So I heard you guys were thinking Shaman should get some cards, huh? I think so too. I'm not a big Shaman player myself, but I think that this class is one of the most overlooked in Hearthstone at the moment - it doesn't have as much relevance in the meta as the other classes, and it's class-specific card text (Overload) is a hindrance in many situations! So like my Call of the Void warlock class expansion (which you can see Here!), I decided to make a class expansion for the Shaman class as well. Many of the cards presented here won't be final, but I'm hoping I can get your feedback to make them better. So here it is:
Might of Elements
"Totally Totem-y!"
Yes, the banner looks a bit like the Warlock expansion banner. Yes that's intentional. Yes that is a theme with these. Yes I will continue to do that with all the other classes.
New Mechanic: Spell Tribes! Specifically: Element!
This mechanic will be introduced in further detail in due course: Suffice to say, Air, Water, Fire, and Earth are the four elemental 'tribes' that will be added. As you would expect, cards like Lava Shock are Element: Fire spells, cards like Forked Lightning and Windfury are Element: Air, cards like Earth Shock are Element: Earth, and Frost Shock is Element: Water! There will be lots of cards that interact with this mechanic, but for now, stay tuned! I have to do some photoshopping.
For now, here are some cards that don't rely on the new Element: x mechanic, and are instead more useful Shaman cards that Blizzard hasn't introduced yet!
(+basics)
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
More Legendary! cards to come, soon.
CHANGED CARDS:
New Deck Types will also be in the below posts.
ART CREDITS:
Will be done! Takes time to track down some of the art sources. For the most part, I made use of aiDen's spectacular Hearthstone Art Gallery, which you can find in this subforum. A few of these artworks were discovered through Google Images and DeviantArt (Prince Thunderaan from DeviantArt)
So there you have it. As of now, you may notice that there are a lot of Epic cards and not so many Rares and Commons. This may change as I fiddle with the cards, seeing as some of them need to be rebalanced (or possibly reworked altogether). As mentioned above, I will periodically add Legendary cards to this list. Please leave feedback on the cards that I have for now included, but do remember that soon these cards will make more sense as they will be complemented by a new majority of cards that make use of the Element: x mechanic. :) As with my previous expansion, Call of the Void, I'm not necessarily aiming for all these cards to be included, but for Blizzard to take notice of its community and take heed to the contributions it makes. To the next expansion! (after TGT)
This mechanic introduces a kind of tribe system for Shaman spells - spells which are "Thematic" to a specific element are listed as being a spell of that element. For instance, Lava Shock is an Element: Fire card, Earth Shock is an Element: Earth card, Forked Lightning is an Element: Air card, etc. In this way, new card possibilities are open. For instance, Tremor Totem only activates when an Element: Earth card is cast. This means that casting a spell from that Element will not only allow you to achieve the spell's effect, but also activate one or more of your minions.
Fire element cards are damage themed: Lava Shock and Lava Burst are direct damage spells. Cards like Lava Lash give your hero extra attack, etc.
Water element cards are themed around limiting your opponent's damage dealing capabilities, or delaying them. Frost Shock is an example of this, as it Freezes an enemy. Rainstorm reduces the attack of all of your opponent's minions by 1-2 points.
Earth element cards are themed around silencing your opponent's minions, and inconveniencing your opponent in other ways (Disintegrate removes your opponent's armor, for example.
Air element cards are themed around the concept of Windfury, as well as around 'blowing back' your opponent, delaying them not by destroying their minions but by removing them from play (See Wind Shock).
These elements have synergy with Totems and other minions, because whenever you cast an Element spell, there's the potential to also activate a minion's triggered effect.
Really good job mate, Shamans should put their totems down just not to spend their last 2 mana crystals but also create a synergy like yours. It would be great to see such an expansion.
It seems like alot of these cards have overcosted Overloads... I don't think summoning a totem is worth 2 overload nor is destroying 10 armor (its useful against one class... this is worth 2 mana at best). Totemic Recall is like 4 mana to destroy a friendly minion and draw 2-4 cards... not worth an overload 3. Almost every card with overload is over costed. To tell you which overload cards you need to rework it would be easier to tell you which ones not to. Almost every other card with overload besides these 7 should have a lower overload cost.
- Earthen Ring Mechanic - Thrallmar Spirit Caller - Disarm - Bloodfury Axe - Windshock - Exodar Summoner (but should probs be a 2/5) - Air Elemental
Pandaren Transcendent is my favorite card in the set and possibly the entire card in the game. It really speaks to what shamans are going to do, and Im going to steal this design and use it somewhere just warning you.
I realize shaman is designed to have its own special snow flake mechanic in overload and while it doesn't work that way right now, overload is supposed to help shaman, not hinder it. All this might be a joke giving a hypocritical outlook on how broken awful the mechanic is though so my AP Lang teacher would give you hella bonus points for that.
Thanks everyone for the comments. As we speak, the OP is being edited and cards are being changed to reflect what I actuallywanted to do with this expansion: Read the Changelog to see what I mean. Also, I'm editing a lot of spells to include the "Element: x" tag, so that I can reveal the real meat of the cards.
@Zt1mQ: Thanks for the comments. Changelog shows I've changed Disarm, Disintegrate, Lava Lash, etc. to be better spells. Also, I'll explain what Ascendance does soon! (If you look in my other expansion for Warlocks, it's a bit like "Metamorphosis").
@narf444 I agree with you in most cases. I was looking at the balance chart for Overload and got a bit overzealous. Changes will be made!
@floodhorse: Noted! Thunderaan will lose Stealth in future versions.
