Hearthstone patch 25.6 is here and we are seeing major changes in the Battlegrounds Arena. Not only that, we got 7 brand new minions added to the pool as well as a new hero: E.T.C., Band Manager. This patch will have a major impact on the overall gaming experience and pretty much provide a new meta.
Hearthstone Battlegrounds Buddies Are Back!
It has been a long time since we have seen Buddies in the Arena. New Buddies are added to the heroes that didn’t have them before which means that a grand total of 79 Buddies are available in the Arena. A change like this nullifies all the strategies that you have been using so far. Starting from patch 25.6 you have to pay close attention to three key elements in the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Arena:
- The ability that your hero has
- How well does the ability align with your Buddy
- How does your desired minion build align with your hero’s ability and his Buddy
If you are wondering which buddy is the best one, take a look at our list of best Battleground Buddies. The news that Blizzard is bringing back the buddies was received both with sorrow and joy. The thing is, most players complained that initial Buddies were far from balanced thus making the game highly RNG dependent. However, no one can dispute that they are super fun and the balance problem will surely be dealt with in upcoming patches.
📣 GO BUDDY, THAT'S MY BUDDY 📣
Battlegrounds is bringing back Battlegrounds Buddies for the mid-season update in Patch 25.6! With new additions and familiar faces, these sidekicks are here to bring synergy in Season 3. https://t.co/7t1hLvGzeN pic.twitter.com/WNuCvCCWG5
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) March 7, 2023
7 new minions are available in patch 25.6
The added minions won’t affect the game that much. Most of them are added so that the overall gameplay will be more interesting but we don’t expect them to play major roles in the most popular Hearthstone Battlegrounds meta tactics Take a closer look as we briefly analyze the new minions that are added in patch 25.6:
- Poetic Pen Pal – This minion is useful if you want to get your Buddy early so try to utilize its Battlecry (Reduce the Cost of your next Buddy by (2)).
- Leeching Felhound – If you are in trouble early on you should get it in order to boost your army (it costs 3 health to summon).
- Fireworks Fanatic – If you are playing Dragons or Mechs this might be useful, otherwise, you should avoid it.
- Dr. Boombox – A nice addition to the Mech build although a bit similar to some creatures we’ve seen before.
- Sly Raptor – With its ability to summon another random Beast this minion is useful if RNG gods are on your side.
- Gem Smuggler – With its ability to play a Blood Gem on all Quilboars, Gem Smuggler is pretty useful if you are going with a classical Quilboar build.
- Bonemar – adding +4/+4 to a desired minion as a Battlecry that Bonemare has it’s usages although the potential of this minion is not very high.
The armor and health of Hearthstone Battlegrounds heroes have been reworked
With the updated Buddy system, the armor range that existed before is now gone. Instead of the range, all Hearthstone battleground heroes now have a fixed number of armor points. Additionally, except for Patchwerk, all heroes start with 30 health. This change is not very significant at the moment as your overall health and armor combined are pretty much the same as they were before.
A new Hero is here – Enter E. T. C. Band manager
E.T.C. Band Manager is a new addition to the Hero pool in Hearthstone Battlegrounds. This hero has the ability to “Sign a New Artist” for 4 gold which allows you to discover a random Buddy. Additionally, the Budddy (Talent Scout, Tavern Tier 5) that accompanies E.T.C., Band Manager has a Battlecry that turns another Buddy golden. That means that you use the hero power to summon a random Buddy and with Talent Scout, you turn that summoned Buddy golden. As you might guess, this depends heavily on what Buddy you discover and how it fits with your minion build.
Final thoughts on Hearthstone Patch 25.6
Blizzard likes to mix things up in Hearthstone Battlegrounds and this patch is no different. The good thing is that changes like these always provide something new and keep the game fresh. On the other hand, this can be annoying for old players who constantly need to master the new meta. Additionally, the game balance is problematic as we stated before. Overall, the new Hearthstone patch 25.6 looks promising and we are eager to test our luck in the Arena. If you enjoy playing Hearthstone Battlegrounds, you might consider checking out similar card games as well.
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