So what does everyone think?

I bought all the bundles and bought the intro bundles after launch also. I’ve opened 170 + packs and have all the toons except 4. I could craft them with coins but what for?

I didn’t watch any of the pre-launch stuff and just dove right in.  After leveling 15 toons to 10 and going through most of the barrens content before I got bored I think the mode is pretty simplistic to play and doesn’t require much thought for a whale. You just outlevel the content and steamroll it

This mode will be bot fodder for f2p players because it’s very repetitive. 

Blizzard just took the coding from existing modes and tossed it together and voila! You have an addictive gacha with power level walls.

The higher level stuff does ramp up and you pretty much need level 2 abilities or the right toons to defeat the runs.

I average about 550-600 coins for every merc toon I have so upgrading isn’t an issue. The grind for an f2p would make me rather hit myself in the head with a hammer..

There is very little thinking when you outlevel the content and even if you didn’t there still isn’t much . 

I’ve spent the gold and upgraded the starting areas as far as I’ve gotten. The quests were a breeze to do and went quick. You do get a bit of rewards track xp so that’s a bonus. 

The best thing about the mode are the voice acting ,animations and interactions.  You get random treasures and bonuses that buff your party and the enemies as well to mix things up a bit.

I won’t bother to spend another dime on it and will just run through the quests and that’s about it. 

The mode is a welcome break to the boring state of the main game right now so that’s the biggest plus. The only way I foresee anyone really caring about this mode is if they introduce cross mode rewards that force players to engage the content. 

I foresee this getting old very quick and the rating rewards look abysmal.  

it’s pretty easy to power level new toons as they all get xp just for being in the party even if you don’t use them.

pretty much all of the battles so far have just been focus fire one enemy and burn it down, rinse  and repeat.  The mode will have to eventually support bigger parties and multiple phase matches to really have any thinking involved imo.

A welcome distraction that has potential but the gacha coins monster this is will have the community raging no doubt. This is exactly why I see it ultimately failing. The grind will be insanely boring which will just kill motivation to play, I think. The mode will end up being a whale fest mixed with tons of bots. 

We should see some time extrapolations soon based on re-running the same level content for the rewards I’d love to see just how much time 40 pack bundles save you from grinding.

Enjoy the new mode for what it’s worth. It has potential but as of right now I’d give it a 4 out of 10.

I mostly agree with the comments. The gameplay is a grind. Once you will level up your party to max, the only thing keeping you alive will be PVE battles, with  meta builds. 

I see this game as an extreme grind, with bounties rewarding 10-25 coins of a particular mercenary and you needing shitton of coins to level the abilities. 

I will play it ocasionally but definitely not as a main game. I hope there will not be Merc only daily or weekly quests

I think you're approaching this as a whale who has most of the stuff already so there's not much point in playing further because the very essence of replayability in a PvE game is mostly either challenge (some games can really ramp it up, even in something as mundane as zombie army 4 for example) or unlocking new stuff.

I wouldn't call it a really grindy game, because the rewards aren't exactly bad as long as you complete the bounties, which gives out decent stuff. But I can definitely see where you're going with this, because I can't imagine myself being in this mode for too long. Perhaps somewhere around 20 hours or so I'll probably give up on the game, unless team5 have more surprises installed further up the ladder.

One thing I will say though; I was under the impression that the mercs will eventually 'evolve', that is to say that the portraits will eventually get better and better the further their levels go. This would add some progression at least, because I really wanted to grow baby krush into a king, but turns out that this would only be possible by luck via packs because the portraits work like skins - much to my annoyance, because it would certainly have given me motivation to actually grind those mercs up. Oh well. Guess ol' kurtrus would have to be content with a loin cloth until I chance upon a shirt for him.

And one last thing; the games quite unimpressive in terms of aesthetics. A small nitpick to be sure, but it is what it is.

Well so far i realy like it. Only bought the Welcome Bundle and the rest , at least till now i`m playing it F2P. 

Had to read and learn how the Game Mode works but once you get the hang of it , it is pretty fun - at least to me :).

Hope that this enjoyment will last and that the mode will get even bigger / better.

