by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Every Friday, we will be sharing with you our Blue Post Round-up – the “can’t miss”, quirkiest, or most insightful blue posts from the previous week.

The Road to the Hearthstone World Championship: Final qualifiers for the first Hearthstone World Championship are in full swing, and there’s a lot going on leading up to BlizzCon. CM Whirthun helps keep it all straight with his official update this past Wednesday.

It’s no easy feat making it to the World Championship at BlizzCon 2014—the road is long, nerve-wracking, and filled with skilled players from all over the world! Currently, qualified card-slingers everywhere are dueling their way through various tournaments in an effort to make it to the next stage. Soon, individuals from Korea, Taiwan, China, Europe, and the Americas will come together at the biggest showdown in competitive Hearthstone, but just how do they get there? We’ve conjured a handy visual guide to help you track the progress of your favorite players!

Nerfs, Nerfs, Nerfs: While the World Championship remains an incredibly exciting topic for a number of Hearthstone enthusiasts, the really big news this week were the nerfs to Starving Buzzard and Leeroy Jenkins. CM Zeriyah explains:

Both before and after the release of Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure, we have been monitoring card balance as more Hearthstone games are played along with the new cards that have been added. After careful consideration we have decided to make balance changes to Leeroy Jenkins (Neutral) and Starving Buzzard(Hunter).

The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:

• Leeroy Jenkins now costs 5 (up from 4)
• Starving Buzzard now costs 5 (up from 2) and now has 3 Attack and 2 Health (up from 2 Attack and 1 Health)

Leeroy Jenkins created a strategy that revolved around trying to defeat your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. 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.

Expert cards that are being changed can be disenchanted for their full cost for a limited time once this balance change goes live. The currently targeted date of this balance change is September 22nd. 

After these balance changes go live on September 22nd, we will not be making additional card changes between September 22nd and the Hearthstone World Championship at BlizzCon.

We will continue to make balance changes to Hearthstone only when we feel they are completely necessary in order to increase the variety of cards seen at all levels of play and make Hearthstone a more fun and interactive game for everyone.

Show Off Your Naxxramas Victory in Style: We’ve been there, done that… but until now, we did not get our Naxxramas Heroic T-shirt. All that has now changed.

"Now YOU wear shirt!" Get the NEW Heroic #Naxxramas Shirt today from the Blizzard Gear Store! http://t.co/j5sLQjwCGd pic.twitter.com/EuKB5wWUxL

— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) August 25, 2014