I'm not trying to impugn Swim's credibility here, I just think Mobalytics should build those lists based on data which is itself transparent, and their methodologies should be clearly explained on the page, rather than just leaving it up to one or two streamers to interpret the data however they see fit. I shouldn't have to go watch YouTube videos to figure out how these deck lists are being picked, especially when there may well be variance in similar lists for teching purposes.
Fair point, I also wish that the Mobalytics data was transparent and readily available, like how HSreplay data is for HS.
I am saying that now is not as better as people perceive it to be.
At the end of the day, anything is an assumption, including yours. I am also talking of facts, it's just that you refuse to see them.
But if we look at the bare effects here, is that with people being happy with the current policy, there will hardly be room for further improvement (eg. release more interesting and varied cards, and less OP BS). Why improvimg if people are content?
Also, the surface of things IS a PTR mode, whether it is in the backoffice or not. I am discussing what we get (obviously OP stuff that requires multiple nerfs, it happened twice in a row now after Galakrond Shaman), what we perceive (we are happy with the nerfs, instead of being frustrated with such releases), and how the devs adjust the game (keep going with this policy, instead of more internal testing, and more variety in card design and card release).
I hope I made my point clear here: all I am concerned about is exactly the dynamic future of the game.
PS: this 3rd round of nerfs didn't really come soon enough.
The meta barely had any time to optimally settle since the last balance change before this one. I wouldn't label a deck as strongest deck in the meta with having almost no time for the deck to do anything. I don't really believe in nerfing most things preemptively because both the community and devs alike have been wrong when thinking something would be a problem when it turned out it wasn't.
As for the hunter nerf. All I will say is every time you nerf something that isn't a flat out hyper aggressive hunter aggro deck it just increases the likelihood that aggro will be the only viable option left for hunter (buffing porcupines and all that is more of a mindrangy combo deck than a true aggro deck).
I really like all these buffs and nerfs, but let's talk Demon Hunter. I'm glad to see the health nerf to 5 on Priestess of Fury. I think it's a strong and balanced card now. Crimson Sigil Runner wasn't on my radar, but it's also a great nerf.
The single most problematic card in Demon Hunter is Twin Slice. It synergizes too well with too many other strong cards. Battlefiend, Satyr Overseer, Altruis the Outcast, and Warglaives of Azzinoth. It needs to be nerfed to 1 mana while keeping Second Slice at 0 mana (it's not a Twinspell!). It goes beyond what's generally considered a fair effect for the cost. We all agree Twin Slice would be broken in Rogue and unplayable in Mage, right? It's equally broken in Demon Hunter. As much as I think Altruis the Outcast shouldn't deal face damage or would like to see further nerfs to the class' draw engine, changing Twin Slice to 1 mana solves so many of these problems on its own.
How is a 1 mana deal 8 damage to a minion a bad card?
i did my math and reading wrong i thought i saw cost 3 if you cast a spell last turn totaly negated the less part now that its been brought to my attention a 1 mana deal 8 is goo
Depends on the meta, a 1 mana deal 8 does not fit in any Shaman decks right now. Quest Shaman is minion based and can't reliably run this card for the discount, and a 4 mana deal 8 is not needed right now since Priestess just got nerfed. Totem Shaman also does not need this card right now, as you would rather draw a totem card or spell than this.
This buff could create a new spell Shaman that would be cool, but we will have to see if more tools are needed to combat the meta.
Well, I guess I was a day early when I posted in the salt thread about Priestess of Fury possibly being nerfed lol.
I'm overjoyed by this new round of nerfs and buffs because it's gonna make me dust-rich! It's been my habit to dust extra copies of cards while only keeping multiple copies of those that I think will be problematic and might get nerfed in the future. For this expansion, I've stockpiled the following:
Shadowjeweler Hanar - undecided whether to dust this or not, since Secret Rogue isn't agreeing with me...
That's a total of 2,900 dust (4,500 if I dust Hanar). This is probably the first time I'm gonna benefit this much from a round of nerfs. My selective hoarding finally paid off!
I'm sure it's a blast to play ;). I can't imagine climbing the ladder without my lackeys from Livewire Lance. Demon Hunters rarely wait long enough to kill you for the bombs to go off. Gan'arg is definitely an odd card, and a decent candidate to swap for something else. It really shines though when you get it in your opening hand with coin.
