This is what the Hearthstone Monk Class Could be

Hearthstone is one of the most popular online card games in the world. If there’s one thing that quite often comes up in fan discussions it’s when Blizzard will add more classes to the game. While initially being quite adamant about not adding new classes to keep the game simple, in recent times, we’ve seen the introduction of the Demon Hunter class. This has led to plenty of fans musing about the inclusion of other Warcraft classes to the popular online CCG.

One of the most popular fan choices is the Monk class.

There are quite a few fan theories and premade content on how a possible Hearthstone Monk Class could play like, including fanmade cards, mechanics and even whole card sets. Blizzard may not have an official Monk class in the works just yet, but it’s fun to theorize about one being added to Hearthstone down the line!

Fanmade Hearthstone Monk Class Mechanics

One of the most prominent HS competitive players, Amaz, put together a concept for what a Hearthstone Monk Class would be like if he were to design it. Apart from picking the obvious hero to represent the Pandaria-based class, Chen Stormstout, Amaz came up with an interesting idea for the class’s Hero Power.

For starters, Amaz envisioned the Monk Class having the game’s first 1-mana Hero Power. This sounds overpowered on the surface but the prominent Hearthstone player balances it out by making it change to one of two other Hero Powers randomly. The initial ability is called Stagger and aside from shifting to one of the other two options, it grants the player 1 point of Armor. This operates essentially as a weaker version of the Warrior skill. The other two possible Hero abilities for Amaz’s Monk Class concept are Tiger Strike, which grants the hero +1 attack, and Soothing Mists, which heals the player for 1 HP.

Amaz also came up with a couple of card mechanics for his Hearthstone Monk Class. The keyword “Focus” would be a unique mechanic utilized by his conceptualized class. A card with “Focus” would be able to activate the text that follows it if the player chooses to spend the remainder of their mana. Mana is generally a common theme in Amaz’s Monk concept with some cards granting temporary mana crystals during the turn they are played or through other activations.

Fanmade Monk Class Set

There are quite a few Hearthstone Monk Class sets made by fans. The one that caught our eye the most, though, was made by a community member at Hearthpwn called In_Your_Phase. Their set takes a different approach compared to Amaz’s, starting with the Hero representing the class as they’ve chosen, Emperor Shaohao instead of Chen, who is more iconic.

In_Your_Phase’s concept introduces cards as an additional resource, not dissimilar to lands in Magic the Gathering. The Hero Power of this theoretical Monk Class costs 2 mana and adds a Chi Sphere card to the player’s hand. This card costs 0 mana and acts as a resource for a variety of mechanics and cards. In_Your_Phase also went as far as to come up with a powered-up version of the Hero Power when Justicar Trueheart enters the board.

The special Chi Sphere resource cards can be used by the Monk Class in a variety of ways. For one, they can affect the strength or effectiveness of cards based on how many Spheres the player has in their hand. An example of this is the card Shang Xi’s Student with a Battlecry that grants the card +1 attach for each Chi Sphere in their hand.

Chi Spheres can also be used as a discard mechanic. Nimble Brew, for instance, enables the player to discard a Chi Sphere in order to restore 2 health to their Hero. Lastly, Fists of Fury discards all Chi Spheres to deal 3 damage to all enemy minions.

Fanmade Monk Class Cards

There are quite a few creative people out there coming up with a variety of ideas and designs for a possible Hearthstone Monk Class. An interesting card concept is based on the class’s Transcendence mechanic in WoW. The card would allow players to restore any minion back to their original state, including their health and attack values.

Renewing Mist takes a page from the WoW incarnation’s healing spec. It heals a target character for 9 health over the course of 3 turns while also enabling the player to draw 2 cards.

Some concepts include weapon cards which seem like a great fit for a martial arts-inspired class like the Monk. The spear card Crystal Spire of Karabor is quite interesting as it boasts 3 attack and 3 durability for 4 mana while restoring 2-4 health to a random minion.

Finally, an application of the class’s Touch of Death ability could come in the form of a card that deals damage based on the health of the minion it destroyed.

Endless Monk Class Ideas

The Hearthstone community is pretty creative as we’ve already seen. It’s quite entertaining to simply look at all the possible Hearthstone Monk Class concepts that the speculative minds of the fans have come up with. Quite a few of these would likely not ever see the light of day due to Blizzard’s Team 5 insisting on keeping the game extremely simple. Some of the mechanics also feel like they would make the Monk an overpowered and overly high-tiered class.

What seems to be lacking from some of these concepts are some of the intriguing female characters we have seen in the Pandaria stories in WoW. Lots of players who are long in the tooth, however, have been begging Blizz to add some more complexity to the game. Based on the ideas we’ve seen in this article, a Hearthstone Monk Class would make an excellent start towards such a direction.

Do you think you have the perfect idea for a Monk class? Share it with us, and someone might even give a few pointers!