Rise of Shadows Card Nerfs - What Do Pros Want To See Smacked?
IGN's Cam Shea got a chance to speak with a few of Hearthstone's pros at this past weekend's HCT World Championship and talked about card nerfs. Below you'll find our recap and you can read their thoughts it full here.
Card nerfs have been a very popular community topic post expansion launch, as they always are, though could it be different this time around? Here's what pros had to say about the Rise of Shadows set and any cards they think should get hit with the nerf bat.
- Ike thinks the meta hasn't fully progressed yet due to "sixteen of the best players ... [not] sharing anything"
- Justsaiyan says Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is a problem. Everyone is playing Warrior which means long games, he feels like not even playing mirrors. Boom is strong due to the DK rotation.
- Bunnyhoppor thinks Rogue is too strong. He also has this to say:
- Rogue opposition needs to have an answer for Waggle Pick or Raiding Party.
- Edwin VanCleef should be removed. He proposes moving Edwin to the Hall of Fame and making Preparation's effect a 2-cost reduction.
- Magic Carpet is not an issue right now but could be if Rogue gets nerfed.
- Possibly need to do something about Dr. Boom, Mad Genius because it might be healthy for player sentiment.
- Wants to see changes before Hearthstone Grandmasters begins as he doesn't want to see everyone only playing Rogue and Warrior.
- Hunterace thinks the biggest problem is EVIL Miscreant due to the Rogue pool being very strong. Bump the cost up to 4.
Proposed Nerf Targets
Some of these are conditionally, though they certainly echo community thoughts.
Your Thoughts
Are there any cards you think need to be hit with a nerf after these past few weeks of playing Rise of Shadows? Let us know down below.
Personally, I'm quite amazed Magic Carpet was even printed and will continue to quite enjoy the shenanigans in Zoolock while I still can. Increasing the cost seems like the most viable way to deal with it to keep the effect intact.
I also think that Augmented Elekk gives Warrior way too much power. Increasing its cost so it can remain a viable option for getting onto the field later in the game seems acceptable.
like everything Blizzard does in years now. Such a clown company
Since they did add replacements for the first HoF cards, at least the class ones, maybe?
Magic carpet hahahaha are u serious ?!?!?! XD Nerf Preparation !
I am currently irritated by 2x cards in the game Preparation and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius . Prep due to the clown fiesta often happens big impactful and the same applies to the portrait Dr. Boom. Where often I lose from a leveled game because I have much weaker character hero power, which in no way compensates for the power of Dr Boom + charge, which have mechs
Totally - and the problem Kibler pointed out way back when they introduced the 'evergreen' set. Either the cards are terrible and newbs are at a _huge_ disadvantage or they are good and you don't need to buy as many packs to make a good deck :shrug:.
I feel like its already at the point that if you were a noob with a load of classic cards and no expansion cards, you wouldn't really be able to win a game :( And it can only get worse. As new expansions synergise with different classic cards, they'll need to nerf each in turn, because they don't want to reprint sets...
Haven't really played a lot of Warrior since the new expansion so can't really tell. As far as Rogue being nerfed, I believe a tune to Preparation would do it, as it is impactful to most Rogue Archetypes.
I don't agree with Waggle Pick. I think the card is problematic only because of Leeroy Jenkins which should have been HOFed long ago. Leeroy, hit face, Leeroy, easy 16 damage. Just get rid off Leeroy Jenkins and rogue will be fine. I don't get why it's still in standard, developers said many times that they don't like charge mechanic.
As for rogue I feel that sap needs to be HoF'd. No other class has a pool of cards that remove single targets like rogue (walk the plank, assassinate, unidentified contract). One of the things that makes rogue so strong is the 2 mana sap that they can use as a combo activator and target removal for a turn. Just my two sense, but I think that is more of a problem than Edwin or Pick.
As far as warrior goes, I feel that Dr. Boom does need a nerf because in my opinion he is the strongest DK right now out of the 3. Nerfing his passive that gives all mechs rush would be pretty fair. That way on turn 10, omega devastator wouldn't be a 2 minion removal card for 4 mana.
Evil miscreant becomes a 1/3 or 1/4. Raiding party costs 4 mana. Carpet becomes a 1/4. Vancleef is fine. Boom gets 2 changes. 1st being that delivery drone is no longrer a thing. 2nd blast shield gets changes to 5-6 armor.
Just nerf Raiding Party to four mana, and the problem of super beefy Edwin and turn four double Corsair is mostly fixed.
Same with turn 3 Mountain Giants into turn 4 Conjurer's if Book of Specters is nerfed to 3 Mana. Both arguably the most important nerfs right now as they would keep early highrolls from getting too out of hand.
The higher Winrate decks are mech Hunter and token druids, this classes should be target of nerfs imo
I do not want to see Edwin nerfed. I am no dirty Rogue player (well...not since my trusty Kingsbane was nerfed, boy that still hurts), but I don't like the idea that as soon as a classic card gets good for a month, we have to nerf it. I've been playing since around the time Frozen Throne was launched and this is the first time I can remember when Edwin is popular.
EVIL Miscreant would be a good nerf, for the suggestion given to increase its cost. Dr. Boom is almost definitely going to get nerfed, but I hope this isn't too hard. Delivery Drone = add a random mech to your hand (instead of discover) would be good. If you take away the rush effect from Mechs I think that makes the card a lot less cool, if not a lot less powerful, so I don't want to see that.
Not necessarily. Rogue is currently pushing most of the Warrior counters out of the meta, so a nerf to Rogue would most likely balance Warrior indirectly. Nerfing Rogue and waiting to see what happens to Warrior should definitely be the first step.
This perfectly demonstrates what I said in my previous post. Nerfing the support for a strong card (see: Druid ramp and UI) tends to decimate the entire class, whereas nerfing specific strong cards (see: Spreading Plague) or rotating them to wild (see: Ice Block) tends to allow the same deck archetypes to see play while ensuring that they don't completely dominate.
this is because the nerfs also have to accommodate sales of new packs. They will try to avoid nerfing newer cards, because fewer people have the newer cards. If the must have cards come from newer sets, more people have to buy new cards.
nerfing cards that everyone already has isn't a problem.
I know it's probably a rather pessimistic sentiment, but you cannot deny that nerfing trends follow this formula.
They did this with Baku and Genn as well. They left them in Standard until they had a year left on the clock, then dumped them into wild to make way for new cards to become the OP must haves.
It's a simple case of getting rid of the old to make way for the new. In a way it's a good thing for keeping the game fresh, but you can bet that this design philosophy just happening to make them more money as well was no accident.
Raiding Party is truly insane at 3. Coin Prep Party Cleef is currently the "I win" combo, right alongside turn 3 Mountain Giant turn 4 Conjurer's. Honestly Conjurer's Calling could cost 4 mana as well; the fact that it is a Twinspell makes it equally truly insane in a Standard environment.
Except that when a group of strong cards remain in the rotation for several years, they eventually restrict design. The meta has improved after every set of nerfs for the last few years, I don't think it's fair to blame the developers for creating new cards.
Whole archetypes are now gone (freeze mage, zoo is more like dead than alive, aggro/mid pala, druid is token only ATM, no ramp)
Such an improvement for meta wow
And why the fuck always "nerf this, nerf that".
Why don't they buff basic cards instead?