Warcraft Rumble Best Talents Guide and Full Talent List

Talents Overview

One of the most important decisions you will have to make for each of your Minis, at least initially, is which Talents you want to purchase for them and in what order.

For each 'Upgrade' your Minis receive (except for Legendary), they will unlock a new Talent slot. That means you will unlock your first talent slot for the first upgrade to Uncommon, the second talent slot at Rare and the third and final talent slot at Epic. This is illustrated in the table below, along with the Upgrade costs at each tier.

Once you have unlocked a Talent slot for a Mini, Talents will begin to occasionally appear for sale in the G.R.I.D.. Each Talent costs 250 Gold (including Leader Talents) but choose carefully as once you have purchased a Talent for your Mini, you won't be able to purchase another Talent until you have unlocked another Talent slot by upgrading your Mini to a higher rarity. You can only have one Talent active on a Mini at any time, so even if you have three Talents purchased, you will have to choose one to activate. This can be changed at any time and at no cost.

It's also very important to note that the level of your Mini will increase by +1 for each Talent you have purchased for that Mini, even if the Talent is not being actively used. So the difference between a Common Mini with no Talents and an Epic Mini with three Talents is +6 levels! Three levels for each of the Upgrades and three levels for each of the Talents purchased.

Full Talent List & Discussion

This list is drafted and kept up-to-date by MJM, (a top 10, 20k honor PVP player that has 150 Sigils + Onyxia), with input from other knowledgeable players. Below we provide a full list of all Talents which are currently available, and break down their usefulness in different scenarios.

Leaders

Baron Rivendare

Bloodmage Thalnos

Cairne Bloodhoof

Charlga Razorflank

Emperor Thaurissan

General Drakkisath

Grommash Hellscream

Hogger

Jaina Proudmoore

Maiev Shadowsong

Old Murk-Eye

Rend Blackhand

Sneed

Sylvanas Windrunner

Tirion Fordring

Troops & Spells

Abomination

Angry Chickens

Arcane Blast

Banshee

Bat Rider

Blizzard

Chain Lightning

Cheat Death

Chimaera

Core Hounds

Dark Iron Miner

Darkspear Troll

Deep Breath

Defias Bandits

Drake

Earth Elemental

Execute

Faerie Dragon

Fire Elemental

Firehammer

Flamewaker

Footmen

Frostwolf Shaman

Gargoyle

Ghoul

Gnoll Brute

Goblin Sapper

Gryphon Rider

Harpies

Harvest Golem

Holy Nova

Huntress

Living Bomb

Meat Wagon

Molten Giant

Mountaineer

Murloc Tidehunters

Necromancer

Ogre Mage

Plague Farmer

Polymorph

Prowler

Pyromancer

Quilboar

Raptors

S.A.F.E. Pilot

Skeleton Party

Skeletons

Smoke Bomb

Spiderlings

Stonehoof Tauren

Vultures

Warsong Grunts

Warsong Raider

Whelp Eggs

Witch Doctor

Worgen

Abomination

Noxious Presence is a relatively safe choice as it is useful in many situations, effectively turning Abomination from a single target tank into a unit which also has decent AoE capabilities. Cannonball is a solid defensive option but beware that your opponent (in PVP) can force the second stun when they wish once they realise you have that talent. Fresh Meat is currently seeing less play than the other options due to it being rather difficult to ensure you hook a suitable target and because Noxious Presence is better in most situations.

Angry Chickens

Your choice here will really depend on your circumstances as there may be situational use cases for each of these Talents in PVE for specific encounters. More commonly we have seen Snackrifice being used in Hogger decks, due to its synergy with Hogger's Ham Hock Talent.

Arcane Blast

If you have not used Arcane Blast before some of these might appear confusing. Arcane Blast is an AoE spell which costs 1g, but once cast you can cast it again with each subsequent cast doubling the damage and increasing the gold cost by 1 (up to 4 gold). Because the spell is often used in Thalnos decks (where you want to cast many spells), Arcane Power is rarely chosen. It's also rare to use the spell four times because it would cost 10 gold to do so, making Torrent harder to play around. Amplification is therefore the most common choice, with it being somewhat useful at least in many scenarios.

Banshee

All of these options are fairly decent, however Will of the Necropolis does stand out by massively increasing the versatility of Banshee. With Will of the Necropolis, the number of situations where the Banshee can be played for value increases significantly as you can now use it (for example) against low HP Leaders pushing your Towers like Rend. Soul Eruption and Unholy Frenzy are both great in certain situations but they are much harder to pull off - especially against experienced players in PVP.

Baron Rivendare

Baron Rivendare is one of the strongest Leaders in the game in both PVE and PVP because of his passive ability which naturally pushes the lanes out. Chill Of The Grave makes this passive even stronger, allowing Rivendare to summon powerful Skeleton Mages instead of Skeletons. These Skeleton Mages have a frost attack which slows enemies on hit, making them incredibly useful. Death Pact is decent as it heals Baron to full so it can keep him in the fight and Skeleton Frenzy can be effective in Skelly decks (with Skeleton Party for example) but ultimately Chill Of The Grave wins out.

Bat Rider

Enchanted Vials can be a great pick-up to hit those ranged units near the point of explosion, or to hit units which are spawning near the structure (if attacking Towers or Barracks). Flaming Pitch can turn Bat Rider into more of a support unit and Fiery Surplus is situational but can be useful in PVE for creating minefields across certain lanes for example.

