Hearthstone Concept Class

[WWmelb]

Soooo i've been bored. Very bored. So i decided to make an entire hearthstone class. Enter the Death Knight. I know it's been done countless times before, however, i hadn't ever looked up what others had done, so i just started and went with it.

Any hearthstone fans with a lot more knowledge than me want to give feedback would be great.

I have introduced two new mechanics basically. The concept of disease spells , which are in essence DoT spells, dealing damage either at the start or end of turns, and put in the Undead class of minion.

Thanks

Keep in mind the last few cards are token cards only, caused by deathrattles or spells.

Spoiler: Hero and Hero Power

Note - Hero power cycles randomly to another presence on use. Not using all three at once. Am working on getting 3 different artworks

Spoiler: Basics

Spoiler: commons

Spoiler: Rares

Spoiler: Epics

Spoiler: Legendaries

Spoiler: Tokens

 

[shrekfan246]

Well, I mean, the Death Knight is the obvious choice for them to add any class.

That having been said, a primary problem with many of these types of fan things is that theoretical cards end up being completely unbalanced. "Death and Decay", for instance, would probably need to cost way more than 4 mana for its effect (and for thematic consistency with both WoW and Hearthstone I'd think it should be more like "Consecration"), and I think any DoT functionality in Hearthstone would probably work similarly to "Corruption" (in that it triggers at the beginning of the caster's next turn, rather than the end of their turn). The hero power isn't entirely thematically consistent with WoW, either. Frost being crowd control is all right, but Unholy is heavily disease-focused with a bit of minion thrown on the top, while Blood is the steadfast tanky stuff. Any health-regen or boost effects for Death Knights should clearly be tied into Blood Presence. Being able to switch between the three is a bit powerful, too (compare to the Druid or Warrior, which also have multiple specs for tanking and DPS but whose Hero Powers are a single ability).

I don't think enough cards lay down diseases (or it's not clear enough what their effects are; I only see four and a minion, which doesn't really let you build a deck around the idea). There's no "Plague Strike", for instance, which is a pretty pivotal part of Unholy Death Knight damage output. Also I think all of the diseases should have unique effects. "Frost Fever" could reduce a minion's Attack by 1, "Blood Plague" could deal damage every turn, and "Necrotic Plague" could be an "if the target is afflicted by a disease, transform it into Necrotic Plague" sort of thing, that maybe starts at 1 Damage and increases each turn with a chance to jump to adjacent minions each time it deals damage. Though that'd be difficult to play around, I think.

And if they're going to be focused around dealing damage over time, I think Death Knights would need more survivability and/or crowd control. Otherwise, they're either not killing minions fast enough and getting rushed down or they're not getting the full effect from their diseases in the first place because you can't just let high-priority minions sit around while a DoT finishes them off. Things that strengthen diseases would be helpful, and being able to spread them around reliably would introduce a new dynamic of "do I play this creature and risk it getting diseased or wait until my board is clear?", and minions like "Slavering Ghoul" that benefit from diseases being on the board are a good synergy idea.

While I like the idea of DoTs as a new mechanic in Hearthstone, I think balancing them for competitive play is probably incredibly hard and that's why Blizzard didn't already implement it with the Warlock. Still, the concept is always fun to play with. Thanks for giving me something to mull over this morning!

 

[WWmelb]

Snip

I certainly appreciate the input. Should clarify. The that the hero power would work in the way that you play one presence, and switches at random to another presence for the next turn, so you could choose to save it, or cycle it, depending on the situation.

And yes, you counted correctly in that there are four diseases that can be cast, but i think you are right, there needs to be some more reliable way to spread them around the board, as the idea was to make your opponent very careful about whether they played that next minion or not, depending on what diseases were around.

I wanted this to be a slow burn class, as that's the way basically i prefer to play, hence why they will take a lot of damage, but also have an insanely large number of heals and the ability with rune mastery to move above 30 health.

I'll have a look at a few of the cards you mentioned, and maybe tweak a little.

Thanks

 

[shrekfan246]

Snip

I certainly appreciate the input. Should clarify. The that the hero power would work in the way that you play one presence, and switches at random to another presence for the next turn, so you could choose to save it, or cycle it, depending on the situation.

It's an interesting idea, but I still wonder about how it would be balanced in comparison to other classes (even if the actual effects were all changed). I'd almost say that the three presences should be spells themselves, perhaps with effects that persist for a short time, but then I'd be unsure of what a Death Knight's Hero Power would be. Perhaps one of the things a Death Knight's unique cards could be based around is Runic Power, and their ability could be a Rune Strike that generates Runic Power (I know in WoW it works the other way around, but having a Hero Power that's contingent on a resource you have to generate seems counterproductive to the general way Hearthstone is designed).

And yes, you counted correctly in that there are four diseases that can be cast, but i think you are right, there needs to be some more reliable way to spread them around the board, as the idea was to make your opponent very careful about whether they played that next minion or not, depending on what diseases were around.

I wanted this to be a slow burn class, as that's the way basically i prefer to play, hence why they will take a lot of damage, but also have an insanely large number of heals and the ability with rune mastery to move above 30 health.

