The Curse of Naxxramas solo play adventure was released before the Goblins v Gnomes expansion. Like many Hearthstone players, I opened up the first wing of Naxxramus right when it came out – for free! In order to access the rest of the content, a player must either earn enough in-game gold to do it, or pay for it with real-word currency.
My choice was to earn gold and buy the wings of Naxxramas that way. At the time I am writing this blog, I’ve opened all except the last portion. In previous blogs, I described my experience with the enemies in the first wing. This blog will focus on Noth the Plaguebringer. Some of the screenshots you see in this blog were taken on August 2, or August 10, 2014. The rest were taken on March 18, 2015.
It’s been a while since I blogged about the Naxxramas content. There is a simple reason for this. I’d stopped playing it because I couldn’t get past Heroic Anub’Rekhan and I hadn’t earned enough gold to buy more of the content. (I’ll give Heroics another try after I get through more of the “regular” enemies).
Here’s my progress so far:
* I’ve completed all three of the “regular” enemies in the Arachnid Quarter: Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, and Maexxna.
* I’ve completed the Arachnid Quarter Rogue Class Challenge.
* I’ve completed the Arachnid Quarter Druid Class Challenge.
* I attempted the Heroic Arachnid Quarter – Anub’Rehkan but could not complete it.
When the Curse of Naxxramas content was first released, players had to wait for a while before the next wing would be accessible. It didn’t matter if the player had completed the Arachnid Quarter – he or she still couldn’t move ahead and open the Plague Quarter until it was time. The above screenshot is the “announcement” players got when the Plague Quarter was officially open.
The second wing of The Curse of Naxxramas content is called the Plague Quarter. Players can open it either by paying $6.99 in real money or by spending 700 gold on it. I had just enough gold to open this one.
The next step is to go ahead and open up the Plague Quarter. You click on a “skeleton key” and it jumps into the lock and unlocks it.
Lich Kel’Thuzad says: ‘Noth’ing can defeat Noth!
The information on Noth the Plaguebringer states: Noth is the undisputed master of Undeath. Every minion is fodder for his creations.
The first time I attempted to defeat Noth … it ended in failure. I tried it shortly after the Plague Quarter became accessible with a Mage deck that I’d barely altered from the “default”. His Hero Power is called “Raise Dead”. This explains why Noth says: Rise, my soldiers! Rise and fight once more! Every time an enemy dies, Noth automatically raises a 1/1 Skeleton.
He has a card called Plague that costs 6 mana. It says: Destroy all non-Skeleton minions. If Noth is able to put that card on the board – it will destroy all of the player’s minions (unless the player somehow had a Skeleton minion). Noth automatically gets to raise one Skeleton for each of the player’s minions that died.
If possible, I would suggest trying to kill Noth before round 6. That wasn’t a goal I was able to accomplish in August of 2014 when the Plague Quarter was first opened. I set Naxxramas aside for a while and focused on trying to earn card backs in Ranked Play.
Early in March of 2015, I decided to give Noth another try. I’d been having difficulty in Ranked Play and wasn’t sure if the problem was that the Priest deck I put together was simply an unworkable deck. To test it, I played a match against the Innkeeper and quickly won. Next, I decided to take my Priest deck to Naxxramas to see if it was a good enough deck to defeat Noth.
I learned that my Priest deck was good enough to defeat Noth before he was able to get 6 mana.
When you defeat Noth, he says: I will serve the master in death.
Lich Kel’Thuzad says: Poor Noth. This was just ‘Noth’ his day.
The reward for defeating Noth is 2 Stoneskin Gargoyle cards. These cards say: At the start of your turn, restore this minion to full Health.
There are two more bosses to beat in the Plague Quarter after Noth. Next, there are a couple of Class Challenges and then the Heroic bosses. I’ve decided to focus on the Naxxramas content until I complete it. In the meantime, I will probably attempt to earn Seasonal card backs (if I happen to like the way they look).
I feel like I’ve improved as a Hearthstone player in between when the Plague Quarter opened and now. Back then, I rarely ever played against real players and had not even ventured into Ranked Play. It seems that the result of trying to earn a card back made me decide to learn how to put together a decent deck (and then to alter it, and alter it again, as needed). This should make the rest of Naxxramas a bit easier for me.
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