Hearthpwn

Spiritwalker

The Spiritwalker lives only partially in the mortal world. Their mind roams freely, and countless personalities enter their memories and their thoughts. When speaking to a spiritwalker one can never be entirely certain that only the spiritwalker responds, for they speak with the voices of the ancient ancestors...

Introduction (no cards in the Introduction!)

Now, before I go any further, you can check all the Spiritwalker cards on Hearthcards right away (just click the link). If all you want to see are some cool cards, and you don't care about how I came up with them, the class flavor, fantasy, balance, design insights, etc., you don't need to read any further.

As cool as most custom classes on this site are, I can't help but think they are too complicated, too niche, too un-Hearthstone-y to ever be part of the game. One of my main pet peeves are custom keywords and Hero Powers that are overly complicated. You got your Coils, Mediates, Submerges, Reservoirs, Invocations, etc., etc.—of course some of them were great, but then some of them were not, just a few of them were simple enough, and none of them were self-descriptive in any way. I hope no one takes offense if they recognize their own custom keyword among those I've listed.

So I set out to create a custom class using the most boring, predictable, self-descriptive custom keyword I can come up with. But more on that later.

I also wanted my class to be realistic as possible, and to look as if it can be implemented in the game starting next expansion, with only the Basic, Classic, and possibly New Expansion cards (hence no cards for the currently existing expansion sets—Naxxramas to Kobolds).

Now, a new class at all, no matter how far in the future, is highly unlikely (Blizzard has said they have a hard time balancing the existing 9 ones), but if it were to be introduced, design-wise I don't see it being any different than the current 9 ones. It has to be lore-friendly, it has to stand out, but not be too different; has to have its own unique identity, mechanics, flavor and fantasy. And they have to explore themes previously unexplored in game.

There are not a lot of candidates in lore that fulfill all those requirements—probably only Monk fulfills them all, but I wanted to pick a challenge, so I didn't go with Monk. I went with...

Spiritwalker—Lore, Class Fantasy & Hero Power

The Spiritwalker has been a constant presence in Warcraft lore since Reign of Chaos, but they have never been explored further than "Shamans, but communicate with spirits instead of Elementals". Much like their whole fantasy, their lore is shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. They are the tribal elders that always keep one of their eyes shut for the mortal world, and opened for the Shadowlands. They make the will of the tribal ancestors known and make sure to preserve their wisdom and knowledge.

The Spiritwalker's fate is a vocation of knowledge, of care, of guidance, and of willingness to fight. That's reflected in their Hero Power: Transcend.

It restores 1 Health to a character and gives them +1 Attack for that turn only, allowing for versatile healing and trading. Design-wise it is situated between Priest's Lesser Heal and Druid's Shapeshift. While restoring 1 Health is significantly worse than restoring 2, the targetable +1 Attack is much more versatile than Druid's Hero Power that can give only the hero +1 Attack.

The hero that represents the Spiritwalker is Roanauk Icemist, leader of the Taunka tribes in Northrend, Chieftain, Spiritualist and Mystic. His experience with mortality, death and spiritualism is much deeper than that of any other named spiritwalker, for he was a captive of the Scourge during Arthas' reign over the Icy continent.

The Spiritwalkers Annual Convention has the tendency to be something of a beef sausage fest, so I've decided to diversify the mostly Tauren-dominated class. Other races that I used to represent the Spiritwalkers are Furbolgs for minions; Trolls and Orcs for spells, and Night Elf for the Hero Power.

Basic Card List

 The main aspects of the class fantasy, reflected in all Basic cards are:

• Mass Healing, for Spiritwalker's role as tribal mentors and medics.
• Spell Draw, for Spiritwalker's knowledge, mysticism, and role as clairvoyants.
• Weapons and Hero Attack buffs, for their willingness to fight.
• Resurrecting the Dead, for their role as spiritualists.

Below are the 3 class-defining Basic Cards of the Spiritwalker class.

• Spirit Link is probably Spiritwalker's best-known ability. In Warcraft 3 it redistributed the damage dealt to your minions equally among them. I've represented this by making probably the most powerful healing spell in-game, one that restores 6 Health to all characters—including heroes—for only 2 mana.
• Mysticism is as basic spell draw can get. Life Arcane Intellect it draws 2 cards, but those are limited to Spells. One thing I should note is that Spiritwalker lacks good minion drawing tools because, much like Hunter and Warlock, the class is potentially quite good at Zoo due to its versatile Hero Power.
• Runic Halber is Spiritwalker's only Basic weapon. Although the Spiritwalkers have never shied from a fight, they are definitely not outstanding warriors by any means, which is reflected in the weapon's weak statlines. Here we have another of the class fantasy aspects, Mass Healing, which makes the weapon good only if your attack kills the minion (this is further explored in another one of Spiritwalker's weapons).

