Blizzard Talks About The Reason Behind The Recent 'Hearthstone' Druid Nerfs
Blizzard recently announced a number of nerfs in the upcoming update of its digital card game "Hearthstone" and they're more far reaching than what players expected. This is especially true for the Druid class who appears to be the target of the nerf stick slap.
The nerf was aimed at Innervate, a card with a deceptively harmless effect "Gain 2 Mana Crystal this turn only." This was recently halved to just 1 and is expected to have at least a moderate impact on the current meta.
To people who don't play as Druid, this might seem like a small thing. But when different variations of the class all use this particular card, the nerf's effects quickly become obvious.
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According to Blizzard, using Innervate allows Druids to have an explosive start something the opposing player will find difficult to recover from. The nerf reduces Innervate to a basic card allowing for a more balanced start for both players while at the same time doesn't make the card utterly useless.
IGN spoke with the game's senior designer Mike Donais and game designer Dean Ayala regarding the chat. The two had some pretty interesting insights regarding the thinking that's behind the recent nerf.
According to Ayala, Innervate is a good card. So good that it resulted in Druids playing the same decks from set to set. And that is something they don't want to happen. The thing that makes "Hearthstone" fun is when players see a bunch of different things from set to set and game to game — Innervate is making that hard to achieve.
A little balance and a little variety seem to be the reason behind Druid being hit by the nerf hammer. But it isn't all bad though. Sure it will take some time to get used to, but nerfing Innervate to encourage players to embrace variety is a step in the right direction as far as the "Hearthstone" meta is concerned.
