Shaman and the Pirate package are about to get worse very soon.
The Shaman class has been considered the very best in Hearthstone since the arrival of [card]tunnel trogg[/card] and [card]totem golem[/card] and even more so in the Karazhan/Gadgetzan meta due to [card]spirit claws[/card] and [card]small-time buccaneer[/card]. With so much early-game engine, Shamans are able to snowball out of control with uncanny speed, leading to the class being almost permanently banned in tournament play.
With the coming balance patch, Claws and Buccaneer at least are getting the nerf bat. Blizzard is keeping the effects of the cards the same, but are tuning their numbers a bit in hopes to fix the early-game pressure. No other cards will be changed.
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Buccaneer’s health will drop from 2 to 1. Even though it will still be able to summon [card]patches the pirate[/card] and provide pirate synergy, Buccaneer will at least now die to a ping and also not trade favorably into most 1-drops.
Spirit Claws is up to 2 mana from 1, a powerful increase in the cost. No longer will it be possible to Claws on Turn 1 and roll a spell power totem on Turn 2 to essentially get a more durable [card]fiery war axe[/card]. The increase from 1 to 2 mana is considered particularly impactful in card games and Hearthstone’s history has seen a card like [card]flare[/card] undergoing the same change and go from staple to unplayable overnight.
How the metagame will turn out with the hit to Shaman remains to be seen, but on paper this should greatly increase the strength of slower decks such as Druid and Renos. With its hard counter bruised, Miracle Rogue is also expected to be an absolutely dominant force.
In addition, Blizzard are introducing the so called ladder “floors” on each of ranks 15, 10 and 5. Upon reaching those milestones, players will not be de-ranked below them.
While this will optimize the ladder grind, it still doesn’t address one of the main complaints that high-ranked and legend players have been having: The monthly rank reset and having to climb the entire ladder from the bottom up. With ladder seasons being intrinsic to the entire competitive HCT circuit, however, it is unlikely major changes are done to the online play in the near future.
