Hello guys, long time Control Priest player, and this question always pop me up when playing against a Control Warrior where half of the turns I heal myself already at 30 waiting for fatigue. I wanted to know what's your opinion about healing in hearthstone.
In my opinion, healing is poor mechanic. Not bad, but poor. Because to be able to heal you need to be damaged, which means your opponent damaged you in first place with probably a minion, thus they will be able to still damage you again if you don't clear it (my point is that if you waste your resources in healing but not in clearing the minion, the minion will just damage you again). CW succeeds because they are able to control the board, wasting the enemy some turns and gaining extra health in the meantime. In priest's case, priest's want to control the board too but if are already 30 health, you end up doing nothing and pass, giving board advantage but wasting the turn because you can't play anything at all.
Therefore, given this previous reasoning, I wondered how broken would priest be if extra healing to the hero could become armor, so that's why I'm here wanting to know about your thoughts.
As a twist, I thought of a Priest legendary that could do this, which would be more balanced than by default, or even a card that could do it for one turn, although significantly weaker.
pd: Please let's keep out comments about the enrage mechanic and that healing can target minions, thing that warriors can't. I just want to know what do you think about this excess heal.
I don't think they should change the mechanic, but it would be interesting to see the effect attached to a legendary minion. If they change the rules to make the excess healing become armour, then there's a risk that they'd have to change it back one day when Priest gets overpowered. That's why they'll probably never buff any cards or mechanics. Every class is always just one great card away from being the top of the food chain.
Instead of excess heal being made into armor for the hero, I'd rather Hearthstone have a new keyword mechanic for Priest that solves the whole "a minion has to be damaged to get value from heal" thing.
Surge: If this minion is healed beyond full health / healed when already in full health, do the effect. Think of it like an Inspire minion, but there are other ways to activate it beyond the hero power. There are battlecry heals, spell heals, etc. Imagine a board full of Surge minions then Circle of Healing them.
Giving Priest armor not only doesn't make sense, but it stomps all over Warrior's shtick. Or as Asuryan said, something like an effect attached to minions. Something like "Your hero power gives health instead of restoring them", like a mini-Power Word: Shield that can also make your health go beyond 30 (but not in armor).
What if excess Hp became a spell shield that if they overhealed their face they got 1 point of magic defense against an incoming spell. Doesnt effect weapon/minion attacks.
It would make sense generically and give them the ability to do something with their excess healing without being broken because 4 hp heal wouldn't!!! = a 4 hp magic shield.
so if you healed your face, then flashed healed your face twice youd have 3 magic defense
No? While an interesting concept, turning it into armor would be terrible and likely remove the few remnants of Control Warriors still floating about. Something inspired by the Priest's shields such as "if your hero is already at full health, gain a shield equal to the amount healed for X turns".
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Look, I want to tell you something because you're very dear to me. And I hope you understand that it comes from the bottom of my damaged, damaged heart. You are the finest piece of ass I've ever had and I don't care who knows it. I am so glad that I got to roam those hillsides.
The problem with improving hero powers is that it's not supposed to be great. Most of the time it's just something you spend 2-mana on when you have nothing else to do. It's equivalent to 0-cost spells, very small impact.
By giving it stuff like armor or spell shield, you're giving it more value. Forget Warrior vs. Priest, take a look at Mage vs. Druid or Paladin vs. Shaman.
Mage's ping is very versatile. Druid's HP is mostly used as a ping, but you can only do it once (unlike Rogue) and take face damage, only getting 1 armor that is almost always immediately spent. It seems vastly inferior to Mage's, but Druid has the added benefit of slowly gaining armor when you don't use it as ping. It's a negateable advantage, but an advantage nonetheless. Cards also help "improve" Druid's hero power, such as Bite. Again, not like anyone uses that spell, but it does exist.
Shaman's hero power used to suck, and he used to be one of the worst classes in HS. What happened? Synergy cards started popping up. Suddenly the hero power has amazing value thanks to totem decks. This is an example of a solution. Don't buff the hero power, add cards that make it better, because at the end of the day, it's also the most realistic option. You can bet your entire card collection that Blizzard will not buff basic hero powers, ever. But they have – and will – add cards that improve hero power. Just a matter of time.
Sounds about as dumb as allowing control warriors reach 60+ life. I like control warrior, more so then priest especially, but I still think it's obscene that I can gain armor past the 30 health threshold.
It won't happen. Priests can target anything with their heal ability. Warriors can only target themselves with armor up. I do think it's kinda horsecrap though how Priests have the worst Hero Power early in the game in comparison to all other classes. Turn 2 Hero Power pass for Priest does nothing whereas all other Hero Powers do something relevant on turn 2.
