Info
Spell Damage is an ability A selection of minions, each with its own ability. From left to right: Divine Shield, Deathrattle, a triggered effect, and Spell Damage. Abilities are special effects, powers, or behaviors found on cards. For spell cards, which boosts the overall damage Damage in Hearthstone is a particular infliction of harm upon heroes or minions, measured by a number which is deducted from their Health and/or Armor (if they have any). If a character s Health is reduced of spells by the listed amount. Spell Damage does not increase healing Healing is the restoration of Health to a damaged character. Healing a character will increase their Health by the stated amount, up to but not beyond their current maximum Health. Healing effects or Restore Health done by spells, and does not increase damage dealt from non-spell source such as Hero Powers Anduin Wrynn with the basic priest Hero Power Lesser Heal A Hero Power is a special ability displayed to the right of each hero s portrait. Usually Hero Powers can be used once per turn and , Deathrattles A Loot Hoarder displaying the Deathrattle icon Deathrattle is an ability where the stated effect occurs when the minion or weapon is destroyed. Cards with Deathrattle appear with a skull and crossbones when in play. or Battlecries Battlecry is an ability where a particular effect activates when the card with the Battlecry is played directly from the hand. Although mostly limited to minions, some weapons also have Battlecries. Activation of Battlecries are . Sources of Spell Damage are indicated by purple sparkles around their portaits.
Strategy
Spell Damage is a valuable quality for classes which use damaging spells. The mage, rogue and shaman classes are good examples, but every class has damaging spells and can therefore benefit from it. Spell Damage is especially important to control decks such as Freeze Mage and Miracle Rogue, as well as spell-related aggro decks such as Aggro Shaman.
Like most card text effects, Spell Damage takes effect as soon as the related minion comes into play. This makes order of play very important, and allows you to quickly unload a flurry of buffed attacks in one turn, if you have the mana to spare. This is particularly possible with low mana cost minions such as Kobold Geomancer. Even if your opponent removes your minion the next turn, you will still have gotten some use from them.
Note that while many varieties of Spell Damage minion exist, almost all of them offer the same bonus: Spell Damage +1. This means the difference between a Dalaran Mage and an Archmage (and the justification for the extra mana cost) lies only in Attack and Health values, not in their actual ability to boost spell damage. This can make low-cost Spell Damage minions an appealing choice, allowing you to rapidly and cheaply put them into play, ideally in immediate combination with some damaging spells.
Players will generally want to protect their Spell Damage minions, and may not wish to summon them until they have a sturdy Taunt in place, although this does not of course protect them from spells and other effects. Conversely, attacking players will often want to dispose of Spell Damage minions as quickly as possible, before their owner can put their bonus damage to good use.
This can make Spell Damage minions good lures for removal, as well as neutralisation through Silences and transform effects. Spell Damage minions often function as soft taunts, drawing the priority fire of your opponent while other targets are ignored. In less than ideal circumstances, this is as good a use of a Spell Damage minion as any, especially if you have other Spell Damage minions on the way, have no spells in your hand, or have already used most of those in your deck.
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Notes
- Spell Damage increases the damage dealt by any spell Fireball, a simple mage spell. It costs 4 mana, dealing 6 damage to a chosen target. Spell cards are cards that can be played to trigger a one time effect or ability, described in the , with only a few exceptions:
- Spell Damage has no effect on spells like Betrayal Betrayal Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Rogue Rarity: Common Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Attack-related, Positional effect Force an enemy minion to deal its damage to the minions next to it.Everyone has a price. which cause characters to do damage, since the targeted minion is considered the source of the damage, not the spell.
- In-hand effects like Cursed! Cursed! Set: The League of Explorers Type: Spell Class: Warlock Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: In-hand effect, Triggered effect While this is in your hand, take 2 damage at the start of your turn.See that are spells are not affected by either player`s Spell Damage.
- On-draw effects that are spells (such as Ancient Curse Ancient Curse Set: The League of Explorers Type: Spell Cost: 0 Abilities: Deal damage, Draw cards Tags: On-draw effect When you draw this, take 7 damage and draw a card.See this card on Hearthpwn data and Burrowing Mine Burrowing Mine Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Spell Class: Warrior Cost: 0 Abilities: Deal damage, Draw cards Tags: On-draw effect When you draw this, it explodes. You take 10 damage and draw a card.See this ) are not affected by either player`s Spell Damage.
