Constructed players are fumbling through a new meta after the last Hearthstone update. This one brings the ruckus of a new meta to Limited players too, as well as the single-player Rumble Run.

January brings with it some quality-of-life changes. Although this is a relatively minor update, it marks the start of the New Year. It also marks the end of dust refunds from the December update.

Editing Arena Percentages

Arena in Hearthstone has always had a “tier list.” Some classes simply fared better than others due to their hero power and class cards. Blizzard has never liked this, and this Hearthstone update wants to change that.

Their goal is to bring every class’ win rate as close to 50% as possible. To do so, they are changing the average pick quality for every single class.

Hunter, Rogue, and Warrior will have their average card quality lowered. Every other class (Druid, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, and Warlock) will have their average card quality increased. Hopefully, Warriors will stonewall less and Paladins can aggro more.

Balancing the Rumble Run

Feedback on the new single-player mode has been pretty mixed. The Hearthstone community has been high on single-player modes since the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion. The new Hearthstone Update seeks to recapture some of that enjoyment.

To start, overall deck synergy has been increased. During a Rumble Run, you will now have the opportunity to take better card picks to give your run a “strong theme.” Cobbling together a deck without any build-around cards doesn’t feel fun for single player.

This will hopefully address some of the playerbase’s frustration; “Why can’t we just have more dungeon run?”

The runs themselves are now easier overall. Bosses have had some of their abilities and power pruned according to Blizzard’s data. This Hearthstone update is designed to make the fights feel more “fair.” There will still be some crushing losses, but it won’t be because of bad RNG during deck construction time.

On failed runs, you will now have the opportunity to select the same shrine and run it again. Blizzard listened to feedback about player frustration with randomized shrines.

Because of randomization and unfair gameplay, players weren’t given the opportunity to trial-and-error their way through the single-player campaign. The runs felt thrilling and very cutthroat. It just wasn’t appropriate difficulty for something so random.

At the end of the update post, Blizzard recognized players’ frustration. The reward structure of Rumble Runs felt unfulfilling. This time around, they wanted to offer players Gurubashi packs right at the start.

Their hope was that players would get into constructed gameplay quicker with new cards. However, this makes the single-player content and quests feel hollow. For other launches, they plan to keep this feedback in mind.

To learn more about these changes, you can read the official blog post here.