With the balance patch expected to land tomorrow I thought it would be worth talking a bit about the ranges with respect to current meta decks and how they will be adapted for the changes.

Why change sustain?

This patch addresses sustain as a whole which has been very strong since closed beta, back in the closed beta damage sources were over tuned compared to now, with old Tokash striking twice and one hit KOs being possible along side Ariane having an unconditional Wind Surge and more ways to generate gold while dealing damage. During the open beta Lady Zay gave quick reliable burst damage and was a mainstay in aggressive decks alongside a variety of other combinations such as Melzar/Jogre Shaman or Earth Blast/Earth Wave. While these quick burst options were addressed heals and sustain weren’t which led to a slight imbalance towards AP sustain decks, grief and weapon Linza. While traditional aggro decks were still seen they were less common. In my opinion heals in general needed tuning down to a lower rate than what was currently available, with that said it’s time to jump into the key changes.

Grief Linza

Grief Linza is looking slightly weaker than in the past due to Dust Devil no longer being kill-able with a 1/3 weapon while at two base such as slot two of chapter one, Ice Warrior no longer dropping two gold means that Grief’s gold gain is slightly more conditional and all three of the main sustain cards the deck currently runs are being changed. Full Tetsu and Repurpose will still be ran in the deck due to still giving good amounts of sustain for their respective costs. All in all the main changes i expect to see to Grief Linza are some amount of the 1/3 weapons being replaced with Barbarian Warriors and more reliable gold gain being added alongside Yelps to off set the four total lost from the Ice Warriors and the one gold increase on Tetsu Katana. Losing Dagannoth Fledgling admittedly will hurt the aggro match up however this can easily be replaced with another heal such as Cabbage for a small reliable heal or Drunken Dwarf for a more situational but slightly larger heal. All things considered i expect Grief to still have a favourable match up against aggressive decks.

AP Sustain Decks

For this section i will be focusing on Hopezan as it is seeing the most changes out of the common AP decks. All of the main healing cards within the deck are changing, Dagannoth Fledgling is no longer going to see play as the two reach isn’t too important for the deck considering the other options it has available such as weapons or Knumm, healing one with a small amount of reach simply isn’t enough for it to have a slot. Culinaromancer is still a ten heal when it is most needed so it should still take up two slots. The Darren Lightfinger into Full Tetsu combo is now two slots for a ten effective health which is still an okay rate, it may or may not make refined lists depending on how aggressive the meta shapes up however I am lying towards the side of it still seeing play. If Amascut Mystic comes in as the expected conditional heal when you have less than five gold then i fully expect this will just replace the Fledglings and the healing in the deck will otherwise remain unchanged, other than that maybe one Culinaromancer will be replaced.

As for the changes to the AP gain section of the deck, the change to three armour from seven makes two hitting Hope Devourer a net loss of effective health which was much needed, the one extra health also makes it harder to kill meaning it is now more of a chapter two play after slightly more set up, it is still however going to be a strong card due to being a two AP swing. Dagannoth Sentinel giving two health now instead of five simply means that it will be less common to kill it on three base, I like that it still keeps you outside of mortal range if you tank it on three base with full health however. It may see a reduction to one slot in the deck instead of two especially if an extra healing card is required.

I expect the main AP stacking decks post patch will be Raptor for a more sustain orientated deck and Vanescula for a more greedy higher AP playstyle, while Treus Dayth is only a one AP swing it is still a really strong card, Vanescula also has the Afflicted as a conditional heal which has a much higher top end reward than Culinaromancer.

Combo Decks

Goldzan hasn’t been too prevalent in the meta recently due to the strength of weapon Linza, due to the changes it is unlikely a Goldzan shell is going to be competitive as two copies of the doubles have became more situational and capped alongside Ling The Assassin now removing all gold, it is still possible the deck will see niche tournament play as a surprise deck but i wouldn’t expect to see it near the top of ladder.

Weapon Linza has had a slight change with Pulverize now removing the weapon however i don’t expect this to change the strength of the deck much other than lowering the number of combinations for large burst damage since Pulverize now has to be the last card you play with a weapon, a larger concern in my opinion is the increase in cost for Tetsu Katana however seven cost is still rather easy for the deck to achieve with Dwarven Miner and Ring of Charos. I expect very little to change with this deck if anything at all.

Morvran combo decks are now looking a lot more appealing with the upcoming changes, Bouncer is now an insane card for aggressive decks due to giving reach and potential damage with the aggressive mechanic. The changes in total make experimenting with Deadly Prey a lot more appealing and I expect there is a good-great deck there somewhere, expect a follow up post next week detailing my testing with Deadly Prey.

Closing

The changes to sustain were much needed to bring different play styles to a more even keel, Morvran post patch is looking a lot more exciting than on release so I for one am very excited to play once the patch is released, let me know in the comments below your opinions and expectations for after the upcoming patch, I’d love to know what you guys are planning to try to build.