How is a 1 mana deal 8 damage to a minion a bad card?
i did my math and reading wrong i thought i saw cost 3 if you cast a spell last turn totaly negated the less part now that its been brought to my attention a 1 mana deal 8 is goo
Just a note: We are just 1 month since Demon Hunter entered the game, and this is already the 3rd big nerf this class is seeing. Something defiantly went wrong with the design of this class (an already upgraded Aggro oriented hero power with insane card draw mechanic, silence and direct burst damage effects you can do nothing about).
The Last Kaleidosaur. My favorite decks are midrange ones that let me buff my minions and build a strong board. Unfortunately, Galvadon wasn't a great payoff. Even if it were, I don't remember having a lot of great buffs and I often died just before or shortly after playing my dino friend.
I never meant nothing as in it cant be killed. Yes it now will but after playing DH and against it i can assure u that its battlecry sealed games. The nerf would better be to ots battlecry or to its mana
Catalyst of Aeons: I completely agree that this needs to do something more when you're at 10 mana. It can be hard to fit in during the mid game (especially thanks the addition of Wolfrider), so you often end up stuck with it well past when you need it. I would go simpler on this change, though. "Enlightened: Draw a card."
Troop of Elnuks: Seems like a bad change. Comparing it to Poro Herder, the body is weaker and draw condition is entirely out of your control. Comparing to Babbling Bjerg, it seems potentially a lot better, but the draw is still lower likelihood when it's scoped to the top 10 cards of your deck. Worse still, the things you'd draw are expensive (unlike a 1 mana Poro or Yeti), so you're gonna spend a lot of time and mana getting your Elnuks into play when you draw them. Sure, it buffs a little bit, you still have to pay for the units, which is a bummer.
Ultimately, I don't think this does a better job supporting the Elnuk Shuffle archetype - if you shuffle enough Elnuks, you should hit some when you play Troop, and getting them for free is a big deal. The nerf Riot made here is probably appropriate for making the Troop's value narrowly fitted to the Elnuk Shuffle archetype, but the archetype is bad. The best fix here is to print more interesting Elnuks.
Kindly Tavernkeeper: I'm fine with this change, but I'm not sure that this is a card I would target if I were trying to make Freljord a stronger "primary region" for a deck. There's still way more Nexus healing in Ionia and Shadow Isles, and burst speed buffs are often a better way to protect/heal your units.
Entreat: Tutoring out your champions at burst speed is already very powerful. I don't think this card needs buffing.
Unscarred Reaver: I don't think Challenger is a good idea here. First, I like the fact that the Freljord challengers are both wolves - I think it fits the theme/fantasy of the region well. The two biggest problems with her, as I see it, are her HP, and the ease with which your opponent can avoid triggering her. At 3 health, she rarely survives long enough to get two procs, and the first hit as an attacker/blocker typically means she deals no damage. She's constantly vulnerable to any 3 attack 2 drop (of which there are plenty), as well as P&Z and Noxus removal tools, and after taking one hit she's often vulnerable to a myriad of "deal 1" removal tools. And if your opponent doesn't help you proc her by attacking or blocking with a tiny unit, you have to spend time getting her online, which can often require developing another unit and spending mana on a spell.
With all that in mind, I think the fix for her is just to change the stats around. I'd probably make her a 0/4 unit with a +2|+0 effect. She grows a little slower, but should consistently stick around long enough to proc more than once.
Tarkaz the Tribeless: Tarkaz is already huge for his cost, and he exists to support the "survive damage" archetype, so I wouldn't focus on changing him specifically. I can imagine a deck that uses Tarkaz and various "survive damage" units along with Ursine Spiritwalker to make a wall of overwhelm units. What such a deck probably needs is some kind of board-wide heal like Citrus Courier or Sap Magic to keep your minions in play despite the damage, but if you wanted to make it work a little better without that, you could maybe buff Tarkaz so he curves out after Ursine Spiritwalker
A couple of my ideas:
Warmother's Call: Bring the cost down to 11. It's already the only card that costs more than 10, but getting to 12 mana is incredibly hard (especially given how inconsistent and/or unimpactful the ramp tools are), and if you're playing it in your deck, you're one Deny away from a miserable game.
