New to custom Hearthstone and decided to try my hand at designing a class. Tell me what you think, I'd like to hear criticism so that I can get a better understanding of custom Hearthstone. Introducing, the Hemomancer.
Lord Alder Valdin is an ancient, powerful hemomancer of clandestine origin and intent. He makes his home in the ruined kingdom of Gilneas, where Worgen and Undead constantly battle over the fate of this blood-bathed land, which Lord Valdin uses to great advantage. At the cost of blood, whether it be his own or other's, Lord Valdin commands powerful dark magic with which he sustains himself, supports his allies and devastates his enemies.
Although they all go by blood mages in the Warcraft universe, I decided to go with the more "official sounding" Hemomancer primarily to differentiate the class from the classic Blood Mage of Warcraft. No verdant spheres or flamestrikes here folks, sorry! In order to properly translate the Hemomancer into Hearthstone logic I had to do some research into blood magic from World of Warcraft. It's bittersweet that blood magic is not as well-developed of a topic as the other forms of magic in the game, because on the downside I don't have a lot to go off of from a lore standpoint, but (I dare say) it also means I get to take a little bit more creative liberty with the class cards. Now according to the information available online, blood magic in World of Warcraft is as follows: "Blood magic is a form of tortured life magic that uses blood as a power source. As the name suggests, bloodmages use blood to perform their rituals. All blood is different, and the correct combinations are required to perform certain tasks. Contrary to popular belief, ancient and powerful bloodmages do not actually drink blood, but eat normal food like everybody else. On Azeroth, it is shunned by many as a dark and forgotten art. In that and many other ways, it shares some distinct characteristics with demonic magic. Blood magic can be used to teleport via bloodstone teleporters, scry for information, and resurrect the dead." (source: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Blood_magic With the information I "scryed" from the internet (kek) I feel I've come to gain a pretty good understanding of how the Hemomancer fits into Hearthstone. For this class the core theme will be "power at the cost of (someone's) life." Sounds familiar, right? The warlock does this to an extent, as well, although discard it seems has become the more important keyword for the class. It still fits the "power at a cost" theme, but the discard style of play has mostly lost the players' attention. That's why the hemomancer is more intuitive in its core theme. Power at the the cost of health, not your damn cards! Where the hemomancer further differs from the warlock is in the versatility of its spells. You have a wide toolkit at your disposal that allows for strong, low mana damaging spells, minion support and board control. Combine the self-destructive play style of the warlock, the minion buffing of the paladin, the control of the mage. The hemomancer is able to do all of these very effectively, once again at the cost of health.
tl;dr? Read the pros and cons. Pros -Versatile toolkit of low mana spells that allow for effective damage, control and minion support. -Wide array of minions with Taunt, Lifesteal and other effects oriented towards keeping you alive.
Cons -Self-damage is required to make the most out of the class's spells. -Comparatively low range of self-healing spells creates a heavy reliance on minions to keep you alive.
Basic
Expert
Expansion(Pending)
Your positive criticism is always greatly appreciated! :]
Looks pretty good but the spells are op. I don't think that the inspire effect is that great to bring back, seeing as so many people hated it. I personally don't care for it, but don't hate it either. Definitely creative and I think that your on to something. Probably should increase the cost of the spells or make them deal less damage for them to be somewhat balanced. E.g. Dark transfer is just so good for its mana with very little downside. Plus giving the health to a friendly minion just makes it so much better.
Inspire wasn't well received, why? I would like to create cards that synergize well with the hero's hero power and spells.
Also, how do I come to a good balance between mana cost and health cost vs the spell effects? I would like to come to a standard method of measuring how cheap mana I can have due to dealing however high damage to my hero along with the spell's effects.
Edit: Changed Dark Transfer to instead deal 5 damage to the hero.
Just a sidenote: There are very few keywords that are used for Basic Cards. This includes Charge, Spell Damage +X, Taunt, and Battlecry. All others should be averted in the Basic Set, even if it's a class keyword.
Considering Lifesteal on minions is a key component of the class's survivability, would that be acceptable to include in the basic minions?
I'm not sure. Also, make sure the following keywords are used in the right sets:
Class Keywords in any set OTHER than Basic
Spare Parts ONLY in GvG
Inspire & Joust ONLY in TGT
Discover only during and after LOE
Factions (Which use Handbuffs, Jade Golems, and Highlander effects) ONLY in MSoG
As far as we know, Adapt & Quests ONLY in JTU.
