Portraits are weird in packs. Would of rather these have been craftable for coins or even pay. Just makes packs feel a bit more awkward. Already strange enough with the coin thing.
Equipment is also strange. Some items are cool and change abilities or effect them in some way. Others are just +1 power. Not all can be amazing but really feels like the characters only have 1 real option for items. (I only have 1 team at 30 and don't have a ton of characters unlocked so this could change). I'd just like to see more options in equipment. More items that change how you play a character rather than just flat Damage.
Maybe I have to play more but I'm not excited to do tasks and get equipment for +1 damage. I realize they upgrade but if I want more damage I'll upgrade the abilities instead. Equipment should do more exciting stuff.
I'm enjoying Mercs about as much as any of the other Adventures/Books/Dungeon Runs they've released. But considering how much more time and resources seem to have gone into this than any of those, I don't know if that makes it a disappointment?
It's good, but I think it's going to run out of stuff to do in a couple of weeks time. It doesn't seem like it has much longevity to it beyond grinding out all the mercs, which seems more like busywork than fun. I haven't yet beaten all of Winterspring/Blackrock and the heroics of those, but I can see my interest dwindling after that challenge is completed.
I think there's a bit of ugly that's missing here - how cumbersome interactions in the mode can be:
Each match-up in PVE incurs a loading screen
The animations across the board tend to be pretty slow (e.g. the animation to put your extra mercs in your bench each game, the XP gaining animation that is both slow and split into groups of 3 for no obvious reason)
There are gratuitous interactions (the "Ready" button once you've played 3 mercs, the "Bounty Complete" Screen that shows very little, the sheer number of clicks it takes to complete and receive rewards for a completed task)
Lots of key content you'd like to be able to reference in many places is gated to specific views (e.g. tasks and task progress would be nice in match, but are only visible at camp, you can't see current team composition when you're picking treasure, and you can't see merc levels outside of the collection even though that would be super useful when picking a team in PVE)
If you're unlucky enough to have and use the diamond portraits then you're stuck listening to a small set of voice lines constantly. (Incidentally, I'm F2P for this mode and didn't realize this was a thing until I watched some of Brian Kibler's content on YouTube.)
Perhaps most baffling of all - retrieving the level 30 equipment rewards require you to leave the game mode entirely so you can check your achievements
The result is that there's an inordinate amount of time spent in Mercenaries that isn't spent playing the game because you're spending time in menus, or trying to remember what you just did so that you don't make a bad choice for your run.
The core of the game is really fun, but there are a lot of walls you have to work around to get to it.
One thing im really interested in is how will they handle merc changes. It isnt the same as with regular cards, dust is universal, but resources poured into one merc are unique and if a nerf neuters him close to unplayable, your hard invested time and/or gold/money will disapper in nothingness.
Obviously _some_ changes will most likely have to be made along the way, i just hope it's done fairly, in multiple aspects.
Not being able to see all abilities of PVE enemies, only Neutral ones (when you hover over them, in the "tooltip" section). You can see this on your own mercs, so it is clearly already coded in. I get not showing it in PVP, but in PVE it would be useful, could even show up only after you encounter a specific enemy.
Not being able to see your party composition when picking Treasures, besides not knowing which is Horde/Alliance, ofc.
It would be nice, if you would be able to display current Task progression in-battle, so you know if you need/want to hit with that one ability one more time, or not. But thats not really an issue, just a nice QOL, i think.
Not knowing on which Task are you for any specific mercenary literally anywhere. Only indication is if you have the 2 or 7 Task item. Would be nice to be able to review it in camp; and also have a notification when picking at Mysterious Stranger.
There is a plenty of stuff that isnt necessary, but it would be nice QOL feature. I dont like when games are lazy in this area, or even try to sell it as "done on purpose" and artificially raising the "difficulty" by not explaining things properly, or in places, where it would be convenient. I dont need to be spoon-fed, but i also dont want to play and have to have a wiki opened up next to me so i can make educated decisions and invest my time properly.
