I love priest - I think it is the funnest class to play, bar none. Or, at least, I used to think so. Ever since the introduction of the Old Gods expansion, however, absolutely none of Priest's cards work. This is due in part to the fact that priest has virtually no card draw whatsoever, no combos, has no adequate AoE, has no adequate healing spells, and his cards cost way too much. When you compare the classic cards from other classes, as well as TGT and Old Gods, Priest obviously drew the short straw when it came down to card development. Other than Entomb, Priest has virtually no good cards.
With that said, Priest feels like it is prototype class that the developers either forgot about, or had no intention of completing. This is why you never see Priest played in tournaments - he simply does not have the tools necessary to compete with the other classes. You know there is a major problem when Paladin has WAY more healing capabilities than the priest does (Priest gets a crappy flash heal that isn't viable and a stupid holy nova that costs too much). That is some really good examples of bad game design.
Here are the classic cards that I think need to be improved to make Priest a viable class:
Circle of Healing - completely useless card by itself, and almost entirely useless with a SoulPriest for the fact that it hurts your board and reduces the SoulPriest's health to 1, making her an easy target to remove. This card's ability needs to be changed so that it siphons the health of a random single minion and heals all minions AND characters on your side of the board based on the health stolen.
Achenai Soulpriest - her stats are fine, but she needs to be IMMUNE to all negative healing effects.
Northshire Cleric - she used to be viable before the release of the old gods expansion, but now she is completely worthless - even with a power word shield buff. She is completely useless as a 1 drop now, and should be 3 drop with 3/4 stats.
Holy Nova - Holy Nova costs too much and doesn't do enough for the cost. As is, it should be a 4 mana cost card. If it were changed to do 3 damage instead of 2, only then would the 5 cost be worth it. With the loss of Lightbomb, which was awesome, Priest has no board clear, and this is a major problem. My suggestion would be to change Holy Nova so that it does the amount of damage to the enemy board based on the sum of the health that has been healed on your side of the board. For example, if you had 3 hurt minions on the board and healed for a total of 6 health, you would reflect that as damage to the enemy side of the board for a board clear. This needs to be done, imo - because Holy Nova is never going to get cycled out with future expansions, and priest really does need a lightbomb replacement.
Shadowform - this is a great card that is ruined by the fact that it costs too much to implement. The card simply costs too much to use - it needs to be either a 0 card or a 1 mana cost card. At 3 cost, the card is simply unusable due to massive tempo loss and the fact that our healing power is permanently stripped away from us,. This is not a fair trade in most cases, considering Priest has no healing spells to bring him back from the brink. Forbidden Healing should have been a priest card, but for some unknown reason, it is a Paladin card. How in the world does that make any sense?
In the future, priest needs more card draw that isn't situational, more healing spells, and more tempo oriented cards. He also needs a PERMANENT AoE card like LightBomb. Also, one major change needs to be implemented either through a new card or simply game mechanics, and that is to remove the 30 health cap on Priest. Priest should be allowed to heal above his specification, just like Warrior is allowed to go way beyond his limits with armor. Only then will Priest be a competitive class.
That's the problem of classes with crappy base sets. Main problem of "weak" classes, is they "fix" them through expansion. When it rotates out they're back to being crappy again. Same case with Shaman, they have become very dependent on current expansion and when their standard expansion cards sucks they will suck.
Priest needs a hero power adjustment to be viable. Priest has great core cards IMO but hero power is weak. I think they should try changing it to heal for 3.
I kinda don't agree with the nova change. It will make Holy Nova situational and we don't want another situational card as priest. I think 4 mana is the sweet spot for 2 damage sweepers. They just need to balance it so its not a strictly better card than concecration. Make it hit/heal minions only would be good enough. But tbh the heal is irrelevant you what's important is you have a sweeper that can be dropped as early as turn 4. Priests just needs more solid and consistent base cards.
