My proposal is simple: Warriors are a control class, but they don't need a passive RUSH mechanic given to every mech they play the rest of the game. An easy, simple, elegant solution is to take away the passive of Dr Boom (No more rush) which forces warriors to play more proactively.
And how would the new battlecry look like? (:D) It would have been nice to add a solution for the proposed change. Btw I have seen other people discussing this topic before and they suggested, that the first mech *you PLAY each turn* should get rush. I would like to hear out your idea for the new or alternative battlecry for the warrior hero card.
Just like the other users on this thread, I value my dust way more than the outward appearance of a certain card. I prefer to be able to play various decks than sticking to just one. This becomes very visible, when a new expansion hits (which will be the case in roughly one month and two weeks from now).
I'm not really sure, but I think, that you received two dislikes and that's why you see a difference between the scores on the front page and on the respective deck one. On the deck page only the upvotes are taken into account.
I don't know how the storytelling in the next two expansions will be handled - if we would see the good guys assembling (2nd expansion) and fighting the villains in the 3rd or assembling and fighting the villains in the 2nd, while someone sneakily steals a very powerful artifact and everyone gathers around to defeat that final boss. Before this article I thought, that Raffam would be the final boss, who planned all of the heist just to get to that mysterius object. But now I'm leaning towards the Tol'Vir. If Tekahn backstabs Rafaam and holds the power for himself, that would be a Plot Twist I would gladly experience.
I really wouldn't mind if he was reworked to be more in line with a regular hero card because I really like mistah J, but boy does it feel bad to have you max health capped at 15. If he worked more like Alexstrasza , where you could heal back up to 30 afterwards and retained your armour, he'd be a lot better in 2019 Hearthstone.
True. Btw I have slightly edited my previous post, so sorry if you didn't see it.
I think the more immediate problem is that there is no payoff for reaching late game with WL. Any other deck that's trying to survive the early game will at some point start doing crazy things back, be it conjuring up giants, enormous pogo hoppers, infinite Togwaggle treasures, Chef Nomi, OTK Holy Wrath, Jepetto, Swampqueen hagatha, etc. etc. etc.
Even if WL had all the tools it wanted for board control, and I'd argue that it has a fair amount (Godfrey still exists, after all), there's no point in playing those cards because you still inevitably lose, even if you can stall for a while. For the last few sets WL has gotten a mishmash of weird themes like hand buffs and discard and demons and deck-manipulation, none of which provide a viable late game path or work together particularly well.
Control (or combo) WL need some sort of "fuck you I win" card or combo in order to be viable.
Well, we do have Lord Jaraxxus and I remember how good he was pre-Ungoro. So imho warlock still has a win-condition, even though it is fairer than what others can do. I don't mind playing him and I even did in the early days of the expansion. The problem I constantly faced were warriors and their dumb Omega Devastators and freeze mages with their burn. I haven't played control warlock after the nerfs to rogue, so I can't say if it would have handled some popular aggro decks like mech hunter or murloc shaman. But from the other win-conditions you have mentioned, Pogo and Holy W would have definitely killed us, sooo you have a point there.
[edit] Mecha'thun as a win-condition is still possible on theory, because we still have Galvanizers and Grim Rally. If warlock gets more sustainability, maybe this archtype would pop up again.
Yeah, I really miss that spell. Controlling the early- and mid-game is what we need right now. If it wasn't for Bomb Warrior, I am confident, that we wouldn't have needed that much healing either. Lord Jaraxxus would have dealt with most of the slow decks out there.
Well, tbh warlock has been in a worse shape before (Un'goro). At least now we have a lot of playable cards, but we just lack the support for them.
Regarding your first two sentences - it's just what Tuscarora87 said, there is a big misconception of what wild is. It depends on where you are looking at. If you are looking only at the decks you despised in the past or at busted synergies, which your opponents can pull off early on, it's not a surprise, that some people disrespect it.