Quote From FieselFitz

Well so far i realy like it. Only bought the Welcome Bundle and the rest , at least till now i`m playing it F2P. 

Had to read and learn how the Game Mode works but once you get the hang of it , it is pretty fun - at least to me :).

Hope that this enjoyment will last and that the mode will get even bigger / better.

Same for me. The small bundle for 5€ was okay and currently I'm having fun. Let's see how long this lasts. But if I would have bought one of the preorders and had no fun with it like OP does I would have regret it much.

Well, out of the 4 PvP games I played as f2p, I found 3 bots. Really small sample size, but that's really discouraging at least on the PvP side. 

The PvE side is fine. When first teased (before the delay), I was overexcited, when the reveal season started, I was underexcited, so yeah... it's better than the expectation I had during reveal season but not the amazing Slay the Spire-esque I wanted during the first tease. 

I guess one of the reasons why is the fact that I still believe the biggest incentive behind the game mode was the monetization process rather than the gameplay. This doesn't mean there's no gameplay design, there was just a larger focus on trying to gain money of the game mode, which is fine. However, Battlegrounds was designed with the main focus being gameplay and it became the success it did because of it.

EDIT: Also, could Blizzard please speed up the animation after the dungeon is cleared and we get to the treasure? That animation is so slow it hurts.

Quote From ElSabidon

Well, out of the 4 PvP games I played as f2p, I found 3 bots. Really small sample size, but that's really discouraging at least on the PvP side. 

The PvE side is fine. When first teased (before the delay), I was overexcited, when the reveal season started, I was underexcited, so yeah... it's better than the expectation I had during reveal season but not the amazing Slay the Spire-esque I wanted during the first tease. 

I guess one of the reasons why is the fact that I still believe the biggest incentive behind the game mode was the monetization process rather than the gameplay. This doesn't mean there's no gameplay design, there was just a larger focus on trying to gain money of the game mode, which is fine. However, Battlegrounds was designed with the main focus being gameplay and it became the success it did because of it.

EDIT: Also, could Blizzard please speed up the animation after the dungeon is cleared and we get to the treasure? That animation is so slow it hurts.

How do you know they were bots?

Also, a way they could improve the difficulty of the mode is create "raid" encounters. (unless those exist in some fashion in blackrock mountain, I don't know, I haven't gotten there yet)

Raid encounters would require very specific team setups but would have great or rare rewards.  If we are comparing apples to apples, or in this case "gachas to gachas".  To cite another source:  Galaxy of Heroes.  Their raid encounters gave you "rare" shards. (aka coins for Hearthstone) .  The raid had a 3 day cooldown or whatever if you successfully completed it, so you couldn't just farm it all the time.  But the point was to gain access to newer (aka more powerful) characters to use in PvP modes.

I'm not sure I exactly want to see that. (We don't want PvP being dictated by whomever has the most money or whatever like Galaxy of Heroes essentially did), but the point is they could add alternative fun things that improve the replayability.

My other gripe is that for a "rogue-lite" game, it is missing some integral mechanics.

1)  Maps are way too short, bosses are stupid easy as someone who pre ordered Diablo and TLK.

2)  There are no "event" hubs on the map.  Maybe this changes or Ive just been unlocky but so far the "mysterious event" has always been a stranger (that gives you tasks that help you unlock equipment), or an exploding potato (Which IMO is a double edged event, and seems dumb).  Events give you a chance to gain power spikes or power losses (i.e. in other rogue lite games, they can give you equipment, powers, stats, etc)  or if you fail the event, they can make it harder on you.  It seems Blizz decided to go extremely simple in this area and remove events altogether because they feared the backlash of "negative events".  However without risk/reward in the map, it becomes a simple repetitive game mode that doesn't draw you in.

3) The Spirit Healer "event" like other roguelikes, should provide you alternatives to just reviving a single member.  If you choose a path with a spirit healer on it, and you have no dead members, it does nothing for you.  In other rogue games, if you come across "rest" areas and don't actually need to reset, they usually provide you with an option to improve your plan, improve your party, etc.  