Hope this helps!
I had no idea the keywords being restricted to their respective expansions was so important! Although in retrospect it makes plenty of sense.
With Lifesteal I suppose I'll have to wait until KotFT comes out before I take any liberties. Thank you so much for the advice, I'll update the basic set and now going into classic and the expansions I definitely have a better idea of what my restrictions are. :]
I've reformatted the basic set and gotten about halfway through expert. I feel as though I've gained a greater understanding of how the mana cost/health cost ratio should be on spells, but I'm nonetheless curious to see whether my spells and/or minions still need balancing.
It took me a while but I've finally finished the entirety of the classic set. In my opinion, the cards are all well-balanced but again I require others' opinions. So at this point I'd love to hear what people think about the class and what changes to my design philosophy I should make before getting into the expansion cards.
Was going to go through all the cards but they've all got pretty much the same problem - the health cost is simply not a suitable price to pay for their power level. Dark Transfer is a crazy powerful spell, and only taking 4 damage for it is (in isolation) nothing. But aside from that, some problem cards;
Blood Pact - Not only is it way too strong (see previous point) but you simply won't see another class with 'gain an empty mana crystal'. It's a Druid thing. Not seeing the synergy with it in the rest of the set either.
Blood Mirror - How is this not Mirror Entity? That does 2 damage to you...otherwise it's Mirror Entity. Maybe give the summoned minion Lifesteal.
Volatile Bloodgem - Why? Don't see why it exists.
Vengeful Amalgamatiom - Absolute bloody insanity, especially in a class so built around taking and healing damage.
Zealous Reaver - Bad. Compare with the new Paladin card Chillblade Champion. You're paying 2 mana for +1/+1 which would be bad enough but then you only sometimes get the charge?
Bloodstone Teleporter - Massively massively too slow for such a minimal effect.
I like the idea somewhat but I think there's way too much lifesteal present throughout. Trading health and bleeding it back is a cool concept but I still think the set is absolutely plagued with balance issues as of right now.
First of all, thank you very much for the review! And yes I realise balancing is an issue with these spells. Do you think Dark Transfer would become less OP enough if the health could only be given to minions?
Blood Tap - I agree with you on this matter. I wanted to add a little taste of the ramp style to the class. I also really like the artwork. What if I rework the spell to be like Innervate instead? Take X damage, gain 1 mana crystal this turn or w/e.
Blood Mirror - This one is a little different. You see, mirror entity only activates when your -opponent- plays a minion, not when -any- minion is summoned. So for 3 mana and 2 damage you summon a copy of any minion, even ones you just summoned.
Volatile Bloodgem - Maybe this card is a little uninspired but I just wanted to add another aoe really. This one ended up turning into some sort of a random stat distribution mechanic. Maybe I'll just scrap the idea.
Vengeful Amalgamation - Would changing it to where it only gains Health when the hero is attacked by an enemy be good enough? Rather than just every time the hero takes damage which admittedly would get out of hand.
Zealous Reaver - That's what I was thinking! I am going to buff this one a little.
Bloodstone Teleporter - What about a (2) cost reduction? Then I can also lower the amount of Lifesteal in the minions as you recommend.
I'm glad you like the concept! It's my very first custom class. I got an idea for a Battle Mage and Saboteur next, which I plan on going into with the knowledge I glean here :D
I really like the idea of this class as it kinda feels like the Bloodcraft class from Shadowverse coming into Hearthstone. Overall, your cards seem to be balanced except for a couple.
My biggest issue is really with Blood Tap. Obviously, this is comparable to Wild Growth, but it is much more powerful. What Wild Growth does is (usually) give up your Turn 2 play in order to get ahead in mana for the rest of the game. However, with Blood Tap you can play it on Turn 1 and still play a Vampiric Shade, which nullifies the self damage, gives you a strong Turn 1 play, and puts you ahead on mana for the rest of the game. In order to balance it a bit more, I think it should cost 1 mana at least so that you at least have to sacrifice your Turn 1 or pay an extra mana for a damage trigger for some of your minions.
The other one is Dark Sight. Again, this is a bit too powerful since it effectively reads "0 Mana: Deal 1 damage to yourself, Draw a card". In comparison to cards like Unstable Portal and Prymordial Glyph, they are extremely strong cards with the only slight balance being the chance to get something bad out of it. Since you will always be drawing something playable and synergistic with your deck, the cost should reflect that as well. Thus, I think it should cost 2 mana instead.
