Today, Hearthstone teased the upcoming nerfs in patch 24.4.3: Theotar and Beast Hunter have their days numbered. While Blizzard will release patch notes on Thursday, the Hearthstone Twitter account announced 4 cards getting nerfed. Will this be the end of Hunterstone?
Hearthstone is finally nerfing Theotar in patch 24.4.3
Theotar is one of the most popular cards in Hearthstone right now, with over 40% of representation in decks, and it’s not clear how nerfing it would work. From what we know, Theotar has been on Hearthstone devs since patch 24.2.2, but it dodged the nerf back then.
“Due to both his play rate and the frustration that we’ve been hearing about him, we’ll be considering changes to Theotar in the next patch, but probably nothing too crazy.”
Theotar’s problem is not only its power level but how it makes Hearthstone players feel, and that’s why the community has been asking for nerfs. While many players dream that the card would “give your charge minions +1 attack” (are you old, but that old?), the discussion on how to nerf the card is a complex one.
Theotar – Image via Blizzard
OG Nerfed Warsong Commander – Image via Blizzard
The most common kind of nerf is reducing stats. However, Theotar’s problem is not related to them but to its toxic effect. Increasing the Mana cost could be a solution. With Mutanus, a similar disruptive card costing 7 Mana, and being objectively worse, putting Theotar anything below 6 Mana wouldn’t solve the issue.
One last resource Hearthstone could use to nerf Theotar is to redesign the card. Much like what happened with Illucia, if the problem root is on the card’s effect. Just changing that might be the best solution. Hearthstone patch notes will arrive on Thursday, and unless devs spoil it on social media, we will have to wait until then to see what happens to Theotar.
One thing is for sure, touching Theotar in a Denathrius-dominated meta could backfire. Lunalove already talked about this in a tweet longer a month ago. Theotar is a symptom of a meta that relies on a few powerful cards.
Hunter nerfs incoming
As we predicted last week, Hunter will suffer Nerf Hammer’s wrath too. Hearthstone teased that two Wildseeds and Harpoon Gun will be nerfed. Is this enough to end Hunterstone? Well, first of all, these might not be the only nerfs Hearthstone delivers to Hunter.
Hearthstone nerfs are coming, will they end Beast Hunter’s dominance?
Beast Hunter is by far the best and most popular deck in the meta. With Hearthstone’s latest mini-set not delivering justice, players ask for nerfs.
If we read carefully, the tweet says: “Look forward to updates on cards like…”. Teasing that there might be more changes. While it’s uncertain if that refers to more Hunter nerfs or if Hearthstone devs will be introducing buffs, we should be prepared for more.
These Hearthstone nerfs are much easier to predict than Theotar’s. Probably Harpoon Gun will be reverted to its original version in which it only discounted 2 Mana the Dreaged beast. Furthermore, the Bear and Stag will probably lose some stats since changing the mana cost for Wild Spirits would probably kill the card.
Hearthstone Beast Hunter possible Nerfs – Image via HsReplay
Other nerfs (and buffs?) with the 24.4.3 Hearthstone Patch
We have little proof at the moment, but we can build a strong case to argue that there will be more changes coming. To begin with, the Hearthstone tweet didn’t limit the changes only to nerfs, it said “updates”.
Furthermore, there have been some recent discussions about Renathal. The card’s popularity has skyrocketed and changed the game completely. 40-card decks are now the rule, not the exception. While I suspect that if Hearthstone were about to nerf Renathal, they would have teased it too. We can’t leave it off the table for now.
Last but not least, Matt London, Modes Design Lead for Hearthstone, has been talking about leveling up old cards to match the game’s current powerlevel. Maybe, alongside these nerfs, we will see Wild buffs for the first time in Hearthstone’s history in patch 24.4.3.
We have 48 hours to theorize and speculate until Hearthstone reveals the nerfs coming in the 24.4.3 patch. Moreover, it is yet to be discovered if the patch will hit this Thursday or if we will only get the patch notes that day.
Make sure you stay tuned to Esports.gg to see how this story develops. See you next time in the tavern.
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