Hearthstone Patch 17.0.3 went live yesterday. But unless you play Arena, you probably didn’t notice.
The latest patch was introduced as a hotfix and is geared toward balancing some wonky statistics that are affecting the Arena game type. Patch 17.0.3 will make minor adjustments to card offering rates in Arena, according to the Hearthstone team.
In Standard or Wild Hearthstone, matches are played with fully-constructed decks. Players sift through their entire collection and are able to craft any deck they’d like before heading into play mode. Arena, on the other hand, is what’s referred to as a Draft format.
In a Draft format, players choose from a random assortment of cards to create their deck. In Hearthstone‘s Arena, players choose from 30 different selections of cards. Players then take their crafted deck and attempt to obtain 12 wins before they suffer three losses.
Patch 17.0.3 intends to alter the Draft phase in a way that will keep all classes around a 50-percent win rate in Arena. Specifically, the team wants to see the win rate of Demon Hunter and Priest drop in Arena, while the win rate of the other classes goes up. This means Priest and Demon Hunter have been dominating Arena since Ashes of Outland went live.
Players who have spent a considerable amount of time on the ranked ladder shouldn’t be surprised to hear Demon Hunter was one of the targeted classes. Since joining the game, the Demon Hunter class has suffered a variety of nerfs but it continues to dominate at every level thanks to cards like Altruis the Outcast and Twin Slice.
Though Patch 17.0.3 was only intended to make changes to Demon Hunter in Arena, odds are Illidan hasn’t seen the last of the nerf bat.
