That’s because you pay. You have to remember that if you are F2P you get matched up with BP 80% of games (removing my tinfoil hat).
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Made Legend last night for the first time… At rank 2+, there is no such thing as Big Priest as far as I could tell… The deck is simply too slow to keep up with the aggro-fest that is shaman/paladin.
This was my experience from rank 4 to legend. As you can see, of my 82 games played, the most encountered classes was by far shaman, followed by paladin and mage, before priest.
https://i.imgur.com/Rcd3Ym4.png
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The only deck I played in Wild recently was some mashup-up murloc shaman. (Didn’t lose a single game to big priest over 50-something games).
I usually like winning more than playing just for fun decks (highroll decks like BP do have their charm), even if I’m playing wild (the easy mode).
I used to toy around with some BP decks when they were still in standard, but the high variance of the results meant I really couldn’t enjoy it for too long. Highroll wins are fun, but a few lowrolls in a row are much less so.
So again, if a lot of ppl enjoy this average highroll lottery deck - good for them. Nothing bad about it. Lower rank wild is littered with ppl who clearly play just for fun - millions of mistakes made, no apparent incentive to win (well I’m sure they do want to win badly, it just doesn’t look like it from the mistakes). I mean, I’m winning games there with legendary-only troll decks (well OK, I do play just for fun sometimes; winning with completely terrible decks is kind of satisfactory sometimes)… The fact that half of these ppl play big priest doesn’t mean that big priest is a great deck (it’s average).
That’s not surprising at all. Above rank5 ppl usually play to win only and that’s where non-top-tier decks, especially highroll-lowroll ones, disappear.
This is true, as I experienced the same thing. However, this isn’t a valid argument to not nerf big priest. As I’ve mentioned in other threads, the problem with big priest is that it shapes the meta to be strictly aggro, because other control decks that can compete against aggro decks can not beat big priest. Nerf big priest and many other mid range and control decks become viable.
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I used Rin, first disciple and Elysiana in a control warlock deck to hit legend. Treachery a Doomsayer into the priest’s graveyard, sooner the better, and the game becomes much easier (82% win rate against priest).
Deck code if curious:
AAEBAf0GCMIP4KwCoM4Cl9MC2OcCoIADgIoDhp0DC4oB2waODvUPrRD9Ed7EAufLAsXMAvLQAujnAgA=
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I did my climb prior to the Rogue patch but my experience was similar as well. Priest made up 12% of my matches from rank 8 through Legend. My most played against deck at that time was Rogue (which I’d assume now is Murloc Shaman) and Warlock (divided between 3 archetypes)
Two issues with this assumption:
- Control isn’t dead in Wild. The following decks are all Control shells and are boarderline or firmly tier 2 or better:
- Baku Warrior
- Dragon Control Priest
- Cubelock
- Jade Druid
- Renolock
- Big Priest is certainly a large barrier to a Control meta occurring but so are a lot of other decks. Prior to the nerf even Kingsbane Aggro Rogue was actually a barrier to non-Baku Warrior control decks because Kingsbane could damage through a lot of obstacles. Nerf Big Priest tomorrow and Hourlock will rise-up the second Control tries to become a substantial portion of the meta.
I dislike Big Priest to play against but I wonder, I really wonder, if Wild being shaped by the deck has more benefit than drawback.
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That is because aggro is the only way to beat BP, as sad as it is to say. Midrange and control both get slaughtered because there is only so many ways to deal with big late game taunts (statue or lich king) or yshaaarj pulling heavy bodies on board. BP is being kept in check by aggro, but is keeping everything else that tries to play the late game in check.
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well some new even cheesier decks wreck it now but still the resurrect priest in wild illustrates well what’s wrong with the game in general. They add new resurrect cards every expansion to replace the ones going out of standard but ins standard they just pile up. I have been playing mostly wild but it’s starting to get pretty bad. The card buffs coming out soon is a step in the right direction but they have to do that more to increase decks that are viable in wild. I miss playing shadow(form) priest a lot.
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my immortal prelate deck beats BP and many other wild deck like Jade gollem.
lol that is a great tech. I might try you list it looks fun.
