Getting extra portraits when I'm missing Mercs?

Submitted 3 years, 1 month ago by

Today I broke and purchased the Mercenaries Welcome Bundle. One pack contained an alternate portrait for Brightwing (who I already had) instead of one of the many epic Mercs I do not have. WTF? Aren't you only supposed to get alternate portraits if you already own all the Mercs of that specific rarity? I'm feeling pretty cheesed off here.

  • Pezman's Avatar
    Staff Writer 2235 2285 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    Today I broke and purchased the Mercenaries Welcome Bundle. One pack contained an alternate portrait for Brightwing (who I already had) instead of one of the many epic Mercs I do not have. WTF? Aren't you only supposed to get alternate portraits if you already own all the Mercs of that specific rarity? I'm feeling pretty cheesed off here.

    "Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted

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  • CradeVescent's Avatar
    Harpy Lieutenant 495 17 Posts Joined 07/26/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    Unfortunately not. You first roll the mercenary and then something for it.

    1
  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5610 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    There's no dupe protection in mercs. Basically you have a chance to get screwed with a skin each time you open one, despite having missing a few mercs of that rarity. Happened to me too many times. Rolled a legendary - which then turns out to be a skin. A very sad day indeed.

    2
  • Alfi's Avatar
    Devoted Academic 1790 1375 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    Actually I bought the preorder Diablo pack and the first legendary I opened was Diablo. Feels awful.

    -=alfi=-

    2
  • sinti's Avatar
    Senior Writer Chocolate Cake 2070 2792 Posts Joined 10/20/2018
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    Yeah, apparently you first roll a mercenary and only after that the algo checks, if you already have it or not, if not, you get merc, if yes, you get portrait or coins, if you have all portraits.

    Very shitty design, but thats how it is.

    Pre-order guys have it even worse, since you practically own a skin for merc, not the merc itself, so you can still unpack Diablo/LK/Sylvanas, even if you can already play them thanks to owning their skin. Shitty design times two.

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    3
  • Pezman's Avatar
    Staff Writer 2235 2285 Posts Joined 06/03/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    Wow, the economy of this game is even worse than I thought. I was already steamed about how hard it is to collect Mercs (see my comment on this article). I bought the Welcome Bundle to try to get at least a few good ones, and feel really ripped off. 

    I'm awfully frustrated, because I actually really like playing Mercenaries. So far, I've only played PvE since my woeful collection makes me feel like PvP would just stomp me. It would be SO much more fun if collecting Mercs was just a little bit easier. I don't need the full set, just ... not this.

    I'm also aware that this is very whiny. I've been a regular spender in the main game, buying every preorder (though rarely anything more than that). That means I have a solid collection and can generally craft cards I want. Is this what it's like to be F2P? I would love to hear from some regular Hearthstone F2Players about how it compares to being F2P in Mercenaries.

    "Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted

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  • Adder's Avatar
    430 8 Posts Joined 06/05/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    To understand how Mercenaries Packs work, you can take a look at this chart made by RidiculousHat. Basically, when you get a portrait for a merc you already own even though you are missing other mercs of that rarity, it is because you highrolled on one of the four coin slots. The main slot still follows the dupe protection rules. Proof of this is that when you roll that dupe merc portrait, you also must've gotten 50 coins for a Rare merc, which was that pack's main slot.

    It is needlessly complicated and confusing, yes. But it is what it is.

    As for the F2P experience, I am not sure what to make of it. I have grinded for 50 hours and completed around 400 tasks, and because of the massive influx of coins I got from those tasks I ended up with an almost full collection: I am merely missing two legendary mercs. However, that was nerfed now. Pre-nerf the F2P experience was okay, but now when the grind needed has basically quadrupled, 200 hours is really just too much, so unless they revert the nerf I'd say F2P stay away.

    2
  • sinti's Avatar
    Senior Writer Chocolate Cake 2070 2792 Posts Joined 10/20/2018
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago
    Quote From Pezman

    Wow, the economy of this game is even worse than I thought. I was already steamed about how hard it is to collect Mercs (see my comment on this article). I bought the Welcome Bundle to try to get at least a few good ones, and feel really ripped off. 

    I'm awfully frustrated, because I actually really like playing Mercenaries. So far, I've only played PvE since my woeful collection makes me feel like PvP would just stomp me. It would be SO much more fun if collecting Mercs was just a little bit easier. I don't need the full set, just ... not this.

    I'm also aware that this is very whiny. I've been a regular spender in the main game, buying every preorder (though rarely anything more than that). That means I have a solid collection and can generally craft cards I want. Is this what it's like to be F2P? I would love to hear from some regular Hearthstone F2Players about how it compares to being F2P in Mercenaries.

    Yeah, this is pretty much how it feels to be f2p in general, you have to invest your time to get where others are that bought packs with money. I mean it is a relatively "fair" system, if only the time spent was appropriate to what you get in return. I know that depends on a personal opinion of every one player, and ofc everyone wants more stuff in less time, but mercs are taking this to another level. Not to mention that the paying option isnt exactly great either to begin with.

    I think the main issue is that you cannot do anything with coins for a mercenary you dont care about. With dust, you can at least craft a card you want and it is a general currency for any card, but in mercenaries, you have over 50 individual currencies basically and you have very limited options to narrow which ones you are getting at any given time.

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    0
  • FortyDust's Avatar
    Pumpkin 1205 1912 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    If you don't want to pay, Blizzard doesn't need to care about making the game less grindy for you. That's the harsh reality.

    -2
  • NebuchadnezzarHS's Avatar
    Supporter 2035 1411 Posts Joined 06/14/2019
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    I totally agree with your statement and I realize that Blizzard has to make money as a company. It is just very unfortunate that they adjusted the mysterious stranger "drop rate" AFTER launch and lied about why they did so. I do not even really mind that they made the adjustment, but just be honest about it and tell us straight up that they want MORE of our money instead of hiding behind an excuse.

    Btw, I actually quite enjoyed Mercenaries up till yesterday, but in its current state it is just progressing too slowly for a F2P mercenaries player. I am already a whale for traditional HS, so I am not going to be a whale for mercenaries as well ^_^

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  • TriMay's Avatar
    430 130 Posts Joined 01/15/2020
    Posted 3 years, 1 month ago

    "Surprise mechanics"

     

    I'm not surprised actually, I saw this coming a mile away

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