The first Fractured in Alterac Valley balance patch included a lot of card changes with nine nerfs and four buffs. In line with Blizzard’s recent balancing philosophy, the changes are minor and generally do not kill the nerfed cards. But are they strong enough to change the meta? In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what has happened to all the classes after the balance patch.
Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter was hit by one nerf, Mo'arg Artificer. This has made it more difficult to pull off the Il'gynoth OTK combo, and consequently, Quest Lifesteal Demon Hunter looks dead on the ladder. It was not a great ladder deck anyway, and the main use it saw was in tournament lineups as a counter to Garrote Rogue. It still has Glide, so the deck remains fine as a counter to Garrote Rogue and Mozaki Mage, but the slower combo punishes it too much in the general ladder.
Demon Hunter has plenty of other archetypes though, so the class as a whole is fine. Deathrattle Demon Hunter is their most competitive archetype, and Fel Demon Hunter has risen from the ashes and shows some initial promise as well.
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It can be a little scary to rely on Hero attacks in an expansion that promotes Frost spells, but as long as you can dodge early Wildpaw Caverns, you should be fine.
Druid
RIP Anacondra Druid? The Druid deck built around Lady Anacondra and Celestial Alignment was already barely scraping by, and the Celestial Alignment nerf dropped it down a notch. Fun fact: It is still correct to keep Celestial Alignment in the mulligan with ramp cards, which I guess makes sense as it is the main win condition of the deck.
The patch has started a new era of innovation attempts for Druid, and we are currently seeing a resurgence of Carnival Clowns alongside many different variations of Aggro Druid.
Beasts, no Beasts, even some Menagerie Wardens, all sorts of things are being tested right now. This build seems to have decent performance, although the optimal form of Aggro Druid is yet to be determined.
Hunter
Hunter was just getting comfy with some Irondeep Trogg action when the nerf hit. Contrary to many of the predictions, Trogg is not dead. The numbers are still close between Trogg decks and ones that have switched back to Arcane Anomaly, but at the very least, playing Trogg is still viable. Trogg is even in a very slight lead over Anomaly in performance so far. It is just no longer mandatory.
Face Hunter remains the best-performing Hunter deck, but the balance patch got people experimenting again, and there are several promising Hunter decks around. Beast Hunter, Quest Hunter, and Secret Hunter have all made respectable entries to the field. It is a good time to play Hunter!
Mage
Mage was the weakest class going into the balance patch, and it received multiple buffs to bring it to a more competitive level. Mage’s OTK deck, Mozaki Mage, is also a rare combo deck that escaped a nerf.
Consequently, Mozaki Mage is now the strongest Mage archetype, and it looks quite competitive. It is good to be the faster combo deck!
There are lots of Ping Mage variants around. In general, the fewer spells they run, the better.
Mask of C'Thun has become one of the most important Mage spells, as it can reliably be recast by Magister Dawngrasp. Mordresh Fire Eye and the buffed Wildfire carry this archetype, but its performance is trending downward. As the list becomes more refined, it might be able to stabilize at above 50% win rate.
Paladin
Were there Paladin nerfs? Irondeep Trogg and Alliance Bannerman got nerfed, but Paladin just does not mind. Libram Paladin is still doing fine. If it accomplished anything, the nerf to Irondeep Trogg has made Buff Paladin a better contender when the Libram spam has some limits now.
I still slightly prefer Librams, but this is a deck where you can play with Gnome Private, so it has got to be worth considering.
Priest
Just as Miracle Priest found the missing piece for their Rally! setup in Irondeep Trogg, it was taken away. Sad times.
Quest Deathrattle Priest shows the slightest signs of life, other than that the class is struggling hard.
Rogue
With the nerf to Efficient Octo-bot, Garrote Rogue is once again officially too difficult to play for the average ladder player. The top aficionados who have been practicing the deck for half a year can still make it work somehow.
This is the cycle the deck has been going through: Blackwater Cutlass made it mainstream in United in Stormwind, then the Garrote nerf made it more difficult again, then Fractured in Alterac Valley with Shadowcrafter Scabbs made it easier again, and now the Efficient Octo-bot nerf makes it harder, again. The deck can be strong, but you most likely should not play it.
That said, the good old Quest Rogue is doing extremely well right now, and Secret Thief Rogue is also viable. Some people even play Poison Rogue, and with the Rustrot Viper population only half of what it used to be before the patch, there is now a better chance to hit face with weapons.
