As we prepare for the launch of Festival of Legends, it seemed like Priest could use a tune up with this Core Set update. Our process for this type of tune up was to look at the class’s core mechanics, adjust those core mechanics to promote play patterns we like, cut support for play patterns that aren’t working, and re-align themes and mechanics going forward.

When we think about the core Priest fantasy, the first thing that comes to mind is healing. But, traditionally, healing is not as strong or flexible as other class’s core fantasies, like damage or even Armor. Our first decision was whether we wanted to abandon that identity or lean into it and make it better. We decided that Priests healing is so iconic that we owed it to Priest’s fans to make healing work.

Just printing bigger heal effects doesn’t change the situational nature of healing and risks those effects becoming burn through cards like Embrace the Shadow. We also tested adjustments to Priest’s Hero Power, and some of those experiments were interesting, but Hero Powers are so engrained in the game that there’s a high cost to changing them—and a lot more certainty required before making that call.

So, instead, we created a new keyword to make healing more flexible and rewarding: Overheal. Cards with Overheal have an effect that is triggered when they are healed over their max health. Overheal is a new evergreen class mechanic, like Combo is for Rogue, meaning that you should expect to see Overheal cards throughout the year, and for years to come. It also means that we will continue printing healing cards for Priest, including some cards that are intended to interact with the new Overheal keyword.

Of course, healing isn’t the only Priest identity. Aggro Priest has been pretty good recently, but it has also traditionally been a little all over the map. We’re looking to tighten that identity up a bit by adding Darkbishop Benedictus to Core in order to keep the Shadow identity consistent. We’re also adding Undead as a core part of the Priest identity going forward, like how Beasts are a core part of Hunter identity.

We’re also going to be more deliberate in considering which of Priest’s traditional mechanics we’re going to highlight, and how. Priest has had an issue where some of its mechanics have some of the biggest gaps between what’s fun to play and what’s fun to play against. For example, making future resurrection spells only resurrect Undead minions would let us continue printing those powerful and flashy effects, but make them more predictable and less frustrating to play against.

What’s important to remember is that this is just a tune-up, not a complete rework or a reimaging. We plan to monitor how these adjustments are received and do more work later if more is needed. We look forward to hearing how these changes feel to play with and against.

These types of tune ups are the sort of thing we’re hoping to be able to do more frequently in the future. They are less about one-time massive shakeups and more about continuous tuning over time to make Hearthstone better. These tune ups allow us to tackle problems that aren’t specific to a particular set, but to a class more generally, like when a core identity needs some adjustment or when set A isn’t meshing well with set B. We’ve set the stage for a look at Paladin, for instance, by trying out the class without any Secrets in this Core Set. We plan to check in on that adjustment and see about further tuning for the class later this year.