There is no drawback at all to this card. It is one mana, and you can deal a huge blow to any minion if you've armored up enough. At this low a cost, why would this card not remove the armor when you've used it? There is no risk in using this card and gives a really cheap polymorph/hex.
Warrior has rather cheap removal spells and the only reason I don't play this class is because of the high dust cost (ranked Warrior decks) for some of these cards that I haven't obtained from opening free packs. I would even think Commanding Shout is another cheap "removal" since you can destroy an opponent's minion with yours and it still stays on your board. Does nobody else think that these removals cost too little for what normally is a tempo changer?
I do think Shield Slam is excellent, but it does have drawbacks. As you said, it works IF you've armoured up enough. That's not always easy, and a savvy opponent will try to make it even harder to keep your armour up. So it's limited in the size of the minions you can kill (unlike Polymorph or Hex). It also triggers deathrattles, which is bad (again, unlike Polymorph or Hex), so it only kills half of Cairne Bloodhoof, it bounces off divine shields, etc.
I don't know if it's too cheap/good necessarily, though. Overall I think Warrior is a well balanced class, with well balanced cards. I don't think you can judge one card on its own without considering the overall power level of the rest of the class cards. Warrior isn't a huge presence in the metagame, which is a sign that the power balance is fine at the moment. (And it's not just the price of the deck that's keeping it in check. There are less Warriors being played now than there were last season, which means a lot of people who do have the cards are choosing not to use them.)
EDIT: Also, Commanding Shout? Really? I actually had to look that up, I don't think I've ever seen anyone play that card in Ranked or Arena...
Warlock's Shadowflame destroys their minion and every enemy minion at that health or lower, but at a 6 mana cost. I don't see why the armor survives, especially at a 1 mana cost.
Shield Slam requires high armor, meaning spending lots of 2 mana on something that doesn't effect the board or running Shield Block, making it 4 mana deal 5 damage + whatever you armored up. Control Warrior armors up a lot but this also makes them slower, which is a fine trade-off. And aside from Shield Block, which is 5 damage (7 damage @ 6 mana, which is also perfectly fine), you can hit the armor down to weaken it. From a pure aesthetic standpoint, why would hitting someone with your shield cause it to break into itty bitty pieces?
Play control warrior for abit and u will find your answer. Beside shield block there is no insta high boost of shield( other then shenanigans with armorsmith) so in order to hit hard with it u need to be well stacked. If u think that its easy as hell , well try it :)
Play control warrior for abit and u will find your answer. Beside shield block there is no insta high boost of shield( other then shenanigans with armorsmith) so in order to hit hard with it u need to be well stacked. If u think that its easy as hell , well try it :)
It IS the Armorsmith combination I am also thinking about that adds to this. And then three mana to add 5 armor with Shield Block, one mana to hit somone with that using Shield Slam. I've played Warrior without owning Shield Slam and it was EASY to get Armor. I've just never been able to Shield Slam anybody with it because I don't have 800 dust to craft two of them. They are easily tempo changers.
I'm not sure why you think it's hard to gain armor, but I'm finding this class a rather easy class to play as and will play it more often once I get the dust for the deck. I would never have lost some of my matches if I had the one mana Shield Slam cards. Shield Slam opponent minions while keeping that same armor? That's a big tempo changer for one mana leaving you with lots of other things to do mid-game.
The armor a warrior gets is to balance the fact that they use weapons and have to take damage for removal. As a warrior you typically wind up with lower health even if your deck is working. That armor is your life, not some bonus to it - it's the warrior's hero power. People are suggesting that shield slam basically say 'Do equal damage to a target and yourself'.
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Free to try and find a game, dealing cards for sorrow, cards for pain.
You have anything to add to the discussion other than that? Warrior player I'm guessing. You must have also been on the debate team.
You've really said very little other than that you don't like the mechanic and yet are flaming this dude?
Don't like the way shield slam works?
Complain to Blizzard.
Hi White Knight! And isn't this a discussion forum? Why would he post that, without ... actually ... discussing? This area of the forum is CARD DISCUSSION, soooooooo...