Making him deal 2 will make him much more relevant as an early game removal tool, and a 3/1 unit is probably worth about 1 or 1.5 mana depending on the match-up (since he dies to just about everything, but is useful against fearsome units like Elise).
The goal isn't to delete the class from the game, but to tone it down more.
Regardless of how people feel about Kayn Sunfury one way or the other doing either of those nerfs breaks the point of the card. The latter of the two ideas you mentioned always makes the card an extremely lackluster legendary that you feel bad about pulling. It becomes a 4 mana Fireball for only half the damage if it is answered immediately. Even if it would stick on the board for one turn it still only does as much as Fireball, just twice as slowly as the mage spell. You'd be better off running a silence that allows more than one minion to ignore a taunt.
You've somehow built up this assumption of what goes on backstage and you're painting everything you see in the game with that brush to suit your argument, IMO. You're talking as if the way things were designed previously was better and more refined than it is now and they've just started slacking. Was TGT a more refined product? Was Karazan? Shamans of Shamanstone ring a bell? The difference is, in the past they would release these broken or lackluster expansions and they'd just leave them like that for months. Maybe out of fear of breaking something, they might have held back on power level because their reponse times were so slow. Maybe that's how TGT happened, and how Grimy Goons happened. We can speculate all we want. But we can, I'd say, agree on the fact it sucked. The things that sucked (Grimy Goons, Inspire, Joust) continued sucking forever and the broken things would get nerfed into the ground after a few months at best. If an expansion released weak, boring and underpowered, well, better hope the next one's good in 3-4 months, cause things aren't getting better until then. What's buffing cards anyway?
Are they now swinging for the fences and trying to make things as busted as possible? I'd say evidence speaks to the contrary, seeing the state many classes and mechanics are in this expansion and in expansions prior. I mean, the buffs to Boomsday cards didn't happen for no reason, a lot of Boomsday underperformed. So did a lot of Rastakhan's Rumble. Is the current metagame more busted and imbalanced than Knights of the Frozen Throne? I'd say no. The amount of "I drew it first so I win" and single-card win condition has dropped drastically I'd say. Compare the Death Knight cycle to the Prime cycle. Does that seem juiced to the moon to you?
But even IF they were going for the new MtG approach (as in, make everything broken then completely ban the worst of it), they're also taking the appropriate approach to it by being quick to react if things are busted. And more than that, they're going out of their way to also bring up some of the things that didn't pan out. Where most games would just nerf everything to the weakest class's level, instead classes are getting brought up from the bottom (where was that attitude in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan?). And was DH overtuned? Absolutely. But unless they were releasing it just for standard, it kinda had to be to make any mark on Wild. As much as I hate much of what DH did in Wild, at least it was a presence rather than a complete non-factor that we'd have two wait 2 more years for before it becomes competitive in any way.
This assumption that they're just shoveling these cards out there willy nilly with the attitude "we'll fix it later" is just that. An assumption. One that cannot be proven or disproven either way by hard facts. Which is why it's best to not let your assumptions colour your arguments. Facts are facts. Things were broken, now they're less so. Things were weak, not they're stronger. Past status quo? Things are weak? Eh, whatever. Things are too strong? We'll fix it. In 2 1/2 months. Maybe. Marked improvement for the better that's hard to argue with and a more dynamic meta that keeps things fresh when they'd be getting stale. For my money, that's a win. I'd rather have another DH release with three quick rounds of nerfs than another Naga Sea Witch situation.
The decks there are ranked by a couple of LoR streamers, and their rankings are informed by data, but there aren't a ton of publicly available analytics today like there are for Hearthstone.
Given that Freljord isn't a key part of any meta deck (endure spiders doesn't really count as Frelyord) I thought of some buffs that might the region more playable
Catalyst of Aeons becomes 5 Mana "Gain an empty mana gem and heal your Nexus 5. Enlightened: Draw a unit with 5+ Power"
-This change would make Catalyst a lot better once you've reached 10 mana crystals, at which point the current Catalyst becomes "5 Mana Heal 3", which is awful and game-losing. The additional heal would help Freljord stabilize against aggro better without having to run Shadow Isles.
Troop of Elnuks becomes a 4 Mana 3/3 with "Play: Draw 2 Elnuks in the top 10 cards in your deck. Give all other Elnuks everywhere +1/+1.
