Beast Hunter plays more like a combo deck or Miracle rogue than a typical midrange deck IMO. There are very few proactive threats you just want to plonk on the board on turns 3-6, which is the defining feature of traditional midrange, and most of the deck consists of very efficient reactive cards that allow you to generate tempo off of your opponents plays: Unleash the hounds, unleash the beast, etc.
It's a bit of a hole in the hearthstone lexicon that there's no better term for decks that present big power spikes in the mid game that aren't just big efficient proactive minions. Miracle rogue used to be the only deck like this but now we have several. I'd consider conjurer mage and miracle shaman to fall into this same combo-midrange category.
The logic behind it goes something like this: unless the game goes to fatigue, you won't see every card in your deck. That being the case, would you rather draw the card you need Right Now, well, right now, or two turns later? Burning cards from the deck rarely matters more than finding the right answer, setting up a combo or curving out. One way to think about burnt cards is to pretend they were actually the bottom card of the deck.
That said, I'm probably not the best Tracking advocate, I've never quite been able to overcome the FeelsBadMan aspect of tracking over juicy cards, doubly so when you know you're going to cast Zul'jin and burn even more value. But you have to realise this is more of an emotional attachment than a logical response.
The way I see it, cheesing with Sound the Bells is just like including a "win the game" card in your deck. You're still going to have to build a deck that can win if you don't draw that one card, but every time you do draw it, it's GG, so it substantively improves your chances of beating the act.
You can also use 'You're all fired" to keep thinning the deck to give yourself better odds of drawing the bells, because it doesn't really matter what minion you're buffing to infinite/infinite*2.
I'm not really bothered by it. Yes, it makes the last fights of the final act a bit more repetitive, but also has that "Final boss and his lieutenants" vibe. I suppose they could have randomised the sequence in which Kalec, Vargoth and Norroa appear, and maybe added a fourth lieutenant to the pool so there'd always be 1 you don't have to face, but it's not something I really feel that strongly about.
On the other hand, what really bugs me is the sameness of all the 5 acts. The twists aren't impactful enough and too many bosses show up in several acts, making them completely generic. Kizi, Linzi, Awilo, Akazamzarak and most others don't feel special when you encounter them because they're in almost every act. The only act that really feels different based on the encounters is the Sewers, which feature a bunch of bosses unique to that act like Chomper, Dancin' Daryl and the Rat King.
Honestly it feels like they took three or four acts worth of content and spread it out over five acts.
Honestly Hearthstone isn't terribly clear and consistent on these things. The way echo works, buffs (+1/+1, mana discounts, etc) aren't copied onto the echoes, those still cast the way they were printed.
*However*, in the new single player adventure, you can buff the stats or reduce the cost of cards in the tavern, and the game treats these altered cards as though they were printed that way. The engine doesn't treat these as buffs, silencing them doesn't shrink them back to normal. So if you reduce the cost of Sn1p-Sn4p to zero using 'Take a chance', then you can cast infinite zero cost snip snaps. If you give it +2/+2 all the echoes will also be 4/5s, etc.
How did you discount it? If it was an ongoing effect like Summoning Portal or Corpsewidow then the echoes should be discounted as well. However, it it's a static discount like Galvanizer then it shouldn't affect the echo cost.
Well sure, but the old gods were some of the swingiest, most high-impact minions around back when they were released. Since then we've had Death Knights, 'normal' hero cards, Genn and Baku and more. I think players would be underwhelmed if Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were printed as just big minions with some powerful battlecry.
I think the power level that would feel appropriate for these characters can't be printed in normal hearthstone, but toning it down just to have them as playable cards would do them a disservice as some of the greatest arch-villains in the warcraft universe, if that makes sense. For that same reason i don't think you could ever print a Sargeras card. It'd have to read something like: "Battlecry: You win the game. Delete your opponent's battlenet account."
I really like Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, but they seem impossible to implement in a satisfying way as normal HS cards. They'd almost certainly have to be hero cards that put Jaraxxus, the OG hero card, to shame, in order to reflect their godlike power in the warcraft universe. And I don't see that happening.
They might be cool as final bosses in single player content or some future co-op brawl though. Or maybe you could have a series of busted legendary spells based around their machinations. After all, for all their might most of their meddling in Azeroth's affairs was indirect.