Oh please, priest's hero power other than healing hero's health, it can be used on its own minions to do favourable trades and still stick on to the board. With Auchenai Soulpriest, his hero power can be used to hit anything.
It will be too OP if priest can heal into armor up. Period
This would put Priest out of the dumpster and into borderline broken. If people get annoyed at Control Warrior already, just imagine priest can still heal his minions.
You brought up an argument by comparison with warrior, and then you say with post scriptum, let that comparison fall. Well, that's not good argumentation. :P
The fact that warrior's armor cannot go to minions, while priest's heal can, IS EXACTLY the explanation why your idea would be totally broken.
Priest's hero power strength lies in versatility. Warrior hero power can only be compared with hunter, not with priest.
Wasted hero power happens also for rogue, quite often. It is actually a relevant misplay if you hero-power over a better/buffed weapon.
If you wanted it to be balanced in its versatility, while giving extra armor, then it should be +1 hp to target.
Heal cannot be compared to armor, cause you can heal you and your minion, then if priest can go over 30 hp, they become too strong comparing to warrior, that can use their power only for getting armor to themselves, than they can add their armor to their hp.
If you look for a compromise, the extra 30 hp heal become 1 point armor, and if you have justicar 2 point, and obviously this should be working only when using hero power, not other source heal.
It doesn't make sense, and priest is annoying as hell already so dunno why you want priests to be harder to kill.
Are you new to hearthstone or stuck at rank 25 or something? Because if you played this game recently you shouldn't ask why people want to make priest playable.
There is a difference between priest being fun to play against and priest being strong. Priest are very unfun to play against, strong or not. Right now a bunch of priest players are hanging out in casual preying on new experimental decks with the most unfun decklist imaginable. Just removal and steal, remove and steal. Not even using any new cards. It's super annoying even if I do still win most of the time.
So 1. No to this suggestion. The priest hero power is the second best in the game as it is.
and 2. No to good priest cards. Keep them bad forever please.
Lore wise it would fit more with Shaman than with Priest (because of Ancestral Healing/Vigor) but I think something like healing a full heath target gives it +1 health might help a bit.
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Hello guys, long time Control Priest player, and this question always pop me up when playing against a Control Warrior where half of the turns I heal myself already at 30 waiting for fatigue. I wanted to know what's your opinion about healing in hearthstone.
In my opinion, healing is poor mechanic. Not bad, but poor. Because to be able to heal you need to be damaged, which means your opponent damaged you in first place with probably a minion, thus they will be able to still damage you again if you don't clear it (my point is that if you waste your resources in healing but not in clearing the minion, the minion will just damage you again). CW succeeds because they are able to control the board, wasting the enemy some turns and gaining extra health in the meantime. In priest's case, priest's want to control the board too but if are already 30 health, you end up doing nothing and pass, giving board advantage but wasting the turn because you can't play anything at all.
Therefore, given this previous reasoning, I wondered how broken would priest be if extra healing to the hero could become armor, so that's why I'm here wanting to know about your thoughts.
As a twist, I thought of a Priest legendary that could do this, which would be more balanced than by default, or even a card that could do it for one turn, although significantly weaker.
pd: Please let's keep out comments about the enrage mechanic and that healing can target minions, thing that warriors can't. I just want to know what do you think about this excess heal.
I don't think they should change the mechanic, but it would be interesting to see the effect attached to a legendary minion. If they change the rules to make the excess healing become armour, then there's a risk that they'd have to change it back one day when Priest gets overpowered. That's why they'll probably never buff any cards or mechanics. Every class is always just one great card away from being the top of the food chain.
Instead of excess heal being made into armor for the hero, I'd rather Hearthstone have a new keyword mechanic for Priest that solves the whole "a minion has to be damaged to get value from heal" thing.
Surge: If this minion is healed beyond full health / healed when already in full health, do the effect.
Think of it like an Inspire minion, but there are other ways to activate it beyond the hero power. There are battlecry heals, spell heals, etc.
Imagine a board full of Surge minions then Circle of Healing them.
Giving Priest armor not only doesn't make sense, but it stomps all over Warrior's shtick. Or as Asuryan said, something like an effect attached to minions. Something like "Your hero power gives health instead of restoring them", like a mini-Power Word: Shield that can also make your health go beyond 30 (but not in armor).
If you got the coin, the Mercenaries get going. Vote for The Mercenary for CCC #3.
What if excess Hp became a spell shield that if they overhealed their face they got 1 point of magic defense against an incoming spell. Doesnt effect weapon/minion attacks.
