Blizzard has decided to shuffle things around with the latest Hearthstone update. Launched today, Hearthstone’s Patch 28.0.3 brings balance changes, primarily focused on the recently released Showdown in the Badlands expansion. The update addresses the most significant power outliers and player feedback, creating a more diverse and strategic gameplay experience.
Hearthstone 28.0.3 Patch Notes
Hearthstone Card Updates
Dev Comment: The team is pretty happy with the launch of Showdown in the Badlands. We’re seeing players having fun, exploring, and having success with a variety of decks and strategies. This is a lighter patch based on early data, designed just to hit the biggest feels and power outliers. We’ll continue to watch how the meta develops after these changes as we evaluate data and feedback for our next balance patch, scheduled for late next week, to set up for the World Championships on December 16 and 17!
Blindeye Sharpshooter
- Old: 1/5
- New: 1/3
- Dev Comment: Naga Demon Hunter is an outlier, but it is also one of the popular new archetypes from the expansion, so this change is designed to make the deck weaker without killing it. This change still gives players the fun pop-off turn, but makes it riskier for the Demon Hunter to go in early, so there are more early-game decisions and fewer snowballing games.
Order in the Court
- Old: Reorder your deck from highest Cost to lowest Cost. Draw a card.
- New: Reorder your deck from highest Cost to lowest Cost.
- Dev Comment: Paladin is one of the strongest classes across most rank levels. Order in the Court is a linchpin across Paladin decks, bridging them to their late-game and combo pieces. This adjustment makes that transition a little less efficient.
Always a Bigger Jormungar
- Old: [1 Mana]
- New: [2 Mana]
- Dev Comment: Hunter was the other biggest class outlier that we wanted to weaken this patch. Always a Bigger Jormungar is one of the strongest cards in the class data, and also one of the most stand-out cards in terms of play experience. This change makes the deck a little slower and a little less consistent, since this card can no longer be drawn by Trinket Tracker.
Defense Attorney Nathanos
- Old: 5/4
- New: 4/4 (plus added functionality, see Dev Comment)
- Dev Comment: In this patch, we’re updating the rules to make Defense Attorney Nathanos work more favorably with cards like Spurfang, Twisted Frostwing, and Bovine Skeleton. We think this will work more intuitively for players, and it sounds fun. But, at the same time, our overall goal with this patch is to slightly weaken Hunter, so we’re giving Nathanos a small, pre-emptive stats adjustment to make up for his new synergies.
Azerite Snake
- Old: [6 Mana] Your hero steals 10 Health from the enemy hero.
- New: [4 Mana] Your hero steals 7 Health from the enemy hero.
- Dev Comment: Our last adjustment to Azerite Snake was a temporary fix to that standout play experience outlier. That adjustment, and natural meta developments, have gotten Excavate Warlock to about where we want it right now. This change makes Azerite Snake once again match the other Legendary Excavate Treasures’ costs, but keeps the overall clock and cost about the same by requiring 5 activations for lethal instead of the current 3.
The above collectible cards, plus Smokestack, Mo’arg Drillfist, and Tram Conductor Gerry, will be eligible for full dust refunds for at least three weeks following Patch 28.0.3.
Battlegrounds Updates
Anomaly Updates
- Forest Warden Omu and Kurtrus Ashfallen are now banned from games with the Money Match Anomaly.
- Forest Warden Omu is now banned from games with the Valuation Inflation Anomaly.
- The Yogg-iseum Anomaly is now returned to the Anomaly Pool.
Minion Updates
Dev Comment: Most of these changes are primarily for power reasons, to curb some of the meta’s current overperforming and underperforming minions. A few of these changes are being made for more nuanced reasons, that we elaborate on below.
Goldrinn, the Great Wolf
- Old: 3/3. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, your Beasts have +3/+3.
- New: 3/2. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, your Beasts have +3/+2.
Banana Slamma
- Old: [Tier 4] 2/5.
