Every post I see is about warriors and how OP they are, so after reading many of those, I have decided to share my opinion as well.
I don’t have anything against warriors, after the (way too many) rogue nerfs I feel like the deck is significantly weaker and beatable.
My biggest concern is hunter. 40-50% of my games are against hunters, and it’s getting frustrating. You either get your face smashed in 4 turns by a pathetic mech-hunter player or get slowly choked to death by a secret hunter.
Neither of these are fun decks to play against, although secret hunter isn’t that frustrating as the mech version.
I don’t think it’s okay for the game to have a deck that can destroy your minions for 2 or 3 mana by magnetizing them to a bomb, and also killing you in 5-6 turns.
Sets are rotating in and out of the game, yet secret hunter is still a tier 1 deck after like a year of being on the top. Why is that class always good?
I might just have bad luck getting hunters over and over again, but I’m curious how you guys feel about them?
I did get hunter 3 games in a row today but 2 out of the 3 i won, 2 mech hunters and a secret hunter, secret hunter coulsnt keep up with minions, 1 mech hunter recked me cause i got bad draw and could keep anythong on the board or clear out his minions and the other mech hunter did poorly cause they ended up with bad draw and was basically the reverse of what happened woth the other mech hunter i went against
Admittedly I am a Hunter player who plays and tried various Hunter decks because I like the class, so I am somewhat biased here. But I always try to look at things objectively because I do want as balanced and diverse meta as possible.
That being said:
Ahh calling other players playing certain decks as “pathetic”! How lovely! People are SO going to take what you say seriously now. 
Sorry but if this is your best argument against Hunters, or any class for that matter, it just demonstrates how the class is fine overall and doesn’t need any immediate nerfs. Besides, what cards would you even nerf? There’s four different Hunter archetypes, which is perhaps the biggest reason for their popularity while other classes have only 1-2 viable decks. Except Priest and Paladin for the most part cos they currently SUCK.
Anyway, Hunter got Mech, Midrange Beast (these two being the most popular), Secret and Deathrattle (the latter which I like to play the most). All of these decks play different cards for the most part. Mech and Deathrattle, or Mechrattle as I like to call it, has some similarities since they both play mechs but the playstyle is different.
As for why Secret Hunter keeps being good; simply because Blizzard keeps printing good cards with secret synergies, whether they’re neutral, like Subject 9, Sunreaver Spy, Sunreaver Warmage and Masked Contender that really enabled the archetype. Or Hunter cards, which they haven’t printed in the last few expansions. Secret Plan from Boomsday is, I think, their latest card that has anything to do with secrets.
I think that Hunter is fine and I love it how the class has four viable different deck archetypes even after the last set rotation. Shame that other classes don’t have the same luxury. If there is something that I could see being nerfed it is the Venomizer + Missile Launcher combo. Other than that I can’t think of anything else nerf-worthy.
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Yes, it’s nice for a class to have four viable decks, but if out of those 4 decks two are Tier 1 and two more are Tier 2, with well over 50% winrate on all of them, then that somehow tells me the class is a little too good.
Since you asked what I would nerf, i’m not an expert in card design but my choice would be Animal Companion to 4 mana.
When blizzard nerfed prep they said they are nerfing it because it has to go into every single rogue deck and they don’t think it’s healthy for the game to have autoinclude cards like that. Animal Companion is the same kind of auto include in almost every deck like prep.
Or that the other classes are just bad in comparison. How about we buff them now that Blizzard has demonstrated they can and will do it?
Pffffft BHAHAHAHAHAH! 
Well, yeah. You sure demonstrated you’re no expert with a pick like that, alright.
Eeer, no. It is not nearly the same. Even if Animal Companion was in every Hunter deck (it’s not typically played in Mech Hunter) like Preparation was in every Rogue deck their overall power levels and impact are still vastly different. Blizzard had to design Rogue spells around Preparation because it was that strong and hence most new Rogue spells have been underwhelming. Animal Companion is just a solid card but is not limiting design space in any way shape or form.
Thats a good question.
Well, all cards except a few memes maybe, are designed for pushing a specific arhetype. Hunter was always a Midrange class that aims in finding a balance between board control and pushing face damage, without opressive openers, cheesy OTK combos or greedy value plays. In other words, Hunter represents the lovely, old Vanilla Hearthstone, and thats great if you ask me. Hunter also has a solid Basic and Classic set, with most good Classic cards being Common or Rare, so its easy for a new or a f2p player to build a deck and do well on Ladder with it.
If anything, Hunter should always have a Tier 1-2 Midrange deck to keep the game healthy in the long run, with the same logic Warrior always has a Tier 1-2 Control deck.