Blizzard

Our personal favourite Talent here is Cold Snap which stops your opponents units in their tracks and immobilizes them while your units can eliminate them - this can be especially powerful to deploy on the offensive against your opponent's counter deployment. Brittle Ice is situational and requires you to have some strong Physical damage as a follow up. Icecrown can be useful if you are pushing aggressively in one lane while your opponents pushes the other, but as this often won't reach ranged units, it does feel weaker than the other options.

Bloodmage Thalnos

When you are playing Bloodmage Thalnos, you are typically running Arcane Blast and Chain Lightning. Neither of these spells benefit from Dominance until Arcane Blast's level 4 cast, so we would tend to avoid this Talent unless you are building it around a specific deck although it's hard to imagine a high-cost spell deck being effective with Thalnos. Both Drain Life and Bane are strong pick-ups and we would suggest taking whichever fits into your deck's playstyle better. Drain Life is going to keep Thalnos alive that bit longer so you can keep levelling him but do keep in mind that the lifesteal is quite small. Bane can turn Thalnos into a powerful threat once he's gained a few levels.

Cairne Bloodhoof

What's better than one Cairne? Two Cairnes. Reincarnation does what it says on the tin and brings our Elite Tauren Chieftain back into the fight with half health. It's pretty much always useful so it's a safe pick-up and our recommendation in most scenarios. Plainsrunning turns Cairne into a charging bull, allowing him to traverse the map very quickly. This can be useful for capturing chests quickly (especially in PVP). Aftershock can slow down the approach of your opponent's forces once Cairne has been felled by dazing them, it's ok but not as useful as the other Talents in our experience.

Chain Lightning

Brilliant Flash is currently seeing the most play because the one second stun can allow you to manipulate the target that your opponents are attacking, as well as allowing your units to dish out a lot of damage safely. Reverberation allows you to cast Chain Lightning again, which can be useful in PVP if you are playing against decks that run multiple squishy squads, like Whelp Eggs and Harpies. Storm's Reach massively increases the range of Chain Lightning and can be useful on some PVP maps where you can hit units across multiple lanes, for example clearing harpies and killing a miner. 

Charlga Razorflank

Cavernous Mists is pretty great. By reducing Charlga's cost to 1, it introduces a 1-cost cycle into your deck through her passive. We run it and have had great success with it in both PVE and PVP. Spirit Passage can be useful by allowing you to stealth (and level up) a wide variety of minions, as long as you have at least one five cost minion in your deck. Nature's Grasp can give Charlga quite a strong CC but she will still be susceptible to ranged and air units, in addition to being squishy - so it's going to very difficult to actually get much value out of this.

Cheat Death

Vampirism is probably the strongest option overall here as it can give your minions a new lease of life, beyond just saving them. Apocalypse can be powerful if you are playing a deck with a lot of skeletons (like Rivendare with Skeletons and/or Skeleton Party) and Seal Fate can actually make the spell worse if your minions would otherwise have survived, however it is seeing play with Sappers in some PVP decks as the additional speed from Bloodlust allows your Sappers to reach your opponent's side tower before Seal Fate wears off.

Chimaera

Leviathan operates in a similar manner to Hogger's Ham Hock and also maxes out at 3 stacks. Given that the Chimaera doesn't have a huge health pool, this leaves it open to being easily sniped by S.A.F.E. Pilot (with Gnomish Cloaking Device) and therefore at this time this looks like it might be the best option. Both of the other talents can be useful however, especially in PVE where your Chimaera is less likely to be targeted. Frost Shock applies an AoE slow to all units hit by the Chimaera's lightning attack. Corrosive Breath will allow Chimaera to do significantly more damage against tanky Armored units like Footmen or Molten Giant but at 5 gold, you may wish to consider other options (like Harpies with Infectious Swipes) unless you need the AoE.

Core Hounds

Your choice here will depend on how you plan on using the Hounds in your deck but Eternal Bond is often chosen so that you have the ability to split your Core Hounds across two different lanes (by dropping them in the centre of a deployment zone divider). Guard Dog is of course a powerful defensive option but spending 6 gold on defensive units which are melee and can't attack air might not be the best option in many scenarios. Fiery Rebirth, though powerful when it activates, requires resurrection which your opponent can deny.

Dark Iron Miner

Opinion on talents for this Mini have evolved over time as players have had a chance to try them all. You have a few options here and you may find yourself switching between these talents as required (in PVP and in PVE). Gold Mine is powerful to booby trap a lane and prevent units from pushing or grabbing that node, it has seen a lot of play in Arathi Basin for example where the nodes are clumped together in a small middle island. Dwarven Ambition gives your Miner the 'Fury' Trait which increase its attack speed, but also importantly it's mining speed. This talent can be great in PVP to help you secure nodes before your opponent can cycle to a Quilboar for example. It also helps the Dark Iron Miner trade. Dark Iron Armaments can turn your Dark Iron Miner into a semi-tank, allowing it to help push on after mining if backed up by some additional units.

Darkspear Troll

Your choice here may well depend on whether you want the Troll for PVE or PVP. In PVP, especially when Rocket or Dragon Towers are in rotation, Big Bad Voodoo is the only choice. The talent allows Darkspear Troll to solo Towers and even your opponents Base if he is not contested by other units or spells. Headhunting on the other hand can be a powerful PVE option if your Troll is safe in the backline. Serpent Sting is rarely a better choice than the other options in our opinion.