I kinda don't agree with the nova change. It will make Holy Nova situational and we don't want another situational card as priest. I think 4 mana is the sweet spot for 2 damage sweepers. They just need to balance it so its not a strictly better card than concecration. Make it hit/heal minions only would be good enough. But tbh the heal is irrelevant you what's important is you have a sweeper that can be dropped as early as turn 4. Priests just needs more solid and consistent base cards.
Well, the beauty about this change is, that holy nova will still work as designed as long as the priest is damaged (which is always the case) - having hurt minions on the board and thus multiplying holy nova's effects is a a very nice situational effect that I would not mind having.
Your circle of healing + Auchenai Soulpriest complaint: the reason she drops to 1 hp is so you can't double circle in the same turn for 8 damage. this was probably intentional. As such your idea for immune status vs all negative heal effects should be modified to immune to all healing effects.
Northshire Cleric - I could see her becoming a 1/4 but a turn 3 3/4, many better options and by turn 3 dealing 4 damage is very likely thus keeping the same predicament you are trying to solve.
Holy Nova change - clarification? Is that 6 damage to all enemy creatures or 6 damage split randomly to all enemy creatures? though again this was an introductory card so its going to feel clunky but not obsolete. (as will many cards as new sets come out)
Never really tried Shadowform so can't give input.
I do agree that Priest is very reliant on neutral cards for card draw as opposed to some other classes which can either make or break many meta decks.
I disagree with a higher HP cap just as I disagree with the ridiculous armor range on warriors (should be capped at 30)
But I do have to agree with many players: as new expansions are released there will always be the feeling that a class is weak/nerfed/outdated. And as a player base we can only hope that our concerns are met with research and forthcoming commentary from the Devs.
I would like to politely disagree with your suggestions, and allow me to explain why.
I suspect that what Blizzard wants is change for each class. If every year the new cards only fill roles that old cards filled, then you're playing basically the same deck year in and year out with only slight modifications. Priest has primarily been a slower control class since the inception of Hearthstone. While there have been exceptions Priest decks still adhere to the principle of outlasting the opponent rather than out-threat-ing or out-tempo-ing them.
My guess is that Blizzard wants Priests to have more active decks available to them. You'll notice that Dragon Priest was heavily supported in the past and C'thun Priest is pushed now. In both cases it's Blizzard trying to get Priests out of their "comfort zone." Now, I'm not saying that they have been entirely successful, but in order to achieve their goals they need to keep releasing Priest cards which are proactive rather than reactive. Buffing board clears and tried-and-true defensive combos won't do this.
Now, I am not saying that Blizzard has been successful, but like all things Blizzard they will take small steps. Just look at how many pieces it took to get Shaman to where it is now: Totem Golem and Tuskarr Totemic in TGT, Tunnel Trogg in League, and now finally Flamewreathed Faceless and Thing from Below in Whispers. Cards like Shifting Shade are a good start, and I still have hopes that Holy Champion will some day become a respectable card in the correct deck.
So in summary, I don't think that Priest players should be expecting improvements to their existing reactive kit. Instead my hopes are pinned on better early-midgame cards that allow Priests to take to the field and contest the board rather than always being forced into the defensive.
I have a better idea. Just remove aggro from the game. Problem solved. No one likes aggro, it's considered "cancer" by the majority of the community, and pros only use it cuz they need to win tournaments.
Holy Nova - Holy Nova costs too much and doesn't do enough for the cost. As is, it should be a 4 mana cost card. If it were changed to do 3 damage instead of 2, only then would the 5 cost be worth it. With the loss of Lightbomb, which was awesome, Priest has no board clear, and this is a major problem. My suggestion would be to change Holy Nova so that it does the amount of damage to the enemy board based on the sum of the health that has been healed on your side of the board. For example, if you had 3 hurt minions on the board and healed for a total of 6 health, you would reflect that as damage to the enemy side of the board for a board clear. This needs to be done, imo - because Holy Nova is never going to get cycled out with future expansions, and priest really does need a lightbomb replacement.