Why do you add such hilarious overloads to every card? I really appreciate the job you've done, but sadly the only useful card I see here is Transcendant. Rest would pretty much see 0 play.
I'm not a huge Shaman player, but I've been playing decks recently with it, and I've gotten to know it better as a class. I've started removing/nerfing overloads from some cards now, as part of the changelog. :D
Underloader is op stat wise, none other 3-drop in the game has that good stat set and it's not even vanilla, but a minion with actual effect.
Yeah it was. I've nerfed it to 3/3 for 3. Somewhat like Questing Adventurer now, except it doesn't gain stats. Most of the cards in this expansion won't be vanilla seeing as there are already a LOT of vanilla cards in the game. The goal for this expansion (and all others) is 46-50 cards.
You are pretty creative, well done. I know this is a whole new expansion. Unfortunately it wouldn't solve shaman's main problems in the current meta.
I recently stopped playing Shaman. It has one way of drawing cards and it is a totem that gets destroyed immediately. My suggestion is a card that makes you draw cards as many as your overloaded mana crystals. Simple, effective and that is what Shaman needs the most right now. It would also encourage new decks with overload mechanic. Also a couple of early game minions that synergizes with overload effect would be nice. A minion that costs less for each overloaded mana crystal for example. A minion like that would be very helpful because I dont know how many times I had to use lighting storm at turn 3 or 4. It means no piloted shredder at turn 4 or no belcher at 5. Against a face hunter, you dont even stand a chance after that point.
Thanks for the replies everybody! It means a lot. :)
So I've taken your feedback to heart, and as such this update is focused on Overload synergy. There are more than 5 cards in this update!
CARDS ADDED: 22 July 2015
Additions from V1.0.3
See original post for larger artwork
This update also changes some other cards:
Meditative Shaman is now a 4/4
Exodar Summoner is now a 3/5
Prince Thunderaan loses Stealth and -1 Attack
Drek'Thar's flavor is changed completely
So there's that! Changes will be made accordingly in the OP, and card explanations will be added. There'll be more than one update today as there's a lot of hype for the announcement today, and I want to get as many cards out as I can before Blizzard steals my ideas! (lol)
I see where you're coming from with these comments! I'll be sure to remedy some of the cards. For instance, I'm thinking of making Frozen Totem a 1-drop with 4 health instead.
Also Rainstorm: As a thematic thing, maybe I'll make it "reduce the attack of all enemy minions by 2-3". It's also prone to spell damage.
Lava Lash: Did not see that. Ergh. Will remedy.
Tauren Totemcaller will also call upon all of the totems added in this expansion, and some other useful Totems like Mana Tide and Vitality could be summoned as well.
Thrallmar Spiritcaller: Would Deathrattle be better?
Disarm: Agree in some ways, but this expansion (and my other one) adds more weapons to more classes, so I'm thinking it might be better used. Thinking of changing it to "Silence your enemies weapon" which would be an interesting mechanic.
Disintegrate: I guess, but it could find some use in some metas. Also, there's going to be some cards which add specific types of spells to your hand, so you'll get a random assortment of these cards which may be super useful or not so useful in certain situations. (i.e. getting past a mage's pesky ice barrier). Will drop the cost though.
Totemic Recall: Well, seeing as it COULD kill a 1-2 health totem, but it could also kill a 4-6 health totem (see introduced), I think it's a good balance, because you can end up drawing massively, potentially filling your hand. I will consider recosting however.
Bloodfury axe: Think of it as pairing with Southsea Deckhand. If you go second, you Southsea Deckhand, coin, drop this on turn 1 and you have a 7 damage burst.
Meditative Shaman: Well, I gotta tell you that a lot of shaman spells that are used in current meta will be 'Element' type spells in this expansion, so it will end up being more useful then you might think. If this gets Thaurissan'd along with other spells, it can really become beefy (i.e. like Twilight Drake).
I'll make Spirit Link totem a 3-drop with 6 health.
Air elemental: True, I'll drop the health quite a bit.
If you click on the link in my signature for my Warlock expansion pack, it explains in great detail how the "Turns Active" system would be implemented. Although it's not in the game, I'd like to think that making up new mechanics is a great way to get other players/Blizzard thinking about what they might add in future expansions.
Wind Shock: True. I might just drop it, but I feel like there needs to be four "element shock" cards. I'll look into changing the effect.
Exodar Summoner: Ok, I'll do that! :) Sounds like a good idea.
Prince Thunderaan: Was planning to nerf the stealth and health of this but didn't get around to it yet. Will do.
I might make it Deathrattle for Drek'Thar, as that will increase the amount of time it takes to get the benefits of the card.
Argent tournament is coming really soon I can feel it in my bones so here's literally all of the rest of the cards that I made for this expansion + rebalancing of cards that I mentioned above please comment I want to go watch the announcement weeee
UNITY SPELLS: (ADD SPECIFIC ELEMENT CARDS TO YOUR HAND)
LEGENDARY SPELL!:
LEGENDARY OF THE YEAR: THERAZANE!
*Al'Akir the Windlord is now a 3/8 instead of a 3/5.
Changelog (v1.0.4):
Added Skychaser Seer
Added Magnetic Totem
Added Capacitor Totem
Added Water Totem
Added Deluge
Added Air Unity, Water Unity, Fire Unity, Earth Unity
Added Elemental Flow
Added Elemental Overcharge
Added Therazane
Added Tauren Earthmender
Added Chain Heal
Lowered cost of Frozen Totem, improved Health
Thrallmar Spiritcaller adds Feral Spirit to hand instead of summoning a Spirit Wolf
Spirit Link totem has decreased cost, increased health
Magma pulse totem activates at the end of each turn
Tremor Totem has increased health
Air Elemental has nerfed stats, less overload
Exodar summoner now has "Deathrattle: Add a random elemental to your hand. It costs (4) less. 2/5 body instead of 2/4.
