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TL DR; Good bye Patron warrior!
The following balance change will be made in an upcoming patch:
Warsong Commander now reads: Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.
Over the course of the short but impactful history of Hearthstone, we’ve taken a strong stance that we’d like to make changes to cards only when they are completely necessary. The direction of gameplay and the metagame should be defined by our players, and as the meta is evolving, many different types of decks can emerge. Cards that were once impactful in the meta can be less so once new strategies emerge, and that change is brought on by the constant need and drive for innovation by our players.
Innovation is just one way a game can evolve, and the best way to shake up the meta and innovate in Hearthstone is by introducing new cards into the game. Introducing new cards to Hearthstone is our preferred method of changing the current state of the game. It’s exciting to discover a deck that may have an advantage over a popular deck out there, and new cards lead to the discovery of new combinations, and new conversations. Hearthstone thrives off of stories about enjoying a fast-paced, fun game with friends that’s full of delightful surprises.
Going forward, we will continue to stand by our stance that we will only make adjustments to cards when we feel it is completely necessary and allow the injection of new cards into the game help our players define what the meta evolves into. 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.
http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/forum/topic/19288409377
"The timeframe for this patch is currently slated for some time next week."
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Well, seems cool to see patron gone but the change itself its quite...meh. I mean it just follows path of starving buzzard (useless card). On the other hand why now? I feel like the deck itself was played less on both, ladder and tourneys while having lower win rate than before. It also was great counter to god damn secret paladins which i expect to increase numbers on ladder now :/.
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On October 14 2015 02:17 alone wrote:
Well, seems cool to see patron gone but the change itself its quite...meh. I mean it just follows path of starving buzzard (useless card). On the other hand why now? I feel like the deck itself was played less on both, ladder and tourneys while having lower win rate than before. It also was great counter to god damn secret paladins which i expect to increase numbers on ladder now :/.
I would rather see Patron Warrior get nerfed, see Secret Paladin become OP, and wait for that to get patched, than see 1 ridiculous deck being used to counter another. Long term health of the game is being considered here.
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Dont get me wrong, im happy its getting nerfed but how is killing a deck completly healthy for a game?
Any idea when will the patch hit?
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Wow, I'm excited to play ladder matches now that one of the most interesting decks to play with and against has been removed from the game, only to see mindless aggro replace it.
Not.
If they really wanted to "fix" the deck, just lower Frothing Berserker's health by 1. All the gross Patron Warrior plays were based around triple Whirlwind effects. Blizzard as skilled at balance as ever.
Oh, and to anyone thinking Secret Paladin is ever going to be patched... yeah fucking right.
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Patron deck was rather cancer and also very draw-dependent so if they happened to have a good draw you just died without being able to do anything, while if they didn't draw Warsong Commanders or whatever they need you just won for free. It feels like no game is ever close vs Patron Warrior.
Still, the change's pretty bleh. I wish they had at least made the card something that might become useful down the road. And to be honest, I don't even hate playing vs Patron that much. Control Warrior with Justicar is the true cancer and even if you win against it, you need to spend an hour doing so.
By the way I agree with the above poster, lowering Frothing Berserker's health to 3 would make the deck far more manageable as the triple whirlwind effect combos are really the biggest problems(With only 2 its hard to kill you from full). It still wouldn't address the Patron clears with Patron + Warsong which invalidated tons of decks that play low health minions, Zoo for instance.
Also, I just had a Druid match where I practically oneshot the opponent with Thaurissan-reduced FoN FoN innervate Savage Roar. I really wish they would take a look at the druid combos, even if Patron combos are more powerful in ideal situations, Druid needs far less cards to perform his. Even before this nerf, Druid IMO was the #1 deck in Hearthstone, not Patron. See how many players don't bring a Druid to tournaments... 0?
Savage Roar is IMO the most powerful and versatile card in the entire game, by far. On the other hand, Warsong Commander is very niche that's only used in a single deck.
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Aaaand Commander is back to shit. Patron, R.I.P.
This is an ogre-like approach to balance. Either make it retardedly broken, or nerf it to oblivion and beyond. What was wrong about making the charge work with only creatures with less than 3 attack? This is not a nerf, this is more like murder.
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Yeah, Combo Druid is definitely a problematic deck. Darnassus Aspirant really helps to demonstrate what was holding the deck back before: consistency. The issue with it is that a steady curve-out of one of their bulky minions each turn (Wild Growth into Shredder, Druid of the Claw, Sylvanas, Ancient of Lore, some combination of minions) allows them to just deal too much damage and establish too much board presence to withstand the eventual combo. It only takes one of their countless 4-attack minions to bump up the combo damage to 20, a pair to hit a ridiculous 26 total, and so on and so forth. Whether or not this will materialize is based entirely on the Druid's ability to start laying down those 4-mana plus minions and them drawing into the combo, which is totally based on luck. If Druid gets any more card draw attached to a body, the deck will actually be unbeatable. The solution is probably to just give FoN the Icehowl treatment, and maybe a fourth Treant to make up for it. Makes the card pretty excellent at clearing board (basically becomes Avenging Wrath Plus), and prevents the stupidity of the combo. Only problem there is that the deck and class might instantly hit Shaman tier.
