Hearthstone Gets Many New Mercenaries Card Keywords - What Are Deathblow, Bleed, Root, Spell Combo, and Critical Damage?

Published 4 years, 6 months ago by (Updated 4 years, 6 months ago)

We've got a handful of new keywords coming into Hearthstone with the launch of Mercenaries on October 12.

We don't know if any of these keywords will end up carrying over to the "real" game of Hearthstone, but it could make for some interesting new mechanics. Check out all the new keywords down below and let us know how you feel about them in the comments.

Deathblow

Does something when it kills a character.

Here are few examples of this being used in Mercenaries.

Outcast Attack 1 Card Image Splitting Strike 1 Card Image Blood Fervor 1 Card Image

Bleed

Bleeding characters take damage at the end of each turn. Bleeding can be removed by Restoring Health.

Here is an ability that uses Bleed.

Corrosive Spit Card Image

Root

Rooted characters can't Attack.

Here is an ability that uses Root.

Entangling Roots 1 Card Image

Critical Damage

Takes 2X damage from sources.

Here is an ability that uses Critical Damage.

Apocalypse 1 Card Image 

Spell Combo

A bonus if another friendly Merc played a spell of the same school this turn.

No cards use this keyword directly.

Spell Resistances

There are several keywords that deal with spell school resistances. These mean you take x less damage from an ability of that school.

  • Arcane Resistance - Takes {0} less damage from Arcane abilities.
  • Fire Resistance - Takes {0} less damage from Fire abilities.
  • Frost Resistance - Takes {0} less damage from Frost abilities.
  • Nature Resistance - Takes less damage from Nature abilities.
  • Holy Resistance - Takes {0} less damage from Holy abilities.
  • Shadow Resistance - Takes {0} less damage from Shadow abilities.
  • Fel Resistance - Takes {0} less damage from Fel abilities.

The only resistance that is currently referenced on a card in Fire.

Dragon's Skull 1 Card Image

Spell Weaknesses

A spell weakness in Hearthstone means that a target will take extra damage from an ability of that school.

  • Arcane Weakness - Takes {0} more damage from Arcane abilities.
  • Fire Weakness - Takes {0} more damage from Fire abilities.
  • Frost Weakness - Takes {0} more damage from Frost abilities.
  • Nature Weakness - Takes {0} more damage from Nature abilities.
  • Holy Weakness - Takes {0} more damage from Holy abilities.
  • Shadow Weakness - Takes {0} more damage from Shadow abilities.
  • Fel Weakness - Takes {0} more damage from Fel abilities.

The only playable card that references a spell weakness is for Shadow. There are some Mercenary fights that have passive weaknesses though.

Curse of Weakness 1 Card Image

Spell Damage

There are also new keywords which represent spell damage increases but only for one particular school of magic.

  • Arcane Damage - Your character's Arcane abilities deal more damage.
  • Fire Damage - Your character's Fire abilities deal more damage.
  • Frost Damage - Your character's Frost abilities deal more damage.
  • Nature Damage - Your character's Nature abilities deal more damage.
  • Holy Damage - Your character's Holy abilities deal more damage.
  • Shadow Damage - Your character's Shadow abilities deal more damage.
  • Fel Damage - Your character's Fel abilities deal more damage.

Arcane Bolt 1 Card Image Hungry Ice Card Image Blazing Rune 2 Card Image Inquisition 1 Card Image

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Comments

  • I'm interested about the very last ability from that article "Inquisition 1" but can't find back from which hero is from, any idea ?

    • My guess would be a PvE opponent. I don't recall seeing it on any of the datamined mercs.

      It could also be from a merc slated for later release.

  • Probably would be snorting too much ignorance bliss dust by saying this but hopefully mercenaries won't be as bad as everyone thought it would be because Blizzard's take on the gacha heroes genre is honestly quite interesting.

    • From what I read and heard, Mercenaries gacha is not as predatory as other standard gachas (which preys on people's gambling tendencies and/or desire to compete). It follows the existing pack rules of pity timers and duplicate protection. These sort of "guarantees" do not exist in other gachas.

      I got "trapped" in a gacha game when I took a break from HS 2 years ago (HS is so cheap compared to that one). So, I tend to avoid gacha games like the plague. This doesn't look so bad. Which gives me hope for the mode.

       

  • There are tons of abilities with Spell Combo, mostly on casters. They are actually named Fel Combo, Fire Combo, Frost Combo, etc.

  • Is there a functional difference between Freeze and Root?

    • yes... whenn stuff is Frozen in HS it can still attack if forced to say by Hysteria, rooted ones can never attack, you probably cannot even force them to.

    • There doesn't appear to be, so it seems mostly for "flavor" reasons; as in, you wouldn't want to see Malfurion Freezing people 'cause that would be weird. Gameplay-wise, currently the only difference it will make is with Jaina: Jaina's first ability deals additional damage if the enemy is Frozen.

      Friendly

      • I would think Freeze keeps them from acting at all, but Root just keeps them from Attacking. BIG difference.

        If that's not the difference, there must be something. It would be really out of character for Blizz to add a whole keyword just for flavor.

        • I agree that this is most likely. In WoW you can root someone and it stops them from moving but they can still attack and do everything, whereas if you freeze something it can’t do anything; would assume this is similar in Merc, whereby if something is rooted it can still use spell abilities but not physical attacks, whereas frozen stops it doing anything

        • Certainly possible, but Frozen keeping them from acting at all seems incredibly strong and sort of bucks against what Freeze normally does (which is just stopping attacks). I guess we'll have to wait and see.

          For what it's worth, I would not be against what you're suggesting to be the case; I just don't know if that's true or not. I feel the safer bet is that they are functionally identical.

          Friendly

  • Nice ideas, I hope we will see these keywords in "traditional" as well.