-This change would make Elnuk shuffle decks a possibility, because it would give them access to more card draw and would make playing a ton of Elnuks a viable strategy, as they would grow bigger and bigger. I think this version would not be able to be run without shuffle support, but if it were proven too powerful, it could be changed to draw from the top 6 cards instead.
Kindly Tavernkeeper becomes a 3 Mana 2/4 with "Play: Heal an ally or your Nexus 4."
-This would make the tavernkeeper a consideration in Freljord decks, and would help make Freljord one of the Healing Regions, which could lead to it being incorporated in some decks that would have otherwise used Shadow Isles for healing.
Entreat becomes 2 Mana "Draw a Champion. Enlightened: Give it +1|+1"
-This change buffs up Entreat just a little bit, and contributes more to the buffing and Enlightenment archetypes, which do not currently seem to be working.
This change would make it easier to enable Unscarred Reaver, and make her more powerful when she actually does get damaged. This is helpful because without Challenger Unscarred reaver can stay as a 0/3 for a really long time, and even when she does get damaged she can get killed by a 2/1, making it almost impossible to successfully attack with her. With this buff, the Scars deck could become potentially viable. This could make her too good against 1/1s, in which case her health could be reduced to 2
-This change would make Tarkaz better by requiring your opponent to actually block him instead of just using a 1/1. This change could possibly make him too good though, in which case his health could be lowered to 7.
So what do you all think about these changes? Would it be enough to make Freljord viable, or did I miss some key cards that need to be buffed?
It's good for competitive players to keep things fresh, and it's good for brewers like me who like to have things to discover and figure out constantly. It's just good for the health of the game to have an active development team rather than one that releases a 100 % guaranteed balanced and fine tuned set and the next time you hear of them is when the next one is coming up 4 months later. We've been there. We've seen it. We don't need to go back to it cause we know where it leads: the game gets boring and stale about a month into the new expansion.
If you check my opinion of Blackjack Stunner on the card's page, I said the card would be good at 3 mana with the current stats and effect, because the tempo swing of what could be described as a 1 mana 1/2 Sap would still be decent if the overall power level of the game would grow linearly rather than exponencially, which is what it feels right now.
That's why over tuning cards you know will end up scaled back should not be a goal of an expansion, even for the sake of keeping things fresh. Last year proved you can do that in many different ways, from releasing a handful of cards from wild to buffs for every class. Sure, said ideas would be more challenging when a new class is introduced, but that would be the point of a DH beta state (I mean, look at Battlegrounds, that mode is still in beta and was released before DH). In fact, when you consider there are 4 ranked seasons for each expansion, we could have something along the likes of, quick example, first two seasons with just the new cards, third season with extra cards thrown in and/or a couple cards banned and a final season with temporary buffs/changes before, like, a final week of that season to play with cards from the next expansion as a test run.
You don't need to show activity by constant nerfs. Or by giving Paladin their version of Northshire Cleric into 2 mana Extra Arms because their major expansion theme flopped yet again. These constant changes show that Blizzard have less than ideal control over their product under the disguise of activity.
One last thing: the whole deck brewer thing was possible in the older metas. In fact, I would argue it was, in my experience, much less punishing to go with cards and ideas that were on the weaker side because, again, the power level of the stronger cards was much more in line with them (example: I would try to put at least one copy of my favorite card Bomb Lobber in virtually every deck, even decks that got little to no benefit to having that card and I would have some degree of success with it. Last expansion, I slapped two Troll Batriders [basically a more powerful version of Bomb Lobber] in my Quest non-Galakrond Shaman as an early game tool/extra board control for Shudderwock and I quickly ended up scrapping it as it just couldn't compete with the overall powerlevel of the game).
Odes to our Favorite Bad Cards of All Time
Let me add Sir Finley of the Sands.
Dear Scarab Knight,
They didn't let you start during the first turn [as a (1)1/3],
They hindered back your knighthood placing you second in line, and made impossible to reliably tutor your arrival [with Crystology]
Soon enough
To make you good.
Buff Vi.
Fair point, I also wish that the Mobalytics data was transparent and readily available, like how HSreplay data is for HS.
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
I didn't say before was better.
I am saying that now is not as better as people perceive it to be.
At the end of the day, anything is an assumption, including yours. I am also talking of facts, it's just that you refuse to see them.
