Everything we know about Hearthstone’s newest class, Demon Hunter

Illidan Stormrage is swooping into Hearthstone as the latest hero along with the game’s newest class, the Demon Hunter.

Since Hearthstone’s initial release in 2014, there have been many mentions from the design team to never upset the formula of “the only nine.” But finally, Demon Hunter makes a triumphant entrance as the tenth class in Hearthstone. 

While Ashes of Outland, Hearthstone’s next expansion, drops April 7, the Demon Hunter prologue will become available on April 2. In addition to the new cards releasing earlier, the initial set will be entirely free for all players.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Hearthstone’s newest exciting class, Demon Hunter:

Unique mechanics

As an entirely new class, Demon Hunter gains a new keyword unique to its class, similar to Rogue’s Combo, Druid’s Choose One, or Shaman’s Overload. Their keyword is Outcast: When you play this as the leftmost or rightmost card in your hand, gain this bonus.

What this keyword entails is that hand placement planning (and top-decking) becomes more imperative to optimizing your Demon Hunter play. So if there’s a card you want to Outcast and it’s in the middle, you’ll need to play cards on the outside edge of your hand first. The way you look at your mulligans has now changed dramatically.

One major unique thing about Demon Hunters is that their Hero Power only costs one mana. This means those seeking to run a Genn Greymane Demon Hunter deck in the Wild format might be disappointed with a lack of efficiency from the two joining forces.

Additionally, although they aren’t entirely unique to the new class, Demon Hunters will feature class-specific Demons. This aspect takes a bit of uniqueness away from Warlocks, who previously held the title of “class only demon wielder.”

New cards

The newest Demon Hunter cards are split into two sets, the Demon Hunter Basic and the Demon Hunter Initiate. As touched on earlier, the newer set of cards is entirely free and will be featured in a prologue adventure that tells the story of Illidan Stormrage for those who aren’t familiar with his character. 

Here are the cards from each of the two sets.

Demon Hunter Basic Set Cards

Aldrachi Warblades

Soul Cleave

Glaivebound Adept

Satyr Overseer

Illidari Satyr

Chaos Nova

Chaos Strike

Coordinated Strike

Shadowhoof Slayer

Demon Hunter Initiate Set Cards

Command the Illidari

Twin Slice

Flamereaper

Battlefiend

Blade Dance

Wrathscale Naga

Ur’zul Horror

Raging Felscreamer

Feast of Souls

In addition to these free cards, Blizzard also revealed some Demon Hunter cards that will be released in the newest expansion, Ashes of Outland.

Ashes of Outland Demon Hunter cards

Spectral Sight

Furious Felfin

Skull of Gul’dan

Warglaives of Azzinoth

Pit Commander

Metamorphosis

When to expect more cards

Since Demon Hunter is an entirely new class, expansions will include 15 cards in each new Hearthstone set in Year of the Phoenix. This will give Demon Hunters the chance to catch up to other, more-established classes.

This article will be updated with any additional information about Demon Hunters in Hearthstone: Ashes of Outland as soon as it becomes available.