Great news for all the Warlock players! In a recent interview by PCGamer, Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig, Initial Game Designer on Hearthstone, shared with us an important piece of information regarding the upcoming Core set.
To be precise, Lord Jaraxxus will appear in the Core set in the form of a Hero Card! It's been a very long time since Jaraxxus was a playable card - while it was a very good one back in Classic Hearthstone (something you'll be able to experience again in a few weeks). However, as the game developed over the years, playing it became detrimental to your chances of winning.
While its effect in itself is not inherently bad, what's really held Jaraxxus back is the 15 Health cap it forces the player into, which a very restricting condition to accept in modern Hearthstone, considering all the burst at disposal and the fact that you aren't able to even heal beyond 15. To be honest, Sacrificial Pact was another reason not to play Lord J, but fortunately for him, the interaction got changed in April 2020, slightly after the release of Demon Hunter and therefore the introduction of demons in other classes other than Warlock. However, this hasn't changed the fact that the card is very risky to play and guarantees too small of an upside to be worth including.
The Hearthstone community has been asking for a change to Jaraxxus for a while now, especially after the introduction of the Hero cards with the Death Knights in Knight of the Frozen Throne back (August 2017); moreover, his rework was also mentioned by Iksar in a recent AMA on his Twitter account.
Some of the other Classic cards that are going to be kept in the Core set are going to undergo a rebalancing process as well. Celestalon himself stated, that the tuning of Jaraxxus will be a little different from what we're used to.
Quote From Celestalon The new version of Jaraxxus in the Core Set will be a Hero card.The tuning on [Jaraxxus] is a little different [in the Core Set]. We've balanced it accordingly
Given Celestalon's exact words, we expect to find a Lord Jaraxxus quite similar to the already existing one, but the fact that its 15 Health cap is probably going to be removed means that, for example, Blood Fury may lose a few durability hits or that INFERNO!'s Infernals may become 5/5s with Taunt or could just be reworked.
How would you rebalance Lord Jaraxxus? Are you happy to know he'll be making a revised comeback? Let us know in the comments below!
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Comments
The best death cry in the game. I can't wait to kill him again.
My first duplicate Legendary before they first introduced duplicate protection. I was happy to get him the first time, but boy, was I disappointed the second time...
Even if they remove the health cap or just make him a regular +5 armor hero card, this won't be enough to make him competitive imo. He will become playable which is a very good thing but competing is a completely different story. Late game Warlock strategies are suffering a lot nowadays because of the constant self-damage from the hero power and all the burn and aggro power creep. It's really hard to survive to play such late game cards. Simply getting a weapon and a new hero power isn't enough to help you stabilize against all the burn being thrown at your face constantly. They need to re-evaluate the state of the class as a whole imo. A change to the base hero power, better healing cards or something else. But something needs to be done in order to help Warlock actually live long enough to play Lord J.
if make him 8mana and not cap hp (but gain 5armor) he is standard has atleast some chance of ever being usefull at all. aslong his hp is capped, never will be.
As long as Jaraxxus still has a maniacal laugh when he attacks I'm cool with it
I would like the weapon and hero power to be the same. The problem is that he is 9 mana which takes up your whole turn, and the 15 health is simply too low. Making him 8 mana and getting 20 health instead of 15 would probably be enough for him to be playable. But I imagine they are going to make bigger changes than that.
set hp 15 (and 5armor) But CAP STAYS 30. If not he is still gonna be utter trash otherwise. 15 or even 20 max hp is just to little, espcially if just spend entire turn just getting a 3 attack weapon.
IMO if they arent gonna him a actual Battlecry(outside the weapon
He should be 8mana, doesnt cap ypur Hp to 15 at all anymore. And the Hero power should stay the same.
And infernals in HS are Always 6/6 demons, they arnet gonna change that;
But regardless of anything he should NOT cap your hp at all. Thats one of the biggest reasons why he is so terrible and weak nowadays.
Also 8mana would allow him to have an atual board impact at all for 10mana.
Battlecry: Destroy a trifling gnome and gain his life.
(9) 5 Armor
Battlecry: Destroy every DH on earth and bring back fellas from oblivion.
Won't see play - you always die before turn 9.
Removing the minion tag alone should make it significantly better. Doesn't get pulled from any demon summoning death rattles/battle cries or spells
Hero card with Health or no balls
Change the hero power to 1 mana. Make it cost 1 more each time you use it. The Infernals could be 5/5s with the Bolf Ramshield effect. Keep the health cap at 15.
Holy shit we are lucky you're not a card designer.
I hope they don't rework him too much! But having seen how gracefully they treated our lovely Dragons (discounting the new art), I'm not worried.
Really, simply lowering his mana cost to 8 and increasing his health to 20 would create a very playable Jaraxxus. Playing him should be a risk - here's wishing they don't give him the generic "Battlecry: Gain 5 armor" treatment.
just set it to 8mana and make him not cap yoru Hp at all.
The limitign health is one of the bigegst reason he has been terrible for ages now.
That would make him a better card, yes, but it would also make him a different card. The fantasy of playing Jaraxxus involves risk. You can put out game-winning pressure... but if you can't keep it consistently, you die.
If they're going to remove the health limitation (or at the least not even reference it in a new ability) they might as well rename him.
Imo the risk isnt a core design of jarraxus and in modern Hs that just doesnt work at all. ANd if keep his hp he is never ever gonna be usefull in modern HS at all. Its prolly the biggest reaosn he never sees any play and hasnt for YEARS
and id rather have jaraxus be actual something can atleats ever at all CONSIDER then forever useless becasue hp cap.
"I will feast on your soul this Winter Veil"