Dapperdog is right. There are a few comps that just bully everything, so you can breeze through most encounters, but it's a bit reduandat and tedious. Fire has been really strong since early days, but recently I've been using shadow. Vol'jin, Kazakus and Y'shaarj can clear most bounty encounters, even heroic ones, before any enemies even act. Plus, Y'shaarj absolutely steamrolls those dopplegangsters.
Not to digress, but I've currently beaten every heroic bounty except for Drakkisath and Rend in Blackrock Mountain. I have no trouble with the map, but those 2 bosses are just insanely OP. Anyone have any tips?
Guys, I'm so salty right now. I am only missing 3 Mercenaries (all legendaries, of course), so I decided to open up my 53 saved packs. Want to know what I got? TWO portraits for legendaries I already had (I do NOT care about cosmetics), a bunch of portraits for rares and epics, TONS of coins I cannot use for maxxed out Mercs, and yes, quite a few coins for Mercs I am still upgrading. I was hoping to net at LEAST one of the missing Mercs, hopefully two. I've clearly reached the point where my collection is so complete that packs are nearly worthless. This feels SO bad, man. I am eagerly awaiting news on what I will be able to use excess coins for. It better be good!
So I just finished Alexstrasza's Tasks in Mercenaries. One of them was to kill 40 enemies with Dragonqueen's Gambit. FORTY. Good god it was annoying, but at least the ability was at Cooldown 1 instead of 2. Any salty players out there had to do this already before this buff?
Has anyone else noticed that AI characters NEVER make attacks that will kill them unless they have no other option, UNLESS you are working on a task where you need to kill them with a specific ability, then they gleefully commit suicide at every opportunity to deny you your task progress?
I played it for ~7 days after launch and was bored to death. To much grind, to simple game mechanics... no fun at all.
Overall, I enjoy it very much. They have made some major QoL improvements in terms of task availability and completion. It's still pretty grindy, and duplicate protection is still absent.
Haven't beaten this Task yet, but here's what I noticed: the dudes are just pre-existing Mercs with new names and art? I think one is Diablo, one is Cairne, Sylvanas, Blink Fox, Vol'Jin and maybe Cariel? Did anyone else notice the same thing?
As it is, the more you collect, the harder it is to collect. If they added duplicate protection for coins, the reverse would be true, as it is in traditional Hearthstone: the fewer cards you're missing, the more likely it is to get those cards. I don't see why we can't have that.
Another thought I had recently: Blizzard very "generously" give us free legendary Mercs through special events (Leeroy, Vanndar, Tyrael). The thing is, because they are legendary, you get their coins from packs so rarely. That's why my Leeroy and Vanndar are still some 400-500 coins short of maxxing out, despite the fact that I have completed all 18 tasks for both of them. I don't expect to have a maxxed out Tyrael any time soon.
There's a nice comment on OG's video which I recommend you to give it a try. It takes likes 2 minutes and if it doesn't work you can still do OG's suggestion.
Go to BRM Heroic 1 with only Kazakus and Y. I had to restart once because I went into a mono blue encounter. Kaz summons 4 DS Golems and Y uses skill 2. Turn 3 you remove the DS and in T4 you start Rage Unbound.
This was how I did it too. The key is only bringing those 2 mercs so there is space on your board for Kazakus to summon 4 golems. I got it while facing Heroic Apothecary Helbrim. It was perfect because the golems have 8 health, and Helbrim's guards have 8 attack after he gives everyone +1 attack, which is around when Y'Shaarj was ready to go and I had traded away my divine shields.
I just got TPK'd by these assholes. I've lost to plenty of bounty bosses and heroic encounters, but I don't think I've ever had a TPK on NORMAL to a random encounter. Can't believe how unbalanced these guys are.