The rest of the Basic Cards for Spiritwalker are below:

Classic Set—Custom Keyword, Win Conditions, and more!

As I mentioned far above, I set out to create the custom class with the most boring, bland, predictable and self-descriptive keyword imaginable. I present you...

How does it work? Exactly the same way as Spell Damage, only that this increases the Health restored by Minions, Weapons, Hero Powers and any other type of card as well. Spiritwalkers have 4 cards in the Classic Set with Healing Power on them, so let's take a look at the most basic one, Grizzlepaw Primalist.

As you can see, Grizzlepaw Primalist reads "Healing Power +1", and below is a nice explanation of what Healing Power does. Even though the keyword is as basic as you can get in Hearthstone, I still found it important to have a simple card that briefly explains the effect without having to look at tooltips, Hearthstone Wiki entries, or Ben Brode design insights. The other three Healing Power cards for Spiritwalker are two minions and a weapon—Hakkari Soulblade—which also has the subtheme of having to attack and kill minions with it. It is also probably one of the strongest cards in the class.

Silence

As Mystics and Spiritualists, Spiritwalkers have an additional subtheme of Silence cards running in their Classic set. Since they lack strong single target removal or proper AoE spells, those are the best tools the class has in that aspect.

• Purge Evil is a worse Silence or Earth Shock, but it can be used quite well in decks similar to Silence Priest.
• Spiritual Shock is a the best spell out of the three. While it doesn't deal with an onslaught of minions, and doesn't work with Spell Damage at all (it silences all minions before dealing the damage), it does shut down Tribal Synergy strategies (such as Murlocs or Pirates) and sticky minions (Divine Shield and Deathrattle), and works well in decks similar to Silence Priest.
  
• Obliterate is an expensive Assassinate, which is already too expensive by itself, but since the class lacks good single target removals, it seemed only fair to include a bad card that might still be run for lack of better options.

Win Conditions

Every class must have some cards in their Basic and Classic Set that are obvious win conditions even for new players. Priest has Prophet Velen and Mind Blast; Shaman has Al'Akir and Bloodlust; Mage has Sorcerer's Apprentice and Archmage Antonidas. That is not to say those are the only win conditions those classes have, or even that they are the best or most viable ones; it's just that they are obvious, powerful tools that can be understood by any player.

The win obvious Win Conditions for Spiritwalker are an Epic and a Legendary card:

• Shadowlands Rift is an insane direct damage card that is overcosted for the damage it deals, but comes with the benefit of value. Each time you play this card, it gets shuffled back in your deck, which puts your opponent on the clock. It also prevents Fatigue Damage, and is good for dealing with midrange minions with 5 Health. Flavor-wise it is the only Shadow-related card in the Spiritwalker's arsenal, but it is a fitting one, since the Shadowlands are the realm of the deceased and of the ancestral spirits.
  
• Filgud Joyhoof is Spiritwalker's legendary minion. Much like Al'Akir, it has Charge and Windfury, and great stats that only get better for each character you heal. It synergizes well with Spiritwalker's Basic Weapon, Runic Halberd, to the point where I had to change it from (6) 1/4 "Gain +2/+2", to its current form. It punished your opponent for leaving a board of damaged minions, much like Shaman punished you for not dealing with their tokens.

The Full Classic Set

Common Cards

Rare Cards

Epic Cards

Legendary Cards

Expansions

After much consideration I decided to create cards for the numerous expansions Hearthstone has had, mainly because I had so much fun creating the Basic and Classic sets. So far I've completed Curse of Naxxramas and Goblins vs Gnomes.

Curse of Naxxramas

Common Cards

Goblins vs Gnomes

Common Cards

Rare Cards

Epic Cards

Legendary Cards

Scrapped Ideas

Every time you set out to create a new set of cards or a new class, you come up with ideas that ultimately do not make the final cut. In the spoilers below are some of the scrapped cards and concepts for Spiritwalker:

Acknowledgements

This class wouldn't have been possible without Nikko's excellent work on the Hearthcards website, including the new Custom Class interface—you can see the Spiritwalker class in its full glory by clicking here.

It also wouldn't have been possible without the feedback I received on the /r/customhearthstone Discord server; namely feedback from Princess Phyley, Pixel, f0x, Muhframos, maysick, The Flawless Walrus, and all the other folks who shared their opinion every time I proudly announced the set was complete, just to go back and completely rework a card 5 minutes later! I'm sorry if I didn't mention you, folks, it is only because I'm a forgetful buffoon!

