For the Wild! Five Possible Alternate Druid Heroes for Hearthstone
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, alternate hero portraits are a part of Hearthstone. These purely cosmetic heroes (they simply give the player a new portrait and new voice lines) don’t change the game in any gameplay sense and can be unlocked in a few different ways. The current alternate heroes (and how they are obtained) are below:
- Magni (Warrior), Alleria (Hunter), and Medivh (Mage) are only available if you purchase them in the shop for $9.99.
- Khadgar (Mage) was sold for $4.99 during a limited time event benefiting the World Wildlife Fund.
- Maiev (Rogue) is unlocked through a special quest that new players received which requires playing Standard games.
- Morgl (Shaman) can only be earned through the Recruit a Friend system.
- Lady Liadrin (Paladin) can be unlocked by raising a character to level 20 in World of Warcraft.
- Tyrande (Priest) was available exclusively to Twitch Prime members.
- Prince Arthas (Paladin) is the reward for beating the Knights of the Frozen Throne single player mission with all 9 classes.
- Nemsy Necrofizzle (Warlock) can be unlocked by attending a Fireside Tavern Gathering.
Notice anything? That’s right! The only class who has been horribly abandoned and neglected here is the druid…not one single alternate hero. Which means, *drumroll*, it’s time to fix that with some wild speculation about who could be the next alternate druid hero!
Hamuul Runetotem
Leading the pack of most commonly predicted and/or requested is Hamuul Runetotem. In World of Warcraft, Hamuul is the Archdruid of Thunder Bluff and a well-regarded leader among the Tauren people. If Blizzard chooses him as the next alternate hero for Druid, it would mark the first time a Tauren was chosen as a hero character.
In WoW, Hamuul was the first Tauren druid in almost 20 generations, so why not first Tauren hero too? Being a Tauren means his portrait will be visually very distinct from Malfurion’s (who, coincidentally, is his mentor). That could be an enormous plus in his favor. Fans have been clamoring for more diversity in the heroes. Many feel there are plenty of humans and elves already, so including a Tauren could be a great step in the right direction.
Lunara
Lunara is an interesting character because she was actually first introduced in Heroes of the Storm and was only later added to World of Warcraft in the Legion expansion. She is a dryad and the first daughter of Cenarius, with whom Hearthstone players are already familiar. She is described as being a fierce protector of the forest, who frequently makes use of poison to cripple her foes. Sounds pretty badass, no?
A lot of fans would love to see male and female options for all of the heroes, which might help put her in the running despite her not having quite the same pedigree of lore as some of the others on this list. Currently, the options for Rogue, Warrior, and Shaman are all the same gender. Mage, Hunter, Paladin, Priest, and Warlock have male and female portraits.
Fandral Staghelm
Most of us are probably already acquainted with this character because he’s already in the game! Fandral Staghelm is a legendary druid card that first made an appearance in the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion. Say what? Surely they wouldn’t make a hero out of a character that’s already a minion? Right? Well, maybe, maybe not. Medivh is a playable minion and an alternate hero portrait for the mage class, so it has been done before. How likely it is, I’ll leave up to you to decide. For those who aren’t that familiar with the lore, here’s a fun fact about Fandral: He was opposed to Hamuul (the very same from above) becoming a druid on the basis that he was a Tauren (Fandral is a bit of a jerk if you didn't know).
Broll Bearmantle
Broll Bearmantle is an elf druid from World of Warcraft of great ability. Broll is somewhat unique because of the antlers he was born with (they are very rare and an indicator of his great power). However, because of this feature, if he was chosen they’d have to take special care to distinguish him from Malfurion (who also has this rare feature), especially for those Hearthstone fans who don’t have a World of Warcraft background. One of the cool things about Broll is that he seems to have a lot of friends in high places, friends even the aforementioned Hearthstone players would recognize. He’s a companion of our very own original rogue hero, Valeera and Varian Wrynn. He helped Tyrande free his mentor Malfurion from the Emerald Dream (Malfurion has a lot of mentees, you guys). And it is even said that Malfurion himself considers Broll to be an equal.
