Blizzard to Nerf Two Dangerous Hearthstone Cards

Blizzard will amend the value of two major Hearthstone cards as the company continues to balance its popular collectable card game.

From September 22, the game will be patched to introduce two key changes:

• Leeroy Jenkins will cost 5 mana (up from 4)
• Starving Buzzard will cost 5 mana (up from 2) and will have 3 Attack and 2 Health (up from 2 Attack and 1 Health)

These changes, though subtle at face value, will have a significant impact on players who rely on certain combos and card-generation tactics for victory.

Those who play as Valeera, for example, can potentially chain three Leeroy Jenkins attacks in a single move, which means they can theoretically drain 18 health in a ten-mana combo. There are additions to this combo that can potentially take the total damage up even higher. Such a technique is no longer possible with a five-mana Leeroy.

Meanwhile, those who play as Rexxar can play a two-mana Starving Buzzard, and when throwing out another card (Unleash The Hounds) at three mana, can pick up as many as six new cards. This is still possible with the new changes, but cannot be done so early in the game.

Blizzard said it was aware of these issues when discussing the changes on the Battle.net forums.

"Fighting for board control and battles between minions make an overall game of Hearthstone more fun and compelling, but taking 20+ damage in one turn is not particularly fun or interactive.

"This was occurring when Leeroy was used in combination with other cards like Power Overwhelming, Faceless Manipulator, Cold Blood, Shadowstep, and Unleash the Hounds, among others.

"The amount of cards Starving Buzzard allowed Hunter players to draw ultimately ended up being too excessive for its low cost. This change will allow the Hunter’s opponent more time to react to both the Starving Buzzard and the cards drawn by its power."

Blizzard did not announce any changes to another controversial set of cards, known within the community as the "Zoolock," though the team has previously said it is looking into that particular set of cards.