Overall the game mode isn't "bad" but it's not as great as I thought it would be.  I fear that it will become another Duels mode (popular for a week or two and then really only played by a few hardcore people)

Quote From Sykomyke

Quote From ElSabidon

Well, out of the 4 PvP games I played as f2p, I found 3 bots. Really small sample size, but that's really discouraging at least on the PvP side. 

The PvE side is fine. When first teased (before the delay), I was overexcited, when the reveal season started, I was underexcited, so yeah... it's better than the expectation I had during reveal season but not the amazing Slay the Spire-esque I wanted during the first tease. 

I guess one of the reasons why is the fact that I still believe the biggest incentive behind the game mode was the monetization process rather than the gameplay. This doesn't mean there's no gameplay design, there was just a larger focus on trying to gain money of the game mode, which is fine. However, Battlegrounds was designed with the main focus being gameplay and it became the success it did because of it.

EDIT: Also, could Blizzard please speed up the animation after the dungeon is cleared and we get to the treasure? That animation is so slow it hurts.

How do you know they were bots?

Also, a way they could improve the difficulty of the mode is create "raid" encounters. (unless those exist in some fashion in blackrock mountain, I don't know, I haven't gotten there yet)

Raid encounters would require very specific team setups but would have great or rare rewards.  If we are comparing apples to apples, or in this case "gachas to gachas".  To cite another source:  Galaxy of Heroes.  Their raid encounters gave you "rare" shards. (aka coins for Hearthstone) .  The raid had a 3 day cooldown or whatever if you successfully completed it, so you couldn't just farm it all the time.  But the point was to gain access to newer (aka more powerful) characters to use in PvP modes.

I'm not sure I exactly want to see that. (We don't want PvP being dictated by whomever has the most money or whatever like Galaxy of Heroes essentially did), but the point is they could add alternative fun things that improve the replayability.

My other gripe is that for a "rogue-lite" game, it is missing some integral mechanics.

1)  Maps are way too short, bosses are stupid easy as someone who pre ordered Diablo and TLK.

2)  There are no "event" hubs on the map.  Maybe this changes or Ive just been unlocky but so far the "mysterious event" has always been a stranger (that gives you tasks that help you unlock equipment), or an exploding potato (Which IMO is a double edged event, and seems dumb).  Events give you a chance to gain power spikes or power losses (i.e. in other rogue lite games, they can give you equipment, powers, stats, etc)  or if you fail the event, they can make it harder on you.  It seems Blizz decided to go extremely simple in this area and remove events altogether because they feared the backlash of "negative events".  However without risk/reward in the map, it becomes a simple repetitive game mode that doesn't draw you in.

3) The Spirit Healer "event" like other roguelikes, should provide you alternatives to just reviving a single member.  If you choose a path with a spirit healer on it, and you have no dead members, it does nothing for you.  In other rogue games, if you come across "rest" areas and don't actually need to reset, they usually provide you with an option to improve your plan, improve your party, etc.  

Overall the game mode isn't "bad" but it's not as great as I thought it would be.  I fear that it will become another Duels mode (popular for a week or two and then really only played by a few hardcore people)

Usually, when you wait for 1~2 minutes and match up with an opponent named "Your Opponent", it means that the matching system couldn't find a "fair opponent" (taking into account hero levels and skill levels on said hero), so the system "makes one up" using Blizzard AI. It's easy to know one after you matched with one, they do their moves immediatly and they do pretty obvious misplays. At least, that's what the Youtube comment section from Trump's newest PvP mercs video told me (so take my own assessment with an unhealthy pinch of salt).

As far as the difficulty concerns, you don't need 2 pre orders to make the PvE insanely easy, I didn't even buy the 5€ one (I'll possibly buy it after clearing BRM). Also, a good part of the game mode is that it's made also taking into account the ability to build more expansions and more content (from heroes to dungeons to even events, for that matter [like the one you described from Galaxy of Heroes, though I'll expect something less like something new every 3 days and more like "Strong monsters invaded Felwood", for example]).

Well, I also got the bomb event a lot and the task event a couple of times, but I've also got a portal to fight the final boss of it a couple of times. There's room for more stuff there, too.

As far as the healer goes, I just avoid those like the plague. I think I only got into it once and it was because Xyrella died. And again, there's room for improvement there.

