Hearthstone received an all-new update today that brings a plethora of changes to the game ranging from card balances to bug fixes and more.
This update mainly focuses on balancing the cards after Murder at Castle Nathria. The developers have added that decks like Imp Warlock and Control Shaman are quite powerful and balanced, but the weaker classes are something that affects the meta. Consequently, the update brings a number of improvements to these weaker classes, such as Bibliomite, Magnifying Glaive, and Battleworn Vanguard.
Hearthstone Update 24.0.3 Patch Notes (Today, August 16)
Map updates:
The following cards have been downgraded in their power:
Celestial alignment
- Old: Set each player to 0 mana crystals. Set the cost of all cards in hands and decks to (1). → New: Set your Mana Crystals to 0. Set the cost of all cards in your hand and deck to (1).
Dev Comment: We hear you. Alignment has been a frustrating card to play against for a while and has remained so after the release of Murder at Castle Nathria, even if it isn’t an outlier on the balance. This change aims to eliminate as much of that frustration as possible, while preserving the primary effect for players enjoying the big turns it can allow.
Stag Spirit Wildseed
- Old: dormant for 3 turns. When this awakens, equip a 4/2 Greatbow. → New: dormant for 3 turns. When this awakens, equip a 3/2 Greatbow.
Developer Comments: The Wildseed Pack was a nice addition to Hunter, but Stag Spirit Wildseed did more facial damage than we intended. We hope that Wildseeds will continue to be an important part of Hunter decks in the future, but will be slightly less ubiquitous across all Hunter archetypes.
Snowfall Guard
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health. Battlecry: Freeze all other minions. Earn +1/+1 for each Frozen minion. → New: 5 attacks, 5 health. Battlecry: Freeze all other minions.
Developer comments: Control Shaman is one of the most dominant decks since the expansion’s launch. Much of their strength comes from their ability to repeatedly freeze enemy boards while straining their life totals, thanks to Snowfall Guardian. We hope that taking the pressure off this map will make it less difficult for players to navigate.
Despicable Library
- Old: Give a friendly minion +1/+1. Repeat for each Imp you control. → New: Give a minion +1/+1 for each Imp you control.
Developer comments: We’re happy to see that Imp Warlock is one of the best performing decks in this expansion, but a little too much of its power comes from the burst damage this single card allows. We’re touching Vile Library lightly because we don’t want it to go away, we just want to bring the deck more in line with the other decks in the meta.
Kobold Illusionist
- Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]
Developer comments: Big Rogue has evolved into a powerhouse that too consistently summons powerful followers too early in the game for players to interact with it meaningfully. We’re adding mana costs to Kobold Illusionist to slow down the game and break some of its consistency.
The above editable cards, as well as Spirit Poacher, Stag Charge, Wild Spirits and Ara’lon are eligible for a full refund of the dust for two weeks after patch 24.0.3.
The following cards have been upgraded in their power:
Reliquary
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]
Relic of Extinction
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
Developer comments: Relics are a fun and tasteful new archetype from Murder at Castle Nathria, but they haven’t had a chance to shine yet. We hope a few improvements will make these cards easier to squeeze into turns and make the whole package feel better to try in different decks.
Bibliomite
- Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: 5 attacks, 4 health
Magnifying glass
- Old: 2 attack, 2 durability → New: 3 attacks, 2 durability
Developer comments: We were a little too safe with the numbers for the new Aggro Demon Hunter maps. We hope these buffs will make the small-handed deck a little more appealing!
Abyssal Depths
- Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 3]
Battleworn Vanguard
- Old: 2 attack, 1 health → New: 2 attacks, 2 health
Irebound Brute
- Old: [Costs 8] → New: [Costs 7]
Developer comments: Demon Hunter has had a rough time with this expansion. We felt that changes to new maps alone might not be enough to bring the power level of this class in line with the rest of this meta. So we polish some older cards to bridge the gap. We hope that Abyssal Depths can now act as a powerful tool for a variety of Demon Hunter decks, both new and old. The return to Battleworn Vanguard and Irebound Brute should make them more attractive options for the class. Breed me to death!
Legendary Invitation (generated by The Countess)
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]
Developer Comments: As a big reward for the Pure Paladin archetype, the Countess wasn’t, well, rewarding enough. This change should make her feel better at card games that are willing to pay the cost of cutting all the neutral cards.
Rise up against the darkness
- Old: [Costs 5] → New: [Costs 4]
Warhorse trainer
- Old: Your Silver Hand Recruits have an attack of +1. → New: Your Silver Hand recruits have +2 Attack and Taunt.
Promotion
- Old: Give a Silver Hand Recruit +3/+3. → New: Give a Silver Hand Recruit +3/+3 and Taunt.
Developer Comments: The new Archetype Silver Hand came out much shorter than we’d hoped. Maps like Stand Against Darkness and Warhorse Trainer just weren’t at the power level of the modern Hearthstone, so we’re polishing them up to see what they can do in this new era. To top it off, Promotion now comes with a boost!