Prince Thunderaan nerfed to lose Stealth and stats
Drek'Thar's pet, Wise-Ear, summons on deathrattle, not battlecry
Wind Shock is no longer Sap, can destroy Windfury Harpy in a single swipe
Lava Lash overloads your opponent for 2
Rain Storm buffed to reduce opponent's minions attack by 2-3
Disarm now 'silences' your opponent's weapon. Costs 0.
Disintegrate costs less
Al'Akir buffed to a 3/8 instead of a 3/5 to be more consistent with Air Elemental
Tomorrow I will elaborate on "Ascendance" as a card and the effects it has on your hero.
For now enjoy the card deluge and look forward to Blizzard's coming announcement!
So that was "The Grand Tournament". Coo'. Shaman's getting some love. Not the cards I expected from this expansion, but then again they're going in a completely different mechanical direction. The hero power interaction is nice, but centering an expansion around it seems like it could become tired quickly.
Anyway, I'm not going to give up on this because this is how I feel the Shaman class should be developed in the future. And I also did say that I was talking about the next expansion cycle for these ideas. Obviously I'll have to take into account the new mechanics and cards being introduced for future imaginings (Rogue expansion for example) so there's that. In the meantime, here's an explanation of Ascendance:
So you get two Hero Powers: You can't equip a weapon in this state and you can use both hero powers in one turn. With the new cards that interact with Hero Powers such as Garrison Commander you might be able to cast 4 hero powers in a turn. (2+(1overload)+2+(1overload)+1-(1overload)+1-(1overload)), thus using 6 mana in that turn. You can cast spells and summon creatures - it's basically like a timed Lord Jaraxxus that doesn't change your health and gives you 10 armor. With the new expansion, these cards won't really be balanced against it, so there's that. But for now, Ascendance as a spell gives you the ability to become pretty tanky as a Shaman for two turns. Not only that, it's lore-friendly.
Al'Akir: I guess, but my main point was that he's a bit too similar to Air Elemental otherwise.
Might change Therazane to random Taunt every turn.
Wolf pack: Realize it uses the same art as Bestial Wrath now... Also, I don't want it to be too OP especially seeing as Shaman doesn't really have beasts. More of a niche card.
Magnetic Totem: Well you've always got to have one bad totem to RNG (see Totemic Flood)!
With the situational cards that you can draw from RNG (Disarm, Disintegrate, Lava Shock, Lava Lash, Rainstorm), I reason that the Unity spells are OK... Most of them have overload as well. With disarm, I was more or less looking at Truesilver, Doomhammer, Rogue weapons, Death's Bite etc.
Disintegrate: Cards that are conditionally super strong are somewhat problematic. A card that is completely dead against warlock but is a 1 mana pyrobast against warrior is bad for the game because it tends to create a sort of rock, paper, scissors effect which leaves very little skill play available. I would remove the design completely.
Water/Earth/Fire/Air Unity: arcane intellect, they should probably all overload given that you get an extra card and you'll only use the cards that synergize well with your deck
Rainstorm: As good as a lightning storm against aggro, better against control, I would cost this more than 1, maybe 2 or possibly 1 +overload 2 (for symmetry with lightning storm)
Disarm: A simple conditional effect that works against enough classes that i'm okay with it, seems fine though I don't think I would use it over an ooze or harrison unless I was very deep on earh elemental synergy
Return to the Earth: compare with innervate, it is rarely going to be stronger and cannot be used to play a card ahead of curve, looking at this comparison I would say you should probably allow totems to be sacrificed
Earthen Ring Windstirrer: simple design, though it pulls you in 2 directions sometimes just decent value creatures are okay
Earthen Ring Mechanic: seems unfocused, is this guy totem triba? mech tribal? value aggro like creepers? I would choose to make this either a mech card OR a totem card so you can build a deck that supports that tribe
Skychaser Seer: I definitely like this kind of design though I might reduce the cost to 1, it's pretty hard to make early game value out of this at cost 2 and pretty unimpressive as a late game card, still I like cards that make you work but can have a good payoff
Dwarven Underloader: Love the pun, nice simple effective design
Thrallmar Spiritcaller: Cool design, plays well into board control value shaman archetypes, similar to gnomish inventor but the card draw is very specific and deathrattle not battlecry (which justifies the lower cost)
Tauren Earthmender: Similar review to Spiritcaller, mostly will be compared to gnomish inventor, cost increase seems justified given the potential to get multiple cards
Tauren Totemcaller: TOTEM YETI! good simple design
Capacitor totem: this seems like a good interactive 2 drop for windfury shaman builds
Water totem: I would change to random to be in line with other effects (knife juggler, flmewaker, shadowboxer, etc.)
Grounding totem: interesting design, seem like a good card for control/combo builds
Pandaren Transcendant: I like this design alot, seems very strong but mitigated by the inability to choose which power you get
Shattrath Stormweaver: I might reduce the health a bit, otherwise this could get VERY hard to kill and generate a ton of lighting bolt value, 4 health to die to yeti or 5 health if you want it not to, just remember that yeti is the "average" 4 drop and cards which just beat yeti are VERY strong
Darkspear Mystic: The unlock effect is really interesting on a deathrattle because both players get to play around it, both more powerful and more interactive. It trades with yeti so it's okay for a 4/5 drop. Balance is good.
