Health: 2500
Attack Damage: 80
Attack Speed: 1.0
Attack Range: Melee
Note: The health, damage, and flat talent bonuses of Harth and his minions scale by 4% per level.
Harth Stonebrew is the keeper of the Hearthstone Inn, a tavern where adventurers gather around for drinks, fights, and friendly matches of Hearthstone. But don't be fooled, Harth isn't an ordinary innkeeper, and he doesn't play ordinary games. Magic flows throughout the walls of his inn, and when he takes a vacation to the Nexus, he takes some of that magic with him.
Harth is a unique tank in that he isn't very tanky, his fighting experience is limited to tavern fights after all. But where he lacks in tankiness, he makes up for in sheer versatility and numbers. Harth summons minions from Classic Hearthstone to help him fight, and depending on what minions he brings to the fight and how he uses them, he can provide consistent crowd control, useful healing, and quite a bit of damage to the table.
Strengths:
Minions provide strong point control
Consistent crowd control with Taunt
Can heal and empower allies
High damage output
High Talent versatility
Weaknesses:
Requires time to set up
High Mana consumption
Relatively squishy without his minions
High skill curve
Playstyle:
Harth's playstyle revolves around summoning and micromanaging minions. Harth's minions can provide a variety of different effects, between passive auras and active effects that Harth can trigger with his trait, A Friendly Match. He summons these minions through his W, Stonebrew's Collection, and he cycles through them with an extra active "Draw a Card."
By using the effects of these minions, Harth can respond to many different situations by summoning the proper minion. One major response is a Taunt minion called Sen'jin Shieldmasta. When this minion is targeted with Harth's trait, it Taunts the nearest enemy hero. Harth's minions can serve a variety of purposes, from healing with Voodoo Doctor to buffing Harth's minions with Shattered Sun Cleric. As the game goes on, Harth picks up additional minions through his talents to expand his collection.
While these minions can't move on their own, Harth can move them with his E, Get In Here! This mobility move can move his minions closer to a target location. This ability defines Harth's playstyles. He can either use his minions to lockdown a point with Taunt and bolstering effects, or he can buff his minions before diving in with the goal of dealing massive damage. Regardless of what playstyle Harth takes on, he requires time to setup his minions beforehand, demanding a strategic approach to every fight.
Combat Trait
1
A Friendly Match
Activate to select a Stonebrew Minion, triggering their Battlecry or Taunt. Cooldown: 4 seconds
Primary Abilities
1
Q - Drink Up! - 25 Mana
Slide a round of brew in a targeted direction. If it hits an enemy, it explodes, dealing 100 damage to surrounding enemies and slowing them by 10% for 4 seconds. If it hits an allied hero, they drink the brew to restore 200 Health. Cooldown: 9 seconds
2
W - Stonebrew's Collection
Throw a card on the ground that summons a Stonebrew Minion after .5 seconds. You can cycle through Harth’s minions with Draw a Card. All Stonebrew Minions last 20 seconds and don’t move unless forced to. Cooldown: 4 seconds
3
E - Get In Here! - 50 Mana
Harth dives to the target location, attacking all enemies he passes over. His Stonebrew Minions join in, attacking all enemy heroes they pass over. (Minions have a maximum travel distance to prevent across-the-map ambushes.) Cooldown: 16 seconds
Secondary Abilities
1
1 - Draw a Card
Stonebrew’s Collection currently summons Voodoo Doctor. Activate to cycle to a higher cost minion.
Available minions:
Voodoo Doctor - 25 Mana - 100 Health
Deals 40 damage to the nearest enemy every second, prioritizing heroes. Battlecry: Restore 200 Health to the lowest Health allied hero in range. (Attack and Battlecry Range: 9)
Shattered Sun Cleric - 75 Mana - 200 Health Deals 60 damage to the nearest enemy every second, prioritizing heroes. Battlecry: Increase the damage of all Stonebrew Minions in range by 20, and their Health by 100. (Attack and Battlecry Range: 9)
Sen’jin Shieldmasta - 100 Mana - 500 Health Deals 60 damage to the nearest enemy every second, prioritizing heroes. Taunt: Silence the nearest enemy Hero in range and force them to attack this minion for 1.25 seconds. (Attack and Taunt Range: 3)
Heroic Abilities
1
Home Is Where the Hearth Is - 75 Mana
After 1 second, cast Hearthstone. You are teleported back to where you cast this from 5 seconds later. Cooldown: 120 seconds
2
Tavern Brawl - 75 Mana
Increase the attack speed of all Stonebrew Minions by 50% for 8 seconds. Reset the cooldown of Get In Here! Cooldown: 70 seconds
Tier 1 Talents
Cheers! - Reduce the cooldown of Drink Up! by 3 seconds. Using Drink Up! to heal also heals Harth.