I did not watch any of the videos pre-launch, nor any gameplay video.

I did not buy any preorder.

I had high expectations about this new mode, but has been a letdown to me. Cleared all the Barrens bosses, but the game until now seems very boring and repetitive to me. Wasted 500g on various camp improvements. The fact that the currency is the same with the canonical HS is a massive disadvantage for every F2P player like me. Tried a round of PVP, clearly unbalanced matchup. Also, the UI while fighting is horrible and bad designed: enormous unused empty spaces and a board that is hard to read, making playing this way more difficult than it actually is.

Can't find any reason to keep playing.

The format has potential, but right now the matches feel very same-y. There over forty different characters, but at their core, each merc will either deal damage or regain life with little bits of variation across each character.

There needs to be more dimensions in the game play, something more to think about. I trust that over time blizzard will update the game and make improvements like they did with battlegrounds. But as it is now the game feels unfinished.

My biggest dissapointment so far is the PVP. The bots are very easy to beat; their teams generally have no cohesive strategy such as having a Wrynn, Gul'dan and Mukla in their lineup. Still pretty fun all around, a little mindless if you did pre-order at the start.

So far I like it better than I thought I would, but I had pretty low expectations. I'm not sure that it will have lasting appeal though.

I didn't pre-order. I did buy the 5 euros bundle, but I won't buy the 20 euros bundle unless I'm still playing this mode regularly by the end of the month.

Difficulty in PvE seems to range from somewhat challenging to ridiculously easy. In a few battles tactics matter, but often it's just a matter of whether your pile of stats is bigger than the enemy's. I've only done the first page of the Barrens so far, maybe things get more spicy later on.

Heroic missions bumped the opponents up a few levels, but other than that there doesn't seem to be much of a difference. Maybe XP is higher because of the higher levels? The coin rewards looked pretty similar to normal mode.

I'm not sure yet if I want to do PvP. I'll probably watch a stream to get an idea of what it's like.

So far, I'm enjoying it.  Totally F2P, and only barely tried PVP.  As someone who has spent too many hours playing various pokemon games, this scratches the same itch.  Simple battle rules, some fun combos to be found, repetitive tasks, grind for levels, gotta catch 'em all.  

I'm glad I didn't purchase anything beforehand, as for whatever strange reason, I (so far) enjoy the collection loop and don't mind the grind.  In fact, I have barely touched the PVP, as it will invariably become a meta-dominated arena;  I enjoy being able to play around with fun combos that might not be overpowered enough to fare well in PVP.  

Pretty sure my interest will drop once I get all the mercenaries;  not sure if I'll have the required motivation to level them all the way up.  I'm more interested in the challenge of getting all the mercenaries.  That being said, a pleasant option to ranked ladder and BG.  

Imagine... Raid Shadow Legends... Without any of the effort of 3d character modelling or animations...

Also I'm still not a big fan of not being able to tell what powers each merc has before owning the merc.

Also the game literally bugged for me and refused to show me the "Tutorial" tasks (or any tasks) at first and it took me restarting the app to realize buying heroic mode or completing the barrens was neither part of the tutorial nor what was gating me from opening my packs... (Although completing some of the barrens technically is, through the tutorial tasks)

I'm enjoying it. Didn't buy any of the bundles (preorder or otherwise).

Just enjoying leveling up the starter heroes (all 25+ now) and exploring other low level comps.

Did a few pvp matches, looks like it will be interesting if I get a few more heroes. Shore up some synergies. 

I do a few games of HS, some Mercs, then back. Nice break up yet still fun in the same world. We'll see how long it goes but so far it's got potential.

My issues

• superslow animations
• hearing 100th time the same voice from a merc is annoying
• I do not know how to check the abilitiesmof enemy before/at the beginning of battle

Otherwise it is very repetitive and not really exciting, I may get bored very soon.

Quote From dapperdog

And one last thing; the games quite unimpressive in terms of aesthetics. A small nitpick to be sure, but it is what it is.

So from a design perspective, this game was designed purely for mobile phones and not for desktop. There's a lot of unused space during battles with the board very bare and non-interactive compared to the traditional game boards we used to. 

