Do you want to learn more about Mage? Find some good Warlock deck? Or maybe you’re a new player and you’re trying to decide which class is going to be best for you? Look no longer, just check out one of our nine Class Guides!
We believe that these are a great place to start when you’re looking for basic information about the Hearthstone classes. From our experience, new players tend to get overwhelmed by the number of classes when they just start playing. They don’t know the play style of each one of them, so they have a hard time picking the one that fits them. This resource should be a perfect way to resolve that issue. That said, more intermediate players might also learn a thing or two, especially about the classes they haven’t played a lot.
This resource will be updated every expansion!
What you’ll find in each Class Overview and Guide:
- Class Background – Mostly includes bits of lore and some information about how the class is played in World of Warcraft (yes, it’s that Hearthstone-based MMO).
- Themes and Mechanics – Each class has some unique themes and mechanics. Starting with the Hero Power, we try to talk about the “class identity” – what kind of cards the class was getting in the past and what can we expect in the future.
- Strengths and Weaknesses – Each class is good at a few things and bad at others. We try to identify those and explain why that is the case. These might change a bit with the new releases (especially weaknesses, which are often patched up), and we’ll try to take that into the account, but most of them should stay true when we’re talking about the class’ core.
- Meta Decks and Strategies – We identify the meta decks each class can use right now. Each of the strategies is explained, with the basic strategy and core cards identified. Also, each of those has a link to a full deck list, most likely with up-to-date guide (only a few decks are missing guides). This section will be updated every time the meta shifts significantly, so mostly after the expansions and balance patches.
- Basic and Budget Decks – Each class guide features a basic deck that we believe should be best for players who have just started their journey with Hearthstone. On top of that, slightly more experienced, but still F2P players should find the budget decks more interesting – they contain no Epics or Legendaries and are updated for every new expansion.
- Level-Up Rewards – List of the Basic cards that are rewarded for leveling the class up to level 10. Useful for players who are just starting to play a given class.
Find all of the class guides below!
Druids are the guardians of nature. They draw energy from everything that surrounds them to unleash deadly force on the enemies or restore life to their allies. The power of shapeshifting allows them to take many forms, increasing their defensive and offensive abilities, speed, or even allowing them to fly when needed.
Druid is one of the most versatile classes. They can fit into many different roles – dealing massive physical or magical damage, protecting allies in the Bear Form, or bringing back allies into the battle with their healing spells.
Read the full Druid Class Guide & Overview
Hunters are the survival experts. Armed with their bows or rifles, they wander around the forests and jungles, looking for their prey. But they don’t just kill any creature encountered – Hunters have a deep connection to the nature and try to keep the right balance. They don’t want to disrupt the natural circle of life and death – they want to be a part of it. Instead of killing an animal, a Hunter often prefers to befriend and make it his companion, sometimes for life. Hunters utilize the specific powers of different animal companions to excel in the combat.
Even though bows and rifles are their weapons of choice, they aren’t afraid of the close combat. Masters of stealth and traps, they often ambush their opponents and take them down with attacks inspired by the various wild animals. Most of the Hunters have also learned how to imbue their arrows with magic, being able to snare, poison or even set their foes on fire with the various shots.
Read the full Hunter Class Guide & Overview
Mages are the ultimate spellcasters. They use powers of Fire, Ice and the Arcane to conjure powerful spells of any kind. They can concentrate their magic into balls of pure energy to strike their foes, but that’s only the beginning. Mages are great at controlling the huge groups of enemies – they can freeze them all or even drown them in fire.
Being a master of magic gives the class a lot of utility. They can blink, or teleport by a short distance, create a portal to another city, turn invisible on a whim or even transform the foe into a harmless sheep.
Mages focus solely on offense and utility, which means that they have to use their wits as the defense. They are not protected by powerful Armor, nor they can sue their magical powers to heal themselves. Mages know that sometimes it’s better to run from the trouble (after freezing the enemy solid) and that offense often turns out to be the best defense.
Read the full Mage Class Guide & Overview
Paladins are the warriors that serve the Holy Light. Instead of focusing solely on their physical abilities, they embrace Holy magic to improve their defensive and offensive capabilities. The first order of Paladins (Knights of the Silver Hand) was created after the First War, by Uther Lightbringer himself, to help the common folk. Later Paladins started to specialize in protecting people from all that’s evil – mainly the Scourge (undead) and the Burning Legion (demons).