Totally agree. I've cheesed these guys out once or twice using lucky treasure picks (+Nature damage PLUS Yu'Lon Nature bonus PLUS Malfurion's AOE) to clear them in one shot, or to nerf them with Anduin's "humans take less damage" ability. Otherwise, they always kill at least one merc, and I haven't even tried them on heroic yet.
That's the same task as Grom's. You need to oneshot the enemies, not trigger the deathblow, also enemies can damage themselves attacking you, but you can't damage them by yourself, only oneshot for quest to count it as deathblow.
Ok, I tested this and you are correct. How f-ing stupid is that? Deathblow is a keyword with a specific meaning and function, but here they just arbitrarily use it to mean "one-shot"? Bunch of BS.
I'm currently working on Xuen's Task 17: "Deathblow 25 times." Just killed an enemy with Tiger Lightning, triggering the Deathblow. Task is still at 0/25. WTF?
Wow, this could shake things up considerably. I can already see some potentially crazy synergy with some of these new Mercs (like using Brann with Elise to blast through the Golden Monkey quest).
Looking forward to misplaying terribly while I'm still getting used to all the new characters and abilities!
Is Portal really bad? You dont get the treasures but you save some time since, IMO, you really shouldnt be relying on treasures to win a boss fight.
It's situational. If you're grinding for a "Complete 4 Bounties" task, for example, portal is great. If you're trying to complete a heroic bounty to unlock an equipment, or doing a special event task (which are usually pretty daunting), you really need to get the best treasures, so portal is bad.
I love the solo content, whether it be adventures, dungeon runs or these books. I'm curious as to what makes this one replayable though. Presumably the characters have different decks and hero powers, but I wonder if there's more.
Totally agree! I've enjoyed the flavor of all the Book of Heroes/Mercenaries overall, though some of the decks they give you really suck. A fun play experience overall, plus free packs. I'm excited for this new one!
I think my favorites solo adventures were the Dalaran Heist and Saviors of Uldum ones: tons of replayability there. This new one sounds like it might be similar.
Sounds fun! Glad I've been saving up Mercenaries packs (currently have 45) to bag those new Mercs and, hopefully, plenty of their coins. This seems to indicate that only those 2 Mercs will drop this week, while the other anticipated Mercs will follow in the coming weeks or months? If that's the case, how many packs should I open vs. how many to save for the next drop?
Great guide! I'll just add my suggestions here for anyone that wants more options. I think this is the hardest special event task yet. No matter how strong your squad is and how smart you play, you're not beating this one without some major luck: that means picking up the best treasures along the route, and probably winning some speed ties in the final battle. There are several strategies that aim to drop Popsicooler by turn 2, and if you can pull that off, you'll almost certainly win. It's a high-risk/high-reward play, as focusing on Popsicooler without killing it will probably cost you the match. Some folks use an Orc comp and aim to pick up Windfury for Samuro, which is very likely to succeed. The downside there is splitting with Murlocs, which are required. I decided to go more heavy on Murlocs for better synergy, and bring a couple dragons for navigating the map. Here's my winning squad:
Murky (equip: plus attack when hitting taunt), Old Murk-Eye (equip: attack boost and divine shield), Mutanus (equip: extra damage reduction), Cookie (equip: appetizers), Brightwing (equip: extra healing) and Alexstrasza (equip: Gambit healing).
The goal is simple: Murky taunts up Popsicooler on turn 1, then everyone swings in for maximum damage. Turn 2, Murky bubbles in order to protect Murk-Eye from Popsicooler massive damage. Then you just have to duke it out to the bitter end.
So, I finally did it and beat Popsicooler. Thanks for the support and advice, guys.
In the end, it was absurdly simple. I got the "Attack until you die" treasure for Mutanus. So Murky gave Popsi taunt and I let Mutanus loose. Attacking into the trolley and Popsicooler first because of taunt, each attack increasing Mutanus' attack value because of Murky's Time to Krill equipment and dealing 40+ damage to Popsi while only getting hit back for 2 damage meant that at the end of round 1 I had: a suicided Mutanus, no trolley, no Popsi, Popsi's blue add down to 50 health and the green add rather healthy. From then on, it was easy pickings: Turn 2, the blue add was down and the green one alone was no match for the rest of my team.