First of all, the article is great. Humorous and to the point! Kudos!
For now, I'm having fun but the constant grinding is becoming more and more tedious. Bought the Sylvanas bundle and it certainly helped with expanding my options for assembling a team.
There are a lot of minor inconveniences, such as the Alliance/Horde classification (already mentioned in the article and rightly so) and an Antonidas task not progressing at all. I hope they fix them soon.
All in all, I find it a promising mode. After the ''new experience honeymoon'' ends, it will remain a strong alternative for when the ladder gets stale.
Mode overall feels like unfinished piece of... whatever. If you manage to get 2 of 3 usefull treasures during run - thats it, its turning into unfun trainwreck. Boss fights looks like those puzzle games from dr.boom expansion, nothing more. Packs? Oh wait, there are those - nothing from them. Literally. 10 bucks I spent for starter packs - and I got 3 usefull heroes, others - shit.
I am glad the author came up with the pack openings. He explained it to me on the forums as well, but they felt really bad and still do.
Overall, I like the mode although it feels very beta and is missing some balance.
Talking about balance, some legendary cards are soo important for a good build that you have to be extremely lucky to open one or grind for the coins. I wish there are accelerators for obtaining them. For example, progressive cost in crafting legendaries.
At some point team5 would probably take a page off pokemon and introduce something like the protect mechanic in pokemon, because that's basically the only way to properly disrupt combos and make Cairne's endurance aura a lot less overpowered.
Also, making some changes to attacks would help. I cannot understand why anyone even bother with attackers when shooters simply do the same amount of damage, is usually an AoE effect, and cannot be stopped in any way. There is a reason why Samuro is the most popular attacker here, its because his does twice the damage and is for some reason at a speed of 4. Whereas king krush's is one speed slower (at highest level no less) and does not add to his attack, and the multiple damage is conditional. What other merc can top samuro in terms of attacking? Even old murk eye is one speed slower and requires another murloc to do more than the standard amount of damage.
I went in as a f2p (though I bought the 5 bucks deal, don't judge me) and I can say that the pack openings really does feel bad, more so than hearthstone hearthstone. Its kinda like getting 7x of the same commons and then discovering that youve got to waste 80 dust crafting commons you actually need. Or a better example would be to get 5x of the same bs epic card whilst there being a whole list of epics you still dont have. Opening a skin in packs really does feel like shit, especially given that crafting mercs is a ton of work, and there being no way to disenchant stuff you dont need.
And then there's the grind. This is a smaller problem to me because I have no intention of ever playing pvp, but anything past felwood and you'll be hit with a sudden need to level up those abilities, get those equipment, because the enemies in winterspring and beyond are absolutely murderous, especially if your team does not synergize with one another. So I ended up, like everyone else, just grinding up that poor air elemental in barrens heroic, farming up tasks.
But that's not to say that mercs was a complete failure because Ive been avoiding regular hearthstone hearthstone from the launch of mercs and eagerly looking forward to finishing everything on the pve side. Its a fantastic time sink, I'll grant them that.
I think part of the reason why it's so popular is that everybody has access to it. There's definitely combos and opening that can beat it, but most of those require at least one legendary to use so the majority of players don't have access to it (or any of the specialized combos really). As of now, most players work with what they got and Xyrella Samuro is definitely the most accessible meta combo (and it doesn't hurt that they're really strong in PvE as well).
Xyrella's speed really needs to go down to 4 though or have its damage reduced.
They released 50+ mercs but but basically you only encouter 1-2 specific combos. Not going to bother playing PvP until this is better. But perfectly fits the beta-esque impression of the entire mode.
I'll also apologize, for my lack of feedback: been playing Mercenaries nonstop, plus writing up some stuff about it. Just haven't thought about the comp at all >_> Almost didn't submit on time D:
If you click on the chest below a Bounty's boss picture on the right, you can see which three Mercs will be included in that run's list of possible rewards. It always pulls from those three + one more for someone in your party. So like the Air Elemental Bounty has coins for Rokara, Cornelius, and Cariel; the final rewards could contain any or all of those three, plus a box for a party member.
