The patch announced last week just went live. It should be out on all platforms already. It included a bunch of Standard & Wild nerfs, Battlegrounds nerf to Millhouse Manastorm, as well as a few bug fixes.
If you have missed it, here’s the reminder of changes:
Balance Updates
Neutral
- Kael'thas Sunstrider – Old: Cost 6 mana → New: Cost 7 mana.
- Bad Luck Albatross – Old: Cost 3 mana → New: Cost 4 mana.
- Frenzied Felwing – Old: 3 Attack / 3 Health → New: 3 Attack / 2 Health.
Demon Hunter
- Altruis the Outcast – Old: Cost 3 mana, 3 Attack / 2 Health → New: Cost 4 mana. 4 Attack / 2 Health.
- Battlefiend – Old: 2 Attack / 2 Health → New: 1 Attack / 2 Health.
- Glaivebound Adept – Old: 7 Attack / 4 Health → New: 6 Attack / 4 Health.
Warlock
- Sacrificial Pact – Old: Destroy a Demon. Restore 5 Health to your hero. → New: Destroy a friendly Demon. Restore 5 Health to your hero.
- Bloodbloom – Old: Cost 2 mana → New: Cost 4 mana.
Paladin
- Libram of Justice – Old: Cost 6 mana → New: Cost 5 mana.
Mage
- Open the Waygate – Old: Cast 6 spells that didn’t start in your deck. Reward: Time Warp. → New: Cast 8 spells that didn’t start in your deck. Reward: Time Warp.
The following cards will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks after the 17.0.2 patch has been released:
- Golden Altruis the Outcast
- Golden Battlefiend
- Golden/Normal Bad Luck Albatross
- Golden/Normal Frenzied Felwing
- Golden/Normal Open the Waygate
- Golden/Normal Bloodbloom
Battlegrounds
Millhouse Manastorm
- Old: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Start with 3 Gold. → New: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Tavern Tiers cost (1) more. Start with 3 Gold.
Bug Fixes
- The Lurker Below is now properly tagged as a Beast.
- Fixed a tracking issue that prevented 500 wins with Demon Hunter from being achieved.
- Fixed a bug where Zephrys the Great would not offer a lethal option if your hero had a large amount of Attack.
- Zephrys the Great has been updated to accommodate the Sacrificial Pact and Glaivebound Adept changes.
The “nerf” to Sac Pact is in all actuality a BUFF to the DH so I’m not really sure what Team 5 was thinking when they came up with this solution. Unless they didn’t want to have another class be able to stand up to the “shiny new toy” they created. Missed the ball on this one. coincidentally the “nerf” to Kael is like a buff in Wild. At 7 mana you can now tutor Kael out with juicy psychmelon. Bet the dev’s didnt even think about that.
Team 5 dont care about wild and ppl should do the same. Agree with sac pact but i believe they do that with purpose. They scared about the (hilarious nerfs) and want to push more the midrange DH. So actually they want DH to be a strong class and people still play him. The sad story is, Aggro DH is still by far the best deck in the game and they dont change nothing. Instead they buff the entire DH class with sac pact nerf. If you see yesterday Kibler game vs Masaru you can see what im talking. DH aggro and general the class is miles ahead on anything.. They want this class to be tier 1 no matter what and also dont care about wild. Im surpised why people play wild mode…
I would hope i’m not the only one but I am so sad that they just took away my mecha’thun combo
I know what you feel bro
The combo with doll master looks strong. Swaguar was streaming quite a bit of it. I also think it requires a bit more thought, because you need to keep plot twist and a cheap spell, in addition to getting rid excess minions in hand and on board.
In hand need Dollmaster, M’thun, KT, cheap spell, plot twist, cataclysm. Soularium is ideal for triggering the combo. As you can draw the last 3 cards in deck and Twist. I am excited to play it as it is very close in QM matchups.
That does sound interesting, I’m definitely going to check it out. Mecha was a wild go to for a while, this was a disappointing nerf for me
Well I was thankful for the pressure that sacrificial pact put on demon hunters and kept their numbers down a bit so we will see what this does to the meta. On the bright side, I finally have a good purpose for my golden Open the Waygate!
Nerfing Sac pac is a giant mistake; what’s going to stop Mid-range Ath/Priestess decks from coming back? Tempo remains strong with the slap on the wrist nerfs; not enough.
indeed the only change it needed was to not being able to target jaraxus.
might as well be a dead card now
The nerf to sac pact was 100% necessary. A zero mana “assassinate an opponent’s demon” is beyond broken. The context needs to be kept in mind… Sac Pact was out long before any other class ran demons. Demons were solely Warlock. Sac Pact’s original use was to sacrifice some tempo to heal your hero. In this context, it fits with warlock’s themes and is pretty fair. If this card wasn’t changed, warlocks will always be able to bully Demon Hunters w/ a zero cost removal.
I am happy for this change, yes in short term it may buff DH… but it will let the ladder also organically work to counter it rather than the instant, “I need to play Lock.” Also, I can finally play Jaraxxus again. Zephrys –> Sac Pact interaction was beyond dumb.
I run bomb warrior to stop highlander. it also messes up Pure Paly pretty good too. Bombs are neutral spells.
Nerfing Sac pac is bad; what’s going to stop Mid-range Ath/Priestess decks from coming back? Tempo remains strong with the slap on the wrist nerfs; not enough.
I’m thinking about that as well. I was playing Zoolock at D1, grazed legend twice. But now it’s gonna be tricky, because Galakrond Lock kept DH’s at bay. Now, even after nerfs, DH is still strong and there’s nothing in the meta to keep it down. I’m really looking forward to those Control-ish Warrior decks, as they might hit a sweet spot – Aggro/Mid DH decks, Tempo Rogues and Zoolocks might populate D1 meta.
But damn, they nerfed DH in a patch that subsequently will make DH more popular…