Demon Hunter Guide - How to Unlock, Hero Power, Cards, Mechanics, Strategies - Everything You Need To Know About The New Hearthstone Class
By Stonekeep -
Hearthstone's history is in the making right now - it's the first time ever we're getting a new class. Demon Hunter will be the 10th class and, in general, work very similar to the current 9. Below, you will find all the necessary information about it.
Demon Hunter will come to Hearthstone with the release of the upcoming expansion - Ashes of Outland (April 7). However, players will be able to finish the Prologue and unlock it a few days earlier (April 2).
Cinematic Trailer
How to Unlock (Prologue)
In order to unlock the Demon Hunter class, get the first 30 cards, as well as a starter deck - players need to complete Prologue.
Prologue will get players through four, short, single-player missions which showcase the history of Illidan, how he became a Demon Hunter. It will also introduce players to the Demon Hunter mechanics and play style.
After finishing it players will get access to Demon Hunter class (Illidan Stormrage will be the basic Hero) with 30 cards (10x Basic + 20x Demon Hunter Initiate), as well as a full starting deck using those cards.
Prologue will be available on April 2. You will be able to unlock the class, but it will only become available with the release of a new expansion (Ashes of Outland).
1000 Wins Portrait
Here's how the 1000 wins portrait for Demon Hunter looks like. Happy grinding!
Hero Power
Demon Hunter's Hero Power (Demon Claws) is pretty unique. While every regular Hero Power costs 2 mana, his costs only 1. Of course, because of that it's a bit weaker - it gives your Hero +1 Attack until end of turn. It seem balanced when compared to other Hero Powers like Druid's (basically half of it), Rogue's (also half, but Rogue's can be preserved) or Mage's (1 mana cheaper for 1 damage, but DH needs to take damage to hit minions).
The biggest downside of Demon Claws is that it has lower impact than other Hero Powers, so if you would float mana anyway (especially later in the game), you'd rather have a more powerful, but more expensive Power. On the other hand, an upside of 1 mana Hero Power is the fact that you can fit it into your turns much more easily. You can let's say play a 2 mana card + Hero Power on Turn 3, something you couldn't normally do.
The important part is that attacking with Hero has great synergies with multiple minions, and Hero Power gives a cheap and easy way to do so. While we'll need to wait to see how it works in practice, it's good to have a cheap way to activate synergies in case you don't draw the correct activators.
It was confirmed that Demon Hunter's upgraded Hero Power (Baku the Mooneater / Justicar Trueheart) will simply give him +2 Attack. Genn Greymane, on the other hand... just gives you memes :) (Source)
Mechanics
Demon Hunter will be an "aggressive", "in your face" class type. Its Hero Power and many cards will promote Aggro playstyle. Other than focusing on attacking with weapons/Hero Power, Demon Hunter will also have a lot of Demon synergies. The class will be able to swarm the board with small Demons. Unlike other token classes, however, Demon Hunter won't buff minions, but rather synergize with them dying! (e.g. Feast of Souls)
Demon Hunter class will have it's own, unique Keyword (just like Rogue's Combo or Shaman's Overload) - Outcast. If you play the Outcast card when it's the left-most or right-most card in your hand, you gain some kind of extra effect. The simplest example would be Consume Magic - if the card would be on the left or right, on top of Silencing a minion, you would draw a card.
For that reason, in general Outcast favors faster decks - if you're holding only 1-2 cards, Outcast effects will always trigger. Even with 3-4 cards, it will be easier to control your hand in such a way to keep them active.
Another common mechanic among Demon Hunter cards is synergizing with your Hero's attack. E.g. Battlefiend, Shadowhoof Slayer or Glaivebound Adept. Those cards have great synergy with DH's Hero Power (which gives +1 Attack for 1 mana), but there are also other cards that give your Hero attack for cheap (e.g. Twin Slice or Chaos Strike).
Cards
Demon Hunter will launch with 45 cards in total. Finishing Prologue and unlocking the class will give you 10 Basic cards + 20 "Demon Hunter Initiate" Cards. "Demon Hunter Initiate" is a set meant to let the class catch up to other nine, since they will start with more cards. Initiate set will be considered a part of Year of the Dragon, which means that it will rotate out in 2021.
