Earlier today, Blizzard senior game designer August Dean “Iksar” Ayala announced on Twitter the next Hearthstone balance patch is in the works. Galakrond has been too strong for a while now, which might come to an end soon. This patch was hinted at before with the previous Hearthstone patch, released with the Dec. 19 update.
Planning another balance patch. Will share some more information next week as we solidify. Some of the Galakrond decks are just a touch more powerful than they need to be to be successful. Also contemplating light changes to non-Galakrond archetypes like Pirate War and DR Rogue. pic.twitter.com/UghiQzFwEw
— August Dean Ayala 💙 (@IksarHS) January 5, 2020
What is expected to change with the new Hearthstone patch
As Iksar says, problematic Galakrond decks will be a focus of the patch. Currently, the most oppressive one is the Shaman form of Galakrond, which received a small nerf before. However, other classes such as Priest and Warrior have gained a lot of strength recently through their new builds with Galakrond.
In addition to these proposed changes, Iksar also mentioned the team is considering changes to Pirate Warrior and Deathrattle Rogue, which currently are both among the best-performing decks based on the stats available on HSReplay.
Some examples of cards that could be targeted by the nerfs are cards like Shield of Galakrond or Devoted Maniac. While they are both already relatively weak cards, they would reduce the overall strength of Galakrond decks across the board. In the past, Team 5 has leaned towards changing lower-rarity cards while keeping the number of changes as limited as possible.
Another offender, specifically for Galakrond Shaman, would be Corrupt Elementalist. While Corrupt Elementalist was already nerfed in the previous update, the card is still among the best-performing cards in the deck by quite a margin.
Changes to Battlegrounds
Iksar further added that changes for the Hearthstone Battlegrounds game mode are in the works, and we should expect to see some changes included with the upcoming patch. However, changes for Hearthstone Battlegrounds are planned further out, set for the upcoming 2-3 months, which will include new cards, heroes, and balance changes.
The next Hearthstone balance patch is expected to come out later this month, alongside the new solo-game mode. The new game mode, Galakrond’s Awakening, is expected to release in the second half of January and is expected to include a total of 35 new cards to be played in all formats. For more about the new solo game mode, be sure to read our coverage of the expansion.