But if we look at the bare effects here, is that with people being happy with the current policy, there will hardly be room for further improvement (eg. release more interesting and varied cards, and less OP BS). Why improvimg if people are content?
Also, the surface of things IS a PTR mode, whether it is in the backoffice or not. I am discussing what we get (obviously OP stuff that requires multiple nerfs, it happened twice in a row now after Galakrond Shaman), what we perceive (we are happy with the nerfs, instead of being frustrated with such releases), and how the devs adjust the game (keep going with this policy, instead of more internal testing, and more variety in card design and card release).
I hope I made my point clear here: all I am concerned about is exactly the dynamic future of the game.
PS: this 3rd round of nerfs didn't really come soon enough.
Here's some art, make a card! [Legacy Game]
Next, let's keep this Triassic Train rollin':
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
The meta barely had any time to optimally settle since the last balance change before this one. I wouldn't label a deck as strongest deck in the meta with having almost no time for the deck to do anything. I don't really believe in nerfing most things preemptively because both the community and devs alike have been wrong when thinking something would be a problem when it turned out it wasn't.
As for the hunter nerf. All I will say is every time you nerf something that isn't a flat out hyper aggressive hunter aggro deck it just increases the likelihood that aggro will be the only viable option left for hunter (buffing porcupines and all that is more of a mindrangy combo deck than a true aggro deck).
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
I really like all these buffs and nerfs, but let's talk Demon Hunter. I'm glad to see the health nerf to 5 on Priestess of Fury. I think it's a strong and balanced card now. Crimson Sigil Runner wasn't on my radar, but it's also a great nerf.
The single most problematic card in Demon Hunter is Twin Slice. It synergizes too well with too many other strong cards. Battlefiend, Satyr Overseer, Altruis the Outcast, and Warglaives of Azzinoth. It needs to be nerfed to 1 mana while keeping Second Slice at 0 mana (it's not a Twinspell!). It goes beyond what's generally considered a fair effect for the cost. We all agree Twin Slice would be broken in Rogue and unplayable in Mage, right? It's equally broken in Demon Hunter. As much as I think Altruis the Outcast shouldn't deal face damage or would like to see further nerfs to the class' draw engine, changing Twin Slice to 1 mana solves so many of these problems on its own.
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
Depends on the meta, a 1 mana deal 8 does not fit in any Shaman decks right now. Quest Shaman is minion based and can't reliably run this card for the discount, and a 4 mana deal 8 is not needed right now since Priestess just got nerfed. Totem Shaman also does not need this card right now, as you would rather draw a totem card or spell than this.
This buff could create a new spell Shaman that would be cool, but we will have to see if more tools are needed to combat the meta.
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
By the way they released the DemonHunter class, OP, they are confused by a lot of things!
The Pepper Thread - Share Some Good Vibes!
Well, I guess I was a day early when I posted in the salt thread about Priestess of Fury possibly being nerfed lol.
I'm overjoyed by this new round of nerfs and buffs because it's gonna make me dust-rich! It's been my habit to dust extra copies of cards while only keeping multiple copies of those that I think will be problematic and might get nerfed in the future. For this expansion, I've stockpiled the following:
Priestess of Fury - 6 extra copies
Blackjack Stunner - 5 copies (with 2 golden, enough for a new legendary!)
Bloodboil Brute - 1 copy
Scavenger's Ingenuity - 3 copies
Shadowjeweler Hanar - undecided whether to dust this or not, since Secret Rogue isn't agreeing with me...
That's a total of 2,900 dust (4,500 if I dust Hanar). This is probably the first time I'm gonna benefit this much from a round of nerfs. My selective hoarding finally paid off!
Execute The System - Rank 5 to Legend @ 58.75%
I'm sure it's a blast to play ;). I can't imagine climbing the ladder without my lackeys from Livewire Lance. Demon Hunters rarely wait long enough to kill you for the bombs to go off. Gan'arg is definitely an odd card, and a decent candidate to swap for something else. It really shines though when you get it in your opening hand with coin.
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
i did my math and reading wrong i thought i saw cost 3 if you cast a spell last turn totaly negated the less part now that its been brought to my attention a 1 mana deal 8 is goo
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
Just a note: We are just 1 month since Demon Hunter entered the game, and this is already the 3rd big nerf this class is seeing. Something defiantly went wrong with the design of this class (an already upgraded Aggro oriented hero power with insane card draw mechanic, silence and direct burst damage effects you can do nothing about).