That isn’t entirely a dealbreaker, Khadgar was a portrait before he was a card after all
Good point. I guess Medivh exists as a card and a portrait as well. I wonder if that means we might see some of the standard portrait characters as cards as well? I'd love to see Thrall or Gul'dan as playable minions, but at the same time it'd be pretty weird to say control a Thrall as Shaman. That probably wasn't as much of a consideration for alt portraits appearing as minions.
^ Any act with any class is easy with Robes of Gaudiness. There's a reason they had to reduce its drop rate.
Pretty much the only encounter where you might run into trouble while wearing Robes is Galliwix, but even then giving him 9 cost cards while you're playing them for four allows you to beat the tar out of his otherwise-mediocre deck, not to mention, burnt cards don't matter if your opponent is dead.
TBH they should've just nerfed Robes of Gaudiness to rounding up instead of down. It'd still be crazy good.
Mech paladin is the unintended victim of the post-buff metagame, where everyone is teching in silence/bounce/transform effects to beat Sn1p-Sn4p and Pogo hoppers. The deck wasn't that great before, but at least it could get in the odd win against aggro decks with zero silences.
As others have pointed out, the primary reason to make something a tribe at this point is mechanics-driven. Hearthstone is an intentionally simple card game, so despite the fact that it would make a ton of sense lore-wise to implement tribes such as human, orc, elf, undead, etc. these tribes are ignored on the cards.
While it's not impossible to invent a new tribal mechanic and retroactively apply the tag to older cards like they did with Elemental, I think it unlikely that they'd do something like that with a race that is extremely common, like undead, or a race that would pretty much require the implementation of other races, EG Human and Orc.
Another issue is the problem of dual races, and the fact that Pirate isn't a race inasmuch as it's an occupation. Do we implement other professions? I'm pretty sure there's a lot of seers and smiths in HS already....
All in all I think the Keep It Simple, Stupid principle is the prevailing one unless there is a very strong reason otherwise. They probably could've gotten away with adding a Troll tribe for Rhastakhan, I think, but they did just fine without it.
I think it more likely that a bunch of these are toned down versions of proposed death knight hero powers that didn't make it out of R&D. We'll probably see more hero cards in the future, as well as other means to change the basic hero power, but I doubt it'll be any of these ones. A lot of them are just meh, and then there's Burning Wit, the mage discount one, which is completely off the walls bonkers in terms of power level.
I don't think the fundamental hero power system will be changed, it's hard enough to balance the game with just one hero power per class. Class cards are balanced around the hero powers because they aren't all equal, EG Warlock gets crappy cards because lifetap is way OP. This'd mean that any alternative WL hero power would have to be similarly good or any player running it will just be at a disadvantage.
Having the alt hero powers in single player content strikes me as a reasonable compromise.
Shaman and Hunter are the ones I'm most conflicted about in my ranking, you could have Shaman at T2 and Hunter T3, but I do think there are definite (average) power level differences between the classes based on the hero powers and the types of buckets they're assigned. Even if you get the appropriate cards and hero power, Warlock's "sacrifice" theme will be awkward, gimmicky and situational whereas everything in the "Big Shaman" pool is good if you can afford it.
And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Burning Wit is objectively head and shoulders better than all the other hero powers. Investing one mana to cheat two later on is very strong, especially because so many high-cost (mage) cards are balanced around being too expensive to cast alongside other things, EG Antonidas. That card can solo any boss because he turns mana into damage, and your hero power is free mana.
Bob is definitely the man you need to have on your side if you want to have a highlight-reel playthrough, though. I was trying for ages to get Elistra in buff priest and of course when you do she NEVER shows up in the tavern. Or she does but you're not offered Right hand man or Gang's all here. As much as I like the fact that they added more ways to retool your deck the fact that that too is luck-based is frustrating, especially if you get the right action with the wrong cards or vice versa.
Just at first glance, its seems to me there's an awful lot of 1-ofs in the deck. I get that you can tutor for these with Bwonsamdi, but at that point, how often does it make a difference if you draw your tech one drops, Bloodsail Corsair or potion vendor?
I'd probably cut those for a second Abusive Sergeant and Argent Squire. The deck doesn't have comeback mechanisms other than magic carpet so you might as well lean in on taking the board on the first turns.
I haven't tried all the alternate Paladin and Warlock abilities yet, just got done beating the heist on heroic.
Other than Act 3, the streets, which can really hurt classes that have lots of swarm buckets like Druid and Warlock, the power levels of the different classes are more or less consistent between the acts, so I might as well go on a class-by-class basis.
