Hearthstone bugs getting hotfixed after two days of community complaints of a poor game experience

The latest Hearthstone patch introduced the Throne of the Tides Mini-set, however, the bugs stole the spotlight. Instead of new Hearthstone decks rising after the release of 35 new cards, the conversation revolved around the Bioluminescence and Snapdragon bugs. Last night, Hearthstone confirmed that a hotfix patch was arriving to solve the most relevant issues. Let’s go over the facts and details.

Whenever a new set is released, players are eager to play and enjoy the new cards. Many say that these fresh metagames are the most enjoyable times in Hearthstone. However, with the release of the latest Hearthstone patch, bugs took the game by storm. The most important bugs after Hearthstone’s patch were the faulty interactions of Bioluminescence and Snapdragon.

Bioluminescence was giving +2 Spell Damage (instead of +1), and many Hearthstone players started abusing this bug. On the other hand, Snapdragon was giving every Battlecry card a +1/+1 buff, affecting much more than minions. This bug allowed Hero cards to get extra attack and health values.

Jay, the player banned from Hearthstone Esports for stream-sniping and win trading, soon took the Bioluminescence bug / exploit to Rank 1 Legend. The Burn Shaman deck indeed existed before the card was bugged, but Jay was even bragging about exploiting this Hearthstone unintended interaction.

Soon after the bug was discovered, Burn Shamans started flooding meta, especially in high legend. Kibler, probably tired of facing the same abusive deck over and over again, asked Hearthstone players kindly on Twitter not to “abuse bugs and cheat”. There is when the Twitterverse exploded.

Zeddy was one of the persons who responded shifting the center of the conversation not on the players but on Hearthstone itself: “How about put the onus on @PlayHearthstone to properly test their cards and bugs before putting the shame on players.”

The frustration in this situation is understandable. On top of that, Zeddy didn’t blame the devs for the problem. However, Twitter is a place known for misinterpretation, and negativity started flowing toward the Hearthstone team for the bugs.

Hearthstone devs or even the whole team were living an uncomfortable situation after the last content release. What was supposed to be a festivity that refreshed the game and attracted many casual players back to Hearthstone, backlashed into a community drama due to the bugs.

Understanding the limitations in communication in a game the size of Hearthstone, with many languages involved, the team set up the usual Forum Post of Known Issues the moment the patch went live. The fact that this is a forum inaccessible from the game made many Hearthstone players unaware of the bugs, increasing the level of complaints.

Daniel Duffin, Associate Test Analyst for Hearthstone Duels, and Nicholas “DeckTech” Weiss, Associate Writer for Blizzard on Hearthstone, addressed the bugs issue on their personal Twitter accounts in two must-read threads.

In a TLDR, Daniel summarized what many in the Hearthstone team felt about the bugs.

On a final note, the Hearthstone Summer Championship, with 4 World Championship invites in the line, is happening while you read. Abar, the Product Manager for Hearthstone Esports, quickly informed us that the cards were banned from the competition. In Hearthstone, there is always the possibility to discover the bugged cards. In that case, Abar explained that was allowed.

Fortunately, the Hotfix came before the tournament started, so that will not cause a problem. Despite this, the ban on the cards still stands to avoid imposing last-minute changes to the players who were already on a tight schedule to submit decklists.

That is all for now, but stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time in the tavern.