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[Strongpoint]

Ultimate Infestation is around 15 mana worth of effects and it usually gets played on turn 8. That one card is grotesque, and it's the only reason the mana ramp cards are worth playing in such high numbers.

But yeah, I can see Blizzard gutting the entire rest of the class that's never been a real problem before just to avoid admitting what a terrible decision UI was.

UI is absrud but it is not the only problem.

In Ungoro Druid had two very strong decks (aggro and jade) and one quite strong (big druid). Blizzard reacted to that... by printing many strong cards. The only bad druid's cards in KFT are: gnash, fatespinner, webweave (yet they said it was the last minute change from 4 to 5 mana, with 4 mana it would be another very good card) and hadronox(yet it may have some potential later)
All other cards range from good to broken and either strengthen existing tier 1 decks or create a new archetype.

On other hand look at what rogues or hunters got... I can't see logic in such decisions.

[Criptfeind]

I think they expected jade to die to the giest a bit easier and the other big control decks to come into the frame. Druid in theory struggles against them because of lack of removal, tons of late game value an't worth much if your opponents can just remove everything you have... It's just that jade makes that impossible... I really think they just dropped the ball and expected giest to really destroy the current druid and force them into a new type of deck that they weren't ready for, but that turned out to just not happen so the best cards were taken and put into jade and just made it really op.

Hunter got crap cards because it's apparently really good at low ranks. Rogue always gets 'crap' cards lol. The rogue cycle: give it weird cards that are mostly bad, the diamonds in the rough are found and make a super op deck, nerf rogue.

[Arx]

Hunter will always have a certain tendency to crush low ranked players, because aggression is almost always very effective against poor players of any game. It's not great, but I'm not sure it's a reason to kill Hunter.

I'm always a bit sad when hyper aggro decks are the current cheese, because I enjoy playing them. It's relaxing. So I don't at all mind that we're not in the bad old SMOrc Hunter days, but it is a bit disappointing that I don't get to play Rexxar much for the opposite reason.

[Strongpoint]

The rogue cycle: give it weird cards that are mostly bad, the diamonds in the rough are found and make a super op deck, nerf rogue.

You don't mean quest rogue here, right? It was a good deck, not  OP. Rogues weren't tier one for a long time.

[StagnantSoul]

Before I spend my entire days data allocation on updating Hearthstone, is zoo warlock still good?

[Arx]

Zoo is very rarely played any more. Druid counters it hard with Spreading Plague.

[wereboar]

Zoo got a bit heavy with Skelemancer and Bonemare but it actually shows great results on low to mid ranks.
Aggro Hunter is alright too. Much less consistent but still fun.

[Criptfeind]

You don't mean quest rogue here, right? It was a good deck, not  OP. Rogues weren't tier one for a long time.

Quest rogue would be a bit of an exception to this, since it was a clearly strong deck from day 1, although it was certainly refined a lot over time. I mean the more aggro and miracle style rogues that pop up over time, sometimes it's arcane giants and edwin, sometimes coldbloods and leeroy jenkins, sometimes malagos. Sometimes murlocks. Sometimes just pirates beating in the face. The nerf rogue quip was about how it's gotten some of the biggest nerfs, loosing Blade Flurry, Conceal, small time buccaner, Leeroy Jenkins and auctioneer price increase, backstab nerf, even their hero power. But unlike other cards and decks that blizzard takes the nerf bat too, rogue seems to just keep on trucking, rogue might not have been the most broken opop deck ever recently, but it's been a long time since it was in the dumpster.

Hunter will always have a certain tendency to crush low ranked players, because aggression is almost always very effective against poor players of any game. It's not great, but I'm not sure it's a reason to kill Hunter.

Well, it's certainly not a great situation all round, but I think making it bad is an understandable reaction. Most players of the game are those at lower ranks, and their experience in the game matters as well. When hunter becomes just so good against lower ranked people but trash at high ranks, you sorta have to choose to let the minority of high ranked players have a single bad class that'll be mostly ignored in the meta in exchange for balancing lower rank play, or let the majority of low ranked players have a single super powered class that crushes their meta just so that high ranked players can have one more t3 or 2 deck in their meta.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't think there's an easy answer there, but I think it's at least understandable why they went this way.

[Arx]

Zoo got a bit heavy with Skelemancer and Bonemare but it actually shows great results on low to mid ranks.
Aggro Hunter is alright too. Much less consistent but still fun.

Everything is viable up to around rank 15, though. Zoo is really not a competitively powerful deck as far as I can tell, certainly not compared to what it used to be. Control variants are a lot stronger (witness DK Guldan being run even in zoo). It is workable, though.

Well, it's certainly not a great situation all round, but I think making it bad is an understandable reaction. Most players of the game are those at lower ranks, and their experience in the game matters as well. When hunter becomes just so good against lower ranked people but trash at high ranks, you sorta have to choose to let the minority of high ranked players have a single bad class that'll be mostly ignored in the meta in exchange for balancing lower rank play, or let the majority of low ranked players have a single super powered class that crushes their meta just so that high ranked players can have one more t3 or 2 deck in their meta.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't think there's an easy answer there, but I think it's at least understandable why they went this way.