Deep Breath

Update: As of patch 3.0, Double Dragon no longer deals double damage to units at the centre of the cast. Although this is a fairly major change, Double Dragon remains a very strong choice due to it's ability to chip away at the opponents base while also clearing lanes.

Double Dragon is being used a lot in PVP right now because it is an extremely powerful talent, especially in Jaina decks, where the level of the spell can be increased by +3. A Double Dragon Deep Breath can deal a silly amount of damage to your opponents base or towers while also pretty much clearing out all of the troops in that lane. Attunement is also seeing play in certain decks, like Drakkisath decks or Tirion Footman decks, to provide tanky units with additional survivability through Resist. At the time of writing some theorycrafters (such as Porcinet) have expressed that the Resist buff is not actually permanent but rather around ~10 seconds or so. Melting Point is probably the weakest of the three talents in most situations because with Double Dragon talented, you are destroying most Minis anyway. However if we do see Drakkisath or Tirion decks become much more prevalent in the meta then we might see more of this talent being used in PVP. I believe that this talent does also work against boss encounters in PVE so, if you have enough left after killing Onyxia, you might want to try it out for that purpose too.

Defias Bandits

If you have played against Defias Bandits in PVP, you will know how frustrating it is when they manage to secure a +4 gold chest from Pick Lock. It's a great option for both PVP and PVE which can allow you to gain a significant advantage at a low cost. However, Defias Bandits are also seeing a lot of PVP play as defensive units due to their stun and low cost. When played in this way, Deadly Poison is the strongest choice as this can allow them to deal some decent damage too. Last Resort can also, in some cases, result in an impactful 6-second stun on a target as the stun applies to each bandit separately.

Drake

Mother Drake is our favourite choice here, turning the Drake into a mine-laying machine. This can help you defend lanes while you push others, or halt a counter push. It can also reduce your opponents options since they can't deploy melee units into a lane which is full of whelp eggs. Engulfing Flames can actually deal a lot of damage if the Drake gets its attack off though. Perch doesn't currently see much play but might be situationally useful.

Earth Elemental

Ready to Rumble can often be redundant, since you will likely place the Earth Elemental such that it acts as a taunt/tank anyway. Shrapnel Blast is situational but often if you are able to take the tower, you have already eliminated the defending units so it's rarely useful. Obsidian Shard is pretty much always useful, since it creates another two units to tank for you and deal out that bit of extra damage. We recommend this Talent in almost all situations.

Emperor Thaurissan

As expected, Hubris is very strong in PVP. Players have been using this talent in PVP with Minis like Huntress, Gargoyle and Prowler to great effect. This talent is not as strong in PVE however.  Incinerate will last ~16 seconds for affected boss units in PVP instead of being permanent, but it is still decently powerful. Moira's Wit is very difficult to gain consistent value from so we'd recommend leaving this talent for last as it stands..

Execute

Bloodthirsty can turn this into an even more powerful spell, sometimes even shifting the tide of the battle by both dishing out some serious damage and buffing all of your troops. This talent is also often chosen for a lot of the execute decks we are seeing in PVP, as it allows players to immediately grant Bloodlust to unbound units dropped onto a side tower like Quilboar, Skeletons or Maiev. Killing Spree is also a good pick-up in PVP since the spell reduces the cost of itself on next use if you don't have any other horde spells. Overpower applies a knockback which can be useful in some PVE situations where you can knock units off of the map, killing them instantly, but it's very situational.

Faerie Dragon

To Be Updated.

The newest entry to Warcraft Rumble, Faerie Dragon looks to be an interesting Mini. It's still too early to know for sure how, or if, this Mini will be most useful so please take the following with a pinch of salt. With that in mind, we share our early thoughts below to help you decide on your first Talents in the meantime.

Fae Blessing stands out immediately as being a Talent that is more than likely going to have consistent utility in every game mode and at every stage in the game and therefore is probably your safest choice as a first talent. The Mini that receives Resist maintains this buff until death, which turns Faerie Dragon into a powerful support unit akin to Frostwolf Shaman running Earth Shield. Invisibility, which grants Faerie Dragon Stealth steers the Mini away from going full support and can prevent it from being targeted by longer range units like Gryphon. We think that situationally this might be a useful Talent in certain builds. Finally we have Phase Shift. This appears to be the weakest of the three Talents, operating similarly to Jaina's Blink and allowing the Faerie Dragon to teleport away from danger. Although it may improve the survivability/stickiness of the Faerie Dragon, it doesn't have much of an impact on it's overall utility or impact when compared with Fae Blessing for example and so we expect to see this used much less.

Fire Elemental

Immolation Aura is great for helping Fire Elemental deal that bit more damage, especially against squads or large groups of units. Fan the Flames provides a damage boost when taking elemental damage, but as the Fire Elemental is Resistant, your opponent is unlikely to be dishing out elemental damage anyway. It can be useful to push Dragon Towers in PVP however. Molten Core seems to last forever and can be quite a nightmare for your opponent to deal with, definitely a worthy option in certain scenarios.

Firehammer

At 4 gold, Firehammer is an expensive drop. Heightened Rage just seems straight up weaker than the other two options as Firehammer would need to level up multiple times to gain the same amount of power that the other Talents provide. Moultin' Metal provides extra damage against flying units which might be useful if you fighting against a flying leader in PVE or find yourself facing Gargoyle decks. Blazing Speed allows Fury to build up a fair bit higher, allowing Firehammer to dish out some serious damage if left to attack for long enough.