Rank 6-8 currently. I dont cosider these ranks low and there are huge BP numbers there.
Also let me add something: People dont play ressurect priest for fun, they play him cause its literally the only deck that managed to stay in solid Tier for so much long time.
Even i (the one who created the rant post) have a BP deck in my collection and i believe that after 2.5 years most people do. I can assure you that many times in the past i ve reached rank 5 using it (i never try for even more). Still i find it problematic, polarizing and unfun to play against which is why i created this thread.
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And you’re right, but to me, what’s frustrating is the fact that 25-30% of my my ladder matches in wild are vs BP. Sure, the deck might be ‘average’ as some other say to defend it, nevertheless, you’ll be wanting to play a deck that does well vs BP if you ever want to climb, and that cuts the list of available decks to ladder with to only a few and mostly uniformed archetype (aggro, so barely any option for midrange or control). If the population of BP would be 10-15% it would already feel much healthier, but facing the same deck 25-30% (according to my stats for multiple seasons) is just boring and toxic.
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Its not about balance, its about fun.
Big priest is just so completely unfun to play against.
They play nothing the first 4 turns, so aggro decks destroy them easily, On the same token, they generate absurd amounts of threat past that, so say any midrange deck good by.
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I played for the first time the OTK version and it doesn’t feel good to play it. You don’t have to worry for drawing cards at all; just play whatever you have in hand and buffs diamond stone. I watched an Odd Paladin die without having to trade a single time.
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Why don’t you try playing some aggro decks? I play Pirate Warrior in wild and I don’t have problems with ressurect priest.
BP in Wild has to be the lowest IQ deck in HS history after the mulligan.
The deck has 0 card draw and plays one card a turn, almost every turn, after turn 4.
And the mulligan is super easy too.
- Do I have Barnes or Vargoth?
Yes. Keep them and look for early res and Shadow Visions.
No… - Do I have Shadow Visions or Shadow Essence?
Yes. Keep them and look for AOE.
No. Mulligan full hand away.
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I’m still firmly anti-Big-Priest. Not necessarily for diversity reasons, although the metagame is somewhat devoid of anything that might be called “midrange” at the moment. (Some Even Shaman and Even Warlock builds certainly count though.)
It’s pretty much the quintessential high-roll deck. Win rate swings by 30 points based on a 36% chance of Barnes on 4. That’s the average; some matchups less, some even more.
That is fine for a “fun” deck, but not one that hovers between tiers 1 and 2 with the highest play rate. When it’s the most popular Wild deck, the feeling of player agency just drops by a lot.
I don’t think anyone who really likes playing competitively enjoys facing a Big Priest, even if they are statistically favored.
…Okay, maybe Rogue decks are OK with it.
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The gameplay idea is not bad, certain combinations like cheating out high mana lifesteal/taunt/deathrattle destroy minion effects this way is the real offender imho. (overall the introduction of discover, lifesteal, twinspell, magnetic are very bad for the game in the long haul imho )
I would modify some resurrect spells to resurrect the cards like Zombie/Reborn version which are silenced. Also would modify Vargath to be like a 2/5 orc, have 50% chance to actually recast the spell.
There should be a Barnes nerf so it can just cheat out max 4 mana cards. Maybe create another 7mana version which can cheat out any mana.
But Blizzard makes it pretty clear with their actions or lack of they want to keep the game expensive with OP cards / broken imbalanced, “I have these cards, IWIN gameplay”
I think a part of them are simple Gold bots, not even real players. No way that many real human players actually spend time “playing” (its autopilot, you are not really playing)
I don’t know, but it’s absolutely not all. Specially at 11-15 where I play there’s a lot of suboptimal Resurrect Priest decks. They all love Convincing Infiltrator, which combined with Twilight’s Call pretty much shuts down any minion based aggression, and drags the game for an eternity. Elysiana is jealous. Why would you bot that?
So it’s twisting the meta, because it’s over 90% of Priest players. All other 8 classes I have no clue what they could be playing against, except that one of the effects of the res Priests is the dumb Coldlight Rogues outnumber non Coldlight Rogues. If a Rogue doesn’t play a card before turn 3, I go face harder than a teenage boy on prom night and win 90% of the time.
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