Hearthstone’s first round of balance changes for Descent of Dragons hits live servers

The eagerly awaited balance changes for Hearthstone’s new Descent of Dragons expansion have finally arrived.

These changes are aimed at balancing the Shaman class which was overpowered after the release of the expansion. If you’ve played any Hearthstone over the past week then you probably know first-hand how frustrating it has been to play against Galakrond Shaman. The changes outlined below are intended to reduce the power of the Shaman class in an attempt to level the playing field.

Corrupt Elementalist will now cost six mana instead of five. This card has a Battlecry that allows the player to Invoke Galakrond twice. Corrupt Elementalist was instrumental in Galakrond Shaman’s ability to snowball so fast early on.

Sludge Slurper now has one attack down from two. Sludge Slurper has a Battlecry that allows you to add a Lackey to your hand, and it then overloads you by one mana. Faceless Corrupter now has four attack instead of five. This card is a five-cost minion that has Rush, as well as a Battlecry that allows it to transform one of your minions into a copy of it.

Mogu Fleshshaper will now cost nine mana instead of seven. The card is a 3/4 minion with Rush and costs one less for each minion on the battlefield. Increasing its mana cost will likely make it much more difficult for Shaman players to cheat the card out so early.

Now that the patch is live players will be able to disenchant the nerfed cards for their full arcane dust value. If you plan on disenchanting the cards for their full dust value, you’ll need to make sure you do so within the next two weeks. After the two-week mark is up, the cards will go back to having the normal dust value based on their rarity.