!!!YOUR CARDS HERE!!!

Now, this isn't a design competition, but I will be mighty happy to see how you folks would continue my idea further. Feel free to post your own cards for the Spiritwalker class, in addition to any feedback, criticism or opinion you are willing to share. I will include the ones I like best below, with credits and all!

The Shadow Labyrinth is open! (see fourth post)

Third boss - Grandmaster Vorpil of the Shadow Council!

When you first enter the Auchindoun adventure, you are greeted by Nexus-Prince Haramad:

Haramad may approach you in the first wing, but he will not be the only voice you hear as you venture through these halls...

For thousands of years, the draenei have been interring their dead in Auchindoun, their most sacred temple. However, it was infiltrated by agents of the Shadow Council bent on summoning a horrifying creature of immense evil. Their vile act of magic resulted in a massive explosion that blew the temple apart and reduced the surrounding area into a charred wasteland. The blast also caused a rift in the Nether itself, drawing the otherworldly Ethereals into Outland. The interred draenei now walk the ruins as restless spirits. Meanwhile, the same horrific entity summoned by the Shadow Council threatens to overwhelm their efforts to contain it.

Click here for more info about Auchindoun, courtesy of WoWWiki.

New Mechanic: Evasion - "50% chance to dodge incoming damage": Similar to the Ogre effect, this causes any incoming damage (whether it be from a hero, a spell, a minion attack, or random damage) to have a chance to fail. However, if the minion with Evasion does dodge damage from a minion, it will still deal its attack damage to it (if you have two Evasion minions facing off against each other, there's a chance that neither minion will deal damage, or 1, or both, or the other).

NOTE: Using Rend Blackhand in the Auchenai Fight doesn't work, nor do any direct or random removal spells or effects; Alexstrasza doesn't work on any of the heroic fights.

Boss List:

The Mana-Tombs: Pandemonius - Tavarok - Hall of Twilight

Auchenai Crypts: The Auchenai - Shirrak the Dead Watcher - Exarch Maladaar

Sethekk Halls: Darkweaver Syth - Talon King Ikiss - Anzu

Shadow Labyrinth: Ambassador Hellmaw - Blackheart the Inciter - Grandmaster Vorpil - Murmur

Cards:

For a full collectible card list, go to this page. Listed is a selection.

In this first wing, there is a 5% chance you will encounter a "sound-event" in the middle of your first attempt at a boss - the screen will shake, dust particles will fall from above, and the in-game sound and music will be muffled for around 4 seconds, during this time you will hear a faint, disturbing, elemental "roar".

 The Mana-Tombs

Having received your orders from Haramad, the first wing will open, revealing the first boss, and prompting Hamad to tell you a little something else:

First Boss: Pandemonius, the Void Lord (normal mode)

Pandemonius is a Void Lord - a being of immense dark energy, second only in power to the legendary Void Gods.

Boss Cards: (basic rarity, not common or collectible)

Fight Details:

Pandemonius starts off with 45 health - daunting for a first boss. Auchindoun isn't going to be easy! Both players start off on the board with 2 Shadow Wizards. This means your spells cost (4) less and your Hero Power costs (4) at the start of the match - as does his. He won't cast Voidlord's Grip until at least turn 3. His deck consists of:

2x Imp-losion: 2x Void Crusher, 2x Arcane Intellect, 2x Dread Infernal: 2x Voidwalker: 2x Void Energy: 2x Voidlord's Grip: 2x Dark Shell: 2x Fearsome Doomguard: 2x Demonfuse: 2x Power Overwhelming: 2x Voidcaller: 2x Molten Giant: 1x Spawn of Shadows: 1x Vanish: 2x Dread Infernal.

At the start of the match, he will always have at least one Voidcaller, one other Demon, and a copy of Imp-losion.

Pandemonius will hit you in the face with his Shadow Wizards consistently if you do nothing about them. They will continue to be annoying unless dealt with. Otherwise, he'll buff his minions using Power Overwhelming and Demonfuse (possibly getting you on even ground with him). He'll drop an early Voidcaller and continue to hit with it until it dies. As he gets lower on Health he will cast Void Energy. If he has a board to contend with he might cast Voidlord's Grip. Near the end of the fight he'll drop two Molten Giants and cast Dark Shell. This gives him a passive 4 attack - any character that attacks him will take 4 damage. Vanish can possibly prolong the fight in Pandemonius' favour.

