Patch 21.3 Is Now Live! Big Balance Update For Constructed, Battlegrounds, Duels and Arena + Bug Fixes

Patch 21.3 is now live on PC. Just like always, it might take some more time for it to release on mobile devices. In case you missed yesterday’s news, here’s a quick summary of what the patch contains:

  • Constructed Balance Update – 14 card changes in total: 7 Buffs, 5 Nerfs, 1 Ban & 1 Rework.
  • Battlegrounds Balance Update – Nerfs to best-performing Heroes and strategies (Beasts, Demons, Dragons), buff to underperforming ones (Pirates, Quilboars).
  • Duels Changes – Some of the strongest treasures got moved to more rare pools, including two Battlecry-related passives.
  • Arena Changes – Another round of microadjustments + a ban to Ramming Mount.
  • Bug fixes and QoL changes – Including stability improvements and fix to a bug that caused chat settings to reset every time.

You can read more about Constructed changes here, and the rest of the patch here.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

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19 Comments

  1. JimPanzn
    September 23, 2021 at 7:44 am

    Not really enjoying the meta after the nerfs… while the buffs brought back warrior and killed WL (what is nice), the questline mage is still a big problem imo. There is just way too much crad draw draw, not to talk about the infinite damage from ignite (what is never a good thing). Draw 4 cards for one or even cero mana sometimes they draw 10 or even more for nearly no mana (they old Sprint Card from Rogue is 07! Mana draw 4 cards) … even quest mage might not be the best deck in the format, facing it is so boring, it punishes you when you want to play board based HS and when you play the mirror match it is the most rediculous thing just shooting fireballs and ignites at each other… so devs please bann Cram Session it is so stuipd and kill ignite in its present form!!!

  2. Pandamonium
    September 22, 2021 at 12:59 pm

    I expect every class-specific 1 mana minion with a beneficial effect to be at least a 2/2 from now on…jack@$$es

  3. H0lysatan
    September 21, 2021 at 10:13 pm

    Thank you kindly Blizzard for killing a deck yet again. Facing not even one quest Warlock in Diamond R5 and up.

    Like I said, you devs went to the laziest solution possible, where it could have been fixed with just a bit of effort reworking fatigue damage. The 6-7-8 damage is fine to me (In Standard, Wild is another case), but with the new 8-8-8 damage, planning to take 24 damage into account plus a bit of overpaid health doesn’t seem really working anymore.

    The buff to Warrior seems unnecessary too if you were to fix the fatigue problem and allowing other deck to avoid infinite damage and survive. I bet Warrior can see play if not for the those problem.

    Well, what’s done is done, I can’t change anything anyway. I’m just gonna wait the next fiasco that brings the people together again in speaking out that you guys really take a bad approach in solving problem.

    • TardisGreen
      September 22, 2021 at 7:21 am

      Another Diamond 5 armchair game designer. Just what the world needed.

      • Pandamonium
        September 22, 2021 at 12:32 pm

        Add something to the conversation then. Holy is 100% right. Destroying Illucia out of pure babyish laziness – and their stated reason is complete fraud. They said it was because it was problematic in shadow priest! They thought Illucia on turn 3 for aggro priest was OP somehow, playing a 1/3 and skipping both turns…….it’s like they’ve never played their own game. They destroy control priest’s ONE card that could make it playable like the jack @$$es that they are and blame it on some bogus aggro priest excuse.

        • Pandamonium
          September 22, 2021 at 12:36 pm

          And not only that, they are too obliviously stupid to remember that they nerfed Illucia from 2 to 3 mana, and couldn’t even do anything half-right and make the crippled Illucia properly cost 2 again. With how idiotically they have nerfed this card it could cost 0 and still be unusable. This HS team is turning into contemptable trash.

        • H0lysatan
          September 22, 2021 at 7:18 pm

          No need to be aggresive, everyone has their own opinion. Just not very ‘stylish’ in terms of pro-active conversation.

          • Pandamonium
            September 23, 2021 at 4:52 am

            More than just an opinion; clearly they forgot that Illucia used to cost 2 and made a glaring mistake due to ignorance of their own game. Clearly they need to write down when they make changes to cards because the memory system they seem to default to DOESN’T WORK. With such little general knowledge of their own game they are still too dopish to cover themselves and record simple everyday things that any professional would. There are truly probably thousands of players who know the game better than anyone on the actual team. Look at every game Blizzard farts out now. It’s a cash grab then they act helpless, make excuses, and disappear.

