The PvE side of Hearthstone Mercenaries culminates in Heroic bounties. Heroic bounties, at their best, are fun puzzles where you put together a team that takes advantage of any weaknesses that the boss has to overcome the challenge.
I have played through all the Heroic bounties multiple times in search of the most consistent party comps to tackle them. All the strategies in this guide are highly repeatable and do not depend on any specific treasures. Yet, there is no single solution to any of these puzzles. You can also find other ways to win.
This guide contains all the bosses in Winterspring and Blackrock Mountain. Barrens and Felwood bosses are generally easy enough to manage with a generic, solid team. Surprisingly, so are some of the bosses from the later stages, but I chose to include them anyway for completeness’ sake.
The role of treasures
Treasures are important. Some treasures allow you to skip entire mechanics and instantly win. For example, Scabbs and many other fighters can pick up an assassination treasure to instantly destroy one of the opponents at the start of the game. King Krush with To the Death treasure and immunity from King Mukla can destroy all opponents at ease. Even on a budget team, you can use Hysteria with Xyrella and make Samuro immune to defeat many bosses.
However, this guide is written with consistency in mind. Good generic treasures are all you need, and most likely you can succeed even without them. Stat buffs, damage buffs, and damage reduction are useful and can make the bosses a lot easier, but you do not need to try to roll for any specific one to succeed.
Winterspring 3-1: Heroic Snowclaw
Heroic Snowclaw is one of the most challenging heroic bosses to the extent that Blizzard has already announced that it will be nerfed in a future patch, although the specifics are not yet known.
Snowclaw summons Totems that slow you down and then punishes you for being slow.
There is an effective, maybe borderline cheese, strategy to take down Heroic Snowclaw: Rokara with Helm of Inspiration, Rathorian with Demonic Ashes, and Blademaster Samuro. This gives the Hulking Overfiend from Rathorian at least 25 Attack, which means that it can instantly kill a totem, and proceed to kill them all via Deathblow to hit the lowest-health enemy. You simply skip your first turn and unleash the Overfiend on turn two together with Rokara’s buff power. Between the Overfiend and Samuro, Snowclaw will fall almost instantly. This strategy can fail if Snowclaw takes the first hit, although you should be fine with waiting a little to try again.
For climbing to Snowclaw, I have used the standard Nature comp: Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/TXnGH7Ee_kE
Winterspring 3-2: Heroic Yeti Hunter Ranel
Yeti Hunter Ranel is accompanied by a pair of Frosted Elementals who can slow you down, freeze you, and heal themselves. Annoying.
My party to take down the Yeti Hunter is Murlocs! Mutanus with Earthen Armor, Old Murk-Eye with Navigator’s Amulet, and Morgl the Oracle can start to work on killing the Elementals immediately.
A bench of Rokara, Blademaster Samuro, and Xyrella provides support.
I use Mutanus, Old Murk-Eye, and Xyrella to climb to the boss.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/W2L6Ya12Kag
Winterspring 3-3: Heroic Avalanchan
Unlike the previous two Winterspring Heroic bosses, Avalanchan is not particularly strong. A simple Nature team with Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan can bring down even the Heroic version easily.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/-QSNciQ3QP4
Winterspring 3-4: Heroic Ursula Windfury
Ursula Windfury has buffs for all Orcs. Yes, that includes your orcs, so orcs are ideal for taking down this boss.
I climb to the boss with Garrosh, Thrall with Ring of Strength (an important piece of gear for orcs PvE), and Xyrella. The bench is Rokara, Blademaster Samuro, and Cookie with Appetizers for the Health buff.
The extra health from Cookie is particularly useful early in the climb before you get any stat buffs, but once you have some, it does not really matter.
I start the boss fight with Garrosh, Thrall, and Rokara. I defeat the red Orc first and then continue to Ursula herself. As some of the Heroes may fall, you can bring in any necessary support from the bench.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/js9eMJLrLnc
Winterspring 3-5: Heroic Icehowl
Heroic Icehowl has so much attack that it is best handled with spells.
