Beat That Bounty Boss!

  • DragonDraena's Avatar
    530 413 Posts Joined 08/10/2021
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Hey fam, I'm creating this thread as a spot for tips, tricks, and comps for tackling a specific PvE bounty. 

    If there's a better space for this kind of thing, let me know. 

    An example, Lord Banehollow's crew have Holy weakness, so bring your holy damage to finish them off. 

    Second example: I'm stuck on Rend Blackhand. What did you do against a boss that can deal 200 damage in one shot? 

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  • AngryShuckie's Avatar
    1705 1735 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    I did them a while ago, so my memory is a bit shaky, but a couple I remember quite clearly were:

    1. Beating Snowclaw with Thrall's elite encounter Hex treasure. It has 5-turn cooldown, so he had to sit on the bench while my first 3 mercs stalled by not attacking (attacking Snowclaw would hurt them seriously). When 5 turns had passed I had someone die, brought Thrall out, turned Snowclaw into a 0/1 frog and had it easy from there.
    2. I beat Icehowl using Valeera Sanguinar's treasure that makes her immune while she's stealthed. Then she just sat in the middle while Icehowl kept hitting the character in front of him (i.e. the immune Valeera). I guess you can bring Scabbs along too since Valeera will make him immune as well.

     

    When all else fails, I've found a couple of ways that can cheese most (though not quite all) bosses:

    1. Use King Mukla with his equipment that makes bananas give more health. Then try/hope to get the treasure for him that sets his starting health to 4 (or 6 if from an elite encounter) and he only takes 1 damage. You have to be careful he doesn't die on turn 1, so you might start him on the bench so his speed (3) taunt ability is ready when you first use him, but once he gets going he should gain health way faster than the opponents can deal damage.
    2. Use Valeera Sanguinar and/or Scabbs Cutterbutter and try/hope to get their elite encounter "Assassinate 2" treasure that will destroy an enemy at the start of the encounter. If you're lucky you'll hit the boss itself and trivialise the fight, and even if you hit something else it often makes things A LOT easier.
      1. Note that against Nefarian you actually want the non-elite "Assassinate 1" which only hits neutrals, and hence will guaranteed hit Nefarian himself. It's not much use against other bosses though, except Chromaggus who starts neutral, and only Valeera gets offered this I believe.

    The downsides of these plans is they don't give you a big sense of accomplishment when you do them, and the Mukla approach especially can end up a tedious process where you only have Mukla left and you slowly punch the boss down. The big upside is they only require 1 merc, so you can bring them along with 5 other mercs who you build a proper plan around, when they provide a back-up plan.

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  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5472 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Nature bros (Malfurion, Guff, Brukan) for everything, with the three extra flex slots for individual bosses. Usually I'd have brightwing and diablo in one of those spots.

    Haven't fail me yet. The only time I'd ever change this arrangement is in winterspring where enemies attack twice, in which case I would usually add mutanus and xyrella somewhere.

    Don't even need to take on difficult hero fights for those level 5 treasures. Just boost up your nature damage and at some point guff would do ridiculous damage, around 60 without crits, on entry. At that point the only way you lose is that you've fallen asleep halfway through.

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  • DragonDraena's Avatar
    530 413 Posts Joined 08/10/2021
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    A "sense of accomplishment" is not my primary goal! I'd just like to unlock the next thing. 

    I don't think I've ever seen those Assassinate treasures. Closest I can recall is Sylvanas stealing 3x3 from everyone. 

    The Hunting Party treasure that prevents new things from spawning does not work on Blackhand's gang, so I need these additional ideas! 

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  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5472 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago
    Quote From DragonDraena

    A "sense of accomplishment" is not my primary goal! I'd just like to unlock the next thing. 

    I don't think I've ever seen those Assassinate treasures. Closest I can recall is Sylvanas stealing 3x3 from everyone. 

    The Hunting Party treasure that prevents new things from spawning does not work on Blackhand's gang, so I need these additional ideas! 

    If you have diablo and Cairne this match is trivial. Just sack your first team (for me its nature bros) and then enter cairne and diablo with fire stomp. Blackhand would then be severely weakened if not outright dead from that move.

