This guide will cover hero abilities, strategies, and recommended classes for taking down the three bosses of Hearthstone‘s Naxxramas Arachnid Quarter.
Naxxramas features a host of deathrattle specific cards, the full list can be found here on Hearthpwn. I recommend every class have a few silences against these bosses to avoid deathrattle synergies. Also, deathrattle is slow – take advantage of this by going for the face and try to end the fight before the bosses ramp up.
Deathrattle aside, the real key to bringing down the Naxxramas bosses is understanding how to combat their unique and totally OP Hero Powers.
Arachnid Quarter features: Anub’Rekhan, Faerlina, and Maexxna.
How to Beat: Anub’Rekhan – 30 HP/45 HP Heroic
Hero Power – Skitter: Summon a 3/1 Nerubian. (2 Mana)
Heroic Power – Skitter: Summon a 4/4 Nerubian (2 Mana)
This is the Paladin’s Hero Power on steroids. A 3/1 can hit like a truck for 2 mana, but it also extremely vulnerable as well. The 4/4 Heroic version, however, is tough as nails. Abub’Rekhan also has a host of Mage and Warlock removal spells at his disposal.
General strategy and recommended classes for Anub’Rekhan:
Any sort of AOE or ping decks can deal with Anub’Rekhan’s 3/1 adds. Keeping board control against those adds is key, or else you’ll be overrun quickly and lose.
Try these classes:
Mage: Mages can easily ping off Anub’Rekhan’s 3/1 Nerubians with the Mage’s Hero Power, making her an obvious choice. Play control and take some AOE. Arcane Missiles is your friend!
Paladin: What kills a 3/1? A 1/1. The Paladin’s Hero Power can also ping down the Anub’Rekhan’s pesky 3/1s if you keep up AND spells like Consecrate and Avenging Wrath can easily flip the board in your favor if the Nerubians get out of hand.
Hunter: Unleash the Hounds. The current token Hunter meta brings a lot of card draw and cheap combos that can easily control the board and rush down Anub’Rekhan.
Rogue: Ping/spellpower Rogue gets a chance to shine here with lots of cheap and quick removal as well as weapon combos that will allow you to focus on keeping adds off the board.
Note: Other classes are viable, but these seem to be the most effective. Let us know how you beat Anub’Rekhan!
Reward:
How to Beat: Grand Widow Faerlina – 30 HP/45 HP Heroic
Hero Power – Rain of Fire: Fire a missile for each card in your opponent’s hand. (2 Mana)
Heroic Power – Rain of Fire: Fire a missile for each card in your opponent’s hand. (1 Mana)
Rain of Fire will continuously barrage your field and deal direct damage and Faerlina will play fast and loose with her minions. At the Heroic 1 Mana cost, expect Rain of Fire every turn. Her deck contains a decent number of Warrior class cards that will take advantage of buffing damaged creatures.
General strategy to defeat Faerlina
Welcome to another episode of: “Screw That Hero Power!” Rain of Fire means you want to keep your hand small to minimize the damage – but low cost cards tend to also have low health. See the problem?
Get rid of your hand fast and rush her down.
Try these classes:
Warlock: No, not Hand-lock, this is a job for the Zoo-lock. Populate your board ASAP and keep your hand low with discard cards like Soul Fire and Succubus. If you need more cards, Life Tap.
Paladin: Zoo Paladin works well here as well: get low cost creatures out, buff them with cheap spells, and protect yourself with early secrets. Grab some life gain and you’ll be set.
Druid: This is a little counter intuitive, but ramp Druid with a little bit of healing will keep Faerlina at bay as you quickly get large minions who can easily absorb damage. Faerlina can’t do much against big fatty minions with taunt.
Priest: The Priest’s healing can help mitigate a lot of damage and his powerful buffs can set you up for some fairly unstoppable big-minion plays.
Note: Other classes are viable, but these seem to be the most effective. Let us know how you beat Faerlina!
Reward:
How to Beat: Maexxna – 30 HP/45 HP Heroic
Hero Power – Web Wrap: Return a random enemy minion to your opponent’s hand. (3 Mana)
Heroic Power – Web Wrap: Return 2 random enemy minions to your opponent’s hand. (0 Mana)
Maexxna is fairly straight forward, and Web Wrap can be a pain – but it can only target one minion at a time. At Heroic, that becomes 2 minions for FREE; so plan on using cheap tokens or nearly no minions. She has the new Hunter class card (1/1 spider with card draw deathrattle).
Note on Heroic: Maexxna starts with 2 Haunted Creepers (1/2 Deathrattle: Summon a 1/1 Spiderling) on the field and usually coins out a third on turn one.
General strategy to defeat Maexxna
Battlecry minions are exceptionally potent against Maexxna: no matter how many times she uses her Hero Power, it will only benefit you from getting additional battlecry summons!
Maexxna can’t send back minions that aren’t on the board. Use charge minions for removal. If you use them for direct damage and she returns them to your hand… summon and charge once again.
Direct damage is pretty powerful in this fight as well, she can’t send minions back if there aren’t minions on the board.
Try these classes:
Rogue: Use all the battlecry minions! Rogue combos can seriously take advantage of Maexxna’s Hero Power. Abuse this free Youthful Brewmaster and you’ll spank Maexxna easily.
Mage: Maexxna can’t use her Hero Power against you if there aren’t any minions on the board! Load up on direct damage spells, traps, and freeze/control spells and blast from afar.
Hunter: Keep your hand healthy with card draw and stall for the right opportunities to use Unleash the Hounds. Keep pinging Maexxna down with your Hero Power and then surprise her with a burst of direct damage.
Warrior: The combination of control, charge, and weaponized removal/damage makes Warrior another good pick against Maexxna. Unfortunately, you might not be able to make much use out of pirate synergy, but don’t let that deter you from packing a deck full of weapons and Upgrades.
Note: Other classes are viable, but these seem to be the most effective. Let us know how you beat Maexxna!
Rewards:
Reward note: you will be rewarded the cards above for the first time you defeat each boss. You will also unlock the ability to craft each card and it’s gold version if you have the dust.
