Blizzard is making history in Hearthstone with an unprecedented set of buffs to all classes and a new Legendary card, which will be given to all players. The news comes only two days after balances changes were announced to go live on May 22, which largely target the Rogue class and one specific type of late-game strategy mainly used by the Warrior class.
The buffs will arrive in a patch scheduled for June 3. Players who log into the game between then and July 1 will receive a golden version of the new Legendary card, SN1P-SN4P, which looks to be a powerful addition to the already-strong Mech Hunter archetype.
The buffs will be made by targeting two cards from each class. All of the cards receiving a buff are from “The Boomsday Project” that released August 7 of last year. The aim of the buffs is to make the new expansions feel more relevant than they have been so far, and are as follows:
Druid
- Gloop Sprayer to (7) Mana. (Down from 8)
- Mulchmuncher to (9) Mana. (Down from 10)
Hunter
- Necromechanic to (4) Mana. (Down from 5)
- Flark's Boom-Zooka to (7) Mana. (Down from 8)
Mage
- Unexpected Results to (3) Mana. (Down from 4)
- Luna's Pocket Galaxy to (5) Mana. (Down from 7)
Paladin
- Crystology to (1) Mana. (Down from 2)
- Glowstone Technician to (5) Mana. (Down from 6)
Priest
- Extra Arms to (2) Mana. (Down from 3)
- Cloning Device to (1) Mana. (Down from 2)
(The More Arms token will also cost 2)
Rogue
- Pogo-Hopper to (1) Mana. (Down from 2)
- Violet Haze to (2) Mana. (Down from 3)
Shaman
- The Storm Bringer to (6) Mana. (Down from 7)
- Thunderhead to 3/6 (Up from 3/5)
Warlock
- Spirit Bomb to (1) Mana. (Down from 2)
- Dr. Morrigan to (6) Mana. (Down from 8)
Warrior
- Security Rover to 2/6 stats. (Up from 2/5)
- Beryllium Nullifier to 4/8 stats. (Up from 3/8)
Combined with the nerf to Rogue, which should also reduce the prevalence of Warrior decks since they were mainly a counter to Rogue, these changes will probably lead to more players using Mech Hunter and Summoner Mage. On the other hand, Warrior may still be popular if the buffs to its two Mech tribal cards encourage the evaluation of a Mech Warrior.
In addition, the Paladin cards receiving a buff are already being used in decks and are performing decently. However, they are being crushed by the current Rogue and Warrior meta. Paladins will only see improvements with these changes.
In addition, the arena set rotation has also been scheduled for June 3, and will include the following expansions in the draft pool:
- Classic
- Basic
- Goblins vs Gnomes
- The Grand Tournament
- One Night in Karazhan
- The Boomsday Project
- Rise of Shadows
We should note that this is not the first time Blizzard has buffed cards in the game. Previously, we have seen nerfs reverted when a card was moved to the Wild Format, such as Molten Giant, and we have seen tribal tags added to some cards. However, those changes impacted the metagame far less than these upcoming changes.