    If you have that treasure that deals 6 fire damage to everything when something dies from a fire attack (usually gained from diablo) then the game is over. Just sack first team, fire stomp and win. In fact you might have to restart your game because the animation loops kinda too long.

     

    You dont even need a fully loaded diablo to do this. Lvl 3 fire stomp is all you need.

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  • DragonDraena's Avatar
    530 413 Posts Joined 08/10/2021
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Nailed it! Diablo did nicely as a finisher, and my fire comp held their own and did lots of damage. 

    Alexstraza's Gambit ability did much work, plus she picked up a treasure that restored everyone to full health. Coupled with someone else's treasure that did not allow health to be reduced below 1, and boom, two extra turns to zap my enemies. 

    Onward! 

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  • Daowen's Avatar
    Hero of Warcraft 950 251 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago
    Quote From DragonDraena

    Hey fam, I'm creating this thread as a spot for tips, tricks, and comps for tackling a specific PvE bounty. 

    If there's a better space for this kind of thing, let me know. 

    An example, Lord Banehollow's crew have Holy weakness, so bring your holy damage to finish them off. 

    Second example: I'm stuck on Rend Blackhand. What did you do against a boss that can deal 200 damage in one shot? 

    Good idea to create this thread. I am happy with it at least. 
    Sometimes it's just a struggle, and a simple advice can help you out.

    I'm not online       cat          it's just your imagination

     

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  • allthehype's Avatar
    Crossroads Historian 630 739 Posts Joined 07/26/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Quote From <a title=
    If you have that treasure that deals 6 fire damage to everything when something dies from a fire attack (usually gained from diablo) then the game is over. Just sack first team, fire stomp and win. In fact you might have to restart your game because the animation loops kinda too long.

    This is exactly how I defeated Blackhand. I sacrificed Gruul (usable in Blackrock with Fire restistance and Dragon hate), stomped, and restarted the app when Blackhand was at -300 health something and the damage just kept going.

    Some short advise on how to play the Nature bros? And/or how to beat Vaelastrasz? Nevermind, got it.

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  • Pezman's Avatar
    Staff Writer 2145 1991 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Great thread idea!

    As someone who's been doing a lot of bounty hunting, I think the greatest path to success is finding the best treasures. As several have noted above me, treasure like Hex and Assassinate can be OP against the right bosses. I've also found that Xyrella's treasure that makes Blinding Luminescence hit neighbors is insanely good in almost every match.

    Next best tip is find strong synergy: a squad with all Nature or Holy abilities, for example, can dish out massive damage, even without critical hits. I've cleared many bosses with Morgl, Bru'kan and Guff. Again, treasures make a big difference. Getting Nature damage bonus treasures, or "Lightning Bolt hits a neighbor" for example, can stack up your damage really fast.

    Most bosses have a weakness, so figure out the best way to exploit that. 

    Never underestimate Freeze effects. Some bosses have ridiculously OP abilities, and if you can freeze them before they act, no problem. Just be aware that if they don't act, they didn't use the ability, so if it has a cooldown, they'll still be able to do it next turn.

    Happy Hunting!

    "Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted

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  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5472 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago
    Quote From allthehype

    Some short advise on how to play the Nature bros? And/or how to beat Vaelastrasz? Nevermind, got it.

    There's nothing to it really. Just malfurion/guff/brukan, with treasures for lightning bolt and living brambles. The only true significant treasure here would be malfurion's liferoot staff, which heals for every nature ability, effectively meaning that you'll be healing for 18 every turn.

    Buff up your nature spell damage with brukan and go ham with guff, dealing monstrous damage per turn. Malfurion is pretty much going to spam surge every turn.

    Its the flex spots that makes nature bros work in pve. Brightwing is fairly good here, because her attack are nature oriented, meaning it also combos with guff. Another good thing is that everything in pve would aim to snipe her down, so you can bait out attacks then phase back to bench, practically wasting your opponent's turn. Useful against enemy heroes.

    Fifth and sixth spot depends on bosses. Nature bros arent always favored against all bosses, so flex accordingly.

