Now before you go down to the comments and rage, let me just say - there will never be a true replacement for fiery war-axe. Even if Blizzard somehow releases an identical 2 mana 3-2 weapon for warrior, it won't be part of the basic set. Fiery war-axe was a staple in damn near every warrior deck, and without it the class has taken a serious blow in terms of meta. Two swings to pay respects, etc etc.
With that said, though, let's take a look at the warrior's new card, Blood Razor. Now, it is much slower than fiery war axe, and of course only has 2 attack. However, when you think about it, it technically has 3 attack. Think about it - you're probably only going to equip this is you're going to attack with it on the same turn. As long as you're attacking a minion,they'll take 1 damage from the whirlwind effect, plus 2 damage from the weapon itself - 3 damage total. Same goes for the second attack with the weapon, as long as you're attacking a minion. Admittedly, it won't deal as much damage to face, but still... does warrior really need more face damage? "cough" patches the pirate "cough".
While you can only play this weapon on 4 (3 with coin), it's basically 4 mana for a fiery war axe with two whirlwinds thrown in. with two copies of this, You basically have four extra whirlwinds in your deck without burning any extra card slots. Not to mention, with at new 3 mana val'kyr which makes 2/2 ghouls, not only is this weapon even more useful utility wise, but warrior finally has the board presence it's really always wanted.
Again, the weapon isn't without its flaws - it is twice as slow as fiery war axe, and deals 33% less damage to face then the axe. However, I think those are acceptible downsides in exchange to considerable board clear, plus more triggers for all of warrior's damage-based minions. What do you guys think?
Warrior as dead as paladin? You mean the same paladin that is like tier 1 right now? What are you smoking? What deck is blood razor replacing war axe? Pirates? Control warrior is already dead with a 2 mana waraxe and deadman has already cut waraxe.
Why wouldn't people who just want waraxe, run waraxe? Why would a warrior deck that doesn't care about whirlwind pay more mana for a blood razor? I swear, the threads on this site are baffling in their logic and reasoning.
No, it won't. Fiery War Axe will still be used. Yes, it is more expensive than before, but still cheaper than Blood Razor. Many hunter builds run the Eaglehorn Bow without any secrets to trigger it's ability.
A 3/2 for 3 mana is perfectly suited for the current meta, as it allows you to clear to 3-health minions with your hero (and warrior has no problem getting armor to offset the health loss). Plus, Warriors still have access to upgrade and the various pirates that buff your weapon, which means they can make it last for 3-4 turns. And that 1 extra attack means that you can still put out Dread Corsair on a turn 3 (with the coin) or it only costs 1 mana on turn 4, meaning you can put down another 3 drop (cough...southsea captain...cough)
Maybe they will only run 1 of them rather than 2, but it will still be a good early game weapon and a good weapon in pirate warrior. And Pirate Warrior will still be in the meta, maybe tier 2, but possibly even tier 1...at least until Patches and some of his cohort are rotated out.
Blood Razor suffers greatly with the axe nerf because now the cards won't naturally curve one after the other. Decks will now most likely run x2 Fiery War Axe and look to another 4-drop.
To me, the most annoying thing about the axe nerf is Warrior will have to "lose" a card every standard cycle because Blizzard has to print an early game weapon each time.
Blood Razor suffers greatly with the axe nerf because now the cards won't naturally curve one after the other. Decks will now most likely run x2 Fiery War Axe and look to another 4-drop.
To me, the most annoying thing about the axe nerf is Warrior will have to "lose" a card every standard cycle because Blizzard has to print an early game weapon each time.
The curve doesn't really matter much as you are rarely playing on curve as a CW. Plus with coin you can still go weapon into weapon (even though that is rarely the right play).
Blizzard doesn't have to print a cheap weapon every expansion. It's not set in stone that warrior needs a cheap weapon in order of working. As long as warrior gets the same amount of playables as other classes we'll see a warrior archetype in some form or another. The problem has always been that warrior's basic and classic cards were too good compared to many other classes. This nerf suggests that Blizzard is starting to rebalance the sets in such a way that some classes are not depended on getting OP cards from each set, because they are starting each season with a disadvantage (*cough* priest *cough*), which is a good thing.
Warrior has the worst equal hero power in the game (equal with Hunter) because until you lose that last point of health, your health doesn't matter. Yes, you have tons of armor synergy and that's cool, but the point of warrior having that hero power I always thought was because they were the "weapon" class... they were the one most likely to use face to control the board. Making their signature weapon so terrible is just a real kick in the balls, and the effect it will have on pirates is dubious at best.
On the subject of pirates, I'm very curious as to why Murloc Warleader got nerfed to remove the health buff yet Southsea Captain keeps his? If they really wanted to kill pirates, they would have made the same nerf to SSC, changed N'zoth's First Mate to equip a 1/1 weapon rather than a 1/3 and lastly make the Bloodsail Cultist a 3/3 for worse trades.
I don't get why everybody keeps justifying nerfs like this by saying warrior has always had strong base cards. The fact of the matter is that they really don't. This is the 4th nerf to a base warrior card (warsong commander, charge, execute, firey war axe) and the cards that they have left (heroic strike, cleave, korkron elite, whirlwind, shield block, arcanite reaper) are either aggro-midrange (heroic strike, korkron, arcanite) or control (sheild block, whirlwind, cleave) are only really played in those archetypes or not at all. Take a look at some serious offenders, like mage. Fireball, arcane intellect, and frostbolt have been played in every single mage deck since the game came out. Plus water elemental, polymorph, frost nova, and flamestrike are all extremely powerful and can easily be played. Why does blizzard stomp on warrior so much when mage is probably the biggest offender of their "weaker core set" anyway?
