I’d say one of the bigger problems Priest has is the fact that so many of their healing cards can’t match up to what other classes have in terms of healing/armor. If you want to play a control deck you’d often have better survivability just by choosing another class.
I’d argue that it’s Auchenai that’s causing a lot of Priest’s problems these days, since it means Priest’s healing cards are always being made with that in mind. If Auchenai didn’t exist, then Priest probably would’ve gotten Forbidden Healing and a bunch of other nice healing cards. Priest’s thing is supposed to be healing, but you almost never really see that
Galakrond not helping the class just shows another case of Priest having problems rooted deeply into the class itself.
I see where you're coming from WRT Auchenai being a constant design constraint, but regarding self-heals we've already seen numerous cards that can only heal friendly characters in priest specifically so they could print bigger heals that can't be used to kill an enemy with Auchenai. CF: Greater Healing Potion, Radiance & Divine Hymn. Priest can heal itself for a ton if it wants, but a lot of the newer healing cards don't play nice with the Soulpriest, which leads to the question why she's even in classic.
To be clear, I can definitely see the argument for HOFing Auchenai, but it's a bit more complicated than that they can't print powerful healing effects.
Unfortunately, as long as Auchenai exists in its current state, there's no way to prevent it from restricting the design of new targeted healing cards. Even a HoF doesn't do much because they can't ignore balance in wild. Priest is a real mess of a class. They need to rework its basic and classic set to prevent stuff like this from happening (and to stop the need for printing insane cards for the class every expansion).
What about simply changing it to "Add a random Priest minion to your hand. Give it +2 Attack". This would make some of the worse outcomes a lot better, Test Subject, for example, becomes a 2/2. If +2 Attack seems like too much +1 Attack could be fine, but I think that buffing the random minion could make it much better and more consistently good
It certainly makes things slightly better, but it doesn't solve the inconsistency issue. The problem with random minions is not just synergy with the deck. Timing matters as well. You don't want to be spending 2 mana in the late game to get 1 drops even if they come with a buff. A 1 mana 2/2 doesn't provide any real value at that point in the game. Some 1 drops you don't want at all. Northshire Cleric's card drawing ability becomes troublesome against classes that can heal because they can force you into fatigue by healing your stuff. Your suggestion isn't bad, but the randomness of the hero power is too much of an issue.
I believe they could have given him something like: "Lifesteal: Deal 2 damage to a minion". That way it would provide board control and sustain without moving it away from a more control oriented playstyle.
Galakrond's hero power can't be targeted since Invoke can't be a targeted effect (otherwise it gets weird with Time Rip).
Yeah, i suppose. Then i really don't have many ideas. It just sucks that they went something as bad as "Add random stuff to your hand"
I remember people being horrified when Galakrond, the Unspeakable was revealed because its hero power generates infinite value. However, as everyone is already aware off, Priest is in a terrible spot. The meta is highly focused on tempo and aggression and there's a certain very unhealthy deck out there that can kill you pretty quickly with good draws. Decks that attempt to drag the game to fatigue are just not viable.
But that's not the main issue. The real problem is Galakrond's Hero Power (Galakrond's Wit). It just adds random minions to your hand. What sucks about it is the high inconsistency. While certain minions can be good in any given situation (Mindflayer Kaahrj, for example, is pretty flexible), most of them are extremely situational or require the deck to be built around them to be worth anything (looking at you Test Subject). This means you can get some good stuff here and there, but most of the time you will be filling your hand with junk. This makes the invoke cards pretty terrible as they are meant to be low power level on their own but become strengthened by the hero power value. But that's not the case for Galakrond Priest. You are forced to add weak cards to your deck and the payoff may not even be worth anything.
What is even worse about this is that if the hero power was "Discover a Priest Minion" it probably would be just too good. It would pretty much always generate something worthwhile and give a ton of flexibility in your decision making. There's no balance here. With Discover it would be way too good. With no discover, it just sucks. Unfortunately, i don't see how this can become better. Priest got the worst Galakrond, the worst invoke effect and even its invoke payoff card is in a bad position (despite having one of the most broken battlecries out there).
So i wanted to ask you people: what would you do to make Priest's Galakrond better? What hero power would suit it most without breaking the game? Would you change something about the invoke cards?
I believe they could have given him something like: "Lifesteal: Deal 2 damage to a minion". That way it would provide board control and sustain without moving it away from a more control oriented playstyle.
I think these nerfs are not enough to move Shaman away from his dominant position. The change to Sludge Slurper was a little surprising but i think i get what they are trying to accomplish with it. With its attack down to 1, the murloc doesn't really trade well with anything in the early game. That makes Quest Shaman a little bit more vulnerable to aggression in the early game. They are really gonna need those Kobold and Goblin Lackeys to fend off the hordes of 2 health minions (Skyraider, Parachute Brigand, Blazing Battlemage and more) and they will need to mulligan hard for Sandstorm Elemental. There's not much they can do about those 1/3 minions though. It's not an insignificant nerf. Was it what we really needed though? Probably not.
