There are lots of different party compositions available in Hearthstone Mercenaries. In fact, there are trillions of them when you take into account all possible equipment combinations. However, the rarity distribution of Mercenaries is skewed towards the expensive: there are 18 Rare, 17 Epic, and 16 Legendary Mercenaries in the game at launch. In constructed Hearthstone, Legendaries make up a small minority of a new set. In Mercenaries, Legendaries are roughly one-third of all available Mercenaries.
If you’re on a budget, the number of parties you can build is fairly limited. Game-changing Mercenaries like Anduin, Diablo, and Malfurion Stormrage take a lot of grinding or luck to acquire. It is not an impossible task, but it is a time-consuming task.
As an upside, the strength of the Mercenaries does not depend on their rarity. There are several excellent Rare Mercenaries in the game, and you can build powerful parties from your starting Mercenaries and Rare Mercenaries only. In this article, I will take a look at what are the limits of budget Mercenary parties.
General Considerations on Party Building
Your party consists of six Mercenaries, of whom only three are on the board at once. The rest sit on the bench, ready to come in as replacements should some of your original Mercenaries fall in battle.
This means that there are a couple of approaches to party building.
First, you want to consider highly synergistic trios. These can form your opening team. Sometimes, you can put together a party of six by combining two separate teams of three. Sometimes, there are no two immediately compatible trios, and you will instead build your party with a core idea and other Mercenaries that support or alter this core idea.
For example, Tavish Stormpike has become a fairly common tech option in PvP recently thanks to Explosive Trap being a strong ability against popular area-of-effect damage teams. Tavish is hard to fit into a core team of three, but when you have your core idea, Tavish can be a great addition.
Varden Dawngrasp is another example of a Mercenary who can fit into a variety of teams without being core. Flurry after Flurry to slow down the opponent can open up opportunities for the other Mercenaries to strike hard. Varden can enable Diablo to pull off its big area-of-effect damage ability, but they can just as well help Xyrella and Blademaster Samuro get more attacks in.
As it happens, Varden Dawngrasp and Tavish Stormpike are both Rare Mercenaries, and therefore easily available to everyone.
F2P Budget Core Party Compositions
While some core parties require multiple Legendary or Epic Mercenaries, some powerful parties can be built on a budget.
Budget Nature Party
Budget Nature party is perhaps the strongest budget team that can be built. Guff Runetotem, Lady Anacondra, and Bru’kan form a highly synergistic trio that can blast through PvE encounters and has some hopes of succeeding in PvP as well.
Bru’kan is the powerhouse of the party. Lightning Bolt increases your Nature Damage, and all members of the party deal Nature damage, so your damage output just ramps up very quickly. Muddy Footing gives Bru’kan some access to speed manipulation as well, and a well-timed Chain Lightning can deal immense amounts of damage. Because Lightning Bolt is Bru’kan’s main ability, you want to use Crackling Band as his equipment once you get that far.
Guff Runetotem has the highest damage potential in the party, especially when Bru’kan gives him Nature damage bonuses. Guff mostly casts Living Brambles, which you want to set up as a combo. Note that you can reliably combo with another ability of the same speed because whichever ability you have chosen first, will be cast first. Therefore, you can first choose Lady Anacondra’s Serpent’s Bite and then follow it up with Guff’s Living Brambles for a guaranteed combo. Guff can also defend the rest of the party with Taunt if needed.
Lady Anacondra is easy to underestimate, but her Serpent’s Bite can wreck casters. It is the ability you want to use the most, but sometimes a quick Mend Beast (which can, in fact, mend other characters than Beasts as well) is needed to keep the party alive. Nightmare Viper is generally unimpressive.
A full-cost Nature party would replace one of the Rare Mercenaries with the Legendary Malfurion Stormrage, who can speed up all your Nature abilities. I have seen all combinations of the Rare Mercenaries used with Malfurion, and all of them included in a full six-member party.
Budget BXC/BXV/BXR Party
BXT – Blademaster Samuro, Xyrella, and Thrall – is the Face Hunter of Hearthstone Mercenaries. Strong against the unsuspecting, but can be countered when your opponent knows what they are doing. Thrall is a Legendary Mercenary, so he cannot be used in a budget party, but there are multiple potential replacements available.
The heart of the party is the combination of Xyrella and Blademaster Samuro. Xyrella casts Blinding Luminance on the target, dealing damage and reducing attack. Then, Samuro attacks the same target with Double Strike, going in twice and gaining more attack in the process. As Samuro gains more attack, his Mirror Image becomes more powerful, especially once you unlock Sash of Illusion to make two Mirror Images at once.
There are multiple options how to support this core duo on a budget:
- Cariel Roame can provide Taunt to protect Xyrella and Samuro and Seal of Light to buff up Samuro. She is especially useful in PvE.
- Varden Dawngrasp can slow down the opponent to give Xyrella and Samuro time to act first.
- Rokara can buff Samuro with Offensive Rally (not available on turn one), and Samuro being an Orc buffs Rokara’s other abilities.
