Patch 1.0.0.4458

Patch 1.0.0.4458 is a patch administered during Hearthstone's closed beta test. The patch was made available on 16th January 2014.

A list of known issues can be found here.

Lead Designer Eric Dodds elaborated on the reasons behind this patch's changes in the Hearthstone's Card Balance Philosophy blog.

Patch notes
In our latest Hearthstone patch, we’ve made some changes to certain cards that we’ve listed in detail below. This big set of balance changes should be one of our last as we look ahead to the impending Open Beta of Hearthstone. Once the game is live and available to everyone, we plan on making very few card changes, and only in emergencies.

Take a look at the card changes in this patch below!

General

 * Certain Expert cards have been changed and the amount of dust that you get from disenchanting these cards have been temporarily increased such that it is equal to the amount of dust that it would have originally cost to craft those cards. Affected cards are:
 * Abusive Sergeant
 * Blood Imp
 * Dark Iron Dwarf
 * Defender of Argus
 * Pyroblast
 * Sylvanas Windrunner
 * Unleash the Hounds

Hunter

 * Unleash the Hounds now costs 2 (down from 4)
 * Unleash the Hounds was intended to give Hunters their own form of AoE and to have synergy with other beast cards, but its old cost was too prohibitive.

Mage

 * Pyroblast now costs 10 (up from 8)
 * The 8-cost Pyroblast made for an un-interactive experience where the Mage only needed to do 10 damage during the course of a game and then double Pyroblast you for the win. We want Mages to be more interactive with the opponent to achieve victory, rather than delay the game until they can Pyroblast.

Warlock

 * Blood Imp is now a 0/1 (down from 1/1) and now reads: Stealth. At the end of your turn, give another random friendly minion +1 Health.
 * The Warlock has three very strong 1-cost minions and that made the Warlock rush deck slightly stronger than we were comfortable with.

Warrior

 * Warsong Commander has been reworked and now reads: Whenever you play a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge. [This patch note is mistaken: the card was in fact changed to read "Whenever you summon a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge"]
 * Charge (the spell, not the keyword) has been reworked and now costs 3 mana. The card’s new power reads: “Give a friendly minion +2 Attack and Charge”.
 * Both of these cards were key components in “One Turn Kill” or “OTK” decks that kill your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. We want the game to be about playing minions and fighting for board control rather than just waiting until you can play your big combo and win in one turn with no interaction from your opponent.

Neutral

 * Abusive Sergeant now reads Battlecry: Give a minion +2 Attack until end of turn
 * Abusive Sergeant was changed to make his power the same as the new Dark Iron Dwarf and to give it additional versatility.


 * Dark Iron Dwarf now reads Battlecry: Give a minion +2 Attack until end of turn
 * This change was made to reduce the Dark Iron Dwarf’s overall power slightly. We also wanted to make the Battlecry effect the same as Abusive Sergeant‘s as to not force you to permanently buff one of your opponent’s creatures.


 * Defender of Argus is now a 2/3 (down from 3/3)
 * Defender of Argus was a card that found itself automatically included in many decks due to its power and stats. We want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks, so cards that feel like they must be in all decks (especially Neutral ones) are not ideal.


 * Novice Engineer is now a 1/1 (down from 1/2)
 * The Novice Engineer was played in most non-rush decks (and even some rush decks) due to its cost and power. Similar in reasoning to our Defender of Argus change, we want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks.


 * Sylvanas Windrunner now costs 6 (up from 5)
 * Sylvanas had power and stats that made it a bit too powerful compared to other 5-cost cards, which made it automatically included in many decks. We want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks, so cards that feel like they must be in all decks (especially Neutral ones) are not ideal.

Undocumented changes

 * A timer has been added to the Finding Opponent and Starting Game screens, showing the time spent waiting so far, and an estimated total wait time.