You have anything to add to the discussion other than that? Warrior player I'm guessing. You must have also been on the debate team.
Well, you called shield slam a polymorph/hex and commanding shout a playable removal spell. You shouldn't be surprised when people don't take you seriously.
You probably think shield slam is OP because you always see the best case scenarios: When you let your opponent build up a lot of armor and he can remove you big minion for 1 mana. You don't see all the times where your opponent was stuck with a useless shield slam in hand that he couldn't play because he didn't have any armor. It's a conditional removal spell, you just need to play around it.
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I'm so glad there is prejudice against playing hunter/zoo/[insert FotM deck here]. People like that make the life so much easier for those of us who play to win.
Shield slam is already bad enough as it is, you´ll need a LOT of ressources to make it trade well, if you´d remove the armor you could as well delete the card.
Well, you called shield slam a polymorph/hex and commanding shout a playable removal spell. You shouldn't be surprised when people don't take you seriously.
You probably think shield slam is OP because you always see the best case scenarios: When you let your opponent build up a lot of armor and he can remove you big minion for 1 mana. You don't see all the times where your opponent was stuck with a useless shield slam in hand that he couldn't play because he didn't have any armor. It's a conditional removal spell, you just need to play around it.
But isn't that not thinking abstractly? Commanding Shout become a removal spell when you've removed something on your opponent's side, while still keeping a minion advantage on your side? How is that not considered a removal? And I still don't see how you guys think it's not a bonus to have armor (Shield Block) + the same amount of damage (Shield Slam) for a 4 mana total cost.
I'll just end my discussion on this topic. Many are considering it from the Warrior player's perspective, I'm considering it from both sides of the equation. Shield Slam even at Hero Power + 1 is not a dead card. Warrior decks are very strong and I'm going to be playing it after a few more cards.
I think Shield Slam is balanced. Like all Epics, it is mighty situational. There are times when you haven't been able to build up armor and then you're forced to combo it with armor up for 3 mana, deal 2 damage, gain 2 armor. Sometimes you're forced to combo it with shield block and it becomes a bad Starfire.
But when you've been able to build up armour, you feel awesome cause you've essentially got a 1 mana pyroblast for minions. Kinda like BGH in that sometimes it kills a big card and other times it's just fodder on the board or in your hand.
Shield slam used to remove armor when they first made it and you could use it on enemy hero but it was too powerful with hero attacking and too weak without it so they made it like it is today
Way back when this was a card that was closer to your liking, only this card could only ever be used as a finisher, since it left you naked and unlike shield slam it can hit face. I think Shield Slam is perfect the way it is and glad Death Wish is no longer a card
Warlock's Shadowflame destroys their minion and every enemy minion at that health or lower, but at a 6 mana cost. I don't see why the armor survives, especially at a 1 mana cost.
Warlock's Shadowflame hits every minion on the other side of the board. Shield Slam only hits 1.
Shield Slam itself is not broken, or even close to being overpowered. Everyone felt kinda bummed when your Yeti/Sen'jin etc just got destroyed on turn 4 with Shield Block + Shield Slam combo.
Now, in reality, if you look at Warrior's armor as additional life, Shield Block is broken to hell. However, armor is meant to be used as a resource. Warriors do not have huge board clear spells (aside from Brawl, which has obvious side effects). In that case, Shield Block giving you 5 armor and 1 card draw is perfectly fine, as it is a resource, not life, and the Warrior is bound to spend some of that armor himself, when he starts bashing your minions with his weapons. Plus, Warrior's are designed with armor as a resource, allow me to explain.
Warrior's hero power has no impact on the board, or on the enemy champion. Also, you might argue that Rogues don't have it fair against Warriors because they use their weapons to bash stuff as well. Not quite. Warriors do not have good removal spells for the early game. All Warriors want to use Slam to get that extra card, Whirlwind to potentially finish off some minion with 1hp, pop a divine shield or put a minion in danger of being executed, etc etc, while Rogues have a lot of early cheap removal spells. That's the trade off.
