. It’s crazy kit how offensive can control warlock get if they get two albatrosses down and you don’t have an answer and then, when you do, surprise your draws have a chance to be so so much worse

        • Electronick
          April 17, 2020 at 1:39 AM

          This basically.

          It’s not really a problematic card but it’s ridiculously efficient for its mana cost. It ruins pure paladin and no minion mage which is a shame as neither of those are exactly tier one decks.

  7. Nickus89
    April 16, 2020 at 11:25 PM

    I am missing Priestess of fury on this list. Sure, she is not seeing that much play at the moment, but that is only due to popularity of warlock and Sac pac. With nerfs to Sac pac, she will return with vengeance.
    I strongly believe midrange DH is better than the current aggresive tempo DH.

    • Urungulu
      April 17, 2020 at 2:11 AM

      As for DH, it depends on the matchup. When playing Galakrond Warlock, Mid DH seems stronger, but the decks that actually kill me most of the time, are those OTK DH’s.
      Worse thing, I’ve ran into lists that are almost pure Aggro DH, but they cut 3 cards to put 2x Inner Demon and Kael’Thas in them. You play a casual GalaLock vs Aggro DH, and suddenly you get OTK’d out of nowhere, since you didn’t expect that. Imho that’s the shit you need to prepare against and I find that deck stronger than either Mid or pure Aggro DH.

      • Nickus89
        April 17, 2020 at 9:59 AM

        I tend to agree with you. Inner demon is more suitable as a finisher against control decks in faster decks (either aggro or midrange) instead of being a build around card as only win condition in combo deck.

    • Fistouille
      April 17, 2020 at 6:38 AM

      Priestess ? why ?

      • Nickus89
        April 17, 2020 at 9:54 AM

        She is absurdly strong for what she does and only reason she doesn’t see as much play is due to Sac pac. Even Iksar mentioned her in the recent interview, where he gave insight of the dev team on the cards mentioned as nerf candidates. In fact, he mentioned that Priestess could potentially see mana increase sometime in the future.

        • Fistouille
          April 17, 2020 at 9:56 AM

          Tempo demon hunter and OTK don’t play priestess.
          Next..

          • Nickus89
            April 17, 2020 at 10:02 AM

            Did you ask yourself why? You can’t be so narrow-minded. I told you why they don’t play her. That doesn’t change the fact that she is broken. Prepare to see a lot more of her once Sac pac gets nerfed.
            Also, if you want to in that direction, there are 2 versions of tempo demon hunter, one with and one without her, check HSreplay.

  8. Sonriks6
    April 16, 2020 at 11:21 PM

    Time to craft Jaraxxus!

  9. ShadowStar
    April 16, 2020 at 11:11 PM

    Yesss nerf demon Hunter MORE. It’s not powerfull like Warlock and you nerf Demon Hunter Good job Hearthstone!!!

  10. DemianHS
    April 16, 2020 at 8:28 PM

    Jaraxxus come back ib 2020!? :O

    • Shurchil
      April 17, 2020 at 1:18 AM

      I dont get this. Why?

      • Urungulu
        April 17, 2020 at 2:08 AM

        For obscure reasons, after Jaraxxus replaces your hero, you count as a demon. This means Sacrificial Pact kills you for 0 mana. I am serious, this is no joke – that’s why nobody is playing Jara, even though it’s a cool card.

  11. Beerdserkr
    April 16, 2020 at 7:08 PM

    So its official? Hearthstones first new class EVER! is officially dead… Welcome to another season of Rogue/Hunterstone…… Ugh…

    • Zombie69
      April 16, 2020 at 10:02 PM

      There’s no way Demon Hunter is dead. First, it’s so powerful now that it can handle a few nerfs (and calling it dead when you don’t even know what the exact nerfs are is beyond silly). Even if it drops to tier 3, that’s hardly a dead class. And if it drops too low, you can be sure that Blizzard will revert some of the nerfs because they want people to play the new class.