Making it 4 makes it just plain better than consecrate the gold standard baseline for mass removal. Making it deal 3 makes it basically a better excavated evil.
Priest's problem is cards like thought steal, mind games, and mind control. It's designed around a very greedy deck that preys on control decks, but the other control decks play the same style of greedy control priest tries to enable anyways. Also there's the whole shadow priest archetype, which is well, just bad.
I hate priest, this ducking scumbag thief that pretends to be a good guy and then steals your grills and what not.
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This disclaimer Will cleanse any sense of innuendo or sarcasm From the comments that might actually make you think And will also insult your intelligence at the same time. So, if it sounds sarcastic, don't take it seriously. If it sounds dangerous, Do not try this at home or at all. And if it offends you, just don't read it.
I agree in general that priest is terrible, but we should have no complaints about circle of healing. That is one of priest's best cards. Priest would be a better class if you could play 4 circles.
TO be honest, i don't want priest as tier 1 deck. If he will be number 1 deck, he will crush everthing. Think:priests' only problem is aggro.. If they somehow nerf aggro or give priest better boardclears to survive early game, this class will be top tier. No c'thun or any other control deck can stand against this guy. Maybe freeze mage but even with enough heals, you can beat Jaina. So i really don't want thieves around. I think hearthstone tasted priest dominance and blizz nerfed then
Holy Nova change - clarification? Is that 6 damage to all enemy creatures or 6 damage split randomly to all enemy creatures? though again this was an introductory card so its going to feel clunky but not obsolete. (as will many cards as new sets come out
6 damage to all enemy creatures would be ideal, but 6 damage split randomly would definitely be more fair and would be more akin to shaman's chain lightning, but with a bit more potential.
CoH is not useless at all...but it does rely on 2+ card combos, which is one of the true difficulties with the Priest class right now. It's actually an incredibly heavily combo oriented class.
If you use Injured Blademaster, which you probably should at this point, you can combo it with Cleric and CoH for a lot of card draw. At times with my current deck I'm drawing 3 cards from CoH + Cleric. You just have to use the cards properly, which means usually playing nothing for the first 2-3 turns and eating anywhere between 6-10 damage before you make a single play. Which sucks, I agree.
In the current meta Holy Nova totally does suck, so most people with a clue have started playing Excavated Evil instead, and its actually really good.
Priest is a demanding class and I like it that way, if they were to overbalance it like they did with Shaman, I would actually enjoy the class less. I dont want it to be a faceroll class.
The main problems that need to be addressed with priest are non-situational card draw (every class has it but priest, which is bullcrap) - also, with the loss of lightbomb, priest has literally no way of clearing the board without using 3 or more cards in a ridiculous combo - which is silly, because not only do you run out of steam quickly, but the opponent simply refills the board after a clear. How is this even remotely fair? All classes should be evenly balanced - but who am I kidding? This game hasn't been balanced since its inception and this is due to lazy and incompetent devs who have absolutely no clue on how to make a quality game.
Hearthstone is a great idea that is executed poorly, and if I was the head of management over at Blizzard, I would fire every person there. They screwed up Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and basically everything else that was made post-2003. They should be ashamed of themselves, but since they have made billions off of their brand, thanks to quality games like Starcraft: Broodwar and Diablo 2, they no longer need to care about quality control because they have a fanbase that will continue to support them, regardless of the horrendous crap they continue to make by devs who barely know how to code.
I kinda don't agree with the nova change. It will make Holy Nova situational and we don't want another situational card as priest. I think 4 mana is the sweet spot for 2 damage sweepers. They just need to balance it so its not a strictly better card than concecration. Make it hit/heal minions only would be good enough. But tbh the heal is irrelevant you what's important is you have a sweeper that can be dropped as early as turn 4. Priests just needs more solid and consistent base cards.
