Hearthpwn

They literally reprinted a shitty version of Humility...

What a massive letdown for a "Scheme" card.

That makes no sense, Raza Priest was an expensive deck too.  Required at minimum four legendaries: Raza, Kazakus, Prophet Velen, Shadowreaper.  The most competitive builds also had Bloodmage Thalnos and Alexstrasza, so you're talking about a deck that usually costed well over 10000 dust.  Nerfing Raza completely gutted both the card and the entire deck, so your point is moot.

Quote from SneezingMeerkat >>

I still don't know why they didn't just nerf Raza the Chained so that it discounts your current hero power or something like that. It would mean that you'd need to play Shadowreaper Anduin first in order to get the discount, giving your opponent more time to either kill you or set up an answer.

It honestly feels like they just took the easy way out. I also honestly don't know how they nerf Raza so hard, but Jade druid is still the cancer of Wild. Damn Druid be the Cancer in both Wild and Standard, really feels like Blizzard should take a look at that.

 Agree completely.  I think that would've been so much more of a fair nerf that addresses the actual problem: dealing damage for free.  Being able to heal for 0 Mana wasn't strong at all, but Blizzard was just lazy and decided to gut the card completely.  Anyone who thinks changing the cost from 0 - 1 was just a slight fair nerf has never tried playing Raza.

One thing that bothers me the most about the way Blizzard balances their game is how they fail to follow their own logic when nerfing certain cards and ignoring others. They take issue with certain cards, making it seem like they have a proper agenda for why they change things a certain way...and then ignore it altogether in following expansions.

One example is how Blizzard handled Raza the Chained. Prior to Shadowreaper Anduin, Raza was a highly niche card that was fun but never oppressive. Instead of nerfing the card that enabled dangerous combos (Shadowreaper's Hero Power), they completely murdered Raza the Chained to a point where it's no longer used in any format. They completely erased an entire deck from Standard, and butchered Raza over the belief that it "might enable broken, uninteractive combos in the future."

In that sense, I am completely baffled as to why Aviana + Kun has been kept the same, and not even talked about as nerf candidates at all. The existence of those two cards enable so much unbelievable bull!@#$ in Wild, that the current top five played cards in Wild are ALL DRUID CARDS. Add in the most broken tutoring card ever printed in any card game ever (Juicy Psychmelon), and you have a Wild meta that makes the Midrange Shaman era of old look balanced. 

Why is Aviana + Kun okay, but Raza + Shadowreaper wasn't? Druid has such an obscene amount of ramp, draw, and stall that it just begs the question: why do certain cards get absolutely guttered, while other culprits of the same crime get completely ignored? I know it's difficult because it's Blizzard we're talking about, but is it that difficult to be consistent with your reasoning?

Quote from GrumpyMonkie >>

After the insufferable  annoying shit that was Raza Priest they very well damn deserve to be in shit for a few expansions at least.

Priest was Tier 1 for an expansion and a half and has been garbage for the rest of the game's history.  If you're going to complain about that one period, be objective with other classes as well.

We're supposed to get excited about a mech-themed expansion, and yet it feels like Priest got completely left off the bus.

Our only Mech is a 2/1 Deathrattle that is only situationally better than Loot Hoarder.

Every class got a "Project" card, Priest got none.

Cloning Device, Topsy Turvy, Test Subject, Extra Arms, Power Word: Duplicate, Zerek's Cloning Gallery, and Zerek, Master Cloner are all garbage-tier cards that will be forgotten in a week.

Reckless Experimenter is the only cool card we received...and yet there is no card in the entire set that synergizes with it.

Why are Priests never allowed to have draw? We are STILL reliant on cards like Northshire Cleric.

Why are Priests never allowed to have a solid win condition? The last time we did was Raza, and that got rightfully nerfed, but it would be nice to have a wincon that wasn't Divine Spirit+Inner Fire.

All the while, Druid's "worst" card is a 6-mana Cenarius you can run two copies of.

No, as a Priest player it's upsetting to see garbage yet again.  We were dominant for maybe 2 expansions in the history of the game, every other expansion has been hot garbage.