I personally like it due to various reasons - it offers more variety in terms of play-styles and archtypes (this will be even more obvious, after Vanish and Mind Blast get HoF and we start to see only two-dimensional builds popping up for rogue), it features more cards (which offer greater freedom regarding deck-building), it is the cheapest format in the long term (the longer you stay in the game, the bigger your collection will be and at one point it will greately exceed the cards you are missing in both formats) and it offers more meme opportunities. I must mention the undeniable fact, that wild has its own problems like enabling busted combos, which may hinder a lot of decks from seeing competitive play and feel too oppressive - e.g. pre-nerfed Reno Priest, Giantlock, AK74 Druid, pre-nerfed Kingsbane Mill Rogue and now the infamous Big Priest and Darkest Hour. And people would want to avoid them, especially if they played against them in standard and were left with a bad taste in their mouths (like the case with Big Priest in KoFT and K&C, which devolved into Resurrect Combo Priest in RR). Though tbh standard has its own problems too and due to the small amount of cards there some cards like Dr. Boom, Mad Genius would feel oppressive as well, because not every class can answer them properly. The power-level there is distributed poorly, which is another reason why some people prefer to enter the eternal format.
As you can see, everything depends on where you are looking at. If you are afraid of getting burnt-out someday, that's ok, because it happens to all of us, and you could do something different in that case. I moved to wild back in RR, because I found the standard meta to be dull and I hated facing all of the popular combo decks back then. I decided to make a ladder-worthy Thief Priest list, which would counter most of the meta decks, and not only did I have fun, but I also reached legend twice. If you feel burnt-out some day, you can always change your deck-list (try out a different play-style or something completely casual), the mode (arena, solo adventures) or the game itself. Right now I am playing Heroes 3 HotA alongside hs and once my vacation starts, I'm planning on returning to Wotlk and play my beloved Kitty Druid.
I think, yeah, the bundle is worth the money. If I were you, I would definitely buy it. 56 packs for 35$ sounds like a good deal.
Warning! The first-legendary-in-the-first-10-packs rule DOESN'T apply, if you already have opened some packs from a specific set. Since you started playing since Naxx, you would have probably purchased GvG, TGT and/or WotoG/MSoG with gold and thus you won't get a guaranteed legendary in those 8 packs. I don't know when you stopped playing hs, but if there are some wild sets, which you haven't purchased yet, you would get a legendary 80% of the time there.
This is not true. The 10 packs rule does apply as long as you have not bought these wild packs after the rule was implemented. Opening packs before the rule does not trigger the timer. I've purchased 15 packs from each rotated set after the 10 packs rule was announced and had legendaries within the first 10 packs each time. I believe there is a pack opening thread on HP for people doing the same but I'm too lazy to dig it up. It was something to the tune of "post your 10 pack legendaries from each wild expansion". I was so hyped to play with my new Blingtron :P
Of course 8 is less than 10, so the point might be moot anyway. Maybe all your legendaries will be in the 9th and 10th packs
Well, if someone asks me what I find enjoyable in wild, I would immediately answer Thief Priest. I don't recommend you my deck in the signature, because it's very expensive and I see priest isn't one of your beloved classes. I also like playing other decks like Renolock, Shuffle (Plot Twist) warlock, Reno mage, Factory Rogue (not a ladder-worthy deck), Jade Rogue (not a ladder-worthy deck), Jade Shudderwock Shaman, ShudderYogg Shaman (not a ladder-worthy deck), C'thun Shaman etc etc. If you need an inspiration, I would gladly name you two streamers, who I watch often - Dane and Roffle.
Regarding your personal preferences:
My favorite class is Rogue but the rogue decks I checked already seem familiar so I want to try something different. I also enjoy playing warlock, mage and shaman.
Odd Rogue is very popular and is also a good deck, but I guess you want to try out something else. How about Mill Rogue? You would have a better time dealing with Big Priest and their bs. Pogo-Hopper rogue has more support in wild, but I don't know how you would overcome some aggro decks like mech hunter and odd paladin. Warlock offers a lot of variety - Genn Greymane (aka Even) warlock, Zoo Carpet warlock, Mecha'thun Warlock, Renolock with Mecha'thun, Darkest Hour (though this is very expensive and it requires you to be extremely lucky), Cubelock. Mage's decks are mostly aggro - Miracle and Tempo/Burn - but there are some combo options like Exodia (Open the Waygate, Archmage Antonidas and friends), which are somewhat strong. Shaman offers mostly mid-range or aggro decks - Even, Quest or questless murloc. I have stumbled upon some good Jade decks and you would be able to counter Big Priests, Odd Paladins and Mech hunters with Devolve, but they are a bit expensive. Big Shaman is also a fun ladder choice, but it's really expensive.