Frozen Totem: I like the flavor of it being permanently frozen but given the totem tribal theme that shaman runs I think the 0 attack is enoughto keep it from being a strong agressive play. I also like the design, very much a control card not an aggro card (it does freeze your own creatures sometimes if i'm reading it right). I'm not sure if 5 health is right though, taking 3 attacks from the average agressive 1 drop might be too strong. I would think it should have 4 health (it still really shouldn't die to the average 2 mana 3/2).
Bloodfury Axe: A good clean design which showcases the overload mechanic. I approve.
Totemic recall: Shaman's variant on arcane intellect. I think given that you hvae to destroy a totem you can drop the overload.
Meditative Shaman: given the versatility of the element spells this might be too strong. On the other hand, it ends up losing to yeti without a spell and better than yeti with a spell so maybe it's fine as is.
Ragetotem Shaman: Creates interesting sequencing and gameplay. A good effect for overload decks. As always, the yeti metric says this card is okay for a 4/5 drop.
Surging axe: Very cool design. Might have too much durability, I would drop to 3.
Eruption: Excellent simple design for the overload deck. Leave as is.
Shamanic intellect: Lots of setup lots of payoff. Not an instant include but when it works it works really well. Leave exactly as is.
Lava Lash: 1 mana for 2 damage seems strong. 3 mana for disrupting your opponent's turn also seems good. I pretty much always want to pay this on turn 3, even if you're not killing something. I think this probably needs to cost 4 at least (2 mana for 2 damage seems fair and disrupting on turn 4 not turn 3 is less devastating).
Magnetic totem: Seems fine, Spider tank but costs more for the lategame potential, could go up to a 0/5 for 5 which would be less dangerous lategame while maintaining a similar power lvel midgame
Spirit link totem: How does this work? Does everything end up with the same health? where does extra health go? can things go beyond their maximum? The design coud be interesting but I really don't know what it does
Magma Pulse totem: 3 mana is about what this should cost, more expensive than arcane explosion but less expensive then the actual board wipes. I like the design. (give it the totem tag though)
Tremor Totem: This asks alot of you for a very conditional effect. I would make it cost 2 or maybe even 1 (and lower the health to 4)
Totemic Flood: I love this effect, you'd have to go deep on the totem buff strategy to run this but it is a super cool effect even if it's not strong. Given how many totems have 0 attack I might suggest making this cost less than 9 (6+3 overload) maybe 5+ 2 overload? Otherwise it compare very poorly with onyxia.
Grace of air: Variant on bloodlust, I like it a lot, cost feels about right.
Air elemental: Seems like a good clean shaman design, given your change to alakir I think this is okay but the use case will be identical to alakir (combo finish) so it will push him out unless he has less attack. Maybe make it a 2/5 for 4+2 overload?
Ascendance: I would prefer cutting the armor, making the transformation permanent, and upping the strength of lava beam. Spending a turn and 9 mana on a temporary buff seems weak and armor, though functional, isn't incredibly exciting. Go big on this spell.
Wind Shock: Not sure what this is supposed to be for, stopping a charge combo after it's done its damage? I don't mind it being around but I don't expect it to be played. Not a problem card but also not interesting.
Exodar Summoner: Cool effect. Unstable elemental portal. Seems fine to me. I don't know the elementals well enough to know how strong the deathrattle is.
Wolf Pack: Does this permanently buff spirit wolves? Ones that are in play or will be played later? Both? The syntax is confusing. The cost seems low though, given that defender of argus gives +1/+1 to 2 targets and this will often give +2/+2 to two targets and act as a removal spell. Given that youll still want to cast this with a feral spirit I would increase the overload rather than increase the base cost. I would also get rid of the attack increase and use that to reduce the base cost. The final card I would go for is 2 mana + overload 2, give spirit wolves +2/+2. That way you have a turn 5 play of two 4/5 taunts and 4 overloaded crystals.
Lightning Shield: Interesting idea, 4 mana seems about right for this effect (compare to hellfire), really gives up the early game losing turns 2 and 3 but in exchange your opponent has high risk going face early game. This might be too strong too early though, I would be comfortable at 3 mana overload 2 or 4 mana overload 1.
Elemental overcharge: very big, very flashy, might be too strong. Draw 10 is terrifying even if it's only spells and even if it's 8 mana.
Prince Thunderran and Thunderfury: Thunderaan is a simple design, thunderfury is awesome. Keep this as is. I love this card
Drekthar and Wise Ear and Doomhammer: This feels like cairne glued to a doomhammer for 8, seems fine given how much work it takes but a 4/5 with no immediate effect when played seems weak on turn 8, maybe make it a 6/5?
Akama: solid finisher for the overload deck, also acceptable as a midgame play, I like the design, can be super powerful but takes a ton of support.
Chain Heal: ALL THE HEALS! I like it. Heal cards are often overcosted but this seems fine.
Therazane: This is an incredibly cool effect. Definitely feels right for an earth elemental card. Slow, defensive, builds big. Also works very well with totems. The cost seems right, double the cost of defender and a third cost added the next turn, but neigh unkillable. Really makes me want to play control shaman. Keep this card exactly as is. It's okay if it's strong in some matchups, it's a 7 drop.
I think that Darkspear Mystic is a really cool card. Probably one of my favorite in the set. Although it looks really under powered since a lot of the time the Deathrattle just does nothing. I think it could reasonably be a 4 mana 3/6 like Water Elemental. Water Elemental also has a really strong effect but the difference with this one is its conditional.
