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Spell Damage
Your spells deal extra damage.
Spell Damage screenshot

A ClassicWrath of Air Totem, with purple sparkles to signal its Spell Damage bonus

Spell Damage is an ability which boosts the overall damage of spells by the listed amount.

Sources of Spell Damage are indicated by purple sparkles around their portaits.

Notes[]

A video explaining spell damage in Hearthstone made by the Curse Gamepedia YouTube Channel.
  • Spell Damage does not increase healing done by spells, and does not increase damage dealt from non-spell sources such as Hero Powers, Deathrattles or Battlecries.
  • Spell Damage increases the damage dealt by any spell, with only a few exceptions:
  • Multiple instances of Spell Damage stack. In particular, Spell Damage granted by enchantments 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 LegacyProphet Velen.[1]
  • 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 (LegacyArcane Missiles, LegacyAvenging Wrath, The League of ExplorersTimepiece of Horror,Whispers of the Old GodsSpreading Madness, The WitchwoodCinderstorm) 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.
    • The Grand TournamentArcane Blast'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 example, with Spell Damage +2 LegacyFireball will deal 8 damage), area of effect spells (for example, with Spell Damage +1 LegacySwipe will do 5 damage to its target and 2 damage to all other enemies)[2] and spells that damage "multiple targets" (such as LegacyCleave and LegacyExplosive Shot) or that do a base amount of damage repeated a variable number of times (like Goblins vs GnomesBouncing Blade and Mean Streets of GadgetzanGreater Arcane Missiles).
    • Whispers of the Old GodsForbidden Flame's damage is increased despite there being no numbers on the card text to indicate it. In particular, at 0 mana, it will do 1 damage.
  • Sources of Spell Damage are indicated by purple sparkles. This includes, as long as a The League of ExplorersJungle 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 example, with Spell Damage +2 the text of a LegacyFireball card in your hand will read "Deal *8* damage.").

Strategy[]

Spell Damage cards screenshot

Mousing over a friendly source of Spell Damage will highlight any cards affected by Spell Damage, indicated by purple sparkles

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 LegacyKobold 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 LegacyDalaran Mage and an LegacyArchmage (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.

Trivia[]

  • Sources of Spell Damage are usually minions, but The League of ExplorersJungle Moonkin makes both heroes sources of Spell Damage - although they depend on the minion's ongoing effect to retain this ability.
  • The developers have tried having cards that decreased the opponent's Spell Damage, but found that it was too confusing in practice.[3]
  • Most minions with Spell Damage themselves have explanatory tooltips that state "Your spell cards deal 1 extra damage". This is true even for those with Spell Damage +2.
    • LegacyMalygos correctly states "Your spell cards deal 5 extra damage."
    • Other cards which grant or mention Spell Damage, such as LegacyAncient Mage and Goblins vs GnomesVelen's Chosen, simply say "Your spells deal extra damage" instead.

Cards with Spell Damage[]

For Wild format listings, see Spell Damage/Wild format

Collectible[]


Swipe left or right to see the cards.
CS3 007
CORE EX1 012
CORE CS2 142
TSC 053
TSC 635
RLK 218
CS3 001
CORE EX1 284
TTN 071

Uncollectible[]


Swipe left or right to see the cards.
ETC 029t
TID 708t

Sources of Spell Damage[]

For Wild format listings, see Spell Damage/Wild format

Spell Damage-generating cards[]

This section lists cards which generate Spell Damage cards.


Swipe left or right to see the cards.
TID 708
ETC 029

Spell Damage-granting cards[]

This section lists cards which grant the Spell Damage ability to other characters or to itself.


Swipe left or right to see the cards.
TTN 737t3
RLK 817
RLK 826
TSC 923
RLK 820
CS3 001
TTN 737

Related cards[]

For Wild format listings, see Spell Damage/Wild format

Swipe left or right to see the cards.
RLK 819

Achievements[]

Name Requirements Rewards
D-A-M-A-G-E (1/5) Play 10 minions with Spell Damage. 10 Achievement Point
D-A-M-A-G-E (2/5) Play 30 minions with Spell Damage. 10 Achievement Point
D-A-M-A-G-E (3/5) Play 100 minions with Spell Damage. 10 Achievement Point
D-A-M-A-G-E (4/5) Play 300 minions with Spell Damage. 10 Achievement Point
D-A-M-A-G-E (5/5) Play 1000 minions with Spell Damage. 20 Achievement Point

Patch changes[]

References[]

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