Overview | Hero Power | Basic Cards | Expert Cards
Tips and Combos | Sample Decks | Arena Tips | Top Arena Cards

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Hearthstone Class Overview - Warrior

The Warrior class in Hearthstone is a class that focuses on both aggression and defense. Many Warrior minions and spells provide direct damage in addition to their base ability, that covers the aggression part. Warriors also have the ability to gain armor in several ways, that covers of defence by essentially giving them extra health.

Aggression goes further than just extra damage though, the aggression portion of a Warrior deck also comes into play with it's early game speed. Many Warrior decks will try to destroy you before you ever get to a full mana bar, and thereby deny you the ability to play the late game for your class. Warriors gain further aggression by having access to a large number of class minions with the charge ability. This allows them to summon a minion and get an attack out of them before the opponent has a chance to react.

As a Warrior in Hearthstone you will be represented by Garrosh Hellscream, former leader of the Horde, and maniacal Warrior bent on world domination.

Hearthstone Hero Power - Warrior

As a Warrior you hero power is called Armor Up and costs 2 mana. For that 2 mana you gain 2 armor.

While not exciting or glamorous, that 2 armor is very useful. Essentially, it trades 2 mana for 2 extra health, and should be considered as healing that allows you to go above your base 30 health. Any time you do not have a card that needs to be played, or that can wait to be played, armoring up is never a bad idea.

In addition there are a few Warrior cards that interact with your armor. Some provide extra armor under certain conditions and at least one currently uses it up to provide other benefits.

Hearthstone Basic Cards - Warrior

When you first start a Warrior deck you will be granted many of the basic cards. In addition as you level up your Warrior deck you will gain the remainder of the basic class cards by the time you reach level 10.

Basic Warrior Spells
Name Mana Description
Charge 3 Give a friendly minion +2 attack and charge.
Execute 1 Destroy a damaged enemy minion.
Heroic Strike 2 Give your hero +4 attack this turn.
Cleave 2 Deal 2 damage to two random enemy minions. [This card is gained at level 2]
Whirlwind 1 Deal 1 damage to all minions. [This card is gained at level 6]
Shield Block 3 Gain 5 armor. Draw a card. [This card is gained at level 8]

 

Basic Warrior Minions
Name Mana Attack Health Description
Warsong Commander 3 2 3 Whenever you summon a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge.
Kor'kron Elite 4 4 3 Charge [This card is gained at level 4]

 

Basic Warrior Equipment
Name Mana Attack Dur. Description
Fiery War Axe 2 3 2  
Arcanite Reaper 5 5 2 [This card is gained at level 10]

Hearthstone Expert Cards - Warrior

There are many additional Warrior cards than those listed above in the basic card section. These are the Expert cards and can be gained through the purchase or winning of expert card packs. Many of these cards are key to how the class plays and will be required to do well as a Warrior.

Expert Warrior Spells
Name Rarity Mana Description
Battle Rage Common 2 Draw a card for each damaged friendly character.
Cleave Common 2 Deal 2 damage to two random enemy minions.
Inner Rage Common 0 Deal 1 damage to a minion and give it +2 attack.
Slam Common 2 Deal 2 damage to a minion. If it survives, draw a card.
Whirlwind Common 1 Deal 1 damage to ALL minions.
Commanding Shout Rare 2 Your minions can not be reduced below 1 health this turn. Draw a card.
Mortal Strike Rare 4 Deal 4 damage. If your hero has 12 or less health, deal 6 damage instead.
Upgrade! Rare 1 If you have a weapon, give it +1/+1. Otherwise equip a 1/3 weapon.
Brawl Epic 5 Destroy all minions except one (chosen randomly).
Shield Slam Epic 1 Deal 1 damage to a minion for each armor you have.

 

Expert Warrior Minions
Name Rarity Mana Attack Health Description
Arathi Weaponsmith Common 4 3 3 Battlecry: Equip a 2/2 weapon.
Cruel Taskmaster Common 2 2 2 Battlecry: Deal 1 damage to a minion and give it +2 attack.
Armorsmith Rare 2 1 4 Whenever a minion takes damage, gain 1 armor.
Frothing Berserker Rare 3 2 4 Whenever a minion takes damage, gain +1 attack.
Grommash Hellscream Legendary 8 4 9 Charge. Engrage: +6 attack.