Find the Bounty with the coins you want, then spam that one to grind 'em up :)
Not gonna bother with climbing until some sort of nerfs arrive.
Xyrella Samuro Taunt is just way too good of an opener. You either hardcounter it or you just lose on the spot. The Nature bros aren't any more fair either, but I feel like they are manageable if you have the means to kill Bru'kan fast.
I even have some ideas for the first one. Nerf Blinding Luminance to 4-speed (so it isn't literally the best ability in the game with no competition), but buff her FLash Heal to 3 (so it doesn#T suck as much). At the same time nerf Samuro's Double Strike to 5 to make him less snowbally but at the same time allow him to combo with different mercs instead of just Xyrella and Brightwing. Also nerf the speed on the Nature bros, they snowball so hard with so little actual counterplay it's not even funny. Also whatever Cairne is doing needs to stop, the guy just drops in after the first merc dies and just manipulates speed without letting you do anything about it.
Also this mode desperately needs a team preview, it's actually absurd to have a competitive Pokemon knockoff and not have the ability to see your opponent's team. It removes any competitive element and just boils down to hoping that you guessed your opponent's comp correctly or risk getting steamrolled.
I hit like 6100 on Thursday with the Nature-Guff/Brukan/Malfurion combo, but been more focused on levelling since... (only 15 mercenaries left to level to 30)
I have to say though, when I met other people that weren't bots they almost exclusively played Samaro/Xyrella, but I feel like that combo is useless against the nature strategies after the Samaro gets knocked out.
Orcs
I made a guide on Reddit about how I learned to deal with Xyrella/Samuro. It has given me great success!
You can read it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HSMercenaries/comments/q9i4rz/a_quick_guide_on_orcs_including_countering/
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
I should not craft cards? Cuz i'm f2p and i want anduin and Uther
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
Portraits are weird in packs. Would of rather these have been craftable for coins or even pay. Just makes packs feel a bit more awkward. Already strange enough with the coin thing.
Equipment is also strange. Some items are cool and change abilities or effect them in some way. Others are just +1 power. Not all can be amazing but really feels like the characters only have 1 real option for items. (I only have 1 team at 30 and don't have a ton of characters unlocked so this could change). I'd just like to see more options in equipment. More items that change how you play a character rather than just flat Damage.
Maybe I have to play more but I'm not excited to do tasks and get equipment for +1 damage. I realize they upgrade but if I want more damage I'll upgrade the abilities instead. Equipment should do more exciting stuff.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Q&A #33 - Dual-Class Arena Returns, Different Modes in Battlegrounds, In-Game Tournaments, NAXX OUT?
without the colored class borders I have no reason to Collect golden cards
I hope That it came out along with the Upgrade system
So I can upgrade My whole collection to colored golden cards with ease
Twitch Drops Return Later Today for Hearthstone and Contain 2 Mercenary Packs - Lasts All Weekend
Funnily enough that seemed to be true in a number of cases, I've seen so many Battlegrounds and Constructed stalwarts.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
I'm enjoying Mercs about as much as any of the other Adventures/Books/Dungeon Runs they've released. But considering how much more time and resources seem to have gone into this than any of those, I don't know if that makes it a disappointment?
It's good, but I think it's going to run out of stuff to do in a couple of weeks time. It doesn't seem like it has much longevity to it beyond grinding out all the mercs, which seems more like busywork than fun. I haven't yet beaten all of Winterspring/Blackrock and the heroics of those, but I can see my interest dwindling after that challenge is completed.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
I think there's a bit of ugly that's missing here - how cumbersome interactions in the mode can be:
The result is that there's an inordinate amount of time spent in Mercenaries that isn't spent playing the game because you're spending time in menus, or trying to remember what you just did so that you don't make a bad choice for your run.
