A question almost as old as Hearthstone itself; Monk, or Death Knight?
This afternoon, Dean Ayala took to Twitter to ask everyone in the community which of the two classes they want to see inside of Hearthstone. Although he did preface this with the fact that neither was being worked on, Dean is at least curious as a game designer and because of that, we need to help him get that data!
Adding an 11th class to Hearthstone could be a lot of fun and it could take us to some great places.
Monks
A Pandaria-themed expansion would be more than expected, and welcomed, when Monks make their inevitable addition to Hearthstone, which would give Youthful Brewmaster some new friends and Lorewalker Cho could spend his time taking us through a story or fifty.
The additional awesome point on Monks is that Dean himself would like to do Pandaria in Hearthstone so it is possible we could see the class added before Death Knights, though it should be noted Dean isn't the only person making these decisions, we just know of 1 person of the large team that supports the addition. It would be fitting to see Monks added next as well since we'd be going in the reverse order of Hearthstone's big brother, World of Warcraft, which released the classes starting with Death Knight and ending with Demon Hunter.
Death Knights
If Death Knights were going to be added though, we'd almost certainly make a return to the frozen wasteland that is Northrend; A fan favourite destination since its title debut in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Hearthstone took us to the icy land almost four years ago in August 2017, so by the time Death Knights would be done, if they were being worked on now, it would be around six years which makes the return likely.
There is still plenty to explore in Northrend including the titan-forged complex of Ulduar, a fav favourite in World of Warcraft which has been on the Hearthstone whiteboard for at least six years, the great nation of Zul'Drak, home of the Drakkari tribe of trolls, the spider kingdom of Azjol-Nerub, and so much more. Hearthstone could use the opportunity to return to explore the stories within Northrend that World of Warcraft was never able to finish.
So, what do you want to see next? Monks? Death Knights? Another class that isn't playable in World of Warcraft? Let us know in the comments below!
Quote From Dean Ayala NOTE: Neither of these are in development, just a curious question from a curious designer.
Monk or Death Knight?
Comments
Can't we have both? :) </greedy>
Death fucking Knight!
(Nobody cares for pandas anyway.)
Monks > DK
I'm more curious about what their Hero Power will be?
My best guess:
Death Knight : 2 mana cost, Summon 1/1 skeleton knight, give it +1/+1 if summoned.
Monk: 2 mana cost, Meditate, give 1 extra mana next turn only.
Any new classes is always welcomed, as it will add more variants to the game, even though it will be much more harder to balance the game.
Let's go with Death Monks! Decrepit, evil Pandas!
As native to China, I agree!
Death Knight all the way. Would be happy with either though to be fair.
We already delved into the alternate DK heros back in KotFT. Monks would add a bit of flavor if there would be another class. I don't see Blizzard opening up the door to another class anytime soon given that DH hasn't had anything fall into the Wild format yet... which means it is still really in it's infancy.
We had a sneak peek with the Death Knight heroes expansion, so I would vote Monks :)
But really both are fine
Pandas can just gtfo... they are the reason i quit wow back in the day, an april fools joke that got a whole damn expansion to satisfy kung fu panda kids... nope bring me more DK's and nothing else!
DK ofc
My heart really really wants Death Knights, i don't care how, but boring Monks make more sense.
The problem i see is to create an unique class identity for a DK class... Should it be ress (priest)? Undead (reborn/deathrattle)? Freezing (mage)? I can't imagine something unique to be added, but i wouldn't mind having lots of things that only exists in other classes just merge together to form a DK. I just really really like DKs and i think they are badass to play.
Monks, on the other hand, there were some very interesting fan therycrafts, but i imagine it would be easier overall to come up with unique mechanics, which would probably be "healthier" for the game, but monks are just... boring.
New graveyard mechanics could be implemented for DK's. And a new minion type to synergize as well: Undead!
The Death Knight should come first since it could be thematically integrated into a standard year. Since the core set is now a fluid set instead of set in stone like it was prior to Year of The Gryphon, it could easily contain alot of cards from Knights of the Frozen Throne including the class-specific Death Knights.
I want to see Monk in the game, but I'd rather have the Death Knight first.
Add another to the "monk" column! We already have a version of death knights; time for something new. That said, there's no hurry to add a class. If it only shows up in 3 or 4 years, I'd be fine with that.
And as Regis as suggested a few times, it would be awesome if Hearthstone got a unique class that doesn't exist in WoW; some ideas include bard, alchemist, musketeer and tinkerer.
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BTW, there's a typo in the second paragraph of the "Death Knight" section:
There is still plenty to explore in Northrend including the titan-forged complex of Ulduar, a fav favourite in World of Warcraft
That should probably read: fan favourite
I think if they add another class they'll need to avoid the pitfalls of their DH design. For DH, it doesn't seem like they had a clear idea of what it would do mechanically, which meant that it kind of just borrowed from other classes instead of getting its own identity. More importantly, DH doesn't have a clear and varied visual identity, so their cards either all look the same (creature with blindfold and green magic) or they don't look like DH cards (like the new Deathrattle package). Luckily, "Spooky Knights" and "Spiritual People" are both more interesting and more varied themes than DH, so either way I think the class will feel cooler and more natural than DH (personally I think Monks would be the best because we already have lots of Undead in other classes).
In terms of mechanics, for Monks I really want them to have some way to carry over unspent Mana Crystals across turns (or maybe converting it to Chi), because it would be very simple while feeling thematic and opening up lots of design space (it would be kind of like reverse Overload). For DH, I think they could go the direction of "Kill a friendly minion to do X" because that design fits them and hasn't been done much in HS (though Warlock kind of has that theme already).
I can guess what DK do from KotFT expansion, but I can't imagine what a Monk would be able to do in Hearthstone. Never played wow, so I don't really know it could be. Something similar to Diablo 3 Monks?
Simple, both.
I like DK better but I'd actually love to see Monk first (plus, a Pandaria-themed expansion ofc). Chen Stormstout would be amazing as the basic hero!
Pandas FTW