 

Expert Warrior Equipment
Name Rarity Mana Attack Dur. Description
Gorehowl Epic 7 7 1 Attacking a minion costs 1 attack instead of 1 durability.

Hearthstone Tips and Combos - Warrior

As with almost any card based game, there are combos available that when used provide more benefit than playing the cards by themselves. This is true in Hearthstone as well, and there are several great combinations of cards available to Warriors that can really help push the fight in your favour.

Let's start with a look at some of the things that you need to keep in mind as you play a Warrior. These are the real key tips to playing the class to the highest level.

  • Many cards can be used in multiple different ways. Just one example of this is the minion Cruel Taskmaster, whos ability grants +2 attack to any minion that you choose to deal 1 damage to when it is summoned. That means he can be used to either buff one of your other minions attack value, or to kill off a weak enemy minion since it does not specify that it needs to be a friendly or enemy minion. Early in the game it is best to use it to clear enemy minions, while later on it is best to buff your own minions.
  • Armor can be used to great effect, especially when you have a weapon equipped. All other classes that have the use of weapons need to carefully consider when they are worth using against enemy minions, since they deal damage back to you when you attack them. Therefore attacking a 2/2 minion means you will take 2 damage along with killing them. However, as a Warrior you can easily armor up and thereby prevent taking that 2 damage in return. This makes weapon cards much easier to use safely for Warriors than other weapon using classes.
  • Warriors have a lot of early attack power due to their minions multiple abilities. Try to be agressive as quickly as possible.

Next up let's look at a few simple combos with the Warrior basic and expert cards.

  • Cards like whirlwind that deal damage to ALL minions combo extremely well with your minions that have effects based on suffering damage. For example if you had a Frothing Berserker and an Armorsmith out as well as 2 other random minions and your enemy had 3 minions out, when you cast whirlwind your Frothing Berserker would gain 7 attack and you would gain 5 armor. That is a pretty substantial boost.
  • Warriors have an insane late game combo available to them with Grommash Hellscream and a Cruel Taskmaster. This combo can not be used until at least turn 9 (assuming you went second and save the ring for an extra mana) but for 10 mana it allows you to summon Grommash, then the Cruel Taskmaster to deal 1 damage to him and grant +2 attack. Grommash due to enrage would then have his base 4, +6, +2 for a grant total of 12 attack and the ability to charge right away. 12 damage before your opponent can react to it can easily finish off a game.

Once you get into more advanced play and combos, you need to look at some general cards rather than just sticking with Warrior only cards. Here are just a few examples:

  • As with the above combos that work off of damaging your own minions, once you start looking at general cards, more options open up. There are minions that draw cards as they take damage, or that inflict damage, or grant other benefits such as enrage or wind fury. Teaming up with those offers even more options.
  • Commanding Shout can be used in several combinations with board wide damage to prevent your minions from dieing while all of your opponents minions do. Great uses of this card include using it when your opponent has an Abomination out that deals 2 damage to ALL minions on death. Use Commanding Shout first, attack and kill the Abomination, which will likely clear out additional defenders, while leaving your minions alive, and then mop up the weakened survivors.

Hearthstone Sample Decks - Warrior

As a Warrior the main deck type to play is an aggressive early game deck. There are additional late game control decks as well, but they require many more hard to get cards.

Warrior Deck - Aggro Deck

This is a good deck to start with as it uses very few rare cards and is a good speed aggro deck. It can be tuned to be even more aggressive with additional rare, epic, and legendary cards later on.

  • Minions (16)
    • 2x Amani Berserker
    • 2x Arathi Weaponsmith
    • 2x Bloodsail Raider
    • 2x Cruel Taskmaster
    • 2x Frothing Berserker
    • 2x Kor'kron Elite
    • 2x Warsong Commander
  • Spells (10)
    • 1x Battle Rage
    • 1x Commanding Shout
    • 2x Inner Rage
    • 2x Slam
    • 2x Shield Block
    • 2x Whirlwind
  • Equipment (4)
    • 2x Arcanite Reaper
    • 2x Fiery War Axe

The idea with this deck is pretty simple, start out fast and keep up the threat level.

You have lots of early game damage possible and even some removal abilities with your minions, spells and weapons. If the game goes long enough that you need cards, you can always use Whirlwind to damage everything you control and then use Battle Rage to pick up a lot of cards to start another aggressive wave of minions.

