Patchwerk is the first boss in the Construct Quarter of the Hearthstone solo adventure, Curse of Naxxramas. While you have to deal with his Hook and hero power, as long as you have plenty of taunt minions the battle isn’t too bad. The second boss of the Construct Quarter is Grobbulus, who presents a much more normalized battle compared to Patchwerk.
The main thing you need to concern yourself with when it comes to Grobbulus is that his hero power deals one damage to every minion on the battlefield, and summons a 2/2 Slime on his side of the board for any minions killed by the hero power. He also has plenty of cards that will buff these Slimes to become far more troublesome than most 2/2 minions.
You don’t want to fill your deck with weak minions. In fact, this is one of the few battles in Curse of Naxxramas where a Zoolock Warlock deck is not beneficial. Shaman works very well in this fight because of the healing totem, which should counter the effect of Grobbulus’ hero power. However, you can use any class so long as a majority of your minions have more than one health (preferably three or four health unless you have ample healing). The last thing you want to do is give Grobbulus plenty of free Slime minions that he can buff and use against you.
Board-clearing spells and minions are also useful in this battle. If Grobbulus gets a few Slimes, you can clear them before he has a chance to buff them up. This isn’t quite as reliable as simply going in with a deck build to keep your minions alive longer and avoid Slimes as much as possible, but it can work if you get good draws and clear the Slimes quickly.
If you have a good Priest deck with plenty of healing, it can also offer a relatively easy win. Once again, it’s best to have minions with at least two or three health. This gives you time to take one or two hero power attacks from Grobbulus and heal your minions before they die and summon Slimes. Shaman still makes the best opponent for Grobbulus due to his many direct damage spells and the healing totem.
Aside from Shaman and Priest, a Freeze Mage deck can be effective against Grobbulus as well. You can maintain board control, clear the board once the Slimes appear and prevent his minions from attacking if he has a chance to buff them. You can even clear out his buffed minions with Polymorph spells.
There are a variety of ways to defeat Grobbulus even if you don’t have the best cards to use in your deck. Just build your deck as a mid- or late-game deck so you have minions that can withstand the one damage hero power and still continue to attack Grobbulus and his minions. You’ll need a few lower-mana minions so you don’t lose board control early, but this is a very doable battle even if your cards are less than stellar. That said, if you’re fairly new and don’t have a lot to work with, you may want to restart the match if you can’t mulligan to get a few decent starting cards.
Defeat Grobbulus to earn a set of Mad Scientist cards. The two-mana, 2/2 minion has a Deathrattle effect that puts a secret from your deck onto the battlefield. It’s good if you use a deck that has quite a few secrets, but the random number generator (RNG) is in full effect here. It’s possible you could get a secret that would be better played later in the game.
We’ll have more Construct Quarter strategies and tips coming your way all this week and through the remaining release schedule for Curse of Naxxramas.