Flamewaker

Backdraft can turn Flamewaker into a huge value drop if you manage to get a few hits off and begin to take out the approaching reinforcements or ranged backline units. It can often justify deploying the expensive 4-drop unit whereas the other two Talents are often less impactful. Engulf adds additional damage to Flamewaker's attacks by applying Burn and Heat Stroke gives Flamewaker a semi-cc by Dazing affected units. Both actually require Flamewaker to be in a position to attack which is the greatest challenge given how squishy it is.

Footmen

Footmen are often paired with Tirion and their primary purpose is to soak damage and tank the frontline. That's why Fortification is a solid pick, giving them that extra bit of survivability they need so you have time to drop a counter to their Whelp Eggs or air deployment. Shield Bash allows footmen to apply a 1-second stun to their target and Last Stand provides a huge damage reduction when the footmen are alone. Both of these talents are useless if the opponent plays around your footmen with AoE and/or air (as you can expect them too) but they might be situationally useful in PVE.

Frostwolf Shaman

There are two strong choices here currently. Earth Shield which, when played, provides an ally with the Armored buff, reducing their Physical Damage taken by 50% (one charge). This Talent is usually played alongside General Drakkisath, turning the Leader into a nightmare to deal with! Also works great with other units which already have Resistant, like Fire Elemental, making them very difficult to kill. Earthwall Totem applies a small heal to your Tower or Base, which is sometimes useful in PVE, but has seen a lot of play in PVP recently following the rise of spell decks. Earthwall Totem allows you to play like a turtle, casting spells on your opponent's base from afar while keeping your own base topped up. Lightning Mastery is rarely seen because you will typically only be playing Frostwolf Shaman as part of the two strategies previously disucssed.

Gargoyle

The goal of the Gargoyle is to reach the enemy structure and wreak havoc upon it and Wing Buffet makes that easier to achieve. Aerial Superiority is another good option that is seeing play in PVP in order to reduce the damage received from gryphons and whelps, but also because in some situations you might actually want the gryphon to move slower, perhaps so you can follow up with a Deep Breath to clear the counter units on the push. Obsidian Statue is incredibly situational and most often the statue will summon under the enemy tower - we'd suggest leaving this talent as the last pick.

General Drakkisath

General Drakkisath is a very tanky unit, with a huge health pool and the Resistant (50% less elemental damage) Trait. Chromatic Scales allows Drakkisath to pass Resistant on to all nearby allies, making them more difficult for your opponent to deal with. Piercing Blows gives Drakkisath a piercing attack and Lasting Legacy increases the elemental damage done to nearby enemies on death. This is the hardest Talent to 'pull off' but might work in some specific decks. Both Chromatic Scales and Piercing Blows can be impactful and your choice will depend on your deck. Drakkisath is often deployed with a Frostwolf Shaman which can also give him Armored (50% less physical damage) through the Earth Shield Talent, making him extremely difficult to kill.

Ghoul

Ghoul is ultimately played as a Tank so naturally Bone Shield is useful to help it soak that extra damage, and also to allow it to continue cannibalizing. Taste for Blood and Ravenous both increase the DPS of the Ghoul (in certain circumstances) but even with either of these Talents, the Ghoul is still best played as a Tank and so it's rare to see these in play. With an execute deck, there may be an argument for Taste for Blood.

Gnoll Brute

At 3 gold, it can be quite hard to justify deploying a Gnoll Brute outside of specific scenarios, such as to counter squads of Skeletons or Murlocs. With Rabid reducing the gold cost of the Brute by 33% however, he can be thrown into battle with less thought in order to soak, tank or divert and keep your deck turning over. Thick Hide grants the Brute resistance to physical damage which is not to be sniffed at, especially as the Brute is most adept at dealing with squads of physical damage troops. It's still difficult to justify over Rabid in most cases though. Pillage is fairly weak as sieging towers is not something the Gnoll is well built to do with his fairly low damage melee AoE attack.

Goblin Sapper

If you've played against Goblin Sapper / Smoke Bomb decks in PVP then you will know how devilish these Sappers can be when they are whizzing towards your Towers with Rocket Powered Turbo Boots. In most cases this will be the best pick-up. You don't want the Sappers to die before they reach the tower so Crude Gunpowder is questionable and Extra BOOM is a huge DPS increase in theory if all Sappers reach the tower, but your opponent will have a lot of time to eliminate them.

Grommash Hellscream

Your Talent choice here is fairly open. We've seen all three Talents used fairly often to varying degrees of success. Savage Strikes can be a pretty solid pick-up, especially when paired with Execute, which can immediately activate the ability. Bladestorm can be a strong defensive talent, and also be quite powerful in PVE. In PVP, you'll find it quite difficult to use this talent offensively as Grommash is fairly easily dealt with by Whelp Eggs, Harpies or Banshee. Mirror Image is probably the least useful talent as the two clones are very fragile and are usually dealt with very quickly.

Gryphon Rider

One of the biggest drawbacks of the Gryphon Rider is its range. Mighty Throw goes towards fixing that by increasing its range by 60%, from 5 to 8 and so this is a solid pick-up. Air Drop is seeing increasing use in PVP to buff units like Rend, Gargoyle Drakkisath or Darkspear Troll (with Big Bad Voodoo) as it can make these units incredibly difficult to deal with if they get an extra couple of levels so keep that in mind if you want to build a PVP deck around it. Odyn's Fury is rarely useful but might have some application in PVE.

