Hearthstone Dev Tracker

The following is being posted on behalf of Aleco Pors, Final Design Lead.

Hey everyone!

We’ve got a really big balance patch planned for later this week, with changes to around 30 cards, including buffs and nerfs—and a few Wild changes. Since this patch has different goals from most other patches, I’d like to provide you all with some more context as to what we’re thinking and how we got here.

In this patch, we are attempting to address issues which have cropped up with the overall health of Standard, as opposed to correcting issues with the health of the specific meta like we normally do. Alarm bells started to go off within the design team when we noticed that the power level of Hearthstone didn’t seem to drop much (if at all) after the recent annual rotation. This sparked a lot of internal discussion about certain gameplay patterns in the current meta – particularly hyper-efficient AoE board clears, “OTK” style decks that la...

Hey everyone, we have another bot ban update to share with you.

Since our last post, we’ve continued our regular cadence of anti-bot detection and actions. In that time, we’ve actioned over 240,000 additional accounts.

In Patch 29.2, we also made an update to Arena matchmaking as a proactive step against extreme play patterns specific to that Mode, sometimes referred to as “barcode accounts.” Now, if you repeatedly retire runs early, you will be put into a separate matchmaking pool for your run. Being able to retire an Arena run early is an important feature for when you want to play a different deck. But, for a small percentage of players, it’s used to repeatedly draft new decks until they get one they consider extremely strong. This chan...

Patch 29.2.1 is a server-side hotfix rolling out now with the following game updates and bug fixes.

Weekly Quest Update

The Weekly Quest requirements are now as follows:

• Use your Hero Power 30 times (instead of 40)
• Play Battlecry cards 75 times (instead of 100)
• Play Miniaturize or Mini cards 32 times (instead of 60)
• Win games in Tavern Brawl, Arena, or Battlegrounds 10 times (instead of 15)
• Win ranked Hearthstone games 10 times (instead of 15)
• Damage enemy heroes 400 damage (not changed this patch)
• Spend 750 mana (not changed this patch)

XP granted by the Weekly Quests is not changing from the new higher amount.

Dev Comment: To get these changes out as fast as we could, we’ve put them into this server-only hotfix. That means there will be some weirdness where the numbers look unchanged in the client, but function as described above (so your rank...

That’s not a bug: paying health isn’t taking damage.

Thanks to everyone reporting the Death Knight weapon freezing thing. The team’s looking into it.

Patch 29.2 is here, bringing with it Battlegrounds Season 7, Battlegrounds Duos, and much more! This is a big patch, so there are a few known issues we’re tracking. Refer to this post for updates throughout this patch.

The known issues we’re tracking this patch include:

• [Shop] Mac desktop clients are unable to access the Shop in patch 29.2. We’re working on a solution to this issue. In the meantime, you can still make any purchases through the web shop or mobile devices.
• [Cosmetics] There is a bug where the default Coin is generated in-game instead of your Favorited Coin. This is scheduled to be fixed in the next major patch.
• [Added 4/16] [Collection] The team is investigating reports of players unable to open their last pack in a stack. This is believed to be a purely visual bug related to packs granted when retiring Duels.
• [Added 4/16] [Battlegrounds] Using Reno’s Hero Power on Persistent Poet results in a visual bug ...

This month has been a busy month in our battle against the bots. Since our last update just three weeks ago, we’ve ratcheted up our bot detection and banned over 585,000 more bots–including over half a million bots throughout this week! We hope they’re shaking in their circuits.

Cheaters are not welcome in our Tavern. You can continue to help in the ongoing battle against these botters by using the in-game reporting feature. While you do, we’ll continue fighting on your behalf, too.

29.0.1 is a server-side patch, rolling out today with the following bug fixes and updates:

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where no-rarity Legacy cards that have versions entering Core in 29.0 were given a rarity, resulting in them appearing in packs. Players who erroneously opened these packs will receive a dust refund in an upcoming correction.