Then, Ashes of Outland will include 15 more Demon Hunter cards (2nd and 3rd expansions of Year of the Phoenix will also have 15 DH cards). Demon Hunter will still start with less cards than other classes, but it should pretty much catch up. Once the extra Year of the Phoenix cards rotate out, Blizzard will create a Classic set for Demon Hunter so it ends up with the same amount of cards as other classes. Classic set will possibly be created from rotating out expansion cards! (Source)
Here's a full list of currently know Demon Hunter cards.
Basic Set
Demon Hunter Initiate Set
Ashes of Outland
Example Strategies & Decks
Keep in mind that the class is not out yet, so all the decks we post are theorycraftings - they might or might not work depending on the meta etc. Anyway, here are five theorycrafted Demon decks by J_Alexander! You can learn more about them and find their descriptions in this post.
JalexanderHS's Wrathscale Combo Demon Hunter Theorycraft
Format: standardSeason: Season 72
5,120
Demon Hunter Cards (29)
Neutral Cards (1)
JalexanderHS's Midrange Demon Hunter Theorycraft
Format: standardSeason: Season 726,640
Demon Hunter Cards (27)
Neutral Cards (3)
JalexanderHS's Highlander(ish) Heavy Cycle Demon Hunter Theorycraft
Format: standardSeason: Season 727,340
Demon Hunter Cards (26)
JalexanderHS's Big Demon Hunter Theorycraft
Format: standardSeason: Season 723,460
Demon Hunter Cards (29)
Neutral Cards (1)
JalexanderHS's All Out Aggro Demon Hunter Theorycraft
Format: standardSeason: Season 724,640
35 Comments
Rolioli
Can’t wait to play me some wild odd demon hunter
Yakucho
Even Demon Hunter can be fun xD
HuntingFor90
The hero power already costs 1, having genn in the deck wouldn't change anything....
Yakucho
Just kidding, they should make Gen grayman reduce the hero power cost by 1, would make more sense xD
albionflux
curious what bakus effect would be, probably just 2 attack but who knows
Stonekeep
I already added that info to the post, but it was confirmed that he will just give +2 Attack.
sonriks6
There's A LOT of Demon minions in this set and new class, Sacrificial Pact will be an autoinclude in Warlock hihihi!
Stonekeep
It's also a huge Zephrys buff, given that he can offer you Sacrificial Pact and you don't even need to put it into your deck!
linespark
Will Demon Hunter have any cards in a sort of "Classic Set" that won't rotate out or are their basic cards the only cards they can consistently rely on year to year?
Stonekeep
From what we know right now, only Basic cards will remain in Standard forever. But of course, they might change their mind and e.g. keep the Initiate set around too. We'll see how it works :)
Old Guardian
Demon Hunter will get a Classic set next year: https://twitter.com/Celestalon/status/1239984442816344064?s=20
linespark
Also looking at the numbers, Demon Hunter starts out with 10 basic + 20 from their other set + 15 from Outland for a total of 45 DH cards. Each other class will have 10 basic + 15 Classic + 10*3 expansions from the Year of the Dragon + 10 from Outland for a total of 65 cards per class. Even at the end of the year, DH will get 30 more cards throughout the year for a total of 75 cards while other classes will get 20 more for a total of 85 per class. Even after that, next year each class will start with 15 less cards than Demon Hunter (assuming they might get their own version of Classic cards). I dunno. I just feel like maybe if they had evened out the number of cards DH got with what the other classes have instead of doing the whole weird side-expansion thing along with the extra cards per expansion, it wouldn't bother me as much. Still I want to applaud Blizzard for trying something new with Hearthstone and doing something big and bold. Hopefully, if they even add other classes in the future, maybe they could work out the little things a bit differently.
linespark
I also just realized, we'll probably never be able to play Demon Hunter in Wild, or at least not be able to play it for a while. I just don't think it has enough in it, even with Wild Neutrals, to compete with all of the crazy stuff in wild like Death Knights and or crazy stupid adventure cards, or even just cards that specifically synergize with Wild cards like Carnivorous Cube. Hopefully they'll do something like a Demon Hunter Wild Set or something so that Wild players also have a chance to enjoy another class.
