Hearthpwn

With the introduction to Shieldmaiden Warrior has another possible way to gain armor pretty quick.

Being able to remove almost every minion later on for 1 mana is pretty good. Yes you need armor to make it work but Warrior has a lot of armor generators and usually has no problem with getting enough armor to make Shield Slam work. 

Has Shield Slam become too strong? Or was it all along? 

Maybe its fine and everyone has accepted that their mid/high cost minion dies for 1 mana because its warrior.

Please try to stay constructive as this is no whine thread but an honest interest in your opinion.

I think make it to 2 mana is fair enough

Fine as is.

I'd rather make it remove like half of your armor, than making it cost more.

I think it's fine. The thing is that it can't be used to deal damage to face and is almost a dead card if you're behind on the board and has no quick way to gain armor. Moreover, even in the best scenario it will trade 1-for-1, just leaving the Warrior with a potential Tempo advantage, or even 0.5-for-1 in case of used along with Execute. But the thing is: Warrior didn't get as stronger as Paladin and Priest got. Now we have to worry about crazy combos like Muster for Battle + Quartermaster or Shrinkmeister + Shadow Word: Pain or Shadow Madness or Cabal Shadow Priest that can totally turn your match upside down... and Shieldmaiden or Shield Block + Shield Slam isn't one of those combos. I know that it is off topic but the feeling I have is that Druids, Warlocks(mean the Control part) and Warriors got a bit abandoned in the expansion... Warlocks didn't get a single competitive Control card that doesn't have to do with demons and Warriors just got cards that do what older cards already did but with a slight difference(see Crush compared to Execute and Shieldmaiden compared to Shield Block) and Druids, well... should I Recycle all those epics and rares?

So the idea that shield slam is OP had always been on my mind. However with the expansion of GvG, we were introduced to a new warrior card, Shield Maiden, which synergize extremely well with Shield Slam, making Shield Slam even stronger. Now I can not help but to think Shield Slam is  actually OP, when I was attempted to get top 50 in legend with CW, this card carried the crap outa me. Against aggro, it is at worst a 1 mana for 2 damage which is a good card vs aggro, for control, it's pretty much 1 mana assassinate. I know  that it is a bit situational, it has way too much value and versatility for its mana cost. I understand that the strength of a card is not entirely judged upon its value but rather than how it affects the entire class and CW is about stalling with cheap removals and weapons until the late game, CW is strong but not OP so I don't expect a nerf on Shield Slam. So what are your opinions on this card?

I also think too much of the class power is in this one card, perhaps nerf shield slam to 2 mana and buff another card from warrior

If not every warrior would be control warrior than it wouldn't be that strong. On CW it's kinda crazy but that shield slam is that good is more of a symptom and not the cause. Warrior like to drown in armor and who could judge them?

I think control warrior in general might be nerf worthy (just my feeling, without having the data feelings are not worth much) but not through shield slam. Also I would say execute is much stronger than Shield Slam.

But the thing is, shield slam's synergy with hero power is stackable over the several turns, very different from other class cards and hero power synergy 

Quote from Frankehh »

Quote from Duranoar »

If not every warrior would be control warrior than it wouldn't be that strong. On CW it's kinda crazy but that shield slam is that good is more of a symptom and not the cause. Warrior like to drown in armor and who could judge them?

I think control warrior in general might be nerf worthy (just my feeling, without having the data feelings are not worth much) but not through shield slam. Also I would say execute is much stronger than Shield Slam.

Control Warrior needs to be nerfed?! It is one of the few classes that actually takes a lot of skill and thinking to play, as shown by the fact it is a popular deck in tournaments. It is no where near as rampant or as easy to play as other decks (not saying these decks are OP or bad just easier to play) and actually has serious counters. A nerf to this archetype would be a HUGE loss for Hearthstone as all the Control Warriors would just move onto Handlock/Paladin/Priest and the cycle of OP rants on the forums would continue. We should be happy this isnt like other CCG's where a couple of decks reign supreme, in this Meta there are actually several viable decks and playstyles and this is just one of them and not even the best one, however in my opinion it is the most fun :P

I agree with frank, as someone stated before, CW is the "healthy" type of deck that blizzard endorse, in the current meta it is a strong pick but by no means op, even if it became slightly op, in my opinion, blizzard wouldnt nerf the class because they support the play style. And I rather have CW dominate the meta than some other variant of rush decks.

