Attention all wannabe achievement hunters! It looks like we only have less than a week left to try to milk some extra bits of precious XP from Madness at the Darkmoon Faire related tasks. So if you've been largely slacking off until now like some of us *coughs* , this is your last chance to get moving. The official blog word on the subject as follows:
Quote From Blizzard Finally, please note that incomplete Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Gameplay achievements will no longer grant Reward Track XP after the 20.0 patch is released, and instead a new set of Forged in the Barrens Gameplay achievements will, so don’t forget to finish and claim those before they’re gone!
The clock is ticking now. It's a bit of a shame we won't have until Forged in the Barrens launches (supposedly due to the nature of Hearthstone's patching), and Celestalon himself was quick to confirm the above in case of any lingering doubts.
With that in mind, the best we can do is to have a look at some last-minute tips and tricks in order to maximize XP gains from Gameplay achievements for various Darkmoon Class and Neutral cards. Here is the first batch:
Druid
We like being efficient, so in the interest of saving time, it's actually possible to cram all relevant cards into a single deck and have them reasonably synergize with one another. The shell is similar to any Token Druid, after all, which can buy you extra turns when opponents are busy clearing your wide boards.
- Slotting in Guidance makes it even more greedy, for finding extra copies of Eclipses, Arbor Up and Guess the Weight. Educated Elekk and Archmage Vargoth as "tech" cards.
- Treants are very special creatures, apparently, distinct from one another. So only Arbor Up and Faire Arborist summon the Darkmoon kind.
- Cut whatever you don't need/have. Druid achievements are rather slow, may test your patience. Greybough can be technically copied by effects such as Germination or Faceless Manipulator.
- Duels note: Harvest Time! and Warden's Insight don't spawn the right treants. It's easier to find multiple copies of Greybough there.
Hunter
Less monotonous than Druid achievements, even if Bola Shot sucks. Generally going for Deathrattle route, slower or faster depending on preferences.
- You can fish for Maxima Blastenheimer with Lorekeeper Polkelt if needed, but it mainly needs an opponent who won't concede when getting very low. By that time you would probably draw her naturally in many games. Thanks to your hero power even a minion with 2 attack can be "tossed" for lethal.
- Toxic Reinforcements just auto-completes that one achievement, so even Face Hunter does the job with it.
- Bola Shot works on your own minions too. Makes for a combo with Desert Hare.
- Duels note: Deathrattle Hunter remains popular there, and you may find more opportunities for your Bola Shot.
Mage
Not too difficult if you own the Legendary and both Epic copies, otherwise you can only do so much. Secret Mage shell or even Burn Mage to use Mask of C'Thun as a finisher.
- Wand Thief can find you Mask of C'Thun and Conjure Mana Biscuit even in Rogue, that's actually how I got most of my achievement progress there.
- Conjure Mana Biscuit achievement is better done with all other Mage decks (though nothing stops you from adding them everywhere). You can live your Mozaki, Master Duelist dream!
- Duels note: with enough secrets it's not that hard to manipulate loot buckets into offering you Sayge, Seer of Darkmoon, multiple Occult Conjurer, and even handy secrets such as Duplicate. Secret Studies not necessary but useful, Infinite Arcane and Embercaster can mean extra copies of that tasty Mana Biscuit!
Keep In Mind
These achievements can only be completed in either Ranked Mode (Standard/Wild), Duels, and Arena. Not Casual Standard/Wild or Tavern Brawl though. It's advised you hit a ranked floor first (i.e. 10 or 5 Silver/Platinum etc.) where you can't lose any stars before attempting anything there. Make sure you're not on a win streak either, it would be a shame to let that go to waste. With nothing at stake and gradual achievement progress to be had, you can have a number of relaxing games that don't require much attention. My favorite for multi-tasking.
Heroic Duels and Arena will cost you 150 gold per run while having the fiercest competition on average, so probably not the best investment for the sake of some additional XP (pretty good for finding Legendaries you don't have though). Casual Duels, on the other hand, is free of charge, and unlike Casual Standard/Wild, counts for all achievements. Being limited to 15 starting cards can actually help in some cases, and there is even more to gain for hitting 3-12 wins and achieving a flawless 12-0 run if you haven't done those yet.
Also losing the XP bonus, so grab it while you can!
Don't Stress Over It
You should expect that most opponents won't be able to read your intentions even once you start playing weirdly, likely still doing their best to go for the win and inadvertently ruin your delicate setup plans. Alas, it's rather difficult to communicate through a limited selection of emotes! Try not to let that annoy you too much; once in a while someone might catch on and play along. It's your call how much you want to try with these extra sources of XP and whether it's worth your time; every game played adds a small amount regardless. At the end of the day, you wouldn't be missing out on a lot (except for Duels). Just a nice little bonus here and there.