So I heard you guys were thinking Shaman should get some cards, huh? I think so too. I'm not a big Shaman player myself, but I think that this class is one of the most overlooked in Hearthstone at the moment - it doesn't have as much relevance in the meta as the other classes, and it's class-specific card text (Overload) is a hindrance in many situations! So like my Call of the Void warlock class expansion (which you can see Here!), I decided to make a class expansion for the Shaman class as well. Many of the cards presented here won't be final, but I'm hoping I can get your feedback to make them better. So here it is:
Might of Elements
"Totally Totem-y!"
Yes, the banner looks a bit like the Warlock expansion banner. Yes that's intentional. Yes that is a theme with these. Yes I will continue to do that with all the other classes.
New Mechanic: Spell Tribes! Specifically: Element!
This mechanic will be introduced in further detail in due course: Suffice to say, Air, Water, Fire, and Earth are the four elemental 'tribes' that will be added. As you would expect, cards like Lava Shock are Element: Fire spells, cards like Forked Lightning and Windfury are Element: Air, cards like Earth Shock are Element: Earth, and Frost Shock is Element: Water! There will be lots of cards that interact with this mechanic, but for now, stay tuned! I have to do some photoshopping.
For now, here are some cards that don't rely on the new Element: x mechanic, and are instead more useful Shaman cards that Blizzard hasn't introduced yet!
(+basics)
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
More Legendary! cards to come, soon.
CHANGED CARDS:
New Deck Types will also be in the below posts.
ART CREDITS:
Will be done! Takes time to track down some of the art sources. For the most part, I made use of aiDen's spectacular Hearthstone Art Gallery, which you can find in this subforum. A few of these artworks were discovered through Google Images and DeviantArt (Prince Thunderaan from DeviantArt)
So there you have it. As of now, you may notice that there are a lot of Epic cards and not so many Rares and Commons. This may change as I fiddle with the cards, seeing as some of them need to be rebalanced (or possibly reworked altogether). As mentioned above, I will periodically add Legendary cards to this list. Please leave feedback on the cards that I have for now included, but do remember that soon these cards will make more sense as they will be complemented by a new majority of cards that make use of the Element: x mechanic. :) As with my previous expansion, Call of the Void, I'm not necessarily aiming for all these cards to be included, but for Blizzard to take notice of its community and take heed to the contributions it makes. To the next expansion! (after TGT)
Thanks for reading!
~ Teknician
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
Changelog:
Version 1.0: (July 21 2015)
Version 1.0.1: (July 21 2015)
Version 1.0.2: (July 21 2015)
Common Card Explanations:
Rare Card Explanations:
Epic Card Explanations:
Legendary Card Explanations:
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
New Card Mechanics:
Element: x
This mechanic introduces a kind of tribe system for Shaman spells - spells which are "Thematic" to a specific element are listed as being a spell of that element. For instance, Lava Shock is an Element: Fire card, Earth Shock is an Element: Earth card, Forked Lightning is an Element: Air card, etc. In this way, new card possibilities are open. For instance, Tremor Totem only activates when an Element: Earth card is cast. This means that casting a spell from that Element will not only allow you to achieve the spell's effect, but also activate one or more of your minions.
Fire element cards are damage themed: Lava Shock and Lava Burst are direct damage spells. Cards like Lava Lash give your hero extra attack, etc.
Water element cards are themed around limiting your opponent's damage dealing capabilities, or delaying them. Frost Shock is an example of this, as it Freezes an enemy. Rainstorm reduces the attack of all of your opponent's minions by 1-2 points.
Earth element cards are themed around silencing your opponent's minions, and inconveniencing your opponent in other ways (Disintegrate removes your opponent's armor, for example.
Air element cards are themed around the concept of Windfury, as well as around 'blowing back' your opponent, delaying them not by destroying their minions but by removing them from play (See Wind Shock).
These elements have synergy with Totems and other minions, because whenever you cast an Element spell, there's the potential to also activate a minion's triggered effect.
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
Reserved for miscellany and New Deck Types.
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
Really good job mate, Shamans should put their totems down just not to spend their last 2 mana crystals but also create a synergy like yours. It would be great to see such an expansion.
Good job)
but need to fix some issues:
Lava Lash text - gain +4 attack. if you didn't mean "this turn only" completely OP )
Disentegrate has violet gem inside, but it must be rare?) however dead card, or will be used in tournaments only for war/freezemage matchup.
Ascendance - can't understand, what this card does.
Wind shock - not creative( sap, and thats all?(
Totemic flood best card ever ofc)
Heroes never die.
It seems like alot of these cards have overcosted Overloads... I don't think summoning a totem is worth 2 overload nor is destroying 10 armor (its useful against one class... this is worth 2 mana at best). Totemic Recall is like 4 mana to destroy a friendly minion and draw 2-4 cards... not worth an overload 3. Almost every card with overload is over costed. To tell you which overload cards you need to rework it would be easier to tell you which ones not to. Almost every other card with overload besides these 7 should have a lower overload cost.
- Earthen Ring Mechanic
- Thrallmar Spirit Caller
- Disarm
- Bloodfury Axe
- Windshock
- Exodar Summoner (but should probs be a 2/5)
- Air Elemental
Pandaren Transcendent is my favorite card in the set and possibly the entire card in the game. It really speaks to what shamans are going to do, and Im going to steal this design and use it somewhere just warning you.
I realize shaman is designed to have its own special snow flake mechanic in overload and while it doesn't work that way right now, overload is supposed to help shaman, not hinder it. All this might be a joke giving a hypocritical outlook on how broken awful the mechanic is though so my AP Lang teacher would give you hella bonus points for that.
