14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Blizzard Entertainment has launched the second wing in the Blackrock Mountain single-player adventure for its popular collectible card game Hearthstone, enabling brave adventurers to take on more magma machinations and earn a couple more cards.
The expansion is set to deliver five wings and a total of 17 bosses, and gamers who manage to complete all the content will be able to add 31 brand new cards to their collection, 18 class-specific ones, and 13 neutrals that can fit into any deck, including five Legendaries.
The second wing is now live, daring adventurers to delve into the depths of the Molten Core, and take out Ragnaros' evil lieutenants and then the Firelord himself.
The first of the three is Garr, a rock elemental with the Magma Pulse Hero Power, enabling him to deal 1 damage to each minion on the board. While this may not seem like much at first, the developers have put in a neat little twist.
The battle begins with Garr's board flooded with 7 Firesworn, 0/5 minions with a special Deathrattle ability, causing them to deal 1 damage to the enemy hero for each Firesworn that died that turn.
This means that, if you don't start clearing them ahead of turn five, when Garr's Hero Power will, you will take a total of up to 49 damage to the face.
However, if you do manage to take them out one by one, ahead of the countdown timer, the fight becomes much more manageable.
The second battle will see you facing none other than Baron Geddon, a special encounter where you have to pay extra attention to how you use your mana. Geddon's Hero Power, Ignite Mana, lets him deal 5 damage to you whenever you end your turn with any unspent mana.
This means that you have to build a deck with a smooth mana cost curve, in order to make sure that you don't let him get any free shots on you, because the fight is pretty difficult as is.
Of course, the random number generator gods can always tip the balance against you, but you can mitigate this by using an aggressive deck that can finish Baron Geddon off before he can start pummeling you with 5 damage every turn, when you run out of Steam.
The grand finale pits you against Ragnaros himself
The third and final battle will make you face Majordomo Executus, Ragnaros' right hand flamewalker. His Hero Power, The Majordomo, lets him summon a 1/3 Flamewalker Acolyte, making him seem like the easiest of the bunch so far.
The catch here is that, when you do manage to defeat him, he summons his commander, Ragnaros the Firelord, who begins the battle with 8 life and 8 armor, and whose Hero Power deals 8 damage to a random enemy, just like on the popular Legendary card.
The best way to deal with this battle is to make sure that you establish a strong board presence. The 1/3 Flamewalker Acolytes are pretty harmless, but once Majordomo Executus gets low on health, he will start dropping Magma Giants, which can finish you off quite quickly.
This means that you may want to hold off on getting him low on health until you have enough minions to quickly finish him off, preferably also killing Ragnaros on the same turn, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises.
After you defeat the three bosses, two more class challenges become unlocked, letting you nab a very useful Shaman card and a pretty useless Warrior one.
After you complete Molten Core, the second wing of the Blackrock Mountain single-player adventure, you will be able to add Druid of the Flame, Imp Gang Boss, Lava Shock, Axe Flinger, Blackwing Technician, and Majordomo Executus to your decks.
You can get a better look at all the new cards in the gallery below, and if you're not up to speed with the single-player adventure's first wing, you can check out our Blackrock Depths preview.