Ive never understood why Shield Slam does not take damage from the target since it is basically an attack with your shield. Can't imagine that Blizz would ever change it thou.

Quote from TouchedSage »

Ive never understood why Shield Slam does not take damage from the target since it is basically an attack with your shield. Can't imagine that Blizz would ever change it thou.

This is how you fix the card, right here. For 1 mana, this card is essentially another removal in the right deck. I've seen the Sjow CW deck everywhere lately, and this card is part of why it's so strong.

If Blizzard introduced a "Destroy Opponent's Shield" neutral it'd make shield slam much more balanced, even at 1 mana.

Quote from Cyg2112 »

Quote from TouchedSage »

Ive never understood why Shield Slam does not take damage from the target since it is basically an attack with your shield. Can't imagine that Blizz would ever change it thou.

This is how you fix the card, right here. For 1 mana, this card is essentially another removal in the right deck. I've seen the Sjow CW deck everywhere lately, and this card is part of why it's so strong.

If Blizzard introduced a "Destroy Opponent's Shield" neutral it'd make shield slam much more balanced, even at 1 mana.

It's called Charge on minions.

First of I did not claim that it needs nerfing. I said I feel like it could. I'm of the opinion that players can't judge what needs to be nerfed because we don't have the statistics blizzard has. I think adding shield maiden was a mistake from blizzard and that CW didn't need to get any new cards with GvG. But I don't agree with the notion that CW is this magical hard to learn, complicated to play deck. CW does have like any other deck obvious and non obvious plays which you will learn by practice or watching games of other people. I would say that the barrier of entry in CW is higher than with other decks but the skill cap is the same as Zoo or any other deck. 

Probably there is nothing that needs nerf right now. I personally would like to see an increased price on execute and that shield block actually uses up shield since both cards are incredible but any class does need something unfair. 

Blizzard likes to give us vanilla cards that cost X mana and have Y effect.  Those are the balanced cards.

There are other cards, Shield Slam among them, that either cost less or are more beneficial, but have a drawback or a requirement.

Put simply, Shield Slam is something of a "protect your advantage" card.  If you have a lot of armor, it's strong, plus you're probably winning.  If you're in a position where you can't build up armor, it's next to useless, plus you're probably losing.

I don't think nerfing Shield Slam or CW in general would break the game. I mean hunter officially died two times with the nerf of Unleash and Buzzard, the whole community cried how hunter got suddenly unplayable and nobody would ever play hunter again. We all know how the reality looks like. Even if not necessary a nerf of CW would at least be interesting because CW did not really change much since release of HS. I think it would be fun to see a new take on CW but that wont really happen because why change a running system?

That's the position of an outsider who does not play warrior.  

But would it really narrow the decks? Well we probably can only guess, it's also possible that there would be suddenly two new and completely different CW decks spawn because two smart people had different ideas. 

I'll be honest, maybe I just want CW to be changed because most of my decks get the crap beaten out of them by CW so I'm probably not as objective as I think I am. Bottom line is Shield Slam isn't OP, CW is probably not OP but I still get much more excited when I face a non CW warrior deck on ladder because they are kinda cool and fresh.

Shield slam is actually cancer. Since TGT came out, control warrior got some fun new toys that enable it to really extend the game. These cards are bash, and justicar trueheart. Before TGT, Warrior had executes and shield slams as far as really efficient removal spells go. Even at this point in time, shield slam was pretty powerful because of cards like shieldmaiden, shield block, and armor smith. With the introduction of bash, Warrior can deal with aggo more efficiently and gain armor in the process, thus enabling it to save its shield slams for later. Then as the game progresses cards like justicar and shield maiden come out and shield slam literally turns into a 1 mana assassinate. Seems to be a bit much at this point.... What does everyone else think?

I feel like it is definitely a strong card, but I wouldn't say it's cancer. It for sure becomes far stronger late game, but you still have to work up for the armor. If you are fighting an aggro deck, chances are you will be taking a lot of face damage, resulting in less armor. On the other hand, if you are playing against another deck that doesn't do much until the mid/late game, you should be able to stack quite a bit of armor. It really depends on the situation, but that's just how I feel about it.

It is certainly crazy in Control Warrior, but it's no Mysterious Challenger.  I can think of far more annoying cards.