The undisputed tier-1 hero is mage, due to the mana discount hero power, which is absolutely busted on its own, synergises with most of the strongest passive treasures AND works really well with some of the most powerful mage legendaries (Antonidas, Kalecgos) which show up in the buckets and tavern a lot. If you want to beat the heist on easy mode, Rakanishu + Burning wit is the way to go.
Tier 2 is Paladin, Hunter, Druid.
Paladin has a bunch of absolutely insane interactions with Sound the bells that can singlehandedly win you the heist, either with the passive treasure that lets you cast spells with health points or the tavern card that lets you reduce a spell by 3 (the echoes cost 0 as well). Other than that Paladin has a decent pool of legendaries, although the defensive nature of a lot of these is a drag because there are tons of bosses that will inevitably win any value game. But if you win the highroll then this class is nuts.
I couldn't really say why Hunter is as powerful as it is, it's certainly not the hero powers, but for whatever reason, it just works. Pet training is cute, but slow, and the shifting chameleons have terrible counter-synergy with Hagatha's embrace. That said, they're pretty great against Galliwix and the Carousel, so there's that.
Druid has incredibly powerful card picks and is really only hampered by its mediocre hero powers. +1/+1 is the best of the bunch. Tokens, choose one and big druid are all very solid decks, and you can even combine the archetypes if need be. Keeper Stalladris is nuts.
Tier 3 Shaman Priest and Rogue
My best experiences with shaman were playing big shaman, but you're heavily reliant on getting the right treasures to support that, EG robes of gaudiness or Scepter of Summoning. If you pick the deck with Whirling Zap-o-matic you can also go super-aggressive if you get the right treasures (banana split!) and tavern buffs, although the efficacy of the early rush wears off around the fifth or sixth encounter. Battlecry shaman is a ton of fun. Refresh is a great hero power but really messes with your curve if you don't pay attention. Hardly ever worth using on turn 1, for example.
If you're super lucky with priest you can get the Elistra the Immortal + Right hand man + gang's all here dream, but realistically you're stuck playing some form of big priest. The alt hero powers are super underwhelming, but the big stuff buckets are pretty solid.
Rogue has two decent hero powers in Yoink! and Cut-less, but the card pools are pretty iffy. The pirates and weapons stuff is mostly junk IMO.
Tier Bleh is Warlock and Warrior
Warlock has some truly terrible buckets like sacrifice, discard and healing/lifesteal. The top end picks aren't terribly impressive as many of WL's larger minions are discount-demons with some huge drawback. Double battlecry is downright harmful and premium deathrattles are pretty scarce as well.On top of that the hero powers aren't spectacular either. You'll probably do fine with a captured flag zoo/swarm build but boy am I thoroughly unimpressed by Warlock so far. (Edit: If you can draft a lot of Molten Giants + scepter of summoning that's still a cute combo, just not as strong as in the catacomb run where you also had a hand WL bucket with Mountain giants. The discounts add up so the base cost is (5 - damage taken) so that's turn 2 hero power turn 3 8/8, which is pretty sweet. Just hard to hit consistently. Spell power +3 is also surprisingly good with WL because almost every bucket contains one or more mediocre damage spells like demonfire, hellfire, fellfire potion, etc. all of which become premium board clears.)
Warrior's themes are likewise pretty atrocious, like masochistic minions or taunts. The hero powers aren't good either. I've tried everything to make bomb warrior work in act three, where it should be the most favoured due to the lack of space for minions, and even with good treasures(double hero power!) and solid control picks it still fell short for me every time I've tried. So far I've had the most success just going for the quest and ditching my hero power as soon as possible. That said Warrior's large minion pool isn't terrible.
Regarding act 5, I don't think it's particularly difficult compared to the other acts, just longer. So far on both normal and heroic, if I made it to the final four bosses I've beaten them; it's 6-7-8 where you run into trouble, IMO. I beat act 5 on heroic on my first attempt with an atrocious Elixir of Vim + First Aid kit paladin deck, so it's certainly not like you need to highroll on treasures or w/e to win.
Beast Hunter plays more like a combo deck or Miracle rogue than a typical midrange deck IMO. There are very few proactive threats you just want to plonk on the board on turns 3-6, which is the defining feature of traditional midrange, and most of the deck consists of very efficient reactive cards that allow you to generate tempo off of your opponents plays: Unleash the hounds, unleash the beast, etc.