And I'm saying this with Druid being my most-played class. This isn't just salt at losses; this is analysis of my own wins.
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This should have been Blizzard's statement regarding the nerf:
"For too long, Patron Warrior has been near the top of the competitive scene. We feel that such a strong showing from this combo deck is unhealthy for the Hearthstone scene as a whole, and with this change, hope to revert to a more healthy metagame where Combo decks are brought back in line with Control decks- by which we mean that both types of deck will be nonexistent-, and ladder will be all Aggro all the time.
We take our commitment to ruining this game very seriously."
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On October 14 2015 02:23 alone wrote:
Dont get me wrong, im happy its getting nerfed but how is killing a deck completly healthy for a game?
Any idea when will the patch hit?
Killing a deck is healthy for the game when the deck in question was suppressing deck diversity and stagnating the meta.
I think the nerf to Commander may be a bit much, (+1, really?) but nerfing the deck that has been the uncontested top deck since early GvG is entirely sensible.
Edit: I meant to type BRM but failed utterly. Go me!
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Introducing this right before Blizzcon's gonna really effect the tournament meta. People got into Blizzcon off the backs of Patron Warrior and its counter, Handlock (Druid remains relatively unaffected). Nerfing it right before Blizzcon's gonna make it awkward for players like Lifecoach who have been practicing it for months.
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On October 14 2015 02:53 Seuss wrote:Show nested quote +On October 14 2015 02:23 alone wrote:
Dont get me wrong, im happy its getting nerfed but how is killing a deck completly healthy for a game?
Any idea when will the patch hit? I think the nerf to Commander may be a bit much, (+1, really?) but nerfing the deck that has been the uncontested top deck since early GvG is entirely sensible.
Grim Patron and Thaurissan were released in Blackrock Mountain, which came out fully AFTER GvG.
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What a stupid change, there were so many proposed changes that were meaningful nerfs without nuking the deck
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Good thing, I don't like Patron Warrior at all. This nerf doesn't affect the Worgen OTK deck which is one of my favorite ones so that's cool, even if it's kind of the same style. What I don't like is that Warsong Commander will be completely shit, the impact is worse than on Starving Buzzard if we're talking about arena, and Warrior is already the worst class there.
Still cool to see them nerfing day 1 cards, knew it was gonna happen eventually as new cards are released.
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On October 14 2015 02:53 Seuss wrote:Show nested quote +On October 14 2015 02:23 alone wrote:
Dont get me wrong, im happy its getting nerfed but how is killing a deck completly healthy for a game?
Any idea when will the patch hit? Killing a deck is healthy for the game when the deck in question was suppressing deck diversity and stagnating the meta. I think the nerf to Commander may be a bit much, (+1, really?) but nerfing the deck that has been the uncontested top deck since early GvG is entirely sensible.
Grim Patron wasn't even a card in early GvG. What are you talking about? Early GvG was Mech Mage and more Mech Mage. And what do you know, we still have a Mech Mage successor kicking about with Tempo Mage.
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It was no Undertaker. The best Warsong-Patron combos couldn't kill you from full health without a Frothing Beserker. You'd often still have a turn to clear it. However, it's interesting that they listed limiting future design space as a consideration in the nerf. Hopefully they actually have some interesting designs in mind. In the meantime aggro and Handlock will go back to dominating.
Also, I completely agree with Shikyo about Savage Roar. Druid would be mid to low tier without that card alone. It's just on the right side of not being broken, but I find Druid as a class to be ridiculously boring because of it.
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Stupid change. Few people were good enough to even play patron well, and even at the top level patron was on the decline. Beyond stupid to nerf an entire deck like this, especially when it is the most skilled deck in the game. Reminds me of how they killed miracle rogue and made the game that much more bland.
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Warsong Commander was nerfed once : at game start it gave charge to any creature, which created decks (ab)using Molten Giand and Panda for an easy OTK
Since it was already nerfed once, it got the same treatment as Starving Buzzard : it they have to nerf a card a second time, this time it will be nerfed into oblivion.
Starving Buzzard, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Undertaker, Warsong Commander : when they consider a card both too strong and unhealthy, they swig the nerfbat with great violence.
I wouldn't have mind Dr Balanced becoming 7/5 meanwhile.
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Damn, I'm not shocked to see patron nerfed a bit but holy crap they just completely removed one of the most interesting decks.
RIP patron specialists like Xixo and Lifecoach, gl finding a strong deck that rewards skill in casinostone.
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On the other hand all the game decicing/breaking rng is untouched, yay \o/
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EPT
