Okay, I guess I've been putting this off for a while. I keep saying I kinda wanna do 'Lore of Hearthstone' segments, and while I'm not a bad player, at least I don't think so, if I'm going to do a Hearthstone article, I'd rather it be something relatively creative, and I suppose doing a lore segment is kind of something I'm relatively confident that I can do somewhat well. In this article, we're going to be covering the Basic and Classic sets, particularly the main nine heroes, the main nine classes, and how they are in relation to the original World of Warcraft game they're based on.So, a brief history of the games, first. Hearthstone is a digital trading card game based on the juggernaut and genre-defining World of Warcraft, itself a sequel to the three Warcraft real-time strategy games. The nine classes in Hearthstone are a representation of the nine original classes that you could pick when creating your character in World of Warcraft, and we'll go through them one by one. I'm going to presumably create a more... comprehensive timeline of the events that happened in World of Warcraft down the line, but for now, this is a more dry list of the basic and classic abilities (a.k.a. spells). A large amount of the abilities in basic and classic sets are basically, well, simple spells in World of Warcraft that represent the class's core identity, so the list might be a little repetitive. This is the first of two articles about the Classic and Basic spells and abilities, split into two pages because it's quite long.
This is going to be primarily lore about the classes themselves, plus the spells in the classic and basic set. Plus weapons! The actual characters themselves going to see a subsequent article. I tried fitting them all together, but shit, there's just so much!
These first batch of articles will deal with the original Basic/Classic set. Later on, cards would be rotated in and out of it, and those cards I will cover all here.
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DRUID
The druids are a race of spell-casting warriors that harness the powers of nature to preserve balance and protect life, bound to the powers of nature itself and charged to protect life. Their main form of combat involves transforming into beasts such as bears, crows and panthers, or to summon plants -- either to utilize them as roots to ensnare their opponents or to breathe life into them and transform them into treants. Being a druid is something steeped in balance, something that is reflected in the Druid class mechanic in Hearthstone with the unique 'Choose One' ability, reflecting the World of Warcraft Druid's versatility, as well as the shapeshifting abilities they can do. Also note how a large amount of the original druid cards all feature night elves and tauren, as well as those races shapeshifted into bears and cats.
The concept of Druids in the Warcraft games first originated in Warcraft III, where the game is expanded to be so much more than just humans fighting orcs with similar-looking units. Various kinds of Druids are affiliated with the Night Elves, a unique society that was closely tied to respecting the forest and the forest demigod, Cenarius. While Cenarius would later teach the act of druidism to progenitors of the tauren race, the first race to ever learn druidic magic are the night elves, specifically a sect led by Malfurion Stormrage (more on him later on). Druidism is closely tied to Night Elf society, where most of the males in the immortal Night Elven society (circa the third war -- the events that took place in Warcraft III) are trained to be druids, and prior to the third war a large majority of these druids went into a slumber in Moonglade to commune with the Emerald Dream, the sacred realm of dreams and nature that is tightly bound to the mighty dragon aspect, Ysera the Dreamer. Malfurion and the rest of his druids would be awoken by Malfurion's wife, Tyrande Whisperwind, in response to the Third War and the death of Cenarius, causing them to band together with the humans and orcs to repel the demonic invasion of the Burning Legion.
While originally only night elves and tauren were able to become druids, recently their ranks have bolstered to also include the trolls of the Horde, as well as the worgen of the alliance. The worgen's curse (more on that when I do a races piece) is tied to ancient primitive druidic magic, whereas the trolls learned that some of their loa are in fact part of the Emerald Dream. Unlike how most races are split in the Alliance-Horde conflict, the druids actually take a more neutral stance and druids of both Alliance and Horde would gather to discuss matters of importance to safeguarding nature itself. In combat, druids have been referred to as a jack-of-all-trades, able to heal, cast spells and do physical battle but nowhere as well as the other classes.
We'll talk about the Basic and Classic abilities now, first listing the abilities that have a direct equivalent in Warcraft III or World of Warcraft, and then talking about abilities original to Hearthstone.
Innervate: In World of Warcraft, Innervate is a spell that allowed Balance and Restoration druids to infuse allies with energy and would allow them to cast spells without mana for a temporary time. It's reflected in its hearthstone effect, which allowed you to gain more mana than normal, but only for a brief turn.
Moonfire: Moonfire is a spell that druids learn at a very low level, and is a spell that applies a damage-over-time effect, summoning a miniature moon that drops, well, moonfire unto the target.
Claw: As the picture indicates, Claw is one of the default attacks that WoW druids have when transformed into cat form. Nothing much to say about that.
Mark of the Wild: In World of Warcraft, Mark of the Wild is a druid spell that temporarily increases armour, stats and resistances in an ally. While the specifics differ, it also increases stats in Hearthstone.
Wild Growth: Wild Growth is an interesting bit. In World of Warcraft, Wild Growth is a heal-over-time spell that heals quickly at the beginning of its cast duration and more slowly later on, which... has absolutely nothing to do with gaining mana permanently. That bit is actually a reference to Magic: The Gathering, the grand-daddy of all trading card games, where there is a card named 'Wild Growth' had a similar mana-ramping effect similar to Hearthstone's Wild Growth.
Healing Touch: Healing Touch is a spell in World of Warcraft that, to the surprise of no one, heals. As it is in Hearthstone, though, Healing Touch in WoW is the largest direct heal available to druids, albeit at huge mana cost.
Savage Roar: In World of Warcraft, Savage Roar is a buff ability used by druids while transformed into cat form, increasing the amount of damage done by a significant amount.
Swipe: In World of Warcraft, as it is in Hearthstone, Swipe is an ability used by druids in cat form to deal damage to multiple enemies around the druid. In WoW the ability didn't deal different damage to different enemies, though.
Bite: Bite (well, Ferocious Bite) is one of the finisher moves for cat-form druids, unleashing a large amount of damage depending on the amount of combo points you've raked up over the battle.
Starfire: In addition to healing and transforming into beasts, druids are also able to summon the power of the moon and stars. In WoW, Starfire is a single-target blast of powerful arcane energy.
Starfall: Starfall is an interesting spell, lore-wise. In Warcraft III, Starfall is the most powerful spell available to the night elf hero class Priestess of the Moon, whose most iconic member was Tyrande Whisperwind... and as you can imagine, from the whole 'Priestess of the Moon' title, she ended up being classified as a priest come World of Warcraft, who tried to classify most characters into one of the nine main classes. However, Starfall felt very druid-y, and was given as one of the most powerful spells that Balance-specialized druids would learn (so we'll just assume Tyrande is just talented enough to learn druid spells). Be it in Warcraft III or World of Warcraft, Starfall will summon down the power of the stars to slam down upon all the enemies around you, and in Hearthstone, likewise, Starfall is able to deal damage onto numerous targets.
Wrath: Wrath (recently renamed Solar Wrath in WoW) is one of the very first spells learned by a druid, and it's a single-target blast of energy onto a single target. It's fun to spam!
Soul of the Forest: Soul of the Forest is a common talent for all four branches of druid specialization, which doesn't have anything to do with treants in World of Warcraft, but instead increases the damage dealt or health healed by your other spells.
Nourish: Nourish is one of the healing spells available to druids, which, if stacked alongside other healing spells like Healing Touch, will greatly increase the health healed by them. Obviously, the effect is greatly changed in Hearthstone since they didn't want Druids to heal too much, and alongside Wild Growth, Nourish ended up serving as a ramping/drawing engine in Hearthstone.
Force of Nature: Force of Nature began life as one of the Keeper of the Grove (a.k.a. Malfurion himself) hero's spells in Warcraft III, and since one of the biggest inspirations of the World of Warcraft druid is the Keeper of the Grove gameplay, it is also present in WoW as a talent for Balance druid. Force of Nature allows you to summon a gaggle of treants that will fight for you for a limited amount of time before they break apart, which is represented by the old version of Force of Nature, which had the treants die at the end of your turn.
The following spells are original to Hearthstone, although very loosely borrows from WoW druid ability naming conventions: Naturalize, Mark of Nature, Power of the Wild and Savagery. Savagery was very nearly a Druid talent in Warlords of Draenor, but was removed after the Beta stage.
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HUNTER
Hunters are a bit of a mix of numerous classes in the original Warcraft games. Basically, it's the combination of everyone who fights with a bow, as well as everyone who fights alongside beasts, making the World of Warcraft Hunter a combination of rangers like Alleria, riflemen like Hemet and beastmasters like Rexxar. (In most of his Warcraft-era appearances, Rexxar actually dual-wielded axes!) I suppose the closest thing is the similarly-named Huntress unit from Warcraft III, who were night elven units riding nightsabers and throwing around glaives -- which are ranged weapons. So yeah.
As such, Hunter as it is defined in World of Warcraft, is adventurers who challenge themselves in the wild, hunting beasts and hunting alongside beasts, with ranged weaponry such as bows and rifles, laying traps and tracking prey. There's... actually not much lore around Hunters, and I guess the equivalent in pre-WoW games are the elven rangers, among whom Alleria is a member. The Hunter class in WoW is just a mixture of all archery and beast-related skills. Best not think about it too hard. Basically every single race in WoW are able to become a hunter, and will start off with a particular pet unique to the race. While associated with beasts similar to druids, hunters are not at all interested in keeping balance, and would hunt down their prey with tools, as opposed to the very nature-revering druids.
Again, there's not much specific lore surrounding Hunters in World of Warcraft, mostly due to the general lack of consensus on what counts as a hunter pre-WoW. One thing to note, though, is that in World of Warcraft, Hunters are well-known for being ranged damage-dealers, which... might kind of explain why they deal so much damage in Hearthstone.
Steady Shot: The Hunter's hero power, Steady Shot, is one of the hunter's most reliable damage dealing abilities, a spammable ability that has a brief casting time, launching damage while moving which means that, yes, just like Hearthstone's Steady Shot, a WoW Hunter can use Steady Shot almost at any time. Despite being one of the oldest abilities in WoW, Steady Shot has recently been removed in the Legion expansion.
Arcane Shot: Arcane Shot is also the bread-and-butter of WoW Hunters, which works like an inverse Steady Shot -- it is casted instantly, but has a cooldown. Arcane Shot also, as its name implies, deals magical damage.
Explosive Shot: Explosive Shot is an ability learned by survival hunters in WoW, launching an explosive charge that, instead of dealing area-of-effect damage like in Hearthstone, deals damage over time. In Legion, Explosive Shot has been retooled so that it becomes a slow-moving projectile that you can detonate at will and unleash AoE damage, unintentionally bringing Explosive Shot closer to its Hearthstone portrayal.
Multi-Shot: Multi-Shot is a hunter ability in WoW that unleashes several arrows that hits a target and all the enemies in a certain radius around it.
Hunter's Mark: Hunter's Mark in WoW is a marksmanship hunter ability. In WoW's Legion expansion, Hunter's Mark is redesigned as a passive ability, but its incarnation in Hearthstone is based on its pre-Legion version. The pre-Legion Hunter's Mark debuffed targets as well as placing a gigantic red arrow (similar to the artwork on the Hearthstone card) that allowed the hunter to see the target even if it went invisible.
Tracking: Tracking is a skill that all hunters, regardless of specialization, will learn, and allows the hunter to track various races such as beasts, dragons, demons, et cetera.
Kill Command: Kill Command is an ability in World of Warcraft that is learned by beastmaster hunters, allowing them to, well, command their prey to deal a large amount of damage to a target, shown in Hearthstone as you needing a friendly beast to unleash the kill command.
Animal Companion: Animal Companion is not based on a specific ability in World of Warcraft, but all hunters start off with a particular pet, which you can then command them as you see fit. All three possible results are pets of Rexxar, with Misha the bear being Rexxar's main and most constant companion in Warcraft III (the only summoned minion that doesn't have a cooldown time).
Bestial Wrath: Bestial Wrath in WoW is one of the abilities learned by beastmaster hunters, allowing your pet to enter a berserker frenzy in which they will deal extra damage.
Explosive Trap: The traps that a hunter casts are all part of the survival specialization of a Hunter. Explosive Trap is a trap that, when laid down and triggered by your enemies, will unleash a blast of fire damage to the target and those around it, dealing periodic fire damage to them.
Freezing Trap: Freezing Trap is also a trap in WoW that, true to its name, will freeze whoever touches it. Due to Hearthstone wanting to make the freeze mechanic unique to mages and shamans, the mechanics were changed in Hearthstone into a different kind of delay.
Snake Trap: Snake Trap, originally an ability, was removed in Warlords of Draenor and changed into a glyphed ability (meaning you need a glyph to replace another ability with Snake Trap), and in WoW, when the trap is triggered, will unleash snakes that will cripple the unfortunate souls that step on it with slowing poison.
Misdirection: Misdirection is a hunter ability in WoW that, well, mis-directs the 'threat' that the hunter causes onto a friendly target, basically allowing you to redirect an angry enemy to attack your tank.
Flare: In WoW, Flare is an ability learned by all hunters that will launch a flare that exposes all hidden and invisible enemies, which explains why, in addition to dispelling secrets, also negates stealth in Hearthstone.
The following spells are original to Hearthstone, although they are flavoured after the archery/shooting and beast-mastery themes of Hunter: Snipe, Deadly Shot and Unleash the Hounds.
