The Golden Horde

The Golden Horde is a bonus hero campaign featuring the Barbarian hero.

 Campaign Properties

The Golden Horde consists of 17 Missions. The player must field the Barbarian in their party.

Missions 16 & 17 are "Uber Stages" that were added in a later update. Enemies have a Cleanse Skill that will only activate when needed to remove debuffs. However, when it is cast, it will also grant a high attack buff. This makes it very dangerous to debuff those enemies. The tables below will help you determine which enemies have this Skill so that you can adjust your Hero choices and their Skills when entering those Missions.

**Boss:** **Barbarian**

* *Low Health, Low Attack, Low Defense*
* *Resists: Very low Light, Low Armour*
* *Passive: Freezing Aura*
* *Passive: Find Weakness*
* *Passive: Stun Immunity*
* *Passive: Crafty*
* *Passive: Visions*

**Tank:** **Frozen Blood Hero**

* *Very High Health, Low Attack, Low Defense*
* *Attack: Shadow Shroud*
* *Attack: Parry*
* *Attack: Block (Delayed)*
* *Attack: Cleanse, applies damage buff instead of heal*
* *Passive: Shield of Valor*

**DPS:** **Black Fist Skirmisher**

* *Mid Health, High Attack, Low Defense*
* *Soul: Swarm of Arrows*
* *Attack: Piercing Shot*
* *Attack: Headshot (Delayed)*
* *Attack: Cleanse, applies damage buff instead of heal*

**DPS: Black Fist Enforcer**

* *Low Health, High Attack, Mid Defense*
* *Attack: Rescue*
* *Attack: Shadow Step*
* *Attack: Shadow Slash*
* *Attack: Vanish*
* *Attack: Cleanse, applies damage buff instead of heal*
* *Attack: Envenom (Delayed)*
* *Passive: Visions*
* *Passive: Crafty*

**Support:** **Black Fist Evoker**

* *Low Health, High Attack, Mid Defense*
* *Attack: Blade Barrier*
* *Attack: Fire Storm*
* *Attack: Spirit Rage*
* *Attack: Demonfire*
* *Attack: Haste (Delayed)*
* *Attack: Cleanse, applies damage buff instead of heal*

**Support:** **Frozen Blood Executioner**

* *Mid Health, High Attack, High Defense*
* *Attack: Finishing Strike (Targets min health enemy)*
* *Attack: Ray of Enfeeblement*
* *Attack: Fear (Delayed)*
* *Attack: Cleanse, applies damage buff instead of heal*
* *Passive: Bloodthirsty*

## Strategy

### Missions 16 and 17 for players below level 55

**Barbarian**

**Warmaster -- Blackguard**

**Druid**

 Warmaster
 Blackguard
 Druid

Some important tips for Mission 17:

* Bring a high-level (preferably Epic) Immune potion, Revive potion, and Rage potion. Save these for the fourth Stage, because you'll need them.
* The first few cycles will be spent simply using Shield Tactics and Rapid Regeneration in order to keep yourself alive. Don't worry about damage just yet; simply maintain your defense and health until your soul energy gain starts going up a bit. As usual, **always Invigor Warmaster whenever possible.**
* Once your rate of Soul Energy accrual increases sufficiently, you can start using Soul Rends against the enemies. To minimize the threat of Cleanse, it's best to wait until your Warmaster uses Call to Arms, and then first use Baleful Glare, then Soul Rend. If executed correctly this should knock a huge chunk of health off the enemy.
* Since this strategy has no room for Cleric, it is of utmost importance that you don't let any heroes die in the first three Stages (remember, the potions must be saved). If at ANY point a hero falls in battle, the run is finished and you must start over. Don't worry, there will eventually be a point where RNG falls in your favor and you'll make it through. Keep in mind that it's better to waste the food investment on a failed run than waste a potion on a doomed run.
* Keep in mind that Entangle and Vicious Strike are in the skill lineup (this is mainly to help out against the Barbarian in the last wave). There WILL be several Cleanses used to counter them, so keep this in mind when playing. Often times it is best to redirect Entangle to a less dangerous enemy (like a Frozen Blood Hero) to avoid giving an unnecessary attack buff to a problematic enemy.
* The Frozen Blood Executioners will increase their attack when hit. This can get very high (++30,000 attack) over time. Just like the Wizards in the Wizard Tower, there seems to be an variable overflow at 32,768 attack. So when the FBE has reached this ++30,000 value and tries to enlarge attack again, it will go to **–**21,200 (minus twenty-one thousand something), a really weak negative attack value. So it can be wise to spare a Baleful Glare and use it to force the FBE to negative attack values just before it attacks (e.g. FBE has ++30,000 attack, you see its attack coming in the list, you use Baleful Glare, FBE attack goes down to –21,000, and it is quite weak, instead of dealing 600+ damage to you with one hit).
* In the first Stage, wipe out the Black Fist Enforcers and then the Black Fist Skirmisher. Attacking the last two enemies takes a lot of care and precision to avoid the Frozen Blood Hero 1-shotting your Blackguard with a superpowered Great Slash. To best increase the chance of surviving, hit him a few times with strong attacks (maybe 10-15 times or so) and then switch over to a different target. This way you can space out the damage and give yourself time to heal back before the next slash. Once the enemy has reached a low enough health to kill him before he attacks again, unleash hell on him with your attacks. Try to end the stage with as close to full health and soul energy as possible.
* For the second Stage, take out one of the Enforcers first to alleviate damage received, then the Frozen Blood Executioner in the front. Ray of Enfeeblement is not a problem as long as it doesn't hit Blackguard--if it does, it'll be a bit frustrating to keep going until it wears off, but don't worry. Just use your Shield and Regen skills as much as possible until your Blackguard is ready to deal full damage again. Once the first two enemies are dead, you should have no problems removing the other backline enemies as long as you don't allow Great Slash to be fed too much.
* In the third Stage, first take out one of the Black Fist Evokers, then a Black Fist Skirmisher. The two Frozen Blood Heroes in the front can be problematic for reasons stated above, so to minimize the problem, try to space out the damage from melee attacks between the two of them, and ensure that all ranged attacks hit the backline. Once the Heroes are down, you won't have too much more to worry about except being at full health and soul energy at the end of the battle.
* If you've made it all the way to the fourth and final stage, congratulations, but prepare yourself for a tough final battle. The enemy Barbarian has no Cleanse, so feel free to spam Baleful Glare to reduce her defense and Soul Rend to deal damage. Keep using Shield Tactics as well. The first few cycles should be fairly okay, but as the fight progresses the Barbarian will only become more and more powerful. Give Blackguard your rage potion to increase your damage. When your Blackguard gets to dangerously low health, use your Immune potion on him. Use Revive on Blackguard, Warmaster, or Druid if any of them fall (your Barbarian is not as much of a priority). If everything goes in your favor, you should be able to take out the evil Barbarian and walk away victorious!

### Alternative strategies for Missions 16 and 17 (for level 55s)

 Barbarian
 Warmaster
 Cleric

* Use Blackguard or Barbarian as tank.

* Target Black Fist Evoker first then Frozen Blood Executioner

* Use Blackguard's and Barbarian's Soul Skills right before Tendril of Shadow or Leaping Strike to increase the damage of the attacks before Cleanse gets rid of the debuffs.