Blizzard wanted to nerf the most annoying deck in Hearthstone , but instead made it even stronger. Players are angry.
Anyone who has played Hearthstone in the past few weeks since the release of “United in Stormwind” has seen mainly two decks: Mage and Warlock. With a nerf, Blizzard aimed to significantly weaken the two most annoying decks. This worked for the Mage, but not for the Warlock. In fact, quite the opposite. In a fit of “Blizzard hurt itself out of confusion”, they made one of the currently most powerful decks even stronger.
What kind of deck is this? The deck revolves around the new questline “Demon Seed”. For this, the Warlock must inflict a lot of damage on themselves, but in the end, they are rewarded with a minion that turns their biggest disadvantage into an advantage. Whenever the Warlock would take damage on their own turn, that damage is instead dealt to the opposing hero.
This applies to damage from all sources, not just the hero power but also targeted spells or even fatigue damage when the deck runs out of cards.
Why is this deck so strong? The deck combines a whole range of strengths. It has extremely high self-healing and reduces the costs of cards to a minimum. Additionally, the major disadvantage of the Warlock – consuming their own health points – is reversed into an advantage.
Especially important is the card “Darkglare”. This demon ensures that the Warlock regains mana after taking damage. Together with other cards that inflict damage on the Warlock, this allows them to play almost infinitely many cards, and thus, complete their quest as early as turn 5.
What has Blizzard done? Blizzard has adjusted the card “Darkglare”. The mana cost was increased, which sounds like a nerf. However, the health and attack points of the card were also increased. A 2/3 demon for 2 mana has now become a 3/4 demon for 4 mana.
The catch is: Warlocks have so many cards in this deck that reduce the mana cost of minions that Darkglare will still be played for 0 or 1 mana anyway, rendering the actual nerf completely ineffective.
At the same time, the increased health points ensure that Darkglare can no longer be easily removed by the opponent. Whether you can deal 4 damage or 3 damage to a card makes a huge difference. A list of 26 cards has been published in the Hearthstone subreddit that can no longer take out Darkglare after the patch – and that’s just part of the affected cards:
The community is angry and mocks: In the Hearthstone subreddit, there has been quite a bad mood since the patch. The criticism is loud that Blizzard does not consider the adjustments and that it should have been clear at the announcement of this “nerf” that it would not have any notable positive effect.
Accordingly, there are many memes and criticism posts currently circulating that stifle many other discussions at the outset.
Especially absurd and at the same time true is the thought that the Warlock would be nerfed right now if they improved their hero power and ensured that it no longer consumes health points. A peculiar situation in which Warlocks currently find themselves.
Changes from the new Hearthstone patch
What else did the patch bring? Aside from this botched nerf, the patch also brought a few additional nerfs and changes. They are:
- Flow of the Summoner (Mage Spell): The cost of the spell has been increased from 2 mana to 3 mana.
- Il’gynoth (Demon Hunter Minion): Il’gynoth now costs 6 mana instead of 4 mana. Additionally, its stats were increased from 2/6 to 4/8.
- Battlefield Battlemaster (Neutral Minion): The mana cost has been increased from 5 mana to 6 mana.
- Kolkar Pack Runner (Hunter Minion): The mana cost has been increased from 2 mana to 3 mana. The stats were increased from 2/3 to 3/4.
- Forged in Fire (Shaman Minion): The stats were reduced from 4/5 to 4/4.
- Conviction (Paladin Spell): The cost of the spell has been increased from 1 mana to 2 mana.
- Meat Giant (Priest/Warlock Minion): The cost has been increased from 8 mana to 9 mana.
What do you think about these adjustments and especially the current state of the Warlock? Just annoying and ruining all the fun? Or is this a cool deck with interesting mechanics?
