Hearthstone 27.4.2 Patch Notes: Balance changes for all!

Hearthstone

News

The latest Hearthstone patch notes for the 27.4.2.update brings buffs and nerfs for Standard, Wild, Twist, Battlegrounds, and more

After an initial delay on the teaser that was posted yesterday, we get to explore the 27.4.2 Hearthstone patch notes. The following balance changes will go live today, September 28, and will affect almost every game mode.

The patch notes bring nearly 20 nerfs, 10 buffs -including the OG Hearthstone legendaries Tirion Fordring and Lord Jaraxxus- and 3 card bans! Let’s go over the details

Hearthstone Standard Balance Changes

As usual, Hearthstone Devs have included many comments on this patch notes, explaining their train of thought and the reasons behind their decisions.

“We have a lot of card changes in this patch, and a lot to share about why these changes are being made. For the Standard-focused changes, we’re addressing both power outliers and play experience outliers in this patch”

Layoffs in Hearthstone Team

With no prior notice, Blizzard conducted a series of layoffs in the Hearthstone Team in an apparent restructure.

Manuel “Rane” Delgado

To begin with we need to address the elephant in the room. Yes, the patch notes say that Gadzetazn Auctioneer has been removed from the Hearthstone Core Set, so it is no longer Standard lega. This was the first changeteased by Aleco during the weekend, but the ban also includes a nerf. With it, Druid also lost some of its Mana-cheating potential now that Contaminated Lasher was also nerfed.

Gadgetzan Auctioneer also has been removed from the Core Set, so it is no longer Standard legal.

“For a long time, Auctioneer has been a card that only popped up in Standard when it was up to no good. In this case, the Mini-Set provided a critical mass of effects that allowed for a deck that used Auctioneer to consistently draw through its entire deck and OTK as early as turn 5. That’s not the bar we want for Standard, regardless of the deck’s overall winrate.”

Another overperforming card, especially in high Legend, was addressed in this Hearthstone balance patch. Spiritlash Siren was both a powerful enabler and created negative player sentiment. That’s why it’s going once more to 5 Mana.

Talking about powerful cards and decks, Warrior is also gonna be tuned down in this Hearthstone patch. The Devs recognize that they opt to err on the side of the deck being overpowered rather than weak. They were committed to making Warrior great again as Cora said.

“When we buffed Warrior in our last balance patch, we did so knowing that they’d get more powerful tools in the Mini-Set, but we wanted to make sure that the deck hit, so we erred on the side of over-buffing it, knowing that we’d have the option to make a small correction back down if we needed. Now that the Mini-Set has landed, Warrior is looking like one of the most standout classes, so we’re making those adjustments.”

On top of the changes to address the current problem, the balance team has also taken some preemptive measures. This is the case of the Hunter class, which after this Hearthstone Patch, with Warriors being less powerful, would otherwise rule the metagame.

“Hunter also has one of the strongest decks in the format, and we’d expect it to get even stronger after the other changes we’re making in this patch, so we’re making a small adjustment to bring its power down a little as well.”

Finally, some other sentiment cards have been adjusted for standard. Movement of Pride will no longer get a super early Sargeras and Coppertail Snoop will be much weaker also preventing the snowball effect.

Related articles

Hearthstone Twist and Wild Nerfs

In this case, we will not go over each card change specifically, but in general, they are tunning down Discard Warlock and Jade Rogue, the two top dogs. More over, we have also included in this category the series of Wild exclusive nerfs as well.

“For the Twist-focused changes, we’ve seen that the Wonders format was faster than we wanted, not leaving much room for some of the cards that are evocative of this Wonders era. The adjustments in this patch are targeted at weakening the format’s clearest power outliers, and, at the same time, buffing some late-game payoffs and control tools.”

Hearthstone Esports Fall Season Qualifiers results

Know the 16 players who qualified for the upcoming Masters Tour and Battlegrounds Lobby Legends Hearthstone Esports events.

“Wild is a mode that’s inherently full of powerful interactions, but we still want the mode to feel like you’re playing Hearthstone. That’s why these adjustments focus on the biggest play experience outliers in the mode—decks that are frustrating now and that, if we didn’t step in, would likely remain frustrating for a long time. There are some strong Wild decks that we didn’t touch in these changes because, though they’re powerful, they still generally fit in the Hearthstone mold. We’ve found that Wild players often have different goals for the mode so we expect that some players will wish we hit more or different things, but we hope that these adjustments will make the mode more fun for more players overall.”

Hearthstone patch notes 27.4.2: buffs

On top of the corrections mentioned above to address the problems caused by overpowered cards and decks, the Hearthstone team is also introducing a series of buffs in this patch. The idea is to encourage players to experiment with new expansion mechanics and archetypes.

This list of buffs corresponds both to Standard and Twist.

Before we close this balance changes report, the 27.4.2 Hearthstone patch notes also included changes for Battlegrounds and Duels, feel free to check thoseon the official blog post.

Remember that all versions of the Hearthstone nerfed cards that can be disenchanted, will be eligible for fulldust refundsfor two weeks following Patch 27.4.2.

Guides

How to search for nerfed cards in your Hearthstone collection and get Arcane Dust refunds

Whenever Hearthstone nerfs cards, you should search for them in your collection and disenchant them. Here we explain why.

That’s all for now, stay tuned to esports.gg for more Hearthstonenews and updates. See you next time in the Tavern.