As varied and exciting the metagame in The Witchwood was after the nerfs, there are a few classes that could certainly use some help from the upcoming set. In some cases, that’s due to a lack of tools to keep up with the juggernauts of Warlock and Druid, and a few other ones simply need a bit of sparkle to spice things up. From Garrosh to Jaina, many heroes of Azeroth share the same sentiment: the new set can’t come soon enough.
Who’s that trying to crush me?
While Warrior has seen some on-again-off-again play depending on the ebb and flow of the metagame, notably featuring certain Odd and Recruit builds in the Summer playoffs, Garrosh is struggling right now with his only viable archetype in the form of Taunt. The class is in an awkward place in general: the faster Warrior decks remain woefully ill-equipped to keep up with Zoo or Odd Rogue while the slower, more control-oriented archetypes can’t match the infinite value generation of the Death Knight cards in the long run. Notably, Warrior is the only class whose hero card is incapable of producing such infinite value with their hero power, which is a problem that will likely be fixed with the Dr. Boom hero card that’s been teased earlier.
The potential is there for sure: personally, I’ve spent a lot of time and had a lot of fun with a janky Odd deck with Master Oakheart that has posted a 70+% winrate against Warlocks but struggles against Druids and Deathstalker Rexxar. It really feels like we’re only a card or two away from a powerful Control Warrior archetype, which would be an interesting change of pace in the metagame.
Greetings! Wow!
Priest is also a class that could use some support as most of the alternatives to the Control Priest build with the Mind Blast finisher have ebbed away during the last month of The Witchwood meta. The consistency of the Dragon synergy options were seriously weakened by the Standard rotation, and the disappearance of the Razakus setup only left Combo Priest alive from the Year of the Mammoth, a deck which was also greatly diminished by the loss of Potion of Madness among other goodies. The limited impact of Quest Priest’s zany control-killer gameplan also wasn’t enough to save the class from dropping down to the lower brackets of the power rankings.
It’s relatively tough to pinpoint what Priest is looking for, but a stronger Dragon shell would certainly be a good place to start considering Duskbreaker is one of the most powerful cards ever to be printed in Standard. Similarly, the Divine Spirit-Inner Fire deck is also quite close to viability, but it struggles mightily to get anything to stick on the board. Bring back Purify, you ask? Perhaps something better is needed for that.
In general, Priest’s issue is that it struggles to keep up with such a diverse meta, being a class that historically always thrived on having the right answer at the right time. With the turn 10+ power plays of the Omega cards and the serious tempo potential of the Magnetic keyword, it seems like Anduin and Tyrande need something very juicy to be a real contender. Since it’s fairly unlikely that they will get a second board clear alongside Psychic Scream, it’s reasonable to assume that it won’t be the full-control builds that save the day – if anything will, of course: the threat of Malfurion looms large, after all.
You’re Shivering. Are You Bored?
Mage is featured for a slightly different reason than the previous entrants: while the Big Spell archetype certainly has its place on the ladder, there’s been little to no innovation for most of The Witchwood involving the class: both the Aluneth-wielding tempo build and the slow-but-steady-Water Elemental-spamming approach has been figured out relatively quickly and not much else has come to light since then despite the many late-blooming decks in the meta. When the biggest innovation is cutting Dragoncaller Alanna for an Acolyte of Pain, you’re in dire need of reinforcements – if only to keep things interesting.
Mage is also a class where neither Odd or Even has been seriously explored yet due to the small card pool – it’s a territory that’s ripe for discovery with a bunch of new cards. Before the last major nerfs, an Even deck featuring Mountain Giants, Book of Specters, two copies of Pyroblast and Spiteful Summoner was good enough to finish top 200 Legend – while that exact build is no longer available, it’s a promising shell, especially with Mountain Giant’s recent change into an Elemental.
Historically, Mage had a very good time when Mechs rolled around in Goblins versus Gnomes as Mech Mage was one of the first tempo decks in the meta that the playerbase figured out, and the concept of a Legendary spell also sounds like something that would fit the class very well. (Have you considered its impact on Primordial Glyph? If not, stop for a second and shudder.) As long as Aluneth is around, some sort of aggressive deck will always be at least semi-viable for the class: I’d be very surprised if Jaina’s magic won’t be tearing apart many unfortunate players once the Boomsday Project rolls around.
My Jaws That Oh My God Please No
Shaman’s also in a similar situation, though one of its decks in the metagame is quite close to the top. Both the Even Shaman and the Shudderwock archetype are mostly solved, and that’s been the case for a long while now. The latter unfortunately feels like a fairly restrictive deck, severely limiting design space both in terms of Battlecry minions and survival tools for Shaman. The class’ Freeze-related synergy cards never really got off the ground, and the mechanical theme also don’t support that approach greatly (though Mage did pick up Snowchugger way back when, so who knows). Still, it’s fairly likely that Thrall and Morgl will have a new, shiny and support-lacking new archetype to figure out in the next set – because if that isn’t the case, we very well may be looking down the barrel of a new Karazhan situation. Nobody wants that, right?
Since the Death Knights have basically destroyed midrange decks for two years, and the control strategy is always going to be inferior to the Shudderwock finisher, Shaman is realistically only left with a potential aggro archetype to hope for. Again, Mechs are certainly quite fitting in that sense, and Thrall also had a mechanical face-hitting archetype in the heady days of GvG. On a thematic note, this might also be a less impactful set for the class, considering they’ve had the flagship character as their hero card the last time around. In a way, it’s a fitting changing of the guard.It’s been fun, Hagatha – but it’s time for Dr. Boom to have a go.
I’ll explain Blizzard’s procedure. What was the strongest class in Kobold and Catacombs post nerf? Warlock. So we give Warlocks Lord Godfrey in The Witchwood. What was the strongest class in Witchwood post nerf? Druid. So we give Druids the Flubber Professor to make their busted combos more consistent. Meanwhile, Shamans got Runespear, Warriors got Blackhowl Gunspire, and now Priests get a legendary spell that is 9 mana summon a board of 1/1s. In the end, it’s the nerfs to a few cards that really shake the meta, more than new expansions, at least lately.
and still rogue and hunter and mage didnt get much…