Hearthstone's latest round of nerfs is now live

[Archiee]

The latest round of Hearthstone balance changes is now live: That means a big jump in the Naga Sea Watch Mana cost, a smaller increase to Spiteful Summoner, a significant nerf to the amount Dark Pact heals for, and a change to the Quest Rogue quest reward that should make it a little less brutal against slow decks (but will still probably be annoyingly strong).

We took a closer look at what the changes mean last week, but the broad goal is to shake up an otherwise somewhat stale meta now that the Hearthstone Championship Tour summer playoffs are complete. Increasing the cost of Naga Sea Witch by such a drastic amount (it's the biggest jump since the Starving Buzzard nerf) will likely see a welcome end to the Wild Giants deck, while the changes to Dark Pact and Possessed Lackey should see Cubelock and Control Warlock be less of a menace on ladder.

The full rundown on the latest Hearthstone balance patch is up at playoverwatch.com. We also recently re-reviewed the game, four years after our initial take on it—and it turns out it's still pretty good. No Legendary cards were harmed in the making of this patch.