Blizzard’s free-to-play digital card game,Hearthstone,which contains characters from all overWorld of Warcraft’s Azeroth, has become popularnot only in e-sportsas a competitive PvP game, but also as a challenging PvE game. In the game’s different PvE modes, players come across various bosses - some of which are easy to overcome, and others that are just plain unfair fights.
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Each boss has its own tricks up its sleeves, whether it be stealing the player’s deck, having a deadly boss ability, or simply just hiding unbelievably powerful cards in its deck. Players, therefore, need to concoct unique strategies to defeat each boss, and some might require facing the boss more than a few times until that strategy is perfected. These bosses stand out as downright cruel inHearthstone’s PvE modes.
10Maloriak
Players will find the boss, Maloriak, in the second encounter of the Blackrock Mountain adventure’s fifth wing. What makes this boss fight one of the most difficult in the game is Maloriak’s passive hero ability, The Alchemist, which swaps every minion’s Attack and Health as soon as it is summoned, as well as giving his minions +2/+2.
Maloriak also has a 2-cost card that summons three Aberrations. With the added +2/+2, these Aberrations can become quite a big problem if one goes into the fight unprepared.
9Lady Vashj
Lady Vashj is the seventh boss in the Trial by Felfire challenge. While most bosses (and heroes) have a standard health of 30, Lady Vashj’s health is double that with a health of 60. To top a health number that is already difficult to get down, she has a special card in her deck called Looming Presence, which allows her to draw 3 cards and gain 6 armor.
In this battle, players are also not allowed to useWild Cards, which makes this powerful boss especially difficult to beat.
8Sapphiron
Another boss with a particularly nasty hero ability is Sapphiron, who can be found twice in the Curse of Naxxramas adventure - first in the adventure’s fifth wing, and again as the penultimate boss. His Frost Breath ability, at the cost of 0 manna, destroys all enemy minions that are not frozen.
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In other words, the only way to avoid losing minions is to freeze them, which means that they cannot necessarily attack every turn either. This poses many challenges and requires a solid strategy if players wish to defeat this boss.
7Kel’Thuzad
Also appearing twice in the Curse of Naxxramas adventure, Kel’Thuzad is the final boss for the adventure and is encountered as the second boss of the fifth wing called Frostwyrm Lair. Many players might struggle for days to defeat him, as he has two phases, each with a different brutal hero power.
In the first phase,on heroic, he deals 3 damage to the enemy hero and freezes it with Frost Blast. After all his armor is depleted, he moves into phase 2, which lets him take control of a random enemy minion. To top it all, he has access to the Twisting Nether spell, which allows him to destroy the entire board should he wish to.
6Chromaggus
Chromaggus is found in Blackwing Lair in the Blackrock Mountain adventure. The battle with this boss can become rather complicated, as he puts a Brood Affliction card in the player’s hand after every turn. These cards grant him all sorts of advantages like healing him or reducing his manna costs.
So to get rid of the Brood Affliction cards, one may play it for a relatively low manna cost, but that will add +2/+2 to his Chromatic Dragonkins each time a Brood Affliction is placed, powering them up quite significantly. This predicament can pose a challenge for many players.
5Arch-Thief Rafaam
Another boss appearing twice is Rafaam from the League of Explorers adventure. Rafaam “steals” the player’s deck at the beginning of the game and replaces it with a very average pre-made one. Players are then forced to play with the pre-made deck against their own deck.
Most players, of course, taketheir best deckinto battle, which makes Rafaam’s trick quite annoying. One should strategize and take the deck to battle that is least likely to beat the pre-made deck that Rafaam hands out.
4The Crone
The witch-like Crone, who seems to be a nudge to the Wicked Witch of the West fromThe Wizard of Oz, is the third boss in the One Night in Karazhan second wing, called The Opera. The challenge in this battle is to keep Dorothee alive, who has merely 10 health points. When Dorothee is destroyed, The Crone’s hero power, Twister, kicks in, which deals 100 damage at zero cost.
Since she also has access to Twisting Nether, which wipes the entire board, Dorothee can die at any moment. Without taunt minions on the table, this means a one-shot kill to the player’s hero.
3Julianne
Another boss fromOne Night in Karazhanis Julianne. She is also part of The Opera, making it the most difficult wing to take on. Julianne can only be damaged when the 4/2 Romulo is not on the field. This becomes tricky because her hero ability is to summon Romulo if she doesn’t have him (at zero manna cost to her on heroic mode).
Moreover, Julianne’s deck mostly consists of Taunt cards, so getting to Romulo in the first place is quite hard. His 4 attack points don’t help much either.
2Lord Marrowgar
Part of the mission that ends with a fight with the mighty Lich King, is a boss encounter with Lord Marrogar. He has an annoying special card called Bone Spike that has 8 health points. This card deals 15 damage to the enemy hero at the start of Lord Marrowgar’s turn, meaning that if players don’t destroy this card within two turns, it is game over.
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This boss’s hero ability is even more troubling, restoring him to full health at no manna cost at all. This means that one needs to find a way to defeat him in one turn before he can cast this ability again in the next turn.
1Lich King
Many players will agree thatthe Lich Kingpresents the hardest boss fight in the entire game. His three hero powers alone make him a formidable opponent - he can summon a 2/2 Ghoul and deal 1 damage to the enemy hero, adding +1 damage every time, and he has a passive ability that makes him immune if he controls a Trapped Soul.
Add to this a whole list of brutal special cards, one that gives him 100 armor and another that sets the enemy hero’s health to 1, for example, and you have got a boss fight that is no small feat to win.
Hearthstoneis currently available on PC, macOS, and Mobile.
