Hearthpwn

Can I raise an issue that most seem to ignore? Anyone who says how easy it is for priest to heal up to 30 ignores the fact that you're the one doing nearly lethal damage to the priest, consistently, multiple times a game. How do you not see this as a problem? Priest heals like crazy because they have to!  They don't have the minion presence to stop you from nuking them in the face! No one, and I mean no one who specializes in Priest prefers to get hit in the face. Preventing the damage is preferable to mitigation, every single time. Since they can't stand up to your superior board by trading, they either clear or heal or both. 

Tldr: Heal bad. But monstrous aggro damage worse. 

Edit for emphasis: you aren't losing to Priest. Priest is SURVIVING YOU. With your damage output, you've killed them three times that match. I get that's annoying. Can't push through that final damage. I hear you. But imagine the Priest position.

A permanent Velen effect would be smart. Kind of eclipses the mage questline, though. Plus the two we've seen aren't tied to any existing card, so...

Priest: Change the Health of 3/4/5 minions with your hero power. Reward: Your hero has no maximum health this game. 

Plays into both classic and shadowform hp's plus solves the problem of having too much healing left in your hand over time. The efficiency of health gain is greater than armor, but severely hindered by the 30 cap. With the cap removed? Hello wincon.

A thought occurred to me a while back about this newest expansion and priest's identity within it.

All it would have taken was a slight change to the wording of the Frenzy keyword and this whole meta would have shifted HEAVILY in favor of midrange and control decks: instead of the first instance of damage, frenzy triggered every time it survived damage, not unlike Overkill from Rastakhan. 

If that were the case, warrior and priest would be the kings of standard instead of in the dumpster. Warrior's self-damage, Priest's ever-present healing. Neutral healing could have risen to popularity, slowing the game and turning the focus to trades instead of face. 

If only. 

That's a LOT of legendaries, guy. 

Rolled into 3 straight no-minion mages. That deck is disgusting. The value, the cost reduction. Plus I was bursted down by freeze effects in all three. 20+ damage for less than 5 mana.

The Quest Rogue issue is more concerned with ultra-tempo / persistent aggro decks in general. If ten different decks, all various types of tempo, were viable at tier 1, the meta would feel stale, sure, but far more balanced. We as a community tend to jump on the hot new thing, both in participation as well as our grievances. Ten people playing ten different, equally strong tempo decks isn't as big a problem as ten people ALL playing quest rogue. Does the entire idea of tempo need a tweak? Does Rogue in particular? Can other, equally strong decks come to the forefront? Blizz needs to answer this quick or face an embarrassing 4th rework to the card. 

I would have adored that in priest. Jank or not, it would be fun!

Silence / copy Priest buildaround?

An embarrassment of riches. DH can't lose. 

Thank you. Exactly my thoughts. This IS a priest card. I genuinely don't understand the distribution of quality cards this expansion, especially where new directions and archetypes are concerned. One class would KILL for this, while the one that got it couldn't fit it into their 2-4 meta-adjacent decks. Come on, blizz. 

What's the rationale behind putting a period after Taunt? Lightshower Elemental doesn't have it. Translation? 

Only on or after turn 10. How are you going to call this an effective aoe if it's only 3 damage that late?

It'll be cool if the priest mercenary is like "battlecry: cast all holy spells you played this game" as a build-around, liadrin style. 

3 damage isn't a clear on turn 10. Without HEAVY holy support, this card is useless.