Question about the state of Shaman on the site since K&C

[Vandersveldt 0]

Please don't take this as passive aggressive attacking, this is a real question, and it's cool if y'all are just behind. Is the reason that there's been no updates to shaman decks since K&C came out because whoever does shaman just hasn't done it yet? Or is shaman horribly bad in K&C and should be ignored as a viable option? I know there's no way to ask this without looking like I'm upset about it, I really just want to know if shaman was just horrible in this expansion and I should forget about the class entirely for now.

[positiv2 953]

Our current priority are the dungeon runs, Shaman will get there, too, but since shaman has been pretty weak so far in K&C, it might take a bit longer than usual, as we are hoping that a strong shaman deck will suddenly appear. That's also the reason I cannot really help you decide whether to ditch shaman, as the current state of shaman could turn around. However, as of now, I would not play shaman for try-hard ladder progression.

Anyway, I asked L0rinda, our Shaman author, to update the shaman section a bit when he has some time. Until then, sorry to keep you waiting.

[Caldyrvan 377]

In KFT shaman got the useless freeze stuff and in K&C stuff that's looking cool but mostly not that great, at least so far.

I'm not a pro and I doubt it will do very well on the higher ladder ranks but I had fun with this maybe if you enjoy playing shaman you can have at least some fun.

(I'm still working on it and I'm not really happy about some cards in it and thinking about replacements)

• 2x Ancestral Spirit
• 2x Crushing Hand
• 2x Maelstrom Portal
• 2x Stormforged Axe
• 1x Tainted Zealot
• 2x Drakkari Defender
• 1x Far Sight
• 1x Hot Spring Guardian
• 2x Lightning Storm
• 1x Spirit Echo
• 2x Hex
• 1x Jinyu Waterspeaker
• 2x Tidal Surge
• 2x Earth Elemental
• 2x Volcano
• 2x Lesser Sapphire Spellstone
• 1x Al'Akir the Windlord
• 2x Snowfury Giant

P.S. Thank you to the person who updated the "Import Deck" feature, seems to work properly with K&C cards now :)

Edited December 14, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[VaraTreledees 138]

I know kibbler was having some success with a shaman deck close to Caldyrvan's.  Elemental shaman is probably "viable" (as in tier 3 or 4), but shaman seems to have gotten the short end of the stick.  Evolve shaman is probably still the "best" build but the new and interesting stat lines (read very weak for mana cost) a lot of minions got in K&C has made evolving a much less reliable route to victory. 

 

As a note to Caldyrvan, a lot of people are running Flamewreathed Faceless in the deck, and 2 Jinyu Waterspeakers.  I also personally wouldn't run Al'Akir the Windlord, not having Flametongue Totem or Rockbiter Weapon makes him much weaker.  

[Caldyrvan 377]

It was an old copy of my deck code, I already removed Al'Akir :D

I'm still missing a lot of cards from old gods as well as MSG and at this point I'm not eager to spend resources on cards that will leave standard in a few months.

But even then I would rather add Thing from Below or maybe Arcane Giant (due to the high amount of spells in the deck) because their mana cost can be reduced which makes it easier to combo with Ancestral Spirit and Greater Sapphire Spellstone.

Oh and it's so sad that it is in fact very pointless to talk about tier 3/4 decks even though they can be fun to play in theory you simply get destroyed by all the top tier decks most are playing. Sad so many cool cards/decks being uselss.

Edited December 14, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[VaraTreledees 138]

1 hour ago, Caldyrvan said:

It was an old copy of my deck code, I already removed Al'Akir :D

I'm still missing a lot of cards from old gods as well as MSG and at this point I'm not eager to spend resources on cards that will leave standard in a few months.

But even then I would rather add Thing from Below or maybe Arcane Giant (due to the high amount of spells in the deck) because their mana cost can be reduced which makes it easier to combo with Ancestral Spirit and Greater Sapphire Spellstone.

Oh and it's so sad that it is in fact very pointless to talk about tier 3/4 decks even though they can be fun to play in theory you simply get destroyed by all the top tier decks most are playing. Sad so many cool cards/decks being uselss.

Meh.  You just have to be better to climb if you want to use inferior decks (by better I mean either a better player or just have superior knowledge of how to pilot your deck compared to your opponent).  The closest I ever came to legend was malygos miracle rogue in the mid range shaman meta of kara, and it was considered a tier 3 deck at the time.  I can't remember if I hit rank 2 or almost hit rank 2.  I also hit rank 3 or 4 with reno priest back during mean streets.  I also have no doubt that if I had been able to dedicate more time to the game during those seasons that I would have pushed legend (working 60+ hours a week kind of sucks).  We also have someone on the site, don't remember who, who was close to pushing legend with mid range hunter a couple months ago.  TL:DR, if your goal isn't to push legend as efficiently as possible, you can play most decks in most metas and climb with them as long as you put in the work.

 

Also, yes thing from below is amazing in that sort of deck.

Edited December 14, 2017 by VaraTreledees

[Keizoku 185]

7 hours ago, Vandersveldt said:

I really just want to know if shaman was just horrible in this expansion and I should forget about the class entirely for now.

Shaman got the short stick in K&C with an unplayable legendary weapon, a funny but highly situational Legendary minion and (with the exception of Unstable Evolution and Kobold Hermit) cards that are too clunky to really fit in existing deck archetypes.

This said, despite the ratio of useful to useless evolve results being brought down by the many "low stats with big impact" minions in K&C, Evolve Shaman still works pretty well. It was a high-roll deck before K&C already, you just need to sacrifice a couple more nubile virgins to the Elder God Ayre Henne Gee. 

Quote

(working 60+ hours a week kind of sucks)

Join the club, bro'!

Edited December 14, 2017 by Keizoku

[Vandersveldt 0]

Thanks for the responses! I was waiting to buy packs until each class had decks on here, but if shaman is that bad for now I'll just buy packs and completely ignore shaman for now. 

[Shine 144]

I can try and come up with some cool builds for a shaman myself. they wont be meta but an idea can grow and evolve into a good deck.

problem is I dont have sufficient shaman epics and legendaries to try everything the way I want to, neither do I have dust to craft with.

[Esthirel 15]

On 14-12-2017 at 11:30 AM, VaraTreledees said:

Meh....
...I can't remember if I hit rank 2 or almost hit rank 2.  I also hit rank 3 or 4 with reno priest back during mean streets.
...working 60+ hours a week kind of sucks. 

I summarized the highlights in your response (which shows I must probably find some new challenges in my life). I loved it for it shows you are a guy (or girl...0.3% chance hehe) who is keeping it real. It's always refreshing to see a  HS player that isn't an ignorant pretentious .... (feel free to make up real ugly words here).

Working 60+ hours a week were the best parts of my life (no not in the summer of '69...hard one nvm...). Your work (or a different goal that requires you to) must be motivating and inspiring you otherwise you wouldn't do it for such a big part of your time. My 60+ hours a week periods were great. Awesome jobs or awesome plans in the near future.

So what I am saying is: It's a nice thing not being able to hit legend because you have a life :) Keep up the good times.

huh? did someone say Shaman? I advice you to do everything you want except for playing a bad shaman deck. :)  or be original and find a surprising deck that is your own creation. This is the short cycle period that isn't netdecked. This is the only period where playing the ladder doesn't lead to anger :s

Arena is always fun to play btw.

My vote goes to 60+ hour working weeks

Thank you