By the way: Task 10 then - first try on heroic with the fire comp + N'Zoth allowing me to complete the task and get the N'Zoth equipment at once.
Good job! That sounds like it was an epically fun final match!
New try, no luck. Picked up assassinate (the "good" one from an elite fight) and guess which unit it hits? You guessed right, the trolley.
So, Popsicooler gains 50 attack and together with its adds, it kills Mutanus turn one. Turn two, Murky acts at Speed 8 with the divine shield, so too late to prevent the big swing from Popsi. But Murky (10 health) and Murk-Eye still live. Next turn, I actually kill Popsi but Murky and Murk-Eye go down. So Alex, Brightwing and Cookie take on the remaining adds. I manage to kill the green one but then it's only Alex against the blue one. Which of course means no chance to win anymore.
I'm not giving up but my gosh, this is a frustrating task.
Keep going, you'll get it eventually! Took me at least 10 tries (I didn't actually count).
Dapperdog is right. There are a few comps that just bully everything, so you can breeze through most encounters, but it's a bit reduandat and tedious. Fire has been really strong since early days, but recently I've been using shadow. Vol'jin, Kazakus and Y'shaarj can clear most bounty encounters, even heroic ones, before any enemies even act. Plus, Y'shaarj absolutely steamrolls those dopplegangsters.
Not to digress, but I've currently beaten every heroic bounty except for Drakkisath and Rend in Blackrock Mountain. I have no trouble with the map, but those 2 bosses are just insanely OP. Anyone have any tips?
Guys, I'm so salty right now. I am only missing 3 Mercenaries (all legendaries, of course), so I decided to open up my 53 saved packs. Want to know what I got? TWO portraits for legendaries I already had (I do NOT care about cosmetics), a bunch of portraits for rares and epics, TONS of coins I cannot use for maxxed out Mercs, and yes, quite a few coins for Mercs I am still upgrading. I was hoping to net at LEAST one of the missing Mercs, hopefully two. I've clearly reached the point where my collection is so complete that packs are nearly worthless. This feels SO bad, man. I am eagerly awaiting news on what I will be able to use excess coins for. It better be good!
So I just finished Alexstrasza's Tasks in Mercenaries. One of them was to kill 40 enemies with Dragonqueen's Gambit. FORTY. Good god it was annoying, but at least the ability was at Cooldown 1 instead of 2. Any salty players out there had to do this already before this buff?
Has anyone else noticed that AI characters NEVER make attacks that will kill them unless they have no other option, UNLESS you are working on a task where you need to kill them with a specific ability, then they gleefully commit suicide at every opportunity to deny you your task progress?
Overall, I enjoy it very much. They have made some major QoL improvements in terms of task availability and completion. It's still pretty grindy, and duplicate protection is still absent.
Haven't beaten this Task yet, but here's what I noticed: the dudes are just pre-existing Mercs with new names and art? I think one is Diablo, one is Cairne, Sylvanas, Blink Fox, Vol'Jin and maybe Cariel? Did anyone else notice the same thing?
Great news, thanks guys! I just finished Task 8 yesterday, so I'm ready to go!
As it is, the more you collect, the harder it is to collect. If they added duplicate protection for coins, the reverse would be true, as it is in traditional Hearthstone: the fewer cards you're missing, the more likely it is to get those cards. I don't see why we can't have that.
Another thought I had recently: Blizzard very "generously" give us free legendary Mercs through special events (Leeroy, Vanndar, Tyrael). The thing is, because they are legendary, you get their coins from packs so rarely. That's why my Leeroy and Vanndar are still some 400-500 coins short of maxxing out, despite the fact that I have completed all 18 tasks for both of them. I don't expect to have a maxxed out Tyrael any time soon.