It's a bit of a hole in the hearthstone lexicon that there's no better term for decks that present big power spikes in the mid game that aren't just big efficient proactive minions. Miracle rogue used to be the only deck like this but now we have several. I'd consider conjurer mage and miracle shaman to fall into this same combo-midrange category.
Nozari
Find another 4/12 minion.
The logic behind it goes something like this: unless the game goes to fatigue, you won't see every card in your deck. That being the case, would you rather draw the card you need Right Now, well, right now, or two turns later? Burning cards from the deck rarely matters more than finding the right answer, setting up a combo or curving out. One way to think about burnt cards is to pretend they were actually the bottom card of the deck.
That said, I'm probably not the best Tracking advocate, I've never quite been able to overcome the FeelsBadMan aspect of tracking over juicy cards, doubly so when you know you're going to cast Zul'jin and burn even more value. But you have to realise this is more of an emotional attachment than a logical response.
Sylvanas Windrunner, Cairne Bloodhoof and Baine Bloodhoof are already in the game. I suppose that doesn't preclude alternate versions from existing, as with the Old gods "tainted" cards (Hogger, Hogger, Doom of Elwynn, etc.) but it does probably mean they're low on the priority totem.
The way I see it, cheesing with Sound the Bells is just like including a "win the game" card in your deck. You're still going to have to build a deck that can win if you don't draw that one card, but every time you do draw it, it's GG, so it substantively improves your chances of beating the act.
You can also use 'You're all fired" to keep thinning the deck to give yourself better odds of drawing the bells, because it doesn't really matter what minion you're buffing to infinite/infinite*2.
I'm not really bothered by it. Yes, it makes the last fights of the final act a bit more repetitive, but also has that "Final boss and his lieutenants" vibe. I suppose they could have randomised the sequence in which Kalec, Vargoth and Norroa appear, and maybe added a fourth lieutenant to the pool so there'd always be 1 you don't have to face, but it's not something I really feel that strongly about.
On the other hand, what really bugs me is the sameness of all the 5 acts. The twists aren't impactful enough and too many bosses show up in several acts, making them completely generic. Kizi, Linzi, Awilo, Akazamzarak and most others don't feel special when you encounter them because they're in almost every act. The only act that really feels different based on the encounters is the Sewers, which feature a bunch of bosses unique to that act like Chomper, Dancin' Daryl and the Rat King.
Honestly it feels like they took three or four acts worth of content and spread it out over five acts.
Honestly Hearthstone isn't terribly clear and consistent on these things. The way echo works, buffs (+1/+1, mana discounts, etc) aren't copied onto the echoes, those still cast the way they were printed.
*However*, in the new single player adventure, you can buff the stats or reduce the cost of cards in the tavern, and the game treats these altered cards as though they were printed that way. The engine doesn't treat these as buffs, silencing them doesn't shrink them back to normal. So if you reduce the cost of Sn1p-Sn4p to zero using 'Take a chance', then you can cast infinite zero cost snip snaps. If you give it +2/+2 all the echoes will also be 4/5s, etc.
How did you discount it? If it was an ongoing effect like Summoning Portal or Corpsewidow then the echoes should be discounted as well. However, it it's a static discount like Galvanizer then it shouldn't affect the echo cost.
Well sure, but the old gods were some of the swingiest, most high-impact minions around back when they were released. Since then we've had Death Knights, 'normal' hero cards, Genn and Baku and more. I think players would be underwhelmed if Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were printed as just big minions with some powerful battlecry.
I think the power level that would feel appropriate for these characters can't be printed in normal hearthstone, but toning it down just to have them as playable cards would do them a disservice as some of the greatest arch-villains in the warcraft universe, if that makes sense. For that same reason i don't think you could ever print a Sargeras card. It'd have to read something like: "Battlecry: You win the game. Delete your opponent's battlenet account."
I really like Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, but they seem impossible to implement in a satisfying way as normal HS cards. They'd almost certainly have to be hero cards that put Jaraxxus, the OG hero card, to shame, in order to reflect their godlike power in the warcraft universe. And I don't see that happening.
They might be cool as final bosses in single player content or some future co-op brawl though. Or maybe you could have a series of busted legendary spells based around their machinations. After all, for all their might most of their meddling in Azeroth's affairs was indirect.
