Blizzard just posted a huge developer insights blog, talking about class identity and announcing 10 new Classic Cards (of which 2 Basic) being added as replacements for previous Hall of Famed cards. You might be thinking, but we only needed 8 replacements? Well, additionally two new cards will be moving to the Hall of Fame: Vanish and Mind Blast.
Here are the 10 new cards being added to the Classic (and Basic) set in the next major update:
Quote from BlizzardAs Hearthstone expands and more patrons make their way to the tavern, it becomes increasingly important for us to revisit past designs to make sure we are building on the right foundation. Over the past 5 years of evolution and growth, we’ve learned a lot about what makes each of the classes in Hearthstone different and what unique experiences players should have when playing each of these classes. Headed into our next update, we’d like to take this opportunity to outline our current class identity philosophy and to share our thoughts on where we see each class in the future.
Establishing Class Identity
When defining a class’s identity, we’re primarily concerned with staying true to the following three guidelines: adhere to a class’s “fantasy”, define the things the class should excel at, and establish where the class should struggle.
When looking at the fantasy of each class we want to capture the emotion of the class through gameplay. That could mean charging headfirst into battle as a Warrior, wielding devastating magical spells as a Mage, or plotting the perfect combination of moves as a Rogue. Once we know what makes a class tick, we can make better decisions about what cards fit and empower that fantasy.
Establishing stronger class identities serves several purposes. Giving classes better defined characteristics allows us to have more freedom when creating new mechanics. We can push further into the extremes knowing that each class has downsides to balance out new power. It also enables more counter-play when there is a clearer understanding of a class’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, the knowledge that a Druid is weak against big minions lets you start planning your strategy from the start of the match, with little to no knowledge of your opponent’s specific deck.
Class Breakdown
Here’s a brief look into how we currently picture each of the classes:
- Strengths: These are the things that a class focuses on and excels at.
- Limitations: These are aspects that might show up a few times in a class, but they are very limited in power level and the number of cards.
- Weaknesses: These are aspects that a class either doesn’t have or struggles to achieve effectively.
Druid: Attuned with nature, Druids rely on the magic of the wild, massive beasts, and swarms of woodland creatures. Their toolbox allows them the versatility to pivot from defense to aggression. However, they have limited ways to directly clear out enemy minions.
- Strengths: Mana generation, giant minions, minion swarms, card draw, Beasts
- Weaknesses: Destroying big minions, board clear
Hunter: Hunters use their wit, ferocity, and an army of beasts fighting alongside them to destroy their competition. Although they lack in defense, their aggression allows them to push through before they need it. A well-timed Secret or Deathrattle can help them gain clutch advantages against their opponent.
- Strengths: Beasts, face damage, Secrets, Deathrattle
- Limitations: Card draw and generation, board clear, Taunt
- Weaknesses: Healing
Mage: Mages have mastered the arcane arts and use their wide range of spells to take on even the most aggressive of opponents. Their defensive cadre is limited—while a good Mage usually has a useful tool to deal with any situation, a great Mage conjures the right tool when they need it.
- Strengths: Spells (big and small), damage spells, Secrets, board clear
- Limitations: Minion swarms
- Weaknesses: Healing, Taunt, minion buffs
Paladin: Paladins are great champions who support their minions with buffs, healing, and divine shields; however, they are not afraid to get their hands dirty when the time comes. They are methodical, controlling the battlefield through debuffs and focused attacks instead of destructive spells. Strength and persistence are the keys to a Paladin’s victory.
- Strengths: Minion swarms, minion buffs and debuffs, healing, Divine Shield, Secrets
- Limitations: Cost reduction
- Weaknesses: Direct damage spells, destroying big minions
Priest: Priests balance holy light and shadow magic to defeat their opponents. They control a battle’s outcome using powerful spells with situational applications. While not the most aggressive, they are able to generate, copy, and use combinations of cards to create a powerful army.
- Strengths: Healing, narrow but powerful spells, copying, single-minion buffs, Deathrattle
- Limitations: Card draw
- Weaknesses: Face damage spells, multi-minion buffs
Rogue: Rogues hide in the shadows, planning for the perfect time to strike. They may be sneaky and nimble, but they lack strong defenses and regeneration, forcing them to act quickly to incapacitate an opponent. Their innate ability to generate, draw, and burgle cards allows them to build up and execute on many synergies.