Come to think of it though, the Stormwind game board itself is the least interactive board we've got, so maybe blizzard isn't bothered with aesthetics anymore 😢

Quote From Caro

Quote From dapperdog

And one last thing; the games quite unimpressive in terms of aesthetics. A small nitpick to be sure, but it is what it is.

So from a design perspective, this game was designed purely for mobile phones and not for desktop. There's a lot of unused space during battles with the board very bare and non-interactive compared to the traditional game boards we used to. 

Come to think of it though, the Stormwind game board itself is the least interactive board we've got, so maybe blizzard isn't bothered with aesthetics anymore 😢

Im pretty sure most mobile games these days have plenty of stuff going on and should have no problems filling the screen with animated doodads. I mean, most phones nowadays are fairly robust enough to act as emulators for earlier console games.

If I were to take a guess I think its a deliberate aesthetic choice because its supposed to be a gladiator's arena, which is usually just a flat field. The problem with going with this near realistic take is that its very boring to look at. And of course the game itself is modeled after its progenitor hearthstone, so its only an unfortunate mix of an empty board with flat characters.

It really doesn't compare well with raid shadow legends (which is fully 3d) or even with slay the spire (which though flat, at very least the characters look more than just a pasted on portrait). But these are similar complains early on in battlegrounds, so we'll have to see whether the general audience can look past it

Quote From Alfi

My issues

• superslow animations
• hearing 100th time the same voice from a merc is annoying
• I do not know how to check the abilitiesmof enemy before/at the beginning of battle

Otherwise it is very repetitive and not really exciting, I may get bored very soon.

You can check what the enemy in PvE is going to do just by scrolling on its pic. It'll show you what they will do, and the speed of the attacks on that turn. Far as I know you cant actually check the enemy's full abilities roster, but no doubt at some point some website will catalog it out.

As for PvP, no clue at all. I think its the similar pokemon deal, where you cant really see your opponent's list of attacks.

Quote From dapperdog

Quote From Alfi

My issues

• superslow animations
• hearing 100th time the same voice from a merc is annoying
• I do not know how to check the abilitiesmof enemy before/at the beginning of battle

Otherwise it is very repetitive and not really exciting, I may get bored very soon.

You can check what the enemy in PvE is going to do just by scrolling on its pic. It'll show you what they will do, and the speed of the attacks on that turn. Far as I know you cant actually check the enemy's full abilities roster, but no doubt at some point some website will catalog it out.

As for PvP, no clue at all. I think its the similar pokemon deal, where you cant really see your opponent's list of attacks.

Actually I would like to know all abilities at the beginning of battle, so I can select the appropriate team. Also, this would help to plan the battle - for example whom to take out first based on the next moves

Quote From Alfi

Quote From dapperdog

Quote From Alfi

My issues

• superslow animations
• hearing 100th time the same voice from a merc is annoying
• I do not know how to check the abilitiesmof enemy before/at the beginning of battle

Otherwise it is very repetitive and not really exciting, I may get bored very soon.

You can check what the enemy in PvE is going to do just by scrolling on its pic. It'll show you what they will do, and the speed of the attacks on that turn. Far as I know you cant actually check the enemy's full abilities roster, but no doubt at some point some website will catalog it out.

As for PvP, no clue at all. I think its the similar pokemon deal, where you cant really see your opponent's list of attacks.

Actually I would like to know all abilities at the beginning of battle, so I can select the appropriate team. Also, this would help to plan the battle - for example whom to take out first based on the next moves

Most if not all turn based games dont actually display the enemies' full moveset. Its specifically designed to introduce a learning curve of sorts, to gradually learn what your opponent is capable of and to act according to what presents itself. In any case, Im sure at some point someone will list it all down, so we only have to wait for the wiki to populate.

I've been taking it pretty slow, having only got a couple of bounties into Felwood so far. I have been toying around with lots of different characters though, and not just focusing on 1 team, so I have been making the most of the Barrens while it is level-appropriate, including doing a few of the Heroic bounties.

