Hearthstone cards Leeroy Jenkins and Starving Buzzard are to be nerfed, Blizzard has announced.
Hearthstone is a free-to-play online card game by Blizzard, inspired by its own MMORPG World of Warcraft. Hearthstone involves a turn-based card match between two opponents. Players initially start off with basic digital decks which can be upgraded from winning matches and completing quests on a daily basis.
Traditionally, Blizzard avoids nerfing Hearthstone. And, to be honest, with good reason - the balance is already pretty good. However, the cards Leeroy Jenkins and Starving Buzzard, they felt, were becoming too powerful for such low mana costs. Blizzard has promised to not making any additional changes between September 22, 2024 and the Hearthstone World Championships in Novemember.
Leeroy Jenkins is inspired from the popular Youtube video featuring the WoW player Leeroy Jenkins charging to his (character’s) death during a raid battle. Similarly, the card Leeroy Jenks lets the player attack as soon as an enemy lays a card. It deals six damage and costs only four mana, but in combination with other cards Leeroy Jenkins can deal upwards to twenty damage. Blizzard will be upping the cost of mana from four to five mp to prevent it from being easily used to deal a high, immediate amount of damage. Blizzard reasoned that Leeroy Jenkins provided an opportunity to try to beat your opponent in one turn without having any cards on the board.
Starving Buzzard is a reward given to Hunter deck users for a reaching level 4 in Hearthstone. It’s a low health and power card, but it allows a hunter deck to draw a card each time they summon a beast. Blizzard plans to increase its mana cost from two to five, but to compensate will increase Starving Buzzard’s attack to three and its health to two. Like Leeroy Jenkins, Blizzard argued that Starving Buzzard was too excessive for its cost.
