Yesterday, we provided some tips on how to use the Mage, one of the characters in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Now it’s time for a quick 101 on the Shaman. If you enjoy controlling the board and having lots of minion effects, he’s your guy.
Shamans take the randomized nature of card games a step further than most.
Their hero ability, for instance, summons one of four totems at random. These can provide extra spell damage, taunt, a 1/1 minion or the ability to heal every friendly minion at the end of your turn. Spells like Lightning Storm and Forked Lightning provide excellent board control, for random damage or against random minions, respectively.
This class also has the majority of cards with Windfury, which grants a minion the ability to attack twice in a single turn. Overload, meanwhile, is specific to Shamans and locks up mana crystals on your next turn, rather than right away. The benefit to cards with overload is that they usually have very small initial mana costs for very strong abilities.
A Shaman’s strength is directly tied to board control. The totems summoned with the c hero ability, in addition to special totem cards, can turn a useful minion into a deadly one in a single turn. However, if you can shut down a Shaman’s board control early on, it’s very difficult for them to transition into the late-game.
Best if you like: board control, delayed payment, lots of minion effects.
Step into Hearthstone with Prima’s beginner’s tips.
