I'm fairly certain Blizz has it out for the class due to a very vocal segment of the community (*cough* control players *cough*) perennially bitching about aggro. I suspect that Blizz feels that the Hunter hero power might be a bit OP in an aggro shell since it represents inevitability which is probably why, currently, it's one of the classes with the most number of alternative hero powers - Dinomancy and the DK ability. Probably, Blizz's way to encourage more deck archtypes.
I do have some suggestions which to make hunter great again without having to wait all the way to the winter expansion:
1. Make Grimey Goons hand - beast buffing targeted instead of random. The class just suffers from too much RNG in the early game. (Animal Companion, Razormaw Adapt, Macaw, etc.) This buff could make aggro more consistent and withstand early sweepers such as Defile and Maelstrom portal.
2. Revert back to the original Call of the Wild. Hunter really needs burst and the 8cc original cost allowed for either a Call a turn or two away from a Highmane for >11 dmg burst or a 10th turn - Hogger plus hero power > 7 dmg burst.
3. Buff King Krush. Seriously, he needs to be playable. I had hoped this would've happened during Un'Goro but I think it's about time Hunter can lean on a reliable classic set legend. It's just ridiculous how Hunter does not have a go-to legend unlike Paladin's Tyrion, Rogue's Cleef, Warlock's Jaraxus and Exodia Mage's Antonidas. I actually don't mind if he goes down to 8 or up to 10 but 9cc for an 8/8 charge just won't do anymore.
4. Change some cards away from random to discover such as Abominable Bowman, Stampede and Infest (this is a long shot admittedly). I'm not arguing all should be changed but the beast-randomness is just too much. Hunter should at least get basic selection if it won't get raw card advantage.
These are just some of my suggestions and I'd love to hear yours. I'm also quite aware how Brode is reluctant to "buff" current cards since it will eat into design space. While I agree with the principle, the fact that hunter is currently an noncompetitive class (I recall a recent high profile tournament where hunter was an absolute no show) over a span of three expansions (post COTW nerf) should really be a cause for concern which could warrant dropping this policy against buffs. The class seriously needs some love and help and I wish, at the very least, that Blizz acknowledges the existence of the problem. After all, acceptance is the first step to recovery.
I don't think Blizz will ever buff cards. When they nerf they can give you back your full dust and no one complains, but if they buff a card you might have dusted before people will get crazy about it.
Call of the wild nerf was one of the best things to happen to this game. That card was stupid and insane, you could be ahead on board and with that one card you could lose. It actually is what kept hunters at a pretty good tier during old gods. After it got nerfed the class suffered greatly, but one card alone shouldn't be makes a class good, that's stupid. On a side note the loss of quick shot was pretty big, but not nearly as much as call of the wild.
Poison works for Wild Pyromancer and Knife Juggler, so it should work for Exploding Bloatbat as well. But he doesn't even survive it if you don't buff him before, so it's a terrible combo.
FWIW - Donais was a guest on the Omnistone podcast a couple weeks ago. He explained that one of the difficulties designing for Hunter is that the class was actually Tier 1 from ranks 20-6 - it had among the highest play-rates, and among the highest win-rates in each quintile. However, once you hit rank 5, play-rate and win-rate both tank. Metastats was tracking this trend for the entire duration of the Un'Goro meta-game. If Hunter receives a push, it might become tournament-viable, but it would threaten to unbalance the rest of the ladder, where its win-rate is +4%.
I wonder if they are taking into account the fact that the pre-KFT Midrange Hunter deck was so cheap. Budget decks will always be popular, and strong ones will always get free players a fair ways up the ladder.
So the solution would obviously be to give the class a few powerful epic and legendary cards to fill the gaps in its kit. Maybe make it so the expensive cards require a substantially different build from the budget midrange archetype.
That way, the masses can continue riding the cheap archetype to Rank 5, but the cheap deck won't continue to dominate on into Legend. And the new, more expensive archetype can be as good those of all the other classes.
I realize this may sound like I'm advocating pay to win, but really I'm just offering a solution that will work in the existing model. The only reason Hunter is in the state it's in is because it was designed from the beginning as a cheap aggro class, whereas most other classes don't have such strong budget options. If they did, the pre-Rank 5 meta wouldn't look so lopsided.
Weird, we have Vicious Syndicate stats and they disagree with his claim.
Hunter is in a decent spot this expansion. The rise of priest and the added anti aggro druid tools make aggro tough to play right now and hunter can apply some serious pressure. The addition of bonemare is so strong for a class tht sticks tokens as well as hunter too.