Rolioli
What about odd demon hunter, but in all seriousness it will be a while til we get to play demon hunter
Hinkmaestro
You say cube, but looking at the recently revealed cards the strongest cube deck might be demon hunter, they got BIG stuff with the warlord.
It fits so poorly in with the other cards that i almost think they took your comment as a base just to make a broken cubecard
ozomoto
You say that yet altruis +twin slice, eye beam, chaos nova, and immolation aura are already wild tier anti aggro tools. Skull of guldan is easily wild tier. It definitely has what it takes to play vs the aggro wild decks.
As long as its aggressive enough to kill mage quest and combo warlock (with help from card like loatheb) you might see demon hunter take a nice spot in wild. Most wild decks are not all over the place, taking card from all over hearthstone; they are condensed from one selection group and pull a couple cards here and there.
jankotiles
face aggro class, that gets free deck=demon hunter clown fiesta on low ranks xD
nickus89
I just wanted to note that there are some issues with deck builder for Demon Hunter. When I tried to use it for preliminary theorycrafting, it showed only neutral cards once the deck building process is done.
Also, it seems to show regular Hunter portrait instead of Demon Hunter.
I am well aware that previous week was quite busy so I am not pushing or anything. I would appreciate if there will be a note when it will be working tough.
Stonekeep
Yes, we are aware of that :( Our deck builder was not made to support more than 9 classes (because come on, who would have thought) so the devs are trying to incorporate a new one right now, but it's slightly more difficult than we thought.
We will try to get it working ASAP and I will make a post letting everyone know once it's done!
Rolioli
Do we know if there will be a 1000 win portrait for demon hunter?
trollguy119
I saw the 1000 win portrait posted on reddit. Looked real.
Stonekeep
Yes, there will be one! I'm posting about it right now and I'll add it to this post too :)
maelstrom684
In the thousand wins portrait section you wrote "demon knight". I thinks that's a typo even though Illidan would look absolutely awesome holding a lance and riding a fel hound.
Stonekeep
Thanks, fixed :)
BearMalice
Will this class have it's own (classic) legendary cards like the rest of the classes (i.e: Priest has Prophet Veleen, Mage has Archmage Antonidas) or will this class just have a legendary from Ashes of Outland for now?
Stonekeep
Not yet, but devs plan to give the class an actual Classic set in the future rotation, so they will probably give him a Classic Legendary then.
For now, he gets 2x Legendary from Ashes of Outland (rotating out in 2022) and 2x from Demon Hunter Initiate set (rotating out in 2021).
WarKing
Does Demon Hunter get a class legendary or no?
WarKing
Oops didn't realize someone already asked that question.
h0lysatan
Still no answer about why Demon Hunter class doesn't get prime minion.
But, it not really matter anymore, since I'm too happy with those free 30 cards.
(And it would be a pity if I discover that they're not disenchantable)
h0lysatan
Basic sure, but ever since Uldum, all freebie cards cannot be disenchanted for some reasons.
Like Sathrovar, Snip-Snap, Zayle Cloak and this new Kael'thas Sunstrider.
Back in Uldum, we got free Random Legendary Quest card (enchantable)
and in Shadows, we got Archmage Vargoth (enchantable too)
h0lysatan
for more info, all the initiate cards are free, and disenchant-able.
that means, more free dusts when they rotate in 2021.
Woo yeah.
Source "h-t-t-p-s://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Demon_Hunter_Initiate"
PitLord
Today the game give me the quest play DH, but it's still not available lol
Stonekeep
Oh yeah, they added Demon Hunter to the Quest rotation with last patch (17.0). Technically you have 2 other classes too so you can still finish the Quest, but it's kind of funny.
Rolioli
For me the quest isn’t available yet :(
Stonekeep
What do you mean? Prologue? If yes, then it should be out already!
Comments are closed.