The patch notes you’ve all been waiting for are finally here, including balance and system changes to Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, and more!

General Updates

• Nemsy Necrofizzle is now the default Warlock hero.
• The March of the Lich King expansion name has been updated to April of the Lich King.
• We have an exciting new game mode coming to replace Wild! Introducing Hearthstone Mild! Only cards from The Grand Tournament and Rastakhan’s Rumble are legal.
• The “Make Bad Cards” button has been deprecated. Only good cards will be made from now on.
• We will be conducting an audit of Hearthstone accounts for mana cheating. Any unpaid mana is owed back by the end of the Hearthstone Year.
• Nemsy is now the default Shaman hero.

New Feature—Streamer Integration

Now everyone can be part of the streaming action! When you get paired up against a streamer, a link will appear next to their Battletag. Click on it to go directly to their stream, have a barrel of fun alongside them, and see what chat thinks of your plays!

Card Updates

Quartermaster

• Old: Battlecry: Give your Silver Hand Recruits +2/+2. Voiceline:
  "To arms, men!"
• New: Battlecry: Give your Silver Hand Recruits +3/+3. Voiceline:
  "Three arms, men!"

Hemet Nesingwary

Dev Comment: Hemet Nesingwary’s effect is a bit too gruesome for Hearthstone, so we’re updating it to be more appropriate for all ages.

• Old: Battlecry: Destroy a Beast.
• New: Battlecry: Send a Beast to a farm upstate.

Worgen Greaser

Dev Comment: EXCITING NEWS! No changes planned to Worgen Greaser this year.

• Old: 6 Attack, 4 Health
• New: 6 Attack, 4 Health

Pizza Stone (card back)

Dev Comment: Due to overwhelmingly popular demand, pineapple has been put on the Pizza Stone card back.

• Old: Pizza
• New: Pineapple pizza

Corrupting a card will now corrupt its art assets too.

Keyword Update

This patch, we’re removing some keywords from Hearthstone. Keywords in Hearthstone are those bolded words in card text that signify the cards have a special meaning. Keywords can help make learning cards easier, add flavor, condense card text, and give the design team mechanical “hooks” to use for referencing groups of cards.

While there are clear benefits, having too many keywords can muddy the game and sometimes detract from the play experience. We saw this before with the “Enrage” keyword. To make our cards look more uniform and easier to understand, we’ve again made the decision to cut some keywords. Here are some examples to show you what this change will look like in the client:

Battlegrounds Updates

Minion Updates

Titus Rivendare

• Text box has been updated to better represent its in-game effect. 
• Dev Comment: Design views this as a text change only, not a functional change.

Tarecgosa

• Now also permanently keeps enchantments from the shop phase.

Picky Eater

• No longer eats Beasts, Dragons, Demons, Elementals, Mechs, Naga, Pirates, Quilboar, or Undead. It's now on a Murloc-only diet.

General Updates

• Bob will now jeer and boo at you when you’re in last place instead of offering hollow words of encouragement.
• Minions in Battlegrounds now have Rune requirements while playing as The Lich King.
• Selling your Buddy now permanently ends your friendship.
• Nemsy is now the default Battlegrounds Bartender.

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Destroying a single Demon as a Hunter will no longer unlock the Demon Hunter class.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Paladins could attack with The Immovable Object.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed seven bugs at once by deleting Swarm of Locusts.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a TOP SECRET bug with the Rogue Questline. We can’t tell you what it was or we’d have to kill you.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug that instantly won the game (after all our devs hit Legend with it).
• [Hearthstone] Craftsmanship no longer applies Direblight to Green cards.