Unless stated otherwise, you can also complete achievements from one class with another class doing the same thing or getting a hold of required cards (such as Paladin lifesteal or Shaman face damage accomplished by Demon Hunter). We tried to mention that where applicable. The main focus here is on the cards available in the Standard format, as the extent of everyone's Wild collection would vary greatly. That said, you can definitely experiment to find valid additions and replacements based on what you got from the older sets. Many options exist. Good luck!
How many of these achievements did you manage to get done over the course of this expansion? Are you going to try your hardest during the final week to earn some extra XP or just take it easy? Any other tips and tricks that might be worth sharing with the rest of us? You can use our Deckbuilder to show your own achievement spins for these classes, and drop us a link in the comments!
Also a shout-out to many of our community members for being an inspiration with their creative suggestions and forum threads such as these. When in doubt, you know where to look!
Comments
Thanks a lot for this post, exactly what I was looking for to finish as many remaining achievements as possible :)
Seriously, would it do much harm to allow these XP rewards to be available until a players gets the achievement regardless of how long it takes.
Yes, I don't quite understand it either. It's strange they insist on removing these XP bonuses, considering they aren't that large to begin with. It would mean that someone joining a few expansions down the line could get a huge boost on their initial Rewards Track, but whether that's such a huge issue... If they insist on simplicity (current Standard rotation), they could at least extend the grace period to a year or two.
This article motivated me to at least try duels which I don't play (aside from the early pack rewards quests we got for playing duels when it launched).
The other achievements are (mostly) fun but no where near as rewarding as they made the duels achievements, so thought I'd at least try a run.
12-2 woohoo!
OK I likely had some luck on my side, but if I can do it, so can you - or at least get a good number of wins if you've not yet obtained them. In casual doesn't matter if things aren't going well as can always restart and who knows - might get a few other achievements along the way.
Good luck all.
Nice one! And just in time. This is indeed a good chunk of experience to grab while it's still there. You might be more talented at this Duels thing than you thought. ;)
Thanks!
Almost didn't post it because looked boastful. Then I thought it might encourage others to give it a go.
I only had 6 wins before from the pack quests when it launched. If you have a low-mid number of wins also, give it a try!
12-0 achievement? Nah I'll leave that to the people that are good :)
I just ran into someone playing Greybough on ladder, and I helped them summon more until we hit fatigue. Then they made sure I won, which is nice because I was putting my win streak at risk by helping.
I didn’t get the achievement, but it was still my most satisfying my Hearthstone game in a while.
That's so very wholesome, stories like this are never common. And very kind of you, I'm glad they appreciated it enough to pay respects with your win.
I'm pretty certain I heard that it was only the expansion related achievements that were losing the XP bonus, and Duels achievements would keep it. I'm a long way away from 12 wins, and probably too shitty at this game to ever get it.
We have these tweets from Celestalon to go by. So I'm afraid the XP bonus was always going to be temporary, unless they have changed their minds since. And I do wish they had, but I don't recall hearing any news on the subject. Do you remember if it was something more recent that made you believe so?
And hey, I'm pretty sure everyone could find their way up to 12 wins eventually. Not getting there doesn't mean being bad either. It takes a good deck/class that you are comfortable with and some luck with your opponents and treasures.
I never got a notification about your reply, but I decided to go back and check this article anyway. Maybe it was speculation I saw and nothing confirmed but I had been operating under the assumption that I had all the time in the world to get XP from Duels. That is an old tweet though.
The best I've managed is 5 wins. I can't just use some deck that someone went 12-0 with, since for any deck I find, I'm missing some cards. Even then, I'd give myself less than 1% probability of repeating it. Duels isn't my only data point for being bad at this game either.
I won't lie, these achievements have really added an extra layer to the game that is actually fun. Like you don't have to stress about losing a game, coz in essence, you're still winning! (Via achievement XP ofc)
That's a great way of looking at it. I'm happy we can gain experience just by playing now rather than only winning, so you can set your own goals and "win conditions" such as these.
Really sucks that you can't do them in casual mode though
Wonder what happens to the XP we have acquired for the next level once the new rewards track.
Let me know if it's been stated.
Otherwise I'll try to get to the next level and just hold near the time.
Also we got a full quest log before, but they may have been since they changed the quest system so probably won't repeat this time.
Reset means reset. Your XP will be set to zero.
They are not going to let you start a new track with several levels' worth of XP in the bank.
As Flux says, I'd definitely hit the next level if you are just a few hundred off. Always some extra gold.
Unless we hear otherwise, it might be risky to keep any quests. We don't really know how their Rewards Track transition might go, since it's been the first "season". It could be it doesn't affect quests at all, it could be something gets replaced or added.
The rewards track gets reset so try and hit the next level if you can and get those rewards!
i hate so much YoggChamp achievement, impossible to do.
It's not quite impossible to rig it, but it is way too much effort to be worth bothering with. I had to meet a friend on ladder with a deck designed to multiply Oh My Yogg! as many times as we needed.
I'm keen to see what the OoC team decide to say about it, if anything other than not to bother trying.