GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Hearthstone Introduced Its First New Class On Tuesday, Nerfed It On Wednesday

After years of fan requests, Blizzard finally added a 10th class, Demon Hunter, to Hearthstone--and then had to rebalance it almost immediately.

2 Comments

Hearthstone players have waited years for a new class to be added to the game, and with the latest expansion they finally received one: the Demon Hunter. But Demon Hunter can now claim another Hearthstone first: fastest nerfs. Blizzard announced balance changes to key Demon Hunter cards just a day after it launched.

In an update on the Blizzard forums, the company announced changes to four key Demon Hunter cards: Skull of Gul'dan, Imprisoned Antaen, Eye Beam, and Aldrachi Warblades. Each of the four, which have been common in aggressive Demon Hunter decks, had its Mana cost raised by 1. Blizzard also made some adjustments to Demon Hunters in the draft Arena mode. In addition, Blizzard took the rare step of making this a server-side hotfix in advance of a full balance patch.

Senior game designer explained some of the reasoning behind the quick fixes in a Twitter thread, explaining that Blizzard wants to keep Demon Hunter from feeling "like it's good at everything." To that end, he said fans should expect "a lot of balance iteration over the next few weeks" while Blizzard gets Demon Hunter to where it should be.

Demon Hunter appeared to be an aggressive class from the start, being the first with a 1-Mana hero power and having a lot of cards that feed an aggressive attack style. The nerfs impact the class' ability to easily draw cards, board clear, and flood the board with minions quickly.

As the first new class in Hearthstone history, Demon Hunter is free and you'll get its entire base set after completing a prologue mission. Since it has some catching up to do with the other classes that have existed for years, it will be getting 15 cards per expansion this year rather than the usual 10.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 2 comments about this story