Blizzard outlines class identity in Hearthstone

On one of the most recent developer post, the Hearthstone team announced a variety of new cards that will be coming to Standard.

The team also discussed the identity behind each class, and how players can expect each class to feel as Hearthstone moves forward.

Blizzard said when defining a class’s identity that it is primarily concerned with staying true to three things. Those three things are class fantasy, what the class should excel at, and establishing where the class should struggle. The team says its main goal is to capture the emotion of the class through gameplay.

This means going forward Blizzard wants players to have a clear idea of what the class they’re playing as aims to accomplish. This is not only a great way to define class identity, but this will also make it easier for new players to determine which class is more likely to fit their TCG play-style. Blizzard says giving each class an obvious weakness will also improve the development of cards because each class will have a clear downside to balance out new power.

In order to best illustrate this way of thinking about the classes, Blizzard put out a small description of each one including its strengths and weaknesses. Some classes also include a section discussing its limitations. You can check out the full blog post here. Check out each class’s strengths and weaknesses below.

Druid

• Strengths: Mana generation, giant minions, minion swarms, card draw, Beasts.
• Weaknesses: Destroying big minions, board clear.

Hunter

• Strengths: Beasts, face damage, Secrets, Deathrattle
• Limitations: Card draw and generation, board clear, Taunt
• Weaknesses: Healing

Mage

• Strengths: Spells (big and small), damage spells, Secrets, board clear
• Limitations: Minion swarms
• Weaknesses: Healing, Taunt, minion buffs

Paladin

• Strengths: Minion swarms, minion buffs and debuffs, healing, Divine Shield, Secrets
• Limitations: Cost reduction
• Weaknesses: Direct damage spells, destroying big minions

Priest

• Strengths: Healing, narrow but powerful spells, copying, single-minion buffs, Deathrattle
• Limitations: Card draw
• Weaknesses: Face damage spells, multi-minion buffs

Rogue

• Strengths: Combo cards, destroying individual minions, card draw, weapons, Deathrattle
• Weaknesses: Taunt, healing, board clear, multi-minion buffs

Shaman

• Strengths: Minion swarms, damage spells, Totems, Elementals, Murlocs
• Weaknesses: Card draw, card generation

Warlock

• Strengths: Powerful sacrifice effects, card draw, minion swarms, disruption, Demons
• Weaknesses: Face damage spells, big healing

Warrior

• Strengths: Armor, weapons, Taunt, destroying minions
• Limitations: Card draw and generation
• Weaknesses: Face damage spells, multi-minion buffs, minion swarms.

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