HearthPwn's Battlegrounds Hero Tier List
Last Updated - 05/05/20 - Basic changes and reordering.
We've changed our approach for the Tier List this week, straying from the Innkeeper based list we've adhered to in the past. With Blizzard seemingly releasing constant patches and re-balancing, it's been difficult to time updates that include enough data to be statistically relevant. Once again we quickly received a large Hero rotation and many card changes in a short period of time.
While we're still using Win Percentages and Average Placement for reference, this week's list is in large part based on our experiences in the Battlegrounds.
We expect this to be a short-lived change and plan to return to the old format as soon as we're comfortable with the statistics we've accumulated. As we've previously mentioned, your use of the Innkeeper is what will power that Tier List. The more games you're able to log by running Innkeeper in the background, the better our Tier List can become!
A welcome addition to this week's list is a table of Top Heroes for users to quickly reference what we're considering your best picks. The usual list and Hero descriptions follow.
Top Heroes
1. Dancin' Deryl
Passive Hero Power: After you sell a minion, randomly give a minion in Bob's Tavern +1/+1 twice. Deryl is widely considered one of the strongest Battleground heroes, but also one of the most difficult to pilot. Knowing when to buy and sell and how to target the minions you want can prove tricky. However, mastering your "Dance" turns can lead to a giant board of hand-selected buffed minions.
2. Arch-Villain Rafaam
Hero Power: Next combat, add a plain copy of the first minion you kill to your hand. Rafaam can easily build a big board faster than many heroes by "stealing" minions from your opponents. It's important to check what build the next player you are facing is going for before deciding whether to devote the gold to your Hero Power. However, even if you steal a minion you don't want, it's basically free as you can just sell it in Bob's Tavern next round and get your gold back.
3. Nozdormu
Passive Hero Power: Your first Refresh each turn costs (0). Nozdormu's Hero Power is highly versatile and can save you a lot of gold over the course of a match. Getting a free refresh each round let's you eliminate a poor selection of minions and increase your odds of finding what you're looking for. You can also spend gold to upgrade your tavern and then refresh for free to a higher tier of minions before purchasing any.
4. Deathwing
Passive Hero Power: ALL minions have +2 Attack. Deathwing's Hero Power can be extremely powerful in token based strategies. Cards like Rat Pack and Replicating Menace can provide overwhelming boards of 3 attack minions. Other abilities such as Divine Shield can also lead to big power swings. The key strategy is to swarm your opponents with as many minions as possible. It's important to remember that your Hero Power will also be buffing the opposing minions.
5. Yogg-Saron, Hope's End
Hero Power: Hire a random minion in Bob's Tavern and give it +1/+1. Yogg Saron's Hero Power can fall victim to its' randomness at times. But if you can put the minions you get to use, he is most definitely one of the strongest heroes. Randomness aside, you're effectively receiving a buffed minion that's discounted by one gold. Praise Yogg!
6. Edwin VanCleef
Hero Power: Give a minion +1/+1 for each minion you've bought this turn. Edwin's ability proves useful throughout the entirety of the game. Buffing minions early can give you a stronger board than most opponents, while late game buffs can be used on your important minions that might other wise be hard to protect. Wisely balancing between purchasing minions and buffing your board is essential.
7. Infinite Toki
Hero Power: Refresh Bob's Tavern. Include a minion from a higher Tavern Tier. Toki not only refreshes the Tavern for one gold, you're also guaranteed one minion from a higher Tavern Tier. While it can be a bit random, it can also prove very powerful as you reach the later Tiers. Rolling into Tier 6 minions while you're only at Tavern Tier 5 can put your Comp over the top if you're lucky enough to find what you're looking for.
8. Alexstrasza
Passive Hero Power: After you upgrade Bob's Tavern to Tavern Tier 5, Discover two Dragons. Alex allows you to immediately discover two Dragons when you upgrade your Tavern to Tier 5. There are no restrictions as to what Tier the Dragons come from, so you're drawing from the entire pool. Several Dragons -- specifically the late game ones -- are very powerful and can swing you the game if you are lucky enough to get them.
9. Elise Starseeker
Passive Hero Power: When you upgrade Bob's Tavern get a 'Recruitment Map'. Elise's Map allows you to discover a minion from the Tavern tier you've just upgraded to. The spell costs 3 gold, but can prove to be very powerful -- especially when you're reaching higher tiers in the Tavern. Getting to choose from three Tier-5 or Tier-6 minions in the late game can provide big swings to your board.
