Blizzard is Considering Options for Druid - More Information this Week
Hearthstone's Game Director, Ben Brode, tweeted this afternoon that we'd be seeing information from Blizzard this week on the problematic Druid class. Stay tuned! To the ground with you!
Quote from Ben BrodeThanks for the feedback regarding Druid. We've been considering options and should have more to share this week.
Druid has 4 main cards that are issues, Ultimate Infestation, Innervate, Jade Idol, and Spreading Plague. UI should either draw 3 or the 5s should be 4s, and the armor gain should be removed for both. The armor makes it a safe play, and the card draw makes it way too good. It's a nice removal option for a class that has very little, but it's 17 mana worth of value, but needs to get you at least 12 for it to see play at all and it would be fair to it as a new card to get rid of the other problems while keeping this alive. Innervate needs to cost at least 5 mana and give back 2 more than it costs. Turn 1 Fledgling is not ok, and at 5 mana it prevents Auctioneer+Innervate plays without coins. This change also makes it feel more like a ramp card, getting more mana by actually paying mana. Jade Idol needs to either cost 3 mana or not be able to shuffle copies of itself into the deck. Such a stupid ass card, should honestly be moved to wild right now. Spreading Plague is the sneakiest offender, it stalls out the game against aggro, the best counter to Jade Druid, and almost ends the game on the spot. No aggro deck can answer a bunch of 5 health taunts on turn 6 without Black Knight or coin Bonemare. Should summon 1/4s with the other changes, or 1/3s without because if you aren't gonna nerf the deck hard, let the counters do it instead. I could blow through 1/3s as a hunter, with Eaglehorn, Razormaw and Houndmaster. Natural counters can steady out the meta.
Nerf
Innervate to gain 1 mana, make it like Counterfeit Coin.
Spreading Plague to 1/3 taunt minions.
Ultimate Infestation to draw 3, armor 5, 2/2 ghoul, 3 damage.
the problem is ultimate infestation. don't blame the ramp, ramp is only op when the cards you play after you finish doing it are busted.
sure spreading plague is annoying, but it kills aggro and counter cards could easily be released.
To address another worry, people are afraid nerfing infestation will simply revert druid archetypes to gadgetzan auctioneer versions, but that version is weaker since skulking geist removes their ability to go infinite, and there are a ton of combo and otk tools in the current rotation.
Are you saying Spreading Plague is not that broken because it kills aggro? Aggro was the only thing keeping Jade Druid in check.
Ramp IS the problem. UI can be replaced. Spreading Plague buys way to much time against aggro too. Token Druid wins if they draw an innervate most of the time. Honestly they need to have the guts to remove all cards that exist in 75% or more decklists of every class.
It honestly doesn't matter what they nerf. There will always be "that deck" everyone complains about. Even if they nerfed idol and infestation into the ground you are still going to be facing token druid, murloc paladin and evolve shaman most of the time. Token has already been much more popular this season and it's all over the ladder.
1 Hungry Crab puts murloc pally in place, also helps against evolve shaman a bit and shaman can be countered by a few aoe-s in your decks. As for token druid nerfing Innervate making it unplayable for the first few turns will help a lot.
Jade Idol should be 2 mana.
Well what do you know, apparently all those "lock symbols" set on this single class on every Hearthstone Tournament raised some red flags after all!
Hoping for the best for the class and even though I haven't had too much sympathy for Druid, these past few months surely have started to make me hate him.
change Ultimate Infestation to 11 mana
1. nerf ultimate infestation to 3's and it would still be good but balanced.
3 damage - 2 mana, 3/3 - 2 mana, 3 armor - 1 man, draw 3 - 5 mana.
2 + 2 + 1 + 5 = 10. The benefit of this card is you get card advantage, one card that does what 4 other cards would do. The down side is you have to use it all at once so might not be optimal and you have to get 10 mana to play it.
2. nerf spreading plague to summon 1/2 poisonous instead.
now they're vulnerable to most aoe and they get u value vs a wide board but it's slow so you'll have to face tank the damage on board + buffs so aggro can flurish again.
3. nerf anduin while ur at it the card is way too op at 8 mana make it 10 and it'll still see plenty of play. Love the card design just 2 powerful at 8 mana.
If they only kill Ultimate Infestation but don't touch Spreading Plague, this wont change anything, Auctioneer will come back.
Innervate is part of druids class identity and standard kit. Nerfing it is like nerfing fireball. Mabye druid is strong right now, but when its weak again you will look back and be like, why the crap did they nerf innervate, it allowed for so many cool creative strategies and made druid stand out. I hate people who ask for class evergreen cards nerfs so much because they are so ignorant to the future implications, all they care about is some annoying deck now, they dont care about that class in the long run. Think back to bladeflurry nerf, demonstrating the retarded reality of blizzard nerfs. When you ask for a card nerf, just realize that it will never be playable again, and realize that that class will probably be trash tier again in the near future, and now they're even worse because they were permanently nerfed because some crappily designed new cards were op.
It's the same reason things like Dark Ritual and Black Lotus had to go in Magic. Cheating on mana can create incredible imbalance, and in a game like Hearthstone with limited removal, the issue is even more exaggerated.
Gain 5 armor, deal 4 damage, draw 3 cards, summon 2/2 ghoul (the same ghoul which is summoned by a paladin and a natural 3 drop).
Also looks pretty nice on paper.
About spreading plague. I dont know what you want to do. Either get rid of this card or nerf it to the point its like it doesnt exisist anymore. I know druid had a bad time against zoo like decks but giving them a 1 card that solves a problem for real, was just a bad idea. Atleast make it 1/3 taunt... I dunno.
You fucked up. Now its your problem.