Blizzard has announced that several Hearthstone cards are getting nerfed in the game’s upcoming patch.  The latest batch of Hearthstone nerfs are targeting five cards, three of which are Basic class cards.  The developer also broke down their reasoning behind nerfing each card, while commenting on why it chose not to change two particular ones that many players were hoping to see tweaked.  

The first three cards that are being nerfed – all of which are Basic class cards – are Hex, Innervate, and Fiery War Axe.  “While they can be regarded as staples in those classes’ card repertoires, too many Basic and Classic cards played in individual decks means less fun when new expansions are released,’ said Blizzard in its blog post.  “Cards in the Basic set serve several purposes in the game, so we would rather make balance adjustments to them instead of moving them to the Hall of Fame, like we have done for cards in the Classic set.  We are also trying to limit Hall of Fame changes to the start of each Hearthstone Year, which is why Murloc Warleader–a Classic card–is receiving a balance change instead of moving to the Hall of Fame.”  

All of the cards that are getting nerfed in the next patch can be seen above, with each picture depicting the artwork before and after their upcoming nerfs.  Three of the five cards are only having their mana costs nerfed, while both Innervate and Murloc Warleader are becoming less powerful once the patch containing the Hearthstone nerfs go live.  Once the patch has gone live, players will have two weeks to disenchant the nerfed non-Basic cards for their full Arcane Dust value.

Blizzard went on to discuss its decision to leave two particular cards unchanged, despite several balance-related discussions suggesting that something should be done with them.  The first card – Ultimate Infestation – is a card that players hate losing to, given its huge effect when played.  That said, Blizzard’s data regarding individual card performance reveals that Ultimate Infestation is performing somewhere around the middle compared to the other cards, so the team has decided to leave it unchanged.  Ice Block, however, is a different story.  Instead of defending their decision to leave the card unchanged, the team instead chose to remind players that “moving cards to the Hall of Fame occurs at the start of the Hearthstone Year,” and that they “want to avoid moving cards mid-year.”

So, thoughts on the upcoming Hearthstone nerfs?  What other cards were you hoping to see get nerfed or buffed?  Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news!  Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!