This happened before I started playing this game, but I've heard about some nerfs that went out during the One Night in Karazhan adventure that resulted in Shamans taking over the meta. What exactly happened?
I've been hearing references to this since the new nerfs were announced, and have heard worries that something similar will happen for Druids? Is there any merit to these concerns?
It's really tough to call whether or not this will be another failed balance change because it's really hard to tell what effect Innervate's nerf will have. The nerf might slow down Jade Druid enough that other Control decks will be able to keep up, since the deck is now far less flexible.
Shaman had the best opener combo. Tunnel Trogg turn 1 and Totem Golem turn 2. That was a crazy opener. Shaman also owned Tuskarr Totemic that pre nerf was able to spam another Totem Golem. So the shaman's early game was crazy. With one night in Karazhan shaman also gained Maelstrom Portal another crazy spell for the early games, so shaman went of control. All the situation ended when Tuskarr Totemic was nerfed Tunnel Trogg was moved to wild.
Ah yes I forgot Spirit Claws another strong card that before nerf costed 1 mana and had combo with Bloodmage Thalnos and spell damage totem.
Jade druid situation is different by the way. Jade druid is a much solid deck that has not strong openers but it is simply a strong deck against everything.
Now they have no openers. FeelsBadMan. For the sake of openers Shamans now play 1/2 Fire Fly or 1/2 Pirates that dies on your opponent's turn and summons a 3/4 Crab for your opponent.
The best way to explain "Shamanstone", was that there really was no other deck that could compete with it in tier 1. Decks that "countered" Midrange Shaman, such as Freeze Mage and Renolock, had such polarizing matchups outside of the Mid Shaman matchup that playing the aforementioned counterpicks on ladder left you vulnerable to aggressive decks and consistent tier 2 contenders.
Tier 2 decks at the time were Malygos Druid, various forms of Midrange Hunter, Discard Zoo and Dragon Warrior. Despite the consistency that these archetypes were able to offer, they all suffered from a fatal flaw that Mid Shaman was able to expose.
However, the most noteworthy mention of the nerfs that occured during the ONiK metagame were NOT the nerfs to aggressive Shaman archetypes, but the ones to Warrior and Druid. In that patch, Execute was set to a cost of 2-mana making it a bricked draw in Midrange Dragon Warrior decks. Druid saw a loss of power with the neutering of Yogg-Saron, one of the most controversial legendaries in the game at the time, hampering Druid's late game.
Similar occurrences took place in this patch, with Fiery War Axe and Hex seeing heightened mana costs. These correspond to two of Druid's harder matchups, being Pirate Warrior and Evolve Shaman. Though the matchups have balanced out quite a bit, seeing these staple cards lose power while Druid goes relatively untouched means that the era of Druid dominance will continue until we see the next expansion near the end of the year.
If I recall correctly, Shamanstone (pre and post Kara nerf) wasn't as much about Shaman being overpowered as it was about the rest of the classes not actually being any good, relatively speaking.
Aggro decks were the top dogs (which basically ruled out Rogue, Priest, and Paladin at the time as classes). and Malestrom and Spirit Claws gave Shaman the edge over any aggressive mirror. The only viable control decks were Control Warrior (which specifically targeted Shaman) and Maly Druid, which relied really strongly on Yogg and druid things. I don't think people picked up on Freeze Mage remaining viable until really late in the Shamanstone era.
I think the difference with the current Jade mess is that Jade Druid is actually just OP. Every possible weakness of the deck was shored up with Plague and UI. I believe this is why Jade Druid usage at legend surpassed Shaman at it's peak.
This happened before I started playing this game, but I've heard about some nerfs that went out during the One Night in Karazhan adventure that resulted in Shamans taking over the meta. What exactly happened?
I've been hearing references to this since the new nerfs were announced, and have heard worries that something similar will happen for Druids? Is there any merit to these concerns?
It's really tough to call whether or not this will be another failed balance change because it's really hard to tell what effect Innervate's nerf will have. The nerf might slow down Jade Druid enough that other Control decks will be able to keep up, since the deck is now far less flexible.
Check out my entry for this week's Card Design Competition. Vote for it if you like it.
Shamanstone used to be something like this:
And the current Hearthstone meta looks like this:
The best way to explain "Shamanstone", was that there really was no other deck that could compete with it in tier 1. Decks that "countered" Midrange Shaman, such as Freeze Mage and Renolock, had such polarizing matchups outside of the Mid Shaman matchup that playing the aforementioned counterpicks on ladder left you vulnerable to aggressive decks and consistent tier 2 contenders.
Tier 2 decks at the time were Malygos Druid, various forms of Midrange Hunter, Discard Zoo and Dragon Warrior. Despite the consistency that these archetypes were able to offer, they all suffered from a fatal flaw that Mid Shaman was able to expose.
However, the most noteworthy mention of the nerfs that occured during the ONiK metagame were NOT the nerfs to aggressive Shaman archetypes, but the ones to Warrior and Druid. In that patch, Execute was set to a cost of 2-mana making it a bricked draw in Midrange Dragon Warrior decks. Druid saw a loss of power with the neutering of Yogg-Saron, one of the most controversial legendaries in the game at the time, hampering Druid's late game.
Similar occurrences took place in this patch, with Fiery War Axe and Hex seeing heightened mana costs. These correspond to two of Druid's harder matchups, being Pirate Warrior and Evolve Shaman. Though the matchups have balanced out quite a bit, seeing these staple cards lose power while Druid goes relatively untouched means that the era of Druid dominance will continue until we see the next expansion near the end of the year.
Achieved Gold Priest- April 2017
If I recall correctly, Shamanstone (pre and post Kara nerf) wasn't as much about Shaman being overpowered as it was about the rest of the classes not actually being any good, relatively speaking.
Aggro decks were the top dogs (which basically ruled out Rogue, Priest, and Paladin at the time as classes). and Malestrom and Spirit Claws gave Shaman the edge over any aggressive mirror. The only viable control decks were Control Warrior (which specifically targeted Shaman) and Maly Druid, which relied really strongly on Yogg and druid things. I don't think people picked up on Freeze Mage remaining viable until really late in the Shamanstone era.
I think the difference with the current Jade mess is that Jade Druid is actually just OP. Every possible weakness of the deck was shored up with Plague and UI. I believe this is why Jade Druid usage at legend surpassed Shaman at it's peak.