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MAGE
Mage is always one of the most basic classes in any fantasy game. Powerful spellcasters that unleash blasts of flame and frost, Mages in the Warcraft games have always been portrayed as being immensely powerful, but are limited due to their relative fragility and limited mana, as well as the expensive cost to train them in the original RTS games. First seen in the first Warcraft game under the name 'Conjurer', it's one of the more expensive units in the game and was able to summon Water Elementals, something that would define any subsequent mages in the following Warcraft games. In Warcraft II, the Conjurer is replaced by the Mage unit, able to unleash fireballs, blizzards, flame shields, slow down enemies and the now-iconic polymorph spell. Medivh in Warcraft was a unique Conjurer, whereas Khadgar started life as a 'hero' based on the Mage in Warcraft II.
In Warcraft III, the mages are split into two units -- the cheaper Sorceress, a unit with the polymorph and slow spells, and the hero unit called the Archmage, who had the ability to unleash blizzards, summon powerful water elementals, teleport entire armies and empower the lesser sorceresses. Jaina Proudmoore and Antonidas are the two most iconic and important Archmages during the events of Warcraft III. The expansion, Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, would add the Blood Mage, a different hero that focuses more on unleashing fire spells and sucking mana from the enemy.
In World of Warcraft, Mages tend to be affiliated with the mage city of Dalaran, and are able to unleash fire, frost and arcane spells. All playable races are able to become a mage, considering that it is a skill that can be learned with enough study, although orcs, dwarves and night elves were only able to become mages in the Cataclysm expansion. Elven mages in lore are the first practitioners of magic in Azeroth, which first attracted the Burning Legion to the world of Azeroth and caused the War of the Ancients, but we'll talk about that later on.
Fireblast: In World of Warcraft, Fire Blast (parsed as two words) is one of the earliest spells a mage character will learn, and is a burst of fire that is instantly launched towards the enemy (some spells require casting time and whatnot) that can't be interrupted.
Fireball: Fireballs are one of the most powerful direct damage
spells learned by Fire Mages, and is easily one of the most commonly
casted spells by Fire Mages. As you might imagine, shooting fireballs is
very popular in the fantasy setting, so Fireball spells date as long
back as Warcraft I, used by Warlocks of the Orcish Horde (though
that game's description of the fireball spell makes it a lot closer to
the hellfire-esque spells in WoW), and later by Mages in Warcraft II.
Flamestrike: Flamestrike began life as a Blood Mage hero spell in Warcraft III, where it was channeled and targeted a range of area before unleashing a huge explosion of flame. In WoW, it's also an area of effect damage available to fire mages, dealing instant damage.
Pyroblast: Pyroblast is a spell available to fire mages, dealing one of the largest direct damages among fire spells, but has a long channeled cast time, reflected in Hearthstone by its immense mana cost.
Frostbolt: Frostbolt is one of the very first spells learned by frost mages, launching a blast of ice that damages the target and slows it down, like many other frost spells (represented in Hearthstone by freezing it for a turn). It's one of the bread-and-butter spells of a frost mage, which is appropriate considering how it is the bread-and-butter 2-mana spell in Hearthstone.
Frost Nova: Frost Nova is a frost spell learned by Mages at a low
level, unleashing a blast of low-level damage and freezes enemies
around the caster, basically a frost-flavoured version of Arcane
Explosion. In Warcraft III, Frost Nova is one of the four
abilities available to the undead hero, the Lich, and is one of the most
powerful abilities due to insane crowd control abilities.
Ice Lance: Ice Lance is a spell that replaces Fireblast for Frost Mages, dealing damage without cooldown. While it doesn't freeze targets as it does in Hearthstone, in World of Warcraft Ice Lance deals triple damage to frozen targets, which is reflected in its secondary effect in Hearthstone of dealing 4 damage to an already-frozen target.
Ice Barrier: Ice Barrier is a spell from the frost mage's arsenal in WoW that shields the mage from damage for a period of time, with a certain amount of cap based on your spell damage.
Ice Block: Ice Block, in WoW, is a mage spell that, like Ice Block in Hearthstone, provides a mage complete immunity from all damage and attacks at the price of not being able to do anything for that period of time, and is often used as a delaying tactic to allow other spells to recover.
Cone of Cold: Cone of Cold is a frost mage spell that deals frost damage to enemies in front of the caster and freezes them.
Blizzard: Obviously, with Blizzard sharing a name with the company that makes these games, Blizzard has been a spell in Warcraft games since early on, first used by Mages in Warcraft II, and later by the Archmage heroes in Warcraft III, and later as a spell used by frost mages in World of Warcraft. In all those games, the caster calls down, well, a blizzard of icy spears down onto an area, pelting them with damage and slowing down all targets in the area.
Arcane Missiles: Arcane Missiles is a spell in (obviously) the arcane school of magic, one that launches multiple charges of arcane magic at the opponent. Like how it is adapted into Hearthstone, the damage split over multiple hits can sometimes be very beneficial to the caster. Unlike in Hearthstone, however, WoW's Arcane Missiles are launched only towards a single target.
Arcane Explosion: Arcane Explosion is a very popular spell from the Arcane school which unleashes a blast of magic in the area immediately around the mage, dealing instant, if not particularly powerful, damage onto every enemy around the mage.
Arcane Intellect: Arcane Intellect is a single-target buff that increases the target's intellect stat in World of Warcraft, represented here as drawing cards. It is removed and replaced with Arcane Brilliance during the Cataclysm expansion.
Mirror Image: Despite its humble effect in Hearthstone, Mirror Image in WoW is a rather strong Mage spell which creates copies of the mage which will cast weaker versions of the mage's spells at the target. In Warcraft III, Mirror Image is actually the ability of a warrior-type hero class, the Blademaster (a.k.a. Grom Hellscream), which allowed them to move so fast that they create temporary clones of themselves that have a fraction of their health and attack.
Polymorph: Polymorph is a spell that transforms its target into a sheep, made iconic in the Warcraft lore in Warcraft II, as one of the most powerful spells the Mage had access to since the transformation was permanent, essentially an instant-kill spell against powerful units your enemy has. In Warcraft III, polymorph is a spell available to Sorceress in the human armies, which turned a non-hero enemy into a sheep for a 60 second duration -- during this time, they regenerate health, cannot help and can be damaged. In World of Warcraft, Polymorph is used by mages to transform a target into a sheep, but various races like dragons, demons, undead and elementals are immune to polymorph, and any damage will prematurely break the spell's effect. There are various cosmetic alternate Polymorphs in WoW you are able to obtain, which changes your target polymorph into a different animal.
Counterspell: Counterspell is a spell in the arcane school of magic in World of Warcraft that not only counters spells, but if successfully cast, will disable all spells from the same school of magic for a brief period of time.
Water Elemental: I'll put Water Elemental here because it's kind of like a spell -- Conjurers in Warcraft and Archmages in Warcraft III were both able to conjure powerful Water Elementals to do their bidding, which is why they are associated with mages instead of Shamans despite Shamans being the Elemental class. In WoW, Water Elementals are summoned by Frost Mages as a permanent summoned pet, and are able to freeze targets with one of the spells available to them. While many Water Elementals are bound to mages, many other wild, independent Water Elementals roam the lands of Azeroth, although as a whole, under the leadership of Neptulon the Water Elemental race tends to be neutral, if not outright friendly, to members of the Alliance and the Horde.
The following don't have any real equivalent in World of Warcraft: Mirror Entity, Vaporize and Spellbender.
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PALADIN
The Paladins were introduced into the game in Warcraft II, the successor to the Clerics and Knights from the First War. They are valiant soldiers that protect the weak and fight for justice, channeling the holy power of the Light and are able to unleash healing wounds and exorcise the undead and demons. Paladins are durable, holy warriors with particular strength against the undead. Paladins tend to be a mixture of defensiveness, buffing other allies and healing in Warcraft lore.
The original Paladins in Warcraft II were one of the two spellcaster units unique to humans, with the ability to exorcise demons. These Paladins were led by the heroic Turalyon. The Paladin in Warcraft III was one of the hero units available to humans, able to heal allies and smite enemies, able to create powerful impenetrable divine shields, able to inspire all those around him and, in times of dire need, call upon the Light to resurrect the dead. Most famous among the Paladins of the Third War are Uther the Lightbringer, leader of the Order of the Silver Hand, and Arthas Menethil, prince of Lordaeon who would find himself corrupted and be turned into the Lich King.
In World of Warcraft, Paladins were initially a class exclusive to humans and dwarves, both Alliance races, until the Burning Crusade expansion introduced the Blood Elves to the Horde, which were able to use the Paladins' power of the Light... albeit by enslaving a Naaru. More on that later, though. In addition to those, Draenei were also able to become Paladins, and the Tauren, as of Cataclysm, have also learned the way of the Light.
Blessing of Might: Blessing of Might is a high-level Paladin spell casted on a target, increasing their mastery by a certain amount. It has recently been removed in WoW during the Legion expansion.
Hand of Protection: Hand of Protection (or Blessing of Protection -- it's currently called that, and the Hearthstone flavour text makes fun of the constant swapping between Hand and Blessing) that buffs them, protecting them from harm for a set amount of time similar to Ice Block, but the ally can't attack during that period. The Divine Shield mechanic that is common (but not exclusive to) Paladins is an ability first introduced in Warcraft III owned by the Paladin heroes, creating a bubble that prevents damage for a period of time. In WoW, it's a spell used by Paladins that also prevents damage.
Holy Light: Holy Light began life in Warcraft III, as one of the spells available to the Paladin hero. It either heals a friendly living unit, or damages an enemy undead unit, making the Paladin hero particularly great in matchups against that particular faction. In WoW, Holy Light is the strongest of the healing spells available to Paladins,
Blessing of Kings: Blessing of Kings is a spell in World of Warcraft is a buff spell that increases multiple attributes of an ally. Like all other paladin blessings, paladins can cast only one blessing on a single target. It's recently removed in the Legion expansion.
Blessing of Wisdom: Blessing of Wisdom is a Holy Paladin talent that restores mana over time. Blessing of Wisdom has been removed from World of Warcraft during the Mists of Pandaria expansion, merged with Blessing of Might.
Consecration: Consecration is a paladin spell shared by all three specializations, consecrating an area of land around the caster and dealing damage to anyone who enters or is in the area.
Hammer of Wrath: Paladins are able to summon hammers of light and launch them through the air as their ranged attack, launching them upon the enemy (which is why Liadrin, who uses a sword, talks about her hammer burning with holy fire). In WoW, it has the constraint of only being usable against enemies at low health.
Eye for an Eye: Eye for an Eye is a talent in the Retribution tree, allowing Paladins to counter-attack physical damage instantly for a duration of time. Previously, Eye for an Eye reflects magical attacks.
Redemption: In WoW, Redemption (previously Resurrection) is a Holy Paladin ability that allows the caster to resurrect an ally from the dead, with 35% of their total health (or just 1 health, in the case of Hearthstone). In WoW it's a spell that can only be cast outside of combat due to taking a pretty long time to cast the spell.
Repentance: Repentance is a Paladin talent that will force an enemy to meditate and stay immobile for a period of time, but it's unusable against certain races like the undead or demons. In Hearthstone, this immobility is represented by having the attack reduced to 1.
Lay on Hands: Lay on Hands in WoW is of the most powerful Paladin healing spells, allowing the paladin to heal an ally as much as his maximum health.
Divine Favor: Divine Favor, in WoW, is a Holy Paladin ability that increases the healing that the paladin does (previously it boosts stats and critical chance) for a period of time.
Holy Wrath: Holy Wrath is a powerful Retribution Paladin talent in WoW, where it will deal holy damage based on your missing health to nearby enemies, and this rather unconventional damage calculation is reflected in Hearthstone by the Holy Wrath card dealing damage based on the cost of the card you drew.
Avenging Wrath: Avenging Wrath is a powerful Paladin ability that has different effects depending on the specialization. For Holy paladins, Avenging Wrath increases the healing and critical strikes you do for a period of time, whereas for Retribution and Protection paladins, it increases healing and damage.
Guardian of Kings: The Guardian of Kings is a minion, sure, but it comes from a Paladin Ability. One of the stronger abilities in the Protection talent tree, the ability Guardian of Ancient Kings allows the Paladin to summon the titular Guardian to prevent damage you take for a period of time. An older version of Guardian of Ancient Kings did heal your hero, which is probably what the Hearthstone card was based on.
The following abilities and spells are all original to Hearthstone: Reinforce (the hero power), Blessed Champion, Equality, Noble Sacrifice and Humility.
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PRIEST
Priests (or Clerics in older games) are devoted to the spiritual light, and are the healers of the world. They serve holiness itself as they cure the sick and weak, unleashing the fury of pure light upon those who would dare disrespect life. Some priests choose to learn a darker side of the light, learning about the shadows cast by the light in order to better understand them. Depending on the culture, there is some overlap of priestly lore with paladins, druids and shamans, with, for example, characters like Tyrande and Vol'jin (arguments could've been easily made for them to be a druid/hunter or a shaman/hunter respectively) because of how their respective cultures revere druidism and shamanism as their religion.
In Warcraft, the equivalent to the Priest were the Clerics, who came from the Abbey of Northshire to aid the war against the orcs. While the role of the Clerics were taken over by the newly-trained Paladins in Warcraft II, in Warcraft III high elven Priest units served among the human army, able to heal and buff their allies in battle. The Night Elves also had the hero unit Priestess of the Moon, famously represented by Tyrande Whisperwind, who, while not able to heal, were servants of the moon goddess Elune.
Lesser Heal: Lesser Heal, the Priest's hero power, was the Priest's starting spell prior to the Cataclysm expansion, allowing the Priest to heal, albeit ineffectively, until it is replaced with Heal at a relatively low level.
