Curse of Naxxramas was the first Hearthstone solo content expansion. I’m still working my way through it. When it was first released, players could unlock the different wings with either gold or real world currency. I chose gold.
The third boss in the Plague Quarter of Naxxramas is Loatheb. Before players can fight Loatheb, they have to beat the previous two bosses in the Plague Quarter: Noth the Plaguebringer and Heigan the Unclean.
It took me two tries to defeat Loatheb. The screenshots you see in this blog were taken on November 9, 2015.
My first attempt at defeating Loatheb ended in failure. I used a Warrior deck that I think of as my “Taunt” deck. My second attempt was with a newly created Mage deck.
The above screenshot shows my progress through the Curse of Naxxramas content – right before I tried to fight Loatheb.
The Boss Info for Loatheb says: Loatheb is a hideous reminder of the Plague’s effect on the creatures of Azeroth.
Lich Kel’Thuzad: Just being nearby Loatheb causes your flesh to rot. So I recommend a melee class.
After a failed attempt to fight Loatheb with a Warrior deck, I decided to take Lich Kel’Thuzad’s advice. The Mage deck’s Hero Power is Fireblast, and I had other direct damage cards in the deck.
Here is a look at (most of) the Mage Deck.
Loatheb: I see you.
Loatheb starts with 75 health points. At first, I thought I’d somehow managed to end up in a Heroic match. But, no, I hadn’t. “Regular” Loatheb really does start out with 75 health points.
Loatheb’s Hero Power is Necrotic Aura. It deals 3 damage to the enemy hero.
Loatheb started by playing an Unstable Ghoul. It says: Taunt. Deathrattle: Deal 1 damage to all minions. On his second turn, he used a Leper Gnome. It says: Deathrattle: Deal 2 damage to the enemy hero.
Loatheb: The end is close.
Loatheb used one of his special cards. Deathbloom says: Deal 5 damage to a minion. Summon a Spore. Deathbloom will automatically wipe out one of your minions that has less than 5 health points. (Or, if you don’t have any of those, it will do damage to a bigger minion.)
Deathbloom automatically summons a Spore. It says: Deathrattle: Give all enemy minions +8 Attack. You can use this card to your advantage. It is a 0/1 card, which means that you can use a minion to kill it without causing that minion to receive any damage.
Kill the Spore, and all of the minions you have on the board each gain +8 Attack. If you want to be super effective, wait to kill the Spore until after you have at least two or three minions on the board. (Granted, it may not always be possible to wait for that.)
Kill the Spore!
Just like that – my Acolyte of Pain minion, which starts out as 1/3, is now a 9/3 card! The Acolyte of Pain card lets me draw a card every time it takes damage.
Loatheb used Sporeburst. It says: Deal 1 damage to all enemy minions. Summon a Spore. My Acolyte of Pain will take one damage – and let me draw a card. My Raging Worgen says: Enrage. Windfury and +1 Attack. The 1 damage from the Sporeburst will activate the Windfury and will let me use my Raging Worgen two times every turn (until it dies).
Loatheb: You are mine now.
The above screenshot shows the results of the Sporeburst. My two minions, together, can do a total of 17 points of damage directly to Loatheb now. As you can see, Sporeburst caused another Spore to be placed on the board. Loatheb used his Hero Power which did 3 damage directly to me (but did not harm any of my minions).
What ended up happening is that Loatheb used a minion to kill off my Raging Worgen before I could use him. This is exactly what happens when I play against real people (instead of the A.I.) so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised buy that.
I killed Loatheb’s Spore minion. This gave my Acolyte of Pain an additional 8 Attack points, bringing him to 17/2. As you can see, I used that card to attack Loatheb directly. I also put a Mana Wyrm on the board. It says: Whenever you cast a spell, gain +1 Attack. I was hoping to be able to make this card more powerful by using spells.
Skipping ahead to turn 9, and things were looking very good for me. My Mana Wyrm was now at 10/2 and my Antique Healbot (which started out as 3/3 and healed me for 8 health points) was now at 11/2. How did I make this happen? Mostly by killing off every Spore minion that Loatheb put on the board.
Together, my two minions have 21 points of Attack. It still isn’t enough to kill Loatheb, who has 45 health points.
It was, however, enough to knock Loatheb down to 24 hit points.
Loatheb used Deathbloom again, directed that 5 damage to my Mana Wyrm, and killed it off.
The Deathbloom card automatically put a Spore minion on the board. Next, Loatheb used his Hero Power – Necrotic Aura – to do 3 points of damage directly to me.
I used my Hero Power – Fireblast – to kill the Spore. Doing so gave 8 Attack points to each of my minions. Between the two of them, I had a total of 30 Attack points to use. Loatheb only had 23 Health points.
Loatheb: *rruuuhhhh*
VICTORY!
Lich Kel’Thuzad: You keep KILLING MY MINIONS. Stop it! Stop it right this minute!
The reward for defeating Loatheb is two Sludge Belcher cards. The card says: Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon a 1/2 Slime with Taunt. The blue gem in the center of the cards indicate that they are Rare cards.
Time to open the Plague Quarter chest!
The reward for defeating the three bosses in the “regular” Plague Quarter is a Lotheb card! It says: Battlecry: Enemy spells cost (5) more next turn. Loatheb has 5 Attack and 5 Health. The orange gem in the center of the card indicates that it is a Legendary card.
Defeat the “regular” Plague Quarter, and you unlock two Class Challenges. One is for Mage and the other is for Hunter. I suspect my Mage deck is up to the challenge. I think I’m going to have to level up my Hunter deck some more before giving that Challenge a try. Defeating the “regular” Plague Quarter also unlocks the Heroic Plague Quarter. I’m not quite ready for that yet.