Paladins have three main specializations. They can wear a shield and boost themselves with protective spells while attracting the enemies’ attacks, heal wounded allies and revive fallen ones, or equip a two-handed weapon and rush straight into the combat, relying mostly on their physical skills.
Read the full Paladin Class Guide & Overview
Priests are the experts at healing and preservation. They serve the Holy Light, which in return grants them the power to restore the health of their wounded allies or even bring them back to life. Besides healing, Priests can also protect everyone around them with a variety of defensive, magical shields. They are the masters of life, but also the masters of death.
While Holy magic can be used for the offense, Priests have another weapon in their arsenal – Shadow magic. Not only can Priests assume the form of a Shadow, they can cast dozens of different spells that inflict pain and terror on the enemies. But such magic usually comes with a price – while the Priest remains in his Shadowform, no healing can be done.
Priests are one of the most interesting spell casters, as they walk a thin line between very contrasting schools of magic. But no matter whether they pick the light or the dark side, they are very formidable opponents.
Read the full Priest Class Guide & Overview
Rogues are the assassins of the Warcraft world. Their fighting style centers around dealing quick blows with dual-wielded daggers (or other one-handed weapons) while constantly going in and out of combat. Rogues can conceal their presence with their stealth abilities in order to circle around their foes, waiting for the best opportunity to strike from behind.
Rogues don’t play fair. They do everything in order to win, so cheap shots and throwing sand is not out of question. Even if they don’t kill their opponent right away, they often leave a deep, bleeding wound that will eventually finish the job.
Besides combat skills, Rogues are also masters of poisons. They prepare deadly mixtures, which they coat their weapons with. Poisons generally wound the target, but can also cripple them or hinder spellcasting.
Read the full Rogue Class Guide & Overview
Shamans are the mystics that communicate with Elements – air, earth, fire, and water. Elements, by their nature, are very chaotic, and only Shamans are able to tame them and bring balance to the disorder. Probably their most recognizable tools are the powerful totems, where they can place some of the elements’ power. They summon totems on the battlefield to help allies or wound foes.
Totems aren’t the only way to harness the power of elements. Shamans can use them to harm their foes directly, by striking them with lightning bolts, bursts of lava, or even powerful earthquakes. Elements can also be used to Imbue the Shaman’s weapon and make it stronger and, depending on the element, deal extra damage (Flametongue), add a second hit (Windfury) or slow down the attacked enemy (Frostbrand). Enhancement Shamans can also summon a pair of powerful spirit wolves to fight at their side.
However, what makes Shaman a truly hybrid class is their ability to heal. They call upon the spirits of their ancestors and the elements of water and earth to mend the wounds of their allies. Shamans can use a wave of energy to heal a single target, but can also call upon a healing rain to coat a target arena and restore vital forces to anyone inside. Shamans can also use some protection spells like providing an earth shield that will reduce damage taken and provide healing with every blow.
Read the full Shaman Class Guide & Overview
Warlocks are magic users specializing in Shadow and Fire spells. Warlocks are what could be considered the “evil” spell caster of the Warcraft world. They can draw power straight from the souls of their opponents. Their offensive magic divides into two main paths – Affliction, which based around curses and spells that put the enemy into a slow agony and Destruction, which revolves around powerful, direct damage spells.
But probably the most iconic magic Warlocks might use is Demonology. It’s used to summon powerful demons and bind them to the Warlock’s command. They can summon a variety of demonic entities – Imp, Succubus, Voidwalker, Felhunter, and Felguard. Each one of them has different strengths and weaknesses, so only Warlock masters will know how to properly use them. On top of that, Warlocks can summon more powerful demons for shorter periods of time if the situation is really dire – an Infernal that deals massive area damage and a Doomguard, which excels at the single target combat.
Read the full Warlock Class Guide & Overview
Warriors are the classic melee fighters. Most of them want to charge into the battle and reap through their foes with a variety of weapons. Thanks to their sheer power, some Warriors can even dual-wield two-handed weapons. It’s the most bloodthirsty class in Hearthstone, as their fury fuels their abilities – the more rage they generate through attacking and taking blows, the stronger they will be.
Warriors aren’t only fierce fighters. After equipping a shield, they can also protect their allies by putting themselves in the line of fire. By standing between a foe and an ally, Protection Warriors can taunt the enemy and force them to focus their attacks on a heavily armored target. This way the Warrior’s allies can safely continue the battle. Another way for the Warrior to support their team are shouts. They can boost the morale of the whole team, making every ally around the Warrior stronger.
Whenever I see lore related content I hit like. Good Job!
Greetings traveler. Nice job
Great job!