Circle of Healing: Circle of Healing is a Holy Priest spell in
WoW, healing the most injured allied members in a certain area around
the caster, extremely efficient yet it also means that the Priest cannot
delegate which party members get the heal.
Power Word: Shield: Power Word: Shield is a Power Word available to the Disciple and Shadow specializations, creating a shield that will absorb a certain amount of damage before being broken.
Mind Spike: Mind Spike, the hero power that replaces Lesser Heal when assuming Shadowform, is one of the higher-level Shadow Priest talents that deal shadow damage to the enemy and puts a 'spike' in the enemy's mind that can be detonated when you cast mind blast.
Mind Control: Mind Control (previously Dominate Mind) is a spell used by Shadow Priests in WoW to take control of an enemy for a brief period of time, allowing the Priest to gain an ally temporarily. In WoW, the spell is channeled, meaning the caster cannot move for the duration of the spell.
The following are original to Hearthstone: Thoughtsteal, Mindgames and Shadow Madness
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ROGUE
Rogue,
Warrior and Mage are often touted as the 'main three' classes that
serve as the backbone of any fantasy RPG setting, with all other classes
being different-flavoured versions of those three. Rogues are the
thieves and assassins of the Warcraft universe, tending to care more
about money and gold more than actual honour. They rely more on
pragmatic tactics and stealth in combat, stabbing enemies in the back
from shadows, or using poison on their weapons to unleash a flurry of
devastating strikes that combo with each other in combat.
While there are never official Rogue or Thief units in the three RTS Warcraft games, Bandits and Mercenaries are everywhere in the world of Azeroth. Likewise, stealthy units that are able to turn invisible to deal large damage are also present, particularly among the Night Elven forces in Warcraft III. In World of Warcraft, all races except for Tauren and Draenei can become rogues.
Dagger Mastery: Prior to the Cataclysm expansion, classes were able to learn mastery of a certain type of weapon from a particular master. Since Cataclysm the system has been changed with weapon restriction per class, although whatever the case, rogues has always been affiliated with daggers.
Backstab: In WoW, Backstab is an ability that Rogues specializing in Subtlety can use to unleash a large amount of damage, and, true to its name, deals even more damage if you hit the enemy from behind. The whole 'the enemy must be undamaged' thing is original to Hearthstone's version of Backstab, though.
Deadly Poison: Deadly Poison is an assassination rogue ability in WoW, which allowed the rogue to temporarily add a poison into their weapon that would have a chance to deal a damage-over-time effect onto the enemy. Rogues that poison their enemies began from the Warden (Maiev Shadowsong's class) in Warcraft III, where one of their abilities was Shadow Strike, that also launched a poison-tipped attack upon your enemy that dealt damage over time.
Sinister Strike: Sinister Strike is a recently-removed rogue ability from WoW, one of the very first abilities the Rogue will start off with. It consumes a large amount of energy to deal a significant amount of damage to the enemy.
Sap: Sap is one of the very first abilities a rogue in WoW learns, basically lobbing the enemy over the head to 'sap' or stun them (stun effects have been around since Warcraft III) and causing them to be incapacitated for a minute. Similar to the effect of Freezing Trap in Hearthstone, the card game has chosen to represent this as being so incapacitated that the minion is returned into the hand and has to be resummoned.
Shiv: Shiv is an assassination rogue talent, which deals instant damage and applies a poison onto the enemy that deals a debilitating effect that affects cooldown. The Hearthstone version doesn't feature any sort of poison-dealing effect.
Fan of Knives: Fan of Knives first came into the Warcraft games as an ability of the Night Elf Warden hero, which launched knives all around her and damages all enemies around her. In WoW, it's an assassination rogue ability, which does basically the same thing with the added effect of possibly dealing the poisons that the rogue has active at the moment.
Assassinate: Assassinate isn't an actual skill in WoW, but it derives its name from one of the three Rogue specialties. Each class has three specialties that excel at one thing or another, and for rogues it's divided into assasination, subtlety and outlaw (prior to Legion, assasination, subtlety and combat). Assassination rogues are able to do some familiar skills like fan of knives, deadly poison, envenom and shadowstep.
Vanish: As you can probably surmise from the Rogue cards in Hearthstone, and rogues being, well, rogues, stealth is a key component in being a rogue in World of Warcraft. Vanish is one of the skills that allows a rogue to literally vanish, entering an improved-stealth mode. Stealth tends to be broken when the unit is damaged, but while Vanish is active, the improved-stealth will be broken. In Hearthstone, however, it affects the entire field, returning them to everyone's hands.
Sprint: In WoW, Sprint is a Rogue ability that boosts the rogue's running speed for a period of time, represented as a card draw engine in Hearthstone.
Preparation: Preparation is a recently-removed ability in the Legion expansion, which will reset the cooldown abilities of certain abilities, among them the aforementioned Sprint and Vanish.
Shadowstep: While in Hearthstone Shadowstep returns a friendly minion to your hand, in WoW it's an ability for assassination and subtltey rogues which teleports the rogue behind a target and giving them an increase in movement speed.
Cold Blood: Cold Blood is a subtlety rogue talent, which when activated will cause the next usage of the skill Cheap Shot or Shadowstrike to deal an extra amount of damage.
Conceal: While Conceal itself isn't an ability in WoW, it is designed after the Rogue ability Shroud of Concealment, which will cause all nearby allies to be concealed in shadows and provide stealth temporarily.
Eviscerate: Eviscerate is one of the most bread-and-butter rogue skills, associated with subtlety rogue, which deals instant finisher damage depending on the amount of combo points you rack beforehand. And, yeah, I forgot to mention it before, but WoW rogues also build up combo points, with some abilities racking up combo points and some abilities spending them.
Blade Flurry: Blade Flurry is an ability used by outlaw rogues which, while activated, causes the rogue's attacks to strike all nearby enemies for 30% of the base damage, but causes the rogue's energy to regenerate a little slower.
Searing Totem: The Searing Totem is a low-level fire-element totem that will randomly attack an enemy that reaches its range for low-level damage. While it deals constant damage, the unpredictable blasts of attacks might not be particularly optimal. The Searing Totem has recently been removed from WoW during the Legion expansion. The artwork on the Searing Totem depicts a Draenei totem.
Wrath of Air Totem: The Wrath of Air Totem is an air-element totem (surprise, surprise) that gives allied units around it a bonus to casting speed, which is changed in Hearthstone to simply upping spell damage. The Wrath of Air Totem has since been removed from WoW in Mists of Pandaria.
Stoneclaw Totem: Much like its Hearthstone counterpart, WoW's Stoneclaw Totem was a totem that taunts creatures around it and forces them to attack the totem, drawing aggression away from the caster or more important totems. Like its 0-attack health in Hearthstone, WoW's Stoneclaw Totem cannot damage enemies either. The Stoneclaw Totem is an Earth-element totem, and has also recently been removed from WoW in Mists of Pandaria. The artwork, again, depicts a Tauren totem.
Flametongue Totem: Flametongue Totems is a fire-element totem that increases the spell power of the shaman and his allies, and, like many of the other basic totems, has been removed during the Mists of Pandaria expansion. The artwork for the Flametongue Totem depicts a dwarf totem.
Ancestral Healing: Ancestral Healing is a Restoration Shaman talent that causes critical hits to buff the target being healed with a resistance to physical damage. In Mists of Pandaria, Ancestral Healing has since been removed.
Hex: Hex
is a spell usable by WoW Nature shamans that turns their target into a
frog, similar to polymorph, but since hex counts as a curse instead of a
spell, it is not broken by damage. Hex began life in Warcraft III as
one of the abilities of the Shadow Hunter hero (famous among the Shadow
Hunters is Vol'jin, who is adapted instead as a Priest in Hearthstone), that likewise transforms an enemy into a critter for a set amount of time.
Rockbiter Weapon: Rockbiter Weapon is an ability used by Shamans to buff their weapon and increase the threat generation of the shaman, as well as reducing damage received by the shaman.
Windfury: Windfury Weapon is an Enhancement Shaman ability that allows the Shamans to have a chance to trigger extra attacks every time he strikes. Windfury Weapon is removed in the Cataclysm expansion, but in the newest expansion, Legion, it is re-introduced and renamed as simply Windfury. It has since been adapted in Hearthstone as a catch-all keyword for anything that strikes twice.
Bloodlust: Bloodlust was first introduced in Warcraft II as one of the spells that the Ogre Magi unit was able to cast, increasing the size, attack speed and damage of units around it. In Warcraft III, Bloodlust is also one of the scariest spells available to the orcs' Shaman units that increases multiple stats for the units around the Shaman. In World of Warcraft, all Horde Shamans are able to cast Bloodlust which... only increases attack speed for those around the shaman. (Alliance Shamans get the otherwise-identical ability Heroism.
Ancestral Spirit: Ancestral Spirit is an ability used by shamans outside of combat that resurrects a friendly unit with a percentage of their maximum health, similar to the Paladins' Redemption.
Far Sight: Far Sight is the eponymous ability of the orcish hero Far Seer from Warcraft III, the famous among which was Thrall. All of the Far Seer's abilities would be adapted into shaman spells in World of Warcraft. In Warcraft III, Far Sight allowed you to see areas of the map that are hidden even by the fog of war. In World of Warcraft, Far Sight is a nature-specialization ability that the shaman can channel and move your point of view to see through a far distance.
Feral Spirit: Feral Spirit began life in Warcraft III as one of the Far Seer's abilities, a very useful one that summoned two spirit wolves to aid in battle or as disposable units to scout. In World of Warcraft, Feral Spirit acts the same, although the ability is restricted to Enhancement Shamans. In WoW, the spirits have the additional effect of healing the shaman caster.
Earth Shock: Earth Shock is an elemental spell that dealt damage. The Hearthstone version silences the enemy, which is a homage to how prior to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, was how Earth Shock functioned, interrupting spellcasting and effectively stunning the enemy.
Forked Lightning: Forked Lightning is a relatively new talent added into WoW, that, true to its name, allows the Stormstrike ability to strike multiple extra targets and the Hearthstone card predates it by a couple of years. The Hearthstone card is likely based on the similar ability Chain Lightning, which bounces from one enemy to the next and building up damage as it does so .
Lightning Bolt: Lightning Bolt is one of the first spells learnt by a shaman, and fits in the Elemental school.
Frost Shock: Frost Shock is an ability used by Elemental Shamans that launches a blast of icy energy that deals damage and freezes the enemy in place. While not one of the four main elements, Shamans are able to use frost magic due to ice being the offspring of water and air.
Corruption: Corruption is a low-level ability for affliction warlocks, which causes the target to have an effect that deals shadow damage to them over time, represented in Hearthstone as the minion dying in the next turn.
Mortal Coil: Mortal Coil in WoW is a warlock talent that is relatively different than it is in Hearthstone, which instead of damaging a target, horrifies the target and cauess them to flee and incapacitates them for 3 seconds, while healing the Warlock.
Soulfire: Soulfire (parsed as Soul Fire in WoW), recently removed in the Legion expansion, is a demonology warlock ability which is a spell with a long cast time that will unleash a large amount of damage for a short amount of mana. The core aspects of the spell is retained in Hearthstone, with the long cast time disadvantage turned into discarding a card.
Drain Life: Drain Life is based on a warlock ability usable by all three specializations that drains an enemy's health while restoring the warlock's own health.
Shadow Bolt: Shadow Bolt is a very basic ability for demonology warlocks, unleashing direct shadow damage upon the enemy and granting a Soul Shard (a resource to empower certain other spells).
Hellfire: Hellfire is a channeled demonology warlock ability that unleashes the area around the warlock, dealing fire damage not only to the enemies around the warlock, but also to the caster itself -- similar to how Hellfire works in Hearthstone. Hellfire might be roughly based on the Pit Lord hero ability Rain of Fire in Warcraft III, which is also a demonic fire-based AoE that damages friendly as well as enemy units.
Sense Demons: Sense Demons is an ability removed during the Cataclysm expansion which, true to its name, allowed the user to sense demons nearby and have them pop up in the minimap similar to the Hunter's tracking ability.
Shadowflame: Shadowflame is a demonology warlock talent which deals a large amount of damage and additional damage over time. Prior to Mists of Pandaria, Shadowflame is an AoE spell similar to Cone of Cold, which explains why the Hearthstone version is able to target the entire enemy's board.
Bane of Doom: Bane of Doom began life as simply 'Doom' in Warcraft III, where it was the ability of the Pit Lord hero, causing a target to take damage, and if it died while Doom was in effect, a Doomguard minion would be summoned. In WoW, it was added and worked similarly, albeit called Curse of Doom. It's later renamed Bane of Doom so that it can stack with other curses, and removed and replaced with a simple damage-over-time effect called Doom. Some iterations of the WoW's Bane of Doom/Curse of Doom spells make it a necessity for the enemy affected by Bane of Doom to die for the Doomguard to be summoned, which is where the effect of this Hearthstone card is derived from. Some versions of the spell also summoned a hostile Doomguard that the Warlock player would then have to use 'Enslave Demon' to, well, enslave the Doomguard.
Siphon Soul: Siphon Soul is based on the removed ability Soul Siphon, although the effects of the WoW ability is vastly different from the instant-kill that the Hearthstone card does.
Power Overwhelming: Power Overwhelming in WoW is not a warlock ability, but rather an achievement. It seems to stem from a popular phrase in the Starcraft games, where it is said by Protoss Archon units.
