Most people on the forums will agree that Hunter is currently the most common class on the ladder. And many, including myself, attribute this to the latest nerf that left Hunter untouched. However, if we look at the latest Vicious Syndicate report (https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-report-118/) we see that the popularity of Hunter actually declined, rather than increased after the latest patch. It's possible that the decline is temporary and the usage will go up (we won't know until the next report), so I may be wrong but this is unlikely because the decline has been a trend for 3 weeks in a row now. It seems like the real reason Hunter usage has spiked is Zul'jin, not the latest nerf to other classes. If this is correct, then we may see a nerf to Zul'jin later this year.
As for why 13.1 made hunters less popular, that's a mystery as well. Perhaps because it made it easier to run Priest on the ladder, perhaps because of OTK Paladin (both of which are unfavorable matchups for most Hunters).
I notice that as the meta leans in favor of one particular class, that class becomes heavily targeted as new deck creations are explored. This change brings about its own meta shift as more powerful decks are discovered in the process. This is my personal opinion on why we see declines in decks shortly after their spikes. One difference I think we will see though is that hunter decks won’t decline as much as we’ve seen in the past because there are so many variations of powerful hunter decks, making the meta harder to create reliable counters.
All that happened is hunter became broken, and then priest became broken because it counters hunter. Hunter has hardly even seen a decline. Paladin is good against both of these classes so it’s also become very popular.
Is this a “healthy meta”? Where over 60% of queues are 3 classes that are battling to be the best? What happened to each class being almost evenly played? It’s just hunter vs priest vs paladin-stone.
The explanation fairly simple. There is a large body of players who don't care what class they play, they just want to play the top deck. Many of them were playing Kingsbane, Druid, and Odd Pally. A lot of them jumped to Hunter because of strong support added by RR, including Zul'jin. As far as a Zul'jin nerf goes, it's quite unlikely. With the loss of Emerald Spellstone and Flanking Strike, Spell Hunter will take a huge hit in survivability, and it is not likely, given the power level of RR, that the new expansion will include cards to replace them. Without the wolves, Zul'jin becomes a 10 mana Call of the Wild, a card that saw significantly less play when raised from 8 to 9. It is, of course, possible they print some new strong hunter spells, but I wouldn't bet on it, especially after what they got last round.
The explanation fairly simple. There is a large body of players who don't care what class they play, they just want to play the top deck. Many of them were playing Kingsbane, Druid, and Odd Pally. A lot of them jumped to Hunter because of strong support added by RR, including Zul'jin. As far as a Zul'jin nerf goes, it's quite unlikely. With the loss of Emerald Spellstone and Flanking Strike, Spell Hunter will take a huge hit in survivability, and it is not likely, given the power level of RR, that the new expansion will include cards to replace them. Without the wolves, Zul'jin becomes a 10 mana Call of the Wild, a card that saw significantly less play when raised from 8 to 9. It is, of course, possible they print some new strong hunter spells, but I wouldn't bet on it, especially after what they got last round.
Yeah, unless they continue the spell hunter thing in the new expansion, I can't see many hunters paying 10 mana for a hyper defensive secrets and deadly shot fest.
If it's not the nerf patch, why should a non-nerf patch change much about the meta?
Click on the daily graph and look at the per day listing. Hunter started it's rise up before the nerfs were even announced. Since the nerfs, they've been on a slow but steady decline. Meanwhile priest is nearly as common as hunter.
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One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
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Most people on the forums will agree that Hunter is currently the most common class on the ladder. And many, including myself, attribute this to the latest nerf that left Hunter untouched. However, if we look at the latest Vicious Syndicate report (https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-report-118/) we see that the popularity of Hunter actually declined, rather than increased after the latest patch. It's possible that the decline is temporary and the usage will go up (we won't know until the next report), so I may be wrong but this is unlikely because the decline has been a trend for 3 weeks in a row now. It seems like the real reason Hunter usage has spiked is Zul'jin, not the latest nerf to other classes. If this is correct, then we may see a nerf to Zul'jin later this year.
As for why 13.1 made hunters less popular, that's a mystery as well. Perhaps because it made it easier to run Priest on the ladder, perhaps because of OTK Paladin (both of which are unfavorable matchups for most Hunters).
I notice that as the meta leans in favor of one particular class, that class becomes heavily targeted as new deck creations are explored. This change brings about its own meta shift as more powerful decks are discovered in the process. This is my personal opinion on why we see declines in decks shortly after their spikes. One difference I think we will see though is that hunter decks won’t decline as much as we’ve seen in the past because there are so many variations of powerful hunter decks, making the meta harder to create reliable counters.
All that happened is hunter became broken, and then priest became broken because it counters hunter. Hunter has hardly even seen a decline. Paladin is good against both of these classes so it’s also become very popular.
Is this a “healthy meta”? Where over 60% of queues are 3 classes that are battling to be the best? What happened to each class being almost evenly played? It’s just hunter vs priest vs paladin-stone.
I wouldn't say paladin is particularly good against control priest.
The explanation fairly simple. There is a large body of players who don't care what class they play, they just want to play the top deck. Many of them were playing Kingsbane, Druid, and Odd Pally. A lot of them jumped to Hunter because of strong support added by RR, including Zul'jin. As far as a Zul'jin nerf goes, it's quite unlikely. With the loss of Emerald Spellstone and Flanking Strike, Spell Hunter will take a huge hit in survivability, and it is not likely, given the power level of RR, that the new expansion will include cards to replace them. Without the wolves, Zul'jin becomes a 10 mana Call of the Wild, a card that saw significantly less play when raised from 8 to 9. It is, of course, possible they print some new strong hunter spells, but I wouldn't bet on it, especially after what they got last round.
Free to try and find a game, dealing cards for sorrow, cards for pain.
Yeah, unless they continue the spell hunter thing in the new expansion, I can't see many hunters paying 10 mana for a hyper defensive secrets and deadly shot fest.
Are we talking about OTK paladin, Even or Odd Paladin here?
Are we talking about nerf patch?
Because now Hunter is still MORE popular than it was pre-nerf, https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-report-114/
Despite the meta adapting to counter it.
If it's not the nerf patch, why should a non-nerf patch change much about the meta?
Click on the daily graph and look at the per day listing. Hunter started it's rise up before the nerfs were even announced. Since the nerfs, they've been on a slow but steady decline. Meanwhile priest is nearly as common as hunter.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.