I believe it's a bug that came with the latest patch. I just tried some games of casual for the Nozdormu quest but it didn't progress, but in previous months I could complete it in casual without any issues.
During an AMA on Twitter back in February, Iksar said that he believes deckbuilding shouldn't be a core part of the Hearthstone experience. Guess they are achieving that goal.
Perpetual Flame is fine. The main reason nobody puts it in their decks is the fact that it is a Fire spell. Right now Shamans only main deck Nature Spells for the synergy with Primal Dungeoneer. Making Perpetual Flame 0 mana would somewhat make it worse because it could no longer be generated by Wandmaker.
One of Shaman's class identity weaknesses is draw, so when they get some draw it's conditional. But in this case it's not bad, since Shaman has good nature spells (examples: Bolt, Tidal Surge, Portal) and Elementals that you can run outside of an Elemental-focused deck (examples: Cagematch Custodian, Earth Revenant, Al'Akir).
Tidal Wave > down to 7 mana? Maybe a bit too busted but it is way to slow at the moment.
Vashj Prime > down to 6 mana. You want to have more impact on the turn you play her.
Mana Tide as a 3 mana 0/4 would still be slow, imo. The mana cost is more important here because you can play it earlier and/or you can combine it more easily with Totemic Reflection. 2 mana 0/3 or even 0/2 would be fine.
Tidal Wave is fine at 8 mana. The problem is that Shaman doesn't an efficient early to midgame healing tool. Instead of buffing Tidal Wave, I'd suggest buffing Tidal Surge to 3 mana.
Shaman will most likely get buffed in the upcoming balance changes. Book of Heroes Thrall comes out next month and selling a Shaman pack bundle when the class is borderline unplayable in standard is not a good idea.
Shaman, after the nerfs hit, needs more experimentation. However, deckbuilders/streamers stay away from the class because it's not fun or entertaining to be in top deck mode in most of the games. Maybe the miniset gives us some card draw that isn't a caravan.
The Shaman portraits also seem to be bugged: I selected Earthfury Thrall (the lvl 50/100 Shaman portrait) for a deck but when the match started it displayed King Rastakhan.
0
As a workaround, if you don't want to complete quests in ranked, go to casual duels. Quests still work there. I completed my Nozdormu quest there.
0
I believe it's a bug that came with the latest patch. I just tried some games of casual for the Nozdormu quest but it didn't progress, but in previous months I could complete it in casual without any issues.
1
During an AMA on Twitter back in February, Iksar said that he believes deckbuilding shouldn't be a core part of the Hearthstone experience. Guess they are achieving that goal.
10
You need to buy a few more packs to skew the matchmaking algorithm in your favor.
0
If this Brawl is their idea to attract more people to Duels... well, it fails horribly.
5
1. It's good against Priest.
2. Random is still very fun for a lot of people.
0
Perpetual Flame is fine. The main reason nobody puts it in their decks is the fact that it is a Fire spell. Right now Shamans only main deck Nature Spells for the synergy with Primal Dungeoneer. Making Perpetual Flame 0 mana would somewhat make it worse because it could no longer be generated by Wandmaker.
2
One of Shaman's class identity weaknesses is draw, so when they get some draw it's conditional. But in this case it's not bad, since Shaman has good nature spells (examples: Bolt, Tidal Surge, Portal) and Elementals that you can run outside of an Elemental-focused deck (examples: Cagematch Custodian, Earth Revenant, Al'Akir).
13
The change to Lilypad Lurker is a very nice buff...
... for Jandice Barov and Apexis Blast.
1
Mana Tide as a 3 mana 0/4 would still be slow, imo. The mana cost is more important here because you can play it earlier and/or you can combine it more easily with Totemic Reflection. 2 mana 0/3 or even 0/2 would be fine.
Tidal Wave is fine at 8 mana. The problem is that Shaman doesn't an efficient early to midgame healing tool. Instead of buffing Tidal Wave, I'd suggest buffing Tidal Surge to 3 mana.
I don't have an opinion on Vashj.
2
Shaman will most likely get buffed in the upcoming balance changes. Book of Heroes Thrall comes out next month and selling a Shaman pack bundle when the class is borderline unplayable in standard is not a good idea.
0
Shaman, after the nerfs hit, needs more experimentation. However, deckbuilders/streamers stay away from the class because it's not fun or entertaining to be in top deck mode in most of the games. Maybe the miniset gives us some card draw that isn't a caravan.
0
My predictions:
1
One of the HS devs (@Celestalon on Twitter) confirmed that it is related to the portraits and they are working on a fix.
Source
1
I'm playing standard and I'm still summoning it.
The Shaman portraits also seem to be bugged: I selected Earthfury Thrall (the lvl 50/100 Shaman portrait) for a deck but when the match started it displayed King Rastakhan.