Although March of the Lich King will only go live on December 6th, the new expansion's achievements are already available in our in-game Journals - and in theory could even be completed early. Keep in mind they've already replaced the ones from Murder at Castle Nathria in this regard, as that set's achievements had their XP bonus disabled with the latest patch.
While most of these achievements require you to own the new cards and thus are not so easily finished - unless you want to rely on some Hearthstone Duels mid-run Buckets luck - some of them are already doable. Therefore, you can either complete or start grinding them ahead of time, so that you are then better able to go through the first levels of the next Rewards Track for even more rewards and a sense of progression.
For this reason, we've rounded up all of the currently accessible Lich King achievements and added a little guide for each, so that you'll have something different to do during these last few days before the new cards become available for everyone, and the real grind will begin. Have fun!
Remember: Any achievements you complete will not instantly provide the XP bonus, unless you manually collect them. Do not claim the achievements until the new Rewards Track goes live on December 6th. If you claim them now, that XP goes towards your current Castle Nathria track instead. When in doubt, stay out of your Journal until the expansion launches.
How to Complete the "Reign of Arrows" Hunter Achievement
- Requirement: Deal 100/200/300 damage with Arcane spells as Hunter.
- Speed Rating: 0/5.
- XP Points Rewarded: 100, 100 and 500 XP
- Related Achievements: none.
Let's be clear: without any March of the Lich King cards, this achievement is as arduous as it gets. In fact, the only Arcane spell Hunter currently has at its disposal is Arcane Shot, a 1 mana deal 2 damage you'd have to use to deal a total of 300 damage.
As we see it, you should just invest your free time for the next week by playing the game normally or enjoying other things: it's just not worth it. Although Spell Damage amplifiers and Discover options exist for the most patient players out there.
How to Complete the "Take a Mana, Leave a Mana" Mage Achievement
- Requirement: Cast 200 spells for less than their original Cost as Mage.
- Speed Rating: 3/5.
- XP Points Rewarded: 200 XP
- Related Achievements: none.
Mage is probably the most suited class for an achievement like Take a Mana, Leave a Mana: throughout the years, Jaina has received many discount tools which will turn out incredibly useful for our purpose.
There are multiple ways for you to build "the discounted" achievement hunting deck, but we think Incanter's Flow is still the best option available.
- Hard mulligan for card draw and Incanter's Flow.
- Siphon Mana is another really good card to keep in the mulligan, although not as good as Flow.
How to Complete the "Blood Bank" Paladin Achievement
- Requirement: Take 100/200/300 damage from your own cards as Paladin.
- Speed Rating: 3/5.
- XP Points Rewarded: 100, 100 and 500 XP
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Blight of the Scourge.
- Neutral's Here Comes the Sun.
March of the Lich King cards will make things even easier for us, but "self-damage" Paladin has already been a thing back in Rastakhan's Rumble. Although the archetype has never taken off, we can always go back and use some of the support cards Team 5 printed back in the day!
Moreover, the Neutral section has some neat tools as well: Crystallizer, Ornery Tortoise and Hecklefang Hyena all work towards Blood Bank.
- We tested it: unfortunately, High Priest Thekal won't count, as it doesn't deal damage to you, but rather it converts your Health into Armor.
In case you wanna give Blood Bank a spin in Standard, here's what we'd use.
How to Complete the "A Graveyard Smash" Priest Achievement
- Requirement: Summon 25 Undead in one game as Priest.
- Speed Rating: 4/5.
- XP Points Rewarded: 200 XP
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Blight of the Scourge.
Although they're going to play a big role in the upcoming expansion, Undead minions are already in the game, since Team 5 has retroactively added the tribal tag to units from past sets. With this piece of information in mind, Resurrection Priest is the most suitable choice for you to complete A Graveyard Shift.
Here's the Standard list we'd use.
- They key card is Amulet of Undying, which will resurrect up to 7 Undead each time.
In Wild there's far more Res Priest support, so we think completing A Graveyard Shift there is going to be easier.
How to Complete the "Blight of the Scourge" Neutral Achievement
- Requirement: Summon 200/400/600 Undead.
- Speed Rating: 2/5.
- XP Points Rewarded: 100, 100 and 500 XP
- Related Achievements:
- Priest's A Graveyard Shift.
There are two ways for you to complete this achievement:
- Build a Prince Renathal deck with as many Undead as you can fit plus some card draw.
- Play the Res Priest we showcased above for the A Graveyard Shift achievement.
Remember that this achievement is meant to be completed over the course of months, so do not stress too much over it: once March of the Lich King goes live, Blight of the Scourge will become significantly easier to grind out.
How to Complete the "Here Comes the Sun" Neutral Achievement
- Requirement: Add 50/100/150 spells to your hand with The Sunwell.
- Speed Rating: 3/5.
- XP Points Rewarded: 100, 100 and 500 XP
- Related Achievements: none.
Completable because The Sunwell was given away for free to everyone a month ago. The most "sane" way to do this is jamming The Sunwell in every deck that can include it, while the grindy way is playing the Paladin deck you see below.
- The Sunwell is the only Holy spell in the list, so Knight of Anointment will always draw it.
- Once you have enough mana, play The Sunwell and concede.
- Rinse and repeat until you have generated (not played) 150 spells.
Best of luck if you attempt any pre-Lich King achievement hunting. Let us know how many of these have you managed to complete: sharing other tips and tricks is also welcome!
Comments
For the "Blight of the Scourge" Neutral Achievement, it´s very easy to complete it in Duels with Priest or Paladin. Just put all reborn undead minions to your deck and resummon them with Priest spells or with Paladins HP that ressurects your minion with 1 HP. I´ve completed the achievement in 2 days (along with Priests "A Graveyard Smash" achievement).
As for the "Blood Bank" Paladin Achievement, I´ve noticed that, again, it´s very easy to complete it in Duels - I´ve found out that when you manage to play as Paladin against an armor Warrior with HP that shuffles a bomb to your deck, that said bomb counts as your card - so it´s +5 damage with every bomb proc, making this achievement quick to complete this way.
Hope this helps someone :)
This is HUGE
For "Take a Mana, Leave a Mana" achievement, I have some insights to share because it's easier to do in Wild than in Standard thanks to these cards below:
If you have aforementioned cards, feel free to utilize them but no need to craft just for sake of achievement hunting. I will add more if anything comes into my head. Have a nice day everyone, thanks for reading.
I played about 1,5 hours of Secret Mage in Wild and allready got nearly half of the achievement.
I think this is the easiest way to get this "just by playing a normal deck".
The wild Priest deck works wonders. Done the achievment on first try against Imp Curse warlock, and even won the game after exhausting the opponent with them playing all their curses (9 damage with the last one) and them playing a 27 damage Denathrius. Thank you.
I am glad it worked of you - cheers!
OG KT from Naxx, Kel'Thuzad surely does his job well too. I played a game and my opponent was nice enough to let 3xKT s alive, eventually finishing the quest whilst Khartut Defenders were alive.