Hearthstone, the deck-building phenomenon by Blizzard, sees continuous success and support among its fans.
With the introduction of patch 19, the game has experienced continuous changes. These intend to enhance the gaming experience by balancing the existing meta.
There’s a lot to unpack here if you’re looking to take Hearthstone Arena seriously in competitive, ranked matches.
To ease this, we’ve compiled a tier list that ranks the classes (deck builds) from best to worst.
Each class is unique, but certain builds have an objective advantage over the others. A description and overview of the best cards in each class are also provided to help you further.
Note: This is a tier list for the Arena game mode of Hearthstone. We’ve made a separate tier list for the Battlegrounds game mode, which you can find here.
Table of ContentsShow
S-Tier
High win rates in competitive play and ranked matches. Decks can be effective at any stage of a match, lessening possible pitfalls for players of varying play styles.
| Class | Notable Cards | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Warlock | Demonic Assault Fire breather Entitled Customer Ring Matron Cascading Disaster Lord Godfrey | The Warlock class is hard to use because of its mechanics that require immense strategy in every match. It’s used in slow or fast-paced gameplay to take advantage of its Hero Powers. Learning how to play this class will truly make you an unstoppable force. The best deck build for Warlock is the zoo warlock or zoolock build. It’s an aggressive deck, designed to flood the board with cheap minions to gain control. |
A-Tier
A-Tier classes are not as overpowered as S-Tier ones, but they can easily close that gap with experience and skill.
| Class | Notable Cards | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Demon Hunter | Venomous Scorpid Illidari Inquisitor Expendable Performers Ysera the Dreamer Alexstrasza the Life-Binder | The Demon Hunter deck is perfect for an aggressive play style right from the start of the match. It aims to overwhelm the opponent quickly before they can even get steady footing. The Demon Hunter deck does this by capitalizing on fast and powerful burst damage. Countering the Demon Hunter is a case of controlling its hero units and limiting the weapon cards they can use. Additionally, this deck has a hard time dealing with large minions with high HP. |
| Warrior | Sword Eater Outrider’s Axe Livewire Lance Venomous Scorpid Dragon Roar Deathwing the Destroyer | A quick look at Warrior decks might make you think to play aggressively. The best players, however, know that the strength of Warrior class lies in control tactics. The key to success using Warrior is to build your deck up for a late-game push. Pirate decks are built for this exact purpose, to make you unstoppable towards the late game. |
| Paladin | Seedcloud Buckler Venomous Scorpid Wrapped Golem Hammer of the Naaru Truesilver Champion | The Paladin’s decks fit perfectly with an aggressive play style. You can build a powerful setup quickly and with minimal effort. Dragon synergies still constitute a chunk of the meta, so Paladin thrives off that. Low cost, common units like Truesilver Champion also get the job done most of the time. The Paladin class is very easy to pick up for beginners, who will see high success as they go on more matches. |
B-Tier
These classes are still part of Hearthstone’s meta. They need a few adjustments to work in optimal condition, but otherwise, they’re solid decks all around.
| Class | Notable Cards | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Shaman | Fire Elemental Venomous Scorpid Hex Earth Revenant Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer Tiny Toys Ysera the Dreamer Varian, King of Stormwind | The Shaman needs to play aggressive, but you won’t reap the rewards until after several turns. It has powerful burst damage when set up correctly, but sometimes falters against experienced players. |
| Hunter | Desert Spear Baited Arrow Pack Kodo Venomstrike Bow Imported Tarantula Rats of Extraordinary Size Rinling’s Rifle | The Hunter shines due to its excellent value-resources tradeoff. Like Paladin, you could go very far with little resources when using a Hunter deck. Similarly, you can see your aggressive plays rewarded because of Hunter’s great hero powers. The thing that holds Hunter back from a higher tier is its lack of late-game options. In tight matches, the Hunter deck is far from a sure win. |
C-Tier
These classes won’t blow you away, but they’re still solid picks if you know what you’re doing.
| Class | Notable Cards | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mage | Firework Elemental Fire Sale Reckless Apprentice Grand Finale Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron Flamestrike | The Mage class focuses on powerful attacks for offense and several tricks for defense. They’re not as overpowering as other offensive classes, but they make up for it with great utility and match control. A Highlander deck setup is considered the best arsenal for the Mage class right now. |
| Druid | Oasis Surger Arbor Up Park Panther Druid of the Plains Greybough | The Druid class best suits players who want consistently good performance throughout the match. While not having the same burst as more aggressive classes, Druid shines in its speed and mana pool accumulation. Treant and Guardian Druid decks are the optimal ways to use the class. Try out the Druid class if you’re looking for consistency with a bit of versatility sprinkled on. |
F-Tier
These are the worst classes to use in Hearthstone given the current meta. While every class in Hearthstone is viable with enough mastery, F-tiers are inherently disadvantaged from the other tiers.
| Class | Notable Cards | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rogue | Pharaoh Cat Oil Rig Ambusher SI:7 Agent Enthusiastic Banker Silas Darkmoon | Rogue is fun to play because of how it controls the early game. Once the match draws on, Rogue relies on setting up combos and synergies to gain an advantage. The main downside to this is that your success depends largely on how well you dominate the early game and how proficient you are at setting up your combos. Since the initial release of the game, the Miracle deck is still the number one go-to for the Rogue class. |
| Priest | Holy Nova Shadow Word: Death Elekk Mount Blood of G’huun Serena Bloodfeather | The Priest is considered the most annoying class to play against because of its resurrection mechanics and controlling style of play. Outside of all the healing, the Priest struggles to finish off matches due to its poor offense and even worse utility. |