- Strengths: Combo cards, destroying individual minions, card draw, weapons, Deathrattle
- Weaknesses: Taunt, healing, board clear, multi-minion buffs
Shaman: Shamans wield the power of the elements along with their trusty totems. While they may not be able to generate resources as quickly as a Mage, they are able to overload their Mana Crystals with lightning, allowing them to ramp up for a burst of power faster than other classes. Shamans are thus rewarded for planning a few turns ahead by tuning their mana curve. Shamans also have strong tools to adapt to many situations. Although they are not as versatile as a Druid’s Choose One cards, they are able to extend their capabilities in ways other classes might not be able to.
- Strengths: Minion swarms, damage spells, Totems, Elementals, Murlocs
- Weaknesses: Card draw, card generation
Warlock: Sometimes sacrifices need to be made for power, and when you get demons involved this is often the case. The Warlock is comfortable with this bond and can manage all their resources (including their Health) in order to defeat their opponent. Their inherent ability to draw cards—with a sacrifice—allows them to keep the power flowing.
- Strengths: Powerful sacrifice effects, card draw, minion swarms, disruption, Demons
- Weaknesses: Face damage spells, big healing
Warrior: Warriors thirst for the battlefield. Primarily a martial class, they incorporate Armor, weapons, and minions to destroy their opponents. The minions who fight alongside each Warrior tend to be bigger and stronger, and they employ Rush and Taunt to control the flow of battle.
- Strengths: Armor, weapons, Taunt, destroying minions
- Limitations: Card draw and generation
- Weaknesses: Face damage spells, multi-minion buffs, minion swarms
Neutral: Neutral cards allow classes to extend their strengths to reach a specific goal with their deck or to make up for some of their weaknesses. For example, a Paladin can add Neutral Murlocs to help them round out their deck, or a Hunter may use a Neutral card that gives them a small amount of healing so they can stay in the fight longer. These cards are generally lower in power level so a class can never completely overcome their weaknesses.
Addressing Identity Issues
As we’ve worked to define what each class should bring to the table, we’ve found several cards that don’t match our established class identities. We’ll continue to adjust the Basic and Classic sets as needed, but for this update we’ve decided to address the following two cards: Mind Blast and Vanish.
While we like Rogues’ knack for getting out of sticky situations with targeted removal, Vanish allows them to effectively clear an entire board. This negates one of their intended weaknesses, reduces our ability to design towards their strengths, and makes it much harder for players to strategize against a Rogue.
Mind Blast gives Priests the ability to inflict a large amount of direct Face damage. We want to limit the amount of damage that Priests are able to deal from their hand, which will allow us to make cards that better emphasize their strengths in controlling the game.
We’ll be replacing these two cards with effects that better speak to their classes’ core fantasies:
For Priests, we’ve added Radiance since we wanted to have a low-cost spell that could be used for tricky spell synergies that also provided a powerful baseline heal for the class. Plaguebringer provides Rogues with another way to destroy minions and further establishes this class as the masters of Poison.
Since these are Basic and Classic cards (and so not subject to set rotation), we want to be careful with their power level so that Hearthstone can continue to feel fresh with each new year. At the same time, we’d like to provide effects that are natural for their class and can be useful in the right circumstances.
Adding New Classic Cards
Over the past several years, we’ve taken steps toward further defining class identities and maintaining a healthy meta-game by moving some over-represented or design-limiting Classic cards into the Hall of Fame, and by adding new cards to this set whenever appropriate. For instance, in 2017 we moved both Ragnaros, the Firelord and Sylvanas Windrunner to the Hall of Fame, and we’ve more recently done the same for Divine Favor, Ice Block, and several other cards. Leading up to the release of Rastakhan’s Rumble in 2018, we also introduced some new cards to the Classic set, such as Pilfer, Icicle, and Tome of Intellect.
We’re always assessing the prominence and impact of cards from every set, including Basic and Classic, and will continue to make changes when we believe it makes for a healthier meta-game and a better experience for players. This may come in the form of additions to the Hall of Fame or with the introduction of new cards that we feel bring some fresh new options to players, while still being healthy for the game.