The point is well made, and that is something I've thought about a bit. It's the classic big game hunter studio problem - they want to make the game easy and appeal to the masses, but also keep a hardcore competitive edge. Quips about RNGStone aside, Hunter is a fairly classic example of why that dichotomy is in fact a dichotomy - a noobstomping class like Hunter is fine in a hardline competitive game, because you expect the players to take it a bit seriously. It's not fine in a casual game you want players to be able to hop in and out of, because, well, you don't expect them to take it seriously.

HS is forced to make awkward compromises like Hunter either sucking as you get towards legend or being broken at lower ranks by its schizophrenic approach to competition. Also its bizarre "casual" mode I'm not sure anyone actually plays much now that you can't fall too far in ranked.

[StagnantSoul]

Aww... Used to love zoo warlock, especially how strong their 1 mana imps could get if you set it up right. I'm guessing secret pali is also gone.

[Strongpoint]

Quest rogue would be a bit of an exception to this, since it was a clearly strong deck from day 1, although it was certainly refined a lot over time. I mean the more aggro and miracle style rogues that pop up over time, sometimes it's arcane giants and edwin, sometimes coldbloods and leeroy jenkins, sometimes malagos. Sometimes murlocks. Sometimes just pirates beating in the face. The nerf rogue quip was about how it's gotten some of the biggest nerfs, loosing Blade Flurry, Conceal, small time buccaner, Leeroy Jenkins and auctioneer price increase, backstab nerf, even their hero power

Well, I am rogue player with ~40% of my wins achieved by this class. I started to play in OG meta, so I never witnessed the golden times of miracle and existence of oil rogue but I know what you are talking about.

I am very disappointing with what rogues got in KfT. Push for weapon rogue, extremely slow deathknight, Yeti that transforms your spells to a random crap, bone baron aka further nerf to journey bellow, situational hard removal and no neutral cards that look any good in rogue. They didn't even bother to print a single stealth minion in the expansion! (Why print shadow sensei in MSG, then print no cards to support him?)

When they nerfed quest rogue I was sure that one of their reasons to do so is to have a chance to print decent 1 or 2 drops for rogues. Nope.

[Strongpoint]

So, incoming nerfs are announced.

Innervate will become a counterfit coin (IMO, unplayable. You need combo cards to make it worthwhile. Maybe I am wrong)
Spreading plague goes up to 6 mana (little less effective against flood the board kind of stuff)
Fire war axe will cost 3 mana (huge hit to warriors, I am not sure that pirate warriors will survive this)
Murloc Warleader will merely give +2 attack (A nasty hit to all murloc decks. I am considering 800 dust because I doubt that warleader will be playable in standard. On other hand I do enjoy anyfin paladin in wild...)
Hex will cost 4 mana (while I agree that hex is the best single target removal, but do control\midrange shamans deserve this hit? In fact best shaman decks don't play hex ATM)

I don't like this. The best aggressive decks are nerfed. Jade druid will still be here with a minor hit. Token shaman will be there. Razakus priest will be there.

On other hand > welcome back zoo. Your worst enemy (fire win axe) is gone.

[DolosusDoleus]

It seems to me like they completely obliterated Druid. The entire class is balanced around the fact that they have innervate. A change like this would be akin to removing prep from rogue, or tirion from paladin.

Glad to see that firey win axe is getting nerfed. The way I look at it, it's now a worse version of rallying blade.
Spreading plague should have been nerfed more. It's still gonna be in druid decks, because it plugs up their only real weakness: wide boards.
I kind of wish that they made a bigger hit to Jade, or nerfed UI. Eh, we'll see it it works. The only control deck I personally have a real issue with is jade druid.

[Criptfeind]

Innervate I suppose. I'd rather have seen a UI nerf and swapping it into the hall of fame instead.

Hex, I guess, fair enough. Now instead of the best removal in the game it's tied for best roughly. But seems weird since it's not used by any op deck.

Warleader is a pretty big deal, I guess we'll have to see if the murlocks can survive. They are certainly going to take a hit.

Spreading plauge seems like a fair nerf.

Waraxe. Whoh. That's a huge nerf, turning what's probably the strongest card in the game into... Well, I'm not sure if that's playable. At 3 mana. Hum... Maybe barely so in some decks. That's a huge blow to every warrior deck ever.

[Strongpoint]

It seems to me like they completely obliterated Druid. The entire class is balanced around the fact that they have innervate. A change like this would be akin to removing prep from rogue, or tirion from paladin.

I don't think druids are going anywhere. Innervate is a very good card but it is not a central piece of modern druid decks. Also, preparation is not that essential for rogue. Backstab and Evisicrate are the cards you'll see in each and every rogue deck. Prep is needed either for miracle or to do fancy stuff like 3 mana vanish in mill rogue or 2 mana guest reward in the quest rogue.

Glad to see that firey win axe is getting nerfed. The way I look at it, it's now a worse version of rallying blade.

In other words you are glad that warriors will become a #9 class (IMO). What are warriors supposed to do on turn 2 against aggro decks? Doomsayer is not enough.This change is an obvious attempt to screw pirate warriors but I think control decks will be hit harder.

swapping it into the hall of fame instead.

There are people who enjoy wild. Don't treat it as a graveyard for the broken cards.