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Hearthstone Receives a Patch Which ‘Nerfs’ Certain Cards’ Abilities

 



Posted January 17, 2014 by

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In a detailed post on the official Battle.net forums Blizzard has outlined the exact effects update 1.0.0.4458 has had on its upcoming free-to-play digital card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. In the post Blizzard outline each of the changes and in almost every instance they provide a short explanation of why the team felt the change was required. In a related article lead designer Eric Dodds explains Hearthstone’s card balance philosophy by saying, “Giving you confidence in your cards and the play environment is very important to us, and each card change we make potentially undermines that confidence.” Dodds goes on to say that, “If players find a really great deck, we’ll try and slip some fun counters to that deck into the next expansion for you, instead of nerfing those cards directly.”

Dodds explains that Blizzard will only modify a card if it meets any of the following six criteria. “A card causes non-interactive games, a card is frustrating to play against, a card is causing confusion or isn’t intuitive enough, a card is too strong compared to other cards of that cost, a specific build or style of play is too strong [or the] card is too weak.” Yesterday’s update fixes a problem with the highly unpopular, “one-turn kill” decks which use Warsong Commander and Charge in a lethal combination. “We want the game to be about playing minions and fighting for board control rather than just waiting until you can play your big combo and win in one turn with no interaction from your opponent,” explains Dodds.

At present Hearthstone is in closed beta testing but, “as we look ahead to the impending Open Beta of Hearthstone,” is a clear sign that development is progressing as Blizzard expected. Blizzard are yet to announce a more specific release date than the 2014 window.

 

 

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