I also have one issue with Wretched Apprentice. With how Spell Damage boosts are treated in Hearthstone, it modifies any number on the card to deal more damage. As a result, if you cast, say Cursed Shock with +1 Spell Damage, it would deal 4 damage to yourself and 7 damage to target. I'm not sure if you purposely wanted to do this, but I figured I would point it out anyways.
Other than that, I like the cards and can't wait to see more from you!
Thanks all for the positive reviews as well as the positive criticism!
Per your suggestions, I've revised the spells from the basic set and some of the classic minions. Blood Tap: Spend 0 mana, 2 damage to your hero and get Spell Damage +1 that turn. Two Blood Taps and you get Spell Damage +2 for a turn, without having lost any mana for spell use. But as stated by the previous poster, Spell Damage affects the damage you do to yourself as well. So from that standpoint I actually feel as though Spell Damage is, for the Hemomancer, somewhat a a risk vs reward mechanic. You get to burst your enemies down, but you're also bursting yourself down! Dark Sight: 1 mana, 1 damage and you draw a random spell from your deck. The potential synergy has somewhat been lowered, as most Hemomancer decks are going to pack a large amount of spells to be effective. As a result when you use this card early game, it might add a late game spell to your hand. Crimson Destruction: Essentially Swipe, right? That 1 extra damage deal to every other enemy can be a game changer, and so you take 1 damage per enemy hit by the spell. Dark Transfer: As you may be able to tell, this spell has switched mana cost with Crimson Destruction. Destroying a minion is about 5 mana, and I wanted to keep the card's main effect without increasing its cost too significantly. So as a result I feel like 5 mana, 5 damage to your hero and limiting the health transfer to another minion is a fair nerf to the card. Vampiric Shade: As stated by NayrSlayer13 (thanks for the strong logic man, helped a lot), this card's synergy with Blood Tap created a pretty unfair combo, especially considering it's a stealth minion. Now, I wanted to keep the stealth and I also wanted this card to keep some sort of synergy. As a result I made it have early game interaction with your self damage and also took out the LIfesteal, because quite frankly there has indeed been too much lifesteal throughout the set! Zealous Reaver: This was essentially a worse Chillblade Champion before I buffed it, so I think the changes speak for themselves. Bloodstone Teleporter: Stated as being too slow, which I agree with. I increased the health but I won't change it other than that. Gotta have some meh stuff in there right?
New to custom Hearthstone and decided to try my hand at designing a class. Tell me what you think, I'd like to hear criticism so that I can get a better understanding of custom Hearthstone. Introducing, the Hemomancer.
Lord Alder Valdin is an ancient, powerful hemomancer of clandestine origin and intent. He makes his home in the ruined kingdom of Gilneas, where Worgen and Undead constantly battle over the fate of this blood-bathed land, which Lord Valdin uses to great advantage. At the cost of blood, whether it be his own or other's, Lord Valdin commands powerful dark magic with which he sustains himself, supports his allies and devastates his enemies.
Although they all go by blood mages in the Warcraft universe, I decided to go with the more "official sounding" Hemomancer primarily to differentiate the class from the classic Blood Mage of Warcraft. No verdant spheres or flamestrikes here folks, sorry! In order to properly translate the Hemomancer into Hearthstone logic I had to do some research into blood magic from World of Warcraft. It's bittersweet that blood magic is not as well-developed of a topic as the other forms of magic in the game, because on the downside I don't have a lot to go off of from a lore standpoint, but (I dare say) it also means I get to take a little bit more creative liberty with the class cards. Now according to the information available online, blood magic in World of Warcraft is as follows: "Blood magic is a form of tortured life magic that uses blood as a power source. As the name suggests, bloodmages use blood to perform their rituals. All blood is different, and the correct combinations are required to perform certain tasks. Contrary to popular belief, ancient and powerful bloodmages do not actually drink blood, but eat normal food like everybody else. On Azeroth, it is shunned by many as a dark and forgotten art. In that and many other ways, it shares some distinct characteristics with demonic magic. Blood magic can be used to teleport via bloodstone teleporters, scry for information, and resurrect the dead." (source: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Blood_magic
With the information I "scryed" from the internet (kek) I feel I've come to gain a pretty good understanding of how the Hemomancer fits into Hearthstone. For this class the core theme will be "power at the cost of (someone's) life." Sounds familiar, right? The warlock does this to an extent, as well, although discard it seems has become the more important keyword for the class. It still fits the "power at a cost" theme, but the discard style of play has mostly lost the players' attention. That's why the hemomancer is more intuitive in its core theme. Power at the the cost of health, not your damn cards! Where the hemomancer further differs from the warlock is in the versatility of its spells. You have a wide toolkit at your disposal that allows for strong, low mana damaging spells, minion support and board control. Combine the self-destructive play style of the warlock, the minion buffing of the paladin, the control of the mage. The hemomancer is able to do all of these very effectively, once again at the cost of health.
tl;dr? Read the pros and cons.