Overall I'm enjoying it, and have seen myself bite off more than I can chew so I'm not labeling the PvE as too easy. As with Pokemon, it looks like you'll have an easy time if you stick with the same 6 characters throughout, but that's probably because it is balanced to accommodate players occasionally bringing in someone new and lowering their average level.

I know the board being empty is one of the go-to complains, but I don't even notice it when I'm playing so that doesn't bother me. Nor does the limited voice acting or the so-so animations. I guess I find the gameplay itself engaging enough to not need the aesthetics to pull any weight, which makes sense given how much time I have happily spent playing Pokemon over the years.

I'm glad I didn't buy any pre-orders though, and have only bought the welcome bundle because it's too efficient to pass up. While it would be nice in the short-term to have a few more epic and legendary characters to make use of some synergies, I also like that getting those characters over time gives me goals to work towards. Whether that ends up more of a grind than I am willing to take part in remains to be seen.

Finally, regarding the grind, I have little to no interest in PvP, and might end up ignoring it altogether. As such, I'm not daunted by the number of coins it takes to max out characters, since I don't see any need to do so. Heck, I never once cared to EV train Pokemon either; they just got whatever EVs they happened to get naturally and that was good enough for my purposes.

So yeah, it gets a thumbs up from me, though I acknowledge that is helped a lot by being the type of player I am.

Firstly, I really really hope that somehow this thread reaches a dev working on mercenaries. Most (if not all) of the points made here are legit and well mannered and seem to come from people that not only know what they are talking about (design-wise) but also  care for this game and would like to see it improved.

Now, I've played a few hours of mercenaries so far, didn't pre-order anything but I did buy the 5e bundle. I haven't tried the PvP mode at all yet and I'm around level 25 at Felwood. Based on that (little) progress so far here are my thoughts:

A) The rogue - like aspect is nearly non existent.
Great roguelikes tend to get deliberately frustrating at times in various ways. Random and unexpected events that can kill or disable your characters or deny of you of hard earned loot/treasure for the rest of the run or punishing you for going for that 30/70 % chance. The list can go on forever.  But that is why said games can feel SO satisfying when beating them. They give you this feeling of overcoming all the odds through correct choices and strategy along with a fair blessing of rng and they left you feeling exhausted. I was thinking that frustration is not something that the light-hearted  Hearthstone environment is aiming towards but then I remembered that content like Naxxramas Heroic (Maexxna much?) exists.
It feels like Mercenaries has no balls on purpose.
Its pretty much linear, it doesn't feel punishing at all and it doesn't surprise you in no way whatsoever.
Yes, I know it's game that is not roguelike on it's core but it rather has roguelike elements, BUT, in my opinion it misses on having the elements that make roguelikes well, roguelikes.

B) The game is built on UI that is counter intuitive.
Picture this: You just finished an elite fight and you got 3 awesome treasures you can choose from. You want to make a meaningful choice based on the remaining fights on your run, the treasures that you already got and the info about other mercs on your squad (race, equipment, stats etc.). Well, you can't access any of those things because choosing a treasure uses a discover-a-card like mechanic that is not minimizable, forcing you to choose right there and now based only on things you can remember. I found myself in this kind of situation 3-4 times already.  Even worse, the choice didn't even matter much in the end (point A) but if eventually the choice does matter we should be able to access all that information.

C) Aesthetics.
Well, pretty much what everybody else mentioned before me. This doesn't concern me much though. The hearthstone team has a lot of good artists and developers that in the long run will improve said aspect of the game.

I will be getting to current end game content and to PvP soon. My opinion will be more complete by then, but for now despite the above issues I enjoy Mercenaries. The collecting aspect is fun and I don't mind the grind. But for sure, for the game to become a staple a lot of issues have to be addressed mainly game-play wise.

Hi there,

you already pretty much said everything in this thread and I fully agree. I don't think it is a bad mode, but it nevertheless feels like a missed opportunity. My biggest point personally is the gameplay or the lack of it. Battles always play out pretty much the same with little variance. Instead of squeezing 50+ mercs in the mode they should have put a little more focus on the actual gameplay and mechanics. Really can't see me spending more than 5 bucks on it in its current form. On the other hand it neatly fits in the recent HS development: Ramp up of monetization with flat or even declining content quality. Again, it is not bad but I would certainly expect more from Blizzard if they want my money.

