With narualize gone to hof druid has no removal for big minions. They have little removal in general. Maybe this is incidental but it could also be part of the class philosophy.
Classes that can deal with big minions directly:
-warlock
-warrior
-mage
-priest
-shaman
-rogue
Classes that can deal with big minions indirectly:
-hunter
-paladin
Classes that can not deal with big minions at all:
-Druid
Druid is the only class that can not deal with big minions in any reasonable way. The maximum amount of damage they can deal to a minion from hand is 5 for 5 mana and 1 card. Other then that there is only BGH which is not a satisfying option.
Beeing able to deal with at least a few big minions in a reasonable way with class cards is essential for any class in a game like hearthstone. Druid is missing this since the naturalize hof. It would be nice if druid also got a way to deal with bigger minions in a reasonable way.
Not being able to do so for the sake of “class identity” would ruin much of the fun and options for druid. It is essential for any class to be able be able to do that to at least to some extend.
Its the wrong design then. ANY class can deal with them with class cards to some extend. Druid can not since the hof naturalize.
Maybe they should have given druid “mulch” back to compensate for the hof of naturalize or else offer at least 1 card early in a rotation to deal with big minions directly or indirectly in a somewhat reasonable way (I don’t count putting up a taunt as dealing with it).
Removal is an essential part of any card game. Some classes are better then others by design,thats fine. But to have not a single option at all is going to far. Removing big minions is to important and should be at least an option for every class. Simply losing any time the opponent plays a big minion when he is even slightly ahead on tempo is to punishing.
Well the expansion s out so we re gonna learn soon if druid got a decent deck or not.
That said as long as i know, blizzards philosophy works like that:
Make a class good - Nerf a basic card or dont give the class good cards turning the class unplayable for a year - Make the class decent again
Good examples? Shaman and warrior
So in general the problem is not the class philosophy they have in mind the problem is that they wanted druid unplayable for a couple of months and the way i see things right now its probably gonna be playable in november unless of course something happens in this expansion.
Btw by the word playable i mean in standard. Don t expect druid to get a good wild archetype for the next 2 - 3 years.
Good design. I don’t know yet. We will see. If we see nothing but token druid this year, the team must provide an answer.
But even MTG realized that every color needed a way to deal with big creatures. So they gave green fighting.
Without ramp, Druid might need to either get conditional removal (like fighting or poisonous) OR big minion only burn. Because they don’t have the Mana advantage anymore.
Didn’t Druid literally just get what can often be a 5 mana deal 10 damage split across 2 minions? Besides, druids have always relied on creatures for their removal. Run big rush minions like Oondasta, or even BGH as you suggested.
I agree with that Oasis Elemental Whose Name I Don’t Yet Remember, but don’t go too far. Earlier they had Spellstone and Naturalize, and since HoF’ing of Naturalize, Druids just weren’t removing stuff bigger than a Swipe or Wrath could handle, and forced their opponent to trade instead.
And I guess that’s the answer, Druids are supposed to swarm earlier or ramp up… but swarming effectively takes a whole deck to perform, and ramping with classic cards is a joke now.
It’s fine they expect you to use big minions to trade instead, but in that case Druid should get back ramping. Nourish and Rampant Growth should be unnerfed back to 5 and 2 mana respectively.
i ain’t saying they’re op, but so far quest druid is the only deck i haven’t actually beaten. who knew having fandral from turn 5 on would be pretty good? i think they’re gonna be okay.
Druid always has to keep big minions hitting the board in mind. It’s like any other class thinking about its own weaknesses. It just so happens cheating giants into play is really easy. I play druid quite a bit and it’s just something you have to plan for and learn to play around.
If you are playing the quest you have plenty of answers to giants. I actually play a more tempo oriented ent deck that aims to keep board(druid losing board = GG). I rarely have issues with giants mostly because i am applying so much pressure and trading some ents is fine as i can rebuild quickly. Not to mention mulch muncher is easy to get online real fast with these new cards.
I feel like if druid had a cheap easy way to remove or stall giants it would be super OP. IF CC Mage retains the top spot after a month it’s almost certain CC gets a nerf to 4 mana, although maybe HoFing Giant is the best answer to the whole problem. Lets see if the new meta can sort it out before a knee jerk reaction. Nobody wants a repeat of the druid debacle before rotation.
Well, sure, you can make a Token Druid deck work, but that seems to be the only viable Druid deck right now. Any sort of slower strategy is crippled by this lack of removal.
It’s not completely token though. I have it mixed up with other things. I don’t like how the rng of token can blow up your face 50% of the time.
I would love if Lucentbark worked but the card is so easy to handle and with Shaman and Priest fielding viable meta decks it will only get worse. However if we go again with a meta that doesn’t include classes that can handle him it might be playable but i just don’t see that happening. Heal druid just feels like a failed idea and using the cards they made to support that idea seems like a better idea.