They nerfed Shaman too hard as most of their problematic cards that allowed them to got for insane turns rotated on April. Just think about it, after the first rounds of nerfs, the cards that allowed Galakrond Shaman to do busted shit were Zentimo, Electra Stormsurge and the biggest offender of all... Shudderwock. Without those 3 cards and with nerfed wolfs and invocation then the deck is kinda hopeless vs almost every single meta deck.
It's kinda funny, when you consider how confident people were that the quest alone would guarantee Shaman a top tier position until it rotates. Turns out that Descent of Dragons was such a strong set that Shaman needed the Galakrond power to keep up with the other classes. But with all the Invoke cards nerfed, the class has no chance. And Demon Hunter didn't help the situation.
I think Shaman is not too weak per se. Contrary to what some people say here, the core set has a bunch of very solid cards. Or let's say, the potential is there, but the quality always depends on how the old cards interact with new expansions. Warrior is currently again at a point where Battle Rage and even Rampage are useful cards, which hasn't been the case in a long time. During Ul'dum and DoD, cards like Cenarius and Starfall were very good in Quest Druid, despite being generally underpowered. Doomhammer (for example) is also a very powerful card, but there's been no support whatsoever, since Rockbiter Weapon was nerfed.
With card draw being a weakness of Shaman (and Paladin and Priest), they need some cards that create significant advantages immediately, not this dilly-dallying with archetypes or pure stat/value cards, that are kinda cool but just not good enough to beat other decks.
Those classes are supposed to compensate the lack of card draw with other mechanics like minion buffs. The Priest overhaul focused much more on a minion-based playstyle, but as expected, people still prefer to stuff their deck with all removal they can get, and try to force a control playstyle, because a minion-based strategy without card draw is just very underwhelming.
Unfortunately, buffs have always been impractical and difficult to utilize. Buff effects are usually too fair, considering that you need a minion to have any use for them, and as soon as you lose board advantage, they can't do much anymore either, which is a problem against classes with lots of removal. In comparison to buffs, draw is almost always useful, especially if it's paired with burst or removal options (which most other classes have in some combination), allowing you to end the game or prolong it further.
I think the strenghts of Shaman (and Paladin, and Priest) need to be re-evaluated and greatly expanded, so they can properly compensate for the weaknesses. I don't want every class to be able to draw 20 cards per match. I'm sick enough of Zephrys already. But I want to see the classes without card draw have tools that are just as powerful, only in a different way.
I love playing shaman, only class I've got the 1000 win portrait with. If totem Shaman is the best we've got to hope for though, it's truly sad times. Evolve is fun and maybe should have been given couple more tools. Evolving into dormant though feels bad man.
Ah, I'd forgotten about Zentimo... One of my favorite cards in the game back when control Shammy was semi-viable. He'd be a lot of fun right now with Serpentshrine Portal, Totemic Reflection, and Explosive Evolution.
It's kinda funny, when you consider how confident people were that the quest alone would guarantee Shaman a top tier position until it rotates. Turns out that Descent of Dragons was such a strong set that Shaman needed the Galakrond power to keep up with the other classes. But with all the Invoke cards nerfed, the class has no chance. And Demon Hunter didn't help the situation.
I think Shaman is not too weak per se. Contrary to what some people say here, the core set has a bunch of very solid cards. Or let's say, the potential is there, but the quality always depends on how the old cards interact with new expansions. Warrior is currently again at a point where Battle Rage and even Rampage are useful cards, which hasn't been the case in a long time. During Ul'dum and DoD, cards like Cenarius and Starfall were very good in Quest Druid, despite being generally underpowered. Doomhammer (for example) is also a very powerful card, but there's been no support whatsoever, since Rockbiter Weapon was nerfed.
With card draw being a weakness of Shaman (and Paladin and Priest), they need some cards that create significant advantages immediately, not this dilly-dallying with archetypes or pure stat/value cards, that are kinda cool but just not good enough to beat other decks.
Those classes are supposed to compensate the lack of card draw with other mechanics like minion buffs. The Priest overhaul focused much more on a minion-based playstyle, but as expected, people still prefer to stuff their deck with all removal they can get, and try to force a control playstyle, because a minion-based strategy without card draw is just very underwhelming.
Unfortunately, buffs have always been impractical and difficult to utilize. Buff effects are usually too fair, considering that you need a minion to have any use for them, and as soon as you lose board advantage, they can't do much anymore either, which is a problem against classes with lots of removal. In comparison to buffs, draw is almost always useful, especially if it's paired with burst or removal options (which most other classes have in some combination), allowing you to end the game or prolong it further.
I think the strenghts of Shaman (and Paladin, and Priest) need to be re-evaluated and greatly expanded, so they can properly compensate for the weaknesses. I don't want every class to be able to draw 20 cards per match. I'm sick enough of Zephrys already. But I want to see the classes without card draw have tools that are just as powerful, only in a different way.
I love playing shaman, only class I've got the 1000 win portrait with. If totem Shaman is the best we've got to hope for though, it's truly sad times. Evolve is fun and maybe should have been given couple more tools. Evolving into dormant though feels bad man.
I've been climbing with a pretty constant winrate with a deck similar to the Control Galakrond Shaman listed on this site...