Spell Damage
- Spell Damage
Your spells deal extra damage.
AWrath of Air Totem, with purple sparkles to signal its Spell Damage bonus
Spell Damage is anability which boosts the overalldamage ofspells by the listed amount.
Sources of Spell Damage are indicated by purple sparkles around their portaits.
Notes[]
- Spell Damage does not increasehealing done by spells, and does not increase damage dealt from non-spell sources such asHero Powers,Deathrattles orBattlecries.
- Spell Damage increases the damage dealt by anyspell, with only a few exceptions:
- Spell Damage increases the cost of minions summoned fromUnexpected Results, which is explicitly stated in the card text.
- Spell Damage has no effect on spells likeBetrayal which causecharacters to do damage, since the targeted minion is considered the source of the damage, not the spell.
- In-hand effects likeCursed! that are spells arenot affected by either player's Spell Damage.
- On-draw effects that are spells (such asAncient Curse andBurrowing Mine) arenot affected by either player's Spell Damage.
- On-discard effects likeFist of Jaraxxusdo benefit from Spell Damage bonuses.
- Spell Damage boosts the damage dealt byhealing spells affected byAuchenai Soulpriest andEmbrace the Shadow, since they are turned into spells with damaging effects.
- Spell Damage boosts damagingSecrets (such asEye for an Eye andExplosive Trap), since they are spells.
- Spell Damage boosts the damage dealt by spells that deal variable amounts of damage (such asBlade Flurry andShield Slam, whose base damage is determined by some other source). For example, if a player has Spell Damage +2 andHoly Wrath 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 (likeHero Powers,Deathrattles,Battlecries,Fatigue,Cho'gall's effect,triggered effects and combat damage).
- Multiple instances of Spell Damage stack. In particular, Spell Damage granted byenchantments 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 likeProphet 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 (Arcane Missiles,Avenging Wrath,Timepiece of Horror,Spreading Madness,Cinderstorm) have theirtotal 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's damage in increased bytwice the total Spell Damage bonus of its caster.
- All other spells that deal damage to one or more characters have the damage dealt toeach target increased by their caster's total Spell Damage bonus. This includes single-target spells (for example, with Spell Damage +2Fireball will deal 8 damage),area of effect spells (for example, with Spell Damage +1Swipe will do 5 damage to its target and 2 damage to all other enemies)[2] and spells that damage "multiple targets" (such asCleave andExplosive Shot) or that do a base amount of damage repeated a variable number of times (likeBouncing Blade andGreater Arcane Missiles).
- Forbidden 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 aJungle Moonkin is in play, both heroes as well as the Jungle Moonkin itself.
- For additional details, seeDamage#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 aFireball card in your hand will read "Deal *8* damage.").
Strategy[]
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. Themage,rogue andshaman classes are good examples, but every class has damaging spells and can therefore benefit from it. Spell Damage is especially important tocontrol decks such asFreeze Mage andMiracle Rogue, as well as spell-relatedaggro decks such asAggro 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 asKobold 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 aDalaran Mage and anArchmage (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 sturdyTaunt 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 throughSilences andtransform effects. Spell Damage minions often function assoft 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, butJungle 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.
- Malygos correctly states "Your spell cards deal 5 extra damage."
- Other cards which grant or mention Spell Damage, such asAncient Mage andVelen's Chosen, simply say "Your spells deal extra damage" instead.
Cards with Spell Damage[]
- ForWild format listings, seeSpell Damage/Wild format
Collectible[]
Uncollectible[]
Sources of Spell Damage[]
- ForWild format listings, seeSpell Damage/Wild format
Spell Damage-generating cards[]
This section lists cards which generate Spell Damage cards.
Spell Damage-granting cards[]
This section lists cards which grant the Spell Damage ability to other characters or to itself.
Related cards[]
- ForWild format listings, seeSpell Damage/Wild format
Achievements[]
| Name | Requirements | Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| D-A-M-A-G-E (1/5) | Play 10 minions with Spell Damage. | 10 |
| D-A-M-A-G-E (2/5) | Play 30 minions with Spell Damage. | 10 |
| D-A-M-A-G-E (3/5) | Play 100 minions with Spell Damage. | 10 |
| D-A-M-A-G-E (4/5) | Play 300 minions with Spell Damage. | 10 |
| D-A-M-A-G-E (5/5) | Play 1000 minions with Spell Damage. | 20 |
Patch changes[]
Patch 3.0.0.9786 (2015-08-18): The first Spell Damage synergy is added, withMaster of Ceremonies, as well as the first card to multiply Spell Damage:Arcane Blast.- Patch 1.0.0.3890 (Closed beta, 2013-10-02): "Spell Power" has been renamed "Spell Damage".