I think, yeah, the bundle is worth the money. If I were you, I would definitely buy it. 56 packs for 35$ sounds like a good deal.
Warning! The first-legendary-in-the-first-10-packs rule DOESN'T apply, if you already have opened some packs from a specific set. Since you started playing since Naxx, you would have probably purchased GvG, TGT and/or WotoG/MSoG with gold and thus you won't get a guaranteed legendary in those 8 packs. I don't know when you stopped playing hs, but if there are some wild sets, which you haven't purchased yet, you would get a legendary 80% of the time there.
F*cking hell, why do I always have such interesting matches! So imagine a duel between a Thief Priest and a Reno Mage. Normally my deck crushes other control ones and once I acquired a copy of Frost Lich Jaina from a Crystalline Oracle on turn 3 and played her first, I thought the game was over.
Well, not quite. You see, before I played the DK, my opponent wanted to meme around and cast Deck of Wonders. Fast forward to the moment, when I had only 2 cards in my deck - the opponent's turn began and their last Scroll of Wonder cast Devour Mind. Just in time to see what I had.
Do you know what those two cards were? Let me show you:
So as you can see, fatigue was out of the question. The following turns consisted of both players playing the 7-drop and stealing it or other minions with Entomb. The grind was a hard one, but eventually I thrived at the end. I waited, until the opponent cast their last Kazakus potion and killed them with an N'zoth board.
I would like to apologize, if I became annoying with my constant spams here, but I want to share some pics with you guys:
So there was I facing a rogue on the ladder. The cards in the mulligan stage were pretty bad, so I removed the quest in favour for something better. This decision was somewhat relevant, because I ended up getting 2x Mass Hysterias and Zola the Gorgon. Fast forward to turn 8 (I played Sylvanas Windrunner earlier and resurrected both her and a Dead Ringer with Twilight's Call) - I traded off both minions and got to steal the opponent's EVIL Miscreant. Since I didn't draw a taunt from my [Hearthstone Card (Death ringer) Not Found] and I was dangerously low on health, I decided to take my chances on the kobold, so I copied it with Zola the Gorgon (1st pic). And spoiler, this little fella helped me win the game.
After reading the blue post, I must say that I don't agree with the design pattern the devs will be following in the future. I think, that while having a general concept of how a class should look like would be a great idea and people would get burried in its fantasy, some restrictions would make the classes feel two-dimensional and not that interesting. This wouldn't apply to all classes in the game (like my beloved warlock), which would cause a lot of lopsidedness and I understand people's frustration (Lyra) with this.
I am not going to lie, one of the reasons why I adore playing warlock is the huge variety of different play-styles it offers in the game. I don't think this is a bad thing, as long as those archtypes don't cause any damage to the state of the game. It's the opposite - I warmly welcome them, because they make the class feel more complex and it can appeal to different tastes, which would attract more people. Imho we should be able to see this happening with other classes as well. And weaknesses imho shouldn't restrict a certain class to explore different play-fields, but rather the cons should just keep the strengths in check. And this is why I don't agree with the devs' decision for HoF-ing Vanish and Mind Blast. If rogue's weakness is not being able to play a defensive game, then how would new mechanics like Theft or Shuffle work for them? They won't, unless they follow a specific tempo-oriented path. And this is what I despise, this future design philosophy would make not only rogue but other classes as well too linear. Rogues won't be able to play combo in standard anymore; their miracle, burgle, deathrattle and shuffle packages have to be strictly tempo-oriented. This means, that all cards, which feel remotely situational and not that rewarding enough for an aggro or a mid-range deck, would be cut in favour for the more reliable ones. And I am aware, that rogue is a squishy class and it wouldn't make sense to pull some sticky taunts from its ass - in WoW it can take only one role and that's the one of a DPS - but there could be an alternative and more creative solution for this.
