More Naxxramas! Covering Plague and Military Quarters together as I couldn't access Plague for most of release week (thanks, Blizz!). As before, my goal with Naxxramas (at least on my main account) was to beat all the encounters with my regular ladder decks, so I could not build decks specifically for them.
The regular encounters for Plague were so easy that I blazed through them without any real impression of the encounters. The Class Challenges were even easier though. I didn't lose a single point of health in the Mage Challenge but had card, board advantage AND secrets up, it was fairly ridiculous. Against Loatheb you were given a full Webspinner deck, but spores made sure that you'd have won even if it only pulled Captain's Parrots and Angry Chickens (which I did several times).
Heroic Loatheb
I attempted Loatheb first because I loved popping Spores, and as it turns out the only difficulty in the encounter was that he had a Fen Creeper on the board to begin with. This meant it was possible for him to coin into 2 Deathchargers and Necrotic for 10 damage on his very first turn. Once you have dealt with the initial Fen Creeper though (you don't even need to use cheap removal because of initial spore, Elven Archer will deal with the Fen Creeper if you shoot the Spore) the fight becomes extremely easy as long as you can put down minions to get Spore buffs on. I used my freshly made Spider Shaman deck that was really successful on ladder for this encounter.
Heroic Heigan the Unclean
The Heroic version features a 0-cost Eruption hero power that he casts at the start of every turn. He also starts the fight with a Voidcaller on board. The key here is to keep his Voidcallers at bay, lest he summons a bunch of huge demons for next to no cost and overwhelms you. I liked keeping taunts up and ignoring the Voidcallers until you are ready to deal with a Doomguard or Infernal drop, and if he runs out his hand himself, quickly rid of the Voidcallers so their ability doesn't go off. I was quite low in this fight only because he got both a Doomguard and Infernal out by T3/4, and I could only deal with one promptly so I took many hits from the Infernal while building a board to kill it.
Heroic Noth the Plaguebringer
I attempted Noth last because his hero power Raise Dead sounded like it would be rather problematic, so I had to think about which deck to bring. Ended up picking an experimental Miracle Rogue from over 3 months ago that I didn't even know the contents of (I had several experimental Miracle decks at the time, and when I had to make space for new decks I deleted most of them but didn't look through the decks before doing so). Noth was the hardest fight in my opinion because I knew he had Ice Block, but didn't know how many copies he had. You can see that I had lethal set up on him by turn 8, and was at close to full health. On turn 9 I got him down to 1 and triggered the Ice Block, but at 13HP and facing 19 damage on board, I could clear his board save for 10 damage and let him play a Secret from his deck, or leave him with 12 damage and hope he doesn't have another point for the next turn. I chose the latter and he didn't have that last point!
The Military Quarter released today, and coming off a Hunter Domination quest on ladder I jumped in with my Webspinner/Creeper Beast deck on Razuvious, followed by Zoolock against Gothik and back to Shaman on Rivendare. The Shaman Challenge felt exactly the same as my Spider Shaman, perhaps there were other cards that I had not seen but it went really quickly. The Warlock Challenge felt like it was completely up to luck, as the deck was filled to the brim with terrible terrible high cost cards that were downright unusable in the challenge. If the encounters against Heigan interested you into playing Voidcallers, this Warlock Challenge probably undid all of it.
Heroic Instructor Razuvious
Razuvious, like the original WoW raid, hits hard. In Heroic mode he hits for 20 damage on your hero, or 10 on minions. As you are given two 0/7 Understudies for this fight, you could consider running Divine Spirit/Inner Fire. I did it with my Shaman and didn't lose a single point of health!
Heroic Four Horsemen (Baron Rivendare)
This fight is once again, extremely luck-based. His Runeblade does 8 damage if the other 3 horsemen are down, but the trick is he is immune when the horsemen are around. He runs a ton of removal spells, including many that can be directed at your face for some pretty insane burst (He dealt 15+ damage in a turn to me once after I dropped his shield). He also runs a bunch of secrets, including Redemption which will prolong his immunity and Avenge which will spike the damage he is able to put out rapidly as well as make the encounter near impossible to beat. The trick to the fight is removing at least 2 of his horsemen ASAP, and possibly crippling the last but not removing it so his Runeblade cannot be used to full effect. I got him without his horsemen as early as turn 1 but after 6 times not being able to burst him down faster than he is able to do me I finally got him with Shapeshift double Swipe play with Innervate. Cards useful to take out his horsemen early include SW:P, Naturalize, Corruption, Execute, Hunter's Mark, Deadly Shot, Hex (won't trigger secrets). Flare, Deathlord (he doesn't run any minions, delays at turn at the worst if he plays Corruption on it) and any form of Silence is also good for the encounter. Even with a counter deck this fight could take several attempts.
