In a Reddit AMA today, Hearthstone developers answered questions pertaining to the state of the Battlegrounds mode, and the upcoming potential changes to Hearthstone’s economy.
In Hearthstone’s popular Battlegrounds mode, Captain Eudora has been far and away the strongest hero ever since her inclusion in the Pirates patch. At all tiers of play, especially in higher rating, she has been regularly dominating lobbies. This is due to her ability to sacrifice early tempo to gain high value gold minions alongside a higher tier minion every four turns starting turn one. Hearthstone’s Associate Game Designer Cora directly mentioned a hero balance coming, potentially as soon as next week, with Eudora’s definite inclusion within it.
Aside from heroes, Murlocs have also been a contentious topic within the game mode. With their ability to gain Poisonous Divine Shields has led to polarizing lobbies where they can either win out the entire lobby if they survive their weak early game, or fall into last if they do not hit vital minions.
According to Cora, there are a couple of avenues that are being considered to tone Murlocs down. Besides nerfing Murlocs directly, there are also chances to buff other tribes like Beasts to add more viable late game compositions.
With talks of a leaked Battle Pass and a survey that was recently conducted from Blizzard, backlash from the community was expressed due to how unfriendly this new monetization this new system would be to consumers and free to play players alike. Game Director Ben Lee addressed these questions by mentioning that the system would be coming later during the year, after next expansion releases, giving more room for iteration and repackaging following player feedback.
Aside from making the potential future Battle Pass feel less like “sacrifices in [players’] lives” to complete, Blizzard is also working on the current Tavern Pass and looking to improve the current meager state it’s in by adding more benefits.