If the devs implemented some equivalents to other class specific cards but just weaker, that would be a good way to show players how a class should look like, while not hurting it too much. In the past I've created a specific legendary for rogues, that allowed them to achieve different things based on the number of cards in hand:
Please, distant yourselves from the balance of this card; just look at the concept. I think, that if tricksters were implemented for rogues, those could enhance their defensive tactics by using cunning tools like smoke bombs or noise makers and cause distractions (i.e. summon taunts). And if some of you played WoW, those used to exist in the game. So it's not unthinkable or strange to implement something similar, you just have put it in the context of the specific class and acknowledge their character traits and their pros/cons. Another example - hunters don't have healing, but they could develop a profession called "Leatherworking" in hs and use the corpses of their beasts as armour.
Speaking of strenghts, I would like to express my opinion really quick on them. I don't understand something - why is it a good idea to design obviously overpowered cards just because they fit the concept of a class's stronger sides? I could name a lot of examples - Spreading Plague (back when it was in standard, it used to punish swarm decks in a very unhealthy way), Drakonid Operative aka Dr. OP (who combined everything you want), Conjurer's Calling (that can cheat out mana). And there are other examples like Deathstalker Rexxar or Underbelly Angler, which aren't good only because they answer a certain class's weakness, but could easily be used in many other classes just because their power-level is that high. [btw I like playing with the hunter hero card and I'm not demaning for a change, I'm just using it as an example].
All in all, I can see a lot of flaws with this design philosophy and I fear the linear design path some classes would be forced to follow in the future.
Imho 5 mana is a bit overcosted (the best price would be 4, see Evolving Spores). I know that in wild paladins have a lot of synergies with Divine Shield and with dudes (odd pala), but I am not really sure that they would run it in their decks. It's just too slow.
If I had to guess, I'd say the justification for having it cost one more than Evolving Spores is that the adaptation is guaranteed and, perhaps, the strongest one you can choose.
I knew someone would mention the "the effect is guaranteed" argument, but, still, is this good enough to run w/o getting a body? I can imagine an odd paladin spamming dudes and buffing them with Quartermaster, but not doing those things and casting Righteousness at the same time. I feel like that spell would be too slow in that deck and would only make their Divine Favor worse.
[edit] I think I may have expressed my thoughts falsely. Ofc I can imagine an odd paladin buffing his dudes with the Quartermaster, this is part of their deck's gameplan (:D), but the thing, which I can't imagine, is how they would manage to combo all of those things for a such heafty price over the course of two turns. I just feel like such turns would feel way too awkward for them and they would prefer more aggressive pushes.
Btw I would like to disagree with you, that the divine shield buff is the strongest a person would get. If I have a board full of small minions and I can't buff them in any other way, then I don't get much value from that divine shield. I would prefer +3 attack or windfury for a crazy amount of burst damage, but everything depends on the board state you are in.
My proposal is simple: Warriors are a control class, but they don't need a passive RUSH mechanic given to every mech they play the rest of the game. An easy, simple, elegant solution is to take away the passive of Dr Boom (No more rush) which forces warriors to play more proactively.
And how would the new battlecry look like? (:D) It would have been nice to add a solution for the proposed change. Btw I have seen other people discussing this topic before and they suggested, that the first mech *you PLAY each turn* should get rush. I would like to hear out your idea for the new or alternative battlecry for the warrior hero card.
The only cards worth mentioning are Underbelly Ooze and Dyn-o-matic.
Reading is fun. :)
The next card:
- must be a spell;
- must be connected to the KoFT expansion.
Just like the other users on this thread, I value my dust way more than the outward appearance of a certain card. I prefer to be able to play various decks than sticking to just one. This becomes very visible, when a new expansion hits (which will be the case in roughly one month and two weeks from now).
But gratz for your Sonya.
I'm not really sure, but I think, that you received two dislikes and that's why you see a difference between the scores on the front page and on the respective deck one. On the deck page only the upvotes are taken into account.
I don't know how the storytelling in the next two expansions will be handled - if we would see the good guys assembling (2nd expansion) and fighting the villains in the 3rd or assembling and fighting the villains in the 2nd, while someone sneakily steals a very powerful artifact and everyone gathers around to defeat that final boss. Before this article I thought, that Raffam would be the final boss, who planned all of the heist just to get to that mysterius object. But now I'm leaning towards the Tol'Vir. If Tekahn backstabs Rafaam and holds the power for himself, that would be a Plot Twist I would gladly experience.
