We recently found out that an upcoming patch would revert a fair few nerfs that some cards have seen, and the first candidate has been revealed!
In a strangely-timed tweet, it's been confirmed by the official Hearthstone account that Sludge Slurper will see a return to 2/1 stats. Perhaps this will be a boost to Shaman's recent flagging performance?
Quote From PlayHearthstone In our next update we'll be reverting nerfs to a few select cards, these will primarily be cards rotating into Wild. However, included in this update will be Sludge Slurper, who will revert back to 2 Attack / 1 Health.
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Comments
I'm happy it was a shaman card. Shaman got nerfed into the ground to fix their mistake of not being able to release the gala deck in a balanced way. The nerf on this card was actually big, the different between a 1/1 and a 2/1 in early turns is huge.
I'm glad this card is getting unnerfed. I've always felt that the nerf was unnecessary cos this card is similar to Kobold Librarian except it is Overload instead of self damage.
Too bad that the only card they are going to unnerf is a very strong early drop with a heavy RNG factor, shaman needs an help for sure, this direction is not one that i like to be honest.
I have to say that this is the fist time since the start of the game where i just stopped playing, i am simply very tired of all the absurd random things that happen in the game, especially because, recently, it seems that those super strong and yet random effects are becoming more and more relevant and they are present in early game cards too.
This unnerf sadly tells that is intended and makes me worried. I'm not even happy about the year rotation, because all this kind of cards remain in the game.
I really hope that i'm wrong and the new year will make the game still enjoyable for me
I don’t think that Lackey generation feels that random. There is a small, predictable pool of cards to draw from. Of course there is a random event, but it feels less “random” to me than, say, trying to draw 2 cards for a combo from my deck.
Lackeys remind me of the Discover mechanic: A merging of randomness and strategy in a way that’s only possible in a virtual card game. Some people will like it and some won’t, but it’s fundamental to what makes Hearthstone different than Magic.
You know, people are always complaining about how prominent RNG is, and how influential it is to the outcome of a game, and how skills barley matter as long as you get lucky, and how dumb this game is because the whole thing is just one big RNG fiesta. But honestly, how much RNG is actually in all of the meta decks right now?
I am going to look at all of the decks provided in the Standard Meta Report and see how many cards are just random RNG, I will not count discover cards because they are fairly controllable, and most of them have a restriction (like discovering dragons, or only spells) that makes them even more consistent.
In Embiggen Druid, there is nothing.
In Quest Druid, the only RNG cards are [Hearthstone Card (ysera unleashed) Not Found].
In Aggro Dragon Hunter, there is Dragonbane, and I guess you could argue that Phase Stalker counts, but I say no to that because you can pick and choose which secrets you want to go into your deck, so there is barely any RNG on this card.
In Highlander Hunter, there is Dragonbane, and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza.
In Highlander Mage, there is Conjurer's Calling (and people play that card because 99% of the time, two random minions are better than the one you had, so I would say this card is pretty consistent), Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, and the [Hearthstone Card (amazing reno) Not Found].
In mech paladin, the only card which you could argue being an RNG card is Micro Mummy, but the effect is so small that I would say it hardly matters.
In Galakrond Priest, you do have all of those random minions coming off of Galakrond, as well as Mass Hysteria, and you could argue that Archmage Vargoth as well as all of the resurrection stuff is also RNG, but that is controllable, so I will not count that.
In Galakrond Rogue, really, the only random stuff is Pharaoh Cat, which isn't that influential to the outcome of the game, and all of the lackeys. And again, the lackeys aren't that influential to the outcome of the game.
In Control Galakrond Warlock, the only RNG cards are Dragonqueen Alexstrasza and the random demons you get from Galkronds battlecry.
In Zoo Galakrond Warlock, the only really random thing is just the random demons off of Galakronds battlecry
In galakrond Warrior, there is zero RNG cards.
All in all there is a total of five big RNG cards that can swing the game. That doesn't seem like a whole lot to me. Most of the RNG in Hearthstone is just draw, which is just how card games work. If there was no randomness than the game would be SUPER boring and stale, but there isn't NEARLY enough huge swingy RNG cards to make you quit the game.
I agree with most of your points, but I feel that with Pharaoh Cat, there is quite a difference between getting Generous Mummy versus Winged Guardian.
Edit: Also, which cards Galakrond buffs for Warrior or discounts for Rogue can matter quite a bit. But as several cards are drawn, you'll see average results a lot more than super good or super bad results.
Welcome back buddy, you were sorely missed!
Quest completion can start promptly again, and without you Murloc decks felt empty.
Poor innocent thing never had anything to do with Galakrond.
Good unnerfing target, nobody called for this card to get nerfed it's a really good card Shaman needs.. Shaman got overnerfed by too much.
This nerf-unnerf ping pong in such short time periods is both hilarious and insulting to me as a player.
You're awfully fragile if you consider this "insulting."
"Insulting" in terms of player-devs relationship, obviously. He even wrote it.
It's not hard to understand that the personal level has nothing to do with the game.
And just to be precise, the fact you accept the nerf-unnerf policy doesn't make you any tougher than those who don't (and for understandable reasons).
I like frequent balance adjustments. Leaving the meta stale and ignoring problems is what insults me as a player. Blizzard has gotten more proactive, and if that means there will be occasional course corrections, I think it’s more than fair.
You are justifying their poor balance decisions by the argument that "they used to be worse than this". To me, this is not good enough for a game as expensive as hearthstone from a company as big as blizzard.
There are a lot of different opinions about how nerfs should be approached. If you see it differently, that’s fine. But I was very cynical about that round of Shaman nerfs when they were announced, and I was wrong. They ended up making the meta much healthier. Reverting Sludge Slurper now shouldn’t hurt anything, and will support additional Shaman strategies. I am comfortable with that
There goes the only Year of the Dragon unnerf then.
Fair enough.
The rest is basically Wild stuff: at this point, i expect they unnerf no Warlock and no Mage cards, since the two classes are already too popular and too broken in Wild, and varied too btw. There is no need to unnerf them in any way.
As for the rest, there is no risk to warp the meta, unless they overly buff a class/deck that already has access to huge Tempo/Burn (ie Kingsbane), Transform effects (ie Shaman), or broken Board Clears (ie Priest).
Minor buffs to these could still be ok (ie Raza Priest could be ok in current Wild).
Shaman is crap now, this is fine.
I think this will help Shaman in a big way. The class has strong cards at the moment, but it also has piss-poor choices for opening plays. With something to toss on the board and pressure the early game with, the possible decks out there - Quest, Galakrond, Control, Aggro Overload - should get a nice boost in winrate. At the very least, we should see ole Thrall again!
Everyone calling the nerf on this in standard unwarranted probably only played lackey shit, and enjoyed the archetype. This card was oppressive, it was an auto include in every shaman deck, and was cancer every turn you played it on until turn 4. That being said, wild has tools to deal with it so reverting the nerf is warranted. It's not as oppressive in wild where they have 1 mana 2/3s and every deck plays mistress of mixtures...
Problem is... Sluper isn't rotating to wild for another year