10. Sir Finley Mrrgglton
Passive Hero Power: At the start of the game, Discover a Hero Power. Finley's all about flexibility. He can effectively become any Hero in the Battlegrounds through his ability to Discover their Powers. During Hero selection, if you're offered a strong choice it's usually best to pick it. However, if you're given weak options Sir Finley can often bail you out and save your run.
11. Pyramad
Hero Power: Give a random friendly minion +4 Health. Pyramad randomly buffs one of your minions by four Health. The recent move from 3 to 4 seems to have greatly increased this Hero's power level. At a cost of 1-gold, it's best to try to weave a Hero Power in every turn that you can.
12. The Rat King
Passive Hero Power: Whenever you buy a Beast, give it +1/+2. Swaps type each turn. Timing can be everything when it comes to utilizing The Rat King's Hero Power. Catching an early buff on a strong tribal minion or buffing several in the late game once you've committed to a Comp can lead to success. However, the constant changing power can lead to inconsistent buffs.
13. Malygos
Hero Power: Replace a minion with a random one of the same Tavern Tier. Maly's Hero Power rerolls a minion each turn for free. This is valuable throughout the game and gives you an extra chance to find the minion you're looking for. One overlooked value of the Hero Power is that you can use it on your own minions as well.
14. The Curator
Passive Hero Power: Start the game with a 1/1 Amalgam with all minion types. Curator's little 1/1 Amalgam can be one of the most consistent minions in Battlegrounds. With the addition of Dragons, menagerie builds have grown to another level and nobody benefits more than this hero. Transforming your Amalgam into a massive poisonous minion can often lead to easy top-4's.
15. Millhouse Manastorm
Passive Hero Power: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Tavern Tiers cost (1) more. Millhouse can seem like a totally different game of Battlegrounds from other Heroes. While minions are cheaper, this is offset by your Refresh and Tavern Tiers being more expensive. Being able to purchase a Minion on turn one, and then two additional Minions on turn two can sometimes out-tempo opponents.
16. Patchwerk
Passive Hero Power: Start with 50 Health instead of 40. Patchwerk's extra 10 Health won't grant you a lot of extra time in the later rounds. Not having a proactive Hero Power in the early turns proves detrimental and damage output as the game progresses generally erases the Health advantage very quickly.
17. Sindragosa
Passive Hero Power: At the end of your turn, Frozen minions get +1/+1. Sindragosa excels early on by abusing her Hero Power. The ability to effectively give all offered minions +1/+1 over the first few turns while spending no gold can lead to powerful early turn boards. This becomes less desirable as the game progresses and should be utilized heavily in the early game.
18. The Great Akazamzarak
Hero Power: Discover a Secret. Put it into the battlefield. Akazamzarak discovers a card from a large pool of secrets each time you use his Hero Power. While there is a high level of variance in your discover choices, some secrets such as Ice Block or Splitting Image are very powerful. If your secret isn't triggered during battle, it rolls over until your opponent activates it.
19. A. F. Kay
Passive Hero Power: Skip your first two turns. Start with two minions from Tavern Tier 3. A. F. Kay's success often depends on what two minions she's offered on turn 3. If your discover options are bad, things can spiral out of control pretty quick. However, discovering powerful options such as Soul Juggler, Pack Leader, or Hangry Dragon -- and then finding some supporting cards -- can be a huge boost and roll to victories.
20. Millificent Manastorm
Passive Hero Power: Mechs in Bob's Tavern have +2 Attack. Millificent can struggle much like Jaraxxus. Her Hero Power does offer a powerful buff, but can often fall flat if you don't receive the Mechs you need to succeed. Being that Cobalt Guardian is one of the most sought minions, they're often tough to come by. That being said, if you're lucky enough to land some Mechs, you're usually able to piece together a fairly strong board.
21. Queen Wagtoggle
Hero Power: Give a random friendly Mech, Demon, Murloc, Beast, and Dragon +2 Attack. Wagtoggle shines in Menagerie builds. Having a large board with a good mix of tribes can lead to many buffed minions.