Charge: Charge is one of the earliest skills a Warrior learns, and one of the most essential ones, causing the warrior to charge forwards and roots it in place in front of the enemy, as well as generating rage, the Warrior's resource.
Whirlwind: Whirlwind is an ability learned by Arms and Fury specializations, which strikes all enemies around the warrior as he spins around.
Cleave: Cleave is an ability used by Arms warrior that deals damage to all enemies in front of the warrior. Numerous bosses and enemies in both WoW and Warcraft III also have the cleave mechanic that allows them to strike multiple enemies in front of it at once.
Execute: Execute is an ability used by Arms and Fury specializations, usable only when the enemy has less than 20% health remaining, and deals a large amount of damage to it. Unlike Hearthstone, it doesn't immediately kill the enemy.
Heroic Strike: Heroic Strike is recently removed in the Legion rework, and back then it's the original warrior ability learned at level 1, an instant melee attack that dealt instant damage at the cost of rage. It's highly inefficient, however.
Shield Block: Shield Block is a Protection warrior ability, blocking all attacks for 6 seconds and increasing the damage of the Shield Slam ability. The Footmen units of Warcraft III were also able to do something similar to this ability.
Inner Rage: Inner Rage is now a Fury talent as of Legion, but the version that the Hearthstone card is based on is an ability that reduced the cooldown of Heroic Strike and Cleave.
Shield Slam: Shield Slam is a Protection ability that, well, slams the shield onto the enemy for a large amount of damage, and also generates rage at that. The way it stacks up with your armour is possibly a reference to how Shield Slam is buffed by Shield Block in WoW.
Commanding Shout: Commanding Shout is a Arms and Fury ability that increases the maximum health of all party members for a period of time.
Rampage: Rampage is a Fury ability that deals several high-damage strikes over a period of tme, and will trigger Enrage. Enrage, while not specific to Warriors in Hearthstone, is a Furyb Warrior ability that will increase the attack speed as well as the damage you receive.
Slam: Slam is a Arms ability that for a set amount of rage instantly deals a huge amount of damage to a target. If I sound more truncated in this class, that's because there's not much lore to say about the Warrior skills.
Mortal Strike: Mortal Strike is an Arms ability that deals a large amount of damage, and reduces the healing that the enemy receives after the strike.
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DRUID
The druids are a race of spell-casting warriors that harness the powers of nature to preserve balance and protect life, bound to the powers of nature itself and charged to protect life. Their main form of combat involves transforming into beasts such as bears, crows and panthers, or to summon plants -- either to utilize them as roots to ensnare their opponents or to breathe life into them and transform them into treants. Being a druid is something steeped in balance, something that is reflected in the Druid class mechanic in Hearthstone with the unique 'Choose One' ability, reflecting the World of Warcraft Druid's versatility, as well as the shapeshifting abilities they can do. Also note how a large amount of the original druid cards all feature night elves and tauren, as well as those races shapeshifted into bears and cats.The concept of Druids in the Warcraft games first originated in Warcraft III, where the game is expanded to be so much more than just humans fighting orcs with similar-looking units. Various kinds of Druids are affiliated with the Night Elves, a unique society that was closely tied to respecting the forest and the forest demigod, Cenarius. While Cenarius would later teach the act of druidism to progenitors of the tauren race, the first race to ever learn druidic magic are the night elves, specifically a sect led by Malfurion Stormrage (more on him later on). Druidism is closely tied to Night Elf society, where most of the males in the immortal Night Elven society (circa the third war -- the events that took place in Warcraft III) are trained to be druids, and prior to the third war a large majority of these druids went into a slumber in Moonglade to commune with the Emerald Dream, the sacred realm of dreams and nature that is tightly bound to the mighty dragon aspect, Ysera the Dreamer. Malfurion and the rest of his druids would be awoken by Malfurion's wife, Tyrande Whisperwind, in response to the Third War and the death of Cenarius, causing them to band together with the humans and orcs to repel the demonic invasion of the Burning Legion.While originally only night elves and tauren were able to become druids, recently their ranks have bolstered to also include the trolls of the Horde, as well as the worgen of the alliance. The worgen's curse (more on that when I do a races piece) is tied to ancient primitive druidic magic, whereas the trolls learned that some of their loa are in fact part of the Emerald Dream. Unlike how most races are split in the Alliance-Horde conflict, the druids actually take a more neutral stance and druids of both Alliance and Horde would gather to discuss matters of importance to safeguarding nature itself. In combat, druids have been referred to as a jack-of-all-trades, able to heal, cast spells and do physical battle but nowhere as well as the other classes.
We'll talk about the Basic and Classic abilities now, first listing the abilities that have a direct equivalent in Warcraft III or World of Warcraft, and then talking about abilities original to Hearthstone.
Innervate: In World of Warcraft, Innervate is a spell that allowed Balance and Restoration druids to infuse allies with energy and would allow them to cast spells without mana for a temporary time. It's reflected in its hearthstone effect, which allowed you to gain more mana than normal, but only for a brief turn.
Moonfire: Moonfire is a spell that druids learn at a very low level, and is a spell that applies a damage-over-time effect, summoning a miniature moon that drops, well, moonfire unto the target.
Claw: As the picture indicates, Claw is one of the default attacks that WoW druids have when transformed into cat form. Nothing much to say about that.
Mark of the Wild: In World of Warcraft, Mark of the Wild is a druid spell that temporarily increases armour, stats and resistances in an ally. While the specifics differ, it also increases stats in Hearthstone.
Wild Growth: Wild Growth is an interesting bit. In World of Warcraft, Wild Growth is a heal-over-time spell that heals quickly at the beginning of its cast duration and more slowly later on, which... has absolutely nothing to do with gaining mana permanently. That bit is actually a reference to Magic: The Gathering, the grand-daddy of all trading card games, where there is a card named 'Wild Growth' had a similar mana-ramping effect similar to Hearthstone's Wild Growth.
Healing Touch: Healing Touch is a spell in World of Warcraft that, to the surprise of no one, heals. As it is in Hearthstone, though, Healing Touch in WoW is the largest direct heal available to druids, albeit at huge mana cost.
Savage Roar: In World of Warcraft, Savage Roar is a buff ability used by druids while transformed into cat form, increasing the amount of damage done by a significant amount.
Swipe: In World of Warcraft, as it is in Hearthstone, Swipe is an ability used by druids in cat form to deal damage to multiple enemies around the druid. In WoW the ability didn't deal different damage to different enemies, though.
Bite: Bite (well, Ferocious Bite) is one of the finisher moves for cat-form druids, unleashing a large amount of damage depending on the amount of combo points you've raked up over the battle.
Starfire: In addition to healing and transforming into beasts, druids are also able to summon the power of the moon and stars. In WoW, Starfire is a single-target blast of powerful arcane energy.Starfall: Starfall is an interesting spell, lore-wise. In Warcraft III, Starfall is the most powerful spell available to the night elf hero class Priestess of the Moon, whose most iconic member was Tyrande Whisperwind... and as you can imagine, from the whole 'Priestess of the Moon' title, she ended up being classified as a priest come World of Warcraft, who tried to classify most characters into one of the nine main classes. However, Starfall felt very druid-y, and was given as one of the most powerful spells that Balance-specialized druids would learn (so we'll just assume Tyrande is just talented enough to learn druid spells). Be it in Warcraft III or World of Warcraft, Starfall will summon down the power of the stars to slam down upon all the enemies around you, and in Hearthstone, likewise, Starfall is able to deal damage onto numerous targets.
Wrath: Wrath (recently renamed Solar Wrath in WoW) is one of the very first spells learned by a druid, and it's a single-target blast of energy onto a single target. It's fun to spam!
Soul of the Forest: Soul of the Forest is a common talent for all four branches of druid specialization, which doesn't have anything to do with treants in World of Warcraft, but instead increases the damage dealt or health healed by your other spells.
Nourish: Nourish is one of the healing spells available to druids, which, if stacked alongside other healing spells like Healing Touch, will greatly increase the health healed by them. Obviously, the effect is greatly changed in Hearthstone since they didn't want Druids to heal too much, and alongside Wild Growth, Nourish ended up serving as a ramping/drawing engine in Hearthstone.
Force of Nature: Force of Nature began life as one of the Keeper of the Grove (a.k.a. Malfurion himself) hero's spells in Warcraft III, and since one of the biggest inspirations of the World of Warcraft druid is the Keeper of the Grove gameplay, it is also present in WoW as a talent for Balance druid. Force of Nature allows you to summon a gaggle of treants that will fight for you for a limited amount of time before they break apart, which is represented by the old version of Force of Nature, which had the treants die at the end of your turn.
The following spells are original to Hearthstone, although very loosely borrows from WoW druid ability naming conventions: Naturalize, Mark of Nature, Power of the Wild and Savagery. Savagery was very nearly a Druid talent in Warlords of Draenor, but was removed after the Beta stage.
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HUNTER
As such, Hunter as it is defined in World of Warcraft, is adventurers who challenge themselves in the wild, hunting beasts and hunting alongside beasts, with ranged weaponry such as bows and rifles, laying traps and tracking prey. There's... actually not much lore around Hunters, and I guess the equivalent in pre-WoW games are the elven rangers, among whom Alleria is a member. The Hunter class in WoW is just a mixture of all archery and beast-related skills. Best not think about it too hard. Basically every single race in WoW are able to become a hunter, and will start off with a particular pet unique to the race. While associated with beasts similar to druids, hunters are not at all interested in keeping balance, and would hunt down their prey with tools, as opposed to the very nature-revering druids.
Again, there's not much specific lore surrounding Hunters in World of Warcraft, mostly due to the general lack of consensus on what counts as a hunter pre-WoW. One thing to note, though, is that in World of Warcraft, Hunters are well-known for being ranged damage-dealers, which... might kind of explain why they deal so much damage in Hearthstone.
Steady Shot: The Hunter's hero power, Steady Shot, is one of the hunter's most reliable damage dealing abilities, a spammable ability that has a brief casting time, launching damage while moving which means that, yes, just like Hearthstone's Steady Shot, a WoW Hunter can use Steady Shot almost at any time. Despite being one of the oldest abilities in WoW, Steady Shot has recently been removed in the Legion expansion. Arcane Shot: Arcane Shot is also the bread-and-butter of WoW Hunters, which works like an inverse Steady Shot -- it is casted instantly, but has a cooldown. Arcane Shot also, as its name implies, deals magical damage.
Explosive Shot: Explosive Shot is an ability learned by survival hunters in WoW, launching an explosive charge that, instead of dealing area-of-effect damage like in Hearthstone, deals damage over time. In Legion, Explosive Shot has been retooled so that it becomes a slow-moving projectile that you can detonate at will and unleash AoE damage, unintentionally bringing Explosive Shot closer to its Hearthstone portrayal.
Multi-Shot: Multi-Shot is a hunter ability in WoW that unleashes several arrows that hits a target and all the enemies in a certain radius around it.
Hunter's Mark: Hunter's Mark in WoW is a marksmanship hunter ability. In WoW's Legion expansion, Hunter's Mark is redesigned as a passive ability, but its incarnation in Hearthstone is based on its pre-Legion version. The pre-Legion Hunter's Mark debuffed targets as well as placing a gigantic red arrow (similar to the artwork on the Hearthstone card) that allowed the hunter to see the target even if it went invisible. Tracking: Tracking is a skill that all hunters, regardless of specialization, will learn, and allows the hunter to track various races such as beasts, dragons, demons, et cetera.
Kill Command: Kill Command is an ability in World of Warcraft that is learned by beastmaster hunters, allowing them to, well, command their prey to deal a large amount of damage to a target, shown in Hearthstone as you needing a friendly beast to unleash the kill command.
Animal Companion: Animal Companion is not based on a specific ability in World of Warcraft, but all hunters start off with a particular pet, which you can then command them as you see fit. All three possible results are pets of Rexxar, with Misha the bear being Rexxar's main and most constant companion in Warcraft III (the only summoned minion that doesn't have a cooldown time).Bestial Wrath: Bestial Wrath in WoW is one of the abilities learned by beastmaster hunters, allowing your pet to enter a berserker frenzy in which they will deal extra damage.
Explosive Trap: The traps that a hunter casts are all part of the survival specialization of a Hunter. Explosive Trap is a trap that, when laid down and triggered by your enemies, will unleash a blast of fire damage to the target and those around it, dealing periodic fire damage to them.
Freezing Trap: Freezing Trap is also a trap in WoW that, true to its name, will freeze whoever touches it. Due to Hearthstone wanting to make the freeze mechanic unique to mages and shamans, the mechanics were changed in Hearthstone into a different kind of delay.
Snake Trap: Snake Trap, originally an ability, was removed in Warlords of Draenor and changed into a glyphed ability (meaning you need a glyph to replace another ability with Snake Trap), and in WoW, when the trap is triggered, will unleash snakes that will cripple the unfortunate souls that step on it with slowing poison. Misdirection: Misdirection is a hunter ability in WoW that, well, mis-directs the 'threat' that the hunter causes onto a friendly target, basically allowing you to redirect an angry enemy to attack your tank.
Flare: In WoW, Flare is an ability learned by all hunters that will launch a flare that exposes all hidden and invisible enemies, which explains why, in addition to dispelling secrets, also negates stealth in Hearthstone.
The following spells are original to Hearthstone, although they are flavoured after the archery/shooting and beast-mastery themes of Hunter: Snipe, Deadly Shot and Unleash the Hounds.
