Continuing with a round-up of late-ish reminders in the wake of busy Hearthstone times leading up to the new Fractured in Alterac Valley expansion: there is this important PvP aspect of Hearthstone Mercenaries to bring up; and it's one we've actually known about for a longer while. That is, if your memory is good enough to still remember what was announced several weeks ago.
In the official "Mercenaries - What's Next" writeup released at the start of this month, we've been properly warned to expect Season 1 to also last throughout November (even though the in-game information still states it's "October Season"):
Quote From Blizzard Finally, we wanted to let you know that the first Mercenaries season will end at the same time as the November ranked ladder season. We wanted to give players more time in the first season to learn the ropes and make up for the mid-month launch. After this first season, Mercenaries seasons will reset every month, like the ranked ladder season.
Technically Asia server has already begun its December season run, but Europe and Americas still had some time to spare.
Update: There are some early reports swirling about that the ratings for EU might've already been accidentally reset ahead of time, it just won't be in effect until a match has been played. Oops, somebody pulled the wrong lever at Blizzard HQs?
Now having to worry about both Ranked Ladder finishes and Mercenaries PvP Ratings at the same time... no time to rest for anyone trying to keep up with both modes. And with Stormwind Achievement XP also going away, things just got very hectic this time around.
Mercenaries Rating Finishes
We've covered all the perks of lower rating chest rewards and the whole deal with fighting against A.I. opponents instead of other players in great detail before:
If you've managed to climb up to 5k-6k rating (or still can find the time to do so), you're in a pretty good position. Anything above that point becomes considerably more difficult - not to mention time consuming - and you will be facing a good amount of stronger players while attempting to further move up the ranks.
For reference, that's how the current leaderboards look like at the top. Many players still trying to push their final ratings. With the season reset in place, only external ratings are being set to 0 again. Internal MMR score carries over, making it in line with how Ranked Ladder operates.
We've been observing greater changes to the PvP landscape ever since the first larger round of buffs, and now things might shift yet again with another set of new Mercenaries joining the fray. But that will be a story for another day.
Have you been PvP-ing in the Mercenaries mode at least occasionally? Got your desired rating positions in this prolonged Season 1, or are you still going to keep trying during these final hours? Tell us about your personal experiences!
Comments
An whole whopping x50 coins and x1 pack for being top 17 in Europe.
Nice rewards LOL.
When I first heard about Mercenaries, I was disinterested and fairly certain that I wouldn't try it. One night shortly after it came out, I decided to check it out while trying to fall asleep. I ended up playing all night and now play it everyday, way more than constructed mode.
Mercenaries definitely has its flaws (e.g. the grind & unreasonably difficult tasks), but it's been a pleasant bit of fun. I spent a total of $5 and 1,000 gold and now have all but ~5 mercenaries, with most tasks at level 7.
Unfortunately, I got way too excited with leveling up my mercenaries to max level before I found out about you could compete against AI opponents, so I had to battle fellow humans all the way to 6,000 rating.
Btw, Rarran on YouTube produces a ton of helpful Mercenaries content. Definitely helped me figure out what leveling priorities and abilities to focus on.
Got to 8k (EU). Have almost all mercs maxed. 12k seems just insane...
I've been following your (?) advice and fighting Your Opponent for rewards. I'm in the 5k realm and am unlikely to hit 6k before the patch.
My unmaxed teams get their butts kicked by actual human opponents who follow the meta and work the synergies. But I'm having fun, so I'm unbothered by that.
Um, nope, nice try Blizzard, but my Mercenaries rating reset several hours ago in the middle of a game. Thankfully made it to 6k yesterday...not that the reward chest gave me any meaningful progression on any hero.
I do have to say, I came in with zero hype for Mercenaries and it's not actually too bad. The Slay the Spire comparison they were trying to go for is completely off base cause the PvE content has nothing to offer, but the PvP CAN be decent. It just usually isn't because chances are, you will have sufficient coins for plenty of mercenaries that have no synergies whatsoever. Like, what are you supposed to do if your best equipped heroes are Cariel, Cornelius, Blink Fox, Brukan and Samuro. Cariel is useless, Cornelius is nice support but you need an actual build that he can support, Blink Fox is ok in general I guess, Brukan is useless without Malfurion (legendary) and Samuro requires setup that everyone and their mother is built to counter now. The inflexibility of the mode is a major issue. I have thousands of coins extra on some common heroes while others I've had for the same length of time have their skills at lvls 3, 3, 2 and all equipment at lvl 1. I would love to make a Shadow comp, for instance. Too bad I need like 700 just to get Voljin's skills and equipment to a decent level.
IMO they need to add a system where you can convert coins from heroes to universal coins you can use on anybody. Even if it's at a 2:1 ratio, it would be a massive boost to variety and give people control over what comps they can play.
Wow. The mode's so grindy, players had 1 and a half months to gain rating and on the last day of the season, no player in the world has a rating high enough for the 12000 chest. And the reward is for mercenaries they've likely already maxed out, to be able to progress that far. Amazing.
The good news is that there's nothing in the chest that those players would need, anyway.
Got to 6,2k rating yesterday, just ahead of reset.
As for Diablo, if you didn't craft him yet, don't bother, he will be hard countered with new mercenaries coming later today 🙂 BTW, my Diablo is 2/5/2, good AoE damage and he is far from maxed.
Well I can't actually progress because Diablo still hasn't decided to show up from packs and so I'M sitting on almost 1k of his coins just waiting for him to drop eventually (actually the last merc I'M missing and I bet Valeera will show up before him).
Probably gonna have everything else maxed out before I actually get to play PvP again...
I made it to 4k with a rare team. Anacondra, Guff, Bru'kan, Varden, Xyrella, Samuro. It's no the best comp, but you don't need a legendary to get a few rewards.
For what it's worth, the PvP meta hasn't been as reliant on Diablo since the latest round of buffs (and Cairne nerf). And it might further move in a different direction if the new Mercs prove to be strong fits for other strategies.
But it's still a case of "either you have mercenary X maxed out or you just don't get to play the comp"
I still haven'T gotten around to levelling Cookie beyon task 7 but apparently he's core in just about every build because of his broken HP buff.
Meanwhile all the Shadow or Beast stuff I've fully maxxed is either out of the meta or only uses Cairne + Diablo.
Now I#m working on finishing my Saurfang and Grom tasks because they're already pretty far ahead and I want some more packs for the new mercs (specifically Trigore).
It just feels like I'm constantly playing catchup because everything I focus on just drops out of relevance and the most relevant stuff takes too long to build up.
Might aswell craft him at this point and use the other 500 coins + tasks to max out his important abilities. There are also some comps out there that don't use the Cairne/Diablo package.
Can anyone possibly still care about coins once they've reached high ranks?
It is possible that this reward structure doesn't make a lot of sense.
Probably not at that point. That excess coin feature is sure taking its sweet time.