I am someone who does NOT play wizards, ever. I am not interested in a 30 minute war of attrition. I play two warriors and a priest, because i like my games to be quick and dirty battles based on skill rather than patience. I have done this for over a year now. I quit cardhunter for a period of months when vicious thrust and nimble strike were nerfed, because they were my only defense against a majority of opponents who play entirely/mostly wizards in a game that heavily favored that build. I have been playing cardhunter again for a few weeks now, and I was really surprised to find that control wizards are still a completely viable build, yet warriors have been stripped entirely of their ability to compete against it. I can't believe the amount of innovative new cards and skills that wizards have, while warriors abilities have been reduced entirely to just stationary attacks. Why is my enemy able to sight through illusory barrier but not me? Why the hell don't i have a single card to counter flash flood? Now mass frenzy is going to buff wizards too???? Are you effing kidding me?!! Why is card hunter catering so hard to only one play style?
It just seems like wizards are being given tons of new ways to create distance between them and their opponents, while warriors have been completely stripped of their ability to close that distance. Not cool. I was a paying club member for a long long time; probably never again.
Sad to see such indignation from a guildmate—we Sorcererers are all about keeping our cool, right? Let's talk about the perceived issue. A fact: Wizards' control effects were heavily nerfed in August. In general we made extra movement cost a bit more, both on control effects (e.g. Winds of War) and on anti-control effects (e.g. Hard to Pin). We are definitely not catering to a single play style, and when a single style appears to be on the verge of dominance we will do our best, as always, to ensure that other methods remain viable. Warriors are by and large the strongest class by a wide margin right now in multiplayer, using what is probably the strongest single card (Team Run) and supported by what is probably the second strongest (Mass Frenzy). Some of the coming balance changes address this, primarily with the goal of making multiple team compositions viable (we want 1/1/1 to be a better option, for instance). Wings of Faith, Flight Aura, and Nimble Strike are all good against Flash Flood, and that's without even getting into the literal tons of options wizards have (Smoke Bomb, Wall of Fire, etc.). It's possible that your disappointment stems from issues in deckbuilding or playstyle. As your guild leader I would be very happy to coach you around 'control wizards' which are far from a dominant archetype. I'm sure many of our guildmates would gladly help as well. Let us know, we're here for you.
Flax, you are tripping if you really believe that warriors are the strongest class in this game. Wings of faith, flight aura, and nimble strike are a joke if you're trying to create a viable melee party. Let's talk next time you're in game.
I phrased my complaint wrong. Yes, control wizards are far from being a dominant build. But they still exist and they're still a problem, especially now(considering our neutered warriors). And people are still huddling in a corner, buffing their wizards, preventing anybody from getting close, and then shredding. And now we're going to give them mass frenzy too?? Girl, please. Better hope for that sprint team. Too bad you're 1000% more likely to draw slow. Why give wizards new and exciting ways to increase damage and keep their opponents at a distance, but not give warriors any new ways to close the gap? The 1/1/1 build is never going to dominate until cardhunter solves it's wizard bias.
My prediction is 2 Wizard + 1 Priest will stomp hard. Vakaz already runs that and manages 1800 Elo. They will only be stronger with the upcoming changes. But we'll see. In my test games on the test server I ran that comp and did very well. Granted, that was before Surestrike was changed to melee only.
waitwaitwait, I kicked off this party, not Vakaz... you should be citing my complete dominance. My ELO isn't 1800 merely because I ragequit when matches take longer than 5 minutes, or when my opponent is playing with nimbus, or when my opponent draws triple team move in the first round.
I'll just note that burfft isn't particularly slow (note: @neoncat bothers to run it) or tortuous, and very different from control wizards. Emphasis mine. Sign of trolling
I disagree with this. I think that Frenzy Melee and Savage Burst are actually similar in terms of power right now. Warriors have Team Run and benefit greatly from Mass Frenzy, wizards have burst and benefit greatly from Savage Curse, and clerics have the aforementioned buffs that make those two classes rule. The map rotation tilts the balance towards one or another (right now it definitely favors Savage Burst). I have mentioned before that the balance changes benefit Savage Burst the most. I agree that Team Run is OP, but the issue is that nerfing it disrupts the most important part of warrior vs wizard fights: getting in range in the first place! When I ran Frenzy Melee last month, Team Run/Sprint, Team! were usually all I could do to get in range of my opponents (with the map usually determining the outcome from there). And now that I'm running savage burst, Team Run is one of the only cards that gives me problems. Even then, if the map is still in my favor I can usually retain the upperhand. Just for fun, here's a recommendation for how Team Run could work: You and other allies move your respective racial move.
It may sound like a catty comment, but I acknowledge your dominance as drama queen. It's difficult to maintain a high rating as well, and I think your prioritization suits you to a tee.
The wizard party is officially over, go home now. Everyone above 1500 is running a counter-build, the matchmaker won't put me on anything except Lost City, matches are taking 10 minutes of purely my opponent's time, and I'm being taunted as they club down my wizard. The wizards are gone, and I'm playing something without dice for a while.
To the OP (fmeat) you do know there are these crazy cards call Cleansing Ray and Cleansing Burst. I am not a fan of running them as they are limited scope cards, but unlike Wall of Stone, you can target these squares. BUT I am one of the more vocal wizard complainers and I feel you. My biggest complaint is the fact that Dwarf Wizards are fairly hard to kill. With 25 hp the only non-Dwarf character with more hit points is a human warrior. Add to that they can have 2 Toughness (yes I know Rusty armor is a dud, but STILL MAKES someone harder to kill) and you have a very tough ranged character. I think the balance between step nerfs and reduction in control spells is basically fair and while Illusionary Barrier and Flash Flood are probably due a nerf, they are far from unstoppable. The Burft wiz is the new Firestorm, not quite as cowardly but close. The biggest difference is the absolute rarity of burst spells, making it a build that is still relatively rare, although in the 1400+ crowd (which is only about 500 players a % of them inactive) it is certainly the OP du jour. Personally I would love Toughness to be nerfed in some fashion. My preference would be subject to penetrating. I would be satisfied with Perfect Toughness (a common) being altered to only have 1 Toughness, replacing 1 with something good like Inspiring Armor that would help with Toughness (as an armor) but provide a possible card draw, but lack complete immunity to damage or something that would be thematic like only preventing melee damage (my least favorite, but the most logical). Of course you could reduce MP wizard hps (21 for D-wiz, 19 for humans and keep the lowly e-wiz at 17), BUT Toughness is really the issue. Resistant hide is fine because it can't be depended on (unless you are Cardotron) and Nimbus is annoying but it's not the card itself that is the issue, it's the fact that having 10 on a priest is fairly easy. Of course I've been whining like this since the major balance change since I think lacking any step 3+ attacks is lame and since wizards have the most ways to disrupt your opponent, the best anti-wizard is to have a wizard which is not fun for people like me that don't want to figure out line of sight every move (a pain on a laptop with a touch pad). Until I reach a state of zen with wizards I will feel this way. I have to constantly think and the difficulty of remembering LoS with a monthly rotation of maps in MP makes me less likely to want to use wizards (until i get a Blue Destruction and staff million embers) especially with Punishing Bolt being nerfed down to range 4. Make Ember Burst range 4... okay I'm done.
