Favorite moment of 2019: The announcement of the returning if old content. Not only Tyrande, but also past Adventures and Expansions as well. Now all HS players can easily access Wild format.
Most anticipated: The mid expansion events. This is the first year the dev have done so beside balance change and I hope that they will continue this year.
I think the greatest insult to anybody with even the slightest glimmer of self-respect is when every one has to walk around eggshells when youre around.
The change to the card art is simply to skirt by ratings so the games legal for a mass audience. Or alternatively its, as you suggested, to make female players feel more 'comfortable' playing hearthstone.
With the exception of deadly shot, the old card art is hardly astonishing or provoking. Is it too much to suggest that even a cursory look out of a window in a shopping complex will more or less render most of the changes moot, and I didn't even notice the blood from Eviscerate until they put to a 1-1 comparison.
But enough of old news. Happy new year everyone.
The skirting of rating only apply when the art changes are from a new expansion though. The arts that were changed are from the Basic / Classic serlt except one.
It's interesting that the developers specifically anticipated the card art backlash and stated that it is not about rating or regulation. Couple with the fact that all of the change is in the evergreen set (beside Mistress of Pain) lead me think that it is a genuine change in direction of depicting female characters in the art team. Someone probably thinks that the card arts suck and it hurt the appeal of the game to female players or something similar.
This is why I love the community. You guys always have the most unexpected idea.
It isn't that farfetch though. The class's RoS set is focusing creating multiple copies of a specific spell, so every cheap / high impact spells printed for the class can easily become the target of a new deck in both Standard and Wild.
I'm kind of confused about the Secret Lover last text though.
YESSSSSS. I've been a fan of this expansion since day one. Very excited to see where you're going with this. A few balance concern:
Counter Strike seems extremely weak compare to Paladin's own Blessing of Might. I suggest buffing it to 5 Attack.
Vanessa seems Op given that Rogue can bounce her back to their hand using Shadowstep and then play her again after casting the Bomb. I think you should remove the Steath.
Careless Vanguard stats is too weak to justify drawing a mediocre card. I think it should be a 3/3.
Like many players, I was excited when Battleground was announced. However, my initial excitement was dampen when seeing the selection of heroes. Where are the iconic 9 starting heroes we are familiar with? I am intending to rectify that situation.
Things to keep in mind:
Each heroes will have multiple hero powers with the intend to represent different aspect of the class.
The Hero Power reference BASIC and CLASSIC Set only. This is because I think these are the cards that represent these heroes best. It wouldn't be Ragnaros if he doesn't deal 8 damage randomly.
Each hero will each get at least one "generic" hero power - that is, Hero Power that mainly offer board advantage and one "utility" Hero Power - a hero power help them in the game in a unique way. However, be warn that sometime the category can have some overlap.
Let's begin. Each heroes are sorted alphabetically by the name of their class:
Malfurion:
Savage Roar and Mark of the Wild are "generic" Hero Power of Malfurion. They benefit different board state and strategy for him: One allow him to go wide with high attack minions to win the early game or possibly go for low attack high health minions and then buff them up, while the second one create big beatstick to protect your valuable targets.
Wild Growth is the "utility" Hero Power for Malfurion. It allows you to be very creative with your Gold curve and create interesting break points. Fall off pretty hard in the late game just like Wild Growth.
Rexxar
Animal Companion is the "generic" Hero Power for Rexxar. Pigeonhole you into a Beast build, so Misha was chosen to give it some utility over the Curator's Hero Power
Steady Shot is the "utility" Hero Power for Rexxar. Get extremely aggressive in the mid and early game to smorc down the enemy. Good for punishing late game oriented heroes like AFK or Lich Baz'hial
Jaina Proudmore
Ice Lance is the "generic" Hero Power of Jaina. Most similar (but significantly better) than Pyramad given that the Freezing only take 0 Coin. Of course, you have to have some strategic think on which minion you really want the Health buff to land on.
Blizzard is the "utility" Hero Power of Jaina. A better version of Nefarian's Hero Power at double the cost.
Uther:
Blessing of Kings is the "generic" Hero Power of Uther. Suitable for a mid-range playstyle
Lay on Hands is the "utility" Hero Power. Heal you up, Discover a minion of your choice depend on your Tavern Tier
Anduin:
Inner Fire is the "generic" Hero Power for Anduin. This allow for strategies that value high health low attack minions to thrive.
Radiance is the "utility" Hero Power for Anduin. Allow you for more durability during the mid and late game when you're near death
Valeera
Edwin's Assisstance and Conceal iare the "Generic" Hero Power for Valeera. It allows her to have an interesting playstyle of keeping control of her board space and which minions considered to be disposable to activate the Hero Power. Conceal help protect your squish minions and allow you not to draft as many Taunt and protect them from minions like the Zapp Slywix since Stealth will prevent him from choosing them as a attack targets.