[edit] Nice news post, FrostyFeet.
True. Btw I have slightly edited my previous post, so sorry if you didn't see it.
Well, we do have Lord Jaraxxus and I remember how good he was pre-Ungoro. So imho warlock still has a win-condition, even though it is fairer than what others can do. I don't mind playing him and I even did in the early days of the expansion. The problem I constantly faced were warriors and their dumb Omega Devastators and freeze mages with their burn. I haven't played control warlock after the nerfs to rogue, so I can't say if it would have handled some popular aggro decks like mech hunter or murloc shaman. But from the other win-conditions you have mentioned, Pogo and Holy W would have definitely killed us, sooo you have a point there.
[edit] Mecha'thun as a win-condition is still possible on theory, because we still have Galvanizers and Grim Rally. If warlock gets more sustainability, maybe this archtype would pop up again.
Imho Defile's design was good, but the cost was just too cheap.
Yeah, I really miss that spell. Controlling the early- and mid-game is what we need right now. If it wasn't for Bomb Warrior, I am confident, that we wouldn't have needed that much healing either. Lord Jaraxxus would have dealt with most of the slow decks out there.
Well, tbh warlock has been in a worse shape before (Un'goro). At least now we have a lot of playable cards, but we just lack the support for them.
@ OP
Regarding your first two sentences - it's just what Tuscarora87 said, there is a big misconception of what wild is. It depends on where you are looking at. If you are looking only at the decks you despised in the past or at busted synergies, which your opponents can pull off early on, it's not a surprise, that some people disrespect it.
I personally like it due to various reasons - it offers more variety in terms of play-styles and archtypes (this will be even more obvious, after Vanish and Mind Blast get HoF and we start to see only two-dimensional builds popping up for rogue), it features more cards (which offer greater freedom regarding deck-building), it is the cheapest format in the long term (the longer you stay in the game, the bigger your collection will be and at one point it will greately exceed the cards you are missing in both formats) and it offers more meme opportunities. I must mention the undeniable fact, that wild has its own problems like enabling busted combos, which may hinder a lot of decks from seeing competitive play and feel too oppressive - e.g. pre-nerfed Reno Priest, Giantlock, AK74 Druid, pre-nerfed Kingsbane Mill Rogue and now the infamous Big Priest and Darkest Hour. And people would want to avoid them, especially if they played against them in standard and were left with a bad taste in their mouths (like the case with Big Priest in KoFT and K&C, which devolved into Resurrect Combo Priest in RR). Though tbh standard has its own problems too and due to the small amount of cards there some cards like Dr. Boom, Mad Genius would feel oppressive as well, because not every class can answer them properly. The power-level there is distributed poorly, which is another reason why some people prefer to enter the eternal format.
As you can see, everything depends on where you are looking at. If you are afraid of getting burnt-out someday, that's ok, because it happens to all of us, and you could do something different in that case. I moved to wild back in RR, because I found the standard meta to be dull and I hated facing all of the popular combo decks back then. I decided to make a ladder-worthy Thief Priest list, which would counter most of the meta decks, and not only did I have fun, but I also reached legend twice. If you feel burnt-out some day, you can always change your deck-list (try out a different play-style or something completely casual), the mode (arena, solo adventures) or the game itself. Right now I am playing Heroes 3 HotA alongside hs and once my vacation starts, I'm planning on returning to Wotlk and play my beloved Kitty Druid.
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/hearthstone/topic/20758626285#post-2
https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/217757-guaranteed-legendary-in-first-10-packs
Well, if someone asks me what I find enjoyable in wild, I would immediately answer Thief Priest. I don't recommend you my deck in the signature, because it's very expensive and I see priest isn't one of your beloved classes. I also like playing other decks like Renolock, Shuffle (Plot Twist) warlock, Reno mage, Factory Rogue (not a ladder-worthy deck), Jade Rogue (not a ladder-worthy deck), Jade Shudderwock Shaman, ShudderYogg Shaman (not a ladder-worthy deck), C'thun Shaman etc etc. If you need an inspiration, I would gladly name you two streamers, who I watch often - Dane and Roffle.
