by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

If you’d asked anyone in the competitive scene a month ago to rank the classes in Hearthstone, there’s no doubt in my mind that the top spot would’ve gone to Rogue and the bottom spot would’ve gone to Priest. The Rogue set felt entirely too strong while, conversely, the Priest set felt decidedly anemic. Both arsenals were set to be adjusted with the most recent balance patch, the idea being to bring the two sets more in line with the others. In the time since the patch, the scales have shifted dramatically, with Priests becoming a seemingly permanent fixture in both the competitive scene and Play Mode, while Rogue presence continues to wither.

What’s most interesting to me is, while the Priest set had a gaping hole in the spot where its midgame presence should be, it actually sported an otherwise stellar ability to punish opponents early and late game. Smite, essentially Arcane Shot, coupled with Shadow Word: Pain allowed the Priest to make short work of early game aggressors, or at least mitigate them to the point that Holy Nova, the Priest’s brutal area of effect spell could do the heavy lifting. What’s more, Mind Control was, and still is, one of the most powerful, most infuriating spells in the game. Yes, it can falter against decks that run a lot of token creatures, but for players running mid to late game legendaries or even just large commons, it not only shines, it ruins entire days. There’s nothing more upsetting than playing a Malygos, just to see the Priest grab it up. Still, despite its potency, it doesn’t matter if a deck can’t survive to get to that point, which is the situation Priest deck players largely found themselves in.

Blizzard’s response to this came in the form of a couple of new cards, and some retooling of other cards. Shadow Word: Death, the mid to late game cousin of Shadow Word: Pain, allows a Priest to, at present, instantly destroy a minion with five or more attack. Its toughness does not matter, nor does Divine Shield. Considering the fact that Shadow Word: Pain does the same to anything with three or less attack, four attack is effectively the only refuge from these powerful kill cards. Holy Wrath, another new spell awarded to Priests in the massive balancing patch, acts as a five damage nuke on hero and minion alike. It also heals the Priest, resulting in the potential for an incredible swing.

These new toys, in conjunction with pre-existing spells and a couple of a buffs to cards like Northshire Cleric, Cabal Shadow Priest and Power Word: Shield have taken the priest from zero to hero and, at times, it feels like they’re simply too strong. As was mentioned earlier, it was already a gamble to play a large, game winning minion around turn eight because of Mind Control, but that panic spot has been taken all the way down to to turn three now with the introduction of Shadow Word: Death. Other decks are forced to live and die by the good graces of static damage amounts, which can admittedly be boosted by plus spell damage creatures. Priest simply spends a small amount of mana, points at a minion and it’s dead, no questions asked.

Seriously, we’re worried about you Valeera. Please, come home.

The new strength of the set can surely be reflected in its usage. This Saturday’s ManaGrind tournament featured nine Priest decks. That’s not bad at all for a class that was, a month ago, used by only the most hardcore of holdouts. The Rogue set, however, took a holiday from the competitive scene this week. That’s right. There were none. Jotto, a consistent Rogue deck player had to sit due to internet issues, but beyond that, there were no Rogues present. Thing is, that statistic is not really surprising. The Rogue set got beat up pretty hard in the balance patch, and I have to wonder if it was in fact toned down too much.

I’m sympathetic to the Rogue set because of my well-documented love of the class in World of Warcraft, but don’t be deceived. Rogues desperately needed to be dialed back. The class featured a disgusting amount of early game pressure, a hero power that shamed others in terms of efficiency and an unparalleled propensity for card advantage through the use of Headcrack. All three of these issues were handled in some form or fashion, and then a lot of other perceived problems got handled too, largely dealing with what was known as the ‘Rogue Miracle Deck’ build.

There’s no denying that it was frustrating to come upon decks that played Gadgetzan Auctioneer and then followed it up with 94 spells. I personally broke at least six keyboards when, at the end of this awful spell chain, Edwin Van Cleef, a Mana Addict or Questing Adventurer was stealthed, free of charge, via Conceal, only to hit me for 200 damage on the next turn. There’s no justice there. However, and being serious again, the combination of these nerfs, along with the truly necessary ones have left the Rogue in an incredibly fragile spot. It, like the Priest deck before it, is still possible to win with, but it feels like it requires a lot more effort than the other classes, and can frankly just be shut down. These issues likely contributed to why at this weekend’s tournament, there were 13 Mages, most of which were copying Moon’s aggro Mage build, nine Paladins, nine Priests, a slew of other decks and zero Rogues.

Compared to a month ago, it absolutely feels like Rogue and Priest have traded places. The question here is, are our perceptions accurate, or are we as a community still simply getting adjusted to the new sets? I’m of the mind that it’s too early to begin demanding changes, but I definitely believe Priest might’ve been buffed a bit too much, while Rogue might’ve been, conversely, hit a little too hard with the nerf stick. There’s still time before the game goes into open beta, and it’s totally possible that we might see reversals on some of these changes.

We’re very curious to know your thoughts, though. Do you believe Priests are too powerful? Are Rogues underpowered now?