            • TardisGreen
              September 23, 2021 at 2:26 pm

              The Illucia nerf was spot on. The card needs to be destroyed.

              • Pandamonium
                September 23, 2021 at 4:32 pm

                No way, stop being a baby. You provide 0 reasoning other than you don’t use it and don’t want anyone else to use something that is good (and only good for control, which doesn’t exist now). At the very least they botched the “rework” so badly it’s like a tumor in their game. They have the audacity to call something a rework without bothering to remember that it’s because it was NERFED once already, and to remove the small nerf before the huge one. They should have “reworked” it to cost 1 or 0 mana. That way at least people could try to nerfed version for 2 weeks and then decide to keep it or dust it. But instead were oblivious and forgot – then next patch maybe they’ll realize their mistake and buff it. Nope, sorry – too late. At that point everyone has dusted it and can no longer test the worth of the card, and NOONE will re-spend the dust on it because it simply won’t be worth it. All because the dopes forgot to remove the double nerf on it. So they basically killed the card, AND had the audacity to nerf the mana to a dead card, just because they are uncapable of basic sense.

                • TardisGreen
                  September 24, 2021 at 3:38 am

                  You need reasoning? For real?

                  How about it was the BEST performing card in the BEST deck.

                  It was a problem when it was first printed, got nerfed, and proved to be an even bigger problem in a completely different archetype.

                  And lay off the “baby” talk. Because you are the one who is crying.

                  • Pandamonium
                    October 2, 2021 at 10:49 pm

                    By that reasoning there are 0 cards left in the game.. omg what defunct form of thinking is that – best performing card in the best deck needs to die. Think about that. Do I have to spell it out? Is there not always a “best performing card” in the “best deck”? Besides which those best stats are just a logical fallacy to begin with. And where is this best priest deck now?? Completely dead?? You lack brain cells Green. Your whole argument is that somehow priest has the best deck in the game when it’s the exact opposite. Shadow priest died and no priest remains playable. Your reasoning is laughable. When you mass change cards you have no idea where the meta will land, unlike if you just change one card at a time. Someone like you obviously wanted to whine and troll the card out of the game for fun.

                    • TardisGreen
                      October 2, 2021 at 11:42 pm

                      Shadow Priest is still playable. It was the best deck in the game before the nerf. In FitB, Control Priest was the best deck in the game. Enough with the Priest metas. It’s time for some of the other classes to have a chance.

              • H0lysatan
                September 23, 2021 at 11:56 pm

                Using your logic, then cards like Mutanus, Savory Deviate Delight, and even Altar of Light should be ‘destroyed’ too no?

                I get your frustation over some disabling cards, but they reworked it so bad that the card can no longer be used. So, why print the card anyway? a waste of potential card.

                Even I can come up with better alternatives like “Swap hands, and decks with opponents this turn only. shuffle a copy every time you play a card” (Need better wording obviously).
                This way, opponent still have a way to answer the board, and opponent doesn’t lose combo card.

                Conclusion, they do their job half-@ssed.

                • H0lysatan
                  September 23, 2021 at 11:58 pm

                  I meant Altar of Fire. 🙂

                • Pandamonium
                  October 2, 2021 at 10:55 pm

                  Exactly. Why print the card anyway. They need to stop thinking they can do a custom meta every time someone tells them they’re bored with it. There is supposed to be the assumption that they’ll stand behind the cards they make. It’s like they genuinely plan on having balance shifts mid-meta and genuinely believe it’s better to change the cards midway than to have them be right in the first place. Think about that. Artificial nerf/buff meta shifts out of misguided design as opposed to making the cards right and being content with not changing them.

                  • Pandamonium
                    October 2, 2021 at 10:55 pm

                    They would actually pre-plan a “card adjustment” before knowing if they need one or not out of misguided principle.

    • Pandamonium
      September 22, 2021 at 12:40 pm

      They take bad approaches for sure, like they are genuinely clueless and never ever play their own game that they are in charge of knowing about. Iksar Dean is clearly part of the problem since he always babbles about whatever is not important to players whatsoever.

      • H0lysatan
        September 22, 2021 at 7:23 pm

        On one side, I applaud Iksar’s willingness to open AMA weekly, but if they paving the future of Hearthstone like this, I can bet past problems such as problematic mechanic will likely happen again.

        If they’re serious about long-term game, I think they should be willing to do something extra. But this is getting ridiculous.