Best of all, this deck uses only a few rare cards, so is very easy to put together as you are starting out.

Warrior Deck - Artosis's Warrior Deck from BlizzCon 2013

This deck is one of the ones that Artosis used at the Innkeeper's Invitational at BlizzCon 2013. It features many of the same early game cards that the deck above does, but adds some additional late game big hitters, so that if you do not wipe your opponent early you can survive later.

  • Minions (19)
    • 2x Amanai Berserker
    • 2x Arathi Weaponsmith
    • 1x Argent Commander
    • 2x Bloodsail Raider
    • 1x Captian Greenskin
    • 2x Cruel Taskmaster
    • 2x Frothing Berserker
    • 1x Grommash Hellscream
    • 2x Leper Gnome
    • 2x Raging Worgen
    • 2x Warsong Commander
  • Spells (6)
    • 2x Inner Rage
    • 2x Slam
    • 2x Upgrade!
  • Equipment (5)
    • 2x Arcanite Reaper
    • 2x Fiery War Axe
    • 1x Gorehowl

The idea with this deck is again straight forward. Control the early game and keep the board clear as much as possible, and then hit the enemy big in the mid to late game.

Hearthstone Arena Tips - Warrior

Warriors tend to play fast and aggressive in the Arena format, even more so that in the normal constructed format. You should make sure you focus on going out fast and hard against your opponent as much as possible. This is usually an available option due to the number or weapons that a Warrior can get, and the number of minions that a Warrior has access to with charge.

Even though they are best played aggressively, sometimes you will need to play with some defence as well. Luckily, the Warrior class can handle that too, with their class ability keeping them alive past the normal 30 damage that would normally kill a player. When you get unlucky with either drafting for an aggressive play style, or just get a bad draw from your deck, you need to be ready to slow play and keep your armor value high to mitigate damage until you get the cards you need to become aggressive.

Trading cards for the best value is something that needs to be kept in mind with all classes, but is something that a Warrior excels at. Warriors have several weapons available to them, and have the class ability to armor up, which allows them to use 1 card to remove 2 or more, sometimes with no damage to themselves. This can provide a huge card advantage over time. Warriors also have access to several minions that have various buff effects making them better than their cost and thereby trading better. Always keep the trade value of cards in your head and make sure you trade to your advantage. Overtime this will win many Arena battles for you.

Hearthstone Top Arena Cards - Warrior

While the actual game play remains the same between constructed format play and arena play, the actual value and strength of specific cards can change drastically. This is due to the limited pool of cards that each player will have available to them. It is therefore important to understand which cards are of the most value in the Arena when drafting.

When playing in the Arena and drafting your deck, some of the best cards to draft for the Warrior class are as outlined below along with some reasoning. They are listed in alphabetical order.

  • Arathi Weaponsmith - One of my favourite minions, not only do you get a decent minion (3/3 for 4 mana), but you also get a 2/2 weapon out of the deal as well!
  • Arcanite Reaper - This weapon lets you deal big damage to your opponent or a minion, and at 5 mana is a good deal, especially with all the minions that play off of weapon power available.
  • Cruel Taskmaster - This is a really good dual usage card. It can be used to buff your own minions with extra attack, or to kill of weak minions that your opponent summons.
  • Fiery War Axe- A cheap weapon that lets you take out early game minions that the opponent summons.
  • Frothing Berserker - This minion gets stronger as other minions take damage, making it ideal to play just before you attack with your minions in a turn.
  • Grommash Hellscream - A great late game minion that can really stomp down your opponent.
  • Gorehowl - The best weapon a Warrior has access to. If this shows up in your draft sequence you should grab it. The ability to take out several big minions can be huge. Just be careful, as you will be taking damage as you attack them.
  • Kor'kron Elite- A great surprise minion, a 4/3 minion with charge for a fair mana cost. Grab as many as appear in your draft as they are never out of place either early or late game.
  • Warsong Commander - Gives your other cheap minions charge, making your attacks much more sudden and impossible for your opponent to plan for.

You can also find a listing of the general non-class specific cards that are the best to draft in the arena format in these two guides:

Comments on Warriors in Hearthstone

As with any of the classes in Hearthstone there are many different winning strategies. The ideas and decks above are just the start. If you have alternate ideas on decks or methods to use the basic or expert cards for the Warrior class in Hearthstone, please feel free to share them in our comment section below.

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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