Pros
-Versatile toolkit of low mana spells that allow for effective damage, control and minion support.
-Wide array of minions with Taunt, Lifesteal and other effects oriented towards keeping you alive.
Cons
-Self-damage is required to make the most out of the class's spells.
-Comparatively low range of self-healing spells creates a heavy reliance on minions to keep you alive.
Basic
Expert
Expansion (Pending)
Your positive criticism is always greatly appreciated! :]
Looks pretty good but the spells are op. I don't think that the inspire effect is that great to bring back, seeing as so many people hated it. I personally don't care for it, but don't hate it either. Definitely creative and I think that your on to something. Probably should increase the cost of the spells or make them deal less damage for them to be somewhat balanced. E.g. Dark transfer is just so good for its mana with very little downside. Plus giving the health to a friendly minion just makes it so much better.
Inspire wasn't well received, why? I would like to create cards that synergize well with the hero's hero power and spells.
Also, how do I come to a good balance between mana cost and health cost vs the spell effects? I would like to come to a standard method of measuring how cheap mana I can have due to dealing however high damage to my hero along with the spell's effects.
Edit: Changed Dark Transfer to instead deal 5 damage to the hero.
Just a sidenote: There are very few keywords that are used for Basic Cards. This includes Charge, Spell Damage +X, Taunt, and Battlecry. All others should be averted in the Basic Set, even if it's a class keyword.
Looks good, but OP
Considering Lifesteal on minions is a key component of the class's survivability, would that be acceptable to include in the basic minions?
I actually think Lifesteal should be fine.
I've reformatted the basic set and gotten about halfway through expert. I feel as though I've gained a greater understanding of how the mana cost/health cost ratio should be on spells, but I'm nonetheless curious to see whether my spells and/or minions still need balancing.
My only complaints: Zealous Reaver is too strong - perhaps a better card than Leeroy himself. Maybe make him have 4/4 Stats.
Blood Hunt gives too much in the way of stats. Do +2 to one stat, or +1/+1.
It took me a while but I've finally finished the entirety of the classic set. In my opinion, the cards are all well-balanced but again I require others' opinions. So at this point I'd love to hear what people think about the class and what changes to my design philosophy I should make before getting into the expansion cards.
Thanks :)
Was going to go through all the cards but they've all got pretty much the same problem - the health cost is simply not a suitable price to pay for their power level. Dark Transfer is a crazy powerful spell, and only taking 4 damage for it is (in isolation) nothing. But aside from that, some problem cards;
Blood Pact - Not only is it way too strong (see previous point) but you simply won't see another class with 'gain an empty mana crystal'. It's a Druid thing. Not seeing the synergy with it in the rest of the set either.
Blood Mirror - How is this not Mirror Entity? That does 2 damage to you...otherwise it's Mirror Entity. Maybe give the summoned minion Lifesteal.
Volatile Bloodgem - Why? Don't see why it exists.
Vengeful Amalgamatiom - Absolute bloody insanity, especially in a class so built around taking and healing damage.
Zealous Reaver - Bad. Compare with the new Paladin card Chillblade Champion. You're paying 2 mana for +1/+1 which would be bad enough but then you only sometimes get the charge?
Bloodstone Teleporter - Massively massively too slow for such a minimal effect.
I like the idea somewhat but I think there's way too much lifesteal present throughout. Trading health and bleeding it back is a cool concept but I still think the set is absolutely plagued with balance issues as of right now.
First of all, thank you very much for the review! And yes I realise balancing is an issue with these spells. Do you think Dark Transfer would become less OP enough if the health could only be given to minions?
Blood Tap - I agree with you on this matter. I wanted to add a little taste of the ramp style to the class. I also really like the artwork. What if I rework the spell to be like Innervate instead? Take X damage, gain 1 mana crystal this turn or w/e.