Budget Orc Party
Blademaster Samuro is one of your strongest damage dealers on a budget. In addition to Xyrella, Samuro can also be supported by a full Orc lineup: Blademaster Samuro, Rokara, and Grommash Hellscream.
Grommash Hellscream can enable Samuro’s Double Strike on turn one with Staggering Slam. As an upside, Staggering Slam also slows down the opponent it targets, and speed manipulation is incredibly powerful in PvP.
Rokara really comes alive in the party on turn two with Offensive Rally.
Semi-Budget Demon Party
There are five Demon-synergy Mercenaries in the game at launch: Diablo (Legendary), Lord Jaraxxus (Legendary), Mannoroth (Epic), Rathorian (Rare), and Tamsin Roame (Rare). This means that Demons cannot be fully used on a budget, as only two of them are Rare. However, adding Mannoroth to support the two Rare Mercenaries does work. It’s not good in PvP – Demons as a tribe are rather lackluster there – but it can result in some fun PvE bounty runs.
Mannoroth can be a beast in PvE, especially if it finds the treasure that reduces damage taken to one: as Mannoroth gains six Health each time it attacks, it can become nigh-unkillable. Even when it doesn’t, it can still comfortably open a battle with Terror Charge and then use Howl of Terror on the second turn to give Rathorian and Tamsin Roame time to summon some additional Demons.
Semi-Budget Murloc Party
In this case, the full party is the same as semi-budget one. There are only three Murlocs in the game: Mutanus (Epic), Old Murk-Eye (Rare), and Morgl the Oracle (Rare). Therefore, you need one Epic Mercenary to build a Murloc party, but it can be a lot of fun. Murlocs are not good in PvP because they need some time to snowball and they are vulnerable to spells picking off Morgl from the backline. Against attacks, Mutanus is actually a pretty good tank and can withstand a lot of punishment while getting buffed by Old Murk-Eye and Morgl.
You generally want to use Scaly Taunt with Mutanus to protect your other Murlocs, while Old Murk-Eye summons reinforcements and Morgl buffs the Health of all Murlocs and ultimately releases Fishy Barrage to deal incredible damage. Depending on how the fight begins, you may sometimes want to skip the first turn with Old Murk-Eye to keep your Murlocs healthier.
What About the Other Cheap Mercenaries?
I tried to build a budget Arcane party because Millhouse Manastorm, Tyrande, and Blink Fox have some sweet arcane blasting synergy together. Unfortunately, that party proved to be too much of a glass cannon and could not withstand the opponent hitting back. Millhouse Manastorm has some good area-of-effect damage potential and may be useful in PvE farming.
Tavish Stormpike sees mainstream PvP play as a tech option against area-of-effect damage. He can also be a decent bench option in PvP on top of the aforementioned parties.
I have not figured out a core budget party where I could use Cornelius Roame, Kurtrus Ashfallen, and Scabbs Cutterbutter yet, but I have tried them out as supplementary characters, and I think they all have some potential.
Full PvP parties
Going from the core synergy to a full party is a big step to take. In PvE, three Mercenaries can carry you through the entire bounty, but in PvP you absolutely need all six. The full party can also change over time, as different tech options become useful or obsolete. Here are some ideas that I have experimented with.
Nature + BXC for PvP
With this party, you can simply combine two groups of three Mercenaries. You will typically open with the Nature party (Guff Runetotem, Lady Anacondra, and Bru’kan) to deal as much early damage as you can. Then, as your first Mercenary falls, you bring in either Xyrella or Cariel Roame, depending on which one will work best against the opponent’s board. If you brought Cariel first, you are likely to bring Xyrella second, and save Samuro for last. If you brought Xyrella first, you typically want to continue with an assault with Samuro.
Orcs + BXV for PvP
With this party, Blademaster Samuro is your main damage dealer. You can open with all Orcs, or you can go for Samuro, Rokara, and Xyrella, or even for Samuro, Xyrella, and Varden Dawngrasp. Bringing in Rokara from the bench can give the benefit of an immediate Offensive Rally.
As the two core teams overlap on Samuro, I have experimented with multiple options on the final slot. One that seems surprising is Cornelius Roame: Cornelius always starts on the bench, and then you bring him into the middle of the team and immediately heal the other two with Hold the Front or sometimes just the most important Mercenary you have with Blessing of Sacrifice if you are afraid that the four-speed ability is too slow.
There is also the option to cut Grommash Hellscream for Tavish Stormpike if you meet a lot of area-of-effect damage. Then it’s not really Orcs anymore, but rather a Samuro party with multiple ways to support Samuro.
Have Fun as F2P!
Mercenaries favors grinders. It is completely possible to unlock everything in the game as a free-to-play player, but that means hours of Heroic Air Elemental runs for tasks and more tasks. If that’s what you want, you can go for it! If that sounds like a bit much, you can also take things slower and use some of these budget parties to get by in the meanwhile!
