Praise Galakrond! Or don't, since its likely on the chopping block along with other overperforming Shaman cards in a balance patch scheduled for some time next week, as confirmed by the PlayHearthstone twitter.
Assuming it arrives on schedule, this will be the fastest balance change in Hearthstone history.
Quote From Blizzard We’re currently working on a balance update that will arrive within the next week containing adjustments for #DescentofDragons, including some changes aimed at Shaman.
Any cards that are affected will be given full arcane dust refunds. Stay tuned for more details next week.
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Comments
It has infuriated me since Un'goro decided mage should become the "magic is super random" class and gave them Primordial Glyph. So many toxic decks have relied on incredible discover effects that can loop.
Crossing fingers for Wild (EvoShaman, but also Secret Mage)
#PrayForWild
yes PLEASE! Secret mages are super annoying. They have way to many ways of dealing burst damage as well as ways to protect their board as well as many ways to disrupt your strategy. It isn't enough to just run secret removal, you also have to run healing and minion removal and several cheap spells to trigger counterspell.
Also, they are EVERYWHERE! In casual plus on any rank floor. They are just too good. I am not trying to sound salty, this is a real problem.
I reckon Dragonmaw Poacher might get hit too. Even it's not currently being played much, it severely discourages the use of dragons in an expansion centered around dragons. Arena has already shown how oppressive it can be.
They removed it from Arena draft.
Probably the fastest intervention ever by Team 5. I'm happy to see that finally they're changing their behavior about balance, at last for Standard (let's hope that also Wild will recieve a more costant focus).
Maybe the coming of LoR is finally forcing Blizzard to bring innovations and improvements.
Do you remember times of GvG, Naxx, Tournament when they said they wouldn't change any cards because they wouldn't feel like cards? Those were fun times, I quitted the game for a long time, probably person responsible for such an idiotic approach is no longer part of Team 5. Always a good thing to see balance changes, they can't come fast enough.
I'm gonna quote some other user from the site:
"Whoever designed/tested Faceless Corruptor must've been on acid."
Damn!
I still didn't open my packs!!
So, open them...
I don't know, everybody sees that Shaman Galakrond is really strong, but isn't it only because of start of expansion and greedy decks not playing for tempo but value? Everybody was crying about Bomb Warrior and Token Druid at the start of the Rise of Shadows, but the meta adjusted gradually and those decks have become obsolete.
Not only is shaman powerful, but shaman has been the most powerful class in the game for months now. People are tired of this, and if the game isn't fun, regardless of whether or not it is balanced, it is the responsibility of the game developers to make the game more fun.
The problem is that it's nearly impossible to play for tempo against Galakrond Shaman - the constant barrage of 2/1 rush minions (and 5/4 rush minions) during the early and midgame regularly overpowers anyone who's trying to play for board, and their late game is a wall of 8/8 minions that make typical tempo-oriented classes (Rogue, Hunter) irrelevant because they have no good AOE tools to clean up that wall.
Full dust refund! ..
*...If you manage to disenchant Galakrond. Kappa
Wow, that's unprecedented. I'm pretty sure nerfs are based on the data they collect, so they are clearly seeing something wildly out of control.
But it's rather shocking that this escaped from playtest.
Considering how they didn't even properly test "Quest + Galakrond" deck... I would suspect their play testing isn't exactly super reliable to see power levels. Also they just don't have row numbers of millions of players in testing, so they can't properly assess everything...
But yeah it was like during reveal "That seemed broken", then we got to play it and it is like "Yes it is broken"
It literally has 60-80% winrate except Mirror where it is 50% and Holy Wrath Paladin which actually just slightly favored against shaman...
More pressing is the upcoming winter break. They want this deck gone before they leave their offices
Predictions:
- Corrupt Elementalist -> 6 mana
- Faceless Corruptor -> 6 mana
- Mutate -> 1 mana (or make Mogu Fleshshaper be discounted by only own cards)
- Galakrond, the Tempest -> 6/6s instead of 8/8s
I like those nerfs but [Hearthstone Card (Galakrond, the Tempest) Not Found] summoning 6/6s instead of 8/8s breaks the Battlecry effect x1 - x2 - x4 of the five Galakronds and I'm not sure Team 5 is willing to make that change.
They should probably make Galakrond summon 1/1s, then 2/2s, then 4/4s. That way, the design of the Battlecry stays in line with the other Galakronds, but it's less busted.
For what it's worth, I don't really think Galakrond, the Tempest needs to be nerfed at all. Yes, summoning two 8/8s is huge, and yes, getting it duplicated by Heart of Vir'naal is devastating, but the elementals can't go face immediately, and there's no shortage of big board swing cards that are beatable with AOE (e.g. Dragoncaller Alanna, Chef Nomi, etc.).
The real problem is the combination of Corrupt Elementalist, Faceless Corruptor, and (as usual) Shudderwock. These make it too easy to stop opposing early game pressure, max out your Galakrond on curve (I've played Warlock and Rogue Galakrond, and I regularly find myself stuck playing before maxing out), and then reload your entire hand and board if your opponent was lucky enough to have AOE available to clear your wall of 8/8s.
You're right that the Mutate/Mogu Fleshshaper combo is a problem too, but I doubt it will matter much if you fix the other things, and I'd say rather than change Mutate (which has useful interactions today with cards like Spirit of the Frog and Gadgetzan Auctioneer), they should do an early Hall of Fame for Shudderwock.
Once you break that package up, Galakrond, the Tempest should be beatable because with a strong control deck you can clear out their minions until you reach the late game and win (particularly since the "deal 2 to a minion" hero power isn't really all that good in the late game).