Priest has been one of those Hearthstone classes that gets a lot of hate from the community and even Blizzard themselves haven't been too thrilled about the class. Hearthstone's Dean Ayala talked about Divine Spirit and the Priest class as a whole almost 6 months ago stating something may be done around the next set rotation.
Well, Dean, you were right. Priest has received those "sweeping changes" you teased us with and it's time we take a look at what is happening to Hearthstone's Priest class. Let's dive in!
Stay tuned for an analytical look at the new cards in a future article.
The New Basic & Classic Priest Cards
Since some cards are being rotated out to the Hall of Fame, we're getting new ones to replace them!
- Shadow Word: Ruin - (4): Destroy all minions with 5 or more Attack.
- Scarlet Subjugator - (1) 2/1: Battlecry: Give an enemy minion -2 Attack until your next turn.
- Psychic Conjurer - (1) 1/1: Battlecry: Copy a card in your opponent's deck and add it to your hand.
- Power Infusion - (4): Give a minion +2/+6.
- Natalie Seline - (8) 8/1: Battlecry: Destroy a minion and gain its Health.
- Kul Tiran Chaplain - (2) 2/3: Battlecry: Give a friendly minion +2 Health.
The Old Priest Cards Getting Changed
Some Priest cards are getting changed rather than completely switching out. It's nice to see some familiar faces.
- Shadow Madness is now 3 mana, down from 4.
- Thoughtsteal is now 2 mana, down from 3.
- Temple Enforcer is now 5 mana, down from 6. Attack has changed from 6 to 5.
- Shadow Word: Death is now 2 mana, down from 3.
- Power Word: Shield is now 0 mana, down from 1. No longer draws a card.
- Holy Smite now deals 3 damage, up from 2. The damage may only target a minion.
- Holy Nova now costs 4 mana, down from 5.
The Priest Cards Being Hall of Famed
Some of our friends in the Priest class are being moved to the Hall of Fame. Due to the move, if you own any of these cards you will receive their crafting value in full upon set rotation.
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Comments
they explained the reason for every card in the stream, watch the replay if you want answers
I did, and I get why they want to remove direct damage spells from Priest, but Auchenai didn't even fit that niche and could easily be designed aorund by just making targetted healing spells be ally/minion only (as they did with Greater Healing Potion)
I guess its just a flavor thing to move this on.
I guess, but it's still somewhat off-putting since the card was never really used aggressively anyways.
I love those changes. Instead of boring cards for combo decks - Draw everything, or One Turn Kill (by Prophet Velen or Divine Spirit Combo).
I like new small interactions like Cabal Shadow Priest +[Hearthstone Card (Scarlet Subjugator) Not Found].
I also love that new theme for priest are Buffing+Healing, and stealing/copping cards. This is much more fun for both sides of game than doing nothing 10 turns then being killed by OTK.
HORRIBLE
New cheap op AoE added + already existing overpowered AoE & removal getting buffed. Priest will have answers for days, cancer meta incoming.
you're acting like they didn't already have that.
Also, did you just call Holy Nova overpowered?
Actually, I was thinking the complete opposite: this totally guts priest's classic toolset. No more draw from cleric or PW:Shield and no more divine spirit shenanigans is HUGE, the mana decreases to unpopular cards are nice but I don't think any of them will be enough to push them to meta, and besides SW:Ruin all of the new cards are complete garbage. Answers are meaningless without a win condition. Hopefully priest gets some new toys with the expansion; otherwise, its going to replace shaman as Dumpster Tier as soon as the rotation occurs.
wait what? How are the new cards garbage. I'd say SW:Ruin is the worst out of the bunch.
Subjugator is absolutely insane especially with a buffed Shadow Madness.
Now, with Lazul's Scheme there's enough consistency for a mind control package that makes for pretty big tempo swings.
Galakrond now also works as a win condition since we actually get something to do early (even though Card draw might still be an issue)
Natalie and Chaplain are amazing in a tempo build, which is now fully posssible because we got 3 playable 1-drops (including Ligthwarden), an amazing 2-drop to curve into (as well as Neferset and Tol'Vir) and the usual Priest shenanigans.
Sure, the lack of draw will hurt a bit, but who knows what else we'Re going to get in the new expansion.
Inner Fire is also still around, so while OTKs are no longer a thing you can still create a big beater out of nowhere and win from there (considering that Spellbreaker just got yeeted and less decks will run dedicated silence)
SW: Ruin is garbage? No need talking to you anymore.
come back once you sit on a dead card while your opponent hass a full board of 4-attack minions.
Subjugator feels really awkward on curve in all the ways cleric felt great. I admit I wasn't thinking of MC shenanigans so that might be a thing, but independently it just like an arena card more than constructed to me.
Conjurer is basically swashbuckler without any of rogue's thief synergies.
Power Infusion looks like Power Word: Tentacles and Velen's Chosen, neither of which was that successful.
Natalie would be fantastic except I think the 8 mana is going to be cost-prohibitive.
Chaplain again looks like a fine arena card but too little impact for constructed.
To be clear: I hope I'm wrong and you're right. I would love to see priest to start supporting more board-centric value trading and investing in individual minions and less...whatever nonsense you want to call rez priest and combo priest. I'm just not seeing it.
So first of all, Subjugator kind of reminds me of the old Acolyte + Shadow Priest combo from Dragon Spiteful Priest which was one of the most annoying and game ending combos around at that time (aside from Spiteful herself)
Conjurer doesn't need any more Thief synergy (because Rogue didn't have much either when it first came out and it was still in every deck)
Velen's Chosen was a very popular card back in the day, I have no idea what you're talking about. Granted, it was far more powerful than Infusion, but still, giving +6 health to a minion for 4-mana isn't a bad deal, especially if the minion has an effect that scales with it (Lightspawn for instance or even something as simple as a taunt or Lightwarden)
Natalie is just the top end of a tempo chain. Sure she's expensive, but she can really deliver that final swing (for instance against Embiggen Druid)
I have no idea how you don't find Chaplain great. It's literally a more consistent Kabal Talonpriest, a card that has seen a ton of play during its time. Now you actually have a reason to play a decent 1-drop in Priest (such as LIghtwarden, Subjugator, and probably some others yet to come). Once again, it could actually push a successful tempo Priest because it allows you to value trade and stay on the board early. Just imagine curving into this from a Blazing Battlemage.
Obviously just by itself these won't be enough, but they set a baseline that we previously didn't have.
If all this doesn'T convince you then just let me remind you how absolutely nuts Priest was with a 2-mana Extra Arms. They have the potential to play a dominating tempo game (that can still run removal and boardclear thanks to the new buffs), all they need is a bit more consistency.
"Cheap op AoE"? How many games do you think that will be played on T4? Not to mention you're killing any of your own minions at have >5 attack. This is a solid AoE, but not one that will be in every single deck. This was a very good addition to Priest's basic set.
No news saying that they reverted Raza's nerf? Huge news for wild priest players.
HORRIBLE
Love it! Great changes. Fuck you, Cleric.
Completely off topic, but there was a patch going live today that changed some stuff on battlegrounds, as well as giving us a legendary card.
Poor Shadowform never found a home
Goodbye Shadowform, I'll miss you. :(