Illidan, the Relentless -- Demon Hunter (Hearthstone)

This post is part a series wherein I've been designing Hero cards for Battlegrounds heroes who lack direct representation in Hearthstone proper -- or did at the time of publishing.

The Final Product

The Process

Well this was an eye-opening experience about how little I understand Demon Hunter.

Demon Hunter is my least played class by a very, very wide margin. I have 5 wins total with the class in constructed Hearthstone, and maybe only ten times that in Arena or Duels. The class has never clicked for me, historically, though I understand the appealing of some of their modern packages more than I do their older ones. If I had the dust, I would play Relics and Outcast Token DH a fair amount, I'd imagine.

All that being said, this was a design that came off as compelling and pretty in flavor. It is a Reno+board wipe against a deck with a board, yes. My pulse on it is that such a card would be good, but not imbalance the class tremendously. If it did, the first nerf this card would get is simply to stop making more Illidari after the first wave dies.

Like the duality of the HP, though I did originally try to faithfully transcribe it from BGs and give both sides +2/+1 and Charge. That doesn't work in real HS, unfortunately, and I'm not super interested in getting hit in the face for 24 in one turn by Illidari Inquisitor. This version is still nuts with inquisitor if you have a weapon equipped.

Among my concerns is that, much like Warlock, Demon Hunter might be a bit too tied to it's Hero power to be willing to sacrifice it like this. We've never seen Demon Hunter without the ability to gain attack at-will, and a huge number of DH cards are designed with the assumption that you will be hitting their face with your face early, often, and always. This asks you to sacrifice that, and while I think the payoff is worth it -- holy moly do Illidari spawners become insane with this HP! -- I'm not sure. Someone with more experience required.

My Verdict

5/10

It doesn't make me want to play Demon Hunter more than I do now, since it's not like there's not already impressive payoffs for summoning lots of dudes and attacking with them.

I think that's an issue Kurtrus struggled with a bit, too. There's no question he was powerful, and interwove all of DH's themes into one card nicely -- but did he really make the class interesting to anyone who wasn't already a die-hard? Did he really change what the class was capable of in a meaningful way? When he did, was that a good thing? Is the payoff Demon Hunter needs out a Hero card the possibility to swing for 10 damage off just a Hero Power?

I'm not sure, and I'm not sure this design handle things any better. I wouldn't want to be in charge of making Demon Hunter packages without learning alot more about the internal vision for the class, that's for sure.