Hey guys, I wanted to take a moment and discuss the new expansion. It brought us some interesting and powerful runes and a lot of changes in old runes and abilities. Grade Scale: A+ - Autoinclude in all decks. A- - Autoinclude in certain theme decks. B+ - Can be considered in meta decks. B- - Should likely be in theme decks but not considered for meta. C+ - Decent but other runes are available that do the same job better. NEW RUNES: Grintmaw Sealer - Grade: B- Sealer does a great job of filling a small gap in Grints, that being cheap meat. He also brings some pretty neat synergy along with him. At first glance there isn't much that seems special about him. 5 Base speed on a melee champion isn't that great. The speed will likely push people to taking Aura over Nova on U1 because he wont often have enough AP to maneuver and use the ability. That said Rock Defiance scales based on the number of champions in play and being only 51 Nora means that you can deploy him very easily. His cost makes him a great mid-font contester because when he dies you are not really out much of an investment. Reckless Blast lets him attack from 5 range every few rounds and the ability bypasses defense which is nice. The other small synergy he has is Charged Barricade. Grintmaw have a good amount of Slam which means you can run the Sealer in and drop a barricade behind them to get some surprise punch to your Slam attacks. Ironfist Standardbearer - Grade: C+ Standardbearer falls into a role that is already fairly cluttered. He is an support/invigorate champ. This means he is fighting with Attendant Squire, Beermaiden and the newly released Kingmaker for dwarf deck space. He has a leg up on either the Beermaiden or the Kingmaker in the fact that he can also fight. Attack: Sonic is nice for alt-damage but his low 8 damage means he isnt overly good at it. Under the right circumstances Rally could be good allowing you to deploy champs without worrying that your opponent will instantly kill them but generally its a pretty useless ability. Taking Rally 1 on U2 lets him come in at a nice 59 or 60 depending on your U1 choice. Generally my advice would be to choose other support options because they ahve better synergy but if you can make him work go ahead. Kingmaker - Grade: A- The Kingmaker does exactly what he says he does. Gift: Kingmaker allows him to gift Majestic and Prestige to the next deployed champion. He then can use his chosen U2 ability to support that champion. Personally I take Bubble because a 10HP Buffer every other turn can make even a Deep Miner decently tanky. U1 can be a slightly more difficult choice but Blockade or Soften are your best options. Personally I run him with Blockade which is far more handy than you would expect. It also lets him come in at a nice cost of 60. In Dwarf/Drunk decks he is likely your best first turn draw you can get. Follow him up with a 2nd turn champ like Brewmaster, Paladin Commander, Euan or DK and get them in peoples faces. Generally try to avoid putting Majestic on your ranged champs. Northern Cross Purger - Grade: B+ The Purger is a nice little champ that likes to shoot things and hit them in the face. You likely want to take Mark of Al'Mara on U1 because its both the cheapest and it lets him synergize with U2. U2 can be a bit of a conundrum. Purging Flames gives you AoE5 dispel with all your sources of Branded in Paladins. Fire Acolyte heals him for a decent amount from Branded and lets him come in at a respectable 75 Nora. Flame Charge is likely the least viable of the choices but it doubles Branded damage to 4 damage per attack by a Paladin, Priest or Shaman. You have to collect globes constantly to keep his range up but even as a melee champion his stats are plenty. Patch Notes: Champions Houndmaster Default Cost to 71 Not even sure what changed here because I am pretty sure he was 71 Nora before. Drunken Thug Upgrade Set 1: Berserker 2, Berserk Attack 3 (default), Hunter: Brawler Not too much happened with Drunken Thug other than Hunter: Summoned switching to Hunter: Brawler. Interrogator Default Cost to 77 Ability cost changes to the abilities on U2 made her a tad cheaper. Brubaker Brothers Defense increase (+1) Sibling lost the draw aspect and got a small cost decrease so increasing their base defense kept the cost relatively the same. Stone Colossus Default Cost to 71 Damage increase (+4) HP decrease (-1) Defense decrease (-1) Very good change for Colossus. With Crushing Blow and Resistance 2 his cost only went up 2 Nora for +4 damage and losing a small bit of tankiness. Dwarven Catapult Classes: WARRIOR Best change ever! Just kidding. Ghoulhunter Default Cost to 58 Upgrade Set 1: Hunter: Mage (default), Hunter: Quick, Hunter: Meek Pretty decent set of changes for Ghoulhunter. The 'Nerfs' to Hunter brought his cost down even further but also gave him a set of Hunters that are useful more often. Take Hunter: Quick or Meek for the most effect at 59. May see some play in Paladin decks because he is a shaman. 