Hearthstone just got a major content patch, filled with changes to overpowered cards and a complete rework of Arena. Blizzard promised us this 7.1 update in February, and they really pushed it until the last possible minute. Hearthstone’s meta has felt stale after Mean Streets Of Gadgetzan brought us Patches and his band of pirates, so many fans are hoping this patch can provide a bit of a release with a few targeted nerfs.
Here are the full patch notes straight from Blizzard themselves :
Ranked Play
Upon achieving certain milestones in Ranked Play, it will no longer be possible to lose ranks beyond those milestones for that season. The milestones are Rank 20, 15, 10, 5 and Legend.
Arena
Creating decks for the Arena will now feature Standard cards only. Arena runs that were started prior to the patch will still include Wild cards.
Rares, Epics, and Legendaries will be offered more frequently during Arena deckbuilding.
Spells will now show up with a higher frequency.
Neutral Basic / Classic cards will appear less often.
If you own a Golden version of a card, the first copy you draft will be Golden. If you own multiple Golden copies of a card, all copies you draft will be Golden.
Balance Updates
Small-time Buccaneer’s health reduced from 2 to 1.
The mana cost of Spirit Claws increased from 1 to 2.
General
Added some memory optimizations.
Improved matchmaking for new players.
We are testing an update to the account creation process for mobile players. This will minimize the overhead associated with creating a new Battle.net account, and will be available in limited release.
Maximum in-game music volume has been capped in order to retain the best audio quality.
[Android] We made some optimizations to Android distribution, allowing for a smaller install size and smoother patching in the future.
Bug Fixes
Resolved inconsistencies in the way that Small Time Buccaneer’s Attack interacts with effects such as those generated by Humility, Keeper of Uldaman, and Crazed Alchemist.
Resolved an issue where a Kazakus potion spell cards could appear blank when copied by a minion or spell effect.
Knuckles will now correctly use its effect when under the effects of Misdirection.
Addressed an issue with the interaction of Wrath’s card draw timing in conjunction with Daring Reporter.
Snipe will now correctly trigger after Potion of Polymorph.
Djinni of Zephyrs will now correctly copy spells buffed by spell damage.
Bouncing Blade will now correctly continue bouncing after clearing a Divine Shield.
Resolved an issue where seasonal reward cards could take a while to show up in the Collection Manager.
Searching the Collection Manager with a class name will now correctly display Tri-Class cards.
Resolved issues that could slow or stop payment authentication when using the in-game Shop.
Fixed many minor visual issues and some card text inconsistencies.
