The next Hearthstone patch will see dozens of cards banned from Arena draft

News by Brenna Hillier Contributor

Published on Sept. 9, 2016

Hearthstone has a balance problem, and Blizzard is determined to resolve it.

Hearthstone has many fine qualities and deserves its popularity, but there's been a lot of criticism of Arena, just one of its multiple play modes.

In a new developer blog post on Battle.net, Blizzard's Dean Ayala copped to the hate: Hearthstone's Arena has a balance problem. What makes it so tricky to resolve is that Blizzard really values the excitement engendered by big, game-changing cards, as well as the familiar tool sets of iconic cards.

Nevertheless the developer is determined to get it right, and has hit on the bright idea of removing some low-powered cards as well as the worst offenders from the other end of the scale in order to ensure everybody gets a chance to shine. Below you can see a list of the Hearthstone cards that will be removed from Arena draft (banned) in an upcoming patch.

Ayala said Blizzard is looking at other ways to balance Hearthstone's Arena, such as drafting by rarity or adding a designer input value to govern how often individual cards show up in draft - but these plans are only in the early stages, so nothing's concrete yet.

Mage