It took only a week for Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher to be banned from Hearthstone Battlegrounds. The news was delivered by Hearthstone media manager on Twitter on the evening of December 12th and the ban will remain in place until the next balance update. To be frank, we hadn’t seen it in the beginning but after a few days of testing, we realized that our win rate with this hero was like 70%. Other players saw that as well so soon, the whole thing went out of proportion when it became apparent that whoever is playing this hero is almost guaranteed to end up in one of the first 3 spots. In this article, we will analyze what happened and why this Hearthstone Battlegrounds Hero was so OP.
Tae’thelan Hero power and usage
Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher has (had) a hero power that reads “Passive: Every third Tavern spell you buy costs (0). (Active!)” and 12 Armor points. There were several strategies in which players used it: most often, players would use extra gold to buy cheap spells and when their power was triggered, get an expensive spell. That was pretty strong if you consider that basically, this means that spells cost at least 1 less gold on average and even more with higher spells.
Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher and Economy Tavern Spells
However, this strategy is strong with stat-boosting, discovery, and utility tavern spells – but things get really broken when you start using economy tavern spells. Players soon realized that they should go for economy spells and as you can see in this video, it was super easy to get an insane economy boost. Furthermore, by doing so, the players who played Tae’thalan Bloodwatcher gained an unfair advantage over the other contests in Battlegrounds. It felt like it didn’t matter what build you were playing since the economy aspect was so enhanced, you would still get a pretty strong army no matter what you were aiming for.
Bazaar Dealer combo with Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher
Another interesting strategy is its broken symbiosis with the new demon minion: Bazaar Dealer. The trick was to play him before Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher’s ability activates and thus gain one additional tavern spell free of charge. Soul Rewinder would stop players from paying the price in Health for the spell and Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher would provide additional free spells. You can see how strong this was considering that spells cost 1-5 gold, just by buying random spells players would still gain a huge advantage when exploiting this strategy.
Will Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher Return to Hearthstone Battlegrounds?
Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher will return with the next balance patch. When will that be only Blizzard knows, but judging from our past experience, it should happen during the next two or three weeks. However, he will not be the same as he will get a nerf for sure. Our best guess is that his hero power will be reworked into “every fourth or fifth spell” you buy will be free or something like that. In the meantime, you can check out our full Strategy Guide for season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
Image Credits: Blizzard Entertainment, Hearthstone.
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