51 HP for 59 Nora is good and Illuminate will only bring his cost down even more. Half Skeezick [Ironfist Stronghold, Sundered Lands] Upgrade Set 1: Skeezick Alliance (default), Hunter: Hero, Hunter: Equipped Minor change for us. May see some play with Hunter: Equipped but generally will be better for SL than IS. Nightwatch Default Cost to 71 Starting Abilities: Vulnerability: Psychic, Attack: Physical, Shadowspawn, Pilfer The vulnerability is nice for keeping his cost reasonable but unless he loses Pilfer in favor of Shatter and maybe gets Class: Rogue, Priest because of the flavortext he wont have a place in any of the IS themes. Exorcist Default Cost to 67 Upgrade Set 1: Hunter: Mage, Hunter: Cleric (default), Hunter: Meek I have a dream of when Exorcist will be playable but today is not that day. Barbarian Elite Default Cost to 78 Upgrade Set 1: Resolute (default), Counter Attack: Melee, Tough 1 A cool set of changes. Dont know if it will make much of a difference. We havnt seen many Barbarian decks in a while. Brewmaster Classes: BRUTE Finally! Master Axeman Upgrade Set 1: Throw Axe (default), Hunter: Equipped, Hunter: Crippled Upgrade Set 1: Sunder 2, Craft (default), Provision: Defense Hunter: Equipped is an interesting option for U1 in Drunk decks. Equip the opponent with a Pale Brew and suddenly they have -3 damage and Axeman takes 2 less damage from them. Assuming You have Provision and a BLB yourself he is going to be pretty tanky. Stoneskin Dwarf Default Cost to 73 Upgrade Set 1: Defensive Stance 3, Channel: Defense, Bold (default) This guy may be pretty good. Bold and Defensive Stance are both good ways of increasing defense. Paired with Defiant he can be pretty tanky while Sundering things for range. Ironfist Inquisitor Upgrade Set 1: Rend 1 (default), Strike, Render Render is a nice ability but with Strike on the line it comes down to preference. Render is 3 nora more expensive but is better when attacking things that have a lower defense than a different enemy on the field. Scarlet Wing Upgrade Set 1: Flame Nova 3, Flamestrike (default), Burn 2 Wont likely change things once they figure out Burn is on both upgrade lines. Northern Cross Fanatic Upgrade Set 1: Pounce 3 (default), Glorious Leap Upgrade Set 1: Pummel 1, Cleave (default) Just rearranged things. She can now have Pounce and Pummel if you want though and she is still dirt cheap. Sarnghavian Centaur [Ironfist Stronghold, K'thir Forest] Default Cost to 75 HP increase (+4) Upgrade Set 1: Defender, Block 2, Bold (default) Upgrade Set 1: Charge 3 (default), Throw Axe, Combo Attack: Stun Changes mainly made for Centaurs Northern Cross Avenger Starting Abilities: Attack: Physical, Stasis, Hunter: Meek Hunter: Meek is definitely better than Hunter: Summoned Valdaci Guardian [Ironfist Stronghold, Sundered Lands] Default Cost to 71 Starting Abilities: Immunity: Acid, Attack: Acid, Imposing Aura, Valdaci Sacrifice: Emerald Upgrade Set 1: Acidic Aura 3, Provision: Defense (default), Acid Acolyte Valdaci Shieldwarden Upgrade Set 1: Damage Shield: Physical 3, Weaken Spells, Empowered: Speed (default) Not even sure what changed with these two. Spells Spare Parts Description: Area Effect 3: Real friendly constructs gain Bestow. Just clarified to only count Real champs. Relics Earthshaker HP decrease (-5) Minor change but definitely a nerf. You mainy run Eartshaker for the immediate effect. Equipment Holy Mace Nora Cost decrease (-10) Small buff. Still wont see play.
Some good thoughts here. I hope you don't mind, I've already purloined some of them for when I update my Dwarf guide (don't worry, I'll cite my sources ). I like the changes to SSD, should make him a bit more appealing now, though it's not like Dwarves are hurting for melee. Run alongside some other Sunder champs he might just make the cut. I'd say Kingmaker is definitely the winner this time around. He's got a boatload of utility, only thing he doesn't do is generate AP, and like you said we've got plenty of options in that department. Thinking of taking Soften and Bubble so that he's not sitting around with a bunch of wasted AP all the time, but Divert is tempting. Loving the added synergy Axeman brings too. Cheap grunt slots might be seeing some experimentation in the coming weeks. Usually I run Thug, but Axeman also has Thow Axe, so a mini defense reduction module might be the new norm in Dwarves.
Shieldwarden gained Damage Shield V Guardian lost acidic aura base and i'm pretty sure it had Acid Acolyte base too. Rearrange of abilities to make him more useable.