Regarding your personal preferences:
My favorite class is Rogue but the rogue decks I checked already seem familiar so I want to try something different. I also enjoy playing warlock, mage and shaman.
Odd Rogue is very popular and is also a good deck, but I guess you want to try out something else. How about Mill Rogue? You would have a better time dealing with Big Priest and their bs. Pogo-Hopper rogue has more support in wild, but I don't know how you would overcome some aggro decks like mech hunter and odd paladin. Warlock offers a lot of variety - Genn Greymane (aka Even) warlock, Zoo Carpet warlock, Mecha'thun Warlock, Renolock with Mecha'thun, Darkest Hour (though this is very expensive and it requires you to be extremely lucky), Cubelock. Mage's decks are mostly aggro - Miracle and Tempo/Burn - but there are some combo options like Exodia (Open the Waygate, Archmage Antonidas and friends), which are somewhat strong. Shaman offers mostly mid-range or aggro decks - Even, Quest or questless murloc. I have stumbled upon some good Jade decks and you would be able to counter Big Priests, Odd Paladins and Mech hunters with Devolve, but they are a bit expensive. Big Shaman is also a fun ladder choice, but it's really expensive.
I think, yeah, the bundle is worth the money. If I were you, I would definitely buy it. 56 packs for 35$ sounds like a good deal.
Warning! The first-legendary-in-the-first-10-packs rule DOESN'T apply, if you already have opened some packs from a specific set. Since you started playing since Naxx, you would have probably purchased GvG, TGT and/or WotoG/MSoG with gold and thus you won't get a guaranteed legendary in those 8 packs. I don't know when you stopped playing hs, but if there are some wild sets, which you haven't purchased yet, you would get a legendary 80% of the time there.
F*cking hell, why do I always have such interesting matches! So imagine a duel between a Thief Priest and a Reno Mage. Normally my deck crushes other control ones and once I acquired a copy of Frost Lich Jaina from a Crystalline Oracle on turn 3 and played her first, I thought the game was over.
Well, not quite. You see, before I played the DK, my opponent wanted to meme around and cast Deck of Wonders. Fast forward to the moment, when I had only 2 cards in my deck - the opponent's turn began and their last Scroll of Wonder cast Devour Mind. Just in time to see what I had.
Do you know what those two cards were? Let me show you:
(+ an Entomb for my own Archbishop Benedictus)
So as you can see, fatigue was out of the question. The following turns consisted of both players playing the 7-drop and stealing it or other minions with Entomb. The grind was a hard one, but eventually I thrived at the end. I waited, until the opponent cast their last Kazakus potion and killed them with an N'zoth board.
What a great way to reach rank 4. ;P
I would like to apologize, if I became annoying with my constant spams here, but I want to share some pics with you guys:
So there was I facing a rogue on the ladder. The cards in the mulligan stage were pretty bad, so I removed the quest in favour for something better. This decision was somewhat relevant, because I ended up getting 2x Mass Hysterias and Zola the Gorgon. Fast forward to turn 8 (I played Sylvanas Windrunner earlier and resurrected both her and a Dead Ringer with Twilight's Call) - I traded off both minions and got to steal the opponent's EVIL Miscreant. Since I didn't draw a taunt from my [Hearthstone Card (Death ringer) Not Found] and I was dangerously low on health, I decided to take my chances on the kobold, so I copied it with Zola the Gorgon (1st pic). And spoiler, this little fella helped me win the game.
On the second picture the rogue player cast Vanish (from their Ethereal Lackey) and gave me more shots on spamming lackeys myself. I milled all of my [Hearthstone Card (convicing infiltrator) Not Found]s and the Sludge Belcher came a bit too late, but the funny thing is that I didn't need them. The rogue minion gave me Goblin Lackeys, two Ethereal Lackeys for Holy Fire and Eternal Servitude, Faceless Lackey for Totem Golem and some other trash. At the end, I just found my Greater Healing Potion and sealed the deal.
Boy, I can imagine how annoyed my opponent was losing to such BS. And I want to believe, that I surprised them with the late quest cast.