Well, the beauty about this change is, that holy nova will still work as designed as long as the priest is damaged (which is always the case) - having hurt minions on the board and thus multiplying holy nova's effects is a a very nice situational effect that I would not mind having.
The card isn't going to help that much vs aggresive decks like Zoo. Not a very good tempo card tbh. Its easy to play around and is only good when you're even or ahead on board (if you have wounded minons it's most likely because you've already used them for trading). You need to have solid early minions first for it to happen. That's assuming it only heals/reflect friendly minion damage and not your face. If it heals face and reflect the damage thats a very broken card. If it heals minion only its a very situational card and maybe usable on later stages or when you've stabilized. That kinda pointless tbh.
What priest needs is more solid non-situational cards and less restrictive/conditional cards. Cards like Dark Cultist and a sweeper on par with Consecration is a good place to start. Maybe make Nova 4 mana deal 2 to enemy minions and heal 2 or more to your face (kinda like a reverse Concescration) Circle of Healing and Shadowform are okay. Maybe adjust the Shadowform for less mana or make the upgrade cost discounted. Its a bit expensive at 3 and have poor synergy with the kit, because most of the cards benefits from your class ability(heal).
I wouldn't like to put Lightbomb on standard forever because that could be too strong. I wasn't entirely on-board with Blizz's decision to keep all of the classic cards on standard because as long as cards like Sorcerrers Apprentice, Fiery Winaxe, Backstab, Evicerate, Swipe etc. exist it will always see play on standard unless they are dethroned by a better card. They should at least implement a rotation system for vanilla set where cards will rotate in an out based on the expansions for that calendar year. Like for example for this calendar year(year of the Kraken) the following cards are out of standard: Iceblock, Truesilver Champion etc. Its a good way of balancing the meta and take a break from powerful cards without nerfing them to the ground.
The main problems that need to be addressed with priest are non-situational card draw (every class has it but priest, which is bullcrap) - also, with the loss of lightbomb, priest has literally no way of clearing the board without using 3 or more cards in a ridiculous combo - which is silly, because not only do you run out of steam quickly, but the opponent simply refills the board after a clear. How is this even remotely fair? All classes should be evenly balanced - but who am I kidding? This game hasn't been balanced since its inception and this is due to lazy and incompetent devs who have absolutely no clue on how to make a quality game.
Hearthstone is a great idea that is executed poorly, and if I was the head of management over at Blizzard, I would fire every person there. They screwed up Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and basically everything else that was made post-2003. They should be ashamed of themselves, but since they have made billions off of their brand, thanks to quality games like Starcraft: Broodwar and Diablo 2, they no longer need to care about quality control because they have a fanbase that will continue to support them, regardless of the horrendous crap they continue to make by devs who barely know how to code.
Well you just turned this discussion into one of those salty threads..
The main problems that need to be addressed with priest are non-situational card draw (every class has it but priest, which is bullcrap) - also, with the loss of lightbomb, priest has literally no way of clearing the board without using 3 or more cards in a ridiculous combo - which is silly, because not only do you run out of steam quickly, but the opponent simply refills the board after a clear. How is this even remotely fair? All classes should be evenly balanced - but who am I kidding? This game hasn't been balanced since its inception and this is due to lazy and incompetent devs who have absolutely no clue on how to make a quality game.
Hearthstone is a great idea that is executed poorly, and if I was the head of management over at Blizzard, I would fire every person there. They screwed up Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and basically everything else that was made post-2003. They should be ashamed of themselves, but since they have made billions off of their brand, thanks to quality games like Starcraft: Broodwar and Diablo 2, they no longer need to care about quality control because they have a fanbase that will continue to support them, regardless of the horrendous crap they continue to make by devs who barely know how to code.
Well you just turned this discussion into one of those salty threads..
Damn right, I'm salty! I HATE incompetence and the Hearthstone devs have that in spades.