Good point. I guess Medivh exists as a card and a portrait as well. I wonder if that means we might see some of the standard portrait characters as cards as well? I'd love to see Thrall or Gul'dan as playable minions, but at the same time it'd be pretty weird to say control a Thrall as Shaman. That probably wasn't as much of a consideration for alt portraits appearing as minions.
As a big fan of Warcraft 3 TFT, Lady Vash and Prince Kael'thas. I'd say Maiev or Tyrande but they're already portraits.
^ Any act with any class is easy with Robes of Gaudiness. There's a reason they had to reduce its drop rate.
Pretty much the only encounter where you might run into trouble while wearing Robes is Galliwix, but even then giving him 9 cost cards while you're playing them for four allows you to beat the tar out of his otherwise-mediocre deck, not to mention, burnt cards don't matter if your opponent is dead.
TBH they should've just nerfed Robes of Gaudiness to rounding up instead of down. It'd still be crazy good.
Mech paladin is the unintended victim of the post-buff metagame, where everyone is teching in silence/bounce/transform effects to beat Sn1p-Sn4p and Pogo hoppers. The deck wasn't that great before, but at least it could get in the odd win against aggro decks with zero silences.
As others have pointed out, the primary reason to make something a tribe at this point is mechanics-driven. Hearthstone is an intentionally simple card game, so despite the fact that it would make a ton of sense lore-wise to implement tribes such as human, orc, elf, undead, etc. these tribes are ignored on the cards.
While it's not impossible to invent a new tribal mechanic and retroactively apply the tag to older cards like they did with Elemental, I think it unlikely that they'd do something like that with a race that is extremely common, like undead, or a race that would pretty much require the implementation of other races, EG Human and Orc.
Another issue is the problem of dual races, and the fact that Pirate isn't a race inasmuch as it's an occupation. Do we implement other professions? I'm pretty sure there's a lot of seers and smiths in HS already....
All in all I think the Keep It Simple, Stupid principle is the prevailing one unless there is a very strong reason otherwise. They probably could've gotten away with adding a Troll tribe for Rhastakhan, I think, but they did just fine without it.
I think it more likely that a bunch of these are toned down versions of proposed death knight hero powers that didn't make it out of R&D. We'll probably see more hero cards in the future, as well as other means to change the basic hero power, but I doubt it'll be any of these ones. A lot of them are just meh, and then there's Burning Wit, the mage discount one, which is completely off the walls bonkers in terms of power level.
I don't think the fundamental hero power system will be changed, it's hard enough to balance the game with just one hero power per class. Class cards are balanced around the hero powers because they aren't all equal, EG Warlock gets crappy cards because lifetap is way OP. This'd mean that any alternative WL hero power would have to be similarly good or any player running it will just be at a disadvantage.
Having the alt hero powers in single player content strikes me as a reasonable compromise.
Shaman and Hunter are the ones I'm most conflicted about in my ranking, you could have Shaman at T2 and Hunter T3, but I do think there are definite (average) power level differences between the classes based on the hero powers and the types of buckets they're assigned. Even if you get the appropriate cards and hero power, Warlock's "sacrifice" theme will be awkward, gimmicky and situational whereas everything in the "Big Shaman" pool is good if you can afford it.
And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Burning Wit is objectively head and shoulders better than all the other hero powers. Investing one mana to cheat two later on is very strong, especially because so many high-cost (mage) cards are balanced around being too expensive to cast alongside other things, EG Antonidas. That card can solo any boss because he turns mana into damage, and your hero power is free mana.
Bob is definitely the man you need to have on your side if you want to have a highlight-reel playthrough, though. I was trying for ages to get Elistra in buff priest and of course when you do she NEVER shows up in the tavern. Or she does but you're not offered Right hand man or Gang's all here. As much as I like the fact that they added more ways to retool your deck the fact that that too is luck-based is frustrating, especially if you get the right action with the wrong cards or vice versa.
Just at first glance, its seems to me there's an awful lot of 1-ofs in the deck. I get that you can tutor for these with Bwonsamdi, but at that point, how often does it make a difference if you draw your tech one drops, Bloodsail Corsair or potion vendor?
I'd probably cut those for a second Abusive Sergeant and Argent Squire. The deck doesn't have comeback mechanisms other than magic carpet so you might as well lean in on taking the board on the first turns.
