Hearthstone
Priest is currently trash in wild & it would be a pertinent problem for the class in near future.
Not having a clear cut identity is what getting priest into the problem in wild.
We know that Blizzard's first priority is standard & wild will always be a red headed stepchild to them. So in the context of card design they will always prioritise cards that will work outright in the standard format, while its utility in wild is always an after thought.
So with each expansion release we are seeing Priest constantly getting its identity changed. For a while it was resurrect which was not well supported & then came the buff one. But with the recent talk with them shifting divine spirit to HOF & Priest once again getting its identity removed, buff priest will not be well supported in the future either. The benefit of having clear identity is that some other classes are seeing their new cards getting trickled down to their Wild decks. Like secret Mage, battlecry shaman or thief rogue, taunt warrior, kun aviana otk druid, mech pally etc.
Many of the previous priest archetype that didn't work in the past got no support (like shadowform), So now majority of them have made the entire collection to be filled with dead cards that won't get any support in the future. Many popular archetype didn't receive any support in future expansion either like Dragon priest, resurrect priest, death rattle priest etc. So once a strong deck is now losing its relevancy while weak deck being dead for eternity. While other classes are getting support from their standard set, Priest is getting nothing. Also they completely killed big priest quite successfully.
Priest was quite bad against aggro & now days with this excessive aggressive environment in wild it is getting shafted again. some of the deck like mech pally or secret mage have gotten to hard to counter. Attrition & control two of the strongest aspect of Priest gameplay are getting fizzled out as well.
In the current situation I think Pirest has lost its relevancy in wild & won't be viable anytime soon.
Un-nerfing Raza will be a positive step ( not much but still a positive) but I don't think Blizzard will do that.
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Not having a clear cut identity is what getting priest into the problem in wild.
We know that Blizzard's first priority is standard & wild will always be a red headed stepchild to them. So in the context of card design they will always prioritise cards that will work outright in the standard format, while its utility in wild is always an after thought.
So with each expansion release we are seeing Priest constantly getting its identity changed. For a while it was resurrect which was not well supported & then came the buff one. But with the recent talk with them shifting divine spirit to HOF & Priest once again getting its identity removed, buff priest will not be well supported in the future either. The benefit of having clear identity is that some other classes are seeing their new cards getting trickled down to their Wild decks. Like secret Mage, battlecry shaman or thief rogue, taunt warrior, kun aviana otk druid, mech pally etc.
Many of the previous priest archetype that didn't work in the past got no support (like shadowform), So now majority of them have made the entire collection to be filled with dead cards that won't get any support in the future. Many popular archetype didn't receive any support in future expansion either like Dragon priest, resurrect priest, death rattle priest etc. So once a strong deck is now losing its relevancy while weak deck being dead for eternity. While other classes are getting support from their standard set, Priest is getting nothing. Also they completely killed big priest quite successfully.
Priest was quite bad against aggro & now days with this excessive aggressive environment in wild it is getting shafted again. some of the deck like mech pally or secret mage have gotten to hard to counter. Attrition & control two of the strongest aspect of Priest gameplay are getting fizzled out as well.
In the current situation I think Pirest has lost its relevancy in wild & won't be viable anytime soon.
Un-nerfing Raza will be a positive step ( not much but still a positive) but I don't think Blizzard will do that.
i don't know what you're talking about. Rotating Divine spirit (if they go that route) is the best possible scenario for Wild Priest. Blizzard won't stop printing buff cards because of that. If anything they'll print more now that they don't have to worry that having cheap health buffs will result in immediate OTKs. The only reason why most of the buff cards are hot garbage is precisely because they have to make sure you can't make big minions too easily because DS still exists. In Wild this wouldn't nearly be as much of a problem.
Also, unnerfing Raza would be outright retarded. Reno decks are so much stronger now thanks to Zephrys and you want to bring back the most notorious OTK/anti-interaction deck we've ever seen? We're talking about a deck that doesn't even need to kill enemies in one turn, they can just burn you out over multiple turns and there'S nothing you can do about it. Remember that Mindblast is still around in Wild.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
People are just lazy in Wild.
I still meet a ridiculous amount of Big Priests at rank 5 and 4 and even 3, which means people just want to sh1t upon the game with broken synergies, instead of systematically improving their wr.
Very few players change their habits, and they do so only if they find another broken or top tier deck (eg Secret Mage and Mech Paladin).
Dragon Priest is still a solid deck, and/or a Combo counterpart. It's just that it is either a common Midrange deck with raw power but nothing entirely broken (so not appealing enough, as opposed to BP), or it's too complicated to play (especially if compared to BP). So nobody plays them.
Hell, nearly any deck is viable in Wild right now, you just need to include Spellbreaker (Silence, Mass Dispel) against Paladins and Taunts, and Eater of Secrets against Mages, and carry some healing/burst power of your own. I brought my Even Hunter to rank 3 with minor effort (and i am not even a good player), i can't believe Priest can't find a decent deck!
I reiterate, people are just too lazy in Wild, and BP fuck3d their minds...
Please define 'trash'.