Blood Mirror - This one is a little different. You see, mirror entity only activates when your -opponent- plays a minion, not when -any- minion is summoned. So for 3 mana and 2 damage you summon a copy of any minion, even ones you just summoned.
Volatile Bloodgem - Maybe this card is a little uninspired but I just wanted to add another aoe really. This one ended up turning into some sort of a random stat distribution mechanic. Maybe I'll just scrap the idea.
Vengeful Amalgamation - Would changing it to where it only gains Health when the hero is attacked by an enemy be good enough? Rather than just every time the hero takes damage which admittedly would get out of hand.
Zealous Reaver - That's what I was thinking! I am going to buff this one a little.
Bloodstone Teleporter - What about a (2) cost reduction? Then I can also lower the amount of Lifesteal in the minions as you recommend.
I'm glad you like the concept! It's my very first custom class. I got an idea for a Battle Mage and Saboteur next, which I plan on going into with the knowledge I glean here :D
I really like the idea of this class as it kinda feels like the Bloodcraft class from Shadowverse coming into Hearthstone. Overall, your cards seem to be balanced except for a couple.
My biggest issue is really with Blood Tap. Obviously, this is comparable to Wild Growth, but it is much more powerful. What Wild Growth does is (usually) give up your Turn 2 play in order to get ahead in mana for the rest of the game. However, with Blood Tap you can play it on Turn 1 and still play a Vampiric Shade, which nullifies the self damage, gives you a strong Turn 1 play, and puts you ahead on mana for the rest of the game. In order to balance it a bit more, I think it should cost 1 mana at least so that you at least have to sacrifice your Turn 1 or pay an extra mana for a damage trigger for some of your minions.
The other one is Dark Sight. Again, this is a bit too powerful since it effectively reads "0 Mana: Deal 1 damage to yourself, Draw a card". In comparison to cards like Unstable Portal and Prymordial Glyph, they are extremely strong cards with the only slight balance being the chance to get something bad out of it. Since you will always be drawing something playable and synergistic with your deck, the cost should reflect that as well. Thus, I think it should cost 2 mana instead.
I also have one issue with Wretched Apprentice. With how Spell Damage boosts are treated in Hearthstone, it modifies any number on the card to deal more damage. As a result, if you cast, say Cursed Shock with +1 Spell Damage, it would deal 4 damage to yourself and 7 damage to target. I'm not sure if you purposely wanted to do this, but I figured I would point it out anyways.
Other than that, I like the cards and can't wait to see more from you!
Thanks all for the positive reviews as well as the positive criticism!
Per your suggestions, I've revised the spells from the basic set and some of the classic minions.
Blood Tap: Spend 0 mana, 2 damage to your hero and get Spell Damage +1 that turn. Two Blood Taps and you get Spell Damage +2 for a turn, without having lost any mana for spell use. But as stated by the previous poster, Spell Damage affects the damage you do to yourself as well. So from that standpoint I actually feel as though Spell Damage is, for the Hemomancer, somewhat a a risk vs reward mechanic. You get to burst your enemies down, but you're also bursting yourself down!
Dark Sight: 1 mana, 1 damage and you draw a random spell from your deck. The potential synergy has somewhat been lowered, as most Hemomancer decks are going to pack a large amount of spells to be effective. As a result when you use this card early game, it might add a late game spell to your hand.
Crimson Destruction: Essentially Swipe, right? That 1 extra damage deal to every other enemy can be a game changer, and so you take 1 damage per enemy hit by the spell.
Dark Transfer: As you may be able to tell, this spell has switched mana cost with Crimson Destruction. Destroying a minion is about 5 mana, and I wanted to keep the card's main effect without increasing its cost too significantly. So as a result I feel like 5 mana, 5 damage to your hero and limiting the health transfer to another minion is a fair nerf to the card.
Vampiric Shade: As stated by NayrSlayer13 (thanks for the strong logic man, helped a lot), this card's synergy with Blood Tap created a pretty unfair combo, especially considering it's a stealth minion. Now, I wanted to keep the stealth and I also wanted this card to keep some sort of synergy. As a result I made it have early game interaction with your self damage and also took out the LIfesteal, because quite frankly there has indeed been too much lifesteal throughout the set!
Zealous Reaver: This was essentially a worse Chillblade Champion before I buffed it, so I think the changes speak for themselves.
Bloodstone Teleporter: Stated as being too slow, which I agree with. I increased the health but I won't change it other than that. Gotta have some meh stuff in there right?