I saw someone playing with it on Youtube (i think it was Trump). There was a moment where this card was used with Thunderhead on the board and the tokens were summoned after the spell applied its effect to the other minions. So no buffs to the little sparks. They need to be summoned first by playing a different overload card.
I really like that they are working hard to improve the game. Buying packs from old expansions with gold is something very interesting and exciting. The changes to echo were very unexpected but they certainly addressed the issue relatively fast. Updates and changes to Battlegrounds are also very appreciated. They failed pretty hard when it comes to the state of standard during the event but this is a good step forward for the game.
Mechs will still see play. A lot. Only when Boomsday, Magnetic and Microbots are gone from standard is that the tribe will fall from grace. This is a very good tempo card for mech decks (aggro and token) and it will find its way into a meta deck. Mechs are just that strong right now.
If this doesn't unfreeze your already frozen minions then it's just bad. This isn't hard to remove at all. After they deal with this they can just continue their freezing shenanigans freely. If i start getting destroyed by Freeze Mage, i'll just tech in Dalaran Librarian and use his silence effect to unfreeze my stuff and surprise SMOrc them to death.
It's an auto include for any pirate deck and could get some highrolls here and there but it doesn't seem that strong. This doesn't have Charge to pressure them immediatelly and you are emptying your hand pretty fast. If they find a way to clear this and whatever else you played, you will be starved of resources and they will have plenty of time to establish a board, draw their board clears and so on. I can see this both winning the game pretty fast and losing just as fast.
0 mana spells are always something to look out for. This card is pretty good for Tempo Priest. Lackeys are really good tempo/value cards. Even if they haven't been prominent in Priest, that doesn't mean the class can't benefit from them or at least try to use them. I'm certainly going to try a Tempo Deathrattle Priest with this and see how it goes.
This is crazy good! Getting one of your good weapons back without even paying any mana for it is really good value! But you need to be careful with the weapons you play. The 1/2 invoke Galakrond weapon is terrible for this. But most weapons are either good or great. This card will see play in Pirate Warrior but Quest Warrior also benefits from it.
The scariest thing about this card is the overload synergy. It's cheap and provides a good buff for token/murloc strategies. If this is used to trigger Thunderhead and buffs the sparks summoned immediatelly then it's kinda crazy. Vessina appreciates it a lot. I'm happy i opened her very recently from those free packs Blizzard gave as compensation for the tavern brawl issues from two weeks ago.
Weird name for a card that summons a pack of spirit wolves. Good invoke payoff card but really boring. Summoning two big taunts is good and all that but comparing this to the other invoke payoff cards is kind of sad. All the other cards have good synergies and different applications. This just generates a wall and that's it. Don't get me wrong, this card is really good and really strong but i was expecting something more interesting and not a power creep of a classic card.
Decent but probably not good enough for Constructed. It's good in Arena if played early on when your opponent has no minions or after you kill their stuff. Stoneskin Basilisk and Giant Wasp are still better poison minions though.
Not that good. 3 mana for 1 damage isn't enough against token decks. At best, it's like a worse Shadow Bolt. There's the enrage synergy but Whirlwind still exists and Warpath only leaves in April. Really mediocre card.
Unfortunately, as long as Auchenai exists in its current state, there's no way to prevent it from restricting the design of new targeted healing cards. Even a HoF doesn't do much because they can't ignore balance in wild. Priest is a real mess of a class. They need to rework its basic and classic set to prevent stuff like this from happening (and to stop the need for printing insane cards for the class every expansion).
It certainly makes things slightly better, but it doesn't solve the inconsistency issue. The problem with random minions is not just synergy with the deck. Timing matters as well. You don't want to be spending 2 mana in the late game to get 1 drops even if they come with a buff. A 1 mana 2/2 doesn't provide any real value at that point in the game. Some 1 drops you don't want at all. Northshire Cleric's card drawing ability becomes troublesome against classes that can heal because they can force you into fatigue by healing your stuff. Your suggestion isn't bad, but the randomness of the hero power is too much of an issue.
Yeah, i suppose. Then i really don't have many ideas. It just sucks that they went something as bad as "Add random stuff to your hand"
I remember people being horrified when Galakrond, the Unspeakable was revealed because its hero power generates infinite value. However, as everyone is already aware off, Priest is in a terrible spot. The meta is highly focused on tempo and aggression and there's a certain very unhealthy deck out there that can kill you pretty quickly with good draws. Decks that attempt to drag the game to fatigue are just not viable.
But that's not the main issue. The real problem is Galakrond's Hero Power (Galakrond's Wit). It just adds random minions to your hand. What sucks about it is the high inconsistency. While certain minions can be good in any given situation (Mindflayer Kaahrj, for example, is pretty flexible), most of them are extremely situational or require the deck to be built around them to be worth anything (looking at you Test Subject). This means you can get some good stuff here and there, but most of the time you will be filling your hand with junk. This makes the invoke cards pretty terrible as they are meant to be low power level on their own but become strengthened by the hero power value. But that's not the case for Galakrond Priest. You are forced to add weak cards to your deck and the payoff may not even be worth anything.
