Rise of the Mechs Buffs + Recent Nerfs FAQ

It’s been a long time since we had any kind of buff patch, so it’s only natural that community has some questions. CM Dylan Bates tried to answer the most common ones. You can read the entire FAQ below, but here’s a summary:

• No Dust refund for buffed cards (duh).
• More Arms (the spell you get after casting Extra Arms) also costs 2 mana.
• More buffs MIGHT come in future (but they aren’t sure yet, it depends on how this round goes).
• Preparation was on their radar for a long time, it was a card they had to design everything for Rogue around. They nerfed it now, because Rogue was in a strong spot and they knew that the class can withstand it.
• No Warrior nerf, because the class already has bad matchups vs some Hunter and Mage decks (which became popular after Rogue nerf). If necessary, they will step in.

Hey, everyone!

Since we announced the Rise of the Mech update (and all of the card buffs coming along with it) we’ve seen several questions repeatedly pop up in community discussions. We’ve gathered some answers from the Hearthstone development team here to hopefully clear up some confusion and provide more clarity on the execution and philosophy behind these changes.

• Will there be dust refunds for buffed cards?
  • Philosophically, cards that we feel we’ve improved won’t be eligible for refunds.
• Is Extra Arms cost reduced for the additional copy as well?
  • More Arms will also cost 2 mana.
• Will any other sets be buffed in the future?
  • We will be watching closely how this round of buffs goes. We like the idea of doing this kind of thing in the future, but can’t commit to anything solid quite yet.
• It currently feels like most if not all Rogue decks are built around Preparation due to how Rogue spells have synergy with it. What was the thought process behind not nerfing Prep earlier? Doing so now feels like Rogue is effectively gutted.
  • Prep fits exactly what we think the Rogue kit should be about, just at a power level that makes it feel like it should be included in all possible Rogue archetypes. It’s one of the cards we find ourselves designing around the most because it makes it difficult to make reasonably powerful Rogue spells in the circumstance where they aren’t being used with Prep.
  • When we have a change in mind to a Basic or Classic card we would rather make that change at a time a whole new suite of cards are coming into the game or when the class we’re changing can withstand a power level decrease and still have powerful archetypes.
• Why no Warrior nerfs?
  • Warrior has enough matchups with classes like Hunter and Mage that we thought would allow the meta to shift on its own if something like Control Warrior became the new most popular archetype. Of course, we will monitor player perception and data on a daily basis and will continue to evaluate if any more changes become necessary.
• How did you select the cards from each class to be buffed?
  • We chose cards based on how fun or interesting we feel they are to play in relation to how much they are currently being utilized. In this case, the cards that were selected are part of the Rise of the Mechs event, which is specific to The Boomsday Project set. There were many cards that were played less than the cards we chose, but these are the ones that we believed led to the most fun experiences without making decks that are already very powerful even better.
• How long have you been thinking about / working on these buffs?
  • We’ve been thinking about them for a while! Generally, the goal with past events and this event are the same. We want to try different ways to make the game feel fresh beyond the first month or two of a new expansion release. Buffing cards is one way to do that. Feedback has been very positive so far so we’re looking forward to seeing how the changes shake out when the patch is live.

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