Hearthstone
What Merc teams are you having success with in Boss Rush?
I've been finding Naga to be a very flexible and potent team for boss rush. You have an expendable taunt in Athissa's Parjesh equipment (that benefits from treasures and Vashj's equipment), and anti-attack tech from Athissa herself. Vashj and, to a lesser extent, Zar'jira help you counter fast bosses. Azshara brings heavy damage and just a little sustain with Xal'atath. Karathress and Slitherspear are less broadly applicable, but Kara can bring good damage safely with Cataclysm Bolt and Slitherspear is great when you need someone who can attack. You have 2/2/2 role coverage, and they all have access to either one or two team-buff treasures that will always help (Secrets of the Naga and Azsharan Influence). It's just a well-rounded team without major weaknesses, and it has less repetition in its play patterns than, say Nature teams. What do you all think?
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I've been finding Naga to be a very flexible and potent team for boss rush. You have an expendable taunt in Athissa's Parjesh equipment (that benefits from treasures and Vashj's equipment), and anti-attack tech from Athissa herself. Vashj and, to a lesser extent, Zar'jira help you counter fast bosses. Azshara brings heavy damage and just a little sustain with Xal'atath. Karathress and Slitherspear are less broadly applicable, but Kara can bring good damage safely with Cataclysm Bolt and Slitherspear is great when you need someone who can attack. You have 2/2/2 role coverage, and they all have access to either one or two team-buff treasures that will always help (Secrets of the Naga and Azsharan Influence). It's just a well-rounded team without major weaknesses, and it has less repetition in its play patterns than, say Nature teams. What do you all think?
I was wondering how long it would be before someone started a thread about Boss Rush. Thought about doing it myself several times. It just shows how little Mercenaries gets played anymore, and that was little enough to begin with.
To answer your question, I've been following Old Guardian for tips here. My experience has been that as long as you're comfortable fighting the bosses at fairly low levels, any comp that was strong in Bounty mode will be strong in Boss Rush. For those who haven't done a lot of renown-buffing, be warned: all upgrades to abilities and equipment are cheap up to level 10, then the renown cost increases steeply. This means you can spend a relatively small amount of renown and buff a squad to where they can face most Rushes at level 50. To go higher, you need to spend more renown. Old Guardian has found a few broken strategies revolving around treasures, which means you need to survive the first boss without treasures, then hope you get offered the ones you've buffed. The nastiest game is the Celestial Protection treasure, which with enough buffs and a little luck, your Mercs are essentially invulnerable. I've been beating level 75 bosses with this comp all week. OG also tried something with the Artillery Fire treasure, which has the potential to kill bosses before they even get their stat buffs.
I like that you're playing nagas instead of the "ol reliable" fire or nature comps. I think there is a lot of room to develop fun and VARIED comps, but the renown cost is so steep! Anyone who wants to aim to eventually take down level 500 bosses is going to need some ridiculous amount of renown.
"Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted
I haven't given Boss Rush any serious tries yet, partly because I wanted to max my new Undead gang first, and partly because it feels like I'd really have to focus on one comp.
Nagas? Nature? Who gets the rest of my Renown and who gets sidelined for eternity? (a bit over-dramatic, I know)
Same here, I am also maxing out my Undead mercenaries first. Just nine more upgrades left, using renown trades only. Afterwards, I hope Old Guardian has figured out the best comp for completing the entire boss rush mode which I will gladly pilot to complete the related achievements with.
I hadn't thought about that artillery barrage ploy, which is cute... but the problem is that leaves you with a mishmashed team for the first boss, and the first boss can be a real gatekeeper, especially when it's Onyxia or Vaelastrasz or something of that difficulty.
My other regret is that attacking comps have basically no chance. Enemy bosses get so much attack that you'll burn yourself up with the quickness, Warchief's Blessing or no. That's not to say you should avoid attackers; Slitherspear is a clutch tech piece for Naga when there's a caster that just needs to die, for example. (Shek'zara comes to mind, as does Yogg.) But a comp built around attacking just takes too much damage to survive, which I found to my cost that Pirates couldn't tackle near the challenges, say, a lower-level Nature or Holy Humans comp could.
(It doesn't help that Vanessa's Dreadblades appear bugged to *never* combo instead of *always* combo.)