It is highly unlikely that they will buff any classic/basic cards, no point in even suggesting changes there, IMO.
They really needed to stop making the class expansion/adventure cards unusable crap.
The problem with priest is not getting early aoe. They have a 2 mana 2 card 4 damage to all minions. Early aoe isn't the problem. More cards like circle would help priest a lot (4 activities, but only 2 cards out of 30 to activate... Consistency is obviously going to be a problem.)
Priest's biggest issue, IMO, is the lack of card draw. Took many cards promoting card advantage, but not enough cards that let you access the tools in your own deck.
Priest can easily be fixed with 3 good cards in the next adventure:
1. Prayer of Mending - spell, 1 mana, heal a minion and the minions next to it for 2.
This helps maintain aboard, or spreads some damage in combination with auchenai or embrace.
2. Archangel - 3 mana 3/4 battlecry: heal all other minions for 4.
More synergy for auchenai/embrace, Just not on curve.
3. Phasing cleric - 5 mana 4/5 taunt - battlecry: draw a card.
I love priest - I think it is the funnest class to play, bar none. Or, at least, I used to think so. Ever since the introduction of the Old Gods expansion, however, absolutely none of Priest's cards work. This is due in part to the fact that priest has virtually no card draw whatsoever, no combos, has no adequate AoE, has no adequate healing spells, and his cards cost way too much. When you compare the classic cards from other classes, as well as TGT and Old Gods, Priest obviously drew the short straw when it came down to card development. Other than Entomb, Priest has virtually no good cards.
With that said, Priest feels like it is prototype class that the developers either forgot about, or had no intention of completing. This is why you never see Priest played in tournaments - he simply does not have the tools necessary to compete with the other classes. You know there is a major problem when Paladin has WAY more healing capabilities than the priest does (Priest gets a crappy flash heal that isn't viable and a stupid holy nova that costs too much). That is some really good examples of bad game design.
Here are the classic cards that I think need to be improved to make Priest a viable class:
Circle of Healing - completely useless card by itself, and almost entirely useless with a SoulPriest for the fact that it hurts your board and reduces the SoulPriest's health to 1, making her an easy target to remove. This card's ability needs to be changed so that it siphons the health of a random single minion and heals all minions AND characters on your side of the board based on the health stolen.
Achenai Soulpriest - her stats are fine, but she needs to be IMMUNE to all negative healing effects.
Northshire Cleric - she used to be viable before the release of the old gods expansion, but now she is completely worthless - even with a power word shield buff. She is completely useless as a 1 drop now, and should be 3 drop with 3/4 stats.
Holy Nova - Holy Nova costs too much and doesn't do enough for the cost. As is, it should be a 4 mana cost card. If it were changed to do 3 damage instead of 2, only then would the 5 cost be worth it. With the loss of Lightbomb, which was awesome, Priest has no board clear, and this is a major problem. My suggestion would be to change Holy Nova so that it does the amount of damage to the enemy board based on the sum of the health that has been healed on your side of the board. For example, if you had 3 hurt minions on the board and healed for a total of 6 health, you would reflect that as damage to the enemy side of the board for a board clear. This needs to be done, imo - because Holy Nova is never going to get cycled out with future expansions, and priest really does need a lightbomb replacement.
Shadowform - this is a great card that is ruined by the fact that it costs too much to implement. The card simply costs too much to use - it needs to be either a 0 card or a 1 mana cost card. At 3 cost, the card is simply unusable due to massive tempo loss and the fact that our healing power is permanently stripped away from us,. This is not a fair trade in most cases, considering Priest has no healing spells to bring him back from the brink. Forbidden Healing should have been a priest card, but for some unknown reason, it is a Paladin card. How in the world does that make any sense?