Odes to our Favorite Bad Cards of All Time
The Last Kaleidosaur. My favorite decks are midrange ones that let me buff my minions and build a strong board. Unfortunately, Galvadon wasn't a great payoff. Even if it were, I don't remember having a lot of great buffs and I often died just before or shortly after playing my dino friend.
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
I never meant nothing as in it cant be killed. Yes it now will but after playing DH and against it i can assure u that its battlecry sealed games. The nerf would better be to ots battlecry or to its mana
Freljord Buff Ideas
Feedback on your suggestions:
Catalyst of Aeons: I completely agree that this needs to do something more when you're at 10 mana. It can be hard to fit in during the mid game (especially thanks the addition of Wolfrider), so you often end up stuck with it well past when you need it. I would go simpler on this change, though. "Enlightened: Draw a card."
Troop of Elnuks: Seems like a bad change. Comparing it to Poro Herder, the body is weaker and draw condition is entirely out of your control. Comparing to Babbling Bjerg, it seems potentially a lot better, but the draw is still lower likelihood when it's scoped to the top 10 cards of your deck. Worse still, the things you'd draw are expensive (unlike a 1 mana Poro or Yeti), so you're gonna spend a lot of time and mana getting your Elnuks into play when you draw them. Sure, it buffs a little bit, you still have to pay for the units, which is a bummer.
Ultimately, I don't think this does a better job supporting the Elnuk Shuffle archetype - if you shuffle enough Elnuks, you should hit some when you play Troop, and getting them for free is a big deal. The nerf Riot made here is probably appropriate for making the Troop's value narrowly fitted to the Elnuk Shuffle archetype, but the archetype is bad. The best fix here is to print more interesting Elnuks.
Kindly Tavernkeeper: I'm fine with this change, but I'm not sure that this is a card I would target if I were trying to make Freljord a stronger "primary region" for a deck. There's still way more Nexus healing in Ionia and Shadow Isles, and burst speed buffs are often a better way to protect/heal your units.
Entreat: Tutoring out your champions at burst speed is already very powerful. I don't think this card needs buffing.
Unscarred Reaver: I don't think Challenger is a good idea here. First, I like the fact that the Freljord challengers are both wolves - I think it fits the theme/fantasy of the region well. The two biggest problems with her, as I see it, are her HP, and the ease with which your opponent can avoid triggering her. At 3 health, she rarely survives long enough to get two procs, and the first hit as an attacker/blocker typically means she deals no damage. She's constantly vulnerable to any 3 attack 2 drop (of which there are plenty), as well as P&Z and Noxus removal tools, and after taking one hit she's often vulnerable to a myriad of "deal 1" removal tools. And if your opponent doesn't help you proc her by attacking or blocking with a tiny unit, you have to spend time getting her online, which can often require developing another unit and spending mana on a spell.
With all that in mind, I think the fix for her is just to change the stats around. I'd probably make her a 0/4 unit with a +2|+0 effect. She grows a little slower, but should consistently stick around long enough to proc more than once.
Tarkaz the Tribeless: Tarkaz is already huge for his cost, and he exists to support the "survive damage" archetype, so I wouldn't focus on changing him specifically. I can imagine a deck that uses Tarkaz and various "survive damage" units along with Ursine Spiritwalker to make a wall of overwhelm units. What such a deck probably needs is some kind of board-wide heal like Citrus Courier or Sap Magic to keep your minions in play despite the damage, but if you wanted to make it work a little better without that, you could maybe buff Tarkaz so he curves out after Ursine Spiritwalker
A couple of my ideas:
Warmother's Call: Bring the cost down to 11. It's already the only card that costs more than 10, but getting to 12 mana is incredibly hard (especially given how inconsistent and/or unimpactful the ramp tools are), and if you're playing it in your deck, you're one Deny away from a miserable game.
Avarosan Marksman: Increase the play effect to 2 damage. There are several examples of dealing 2 being worth about 2 mana, with some variations on targeting and speed based on region. (Examples include Mystic Shot, Death's Hand - which can be thought of as bundling Mystic Shot with Blade's Edge, and Shunpo - which can be thought of as bundling Mystic Shot with Relentless Pursuit).