3. Buff King Krush. Seriously, he needs to be playable. I had hoped this would've happened during Un'Goro but I think it's about time Hunter can lean on a reliable classic set legend. It's just ridiculous how Hunter does not have a go-to legend unlike Paladin's Tyrion, Rogue's Cleef, Warlock's Jaraxus and Exodia Mage's Antonidas. I actually don't mind if he goes down to 8 or up to 10 but 9cc for an 8/8 charge just won't do anymore.
4. Change some cards away from random to discover such as Abominable Bowman, Stampede and Infest (this is a long shot admittedly). I'm not arguing all should be changed but the beast-randomness is just too much. Hunter should at least get basic selection if it won't get raw card advantage.
3. i'm not sure that we really, truly need KK to be better than he is. he's not horrible, he just doesn't see play though b/c of his mana (i believe). if they dropped him to 8 they would have to adjust his health imo.
4. i would think that changing those to discover would be awesome. infest wouldn't be practical though. imagine getting to discover cards on your opponents turn. that would really screw with things.
i think changing buzzard back to a low mana cost card (not as low as it used to be) would help out a lot. probably more than almost anything else. maybe make it a 3 mana 3/1 even would make it awesome.
Poison works for Wild Pyromancer and Knife Juggler, so it should work for Exploding Bloatbat as well. But he doesn't even survive it if you don't buff him before, so it's a terrible combo.
DK - build a beast - Combo this sucker with a poison beast and you are in buisness - board clears left and right.
Theys aid it, it might not be at legend but hunter has the highest win rate in the lower ranks (lower countring from 25 to 10) across al servers, so they ahve to be really careful with what they give to hunter, plus when hunter gets strong cheapc ards that usually translates into face hunter being something which is a deck not many people enjoy playing against, that said, it wouldn't hurt to give AoE to hunter, something like deal 1 damage to all enemy minions, cast this again a number of times equal the nubmer of beasts you have.
Poison works for Wild Pyromancer and Knife Juggler, so it should work for Exploding Bloatbat as well. But he doesn't even survive it if you don't buff him before, so it's a terrible combo.
DK - build a beast - Combo this sucker with a poison beast and you are in buisness - board clears left and right.
Nah, what you want is Dreadscale with poisonous. Had it twice, once against a PW where it was useless as the board was empty until a 20 damage turn, and once killing a rag and eating hard removal. You get poison and taunt a lot, particularly taunt due to the sheer number of taunters, other keywords not as much.
Hmm. Dreadscale should be a decent control hunter tool alone... an AoE option I'd certainly missed, though I think Pyro is probably better. MIght try it out later, if I can work out what to cut...
I agree Dreadscale is way better, but it depends whether you play wild or standard.
Hunter and rogue are in the same boat basically. Both are classes with huge potential and Blizzard keeps trying to funnel them down archetypes they aren't equipped for. At least Deathstalker rexxar is a great card that helps hunter in it's worst matchups.
For example Spreading Plague is extremely crushing for the Hunters, even if you don't have that big of a board, if you have 3 minions which is solid but not that great, the Druid can still Plague than play Innervate and the Taunt buffer minion he has which can win the game immediately. Hunter simply doesn't have a good board clear or hence a single target removal.
It's a little off topic, but that comment gave me an idea for a hunter card.
This would be really cool, but also quite op. I think Hunter needs a "mass silence" card which deals with taunts and at the same time silences Hunter minions.
There will always be a worst class (Not sure Hunter has been the worst for as long as you say) and there is nothing wrong with that.
Sometimes a class will be one of the bottom half for a very long time only to shine again later. Examples:
Paladin before Secret Paladin
Priest before Operative
Rogue before Quest Rogue
Lastly: Hunter have had the deck that was, by far, the strongest deck in HS: Undertaker Hunter. That was before they nerfed Undertaker, Leeroy Jenkins, Starving Buzzard and Unleash the Hounds. Never since has a deck been that oppressive.
Card games are about change. Sometimes one thing is good, later it will be bad. Circle of life, cycle of decay.
hunter is underdog. But the wroste is rogue. Look datas in attachment, this is the avarage win/rate per deck per class.
druid and paladin at the top? not surprised really, seems like hunter is doing ok really, then.. warlock winrate might be because of people jumping on jakie chans's list, which is hard to play.