When moving Classic cards to the Hall of Fame, we always look to introduce new cards to this set in order to keep a healthy amount of easily-obtainable cards available to players in Standard format games. We’ve been working for quite a while on some new additions to the Classic set, and we feel that now is the perfect time to bring them into the game.
Here’s a look at the new cards that will be available in Classic card packs (and craftable with Arcane Dust) starting with the next major update:
Who didn't?
People who somehow thought Mind blast was balanced, aka delusional priest players
-It is not interesting to play my favourite hero anymore!
-No idea what you mean, *continues farming gold heroes*
What card draw ??? The 7 mana Sprint that is now unusable since the nerf of Preparation ??
What shadow magic ??? Card draw why is it in Limitation ? Its an UBER weakness ,if we look at HS from begining this class had the worst card draw of all classes.
Hagatha says HELLO or why print Hagatha if this is where shaman should be weak ??? Makes no sense
Blizzard you playing the same game as us ???
What card draw? Lol... Rogue have Shiv, Fan of Knives, Myras unstable element , Raiding Party , Sprint not to mention the neutrals Rogues use for card draw due to the high synergy.
Your kidding right??? okey so your saying rouge has plenty of card draw . And yes you have to exclude neutrals because they are available to all classes.
Lets compare rouge's card draw that he is STRONG in to warrior who is Limited :
Shiv < Slam ( same mana cost but bigger dmg)
Sprint < Battle Rage (NOT EVEN CLOSE much rather take 2 mana avg draw 2-3 then a 7 mana draw 4 and do nothing )
Fan of knives Yes this is the only Decent card draw Rouge has in his evergreen set
Myra will rotate in few months and is only eligible in some rouge decks
Raiding Party yes it is decent but got nerfed with prep 1 would have been enough...will also soon rotate
Warrior on the other hand also has:
Shield Block (3 mana armor self cycle card decent)
Commanding Shout (Decent card ,saw less play but still better then Shiv )
Overal Warrior has 4 and Rouges 3 non rotational card draw's available ,did that answear your question
Hunter Weaknesses: Healing
Meanwhile Hunter: *plays the 6th 2 mana 4/6 with Rush and Lifesteal in a single game*
Blizzard:
Wow.... some of these cards are pure trash!
+2/+2 to all minions for EIGHT mana? EIGHT? even for 7 this card is really bad...
5 mana to give everyone divine shield? yikes, since when can paladin hold the board with more than one minion, if at all?
7 mana 4/4 summon a random beast??? there's a ton a low cost beasts out there!!! at least promise it's a 4 cost beast or better!! and it's an epic!
the 8 mana 5/5 has this one advantage that it could be combined with tiny spells, but that one also feels too expensive.
Think about Pilfer, Tome of Intellect, Call of the Void or (God forbid) Icicle.
They don't want these cards to be too good, for fear that they'll become staples of all future decks of that class. At best, they want them to find a place in niche roles.
I understand that they should not be too good. But gift of the wild is so horrible, it will not even find a place in niche roles. Even for 6 mana it would rarely be found in a deck I reckon.
It's just sad that some of these cards will never find their way into anything that can get you past rank 15. I mean, they killed these cards before they got released :/
Not all are bad, but I just wonder why the huge difference in quality? get a random legendary? pretty neat, especially for a beginner! 7 mana 5/8 taunt: well, at least a beginner can do stuff with that or it can be used in a demon zoo deck. niche. but a 7 mana 4/4 summon a random minion that most likely is something like a 3/3 - who ever would put that in his/her deck? or buffing a board that is hard to create in the first place, for 8 mana?
i did not forget the other cards, and i was complaining about icicle just the same :D
Druid Strengths: Mana generation, giant minions. CoolStoryBob
nice,
blizzard know how to make hs keep hot.
Thoughts on new cards:
Plaguebringer: 5/10. Might sometimes see play in tempo based decks, since its effect requires you to have a minion on the board. Comparable to Plague Scientist.
Radiance: 2/10. Iron Hide saw minimal play, Flash Heal saw play in combo decks, and Binding Heal saw minimal play. Overall, Radiance is horrible in comparison to all three.
