Hearthstone’s new expansion, Ashes of Outland, hit the live servers earlier this week and warped the meta with a new playable class. Illidan, the Demon Hunter, is now playable and granted freely to all players who participate in the solo adventure that recounts Illidan’s path to ascension.
While some professional players expected Demon Hunters to be out of control in the first couple of days and then return to normal, others have seemingly decided that the class is here to stay for a much longer period of time.
Demon Hunter is topping the win rate charts with a 56.2-percent general win rate right now. Some individual, refined decks are even reaching 70 percent. Those are insane numbers regardless of how you spin it, even if it’s only one day worth of data. As more people refine the deck, the win rate could increase even higher and we could see only Demon Hunters on ladder and in arenas in the near future.
The newly-released class has generated a heated debate on social media between players who adore the class that stomps everyone and those who want to play something other than Demon Hunter. While the meta is still in flux, Demon Hunter is here to stay.
Did Blizzard go too far?
Some pros say the class will be extremely strong in Standard but vulnerable in Wild where other classes have access to more class cards to deal with the Demon Hunter build. But even that hasn’t stopped them from stomping the Wild ladder.
Demon Hunter has access to a new class-specific mechanic, Outcast. It allows the class to have extra effects if the card is the leftmost or rightmost card in hand. This mechanic on certain cards makes it extremely overpowered and, as such, players are demanding a nerf before it gets out of control.
A card that’s particularly painful to deal with is Skull of Gul’dan. The card costs six mana and draws you three cards, already making it extremely valuable. But what makes it broken is the Outcast effect. If it’s cast in the leftmost or rightmost spot, it will reduce the cost of those cards by three mana. That’s a nine-mana reduction combined, which is insane.
On top of this card, the Demon Hunter basic set has potent draw engines alongside mana crystal removal to prevent opponents from responding properly to an aggressive turn and a silence combined with a draw card. It has answers for everything.Â
What needs to be done?
Every class is known for having certain strengths and weaknesses. Rogue trades their health to take down minions with their Hero Power. Warlocks draw cards at the expense of health. Demon Hunters seem to only have strengths and no weaknesses. Even if you run the full basic Demon Hunter set, you’ll be hard to defeat due to the raw power level of those cards.
Blizzard should go back to the drawing board and take a proactive approach to fix the Demon Hunter class. Otherwise, players will have a bitter experience and might quit the game as per usual.
Some notable cards that should be balanced are the Skull of Gul’dan, Imprisoned Antaen, and Battlefiend. These three cards are leagues above their peers with the same mana cost. The Skull is an improved version of the Druid Nourish. Battlefiend, at one mana with two Health and two Attack, is quite strong and overpowers the remaining one-drops in the game.Â
How to deal with Demon Hunters for now
To deal with Demon Hunters, you need to play a Warlock or use a highlander deck with Zephyrs. With access to Sacrificial Pact, the card that instantly kills a demon and heals you back up, can stop their domination with a zero-mana card.
Another class that’s always efficient against the aggressive tactics of Demon Hunter is the old-reliable Warrior. By stacking a lot of armor and using plenty of board clears, you’ll keep them at bay and take the game into the later stages where you can overpower them with big minions.
Closing thoughts
While the data set is only for two days and could be seen as an overreaction with people experimenting, no single class has ever held an above 50-percent win rate on launch—and others were struggling to reach it.
Blizzard should take precautionary measures, investigate which cards are overperforming, and deploy a hotfix if necessary to balance them out.