Harpies

This one is interesting. Infectious Swipes can alter the Harpies already deadly attack so that they can now shred through units with Armor too. It doesn't change the fact that Harpies are still incredibly squishy glass cannons though. Trinket Collectors can be a great Talent but it's situational. In PVE it depends on the encounter (how many nodes are there and how easy are they to get to?) and in PVP it depends on the meta. By increasing the gold cost of Harpies to 4 gold, you need to get some real value out of the Talent to make it worthwhile. That said, we've played the Talent to great effect in certain situations. Talon Dive can also pack a serious punch but in most cases Infectious Swipes feels stronger.

Harvest Golem

Unstable Core, which provides Harvest Golem with a 3-second stun on death, has turned Harvest Golem into a defensive juggernaut in PVP, especially when the meta contains a lot of spells. By stunning units under your base or tower and backed up by Defias Bandits, it can be very difficult for your opponent to reach your base. Trojan Chickens is also seeing a lot of play in PVP as the Golem summons the chickens on both its first death and its reincarnated death, and they can actually pack in quite a bit of extra damage! When Rocket Towers are in rotation, it's worth noting that the Angry Chickens outpace the 'landing zone' of the rocket and so they can be powerful to chip at your opponent's base. Bountiful Harvest is probably the weakest option of the three, applying only a modest heal to nearby units.

Hogger

Hogger decks usually revolve around cycling through your deck so you can played Hogger repeatedly to make the most of his passive. For that reason, Ham Hock almost feels like a 'must have' for most Hogger decks, unless you plan to use Hogger in a very different way. Fatal Frenzy and Spoiled Meat don't offer too much in terms of competition either. In certain Beast decks you might get some value out of Fatal Frenzy and Spoiled Meat can make him a little stronger against Armored units but we can't really recommend either of these Talents over Ham Hock.

Holy Nova

A well timed Holy Nova can shock your opponent and change the outcome of a skirmish, especially when you have Inner Fire talented, providing your units with a huge defensive buff for 5 seconds. Amplify Magic can be powerful but of course it is situational and wasted if not played on Elemental Minis. It's often chosen in Drakkisath death-ball decks to give Drakkisath (which is an elemental Leader) some decent health regen. Renew gives your units some additional healing and is useful if used outside of battle. Most of the time when used in combat though, Inner Fire will come out on top.

Huntress

The Huntress has two great talents. Elven Might increases her single target damage by 50%, reducing one of her weaknesses significantly. Shadowmeld turns her into an assassin, attacking with double damage (Ambush) when she reveals herself. Darnassian Steel definitely feels like the weakest Talent of the three, primarily because it's rare that you are in a situation where the additional bounces are needed and the opportunity cost of foregoing one of the other two options is significant.

Jaina Proudmoore

Jaina decks are spell decks which take advantage of her passive. Clearcasting has obvious synergy with this passive, allowing you to play spells which are both stronger and cheaper than usual upon deploying Jaina. It's a safe choice. Flurry turns Jaina's attack into a small AoE Frost attack which can be useful as a soft CC against squads or groups of troops. We don't feel as though we get as much value out of it as we do Clearcasting though, as we'd rather just drop a 3-gold Blizzard on our enemies instead which is also going to melt most of them. Blink however can be crucial in helping to keep Jaina alive for a bit longer to get another spell or two off and is great for baiting S.A.F.E. Pilot or other drops from your opponent. 

Living Bomb

Living Bomb is so rarely played right now given it's 6-gold cost. Chain Reaction ensures that it's damage goes beyond the initial blast to destroy the targeted group which likely makes it the frontrunner choice in our eyes if you do find yourself playing this card. Burden of Fate Dazes enemies and Blast Radius applies Burn to enemy troops in a large radius around the blast.

Maiev Shadowsong

A few options for you here with Maiev. Remorseless can turn Maiev into a killing machine, massively increasing her damage output if her initial fan of knives kills an enemy. You can re-stealth Maiev immediately using smoke bomb for additional effect if running this talent (usually with Sappers in the deck too). Enveloping Shadows effectively turns Maiev into a smoke bomb, as she's Unbound and can be played anywhere. This talent can be great for re-stealthing units like Prowler or Worgen to allow them to take advantage of their stealth abilities again. Both of these Talents are solid options but require quite a bit of practise to use to best effect. Shadowstep is not to be sniffed at either, but Maiev is not really tanky enough to take full advantage of this Talent and is often better played as an assassin, breaking and re-entering stealth as much as possible.

Meat Wagon

In PVE especially, the Meat Wagon really shines and can melt down enemy structures from afar. Filet Trebuchet makes it even stronger by increasing the gap that your opponent needs to close to reach the Wagon and you will want this talent when you are tackling Onyxia. The Wagon hits like a truck so although it's nice to have some skellies on your side, it can feel kinda bad losing out on the damage. Greased Gears increases the DPS of the Wagon quite considerably if it can get the time to build up Fury but we typically find ourselves returning to Filet Trebuchet.