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Night Elf Huntress couldn’t target minions summoned by a Deathrattle in the middle of its Battlecry.

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where the different Silver Hand Recruits counted as different minions for purposes of cards like Tyr’s Tears.

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Infused Totemic Evidence still gave Strength Totem instead of Wrath of Air Totem.

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Shudderblock’s effect blocked damage in certain circumstances when it shouldn’t.

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Crafter’s Aura coul...

Patch 29.0 is now live. Join us in celebrating 10 years of Hearthstone! This patch includes tons of card updates, preparations for Whizbang’s Workshop and new year, and more. Unfortunately, with a patch of this size, there are a few issues.

The following is a list of issues we’re tracking this patch:

• [Resolved] [Hearthstone] A few card change reverts didn’t make it into the initial Patch Notes. They’ve now been added. Consider them bonus reverts!
• [Resolved] [Twitch Drops] We’re investigating an issue where Community Day drops aren’t being granted as expected. (Update: It appears likely this is the standard delay with Twitch drops, where it can take up to 48 hours for drops to appear. The team will continue to track this issue and take action if needed.)
• [In-Game Rewards] People who logged in after 10 a.m. PDT, but before Patch 29.0 is live on their device, wi...

Hello all,

We have another quick update on our continued fight against botting in Hearthstone. Since last month’s bans, we’ve continued to refine our bot-detection systems. This week, we actioned nearly 85,000 accounts for botting. We’re continuing our efforts against these cheaters, and you can continue helping by using the in-game reporting function to report suspected bots.

Patch 28.6.3 is a server-side patch rolling out now with the following updates.

Battlegrounds Updates

Armor Updates

The following heroes now have more Armor:

• Dancin’ Deryl and Galewing now have 10 Armor

• Death Speaker Blackthorn and Deathwing now have 12 Armor

• Patches the Pirate now has 13 Armor at higher levels, still has 5 Armor at lower levels

• Millificent Manastorm now has 14 Armor at higher levels, still has 6 Armor at lower levels

• Enhance-o Mechano and Varden Dawngrasp now have 15 Armor

• Cariel Roame now has 16 Armor at higher levels, still has 10 Armor at lower levels

• George the Fallen and Rakanishu now have 17 Armor

• Ragnaros the Firelord now has 18 Armor at higher levels, still has 13 Armor at lower levels

The following heroes now have less Armor:

...

Patch 28.6.1 is a server-side hotfix rolling out now with the following updates and bug fixes.

Battlegrounds Updates

Armor Changes

The following heroes have more Armor:

• Millhouse Manastorm now has 7 Armor at higher levels, still has 10 at lower levels
• E.T.C., Band Manager now has 8 Armor at higher levels, still has 10 at lower levels
• Inge, the Iron Hymn now has 11 Armor at higher levels, still has 6 at lower levels
• Rock Master Voone now has 12 Armor at higher levels, still has 15 at lower levels
• Mutanus the Devourer now has 13 Armor
• Cariel Roame now has 14 Armor at higher levels, still has 10 at lower levels
• Heistbaron Togwaggle now has 14 Armor
• Elise Starseeker now has 15 Armor
• Pyramad, Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher, and Y’Shaarj now have 16 Armor

The following heroes have less Armor:

• Death Speaker Blackthorn now has 10 Armor

  ...

Thanks for the report. Just added this to the known issues.

Patch 28.6 is now live. With it, we’re kicking off our year-long 10-year anniversary celebration and starting on our path to Hearthstone’s next expansion: Whizbang’s Workshop! Make sure you check out our blogs for details.

With so many goodies in this patch, we’ve unfortunately hit a few snags, too. Here are some of the Known Issues we’re tracking in this patch:

• [Resolved] [Hearthstone] In classic Shudderwock fashion, Harth Stonebrew’s iconic Shaman hand is appearing twice as frequently as intended and the iconic Mage hand isn’t appearing at all. This is scheduled to be corrected in an upcoming hotfix.
• [Hearthstone] Malfurion’s Gift contains the versions of Swipe and Wild Growth that currently exist. When cards are updated in Patch 29.0, they will pull from the updated versions.
• [Resolved] [General] We are expecting a delay with the release of Patch 28.6 on the Samsung store. Affected players are expected to still be able to get it from the Goog...

