As we draw ever closer to the fifth and final wing of the Curse of Naxxramas Hearthstone solo adventure, one obstacle still remains in the Construct Quarter. With the normal bosses down and the Warrior and Priest class challenges taken care of, the only task you should have left in the Construct Quarter is to defeat the heroic mode bosses.
If you haven’t read our strategies to defeat the normal versions of Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth and Thaddius, head over to those articles and educate yourself. While there are some changes in the heroic mode battles, many of the bases strategies are the same, and will be referenced in this article. It’s important that you have a basic understanding of how these fights work.
Patchwerk
Much like in the normal mode fight, the main concern when it comes to Patchwerk is his Hook weapon. This time around, it deals one less damage (four instead of five), but it has a Windfury effect, which means Patchwerk can attack with it twice in one turn. For those of you who do not excel at math, that means Patchwerk can hit you for eight damage every turn that you don’t have a taunt ready to block his Hook.
If that weren’t enough, at turn four and beyond he can destroy any minion with his hero power, and like many other heroic mode battles, his health has been increased to 45. You won’t be able to trick Patchwerk into attacking useless minions. He only uses the Hook to attack taunts or your hero, ignoring all other minions or using his hero power to take them out.
Luckily, Patchwerk doesn’t have a deck or any cards other than his numerous Hook weapons. If you have cards that force the opponent to draw, you can damage Patchwerk via the fatigue system mechanic in Hearthstone. In a normal match, once a player is out of cards, they take damage for each additional card drawn. The damage increases by one point with each additional draw, meaning if you force Patchwerk to draw one card, he takes one point of damage. However, if you can force him to draw three cards, he’ll take six points of damage (1 + 2 + 3 = 6). Cards such as Coldlight Oracle are great for this.
Above all else, it’s extremely important to fill your deck with taunt cards. The lower the cost of the taunt card the better, because you’re going to need to have more than one in play due to Patchwerk’s hero power. Freeze Mage is also a great tactic because there are numerous ways to freeze Patchwerk so he can’t attack, effectively saving you eight points of damage. Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones are also effective to remove the Hook, but it’s only a temporary advantage as he’ll summon another next turn.
Grobbulus
Not much has changed about the Grobbulus battle from normal to heroic. Grobbulus now has 45 health, and his hero power inflicts two damage instead of one. Once again, you need to fill your deck with minions that can withstand his hero power. For every minion killed by the hero power, Grobbulus summons a 2/2 Slime. He can then buff the Slimes considerably, making them difficult to deal with.
Shaman and Priest still work well against Grobbulus, although Shaman isn’t quite as effective because the healing totem only heals for one point, while the hero power Grobbulus uses inflicts two points of damage. Still, it prevents minions from dying, and even a little assistance helps in this battle. Of course, healing is key, so any healing minions or spells work well in this fight, which is one of the reasons Priest is a good class here.
Freeze Mage also works well because you can stall Grobbulus and use direct damage spells instead of putting more minions on the board for Grobbulus to convert into Slimes. If Grobbulus does get a couple Slimes buffed, you can Polymorph to get rid of them, which can be extremely helpful. Of course, Priest can use Shadow Word: Death in the same way, plus they have superior healing options.
Gluth
The heroic mode battle against Gluth is identical to the normal battle in terms of strategy. Gluth has 45 health and his hero power now costs him no mana and only affects your minions instead of all minions. Just like in the normal mode fight, you should fill your deck with minions that don’t have a ton of health. No matter what you do, their health will be reduced to one during Gluth’s next turn.
You also have to worry about Gluth’s weapon, Jaws. This time around it inflicts three damage instead of one, but still maintains a +2 damage buff for any minion with Deathrattle that dies. Of course, Gluth’s deck is full of minions with Deathrattle, so make sure you have none. Freeze Mage once again works wonders here because you can stall Gluth’s minions by freezing them, instead of killing them and buffing up Jaws. Acidic Swamp Ooze and Harrison Jones also work well to temporarily remove Gluth’s weapon. A Priest with Thoughtsteal and Mind Vision can also be effective against Gluth if you can steal Jaws and use it against him.
Thaddius
Aside from the health bump from 30 to 45, the only difference between the normal mode Thaddius and the heroic mode version is that the boss summons Feugan and Stalagg on his first turn. As long as you have something to deal with these two minions, you don’t have much else to worry about beyond the normal mode strategy. Basically any class with good removal works well here. Polymorph, Shadow Word: Death or anything similar to remove Feugan and Stalagg as early as possible is what you want to do. It’s not out of the question to restart the match until you get an opening hand that can defeat these two in the first few turns.
With Feugan and Stalagg down, you only have to worry about Thaddius swapping the health and attack of your minions. Just like in the normal battle, fill your deck with minions that have high health to take advantage of the hero power. Priest is also very effective in this battle because he can buff the health of his minions with ease.
Look for more Curse of Naxxramas tips in the days ahead.