A nature team works well: Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan. On the bench, I like to use Cookie with Appetizers for additional Health, Lady Anacondra as a backup caster, and the final slot does not even matter. Brightwing looks fun, for example.
The extra health from Cookie is particularly useful early in the climb before you get any stat buffs, but once you have some, it does not really matter.
Position the Ice Blocks between your Mercenaries at the start so that you can flexibly move them to block Icehowl’s attacks. Burn down Icehowl and then take down the adds.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/KigbkTN0oeQ
Winterspring 3-6: Heroic Ahune the Frostlord
Ahune the Frostlord cannot be damaged directly. Instead, you need to destroy their ice shard to deal damage to the boss.
The most consistent party comp I have found for this is the Holy comp.
First, you can climb to the boss relatively easily with Mutanus with Earthen Armor, Anduin with Harmonic Mallet, and Prophet Velen with Tome of Inspiration.
At the boss, use Anduin, Velen and Natalie Seline with Splinter of Nordrassil to defeat all ice shards as they are summoned.
This party comp is more consistent at climbing to the boss than fire, even though fire is strong at the boss itself.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/DvGme7NXnpw
Blackrock Mountain 4-1: Heroic Coren Direbrew
Coren Direbrew buffs any characters that attack. This makes the bounty ideal for orcs, who are happy to attack and have some big stats by the time they reach the boss.
For both the boss and the climb, I open with Garrosh, Thrall with Ring of Strength (a key piece of gear for pve orcs), and Saufang with Serrated Shield. The bench consists of Rokara, Blademaster Samuro, and Cookie with Appetizers for some extra health. The extra health is particularly useful early in the climb before you get any stat buffs, but once you have some, it does not really matter.
Then you just smash.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/jeXLjCvRt1c
Blackrock Mountain 4-2: Heroic High Justice Grimstone
High Justice Grimstone is one of the most difficult Heroic bosses. Whenever the High Justice or the adds attack, your team takes aoe damage, and teams can get instantly wiped here.
The easiest and most consistent way to beat High Justice is with an Orc team and two high-damage casters on the bench. I open with Garrosh with Tusks of Mannoroth, Threall with Ring of Strength, and Saurfang with Serrated Shield. This trio brings down at least one add, sometimes both, on turn one! I have Rokara on the bench for more Orc support, and the boss is finished off with blue casters. I like Gul’dan and Jaina for the job, but any high-damage blues should do.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/Do3M11G61sg
I have also done High Justice with a Nature/Beast party. Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan are my usual opener, and from there I bring in Anacondra and finally King Mukla and King Krush, if needed.
During the climb, you can alternate between the Nature trio and the Beast trio, depending on the opponent.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/nZuk64NdesA
There is also a budget path to taking down High Justice, and many of the other bosses too.
The combo team of Mr. Smite, Cornelius Roame with Shield of Dawn, and Rokara with Helm of Inspiration can be surprisingly good. You use Overboard on Mr. Smite, Blessing of Sacrifice Mr. Smite with Cornelius, and activate Offensive Rally on Rokara. This makes Mr. Smite attack and grow until Cornelius dies whenever your team takes damage.
All the abilities have a cooldown, so depending on the boss, you need to sacrifice your frontline if the combo team cannot survive one turn of waiting at the start.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/A_vvfxADFxQ
Blackrock Mountain 4-3: Heroic Emperor Thaurissan
Heroic Emperor Thaurissan is surprisingly one of the easier encounters. The regular Nature comp can handle it well.
I open with Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan. Bench can be pretty much anything. Cookie with Appetizers and Lady Anacondra are some fine options.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/AOb-ZJwdPmw
Blackrock Mountain 4-4: Heroic Garr
Garr is one of the easiest Heroic bosses, just don’t bring your Fire comp because it has Fire resistance.
I do Garr with the Nature comp: Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan. The bench can vary, but Cookie with Appetizers and Lady Anacondra for backup are pretty good.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/AbVL35pbt5c
Blackrock Mountain 4-5: Heroic Baron Geddon
Baron Geddon has green adds that hit like a truck, so any caster comp is instantly in trouble. My preferred way to fight is to go big and hit back with orcs!