Yeah, like I said, I like the idea but I think it would be hard to properly balance. Slow-burn decks tend to work the best when you can efficiently clear creatures or soak up opponent removal, so I think for a DoT class to work they would need some sort of way to reduce or heal the amount of damage they've got incoming. Though that would bring me back to Runic Power and also the idea of the three types of Runes themselves; much like Druids have many "Choose One" cards, Death Knights could have cards that generate Runes and/or Runic Power and then spells and minions such as diseases or the Undead that are boosted by those things.

Oh, or perhaps runes could be generated automatically like mana, and the hero power allows a Death Knight to expend a rune to apply diseases to a target (probably not an opponent Hero, but who knows).

(Death Knight was one of my two most-played classes back when I played WoW, if you couldn't tell. Also sorry if that's derailing totally away from the ideas you had in mind when you came up with the concept, it's just a fascinating thing to think about.)

 

[WWmelb]

snippity

Yep, death knight was one of my two most played too, but i also haven't played in about 4 years, so my memory of everything is a little sketchy nowadays lol.

With a little tweaking to the current cards, i think the removal shouldn't be too much of a factor, nor should soaking the damage they take while they wait for the dots to tick. Cards like Blood Mage

for instance can be utilized by diseasing this minion yourself in order to quickly boost health pool.

for instance

play blood mage turn 3

Attack a minion turn 4 (up to 4health heal), then icy touch the blood mage, for a further 2 heal.. stats/damage may need to be tweaked, but little mini combos like this i think will server to keep the dk alive until the late game.

I'm also thinking death strike should be tweaked so that the "if target is diseased" bonus is a heal instead of extra damage to keep it in line with the ability in wow.

Regardless, i'm printing a set of these today at work to start playing with them and see how they actually play out in a game lol

 

[shrekfan246]

I'm also thinking death strike should be tweaked so that the "if target is diseased" bonus is a heal instead of extra damage to keep it in line with the ability in wow.

That thought came to my mind as well, actually.

I'd also note that the "Acherus Deathcharger" is perhaps too powerful for its cost as well. It costs the same to play as an "Argent Commander" but has a stat line that's 4 higher, and while Divine Shield is a good effect I don't think it's that good. Compare also to the "Reckless Rocketeer", which costs the same but is a 5/2. I know class cards tend to be a little more powerful than the neutrals (see also, "Kor'kron Elite"), but I'd almost expect a 6/4 Charge to cost 7 to play, or have a really bad side-effect a la "Leeroy Jenkins" or the "Deathlord".

Regardless, i'm printing a set of these today at work to start playing with them and see how they actually play out in a game lol

Cool! Have fun with that!

 

[WWmelb]

snipses

Yeah i thought the same on the charger as well, i think a 7 mana cost on that would be much more balanced.

also, my omission of plague strike was a pretty big error, and i think it should be rectified. I would guess it would be a basic level card, so any thoughts on any of the cards i made might be absolute garbage and i should switch out for a plague strike?

Mayhap the "unholy presence" hero power should be pestilence - spread diseases from one minion to adjacent minions.

Frost presence should maybe apply frost fever as well?

My only other concern may be the lack of card draw within the class, what do you think? Would neutral card draw cards be enough to sustain a balance?

 

[shrekfan246]

also, my omission of plague strike was a pretty big error, and i think it should be rectified. I would guess it would be a basic level card, so any thoughts on any of the cards i made might be absolute garbage and i should switch out for a plague strike?

Well, secrets feel a little out of place. Not bad, inasmuch as they're just inconsistent with the rest of the cards.

Mayhap the "unholy presence" hero power should be pestilence - spread diseases from one minion to adjacent minions.

Frost presence should maybe apply frost fever as well?

Those are solid ideas to me.

My only other concern may be the lack of card draw within the class, what do you think? Would neutral card draw cards be enough to sustain a balance?

It could maybe do with having something more for drawing cards. My first thought would be "Rune Tap", though that brings me back around to my idea of having runes be a Death Knight resource because I like the thought of it either restoring health or drawing a card and having a specific condition that allows the other to trigger (perhaps being in Blood Presence?). On that note, "Death Gate" might be too cheap as well. It's a random effect, but it has the potential to be incredibly powerful. Getting, say, a "Deathwing" pull from that on turn 2 free of charge would be a tad broken.

 

[WWmelb]

Well, secrets feel a little out of place. Not bad, inasmuch as they're just inconsistent with the rest of the cards.

I admit, i only had one reason for making a lot of the spells secrets.. and that's because i like secrets and think they add a good depth to the game lol

It could maybe do with having something more for drawing cards. My first thought would be "Rune Tap", though that brings me back around to my idea of having runes be a Death Knight resource because I like the thought of it either restoring health or drawing a card and having a specific condition that allows the other to trigger (perhaps being in Blood Presence?). On that note, "Death Gate" might be too cheap as well. It's a random effect, but it has the potential to be incredibly powerful. Getting, say, a "Deathwing" pull from that on turn 2 free of charge would be a tad broken.

Yeah death gate could be too cheap, i think that would require some testing. Maybe it should be both players, along the lines of the shaman card? Might balance it out a little bit.. puts some risk to playing it as well as possibly huge reward.

Definitely going to think more on your rune tap ideas for some card draw or something akin. I'm not sure a secondary resource could work though, but maybe something working in a similar fashion to overload.

Or maybe, as the shaman has 4 random results from hero power, maybe DK could also. Frost/Unholy/Blood/Rune Tap - rune tap being draw a card or something similar.