Wrong nerf for Shaman's.... I like the Tuskarr nerf, but they should have nerfed Thing from Below. Once Thing and the 7/7 are rotated out. Shaman will go back to being garbage....
I feel like this was a bit of an overnerf. Seems in keeping with Blizzard's anti-burst philosophy, though. I've said before and I'll say again, come rotation Shaman will probably return to the dumpster again, lacking solid new cards. The core of essentially every Shaman decks' recent success has boiled down to two key factors, both interconnected. Firstly, Shaman was provided with a strong and effective earlygame suite by LoE and TGT in the form of Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, and Tuskarr Totemic, three cards with simultaneously rehabilitated Overload as a mechanic and filled in the glaring holes in Shaman's earlygame. Secondly, Shaman is now able to efficiently and effectively repopulate the board on the back of this earlygame, through a combination of classic cards (namely Feral Spirit) and Thing from Below (singlehandedly responsible for almost redeeming the Shaman hero power from the garbage bin), as well as Tuskarr once more. Rockbiter Weapon+Doomhammer was powerful on the back of these factors, not really independently. You can see this in the fact that that combo very rarely made the cut prior to Shaman's acquisition of earlygame options. When these cycle out, Shaman would likely be far less capable of supporting this combo moving forward.
"Making changes to Basic cards that show up in every deck will help instigate more variety and help the Standard format succeed in the future."
So they explicitly said they want to nerf the basic set to death in the name of making people buy more packs change. What the fuck srsly, there's strictly no gameplay reason to do that.
Just dumb. Brings the power level below both Deadly Poison and Blessing of Might. It doesn't fix the combo with doomhammer at all, since you can still just play this on turn 6 after Doomhammer on 5. It only hurts Shaman's ability to trade in the early game. While removing that efficiency will hurt the aggressive lists, it will also hurt the control lists. I can't imagine any shaman control lists will be as powerful after this nerf. Very unfortunate, very misguided on Blizzard's part
rockbiter being 1 mana was balanced because it was conditional... you either needed a minion on board, or you had to take face damage. if you had no minions on the board but had a weapon out, you couldn't hit one thing with your equipped weapon and rockbiter something else.
rockbiter was obviously an efficient card, but it was conditional. now its strictly worse than every other "deal 3 damage" card in the game, like frostbolt, quickshot, darkbomb. you'll never see rockbiter for control/removal purposes again, but it will still be a good burst tool with doomhammer. however, you can no longer double rockbiter your al'akir
not a big fan of this nerf, figured changing doomhammer made more sense. the card will still be used in aggro decks for 6 damage, but is dead for removal purposes
This change sucks for non-aggro shaman players. The versatility of the card as efficient early removal and a burst finisher was what made the card great. If they wanted to nerf aggro then they should have nerfed doomhammer or FWF. FWF has gotten more nerf threads than any other card and I would have been happy to see that card nerfed into oblivion. The nerf to this card makes it impossible to use rockbiter for removal AND develop a 1 drop. Shaman more than any other class, plays poorly from behind. I know a lot of people are happy to see any nerf to shaman and want their free wins back like when shaman Tier was synonymous with unplayable decks; but such a drastic nerf to a card in the CORE shaman set is a huge loss. It probably makes Al-Akir unplayable now. Midrange shaman is not dead, but the deck building options have been severely reduced because of this 1 nerf.
This wasn't very effective because the reason this card was so broken was the rockbiter-doomhammer combo. It will still be played - it will just be a bit less insane. I agree that a 3/1 weapon or a minion-only nerf would have been a lot more effective.
This card needed NO change, once again, a shaman card become useless in the long run, of course it will see play right now, while the strong choices are still there, but when rotation happens and shaman lose all it's strong cards, nerfing 1 of the 2 reliable early removals the class had is a decission that make only designers with their hand forced to catter to the vocal player base, instead of doing well tested decissions.
rockbiter was not the problem in shaman. gj blizz.
Wrong nerf for Shaman's.... I like the Tuskarr nerf, but they should have nerfed Thing from Below. Once Thing and the 7/7 are rotated out. Shaman will go back to being garbage....