This was how I did it too. The key is only bringing those 2 mercs so there is space on your board for Kazakus to summon 4 golems. I got it while facing Heroic Apothecary Helbrim. It was perfect because the golems have 8 health, and Helbrim's guards have 8 attack after he gives everyone +1 attack, which is around when Y'Shaarj was ready to go and I had traded away my divine shields.
I just got TPK'd by these assholes. I've lost to plenty of bounty bosses and heroic encounters, but I don't think I've ever had a TPK on NORMAL to a random encounter. Can't believe how unbalanced these guys are.
Totally agree. I've cheesed these guys out once or twice using lucky treasure picks (+Nature damage PLUS Yu'Lon Nature bonus PLUS Malfurion's AOE) to clear them in one shot, or to nerf them with Anduin's "humans take less damage" ability. Otherwise, they always kill at least one merc, and I haven't even tried them on heroic yet.
Ok, I tested this and you are correct. How f-ing stupid is that? Deathblow is a keyword with a specific meaning and function, but here they just arbitrarily use it to mean "one-shot"? Bunch of BS.
I'm currently working on Xuen's Task 17: "Deathblow 25 times." Just killed an enemy with Tiger Lightning, triggering the Deathblow. Task is still at 0/25. WTF?
Wow, this could shake things up considerably. I can already see some potentially crazy synergy with some of these new Mercs (like using Brann with Elise to blast through the Golden Monkey quest).
Looking forward to misplaying terribly while I'm still getting used to all the new characters and abilities!
It's situational. If you're grinding for a "Complete 4 Bounties" task, for example, portal is great. If you're trying to complete a heroic bounty to unlock an equipment, or doing a special event task (which are usually pretty daunting), you really need to get the best treasures, so portal is bad.
Totally agree! I've enjoyed the flavor of all the Book of Heroes/Mercenaries overall, though some of the decks they give you really suck. A fun play experience overall, plus free packs. I'm excited for this new one!
I think my favorites solo adventures were the Dalaran Heist and Saviors of Uldum ones: tons of replayability there. This new one sounds like it might be similar.
Sounds fun! Glad I've been saving up Mercenaries packs (currently have 45) to bag those new Mercs and, hopefully, plenty of their coins. This seems to indicate that only those 2 Mercs will drop this week, while the other anticipated Mercs will follow in the coming weeks or months? If that's the case, how many packs should I open vs. how many to save for the next drop?
Great guide! I'll just add my suggestions here for anyone that wants more options. I think this is the hardest special event task yet. No matter how strong your squad is and how smart you play, you're not beating this one without some major luck: that means picking up the best treasures along the route, and probably winning some speed ties in the final battle. There are several strategies that aim to drop Popsicooler by turn 2, and if you can pull that off, you'll almost certainly win. It's a high-risk/high-reward play, as focusing on Popsicooler without killing it will probably cost you the match. Some folks use an Orc comp and aim to pick up Windfury for Samuro, which is very likely to succeed. The downside there is splitting with Murlocs, which are required. I decided to go more heavy on Murlocs for better synergy, and bring a couple dragons for navigating the map. Here's my winning squad:
Murky (equip: plus attack when hitting taunt), Old Murk-Eye (equip: attack boost and divine shield), Mutanus (equip: extra damage reduction), Cookie (equip: appetizers), Brightwing (equip: extra healing) and Alexstrasza (equip: Gambit healing).
The goal is simple: Murky taunts up Popsicooler on turn 1, then everyone swings in for maximum damage. Turn 2, Murky bubbles in order to protect Murk-Eye from Popsicooler massive damage. Then you just have to duke it out to the bitter end.
Good luck everyone!
Good job! That sounds like it was an epically fun final match!
Keep going, you'll get it eventually! Took me at least 10 tries (I didn't actually count).