Shadowstep is the "utility" Hero Power for Valeera. Allows her to easily get a double / triple minions and combine them together.
Thrall:
Lightning Storm is the "generic" Hero Power for Thrall. Similar to Nefarian, this allow him to ping off Divine Shield and remove those pesky small minions (like that dangerous Khadgar) all while dealing some serious face damage. In exchange, this will Overload Thrall for 1 going in the Tavern.
Ancestral Spirit is the "utility" Hero Power for Thrall. Allow Deathrattle, Poisonous or just generic big upgraded minions to resummon themselves.
Gul'dan:
Corruption is the "generic" Hero Power for Gul'dan. This force your opponent to buy weak / understat unit unless they want to be sniped off by your Hero Power.
Sense Demons is the "utility" Hero Power for Gul'dan. This ensure you will have Demon synergy right off the bat.
Garrosh
Inner Rage is the "generic" Hero Power for Garrosh. A 0 mana version of Putricide's Hero Power in exchange for the minion to take damage.
Brawl is the "utility" Hero Power for Garrosh. This allow him to reduce significantly the damage taken if he lost the combat round.
I tried to put "another" in the text but it ended up having 5 lines. It's the intention that it doesn't transform itself. I'll try to replace random with another to see if it can fit.
With the design of your class, Kronos is OP and design limiting. He can be combined with multiple copies of Malygos and Alexstrasza for some ridiculous burst / board clear or healing to 15.
I created this class for the 5th Class Creation competition, placing 3rd place. I went much further than I ever anticipated with the support of the Hearthpwn community. Now I'm posting and updating this class as a project since I particularly like the theme and the mechanic I have created for it.
Lore:
When the people of Azeroth are sleeping or fighting, astronomers study the stars, the sun, the moon and the planets surrounding their sky. With this knowledge, astromancers try their best to make prediction to the future based on the pattern. Unfortunately, their prediction backfires to the people of Azeroth as often as it helps them.
That isn't to say that astromancers are completely wrong. With a little more patient, set up and studying intensely, their prediction have more chance of being useful!
Rishi Sterling has always a big believer that only she can control her own destiny. This the reason why she took a career paths few would choose, became a Blood Elf after the fall of Quel'thalas, studying the forbidden Void magic in order to understand better the infinite blackness between the stars that lead to her banishment and is the reason why she now rejoined the world of Azeroth as a member of the Alliance Void Elves to spread the long lost whisper of the stars far and wide. She is the basic hero that represent the class that all players receive when they create their account.
The image for Rishi Sterling is creditted to user Akirie26. I am so sorry for not creditting you
Eldrond Luxos is the second alternative hero for the Astromancers. He is also the player character for the Tombs of Terror adventure, taking up the Astromancer / Warlock hybrid class and is obtained by defeating Heroic Tekahn.
Starcaller Rishi is the third alternative hero for the class. She is the hero the player will receive after 1000 wins with this class
Hero Power:
Celestial Burst is the class's Basic Hero Power. A pretty straight forward hero power, it also represent the class's high RNG nature but can improved or manipulated through careful board manipulation or using the class's Keyword.
Cosmic Burst is the class's upgraded Hero Power, generated by Justicar Trueheart, [Hearthstone Card (Baku, the Mooneater) Not Found] and Sir Finley of the Sands. It's an extremely potent Hero Power, being basically a Ballista Shot that can hit minions.
Keyword:
Astromancer is a high RNG class that this keyword allows them to reduce the RNG (atleast temporarily) and plan their turn as well as considering their risk / reward ratio accordingly when they don't draw or can't afford to play the Gaze cards.
Gaze not only allows the class to play offensively by allow their damage to reliable hit the desirable target, they allow the class to play defensively as well since their card draw, minion buffs and healing are also pretty random.
Gaze effects not only activate with your own random effect but also your opponent's random effect as well. This mean that you can protect your minions from devastating effects like Deadly Shotor from DIE, INSECT! mowing your important minions or life down too quickly.
Gaze only activate and disappear on ELIGIBLE targets only. If there is no eligible target, the random effect will proceed with the target selection like normal. If minions with Gaze died from effect like Arcane Missiles mid-casting, the target selection will continue on as normal. If two or more target are Gazed , the target that were Gazed first will be the target for the random effect. If they are Gazed at the same time, the effect will randomly pick among the Gazed targets. This is especially important to remember because Gaze also stacks on a character until the previous one disappear, which mean that timing and anticipating the opponent's play is key for your random effect to have the most value.