      • Beerdserkr
        April 17, 2020 at 9:32 AM

        Teir 3 is a dead class for the average player which I am sure is at least 80% of the player base, I could never climb ladder with a teir 3 deck.

        • Nickus89
          April 17, 2020 at 9:49 AM

          A few days ago I took my own midrange DH to ladder. The only card from the nerf candidates list that I used was Altruis and even he was not crucial. I ended up getting to legend with a score 11/2, which was my easiest final push ever. DH will still be swinging with vengeance, don’t worry about it.

        • Zombie69
          May 11, 2020 at 8:32 AM

          Feeling dumb about your comment yet? Is Demon Hunter dead?

    • Shurchil
      April 17, 2020 at 1:17 AM

      Are we playing a different game? DH is auto win at the moment and adjustments are NEEDED to keep this whole game alive.

  12. Epinephrine
    April 16, 2020 at 6:21 PM

    Nerfing Sacrificial Pact?? It’s never been a strong card. It’s only because it is a thorn in the side of Demon Hunters >_<

    • Schatzgoblin
      April 17, 2020 at 12:44 AM

      It’s more because of zephyr than because of DH.
      Lots of people had complained that jaraxus is basicly dead as card because with zephyr every class has sacrificial pact. I mean sure DH will have played his part but the main reason is that a classic legend is unplayable thanks to it.

  13. WarKing
    April 16, 2020 at 6:01 PM

    Dang I liked Altruis they way he was, oh well. everything else looks good. I’m interested to see what the buff will be also.

  14. Daltobalto
    April 16, 2020 at 5:16 PM

    Dang, I really thought twin slice should of got nerfed over Altruis. I didn’t really think there was nothing wrong with it.

  15. Rickert von F
    April 16, 2020 at 4:38 PM

    “Nerf to Millhouse Manastorm”

    Well, there’s a phrase I never thought I’d read.

  16. Fistouille
    April 16, 2020 at 4:21 PM

    In two weeks the demon hunter will be trash tiers…

    • Beerdserkr
      April 16, 2020 at 7:10 PM

      Exactly, which is absolute BS. It should be a top tier deck, it’s Hearthstones first new class since its inception!

      • LigmaGoat
        April 17, 2020 at 12:28 AM

        omg i had to create an account just to say stfu please. dh is one of the less fun thing in hs. way to powerful, way to seen on ladder. the thing that they nerf this class is so gooood for the games health. stop spamming under every comment “they just killed the class”. first, you don’t know the nerfs. secondly, you’re probably not a player who can analyze and tell which class is strong and which class is thrash. and finally, it’s not because you play dh that it’s balanced and fun for everyone. so play another deck, and stop spamming. i think you’re pissing of everybody.

        • Skaro
          April 17, 2020 at 1:00 AM

          I agree with this. Playing at the top platinum ranks, 50% is aggro dh and even with a perfect mulligan with mage they still win 50% of the time, even playing cards solely to improve chances against dh!

          • Electronick
            April 17, 2020 at 1:42 AM

            Demon hunter won’t die but it’ll HOPEFULLY be more skill intensive instead of any brainless idiot hitting above 50% win rates by going face and barely trading.

        • Beerdserkr
          April 17, 2020 at 9:40 AM

          I don’t want to play another F’ING DECK! I want to have fun playing the new class, I have been playing hearthstone for over 5 years and don’t want the same boring SHIZ! seriously the class is new and should be near the top, we shouldn’t have to play in ANOTHER rogue/Hunter meta, it’s rediculous!

          • LigmaGoat
            April 17, 2020 at 1:31 PM

            now there’s 10 class, so why use one lmao. anyway be use to the idea that dh won’t be as strong as it use to be, thank’s to blibli. don’t cry over another dying aggro, try some more skilled deck,instead of try harding with the same brainless class/deck. i really hope blibli will kill this class till the next expansion, just to see some real skilled dh deck, such as control dh wich would be a great deck to see

      • Fistouille
        April 17, 2020 at 4:52 AM

        Warlock crushed demon hunter …