by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

With hundreds of minions, spells and weapons to choose from, where do you start? You can start right here: every Thursday, we will feature one card in our Weekly Spotlight and share with you how to use it in your constructed deck.

Gorehowl (7M, 7D, 1D, Attacking a minion costs 1 Attack instead of 1 Durability. “Grommash Hellscream’s famous axe. Somehow this ended up in Prince Malchezaar’s possession. Quite the mystery!“)

We had talked about Gorehowl before, although in a much different context. Today, I want to focus on the use of weapons in Hearthstone, with Gorehowl functioning as our prime example. Hunters, Paladins, Rogues, Shamans, and Warriors are the only heroes able to equip weapons.

Druids have a weapon-like hero power, and Mages do just fine with a targeted +1 Attack that keeps the hero out of harms way. Only the priest has no comparable offensive ability, but healing and stealing cards is pretty damn nice.

If you’ve played or watched Hearthstone, you know that attacking minions with your hero will directly turn their damage against you. As a new player, it seemed counter intuitive to me at first to use a weapon as a way to remove minions. Why should I eat the damage when I can let my minions do the dirty work?

The answer lies in the weapons attributes that Gorehowl, the Gladiator’s Longbow, or the Truesilver Champion offer you. All of those weapons encourage you not so subtly to use them against minions or else. So why do it?

A minion left on the board may deal damage over multiple rounds, and with each turn it’s always a free shot at your hero – and with a direct attack, there are generally no repercussions (secrets excluded). If instead your hero takes that minion out right away, it leaves your own minions unharmed and ready to do repeat damage. What seemed like opposite day to me at first, is actually a great way to retain board control (unless the damage dealt would kill you).

Of course, it depends on the situation of any given match. If a double-dose of Doomhammer would kill your opponent, do that instead. If you have a significant taunt presence, take a direct shot at your opponent. Otherwise, as Gorehowl will tell you, kill that minion because a dead minion can do no harm.