The core of the game is really fun, but there are a lot of walls you have to work around to get to it.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
I also pre-ordered the Sylvanas bundle and opened her base portrait in one of my 30 packs. Felt just god awful.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
Mercenaries is stable foundation But no more than that
I really want to see what happens when it grows to the main game Size
battlegrounds is also in a similar place but Because of its business model it is less important
Are You in The Top 1% of Hearthstone Mercenaries PVP? Blizzard Releases MMR Breakdowns
One thing im really interested in is how will they handle merc changes. It isnt the same as with regular cards, dust is universal, but resources poured into one merc are unique and if a nerf neuters him close to unplayable, your hard invested time and/or gold/money will disapper in nothingness.
Obviously _some_ changes will most likely have to be made along the way, i just hope it's done fairly, in multiple aspects.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
Great article Linky :)
I will add my frustrations:
There is a plenty of stuff that isnt necessary, but it would be nice QOL feature. I dont like when games are lazy in this area, or even try to sell it as "done on purpose" and artificially raising the "difficulty" by not explaining things properly, or in places, where it would be convenient. I dont need to be spoon-fed, but i also dont want to play and have to have a wiki opened up next to me so i can make educated decisions and invest my time properly.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
First of all, the article is great. Humorous and to the point! Kudos!
For now, I'm having fun but the constant grinding is becoming more and more tedious. Bought the Sylvanas bundle and it certainly helped with expanding my options for assembling a team.
There are a lot of minor inconveniences, such as the Alliance/Horde classification (already mentioned in the article and rightly so) and an Antonidas task not progressing at all. I hope they fix them soon.
All in all, I find it a promising mode. After the ''new experience honeymoon'' ends, it will remain a strong alternative for when the ladder gets stale.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
Mode overall feels like unfinished piece of... whatever. If you manage to get 2 of 3 usefull treasures during run - thats it, its turning into unfun trainwreck. Boss fights looks like those puzzle games from dr.boom expansion, nothing more. Packs? Oh wait, there are those - nothing from them. Literally. 10 bucks I spent for starter packs - and I got 3 usefull heroes, others - shit.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
Or the option to trade dust for coins and vice versa. That will be the best solution, as gold isnused in both economies as well.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
I am glad the author came up with the pack openings. He explained it to me on the forums as well, but they felt really bad and still do.
Overall, I like the mode although it feels very beta and is missing some balance.
Talking about balance, some legendary cards are soo important for a good build that you have to be extremely lucky to open one or grind for the coins. I wish there are accelerators for obtaining them. For example, progressive cost in crafting legendaries.
Are You in The Top 1% of Hearthstone Mercenaries PVP? Blizzard Releases MMR Breakdowns
At some point team5 would probably take a page off pokemon and introduce something like the protect mechanic in pokemon, because that's basically the only way to properly disrupt combos and make Cairne's endurance aura a lot less overpowered.
Also, making some changes to attacks would help. I cannot understand why anyone even bother with attackers when shooters simply do the same amount of damage, is usually an AoE effect, and cannot be stopped in any way. There is a reason why Samuro is the most popular attacker here, its because his does twice the damage and is for some reason at a speed of 4. Whereas king krush's is one speed slower (at highest level no less) and does not add to his attack, and the multiple damage is conditional. What other merc can top samuro in terms of attacking? Even old murk eye is one speed slower and requires another murloc to do more than the standard amount of damage.
Good, Bad, and Ugly: Our First Impressions of Hearthstone Mercenaries
I went in as a f2p (though I bought the 5 bucks deal, don't judge me) and I can say that the pack openings really does feel bad, more so than hearthstone hearthstone. Its kinda like getting 7x of the same commons and then discovering that youve got to waste 80 dust crafting commons you actually need. Or a better example would be to get 5x of the same bs epic card whilst there being a whole list of epics you still dont have. Opening a skin in packs really does feel like shit, especially given that crafting mercs is a ton of work, and there being no way to disenchant stuff you dont need.