Making him deal 2 will make him much more relevant as an early game removal tool, and a 3/1 unit is probably worth about 1 or 1.5 mana depending on the match-up (since he dies to just about everything, but is useful against fearsome units like Elise).
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
The goal isn't to delete the class from the game, but to tone it down more.
Regardless of how people feel about Kayn Sunfury one way or the other doing either of those nerfs breaks the point of the card. The latter of the two ideas you mentioned always makes the card an extremely lackluster legendary that you feel bad about pulling. It becomes a 4 mana Fireball for only half the damage if it is answered immediately. Even if it would stick on the board for one turn it still only does as much as Fireball, just twice as slowly as the mage spell. You'd be better off running a silence that allows more than one minion to ignore a taunt.
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
You've somehow built up this assumption of what goes on backstage and you're painting everything you see in the game with that brush to suit your argument, IMO. You're talking as if the way things were designed previously was better and more refined than it is now and they've just started slacking. Was TGT a more refined product? Was Karazan? Shamans of Shamanstone ring a bell? The difference is, in the past they would release these broken or lackluster expansions and they'd just leave them like that for months. Maybe out of fear of breaking something, they might have held back on power level because their reponse times were so slow. Maybe that's how TGT happened, and how Grimy Goons happened. We can speculate all we want. But we can, I'd say, agree on the fact it sucked. The things that sucked (Grimy Goons, Inspire, Joust) continued sucking forever and the broken things would get nerfed into the ground after a few months at best. If an expansion released weak, boring and underpowered, well, better hope the next one's good in 3-4 months, cause things aren't getting better until then. What's buffing cards anyway?
Are they now swinging for the fences and trying to make things as busted as possible? I'd say evidence speaks to the contrary, seeing the state many classes and mechanics are in this expansion and in expansions prior. I mean, the buffs to Boomsday cards didn't happen for no reason, a lot of Boomsday underperformed. So did a lot of Rastakhan's Rumble. Is the current metagame more busted and imbalanced than Knights of the Frozen Throne? I'd say no. The amount of "I drew it first so I win" and single-card win condition has dropped drastically I'd say. Compare the Death Knight cycle to the Prime cycle. Does that seem juiced to the moon to you?
But even IF they were going for the new MtG approach (as in, make everything broken then completely ban the worst of it), they're also taking the appropriate approach to it by being quick to react if things are busted. And more than that, they're going out of their way to also bring up some of the things that didn't pan out. Where most games would just nerf everything to the weakest class's level, instead classes are getting brought up from the bottom (where was that attitude in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan?). And was DH overtuned? Absolutely. But unless they were releasing it just for standard, it kinda had to be to make any mark on Wild. As much as I hate much of what DH did in Wild, at least it was a presence rather than a complete non-factor that we'd have two wait 2 more years for before it becomes competitive in any way.
This assumption that they're just shoveling these cards out there willy nilly with the attitude "we'll fix it later" is just that. An assumption. One that cannot be proven or disproven either way by hard facts. Which is why it's best to not let your assumptions colour your arguments. Facts are facts. Things were broken, now they're less so. Things were weak, not they're stronger. Past status quo? Things are weak? Eh, whatever. Things are too strong? We'll fix it. In 2 1/2 months. Maybe. Marked improvement for the better that's hard to argue with and a more dynamic meta that keeps things fresh when they'd be getting stale. For my money, that's a win. I'd rather have another DH release with three quick rounds of nerfs than another Naga Sea Witch situation.
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
Why egg warrior and its variation is the strongest deck in the meta, if you nerf stuff you have to nerf this one too, else it would be even more OP.
As for the hunter, it is not exactly OP but the boar/porcupine decks are kinda dumb to say the least.
Just (Monika) Ionia
Today, I think the best source of this information is https://lor.mobalytics.gg/meta-tier-list
The decks there are ranked by a couple of LoR streamers, and their rankings are informed by data, but there aren't a ton of publicly available analytics today like there are for Hearthstone.
Just (Monika) Ionia
How do you discover what the best decks are? Is it analytics in the ranked mode
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
I never understood why Scavenger's Ingenuity was so much better than Call to Adventure.