Molten Giant

The Molten Giant is another Mini which is not seeing much play right now given how easily it is countered and how expensive it is at 6-gold. Its Talents don't help too much either. Bolster gives the Molten Giant some additional sustenance to continue pushing after destroying a Tower but that's a fairly high bar to reach in order to gain the benefit so you won't be seeing it trigger often. Blood of the Mountain is likely to be useful in more scenarios, with the Molten Giant exploding upon death. Threatening Presence will rarely be of use since you will be deploying the Mountain Giant in such a way that it should be taunting enemy troops anyway.

Mountaineer

The Mountaineer is only really seeing play at the moment in Beast decks with Mend Pets talented, for example in Hogger decks. Despite this, it's still quite difficult to pull off as the Mountaineer is so squishy that it can be easily taken out by your opponent. For the same reason, Frenzied Spirit is of limited usefulness in PVP however could be worth considering for PVE where you can guarantee the bear will die first, leaving the Mountaineer dealing quite a bit of damage with Bloodlust. Intimidation can be useful to try and protect your Mountaineer from Unbound drops but since a single S.A.F.E. Pilot explosion will eliminate him anyway, you might not get much value from it.

Murloc Tidehunters

Murloc Tidehunters benefit from a set of extremely useful Talents. Careful Aim increases the range of Murlocs to 8.5, allowing them to outrange Rend, Drake and Bat Rider, in addition to trading well with Gryphons. Safety Bubble is an almost-always-useful Talent that gives your Tidehunters extra survivability, allowing them to get off an extra attack or two which can allow them to make some huge value trades at 2 gold. Morelocs effectively increases the power of the Mini by 50% and can be very useful in situations where your opponent doesn't have a good way of dealing with squads or groups of units, such as in many PVE encounters. Choose dependent upon your requirements but as a rule of thumb we'd say if you are choosing for PVP, take Safety Bubble.

Necromancer

Skeletal Mages are simply better than Skeletons. Their ranged attack applies Frost which slows down enemy units and against Dragon Towers (in PVP rotation) they take very little damage. That's why Jeweled Skulls is such a solid choice of Talent here. Cult of the Damned means more skellies, if you can get some kills, but those skellies are very weak in the frontline. Breath of the Dying is a similar story, yes you get more skeletons - but ultimately they are unlikely to achieve much.

Ogre Mage

Ogre Mage already deals a tonne of AoE damage but Avarice turns the Ogre into a difficult unit to deal with for your opponent. Frostfire Bolt is also very useful as Frost slows down your enemy's attack and movement speed, importantly stopping those melee units from getting close enough to the Ogre to deal with them. Ignite is probably the least useful of the Talents since the damage output from Avarice is higher in most cases if the utility of Frostfire Bolt is not needed.

Old Murk-Eye

It takes around 3 seconds to generate 1 gold when you are in battle in Warcraft Rumble. That means that Marathon Of The Murlocs allows you to spend an additional 1.66 gold during the March of the Murlocs window. If you wait until you are part-way through generating your next gold before deploying Old Murk Eye, then you will have an extra 2 gold to spend during the window which will allow you to summon two additional Murloc Tidehunters, assuming you can keep Old Murk-Eye alive! We think that's pretty good since you'd normally pay 2 gold for those Tidehunters. You also get the benefit of a wider spending window if you are able to capture gold chests or nodes during that period. Electric Eels is ok but you aren't likely to get too many hits off with Old Murk-Eye since he is so squishy. Tip Of The Spear can actually end up being a hinderance since it makes it much easier for opponents to nuke down your entire Murloc horde by dropping a Blizzard or precision S.A.F.E. Pilot down.

Plague Farmer

Splashing Pumpkins is by far the best pick up for Plague Farmer. Even with it, the Mini is not amazing, but it is able to dish out some serious AoE damage to large groups. Virulence is redundant because Splashing Pumpkins ensures that all units near the target are poisoned anyway and Parting Gift only inflicts a minor poison DoT on the affected target(s).

Polymorph

This spell is seeing quite a bit of use lately and that's primarily because of the Golden Fleece Talent. This Talent turns Polymorph into a long (6 second) hard AoE cc for 2 gold effectively, assuming you kill the golden sheep. Exploding Sheep can be powerful too but it's situational and mostly useless when you are using it on one or two units. Stable Transfiguration is not great - we don't want to give our opponent time to reinforce their Minis as they heal back up.

Prowler

Unless you are running a Beast deck specifically, either On the Prowl or Predatory Instincts are usually going to be safe Talent choices for you here. Predatory Instincts is probably the most popular talent choice in PVP as it allows the Prowler to dish out huge amounts of damage on it's first couple of attacks, however On the Prowl is also very powerful since the stun will almost always be useful and the stealth can allow the Prowler to get up close before being targeted. Naturally, if you are running a Beast deck then you might consider Pack Leader for a 30% flat damage increase for nearby Beast allies but this is going to more useful in PVE than PVP.

Pyromancer

Pyromancer has two great Talents for you to choose from. Pyroblast is going to incinerate the first Mini you attack and Conflagrate is going to increase the AoE of your attack. Your choice here will really come down to how you want to use Pyromancer in your deck. We would recommend avoiding Blaze of Glory as Pyromancer is a ranged unit so unless you drop her straight on top of the opponents troops defensively, it's likely to be wasted.