Also of note is that minions with natural Gaze in their card text (like Celestial Drake in my Classic set) will have Gaze anywhere , meaning that tutoring draw effects like The Curator, discard from hand or deck effects like Soulfireas well as other hand target effects like Dirty Rat or Recruit effect will target that card instead of your other cards. If that happens, the minion will enter the battlefield or drawn with the Gaze removed. Discover effects do not interact with this keyword since the card technically is not created yet and thus is still subjected to the wide Discovery pool (also it will be a nightmare otherwise balancing every card generation effect with a card with Gaze ).
How do you know and keep track of which characters are Gazed ? Any character that is Gazed will have an eye symbol with blue aura surrounding them when you hover over. Here's an example (thanks to the brilliant NoahMcGrath):
Gameplay Summary
Astromancer is a high RNG versatile class that has the cards to support multiple playstyle. From swarming tokens and then finishing off your opponent with burst damage, spell-based decks that burn out your opponent, to mid-range decks that drop well stated minions turn after turns, a grindy control deck with powerful late game win condition or some hybrid of all the above. The class has the tools to support them all!
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Things the class is good with:
Token spawning : As long as there is one star in the sky, the Astromancers will be able to summon out the Astral Spirit that represent the soul of those stars to fight for them.
Burst spell damage / finisher : Astromancers can command down comets and meteors from the night sky to hit their foe. Not only that but the Astral Spirits when buffs up can become formidable allies
Disruption : The stars and the sky not only protect you in your turn, but in your opponent's turn as well. In addition to being a Secret class and their class mechanic Gaze activates during your opponent's turn, their minions and spells also carry disruption effects that will cause your opponent to have to think twice before making any moves as well as creating interactive games from both sides.
Thing the class is average or decent at:
Card Draw : With the Gaze mechanic requiring multiple cards, the class will have a decent amount of draw to allow them to combine the cards that grant Gaze with the random effect they like to run.
Survivability : The class boast a decent amount of Taunt minions and healing. However, the healing is random as well as tying to spawning out tokens and keep them on the board to continuously receive it. If your opponent keep killing them off, you will have difficulty to survive.
Removal: When not falling into your opponent's face, the comets and meteor conjured by the Astromancers can instead annihilate the enemy minions.
Thing the class is bad at:
Unreliable random effects: The power of the celestials are powerful but unstable. Astromancer is a class built from the ground up to be a high variant class. This is especially prevalent in their Classic cards and Hero Power. If your hand is filled with random effects with no effective way to make them more consistent, the RNG can easily screw you over.
Board clear : The power of the stars are unreliable when forcing them to target multiple enemies. Most of the Astromancer's board clear are either unreliable (aka random), conditional, symmetrical or inefficient in term of damage to their cost. Their big board clear usually came at the mid to late game and either need set up or providing extra utility in exchange for killing power
Cards need set up : Most of their most powerful cards need set up beforehand or through multiple turns. This in turn allows your opponent the opportunity to disrupt them.
Basic set
Their Basic cards aim to establish the mechanic, flavor, strength and weakness of the class while also provide tools for them to play a variety of playstyle: Aggressive, Token based, Mid-range or Control
Token:
Solar Eclipse, Fiery Comet, Celestial Bow, Blessing of the Stars and Astral Touch are all unlocked at the start of the game.
Unlock Astral Wrath at level 2.
Unlock Knight of the Eclipse at level 4.
Unlock Supernova at level 6.
Unlock Starcaller at level 8
Unlock Astral Intellect at level 10
Solar Eclipse will retain any of the Gaze already on the target, until the end of turn allow it to be more useful in more combo oriented deck the class want to build. In return, it will not benefit from Gaze synergy.
Classic:
Similar to Basic, the Classic set provides the class with their iconic keyword Gaze as well as tools to support a variety of decks. The Classic set also give them Elementals and Dragons minions that can be utilized in later sets.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Curse of Naxxramas
The one card the class receive from this adventure play into the Deathrattle theme and the Constellation mark prominent in the class
Goblins vs Gnomes
Goblin vs Gnome can be said to be right in this class's wheelhouse: A lot of random effects, aggressive mechs with powerful tribal synergy and reward vomit your hand onto the battlefield. The aggressive mech side of the class is covered with low cost Mech like Watch Bird, Astral Blast and Gnomish Satelite. The more combo oriented side of the class has Gnomageddon and Silas Darkmoon to support them. The rest of the set are cards that can be used in both archetypes. Mechanical Uprising is the class's flavor of hard countering the mech meta.