My rating would be 5 out of 10.

Quote From Trixhs

B) The game is built on UI that is counter intuitive.
Picture this: You just finished an elite fight and you got 3 awesome treasures you can choose from. You want to make a meaningful choice based on the remaining fights on your run, the treasures that you already got and the info about other mercs on your squad (race, equipment, stats etc.). Well, you can't access any of those things because choosing a treasure uses a discover-a-card like mechanic that is not minimizable, forcing you to choose right there and now based only on things you can remember. I found myself in this kind of situation 3-4 times already.  Even worse, the choice didn't even matter much in the end (point A) but if eventually the choice does matter we should be able to access all that information.

This point has been bothering me too. I'd find myself pick a treasure, then go look at my merc comp to find the treasure didn't really synergize well. Also, there's certain treasures like "Give you Horde/Alliance characters x/y", if you don't follow WoW lore, or are a new player, you'll have no idea whose who.

I've been enjoying the new mode. I only bought the Welcome Bundle ($5 USD).

I am two bounties into Winterspring, and I don't mind the grinding. I have been trying to level all of my mercies equally, so I rotate teams almost every run to catch up the stragglers (crazy, I know). All 6 of my protectors are Level 30 now, but no one in the other two roles are maxed. 

I've dabbled a tiny bit in PVP, and have faced equal amounts AI and other actual players. Seems fun - I know I don't have an optimal squad at all, so I am not taking it too seriously. 

Overall, very happy with the new mode.

There's a lot to criticize but bottom line I find it very addictive. I'm also a whale so I have a lot of options and I've been leveling different parties with various combos. I haven't even got to heroic yet so it's been mostly easy but I haven't minded. I can see though that they need to iterate on it quickly so that some aspects don't get stale. PvP is really interesting but so far imbalanced. Maybe that will iron out as the MMR algorithm has more time to work.

The most disappointing thing is that you can't grind for skins. I have no way to work towards the skins I want. That's like not being able to grind for mounts I. Wow. I think it's a mistake. Skins are a reason to grind. Coins for leveling aren't. Skins would have been a concrete goal. 

Facing the same rats in the Barrens every time will get tiresome soon. They need to give us more variety of enemies. As far as endgame difficulty I can't judge yet. But what are we working towards when we get there? More coins? Again skins would have been something. If your gonna make a PvE mode that people are throwing money at then give us goals.

The mode is not finished. I consider it a beta. But a very good beta. Hopefully they do too and will add more features quickly.

I'm also sad that there's really no RPG element. I how they add some of that kind of stuff. There's a lot of potential. The basic gameplay is addictive and satisfying for me. Hopefully it will grow and this is just the beginning. 

But FFS let us grind for worthwhile endgame rewards! Skins and or something. 

One more comment - I found watching Mercenaries streams very boring, unlike the traditional Hearthstone which I enjoy a lot.

How do you like Merc streams?

So am I the only person enjoying themselves?

I am too. But it's a bit too bare bones for PVE. You play to get coins so you canget to the highest level missions so you can...get coins. They got too greedy with skins and there's nothing else besides skins and coins to work towards. 

I'm surprised by how much I like it. I tried to go in without any expectations but was fairly curious about this new mode nonetheless. Today I finished the PVE on normal and I'm still excited to play heroic, though I don't have many mercs and I want to go in with a (preferably entirely) different party.

I enjoyed figuring out what mercs work well together with the limited resources I have, trying out different parties, and occasionally swapping in a new merc. Ultimately, I settled with Cariel, Cornelius, Xyrella, Millhouse, Samuro, and Scabbs. No epics or legendaries. I do have some, but I felt like they all need specific builds that required other mercs that I don't have.

I also liked the feeling of progression while leveling my mercs and upgrading their abilities and completing tasks to acquire coins and equipment. As of now, it didn't feel like grinding, but that might come soon once I got stuck on finding a new team for heroic when I get stuck playing heroic or maybe once heroic is also done and I don't know what to do next. Grinding for coin to craft new mercs? Maybe, I guess we'll see.

