Rexxar’s one of my absolute favorite characters from the World of Warcraft universe. I loved using him in World of Warcraft 3, during the expansion, in his enormous solo mission.

In the World of Warcraft Minis game, Rexxar is all about trying to kills things so he can stack counters on his Champion of the Horde (CotH) ability. After a counter or two, Rexxar gets out of control. Normally the goal, then, is to use your allies to soften up targets for Rexxar to take down.

“Oh yeah? I’ve got two axes to grind!”

—Rexxar

Rexxar’s pet, Misha, was also great fun in the computer game. Summon her, let her attack things, and if she happens to die . . . well, just summon her again. Misha’s tick cost accurately remains true to the original integrity of the synergy between Rexxar and Misha.

Rexxar might only have range 1, but he has full access to the Hunter Action Bar cards and a lot of those have range 4. He also can use some interesting equipment: Felsteel Boomstick and Nightmare Blade. A third method could be to just go pet ballistic and bring two pets. The options are quite staggering and difficult to narrow down.

But as I’ve said before, when using an epic, the smart general knows that he’s going to have to milk that 10 honor for all it is worth. In this case, Rexxar’s going to need to get CotH counters and stay alive long enough to use them. Without them, Rexxar’s 3 for 4 attack, even though it’s done twice, just isn’t going to be effective enough.

What this means is that Rexxar has to be doing the “Killing Blow.” Somehow we are going to have to set it up so that Rexxar’s enemies are both weakened before they get to him and then summarily killed by him. Rexxar’s allies are going to need to come through in a big way. They are going to need to bring some ranged attacks, maybe some rerolls and armor reduction, and maybe keep the honor low on that next character.

One man fits this bill, even though he is a little elusive.

“If at first you don’t succeed, you die.”

—Daspien

Here’s how Daspien gets his range.

“Do you think if we put a quote by Daspien on Boomstick, it would be too obvious?”

—World of Warcraft Minis dev team.

“A little dent here, a little dent there . . . oh look, no armor.”

—Zomm Hopeslayer

Funny thing, though—depending on your local meta, three other Rogues work just as well in this build.

Delyn Darksun is 1 honor more, has an attack that reduces the defender’s armor, and has Stealth. Although Boomstick cancels his Stealth, Delyn can still use the Boomstick to position himself where the enemy will have to come forward into Stealth range. Delyn is the choice if you know you are going to see many heavily armored characters. His crit coupled with Expose Armor should allow Rexxar’s initial 3 for 4 (x2) to do some real damage, even to Paladins.

Zomm Hopeslayer is twice the honor, but his Preparation ability allows him to have three Action Bar cards. He also comes with 2 more resist than Daspien, a super fast 1 tick attack, and 1 more health. Zomm is your man if your local battlegrounds are filled with powerful versatile attackers. Zomm will take some heat off of Rexxar, and packing Evasion should keep him alive even longer.

Finally we get to Ji’lan. Ji’lan is unique because of all the Rogues she is the only one with 3 armor, which works very well against Jhuroon, Fury, Old Bones and light melee heroes like Parvink. Also, Ji’lan’s attack is insane: 2 for 5 with a crit that gives you 3 more dice? Isn’t that a typo? Where she works best though, is tearing Mortimers up. Her innate ability slows their dots down; her armor helps her survive vs Jhuroons; and her melee attack is one of the best in the game.

”I be ’ere, mon.”

—Ji’lan

If we are going to have a Rogue with a Boomstick, we might as well give Rexxar a Boomstick, too. The guy is just begging for range, and CotH ability still works with Ranged attacks.

Dual Boomsticks allows you to measure out how to bring the enemy to you. If you think you can close the distance with the equipment, you bring the Boomsticks. If you see triple Warlock across the table, having two Boomsticks is lovely. However, if you see an up-close melee team starring you down, the Boomsticks aren’t as necessary. The enemy is probably coming to you anyway.

This is when you break out your cards that help in melee. These are just two obvious examples; the actual fine tuning of pre-game ABC choices can get very difficult. If you see a Hunter, Priest, and Rogue across from you, you should be aware that having two Boomsticks probably forces the battle to your end of the field; but if you only had one Boomstick, you are probably going to have to take the battle to the enemy.

Speaking of bringing the enemy to you—what about another Hunter? Let’s first consider the other options.

There are many reasons to bring something other than a Hunter. Illiana Sunshield has Protector, Cleanse and Flash of Light to keep Rexxar alive, healed, and free of DoTs. She’s a pretty snazzy way to keep alive a character that builds +1 attack counters. Magistrix Enaria brings Arcane Flux to help Rexxar crit and heal, is low honor, and could bring Ice Block in case Rexxar wants to use Misdirection onto her. A Shaman could bring two heals to the table. A Druid could put Rejuvenation on Rexxar. Or a Warlock could DoT up the enemy so they are weakened and ready to die when Rexxar swings on them.

But the Hunter probably goes best with our current strategy. The Hunter also has range 4, can bring a pet to help keep control of the clock, can bring Hunter’s Mark which gives your whole team a re-roll, and a Hunter gets great benefit from cards like Expose Armor.

  
“I be ’ere, too, mon.”

—Za’zu

Let’s put what we’ve got now on the table.

Rexxar

And our other build has:

The honor for the second build tops out at 27, but often Ji’lan probably won’t need her Boomstick, making it a more manageable 25. Ji’lan’s teammates should be able to bring the battle to your side of the table without her help. In the meantime, Ji’lan and Misha plug the middle to make movement difficult and strike some damage while Old Bones protects Rexxar from long ranged attacks. Evasion and Expose are used versus melee teams or Gouge and Expose versus Magic oriented teams.

I hope you've enjoyed these two builds and that they are relevant for your local meta. Rexxar is a tricky character to use, but once you get just a single counter on him, he is extremely fun.

Enjoy,
-Corle