Common:
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Silas Darkmoon can be played at turn 10 either with 1 Spare Part, or as part of a larger combo with Mark of Virgo + Silas + Gnomish Astrologist and dump your hand with Spare Parts. His 6/4 statline is to minimize the impact of highrolling him with [Hearthstone Card (Finnicky Cloakfield) Not Found]
Blackrock Mountain
The two cards in this expansion introduce Dragons synergy for the class that will be a permanent feature for it. Both Twilight Apprentice and Untamed Egghatcher are solid cards that carry the disruption effect, one for board clear and the other for swarm decks that mid-range decks usually weak to.
Herald Beluus is designed to give Joust the desperate support that it need. As long as the card is in your deck, it is always revealed whenever you use a Joust effect. Of course, like Patches the Pirate, you always run the risk of drawing this card before you drew your Joust effect and become basically a Faceless Behemoth or reveal your opponent's Molten Giant
Astral Explosion and Astral Warhorse are a very powerful cards that can be used as a removal / burst damage combine with your Hero Power or as part of an OTK with Violet Illusionist and spell generations that will be printed in later sets. However, this combo deck will be a Wild exclusive deck since the cards require to generate more Astral Explosion won't be printed until the Witchwood and Rise of Shadows.
League of Explorers
Whispers of the Old Gods
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
The 1/1 C'Thun summoned by Bride of C'Thun is also buffed by any C'Thun buff you played this game. Which mean that the C'Thun will have the stat of the original C'Thun -5/-5.
Jadefire Satyr cost 8 mana to prevent him from dealing 20 damage with Brann Bronzebeard
One Night in Karazhan
Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
For this expansion, the class will join the Kabal faction.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Journey to Un'Goro
In Journey to Un'Goro, Rishi stumbles upon the Draconic inhabitants whose knowledge of the stars and sky rival her own. Together, they unite their intellect in order to learn and performing the forgotten ritual made by the Titans in effort to fight the Old Gods. The Quest and card set will give the class a new way to synergize with the copious amount of Gaze in its Classic set while the rest of the set will give the Astromancer Elemental synergy attached to Dragon minions.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Knights of the Frozen Throne
Follow her death and return as a Death Knight in Knight of the Frozen Throne, Rishi's ruthlessness that served her well in forging her own fate now allows her to become one of the most dangerous of the Lich King's servant. While Gul'dan steals a person's blood and body, Rishi's specialty is stealing and bounding their souls to serve her, translating to a set of cards that specialize in taking away a minion's effect and replacing them with an identical Astral Servant.
Lich King card:
The Lich King card is especially potent against the class due their token swarming strategy not only offer board presence also healing and Gaze utility.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Kobolds & Catacombs
Rishi's venture into the Catacomb force her to confront an aspect long-lost to the Astromancers: The cold, devouring and uncaring emptiness of the Darkness and the Void that lies between the stars. Secrets and artifacts that were long-lost to Astromancers came to light. The class now also has incredibly well-rounded Dragon deck inspired by the encounter with Seriona.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
If you don't have anymore Secrets in your deck, Wormhole will not activate.
In the Witchwood, Astromancer's connection with the stars allow them to contact the Wild God whose power originate the Worgen curse Goldrinn, allow him to arrive and bring with him the power to convert willing Gilnean who wants the power to fight against Hagatha, resulting in a set with extensive use of the swapping Attack and Health mechanic. Astromancer also have the theme of hanging on to the past, which symbolize by their card set's use of the Echo mechanic as well as reward for playing multiple copies of a card in your game
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Before you read any further, here's some trigger warning:
The next set will depict and use imagery of serious mental health issues including: collective trauma, schizophrenia, the grieving process, toxic relationships, multiple personality disorder and depression. If any of them upset you, I understand if you skip the cards or just glossing them over. I tried to be as respectful and as accurate as possible to depict the mental health conditions. However, because I do not suffer from mental illness myself, as well as being bounded by the fantasy/sci fi setting of the expansion and generally "dumbing down" of the condition to fit in with the card effects, there's bound to be some mistakes and inaccuracy. I hope you can forgive me for that. If you can think of any ways to improve the cards depiction of mental health issues, I'm ready to listen.
The Boomsday Project
One of the lab of Dr. Boom is preserved for counseling the traumatized interns and scientists. Of course, given that the lead psychiatrist Sigmund Parlov is part of the Boom lab, he also attempts the morally dubious method of opening a portal to the Emerald Dream / Emerald Nightmare to seek out new magic to treat his patient.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Spells that deal split damage that has Poisonous by Toxic Influencer will instantly kill the minion that it deal the separate instant of damage to.
For the Rumble, the class will follow the recently return from the death the Sky Serpent Loa Quetz'lun. He bring along with him a hoard of champions and will take people who were cast aside in order to convert and train them to become the best they can be. His most prized champion Al'Zatar is such example, who specializes in manipulate the odd to his favor.
