What is the True Problem With Demon Hunter?

Multiplayer Discussion
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So, as everyone knows, Demon Hunter has consistently been the most (or at least one of the most) powerful classes ever since it was released earlier this year. I thought that, instead of just having another complaint thread, it might be useful to have an open discussion on what exactly is making Demon Hunter so oppressive and what could be done to fix the class moving forward.

As the creator of this topic, I’ll offer my thoughts first. From my experiences playing against Demon Hunter, the thing that makes them the most powerful is their consistent card draw ability. In particular, Skull of Gul’dan is absurdly strong even after being nerfed. It’s easy for Demon Hunters to get the outcast trigger off, and in an aggro deck the discount allows them to draw 3 cards and immediately play several of them even on only 6 mana. Add to this Acrobatics, Spectral Sight, and Stiltstepper, and Demon Hunters can draw more efficiently than any other class in the game with many of their card draw options encouraging an aggressive strategy.

The second major problem is the efficiency of their damage. Having a 1 cost hero power is a real problem when it enables payoffs like Manafeeder Panthera as a 3 mana draw a card, deal 1 damage and put a 2/3 into play, or Glaivebound Adept, which can be backbreaking. Twin Slice is a known issue and is the other broken card in Demon Hunter. Even costing 1 mana, Demon Hunter can easily stack these for insane burst damage or split them across multiple turns to control the board while developing its own minions. Blade Dance and Bladed Lady are just salt in the wound, rewarding Demon Hunter in absurd ways for doing the things that it would normally do.

Moving forward, I think Skull and Twin Slice should definitely be looked at. Twin Slice will be leaving next year, but Skull will continue to be a problem for the next year and a half. Reducing the cost reduction on Skull would make it harder for tempo plays, but given the many efficient minions costing 2 or fewer mana, even a reduction of 2 would still make Skull an outrageously swingy card. Additionally, Demon Hunter needs to be denied any new card draw effects next year, as adding any more would just compound the problems of the class. Blade Dance should be reworked, since the ease with which Demon Hunter can increase its attack makes Blade Dance a busted solution to what was supposed to be a weakness of the class, getting through large minions. And finally, if Demon Hunter is going to be the aggressive face-hitting class, I think that its minions need to be inefficient as a tradeoff. I’m fine with Demon Hunter being a class that likes to attack with its hero, but with all the tools that it has for doing that, its minions should have some drawback, like the minions from Warlock’s classic set. It makes little sense for a class to have the best tempo minions, spells, and face damage, and so having Demon Hunters suffer a loss of powerful minions in exchange for their strong weapons and spells would be a nice balance. It would even be flavorful, given Demon Hunters’ penchant for working alone rather than being team players.

But, those are just my thoughts. I’d love to hear from anyone else that has relevant input on the subject!

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Main problem at moment it not really the card draw but that Demon Hunt as the ability of like 3 classes in one priest, Hunter , and warrior and make no weakness for them.

That and do a extreme amount of face damage in little time and while clear your board or heal at same time.

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Demon Hunter singlehandedly embodies every facet of what it takes to efficiently win a match of Hearthstone.

Aggressive minions
Reliable, heavy card draw
The ability to deal considerable damage directly from the hand
Cards like Kayne and Il’gynoth that allow the bypassing of traditional defensive measures.

Their only significant weakness is gassing out, which isn’t a weakness when you pack more than enough damage in your deck to kill someone twice.

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The main problem to me is that they gave DH some sort of Aggro-Control identity, but then didn’t tone down the Aggro to compensate for having its weaknesses covered. Even with all the Control tools DH has in its deck like Blade Dance, it’s still the same level of Aggro as regular Hunter. Where’s the trade-off?

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Best hero power in the game. Mana efficient face or board damage that can gain lifesteal, AoE, or other card synergies.

