Clues about the upcoming Hearthstone nerfs and buffs coming next with the post-expansion patch. What leaked info was confirmed?
Hearthstone hotfixes haven’t been working as intended these last few days. First, a server-side patch on Thursday ended up giving away for free “New and returning players’ Decks” to a bunch of Hearthstone players. Yesterday, an unexpected hotfix started to roll out, leaking Hearthstone nerfs and buffs planned for next week. Let’s go over the details of what happened!
UPDATE 8/16: Patch Notes on Buffs and Nerfs are live.
Hearthstone nerfs teased
Despite the Murder at Castle Nathria expansion hasn’t been out for over two weeks, the Hearthstone player base was already asking for nerfs. While it is expected that some new cards will be a bit more powerful than what devs would desire, the first nerf Dean Iksar Ayala, Hearthstone Game Director, teased was Celestial Alignment.
As soon as Iksar posted this, the Hearthstone community started to speculate about what would the nerf be to Celestial Alignment. Furthermore, Hearthstone content creators also adventured to forecast different nerfs and buffs that could solve current problems. While everyone thought that we would have a weekend to theorize, Yogg has some other plans.
On Friday, some players started spotting some surprise card changes in-game. Soon, Twitter and Reddit were flooded with screenshots of altered cards. Were these Hearthstones incoming nerfs and buffs? At first, not even the Hearthstone team was confident of what was happening.
Leaked Hearthstone Nerfs and Buffs confirmed
Some hours later, Aleco Grecco, part of Hearthstone’s final design team, confirmed most of the leaked nerfs. Without going into specifics, his tweet brought some light to the mystery of the surprise changes.
These are the cards expected to change with next week’s Hearthstone round of nerfs and buffs:
- Snowfall Guardian: From 3/3 stats to 5/5 stats. However, it will no longer gain stats when freezing minions
- Vile Library: Will now read “Give a friendly minion +1/+1 for each Imp”, giving +1/+1 less than before
- Edwin, Defias Kingpin: From 4 Mana 4/4 to 3 Mana 3/3. (It is not 100% confirmed the +2/+2 effect stays the same)
- Stag Spirit Wildseed: The weapon will now have 3 attack and 2 charges, down from 4 attack and 2 charges.
- Celestial Alignment: The card will no longer affect the opponent cards or Mana crystals.
- Halkias: Will have Stealth.
- Relic Vault: Will see a cost reduction from 3 Mana to 2 Mana
- Relic of Extinction: Will probably see a cost reduction from 2 Mana to 1 Mana
- Magnifying Glaive: Will have one extra attack from 2/2 to 3/2
- Bibliomite: Will have one extra attack, from 4/4 to 5/4
- Kobold Illusionist (Wild): Will now cost 5 Mana, breaking the synergy with Sketchy Information
These are major nerfs and buffs and will have an incredible impact on the current Hearthstone metagame. Top performers will see some of their key tools toned down, like Snowfall Guardian or Vile Library. Wild will be safe from Big Rogue’s tyranny, at least until someone finds a way to break the game again. Celestial Alignment Druid will no longer be a nightmare, and Lamby Rogue might see it’s time to shine.
What about Paladin and Warrior
It might seem strange not to see any buffs for Paladin and Warrior, two of the worst performing classes in Hearthstone’s meta right now. Not a single player from the almost 350 Castle Nathria Masters tour brought Warrior in their lineup. How come we don’t see any buffs for them?
The answer is simple. These changes were leaks that we got to know thanks to players who run into them during games. It’s natural not to have info on Paladins and Warriors since no one in their sane mind will play those classes.
Battlegrounds update - the return of Grease Bot
Alongside the leaked Hearthstone nerfs and buffs, Battlegrounds players also noticed some changes that we assume will be part of the next patch. The most important change coming is the return of Grease Bot, the mech that shaped the meta for over a month and that Blizzard removed from the minion pool some weeks ago. The Tier 6 mech will no longer have Divine Shield, so it will not buff itself.
Other noticeable changes that could come with the next Battlegrounds update were another rework to Evolving Chromawing and some Elemental buffs. The Tier 1 Dragon that terrorized many players will now be a 1/4 with an attack increase effect when leveling. This should put in check Ysera and other heroes that abused Chromawing.
Last but not least, Lil Rag will now be a Tavern 5 minion and Lieutenant Garr will make a comeback.
There is still a lot more info coming about Hearthstone nerfs and buffs, so stay tuned to Esports.gg for more patch details. See you next time, in the Tavern.