https://www.cybersport.ru/hearthstone/articles/spasibo-illidanu-kak-novyi-klass-raznoobrazil-metu-i-ozhivil-hearthstone

Like us told earlier, Illidan immediately conquered the rating regime: the class was so strong that it had to be nerfed a day after the release of the Outland Ruins update. Since then, developers thrice (!) Weakened the hero, but he is still relevant.

In fact, the demon hunter has become that key class around which the meta is built. Players he loves continue to experiment with builds and constantly find something new. For others, it remains to adjust. Everyone benefits from this – Illidan encourages experimenting with decks: every week at all ranks there is some kind of new assembly, for which the rivals are not ready.

Now the game does not have any one “unbalanced” deck, but there are almost no weak classes. So which deck to spend precious dust on?

Meta leaders

Demons? Demons! In assemblies aggressive (others, however, do not play) demon hunter only a few cards have changed. The Merry Companion now allows key early threats to stay on the table and break the faces of your rivals while you sort through the deck in search of the coveted Metamorphoses, Kaina, and Altruis.

In the last nerf, the development team weakened the Blood Seal Messenger, but did they stop taking it from it? Not at all! It helps you quickly sort through the deck, which is exactly what Illidan needs, since the most expensive card costs only six mana. It’s pointless to take the “Priestess of Fury” now: it’s too expensive for a card, which, due to reduced health, has become so easy to remove from the table.

If you have not played Hearthstone for a long time, then Illidan is definitely your choice. Many cards are given to him for free, and a lot of dust will not be needed to craft the rest. Do not forget that very soon (in a couple of weeks) a new, free (!) Adventure about Illidan will be released in the game, which means that more maps and interesting assemblies are waiting for us.

The main counterclass to the demon hunter and the contender for the title of the new “imba” – warrior. Garrosh was good before, but now has bloomed as never before. This class has a lot of archetypes, and almost everyone successfully copes with rivals at all ranks. It is not surprising that in professional matches, it is he who most often appears in the bathhouse.

Perhaps the most effective version of the class at the moment is Agro Warrior. Almost immediately, he fell in love with professional players who found cool synergies with the Explosion-Bot Buster, the Bloody Mercenary, and certainly the best map of the latest adventure – The Risky Skipper. This archetype has very few bad matchups, but still it is not the easiest to learn: throwing cards just to fit in mana is a bad job. But if you learn to play Agro Warrior, you will be able to pull out the seemingly “dead” matches due to the wild set of armor and annoying explosion bots.

The “Warrior on the Eggs” remains strong. This is a deck with Sea Serpent Eggs and Theron Bloodthirster, the legendary Outland Ruin card. This is an incredibly sticky build with which you will almost always have creatures on the table.

As a response to the Highlander decks in Hearthstone, the Bomb Warrior has returned. While it is not as popular as the usual agro-assembly, but in the near future the situation is likely to change. Of course, the main strength of this deck is the mixing of bombs, which prevent the hunter and the magician from playing key cards, however, all other classes will not have to deal sweetly against this deck. Don’t worry, except the priest.

The warrior has a fourth archetype – on the pirates. This assembly, perhaps, is suitable only for those who do not like it when the parties last for more than a couple of minutes: with it this time is usually enough to understand who will win. The main feature of the deck is the “Flying Barge”, which deals two points of damage for each summoned pirate, and the “Captive Gan’arg” for one mana, which upon awakening supplies you with an ax with 3/2 characteristics.

I think no one has any doubt that hunter played, plays and will always play. The most popular assembly remains the “expensive” Highlander variant with Zephris, Brann, and Zixor. This is still Rexar’s best archetype, but I would not recommend crafting it if you don’t have enough dust: with the increasing popularity of the Warrior on bombs, this deck will begin to lose in effectiveness.

Surprisingly, Face Hunter is no longer such a headache as before. Now Illidan sets the pace, and Rexar with the leprognomes does not keep up with him. If you prefer fast games and don’t mark them as a “legend”, then you can definitely collect this deck, but then you won’t have to count on anything more. Much better Face Hunter build with dragons. It is just as cheap, but it looks better in terms of efficiency.