In the future, priest needs more card draw that isn't situational, more healing spells, and more tempo oriented cards. He also needs a PERMANENT AoE card like LightBomb. Also, one major change needs to be implemented either through a new card or simply game mechanics, and that is to remove the 30 health cap on Priest. Priest should be allowed to heal above his specification, just like Warrior is allowed to go way beyond his limits with armor. Only then will Priest be a competitive class.
That's the problem of classes with crappy base sets. Main problem of "weak" classes, is they "fix" them through expansion. When it rotates out they're back to being crappy again. Same case with Shaman, they have become very dependent on current expansion and when their standard expansion cards sucks they will suck.
Priest needs a hero power adjustment to be viable. Priest has great core cards IMO but hero power is weak. I think they should try changing it to heal for 3.
I kinda don't agree with the nova change. It will make Holy Nova situational and we don't want another situational card as priest. I think 4 mana is the sweet spot for 2 damage sweepers. They just need to balance it so its not a strictly better card than concecration. Make it hit/heal minions only would be good enough. But tbh the heal is irrelevant you what's important is you have a sweeper that can be dropped as early as turn 4. Priests just needs more solid and consistent base cards.
Your circle of healing + Auchenai Soulpriest complaint:
the reason she drops to 1 hp is so you can't double circle in the same turn for 8 damage. this was probably intentional. As such your idea for immune status vs all negative heal effects should be modified to immune to all healing effects.
Northshire Cleric - I could see her becoming a 1/4 but a turn 3 3/4, many better options and by turn 3 dealing 4 damage is very likely thus keeping the same predicament you are trying to solve.
Holy Nova change - clarification? Is that 6 damage to all enemy creatures or 6 damage split randomly to all enemy creatures? though again this was an introductory card so its going to feel clunky but not obsolete. (as will many cards as new sets come out)
Never really tried Shadowform so can't give input.
I do agree that Priest is very reliant on neutral cards for card draw as opposed to some other classes which can either make or break many meta decks.
I disagree with a higher HP cap just as I disagree with the ridiculous armor range on warriors (should be capped at 30)
But I do have to agree with many players: as new expansions are released there will always be the feeling that a class is weak/nerfed/outdated. And as a player base we can only hope that our concerns are met with research and forthcoming commentary from the Devs.
Cute, ineffective, but cute.
I would like to politely disagree with your suggestions, and allow me to explain why.
I suspect that what Blizzard wants is change for each class. If every year the new cards only fill roles that old cards filled, then you're playing basically the same deck year in and year out with only slight modifications. Priest has primarily been a slower control class since the inception of Hearthstone. While there have been exceptions Priest decks still adhere to the principle of outlasting the opponent rather than out-threat-ing or out-tempo-ing them.
My guess is that Blizzard wants Priests to have more active decks available to them. You'll notice that Dragon Priest was heavily supported in the past and C'thun Priest is pushed now. In both cases it's Blizzard trying to get Priests out of their "comfort zone." Now, I'm not saying that they have been entirely successful, but in order to achieve their goals they need to keep releasing Priest cards which are proactive rather than reactive. Buffing board clears and tried-and-true defensive combos won't do this.
Now, I am not saying that Blizzard has been successful, but like all things Blizzard they will take small steps. Just look at how many pieces it took to get Shaman to where it is now: Totem Golem and Tuskarr Totemic in TGT, Tunnel Trogg in League, and now finally Flamewreathed Faceless and Thing from Below in Whispers. Cards like Shifting Shade are a good start, and I still have hopes that Holy Champion will some day become a respectable card in the correct deck.
So in summary, I don't think that Priest players should be expecting improvements to their existing reactive kit. Instead my hopes are pinned on better early-midgame cards that allow Priests to take to the field and contest the board rather than always being forced into the defensive.
I have a better idea. Just remove aggro from the game. Problem solved. No one likes aggro, it's considered "cancer" by the majority of the community, and pros only use it cuz they need to win tournaments.
Making it deal 3 makes it basically a better excavated evil.
Also there's the whole shadow priest archetype, which is well, just bad.