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  • DragonDraena's Avatar
    530 413 Posts Joined 08/10/2021
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Fresh tip: I just completed Heroic Icehowl today, and even after he had turned one of my Mercs into a block of ice, it was still able to cast its abilities. Like they were Rooted instead of Frozen. 

    Not sure if that's a bug, or a change from the latest patch, but I don't think non-heroic Icehowl worked that way (weeks ago). 

    So make sure your party includes damage from a distance! 

    1
  • Pezman's Avatar
    Staff Writer 2145 1991 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    I'm stuck on Popsicooler! Any tips?

    "Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted

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  • DragonDraena's Avatar
    530 413 Posts Joined 08/10/2021
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Popsicooler is a ton of stats on board, and I barely squeaked out a win with my holy damage (with lots of healing) crew. There's probably a better way to do it. Maybe more immunity? 

    1
  • Suchti0352's Avatar
    Hero of Warcraft 780 870 Posts Joined 03/27/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    I think I did the normal bounties with orcs or something like that, mostly because they have a strong fighter lineup. I would also recommend to not destroy the side-switching taunt, because then the boss will only spam his "gain +50 attack and attack a random enemy" ability.

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  • NebuchadnezzarHS's Avatar
    Supporter 2005 1383 Posts Joined 06/14/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Do we have to include the specific mercenary in the party to beat the heroic boss for unlocking their equipment? I certainly hope not, because this makes it even more difficult.

    I beat heroic Ravak and the related equipment did not unlock for my Sinestra, which might be a bug? Can anyone confirm?

    EDIT: Hm, I just read that it is part of the requirement to have the specific mercenary included in the party to unlock the related equipment. This sucks!

    1
  • HuntardHuntard's Avatar
    Mailbox Dancer 875 744 Posts Joined 12/03/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

    Sorry, I know this isn't the place to ask, but where do you guys find team comps? Wanna get back into Mercs PVP again.

    Edit: Thank you, you two! Did not even notice there was that feature on this site.

    Your face is already dead

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  • allthehype's Avatar
    Crossroads Historian 630 739 Posts Joined 07/26/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago
    Quote From Pezman

    I'm stuck on Popsicooler! Any tips?

    I did it with my fire team, and focused on bursting down the cart (or whatever it's name is) first

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  • AngryShuckie's Avatar
    1705 1735 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago
    Quote From NebuchadnezzarHS

    Do we have to include the specific mercenary in the party to beat the heroic boss for unlocking their equipment? I certainly hope not, because this makes it even more difficult.

    I beat heroic Ravak and the related equipment did not unlock for my Sinestra, which might be a bug? Can anyone confirm?

    EDIT: Hm, I just read that it is part of the requirement to have the specific mercenary included in the party to unlock the related equipment. This sucks!

    They did at least make most of them have some form of weakness to the appropriate merc. That's not really the case for Sinestra or Lokholar (heck, I got Lok'holar's elite treasure to freeze all enemies for the first turn, which was great until I realised the final boss can't be frozen...), but Wrathion's final boss has a human weakness, you fight fire with fire (or rather bleed with bleed) with Galvangar, and Drek'thar kindly provides both fire and frost damage buffs for whatever you plan to do with Balinda.

    So while it made it more difficult, it wasn't poorly designed.

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  • Pezman's Avatar
    Staff Writer 2145 1991 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago
    Quote From HuntardHuntard

    Sorry, I know this isn't the place to ask, but where do you guys find team comps? Wanna get back into Mercs PVP again.

    On the main page, you can toggle between Hearthstone decks and Mercenaries parties. There aren't nearly as many parties posted, and very few of them have guides, but it's a place to start

    "Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted

    1
  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5472 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 1 year, 10 months ago
    Quote From Pezman

    I'm stuck on Popsicooler! Any tips?

    Did it with murlocs, with subpar passives at that. If you have brightwing, then all you need to do is to deal with the two other minions that spawn with popsicooler and damage the cart, thereafter the boss cant really do anything substantial from there on because brightwing heals just too efficiently and the murlocs deal too much damage.

     

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