Warrior isn’t doing so hot right now. The class isn’t bad, per se, as it has a number of borderline-viable decks. The unfortunate reality is that no one seems very interested in playing the class. Be it unreliability, polarising matchups, dull gameplay, or a crushing skill ceiling, no Warrior deck has truly captured the public imagination.
Part of the reason for Warrior’s doldrums is a surplus of mechanics. With Mechs being piled on top of the pile of semi-synergistic identities, it’s hard to see how Boomsday will improve this.
A Split Soul
Warrior’s Classic set can be split into three main categories: Armour synergies, Charge/aggression, and self-damage/enrage. This fundamental division between wildly different cards leads to a wide variety of decks. However, it also leads to an inherent disunity to the Warrior class identity.
This confusion has been compounded as subsequent expansions added more and more different mechanics and identities on top of the existing ones. From Handbuff to Taunt, from Recruit to Rush, Warrior has received many more identities and mechanics than it needs, while existing ones go insufficiently supported.
The Mechanic Dilemma
Every new mechanic introduced creates a dilemma for future expansions: support it, or leave it be? Each comes with problems.
If the mechanic is continually supported, it
saps slots and options from other mechanics, further diluting Warrior’s pool. We saw this with Taunt, where Warrior continually received Taunt minions it didn’t really need, taking away potential support for more interesting playstyles that could hold players’ attention.
Alternatively, the new mechanic could be left to rot, like with Handbuff or Recruit. This would mean that future cards only tangentially synergise, usually leading to the complete failure of the mechanic (if it hadn’t already).
The Mechs That Warrior Doesn’t Need
Warrior looks to be one of the most directly mech-synergistic classes. With three out of the four released cards being either mechs or mech synergies, Team 5 look to be making Mechs a core class mechanic of the Boomsday expansion for Warrior.
Warrior already has many mechanics that could be revived or expanded upon with Boomsday’s “wacky science” theme. The concept of robo-suits could play into Weapons and Armour. Warrior’s many Blood-related combo pieces could play into hematology. Even mechs could be made interesting if they played into Warrior’s Armour synergies.
Strong cards for the Strong Classes?
Warrior isn’t the class that needs experimentation with pushing new, janky mechanics and combos. Leave the wacky stuff for the strong, popular classes. Give the classes that are struggling the core expansion to their identities they need to stay viable.
Unfortunately, Druid continues to gain cards like Biology Project. Meanwhile, Warrior (for now) looks stuck with Beryllium Nullifiers and the like, making things not look too rosy for the Warrior class. With most of the cards yet to be revealed, there’s still hope that Warrior’s core ideas receive the support they need.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via Hearthstone.gamepedia.com.
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