I hate priest, this ducking scumbag thief that pretends to be a good guy and then steals your grills and what not.
This disclaimer
Will cleanse any sense of innuendo or sarcasm
From the comments that might actually make you think
And will also insult your intelligence at the same time.
So, if it sounds sarcastic, don't take it seriously.
If it sounds dangerous,
Do not try this at home or at all.
And if it offends you, just don't read it.
I agree in general that priest is terrible, but we should have no complaints about circle of healing. That is one of priest's best cards. Priest would be a better class if you could play 4 circles.
TO be honest, i don't want priest as tier 1 deck. If he will be number 1 deck, he will crush everthing. Think:priests' only problem is aggro.. If they somehow nerf aggro or give priest better boardclears to survive early game, this class will be top tier. No c'thun or any other control deck can stand against this guy. Maybe freeze mage but even with enough heals, you can beat Jaina. So i really don't want thieves around. I think hearthstone tasted priest dominance and blizz nerfed then
The man who got 4 The Boogeymonster from packs and thinks about playing Yogg-Saron, Hope's End decks.
CoH is not useless at all...but it does rely on 2+ card combos, which is one of the true difficulties with the Priest class right now. It's actually an incredibly heavily combo oriented class.
If you use Injured Blademaster, which you probably should at this point, you can combo it with Cleric and CoH for a lot of card draw. At times with my current deck I'm drawing 3 cards from CoH + Cleric. You just have to use the cards properly, which means usually playing nothing for the first 2-3 turns and eating anywhere between 6-10 damage before you make a single play. Which sucks, I agree.
In the current meta Holy Nova totally does suck, so most people with a clue have started playing Excavated Evil instead, and its actually really good.
Priest is a demanding class and I like it that way, if they were to overbalance it like they did with Shaman, I would actually enjoy the class less. I dont want it to be a faceroll class.
The main problems that need to be addressed with priest are non-situational card draw (every class has it but priest, which is bullcrap) - also, with the loss of lightbomb, priest has literally no way of clearing the board without using 3 or more cards in a ridiculous combo - which is silly, because not only do you run out of steam quickly, but the opponent simply refills the board after a clear. How is this even remotely fair? All classes should be evenly balanced - but who am I kidding? This game hasn't been balanced since its inception and this is due to lazy and incompetent devs who have absolutely no clue on how to make a quality game.
Hearthstone is a great idea that is executed poorly, and if I was the head of management over at Blizzard, I would fire every person there. They screwed up Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and basically everything else that was made post-2003. They should be ashamed of themselves, but since they have made billions off of their brand, thanks to quality games like Starcraft: Broodwar and Diablo 2, they no longer need to care about quality control because they have a fanbase that will continue to support them, regardless of the horrendous crap they continue to make by devs who barely know how to code.
But ... but ... Priest is awesome. Ben Brode said so!
And he's really smart.
It is highly unlikely that they will buff any classic/basic cards, no point in even suggesting changes there, IMO.
They really needed to stop making the class expansion/adventure cards unusable crap.
The problem with priest is not getting early aoe. They have a 2 mana 2 card 4 damage to all minions. Early aoe isn't the problem. More cards like circle would help priest a lot (4 activities, but only 2 cards out of 30 to activate... Consistency is obviously going to be a problem.)
Priest's biggest issue, IMO, is the lack of card draw. Took many cards promoting card advantage, but not enough cards that let you access the tools in your own deck.
Priest can easily be fixed with 3 good cards in the next adventure:
1. Prayer of Mending - spell, 1 mana, heal a minion and the minions next to it for 2.
This helps maintain aboard, or spreads some damage in combination with auchenai or embrace.
2. Archangel - 3 mana 3/4 battlecry: heal all other minions for 4.
More synergy for auchenai/embrace, Just not on curve.
3. Phasing cleric - 5 mana 4/5 taunt - battlecry: draw a card.