Food Fight! - Harth heals for 35% of attack damage he deals. Basic Attacks reduce the cooldown of Get In Here! by .75 seconds.
Gather Around Friends! - Harth gains 10 Armor for each nearby Stonebrew Minion, up to 30.
Tier 4 Talents - Common Minions
Wisp - Wisp is added to Stonebrew
Tier 7 Talents
Harth
Tier 10 Talents - Heroic Abilities
Home Is Where the Hearth Is - 120 Second Cooldown - 75 Mana
After 1 second, cast Hearthstone. You are teleported back to where you cast this from 5 seconds later.
Tavern Brawl - 70 Second Cooldown - 75 Mana
Increase the attack speed of all Stonebrew Minions by 50% for 8 seconds. Reset the cooldown of Get In Here!
Tier 13 Talents - Rare Minions
Sunfury Protector - Sunfury Protector is added to Stonebrew
Tier 16 Talents - Epic Weapons
Sword of Justice - Whenever you summon a Stonebrew Minion, increase its damage by 20 and its Health by 100.
Doomhammer - Increase Harth
Tier 20 Talents - Legendary Minions
Lorewalker Cho - Home Is Where The Hearth Is can be used on any allied hero. Lorewalker Cho is added to Stonebrew
Custom Hero Contest Review:
This is a concept that I think hits some strong notes, but is a bit jumbled up, keeping it from reaching its potential.
Trait
Since the trait is mostly just a way to activate the effect the effects of a summon, there's not much that can be said here. I think it's unecessary to say "battlecry or taunt", since they're functionally the same thing in this context.
Q
This is one of two movesets in the contest that has a tank that grants heals. This... is not something any tank should really be doing. Granting shields would be one thing, but tanks shouldn't grant heals in their base kit. Talents? Sure. But it's best to avoid crossing class identities. Partially because it's rather unfun in QM when one team gets a core class role fulfilled and another doesn't, and partially because of what's happened here: Your Harth Stonebrew is not a tank. Tanks, above all, need to protect their team, usually through damage negation or crowd control. This moveset, however, can only provide protection by healing. ie. he's a healer. As a healer's ability, it's fine. Up the Slow to something more substantial like 30%, and you're in business.
W
So first thing's first: The idea to have a summoner whose skill expression comes from "hmmm, gotta pick the right summon for the job" is a pretty good one. You avoid healthbar spam, and the player's decisions can sway the fight in meaningful ways. I also really like that there's an active component to using the ability, so after placing a summon, there's a second step that the player has a direct role in choosing the timing of.
However, I have two core issues with this design: The control, and the cadence.
For control, there's this concept in game design called 'Ready-to-Hand', basically what this means is that, when we're playing a game, we eventually become so innate at what we're doing that we stop looking at the ability bars and the keys we're pressing, we just become able to perform the action we want without thinking about it. In this design, the need to hit [1] a few times to select a minion breaks this flow. I think the easy change though is to make Trait the summon button. You press trait, and then, like Valeera, your abilities are replaced with 3 summon options.
For cadence, it's simply a matter of this design encouraging Harth to just spam the move every 4 seconds. Instead of having a major impact when you need it, you just sort of have a constant minor impact, which, in this case, devolves quickly into something mindless. That said, I think there is a strong hero identity you want here where Harth is summoning more than one minion. To that end, you can give it 2-3 charges (or for Harth's summons to be the only part of his kit that consume a resource, ala Gazlowe, but with different 'prices'). You might cast them all early and be left without them later when you need them, or spread them out so there's always one at hand.
I also think it's worth noting that the selection could stand to be more varied. Having a summon that can taunt nearby enemies? It's workable (though the base range of the W would need to be quite low), but it should maybe passively slow instead of deal damage, so it stands out. The heal one? That's fine if you're making a healer. The attack one? Mm, that one suffers a bit from only fitting into the summon-spam playstyle. I also think all the active effects should be AoEs, so the player is the one in control.
E
This one's just a bit weird, and fits into how this Harth has a confused identity. This one fits more into a Melee Assassin or Bruiser role. Being able to relocate minions is something, since these ones are immobile, but it doesn't fit the hero's overall identity. I'd say my overall change would probably be to make E the 'pick a minion, it activates its battlecry' effect, since E abilities are often 'payoff' abilities.