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Mage is always one of the most basic classes in any fantasy game. Powerful spellcasters that unleash blasts of flame and frost, Mages in the Warcraft games have always been portrayed as being immensely powerful, but are limited due to their relative fragility and limited mana, as well as the expensive cost to train them in the original RTS games. First seen in the first Warcraft game under the name 'Conjurer', it's one of the more expensive units in the game and was able to summon Water Elementals, something that would define any subsequent mages in the following Warcraft games. In Warcraft II, the Conjurer is replaced by the Mage unit, able to unleash fireballs, blizzards, flame shields, slow down enemies and the now-iconic polymorph spell. Medivh in Warcraft was a unique Conjurer, whereas Khadgar started life as a 'hero' based on the Mage in Warcraft II.In Warcraft III, the mages are split into two units -- the cheaper Sorceress, a unit with the polymorph and slow spells, and the hero unit called the Archmage, who had the ability to unleash blizzards, summon powerful water elementals, teleport entire armies and empower the lesser sorceresses. Jaina Proudmoore and Antonidas are the two most iconic and important Archmages during the events of Warcraft III. The expansion, Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, would add the Blood Mage, a different hero that focuses more on unleashing fire spells and sucking mana from the enemy.In World of Warcraft, Mages tend to be affiliated with the mage city of Dalaran, and are able to unleash fire, frost and arcane spells. All playable races are able to become a mage, considering that it is a skill that can be learned with enough study, although orcs, dwarves and night elves were only able to become mages in the Cataclysm expansion. Elven mages in lore are the first practitioners of magic in Azeroth, which first attracted the Burning Legion to the world of Azeroth and caused the War of the Ancients, but we'll talk about that later on.
Fireblast: In World of Warcraft, Fire Blast (parsed as two words) is one of the earliest spells a mage character will learn, and is a burst of fire that is instantly launched towards the enemy (some spells require casting time and whatnot) that can't be interrupted.
Fireball: Fireballs are one of the most powerful direct damage
spells learned by Fire Mages, and is easily one of the most commonly
casted spells by Fire Mages. As you might imagine, shooting fireballs is
very popular in the fantasy setting, so Fireball spells date as long
back as Warcraft I, used by Warlocks of the Orcish Horde (though
that game's description of the fireball spell makes it a lot closer to
the hellfire-esque spells in WoW), and later by Mages in Warcraft II.Flamestrike: Flamestrike began life as a Blood Mage hero spell in Warcraft III, where it was channeled and targeted a range of area before unleashing a huge explosion of flame. In WoW, it's also an area of effect damage available to fire mages, dealing instant damage.
Pyroblast: Pyroblast is a spell available to fire mages, dealing one of the largest direct damages among fire spells, but has a long channeled cast time, reflected in Hearthstone by its immense mana cost.
Frostbolt: Frostbolt is one of the very first spells learned by frost mages, launching a blast of ice that damages the target and slows it down, like many other frost spells (represented in Hearthstone by freezing it for a turn). It's one of the bread-and-butter spells of a frost mage, which is appropriate considering how it is the bread-and-butter 2-mana spell in Hearthstone.
Ice Lance: Ice Lance is a spell that replaces Fireblast for Frost Mages, dealing damage without cooldown. While it doesn't freeze targets as it does in Hearthstone, in World of Warcraft Ice Lance deals triple damage to frozen targets, which is reflected in its secondary effect in Hearthstone of dealing 4 damage to an already-frozen target.
Ice Barrier: Ice Barrier is a spell from the frost mage's arsenal in WoW that shields the mage from damage for a period of time, with a certain amount of cap based on your spell damage.
Ice Block: Ice Block, in WoW, is a mage spell that, like Ice Block in Hearthstone, provides a mage complete immunity from all damage and attacks at the price of not being able to do anything for that period of time, and is often used as a delaying tactic to allow other spells to recover.
Cone of Cold: Cone of Cold is a frost mage spell that deals frost damage to enemies in front of the caster and freezes them.Blizzard: Obviously, with Blizzard sharing a name with the company that makes these games, Blizzard has been a spell in Warcraft games since early on, first used by Mages in Warcraft II, and later by the Archmage heroes in Warcraft III, and later as a spell used by frost mages in World of Warcraft. In all those games, the caster calls down, well, a blizzard of icy spears down onto an area, pelting them with damage and slowing down all targets in the area.
Arcane Missiles: Arcane Missiles is a spell in (obviously) the arcane school of magic, one that launches multiple charges of arcane magic at the opponent. Like how it is adapted into Hearthstone, the damage split over multiple hits can sometimes be very beneficial to the caster. Unlike in Hearthstone, however, WoW's Arcane Missiles are launched only towards a single target.Arcane Explosion: Arcane Explosion is a very popular spell from the Arcane school which unleashes a blast of magic in the area immediately around the mage, dealing instant, if not particularly powerful, damage onto every enemy around the mage.
Arcane Intellect: Arcane Intellect is a single-target buff that increases the target's intellect stat in World of Warcraft, represented here as drawing cards. It is removed and replaced with Arcane Brilliance during the Cataclysm expansion.
Mirror Image: Despite its humble effect in Hearthstone, Mirror Image in WoW is a rather strong Mage spell which creates copies of the mage which will cast weaker versions of the mage's spells at the target. In Warcraft III, Mirror Image is actually the ability of a warrior-type hero class, the Blademaster (a.k.a. Grom Hellscream), which allowed them to move so fast that they create temporary clones of themselves that have a fraction of their health and attack.
Polymorph: Polymorph is a spell that transforms its target into a sheep, made iconic in the Warcraft lore in Warcraft II, as one of the most powerful spells the Mage had access to since the transformation was permanent, essentially an instant-kill spell against powerful units your enemy has. In Warcraft III, polymorph is a spell available to Sorceress in the human armies, which turned a non-hero enemy into a sheep for a 60 second duration -- during this time, they regenerate health, cannot help and can be damaged. In World of Warcraft, Polymorph is used by mages to transform a target into a sheep, but various races like dragons, demons, undead and elementals are immune to polymorph, and any damage will prematurely break the spell's effect. There are various cosmetic alternate Polymorphs in WoW you are able to obtain, which changes your target polymorph into a different animal.Counterspell: Counterspell is a spell in the arcane school of magic in World of Warcraft that not only counters spells, but if successfully cast, will disable all spells from the same school of magic for a brief period of time.Water Elemental: I'll put Water Elemental here because it's kind of like a spell -- Conjurers in Warcraft and Archmages in Warcraft III were both able to conjure powerful Water Elementals to do their bidding, which is why they are associated with mages instead of Shamans despite Shamans being the Elemental class. In WoW, Water Elementals are summoned by Frost Mages as a permanent summoned pet, and are able to freeze targets with one of the spells available to them. While many Water Elementals are bound to mages, many other wild, independent Water Elementals roam the lands of Azeroth, although as a whole, under the leadership of Neptulon the Water Elemental race tends to be neutral, if not outright friendly, to members of the Alliance and the Horde.
The following don't have any real equivalent in World of Warcraft: Mirror Entity, Vaporize and Spellbender.
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PALADIN
The Paladins were introduced into the game in Warcraft II, the successor to the Clerics and Knights from the First War. They are valiant soldiers that protect the weak and fight for justice, channeling the holy power of the Light and are able to unleash healing wounds and exorcise the undead and demons. Paladins are durable, holy warriors with particular strength against the undead. Paladins tend to be a mixture of defensiveness, buffing other allies and healing in Warcraft lore.The original Paladins in Warcraft II were one of the two spellcaster units unique to humans, with the ability to exorcise demons. These Paladins were led by the heroic Turalyon. The Paladin in Warcraft III was one of the hero units available to humans, able to heal allies and smite enemies, able to create powerful impenetrable divine shields, able to inspire all those around him and, in times of dire need, call upon the Light to resurrect the dead. Most famous among the Paladins of the Third War are Uther the Lightbringer, leader of the Order of the Silver Hand, and Arthas Menethil, prince of Lordaeon who would find himself corrupted and be turned into the Lich King.
In World of Warcraft, Paladins were initially a class exclusive to humans and dwarves, both Alliance races, until the Burning Crusade expansion introduced the Blood Elves to the Horde, which were able to use the Paladins' power of the Light... albeit by enslaving a Naaru. More on that later, though. In addition to those, Draenei were also able to become Paladins, and the Tauren, as of Cataclysm, have also learned the way of the Light.
Blessing of Might: Blessing of Might is a high-level Paladin spell casted on a target, increasing their mastery by a certain amount. It has recently been removed in WoW during the Legion expansion.
Hand of Protection: Hand of Protection (or Blessing of Protection -- it's currently called that, and the Hearthstone flavour text makes fun of the constant swapping between Hand and Blessing) that buffs them, protecting them from harm for a set amount of time similar to Ice Block, but the ally can't attack during that period. The Divine Shield mechanic that is common (but not exclusive to) Paladins is an ability first introduced in Warcraft III owned by the Paladin heroes, creating a bubble that prevents damage for a period of time. In WoW, it's a spell used by Paladins that also prevents damage.
Holy Light: Holy Light began life in Warcraft III, as one of the spells available to the Paladin hero. It either heals a friendly living unit, or damages an enemy undead unit, making the Paladin hero particularly great in matchups against that particular faction. In WoW, Holy Light is the strongest of the healing spells available to Paladins,
Blessing of Kings: Blessing of Kings is a spell in World of Warcraft is a buff spell that increases multiple attributes of an ally. Like all other paladin blessings, paladins can cast only one blessing on a single target. It's recently removed in the Legion expansion.
Blessing of Wisdom: Blessing of Wisdom is a Holy Paladin talent that restores mana over time. Blessing of Wisdom has been removed from World of Warcraft during the Mists of Pandaria expansion, merged with Blessing of Might.
Consecration: Consecration is a paladin spell shared by all three specializations, consecrating an area of land around the caster and dealing damage to anyone who enters or is in the area.
Hammer of Wrath: Paladins are able to summon hammers of light and launch them through the air as their ranged attack, launching them upon the enemy (which is why Liadrin, who uses a sword, talks about her hammer burning with holy fire). In WoW, it has the constraint of only being usable against enemies at low health.
Eye for an Eye: Eye for an Eye is a talent in the Retribution tree, allowing Paladins to counter-attack physical damage instantly for a duration of time. Previously, Eye for an Eye reflects magical attacks.
Redemption: In WoW, Redemption (previously Resurrection) is a Holy Paladin ability that allows the caster to resurrect an ally from the dead, with 35% of their total health (or just 1 health, in the case of Hearthstone). In WoW it's a spell that can only be cast outside of combat due to taking a pretty long time to cast the spell.
Repentance: Repentance is a Paladin talent that will force an enemy to meditate and stay immobile for a period of time, but it's unusable against certain races like the undead or demons. In Hearthstone, this immobility is represented by having the attack reduced to 1.
Lay on Hands: Lay on Hands in WoW is of the most powerful Paladin healing spells, allowing the paladin to heal an ally as much as his maximum health.
Divine Favor: Divine Favor, in WoW, is a Holy Paladin ability that increases the healing that the paladin does (previously it boosts stats and critical chance) for a period of time.
Holy Wrath: Holy Wrath is a powerful Retribution Paladin talent in WoW, where it will deal holy damage based on your missing health to nearby enemies, and this rather unconventional damage calculation is reflected in Hearthstone by the Holy Wrath card dealing damage based on the cost of the card you drew.
Avenging Wrath: Avenging Wrath is a powerful Paladin ability that has different effects depending on the specialization. For Holy paladins, Avenging Wrath increases the healing and critical strikes you do for a period of time, whereas for Retribution and Protection paladins, it increases healing and damage.
Guardian of Kings: The Guardian of Kings is a minion, sure, but it comes from a Paladin Ability. One of the stronger abilities in the Protection talent tree, the ability Guardian of Ancient Kings allows the Paladin to summon the titular Guardian to prevent damage you take for a period of time. An older version of Guardian of Ancient Kings did heal your hero, which is probably what the Hearthstone card was based on.
The following abilities and spells are all original to Hearthstone: Reinforce (the hero power), Blessed Champion, Equality, Noble Sacrifice and Humility.
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PRIEST
Priests (or Clerics in older games) are devoted to the spiritual light, and are the healers of the world. They serve holiness itself as they cure the sick and weak, unleashing the fury of pure light upon those who would dare disrespect life. Some priests choose to learn a darker side of the light, learning about the shadows cast by the light in order to better understand them. Depending on the culture, there is some overlap of priestly lore with paladins, druids and shamans, with, for example, characters like Tyrande and Vol'jin (arguments could've been easily made for them to be a druid/hunter or a shaman/hunter respectively) because of how their respective cultures revere druidism and shamanism as their religion.In Warcraft, the equivalent to the Priest were the Clerics, who came from the Abbey of Northshire to aid the war against the orcs. While the role of the Clerics were taken over by the newly-trained Paladins in Warcraft II, in Warcraft III high elven Priest units served among the human army, able to heal and buff their allies in battle. The Night Elves also had the hero unit Priestess of the Moon, famously represented by Tyrande Whisperwind, who, while not able to heal, were servants of the moon goddess Elune.
Lesser Heal: Lesser Heal, the Priest's hero power, was the Priest's starting spell prior to the Cataclysm expansion, allowing the Priest to heal, albeit ineffectively, until it is replaced with Heal at a relatively low level.
Circle of Healing: Circle of Healing is a Holy Priest spell in
WoW, healing the most injured allied members in a certain area around
the caster, extremely efficient yet it also means that the Priest cannot
delegate which party members get the heal.