For Rise of Shadows, the class will join force to defend Dalaran, therefore balance out the number of Hero Class compare to the Villain classes. Their card set will mainly focus on building a combo deck that generate a huge amount of cheap spells to burst down the enemy. In Wild, this combo is even more prevalent since the class has access to the spell Astral Explosion combine with Violet Illusionist.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Shalyssa Ravenwhisper is made by Demonxz95 as a tribute card for me. I like it so much that I decided to implement it to my class's set.
If the enemy hero already had been by Gaze or Solar Eclipse before the Battlecry of Dalaran Sky Watcher, they can still be hit by random effect damage, similar to how random damage can still hit Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers minions.
If a spell already had Twinspell before you cast Mark of Gemini, it will add a copy with Twinspell to your hand, similar to THE... Candles treasure.
Rise of the Mech
Schizorphrenia now cost 2 mana (down from 4 mana)
Nightmare Therapy now cost 5 mana (down from 6)
The Dalaran Heist
Hero Powers:
Secrets of the Void unlock: Cast 50 spells
Celestial Call Requirement: Summon 200 minions
Backstory:
Hawken Kipler is a former highly respected Astromancer of Dalaran. He harbors a grudge against the Citadel because Eldrond Luxos, his friend and former lover, was expelled from the city because of Luxos's newfound interest in Necromancy and Void magic. This grudge simmer for years before exploding when Eldrond's sister Tolyria Luxos was killed during the Purge of Dalaran and the city didn't even bother to send a messenger to Eldrond about her death, considering Eldrond no longer part of Dalaran. Since then, he has been quietly plotting against the city from the inside out, culminating him helping the League of EVIL.
If you played as Astromancer, Eldron Luxos has a small chance to be encountered as a boss in any chapters. He will be encountered only as a 7th boss in chapter 1-4, or from 7th to 11th boss in chapter 5. Playing against him will have special dialogue that detailed their friendship / romance and Kipler breaking the news to him about Tolyria's death.
(The Hero Power is coded to only hit the Astral Spirits if Eldrond or the player is at 1 Health. Celestial Helpers is coded to be in his opening hand and cast on turn 1.)
He will use a self-harming Warlock / Astromancer deck (symbolizing Eldrond being suicidal after Kipler breaking him the news about Tolyria's death). If both sides are alive for 10 turn, the player'll receive a win and a special Treasure:
After his encounter with his ex-lover, Eldrond continues on his own path. One night, he found the floating city of Dalaran strapped with rockets. Surprised and confused, he used his magic to track the city down to Uldum. Learning that his help to Kipler has led to the event that can end the world, he joined force with the League of Explorers to put an end to this madness by uniting the scared local citizen to lend the League their aid.
Hero Power
Study the Stars: Starting Hero Power
Unlimited Power unlock: Gaze 100 characters
Call of the Void unlock: Take 40 damage during your turn
Tolyria's Locket is the initially available Signature Treasure.
Study the Nether is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 5 Boss
Kipler's Evocation is the Signature Treasure you unlock after dealing 50 damage to a Plague Lord
Jr. Ambassador is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating a Plague Lord
Sr. Ambassador is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating the first four Plague Lords
Shifting Anomaly is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 2 Plague Lords
Renounce Evil is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 3 Plague Lords.
Interaction:
If you play Tolyria's Locket, Eldrond will remark how much he miss Tolyria and how sad he is at her death.
If you play Study the Nether, Eldrond will remark that he regret missing out on becoming a Void Elf.
If you play Kipler's Evocation, Eldrond will remark that one of the reasons he broke up with Kipler is that Kipler used to bring out the more violent side of him. However, recent events are making Eldrond doubting that decision.
If you play the two Ambassadors, Eldrond will remark on the importance of using local knowledge and citizens to defeat the Plague Lords.
If you play Shifting Anomaly, Eldrond will remark how he loves these things due to their flexibility.
If you play Renounce Evil, Eldrond will remark that he prefers "adapt to circumstances".
Favorite moment of 2019: The announcement of the returning if old content. Not only Tyrande, but also past Adventures and Expansions as well. Now all HS players can easily access Wild format.
Most anticipated: The mid expansion events. This is the first year the dev have done so beside balance change and I hope that they will continue this year.
The skirting of rating only apply when the art changes are from a new expansion though. The arts that were changed are from the Basic / Classic serlt except one.
It's interesting that the developers specifically anticipated the card art backlash and stated that it is not about rating or regulation. Couple with the fact that all of the change is in the evergreen set (beside Mistress of Pain) lead me think that it is a genuine change in direction of depicting female characters in the art team. Someone probably thinks that the card arts suck and it hurt the appeal of the game to female players or something similar.
This is why I love the community. You guys always have the most unexpected idea.
