Nagas get a new nerf in Battlegrounds with Warden of Old replacing the nerfed but still problematic Stormscale Siren
Only days after the last Hearthstone Battlegrounds balance patch, Devs decided Nagas were still out of line. Storscale Siren seemed to still cause troubles even after nerfs and got replaced by Warden of OId.
Huge Nerf to Nagas: Warden of Old replaces Stormscale Siren
In a server-side Hotfix, Hearthstone Battlegrounds received a massive balance change. Stormscale Siren suffered a nerf with the 23.2.2 Hearthstone patch, changing the minion from a Tavern 3 unit to a Tavern 5 minion hoping to nerf Nagas in Battlegrounds.
Warden of Old will replace Stormscale Siren in Hearthstone Battlegrounds. This way, Warden of Old returns to Hearthstone Battlegrounds (with the Naga minion type attached), effectively nerfing Nagas.
Despite this incredible nerf to Stormscale Siren, Nagas still had the best late-game scaling, and that is why the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Devs stepped in. Devs included some insight in the forum post in which they announced that Warden of Old was replacing Stormscale Siren.
"The combination of Stormscale Siren and Tidemistress Athissa resulted in Naga warbands that scaled too large, too quickly. We’ll be playtesting changes to Stormscale Siren internally, in hopes that we can find a version that we’d be happy returning to the minion pool in a future patch."
Now, Athissa will need a new partner in crime. Maybe Nagas will become a support tribe finally, as ixxdeee predicted. Perhaps combined with Gems in Menagerie builds, Athissa and Nagas could still find a place among the best late-game comps.
How to solve the Stormscale Siren problem in Battlegrounds?
From what we see, nerfing Stormscale Siren to tavern 5 didn’t solve the Naga scaling problem it only delayed it. Devs had to patch this changing Siren for Warden of Old. But how can this problem ever be solved without just killing the card?
A possible solution for this is changing Stormscale Siren’s effect. The card would be much less problematic if it were a “Start of Combat” effect instead of an “End of Turn” effect. This is because, in Hearthstone Battlegrounds, any buffs given in combat are only temporary.
Finally, remember that the Naga-guaranteed-lobby period is over. This means that you can play Hearthstone Battlegrounds lobbies that don’t have Nagas on them. So, in half the games, you will not even need to bother about this change.
Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone Battlegrounds news and updates. See you next time in Bob’s Tavern.