Is the mode perfect? No, far from it! I agree with most of the critique all of you have already mentioned, but apparently that doesn't make me not enjoy this mode.

I tried it last night, and I quit playing after the very first level (the one with Hogger as the boss). I found it boring and simplistic, from the gameplay to the aesthetics. Seriously, the background/environment looks very plain, almost like it's an unfinished game that was simply rushed to completion. The fact that others here are saying that there's a lot to criticize yet it's very addictive is a massive red flag for me; that's the hallmark of a predatory game, and I don't want to fall for it. 

I'll give it another try in the coming days, but as it stands, it's just not very interesting. It bored me so much that it made me go back to playing Standard even though this meta is my least favorite ever, which is saying something. 

Quote From Tetsuo

I tried it last night, and I quit playing after the very first level (the one with Hogger as the boss). I found it boring and simplistic, from the gameplay to the aesthetics. Seriously, the background/environment looks very plain, almost like it's an unfinished game that was simply rushed to completion. The fact that others here are saying that there's a lot to criticize yet it's very addictive is a massive red flag for me; that's the hallmark of a predatory game, and I don't want to fall for it. 

I'll give it another try in the coming days, but as it stands, it's just not very interesting. It bored me so much that it made me go back to playing Standard even though this meta is my least favorite ever, which is saying something. 

The early parts of the game are absolutely too simplistic, and the various slowdowns you face when you play (e.g. tedious animations, a need to navigate different menus for each function of the game, etc.) make those early parts feel even worse. That said, the high level PVE content feels a lot more strategic.

The PVP also feels like it has a lot of potential - basically taking the challenge of the high level content and layering an element of the unknown by hiding your opponent's move choices. I think one of the significant challenges this faces is inaccessibility. Each merc's abilities have two key factors - speed and cooldown. If you know all of the details of each merc then you can infer those as your opponent uses abilities (e.g. when my opponent plays LIch King, I know the base abilities, but depending on how much my opponent's Lich King is upgraded, Frostbite could be speed 8, 7, 6, or 5, and Frostshield could have a cooldown of 2 or 1 and a speed of 4, 3, or 2).

Knowing that is critical to anticipating how your opponent will play, but the game makes no effort to tell you that information (all you get is what gear the opponent has equipped). That's a big part of the PVP skill curve, and I don't think it should be changed in-client, but I think it leaves it a bit inaccessible without some deck tracker type support, and if inaccessibility leads to less traction from players, the mode will end up a failure.

I like it so far! I haven't opened a lot of packs so my collection is nothing to brag about, but I'm enjoying it anyway.

One question, how many legendary daily quests were we supposed to get? I think I only got 2 quests for a few packs, I thought it would be more.

I’m having a blast! Been playing it a lot, bought the 2 promo bundles plus a 40-pack one. I genuinely like the gameplay and grinding/collecting system. Just look at the initial tournament and the number of different comps. Sure it was before the meta settled..

anyway, looking forward to the improvements in the mode and new hero additions. They can balance the mode through many ways: buffing, nerfing and adding new heróis.The possibilities are endless 

Quote From allthehype

I like it so far! I haven't opened a lot of packs so my collection is nothing to brag about, but I'm enjoying it anyway.

One question, how many legendary daily quests were we supposed to get? I think I only got 2 quests for a few packs, I thought it would be more.

I think there were only two legendary quests, but there are more packs to be had in the PvE storyline.

Packs aren't a very efficient way to grow your collection though, Hearthstone Mathematics did a video on it. You can get the most rewards doing the tasks from the task board.

You can get one more task each day by buying an extra task slot with gold and you can get tasks by meeting Mysterious Strangers at the mystery locations on the maps. Heroic Air Totem is the easiest mission to farm those.

Quote From Pezman

Isn't every Mercs pack supposed to contain at least one merc? I just opened 5 coins.

Its not well explained by blizz, but the idea is that in each pack there's a slot having a chance to roll a merc, portrait, or coin according to a random rarity. If it rolls a rare, and you have all mercs in rare, then it'll either give a portrait or coins. Seems like you rolled coins, which is definitely better than portraits most of the time.