Both dragon priest (with Divine Spirit and Inner Fire) and razakus priest are extremely solid. (Read: top legend viable)
Razakus priest got support in the form of Zephrys the Great, slow priest decks got early game removal support in the form of Penance, dragon priest got support with the previous buff to Extra Arms and you honestly dare say that resurrect priest never got support?
What are you on about?
Little off topic: Penance turned out to be a pretty good card. To be fair, I didn't see it coming at all.
Spice Lord and self-proclaimed Meme Master.
Well I play the below list (with raza) and it's doing well. Needs refinement probably, but it's winning enough. You are still able to do 26 damage in an ideal scenario.
Btw your remark about early game for dragon priest: a 2/3 on 1 and a 2/4 taunt on 2 are not enough?
Have you ever played against secret mage & mech pally with Dragon Priest? I have. When Big Priest was the go to deck for Priest in Wild I was running Dragon Priest. Had mixed success with it. Mixed means exceptional result from Rank 10 to Rank 5 not so much after Rank 5.
After Savior of Uldum it has become way harder to tutor Dragon Priest. From my sig I hope you have already guessed that I am a Priest main. I play nothing other than Priest.
I have tried every type of Priest decks from the conventional one to non conventional OTK, New quest Priest to mogu cultist priest to resurrect priest, king kobold etc etc. I am speaking from my experience. It's not that I am projecting out of thin air.
Currently I am running a version of my highlander, Nzoth quest (awaken of the maker) priest. I made it to rank 5 at the very first day & after that I have been stuck at rank 3 for the past 24 days. It's continuous rank 5 - rank 3 back & forth for me. Previous season Rank 2 was my best & that was it. Gave it all the push but remained stuck there.
For past 24-25 days I have been playing 30-40 games each day but still no effect. So it's like I have almost played 600 games this season with a 46% win rate. Tried various decks to extended period with various tweaks but couldn't make them work.
Also lately I haven't faced a single Priest deck on wild ladder on EU server. Can't say what's going on in US & Asia server, but here is EU Priest is almost non existent after Rank 5. True story.
Nope, haven't played dragon priest this season. But I was responding to your early game remark of dragon priest and that it would make dragon priest viable. I would say it has good early game already with that kind of cards. I don't think there are a lot of minions with that kind of stats for the cost (without other downsides that is).
Not a single class in the game sees only one aspect of its class identity reinforced over and over again. Priest is just like any other class in this regard: sometimes buff priest gets attention, sometimes dragons, sometimes steal cards, etc. etc. etc. The class absolutely needs a fundamental revision, especially the evergreen set, but not because it has more than one theme that is periodically pushed. Hell I'd argue that affinity with deathrattle is one of the most consistent aspects of the class, even if that rarely materialises in a T1 deck.
I do agree 100% with you, but for the sake of playing devil's advocate, Taunt Warrior for instance received multiple salves of reinforcement, from Ungoro to SoU. Burgle Rogue and Big Spell Mage been alive for a while too, revised and perfected over the expansions.
And the counter example would be totem shaman that has been pushed for quite some time now with little to no success ...
Struggle with Heroic Galakrond's Awakening? I got your back :
Yeah, just why? To this day, there still isn't any legendary totem card ever printed 🙁
From a development standpoint, wild really doesn't matter very much. They may nerf things here and there to appease the very vocal minority, but they are paying close to zero attention to wild when they design new sets.
Darkbomb was good, so why would it be that surprising that another version of that would be good
Who needs consistency when you could have fun?
Whereas Penance has lifesteal, Darkbomb can go face
Spice Lord and self-proclaimed Meme Master.
Thanks yeah added skulking for the jades i encountered and mecha tun druids. When you don't encounter them other early game or emporer thausarian (for otk potential) would work, although that's a win more
I have to second this.
It's not priest's identity that is stagnating the class, but is the mindset that so many players have in deriving fun from cheesing out crazy legendary minions and often not having to worry about the opponent's board because the priest's large rezzed boards dictate which player ends up needing to do the trading while the priest just smashes face and protects things like Catrina or Rag with endless taunts. There isn't anything wrong with anybody enjoying fun about whatever they want to enjoy, but the obsession about the type of playstyle pigeonholes the class in wild because of it. Hell, big priest was even slights nerfed via Barnes (Although like I've said before the nerf was pointless because Vargoth was infinitely more powerful for the deck in the long game against control classes if only due to Mass Resurrection highrolls by itself) the deck is still heavily played in the format when compared to other priest archtypes. Nerfs aren't the answer, but players' preferences have to change or the priest class will still generally remain stagnant.
I do think priest laziness gets people to overlook Dragon Priest more often than they should. Not that long ago I get to legend for the first time (honestly first time above rank 5 even) with a Reno Dragon Priest build despite shamans, rogues, and big priests being everywhere. Old decks =/= bad, unviable, or inconsistent decks.
I have red hair, am a stepchild and despise Priest class (unless I'm watching Zetalot piloting) so I take great offense to this thread. /s
Well written and could not agree more. Thanks for opening this discussion