I just don't understand.  Why can't Priest get solid cards that don't require combos?  Test Subject is utter trash.  Extra Arms is utter trash.  We get Reckless Experimenter, which is awesome...and then no cards that synergize with it.  We get NO board clears.  We get NO card draw.  We get NO mechs in a MECH-themed expansion.  We get the worst legendary spell and the worst legendary minion.  

Meanwhile, Druid's "worst card" is a 6-mana Cenarius.  

Quote from Bardoca >>

Dude mage really? Did you even saw what warlock got heh .

 ?? Warlock got amazing cards for Zoo, and they're already a Tier 1 class, quit being spoiled.

Priest easily got the worst cards in the expansion, got a bunch of random cards that don't synergize with anything.  Who the hell is going to play a 1-mana 0/2?  Or a 3-mana 2/2 buff?  We got Reckless Experimenter and nothing to go with it, not to mention not a single mech either in a MECH expansion.  Team 5 has absolutely no idea what they're doing with Priest.

What is with everything being random this expansion?  

I think one of the main reasons why historically, Druid feels unfun to play against is because their class identity of "Choose One" is just not balanced, relative to the themes of other classes. I feel that Blizzard severely underestimates just how powerful flexibility is in a card game. The current meta is a testament to this.

It makes sense for class cards to be stronger than neutral cards. But when cards are flexible, there has to be a trade-off in raw power. Cards should not be both flexible AND the same or stronger than a vanilla variant.

Take for example, a card that isn't in the meta now, but back in the days of Combo Druid, a card that would've been an auto-include in every other class: Druid of the Claw.

It was a 5-mana Beast that could defend or attack but lost no stats in exchange for that powerful flexibility. A 5-mana 4/6 Taunt is vanilla, but having the option to also be an overstatted 5-mana 4/4 Charge minion if need be blew every other 5-drop out of the water. The only other minion that came close was Doomguard, and it has a very distinct drawback.

Fast forwarding to the current meta, it seems that Blizzard is still underestimating the value of flexibility, and it results in cards that make no sense balance-wise.  

Things like Jade Idol would be 2 or 3 mana in any other class.

Feral Rage should be 3 attack or 7 armor, not 4 and 8.

Druid of the Swarm should not be the best 2-mana Taunt in the game on top of being a pseudo-Gastropod.

Nourish and Wrath are old cards, but their flexibility without taking a hit in power level is something that other classes can only dream of.

To clarify again, it's not so much the flexibility itself that is the problem. It's the fact that for some reason, Druid cards lose no raw power in exchange for that flexibility.  When I play as a Hunter against a Druid, there's absolutely nothing that Hunter has an edge over besides the existence of Savannah Highmane.  It leads to other classes feeling inadequate and unfinished, while one class has all options at their fingertips.  If I'm playing a class, and then I get matched up with a class that has a more flexible version of my card, what motivation is there to stay?  Just play Druid!

Unfortunately, I highly doubt Blizzard would give any thought to this, but I truly believe the core design philosophy behind Choose One needs to be altered for the better of the game.

I don't know how everyone is feeling, but I'm personally a little scared of how strong the DK Pally Hero Power is going to be.  Paladin has one of, if not, the most stable control decks in the game, so i don't see them having any trouble getting use out of this card.  As bad as Anyfin Can Happen was, this can be just as bad.

I'm actually really worried about how strong token druid is going to be next expansion... There's a ton of strong taunts they're introducing...

The battlecry is horrible...8 mana for mass shadow word death that affects your own board?  Was so hyped for this...it's just not good enough or creative at all.

Quote from Griffin404 >>

Quote from Gamefighter3000 >>

Great card against midrange and control decks, reminds me of a shadowverse card which name i forgot (but it had pretty much the same effect iirc even with taunt)

Also incredibly strong with nzoth.

 Underworld Watchman Khawy. They merged the healing with his deathrattle destruction effect though - it kills the strongest enemy minion and heals you for its attack value. 

Obsidian Statue emphasizes the healing aspect more, hopefully that can justify it's enormous cost.

Control is never the problem, aggro usually is, midrange is rarely the problem, combo occasionally is

FTFY