What is even worse about this is that if the hero power was "Discover a Priest Minion" it probably would be just too good. It would pretty much always generate something worthwhile and give a ton of flexibility in your decision making. There's no balance here. With Discover it would be way too good. With no discover, it just sucks. Unfortunately, i don't see how this can become better. Priest got the worst Galakrond, the worst invoke effect and even its invoke payoff card is in a bad position (despite having one of the most broken battlecries out there).
So i wanted to ask you people: what would you do to make Priest's Galakrond better? What hero power would suit it most without breaking the game? Would you change something about the invoke cards?
I believe they could have given him something like: "Lifesteal: Deal 2 damage to a minion". That way it would provide board control and sustain without moving it away from a more control oriented playstyle.
I think these nerfs are not enough to move Shaman away from his dominant position. The change to Sludge Slurper was a little surprising but i think i get what they are trying to accomplish with it. With its attack down to 1, the murloc doesn't really trade well with anything in the early game. That makes Quest Shaman a little bit more vulnerable to aggression in the early game. They are really gonna need those Kobold and Goblin Lackeys to fend off the hordes of 2 health minions (Skyraider, Parachute Brigand, Blazing Battlemage and more) and they will need to mulligan hard for Sandstorm Elemental. There's not much they can do about those 1/3 minions though. It's not an insignificant nerf. Was it what we really needed though? Probably not.
125 packs. Golden Ancharrr from pre order + 8 legendaries from packs.
Mindflayer Kaahrj
Frizz Kindleroost
Bandersmosh
Flik Skyshiv
Golden Shu'ma
Golden Valdris Felgorge
Veranus
Kronx Dragonhoof
I'm very satisfied. I only tried Galakrond Warrior so far but i'm going to try Handlock, Deathrattle Priest and Dragon Hunter as well.
I saw someone playing with it on Youtube (i think it was Trump). There was a moment where this card was used with Thunderhead on the board and the tokens were summoned after the spell applied its effect to the other minions. So no buffs to the little sparks. They need to be summoned first by playing a different overload card.
I really like that they are working hard to improve the game. Buying packs from old expansions with gold is something very interesting and exciting. The changes to echo were very unexpected but they certainly addressed the issue relatively fast. Updates and changes to Battlegrounds are also very appreciated. They failed pretty hard when it comes to the state of standard during the event but this is a good step forward for the game.
Very powerful card with lots of cool applications and combo possibilities. It costs 4 mana but Fate Weaver exists so...
Mechs will still see play. A lot. Only when Boomsday, Magnetic and Microbots are gone from standard is that the tribe will fall from grace. This is a very good tempo card for mech decks (aggro and token) and it will find its way into a meta deck. Mechs are just that strong right now.
If this doesn't unfreeze your already frozen minions then it's just bad. This isn't hard to remove at all. After they deal with this they can just continue their freezing shenanigans freely. If i start getting destroyed by Freeze Mage, i'll just tech in Dalaran Librarian and use his silence effect to unfreeze my stuff and surprise SMOrc them to death.
It's an auto include for any pirate deck and could get some highrolls here and there but it doesn't seem that strong. This doesn't have Charge to pressure them immediatelly and you are emptying your hand pretty fast. If they find a way to clear this and whatever else you played, you will be starved of resources and they will have plenty of time to establish a board, draw their board clears and so on. I can see this both winning the game pretty fast and losing just as fast.
0 mana spells are always something to look out for. This card is pretty good for Tempo Priest. Lackeys are really good tempo/value cards. Even if they haven't been prominent in Priest, that doesn't mean the class can't benefit from them or at least try to use them. I'm certainly going to try a Tempo Deathrattle Priest with this and see how it goes.
This is crazy good! Getting one of your good weapons back without even paying any mana for it is really good value! But you need to be careful with the weapons you play. The 1/2 invoke Galakrond weapon is terrible for this. But most weapons are either good or great. This card will see play in Pirate Warrior but Quest Warrior also benefits from it.
The scariest thing about this card is the overload synergy. It's cheap and provides a good buff for token/murloc strategies. If this is used to trigger Thunderhead and buffs the sparks summoned immediatelly then it's kinda crazy. Vessina appreciates it a lot. I'm happy i opened her very recently from those free packs Blizzard gave as compensation for the tavern brawl issues from two weeks ago.
Cool concept but this only seems good against token boards. And it doesn't seem all that hard to play around either.
More support for Quest and Mana Cyclone mage is appreciated. But this seems good enough on its own since it works with any cards, not just spells.
Weird name for a card that summons a pack of spirit wolves. Good invoke payoff card but really boring. Summoning two big taunts is good and all that but comparing this to the other invoke payoff cards is kind of sad. All the other cards have good synergies and different applications. This just generates a wall and that's it. Don't get me wrong, this card is really good and really strong but i was expecting something more interesting and not a power creep of a classic card.
Decent but probably not good enough for Constructed. It's good in Arena if played early on when your opponent has no minions or after you kill their stuff. Stoneskin Basilisk and Giant Wasp are still better poison minions though.
Not that good. 3 mana for 1 damage isn't enough against token decks. At best, it's like a worse Shadow Bolt. There's the enrage synergy but Whirlwind still exists and Warpath only leaves in April. Really mediocre card.