The Most Problematic Hearthstone Mechanic Probably Won't Come Back Anytime Soon

For almost its entire history, Hearthstone has struggled with the Charge mechanic. By allowing minions to hit the enemy hero the same turn they're played, it created some frustrating one-turn-kill combos. The Witchwood introduced Rush to solve the pervasive problem, and it doesn't seem like Charge will be coming back anytime soon.

"We've been moving away from Charge," lead designer Mike Donais told GameSpot. "We found out that Rush is even more fun. It still gives you the fantasy of being able to play your minion and attack right away, but it doesn't set up the sadness that the opponent has if he just dies from an empty board. So we've been focusing a lot more on Rush."

The question came up in regards to The Boomsday Project, the upcoming expansion due August 7. With the new Magnetic ability, it would be easy to see how Charge could be exploited all over again. Though card reveals are still ongoing, it sounds as if we shouldn't expect any new Charge cards in this expansion.

"We're really liking how Rush is working out," he said. "The audiences seem to really like Rush too. We might experiment with Charge in the future still, but right now, we're focused on Rush. It seems to be solving those problems."

Aside from frustrating combos, Charge also limited the design space for new cards, since they could conceivably be combined with Charge. Blizzard experimented with cards that limited the Charge effect before settling on Rush. The new mechanic works similarly to Charge, but doesn't allow you to attack the enemy hero on the turn it's first played. While some Charge cards remain in the game, it seems Rush will be the new normal.