It isn't that farfetch though. The class's RoS set is focusing creating multiple copies of a specific spell, so every cheap / high impact spells printed for the class can easily become the target of a new deck in both Standard and Wild.
I'm kind of confused about the Secret Lover last text though.
YESSSSSS. I've been a fan of this expansion since day one. Very excited to see where you're going with this. A few balance concern:
Counter Strike seems extremely weak compare to Paladin's own Blessing of Might. I suggest buffing it to 5 Attack.
Vanessa seems Op given that Rogue can bounce her back to their hand using Shadowstep and then play her again after casting the Bomb. I think you should remove the Steath.
Careless Vanguard stats is too weak to justify drawing a mediocre card. I think it should be a 3/3.
Like many players, I was excited when Battleground was announced. However, my initial excitement was dampen when seeing the selection of heroes. Where are the iconic 9 starting heroes we are familiar with? I am intending to rectify that situation.
Things to keep in mind:
Let's begin. Each heroes are sorted alphabetically by the name of their class:
Malfurion:
Rexxar
Jaina Proudmore
Uther:
Anduin:
Valeera
Thrall:
Gul'dan:
Garrosh
Dalaran Heist and Tombs of Terror guide is finished!
I tried to put "another" in the text but it ended up having 5 lines. It's the intention that it doesn't transform itself. I'll try to replace random with another to see if it can fit.
Rise of Shadows, Savior of Uldum and Dungeon Run Guide is finished.
With the design of your class, Kronos is OP and design limiting. He can be combined with multiple copies of Malygos and Alexstrasza for some ridiculous burst / board clear or healing to 15.
Whispers of the Old Gods and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan sets are up. Although I seriously need help with the wording on Magic Suppressing Potion.
There's a typo in the article: "Proumoreaway".
Goblins vs Gnome, The Grand Tournament, Blackrock Mountain, One Night In Karazhan, Naxxramas and League of Explorers set are finished.
I created this class for the 5th Class Creation competition, placing 3rd place. I went much further than I ever anticipated with the support of the Hearthpwn community. Now I'm posting and updating this class as a project since I particularly like the theme and the mechanic I have created for it.
Lore:
When the people of Azeroth are sleeping or fighting, astronomers study the stars, the sun, the moon and the planets surrounding their sky. With this knowledge, astromancers try their best to make prediction to the future based on the pattern. Unfortunately, their prediction backfires to the people of Azeroth as often as it helps them.
That isn't to say that astromancers are completely wrong. With a little more patient, set up and studying intensely, their prediction have more chance of being useful!
Rishi Sterling has always a big believer that only she can control her own destiny. This the reason why she took a career paths few would choose, became a Blood Elf after the fall of Quel'thalas, studying the forbidden Void magic in order to understand better the infinite blackness between the stars that lead to her banishment and is the reason why she now rejoined the world of Azeroth as a member of the Alliance Void Elves to spread the long lost whisper of the stars far and wide. She is the basic hero that represent the class that all players receive when they create their account.
The image for Rishi Sterling is creditted to user Akirie26. I am so sorry for not creditting you
Eldrond Luxos is the second alternative hero for the Astromancers. He is also the player character for the Tombs of Terror adventure, taking up the Astromancer / Warlock hybrid class and is obtained by defeating Heroic Tekahn.
Starcaller Rishi is the third alternative hero for the class. She is the hero the player will receive after 1000 wins with this class
Hero Power:
Celestial Burst is the class's Basic Hero Power. A pretty straight forward hero power, it also represent the class's high RNG nature but can improved or manipulated through careful board manipulation or using the class's Keyword.
Cosmic Burst is the class's upgraded Hero Power, generated by Justicar Trueheart, [Hearthstone Card (Baku, the Mooneater) Not Found] and Sir Finley of the Sands. It's an extremely potent Hero Power, being basically a Ballista Shot that can hit minions.
Keyword:
Astromancer is a high RNG class that this keyword allows them to reduce the RNG (atleast temporarily) and plan their turn as well as considering their risk / reward ratio accordingly when they don't draw or can't afford to play the Gaze cards.
Gaze not only allows the class to play offensively by allow their damage to reliable hit the desirable target, they allow the class to play defensively as well since their card draw, minion buffs and healing are also pretty random.
Gaze effects not only activate with your own random effect but also your opponent's random effect as well. This mean that you can protect your minions from devastating effects like Deadly Shot or from DIE, INSECT! mowing your important minions or life down too quickly.
Gaze only activate and disappear on ELIGIBLE targets only. If there is no eligible target, the random effect will proceed with the target selection like normal. If minions with Gaze died from effect like Arcane Missiles mid-casting, the target selection will continue on as normal. If two or more target are Gazed , the target that were Gazed first will be the target for the random effect. If they are Gazed at the same time, the effect will randomly pick among the Gazed targets. This is especially important to remember because Gaze also stacks on a character until the previous one disappear, which mean that timing and anticipating the opponent's play is key for your random effect to have the most value.
