Class Overview: Part 5 – Thief (PvP)

This article has been edited to fit the game update of December 8th.

“Even the wiliest of travelers can fall prey to the wolves of Thandar. Thieves exist in any developed society, but the rogues of the port city have evolved their craft into something close to a religion. They see your goods as needing to be liberated, and they are the righteous avengers chosen for the task.” – The Emperor’s Guide to Thandar.

“Thieves will often use knives as a distraction. Having to pull a dagger from your shoulder makes an excellent distraction.” – The Emperor’s Guide to Thandar.

“If you do find your coin purse missing, it’s best to just let it go. Many a traveler has perished by chasing their money down a dark alley. Consider it a donation to the city, and a costly lesson for you.” – The Emperor’s Guide to Thandar.

Lore from Hero Realms Blog Post

The Thief archetype is probably better known as a rogue class, but it translates nicely into Hero Realms regardless. The class is often given abilities to steal from NPCs or other players and to sneak around using stealth. In other words – they cheat and confuse as much as possible. Which is also very true in this game.

The Thief skill is one of the only mechanics in the game that forces the opponent to discard a card. And it can be used on every turn. It plays well into the thieving feel of the class along with the ability that allows the player to steal something – either from the opponent’s discard pile or from the market row. 

Different from the other classes already covered in this series, the middle choice of the class ability tree (Smooth Heist) isn’t just a middle ground between the two outer choices and should be looked at more carefully than other middle options. The Thief skill can be upgraded to gain more life or to give the Thief an opportunity to steal back the money used for activating the skill.

Like the Fighter and the Cleric, the Thief has a low-health and a high-health option among its armor choices. The Shadow Mask allows the Thief to put a card from its discard pile on top of their deck, while the Silent Boots reveals the top card of the Market Deck. The player can then either sacrifice the card or buy the card for one gold less than its printed cost. Both armor choices boost the Thief’s economy – one by giving a direct discount and one by letting the Thief utilize cards more than once per deck cycle and essentially giving them a shadow copy of the card.

The below schematic attempts to give an overview of the Thief’s starting deck and the upgrades available from treasures. 

Keep in mind that all of the RoT and LV treasures have been added in their row – despite the fact that only half of them will be attainable for a hero. Also, if a treasure card replaces a card in the starting deck, only the new additions have been counted in the treasure row.

The Thief has the second lowest health among all classes with a starting health of only 52, which is very close to the Wizard’s 50 starting health. It doesn’t have any heal in its deck either – although the class skill provides healing – and is the only class not to have any defense potential at all. 

The Thief has the second highest gold potential among all classes – only outrun by the Wizard. The gold is even distributed among the Thief’s treasures in such a way that it is actually possible to get all 11 of the Thief’s gold potential into its deck, if the player is inclined to do so. This is significantly higher than the Fighter and Cleric – whose gold potential never rises above 8. The Thief is also the only class with two Rubies in their starting deck.

Like the Ranger, the Thief has 3 special abilities in their deck – only one of which is a trash ability. The first is the Sacrificial Dagger, which can sacrifice a card from hand – thinning the deck from deck 1. The other is the Blackjack, which can be trashed to let the Thief expend an opposing champion. The third is the Jeweler’s Loupe, which allows the player to pull a gem from the discard pile to hand – boosting the Thief’s economy up and over even the Wizard’s.

Before adding treasures to the deck, the Thief’s only source of damage are its 3 Throwing Knives. If paired together, the knives gain extra damage and because of this, the Thief sneaks their way past the Wizard to take the second place in damage potential – after the Fighter. The Thief’s damage potential is a bit situational though as the knives need to be paired together to do any real damage and the Enchanted Garotte only deals damage to non-guard champions. But if all the stars align, the Thief definitely is a heavy hitter.

As with the Cleric, the Thief has no draw at all in their starting deck. And similar to the damage potential, the Thief’s draw potential is largely connected to their Throwing Knives. 3 of the Thief’s potential 4 draws stem from a combination between the Knives and the Knife Belt and it is not very likely that the Thief can pair all four items together very often, making these draws very unreliable. That said, the Thief’s draw potential – which is equal to the Wizard’s – is only outranked by the Ranger’s.

“Make sure you read ‘The Emperor’s Guide to Thandar‘. It’s full of bad advice, and the idiots that follow it will be easy marks.“ – The Thieves’ Guide to Thandar.

Lore from Hero Realms Blog Post

During the Beta, some balance changes have been made to the Thief. They are listed below. The old effect is the card on the left side.