Blizzard Introducing Ranked "Floors," Nerfing Buccaneer and Spirit Claws

[Nutri]

Really loving the 'floors' change here.




http://www.hearthhead.com/news/blizz...d-spirit-claws

According to a report by Polygon, Blizzard has announced some changes in the next Hearthstone patch which will affect the way you approach the Ranked ladder and includes some nerfs to the game's most problematic cards.

You'll unlock new Ranked floors at Rank 15, 10, and 5, keeping you from falling below those ranks once you've surpassed them for the month.

“We hope this promotes additional deck experimentation between ranks, and that any losses that may occur feel less punishing,” Blizzard is quoted as saying.

Spirit Claws will now cost two mana.

Small-Time Buccaneer will have only one Health instead of two.

Originally posted by Zeriyah.

Update 7.1 Ranked Play Changes – Floors

We’re continuously looking for ways to refine the Ranked Play experience. One thing we can do immediately to help the Ranked Play experience is to make the overall climb from rank to rank feel like more an accomplishment once you hit a certain milestone. In order to promote deck experimentation and reduce some of the feelings of ladder anxiety some players may face, we’re introducing additional Ranked Play floors.

Once a player hits Rank 15, 10, or 5, they will no longer be able to de-rank past that rank once it is achieved within a season, similar to the existing floors at Rank 20 and Legend. For example, when a player achieves Rank 15, regardless of how many losses a player accumulates within the season, that player will not de-rank back to 16. We hope this promotes additional deck experimentation between ranks, and that any losses that may occur feel less punishing.

Update 7.1 Balance Changes

With the upcoming update, we will be making balance changes to the following two cards: Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws.

Small-Time Buccaneer now has 1 Health (Down from 2)

The combination of Small Time Buccaneer and Patches the Pirate has been showing up too often in the meta. Weapon-utilizing classes have been heavily utilizing this combination of cards, especially Shaman, and we’d like to see more diversity in the meta overall. Small Time Buccaneer’s Health will be reduced to 1 to make it easier for additional classes to remove from the board.

Spirit Claws now costs 2 Mana (Up from 1)

Spirit Claws has been a notably powerful Shaman weapon. At one mana, Spirit Claws has been able to capitalize on cards such as Bloodmage Thalnos or the Shaman Hero power to provide extremely efficient minion removal on curve. Increasing its mana by one will slow down Spirit Claws’ ability to curve out as efficiently.

These changes will occur in an upcoming update near the end of February. We’ll see you in the Tavern!

The patch is expected towards the end of this month. We'll update this post as more details emerge.

[Blueobelisk]

Those floors are pretty okay. I play a lot of casual because I don't wanna lose rank. Although meh, it's minimal. A floor every rank would be sick, but probably make the game too easy.

As I said about the nerfs, Spirit Claws nerf is about as relevant as Execute nerf. But the Small time Buccaneer nerf is fantastic and long overdue.

[NED funded]

Thank god they are nerfing spirit claws. That card is broken and uping its mana cost to 2 kills the tempo swings in the early game. On small time buccaneer, that was long coming, though rouge is likely to suffer a lot from it.

[McNeil]

Glad they nerfed the Buccaneer instead of Patches. I think it will still be played but atleast its a lot easier to get rid of it, like warriors are going to love using Ravaging Ghoul as a counter. Spirit Claws has always been a stupid card, being more powerful than Fiery War Axe by just praying to RNGesus to give you a SP totem. I don't think this will reduce the popularity of shamans that much, but its something. I would've liked to see some nerfs to jade cards aswell, like Jade Lightning only hitting minions and Jade Idol putting 2 copies instead if 3 in their deck.

[Nikkaszal]

Two of the most sensible re-balances in recent times. Highly approve.

Floors sound pretty good. I usually play whatever deck I feel like and don't worry too much about pushing for hard ranking these days, but it'll be nice to not drop from 5 to 12 when I'm in the middle of deck tinkering mid-season.

[Sinyc]

Those floors are pretty okay. I play a lot of casual because I don't wanna lose rank. Although meh, it's minimal. A floor every rank would be sick, but probably make the game too easy.

As I said about the nerfs, Spirit Claws nerf is about as relevant as Execute nerf. But the Small time Buccaneer nerf is fantastic and long overdue.

It's kinda like what Halo 5 did. You get to a certain floor/rank every month. Which involves lots of wins and performing at a high level (K/D/A), then you can't fall out of it. It worked well, in my opinion.

Nothing like getting to the single digits on Ladder, only to have to start over at rank 18 or so every month.

[Nikkaszal]

It's kinda like what Halo 5 did. You get to a certain floor/rank every month. Which involves lots of wins and performing at a high level (K/D/A), then you can't fall out of it. It worked well, in my opinion.

Nothing like getting to the single digits on Ladder, only to have to start over at rank 18 or so every month.

This is only within the season. Ranks will still reset as normal. Just means that if you hit 10 THIS SEASON, you won't fall past 10 THIS SEASON.

[Deleted]

Ranked Floors sound like a great addition. Making it less frustrating to test out new Decks. I approve.

[Jester Joe]

Two of the most sensible re-balances in recent times. Highly approve.

Floors sound pretty good. I usually play whatever deck I feel like and don't worry too much about pushing for hard ranking these days, but it'll be nice to not drop from 5 to 12 when I'm in the middle of deck tinkering mid-season.

