This guide will cover hero abilities, strategies, and recommended classes for taking down the three bosses of Hearthstone‘s Naxxramas Plague 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.
Plague Quarter features: Noth, Heigan, and Loatheb.
Noth the Plaguebringer – 30 HP/45 HP Heroic
Hero Power (Passive) – Raise Dead: Whenever an enemy dies, raise a 1/1 Skeleton. (0 Mana)
Heroic Power (Passive) – Raise Dead: Whenever an enemy dies, raise a 5/5 Skeleton. (0 Mana)
General strategy and recommended classes for Noth:
Any sort of AOE or ping decks can deal with Noth’s 1/1 adds. The best thing to do on both normal and heroic is just try not to lose minions. High health, heals, Divine Shields, and removal spells will negate most of what Noth can do.
Also, Noth can’t do much of anything against big beefy minions – stall early and bust out every huge legendary you have!
Try these classes:
Mage: Mages can easily ping off Noth’s 1/1 skeletons with the Mage’s Hero Power, making her an obvious choice. Play control and take some AOE. Arcane Missiles is your friend! In heroic, if the adds get out of control, just throw in some AOE freeze.
Warlock: Finally, a chance for hand-lock to shine! Keep you hand large with Life Tap and get out early Twilight Drakes and giants. Soulfire and Mortal Coil are reasonable early spells if you need to control the board.
Priest: Abuse the hell out of the Priest’s healing abilities and health buffs. Every trick in the Priest’s book is useful against Noth.
Druid: Ramp up, own face. Use Wild Growth and Innervate to get mid and late game minions out early. The Druid’s direct removal spells and face smacking powers (Claw is great for early removal) should be able to handle most of what Noth can throw at you.
Note: Other classes are viable, but these seem to be the most effective. Let us know how you beat Noth!
Reward:
Heigan the Unclean- 30 HP/45 HP Heroic
Hero Power – Eruption: Deal 2 damage to the left-most enemy minion. (1 Mana)
Heroic Power – Eruption: Deal 3 damage to the left-most enemy minion. (0 Mana)
General strategy to defeat Heigan the Unclean
One of the nicest things about this boss is that Heigan encourages you to use the Naxxramus cards you’ve already earned: he basically is a deathrattle-triggering machine. If you got here, that means you just received two brand new Stoneskin Gargoyle cards – now is a good time to use them!
Put a Stoneskin Gargoyle on the left-most side, control board, and watch as Heigan fails to kill it every turn. Alternatively, any sort of token or deathrattle oriented deck will thrive in this matchup.
Nerubian Eggs and Haunted Creepers are great minions to throw at Eruption. A turn 2 Nerubian Egg will set you up for some heavy hitting early power.
There are also 5 neutral Divine Shield minions, 10 if you get two of each, that all can absorb at least one Eruption each.
Try these classes:
Warlock: Deathrattle zoo-lock is a perfect recipe for taking down Heigan quickly. Populate your board with tons of low cost creatures to just absorb each hit and overwhelm Heigan.
Paladin: Tokens are great Eruption fodder and the Paladin’s natural removal and Divine Shields help to minimize Heigan’s aggression. With a focus on Divine Shields, you could potentially have 12 (+2 more from Hand of Protection) Divine Shields – potentially even making Blood Knight a viable choice.
Shaman: Again, tokens = Eruption fodder and removal = great control. A little spell power and you’ll be able to hit like a truck. Ancestral Healing and Ancestral Spirit will also reliably help to minimize Eruption’s damage.
Priest: Health buffs and healing are a beautiful thing. Holy Nova, beefy creatures, and even shadow removal are all wonderful things – not to mention that Eruption gives Priests a reliable way to beef up Gurubashi Bezerker.
Note: Other classes are viable, but these seem to be the most effective. Let us know how you beat Heigan!
Reward:
Loatheb – 75 HP/99 HP Heroic
Hero Power – Necrotic Aura: Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. (2 Mana)
Heroic Power – Necrotic Aura: Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. (0 Mana)
General strategy to defeat Loatheb
STOP! I know that you’re already freaking out about all that health! Thankfully there is no need to worry, Loatheb has a set of Spore mechanics that actually makes that health number easy to deal with if you know about it in advance. The only thing is that Necrotic Aura puts you on a bit of a timer – on heroic you have 10 turns max to kill Loatheb.
Spore mechanics: Loatheb has two cards that will generate Spores (below) for you to kill – and Spores give your minions +8 attack permanently. All you need to do is play cards that force Loatheb to use Deathbloom and Sporeburst.
Generally, any class that can generate a lot of minions to take advantage of the Spore buff will do well. Also, windfury minions LOVE to eat up Spores and hit like trucks!
If you ever played WoW, this fight actually echos the Loatheb raid fight: Loatheb had a gargantuan amount of health and killing Spores gave the raid attack buffs – all you needed to do was coordinate clearing out the Spores within a time limit. Same thing here!
P.S. Murloc rush decks on any class can ROLL on Loatheb pretty hard.
Try these classes:
Shaman: Grab as many totems as possible and even beef them up with Ancestral Might! Each Spore is already a beefed-up Bloodlust, so take advantage of windfury cards to get the most out of the Spore buffs. Even a totem with windfury can still hit for at least 16 damage if you kill a Spore first.
Warlock: Zoo-lock pure and simple. Populate your board ASAP with as many minions as possible – if you need more cards, Life Tap. Murloc-lock is also very potent!
Hunter: Keep your hand healthy with card draw and stall for the right opportunities to use Unleash the Hounds. Unleash + one or two Spores will devestate Loatheb with ease! Note: because of this you don’t need Timber Wolf nor Dire Wolf Alpha – use other zoo minions to draw out the Spore-generating spells.
Paladin: Normally, shock-Paladin prioritizes using spells to go for the face, but in this matchup use Hammer or Wrath, Truesilver Champion, and Avenging Wrath strictly for board control. Populate your board with quick and cheap minions and pack one or two heals to give yourself some extra time against Necrotic Horror – then just hit some spore combos and you are good to go! Just as with Heigan, some Divine Shields will help keep creatures alive – take advantage of this for Spores.
Note: Other classes are viable, but these seem to be the most effective. Let us know how you beat Loatheb!
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.
