GnomeSayin-11972

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).

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.

• ...

After a short delay, Patch 28.2 is now live on all devices. Come celebrate Battlegrounds Season 6 in the Spellslinger’s Saloon, a new Shop layout, and more!

The following are some of the known issues we’re tracking this patch:

• [Shop] Some players are reporting that they see a notification in the shop that they can’t dismiss if they already purchased all products from that section.
• [Resolved] [Hearthstone] Some players are reporting that Greedy Partner did not work for them if they Shadowstepped and replayed it. Update 2: This issue applies to all the “Partner” cards. We’ve released a small server patch that included a bug fix for Greedy Partner. The other Partners are to be fixed in another patch, coming soon.
• [Progression] Players who were in a match when the “Wanted, Dead or Alive!” event ended may be missing the Journal icon in the main hub. A client restart after the end of the event should resolve this issue.
• [Reso...

In the 28.0 Patch Notes, we announced that Twist would be going on hiatus for the December and January seasons, to return for the February season. We’ve seen your disappointment with that announcement, so we’ve decided to update our plans.

We’re pleased to see that Twist has some very passionate fans, and that players are enjoying the current November season (Wonders + Un’Goro). Instead of disabling Twist for December, we’re going to keep the current format going for one more season. Twist will still be taking a break for the January season and returning with a different format in February.

Why have a break at all? We want Twist to be a sandbox-like mode...

Patch 28.0.2 is a server-side patch rolling out today with the following updates and bug fixes:

Hearthstone Updates

Dev Comment: It’s been a fun few days since the launch of Showdown in the Badlands. We’ve heard a lot of yeehaws, but we’ve also seen one clear sentiment outlier for players: there’s a snake in their boots! It’s still early, so we’re not at our balance window for the set yet, but we know we want to adjust this negative play experience regardless of where the power lands, so we’ve decided to do a temporary adjustment now, ahead of our scheduled balance patch, coming soon.

However, there are limits to what we can do a server-side hotfix. First, we can only adjust the “big numbers” like stats and cost. Stats are not the problem on this card, so we’re increasing the cost here. This is NOT the change we plan to eventually land on. When we get to our balance patch, our plan is to revert this mana cost change and make a diff...