I Designed A Card This Week
Thanks everyone for the comments. As we speak, the OP is being edited and cards are being changed to reflect what I actually wanted to do with this expansion: Read the Changelog to see what I mean. Also, I'm editing a lot of spells to include the "Element: x" tag, so that I can reveal the real meat of the cards.
@Zt1mQ: Thanks for the comments. Changelog shows I've changed Disarm, Disintegrate, Lava Lash, etc. to be better spells. Also, I'll explain what Ascendance does soon! (If you look in my other expansion for Warlocks, it's a bit like "Metamorphosis").
@narf444 I agree with you in most cases. I was looking at the balance chart for Overload and got a bit overzealous. Changes will be made!
@floodhorse: Noted! Thunderaan will lose Stealth in future versions.
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CARDS ADDED: 21 July 2015
Additions from V1.0.1
See original post for larger artwork
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I'm not a huge Shaman player, but I've been playing decks recently with it, and I've gotten to know it better as a class. I've started removing/nerfing overloads from some cards now, as part of the changelog. :D
Thanks for catching that! Changed.
Yeah it was. I've nerfed it to 3/3 for 3. Somewhat like Questing Adventurer now, except it doesn't gain stats. Most of the cards in this expansion won't be vanilla seeing as there are already a LOT of vanilla cards in the game. The goal for this expansion (and all others) is 46-50 cards.
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You are pretty creative, well done. I know this is a whole new expansion. Unfortunately it wouldn't solve shaman's main problems in the current meta.
I recently stopped playing Shaman. It has one way of drawing cards and it is a totem that gets destroyed immediately. My suggestion is a card that makes you draw cards as many as your overloaded mana crystals. Simple, effective and that is what Shaman needs the most right now. It would also encourage new decks with overload mechanic. Also a couple of early game minions that synergizes with overload effect would be nice. A minion that costs less for each overloaded mana crystal for example. A minion like that would be very helpful because I dont know how many times I had to use lighting storm at turn 3 or 4. It means no piloted shredder at turn 4 or no belcher at 5. Against a face hunter, you dont even stand a chance after that point.
Thanks for the replies everybody! It means a lot. :)
So I've taken your feedback to heart, and as such this update is focused on Overload synergy. There are more than 5 cards in this update!
CARDS ADDED: 22 July 2015
Additions from V1.0.3
See original post for larger artwork
This update also changes some other cards:
So there's that! Changes will be made accordingly in the OP, and card explanations will be added. There'll be more than one update today as there's a lot of hype for the announcement today, and I want to get as many cards out as I can before Blizzard steals my ideas! (lol)
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To be honest, I wouldnt play rainstorm even for 0 mana and without the overload. It is just a bad card.
''With great power comes great electricity bill.''
''I am Malganis. I am a TURTLE!''
Best card: Malygos
I see where you're coming from with these comments! I'll be sure to remedy some of the cards. For instance, I'm thinking of making Frozen Totem a 1-drop with 4 health instead.
Also Rainstorm: As a thematic thing, maybe I'll make it "reduce the attack of all enemy minions by 2-3". It's also prone to spell damage.
Lava Lash: Did not see that. Ergh. Will remedy.
Tauren Totemcaller will also call upon all of the totems added in this expansion, and some other useful Totems like Mana Tide and Vitality could be summoned as well.
Thrallmar Spiritcaller: Would Deathrattle be better?
Disarm: Agree in some ways, but this expansion (and my other one) adds more weapons to more classes, so I'm thinking it might be better used. Thinking of changing it to "Silence your enemies weapon" which would be an interesting mechanic.
Disintegrate: I guess, but it could find some use in some metas. Also, there's going to be some cards which add specific types of spells to your hand, so you'll get a random assortment of these cards which may be super useful or not so useful in certain situations. (i.e. getting past a mage's pesky ice barrier). Will drop the cost though.
Totemic Recall: Well, seeing as it COULD kill a 1-2 health totem, but it could also kill a 4-6 health totem (see introduced), I think it's a good balance, because you can end up drawing massively, potentially filling your hand. I will consider recosting however.
Bloodfury axe: Think of it as pairing with Southsea Deckhand. If you go second, you Southsea Deckhand, coin, drop this on turn 1 and you have a 7 damage burst.
Meditative Shaman: Well, I gotta tell you that a lot of shaman spells that are used in current meta will be 'Element' type spells in this expansion, so it will end up being more useful then you might think. If this gets Thaurissan'd along with other spells, it can really become beefy (i.e. like Twilight Drake).
I'll make Spirit Link totem a 3-drop with 6 health.
Tremor Totem should probably have 4 health. Works with spells like Lightning Storm, Crackle, Lightning Bolt, and Forked Lightning btw which are all Shaman staples.
Air elemental: True, I'll drop the health quite a bit.
If you click on the link in my signature for my Warlock expansion pack, it explains in great detail how the "Turns Active" system would be implemented. Although it's not in the game, I'd like to think that making up new mechanics is a great way to get other players/Blizzard thinking about what they might add in future expansions.
Wind Shock: True. I might just drop it, but I feel like there needs to be four "element shock" cards. I'll look into changing the effect.
Exodar Summoner: Ok, I'll do that! :) Sounds like a good idea.
Prince Thunderaan: Was planning to nerf the stealth and health of this but didn't get around to it yet. Will do.
I might make it Deathrattle for Drek'Thar, as that will increase the amount of time it takes to get the benefits of the card.
