Hearthstone 23.4.3 patch notes: Cards, Battlegrounds & Mercenaries updates

Hearthstone 23.4.3 patch notes include big changes for Standard play, Mercenaries, Battlegrounds, and much more for the Blizzard Entertainment card game.

Hearthstone is getting some massive changes in the card game’s latest patch.

Blizzard is looking to shake up the meta game for the current popular decks. The company directly called out the popular Fel Demon Hunter and Control Warriors decks and said, “We want to lower the power level of the most powerful decks in the current metagame – Fel Demon Hunter and Control Warrior variants. Roughly half of the changes in this patch are balance-motivated and intended to target the winrates of these decks directly.”

Let’s get into exactly what has changed.

Hearthstone 23.4.3 patch notes

Hearthstone patch 23.4.3 went live June 16 and includes a massive amount of changes, all of which are included below.

Card Updates

Shield Shatter

• Old: Deal 5 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have. → New: Deal 4 damage to all minions. Costs (1) less for each Armor you have.

Tidal Revenant

• Old: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 8 Armor. → New: Battlecry: Deal 5 damage. Gain 5 Armor.

Nellie’s Pirate Ship (the Colossal appendage summoned by Nellie, the Great Thresher

• Old: Taunt. Deathrattle: Add Nellie’s Pirate crew to your hand. They Cost (1). → New: Taunt. Deathrattle: Add Nellie’s Pirate crew to your hand. They Cost (1) less.

From the Depths

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]

Caria Felsoul

• Old: [Costs 6] 6 Attack, 6 Health. Battlecry: Transform into a 6/6 copy of a Demon in your deck. → New: [Costs 7] 7 Attack, 7 Health. Battlecry: Transform into a 7/7 copy of a Demon in your deck.

Battleworn Vanguard

• Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 1 Health

Wildpaw Gnoll

• Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 3 Attack, 5 Health

Lightforged Cariel

• Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]

Spitelash Siren

• Old: [Costs 4] 2 Attack, 5 Health → New: [Costs 5] 2 Attack, 6 Health

Earthen Scales

• Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]

Lightning Bloom

• Old: Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only. Overload: (2). → New: Refresh 2 Mana Crystals. Overload: (2).

Mr. Smite

• Old: [Costs 6] → New: [Costs 7]

School Teacher

• Old: 5 Attack, 4 Health → New: 4 Attack, 3 Health

Battleground Updates

Onyxia Broodmother – Broodmother

• Old: Avenge (4): Summon a 2/1 Whelp. It attacks immediately. →  New: Avenge (4): Summon a 3/1 Whelp. It attacks immediately.

Ozumat – Tentacular

• Old: Passive. Start of Combat: Summon a 2/2 Tentacle with Taunt. (Upgrades after you sell a minion!) → New: Passive. Start of Combat: Summon a 2/2 Tentacle with Taunt. (Gains +1/+1 after you sell a minion!)

Pyramad — Brick by Brick

• Old: [Costs 1] Give a random friendly minion +4 Health. →  New: [Costs 0] Give a random friendly minion +2 Health. (Gains +1 Health each turn you don’t use this!)

Tamsin Roame — Fragrant Phylactery

• Old: Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to four friendly minions. → New: Start of Combat: Destroy your lowest Health minion. Give its stats to five friendly minions.

Armor Tier Updates

The following heroes now have more armor, and are now in the following armor tiers:

• Al’Akir, Ambassador Faelin, Galakrond, Malygos, and Vol’jin are in Armor Tier 2.
• C’Thun is in Armor Tier 3.
• Bru’kan, Edwin VanCleef, Fungalmancer Flurgl, and Queen Azshara are in Armor Tier 5.
• Deathwing, Elise Starseeker, Illidan Stormrage, Lord Jaraxxus, and Tess Greymane, are in Armor Tier 6.
• Aranna Starseeker, Cariel Roame, King Mukla, Overlord Saurfang, Rakanishu, The Curator, and The Rat King are in Armor Tier 7.

The following heroes now have less armor, and are now in the following armor tiers:

• Alexstrasza, Death Speaker Blackthorn, Ini Stormcoil, Maiev Shadowsong, Patches the Pirate, Shudderwock, The Lich King, Trade Prince Gallywix, and Xyrella are in Armor Tier 1.
• Reno Jackson is now in Armor Tier 2.
• Dinotamer Brann is now in Armor Tier 3.

Minion Updates

Bubblette

• Old: 2 Attack, 5 Health → New: 5 Attack, 4 Health

Tarecgosa

• Old: Tavern Tier 4 → New: Tavern Tier 3

Coldlight Seer

• Old: Tavern Tier 4 → New: Tavern Tier 3

Shoal Commander

• Old: 1 Attack, 2 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health

Waverider

• Old: Spellcraft: Give a minion +1/+1 and Windfury until next turn. → New: Spellcraft: Give a minion +2/+2 and Windfury until next turn.

Critter Wrangler

• Old: 5 Attack, 6 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+1. → New: 5 Attack, 7 Health. After you cast a Spellcraft spell on a minion, give it +2/+2.

Corrupted Myrmidon

• Old: 2 Attack, 2 Health → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health

Tidemistress Athissa

• Old: 7 Attack, 3 Health → New: 7 Attack, 8 Health

Mercenaries Updates

Alexstrasza:

• Dragonqueen’s Gambit
  • Old: Cooldown 2 → New: Cooldown 1

The Lich King

• Death Coil
  • Old: Cooldown 1 → New: Cooldown 0

Yu’Lon:

• Jadeflame Buffet
  • Old: Cooldown 1 → New: Cooldown 0

Tidemistress Athissa:

• Wave Crush
  • Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 6
• Riptide:
  • Old: Cooldown 1 → New: Cooldown: 0

Rexxar:

• Old: 11/72 Maxed Stats → New: 11/82 Maxed Stats

Xuen, the White Tiger

• Equalizing Strike
  • Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 5

Captain Hooktusk

• Cutthroat Negotiation
  • Old: Speed 7 → New: Speed 2

Uther

• Blessing of Protection
  • Old: Speed 3 → New: Speed 1

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• Zarjira’s Upstart Acolyte Equipment Freeze effect will no longer trigger if the entire enemy board is already Frozen. This will be a temporary fix until the effect can be updated to read “The first time a friendly character is frozen each turn, Freeze a random enemy.”
• Fixed a bug causing Reno’s Treasure Inspector Equipment to occasionally have no effect.
• Addressed miscellaneous localization issues across modes and languages.