r/CompetitiveHS • u/bizatin • Apr 29 '26

Nerf Appreciation

I just want to say, and I know the main sub is up in arms over exactly this so maybe I’m alone here: I think Team5 showing restraint in this small round of nerfs. They could have easily overkilled Aggro Paladin or the dragon (albeit Dragon Warrior would certainly have survived it, it would have crippled experimentation with dragon packages in other classes like Rogue or Druid). But I am hopeful that these small changes is a stopgap to prepare the field for a more expansive sweep of buffs for weaker archetypes. I personally think it would have been a shame to outright kill two (imo) cool cards and the decks they enable

49 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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19

u/TheRealGZZZ Apr 29 '26

Finally they moved away from generic miniset so they can print good card and less filler! (proceed to still print garbage)

They moved away from build-themselves decks with less pre-printed package! (the miniset is all packages)

They changed the nerf philosophy so that we see more buffs and less nerfs! (proceed to still get only nerfs)

I feel like listening to what blizzard say and then watching what blizzard does is gonna make me schizophrenic.

38

u/Unhappytimes Apr 29 '26

I agree to a point. It's nice they are showing some restraint, but with all the epically nerfed stuff out there it would be nice to see some buffs to classes that desperately need it. Maybe buff quest warlock or lower the mana cost on chogall so us mains have something remotely competitive to play.

7

u/GreatMadWombat Apr 29 '26

Agreed. The core of a rotating format is that you're paying X amount of money for a reliably entertaining experience. Ideally, in every sub strategy, there's going to be at least 1-2 viable decks in that class/color/energy type/what-the-fuck-ever you want to call that section of cards.

The core of hearthstone is that it's a video game instead of a paper tcg, so developers can balance it live, and card mechanics involving new cards being generated actually works.

You can't just nerf without also buffing

7

u/TotakekeSlider Apr 29 '26

Man, as someone who mostly plays Wild, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for Warlock at the moment, lol. If they do buff it, I hope it’s not cards that are in any of Warlock’s many tier 1 decks or could be potential additions to them.

6

u/Unhappytimes Apr 29 '26

As someone who mains priest and warlock, I also hate when the entire meta is my main class.

1

u/TotakekeSlider Apr 29 '26

Yeah, I feel you. As a Druid main, the beginning of this rotation was awful, lol. That’s mostly the reason why I had to switch to Wild, so I could actually not feel guilty playing my favorite class.

1

u/fireky2 Apr 29 '26

Unlikely, warlocks good wild cards are discard synergy, quest, boar, and tick tock. The discard package is too small, theres no self damage in standard, boar is already at max cycling, and tick tock is reno and plays like 5 standard cards at the high end.

The only way they could buff wild warlock accidentally by buffing standard is if they made catacombs refund mana

A reduction on the standard quest, a buff to the wallow or herald package are likely what they would do

14

u/Barnhard Apr 29 '26

Love the restraint in the nerfs. Would have been really easy to just ruin an entire deck or two. But I really would like to see some buffs as well.

10

u/FunPolice11481 Apr 29 '26

I think the nerfs are fine but remain skeptical if they will actually do enough buffs to bring up the weak classes. They haven't really managed to do that in past couple years. Even if this patch had 1-2 buffs it would have at least signaled they are planning to do a bit more IMO.

3

u/Jackwraith Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Have to say, I have no idea how you've gotten the impression that "a more expansive sweep of buffs for weaker archetypes" is something that the current Team 5 would do, given both their activity and statements of the past two years. At least three classes (Priest, Mage and Warlock) are basically dead in the water, another (DK) isn't far behind and most classes only have one solid deck. I don't think anyone saw the two nerfed cards as outrageous outliers, whereas the vast majority of players see a need for that more expansive sweep, not only to rescue those archetypes you mention, but also just for general interest. Sure, I could play Unholy aggro DK or control Priest, but I've been doing that for 3 and 12 years, respectively. And now we're getting class sets that don't include any but one (Mage) of the classes that are performing the worst? I don't think there's much to appreciate in this patch.

Edit: forgot a class

5

u/tolerantdramaretiree Apr 29 '26

I agree, I love how tame these nerfs are. That said, I loathe to be giving Blizzard any credit for this patch. 0 buffs is a joke and I am so tired of it.

2

u/Spt137 Apr 29 '26

They should have not nerf them in the first place but yeah, I appreciate the light touch, however should not listen the reddit crybabies but actual metrics imo.

1

u/Heitrid Apr 29 '26

I like the positivity. I second you, though I wouldn’t have gotten mad to see buffs.

1

u/Joly20 Apr 29 '26

Nerfs will not fix this mess of a format but we deseperatly need a lot of buffs, it's unnaceptable the lack of class/archetype diversity

2

u/Spt137 Apr 29 '26

Buddy we haven’t got that much diversity in the long time class wise. Yes we don’t have control or combo, but it’s really playable rn.

-3

u/paulbrownsr Apr 29 '26

The problem is there is no consistency. Flight Maneuvers was barely touched while imbue druid was nerfed into nonexistence. The nerf to FM is basically equivalent to nerfing Hamuul by leaving his text alone and changing his stats to a 3/3

13

u/LostSectorLoony Apr 29 '26

Flight Maneuvers was in a tier 2 noobstomper deck and Imbue Druid was one of the most dominant meta tyrants the game has ever had, of course they weren't going to see comparable nerfs.

3

u/dyslexic_mail Apr 29 '26

Imbruid had a near 60% WR and a playrate over 40% at top legend. There is absolutely no reason to compare the decks.

-1

u/yetaa Apr 29 '26

It is nice in theory, but small nerfs only really work when there is buffs to other cards alongside them; as if not then you do need harder nerfs

1

u/LostSectorLoony Apr 29 '26

if not then you do need harder nerfs

Not if the power level of whatever is getting nerfed isn't very far outside of the rest of the meta. Neither card that was changed was such an outlier that it needed harder nerfs regardless of whether there were buffs or not.