Hearthstone has a continuously evolving meta wherein a buff or nerf to a single card can change the entire look of several decks. The latest update, v20.8.2, focuses on nerfing the burst healing and regeneration powers of the Priest while also lowering the snowball potential provided by the Gibberling.

The Priest Nerf

The developers have chosen to nerf the Priest in an attempt to make it more balanced compared to other heroes. The nerf has been dealt through two popular cards in Priest decks – Apotheosis and Renew.

Apotheosis is a 3 Mana card that grants one minion additional Attack and Health by 2 and 3 basis points respectively along with giving the minion Lifesteal. While the card alone grants a lot of regeneration ability to the Priest, the combination of Apotheosis along with Blademaster Samuro, a card released in the latest Forged in the Barrens expansion, is frightening. Samuro and Apotheosis, when played together, grant instant damage and regeneration ability through the Rush and Lifesteal combination. The developers have nerfed the Attack and Health increment by a single basis point respectively, which denies almost an entire heal for the Priest and lowers the burst potential.

Renew’s Mana Cost has been increased from 1 to 2 with the same view in mind, to nerf the generation potential of the Priest. Increasing the cost to 2 Mana eliminates the possibility of the card being pulled through the Wandmaker and also makes it a costlier addition to the Priest decks. The developers also teased that the Priest will have a slightly different identity in future expansions.

Gibberling

Gibberling’s cost has been increased to stand at 2 Mana. Gibberling at 1 Mana just had too much burst potential early on in a game that rendered the results of many battles in the first few moves only. Now, with 2 Mana, Gibberling is not as instant a feature in battles and will allow the opponent to be more prepared for the card.

Miscellaneous News

• Updated the wording of Kurtrus Ashfallen’s fully upgraded Battlegrounds Hero Power to clarify its one-time completion (no functional change).
• Updated Archdruid Hamuul in Battlegrounds so that when your minion types are tied, he will not refresh Bob’s Tavern with minion types that are not in the pool.
• Adjusted Darkmoon Prizes to offer better Prizes for players on the bottom half of the leaderboard.
• The three cards – Apotheosis, Renew and Gibberling – will be available for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after patch 20.8.2.