22. Lich Baz'hial
Hero Power: Take 2 damage and add a Gold Coin to your hand. Baz'hial's Hero Power is free -- kind of. It won't cost you any gold, but you will sacrifice two Health each time you wish to gain a Coin in your hand. If you're able to get off to a fast start utilizing the ability, you might have some success. But, most times the life sacrifice is hard to overcome.
23. Nefarian
Hero Power: Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage to all enemy minions. Nefarian's Hero Power serves different roles as the game progresses. Early on it can often weaken or even kill your opponent's minions. However, it truly shines in the late game when its' primary function can be to eliminate any Divine Shields. A lot of compositions rely heavily on Divine Shields, and wiping them all out before the battle begins can be back breaking.
24. Bartendotron
Passive Hero Power: Reduce the cost of Tavern Tiers by (1). Bartendo's Hero Power reduced the cost of Tavern Tiers by one gold for the duration of the match. Through the course of the game this allows you to purchase minions before the rest of the competition. As one might think -- having access to higher Tier minions early on can lead to some snowballing wins.
25. George the Fallen
Hero Power: Give a friendly minion Divine Shield. While giving one of your minions Divine Shield is very powerful, George's Hero Power doesn't find much use in the early game due to its' cost of three gold. However, if you can build a solid board for the late game, being able to give one of your minions a Shield every turn can lead to a very strong Composition.
26. Ysera
Passive Hero Power: At the start of your turn, add a Dragon to Bob's Tavern. Ysera relies on focusing on a Dragon Composition. With the Hero Power being changed from 1-cost to passive, we would expect it to be much easier to establish a board full of Dragons.
27. Reno Jackson
Hero Power: Make a friendly minion Golden. (Once per game.) Reno has a unique Hero Power that allows you to make one of your minions into a golden version. You don't receive a discover a minion card like you normally would when tripling a minion -- but, it's still a powerful ability nonetheless. Choosing a minion can be tough, but it's usually best to upgrade in the early to mid-game.
28. Shudderwock
Hero Power: Your next Battlecry this turn triggers twice. Shudderwock's Hero Power seems to work best in conjunction with buffing Battlecries. The addition of Dragons has further solidified Menagerie Comps, and Shudder's power works well with Zoobot, Menagerie Magician, etc.
29. The Lich King
Hero Power: Give a friendly minion Reborn for the next combat only. Ideally, The Lich King's Hero Power is now targeted instead of limited to your right most minion. This can be fairly powerful when applied to the correct minion. High value targets are usually Divine Shield minions or minions with a Deathrattle effect.
30. Illidan Stormrage
Passive Hero Power: Start of Combat: Your left and right-most minions attack immediately. Illidan's Hero Power essentially gives your left-most and right-most minions charge. Before anything else happens at the start of battle they will randomly attack minions. If you're lucky enough to get the right minions to place on the outsides, this has potential to be powerful. However, it seems far too inconsistent for the Demon Hunter to be top tier.
31. Fungalmancer Flurgl
Passive Hero Power: After you sell a Murloc, add a random Murloc to Bob's Tavern. Flurgl's Power doesn't lend well to the overall goal of Battlegrounds. Players are trying to build big boards to kill their opponents, which can become rather difficult if you're constantly trying to sell minions off your board. For this reason, the Hero Power is in large part useless from mid to late-game.
32. Lord Jaraxxus
Hero Power: Give your Demons +1/+1. Jaraxxus' success is often highly subject to his offerings from the Tavern. Giving all your Demons +1/+1 is a very powerful tool -- if there are Demons available for you to buy. If you're able to build a strong Demon Composition, your Hero Power can sometimes lead you to a Top 4.
33. Professor Putricide
Hero Power: Give a friendly minion +10 Attack for the next combat only. The Professor's Hero Power seems like it should be strong in theory. However, giving a single minion +10 attack often falls short in the late game against giant boards. It should be noted that this can be very good when placed on a Cleave-type minion.
34. Galakrond
Hero Power: Replace a minion in Bob's Tavern with a minion from a higher Tavern Tier. Galakrond seems a little slow for the current Battlegrounds Meta. Upgrading minions in the early game doesn't often lead to anything very impactful -- unless your plan is to continually freeze and upgrade it again. By the time you reach the late game and are able to upgrade into meaningful minions, it's too late.