I start with Garrosh, Thrall with Ring of Strength, and Saurfang with Serrated Shield. The bench consists of Rokara, Blademaster Samuro, and Cookie with Appetizers for some extra Health. The same team can climb to the boss.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/h2QARjZqWDg
Blackrock Mountain 4-6: Heroic Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros the Firelord
The final fight of the original set has you face Garr, Majordomo Executus, and Baron Geddon at the same time. Executus has a Deathrattle to summon Ragnaros, so you want to kill it last. Garr gives the opponents Fire resistance and Frost weakness, which you want to take advantage of by killing Geddon first.
I climb to the boss with the Nature comp: Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan. At the boss, I open with Jaina with Ice Block Talisman, Varden Dawngrasp with Chilling Amulet, and Lady Anacondra with Toxic Venom. I take Geddon down first, then Garr, then Executus, and have strong enough of a team left to quickly take down Ragnaros before it can overwhelm me.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/CiKr9FOajfQ
Blackrock Mountain 4-7: Heroic Highlord Omokk
Highlord Omokk has an impressive 20 points of damage reduction, so you need to ramp up your damage to hurt him. He also destroys a random damaged Mercenary on regular basis.
I have all of my kills with a Nature bench: Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Bru’kan, and Guff.
I’ve used a Holy front, a Fire front, and a Frost front (Jaina, Varden, Brightwing). There are lots of alternatives for the frontline.
After you kill the red add, you want to kill off your other Mercs and get the Nature team in.
If you have a damage reduction treasure (-3 to all characters) and level 3 Nature’s Call on Malfurion OR level 5 Nature’s Call on Malfurion, you can kill the blue add and outheal the lone boss.
If your team is weaker, you must not speed up your Nature spells and you want to kill the boss before the blue add. This way you can always outheal the damage after the blue add acts to avoid the instagib. Of course, you can use this strategy with a stronger team as well.
The only risk is when transitioning to Nature. If you get boss & blue add vs Nature, it is 100% consistent with correct play.
Here is a showcase of kills with the damage reduction treasure and without it, with Frost and Fire frontlines.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/NO7Yx26h2AY
Blackrock Mountain 4-8: Heroic General Drakkisath
General Drakkisath heals his adds by 100 each turn, so there are two ways to take him down: either you prevent healing and focus down the adds, or you burn down the boss first and then go for the adds.
I have done the boss both ways, and the healing denial plan is easier.
For healing denial, I climb to the boss with the Nature comp: Malfurion with Liferoot Staff, Guff, and Bru’kan. At the boss, I open with Gruul with Dragon’s Skull, Mannoroth with Fel Spikes, and Thrall with Doomhammer. Fel Spikes prevents your target from being healed, so burn down the adds and then go for the boss. At least Thrall will fall while doing this, but that’s fine, the Nature squad can easily mop up the boss once the adds are gone.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/uuvLpEpJm60
For the alternative burn plan, you use the same Nature trio, and add Anduin, Velen, and Natalie Seline to the bench.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/2iH3OQ5bwzg
Blackrock Mountain 4-9: Heroic Rend Blackhand
Heroic Rend is afraid of one thing, and one thing only: Diablo.
I open with the Fire comp: Antonidas, Geddon, and Ragnaros, and bring in Cairne and Diablo as they fall. Cairne speeds things up and Diablo uses Fire Stomp, and either Rend is dead or at very low health and ready to be taken down.
There is a bug with the 9 damage aoe treasure that causes Rend to take crazy amounts of damage, but the bug is of no significance to the outcome. Whether Rend dies at 0, -1000, or -3000 Health makes no difference. The only downside is that the bug makes the animations last longer, but they will end, don’t worry.
For the final slot, I use Gruul. Gruul can help the Fire comp climb to Rend without losses, as its Fire Resistance equipment makes many of the Elemental fights easy.
Video guide: https://youtu.be/jmkplNJt-Nk
Good luck, have fun!
That’s all the bosses in Winterspring and Blackrock Mountain!
You can find guides for these and for any upcoming encounters on my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian
You can also find me trying out new things and generally chilling with Mercenaries on my Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian