Hey folks! If you are anything like me then you likely found that your Warcraft Rumble PVE adventures were going pretty well, that is until you hit the Devilsaur Queen. This boss is such a major wall, that it's not uncommon to see players completing Blackrock Mountain before circling back to her! Fear not though, with the right Minis she can be defeated.
Please note that the majority of the following information is relevant for both Normal and Heroic versions of the encounter, but has been written with Heroic in mind so some elements of the encounter may be more forgiving on Normal and allow for more flexibility with your deck choices and talents.
This guide is detailed and breaks down everything you need to know for crafting your deck. If you'd rather, you can also just skip straight to the Strategy section and Video Guide.
Devilsaur Queen Deck
First of all let's look at what we're up against here. Devilsaur Queen's deck contains the following Minis:
- Darkspear Troll
- Ogre Mage
- Raptors
- Gnoll Brute
- Warsong Grunts
- Goblin Sappers
- Living Bomb
As you can see, most of the Devilsaur Queen's deck consists of ground-based melee units, with the exception of Darkspear Troll and Ogre Mage. The boss very rarely uses Living Bomb, but will use it if you bunch up too many units on one side.
Our Deck (Leaders)
It doesn't matter which Leader you use for this strategy - it will work for any/all Leaders. That being said, the following Leaders are suggested to make your life as easy as possible:
Alliance: Maiev
We are playing with a lot of Unbound units and therefore every once in a while you'll get a powerful low-cost drop.
Beast: Charlga
Charlga's low cost (especially if you have the Cavernous Mists talent) will help you cycle through your deck and get those Riders out faster.
Blackrock: Rend Blackhand
Cheaper Harpies, cheaper Whelp Eggs, another flying unit that they will struggle to deal with and a great follow-up tank for the towers.
Horde: Grommash Hellscream
Bloodlust will help speed up the demise of the Devilsaur Queen.
Undead: Baron Rivendare
Passive lane push from his Skeletons and he's a decent enough tank for taking the towers.
Our Deck (Minis)
There are two key Minis that you are going to want to have in your deck for Devilsaur Queen, especially on Heroic, and those are Gryphon Rider and Bat Rider. There are two main reasons that these units are so powerful against this boss:
- They outrange her attack; and
- Most of the enemy's troops on this encounter can't attack air.
For the remainder of our deck, we're going to choose Minis which are cheap, so we can cycle back to Gryphon Rider and Bat Rider, but we're also going to carefully select them to deal with each of our opponent's Minis. Let's break it down:
Quilboar (Essential)
Quilboar is going to make your life much, much easier. We need to get to the Devilsaur Queen as soon as possible with our Gryphon Riders and our Bat Riders, but both Ogre Mage and the Towers are going to get in our way. Deploy Quilboar (ideally with Tunnel Vision talent) to distract Ogre Mage so your flying units can quickly deal with him and do the same thing for the Towers as your flying units approach.
Talent: Tunnel Vision (either of the other two talents are ok too but you will need better timing to draw the attention of Ogre Mage and the Towers since deployment will be slow)
S.A.F.E. Pilot (Essential)
S.A.F.E. Pilot is really a jack of all trades in this encounter but most importantly, she can very easily deal with Darkspear Troll. Deploy the Pilot directly onto the Troll when it spawns and watch it disappear! With Gnomish Cloaking Device talented, she can also deal a lot of damage to the boss. When there are no Trolls around to deal with and when you have reached the boss, deploy S.A.F.E. Pilot outside the range of the boss so she can start getting some attacks in too. You can also use the Pilot to capture towers if you need to as often her splash attack will hit your opponents units around the tower too.
Talent: Gnomish Cloaking Device (Comin' in Hot is a worse but still acceptable alternative)
Harpies (Highly Recommended)
Harpies won't be much use in dealing damage to the boss, since they'll be gobbled up as soon as they reach her, but they are effective in pushing and clearing out the lanes.
Talent: Infectious Swipes (Talon Dive is also fine)
Whelp Eggs (Highly Recommended)
When are Whelp Eggs not useful!? These lil whelps are great for helping with that initial push. Dropping them on top of a Tower as your other units approach will draw the attention away and also deal a lot of damage when talented with Flame Burst. They can also be used against any of the opponent's melee units as needed.
Talent: Flame Burst (This talent is pretty essential if you are running Whelp Eggs)
Defias Bandits (Recommended)
At 1-gold, these units are super cheap and can be handy for cycling your deck. They can also be used to stun units that reach your Base, allowing you to focus on a single lane. These units can also be used to 'cheese' the Boss and prevent her from phasing by stunning her at the right time. This can be an effective strategy but I found it was not necessary. If you want to try this, drop the Defias Bandits at 2:18 from the second Meeting Stone in the right lane. They will reach the boss at ~2:09 and stun her, keeping her in place.
Talent: Deadly Poison or Last Resort
Huntress (Recommended)
The Huntress can be a great addition but only if you can keep her alive. At 5 gold she's a costly Mini and will slow down the cycle of your deck significantly. That said, if you can use your other Minis to protect her then she can help you push to the boss fairly quickly. She also outranges the boss.
Talent: Elven Might or Shadowmeld
Meat Wagon (Optional)
There are a number of other guides which recommend using the Meat Wagon and it can be effective, but in my opinion it is a more challenging way to approach the encounter because the Wagon is 50% more expensive than Gryphon Rider or Bat Rider and is also easily dealt with by the many Raptors that spawn throughout the fight. That being said, if you can keep them up then they will wreak havoc on the Devilsaur Queen from afar.
Talent: Filet Trebuchet (or Greased Gears is also feasible)
Flamewaker (Optional)
Flamewaker is another unit which can outrange the Devilsaur Queen and can therefore be effective. As they are ground-based however, like the Meat Wagon, they can be harder to keep alive.
Talent: Engulf
The Strategy
The strategy is fairly simple, and can be broken down as follows:
- Cycle through your deck quickly so that you ideally have at least two Riders (Bat or Gryphon) pushing both lanes.
- Use Quilboar to distract Ogre Mage and Tower attacks.
- Use S.A.F.E. Pilot to kill Darkspear Troll and deal extra damage to the boss.
- Use Whelp Eggs to help you take towers and deal with melee units.
- Use Harpies to clear out the lane that you are not actively pushing, or to help you quickly take towers.
- Try to avoid clumping more than three Riders together at one side as they will push each other forward and into the range of the boss.
Although I am slightly over-levelled at this point, you can see the strategy in action below:
Hope this helped! If you have any feedback, feel free to drop us a message at [email protected].