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Idk what everyone’s issue is. I haven’t lost to a single one with my new priest deck. Problem is decks and classes that trash them are not popular #1. #2 nobody (the majority of players) thinks ahead 2-3 turn’s when they play (diamond 5+ you start seeing that). Some times you need to take some face damage so the next turn your spell or play will be more effective in the long run.

I’m not saying the class does not needs some nerfs. Warrior right now is worse than them along with shaman.

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This^

The problem isn’t any specific thing they do, it’s that they have EVERYTHING.

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Last time I checked they dont have a legit board wipe. Only warrior priest warlock paladin (2 cards though) and priest does.

The main problem is the healing warblades (aldrashi warblades or w/e) and the insane card draw.

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the main problem with DH are his ridiculous cheap cards and his lifesteals,nothing more…if only majority of his cards are at least one or two mana more expensive than current ones it would be much better

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One of my biggest issues is that they don’t even nerf half the cards, they just rework them, like altruis and twin slice. With no other class would they not only release such stupid cards, but only half a** the nerfs to a point where it barely changes anything, it’s infuriating.

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and also some disgusting and ultra cheap DH spells are also huge problem,some of them are just too much for this game

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and also,it needs to be banned from arena 'cause at least arena deserves to be without that way OP irritating class for players who sucks with all other classes.

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That SHOULD be the case, but they have Altruis, Blade Dance, and several other cards that are good removal but they don’t have to run because Altruis and Blade dance are so good.

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The problem is this.

It has the damage of a hunter, the draw of a mage, the board control of a warrior, the healing of a Paladin/Priest, and the tempo of a rogue etc…

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Demon Hunter is Captain Planet, but with more edgelordiness.

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When I draw cards with other classes I lose tempo. When DH draws they gain tempo. Skull needs to be actually nerfed.

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Pretty easy… First, start with a unified design strategy and all cards given are at current power levels.

For example, other classes have 25 largely useless cards from the basic and classic sets, and synergies that do not carry over between sets because the classes design philosophy has changed over time.

Secondly, they are basically loaded with “free” card draw. Where most other classes pay a premium to draw cards, demon hunter just has card draw tacked on with no Mana penalty.

Thirdly, demon hunter has been given a large set of tools to if ore a primary game mechanic in taunt, making defensive measures largely useless unless your deck is nothing but taunts so they can’t bypass it all.

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The fact that it’s only class with a default hero power at 1 mana makes balancing the class incredibly hard.

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I love throwing Zeddy under the bus!

The problem is exacerbated because DH right before Scholomance was finally balanced by classes like Rogue, Mage, and Druid.

At this point the haters turned towards these classes that were doing strong mid-late game because the Zeddys of the world complained they were “Scam” decks where the player only beat them because of RNG, even as those decks were not OP and VS explained they were actually high skill cap decks.

So it should be to nobody’s surprise that once all the decks that could hold their own against DH got nerfed, DH became a problem again.

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The True problem with Demon Hunter is how many players seem to mix together Soul DH, Aggro DH, and OTK DH (much rarer now) as if it was a single deck, which makes discussions about it really difficult.
Like:

  • “DH dumps all his hand and reloads with Skull, Skull is OP” - Soul DH doesn’t dump all his hand, Aggro DH often doesn’t use Skull
  • “Taunts are useless vs Aggro DH, they just Blade Dance and Kayn” - both cards aren’t used in Aggro DH (Kayn in some but not common)
  • “I was feeling safe and suddenly I got hit for 28hp” - well while Soul DH can have some disgusting highrolls, that play was probably the work of an OTK DH

And I’m pretty sure that that confusion translates into gameplay, with players approaching the matchups the same way when they see Illidan’s face appear, while you should play them differently.

Of all these, Soul DH strikes me as the only deck that needs addressing, it’s just too good at too many things.
The Aggro one is strong but it’s not THAT much stronger than your usual Aggro deck - and it folds to good early game tempo decks. Problem is Soul DH is keeping decks those out of the meta.

3 Likes