Warcraft Rumble is a game that can become challenging fast and you will need to adopt a dynamic approach to progress through some of the harder encounters in the campaign. That said, there are a number of tips & tricks that you can use consistently to improve your gameplay and get the better of your opponents.
1. UTILIZE UNBOUND MINIS
Unbound Minis are Minis which can be deployed anywhere on the map, not only in your controlled zones. The following Minis are Unbound:
- Dark Iron Miner
- Earth Elemental
- Maiev Shadowsong
- Quilboar
- S.A.F.E Pilot
- Skeleton Party
- Skeletons
- Whelp Eggs
- Worgen
These Minis are incredibly strong in PVE because they can be deployed directly onto the opponent’s Leader (whereas in PVP, the base tower is protected by a large anti-deployment zone). If you have a big push that’s about to reach the opponent’s Leader, dropping a bunch of Skeletons or an Earth Elemental can easily result in a quick finish. Skeletons can work great as cheap and effective tanks against Minis or Leaders that have a slow single target attack and the Quilboar can be used to divert the attention of backline Minis.
Unbound Minis are especially useful in securing economic dominance. S.A.F.E Pilot explodes when it lands, and it’s enough damage to kill a miner in one hit, so you can deny your opponent the opportunity to farm the gold nodes closest to them. You can also instantly grab the gold chests by dropping a S.A.F.E pilot on them!
Whelp Eggs with the Flame Burst talent can also be extremely powerful. By dropping Whelp Eggs directly onto an enemy squad, you can eliminate them just by the eggs being destroyed, leaving you with Whelps that can then continue to push. You can also drop Whelp Eggs directly onto Leaders in PVE, resulting in a burst of damage which can sometimes be enough to secure the win.
2. OPTIMIZE THE G.R.I.D.
Whether you are F2P or spending real money, the G.R.I.D. is where you will obtain most of the star upgrades and talents for your Minis, in addition to some nice experience gains if you know what you are doing. There are two key tips I have here to maximize the value you are getting.
Pay attention to the Weekly Family Rotation! Just above the G.R.I.D. you will see that there is a Family emblem (Horde, Beast, etc). You will only be offered upgrades for Leaders who belong to that Family until it changes again at the end of the week, with a new Family in the rotation starting every Sunday. You may wish to consider saving up your gold and then spending it more aggressively in the G.R.I.D. when you want to level up a particular Leader or Family.
Move Those Minis! If you have ever played Bomberman, then this should be familiar to you. Whenever you purchase anything from the G.R.I.D., the G.R.I.D. will reset all units in the same row and column of the purchased tile. This means that you will want to move the tiles around to ensure that you are resetting as many unwanted tiles as possible. Consider the image below. I want to purchase the Sneed upgrade but the rest of the upgrades are useless to me. By moving Sneed one tile to the right (for 5 gold), I will now reset both the Grommash and the Core Hounds Talent on purchase.
You can also apply this in reverse. If you get a lucky experience tile but there aren’t any Minis in the G.R.I.D. that you want to apply it to, move it out of the row or column of the tile you are about to purchase, so you can save it for a future Mini.
3. SEIZE MAP CONTROL
Ok so this one might seem obvious, but knocking out the opponent’s towers to gain map control is essential to winning, especially for some of the later encounters in PVE. The reason for this is not only because you can now deploy from additional locations and much closer to the opponent’s Leader, but also because it is now much easier to secure economic control.
Look at the image below for example, by securing this tower you can ensure that you pretty much always have access to the chest that sits near it. Even if the opponent tries to deploy an Unbound Mini like a S.A.F.E Pilot to try and take it, you can quickly drop a melee Mini so the gold from the chest cannot be claimed.
Map control also of course allows you to set up much more aggressive pushes but that doesn’t mean you should always deploy from the location closest to the opponent’s Leader. PVE Leaders are often powerful enough to easily deal with Minis that come in small groups. Once you have captured towers or meeting stones, consider dropping some slower, perhaps more powerful Minis right at your back line. Let your gold build up and then when those units reach your tower, drop a bunch of additional Minis to accompany them, resulting in a much stronger push.
4. DON'T IGNORE OTHER FAMILIES
It can be very tempting to just tunnel the Leader and Minis that you use in your main build to progress the PVE campaign but be careful not to make this mistake. The game is designed to encourage players to utilize a wide range of Leaders and Families, as each Heroic campaign level (unlocked at 50 Sigils) requires you to beat the encounter with each of the five Families. The Heroic campaign provides huge rewards, with each Family encounter providing a Tome and a full level clear with all Families providing 300g in addition to a Sigil! This will however become super challenging if you only have one powerful Leader and have neglected the rest.
An easy way to increase the power of your ‘secondary’ Leaders is to ensure that you are completing the Dungeon runs for them. Also consider getting that early Uncommon upgrade on the Minis you would like to use with your most powerful Leader in each family. It only costs 3 stars and 500 Arc Energy to upgrade to Uncommon and this provides +1 level to the Mini, but most importantly unlocks Talents for that Mini which can provide a huge power spike in addition to another +1 level!
5. PURSUE VALUE TRADES
Your opponent spawns a Warsong Raider (4 gold) and a Darkspear Troll (3 gold) to try and push one of your towers. You drop Whelp Eggs (3 gold) between the two units so that the explosion from the eggs instantly kills the Darkspear Troll and your whelps finish off the Raider from the skies. This is an example of a value trade. Your opponent has spent 7 gold, you have spent 3 gold, and you have now regained tempo.
When you are playing Warcraft Rumble, try and keep a rough idea in your mind of how much gold your opponent has. I’m not suggesting that you count every gold earned or spent, but in the example above, your opponent dropped 7 gold, so immediately after they had a maximum of 3 gold. If you had 9 gold before you dropped your Whelp Eggs, then immediately after you will have had 6 gold. This is of course a great time to apply pressure! Perhaps you will drop an Unbound Quilboar in front of your three whelps which are now on the attack and then separately launch an assault on a tower on the opposite side of the map. You know your opponent doesn’t have enough gold to defend both lanes at once following their failed push.
So when opportunities for great value trades present themselves, be sure to take advantage and don’t overcommit when a small deployment is all that’s necessary.
That's all for now - we hope you found this helpful!