It would make sense generically and give them the ability to do something with their excess healing without being broken because 4 hp heal wouldn't!!! = a 4 hp magic shield.
so if you healed your face, then flashed healed your face twice youd have 3 magic defense
It doesn't make sense, and priest is annoying as hell already so dunno why you want priests to be harder to kill.
No? While an interesting concept, turning it into armor would be terrible and likely remove the few remnants of Control Warriors still floating about. Something inspired by the Priest's shields such as "if your hero is already at full health, gain a shield equal to the amount healed for X turns".
Look, I want to tell you something because you're very dear to me. And I hope you understand that it comes from the bottom of my damaged, damaged heart. You are the finest piece of ass I've ever had and I don't care who knows it. I am so glad that I got to roam those hillsides.
The problem with improving hero powers is that it's not supposed to be great. Most of the time it's just something you spend 2-mana on when you have nothing else to do. It's equivalent to 0-cost spells, very small impact.
By giving it stuff like armor or spell shield, you're giving it more value. Forget Warrior vs. Priest, take a look at Mage vs. Druid or Paladin vs. Shaman.
Mage's ping is very versatile. Druid's HP is mostly used as a ping, but you can only do it once (unlike Rogue) and take face damage, only getting 1 armor that is almost always immediately spent. It seems vastly inferior to Mage's, but Druid has the added benefit of slowly gaining armor when you don't use it as ping. It's a negateable advantage, but an advantage nonetheless. Cards also help "improve" Druid's hero power, such as Bite. Again, not like anyone uses that spell, but it does exist.
Shaman's hero power used to suck, and he used to be one of the worst classes in HS. What happened? Synergy cards started popping up. Suddenly the hero power has amazing value thanks to totem decks. This is an example of a solution. Don't buff the hero power, add cards that make it better, because at the end of the day, it's also the most realistic option. You can bet your entire card collection that Blizzard will not buff basic hero powers, ever. But they have – and will – add cards that improve hero power. Just a matter of time.
If you got the coin, the Mercenaries get going. Vote for The Mercenary for CCC #3.
Sounds about as dumb as allowing control warriors reach 60+ life. I like control warrior, more so then priest especially, but I still think it's obscene that I can gain armor past the 30 health threshold.
It won't happen. Priests can target anything with their heal ability. Warriors can only target themselves with armor up. I do think it's kinda horsecrap though how Priests have the worst Hero Power early in the game in comparison to all other classes. Turn 2 Hero Power pass for Priest does nothing whereas all other Hero Powers do something relevant on turn 2.
Oh please, priest's hero power other than healing hero's health, it can be used on its own minions to do favourable trades and still stick on to the board. With Auchenai Soulpriest, his hero power can be used to hit anything.
It will be too OP if priest can heal into armor up. Period
Die, Insect!
This would put Priest out of the dumpster and into borderline broken. If people get annoyed at Control Warrior already, just imagine priest can still heal his minions.
A glorious bundle of salt.
I'd prefer a Priest card that gives your Hero +X health. Like Temple Enforcer's effect that works only on heroes. Can't be silenced of course.
Your friends will abandon you...Your heart will explode...
-C'Thun
You brought up an argument by comparison with warrior, and then you say with post scriptum, let that comparison fall. Well, that's not good argumentation. :P
The fact that warrior's armor cannot go to minions, while priest's heal can, IS EXACTLY the explanation why your idea would be totally broken.
Priest's hero power strength lies in versatility. Warrior hero power can only be compared with hunter, not with priest.
Wasted hero power happens also for rogue, quite often. It is actually a relevant misplay if you hero-power over a better/buffed weapon.
If you wanted it to be balanced in its versatility, while giving extra armor, then it should be +1 hp to target.
Would be the most broken hero in the game
Then the game would break in half.
Heal cannot be compared to armor, cause you can heal you and your minion, then if priest can go over 30 hp, they become too strong comparing to warrior, that can use their power only for getting armor to themselves, than they can add their armor to their hp.
If you look for a compromise, the extra 30 hp heal become 1 point armor, and if you have justicar 2 point, and obviously this should be working only when using hero power, not other source heal.
Imagine if warriors could user their hero power to heal their minions. So basically: No.
Dealing with OTK is not the main problem of priest right now.
I feel much mor frustrated by losing at turn 6-8 against aggro shaman, lock, hunter.
Lore wise it would fit more with Shaman than with Priest (because of Ancestral Healing/Vigor) but I think something like healing a full heath target gives it +1 health might help a bit.