R1
It's interesting enough. A heal+cleanse, that telegraphs to the enemy team where you'll be in five seconds? It could work. Not sure what the cooldown would be, or if it needs to send you to the Hall of Storms specifically, but the idea has merit. Heck, we've seen it on Tracer.
R2
This one... just sort of exacerbates the 'minion spam' issues of the moveset. The 'critical moment' approach to adding more skill expression to your summons works in principle, though.
Overall, I think there is a really solid moveset concept here, it just needs to find its feet. Right now, you have a really weird healer who spawns too many minions. The basic idea of "pick a minion, then choose when it activates" works, it's just lacking a bit in execution.
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This is a concept that I think hits some strong notes, but is a bit jumbled up, keeping it from reaching its potential.
Trait
Since the trait is mostly just a way to activate the effect the effects of a summon, there's not much that can be said here. I think it's unecessary to say "battlecry or taunt", since they're functionally the same thing in this context.
Q
This is one of two movesets in the contest that has a tank that grants heals. This... is not something any tank should really be doing. Granting shields would be one thing, but tanks shouldn't grant heals in their base kit. Talents? Sure. But it's best to avoid crossing class identities. Partially because it's rather unfun in QM when one team gets a core class role fulfilled and another doesn't, and partially because of what's happened here: Your Harth Stonebrew is not a tank. Tanks, above all, need to protect their team, usually through damage negation or crowd control. This moveset, however, can only provide protection by healing. ie. he's a healer. As a healer's ability, it's fine. Up the Slow to something more substantial like 30%, and you're in business.
W
So first thing's first: The idea to have a summoner whose skill expression comes from "hmmm, gotta pick the right summon for the job" is a pretty good one. You avoid healthbar spam, and the player's decisions can sway the fight in meaningful ways. I also really like that there's an active component to using the ability, so after placing a summon, there's a second step that the player has a direct role in choosing the timing of.
However, I have two core issues with this design: The control, and the cadence.
For control, there's this concept in game design called 'Ready-to-Hand', basically what this means is that, when we're playing a game, we eventually become so innate at what we're doing that we stop looking at the ability bars and the keys we're pressing, we just become able to perform the action we want without thinking about it. In this design, the need to hit [1] a few times to select a minion breaks this flow. I think the easy change though is to make Trait the summon button. You press trait, and then, like Valeera, your abilities are replaced with 3 summon options.
For cadence, it's simply a matter of this design encouraging Harth to just spam the move every 4 seconds. Instead of having a major impact when you need it, you just sort of have a constant minor impact, which, in this case, devolves quickly into something mindless. That said, I think there is a strong hero identity you want here where Harth is summoning more than one minion. To that end, you can give it 2-3 charges (or for Harth's summons to be the only part of his kit that consume a resource, ala Gazlowe, but with different 'prices'). You might cast them all early and be left without them later when you need them, or spread them out so there's always one at hand.
I also think it's worth noting that the selection could stand to be more varied. Having a summon that can taunt nearby enemies? It's workable (though the base range of the W would need to be quite low), but it should maybe passively slow instead of deal damage, so it stands out. The heal one? That's fine if you're making a healer. The attack one? Mm, that one suffers a bit from only fitting into the summon-spam playstyle. I also think all the active effects should be AoEs, so the player is the one in control.
E
This one's just a bit weird, and fits into how this Harth has a confused identity. This one fits more into a Melee Assassin or Bruiser role. Being able to relocate minions is something, since these ones are immobile, but it doesn't fit the hero's overall identity. I'd say my overall change would probably be to make E the 'pick a minion, it activates its battlecry' effect, since E abilities are often 'payoff' abilities.
R1
It's interesting enough. A heal+cleanse, that telegraphs to the enemy team where you'll be in five seconds? It could work. Not sure what the cooldown would be, or if it needs to send you to the Hall of Storms specifically, but the idea has merit. Heck, we've seen it on Tracer.
R2
This one... just sort of exacerbates the 'minion spam' issues of the moveset. The 'critical moment' approach to adding more skill expression to your summons works in principle, though.
Overall, I think there is a really solid moveset concept here, it just needs to find its feet. Right now, you have a really weird healer who spawns too many minions. The basic idea of "pick a minion, then choose when it activates" works, it's just lacking a bit in execution.