Senior Game Designer Ben Brode discusses the recent Warsong Commander nerf announcement.
Warsong Commander will now read: Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.
TLDW
- Feels really bad to lose to (Grim Patron) in large part because your opponent punishes you for playing minions.
- Warsong Commander had been nerfed before, which used to read: Your minions have charge.
- “We really messed up when we nerfed that card (Warsong Commander).”
- Some of the least fun things in Hearthstone are Charge minions and Direct Damage to the Hero.
- The card that was the biggest problem today and going forward was Warsong Commander.
- Dreadsteed was a Neutral card which was going to be added to Curse of Naxxramas. It was removed because it could clear boards with Warsong Commander.
- There were restrictions or constraints when nerfing Warsong Commander:
- It’s a basic card, so it needed to be simple.
- It’s a Warrior “build around”, which is a term for a card that inspires players to build a deck around it.
- Needed to keep the identity of the card.
- It’s hard to communicate a nerf to all players, there was a lot of turn one concedes when players played Undertaker after it was nerfed.
- They tried a lot of different variations:
- (3 mana 2/3 – Charge) It wasn’t a build around, and didn’t compare well with Kor'kron Elite.
- Battlecry: give damaged minions some kind of buff or Taunt minions a buff.
- They wanted to it to feel like it had some link to the Charge mechanic.
- They tried 30 to 40 different card designs.
- “The game play was so un-fun we had to do something.”
- “This card isn’t good now.”
- Warrior is one of the worst classes in Arena.
- We’ll have to do things in future sets to help Warriors in Arena.
You could also do what Trump said, do several nerfs to the deck. Make the charge effect for the Warsong be on adjacent minions AND make frothing a 2/3
“your opponent punishes you for playing minions” thats bullkrap, go and nerf mind control tech too then
tencicly all forms of aoe damage is “punishing you for playing minions” so we might as well remove them all and suffer another 300 years of aggro decks…
Give charge to minions with 1 or less attack, i think this is honestly pretty balanced. It disables frothing and grim patron which is what people wanted. This still allows for Hobgoblin Warrior to still be a thing though, which makes it a warrior “build around” card.
Charge minions cost (1) less. At least would see some play and it’s not that big deal.
That’s a great idea I love it
At least they would make “Give charge to minions with 2 or less attack”. At least berserker would still be useful
Exactly what I would have suggested as well…Sad they killed the entire deck :/
The not ‘so fun things’ in Hearthstone is mechanics to copy or steal cards. What about this, Mr Brode? Also, the flood of rush decks is no fun. What about this, Mr Brode? Also, the EU servers instability in things connection is no fun. What about this, Mr Brode?
BRING OUT AGGRO WARRIOR!!!!