by JR Cook - 2 months ago     show comments

Patch 36.0.3 is live, and it’s bringing some of the most aggressive balance changes Hearthstone has seen in a while. If you’ve been watching the meta shake out after Escape from Violet Hold, you already know Two-Cost Rogue and Mug Shaman have been dominating high ranks. Meanwhile, Warlock, Death Knight, Priest, and Demon Hunter have been struggling to keep up. This patch tackles both problems head-on.

The headline change? Godfrey the Betrayer is outright banned in Wild. Warlock was already crushing the format before Escape from Violet Hold, and Godfrey pushed it over the edge. On top of the ban, The Soularium jumps from 1 to 2 mana, Elwynn Boar now requires 10 deaths instead of 7, and Swiftscale Trickster costs 6 mana instead of 4. These aren’t small tweaks, they’re massive swings at a class that was warping the entire Wild meta.

Azalina Soulsever Gets the Renathal Treatment

In Standard, Azalina Soulsever is getting one of the wildest buffs the team has ever done. She now gives you Prince Renathal’s Start of Game effect, boosting your starting health to 40. The devs are leaning into her identity as a card thief, and the extra health should give Azalina decks more time to turn stolen cards into win conditions. To support the archetype further, Enthralled Shade drops from 3 mana 4/3 to 2 mana 3/2, making it an actual tempo play instead of a clunky include.

Death Knight and Warlock players are getting a pile of buffs to crawl back into relevance. Blood Doctor Thal’ena costs 4 instead of 5, Sawbones drops to 5 mana 5/3, Emergency Surgery summons four Undead instead of three, and The Living Plague becomes a 6 mana 8/8. The real kicker for Warlock is Imp Gang Stooge, which now puts two 8/8 Demons with Taunt and Lifesteal on the bottom of your deck instead of one 9/9. Pair that with Annihilation getting reduced to 8 mana, and you’ve got a serious late-game swing turn.

Top Decks Take the Nerf Bat

Two-Cost Rogue loses some of its early explosiveness. Vanessa the Ringleader goes from 6 mana 4/4 to 7 mana 4/3, slowing down her snowball potential. Lotus Troublemaker drops from 2 damage per shot to 1 damage, and more importantly, it now starts counting mana spent while it’s still in your deck, not just in hand. This smooths out the frustrating variance where drawing it early meant lethal by turn 6, and drawing it late meant it did nothing.

Mug Shaman takes a hit through Blazing Invocation, which no longer discounts the Battlecry minion you Discover. Warptooth now requires four friendly characters to take damage instead of three before it summons itself. Both changes target the class’s ability to generate unbeatable early boards out of nowhere.

Priest gets Confront the Tol’vir pushed from 4 to 5 mana, a light tap to slow down its mid-game. Demon Hunter picks up some survivability with Stardust Scythe gaining a third durability, Vicious Voidscale getting a Battlecry in addition to its Deathrattle, and Irida Sinseeker buffed to 7/7 stats. Tras’tath, Soul Parasite jumps from a 1/1 to a 3/3, which should make those Void Soul payoffs feel more impactful.

The dev team is keeping a close eye on how the meta shifts after these changes, especially in Wild where they’re swinging hard at Warlock. Cards eligible for dust refunds include Vanessa the Ringleader, Blazing Invocation, Warptooth, Lotus Troublemaker, and Confront the Tol’vir. You’ve got two weeks to cash in.

If you’re planning to grind the new meta, make sure your setup can keep up. The Razer BlackShark V2 X Gaming Headset offers solid audio for tracking board clears and opponent emotes without breaking the bank. For something premium, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 delivers excellent sound isolation for those marathon ladder sessions.

Source: Blizzard Entertainment