Hearthstone Mercenaries Patch 23.0 Buffs and Reworks

Hearthstone Patch 23.0 sees a number of Mercenaries get some buffs or even a bit of a rework. For the most part, a good deal of Mercs are getting an HP increase as well as some extra damage and/or to an ability or two. A notable rework/buff is a lot of AoE and some random target abilities now remove stealth.

Here are the changes:

Baron Geddon

• Stat Increase - Old: 10/82 Maxed Stats → New: 10/86 Maxed Stats
• Molten Blade (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Heating Up deals 4 more damage. → New (Rank 4): Heating Up deals 7 more damage.
  

King Mukla

• Dinner Time - Old (Rank 5): Speed 2, Cooldown 1 → New (Rank 5): Speed 1, Cooldown 1
• Refreshing Bananas (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Bananas give an additional +4 Health. → New (Rank 4): Bananas give an additional +5 Health.
• Radioactive Bananas (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Bananas give an additional +2 Attack → New (Rank 4): Bananas give an additional +4 Attack.
  

Xyrella - Buff to Atonement Damage (you can now ramp up the damage fairly quickly with a Holy team)

• Atonement - Old (Rank 5): Deal 15 damage. +3 damage each time you restore 20 Health. → New (Rank 5): Deal 20 damage. +3 damage each time you restore 20 Health.
• Robes of Purity (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Atonement requires 5 less healing to upgrade. → New: Atonement requires 10 less healing to upgrade.

Scabbs Cutterbutter - More Damage to Attacks and Stat Buff

• Stat Buff - Old: 11/77 Maxed Stats → New: 13/81 Maxed Stats
• SI:7 Contract (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Tactical Strike’s Combo effect deals 4 more damage. → New: Tactical Strike’s Combo effect deals 8 more damage.
• Honing Rod (Equipment) - Old (Rank 1): Shadow Blade gives +4 Attack first. → New: Shadow Blade gives +10 Attack first.

Millhouse Manastorm - Just slightly less squishier and slightly more dangerous coming off the bench.

• Stat Buff - Old: 6/69 Maxed Stats → 6/74 Maxed Stats
• Greater Arcane Missiles - Old (Rank 5): Shoot three missiles at random enemies that deal 15 damage each. → New (Rank 5): Shoot three missiles at random enemies that deal 20 damage each.
• Arcane Powder (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Arcane Explosion deals 4 more damage. → New (Rank 4): Arcane Explosion deals 5 more damage and enemies lose Stealth.

Cariel Roame - Slightly more attack plus a Crusader's Blow buff that can restore your team to almost full.

• Stat Buff - Old: 11/78 Maxed Stats → New: 12/78 Maxed Stats
• Crusader’s Blow - Old (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. Deathblow: Restore 40 Health. → New: Attack an enemy. Deathblow: Restore 60 Health.
• Tome of Light (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Passive: While this Merc has Taunt, it has +8 Attack. → New (Rank 4): Passive: While this Merc has Taunt, it has +12 Attack.

Uther - The Avenging Wrath damage increase could be nice in certain comps.

• Blessing of Protection - Old (Rank 5): Restore 10 Health to a friendly character and give them Taunt this turn. → New (Rank 5): Restore 14 Health to a friendly character and give them Taunt this turn.
• Lightbringer (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Hammer of Justice deals 4 more damage and slows the target by (2) Speed more. → New (Rank 4): Hammer of Justice deals 6 more damage and slows the target by (2) Speed more.
• Gleaming Pauldrons (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Avenging Wrath deals 4 more damage. → New (Rank 4): Avenging Wrath deals 8 more damage.

Garrosh Hellscream - Just a touch more attack and a slightly better heal, which could be useful as Orcs are generally lacking in heals and tend to be melee-heavy (i.e. they take a lot of damage).

• Stat Buff - Old: 11/84 Maxed Stats → New: 12/84 Maxed Stats
• Orcish Banner (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Battle Shout also restores 10 Health to your Orcs. → New (Rank 4): Battle Shout also restores 15 Health to your Orcs.

Captain Galvangar - More HP and more Bleed damage.

• Stat Buff - Old: 11/71 Maxed Stats → New: 11/79 Maxed Stats
• Rending Cleave - Old (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. If it has not acted this turn, apply Bleed (8) to it and adjacent enemies. → New (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. If it has not acted this turn, apply Bleed (12) to it and adjacent enemies.
• Drek’Thar’s Boon (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Fatal Strike also applies Bleed (5). → New (Rank 4): Fatal Strike also applies Bleed (10).

Wrathion

• Stat Buff - Old: 12/73 Maxed Stats → New: 12/79 Maxed Stats
• Creeping Madness - Old (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. Next turn they must use a different ability or take 20 damage. → New (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. Next turn they must use a different ability or take 25 damage.
• Black Dragon Scales (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Tail Swipe also applies Bleed (5). → New (Rank 4): Tail Swipe also applies Bleed (10).

Vanessa Van Cleef - Better survivability and damage with a rework to how Attack stealing works.

• Stat Buff - Old: 10/75 Maxed Stats → New: 13/75 Maxed Stats
• Burgle Barrage - Old (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. Combo: Steal 5 Attack from them. → New (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. Combo: Steal 5 Attack from them first.
• Extra Pockets (Equipment) - (Rank 4): After using Makeshift Weaponry, this Merc keeps up to 5 Attack. → New (Rank 4): After using Makeshift Weaponry, this Merc keeps up to 10 Attack.

Tyrande - Can potentially do massive damage with Arcane Salvo

• Arcane Salvo - Old (Rank 5): Deal 8 damage to two random enemies. → New (Rank 5): Deal 12 damage to two random enemies. If any die, repeat this.
• Elune’s Charm (Equipment) Old (Rank 4): Arcane Shot deals 5 more damage. → New (Rank 4): Arcane Shot deals 15 more damage if the enemy has already acted.