Blood Razor comes out on turn 4, while War Axe comes out on turn 2. That is the big difference, and that is why Blood Razor will never be able to furfill Fiery War Axe's job.
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Now before you go down to the comments and rage, let me just say - there will never be a true replacement for fiery war-axe. Even if Blizzard somehow releases an identical 2 mana 3-2 weapon for warrior, it won't be part of the basic set. Fiery war-axe was a staple in damn near every warrior deck, and without it the class has taken a serious blow in terms of meta. Two swings to pay respects, etc etc.
With that said, though, let's take a look at the warrior's new card, Blood Razor. Now, it is much slower than fiery war axe, and of course only has 2 attack. However, when you think about it, it technically has 3 attack. Think about it - you're probably only going to equip this is you're going to attack with it on the same turn. As long as you're attacking a minion,they'll take 1 damage from the whirlwind effect, plus 2 damage from the weapon itself - 3 damage total. Same goes for the second attack with the weapon, as long as you're attacking a minion. Admittedly, it won't deal as much damage to face, but still... does warrior really need more face damage? "cough" patches the pirate "cough".
While you can only play this weapon on 4 (3 with coin), it's basically 4 mana for a fiery war axe with two whirlwinds thrown in. with two copies of this, You basically have four extra whirlwinds in your deck without burning any extra card slots. Not to mention, with at new 3 mana val'kyr which makes 2/2 ghouls, not only is this weapon even more useful utility wise, but warrior finally has the board presence it's really always wanted.
Again, the weapon isn't without its flaws - it is twice as slow as fiery war axe, and deals 33% less damage to face then the axe. However, I think those are acceptible downsides in exchange to considerable board clear, plus more triggers for all of warrior's damage-based minions. What do you guys think?
EDIT: okay guys, pal/hunter aren't dead. sheesh.
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Wtf are you still playing in Gadgetzan meta? Hunter and Paladin are not dead. Especially Paladin. Midrange Paladin is T1 right now and control is T2.
Warrior as dead as paladin? You mean the same paladin that is like tier 1 right now? What are you smoking? What deck is blood razor replacing war axe? Pirates? Control warrior is already dead with a 2 mana waraxe and deadman has already cut waraxe.
Why wouldn't people who just want waraxe, run waraxe? Why would a warrior deck that doesn't care about whirlwind pay more mana for a blood razor? I swear, the threads on this site are baffling in their logic and reasoning.
Sure why not. Whirlwind kills all your Pirates. Seems gooood.
No, it won't. Fiery War Axe will still be used. Yes, it is more expensive than before, but still cheaper than Blood Razor. Many hunter builds run the Eaglehorn Bow without any secrets to trigger it's ability.
A 3/2 for 3 mana is perfectly suited for the current meta, as it allows you to clear to 3-health minions with your hero (and warrior has no problem getting armor to offset the health loss). Plus, Warriors still have access to upgrade and the various pirates that buff your weapon, which means they can make it last for 3-4 turns. And that 1 extra attack means that you can still put out Dread Corsair on a turn 3 (with the coin) or it only costs 1 mana on turn 4, meaning you can put down another 3 drop (cough...southsea captain...cough)
Maybe they will only run 1 of them rather than 2, but it will still be a good early game weapon and a good weapon in pirate warrior. And Pirate Warrior will still be in the meta, maybe tier 2, but possibly even tier 1...at least until Patches and some of his cohort are rotated out.
Quit complaining and just have fun with this game!
Blood Razor suffers greatly with the axe nerf because now the cards won't naturally curve one after the other. Decks will now most likely run x2 Fiery War Axe and look to another 4-drop.
To me, the most annoying thing about the axe nerf is Warrior will have to "lose" a card every standard cycle because Blizzard has to print an early game weapon each time.
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Warrior has the worst equal hero power in the game (equal with Hunter) because until you lose that last point of health, your health doesn't matter. Yes, you have tons of armor synergy and that's cool, but the point of warrior having that hero power I always thought was because they were the "weapon" class... they were the one most likely to use face to control the board. Making their signature weapon so terrible is just a real kick in the balls, and the effect it will have on pirates is dubious at best.
On the subject of pirates, I'm very curious as to why Murloc Warleader got nerfed to remove the health buff yet Southsea Captain keeps his? If they really wanted to kill pirates, they would have made the same nerf to SSC, changed N'zoth's First Mate to equip a 1/1 weapon rather than a 1/3 and lastly make the Bloodsail Cultist a 3/3 for worse trades.
Ibn Fahd.
I don't get why everybody keeps justifying nerfs like this by saying warrior has always had strong base cards. The fact of the matter is that they really don't. This is the 4th nerf to a base warrior card (warsong commander, charge, execute, firey war axe) and the cards that they have left (heroic strike, cleave, korkron elite, whirlwind, shield block, arcanite reaper) are either aggro-midrange (heroic strike, korkron, arcanite) or control (sheild block, whirlwind, cleave) are only really played in those archetypes or not at all. Take a look at some serious offenders, like mage. Fireball, arcane intellect, and frostbolt have been played in every single mage deck since the game came out. Plus water elemental, polymorph, frost nova, and flamestrike are all extremely powerful and can easily be played. Why does blizzard stomp on warrior so much when mage is probably the biggest offender of their "weaker core set" anyway?
Blood Razor comes out on turn 4, while War Axe comes out on turn 2. That is the big difference, and that is why Blood Razor will never be able to furfill Fiery War Axe's job.