Update: Patrons are now unbanned, but they no longer leave corpses for Death Knight. It’s still a temporary solution but it’s better than just banning the cards outright. A final fix should roll out next week.
(This is not the final solve for this interaction, still temporary, just better to leave it this way instead of totally banned for the moment. Hoping to get a more final fix out next week that preserves both cards’ functionality, without going infinite.)
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) December 10, 2022
It took over 4 months since the card’s release, but finally, in a surprising update – Sire Denathrius has been nerfed. The powerhouse of a card will be much harder to trigger now (it takes 2 infuses for +1 damage), which should have massive implications on the meta. On top of that, Shockspitter got nerfed from 2 to 3 mana.
The patch is data-only and it should already be live. The patch might seem really fast, but it’s because of the World Championship happening next weekend (December 16-18) – they wanted to address the problem before it, but they couldn’t push the changes too late, because it wouldn’t give players time to prepare.
Additionally, Grim Patron and Gruntled Patron have been temporarily banned from Ranked & Casual play. It’s because of their interaction with Corpse Explosion – a combo that wasn’t really overpowered, but it was annoying to face because it took a couple of minutes to resolve. The cards will get unbanned once the issue is resolved (probably either the animation is sped up or Corpse Explosion gets capped at a lower number of repeats).
Check out patch notes below:
Patch 25.0.3 is a data-only patch going live today with updates to two Standard cards.
Card Updates
Dev Comment: We set up this balance window to address any changes we wanted to make immediately after the expansion launched. Shockspitter is exactly that type of card, ending games sooner, more easily, and more consistently than we intended. Sire Denathrius is a card we have had our eyes on for some time, but we wanted to see how he performed in the new expansion first. With a couple days of data, we can see that it is still a very popular and polarizing card, warping early meta development in a way we want to address before the World Championship (December 16-18).
This balance update was reserved for only the most standout cards immediately after expansion unlock. We’ll continue to keep our eye on how the metagame develops and make any further adjustments needed in our next balance window, reserved for a few weeks from now.
Sire Denathrius
- Old: Lifesteal. Battlecry: Deal 5 damage amongst enemies. Endlessly Infuse (1): Deal 1 more.
- New: Lifesteal. Battlecry: Deal 5 damage amongst enemies. Endlessly Infuse (2): Deal 1 more.
Shockspitter
- Old: [Costs 2]
- New: [Costs 3]
The above craftable cards will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks following Patch 25.0.3. As a reminder, regular Sire Denathrius was a free card and can’t be crafted or disenchanted.
Other Hearthstone Updates
- Players who did not receive the uncraftable Legendary Sire Denathrius last expansion cycle will now be granted it upon opening their first Murder at Castle Nathria pack (along with Prince Renathal, which is already obtained in that way). It will be removed from the “Long Live the King” Achievement in a future patch to complete this swap over. As this is a grant of an uncraftable Legendary, there is no gameplay impact for any players who unlock him two different ways during that time period.
We’re also aware of the interaction between Grim/Gruntled Patron and Corpse Explosion. Even if it’s not overpowered, it’s a poor experience, so are considering possible changes.
In the mean time, we’ve temporarily banned Grim Patron and Gruntled Patron from play in Ranked.
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) December 9, 2022
I’m glad Denathrius is finally nerfed. What I don’t understand is that Blizz “wanted to see how he (Denathrius) performed in the new expansion first”. You could see this from a hundred miles coming. They should have nerfed the card before or with the March of the Lich King release. Not after a couple of days after the biggest release in history.
Denathrius nerf? Great. Shockpitter? Sure. But where are the druid card? Druid don’t care of Denathrius nerf so much (like blood DK) they can win with any broken card.
And why you don’t simply rotate the f_ucking Brann 4 months early?
Oh I forgot yesterday it deleted some of my random decks in the middle to make room for the “Arthas” decks. The really weird thing is just now I have 3 more death knight decks out of nowhere on the bottom of my list that aren’t the deck recipes or the starting Arthas decks. One is triple-unholy, one is 2x blood 1x frost, and one is 2x frost 1x blood.
Seriously wtf Blizzard
You’ll get 3 decks above when complete DK prologue (If you have enough deck slot).
Also there is still class xp and leveling that does absolutely nothing in the game anymore. There are hundreds if not thousands of people who work solely on this game every day right? It’s time to go back to the office ffs
You have no idea what you’re talking about if you think there are “hundreds, if not thousands” of people working solely on Hearthstone. As someone who’s been working in game dev at half a dozen different companies, I’d estimate there are likely no more than about 40 to 60 working on a game like this. And if you think they’re not already working as hard as they can and aren’t passionate about making the game the best it can be, again, you don’t know anything about game development.
You’re nitpicking my comment even though the level of casual neglect they show the game is unacceptable and my point wasn’t in question. And I’d be willing to wager that there are at least a hundred or so dedicated employees to this cash cow game. Actually you sound ignorant.
Maybe you dhould try holding your breath. It’s a tried and true technique for whiny spoiled children.
How is that nitpicking? You just said that they had thousands of people on team 5 when the correct number is roughly less than a 100.
If you’re jealous of people who work from home and can’t get employed by an employer who includes it in their policy I believe the phrase the youngsters use is, git gud
Anyone else’s prologue just completely bafflingly broken at the end? And the map’s graphical layout made 0 sense. The chest also showed being open after 3/4 encounters.
And my legendary event questline vanished.
Now after checking after the patch, the fights appear to be in the correct position. Before they were rotated counter clockwise and it started me in position 2. But I never saw the end of the prologue.
Here’s a random tip when it offers you to reroll the normal versions of a gold you get on the reward track double check it’s not OP so won’t get dusted for full price if it’s not then reroll as it might turn into a nerf target plus it has a chance of rolling a golden extra dust!