Quilboar

This is an interesting one! Outside of being everyone's favourite tank, Quilboar is also great for capturing gold chests, denying enemy miners and chipping (at towers or bases). Tunnel Vision allows Quilboar to perform all of these tasks more efficiently by halving the deployment speed from 4 seconds to 2 seconds. I have played countless games in PVP where the ~2 seconds saved by the talent has allowed me to stop a side tower from fully repairing. However, Bristleback is also seeing a lot of play in PVP as it can allow the Quilboar to better trade with other Quilboars, Dark Iron Miners and Skeletons. The primary use for Quilboar in both PVP and PVE is to act as an unbound tank (for the base, towers, bosses and other Minis), allowing you to set up powerful plays while he soaks up the damage and therefore both of these talents are viable and you won't go wrong picking either of them as your first. Note that when Dragon Towers are in rotation in PVP, you will likely want to take Bristleback as the increased deploy time can actually allow him to soak a full blast from the tower at max range, taking minimal damage. Bramble Burst helps Quilboar deal a bit of extra AoE damage and is great at popping Murloc Safety Bubbles, so has started seeing a lot more play in PVP recently.

Raptors

None of these Talents are amazing really but Strength in Numbers can increase Raptors DPS by a fairly considerable amount. Raptors are not tanks and don't have a huge health pool so Fast Food is already lacklustre and on top of that you have to secure kills to benefit at all. Motivation is very situational, sometimes you will have the buff, sometimes you won't.

Rend Blackhand

You want to keep Rend Blackhand on the board for as long as you can to benefit from his passive which reduces the cost of flying units by 1. Scale and Steel helps you achieve that by gaining Resistant while flying and Armored while dismounted. The Resistant Trait for Gyth (drake) is a bonus but the real value is in the Armored Trait for Rend as he's fairly tanky and this helps him take down units like Huntress with ease upon dismounting. It also allows him to soak a lot of damage from Towers (not Dragon Towers). Flaming Soul looks good in theory and it can be, especially defensively and in PVE encounters, but it can also be quite easy for your opponent to dismount Rend from afar, making this Talent useless at times. One of the advantages of Rend is that he's difficult to deal with since your opponent needs to deal with two very different minions back-to-back. Legionnaire can make things much easier for your opponent by allowing them to deal with both Minis (Gyth and Rend) at the same time, for example with an ability like Blizzard. It's therefore rather situational and unlikely in most cases to be better than your other options.

S.A.F.E. Pilot

Updated for 4.0 hotfix:

Gnomish Cloaking Device and Comin' In Hot! here remain powerful talents and despite the nerf, S.A.F.E. Pilot still remains a very powerful Mini. Although she might not be in every deck now, we still expect her to be a staple in most. Her nerf will be felt quite hard in PVE for players who are using Unbound damage to clear stages. Comin' In Hot! crash damage has been reduced by 33%, but it's still effective in clearing Squads such as Skeletons, or for dealing with squishy units like Gryphon Rider. At same level, both will survive the initial crash and die to a couple of ticks of burn damage now however. Gnomish Cloaking Device has lost its Ambush effect and there will no longer be a damage multiplier when attacking from stealth. Despite this, it's still a powerful Talent choice in PVP, allowing you to time the moment when your Pilot will become targetable by the enemy and giving you time to set up a distraction (like Quilboar) if required. Gnomish Muttonizer remains the weakest choice, especially in PVP where the Pilot' initial crash no longer kills a lot of units. 

Skeleton Party

5-Man turns your Skeleton Party into a full on WoW dungeon group with a tank, healer and three DPS to boot. This is generally the preferred talent as this combination is much powerful than the standard combination that is deployed. Corpse Run can be powerful in rank-locked PVP, especially at the lower levels but it's usefulness is limited since the original skeletons are not very powerful. Ritual of Rime is the weakest talent in our opinion, we don't want to have our skellies locked in a defensive position - it's too situational.

Skeletons

Skeletons are one of my favourite Minis. With Exhume talented, for 2-gold, you are getting five deadly skeletons that can be spawned either defensively under your own tower or base, or offensive under your opponent's towers. The five skelly summon on top of a Tower can be enough to take it solo (in PVE), or with a tank (like Quilboar) in PVP. It's also a useful Talent for any non-AoE PVE boss encounter to soak a lot of hits. Questing Buddies is not a bad choice either as this just makes the Skeletons that bit harder for your opponent to deal with. Cackle doesn't appear to make a tonne of sense since you don't really want these low hp units tanking, and if you do then you can simply deploy them as such.

Smoke Bomb

Smoke bomb has two main uses currently, the first is to stealth those pesky Sappers in order to allow them to reach their target structures and the second is to re-stealth units to allow them to activate their stealth abilities gain like Prowler (talented) or Maiev. Both of these use cases benefit from Through the Shadows which gives those Minis the extra speed they need to land their attacks. Band of Thieves could be great for Sappers, allowing them to dish out some additional damage, but the reality is that if the Sappers never reach the tower because they are too slow - then they are useless anyway. Strangers in the Night is currently thought to be generally poor, or too situational, but we think there may be some hidden potential there in allowing your Minis to bypass unfavourable trades. We'll be doing some further experimenting with this Talent.

Sneed

If you are running Sneed in your deck, then it's likely your deck is built around his passive (Sneed Before Greed) with at least a few siege units included. Lead With Greed allows you to increase the value you get from this passive by 100%, massively improving it and allowing for huge swings in your favour when you are able to activate it. Mine Is Money, Friend! is a useful Talent in that it allows you to be a bit more versatile with Sneed and where/how you play with him, but he's a fairly slow siege unit and so doesn't make the best miner. There might be an argument for this talent on PVE encounters but in most cases you are likely to get greater value from Lead With Greed. Finally, Land Grab is really just a worse version of Lead With Greed in our opinion. We'd much rather have 2 gold than an extra level on Sneed.