After reading the blue post, I must say that I don't agree with the design pattern the devs will be following in the future. I think, that while having a general concept of how a class should look like would be a great idea and people would get burried in its fantasy, some restrictions would make the classes feel two-dimensional and not that interesting. This wouldn't apply to all classes in the game (like my beloved warlock), which would cause a lot of lopsidedness and I understand people's frustration (Lyra) with this.
I am not going to lie, one of the reasons why I adore playing warlock is the huge variety of different play-styles it offers in the game. I don't think this is a bad thing, as long as those archtypes don't cause any damage to the state of the game. It's the opposite - I warmly welcome them, because they make the class feel more complex and it can appeal to different tastes, which would attract more people. Imho we should be able to see this happening with other classes as well. And weaknesses imho shouldn't restrict a certain class to explore different play-fields, but rather the cons should just keep the strengths in check. And this is why I don't agree with the devs' decision for HoF-ing Vanish and Mind Blast. If rogue's weakness is not being able to play a defensive game, then how would new mechanics like Theft or Shuffle work for them? They won't, unless they follow a specific tempo-oriented path. And this is what I despise, this future design philosophy would make not only rogue but other classes as well too linear. Rogues won't be able to play combo in standard anymore; their miracle, burgle, deathrattle and shuffle packages have to be strictly tempo-oriented. This means, that all cards, which feel remotely situational and not that rewarding enough for an aggro or a mid-range deck, would be cut in favour for the more reliable ones. And I am aware, that rogue is a squishy class and it wouldn't make sense to pull some sticky taunts from its ass - in WoW it can take only one role and that's the one of a DPS - but there could be an alternative and more creative solution for this.
If the devs implemented some equivalents to other class specific cards but just weaker, that would be a good way to show players how a class should look like, while not hurting it too much. In the past I've created a specific legendary for rogues, that allowed them to achieve different things based on the number of cards in hand:
Please, distant yourselves from the balance of this card; just look at the concept. I think, that if tricksters were implemented for rogues, those could enhance their defensive tactics by using cunning tools like smoke bombs or noise makers and cause distractions (i.e. summon taunts). And if some of you played WoW, those used to exist in the game. So it's not unthinkable or strange to implement something similar, you just have put it in the context of the specific class and acknowledge their character traits and their pros/cons. Another example - hunters don't have healing, but they could develop a profession called "Leatherworking" in hs and use the corpses of their beasts as armour.
Speaking of strenghts, I would like to express my opinion really quick on them. I don't understand something - why is it a good idea to design obviously overpowered cards just because they fit the concept of a class's stronger sides? I could name a lot of examples - Spreading Plague (back when it was in standard, it used to punish swarm decks in a very unhealthy way), Drakonid Operative aka Dr. OP (who combined everything you want), Conjurer's Calling (that can cheat out mana). And there are other examples like Deathstalker Rexxar or Underbelly Angler, which aren't good only because they answer a certain class's weakness, but could easily be used in many other classes just because their power-level is that high. [btw I like playing with the hunter hero card and I'm not demaning for a change, I'm just using it as an example].
All in all, I can see a lot of flaws with this design philosophy and I fear the linear design path some classes would be forced to follow in the future.
Battletag: vasiiilvasil
Region: EU
Trade only: Yes
Done.
I knew someone would mention the "the effect is guaranteed" argument, but, still, is this good enough to run w/o getting a body? I can imagine an odd paladin spamming dudes and buffing them with Quartermaster, but not doing those things and casting Righteousness at the same time. I feel like that spell would be too slow in that deck and would only make their Divine Favor worse.
[edit] I think I may have expressed my thoughts falsely. Ofc I can imagine an odd paladin buffing his dudes with the Quartermaster, this is part of their deck's gameplan (:D), but the thing, which I can't imagine, is how they would manage to combo all of those things for a such heafty price over the course of two turns. I just feel like such turns would feel way too awkward for them and they would prefer more aggressive pushes.
Btw I would like to disagree with you, that the divine shield buff is the strongest a person would get. If I have a board full of small minions and I can't buff them in any other way, then I don't get much value from that divine shield. I would prefer +3 attack or windfury for a crazy amount of burst damage, but everything depends on the board state you are in.