Holy Smite: Holy Smite, now called Smite, is one of the few starting spells available to Priests in WoW, which deals simple holy damage with several possible alternate effects for Disciple and Holy specializations.
Holy Nova: In WoW, Holy Nova is a spell available to Holy
Priests, which, true to its name, is an Area-of-Effect ability that
damages multiple enemies around the caster.
Holy Fire: Holy Fire is one of the Holy Priest's most
effective damage spells, dealing direct holy damage and causing
additional damage-over-time.
Power Word: Shield: Power Word: Shield is a Power Word available to the Disciple and Shadow specializations, creating a shield that will absorb a certain amount of damage before being broken.
Divine Spirit: Divine Spirit in WoW is a Priest ability that buffs the spirit stat for a set amount of time, but was removed during the Cataclysm expansion for balancing reasons.
Inner Fire: Inner Fire began life as a spell used by the Priest unit in Warcraft III,
buffing allied units' damage and armour. In WoW, Inner Fire increases
armour and spell power for a period of time. The ability was removed in
the Warlords of Draenor expansion.
Mind Vision: Mind Vision in WoW is a far more literal spell in
WoW, allowing Shadow Priests to channel their vision and see through the
target's eyes for a minute. It's relatively similar to certain
sight-granting abilities in Warcraft III as well, specifically the Priestess of the Moon's Owl Scout.
Mind Blast: Mind Blast is one of the main spells first available to Shadow Priests, dealing shadow damage to a target after a brief channeling period.
Shadow Word: Pain: The Shadow Words are the Shadow Priest's equivalent to the Power Words, although it is the only shadow word available to discipline priests. Shadow Word: Pain deals a set amount of damage, and deals some additional damage over a period of time.
Shadow Word: Death: Shadow Word: Death is in WoW is a finishing spell for Shadow Priests that deals a large amount of shadow damage to a target with less than 20% health.
Shadowform: Shadowform is a spell in WoW learned by Shadow
Priests that, upon usage, transforms the caster into a temporary state
of Shadowform that increases the shadow damage dealt, and reducing
physical damage taken.
Mind Spike: Mind Spike, the hero power that replaces Lesser Heal when assuming Shadowform, is one of the higher-level Shadow Priest talents that deal shadow damage to the enemy and puts a 'spike' in the enemy's mind that can be detonated when you cast mind blast.
Mind Control: Mind Control (previously Dominate Mind) is a spell used by Shadow Priests in WoW to take control of an enemy for a brief period of time, allowing the Priest to gain an ally temporarily. In WoW, the spell is channeled, meaning the caster cannot move for the duration of the spell.
Silence: Silence began life in Warcraft III as one of the abilities of the Dark Ranger hero (a.k.a. Sylvanas Windrunner) to silence and stop enemy units in a certain range to stop casting spells. In WoW it is used by Shadow Priests to, well, silence enemies and prevent them from casting spells.
Mass Dispel: Mass Dispel in WoW isn't actually a mass Silence, but a spell used by Holy Priests to dispel debuffs from allied targets and dispel buffs from enemy targets, similar to the Purge spell used by Orc Shaman units in Warcraft III.
The following are original to Hearthstone: Thoughtsteal, Mindgames and Shadow Madness
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ROGUE
Rogue,
Warrior and Mage are often touted as the 'main three' classes that
serve as the backbone of any fantasy RPG setting, with all other classes
being different-flavoured versions of those three. Rogues are the
thieves and assassins of the Warcraft universe, tending to care more
about money and gold more than actual honour. They rely more on
pragmatic tactics and stealth in combat, stabbing enemies in the back
from shadows, or using poison on their weapons to unleash a flurry of
devastating strikes that combo with each other in combat.While there are never official Rogue or Thief units in the three RTS Warcraft games, Bandits and Mercenaries are everywhere in the world of Azeroth. Likewise, stealthy units that are able to turn invisible to deal large damage are also present, particularly among the Night Elven forces in Warcraft III. In World of Warcraft, all races except for Tauren and Draenei can become rogues.
Dagger Mastery: Prior to the Cataclysm expansion, classes were able to learn mastery of a certain type of weapon from a particular master. Since Cataclysm the system has been changed with weapon restriction per class, although whatever the case, rogues has always been affiliated with daggers.
Backstab: In WoW, Backstab is an ability that Rogues specializing in Subtlety can use to unleash a large amount of damage, and, true to its name, deals even more damage if you hit the enemy from behind. The whole 'the enemy must be undamaged' thing is original to Hearthstone's version of Backstab, though.
Deadly Poison: Deadly Poison is an assassination rogue ability in WoW, which allowed the rogue to temporarily add a poison into their weapon that would have a chance to deal a damage-over-time effect onto the enemy. Rogues that poison their enemies began from the Warden (Maiev Shadowsong's class) in Warcraft III, where one of their abilities was Shadow Strike, that also launched a poison-tipped attack upon your enemy that dealt damage over time.
Sinister Strike: Sinister Strike is a recently-removed rogue ability from WoW, one of the very first abilities the Rogue will start off with. It consumes a large amount of energy to deal a significant amount of damage to the enemy.
Sap: Sap is one of the very first abilities a rogue in WoW learns, basically lobbing the enemy over the head to 'sap' or stun them (stun effects have been around since Warcraft III) and causing them to be incapacitated for a minute. Similar to the effect of Freezing Trap in Hearthstone, the card game has chosen to represent this as being so incapacitated that the minion is returned into the hand and has to be resummoned.
Shiv: Shiv is an assassination rogue talent, which deals instant damage and applies a poison onto the enemy that deals a debilitating effect that affects cooldown. The Hearthstone version doesn't feature any sort of poison-dealing effect.
Fan of Knives: Fan of Knives first came into the Warcraft games as an ability of the Night Elf Warden hero, which launched knives all around her and damages all enemies around her. In WoW, it's an assassination rogue ability, which does basically the same thing with the added effect of possibly dealing the poisons that the rogue has active at the moment.
Assassinate: Assassinate isn't an actual skill in WoW, but it derives its name from one of the three Rogue specialties. Each class has three specialties that excel at one thing or another, and for rogues it's divided into assasination, subtlety and outlaw (prior to Legion, assasination, subtlety and combat). Assassination rogues are able to do some familiar skills like fan of knives, deadly poison, envenom and shadowstep.
Vanish: As you can probably surmise from the Rogue cards in Hearthstone, and rogues being, well, rogues, stealth is a key component in being a rogue in World of Warcraft. Vanish is one of the skills that allows a rogue to literally vanish, entering an improved-stealth mode. Stealth tends to be broken when the unit is damaged, but while Vanish is active, the improved-stealth will be broken. In Hearthstone, however, it affects the entire field, returning them to everyone's hands.
Sprint: In WoW, Sprint is a Rogue ability that boosts the rogue's running speed for a period of time, represented as a card draw engine in Hearthstone.
Preparation: Preparation is a recently-removed ability in the Legion expansion, which will reset the cooldown abilities of certain abilities, among them the aforementioned Sprint and Vanish.
Shadowstep: While in Hearthstone Shadowstep returns a friendly minion to your hand, in WoW it's an ability for assassination and subtltey rogues which teleports the rogue behind a target and giving them an increase in movement speed.
Cold Blood: Cold Blood is a subtlety rogue talent, which when activated will cause the next usage of the skill Cheap Shot or Shadowstrike to deal an extra amount of damage.
Conceal: While Conceal itself isn't an ability in WoW, it is designed after the Rogue ability Shroud of Concealment, which will cause all nearby allies to be concealed in shadows and provide stealth temporarily.
Eviscerate: Eviscerate is one of the most bread-and-butter rogue skills, associated with subtlety rogue, which deals instant finisher damage depending on the amount of combo points you rack beforehand. And, yeah, I forgot to mention it before, but WoW rogues also build up combo points, with some abilities racking up combo points and some abilities spending them.
Blade Flurry: Blade Flurry is an ability used by outlaw rogues which, while activated, causes the rogue's attacks to strike all nearby enemies for 30% of the base damage, but causes the rogue's energy to regenerate a little slower.
The following are original to Hearthstone: Betrayal and Headcrack.
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SHAMAN
The concept of Shamanism as it is known in the world of Azeroth was introduced with Warcraft III during
the Orc campaigns. After a long, bloody history of worshiping demons,
the new orcish chieftain, Thrall, attempted to turn the Orcish Horde
back to their Shamanistic roots -- worshiping instead of demons, the
spirits of the land, the spirits of their ancestors, and most
importantly, the raging spirits of the Elements of the world -- Earth,
Air, Fire and Water. Shamans commune with this ancient spirits with
reverence, acting as their intermediaries and asking for their help
through communion and the totems they use.
The common grounds that joined the various races that initially formed Thrall's Horde (orcs, trolls and tauren) was basically their common respect for the Shamanistic religion. By the time of the Third War (a.k.a. Warcraft III) the orcs have largely abandoned their warlock and necromantic ways, with their main spellcaster unit being the titular Shaman, who was able to purge an enemy of spells that make them stronger, create shields of lightning and incite bloodlust in their allies. The Far Seer and Tauren Chieftain hero units would retroactively be made into shamans as well, with the Far Seer able to tap into elements to summon lightning storms and volcanoes, and the Tauren Chieftain able to revive himself with the aid of ancestral spirits.
Shamanism was also practiced by the races in Outland, which explained why the Draenei also practiced shamanism. It was the Draenei Shaman Nobundo who ended up restoring shamanism to Outland itself, redeeming some of the corruption caused upon the world by the Burning Legion. By the time the Cataclysm expansion came out, the dwarves of the Alliance and the goblins of the Horde also started practicing shamanism, as do the Pandaren who joined both factions later on. Shamans are able to unleash the explosive power of the elements, use totems to support their allies, or heal them with the powers granted to them by the elements.
Totemic Call: First introduced in World of Warcraft (although Warcraft III troll
witch doctors were able to summon 'wards', which are basically the same
thing) the Totems are unique tools used by shamans to interact with the
elements, borrowing the power of the elements and channeling them
through the totems for a specific desired effect. Once a totem is set
down, it cannot be removed unless destroyed in battle, or a new totem is
summoned to replace it. A Shaman can only have a totem of each element
(fire, water, earth, wind) active at any time, represented by the shaman
hero power only able to summon a basic totem not currently on the
board. Each race has its own unique design of totem that reflects their
culture. Thanks to their status more as spells than actual entities,
totems will be covered here.
Healing Totem: The Shamans' Healing Totem is likely derived from the water-element Healing Tide Totem in WoW, a totem introduced in the Mists of Pandaria expansion that sends out a healing pulse that heals every friendly character around the totem periodically. The artwork on the Healing Totem depicts a Tauren totem.
SHAMAN
The concept of Shamanism as it is known in the world of Azeroth was introduced with Warcraft III during
the Orc campaigns. After a long, bloody history of worshiping demons,
the new orcish chieftain, Thrall, attempted to turn the Orcish Horde
back to their Shamanistic roots -- worshiping instead of demons, the
spirits of the land, the spirits of their ancestors, and most
importantly, the raging spirits of the Elements of the world -- Earth,
Air, Fire and Water. Shamans commune with this ancient spirits with
reverence, acting as their intermediaries and asking for their help
through communion and the totems they use.The common grounds that joined the various races that initially formed Thrall's Horde (orcs, trolls and tauren) was basically their common respect for the Shamanistic religion. By the time of the Third War (a.k.a. Warcraft III) the orcs have largely abandoned their warlock and necromantic ways, with their main spellcaster unit being the titular Shaman, who was able to purge an enemy of spells that make them stronger, create shields of lightning and incite bloodlust in their allies. The Far Seer and Tauren Chieftain hero units would retroactively be made into shamans as well, with the Far Seer able to tap into elements to summon lightning storms and volcanoes, and the Tauren Chieftain able to revive himself with the aid of ancestral spirits.
Shamanism was also practiced by the races in Outland, which explained why the Draenei also practiced shamanism. It was the Draenei Shaman Nobundo who ended up restoring shamanism to Outland itself, redeeming some of the corruption caused upon the world by the Burning Legion. By the time the Cataclysm expansion came out, the dwarves of the Alliance and the goblins of the Horde also started practicing shamanism, as do the Pandaren who joined both factions later on. Shamans are able to unleash the explosive power of the elements, use totems to support their allies, or heal them with the powers granted to them by the elements.
Totemic Call: First introduced in World of Warcraft (although Warcraft III troll
witch doctors were able to summon 'wards', which are basically the same
thing) the Totems are unique tools used by shamans to interact with the
elements, borrowing the power of the elements and channeling them
through the totems for a specific desired effect. Once a totem is set
down, it cannot be removed unless destroyed in battle, or a new totem is
summoned to replace it. A Shaman can only have a totem of each element
(fire, water, earth, wind) active at any time, represented by the shaman
hero power only able to summon a basic totem not currently on the
board. Each race has its own unique design of totem that reflects their
culture. Thanks to their status more as spells than actual entities,
totems will be covered here.Healing Totem: The Shamans' Healing Totem is likely derived from the water-element Healing Tide Totem in WoW, a totem introduced in the Mists of Pandaria expansion that sends out a healing pulse that heals every friendly character around the totem periodically. The artwork on the Healing Totem depicts a Tauren totem.