Heroic Gothik the Harvester
Heroic Gothik's Harvest ability is downright insane. It is autocast every turn and grants him an extra card as well as an additional mana crystal. This is basically like fighting Zoo if Zoo had thrice your mana. To make matters worse, he is more than happy to trade minions as his minions turn into spectral forms that clog up your side of the board and put you on a clock by draining away at your health. Watch your health carefully, and decide how many spectres and which ones you want to take in, as they all only deal 1 damage each but some are easier to rid of because of their lower health. Get some aura/buff minions and use the spectres to secure trades as you will not be able to match his rate of summoning. Fill up your board preemptively and you won't recieve another spectre when his minions die. Some healing might be helpful to give you more breathing space. Bloodlust on a full board is 21 damage for 5 mana while Savage Roar is 16 for 3.
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On ladder and decks
I've not yet been able to experiment with most of the cards from the Naxx set yet, but I've done a lot of testing with Haunted Creepers and Nerubian Eggs. My opinion is that the cards are generally slow and work well in slower decks. In fast decks like Zoo or Token Druid slowing down your deck often gives the opponent a better chance to finish you off first, but in decks like Shaman and Hunter, the Creeper really shines. Eggs are nice in Shaman as you have Rockbiter and Flametongues, and can be dropped before you get Bloodlust off so they will rethink an AoE sweeper play. The Egg Zoo variant often runs Voidterror to help activate it and make a big tempo play but that's another fairly inconsistent card.
Webspinner is great for Hunters as it allows you to put something relevant down on turn 1 instead of passing (or Flare/Tracking), and can be used for card draw with Buzzard and as a target for Houndmaster. As they often ignore the minion to avoid triggering its Deathrattle you can often get value out of Leokk the same turn it is summoned or buff a Hyena immediately. The same applies for Haunted Creeper but note that the Spectral Spiders summoned are not Beasts.
Poison Seeds has potential but isn't the best card to run right now, it has fairly limited use overall.
Nerub'ar Ambusher is just really hard to utilize, even with a deck that can make use of the bounce for Battlecries and Combos it is often too huge a tempo loss. Pandas are currently still better.
Sludge Belcher is a viable lower cost replacement for Sunwalker that is typically more durable (especially against aggro) but has significantly lower damage output, though Sunwalker has immunity to Shadow Words.
I haven't tested the rest of the cards as of yet, but Unstable Ghoul seems really nicely-costed for an anti-aggro taunter, and Spectral Knight is a fairly viable 5-drop that can dictate how the trades will be made (depending on initiative/board state). Nerub'ar Weblord has seen a lot of play but I doubt it is as good as people think, despite having great stats for its cost. Loatheb is clearly one of the top contenders for the 5-drop slot at the moment as it is a decent body with the potential to ruin someone else's day if timed well. Baron Rivendare still looks too gimmicky and Maexxna probably unplayable at 6 (would be better at 5 with appropriate stats).
Shaman feels really good right now, I've only been winning on ladder with it so far. None of the matchups have felt difficult yet, though I imagine Hunters will wreck it pretty hard. I also used the same deck on 4 of the Heroic encounters and almost beat the 5th several times.
I used to play a lot of Hunter with minimal minions because I felt that beasts were not consistent enough, but now with the addition of the spider cards it really feels like beasts are working out really nicely. With them Hunter's Mark is less of a dead draw even without Stonetusk Boars, and many of the other cards seem to work better too. Tough matchups include Priest and possibly Paladin as they have access to more board wipe with Wild Pyromancers, Auchenai/Circle and Holy Nova, removal with Shadow Words and even Silences and heals.
Topic: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Read 27256 times)