Hearthstone Patch 21.3 nerfs Warlock, buffs Mage and Pirates

Hearthstone’s balancing team is bringing many changes to various game modes, plus some bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements, in tomorrow’s Patch 21.3.

For Standard and Wild modes, the highlights of the update are Blizzard’s decision to both increase the damage required in the first two steps for Standard and banning the Warlock Questline in Wild. There are many more efficient self-damaging cards in Wild, according to Blizzard, making it possible for The Demon Seed to be completed at a fast rate. So the devs are banning it to protect the format from problematic gameplay. Besides that, a nerf to Runed Mithril Rod may also have an indirect effect on the Quest’s power.

The update even includes a little buff for some key cards to Pirate Warrior and Hero Power Mage that could lead to them seeing more play. Battlegrounds is receiving numerous balance updates to heroes and minions, too.

Here are all the changes within Hearthstone Patch 21.3.

Standard and Wild updates

Nerfs

Irebound Brute

• Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]

Mindrender Illucia

• Old: Battlecry: Swap hands and decks with your opponent until your next turn. → New: Battlecry: Replace your hand with a copy of your opponent’s until end of turn.

Perpetual Flame

• Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]

Command the Elements

• Tame the Flames (the third portion of the Questline)
  • Old: Play 2 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan. → New: Play 3 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan.

The Demon Seed

• The Demon Seed (part one of the Questline)
  • Old: Take 6 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
• Establish the Link (part two of the Questline)
  • Old: Take 7 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
• Additionally, The Demon Seed is now banned in Wild.

Runed Mithril Rod

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]

Buffs

Leatherworking Kit

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

Selective Breeder

• Old: 1 Attack, 1 Health → New: 1 Attack, 3 Health

Wildfire

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

Mordresh Fire Eye

• Old: [Costs 10] 10 Attack, 10 Health → New: [Costs 8] 8 Attack, 8 Health

Stormwind Freebooter

• Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health

Stonemaul Anchorman

• Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 4 Attack, 6 Health

Bloodsail Deckhand

• Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health

Battlegrounds updates

General updates

• “Turn lengths have been reverted to their pre-21.2 times (turns 3-9 have been reduced by 5 seconds after they were temporarily increased by 5 seconds in Patch 21.2).”

Hero updates

Shudderwock

• Snicker-snack
  • Old: [Costs 0] → New: [Costs 2]

Galewing

• Dungar’s Gryphon (Eastern Plaguelands Option)
  • Old: In 5 turns, upgrade your Tavern Tier. → New: In 5 turns, your next Tavern Tier upgrade costs (5) less.

Master Nguyen

• Power of the Storm [Passive]
  • Adjusted the odds of hero power offerings (no text changes).

Minion updates

• Defiant Shipwright has been removed from the minion pool.
• Southsea Captain has been returned to the minion pool.

Impatient Doomsayer

• Old: [Tavern Tier 3] Avenge (3): Add a random Demon to your hand. → New: [Tavern Tier 4] Avenge (4): Add a random Demon to your hand.

Kathra’natir

• Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 7 Attack, 5 Health. Your other Demons have +3 Attack. Your Hero is Immune. → New: [Tavern Tier 3] 5 Attack, 4 Health. Your other Demons have +2 Attack. Your Hero is Immune.

Leapfrogger

• Old: Deathrattle: Give a friendly Beast +2/+2 and this Deathrattle. → New: Give a friendly Beast +1/+1 and this Deathrattle.

Monstrous Macaw

• Old: After this attacks, trigger a random friendly minion’s Deathrattle. → New: After this attacks, trigger another friendly minion’s Deathrattle.

Reanimating Rattler

• Old: [Tavern Tier 4] 6 Attack, 2 Health. → New: [Tavern Tier 5] 7 Attack, 3 Health.

Whelp Smuggler

• Old: 2 Attack, 4 Health. After a friendly Dragon gains Attack, give it +2 Health. → New: 2 Attack, 5 Health. After a friendly Dragon gains Attack, give it +1 Health.

Impulsive Trickster

• Old: Deathrattle: Give this minion’s maximum Health to a friendly minion. → New: Deathrattle: Give this minion’s maximum Health to another friendly minion.

Master of Realities

• Old: [Tavern Tier 6]. → New: [Tavern Tier 5].

Peggy Brittlebone

• Old: 5 Attack, 3 Health. After a card is added to your hand, give another random Pirate +1/+1 → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health. After a card is added to your hand, give another friendly Pirate +1/+1.

Goldgrubber

• Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health.

Salty Looter

• Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 5 Health.

Prophet of the Boar

• Old: 2 Attack, 3 Health. → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health.

Roadboar

• Old: 1 Attack, 4 Health. → New: 2 Attack, 4 Health.

Bristleback Brute

• Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health.

Dynamic Duo

• Old: 3 Attack, 4 Health. → New: 4 Attack, 5 Health.

Charlga

• Old: At the end of your turn, play a Blood Gem on all other friendly minions. → New: At the end of your turn, play a Blood Gem on all friendly minions.

Duels updates

• Party Replacements, Rally the Troops, and Oops, All Spells! have all been moved from Passive Treasure Pool 2 to Pool 2 Ultra Rare.
• All Together Now has been moved from Passive Treasure Pool 1 to Pool 2.
• Voidtouched Attendant is now banned from deck creation.

Arena updates

“Ramming Mount will no longer be draftable in Arena. Additionally, we discovered a bug with some card offering rates. We’ve addressed that bug and will be re-adjusting the offering rates to match the intended rates, which should help move all classes closer to the 50% class winrate.”

Bug fixes and game Improvements

• Fixed a bug causing crashes when the friends list was opened.
• Fixed a bug where friends could sometimes not be challenged.
• Fixed a bug where Maestra of the Masquerade would sometimes have you start the game as a Rogue (not her best disguise).
• Fixed a bug that prevented Grand Magus Antonidas from hitting Stealth targets and resulted in Antonidas potentially hitting the caster’s own face if the enemy hero was in Stealth.
• Fixed a bug where Tradeable cards would keep enchantments if shuffled into your deck by something other than Tradeable.
• Fixed bugs where cards like Razormane Battleguard would not properly reduce the cost of cards after Celestial Alignment was played.
• Fixed a bug where Barrens Scavenger’s cost could be reduced below 1 while you had 10 or fewer cards in your deck.
• Fixed a bug where Highlord Fordragon would trigger on minions that were not in play.
• Fixed bugs where cards like Master of Realities and Whelp Smuggler would have an incorrect number of triggers.
• Fixed a bug where swapping a Tavern Tier 6 minion (such as with Arcane Alteration, Malygos’s Hero Power) would sometimes cause it to disappear.
• Fixed a visual bug that caused enemy Tavern Tiers to show as reset to Tavern Tier 1.

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You can check out the changes in Patch 21.3 when it’s released tomorrow, Sept. 21.

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