Searing Totem: The Searing Totem is a low-level fire-element totem that will randomly attack an enemy that reaches its range for low-level damage. While it deals constant damage, the unpredictable blasts of attacks might not be particularly optimal. The Searing Totem has recently been removed from WoW during the Legion expansion. The artwork on the Searing Totem depicts a Draenei totem.
Wrath of Air Totem: The Wrath of Air Totem is an air-element totem (surprise, surprise) that gives allied units around it a bonus to casting speed, which is changed in Hearthstone to simply upping spell damage. The Wrath of Air Totem has since been removed from WoW in Mists of Pandaria.
Stoneclaw Totem: Much like its Hearthstone counterpart, WoW's Stoneclaw Totem was a totem that taunts creatures around it and forces them to attack the totem, drawing aggression away from the caster or more important totems. Like its 0-attack health in Hearthstone, WoW's Stoneclaw Totem cannot damage enemies either. The Stoneclaw Totem is an Earth-element totem, and has also recently been removed from WoW in Mists of Pandaria. The artwork, again, depicts a Tauren totem.
Flametongue Totem: Flametongue Totems is a fire-element totem that increases the spell power of the shaman and his allies, and, like many of the other basic totems, has been removed during the Mists of Pandaria expansion. The artwork for the Flametongue Totem depicts a dwarf totem.
Mana Tide Totem: Mana
Tide Totem in WoW is a restoration water-element shaman totem that
increases the spirit stat of anyone around the totem, which, in turn,
increases mana regeneration rate. Like many of the totems adapted into
Hearthstone, the Mana Tide Totem was removed in Mists of Pandaria. The artwork depicts a Tauren totem again.
Ancestral Healing: Ancestral Healing is a Restoration Shaman talent that causes critical hits to buff the target being healed with a resistance to physical damage. In Mists of Pandaria, Ancestral Healing has since been removed.
Hex: Hex
is a spell usable by WoW Nature shamans that turns their target into a
frog, similar to polymorph, but since hex counts as a curse instead of a
spell, it is not broken by damage. Hex began life in Warcraft III as
one of the abilities of the Shadow Hunter hero (famous among the Shadow
Hunters is Vol'jin, who is adapted instead as a Priest in Hearthstone), that likewise transforms an enemy into a critter for a set amount of time. Rockbiter Weapon: Rockbiter Weapon is an ability used by Shamans to buff their weapon and increase the threat generation of the shaman, as well as reducing damage received by the shaman.
Windfury: Windfury Weapon is an Enhancement Shaman ability that allows the Shamans to have a chance to trigger extra attacks every time he strikes. Windfury Weapon is removed in the Cataclysm expansion, but in the newest expansion, Legion, it is re-introduced and renamed as simply Windfury. It has since been adapted in Hearthstone as a catch-all keyword for anything that strikes twice.
Bloodlust: Bloodlust was first introduced in Warcraft II as one of the spells that the Ogre Magi unit was able to cast, increasing the size, attack speed and damage of units around it. In Warcraft III, Bloodlust is also one of the scariest spells available to the orcs' Shaman units that increases multiple stats for the units around the Shaman. In World of Warcraft, all Horde Shamans are able to cast Bloodlust which... only increases attack speed for those around the shaman. (Alliance Shamans get the otherwise-identical ability Heroism.
Ancestral Spirit: Ancestral Spirit is an ability used by shamans outside of combat that resurrects a friendly unit with a percentage of their maximum health, similar to the Paladins' Redemption.
Far Sight: Far Sight is the eponymous ability of the orcish hero Far Seer from Warcraft III, the famous among which was Thrall. All of the Far Seer's abilities would be adapted into shaman spells in World of Warcraft. In Warcraft III, Far Sight allowed you to see areas of the map that are hidden even by the fog of war. In World of Warcraft, Far Sight is a nature-specialization ability that the shaman can channel and move your point of view to see through a far distance.
Feral Spirit: Feral Spirit began life in Warcraft III as one of the Far Seer's abilities, a very useful one that summoned two spirit wolves to aid in battle or as disposable units to scout. In World of Warcraft, Feral Spirit acts the same, although the ability is restricted to Enhancement Shamans. In WoW, the spirits have the additional effect of healing the shaman caster.
Earth Shock: Earth Shock is an elemental spell that dealt damage. The Hearthstone version silences the enemy, which is a homage to how prior to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, was how Earth Shock functioned, interrupting spellcasting and effectively stunning the enemy.
Forked Lightning: Forked Lightning is a relatively new talent added into WoW, that, true to its name, allows the Stormstrike ability to strike multiple extra targets and the Hearthstone card predates it by a couple of years. The Hearthstone card is likely based on the similar ability Chain Lightning, which bounces from one enemy to the next and building up damage as it does so .
Lightning Bolt: Lightning Bolt is one of the first spells learnt by a shaman, and fits in the Elemental school.
Frost Shock: Frost Shock is an ability used by Elemental Shamans that launches a blast of icy energy that deals damage and freezes the enemy in place. While not one of the four main elements, Shamans are able to use frost magic due to ice being the offspring of water and air.
Lava Burst: Lava
Burst is an Elemental Shaman's bread-and-butter, launching blasts of
high damage at the enemy, easily one of the most common spells used to
deal damage over time.
The following are original to Hearthstone: Totemic Might and (surprisingly enough) Lightning Storm.
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WARLOCK
The
Warlocks, and their close ties to the demonic powers of the Burning
Legion, could easily be one of the most dangerous and reviled classes in
all of Azeroth. All the wars that have ravaged Azeroth and Draenor
could be traced to demonic corruption, and the Warlocks who serve their
masters in the Burning Legion. Warlocks attempt to dominate demons and
dangerous demonic power, and as they become stronger they are able to
subjugate more powerful demons to their thrall. In addition, they launch
powerful curses and diseases upon the enemy, unleash corrupting shadows
and flame made out of the souls of those they kill, and some even go as
far as to transform into half-demonic beings of their own.
Units called 'Warlock' were first seen in the very first Warcraft game, as the vile spellcasters of the First Horde, able to summon powerful Daemons to their aid. Indeed, throughout the first and second incarnations of the Horde (i.e. the first two games) the orcs are bloodthirsty and far more brutal than they are now thanks to being led by warlocks, who in turn take their orders from demon lords. During the second war, with most of the warlock clans slaughtered during the first war, one of the few remaining warlocks, Gul'dan, would create the first generation of the Death Knights to replace them.
By the time of Warcraft III,
with the deaths of many of the orcish elders like Gul'dan and Ner'zhul,
the orcish race by far turned their backs on the corruptive influence
of warlock arts, and reverted to the nobler path of shamanism. However,
during the events of that war, the Warsong clan under Grommash
Hellscream were corrupted by the demon Mannoroth, who called out on the
dormant demonic blood within them, and during this period a large amount
of the Shamans were transformed into Warlock units that use far more
powerful sorcery than their Shaman counterparts. The term 'Warlock' was
also used as a title by Archimonde and several other lesser Eredar,
showing their mastery even over their fellow demons.
In World of Warcraft, Warlocks tend to be shunned by society, but most of the time your playable character tends to be noble... just, y'know, happens to commune with demons and enslave them. Multiple races are able to become warlocks, with only the pandaren, night elves, draenei and tauren being exempt. (Trolls and dwarves weren't able to learn warlock arts until Cataclysm, though).
Life Tap: Life Tap is a warlock ability that converts health into mana, which, in Hearthstone, is translated into converting health into another resource insetad -- card draw. Like in Hearthstone, where Warlocks essentially never run out of cards, in WoW Warlocks will never run out of mana, and it embodies the whole essence of the warlock class, where they self-mutilate and self-sacrifice to attain greater power.
Sacrificial Pact: Sacrificial Pact, now merged with a removed Warlock ability called Dark Pact, is a warlock talent that will sacrifice a proportion of your current demon's health to shield you for a particular duration of time. It seems to be based on the Dark Ritual ability of the Lich hero in Warcraft III, which will completely kill a friendly unit and convert it into mana for the Lich.
WARLOCK
The
Warlocks, and their close ties to the demonic powers of the Burning
Legion, could easily be one of the most dangerous and reviled classes in
all of Azeroth. All the wars that have ravaged Azeroth and Draenor
could be traced to demonic corruption, and the Warlocks who serve their
masters in the Burning Legion. Warlocks attempt to dominate demons and
dangerous demonic power, and as they become stronger they are able to
subjugate more powerful demons to their thrall. In addition, they launch
powerful curses and diseases upon the enemy, unleash corrupting shadows
and flame made out of the souls of those they kill, and some even go as
far as to transform into half-demonic beings of their own.Units called 'Warlock' were first seen in the very first Warcraft game, as the vile spellcasters of the First Horde, able to summon powerful Daemons to their aid. Indeed, throughout the first and second incarnations of the Horde (i.e. the first two games) the orcs are bloodthirsty and far more brutal than they are now thanks to being led by warlocks, who in turn take their orders from demon lords. During the second war, with most of the warlock clans slaughtered during the first war, one of the few remaining warlocks, Gul'dan, would create the first generation of the Death Knights to replace them.
By the time of Warcraft III,
with the deaths of many of the orcish elders like Gul'dan and Ner'zhul,
the orcish race by far turned their backs on the corruptive influence
of warlock arts, and reverted to the nobler path of shamanism. However,
during the events of that war, the Warsong clan under Grommash
Hellscream were corrupted by the demon Mannoroth, who called out on the
dormant demonic blood within them, and during this period a large amount
of the Shamans were transformed into Warlock units that use far more
powerful sorcery than their Shaman counterparts. The term 'Warlock' was
also used as a title by Archimonde and several other lesser Eredar,
showing their mastery even over their fellow demons.In World of Warcraft, Warlocks tend to be shunned by society, but most of the time your playable character tends to be noble... just, y'know, happens to commune with demons and enslave them. Multiple races are able to become warlocks, with only the pandaren, night elves, draenei and tauren being exempt. (Trolls and dwarves weren't able to learn warlock arts until Cataclysm, though).
Life Tap: Life Tap is a warlock ability that converts health into mana, which, in Hearthstone, is translated into converting health into another resource insetad -- card draw. Like in Hearthstone, where Warlocks essentially never run out of cards, in WoW Warlocks will never run out of mana, and it embodies the whole essence of the warlock class, where they self-mutilate and self-sacrifice to attain greater power.
Sacrificial Pact: Sacrificial Pact, now merged with a removed Warlock ability called Dark Pact, is a warlock talent that will sacrifice a proportion of your current demon's health to shield you for a particular duration of time. It seems to be based on the Dark Ritual ability of the Lich hero in Warcraft III, which will completely kill a friendly unit and convert it into mana for the Lich.
Corruption: Corruption is a low-level ability for affliction warlocks, which causes the target to have an effect that deals shadow damage to them over time, represented in Hearthstone as the minion dying in the next turn.
Mortal Coil: Mortal Coil in WoW is a warlock talent that is relatively different than it is in Hearthstone, which instead of damaging a target, horrifies the target and cauess them to flee and incapacitates them for 3 seconds, while healing the Warlock.
Soulfire: Soulfire (parsed as Soul Fire in WoW), recently removed in the Legion expansion, is a demonology warlock ability which is a spell with a long cast time that will unleash a large amount of damage for a short amount of mana. The core aspects of the spell is retained in Hearthstone, with the long cast time disadvantage turned into discarding a card.
Drain Life: Drain Life is based on a warlock ability usable by all three specializations that drains an enemy's health while restoring the warlock's own health.
Shadow Bolt: Shadow Bolt is a very basic ability for demonology warlocks, unleashing direct shadow damage upon the enemy and granting a Soul Shard (a resource to empower certain other spells).
Hellfire: Hellfire is a channeled demonology warlock ability that unleashes the area around the warlock, dealing fire damage not only to the enemies around the warlock, but also to the caster itself -- similar to how Hellfire works in Hearthstone. Hellfire might be roughly based on the Pit Lord hero ability Rain of Fire in Warcraft III, which is also a demonic fire-based AoE that damages friendly as well as enemy units.
Sense Demons: Sense Demons is an ability removed during the Cataclysm expansion which, true to its name, allowed the user to sense demons nearby and have them pop up in the minimap similar to the Hunter's tracking ability.
Shadowflame: Shadowflame is a demonology warlock talent which deals a large amount of damage and additional damage over time. Prior to Mists of Pandaria, Shadowflame is an AoE spell similar to Cone of Cold, which explains why the Hearthstone version is able to target the entire enemy's board.
Bane of Doom: Bane of Doom began life as simply 'Doom' in Warcraft III, where it was the ability of the Pit Lord hero, causing a target to take damage, and if it died while Doom was in effect, a Doomguard minion would be summoned. In WoW, it was added and worked similarly, albeit called Curse of Doom. It's later renamed Bane of Doom so that it can stack with other curses, and removed and replaced with a simple damage-over-time effect called Doom. Some iterations of the WoW's Bane of Doom/Curse of Doom spells make it a necessity for the enemy affected by Bane of Doom to die for the Doomguard to be summoned, which is where the effect of this Hearthstone card is derived from. Some versions of the spell also summoned a hostile Doomguard that the Warlock player would then have to use 'Enslave Demon' to, well, enslave the Doomguard.
Siphon Soul: Siphon Soul is based on the removed ability Soul Siphon, although the effects of the WoW ability is vastly different from the instant-kill that the Hearthstone card does.
Power Overwhelming: Power Overwhelming in WoW is not a warlock ability, but rather an achievement. It seems to stem from a popular phrase in the Starcraft games, where it is said by Protoss Archon units.