This? Smegging useful, though can't talk about viability, having not tried it. I rarely see amalgams, for example, until lategame, though that's probably not as core as the others (easier DS and taunt is probably the main advantage here), should be able to replace with, say, murk-eye or such. I take it you'd recommend staying at 2 for any murloc build, not just 'Wock, past the usual 3 turns? With the HP, one of the adapt minions should hit a DS, and that's your main goal from them, really, by the lategame, so not much point pushing to six, I agree.
Not got much experience with 'Wock, usually get offered a top-tier or two bottom tier heroes (under a week until I get a third hero option :P). Would certainly aim for a menagerie or murloc with it, depending on what's open, just because... buffs don't synergize with others as well. Mech is slightly better than beast, but unless you're getting beast stuff dropped in your lap, it's not viable regardless as a main strat anyway, in my experience. Going mech/beast as 'Wock is... like that time I went menagerie as Jaraxxus because no demons were offered, really - desperate.
Still puzzled by the surprising amount of pyramids I see at ~5500-5700 rating, though. Why? :P
Anyone been able to beat late game murloc compositions with divine shield, windfury and poison without being Nerfarien? Everytime I face that composition it is over - just got beaten 3 times in a row for the nr. 1 spot against these murlocs compositions - I would love advise if there is any against this composition late game.
No luck :/ what you've described is their absolute endgame highroll. Once they get all of those three keywords it is basically over. Your own divine shield poisonous minions might slow them down by one or two minions but unless you have an AoE effect like Nefarian I don't think that there is much that you can do.
I won once by having a menagerie composition with two Amalgams with divine shield and poison, a Guardian with divine shield ofc, a hydra and The Zap guy, but got extremely lucky because I sniped his divine shield popper and his cleave protection.
I agree it is nearly impossible to beat - maybe they could add a minion that deals aoe damage like Unstable Ghoul, but that would be kind of a nerf to Nerfarien.
Should be doable with hatedrafting the adapters, had that happen to me before. Primary way to handle it is to knock them out before they hit the many adapts, I find (at ~5500) - T4/5 is a bit weak for murlocs, particularly 5, with just Brann (who is popular), whilst 4 mainly has the discover and poison murlocs, both of whom get thrown back into the pool after most pick them. Zap+big cleave and a bunch of divine shields can work, but you're probably struggling regardless. Hopefully you can survive one or two hits, and they're low enough that one good hit kills 'em, then try and get lucky on orders.
A ghoul minion could be interesting, if it, like ghoul, hit your own shields too (that'd differentiate from Nef, and Nef would have the extra space anyway by not running it). Just make sure you can't poisonous it, otherwise it's bonkers :P Also provides interesting early counterplay to tokens.
Baron Rivendare + Kaboom bots + Kangor's apprentices. Lots of bombs.
Buying your opponents minions is something I have done, but it comes at the risk of falling behind and also you have to get either triples or tier 6 to begin buying the Megasaurs and the murloc player will likely push into tier 6 before other do.
Ah yea the Ghoul hits your own divine shields so I guess it is fair to Nerfarien and you can still run it with Cobolt Guardian as you will just put something that summons a mech before your guardian attack. - I think it would be a good addition to BG. I think tier 2 would be fine for this minion which would also allow you to counter tokens as you suggest.
Rat-King is front-loaded in how effective he is, like a few other heroes (that is, they have effects that are really good in the early game but trail off). Early on, you can justify taking almost anything if it's going to get a +1/+2 buff, as that's a really good buff and the extra stats will help carry you to midgame. From that point on though, it's hard to justify taking a less-good minion just for a little bit of extra stats over a minion that should actually feature in an endgame comp. It might be a tiebreaker in some of those cases, but most of the time you're going for minion quality over extra stats when you're in the midgame, and definitely in the late game.
But because he's front-loaded, it makes it easier to top 4. Heroes that are front-loaded are going to win more skirmishes early on, which allows them to maintain a healthy life total as well as being a bit more liberal with their tiering up. Heroes that are back-loaded (like Nef and George) can be devastating if they manage to make it to the late game, but because they have hero powers that are doing basically nothing for them until then, it's a lot harder to hold on against those front-loaded hero powers - they need really good comps to bridge the gap.
Secret strategy for pyramad is to sell your minions so the randomness of hero power is reduced.
...The purpose of this game is to stack up on strong minion... You do not sell them like you would buy stuff for deryl since it destroy your formation. Pyramad is useless.
