Hearthstone: Ashes of Outland Patches

I haven't done one of these in a while, mostly because I really haven't been doing a whole ton of Hearthstone. Ashes of Outland did a pretty great amount of work in getting me back into the spirit of things, though, even if I've been taking it slow -- as someone who's finally gotten some downtime to actually finally play Warcraft III: Reforged and Witcher 2 at last, I just don't really have as much time to be as super-obsesssed with Hearthstone as I was before. Still, it's interesting that Ashes of Outland has been out less than a month, but we have already gotten not just one, but two balance patches. And... I dunno, it is moving a bit too fast? But that's honestly partially probably because I'm not spending as much time playing the game (and even then, I play Wild, where a lot of these cards aren't as problematic) so I'm not quite as exposed to them as I was, say, to some of the older nerf outcries. It's just that I'm just starting to barely get used to some of the cards, and they're already changing, y'know?

Anyway, here's my brief rambling talk about the changed cards.

The first Demon Hunter balance patch, which was released within a day (and while I acknowledge the power, it does raise a fair bit of questions at how fast a nerf hammer should come out) is basically the version of Demon Hunter that most of us have been playing with. Skull of Gul'dan went from 5 to 6, which is a far, far more fair cost for its effect (which I've been saying since day one). Eye Beam's outcast discount cost went from 0 to 1. It is, again, a lot more fair because Demon Hunters can do a lot of degenerate things with cheap 0-mana cards, although it does make some interesting interactions between Eye Beam and cards like Skull of Gul'dan that discounts cards. Aldrachi Warblades is unexpectedly super-duper awesome. I expected it to be more of an awesome tech addition, but turns out that being able to buff your attack to insane levels and then have guaranteed lifesteal for 3 turns is a bit too much. All  three of these cards still see play nowadays, which should really speak to the original power levels of the original versions of these cards.

Imprisoned Antaen also gets hit with the nerf hammer, rather surprisingly, going from 5 to 6 mana, and for these Imprisoned cards, a single mana-move nerf is honestly pretty damning, considering that you're already getting two turns' worth of delay. Antaen is still playable for sure, but it went from "pretty dang good" to just "good", and sometimes that's just not enough. I honestly wonder if reducing the two 10's on Antaen to, say, 8 or 7 wouldn't have made it better and more playable? Eh.

Those are the 9th April DH patch, anyway, and we're getting a bunch more Demon Hunter nerfs because, well, those four aren't enough. Demon Hunters must be really ransacking Standard, because in Wild I've always felt like they're powerful, but fair and not quite degenerate? Battlefiend gets hit with this first nerf, going from 2/2 to 1/2. Battlefiend is honestly always up there with Skull of Gul'dan as one of the most degenerate powerhouses among the Demon Hunter cards, so I'm definitely not surprised to see this happen, since a powerful one-mana card that synergizes with your hero power is extra powerful when your hero power is, y'know, 1-mana.

Glaivebound Adept gets its attack reduced from 7 to 6, which... I don't think is really going to cause it to be cut from aggro deck lists? I am definitely a bit surprised that Glaivebound Adept sees as much play as it does, but in retrospect it really does have the markings of a good aggro card, doesn't it? Deals 4 damage anywhere, and a respectable 7/4 body that demands removal... I'm just surprised that it's the attack stat that's reduced -- and merely by 1 at that. I genuinely thought it was going to be the battlecry that got nerfed, either preventing it from going face or reducing the damage.

Altruis the Outcast has been one of the most fun cards in DH to play and combo with, and one that really makes me think and plan ahead, so I'm definitely sad to see him be changed, but at least it's not a complete nerf, you know what I mean? He goes up from 3 mana to 4 mana, which is fair, but at least he gets a bit of a stat boost to go with it, going from a 3/2 to a 4/2. 4/2 isn't the most ideal statline, and I'd honestly prefer a 3/3 or 4/3 statline or something, but considering that Blizzard could've honestly just given Altruis a nerf without giving him any additional stats, it's definitely hard to complain. I'm just sad that one of the more fun cards in the set got nerfed, though! (And we all thought it was going to be Kayn that's going to be the problematic DH legendary, too.)

Kael'thas Sunstrider, meanwhile, is the source of degenerate combos in Standard and mildly-degenerate combos in Wild. It just doesn't quite do as much, or maybe I just haven't met enough asshole Kael-druid decks, but he gets raised from costing 6 mana to 7 mana. I still think he's playable, just restricted to druids, y'know? Those Wild Jade Druids are still going to be able to ramp up rapidly and then use Ultimate Infestation or Overflow or Spreading Plague with Kael. I don't actually really mind the power level of Kael, though, I've always felt like it's impractical enough that losing or getting out-tempo'd by a Kael turn doesn't quite feel as bad as, say, Aviana.