Emotes: 

Boss Fight Reward:

For beating Pandemonius, you get:

2x Tomb Wraith

Heroic Mode Changes:

In this version of the fight, Pandemonius has 15 more health, his hero power affects ALL minions, not just the first one, so you may want to focus very heavily on a spellcasting class that deals direct damage. Also, you have no Shadow Wizards on your side, and he's got pretty evil eyes. This makes the fight substantially tougher, as you won't have the spell discount you originally had.

Class Challenge - Paladin:

Pandemonius' deck is the same - your deck however, consists of:

2x Auchindoun Vindicator, 2x Mysterious Challenger, 2x Muster for Battle, 2x Avenge, 2x Competitive Spirit, 2x Eye for an Eye, 2x Noble Sacrifice, 2x Redemption, 2x Repentance, 2x Quartermaster, 2x Warhorse Trainer, 2x Silver Hand Regent, 2x Truesilver Champion, 2x Coghammer, 2x Lay on Hands.

The fight is the same except both you and Pandemonius only have 1 Shadow Wizard. This deck is meant to emphasize the synergizes with a secret-based Paladin deck that Auchindoun Vindicator introduces. You have two Auchindoun Vindicators to play around with, so a turn 5 Muster for Battle + Hero Power, then a turn 6 The Coin + Mysterious Challenger + Competitive Spirit can be a pretty amazing combo.

Class Challenge Reward:

For completing the Paladin class challenge against Pandemonius, you get:

2x Auchindoun Vindicator

Second Boss: Tavarok, a Colossus (normal mode)

A bit of a stiff personality.

Boss Cards: (basic rarity, not common or collectible)

Fight Details:

Tavarok has 30 health and starts with 1 mana, just like you. However, he comes equipped with BIG ROCK HANDS, surely enough to cow even the bravest adventurer! This means that he can hit you in the face for 12, but he's prepared to snap at any minions you've got. Susceptible to Acidic Swamp Ooze.

Not only that, his starting hand is almost filled with Elemental Coins. That is, Tavarok starts the fight with 8 cards, and they are all Elemental Coin. On his first turn, he'll play all of them and play two of the elementals he gets. His drawn cards won't come out until later - i.e. when he has enough mana to play them. Tavarok won't sMORC you unless he can, so maintaining a good board presence with plenty of taunts is a good idea - watch out for his hero power though - minions likeSaboteur are good plays, andLoatheb can help against his other spells.

He also has CRYSTAL CRUSH, a spell which acts like Twisting Nether but with the added bonus of a possible +14 attack damage. You should probably kill Tavarok before we get to this stage in the fight. He has 2 Mana Surges in his deck, which allow him to draw cards and level out the fight. His deck consists of 38 cards, 8 of which are already in his hand:

Starting Hand: 8x Elemental Coin + 1x drawn card - if going second, add The Coin + 1x drawn card. This means he can outlast you in fatigue by default.

Deck: 2x Fireguard Destroyer, 2x Shield Block, 2x Bash, 2x Shield Slam, 2x Mana Surge, 2x BIG ROCK HANDS, 2x CRYSTAL CRUSH, 2x North Sea Kraken, 2x Sea Giant, 2x Mountain Giant, 2x Ice Rager, 2x Mana Wraith, 1x Coldarra Drake, 2x Frost Giant, 1x Frigid Snobold, 2x Captured Jormungar.

Emotes: 

Boss Fight Reward:

For beating Tavarok, you get:

2x Mana Giant

Heroic Mode Changes:

In Heroic mode, Tavarok starts with 2 mana already, which means he can cast all 8 Elemental Coins then play two Earth Elementals - or he can cast all his Elemental Coins and summon one of his drawn minions if he wants to - that is he could summon a Captured Jormungar if he has it in his opening hand. This makes things problematic for you, as on turn 1 you may have the problem of a 8 or 9 cost minion on the board. 

Class Challenge - Rogue:

Tavaroks deck is the same - your deck however, consists of:

2x Forgery, 4x Preparation, 2x Backstab, 2x SI:7 Agent, 2x Buccaneer, 2x Blade Flurry, 2x Deadly Poison, 2x Sprint, 2x  Sap, 1x Conceal, 2x Beneath the Grounds, 2x Assassin's Blade, 1x Maiden of the Lake, 2x Shadowstep, 2x Tinker's Sharpsword Oil

The fight is the same except you have Forgery in your hand when the game begins, as well as 2 copies of Preparation. The aim is to combo out a bunch of cards from your hand, then Prep - Forgery, refilling your hand as well as devastating your opponent.

