The latest update for Hearthstone, Patch 17.2.1, went live today, changing a plethora of cards in an attempt to balance the game’s struggling meta.
Hearthstone’s Ashes of Outland expansion has had balancing issues since it first went live on April 7. The Hearthstone team has already nerfed a variety of cards from the expansion, including cards from the new Demon Hunter class.
This time around, there will be 12 card changes in total. Four cards will be receiving much-needed buffs, while the remaining eight will feel the wrath of the nerf bat.
All but one of the cards being buffed belongs to the struggling Shaman class. During the early days of the Galakrond’s Awakening expansion, Shaman had some of the strongest decks in the game. After being nerfed during Galakrond’s Awakening, many players hoped Ashes of Outland would help raise the class to its former glory.
But with the exception of a mediocre Totem deck, Shaman hasn’t seen much competitive success. At time of writing, Shaman has the lowest competitive win rate in Standard Hearthstone, according to HSReplay. The changes to Shattered Rumbler, Torrent, and The Lurker Below could help bring Shaman out of its current rut.
Unsurprisingly, two of the eight cards being nerfed belong to Demon Hunter. It’s probably fair to say that Demon Hunter launched as the most unbalanced entity to be included in Hearthstone. Though it’s been nerfed significantly at least two times already this expansion, it looks like that wasn’t enough. Demon Hunter still has the highest win rate in Standard on HSReplay, followed by Rogue, Hunter, Warrior, and Warlock—all of which have cards being nerfed.
You can see a full list of the cards being changed today here. You can hop on Hearthstone right now to test the changes for yourself.