And then there's the grind. This is a smaller problem to me because I have no intention of ever playing pvp, but anything past felwood and you'll be hit with a sudden need to level up those abilities, get those equipment, because the enemies in winterspring and beyond are absolutely murderous, especially if your team does not synergize with one another. So I ended up, like everyone else, just grinding up that poor air elemental in barrens heroic, farming up tasks.
But that's not to say that mercs was a complete failure because Ive been avoiding regular hearthstone hearthstone from the launch of mercs and eagerly looking forward to finishing everything on the pve side. Its a fantastic time sink, I'll grant them that.
Are You in The Top 1% of Hearthstone Mercenaries PVP? Blizzard Releases MMR Breakdowns
I think part of the reason why it's so popular is that everybody has access to it. There's definitely combos and opening that can beat it, but most of those require at least one legendary to use so the majority of players don't have access to it (or any of the specialized combos really). As of now, most players work with what they got and Xyrella Samuro is definitely the most accessible meta combo (and it doesn't hurt that they're really strong in PvE as well).
Xyrella's speed really needs to go down to 4 though or have its damage reduced.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Q&A #33 - Dual-Class Arena Returns, Different Modes in Battlegrounds, In-Game Tournaments, NAXX OUT?
Orgrim, not Ogrim ;)
Are You in The Top 1% of Hearthstone Mercenaries PVP? Blizzard Releases MMR Breakdowns
They released 50+ mercs but but basically you only encouter 1-2 specific combos. Not going to bother playing PvP until this is better. But perfectly fits the beta-esque impression of the entire mode.
Antonidas’s task 3 bugged?
Same here. Seems to be a bug
Just My Type - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
I'll also apologize, for my lack of feedback: been playing Mercenaries nonstop, plus writing up some stuff about it. Just haven't thought about the comp at all >_> Almost didn't submit on time D:
[Question] Bounty rewards
If you click on the chest below a Bounty's boss picture on the right, you can see which three Mercs will be included in that run's list of possible rewards. It always pulls from those three + one more for someone in your party. So like the Air Elemental Bounty has coins for Rokara, Cornelius, and Cariel; the final rewards could contain any or all of those three, plus a box for a party member.
Find the Bounty with the coins you want, then spam that one to grind 'em up :)
Are You in The Top 1% of Hearthstone Mercenaries PVP? Blizzard Releases MMR Breakdowns
Not gonna bother with climbing until some sort of nerfs arrive.
Xyrella Samuro Taunt is just way too good of an opener. You either hardcounter it or you just lose on the spot. The Nature bros aren't any more fair either, but I feel like they are manageable if you have the means to kill Bru'kan fast.
I even have some ideas for the first one. Nerf Blinding Luminance to 4-speed (so it isn't literally the best ability in the game with no competition), but buff her FLash Heal to 3 (so it doesn#T suck as much). At the same time nerf Samuro's Double Strike to 5 to make him less snowbally but at the same time allow him to combo with different mercs instead of just Xyrella and Brightwing. Also nerf the speed on the Nature bros, they snowball so hard with so little actual counterplay it's not even funny. Also whatever Cairne is doing needs to stop, the guy just drops in after the first merc dies and just manipulates speed without letting you do anything about it.
Also this mode desperately needs a team preview, it's actually absurd to have a competitive Pokemon knockoff and not have the ability to see your opponent's team. It removes any competitive element and just boils down to hoping that you guessed your opponent's comp correctly or risk getting steamrolled.
Are You in The Top 1% of Hearthstone Mercenaries PVP? Blizzard Releases MMR Breakdowns
I hit like 6100 on Thursday with the Nature-Guff/Brukan/Malfurion combo, but been more focused on levelling since... (only 15 mercenaries left to level to 30)
I have to say though, when I met other people that weren't bots they almost exclusively played Samaro/Xyrella, but I feel like that combo is useless against the nature strategies after the Samaro gets knocked out.