If after a hundred years they ask me what is happening at Hearthstone, I will answer: the robber still cool. Valira remains the most interesting and diverse class in HS, but has recently begun to suffer from a warrior.

It is generally accepted that the robber has only two playable archetypes – in disguise and secrets. This is true: assemblies with a stealth after the nerf of the “Dark Jeweler Khanar” look preferable, but not by much – you will not notice the difference in winrate. And yes, forget about Highlander Valira: once in a few games you will be highrol and win dry with her, but this is a very unstable deck that can not be compared with the same magician.

Streamers often play Valira with Malygos: this is really a cool deck with interesting gameplay, but if you want efficiency, then you should not take it – highlights with highlights, but the winrate will suffer. In my opinion, one of the most interesting assemblies now is with The Adventurer and The Shadow Killer. It is she who allows you to fight with warriors (of which the majority are in the ladder now) and from time to time do such indecencies:

Someone might have thought that after the nerf of the “Sacrifice Agreement” Warlock sink into oblivion. No matter how! The class is still playing, and its hallmark was the assembly with the quest and Malygos, which has not only OTK potential, but also the ability to restore up to 16 health points in one (!) Move (and even more if he manages to reduce the cost “Malygosa”).

As always, the main weakness of this archetype is aggressive decks, against which even a rich set of sweeps sometimes does not help. Nevertheless, this Gul’dan can often be seen in professional matches and at high ranks: in skilled hands (and with a lot of luck) he is very strong.

But Zoo Warlock after the nerf “Captive clumodus” greatly weakened. If before after his draw from “Monetka” many gave up without having time to make a move, now everything is different: the card began to give only +1 to the health of creatures in his hand – now it’s much easier to kill them. This deck is suitable only for class fans and those who do not mark the highest places in the ladder.

Praise George BoarControl Web: he came up with a very cool deck with Malygos on druid. Thanks to the British eSportsman, the class found its place in the meta, although Malfurion is not as strong as before. A druid with cosmic speed goes through a deck and gains mana crystals. If after the fifth move you left him more than 10 points of health and did not kill all creatures, then you can start to look in the lower right corner of the screen: most likely, you will not survive anymore.

The only playable build of the druid includes “Horse Trading” – this is the key card through which Malfurion sets the table. Of course, if you are very lucky, then Ysera the Liberated can bring success, but you have to rely on it extremely rarely.

Are you lucky in the casino and you have a lot of dust? Then your choice is the magician. Classics remain classics. With Outland Ruins, the developers wanted to make Jaina playable not only through the highlander assembly, but they didn’t succeed: the spell mage is bad, so all class buffs returned to the Zephris deck variations.

The class is still good in skilled hands, as it can turn parties over at the expense of the “Yogg-Saron Puzzle”. If Jaina survived to the ninth to tenth move, then no one will stop her. Interestingly, one of the key cards in the class now is Renault Awesome, which many spat on after the release of Awakening Galacrond.

Hearthstone’s main headache remains priest. Anduin undoubtedly has the best decks for control, but his mirror matchups can drag out for almost half an hour. Many were glad that the Priest had fallen from the meta during the revival, but the class did not become weaker at all: he has unrealistic a lot of cards for generating resources, and the “Mirror of the Soul” and “Setekks Warlock” allow turning everything upside down. The more warriors in the ladder, the more popular the priest will become. It’s unavoidable.

However, if you despise Anduin, do not rush to put an end to it. He recently got a new one, aggressive assembly, the pace of which few can keep up with.

Outsiders

Nerfs and buffs have so far helped the paladin little. Yes, now it looks a little stronger: “Aldor the servant” in one mana helps not to lose much in the tempo of the assemblies of the Clean Paladin and fits well into decks with murlocs. However, this is clearly not enough. The paladin is about the same level as the weakened Face Hunter, but he definitely has the potential: the class lacks a couple of cards to take one of the leading places in the ladder.

The shaman is still crying after last year’s nerfs. Thrall’s only playable deck is the Zephris build. It is expensive and far from the most effective, no matter how much Kibler tried to confirm. The decks on Evolution and totems are very interesting ideas, but they mercilessly lose to rivals in pace. We look forward to the first adventure of 2023, it can make a big difference.