Bottom line: Shield Slam is not broken or overpowered because it uses a resource which you can remove and the Warrior uses a lot of mana to get his resource up to harmful levels. As someone in this thread previously mentioned, you haven't seen when Warriors have that Shield Slam in the hand but just can't use it because 2 damage is not worth it.
Hope that cleared it for you.
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There is no drawback at all to this card. It is one mana, and you can deal a huge blow to any minion if you've armored up enough. At this low a cost, why would this card not remove the armor when you've used it? There is no risk in using this card and gives a really cheap polymorph/hex.
Warrior has rather cheap removal spells and the only reason I don't play this class is because of the high dust cost (ranked Warrior decks) for some of these cards that I haven't obtained from opening free packs. I would even think Commanding Shout is another cheap "removal" since you can destroy an opponent's minion with yours and it still stays on your board. Does nobody else think that these removals cost too little for what normally is a tempo changer?
Not a Mage player.
I do think Shield Slam is excellent, but it does have drawbacks. As you said, it works IF you've armoured up enough. That's not always easy, and a savvy opponent will try to make it even harder to keep your armour up. So it's limited in the size of the minions you can kill (unlike Polymorph or Hex). It also triggers deathrattles, which is bad (again, unlike Polymorph or Hex), so it only kills half of Cairne Bloodhoof, it bounces off divine shields, etc.
I don't know if it's too cheap/good necessarily, though. Overall I think Warrior is a well balanced class, with well balanced cards. I don't think you can judge one card on its own without considering the overall power level of the rest of the class cards. Warrior isn't a huge presence in the metagame, which is a sign that the power balance is fine at the moment. (And it's not just the price of the deck that's keeping it in check. There are less Warriors being played now than there were last season, which means a lot of people who do have the cards are choosing not to use them.)
EDIT: Also, Commanding Shout? Really? I actually had to look that up, I don't think I've ever seen anyone play that card in Ranked or Arena...
Warlock's Shadowflame destroys their minion and every enemy minion at that health or lower, but at a 6 mana cost. I don't see why the armor survives, especially at a 1 mana cost.
Not a Mage player.
Shield Slam requires high armor, meaning spending lots of 2 mana on something that doesn't effect the board or running Shield Block, making it 4 mana deal 5 damage + whatever you armored up. Control Warrior armors up a lot but this also makes them slower, which is a fine trade-off. And aside from Shield Block, which is 5 damage (7 damage @ 6 mana, which is also perfectly fine), you can hit the armor down to weaken it. From a pure aesthetic standpoint, why would hitting someone with your shield cause it to break into itty bitty pieces?
This is seriously a topic?
Play control warrior for abit and u will find your answer. Beside shield block there is no insta high boost of shield( other then shenanigans with armorsmith) so in order to hit hard with it u need to be well stacked. If u think that its easy as hell , well try it :)
You have anything to add to the discussion other than that? Warrior player I'm guessing. You must have also been on the debate team.
It IS the Armorsmith combination I am also thinking about that adds to this. And then three mana to add 5 armor with Shield Block, one mana to hit somone with that using Shield Slam. I've played Warrior without owning Shield Slam and it was EASY to get Armor. I've just never been able to Shield Slam anybody with it because I don't have 800 dust to craft two of them. They are easily tempo changers.
I'm not sure why you think it's hard to gain armor, but I'm finding this class a rather easy class to play as and will play it more often once I get the dust for the deck. I would never have lost some of my matches if I had the one mana Shield Slam cards. Shield Slam opponent minions while keeping that same armor? That's a big tempo changer for one mana leaving you with lots of other things to do mid-game.
Not a Mage player.
The armor a warrior gets is to balance the fact that they use weapons and have to take damage for removal. As a warrior you typically wind up with lower health even if your deck is working. That armor is your life, not some bonus to it - it's the warrior's hero power. People are suggesting that shield slam basically say 'Do equal damage to a target and yourself'.
Free to try and find a game, dealing cards for sorrow, cards for pain.
