Hearthstone removed Grease Bot from Battlegrounds. The Meta-defining Mech was too powerful, devs were forced to removed him until next patch.
Grease Bot, the most powerful minion in Hearthstone Battlegrounds, was removed in a sudden hotfix. The Tavern-6 Mech was the most powerful strategy in the game, and it boosted the composition's success to unbalanced levels.
The Grease Bot problem in Hearthstone Battlegrounds
Many Hearthstone Battlegrounds pro-players and streamers were asking Grease Bot to be nerfed. Today their wishes were granted, sort of. Blizzard temporarily removed Grease Bot from Hearthstone Battlegrounds today. With no opportunity for a balance patch, this was the lesser of two evils.
This is not the first time Hearthstone removes a minion from the pool due to its power level. What makes it a bit special is the fact that the Hearthstone Battlegrounds team recently re-balanced Grease Bot. Only a month ago, Hearthstone patch 23.6 upgraded Grease Bot from Tavern 4 to a Tavern 6 Battlegrounds minion, improving its effect too.
The problem with the new Grease Bot was that it was an incredibly efficient way of scaling. The minion boosted Mechs' winrate, but it was also good with divine shields from other minion types. As if this was not enough, Grease Bot was just good enough by itself as a minion. It was the perfect storm.
Overperforming the Meta
The incredible power level of Grease Bot and the Divine Shield's refreshing capabilities from Holy Macherel created Hearthstone Battlegrounds' most busted synergy. HS Replay stats show that Mechs were definitely overperforming. If we analyze Hearthstone Battlegrounds minion stats, it is clear that Grease Bot was the best minion in the game, by a mile.
The play impact shows the impact on final placement between players that played a Grease Bot and players who didn’t. The stats show that Grease Bot was approximately 40% better than its next competitor, Tidemistress Athissa. It is not a coincidence that Holy Mecharel is up there too. This gives you a hint why the Mech composition was the most popular build.
Since this is a server-side hotfix, Hearthstone players don't need to download any patches. The main problem with removing minions this way is that there are no in-game messages that alert players. Furthermore, it is likely that we won't get patch notes beside the ones in the forums, so if you are not there or follow the right people on Twitter, you might just power level looking for a ghost.
Hearthstone devs mentioned that we shouldn’t expect balance changes before mid-August. Perhaps we will have to wait a couple of weeks to see if Grease Bot makes a return into Hearthstone Battlegrounds or if it ends up being a new Stormscale Siren.
That is all for now, but stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time in Bob’s tavern.