Shaman
The nerf to Snowfall Guardian has hardly hurt Shaman. Bolner OTK list is the one that suffers the most, as it really wants to stall the game as much as possible, and now there is one more turn for it to get killed before the freezes arrive.
Other than that, Shaman has a wide variety of viable decks: Freeze Elemental Shaman, Aggro Elemental Shaman, Freeze Shaman, and Burn Shaman all continue to enjoy success on the ladder. As a newcomer for Alterac Valley, Quest Shaman has also returned to the meta now that it is not getting killed by combo decks as quickly.
Warlock
The OwlTK is dead, all hail the return of the true king! Yup, that’s Quest Hand Warlock. Losing some healing from Touch of the Nathrezim is a minor inconvenience and the deck never used Mo'arg Artificer or Runed Mithril Rod anyway, so Quest Hand Warlock is ready for another expansion of good times.
There have also been some experiments with Tickatus, but while those decks are hovering at around a 50% win rate, it does not look likely that they would become common.
Warrior
Oh, Bloodsail Deckhand. So sad to see you lose that one Health again.
In other news, Quest Warrior is now the best and most popular deck on the ladder (until high Legend, but that’s not a problem for most players). There was a moment at the start of Fractured in Alterac Valley where Quest Warrior lost its rightful place, but now it has regained the #1 spot and all is good in the world again. The nerf did not hurt the deck at all and was easily compensated by other decks becoming slightly worse because of the rest of the balance patch.
Welcome to Alterac Valley, I hope you like Questlines
Before the launch of Fractured in Alterac Valley, Blizzard was adamant that if Questlines were too dominant in the new expansion, there would be balance changes to ensure that the new cards see play. Yet, the first balance patch largely addressed combo decks by making them a turn or two slower. This, in turn, actually opened up more space for Questlines to shine!
In a way, new cards are playable now. Quest Hand Warlock runs Dreadlich Tamsin. Quest Rogue has Shadowcrafter Scabbs. Quest Hunter includes Beaststalker Tavish. All Paladin decks include Lightforged Cariel. You can even play Rokara, the Valorous in Quest Warrior.
Some of the nerfed combo decks included no new cards whatsoever, so, from a certain point of view, Blizzard did nerf decks that used the old cards to make room for the new (Hero) cards.
Another interesting aspect of the current meta is the large quantity of tier-two or tier-three decks. A quick look at the top, oh it’s all Questlines again, can be deceiving. Beast Hunter, Secret Thief Rogue, and Ping Mage are all currently hitting above-50% win rates. If this can last – a big if, as decks tend to improve or die – this could become an interesting and diverse meta overall despite Questlines remaining at the top.
Old Guardian
Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian
Yeah no, Pirate Warrior is as dominating as ever. Not having fun.
Short answer? No.
Long answer, from my perspective, I was facing about 7 out of 10 Quest Pirate Warrior in Standard.
Quest OTK demon Hunter still roam somewhere. but less than before.
Quest Rogue still exist. Aggro Taunt Druid (even with the addition of wolves from AV), still pretty much alive.
HSReplay also shown Quest deck still the leader of meta with over 50% winrate with the exception of Priest Quest. I hope these facts will be enough to tell those devs that the problem lies within the Quest. No amount of nerfing cards around the quest will be enough to bring down Quest notorierity.
As long as Quest not nerfed, AV cards won’t see any trend whatsoever in Standard Ranked.
aside from Hero cards.
Mages seem to rule in Legend though.
Funny enough, I have not seen Mage even once . Maybe next season Standard ranked climb.
Right now, I’m just staying in Duels for achievements. Those are the only way to get Legendaries I don’t have.
How playing Duels can help you to get legendaries?
Not getting the cards, just adding it to the Duels deck from the card buckets after every round. Supposedly, for example, if you add enough handbuff cards in your basic deck, you’ll have a chance to get Saidan eventually. The problem is, it needs a few tries obviously.
That’s how I finish my Ivus achievement. The easiest one. Just play the card when you have 10 mana, and done. Add enough battlecry cards to basic deck, and keep searching until they give you Ivus in one of the buckets.
The data on HSR is a little suspect. In general, balance changes are not handled well by the site, but this time around the decks they are listing as the best performing are quite fishy. I would wait from the curated data from VS before making any conclusions.
In any event, plenty of FAV non-hero cards are seeing play now. The Mage 1 and 2 drops are both good cards, and with the buffs, Ping Mage is finally a real deck. Shaman has a couple of good Freeze-related cards. Vindicator is used in every Paly deck. Thief Rogue relies on the Gnoll, plus a few other cards from the set.