Varian Wrynn - Retaliation gets a whole lot better with an HP component now. Heroic Leap more useful for boss fights.

• Splitting Strike - Old (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. Deathblow: Give your Humans +12 Attack. → New (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. Deathblow: Give your Humans +15 Attack.
• Heroic Leap - Old (Rank 5): Deal 14 damage to an enemy. Your other Humans are permanently (1) Speed faster. → New (Rank 5): Deal 14 damage to an enemy. Your other Humans in play and bench are permanently (1) Speed faster.
• Retaliation - Old (Rank 5): After an enemy Attacks this turn, gain +5 Attack and Attack it. → New (Rank 5): After an enemy Attacks this turn, gain +5/+5 and Attack it.
• War Banner (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Retaliation also gives an additional +4 Attack. → New (Rank 4): Retaliation gives an additional +2/+10.

Gul’dan - Gets slightly more utility in a Demon team but there's still not much Fel damage to go around to give Rain of Destruction much use.

• Rain of Destruction - Old: Speed 8, Cooldown 1 → New: Speed 8, Cooldown 0.
• Staff of Chaos (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Passive. After an Orc dies, gain +4 Fel Damage. → New (Rank 4): Passive. After an Orc or Demon dies, gain +4 Fel Damage.

Trigore - Backlash can now hit multiple times a turn. It's now a better deterrent against hitting your other characters, which makes Trigore a different sort of tank.

• Frenzied Attack - Old (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. If this took damage this turn, deal 12 damage to a random adjacent enemy. → New (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. If this took damage this turn, deal 16 damage to a random adjacent enemy.
• Backlash - Old (Rank 5): The next time an enemy damages an adjacent ally, gain +5 Attack and deal this Merc’s Attack damage to them. → New (Rank 5): Gain +5 Attack. Each time an enemy damages an adjacent ally this turn, deal this Merc’s Attack damage to them.

Sneed - The buffed attack on stats coupled with the buffed attack on Activate Saw go well with the additional turn on Extra Blades.

• Stat Buff - Old: 7/77 Maxed Stats → New: 9/77 Maxed Stats
• Activate Saw - Old (Rank 5): Gain +6 Attack for 2 turns. Attack a random enemy. → New (Rank 5): Gain +9 Attack for 2 turns. Attack a random enemy.
• Skull Dust (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Bzzz!!! Gains Bleed (5). → New (Rank 4): Bzzz!!! Gains Bleed (10).
• Extra Blades (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Sneed starts with Activate Blades active for 1 turn. → New (Rank 4): Battlecry: Start with Activate Saw 5 active for 2 turns.

Edwin, Defias Kingpin

• Assassin’s Blade - Old (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. If it hasn’t acted yet this turn, gain +5 Health and Attack it again. → New (Rank 5): Attack an enemy. If it hasn’t acted yet this turn, gain +10 Health and Attack it again.
• Kingpin’s Bounty - Old: Speed 4, Cooldown 2. → New: Speed 4, Cooldown 1.
• Black Flag (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Passive: Adjacent Pirates are (4) Speed faster. → New (Rank 4): Passive: Your other Pirates are (4) Speed faster.
• Even Shares (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Kingpin’s Bounty restores 10 more Health and affects all friendly characters. → New (Rank 4): Kingpin’s County restores 15 more Health and affects all friendly characters.

Thrall - Stealth removal buff.

• Lightning Storm - Old (Rank 5): Deal 10 damage to all enemies. → New (Rank 5): Deal 10 damage to all enemies. They lose Stealth.

Mannoroth - Stealth removal buff.

• Howl of Terror - Old (Rank 5): Reduce the Attack of all enemies by 15 this turn. → New (Rank 5): Reduce the Attack of all enemies by 15 this turn. They lose Stealth.

Ragnaros - Stealth removal buff.

• DIE, INSECTS - Old (Rank 5): Deal 22 damage to a random enemy. Deathblow: Repeat this. → New (Rank 5): Deal 22 damage to a random enemy. It loses Stealth. Deathblow: Repeat this.

Warmaster Voone - Stealth removal buff and slight damage increase on Axe Throw.

• Axe Throw - Old (Rank 5): Deal 8 damage to an enemy and one of its neighbors. → New (Rank 5): Deal 10 damage to an enemy and one of its neighbors. They lose Stealth.

Varden Dawngrasp - The Flurry change is actual substantial as it won't reliably slow down three enemies but will do a lot more damage if there's only one enemy.

• Flurry - Old (Rank 5): Deal 6 damage to 3 random enemy Mercs. They are (2) Speed slower next turn. → New (Rank 5): Shoot three missiles at random enemies that deal 7 damage each and slow for (2) Speed next turn.
• Chilling Amulet (Equipment) - Old (Rank 4): Deathrattle: Deal 8 damage to all enemies. Freeze a random enemy until the end of next turn. → New (Rank 4): Deathrattle: Deal 14 damage to all enemies and Freeze a random enemy.
  

ADDITIONAL UPDATES

• While on a Bounty, the Campfire node will now work with one click instead of requiring it be selected and then entered.
• Vaelstrasz’s Bounty rewards will now be able to grant Murky Coins instead of Lady Anacondra Coins.
• Multiple stacks of Bleed will now be combined into a total Bleed count that can be reduced by healing, instead of erased entirely.
• Bleed damage will no longer be able to deal Critical damage.
• Adjusted Mercenary card display and screen space for better Ability previews.

Photo via Hearthstone Mercenaries.