My Heroic Naxx Journey: Beating the Military Quarter

The Military Quarter opened on Tuesday, 5^th August, and within it stood the not so elegantly blue-clad Instructor Razuvious; the Heigan lookalike, Gothik the Harvester; and the fantastically ungallant Four Hoursemen, led by the quaintly discourteous former nobleman of Stratholme, Baron Rivendare. If you’re eager to learn how I dispatched the unwholesome inhabitants of the Military Quarter on Heroic difficulty, you’re invited to read on. If not, feel free to check out my previous walkthrough here.

Reader’s advice: This is not a thorough guide but a personal recount of the tactics and execution rationale used by me in combating the Heroic variants of Naxxramas bosses.

INSTRUCTOR RAZUVIOUS

If you’re familiar with my playstyle from previous Naxx entries you’d know by now that I main a Priest, and as such I am most comfortable playing a Priest. Fortunately for me, the Instructor’s methods are best undone with Priestly guile. At the beginning of the battle, Kel’Thuzad “invites” you to tamper with the mind control crystal that grants you control over the Instructor’s students, and in Heroic, it would be wise to do so immediately. The game from then on becomes a race to taunt-up, and keep the ones on the board alive.

The trump card in Razuvious’ arsenal is his Runeblade which will strike for a massive (as the name suggests) near-if-not-lethal 20 damage. His Runeblade strikes minions for half that damage though so Divine Spirit is the appropriate answer in this situation. And with Divine Spirit comes Inner Fire shenanigans. Mulligan, if you can, these cards early. From experience the Instructor intelligently refrains from striking a 14/14 if he can’t kill it with a single blow. So even if he draws into his blade early you’re primed to keep at least one student alive till turn three.

The name of the game is minions with large health pools, thus the inclusion of Deathlord was necessary. I picked the Lightwell for its healing facility as well as being Divine Spirit-Inner Fire combo friendly. With your taunts up, Acidic Swamp Oozes are what you need to rid Razuvious off his frightfully annoying Runeblade—forget Harrison Jones; he’s a five-drop that will most likely not see the light of day in this match up. With the likes of Lightspawn and Lightwells in the pack, Defender of Argus seemed an appropriate addition to taunt up the abled bodies. In addition, run sweeping heals in Circle of Healing and Darkscale Healer. I ran a Crazed Alchemist just in case I needed to flip a Deathlord on its side if 8 was the number I needed to be swinging for.

If you’re as lucky as I was, picking up the students early and buffing them with Divine Spirit and Inner fires should result in an early graduation from Razuvious’ class. Cards critical to this strategy: Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Deathlord, and Acidic Swamp Ooze.

GOTHIK THE HARVESTER

As one who plays priest and little of anything else, Gothik was quite the challenge. Killing his minions often spawn minions with negative buffs that nick away on your health. After failing to find success in numerous games as a Priest, I joined the Pally bandwagon, adopting the mantra “if you can’t beat them join them”.

You will, at one point, boast a very undesirable spectral army on your side of the board. So instead of trying to get rid of them why not use them to my advantage? It’s here I decided to run with cards like Sunfury Protector, Shattered Sun Cleric, Defender of Argus, Stormwind Champion, and Raid Leader, so as to give the specters more utility.  Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings too add to that school of play.

However, even with the added utility, spectral minions are still a menace. Gothik will prod you for more damage and the passive harassment from your spectral army won’t do you any favors. As such, another essential component to this strategy of mine are heavy heals. Paladins can pack some outrageous heals in class specific cards but I erred towards neutrals instead; opting for Darkscale Healers, Priestess of Elunes, and a lone Earthen Farseer. The only exception was the Guardian of Kings—and Truesilver Champion helps too.

Ultimately what you’d want to be doing is buffing the spectral “friendlies” to your advantage, and keeping your hero afloat with a ton of strong heals. Cards critical to this strategy: buffs and heals basically.

BARON RIVENDARE

The Baron was a deceptively easy one. At 14HP, it was easy to assume the strategy of clear-the-horses-and-burst-him-down would be a quick and easy one to execute—with a bit of luck yes, but the game was a lot tighter than I expected it to be.

Returning to my familiar Priest set up, I went about constructing a quick-silence deck; running zero cost silences, and Ironbeak Owls. The Baron runs the new Paladin secret, Avenge, and thus early SW:Pains might leave you with a 5/9 to deal with. Negate that with one of your four cheap silences and all you’ll have to do is pick off the last horseman. Alternatively, quickly silence all the horsemen to expose the squishy Baron. In the meantime, pack plenty of taunts because like the Instructor before him, Baron comes armed with a Runeblade, although this one’s a lot duller than the one Ravuzious was wielding. Attempt to keep the taunts alive using your hero ability and you should be on your way to defeating Baron and his cavalry.

A frequent problem I encountered here was the lack of card draw. Taking out my Northshire Clerics I ran Loot Hoarders, Novice Engineers, and Gnomish Inventors instead (and threw in a Bloodmage Thalnos for added efficacy). 

Cards critical to this strategy: Silence, Ironbeak Owl, SW:Pain, and plenty of taunts, some heals (but not at the expense of taunts), and perhaps one/two quick finishers like Mind Blast.