I have to admit, this kind of thinking concerns me…
While I appreciate that hunter is a good class for F2P and new players to build and ladder with, does that justify it being a consistent tier 1 class? I too am concerned that hunter is topping the meta…again! What makes it worse that it’s gone completely under the radar due to all of the complaints about rogue and warrior.
My main concern is this…Hunter has been a tier 1 class for some time now. It was, while I can’t remember specifically if it was ever tier 1 during KotFT, it was tier 1 through Kobolds, it was tier 1 for a large portion of Rastakhan’s and now it’s tier 1 yet again. Let’s not forget that there were a lot of complaints about Odd Paladin being tier 1 for pretty much 12 months. By the start of the next expansion it’s pretty much certain that Hunter will have been a tier one class for pretty much the same period. It’s also a class that is always ‘good’. We’ve all seen meta’s where priest was terrible, or paladin, or druid…but who can honestly, hand on heart, say there has ever been a meta where it wasn’t worth touching hunter decks? I, for one, can’t. It’s CONSISTENTLY tier 1…top tier 2 at worst, and this is compounded by the trouble hunter decks that pop up regularly. For me, its TOO versatile. It’s great to have a class that the F2P players and new players can jump into and find their feet quickly…but the downside to that is the good, seasoned players are also able to do the same thing and push the class to it’s limit with less effort that it would take to maximise the potential of, say, Priest which is a slightly more complex class.
TL:DR I’m actually a bit fed up of seeing hunters CONSITENTLY being a tier 1 class almost every meta as well
Hunter was Tier 4 between MSoG launch and Un’Goro launch
I can… MSoG meta. The decks were Pirate Warrior, Aggro Shaman, Reno stuff and Dragon Priest. Any hunter deck was at the bottom of a bottomless tier. I’m not replying to say you are wrong though. I’m replying to say that’s the only exception, so you’re probably right.
p.s.: khisana beat me while I was writing… hate you, bud!
Saying I beat you here is like saying the title of an article beat its content.
indeed warriors are now beatable, by hunters. dragon mage and hunters the only decks able to beat warriors consistently and as warriors are frustrating and boring AF to play against these decks become more popular.
Now hunters arent just strong, they are also really cheap to make especially when compared to the only other deck that counters warrior, dragon mage.
So 1 meta? From the start of the game…going through 10 expansions, hunter has been outside of the top 2 tiers once…….I rest my case
Ironically, control warriors worst match up is…drum roll…….mecha’thun warrior
true, mecha’thun warrior is OP against control warrior, however not against the bomb version or for that matter antything that is not control warrior.
At least one meta. This doesn’t necessarily mean exactly one meta 
I haven’t been playing since the beginning and I lack the willpower to comb through all available data to find other weak hunter periods. I simply remembered a time before KFT when Hunter was considered abysmal and I looked up when exactly that was.
given that both Vlad and I answered this quote:
it wasn’t necessary to find all weak hunter metas. One was enough to get the job done.
Fair point, but to be honest the fact that it’s been tier one/top tier 2 for at least 3 successive meta’s now should be an indicator that it’s consistent power level is a bit much
something to remember is that hunter is not only popular because of its strength, also because its decks are really cheap and relatively easy to play
Fully agreed. As someone that only plays weird Hunters, I would personally like to see Hunter go through an away period, like Paladin and Priest once did. The reason for that is not really about power or balance but rather because of the hero power. Those two damage to the face ALL… THE… TIME… is quite a bit of accumulated reach. Would be interesting to see a meta where that wasn’t something you’d have to consider.
On the other hand, the meta that happened… was MSoG… so… not sure I want to get back to that. 
I mentioned this in my original response though…is this really justification for it ALWAYS being a top performing class?
This, for me, is what makes different meta’s great…or should. This shift in power levels between classes makes for just as interesting game play for me as new cards.
So in meta A you have hunter, priest and shaman ruling the top tiers, but then in Meta B the power shifts, the 3 strong tiers take a drop in power and go to tier 2 and the bottom classes from the previous meta…say warrior, mage, druid…rise to the top…next meta the power shifts again and 3 completely different classes are strongest. Not only does it prevent people getting fed up of the same old classes being strongest, it encourages people to get out of their comfort zone and try something new each expansion. I went YEARS only playing mage…I loved that class in the early years. Wasn’t until 5-6 expansions in I tried playing other classes seriously and I’ve been having so much more fun in the game ever since
You’re gonna hate my answer, but yes, it is, commercially speaking. Games like Hearthstone strive on retaining the players in the early stages of their interaction and then keeping them engaged. Having a cheap, accessible go-to class is likely very relevant to keep a percentage of players active.
I don’t know if it is just correlation but the last time I checked, the lowest point of Hearthstone player base wise was MSoG which does meet the lowest Hunter popularity period. I’m not saying or even implying that the two have a causal relationship since I don’t have data to support that though.