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NEW CARDS ADDED: July 22 2015
The "inb4 Argent Tournament" Update, V1.0.4
Argent tournament is coming really soon I can feel it in my bones so here's literally all of the rest of the cards that I made for this expansion + rebalancing of cards that I mentioned above please comment I want to go watch the announcement weeee
UNITY SPELLS: (ADD SPECIFIC ELEMENT CARDS TO YOUR HAND)
LEGENDARY SPELL!:
LEGENDARY OF THE YEAR: THERAZANE!
*Al'Akir the Windlord is now a 3/8 instead of a 3/5.
Changelog (v1.0.4):
Tomorrow I will elaborate on "Ascendance" as a card and the effects it has on your hero.
For now enjoy the card deluge and look forward to Blizzard's coming announcement!
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So that was "The Grand Tournament". Coo'. Shaman's getting some love. Not the cards I expected from this expansion, but then again they're going in a completely different mechanical direction. The hero power interaction is nice, but centering an expansion around it seems like it could become tired quickly.
Anyway, I'm not going to give up on this because this is how I feel the Shaman class should be developed in the future. And I also did say that I was talking about the next expansion cycle for these ideas. Obviously I'll have to take into account the new mechanics and cards being introduced for future imaginings (Rogue expansion for example) so there's that. In the meantime, here's an explanation of Ascendance:
So you get two Hero Powers: You can't equip a weapon in this state and you can use both hero powers in one turn. With the new cards that interact with Hero Powers such as Garrison Commander you might be able to cast 4 hero powers in a turn. (2+(1overload)+2+(1overload)+1-(1overload)+1-(1overload)), thus using 6 mana in that turn. You can cast spells and summon creatures - it's basically like a timed Lord Jaraxxus that doesn't change your health and gives you 10 armor. With the new expansion, these cards won't really be balanced against it, so there's that. But for now, Ascendance as a spell gives you the ability to become pretty tanky as a Shaman for two turns. Not only that, it's lore-friendly.
Please leave feedback!
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Al'Akir: I guess, but my main point was that he's a bit too similar to Air Elemental otherwise.
Might change Therazane to random Taunt every turn.
Wolf pack: Realize it uses the same art as Bestial Wrath now... Also, I don't want it to be too OP especially seeing as Shaman doesn't really have beasts. More of a niche card.
Exodar Summoner: Should really clarify: Can give you Fire Elemental, Frost Elemental, Water Elemental, Earth Elemental, Air Elemental.
Surging Axe: Sure, I'll see if 1/3 would do it.
Magnetic Totem: Well you've always got to have one bad totem to RNG (see Totemic Flood)!
With the situational cards that you can draw from RNG (Disarm, Disintegrate, Lava Shock, Lava Lash, Rainstorm), I reason that the Unity spells are OK... Most of them have overload as well. With disarm, I was more or less looking at Truesilver, Doomhammer, Rogue weapons, Death's Bite etc.
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Disintegrate: Cards that are conditionally super strong are somewhat problematic. A card that is completely dead against warlock but is a 1 mana pyrobast against warrior is bad for the game because it tends to create a sort of rock, paper, scissors effect which leaves very little skill play available. I would remove the design completely.
Water/Earth/Fire/Air Unity: arcane intellect, they should probably all overload given that you get an extra card and you'll only use the cards that synergize well with your deck
Rainstorm: As good as a lightning storm against aggro, better against control, I would cost this more than 1, maybe 2 or possibly 1 +overload 2 (for symmetry with lightning storm)
Disarm: A simple conditional effect that works against enough classes that i'm okay with it, seems fine though I don't think I would use it over an ooze or harrison unless I was very deep on earh elemental synergy
Return to the Earth: compare with innervate, it is rarely going to be stronger and cannot be used to play a card ahead of curve, looking at this comparison I would say you should probably allow totems to be sacrificed
Earthen Ring Windstirrer: simple design, though it pulls you in 2 directions sometimes just decent value creatures are okay
Earthen Ring Mechanic: seems unfocused, is this guy totem triba? mech tribal? value aggro like creepers? I would choose to make this either a mech card OR a totem card so you can build a deck that supports that tribe
Skychaser Seer: I definitely like this kind of design though I might reduce the cost to 1, it's pretty hard to make early game value out of this at cost 2 and pretty unimpressive as a late game card, still I like cards that make you work but can have a good payoff
Dwarven Underloader: Love the pun, nice simple effective design
Thrallmar Spiritcaller: Cool design, plays well into board control value shaman archetypes, similar to gnomish inventor but the card draw is very specific and deathrattle not battlecry (which justifies the lower cost)
Tauren Earthmender: Similar review to Spiritcaller, mostly will be compared to gnomish inventor, cost increase seems justified given the potential to get multiple cards
Tauren Totemcaller: TOTEM YETI! good simple design
Capacitor totem: this seems like a good interactive 2 drop for windfury shaman builds
Water totem: I would change to random to be in line with other effects (knife juggler, flmewaker, shadowboxer, etc.)
Grounding totem: interesting design, seem like a good card for control/combo builds
Pandaren Transcendant: I like this design alot, seems very strong but mitigated by the inability to choose which power you get
Shattrath Stormweaver: I might reduce the health a bit, otherwise this could get VERY hard to kill and generate a ton of lighting bolt value, 4 health to die to yeti or 5 health if you want it not to, just remember that yeti is the "average" 4 drop and cards which just beat yeti are VERY strong
Darkspear Mystic: The unlock effect is really interesting on a deathrattle because both players get to play around it, both more powerful and more interactive. It trades with yeti so it's okay for a 4/5 drop. Balance is good.