Also of note is that minions with natural Gaze in their card text (like Celestial Drake in my Classic set) will have Gaze anywhere , meaning that tutoring draw effects like The Curator, discard from hand or deck effects like Soulfire as well as other hand target effects like Dirty Rat or Recruit effect will target that card instead of your other cards. If that happens, the minion will enter the battlefield or drawn with the Gaze removed. Discover effects do not interact with this keyword since the card technically is not created yet and thus is still subjected to the wide Discovery pool (also it will be a nightmare otherwise balancing every card generation effect with a card with Gaze ).
List of available cards in the Basic and Classic set that will be effected by this keyword: Arcane Missiles, Cleave, Mind Vision, Multi-Shot, Any effect that says "Discard a random card": Soulfire, Felstalker, Doomguard, Deadly Shot, Mad Bomber, Thoughtsteal, Forked Lightning, Blood Imp, Alarm-o-Bot, Young Priestess, Demolisher, Knife Juggler, Lightwell, Master Swordsmith, Mind Control Tech, Stampeding Kodo, Young Priestess, Avenging Wrath, Brawl, Mindgames, Tinkmaster Overspark, Sylvanas Windrunner (before Hall of Fame), Ragnaros the Firelord (before Hall of Fame).
How do you know and keep track of which characters are Gazed ? Any character that is Gazed will have an eye symbol with blue aura surrounding them when you hover over. Here's an example (thanks to the brilliant NoahMcGrath):
Gameplay Summary
Astromancer is a high RNG versatile class that has the cards to support multiple playstyle. From swarming tokens and then finishing off your opponent with burst damage, spell-based decks that burn out your opponent, to mid-range decks that drop well stated minions turn after turns, a grindy control deck with powerful late game win condition or some hybrid of all the above. The class has the tools to support them all!
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Things the class is good with:
Thing the class is average or decent at:
Thing the class is bad at:
Basic set
Their Basic cards aim to establish the mechanic, flavor, strength and weakness of the class while also provide tools for them to play a variety of playstyle: Aggressive, Token based, Mid-range or Control
Token:
Classic:
Similar to Basic, the Classic set provides the class with their iconic keyword Gaze as well as tools to support a variety of decks. The Classic set also give them Elementals and Dragons minions that can be utilized in later sets.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Curse of Naxxramas
The one card the class receive from this adventure play into the Deathrattle theme and the Constellation mark prominent in the class
Goblins vs Gnomes
Goblin vs Gnome can be said to be right in this class's wheelhouse: A lot of random effects, aggressive mechs with powerful tribal synergy and reward vomit your hand onto the battlefield. The aggressive mech side of the class is covered with low cost Mech like Watch Bird, Astral Blast and Gnomish Satelite. The more combo oriented side of the class has Gnomageddon and Silas Darkmoon to support them. The rest of the set are cards that can be used in both archetypes. Mechanical Uprising is the class's flavor of hard countering the mech meta.
Common:
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Blackrock Mountain
The two cards in this expansion introduce Dragons synergy for the class that will be a permanent feature for it. Both Twilight Apprentice and Untamed Egghatcher are solid cards that carry the disruption effect, one for board clear and the other for swarm decks that mid-range decks usually weak to.
Dragon Egg
The Grand Tournament
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
League of Explorers
Whispers of the Old Gods
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
One Night in Karazhan
Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
For this expansion, the class will join the Kabal faction.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Journey to Un'Goro
In Journey to Un'Goro, Rishi stumbles upon the Draconic inhabitants whose knowledge of the stars and sky rival her own. Together, they unite their intellect in order to learn and performing the forgotten ritual made by the Titans in effort to fight the Old Gods. The Quest and card set will give the class a new way to synergize with the copious amount of Gaze in its Classic set while the rest of the set will give the Astromancer Elemental synergy attached to Dragon minions.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Knights of the Frozen Throne
Follow her death and return as a Death Knight in Knight of the Frozen Throne, Rishi's ruthlessness that served her well in forging her own fate now allows her to become one of the most dangerous of the Lich King's servant. While Gul'dan steals a person's blood and body, Rishi's specialty is stealing and bounding their souls to serve her, translating to a set of cards that specialize in taking away a minion's effect and replacing them with an identical Astral Servant.