I've sorted the list by Avg Rank and it makes a lot of sense. Deryl is #6 and Shudderwock is at the bottom which is close to my expectations. It is the closest stat to what I actually care about, which is "Average MMR change".
Interestingly, at ~5500, I see relatively little synergy until T5ish, by which point changing strategy is risky. Tends to be utter jank into muddling along, then at 4 a rough menagerie strategy with buff cycling unless you start seeing the good stuff (beasts are always too heavily taken, murlocs always die out when people are at T4 [can't seem to survive to get the T6 adapt, and the one time I was George and so managed to, they were hatedrafted], mechs in the midgame needs cobalt and (magnetic deathrattle or rover) to do much beyond just be a bunch of mechs, maybe with a few leapers, and demons... they're weak, and overreliant on T5 for good taunts, Mal'ganis [particularly major with the weaver, else you end up being unable to play anything], and the big backside demon - though the juggler can push them past that point if you're lucky enough to see some), or you're ahead on tiers, in which case push tiers and hope for lightfang. Also seem to see few triples, particularly compared to you - two at T4 seems high to me; I often push to 5 quickly, maybe that's not a great strategy. Probably around 3-4 turns at 4, depending on what's on offer and everyone else's tier. Usually get one or two triples before the lategame when people start dropping out and freeing stuff up (because almost nobody dies until late most games, at most one before most are T5/6). Heavy synergy exchanged for lighter synergy, maybe half in on a couple of different tribes, buffed cleave, tokens, and lots of buff cycling seems to work for me (after the Junkbot to 5, ofc, before which I found beasts open a lot). I do find that I'm light on actual hero damage, and everyone else at my rating tends to be, before lategame 20ish HP hits. Possibly should be focussing more on damage than defence when looking at placement, trying to knock people out and thus get more good stuff freed up?
I rarely see beasts make it to the end game - end game is always mech with guardian, but not always junkbot, menagerie either with Brann or Lightfang and Murlocs with lots of health, poison and often divine shield too - Murlocs are by my experience the strongest tribe if you can make it to the end game and are lucky enough to get health buffs and Megasaurs - they beat all those buffed up minions from menagerie.
My favorite strat is going for menagerie almost anytime, but really it depends on what im offered cause sometimes the game just gives you lots of mechs or murlocs and then you run with that. For menagerie i tend to stay at 4 for a long time just cause that is where all the good buff cards are, but if it goes well and im good on health I tend to push for 5 when the tier cost 7. Same for mech, but if I get murlocs I will almost always push tier 5 when it cost 7 just to be able to discover megasaurs through triples.
In relation to positioning I don't think about defence or attack, but I do play around shields and cleaves as good as possible - tend to stick to 1 or 2 taunt minions so their cleave will do as little as possible. Also that Zap guy is really good sometimes in the end game either killing their divine shield popper if you attack first or clear weak minions so you get a better cleave. In the end game I will keep zap around for 1-3 turns depending on who im playing - if it is 1on1 I only keep him for one turn cause they always think you keep him and tries to play around him.
imo Patchwerk might be nerfed to somewhat 55hp.
Btw i'm 100%sure they did silent changes at some point.
At start of beta (when only paid users played) almost every single player had good synergy (rat pack+hyenna + attack buffing dude for animals), nowadays i see good synergy waaaaay too less (i play 5600 both that days and now).
I'm sure they decreased drop rate of (easy) synergy units in tavern.
Im at about 6700 and I see synergy all the time, but Menagerie is just better - Something I have notice is how hard it have gotten to discover Lightfang through a triple - I did it so much in the start, but now I play like 50 games and not a single Lightfang discovered with an average 2 triple at tier 4.
Tinfoil hat intensifies.
I believe that a feel of "less synergy" or "less lightfangs" comes from playing at higher MMR, where you have less time to build a board, and you are punished for greedy moves and forced to play aggressively taking whatever is offered.
The rat is always in top 4 in my games. Its pretty sad to see.
Yeah, they might make it 1/1 buff instead of 1/2.
One of the main problems with hero powers like Pyramads, Queens, (and Jaraxxus) is there are only like 15 rounds in a BG. Subtract from that the first two rounds (and possibly any other time you tier up) and you’re left with a hero power you could only use ten times if you’re lucky.
When the hero power is a tiny buff (that could very well land on a minion that you end up selling anyway) it’s no surprise these Heroes are being outclassed by the “passive buff” heroes like Rat King and Bran.