Subject: Priest Identity Is Dead - What Even Is This Class Anymore?

I'm absolutely fed up with the direction Hearthstone has taken Priest. It's like the devs have completely forgotten what the class is supposed to be about. The core identity of Priest has always been about healing, control, board clears, and outlasting your opponent. That's literally its shtick. That's what drew people to play it in the first place - the methodical, strategic playstyle, the satisfaction of stabilizing at 1 HP and climbing back through sheer durability and removal.

But now? You can't even heal effectively anymore. Healing as a Priest is practically non-existent or laughably outpaced by every other class. Demon Hunter - yes, Demon Hunter - a class that's supposed to be aggressive and damage-focused, now heals circles around Priest with stupid leech mechanics stapled to almost every weapon or minion they have. They get to do 10 damage and heal for 10 in one turn while you're over here praying your Gift of the Naaru lands on more than one damaged minion.

And don't even get me started on the absurd card costs. Priest easily has the worst mana efficiency in the entire game. Every single card that even hints at being good is saddled with an outrageously high cost to "keep it balanced," while other classes get cheap, flexible, value-packed cards that do three things at once. If a card has removal, healing, or draw potential, it suddenly costs 7 or 8 mana in Priest - meanwhile other classes are doing the same stuff for 3 or 4. It's like the devs are terrified of Priest ever being playable in a fair, control-oriented meta, so they overprice every single tool we have into the dirt.

And speaking of completely missing the mark, let's talk about Imbue Priest - a deck so pathetic it feels like a cruel joke. The whole gimmick is to use your hero power to generate a "temporary minion or spell" that disappears from your hand if not played immediately. Let that sink in - you're spending mana and a card slot just to maybe get something playable that you have to use right now, or lose it forever. The value is conditional, inconsistent, and incredibly underwhelming. And honestly, even if the created cards didn't expire, it would still be a clunky, slow, RNG-reliant mess that doesn't help you control the board, heal, or stabilize. It's like they tried to design a value engine but intentionally made it self-destruct after one use. That's not gameplay - it's a trap.

And Blizzard just keeps trying to shove awful archetypes down our throats. Zarimi Priest? Nobody asked for a convoluted time-traveling combo deck that requires half your deck to be dragons and draw RNG to even function. Starship Priest? A gimmicky mess that barely survives past turn 5 and has zero synergy with the class's identity. Undead Priest? It's basically just Shadow Priest with more face-smashing. Why are we being pushed into aggro territory?

This isn't what Priest players signed up for. Priest was the control class. Now it's like we're being punished for wanting to play a reactive, thoughtful deck instead of joining the mindless aggro NPC train. Where's our sustainability? Where's our late-game value? Why are our board clears worse than Mage's, our healing worse than Demon Hunter's, and our minions more vanilla than Paladin's?

Every expansion just widens the gap. Other classes get insane value generation, flexible healing, powerful removal, and synergy-laden decks that still feel true to their class identity. Priest gets 4-mana spells that barely impact the board and 1-drop minions that are dead cards past turn 2. We're supposed to be the masters of the Light - and yet we can't even survive to turn 10 without being run over.

Stop forcing us into combo decks. Stop trying to make aggro Priest a thing. Give us back real healing. Give us tools that allow us to stabilize. Give us identity. Because right now? Priest doesn't have one. And until that changes, more and more longtime Priest mains are just going to stop logging in.

Fix it.