Lich King card:
The Lich King card is especially potent against the class due their token swarming strategy not only offer board presence also healing and Gaze utility.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Kobolds & Catacombs
Rishi's venture into the Catacomb force her to confront an aspect long-lost to the Astromancers: The cold, devouring and uncaring emptiness of the Darkness and the Void that lies between the stars. Secrets and artifacts that were long-lost to Astromancers came to light. The class now also has incredibly well-rounded Dragon deck inspired by the encounter with Seriona.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
The Witchwood
In the Witchwood, Astromancer's connection with the stars allow them to contact the Wild God whose power originate the Worgen curse Goldrinn, allow him to arrive and bring with him the power to convert willing Gilnean who wants the power to fight against Hagatha, resulting in a set with extensive use of the swapping Attack and Health mechanic. Astromancer also have the theme of hanging on to the past, which symbolize by their card set's use of the Echo mechanic as well as reward for playing multiple copies of a card in your game
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Before you read any further, here's some trigger warning:
The next set will depict and use imagery of serious mental health issues including: collective trauma, schizophrenia, the grieving process, toxic relationships, multiple personality disorder and depression. If any of them upset you, I understand if you skip the cards or just glossing them over. I tried to be as respectful and as accurate as possible to depict the mental health conditions. However, because I do not suffer from mental illness myself, as well as being bounded by the fantasy/sci fi setting of the expansion and generally "dumbing down" of the condition to fit in with the card effects, there's bound to be some mistakes and inaccuracy. I hope you can forgive me for that. If you can think of any ways to improve the cards depiction of mental health issues, I'm ready to listen.
The Boomsday Project
One of the lab of Dr. Boom is preserved for counseling the traumatized interns and scientists. Of course, given that the lead psychiatrist Sigmund Parlov is part of the Boom lab, he also attempts the morally dubious method of opening a portal to the Emerald Dream / Emerald Nightmare to seek out new magic to treat his patient.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
The Stages of Grief:
Other tokens:
Nightmare
Rastakhan's Rumble
For the Rumble, the class will follow the recently return from the death the Sky Serpent Loa Quetz'lun. He bring along with him a hoard of champions and will take people who were cast aside in order to convert and train them to become the best they can be. His most prized champion Al'Zatar is such example, who specializes in manipulate the odd to his favor.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Gladiator's Path:
Rumble Run
Shrines
Teammates
Rise of Shadows
For Rise of Shadows, the class will join force to defend Dalaran, therefore balance out the number of Hero Class compare to the Villain classes. Their card set will mainly focus on building a combo deck that generate a huge amount of cheap spells to burst down the enemy. In Wild, this combo is even more prevalent since the class has access to the spell Astral Explosion combine with Violet Illusionist.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Rise of the Mech
The Dalaran Heist
Hero Powers:
Secrets of the Void unlock: Cast 50 spells
Celestial Call Requirement: Summon 200 minions
Backstory:
Hawken Kipler is a former highly respected Astromancer of Dalaran. He harbors a grudge against the Citadel because Eldrond Luxos, his friend and former lover, was expelled from the city because of Luxos's newfound interest in Necromancy and Void magic. This grudge simmer for years before exploding when Eldrond's sister Tolyria Luxos was killed during the Purge of Dalaran and the city didn't even bother to send a messenger to Eldrond about her death, considering Eldrond no longer part of Dalaran. Since then, he has been quietly plotting against the city from the inside out, culminating him helping the League of EVIL.
If you played as Astromancer, Eldron Luxos has a small chance to be encountered as a boss in any chapters. He will be encountered only as a 7th boss in chapter 1-4, or from 7th to 11th boss in chapter 5. Playing against him will have special dialogue that detailed their friendship / romance and Kipler breaking the news to him about Tolyria's death.
He will use a self-harming Warlock / Astromancer deck (symbolizing Eldrond being suicidal after Kipler breaking him the news about Tolyria's death). If both sides are alive for 10 turn, the player'll receive a win and a special Treasure:
Saviors of Uldum
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Doom in the Tombs cards:
Tombs of Terror
Lore:
After his encounter with his ex-lover, Eldrond continues on his own path. One night, he found the floating city of Dalaran strapped with rockets. Surprised and confused, he used his magic to track the city down to Uldum. Learning that his help to Kipler has led to the event that can end the world, he joined force with the League of Explorers to put an end to this madness by uniting the scared local citizen to lend the League their aid.
Hero Power
Study the Stars: Starting Hero Power
Unlimited Power unlock: Gaze 100 characters
Call of the Void unlock: Take 40 damage during your turn
Signature Treasures
Darkbomb
Interaction:
And don't forget to check out Eldrond's Tombs of Terror guide.
Descent of Dragons
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Galakrond's Awakening
Token:
I think King Phaoris is one of the weaker cards in the deck. You can put in one of those cards and sub him out.
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Has to include the octopus man.
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Must include atleast 3 characters from the art.
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