Hearthstone Battlegrounds Quests Patch: overpowered combos ban list

The wait is finally over and Quests are returning on July 11. The Hearthstone Battlegrounds Quests Patch will bring a new meta game, of course including some powerful outliers. Luckily, the devs have foreseen some of the overpowered synergies. Battlegrounds lead Mitchell Loewen has compiled and shared a Quest ban list.

Browsing this ban list will not only inform us which combos cannot be achieved. The bigger picture will highlight what game plans they find dangerous. Thus, reading between the lines will reveal more about the game’s direction and what to expect from future updates.

Let us first remember that Quest completion difficulty takes into account other factors such as the reward’s strength. Powerful rewards take longer to acquire. Another factor is the Hero’s Armor. Since higher Armor is meant to compensate for a Hero’s overall weaker game plan, higher Armor guarantees easier objectives, in order to facilitate Quest completion. By contrast, lower Armor values are only awarded to traditionally powerful Heroes, hence they will not be paired with easy Quests.

But some Hero and Quest combos can still easily get out of control, even with these safeguards in place. Some cases require a more drastic solution. Quest: Be overpowered at a statistically significant rate. The reward is that the combo lands itself on the ban list.

Right from the get-go we can distinguish some patterns. This makes it easier to group up the bans and discuss several changes as a whole.

Firstly, the elephant in the room. Economy Heroes can generate above average amounts of Gold per turn. The most serious offenders in this regard are Trade Prince Gallywix, Millhouse Manastorm and Cap’n Hoggar. Consequently, these Heroes will not be offered the following rewards:

Economy Heroes have access to extra Gold per turn, which would have given them an unfair advantage, since all of these Quests scale with buying more minions.

Furthermore, Anima Bribe is also unavailable in Naga lobbies due to allowing their perishable Spellcraft effects to become permanent. Invigorating Conch is also banned from Elementals lobbies due to their excellent cycle of buying, selling, refreshing and generating minions.

Conversely, synergies call for bans for some Battlegrounds Quests whenever certain tribes are absent.

Speaking of Quilboar, the Dust for Prints Quest requirement will not appear for Death Speaker Blackthorn. This is due to his redesigned Hero Power, which can generate up to 4 Blood Gems per turn.

Bru’kan cannot choose the following scenarios due to his Deathrattle: spawn a 1/1 Elemental Hero Power option.

Finally, Deathwing’s Attack buff at the start of combat places him on the ban list for:

Secret Sinstone evidently avoids Heroes whose Hero Powers do not involve Discover shenanigans, placing all of them on the Battlegrounds Quests ban list. Conversely, this means the only ones eligible are: Tickatus, Silas Darkmoon, Elise Starseeker, Lady Vashj, Queen Azshara, Zephrys, the Great, Alexstrasza, Cookie the Cook, Scabbs Cutterbutter, Kurtrus Ashfallen, E.T.C., Band Manager and the Rat King.

The Buddy-related Quest is expectedly unobtainable for new Heroes such as Cap’n Hoggar, Rock Master Voone and Inge, the Iron Hymn. Moreover, the recent Overlord Saurfang redesign is incompatible with his old Buddy.

With only four ineligible Heroes, we have come a long way since Partner in Crime was a rare Quest Reward.

Once again, Partner in Crime will check for conditions precisely on the Quest turn, at 6 Gold. Plenty of time for one of the four non-Buddy Heroes to disconnect!

This brings us to the end of our Hearthstone Battlegrounds Quest ban list. For now, as Devs are keeping an eye on how other combinations fare.

When will they be adjusting the ban list with whatever meta tyrant arises?

Stay tuned to our Hearthstone news and guides section to be the first to know. Make sure to visit esports.gg for all the latest esports news as well. See you next time in Bob’s Tavern!