Freljord Buff Ideas
Given that Freljord isn't a key part of any meta deck (endure spiders doesn't really count as Frelyord) I thought of some buffs that might the region more playable
Catalyst of Aeons becomes 5 Mana "Gain an empty mana gem and heal your Nexus 5. Enlightened: Draw a unit with 5+ Power"
-This change would make Catalyst a lot better once you've reached 10 mana crystals, at which point the current Catalyst becomes "5 Mana Heal 3", which is awful and game-losing. The additional heal would help Freljord stabilize against aggro better without having to run Shadow Isles.
Troop of Elnuks becomes a 4 Mana 3/3 with "Play: Draw 2 Elnuks in the top 10 cards in your deck. Give all other Elnuks everywhere +1/+1.
-This change would make Elnuk shuffle decks a possibility, because it would give them access to more card draw and would make playing a ton of Elnuks a viable strategy, as they would grow bigger and bigger. I think this version would not be able to be run without shuffle support, but if it were proven too powerful, it could be changed to draw from the top 6 cards instead.
Kindly Tavernkeeper becomes a 3 Mana 2/4 with "Play: Heal an ally or your Nexus 4."
-This would make the tavernkeeper a consideration in Freljord decks, and would help make Freljord one of the Healing Regions, which could lead to it being incorporated in some decks that would have otherwise used Shadow Isles for healing.
Entreat becomes 2 Mana "Draw a Champion. Enlightened: Give it +1|+1"
-This change buffs up Entreat just a little bit, and contributes more to the buffing and Enlightenment archetypes, which do not currently seem to be working.
Unscarred Reaver gains Challenger
This change would make it easier to enable Unscarred Reaver, and make her more powerful when she actually does get damaged. This is helpful because without Challenger Unscarred reaver can stay as a 0/3 for a really long time, and even when she does get damaged she can get killed by a 2/1, making it almost impossible to successfully attack with her. With this buff, the Scars deck could become potentially viable. This could make her too good against 1/1s, in which case her health could be reduced to 2
Tarkaz the Tribeless gains Overwhelm
-This change would make Tarkaz better by requiring your opponent to actually block him instead of just using a 1/1. This change could possibly make him too good though, in which case his health could be lowered to 7.
So what do you all think about these changes? Would it be enough to make Freljord viable, or did I miss some key cards that need to be buffed?
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
If you check my opinion of Blackjack Stunner on the card's page, I said the card would be good at 3 mana with the current stats and effect, because the tempo swing of what could be described as a 1 mana 1/2 Sap would still be decent if the overall power level of the game would grow linearly rather than exponencially, which is what it feels right now.
That's why over tuning cards you know will end up scaled back should not be a goal of an expansion, even for the sake of keeping things fresh. Last year proved you can do that in many different ways, from releasing a handful of cards from wild to buffs for every class. Sure, said ideas would be more challenging when a new class is introduced, but that would be the point of a DH beta state (I mean, look at Battlegrounds, that mode is still in beta and was released before DH). In fact, when you consider there are 4 ranked seasons for each expansion, we could have something along the likes of, quick example, first two seasons with just the new cards, third season with extra cards thrown in and/or a couple cards banned and a final season with temporary buffs/changes before, like, a final week of that season to play with cards from the next expansion as a test run.
You don't need to show activity by constant nerfs. Or by giving Paladin their version of Northshire Cleric into 2 mana Extra Arms because their major expansion theme flopped yet again. These constant changes show that Blizzard have less than ideal control over their product under the disguise of activity.
One last thing: the whole deck brewer thing was possible in the older metas. In fact, I would argue it was, in my experience, much less punishing to go with cards and ideas that were on the weaker side because, again, the power level of the stronger cards was much more in line with them (example: I would try to put at least one copy of my favorite card Bomb Lobber in virtually every deck, even decks that got little to no benefit to having that card and I would have some degree of success with it. Last expansion, I slapped two Troll Batriders [basically a more powerful version of Bomb Lobber] in my Quest non-Galakrond Shaman as an early game tool/extra board control for Shudderwock and I quickly ended up scrapping it as it just couldn't compete with the overall powerlevel of the game).
Hearthstone Balance Patch Due Next Week! Buffs, Nerfs and a Bug Fix!
The hunter & warrior nerfs are very questionable imo.
Here's some art, make a card! [Legacy Game]
Tyrantus
next: more dinosaurs
make it have large stats, can be elemental or beast