Hearthstone is full of fun little interactions between the characters, for example when Tyrande and Malfurion play each other they have a special greeting. Team 5 would probably have fun putting all those little easter eggs in if they chose Broll as the next druid hero.
Zen’tabra
Another great option for a female druid hero, Zen’tabra is a druid trainer in WoW. Not only that, but she’s also a troll! We definitely don’t have any troll heroes yet, and I’m sure players would love to see it.
Zen’tabra used to be a witch doctor, before studying druidism in the Emerald Dream. She along with her other fellow ex-witch doctors helped Vol’jin reclaim their home and defeat the evil Zalazane, who was actually responsible for the loss of their witch doctor powers in the first place! I could easily see them releasing her as an alternate druid hero, maybe alongside a Darkspear themed expansion?
You’ve seen our picks, now let us know what yours are! Do you hope to see one of the above more than the others? Are you excited by the prospect of a new druid hero? Are you tired of human and elf heroes? Let us know in the comments!
Me likes Lunara but I don't think she even really fits. In heroes of the storm she's less of druid and more of poisonspear-chucikng killer machine. On the other hand, with ties to HoTS tehy could actually make it so you don't have to bend over backwards to accquire her
lunara would be my choice
I would actually like to see Naralex, leader of the Druids of the Fang. They could go one of two ways with him: they could make him into a servant of the Nightmare in an alternate reality where adventurers were never able to wake him up or; they could make him half snake half elf.
We need a Tauren hero
Lunara or Hamuul, but i think i would like to see Lunara.
But please, no more Twitch Prime Heroes like Tyrande ! i want to get a new Hero only doing things related to Hearthstone, this third party things are annoying and exclude many people,
Please be Broll bearmantle. BTW it's never gonna be fandral. Only reason medivh is both a hero and playable minion is because of how iconic he is in WOW lore. IMO, Broll and Hamuul are the best options because they are demanded for the most. It would be really stupid if blizzard just takes a creates a random character with no significance in WOW after not giving a class an alternative skin for years, "cough, cough", it's not like they've ever done something so stupid; all of the classes have iconic characters as their alternative heroes.
I vote for the tauren, 10/10
How about create a new druid. It would be cool to have a Kobold druid :"No take candle, nature."
Growbold
I hope it will be Lunara. Blizz should connect this with an accomplishment in WILD mode. Perfect connection with the druid theme.
As long as we don't have to bend over backwards to get them, I'm fine with anyone.
I don't think the fact that a character has a hero or card should prevent that character from getting the other. LIke Medivh, I think it's perfectly fine to have both. There are a lot of current legendary minions that would be cool in hero form and which would have neat interactions with other cards/heroes. Archbishop Benedictus, Fandral Staghelm, Mal'Ganis, and Edwin VanCleef would all be neat in hero form, just to name a few.
Both the Shaman heroes are the same gender? Mor'gl isn't even a mammal, how can we tell what gender it is? Or if murlocs even have traditional genders?
because nobody can tell what gender a fish is. It's a mystery. Nobody has ever seen fish reproduce. Surely fish must have revolutionized the concept of gender.
Well. He clearly has a beard so that is a subtle hint
That's a good point! I wasn't sure myself and thought about mentioning it in the article, but when researching it I came across this blog post on the official hearthstone website which refers to Morgl using male pronouns. I figured they would know best! Great questions though and good looking out for murlocs!
At the Hearthstone Q&A this past BlizzCon, I asked what they could tell us about the Druid Hero and if they had considered Hamuul. They said they had, but were looking at other options since they felt he was too similar to Malfurion. I disagree heavily with this, but that's what Brode said. They also couldn't say if the Druid hero will even be the next one released.
Since they have shown a lot of interest recently with adding new lore to Warcraft / creating a unique Hearthstone universe, my suggestion would be Hamuul's daughter, Bashana. She doesn't have a lot of existing lore, but a female Tauren with room to grow would probably check a lot of boxes for them.
Also, I just hope it isn't Brightwing.
Zen'Kiki should be an option too :D
If that were to happen instead of Hamuul, I won't even be mad. The thought of this actually makes me happy. Zen'Kiki be da best druid!