Frozen Totem: I like the flavor of it being permanently frozen but given the totem tribal theme that shaman runs I think the 0 attack is enoughto keep it from being a strong agressive play. I also like the design, very much a control card not an aggro card (it does freeze your own creatures sometimes if i'm reading it right). I'm not sure if 5 health is right though, taking 3 attacks from the average agressive 1 drop might be too strong. I would think it should have 4 health (it still really shouldn't die to the average 2 mana 3/2).
Bloodfury Axe: A good clean design which showcases the overload mechanic. I approve.
Totemic recall: Shaman's variant on arcane intellect. I think given that you hvae to destroy a totem you can drop the overload.
Meditative Shaman: given the versatility of the element spells this might be too strong. On the other hand, it ends up losing to yeti without a spell and better than yeti with a spell so maybe it's fine as is.
Ragetotem Shaman: Creates interesting sequencing and gameplay. A good effect for overload decks. As always, the yeti metric says this card is okay for a 4/5 drop.
Surging axe: Very cool design. Might have too much durability, I would drop to 3.
Eruption: Excellent simple design for the overload deck. Leave as is.
Shamanic intellect: Lots of setup lots of payoff. Not an instant include but when it works it works really well. Leave exactly as is.
Lava Lash: 1 mana for 2 damage seems strong. 3 mana for disrupting your opponent's turn also seems good. I pretty much always want to pay this on turn 3, even if you're not killing something. I think this probably needs to cost 4 at least (2 mana for 2 damage seems fair and disrupting on turn 4 not turn 3 is less devastating).
Magnetic totem: Seems fine, Spider tank but costs more for the lategame potential, could go up to a 0/5 for 5 which would be less dangerous lategame while maintaining a similar power lvel midgame
Spirit link totem: How does this work? Does everything end up with the same health? where does extra health go? can things go beyond their maximum? The design coud be interesting but I really don't know what it does
Magma Pulse totem: 3 mana is about what this should cost, more expensive than arcane explosion but less expensive then the actual board wipes. I like the design. (give it the totem tag though)
Tremor Totem: This asks alot of you for a very conditional effect. I would make it cost 2 or maybe even 1 (and lower the health to 4)
Totemic Flood: I love this effect, you'd have to go deep on the totem buff strategy to run this but it is a super cool effect even if it's not strong. Given how many totems have 0 attack I might suggest making this cost less than 9 (6+3 overload) maybe 5+ 2 overload? Otherwise it compare very poorly with onyxia.
Grace of air: Variant on bloodlust, I like it a lot, cost feels about right.
Air elemental: Seems like a good clean shaman design, given your change to alakir I think this is okay but the use case will be identical to alakir (combo finish) so it will push him out unless he has less attack. Maybe make it a 2/5 for 4+2 overload?
Ascendance: I would prefer cutting the armor, making the transformation permanent, and upping the strength of lava beam. Spending a turn and 9 mana on a temporary buff seems weak and armor, though functional, isn't incredibly exciting. Go big on this spell.
Wind Shock: Not sure what this is supposed to be for, stopping a charge combo after it's done its damage? I don't mind it being around but I don't expect it to be played. Not a problem card but also not interesting.
Exodar Summoner: Cool effect. Unstable elemental portal. Seems fine to me. I don't know the elementals well enough to know how strong the deathrattle is.
Wolf Pack: Does this permanently buff spirit wolves? Ones that are in play or will be played later? Both? The syntax is confusing. The cost seems low though, given that defender of argus gives +1/+1 to 2 targets and this will often give +2/+2 to two targets and act as a removal spell. Given that youll still want to cast this with a feral spirit I would increase the overload rather than increase the base cost. I would also get rid of the attack increase and use that to reduce the base cost. The final card I would go for is 2 mana + overload 2, give spirit wolves +2/+2. That way you have a turn 5 play of two 4/5 taunts and 4 overloaded crystals.
Lightning Shield: Interesting idea, 4 mana seems about right for this effect (compare to hellfire), really gives up the early game losing turns 2 and 3 but in exchange your opponent has high risk going face early game. This might be too strong too early though, I would be comfortable at 3 mana overload 2 or 4 mana overload 1.
Elemental overcharge: very big, very flashy, might be too strong. Draw 10 is terrifying even if it's only spells and even if it's 8 mana.
Prince Thunderran and Thunderfury: Thunderaan is a simple design, thunderfury is awesome. Keep this as is. I love this card
Drekthar and Wise Ear and Doomhammer: This feels like cairne glued to a doomhammer for 8, seems fine given how much work it takes but a 4/5 with no immediate effect when played seems weak on turn 8, maybe make it a 6/5?
Akama: solid finisher for the overload deck, also acceptable as a midgame play, I like the design, can be super powerful but takes a ton of support.
Chain Heal: ALL THE HEALS! I like it. Heal cards are often overcosted but this seems fine.
Therazane: This is an incredibly cool effect. Definitely feels right for an earth elemental card. Slow, defensive, builds big. Also works very well with totems. The cost seems right, double the cost of defender and a third cost added the next turn, but neigh unkillable. Really makes me want to play control shaman. Keep this card exactly as is. It's okay if it's strong in some matchups, it's a 7 drop.
I think that Darkspear Mystic is a really cool card. Probably one of my favorite in the set. Although it looks really under powered since a lot of the time the Deathrattle just does nothing. I think it could reasonably be a 4 mana 3/6 like Water Elemental. Water Elemental also has a really strong effect but the difference with this one is its conditional.
Darn it. Why Can't I see the flavor text for Prince Thunderaan? I want to laugh my ass of at [Thunderfury, Blessed Sword of the Windseeker] .
Give a man a Murloc, and he'll eat for a day.
Give him a Murloc Knight, and people will hate him.