Here’s what I’d do:
- Predation to “Costs (1) if you played a Naga while holding this” (from 0).
- Drek’thar to 3 Health (from 4).
But I want to know what you think.
Drek’thar to only if your minions cost (2) less.
Multi-Strike to +1 attack instead of 2.
Vicious Slitherspear down to 2 health.
I used to like this idea too, but someone pointed out it’s a 1 mana Trogg answer.
Also, Naga Demon Hunter is definitely a bigger problem than Token Demon Hunter. I think Drek’thar needs to get toned down somehow, he’s just too strong, so Token DH is going to take a hit of some kind, but to the maximum extent possible nerfs should be Naga-related.
I thought about this exact thing myself for a long time. Slitherspear is an extremely strong card. But ultimately I think that nerf would just delete the card from competitive play, and it’d hurt Naga Mage (which shouldn’t be hurt).
If you take the two points above, that’s why I decided to target Predation. Naga-specific and not neutral.
I think you mean, Drek’thar to “if this costs (2) more than every minion in your deck…”
This is another way to nerf Drek’thar, and perhaps better than my suggestion. But it’s a much harsher nerf. One advantage would be that if he only pulls minions that cost 2 or less, then Sorcerer’s Apprentice could be buffed to 3 Mana in Wild.
You are probably right, but Trogg is just a problematic card that limits design space.
And Vicious Slitherspear probably doesn’t need nerf.
And Drek’Thar is a card so difficult to balance that nerfing mana costs doesn’t even work.
The 1 mana war glaive probably should be looked at. Forget the name. 1 mana 1/3 weapon that deals damage on HK. The 3 charges is so strong and its even useful lategame too because of the various ways dh can stack attacks and attack buffs
Why the sudden care for nerfs hurting other classes? That wasn’t a concern for Pufferfist nerf hurting Rogue (as far as I remember it would only lose 2% at most and still be viable).
It’s not sudden. I acknowledged that Pufferfist would cause splash damage (edit: pun not intended) to Pirate Rogue then just as I’m acknowledging Drek’thar would cause splash damage to Token DH now.
I was right about the Pufferfist nerf having a relatively minor impact on Quest Rogue, but I was wrong to assume that the deck would remain as is if not nerfed. Pirate Rogue had slipped into Tier 3 and kept slipping even before the nerf went into effect. Unfortunate.
I am for Rogue buffs, including Pirate buffs within reason.
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Drek’thar shouldn’t be what is nerfed. It wouldn’t just hurt DH, it would hurt every single deck that uses it and nerfing a perfectly fine and widely used neutral card just cause a deck that uses it is very good wouldn’t be a good course of action. The Naga package of DH should be what is done something about imo.
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It’s the single highest winrate card in the entire Standard format, by a huge margin.
#2 is Cariel hero, but it’s seriously not even close.
Drek’thar is OP in each and every deck that uses him and no, it’s not perfectly fine.
5 Likes
Current DH is ridiculous.
Lady Stheno is one of the culprit, but so are the insane attack boost .
I have seen DH put constant board pressure from turn 1 to turn 10 , then OTK you with lady stheno + face dmg spell.
Predation should cost 1 yeah.
Drek’Thar to 3/3
Lady Steno to a 2 mana 1/3 (reduce her dmg output, lower the cost to counterbalance) or to a 4 mana 2/4 .
Fel barrage to 2 damage, then 1 more.
Battle worn vanguard should be 1/2 .
Multistrike is crazy. raise the cost to 2 . The hightroll with Battleworn vanguard on turn 2 are real with coin , DH can have up to 6/6 worth of stats. or turn 3 without it.
This “Naga Package” is just Predation, Lady S’Theno, and neutrals (Vicious Slitherspear, Treasure Guard). Some people run Wayward Sage but it’s not good so they shouldn’t. Lady S’Theno isn’t as strong a card as people think, very cuttable, and I already am for nerfing Predation.
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I would up the glaive to two mana, and predation to one if you played a naga.
While I agree that drek’thar should be nerfed, i don’t know how without killing the card other that to make it a 4/3 or 3/3.
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I’d say that the 2/2 can be safely be nerfed to 2/1 for starters.
still puts an insane amount of stats for the cost and a minion that HAS to be cleared, but they are slightly easier to clear now.
Apart from that, maaaaaybe weapon to 2 instead of 1, but i dont think that overall balance is that off to warrant 2 nerfs.
2 Likes
Drek’Thar to 5, but still only pulling 3 or less cost minions.
Drektar can’t be nerfed, since they sold a very expensive diamond version of it and I don’t think they would like to refund it.
I’d nerf the 2 mana 2/2 that summons two 1/1 when you attack; I’d make it a 3 mana 2/2, just because the heropower is so cheap that 2 mana came into the game too early. If you play this with the 1 mana spell that lets you attack two times, it reminds me of gibberling druid (without the potential board buff)
Yeah you might as well forget Drek’Thar ever being nerfed. Once they sold him as a diamond he became Mr. Untouchable for nerfing. This sucks because it is easily the one card that should retain its original effect but go to a 5 cost.
The other big way is to cut down the amount of weapon face damage by about a third. People think pirate warrior is a brain dead deck but i would argue that just loading up big and multiple weapon attacks to face is the definition of brain dead play and lazy game design.
Now if we want to let DH be as it is which is a possibility lets talk about the classes that are unplayable that could counter the deck. The next round could include a bunch of buffs to Rogue, Priest, Warlock and Shaman.
I’m finding it hard to appropriately suggest nerfs to DH without harming other classes. Much of its strength is derived from neutral cards. There’s Dreadprison Glaive, Predation, and Multistrike I suppose that can be looked at.
Multi strike: no longer increases hero attack.
Drek’Thar: only summons minions that cost 2 or less.
Part of the issue is that demon hunter has some very cheap minions that can snowball easily, like the Vanguard or Battlefiends, and even some of the neutral minions they use in the deck. As usual from Blizzard, it’s just a case of giving one class too many cards that synergize really well and are hard to counter for some classes without it essentially being use a spell>>>do nothing else that turn. Even nerfing Drek to only summon minions that cost 2 or less mana isn’t that helpful in the case of DH. Cheap weapons and ridiculous attack buffs are also part of the problem as some have stated.
Tough one this. I think you could make Drek a 2/4 and it would still see play and be OP in DH, reducing the health doesn’t really hurt DH, it’s the minions on board they care about. Even making it summon 2 (one cost) minions from your deck would be strong with the 1/3 nagas but I suppose then, you’d have to mulligan them early game. Maybe that is the solution. It would still be strong but you’re not pulling pirates for a swing turn or the 2/2 for a full board of minions or the taunts for protection and card draw.