How to Complete the Forged in the Barrens Priest XP Achievements

Welcome, fellow achievement hunter.

Here we will be taking a closer look at what Hearthstone has for us in store when it comes to Gameplay XP Achievements for the Priest class in Forged in the Barrens expansion. Each one gets its own section below, so you could always scroll down if looking for tips and tricks for anything in particular. All other important info along with the links to other classes and categories can be found here.

Priest Barrens Achievements - General

Last time we tried this, Priest didn't have any particularly difficult achievements - but they all required some sort of setup. Here in the Barrens everything becomes noticeably simpler, even without any special preparation. 

Playing Priest often means generating what you need anyway and seemingly never running out of cards as turn counts go on and on and on. You could definitely get there by playing any version of Control and doing typical Priest things; a few modifications here and there just allow to deal with the achievements in a slightly more efficient manner. 

As always, we will be defaulting to Standard format lists with the assumption that many players may not have the necessary older cards, then adding relevant notes for Wild and Duels where applicable. Remember that this is just one example of a possible direction to take! Mix and match per your own needs. Tips, tricks, and recommended cards for each separate achievement as follows:

How to Complete the "Two Health Bars" Barrens Achievement

Hard to imagine a more Priest-y task. Any kind of drawn-out match will do, so you have the ability to get and cast relevant spells as Hero portraits on both sides lose their precious Health. "Spamming" Lesser Heal alone can go a long way over numerous turns. 

• Mulligan for: Wandmaker, Venomous Scorpid, Sethekk Veilweaver with Holy Smite is okay, Xyrella is a very good keep here. 
• You can heal your opponent as well (and with Desperate Prayer you will regardless), so it's not like you only need to wait around to get hurt. We all know how tempting that Hero Power plus Emote combo truly is. 
• If you have all the answers in the world in your hand, you can let opposing minions hit you at least once instead of trying to remove everything as soon as you can. Can't restore Health if you don't lose any. Raise Dead only goes so far on its own. 
• Blademaster Samuro plus Apotheosis is a known big burst heal if you are low against a wider enemy board, but it's not like you need to own the card to get there. Even in Standard there is just so much healing redundancy. 
• Wild format note: going Highlander with the original Reno Jackson is always an option. And there is a truly ridiculous amount of healing spells and minions: Binding Heal, Divine Hymn, Greater Healing Potion, Omega Medic, Priest of the Feast - just to name a few. 
• Duels note: Shadow Mend is just a better Hero Power period. The initial games aren't great when starting with only 20/25 Health, but once it goes up to 30 and then 40 things become a lot better.

How to Complete the "Blood Donation" Barrens Achievement

You probably shouldn't count on getting any free chocolate during this process, as Serena Bloodfeather is a Harpy and they are usually not fond of sharing. Plus it will have to be enemy minions doing all the donating. 

• Mulligan for: Serena Bloodfeather, Insight, then Animated Broomstick and Raise Dead.
• This can be done really quickly with such focused approach. Serena Bloodfeather always makes the drained minion smaller than her, and with Animated Broomstick providing the Harpy with Rush you can always guarantee your kill without having to wait a turn and pray for no removal. 
• With only these minions in the deck, Raise Dead should be able to give you several copies within a single game. And Insight ensure you won't have to count on just one lucky draw before you can even begin (Sphere of Sapience is a bonus if you got it). Other spells can increase these odds further with convenient discovers. 
• Since it's Priest, you have enough tools to survive meanwhile; not to mention being able to generate even more. You only need your opponent to provide you with an occasional minion for the draining to commence. 
• Wild format note: you have Seance to make more copies of your Serena Bloodfeather, and Holy Water could pull off something similar at a greater mana count. Shadow Visions becomes handy for other purposes. There is also a slim chance you could find Serena Bloodfeather through Dark Prophecy and Kabal Courier, but with the Wild pool of cards being fairly large at this point that's a very optimistic prospect indeed.
• Duels note: only one copy of Animated Broomstick and other spells is actually okay, it should be easy to find what you need while your deck is thinner during those initial games. Shadow Mend helps a lot. And as is usually the case for this mode - if you don't have Serena Bloodfeather, you could see if it's possible to find her in any of the loot buckets.

How to Complete the "Why Can't I Hold All These Cards" Barrens Achievement

I don't know about you, but that's the question I've been often asking myself while playing Priest. The amount of card generation for the class is still pretty ridiculous, to the point that you should be able to stay at near full hand capacity most of the time. And that can be enhanced further:

• Mulligan for: mainly Wandmaker and Venomous Scorpid, cheap removal if desired. 
• "Full hand" here means ending your turn with at least 9 cards being held and then drawing into the 10th - the achievement doesn't force you to overdraw, luckily. You will still probably burn some cards here and there, given the number of spells and minions that replace themselves with yet another one. Or two. 
• Ideally you can just queue into another Control deck (that isn't all about evil Tickatus), allowing you to stay at maximum capacity almost all the time and wrap it up within just a couple of games. Classes that generate a lot of pressure early on and force you to use a lot of cards just to be able to survive obviously don't align too well with this goal. 
• Finding multiples of Ysera the Dreamer is certainly one of the best ways to be always overflowing with cards, although Raise Dead and Onyx Magescribe might also cause that 'too much wealth' problem often enough. You could technically include choices like Banana Vendor if you wish, but there is usually no real need to be lowering the quality of your deck this much. 
• Wild format note: there is Galakrond, the Unspeakable of course, along with various Invoke cards. Cobalt Spellkin, Thoughtsteal, Devour Mind all with larger generation potential. Lyra the Sunshard was a thing well before we even got introduced to Sethekk Veilweaver. And a million other cards that add something to your hand as you play them; it's impossible to run out of options. 
• Duels note: Shadow Mend with Herald of the Scaled Ones make for a nice start. You might find Divine Illumination or Open the Doorways to further capitalize on this. 

Other Resources

Our clever community members set up a forum thread just for such achievement progression, and we have added separate #achievements channel to our Discord server. Feel free to join in! Any comment in here will also not go unnoticed, if you'd like to share your own experiences or point out anything in particular. We try to keep an eye on things and reply swiftly. 

Good luck tackling any of these achievements for your experience boost or just for the sake of satisfying completion!