Blizzard Kills Patron Warrior With Hearthstone Card Nerf

[Steven Bogos]

Blizzard Kills Patron Warrior With Hearthstone Card Nerf

A heavy-handed nerf to the Warsong Commander card has completely killed the popular "Patron Warrior" Hearthstone deck.

For an online card game, cheap Hearthstone deck guide [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/hearthstone]. The deck has been absolutely dominating in both tournaments and ranked play, and is built around the idea of one-hit KOing an opponent using a combination of Grim Patron, Frothing Berserker, Warsong Commander, and area damage spells like Whirlwind.

Today, Blizzard has announced an upcoming nerf to Raid Leader [http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/193-warsong-commander].

"In the case of Warsong Commander, we felt this change was necessary to help expand both future design space and to stand by our overarching game philosophy that battles between minions and fighting for board control is what makes Hearthstone fun and compelling," wrote Blizzard in an official blog post [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/forum/topic/19288409377].

Game designer Ben Brode later clarified in a special Designer Insights YouTube video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PprkXykU5xM&feature=youtu.be] that the nerf was doled out to Warsong Commander specifically, as charge minions are quite hard to balance, and her current card effect made it difficult to introduce interesting new minions with an attack of 3 or less.

The nerf is currently slated for some time next week, so you better hurry up and get everyone in here with your Patron deck before then.

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/forum/topic/19288409377]

Permalink

 

[ron1n]

There was a number of ways they could have nerfed the card without making it completely useless or changing its effect entirely.

Now it will go the way of Starving Buzzard and never see play again. They may as well have just removed it from the game and given the warrior a useful well statted 3 or 4 drop instead.

 

[truckspond]

If only they would make a similar nerf to Piloted Shredder...

 

[Steven Bogos]

If only they would make a similar nerf to Piloted Shredder...

Piloted Shredded doesn't let you do 40 damage to face from an empty board... It's just a super power-creep 4-drop. It will be fine when they introduce more 4-drops that are just as powerful.

 

[gigastar]

Just wondering, why is a balance change in Hearthstone any more newsworthy than a balance change in any other game?

 

[loa]

Grim patron was dominating?
That thing was a gamble. Just because it sometimes wins spectacularly doesn't mean it was broken.
There are more than enough cases in which the play falls flat on its face but I guess those don't get as much attention as the rare cases when the moons align and someone somehow manages to go 30-0 in 1 round from an empty board.

Oh well, bye bye warsong commander.
A shitty 2/3 3 drop can't compete with the 2/2 2 drop wolf. Or the 2/1 1 drop seargant.
If she got 1 more attack or costed less, we could talk but if that's the way it goes, she'll go the way of the raid leader and magma rager and stay benched forever.

Just wondering, why is a balance change in Hearthstone any more newsworthy than a balance change in any other game?

Because "people care about hearthstone". Right? Right.

 

[Comic Sans]

This seems really extreme. A much simpler fix would but to make it so that minions who's attack gets increased past the Warsong limit wouldn't get charge anymore. This would stop the Frothing Berserker/Patron OHKO combo, but allow for the deck to still function to a lower degree. With this nerf they might as well have removed the card. It needed to be fixed, but this was the wrong way to do it.

 

[Xeorm]

Just wondering, why is a balance change in Hearthstone any more newsworthy than a balance change in any other game?

Hearthstone's popular, especially amongst streamers, and patron warrior had been the dominating deck for months. Killing the deck is big news for any of those people, and no surprise that they'd report it.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Just wondering, why is a balance change in Hearthstone any more newsworthy than a balance change in any other game?

Because lots of people play it and it's turned into a widely viewed E-Sport. It's also interesting because Ben Brode decided to make a video to address players' concerns and share a little more about their design process. It's not like they're just posting some patch notes...

Anyway, I like that they changed the card's effect, but I think they should have bumped its stats up to being a 3/4 since it's now worse than Raid Leader which is already unplayable. This also makes Warrior even worse in Arena. Them having a 3/4 common would with a negligible effect would actually have done some good for the class (though admittedly, it's a long way from the others).

This seems really extreme. A much simpler fix would but to make it so that minions who's attack gets increased past the Warsong limit wouldn't get charge anymore.

While this change would be more balanced for the current set of cards, it still means Blizzard has to design EVERY future minion with 3 attack or less with Warsong in mind. Giving minions charge so easily hampers any future card design. Minion design shouldn't be balanced around one card from one class. I really suggest watching Ben Brode's video. It provides some good insight.

Not saying I agree with them making the card unplayable though.

 

[ccggenius12]

I feel like making Patron a 3/2 would have brought the deck in line while not just completely eliminating it, but this is to be expected. Time and again Blizzard has made it quite clear that they are opposed to anything in the game that ISN'T attrition based face smashing.
That being said, it's clear that their policies prohibit them from making anything with an interesting effect, because weird design space creates corner cases where crazy shit like this can happen. I guess what I'm saying is, if you're expecting anything more complicated than removal, stat changing and unit production from cards, I wouldn't hold my breath. The only way this possibly plays out is with a Yugioh style power-creep arms race that takes more and more money from an increasingly smaller player base.

 

[linkblade91]

What?! Why? Warsong Commander was a lot of fun. Why not "kill" a Patron deck by, I don't know, nerfing Patron >_> Make the clones immune to Charge. Done. Solved. WC gets to keep being enjoyable, and the deck goes away.

