by JR Cook - 11 years ago     show comments

Quiz. What class uses a bow, commands beasts and is largely AFK during the raid? If you guessed Hunter, you are correct! Unfortunately, in Hearthstone, it won’t just be a matter of auto-attacking the raid boss, making a sandwich and coming back to free gear. Hunters will actually have to be present at their match if they hope to win. The good news is that they’ll be well-represented in terms of their hero. Hunters will be championed by Warcraft III protagonist Rexxar. One of the last surviving members of the Mok’Nathal clan, Rexxar is 50% ogre, 50% orc and 100% badass and would love nothing more than to bury his hatchets in your opponents.

The Hunter deck features a mostly balanced assault, capable of generating pressure through various beasts, buffs and shots. Secrets also give this deck unique mind game potential. Those who understand what a Hunter deck is capable of will have to constantly second guess their moves, wondering what awful traps await them. Those familiar with Magic the Gathering should find the deck setup an interesting mix of green and red, in the form of situational creature buffs and a good selection of direct damage. It’s more complicated than the Warrior deck, but a bit less complicated than the Shaman deck.

Steady Shot

If you’re ever in the mood to just do two damage to the opposing hero for two energy, Steady Shot is the hero power for you. While solid, it can be a bit deceptive. The fact is, two spare energy will not be easy to find early on in the game and, while it’s nice to be able to ping the opposing hero for a bit of damage, it might not be a deciding factor in the early going. Come mid to late game turns however, it’s nice to not need a card to deal direct damage. It was discussed in the Shaman previews, but it’s worth mentioning again. Direct damage is a great tool to have access to. Past turn five, always keep an eye on your energy and measure out what spell is most opportune. It might be tempting to dump energy into putting another minion on the battlefield, but depending on what class you’re facing, it might be better to just deal two damage and wait it out.

Secrets

Hunters have access to a fair amount of secret cards. These conditional cards are played faced down and then activated when the predetermined condition is met. The Hunter deck comes with a good amount of minion destruction and direct damage, and the secret cards largely serve to enhance that. Explosive trap is an incredibly strong card in the early game. The two damage it deals will definitely be less amazing as the game progresses, but it’s worth running two of the card because of the incredible advantage it can offer should it take out one to three low health minions. Snake Trap is also a great card to put down, not only because it generates three creatures, but because it also naturally synergizes with cards such as Unleash the Hounds and Houndmaster. Those cards, along with a few others, serve to buff your creatures, and that’s where a good amount of your damage should come from. Snipe is also a worthwhile card, given that it’s two energy for four damage. I don’t recommend Freezing Trap or Misdirection. They look interesting, but they’re a bit circumstantial and at times unreliable, similar to some of the cards in the Rogue deck. I’m not saying they’re not useful. They just might not be the best options available to you.

Shots

Unsurprisingly, Hunters have access to a number of their shots from World of Warcraft. If you just look at what they do, it’s tempting to say that all of them are great and should be run. While it is possible that you will use them all in your deck, it’s worth noting that the energy costs can be a bit prohibitive. Arcane Shot‘s great at one energy for two all purpose damage, but the other shots range from three to five energy. All of them are useful, but it’s possible that you might not be sitting on that energy early on while being sieged by enemy minions. Given that Steady Shot is exclusively hero damage, Hunters will need to rely on traps to do at least a bit of the hard lifting when it comes to minion destruction, assuming you want to avoid high energy cards.  Ultimately, you the player will have to decide what’s worth running and what is not. Just keep in mind that you’ll always want to balance your deck to have access to strong early game cards.

Kill Command

Arcane Shot is not alone when it comes to being a great source of all purpose damage. Kill Command is an excellent card for three energy. You’ll always get at least three damage out of it, and there’s a good chance you’ll get five, given just how many beasts Hunters have access to. We’ll discuss those in greater depth on Thursday when we take a look at Hunter minions and overall strategy.

Flare

I wouldn’t recommend always running flare, but it’s good to keep two around in case you need to sideboard them in between matches for when you’re fighting against a Rogue or someone running a lot of secret cards. In those situations, Flare is honestly pretty great. Destroying stealth, secrets and giving you a card, and all for one energy? That’s good times. What’s more, it also has a well-illustrated spell effect for those who have been watching the Hearthstone Fireside Duels.

Want to learn more about the Hunter class in Hearthstone? Tune in Thursday for an explanation on minions and just how to play the deck.

Want to see more of our Hearthstone Preview? Check out our past articles about it here.