- Be that as it may, on-discard effects like Fist of Jaraxxus Fist of Jaraxxus Set: The Grand Tournament Type: Spell Class: Warlock Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Discard-related, On-discard effect, Random When you play or discard this, deal 4 damage to a random do benefit from Spell Damage bonuses.
- Spell Damage boosts the damage dealt by healing Healing is the restoration of Health to a damaged character. Healing a character will increase their Health by the stated amount, up to but not beyond their current maximum Health. Healing effects or Restore Health spells affected by Auchenai Soulpriest Auchenai Soulpriest Set: Classic Type: Minion Class: Priest Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Attack: 3 Health: 5 Abilities: Modify Hero Power Tags: Damage-related, Healing-related, Hero Power-related, Ongoing effect Your cards and powers that restore Health now and Embrace the Shadow Embrace the Shadow Set: Whispers of the Old Gods Type: Spell Class: Priest Rarity: Epic Cost: 2 Abilities: Modify Hero Power Tags: Damage-related, Healing-related, Hero Power-related, Ongoing effect This turn, your healing effects deal damage , since they are turned into spells with damaging effects.
- Spell Damage boosts damaging Secrets A Secret is a spell card that is cast normally but has a delayed, hidden effect, which only takes place when a specific event occurs. When a Secret is played, a Secret icon appears on (such as Eye for an Eye Eye for an Eye Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Paladin Rarity: Common Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage, Secret Tags: Damage-related, Triggered effect Secret: When your hero takes damage, deal that much damage to the enemy and Explosive Trap Explosive Trap Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Hunter Rarity: Common Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage, Secret Tags: Area of effect, Combat-related, Triggered effect Secret: When your hero is attacked, deal 2 damage to all enemies.It ), since they are spells.
- Spell Damage boosts the damage dealt by spells that deal variable amounts of damage (such as Blade Flurry Blade Flurry Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Rogue Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Abilities: Deal damage, Destroy Tags: Area of effect, Attack-related, Weapon-related Destroy your weapon and deal its damage to all enemy minions."Look, it s not and Shield Slam Shield Slam Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Warrior Rarity: Epic Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Armor-related Deal 1 damage to a minion for each Armor you have."What is a better weapon? The sharp one , whose base damage is determined by some other source). For instance, if a player has Spell Damage +2 and Holy Wrath Holy Wrath Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Paladin Rarity: Rare Cost: 5 Abilities: Deal damage, Draw cards Tags: Cost-related Draw a card and deal damage equal to its cost.C mon Molten Giant!!See this card on Hearthpwn draws a card that costs 3 mana, Holy Wrath will deal 5 damage to its target.
- Spell Damage has no effect on healing spells nor on damaging effects that are not spells (like Hero Powers Anduin Wrynn with the basic priest Hero Power Lesser Heal A Hero Power is a special ability displayed to the right of each hero s portrait. Usually Hero Powers can be used once per turn and , Deathrattles A Loot Hoarder displaying the Deathrattle icon Deathrattle is an ability where the stated effect occurs when the minion or weapon is destroyed. Cards with Deathrattle appear with a skull and crossbones when in play. , Battlecries Battlecry is an ability where a particular effect activates when the card with the Battlecry is played directly from the hand. Although mostly limited to minions, some weapons also have Battlecries. Activation of Battlecries are , Fatigue The message displayed upon attempting to draw a card after reaching Fatigue. Fatigue is a game mechanic that deals increasing damage to players who have already drawn all of the cards in their deck, whenever , Cho`gall Cho gall Set: Whispers of the Old Gods Type: Minion Class: Warlock Rarity: Legendary Cost: 7 Attack: 7 Health: 7 Abilities: Battlecry, Cost-related, Deal damage, Modify cost Tags: Spell-related Battlecry: The next spell you cast this `s effect, triggered effects The lightning bolt icon, explicitly indicating a triggered effect Triggered effects are effects that activate in response to specific events. Triggered effects may belong to minions, weapons or spells (in the form of Secrets), as and combat damage).