Siegebreaker: 5/10. Assuming that 5/8 taunt is worth 6 mana, the +1 attack to demons needs to be worth 1 mana. This works in only very specific situations but is a fairly rounded card otherwise.
Gift of the Wild: 4/10. The stats that are given by this card are abysmal: to be worth it, it needs to buff up at least 4 minions. In token druid, this is a possibility: however, it's likely too slow, especially when Cenarius doesn't see play. The only special effect about this card is that it gives taunt, which probably still isn't enough.
Righteousness: 1/10. Literally 3 mana more than Power of the Wild for less flexibility and a similar value effect. Won't see play.
Brightwing: 5/10. Fairly statted. Comparing with cards like Gnomish Inventor, it seems to be well balanced. Random legendaries tend to be very... well, random, however. Could fit into a midrange archetype.
High Inquisitor Whitemane: 7/10. Revenge of the Wild sometimes saw play, and was a lot more restricting since it only summoned beasts. Assuming 6/8 in stats is worth 6 mana, this card tacks on its effect for just 1 mana. Likely will see play in decks that seek to keep minions on the board throughout the game, such as token druid.
Barrens Stablehand: 5/10. It's a highroll card. Get King Krush, and you've won the gamble. Get Helpless Hatchling, and you're going to be questioning your life decisions.
SI:7 Infiltrator: 6/10. Will see play in meta whenever secrets come back into the meta. However, it won't likely see much play on release, since many strong secrets such as Explosive Runes rotated out during April. Still, it's a strong tech card.
Arcane Devourer: 2/10. Weak stats with an effect that will be very hard to trigger consistently. If you're considering building a deck around this type of effect, just run Questing Adventurer instead, please. It will save you time and effort.
That's it! Please let me know if you have any questions.
I would hand out different scores in many cases, but here is my take on some of these cards:
gift of the wild: 1/10 - won't see play, ever
barrens stablehand: 1/10 - won't see play, except in a cycle that consists primarily of massive beasts. which has never been the case. i mean, now we have krush, oondasta, the 5/7 rush, purple worm, ... but these are counterweighted by a very huge amount of tiny beasts. and we have never seen a meta with larger beasts than now, so it must get even crazier for this card to see play...
infiltrator: 2/10: it's definitely not bad, but there is already kezan, which would see little play even in a secret heavy meta. It was different in the old days, when new cards had less powerful effects, but nowadays it's difficult to justify a card that doesn't push your game plan. And if you really want to fight a secret heavy meta, you probably want to use still at most 2 tech cards for that, and then usually a cheaper card (like mystic) is better. of course, with a new prince taldaram and a secret meta, infiltrator becomes pretty good again :)
I can understand your take on gift of the wild and barren stablehand, but why only 2/10 for infiltrator?
SI:7 Infiltrator is a 5/4 for 4 mana. If this was all it had, I'd already give it a 4/10 for being slightly below average. Kezan Mystic is not in standard, as it is in the goblins vs. gnomes set which rotated out a long time ago. Also, SI:7 Infiltrator is actually more flexible than Kezan Mystic. Firstly, they have the same mana cost. Kezan Mystic is not cheaper. They both cost 4 mana. Secondly, SI:7 Infiltrator has better base stats in return for a slightly less punishing ability. This means that it will be easier to include, even when the meta only contains a couple decks that may runs secrets. Therefore, I give it a far higher rating - 6/10.
If Warlock get a little but of support in the next expansion i like the Breaker even more. I kinda wish it was a 6 cost but it might be busted curving from 5. Although curving from the 6 cost taunt into this would be good in a mid to late game Warlock deck. It's also a really good demon to discover or create with effects which basically buffs those cards.
Oh.... I actually thought mystic is in classic :D
And my memory of kezan mystic was that it was 3 mana 4/3. I apologize for my hard stance on infiltrator and withdraw it - 6/10 sounds fair indeed. Thanks for correcting me!
I like these kind of updates, but this timing is not fun. Just started to save up some dust and gold, and now they come with new cards for the classic set.
Not like any of them will see play except for the SI and maybe Whitemane.
Miss when most Legendaries have unique effects.