Hearthstone’s newest patch celebrates Hallow’s End , brings new Tavern Brawls, Arena modes and is filled with critical bug fixes. The patch notes list changes for bugs and problems that have plagued the game for months.
Fans on reddit are ecstatic with the thorough patch notes, with posts congratulating Team 5, Hearthstone’s development team, for their good work. “Hopefully all future patch notes will include this section,” says redditor troggnotstupidhs.
Blizzard has often been criticized for providing very little actual information in its Hearthstone patch notes, often excluding unique interactions that players could only find out about through playing. When the Knights Of The Frozen Throne patch first released, there were some serious card interactions that weren’t included anywhere in the actual patch notes . When Fandral Staghelm was on the field, Wrath could longer deal four damage, but three damage followed by one instead. It might sound like a small, almost insignificant change, but to serious players where every interaction could spell life or death in the game, it had some serious implications. Blizzard’s failure to list this interaction in the actual patch notes added an extra level of difficulty that pissed serious players off.
The Oct. 17 patch notes also changes Arena for the better, removing Vicious Fledgeling from the game mode alongside the utter ridiculous “synergy cards” that were added in the KOFT expansion. I was a huge Arena addict before the change, but barely played a game since ever since Blizzard decided the first two cards a player picks affect whatever cards they get overall, which for true Arena buffs, was extremely annoying. Cards like Fight Promoter are deemed as below average and to see it time and time again in the first few cards of my deck was frustrating. With the new changes from the patch, combined with the new dual-class Arena games that are coming later in the month, I’m actually excited to try and earn 12-wins again.
The list of bug fixes in this patch is massive, which is kind of shocking for a game like Hearthstone . Every game, especially a constantly evolving living game with constant updates, has bugs, but the latest Hearthstone patch notes are more of a novel than a brief letter. Prince Taldaram, the three-drop Legendary that anyone besides BaiZe thinks is pretty awful, has two changes listed in the bug fixes — imagine how many other tweaks have gone unnoticed since Hearthstones release almost three years ago?
I hope Blizzard continues to keep patch notes this detailed in future releases. I’ve grown tired of trying to find all the secrets hidden inside a patch, often overlooking the actual content that’s been added to the game. I don’t enjoy Easter egg hunts when the prize at the end is a glitched out border or a card that won’t attack, so I’m happy Blizzard is finally addressing the issue. This is far from the end for the bugs inside Hearthstone , but with more transparency and communication from the company Azeroth built fans might have less to complain about.
Who am I kidding? Hearthstone fans are the saltiest player base around and will continue to complain about everything .