Frenzied Felwing goes from a 3/3 to a 3/2. A fair change, doesn't really cause too many decks that already use it to cut it, I don't think. Of course, the Felwing doesn't quite cause as much of a ruckus as Corridor Creeper did once upon a time, and in Wild it's not quite that powerful, mostly used by really aggressive Pirate Warrior or DH decks, but I guess this means that the Felwing does get put into the range of 2-damage AoE removal like Holy Nova and Explosive Trap and whatnot, so... eh? Maybe it's significant enough that you cut it?

And Bad Luck Albatross, finally, gets kicked up from costing 3 mana to 4 mana. I've always thought that Albatross was a bit of a pretty value-heavy card, passing the Spider Tank vanilla test but also coming with an advantageous deathrattle -- particularly because it came in an expansion that severely encouraged highlander decks. Albatross is basically everywhere in Wild and Standard, because there's no real cost to running this card. Well, now that cost is that Albatross basically is a Piloted Shredder that shuffles crap cards into your enemy's decks instead of summoning a 2-drop on the board, and that certainly makes it very fair. It's not quite as tempo-heavy as before, though, so I definitely see a lot of more aggro and tempo decks from cutting this.

Libram of Justice gets buffed, which is a real rarity in Hearthstone, and frankly speaking I'm disappointed that it's the only card that gets a buff. Libram of Justice now costs 5 mana prior to discounting, making the whole Light's-Justice-plus-Eadric-the-Pure-effect significantly cheaper since you're definitely going to get discounting with the Libram. I still don't think it's super powerful, but at least it's something, and maybe it's the boost to get Libram paladin into a higher-tier deck?

Sacrificial Pact is apparently wreaking a bit too much havoc with Warlocks running two of these to murder huge Demon Hunter demons like Priestess of Fury and Imprisoned Antaen... which I've always thought was cool, y'know? Clearly the solution is to give Warlocks their own version of Sacrificial Pact, or something, since, y'know, they are supposed to hunt demons and everything. But while the flavour is great, I also acknowledge how annoying it's going to be to balance both huge Warlock and DH demon minions is going to be in the future, so changing it so that it still does what it's originally meant to do -- kill off your lesser demons for an advantage in health, or to trigger those Voidcaller deathrattles, is still possible, but you won't suddenly get a cheesy victory by killing your opponent's huge demons. Like back when they nerfed how Murlocs could buff the enemy board, it's kind of a shame, but very understandable.

The next two, though, are super-exciting, because they're for Wild balance! When has they ever balanced wild? Twice, with Naga Sea Witch and Aviana. And now we're getting two more!

Bloodbloom gets hit from 2 mana to 4 mana, really killing those Mecha'thun/Bloodbloom/Cataclysm combo decks -- which I really did enjoy piloting, but that's not the real target of this. Instead, the real target of this is one of Wild's tier one decks at the time of writing, Darkest Hour Warlock, which aims to summon a whole load of imps (with something like Fiendish Circle, Rafaam's Scheme or invoke effects) and then Bloodbloom + Darkest Hour to suddenly fill your board with a half-dozen big demons and thanks to Bloodbloom, you could do this degenerate combo and have like two Voidlords, Colossus of the Moon and a Despicable Dreadlord by turn four or five, where your enemy has, like, a couple of pitiful pirates and Battlefiends. I really do think that if this doesn't kill Darkest Hour Warlock, it's going to severely incapacitate it.

Perhaps the biggest hurrah to Wild, though, is that Open the Waygate is getting nerfed! I wished that the thing they fixed was the interaction between Time Warp and Archmage Vargoth, but I'll take what I can get. Open the Waygate now requires 8 generated spells instead of 6, and that's amazing because between Arcane Giants and Mana Giants; Archmage Vargoth; those goddamned twinspell freezing spells; Mana Cyclones and whatnot, Quest Mage has been dominating the tier 1 of Wild for months (with Evocation just getting added into the pool, too!), getting more and more powerful with each successful Year of the Dragon expansion that came out. Basically, the top decks in Wild is basically "Quest Mage" or "Reno Quest Mage", with everything else sort of moving up and down. I'm... just not sure if it's enough, considering how rapidly mages can really complete their quest, but boy howdy am I excited to see them finally address this problem! Finally, Wild's going to be crazy and not just "mages and a bunch of other classes you might see". I give two thumbs up to this!

Anyway, it's a great change. It's just such a shame that I actually just finished crafting a Darkest Hour deck around, oh, last week, and I'm not going to get too much of an opportunity to really feel the power and unique playstyle of that deck, but it's been really fun. Demon Hunter is a fun, aggressive deck (I haven't really played aggro decks in a while), I've been having fun with a bunch of random tier 3 stuff like Galakrond Warrior decks or burgle rogue or dicking around with the de-nerfed Yogg-Saron and Dr. Boom Mad Genius. A lot of the new cards are fun, I just haven't quite gotten enough of the set just yet (I have, what, two or three legendaries total so far?) which is why I really sometimes wish they would put just a wee bit of brakes on these huge nerfs.