Edit: For those with fewer cards, Warsong Commander was really helpful in getting a Warrior deck going. I don't even own Patron
Edit2: Or, let her keep the ability but drop it down to 2 or less Attack. Then Patron decks are still stopped, and her uniqueness gets to stay. WC is really bad now.

 

[Cartographer]

Or just make it "the next minion you summon has charge" so you can't chain an entire board of chargers.

 

[SecondPrize]

Patron is a problem. Better nerf Warsong Commander.

Blizzard tier balancing, ladies and gentlemen. Warsong Commander allowed you to do things other than Control Warrior if you lacked the cards or disliked the deck. Patron was only ever going to turn out like it did and it sucks that you hamstring other decks when you messed up in designing one card.

 

[laggyteabag]

I appreciate the nerf to Patron warrior, because that deck was silly and boring to play against, but killing a card was just not the way to go about it.

If they changed it to "The first minion with 3 or less attack that you play this turn gains charge", the card would still be useful, at least in some decks. Now, it is a Raid Leader with +1 health, and only helps charge minions, which, correct me if I am wrong here, Warriors don't use much, at least outside of the Kor'Kron dude.

Patron is a problem. Better nerf Warsong Commander.

Blizzard tier balancing, ladies and gentlemen. Warsong Commander allowed you to do things other than Control Warrior if you lacked the cards or disliked the deck. Patron was only ever going to turn out like it did and it sucks that you hamstring other decks when you messed up in designing one card.

Grim Patron wont be as powerful as it is without Warsong Commander, and the synergy between the two cards is what caused the problem. Warsong Commader, as it was, meant that you could fill your side of the board with 3 attack minions, and probably clear your opponant's board, for only 8 mana, in one turn. Now, it will be much more costly card wise to pull off the same combo.

 

[Cartographer]

Patron is a problem. Better nerf Warsong Commander.

Except patron isn't a problem in any other deck; Patron Mage wasn't dominating the meta, Patron Hunter isn't a thing, neither is Patron XXX (insert any class but warrior). And Patron is only an issue because Warsong Commander freely handed out charge, so obviously it was Warsong Commander that would be hit with the nerf bat.

Granted, I think it's too much of a nerf to a card that simply will never see play in any deck again, but it was going to happen.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I mean a nerf to Patron was going to come at some point because from what I hear, tournaments were literally just Patron decks and decks made to specifically counter Patron so Blizz had to do something eventually.

Dunno why they fucked WC so hard though, Warrior is only getting worse per expansion now with other classes getting cool shit like Rhonin, Bear Trap, Lock and Load, Murloc Knight etc etc and Warrior gets crap like Bolster and King's Defender albeit Alextraza's Champion is passable to good if you can make a Dragon Warrior but even then it's not as good as Dragon Priest by a mile.

You basically have to play Wallet Warrior or nothing. Well, maybe they could try to play the utter cheese that is the charging Raging Worgen for like 25 damage where you stack all the Enrage buffs on him and use Charge for the OTK.

 

[Tiamattt]

Dunno why they fucked WC so hard though, Warrior is only getting worse per expansion now with other classes getting cool shit like Rhonin, Bear Trap, Lock and Load, Murloc Knight etc etc and Warrior gets crap like Bolster and King's Defender albeit Alextraza's Champion is passable to good if you can make a Dragon Warrior but even then it's not as good as Dragon Priest by a mile.

You basically have to play Wallet Warrior or nothing. Well, maybe they could try to play the utter cheese that is the charging Raging Worgen for like 25 damage where you stack all the Enrage buffs on him and use Charge for the OTK.

Warriors also got Justicar Trueheart(They obviously get the best boost from her) a very good removal spell in Bash and a overhyped but still quite good late game drop in Varian, so I think they made out just fine in TGT and their stuff was a hell of a lot better than Shamans, Warlocks and Rogues got. As for warriors in general there's still cheap alternatives like mech and face warrior, sure they're not top tier but warrior is still a very playable class on a small dust budget without resorting to inconsistent decks like Worgen OTK.

 

[Cartographer]

The big question now is why they left Tundra Rhino alone, if giving charge is a problem. Sure it's more expensive, but it doesn't have the 3-attack proviso and with 5 health is a lot stickier.

 

[gigastar]

Just wondering, why is a balance change in Hearthstone any more newsworthy than a balance change in any other game?

Hearthstone's popular, especially amongst streamers, and patron warrior had been the dominating deck for months. Killing the deck is big news for any of those people, and no surprise that they'd report it.

Just wondering, why is a balance change in Hearthstone any more newsworthy than a balance change in any other game?

Because lots of people play it and it's turned into a widely viewed E-Sport.

But theese people that play and enjoy Hearthstone (you may have guessed, but im not one of them) would have heard about theese changes through friends, ingame chat or Blizzards channels long before it got posted here.

And it is slightly annoying to see what seems like every little thing about Heathstone getting covered here when theres other games out there that deserve attention as well. For example, i cant find an article on Warframe that isnt over 2 years old now, and as an avid Warframe player over the last 2 years i can tell you that the game that was and the game as is are massively different.

 

[squid5580]

If only they would make a similar nerf to Piloted Shredder...

They nerfed it with TGT. Have you seen a Darnassus Aspirant piloting it yet? That sucks