- Multiple instances of Spell Damage stack. In particular, Spell Damage granted by enchantments An enchantment, or buff or debuff, is a special effect gained by a minion. Enchantments may be generated by spells, minion texts or abilities such as Battlecries, or other sources, may be temporary or permanent, will stack with any existing Spell Damage on the buffed minions.
- Being an additive bonus, Spell Damage is applied before being multiplied by multiplicative bonuses like Prophet Velen Prophet Velen Set: Classic Type: Minion Class: Priest Rarity: Legendary Cost: 7 Attack: 7 Health: 7 Abilities: Modify Hero Power Tags: Damage-related, Healing-related, Hero Power-related, Ongoing effect Double the damage and healing of your spells .
- Spell Damage has always the most up-to-date value: its value updates constantly, and not only when Auras are updated.
- For any given spell, Spell Damage boosts either the total damage output or the damage per hit by the given amount, depending on the type of targeting and the way damage is distributed. The general rule is, when numbers printed on the card describe the amount of damage, each point of Spell Damage increases each of those numbers by 1, and the spell acts accordingly. More precisely:
- Spells that deal a certain amount of damage randomly split among all characters with a given characteristic ( Arcane Missiles Arcane Missiles Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Mage Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Random Deal 3 damage randomly split among all enemies.You d think you d be able to control your missiles a little better since , Spreading Madness Spreading Madness Set: Whispers of the Old Gods Type: Spell Class: Warlock Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Random Deal 9 damage randomly split among ALL charactersMost citizens of Darkshire wear those surgical , Avenging Wrath Avenging Wrath Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Paladin Rarity: Epic Cost: 6 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Random Deal 8 damage randomly split among all enemies.Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!See this card on , Timepiece of Horror Timepiece of Horror Set: The League of Explorers Type: Spell Cost: 10 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Random Deal 10 damage randomly split among all enemies.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Timepiece of Horror is ) have their total damage increased by Spell Damage: the spell will thus shoot an increased number of missiles, but each one will still deal 1 damage.
- Arcane Blast Arcane Blast Set: The Grand Tournament Type: Spell Class: Mage Rarity: Epic Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Spell Damage-related Deal 2 damage to a minion. This spell gets double bonus from Spell Damage.Now with `s damage in increased by twice the total Spell Damage bonus of its caster.
- All other spells that deal damage to one or more characters have the damage dealt to each target increased by their caster`s total Spell Damage bonus. This includes single-target spells (for instance, with Spell Damage +2 Fireball Fireball Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Mage Cost: 4 Abilities: Deal damage Deal 6 damage.This spell is useful for burning things. If you re looking for spells that toast things, or just warm them a little, will del 8 damage), area of effect Area of effect (AoE) is the term for an effect which affects all characters of the specified type. Common targets for AoEs include all enemy minions, all minions, and all characters. AoE is defined in spells (for instance, with Spell Damage +1 Swipe Swipe Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Druid Cost: 4 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Area of effect Deal 4 damage to an enemy and 1 damage to all other enemies.When a bear rears back and extends will do 5 damage to its target and 2 damage to all other enemies) and spells that damage "multiple targets" (such as Cleave Cleave Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Warrior Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Random Deal 2 damage to two random enemy minions.Hey you two…could you stand next to each other for a second…See this card and Explosive Shot Explosive Shot Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Hunter Rarity: Rare Cost: 5 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Positional effect Deal 5 damage to a minion and 2 damage to adjacent ones.Pull the pin, count to 5, ) or that do a base amount of damage repeated a variable number of times (like Bouncing Blade Bouncing Blade Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Spell Class: Warrior Rarity: Epic Cost: 3 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Random Deal 1 damage to a random minion. Repeat until a minion dies.Only goblins would think this and Greater Arcane Missiles)
- Sources of Spell Damage are indicated by purple sparkles. This includes, as long as a Jungle Moonkin is in play, both heroes as well as the Jungle Moonkin itself.
- For additional details, see Damage#Advanced rules.
- Spell Damage dynamically modifies the numbers printed on the text of eligible spell cards in your hand accordingly (for instance, with Spell Damage +2 the text of a Fireball Fireball Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Mage Cost: 4 Abilities: Deal damage Deal 6 damage.This spell is useful for burning things. If you re looking for spells that toast things, or just warm them a little, card in your hand will read "Deal *8* damage.").