- New: [Tier 5] 3/6.
- Dev Comment: Banana Slamma is not an overwhelming power outlier, but it does tend to be a frustrating sentiment outlier, especially where one player gets too many of them too early in the game. We’ve moving it up a tier to decrease its appearance rate and make getting multple Slammas harder. We’re moving Mama Bear down a tier so that Beasts don’t lose too much overall power with this round of changes.
Mama Bear
- Old: [Tier 5] 4/4. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +4/+4.
- New: [Tier 4] 3/3. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +3/+3.
Gunpowder Courier
- Old: 2/4.
- New: 2/6.
Dancing Barnstormer
- Old: [Tier 4] 3/2. Deathrattle: Elementals in the Tavern have +3/+2 for the rest of the game.
- New: [Tier 2] 2/1. Deathrattle: Elementals in the Tavern have +1/+1 for the rest of the game.
- Dev Comment: Elementals have been struggling a bit since the removal of Gusty Trumpeter. To help them out, we’re making many small adjustments across Elementals to increase their overall power without concentrating it on a single minion.
Flourishing Frostling
- Old: [Tier 2] 0/6. Has +1 Attack for each Elemental you played this game (wherever this is).
- New: [Tier 4] 1/1. Has +1/+1 for each Elemental you played this game (wherever this is).
Tavern Tempest
- Old: [Tier 5] 4/4.
- New: [Tier 4] 2/2.
Carbonic Copy
- Old: [Tier 4] 3/3.
- New: [Tier 5] 6/7.
Rock Rock
- Old: 4/4. After you play an Elemental, give your other minions +2 Attack. (Swaps to Health next turn!)
- New: 5/5. After you play an Elemental, give your minions +2 Attack. (Swaps to Health next turn!)
Diremuck Forager
- Old: 4/3. Start of Combat: Give a Murloc in your hand +2/+2, then summon it for this combat only.
- New: 3/4. Start of Combat: Give a minion in your hand +2/+2, then summon it for this combat only.
Bassgill
- Old: [Tier 5] 8/3. Deathrattle: Summon the highest Health minion from your hand for this combat only.
- New: [Tier 4] 7/2. Deathrattle: Summon the highest Health Murloc from your hand for this combat only.
- Dev Comment: Both Bassgill and Diremuck Forager server an important role in Murloc comps by allowing them to summon handbuffed minions into play. However, Bassgill is often used to get other powerful minions into play, like Venomous minions or Leeroy. We’ve adjusted both cards to decrease the viability of those other comps, while keeping them viable for handbuff strategies.
Murky
- Old: 6/5. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +1/+1. (Improved by each Battlecry minion you played this game!)
- New: 6/4. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +10/+10.
Aggem Thorncurse
- Old: 3/6. After a Blood Gem is played on this, give a friendly minion of each type +1/+1.
- New: 3/5. After a Blood Gem is played on this, give a friendly minion of each type +2/+1.
Captain Flat Tusk
- Old: 9/6. After you spend 4 Gold, get a Blood Gem.
- New: 9/5. After you spend 3 Gold, get a Blood Gem.
Motley Phalanx
- Old: 7/7. Taunt. Deathrattle: Give a friendly minion of each type +7/+7.
- New: 5/5. Taunt. Deathrattle: Give a friendly minion of each type +5/+5.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Hearthstone] The Tram Cars summoned by Trolley Problem and Tram Conductor Gerry are no longer Mechs (they don’t have a CPU).
- [Hearthstone] Added the Fel Spell School to Fan the Hammer.
- [Hearthstone] Reno, Lone Ranger and Resistance Aura have had text-only updates, for clarity.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Forging Eulogizer removed the cost reduction from Helping Hand.
- [Hearthstone] Corrected various localization issues.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the Wheel of Yogg-Saron could get stuck in the Yogg-iseum Anomaly.
- [Collection] Signature Slagmaw, the Slumbering can now be disenchanted.