Edwin, Defias Kingpin
- Old: [Costs 4] 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 3 Health
Sprint
- Old: [Costs 6] → New: [Costs 5]
silver leaf poison
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
Halkias
- Oud: Deathrattle: When controlling a secret, store Halkias’ soul in it. It summons Halkias again when activated. → New: stealth. Deathrattle: Keep the soul of Halkias in a friendly secret. It summons Halkias again when activated.
Developer comments: Drawing cards has traditionally been one of Rogue’s strengths, but it doesn’t feel like a strength in the current meta. The buffs for Edwin, Sprint, and Silverleaf Poison were all created with the intent of enhancing card-drawing as a class strength. Miracle Rogue hasn’t surpassed it in power, but we’re aware it can win in frustrating ways, so we’ll be watching how it develops after these buffs. We also wanted to show a little love for the new secret package. We’ll start with an improvement on Halkias that makes him feel better to play, but we can revisit this pack later if it needs additional support.
Sanguine depths
- Old: Deal 1 damage to a Minion and give it +1 attack. → New: Deal 1 damage to a Minion and give it +2 Attack.
drenched ax
- Old: After your hero attacks, give your damaged followers +1/+1. Infuse (3): +2/+2 instead. → New: After your hero attacks, give your damaged followers +1/+2. Infuse (2): +2/+2 instead.
Cruel Taskmaster
- Old: 2 attack, 2 health → New: 2 attacks, 3 health
Developer comments: Warrior is struggling with this expansion along with Demon Hunter. A big part of that is that their new Enrage Warrior archetype hasn’t been nearly as powerful as we’d hoped. These three improvements are aimed at improving the Enrage Warrior archetype, which we hope will become a player in the metagame.
Tidal Revenant
- Old: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Get 5 armor. → New: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Get 8 armor.
Shatter Shield:
- Old: Deal 4 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each armor you have. → New: Deal 5 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each armor you have.
Slamming:
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
bash:
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 2]
Developer comments: We may have been a little too zealous when we spoke to Control Warrior in the latest balance patch. We correct that here. We’re also giving them some new tools in Slam and Bash, which can even make their way into unverifiable Warrior lists.
Battlegrounds Updates
- Lich Baz’hial has been moved to Armor Tier 1
- Dancin’ Deryl, Deathwing, Elise Starseeker, Guff Runetotem, and Sneed have been moved to Armor Tier 2
Hero Changes
Lich Baz’hial
- Old: Take 2 damage and add a gold coin to your hand. → New: Take 4 damage. Earn 2 gold only this turn.
Guff Runetotem
- Old: Give a friendly minion from each Tavern Tier +3/+2. → New: Give a friendly minion from each Tavern Tier +2/+2.
death wing
- Old: Passive: Give ALL minions +2 Attack. → New: Passive: Give ALL minions +3 Attack.
Kael’thas Sunstrider
- Old: Every third Minion you buy gets +2/+2. → New: Every third minion you play gets +2/+2.
Elise Starseeker
- Old: When you upgrade Bob’s Tavern, you get a ‘Recruitment Map’. → New: [Costs 1] Discover a Minion from your Tavern Tier. Costs (1) more after each use.
cut
- Old: Give a Minion: “Deathrattle: Summon any Minion from a lower Tavern Tier.” → New: Give a Minion: “Deathrattle: Summon any Minion from a lower Tavern Tier.”
- Developer Comments: This is just a clarifying text change, not a functional change.
Minion changes
- Lieutenant Garr and Grease Bot have been returned to the minion pool.
Fat Bot
- Old: divine shield. After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, give it +3/+2 permanently. → New: After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, give him +2/+2 permanently.
Lil’ Raga
- Old: [Tavern Tier 6] → New: [Tavern Tier 5]
Gentle Djinni
- Old: ridiculous. Deathrattle: Summon another Elemental at random and add a copy of it to your hand. → New: Cake. Deathrattle: Add another Elemental to your hand and summon a copy of it.
- Developer comments: This means that you now get the copy of the Elemental in your hand, even if you can’t summon it.
Evolving Chromawing
- Old: 1 attack, 1 health. After you upgrade your Tavern Tier, you get +1/+1 for each friendly dragon. → New: 1 attack, 4 health. After you upgrade your Tavern Tier, you get +1 Attack for each friendly dragon.
Great deal (Darkmoon price)
- Old: Decrease the cost of upgrading Bob’s Tavern by (6). → New: Reduce the cost of upgrading Bob’s Tavern by (5).
Duels updates
- Brittle bones are now only activated when a enemy minion is destroyed with a spell.
- Killmox, the Banished One is now counted as an Imp.
- Darius Crowley’s “Fire!” hero power reduced from 2 mana to 1 mana.
- Darius Crowley’s “Fire on You!” hero power reduced from 3 mana to 2 mana.
- Darius Crowley’s “Grizzled Reinforcement” signature treasure reduced from 6 mana to 5 mana.
Bug fixes
- Corrected text on two of Brightwing’s Mercenary Abilities.
- Removed Duels achievements based on heroes not in the game.
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