I feel like this was a bit of an overnerf. Seems in keeping with Blizzard's anti-burst philosophy, though. I've said before and I'll say again, come rotation Shaman will probably return to the dumpster again, lacking solid new cards. The core of essentially every Shaman decks' recent success has boiled down to two key factors, both interconnected. Firstly, Shaman was provided with a strong and effective earlygame suite by LoE and TGT in the form of Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, and Tuskarr Totemic, three cards with simultaneously rehabilitated Overload as a mechanic and filled in the glaring holes in Shaman's earlygame. Secondly, Shaman is now able to efficiently and effectively repopulate the board on the back of this earlygame, through a combination of classic cards (namely Feral Spirit) and Thing from Below (singlehandedly responsible for almost redeeming the Shaman hero power from the garbage bin), as well as Tuskarr once more. Rockbiter Weapon+Doomhammer was powerful on the back of these factors, not really independently. You can see this in the fact that that combo very rarely made the cut prior to Shaman's acquisition of earlygame options. When these cycle out, Shaman would likely be far less capable of supporting this combo moving forward.
"Making changes to Basic cards that show up in every deck will help instigate more variety and help the Standard format succeed in the future."
So they explicitly said they want to nerf the basic set to death in the name of
making people buy more packschange. What the fuck srsly, there's strictly no gameplay reason to do that.Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
They could reverse the mechanic with charge nerf. Example:
Charge - +1 mana cost
Rockbiter Weapon - Cant hit face
But so happy with the nerfs in general. Have fun
It's a start but not enough. I hate this stupid card together with doomhammer. And yes I am victim of that kind of abuse
Greetings traveler.
Should have nerf doomhammer.
Just dumb. Brings the power level below both Deadly Poison and Blessing of Might. It doesn't fix the combo with doomhammer at all, since you can still just play this on turn 6 after Doomhammer on 5. It only hurts Shaman's ability to trade in the early game. While removing that efficiency will hurt the aggressive lists, it will also hurt the control lists. I can't imagine any shaman control lists will be as powerful after this nerf. Very unfortunate, very misguided on Blizzard's part
rockbiter being 1 mana was balanced because it was conditional... you either needed a minion on board, or you had to take face damage. if you had no minions on the board but had a weapon out, you couldn't hit one thing with your equipped weapon and rockbiter something else.
rockbiter was obviously an efficient card, but it was conditional. now its strictly worse than every other "deal 3 damage" card in the game, like frostbolt, quickshot, darkbomb. you'll never see rockbiter for control/removal purposes again, but it will still be a good burst tool with doomhammer. however, you can no longer double rockbiter your al'akir
not a big fan of this nerf, figured changing doomhammer made more sense. the card will still be used in aggro decks for 6 damage, but is dead for removal purposes
dude i can't belive it i love shaman so much but tuskarr and rockbiter nerf :(
wow... thanks blizzard
R.I.P shaman
3.2.1 kill shot
This change sucks for non-aggro shaman players. The versatility of the card as efficient early removal and a burst finisher was what made the card great. If they wanted to nerf aggro then they should have nerfed doomhammer or FWF. FWF has gotten more nerf threads than any other card and I would have been happy to see that card nerfed into oblivion. The nerf to this card makes it impossible to use rockbiter for removal AND develop a 1 drop. Shaman more than any other class, plays poorly from behind. I know a lot of people are happy to see any nerf to shaman and want their free wins back like when shaman Tier was synonymous with unplayable decks; but such a drastic nerf to a card in the CORE shaman set is a huge loss. It probably makes Al-Akir unplayable now. Midrange shaman is not dead, but the deck building options have been severely reduced because of this 1 nerf.
the only way that the card is still playble is change his battlecry to chose a basic totem
3.2.1 kill shot
i think if this card was weapon with 3/1 stats it will be a not bad nerf
3.2.1 kill shot
Legendaries Opened: Tirion Fordring * Ysera * Dreadscale * Malorne * Cenarius * Captain Greenskin * Two fucking Nat, the Darkfisher * The Lich King * Deathwing * Hemet, Jungle Hunter * Malfurion The Pestlent (adv)
Legendaries Crafted: Deathwing, Dragonlord * Alexstrasza * Chillmaw * Kel'Thuzad
Its basically weaker version of deal 3 damage spell. If the card is to be seen in constructed decks then probably only in those running doomhammer.
This wasn't very effective because the reason this card was so broken was the rockbiter-doomhammer combo. It will still be played - it will just be a bit less insane. I agree that a 3/1 weapon or a minion-only nerf would have been a lot more effective.
Rockbiter was also a problem in the whirling zap-o-matic days.
It kind of limits design space in that sense.
The card was fine as is. They should have just made it not combo with doomhammer and that would do the job.
This card needed NO change, once again, a shaman card become useless in the long run, of course it will see play right now, while the strong choices are still there, but when rotation happens and shaman lose all it's strong cards, nerfing 1 of the 2 reliable early removals the class had is a decission that make only designers with their hand forced to catter to the vocal player base, instead of doing well tested decissions.
There is nothing left if you can not has the right to bear your arms - werebear 2016-eternity campaign