The following are original to Hearthstone: Demonfire and Power Overwhelming. The latter seems to be based on the oft-quoted line by Proton Archon units in Starcraft, and has been sort of memed all over different Blizzard games. Twisting Nether isn't actually an ability that Warlocks have, but is actually the dimension/plane that the demons come from.
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WARRIOR
Warriors
are perhaps the most common race in Azeroth. As long as you're holding a
weapon, and you're hitting your enemy, you're a warrior by default.
There's a relative amount of overlap between what defines a warrior with
many of the other classes, but warriors as a class in World of Warcraft tend
to show those who truly master the art of battle. Those who are truly
strong, those who are adept in the arts of war, mastering shield and
sword, charging into battle either alone or at the head of an army,
warriors can take a blow as much as they can dish it out. It's really
hard to list all of the units that count as a warrior in the first three
RTS games, but a crude way is "anyone who doesn't otherwise fit into
any of the other classes". Be it the human knights of Stormwind, or the
fierce orcish grunts guarding Orgrimmar, or the mighty tauren soldiers
of Thunder Bluff, any race can be a Warrior. Any race. In World of Warcraft warriors
tend to be split between three talents: fury (warriors that deal as
much damage as possible, the berserkers of the bunch), protection (the
ones who specialize in armour, taking hits and wearing the enemy down)
and arms (using two-handed weapon and a little bit of both playstyles).
Not much to say about Warriors historically, unlike my lengthy explanation for Shaman and Warlock, so, um, let's get on to it!
WARRIOR
Warriors
are perhaps the most common race in Azeroth. As long as you're holding a
weapon, and you're hitting your enemy, you're a warrior by default.
There's a relative amount of overlap between what defines a warrior with
many of the other classes, but warriors as a class in World of Warcraft tend
to show those who truly master the art of battle. Those who are truly
strong, those who are adept in the arts of war, mastering shield and
sword, charging into battle either alone or at the head of an army,
warriors can take a blow as much as they can dish it out. It's really
hard to list all of the units that count as a warrior in the first three
RTS games, but a crude way is "anyone who doesn't otherwise fit into
any of the other classes". Be it the human knights of Stormwind, or the
fierce orcish grunts guarding Orgrimmar, or the mighty tauren soldiers
of Thunder Bluff, any race can be a Warrior. Any race. In World of Warcraft warriors
tend to be split between three talents: fury (warriors that deal as
much damage as possible, the berserkers of the bunch), protection (the
ones who specialize in armour, taking hits and wearing the enemy down)
and arms (using two-handed weapon and a little bit of both playstyles).Not much to say about Warriors historically, unlike my lengthy explanation for Shaman and Warlock, so, um, let's get on to it!
Charge: Charge is one of the earliest skills a Warrior learns, and one of the most essential ones, causing the warrior to charge forwards and roots it in place in front of the enemy, as well as generating rage, the Warrior's resource.
Whirlwind: Whirlwind is an ability learned by Arms and Fury specializations, which strikes all enemies around the warrior as he spins around.
Cleave: Cleave is an ability used by Arms warrior that deals damage to all enemies in front of the warrior. Numerous bosses and enemies in both WoW and Warcraft III also have the cleave mechanic that allows them to strike multiple enemies in front of it at once.
Execute: Execute is an ability used by Arms and Fury specializations, usable only when the enemy has less than 20% health remaining, and deals a large amount of damage to it. Unlike Hearthstone, it doesn't immediately kill the enemy.
Heroic Strike: Heroic Strike is recently removed in the Legion rework, and back then it's the original warrior ability learned at level 1, an instant melee attack that dealt instant damage at the cost of rage. It's highly inefficient, however.
Shield Block: Shield Block is a Protection warrior ability, blocking all attacks for 6 seconds and increasing the damage of the Shield Slam ability. The Footmen units of Warcraft III were also able to do something similar to this ability.
Inner Rage: Inner Rage is now a Fury talent as of Legion, but the version that the Hearthstone card is based on is an ability that reduced the cooldown of Heroic Strike and Cleave.
Shield Slam: Shield Slam is a Protection ability that, well, slams the shield onto the enemy for a large amount of damage, and also generates rage at that. The way it stacks up with your armour is possibly a reference to how Shield Slam is buffed by Shield Block in WoW.
Commanding Shout: Commanding Shout is a Arms and Fury ability that increases the maximum health of all party members for a period of time.
Rampage: Rampage is a Fury ability that deals several high-damage strikes over a period of tme, and will trigger Enrage. Enrage, while not specific to Warriors in Hearthstone, is a Furyb Warrior ability that will increase the attack speed as well as the damage you receive.
Slam: Slam is a Arms ability that for a set amount of rage instantly deals a huge amount of damage to a target. If I sound more truncated in this class, that's because there's not much lore to say about the Warrior skills.
Mortal Strike: Mortal Strike is an Arms ability that deals a large amount of damage, and reduces the healing that the enemy receives after the strike.
The following are original to Hearthstone: Armor Up (the hero power), Brawl, Battle Rage and Upgrade.
____________________________________________
Gladiator's Longbow: Gladiator's Longbow is the name of many, many various items (Vengeful Gladiator's Longbow, Cataclysmic Gladiator's Longbow, etc), a top PvP reward to competitors in each season with a new adjective before it.
Light's Justice: Light's Justice is an epic one-handed mace with a unique model that dropped off none other than Prince Malchezaar himself.
Truesilver Champion: Truesilver Champion is a glowing two-handed sword that was craftable by blacksmiths, and has the chance of putting up a damage-absorption shield when the wielder is hit, presumably the reason why the Hearthstone card heals the hero.
Sword of Justice: The Sword of Justice is a two-pronged sword with a bonus critical stat that is dropped in the Tribunal of Ages encounter in Ulduar.
Assassin's Blade: Assassin's Blade is a one-handed dagger that dropped from random enemies in Shadowfang Keep.
Perdition's Blade: Perdition's Blade is a one-handed dagger that has a chance of dealing an extra fire damage when it strikes the enemy. The dagger is a possible drop from slaying Ragnaros in the Molten Core raid.
Stormforged Axe: Stormforged Axe is a one-handed axe created by the Blacksmithing professsion.
Fiery War Axe: Fiery War Axe is an epic two-handed axe that, upon hitting the enemy, has the chance of unleashing a blast of fire and subsequent damage over time, and is a world drop.
Arcanite Reaper: Arcanite Reaper is a two-handed axe created by the blacksmithing profession, and back in original World of Warcraft, the mechanics at that time made the Arcanite Reaper absolutely powerful due to the axe's incredible attack speed and making Warriors and Shamans particularly powerful at PvP.
Ashbringer: The blade known as Ashbringer has had a long history. Created by the paladin highlord Alexandros Mograine comissioned the dwarven king Magni Bronzebeard to create a weapon to fight against the undead Scourge using an orb of untold power he recovered from an orc, and subsequently filled with the power of the Light by the leaders of the Silver Hand. The blade was powerful and able to reduce the undead into dust. However, due to manipulation thanks to the agents of the Scourge, Alexandros was slain by his own son Renault, leader of the Scarlet Crusade, corrupting the Ashbringer and causing Alexandros Morgraine to be raised by Kel'thuzad as the leader of the Four Horsemen. Alexandros's other son, Darion Mograine, purified the Ashbringer and the trapped soul of his father through an act of self-sacrifice. During Wrath of the Lich King, Darion, now a Death Knight, gave the Corrupted Ashbringer to his paladin mentor Tirion Fordring, purifying the blade. Tirion would wield the Ashbringer throughout the events of future expansions of World of Warcraft up until his death in Legion, where, upon his death, he would give the Ashbringer as the artifact weapon of a retribution-spec paladin.
Doomhammer: The great hammer Doomhammer is a hammer forged among the elements of Draenor, able to channel the power of elements if wielded by one that can speak to the elements. Throughout the Second War, it was the signature weapon of Orgrim Doomhammer, who was famous for his skill with the weapon. It was then given to Thrall prior to the Third War, and is wielded by Thrall throughout all of Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. In Legion, the Doomhammer becomes the artifact weapon for Enhancement-spec shamans.
Gorehowl: The mighty axe Gorehowl was the signature weapon of Grom Hellscream, wielded by him throughout much of the Second and Third War. It was the blade Grom used to slay the mighty pit lord Mannoroth, and its whereabouts were questioned up until Burning Crusade, where Thrall, who kept it all this while, gave it to Grom's son Garrosh, who would then wield it up until Mists of Pandaria where Garrosh would discard his father's weapon in favour of the corruptive Heart of Y'Shaarj. Bizarrely in WoW Gorehowl is an epic weapon dropped by Prince Malchezaar of all people -- despite Grom and Malchezaar having absolutely nothing to do with each other, and the location of Grom's death being a continent away from Karazhan, where Malchezaar hangs out. It's a fact which Hearthstone really loves to make fun of.
Weapons:
A little bonus feature here, since all subsequent articles are going to be minions, so we'll cover the weapons rapid-fire here.
Eaglehorn Bow: The Eaglehorn Long Bow is a weapon in World of Warcraft, itself named after the Eaglehorn, a unique Crusader bow in Blizzard's other game, Diablo II, and one of the rarest weapons in that game.
A little bonus feature here, since all subsequent articles are going to be minions, so we'll cover the weapons rapid-fire here.
Eaglehorn Bow: The Eaglehorn Long Bow is a weapon in World of Warcraft, itself named after the Eaglehorn, a unique Crusader bow in Blizzard's other game, Diablo II, and one of the rarest weapons in that game.
Gladiator's Longbow: Gladiator's Longbow is the name of many, many various items (Vengeful Gladiator's Longbow, Cataclysmic Gladiator's Longbow, etc), a top PvP reward to competitors in each season with a new adjective before it.
Light's Justice: Light's Justice is an epic one-handed mace with a unique model that dropped off none other than Prince Malchezaar himself.
Truesilver Champion: Truesilver Champion is a glowing two-handed sword that was craftable by blacksmiths, and has the chance of putting up a damage-absorption shield when the wielder is hit, presumably the reason why the Hearthstone card heals the hero.
Sword of Justice: The Sword of Justice is a two-pronged sword with a bonus critical stat that is dropped in the Tribunal of Ages encounter in Ulduar.
Assassin's Blade: Assassin's Blade is a one-handed dagger that dropped from random enemies in Shadowfang Keep.
Perdition's Blade: Perdition's Blade is a one-handed dagger that has a chance of dealing an extra fire damage when it strikes the enemy. The dagger is a possible drop from slaying Ragnaros in the Molten Core raid.
Stormforged Axe: Stormforged Axe is a one-handed axe created by the Blacksmithing professsion.
Fiery War Axe: Fiery War Axe is an epic two-handed axe that, upon hitting the enemy, has the chance of unleashing a blast of fire and subsequent damage over time, and is a world drop.
Arcanite Reaper: Arcanite Reaper is a two-handed axe created by the blacksmithing profession, and back in original World of Warcraft, the mechanics at that time made the Arcanite Reaper absolutely powerful due to the axe's incredible attack speed and making Warriors and Shamans particularly powerful at PvP.
Ashbringer: The blade known as Ashbringer has had a long history. Created by the paladin highlord Alexandros Mograine comissioned the dwarven king Magni Bronzebeard to create a weapon to fight against the undead Scourge using an orb of untold power he recovered from an orc, and subsequently filled with the power of the Light by the leaders of the Silver Hand. The blade was powerful and able to reduce the undead into dust. However, due to manipulation thanks to the agents of the Scourge, Alexandros was slain by his own son Renault, leader of the Scarlet Crusade, corrupting the Ashbringer and causing Alexandros Morgraine to be raised by Kel'thuzad as the leader of the Four Horsemen. Alexandros's other son, Darion Mograine, purified the Ashbringer and the trapped soul of his father through an act of self-sacrifice. During Wrath of the Lich King, Darion, now a Death Knight, gave the Corrupted Ashbringer to his paladin mentor Tirion Fordring, purifying the blade. Tirion would wield the Ashbringer throughout the events of future expansions of World of Warcraft up until his death in Legion, where, upon his death, he would give the Ashbringer as the artifact weapon of a retribution-spec paladin.
Doomhammer: The great hammer Doomhammer is a hammer forged among the elements of Draenor, able to channel the power of elements if wielded by one that can speak to the elements. Throughout the Second War, it was the signature weapon of Orgrim Doomhammer, who was famous for his skill with the weapon. It was then given to Thrall prior to the Third War, and is wielded by Thrall throughout all of Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. In Legion, the Doomhammer becomes the artifact weapon for Enhancement-spec shamans.
Gorehowl: The mighty axe Gorehowl was the signature weapon of Grom Hellscream, wielded by him throughout much of the Second and Third War. It was the blade Grom used to slay the mighty pit lord Mannoroth, and its whereabouts were questioned up until Burning Crusade, where Thrall, who kept it all this while, gave it to Grom's son Garrosh, who would then wield it up until Mists of Pandaria where Garrosh would discard his father's weapon in favour of the corruptive Heart of Y'Shaarj. Bizarrely in WoW Gorehowl is an epic weapon dropped by Prince Malchezaar of all people -- despite Grom and Malchezaar having absolutely nothing to do with each other, and the location of Grom's death being a continent away from Karazhan, where Malchezaar hangs out. It's a fact which Hearthstone really loves to make fun of.
Woo, that was a blast to make. I know Hearthstone lore
articles isn't for everyone, but it's something that I do like to do
and something that I do enjoy doing, so I guess expect more of these in
the future.
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