You mean, like ever

Also implying any other rebalances happened recently!

But yeah, sounds like good changes to me.

[Nikkaszal]

You mean, like ever

Also implying any other rebalances happened recently!

But yeah, sounds like good changes to me.

Yeah I think you're right there mate =D

[Sinyc]

This is only within the season. Ranks will still reset as normal. Just means that if you hit 10 THIS SEASON, you won't fall past 10 THIS SEASON.

I know, that's why I said "kinda like". Either way it's a welcome change from the stale Ladder format they have had for so long.

[Twoddle]

The new floors feature feels kinda patronising and reinforces the idea that the game is just a rank grind correlating to number of games played over the month.

[FobManX]

Good changes, but I still think the ladder grind in general needs to be reworked. Buccaneer will still see play in aggro based decks, Spirit Claws probably gets phased out(might still see play in midrange since with Thalnos its still a 4 mana 3/3 weapon which isn't awful and after Thalnos dies you can drop an Azure Drake to maintain the damage buff).

[Nutri]

The new floors feature feels kinda patronising and reinforces the idea that the game is just a rank grind correlating to number of games played over the month.

I agree on your point and I think a more radical change is need to make the ladder feel different than that.

The reason I welcome it is because I as the semi-casual/ranker often reach rank 8 with my self-made deck only to get smacked in the face and put back down to rank 19 in a few hours time because it's a non-stop chain of Pirate Warriors or Midrange Shaman (or whatever the OP turn 5-kill class is for that season) causing me to rage all over the place and make me at times not want to play ranked at all.

Not being able to be pushed under 5/10/15 softens the blow a bit.

[Kronik85]

I don't think the new rank floors achieve much if anything, if people want to climb they will still be playing the same decks as everyone else but time will tell I guess. The nerfs for a refreshing change actually hit the mark, both cards still playable in the appropriate deck but aren't so powerful they define an archetype. Spirit Claws should still have a place in midrange Shammy and STB should still have a home in Pirate Warrior and potentially Rogue which I think was the original intent of the card.

[Blueobelisk]

The reason I welcome it is because I as the semi-casual/ranker often reach rank 8 with my self-made deck only to get smacked in the face and put back down to rank 19 in a few hours time because it's a non-stop chain of Pirate Warriors or Midrange Shaman (or whatever the OP turn 5-kill class is for that season) causing me to rage all over the place and make me at times not want to play ranked at all.

So your special little deck takes you to rank 8, and within a few hours you have a net loss of 39 games to get down all the way to rank 19 (because after climbing all the way to 8, finally the aggro decks start to find you)?

No offense but that's one of the most incredibly improbable things I've read on the internet. I think well conjectured "moon landing was fake" or "vaccines cause autism" posts would be more believable than what you said.

[Wyattbw09]

The changes and nerfs are much needed and well received. However, for some reason the Hearthstone community wants to throws roses at the feet of Team Five for merely taking steps (far too late I might add) to correct their own incompetence.

They need to play test their cards before they put them in the live game. The Shaman Spirit Claws and pirate combo package should have never made into the game in the first place. Even a basic level of testing should have revealed how fast and powerful an effect it was going to have on the game. The same can be said for the face Warrior pirate package.

They say they want games to be more of a back and forth affair, and then they put garbage like this out there. If what they are saying is true then clearly their play testing is a disaster and needs to be fixed on the front end rather then adding nerfs in the back end after they have wrecked the game for a number of months.

- - - Updated - - -

The new floors feature feels kinda patronising and reinforces the idea that the game is just a rank grind correlating to number of games played over the month.

The floors are an overall good thing. The vast majority of players are not gunning to Legendary but they however, when they reach a specific level they feel constrained because doing anything new or fun will result in ending up back in the upper ranks, where they end up wrecking less skilled players when they decide they want to try and climb the ladder again.

[Nutri]

So your special little deck takes you to rank 8, and within a few hours you have a net loss of 39 games to get down all the way to rank 19 (because after climbing all the way to 8, finally the aggro decks start to find you)?

No offense but that's one of the most incredibly improbable things I've read on the internet. I think well conjectured "moon landing was fake" or "vaccines cause autism" posts would be more believable than what you said.

Alright I exaggerated dropping to rank 19, I should have put that in the message. My point was that it sucks dropping a ton of ranks due to aggro pressure and it takes longer to rank up that rank down.

[Alcsaar]

Two of the most sensible re-balances in recent times. Highly approve.

Floors sound pretty good. I usually play whatever deck I feel like and don't worry too much about pushing for hard ranking these days, but it'll be nice to not drop from 5 to 12 when I'm in the middle of deck tinkering mid-season.

I don't really like the change to STB. Druids and mages can deal with it easily now but if you're something like a paladin or hunter its still going to screw you over just as hard.

[Faltemer]

I don't really like the change to STB. Druids and mages can deal with it easily now but if you're something like a paladin or hunter its still going to screw you over just as hard.

Paladin has hero power, any pyro proc, or the 2 mana 1/1 buff your hand card. Hunter has either of their one drops (2 1/1s or 1 mana 2/1 with a one damage proc), and also unleash now clears it. A 1 health difference is always going to be a pretty big deal.