I think it's clear that the first iteration of whirlwind cards was too extreme, having characters move randomly over the entire map. What builds used whilrwind when it existed in this format? Mainly it was a build that focused on the loading up on the then un-nerfed Nimble Strike and chasing down the whirled opponents. With the changes made to Nimble Strike, this wouldn't be particularly viable any longer. I would suggest that in order to get the card back as a viable option it should be changed to Whirlwind Enemies moving enemies randomly between 2 and 3 spaces and Whilwind moving all characters randomly between 3 and 4 spaces. A reasonable test as to the balance of a nerf is how the cards propagate post-nerf. Nimble Strike: Still widely used. Draw cards after the drawspam nerf: Still widely used. Whirlwind cards: A luxury on some niche maps and leagues.
Hmmm. The further these spells can move you or your enemies, the greater the number of situations in which it might just drop an enemy character right behind one of your own. Would "Whirlwind Enemies" be too strong if it kept the 2-tile max shift, but only picked tiles that were possibly further but never closer to the caster?
AFAIK, Whirwind Wizard is usually paired up with two warriors that actually want enemies closer to them. Also, I don't want more randomness in Whirlwind.
So you would say the whirlwind changes were a boost not a nerf? If you want to draw targets closer, there are better options for that (Gusts of War, Telek, Winds of War). I would say by definition whirlwinds should have more randomness. You could add another class of card that is a whirlpool or vortex to specifically draw characters closer.
Actually in the Brewing with Peon thread Peonprop made reasonably good use of WW/WWE. Just because something isn't getting play, doesn't mean it's not playable. No one was using NS after the nerf either until someone decided to mess around with it enough to find a viable build and then make some noise about it. Only then was it being played again.
I only started playing after after the big balance changes on November, but I think reducing the randomness of Whirlwind is a good thing, not necessarily a boost. Also, Gusts of War / Winds of War are much more expensive (gold vs. bronze) compared to Whirlwinds and Telekinesis affects only one character and has quite low range. As Scarponi said, Peonprop made a quite successful WW/WWE deck: http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/brewing-with-peon.7052/page-6#post-86309
I actually like whirlwind enemy and think its a a functional card (other then whirlwind), but i would welcome a guarantee that noone affected stays on the square he stands on.
