Blizzard apparently heard fans complain about the disheartening combo of Divine Spirit and Inner Fire. Now, the company might just remove the two-spell manna, Divine Spirit, altogether.
This was confirmed by designer August Dean Ayala in a tweet as he said that they have plans to take out Divine Spirit. But that will come with some “sweeping changes” will other facets of the game. But if they do remove DS, and it’s still a “big maybe” at this point, it won’t be immediate.
We have some plans to remove DS, but it comes with some other sweeping changes. If we end up doing that (a big maybe) it will probably be around set rotation timeline because we don't feel like it's as much an issue for current Hearthstone as it is for future Hearthstone.
— August Dean Ayala (@RiotIksar) September 24, 2019
They plan to implement a rotation timeline considering that it’s not a pressing issue for current Hearthstone players. Although he acknowledged that it will be an issue for future Hearthstone updates. The set rotation is scheduled in April next year, so maybe there’s going to be some changes by then.
Hearthstone players have observed that the Priest deck has become quite powerful after some expansion. The Priest deck is simple enough. You just place on the board a minion with a good amount of health. You then reinforce it with some cards, like the Power Word: Shield for defense. You activate the Divine Spirit and play Inner Fire. You make that minion almost unbeatable.
Divine Spirit doubles the minion’s health; the damage caused by Inner Fire is equal to the minion’s health. So it’s a very potent combination.
Simon Welch has tweeted an image showing that he’s 20-0 when using Priest with Divine Spirit and Inner Fire combo.
That got a response from Ayala who said that Priest, as it currently stands, is fine. For instance, in the recent ranks, Priest was in eighth place. High above him were Beast Hunter, Murloc Shaman, Tempo Rogue, Tempo Warrior, Zoo Warlock, Murlock Shaman, and Brann Hunter.
Even looking back on Patron that statement is a little bit of stretching the truth. Great players have high win rates with all decks. We nerfed Patron not because it was too powerful at high levels, but because it one shot people in ways they couldn't play around.
— August Dean Ayala (@RiotIksar) September 24, 2019
In an exchange of tweets with Ayala, Simon Welch that Priest is favored to win against every single matchup. He likened Priest with the Patron Warrior, which Blizzard had to nerf because it proved to be too powerful.
But Ayala claimed that to say Patron Warrior was too powerful was stretching the truth a little bit. The designer said they nerfed Patron because people could not get around its one shot. And while Ayala doesn’t like Divine Spirit/Inner Fire combo as an evergreen condition, it’s easier to beat than Patron. The Divine Spirit and Inner Fire are included in the evergreen Basic and Classic sets. This means they are not part of the cards to be rotated.