Class Challenge Reward:

For completing the Rogue class challenge against Tavarok, you get:

2x Forgery

Final Boss: Hall of Twilight, Shaffar's Lair (normal mode)

Upon starting the fight in the Hall of Twilight, a dialogue occurs, with Shaffar speaking first;

Shaffar likes long walks on the beach, sunsets, and avoids toilets if possible.

Boss Cards: (basic rarity, not common or collectible)

 Other Cards (this boss has them in its deck, may not be obtainable from this fight):

Fight Details:

Shaffar is quite a tough fight - while his hero power seems somewhat slow, and his deck lacks many avenues of direct damage, he has cards which will enable him to take control of the fight and quickly activate his Ethereal Apprentices.

He starts the fight with three Ethereal Beacons on his side of the board. His hero power summons more of them, as well as damaging them. You always go first in this fight, which means that he always gets The Coin. He will use it to either activate his deathrattles, or to Hero Power. His deck consists of:

Deck: 2x Mana Surge, 2x Ethereal Assassin, 2x Ethereal Priest, 3x Feign Death, 2x Holy Nova, 2x Dark Cultist, 2x Flash Heal, 2x Confuse, 2x Innervate, 2x Maiden of the Lake, 2x Flamewaker, 2x Void Terror, 2x Shadow Wizard, 2x Arcane Explosion, 1x Dalaran Aspirant

He will play Feign Death as soon as he has 3 Ethereal Beacons on the board - so if he has it in his opening hand, he will use it. The nightmare for the player is if Shaffar gets a Coldarra Drake + Maiden of the Lake combo - then plays out 2 Shadow Wizards and Dalaran Aspirant. In that case, he can essentially kill you in one turn from 30 health, so you want to prevent this scenario from occurring.

He will also use Ethereal Assassin as delayed minion removal, and Ethereal Priest to buff his high-impact minions.

Emotes: 

Boss Fight Reward:

For beating Nexus-Prince Shaffar, you get:

2x Ethereal Assassin, 2x Ethereal Priest

Heroic Mode Additions:

After the dialogue between Haramad and Shaffar, and once the fight has started and Shaffar has greeted you, this message will appear:

Shaffar's hero lifts off the battlefield and out of view. Yor comes barrelling down from the top of the screen, purple-black streaks (like a Void Terror animation) coming out of him as he approaches.

Double the bad breath, double the terrifying death screams.

In Heroic mode, things go a bit differently. While the fight against Nexus-Prince Shaffar is the same, you have to face off against his pet first. Yor is a Void Terror, and a bit of a legendary one at that. You'll have to build a deck that can last against two bosses. Yor actually comes with his own 15 card deck, so that's a problem.

On the board, he has a Voidcaller ready to attack you - it's not tremendously scary on its own,  but when Yor uses his hero power, he can activate it very easily. His deck consists of:

Deck: 2x Void Crusher, 2x Fearsome Doomguard, 2x Floating Watcher, 2x Demonwrath, 4x Power Overwhelming, 2x Voidwalker, 2x Wrathguard, 1x Pit Lord

It's not a lot, but the synergies are such that he can deal a lot of damage in a short span of time - imagine he has 4 mana and casts quadruple Power Overwhelming, then Subsumes the minion he buffed - that's at least 32 damage. You want to be very quick about killing Yor as he only has 10 health to begin with.

Once you defeat Yor, Nexus-Prince Shaffar will come back into play, and his hero power will cost 0 and be on auto-cast! Oh dear.

(auto-cast)

Class Challenge - Mage:

Shaffar's deck is the same - your deck however, consists of:

2x Mana Tempest, 2x Frost Nova, 2x Fireball, 2x Counterspell, 2x Duplicate, 2x Mirror Entity, 2x Vaporize, 2x Kirin Tor Mage, 2x Ethereal Arcanist, 1x Sorceror's Apprentice, 1x Rhonin, 2x Coldarra Drake, 2x Maiden of the Lake, 2x Fallen Hero, 2x Unstable Portal, 2x Dalaran Aspirant.

Similar to how the fight is normally, Shaffar has three Ethereal beacons. However, you have a Maiden of the Lake on the board immediately, which can allow for some interesting plays, and can possibly help you activate your Hero Power combo. This class challenge is meant to not only highlight the value of secrets in a mage deck, but also to show how powerful the TGT hero power combo can be when paired with it.

Class Challenge Reward:

For completing the Mage class challenge against Nexus-Prince Shaffar, you get:

2x Mana Tempest

After you beat Nexus-Prince Shaffar and finish the wing, Haramad speaks to you:

Wing Reward: 1x Nexus-Prince Shaffar