More Mercenaries infos from an ign Interview

Ign published an interview with some informations about the new gamemode that OOC hasn't covered yet. So I thought I'd give you a short summary of all the new information:

-Mercenaries has its own 15 person dev team that is actively working on the mode for over 11 months. The dev team also includes Paul Nygen who pitched the idea of the Dungeon Run mode.

-Mercenaries was originially planned as an 2v2 mode, but they then settled on the rogue-lite (I know the devs are calling it a rogue-like, but a rogue-like with permanent progression is per definition a rogue-lite) and rpg mechanics

- they refear to the runs as "levels" (they also did that other times they talked about it)

- equipment can come from "drops in levels" or from other sources

- the max level could be level 30 ("level 1 to, say, 30")

- the endgame is about enhancing your characters and equipment

- There will be an heroic option

- some abilities will be better against certain bosses

- a lot of endgame gameplay will be about figuering out how to counter a certain boss

- Jaina and the Lich King will be bosses

- You can see what the enemy will do in the pve parts. That's not the case for pvp

- As a result the pve part will be more about puzzles, and the pvp about bluffing and playing mind games (probably not the card Mindgames )

- they announced the mode at Blizzconline to show everyone that Hearthstone is doing more than just releasing expansions.

Bonus from an GamesPredetor Interview I stumbled across:

-The mode will have no mana system and the abilites are cooldown based instead

- example abilities could be a simple attack or a Dragon breath that either deals damage, or heals an ally.

- they think that the mode will be really deep

- fights will reward you with xp and "resources"

All of this sounds super exciting and I can't wait to learn out more.

edit: techpuls just released a new Interview with more new informations:

- There will be around 40 mercenaries at launch

- equipment will enhance the abilites (so they are not just stat upgrades)

- pvp will be optional

Hmmmmmmm..... nahhh! Not newsworthy.

;)

It just sounds like its shaping up to be a glorified dungeon run

Quote From PopeNeia

It just sounds like its shaping up to be a glorified dungeon run

Well, it's neither a rogue-like nor a deck building mode and the combat system alone differantiates it a lot from the other modes(the pve and pvp will also play differently from each other). So I don't think it's fair to say that it will just be another Dungeon run mode.

edit 2: I found another dev Interview on Youtube:

- they confirmed that Mercenaries was originally planned as the 2. Gamemode for the Darkmoon faire expansion, but it wasn't quite ready yet

- they revealed one of Illidan's Mercenarie Artworks (5:40)

- Mercenaries will have cards ( I was honestly not 100% sure about this before the Interview because of the removel of mana and introduction of cooldowns)

- they are still "super early on in development" Note: this is a direct contradiction to the ign interview where they said that the mode has its own dedicated team that's working on it for almost a year and to the statement before that it was originally planned as the 2. gamemode for DMF.

- There will be some form of Leaderboard or mmr for the pvp version

- One of their goals was to have a better progression system than Battlegrounds (which they are also looking into)

- there will be no direct incentive to play pvp. You can play whichver mode you prefear without touching the other if you want

[not directly mode related]

- All 3 Expansions will be connected through the Mercenaries characters and their Stories.

- The mercenaries Stories will be appearent in every gamemode and not just singleplayer.

- All rank up spells will feature the mercenaries in their card art