Blizzard recently added a massive amount of content to their deck-building card game, Hearthstone. The Ashes of Outland expansion brought in Illidan as the Demon Hunter playable hero class, marking the first new addition of a playable class to the game since it was created.
With a new class comes new cards – well over 100 cards, in fact. Naturally, this has created a few issues with balance, and as Blizzard works to solve them, they’ve been adding in some new tweaks to keep them in line.
We wrote about the nerfs that hit the Demon Hunter class in normal matches, which are pretty simple. Four of the cards are having their cost increased: Skull of Gul’dan, Imprisoned Antaen, Eye Beams, and Aldrachi Warblades.
But that doesn’t do much for the arena, and the Demon Hunter is making waves there, too. Blizzard saw it necessary to make a few changes there to reign Illidan into a more appropriate power level.
“For Arena, we’re making changes today that will see Demon Hunter class card offering rates decreased until we’re able to properly address the class with more accurate micro-adjustments in a future patch,” Blizzard writes. “The following cards have had their offering rates reduced in Arena:”
The fifteen cards are as follows:
- Chaos Nova
- Coilfang Warlord
- Command the Illidari
- Flamereaper
- Furious Felfin
- Glaivebound Adept
- Illidari Felblade
- Immolation Aura
- Metamorphosis
- Netherwalker
- Nethrandamus
- Priestess of Fury
- Skull of Gul’dan
- Twin Slice
- Umberwing
That’s definitely quite a few cards to have all those changes coming! It looks like the Demon Hunter won’t reign too supreme in Arena for a while. With their offering rates reduced, players are unlikely to see them hold the dominance that they’ve been holding.
Since it was added in, the Demon Hunter has had a pretty solid amount of dominance, and has been heavily played. Part of this is because it’s incredibly strong, working as an all-risk-all-reward sort of playstyle. The class primarily rewards going for the face and playing aggressively, especially early on, and provides multiple ways for players to heal themselves as they damage their opponents.
With these cards not appearing as often (or being more expensive, in terms of standard play), their strength is significantly reduced. It’s likely that this could be the balance change needed to bring the Demon Hunter class in order.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Blizzard is done working towards balance. There’s a good chance that this is just the first step on bringing the class under control. Expect to see more changes as Hearthstone carries on.