Hi White Knight! And isn't this a discussion forum? Why would he post that, without ... actually ... discussing? This area of the forum is CARD DISCUSSION, soooooooo...
Not a Mage player.
Well, you called shield slam a polymorph/hex and commanding shout a playable removal spell. You shouldn't be surprised when people don't take you seriously.
You probably think shield slam is OP because you always see the best case scenarios: When you let your opponent build up a lot of armor and he can remove you big minion for 1 mana. You don't see all the times where your opponent was stuck with a useless shield slam in hand that he couldn't play because he didn't have any armor. It's a conditional removal spell, you just need to play around it.
I'm so glad there is prejudice against playing hunter/zoo/[insert FotM deck here]. People like that make the life so much easier for those of us who play to win.
Shield slam is already bad enough as it is, you´ll need a LOT of ressources to make it trade well, if you´d remove the armor you could as well delete the card.
But isn't that not thinking abstractly? Commanding Shout become a removal spell when you've removed something on your opponent's side, while still keeping a minion advantage on your side? How is that not considered a removal? And I still don't see how you guys think it's not a bonus to have armor (Shield Block) + the same amount of damage (Shield Slam) for a 4 mana total cost.
I'll just end my discussion on this topic. Many are considering it from the Warrior player's perspective, I'm considering it from both sides of the equation. Shield Slam even at Hero Power + 1 is not a dead card. Warrior decks are very strong and I'm going to be playing it after a few more cards.
Not a Mage player.
I think Shield Slam is balanced. Like all Epics, it is mighty situational. There are times when you haven't been able to build up armor and then you're forced to combo it with armor up for 3 mana, deal 2 damage, gain 2 armor. Sometimes you're forced to combo it with shield block and it becomes a bad Starfire.
But when you've been able to build up armour, you feel awesome cause you've essentially got a 1 mana pyroblast for minions. Kinda like BGH in that sometimes it kills a big card and other times it's just fodder on the board or in your hand.
Shield slam used to remove armor when they first made it and you could use it on enemy hero but it was too powerful with hero attacking and too weak without it so they made it like it is today
Let me change your mind
http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Death_Wish
Way back when this was a card that was closer to your liking, only this card could only ever be used as a finisher, since it left you naked and unlike shield slam it can hit face. I think Shield Slam is perfect the way it is and glad Death Wish is no longer a card
Warlock's Shadowflame hits every minion on the other side of the board. Shield Slam only hits 1.
A discussion within a discussion.
discusseption
I never was apart of a debate team, but you must of been that chess player complaining about the pieces.
Shield Slam itself is not broken, or even close to being overpowered. Everyone felt kinda bummed when your Yeti/Sen'jin etc just got destroyed on turn 4 with Shield Block + Shield Slam combo.
Now, in reality, if you look at Warrior's armor as additional life, Shield Block is broken to hell. However, armor is meant to be used as a resource. Warriors do not have huge board clear spells (aside from Brawl, which has obvious side effects). In that case, Shield Block giving you 5 armor and 1 card draw is perfectly fine, as it is a resource, not life, and the Warrior is bound to spend some of that armor himself, when he starts bashing your minions with his weapons. Plus, Warrior's are designed with armor as a resource, allow me to explain.
Warrior's hero power has no impact on the board, or on the enemy champion. Also, you might argue that Rogues don't have it fair against Warriors because they use their weapons to bash stuff as well. Not quite. Warriors do not have good removal spells for the early game. All Warriors want to use Slam to get that extra card, Whirlwind to potentially finish off some minion with 1hp, pop a divine shield or put a minion in danger of being executed, etc etc, while Rogues have a lot of early cheap removal spells. That's the trade off.
Bottom line: Shield Slam is not broken or overpowered because it uses a resource which you can remove and the Warrior uses a lot of mana to get his resource up to harmful levels. As someone in this thread previously mentioned, you haven't seen when Warriors have that Shield Slam in the hand but just can't use it because 2 damage is not worth it.
Hope that cleared it for you.