I had that combo one time, of course the very first game after picking up the double hero power treasure, I got rogue hero power and got smashed. D:
I haven't tried all the alternate Paladin and Warlock abilities yet, just got done beating the heist on heroic.
Other than Act 3, the streets, which can really hurt classes that have lots of swarm buckets like Druid and Warlock, the power levels of the different classes are more or less consistent between the acts, so I might as well go on a class-by-class basis.
The undisputed tier-1 hero is mage, due to the mana discount hero power, which is absolutely busted on its own, synergises with most of the strongest passive treasures AND works really well with some of the most powerful mage legendaries (Antonidas, Kalecgos) which show up in the buckets and tavern a lot. If you want to beat the heist on easy mode, Rakanishu + Burning wit is the way to go.
Tier 2 is Paladin, Hunter, Druid.
Paladin has a bunch of absolutely insane interactions with Sound the bells that can singlehandedly win you the heist, either with the passive treasure that lets you cast spells with health points or the tavern card that lets you reduce a spell by 3 (the echoes cost 0 as well). Other than that Paladin has a decent pool of legendaries, although the defensive nature of a lot of these is a drag because there are tons of bosses that will inevitably win any value game. But if you win the highroll then this class is nuts.
I couldn't really say why Hunter is as powerful as it is, it's certainly not the hero powers, but for whatever reason, it just works. Pet training is cute, but slow, and the shifting chameleons have terrible counter-synergy with Hagatha's embrace. That said, they're pretty great against Galliwix and the Carousel, so there's that.
Druid has incredibly powerful card picks and is really only hampered by its mediocre hero powers. +1/+1 is the best of the bunch. Tokens, choose one and big druid are all very solid decks, and you can even combine the archetypes if need be. Keeper Stalladris is nuts.
Tier 3 Shaman Priest and Rogue
My best experiences with shaman were playing big shaman, but you're heavily reliant on getting the right treasures to support that, EG robes of gaudiness or Scepter of Summoning. If you pick the deck with Whirling Zap-o-matic you can also go super-aggressive if you get the right treasures (banana split!) and tavern buffs, although the efficacy of the early rush wears off around the fifth or sixth encounter. Battlecry shaman is a ton of fun. Refresh is a great hero power but really messes with your curve if you don't pay attention. Hardly ever worth using on turn 1, for example.
If you're super lucky with priest you can get the Elistra the Immortal + Right hand man + gang's all here dream, but realistically you're stuck playing some form of big priest. The alt hero powers are super underwhelming, but the big stuff buckets are pretty solid.
Rogue has two decent hero powers in Yoink! and Cut-less, but the card pools are pretty iffy. The pirates and weapons stuff is mostly junk IMO.
Tier Bleh is Warlock and Warrior
Warlock has some truly terrible buckets like sacrifice, discard and healing/lifesteal. The top end picks aren't terribly impressive as many of WL's larger minions are discount-demons with some huge drawback. Double battlecry is downright harmful and premium deathrattles are pretty scarce as well.On top of that the hero powers aren't spectacular either. You'll probably do fine with a captured flag zoo/swarm build but boy am I thoroughly unimpressed by Warlock so far. (Edit: If you can draft a lot of Molten Giants + scepter of summoning that's still a cute combo, just not as strong as in the catacomb run where you also had a hand WL bucket with Mountain giants. The discounts add up so the base cost is (5 - damage taken) so that's turn 2 hero power turn 3 8/8, which is pretty sweet. Just hard to hit consistently. Spell power +3 is also surprisingly good with WL because almost every bucket contains one or more mediocre damage spells like demonfire, hellfire, fellfire potion, etc. all of which become premium board clears.)
Warrior's themes are likewise pretty atrocious, like masochistic minions or taunts. The hero powers aren't good either. I've tried everything to make bomb warrior work in act three, where it should be the most favoured due to the lack of space for minions, and even with good treasures(double hero power!) and solid control picks it still fell short for me every time I've tried. So far I've had the most success just going for the quest and ditching my hero power as soon as possible. That said Warrior's large minion pool isn't terrible.
Regarding act 5, I don't think it's particularly difficult compared to the other acts, just longer. So far on both normal and heroic, if I made it to the final four bosses I've beaten them; it's 6-7-8 where you run into trouble, IMO. I beat act 5 on heroic on my first attempt with an atrocious Elixir of Vim + First Aid kit paladin deck, so it's certainly not like you need to highroll on treasures or w/e to win.