Trivia
- Sources of Spell Damage are usually minions, but Jungle Moonkin makes both heroes (as well as himself) sources of Spell Damage.
- Most sources of Spell Damage have "Spell Damage +1": exceptions are Jungle Moonkin and Evolved Kobold with "Spell Damage +2", and Malygos with "Spell Damage +5".
- The developers have tried having cards that decreased the opponent`s Spell Damage, but found that it was too confusing in practice.
Cards with Spell Damage
Name / Desc | Rarity | Type | Subtype | Class | Cost | Atk | HP | Description | |||||||||||
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Wrath of Air Totem Wrath of Air Totem Set: Basic Type: Minion Subtype: Totem Class: Shaman Cost: 1 Attack: 0 Health: 2 Abilities: Spell Damage Spell Damage +1See this card on Hearthpwn data page] For the option provided by | Free | Minion | Totem | Shaman | 1 | 0 | 2 | Spell Damage +1 | |||||||||||
Archmage | Common | Minion | Any | 6 | 4 | 7 | Spell Damage +1You earn the title of Archmage when you can destroy anyone who calls you on it. | ||||||||||||
Dalaran Mage | Common | Minion | Any | 3 | 1 | 4 | Spell Damage +1You don`t see a lot of Dalaran warriors. | ||||||||||||
Evolved Kobold | Common | Minion | Any | 4 | 2 | 2 | Spell Damage +2You no take tentacle! | ||||||||||||
Kobold Geomancer | Common | Minion | Any | 2 | 2 | 2 | Spell Damage +1In the old days, Kobolds were the finest candle merchants in the land. Then they got pushed too far... | ||||||||||||
Ogre Magi | Common | Minion | Any | 4 | 4 | 4 | Spell Damage +1Training Ogres in the art of spellcasting is a questionable decision. | ||||||||||||
Street Trickster | Common | Minion | Demon | Any | 3 | 0 | 7 | Spell Damage +1His first trick: making your wallet disappear! | |||||||||||
Ancient Mage | Rare | Minion | Any | 4 | 2 | 5 | Battlecry: Give adjacent minions Spell Damage +1.Sometimes he forgets and just wanders into someone else`s game. | ||||||||||||
Cult Sorcerer | Rare | Minion | Mage | 2 | 3 | 2 | Spell Damage +1 After you cast a spell, give your C`Thun +1/+1 (wherever it is).No matter how many times we tell her not to, she keeps feeding C`Thun scraps under the table. | ||||||||||||
Bloodmage Thalnos | Legendary | Minion | Any | 2 | 1 | 1 | Spell Damage +1. Deathrattle: Draw a card.He`s in charge of the Annual Scarlet Monastery Blood Drive! | ||||||||||||
Malygos | Legendary | Minion | Dragon | Any | 9 | 4 | 12 | Spell Damage +5Malygos hates it when mortals use magic. He gets so mad! | |||||||||||
Showing all 11 cards |
Wild format
- This section contains information exclusive to Wild format.
Name / Desc | Rarity | Type | Subtype | Class | Cost | Atk | HP | Description | |||||||||||
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Arcane Blast Arcane Blast Set: The Grand Tournament Type: Spell Class: Mage Rarity: Epic Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Spell Damage-related Deal 2 damage to a minion. This spell gets double bonus from Spell Damage.Now with | Epic | Spell | Mage | 1 | Deal 2 damage to a minion. This spell gets double bonus from Spell Damage.Now with 100% more blast! | ||||||||||||||
Master of Ceremonies | Epic | Minion | Any | 3 | 4 | 2 | Battlecry: If you have a minion with Spell Damage, gain +2/+2.Goes by "MC ElfyElf". | ||||||||||||
Showing all 2 cards |
Related cards
Name / Desc | Rarity | Type | Subtype | Class | Cost | Atk | HP | Description | |||||||||||
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Spirit Claws | Common | Weapon | Shaman | 2 | 1 | 3 | Has +2 Attack while you have Spell Damage.They`ll be MUCH easier to use once they add the spirit thumb. | ||||||||||||
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