I'm fairly certain Blizz has it out for the class due to a very vocal segment of the community (*cough* control players *cough*) perennially bitching about aggro. I suspect that Blizz feels that the Hunter hero power might be a bit OP in an aggro shell since it represents inevitability which is probably why, currently, it's one of the classes with the most number of alternative hero powers - Dinomancy and the DK ability. Probably, Blizz's way to encourage more deck archtypes.
I do have some suggestions which to make hunter great again without having to wait all the way to the winter expansion:
1. Make Grimey Goons hand - beast buffing targeted instead of random. The class just suffers from too much RNG in the early game. (Animal Companion, Razormaw Adapt, Macaw, etc.) This buff could make aggro more consistent and withstand early sweepers such as Defile and Maelstrom portal.
2. Revert back to the original Call of the Wild. Hunter really needs burst and the 8cc original cost allowed for either a Call a turn or two away from a Highmane for >11 dmg burst or a 10th turn - Hogger plus hero power > 7 dmg burst.
3. Buff King Krush. Seriously, he needs to be playable. I had hoped this would've happened during Un'Goro but I think it's about time Hunter can lean on a reliable classic set legend. It's just ridiculous how Hunter does not have a go-to legend unlike Paladin's Tyrion, Rogue's Cleef, Warlock's Jaraxus and Exodia Mage's Antonidas. I actually don't mind if he goes down to 8 or up to 10 but 9cc for an 8/8 charge just won't do anymore.
4. Change some cards away from random to discover such as Abominable Bowman, Stampede and Infest (this is a long shot admittedly). I'm not arguing all should be changed but the beast-randomness is just too much. Hunter should at least get basic selection if it won't get raw card advantage.
These are just some of my suggestions and I'd love to hear yours. I'm also quite aware how Brode is reluctant to "buff" current cards since it will eat into design space. While I agree with the principle, the fact that hunter is currently an noncompetitive class (I recall a recent high profile tournament where hunter was an absolute no show) over a span of three expansions (post COTW nerf) should really be a cause for concern which could warrant dropping this policy against buffs. The class seriously needs some love and help and I wish, at the very least, that Blizz acknowledges the existence of the problem. After all, acceptance is the first step to recovery.
I don't think Blizz will ever buff cards. When they nerf they can give you back your full dust and no one complains, but if they buff a card you might have dusted before people will get crazy about it.
Question:
Has anyone tried to see if Toxic Arrow turns Exploding Bloatbat's AOE into poisonous?
#nerfbarnes
Call of the wild nerf was one of the best things to happen to this game. That card was stupid and insane, you could be ahead on board and with that one card you could lose. It actually is what kept hunters at a pretty good tier during old gods. After it got nerfed the class suffered greatly, but one card alone shouldn't be makes a class good, that's stupid. On a side note the loss of quick shot was pretty big, but not nearly as much as call of the wild.
Poison works for Wild Pyromancer and Knife Juggler, so it should work for Exploding Bloatbat as well. But he doesn't even survive it if you don't buff him before, so it's a terrible combo.
Hunter is in a decent spot this expansion. The rise of priest and the added anti aggro druid tools make aggro tough to play right now and hunter can apply some serious pressure. The addition of bonemare is so strong for a class tht sticks tokens as well as hunter too.
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
Theys aid it, it might not be at legend but hunter has the highest win rate in the lower ranks (lower countring from 25 to 10) across al servers, so they ahve to be really careful with what they give to hunter, plus when hunter gets strong cheapc ards that usually translates into face hunter being something which is a deck not many people enjoy playing against, that said, it wouldn't hurt to give AoE to hunter, something like deal 1 damage to all enemy minions, cast this again a number of times equal the nubmer of beasts you have.
The game has been out for about a week...
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
Hunter and rogue are in the same boat basically. Both are classes with huge potential and Blizzard keeps trying to funnel them down archetypes they aren't equipped for. At least Deathstalker rexxar is a great card that helps hunter in it's worst matchups.
This would be really cool, but also quite op. I think Hunter needs a "mass silence" card which deals with taunts and at the same time silences Hunter minions.
There will always be a worst class (Not sure Hunter has been the worst for as long as you say) and there is nothing wrong with that.
Sometimes a class will be one of the bottom half for a very long time only to shine again later. Examples:
Paladin before Secret Paladin
Priest before Operative
Rogue before Quest Rogue
Lastly: Hunter have had the deck that was, by far, the strongest deck in HS: Undertaker Hunter. That was before they nerfed Undertaker, Leeroy Jenkins, Starving Buzzard and Unleash the Hounds. Never since has a deck been that oppressive.
Card games are about change. Sometimes one thing is good, later it will be bad. Circle of life, cycle of decay.