Spiderlings

Spiderlings are another unit that is not currently seeing a tonne of play, mostly because for there are just better two-gold drops out there. Envenom can make their poison attack deadly, especially against tanky Elemental troops and Frostbite can give them some soft CC in the form of Frost. Bloated Carapace seems less useful since Spiderlings are squishy enough to be dispatched with at a distance but perhaps in some defensive situations of PVE encounters there might be an argument for it.

Stonehoof Tauren

Stonehoof Tauren is usually chosen for its ability to charge into those pesky backline troops like Huntress and Darkspear Troll. That's why we love Momentum which allows the Tauren to chain it's Charge beyond the initial (often frontline) unit. Pummel can also be quite strong and can allow Stonehoof to make some favourable 1v1 trades but generally feels weaker than Momentum in most cases. Your Tauren will usually be drawing the attention and aggro from your opponents as it charges in so Provoke seems less useful.

Sylvanas Windrunner

It's hard to recommend anything here other than Black Arrow. At 6 gold, Sylvanas is extremely expensive, and without the piercing attack that Black Arrow grants her, she is extremely lacklustre for that cost. Banshee's Wail can sometimes stun your enemies long enough to ensure the Banshee reaches it but most of the time is useless since Sylvanas is a ranged hero and Forsaken Fury is very situational, requiring specific deckbuilding to be of any value. Forsaken Fury should not be totally dismissed as it can be used in certain PVE encounters with some success, for example alongside (range talented) Meat Wagons.

Tirion Fordring

Tirion can be a real problem for your opponent if played with a group of troops, like Footmen, and so you can be sure that they will try to take him down quickly. That's why Divine Shield is often picked and why we'd also recommend it in most situations. The extra 5 seconds can make a big difference in keeping your troops in the fight and can often be enough to deal with whatever counter your opponent has thrown at you. By The Light can be useful if you are playing Tirion with tanky units or pairs of units like Abomination, Core Hounds, Fire Elemental or Warsong Grunts but these decks appear to less effective at the time of writing. Consecrate allows you to deal some AoE damage with Tirion but that's not really why you play the Leader so we'd probably suggest going with Divine Shield instead.

Vultures

You can really take your pick with Vultures depending on how you plan to use them, however Migration can make the passive Carrion ability (which spawns additional Vultures upon kills) a bit more useful since it spreads your Vultures out making them less susceptible to AoE attacks. Tendon Rip provides a soft CC in the form of Daze and Feeding Frenzy gives your entire 'flock' of Vultures a short Bloodlust upon kills. Vultures have half the damage of Harpies but in the rare situations where your opponent has nothing to deal with them, Bloodlust could make them quite deadly.

Warsong Grunts

Warsong Grunts can dish out quite a bit of damage if allowed to attack for a while, thanks to Fury. Bloodlust allows them to further increase their damage output by providing additional movement and attack speed to any surviving Grunts once one has been killed. Command is very similar to Prowler's Pack Leader Talent, increasing the damage of nearby Beasts. Naturally this Talent will only make sense if you are running Grunts in a Beast deck. Guard Duty is a situational Talent that you'd only pick up if you had a specific strategy for its use in mind, most likely for PVE.

Warsong Raider

Warsong Raider doesn't deal a lot of damage and can be quite easy to counter if played as a melee tank, so Razing Focus can be a good pick up, turning the quick troop into a formidable Siege unit. Saboteur can also be situationally powerful, especially against certain towers (like Dragon Towers) which have an AoE attack. The Raider can reduce the damage output of these Towers massively if it's able to get there and land a few blows. Sunder Armor is not to be ignored either, though you are likely to find less opportunities to use this Talent to effect outside of specific PVP match-ups or PVE encounters.

Whelp Eggs

Ah, Whelp Eggs. There is little more satisfying than watching your Whelp Eggs explode into a fireball, decimating your opponent's squad, Pyromancer, Necromancer or Firehammer with the newly hatched Whelps raining hellfire upon the helpless melee tank which was leading them. That's why our recommended choice here, in most scenarios, is Flame Burst. It can take a little while to get the timing and placement of the Whelp Eggs down but once you have it, you'll see why Whelp Eggs are one of the strongest Minis in the game right now. Rookery can be strong against both single target ranged units and allow you to start getting those attacks in against melee units faster but it's worse than Flame Burst for both purposes, as well as making it much easier for your opponent to S.A.F.E. Pilot your hatched Whelps. In our opinion, Chromatic Plating is the Talent you will get the least consistent value from, but in certain situations will be useful.

Witch Doctor

It's still too early to advise which Talents are best for Witch Doctor and there is currently no consensus between top players, however early rumblings (pun... not intended) would suggest that Spirit Ward may be a relatively safe choice for your first talent.

We'll update this when we know more.

Worgen

Last but not least we have Worgen. This Unbound assassin excels at dispatching of backline units or other high-value targets, which is why Premeditation is often useful. Lone Wolf can be a solid choice if you plan to use the Worgen to capture Gold Chests or deny enemy Miners since you can deploy him on his own in both cases. Frenzy currently feels much worse than Premeditation as you will often only get that one important kill off before your opponent is able to easily deal with Worgen.