Interestingly, Hearthstone’s Priest class is also set to receive a fairly significant overhaul as part of the Year of the Phoenix update. This overhaul will see certain Priest cards removed from the game’s standard mode of play and be replaced with new cards. Other Priest cards are being reworked entirely. Blizzard hopes that these changes will clarify the Priest class identity by allowing them to better control the board and be less reliant on bursts of damage as they have been in the past.
Speaking of cards, Year of the Phoenix will see cards released during Hearthstone’s Year of the Raven rotated into the game’s Wild format. Joining them will be a new set of Hall of Fame cards which will no longer be playable in Hearthstone’s Standard mode.
This year’s Hall of Fame cards not only includes six of the previously mentioned Priest class cards (Auchenai Soulpriest, Holy Fire, Prophet Velen, Shadowform, Divine Spirit, and Northshire Cleric) but five neutral cards. They are: Acolyte of Pain, Leeroy Jenkins, Mind Control Tech, Mountain Giant, and Spellbreaker. Blizzard has identified each of these cards as either being too powerful or otherwise limiting the design space.
It’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most substantial yearly update that we’ve seen from Hearthstone since the game’s launch. True to this year’s phoenix namesake, it really does feel like Blizzard is starting a kind of rebirth for the game.
Make to check out our hands-on impressions of the new Demon Hunter class right here!