Throughout last year, we shared several updates with you about our ongoing fight against unauthorized bots in Hearthstone. This year, we plan to keep the fight, and the updates, coming.

Yesterday, we dropped the largest banhammer the Tavern has ever seen, several times the size of our previous banwaves. Over 135,000 accounts were actioned—targeting bot accounts that real players are most likely to run into on the ladder.

In addition to this latest action, we actioned about 60,000 accounts throughout the month of January for botting. We also ...

Patch 28.4.2 is a small server-side hotfix patch rolling out now with the following bug fixes:

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Therazane’s Deathrattle didn’t properly work when triggered multiple times.

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Corrupted Tickatus would remove 10 cards instead of 5 with its effect.

• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Cultist S’Thara summoned the minion that was destroyed by Archlich Kel’Thuzad (in addition to being the wrong gameplay effect, this bug caused server desyncs, resulting in players seeing different combat results).

Hello everyone,

Yesterday, we disabled Heroic Duels to prevent malicious users from using third party software to break deckbuilding restrictions. This is a violation of our Terms of Service, and the offending accounts have been banned.

We are currently testing a fix to close the vulnerability as soon as possible. Once confirmed, this will be added in a server-side hotfix and the Heroic Duels queue will be reenabled.

Additionally, players who had lost Heroic Duels games to illegal decks will receive 10 Tavern Tickets–these will be granted to impacted player accounts at a later date.

Thank you for your patience.

Edit: Tavern Ticket grants to affected players have now been distributed.

Edit 2: It looks like we missed one category of cheaters, so we’re opening this back up to finish the job.

Patch 28.4 is now live, bringing with it the Delve Into Deepholm Mini-Set, with new dual-class cards, more Excavate Treasures, old friends, and more!

Follow this post for more information about known issues that we’re tracking in this patch, including the following:

• [Resolved Jan 19 - Hearthstone] Velarok Windblade was unintentionally reverted to its prior transformation requirement (3 cards from another class).
• [Resolved Jan 19 - Hearthstone] We’ve temporarily banned Jotun the Eternal due to a bug with its effect. It will be unbanned once we’ve resolved the issue.
• [Resolved Jan 29 - Hearthstone] Lightshow was unintentionally changed.
• [Resolved Feb 1 - Hearthstone] Tickatus’s effect isn’t working as intended.
• [Hearthstone] Raid Boss Onyxia continues to deny that Starlight Whelp is a whelp.
• [Resolved Feb 2 - Duels] We’re temporarily tur...

As the year winds down, we wanted to give you another update on our increased actions against unauthorized bots this year.

Since our last update in October, we’ve banned an additional 114,237 accounts for botting. We’ve now banned over 284,000 total accounts for botting throughout the year. As you can see from those numbers, we’ve been ramping up our efforts throughout the year. We’ll be continuing the fight into the new year, and we have ...

Patch 28.2.2 is a server-side hotfix patch, rolling out now with the following updates:

Battlegrounds Updates

General Updates

We have adjusted turn times to be slightly shorter in the early game to minimize idle playtime and to be slightly longer in the late game to account for the current metagame. We will keep an eye on these and continue to iterate on them in the future.

Armor Updates

The following heroes now have less Armor:

• Lich Baz’hial has 5 Armor.

• Snake Eyes and Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher have 6 Armor.

The following heroes now have more Armor:

• Infinite Toki now has 13 Armor.

• Lord Barov now has 14 Armor at higher ranked lobbies, still has 19 Armor at lower ranked lobbies.

• Kurtrus Ashfallen, Deathspeaker Blackthorn, and Vol’jin now have 15 Armor at all ranks.

• ...