I just finished watching the Mercenaries stream and I wanted to share my thoughts about it in general and create some discussion.
First off, the mode in itself is Hearthstone's greatest departure from its core experience. So much that at times I thought this could be a completely standalone game, only with a layer of Hearthstone paint. If we didn't have that, not much resemblance would remain of the main game. This is concerning for Blizz, because the mode could alienate the core HS players because it's so weird and different, but fail to attract new, outside audiences because it's part of an established game where they would be far behind long-time players.
What struck me about the art style was that it's... not very pretty. It looks basic, barren at times. The main mode doesn't have amazing spectacles either, but every deck has at least 15 different artworks. The board evolves throughout the game, with minions being summoned and destroyed. However, in Mercenaries, it's just 6 GIFs in a 3x2 table? It's very static. Yes, there are fancy entrance and ability animations but many of those are recycled and there are lots of empty, boring grayish/brownish space on the board.
In terms of gameplay, it doesn't look too bad, there are many factors in play like positioning, speed, schools, the Tank/Melee/Caster R/P/S triangle, etc. You must choose 3 out of 6 mercs at the start of a game, that's 20 combinations if I'm correct, there's room for variance and adaptability. The deckbuilding aspect, however, looks pretty simplistic: "I type Murloc into the searchbar and choose 6 of them". We'll see how tribe/spell school focused the "decks" are going to be, but with ultimately only having to choose 6 mercs + 6 equipment, the experimentation and flex spots of the traditional 30 card deckbuilding are missing. Also, the thing that will ultimately greatly simplify your choices is that there's a big power difference between mercs with different levels, which leads me to the next point, and the elephant in the room:
Monetization. For me, the way progression is handed is a major turnoff. Frankly, it's insulting. Hearthstone is already a very expensive game, in terms of your money and your time, which is your gold (or both). Either you play Standard, where half of your collection is deleted every April, or you play Wild, where there are thousands of collectible cards. Not even €130 worth of preorders give you all cards in an expansion. Battlegrounds is €20 or gold every 4 months for the ability to choose a better hero, and both Arena and Duels require payment to enter. And when they show us 3 PREORDERS, 2x €50 and 1x €30, that was just upsetting. How much are they expecting us to pay? How many whales do they want to milk? It's just all so overblown compared to normal, offline, singleplayer games (that cost 90 at most with DLC for a complete, balanced experience).
It just doesn't feel pleasant that non-whales will have to play those time-consuming, computer-generated and therefore soulless "campaign maps" to just have one roll at the slot machine. Oops, didn't get the mercenary that's in the meta? Well, play more and more for more rolls until you become so disillusioned with the grinding that you buy our packs. Any semblance of a decent progression is shattered when a whale can just buy packs until they have all mercs at max level. They said they wanted "asymmetrical PvP matches", but we all know what that means: buy packs until your numbers are higher so "the balance" tips in your favor.
Overall, I am disappointed. I don't want to completely disregard the mode, but this is not what I expected. This was never Slay the Spire, this is only a numbers game. Buy packs to win.
Under the "Mercenaries Packs" tab. They'll be a lot like regular Hearthstone packs, with a Legendary pity timer and roughly equivalent average drop rate for Epics and Legendaries. You'll always gain a new Mercenary (if you don't own all the ones for that rarity), and then the remaining four items could be more Mercenaries, Mercenary coins (unique to each Merc, spent to craft said Merc or to upgrade their abilities), or Portraits (alternate skins for said Mercs).
Since this is relevant if anyone wants to play a good story centric MMO with things to do once you hit the endgame other than raid (what is there to do in WoW other than raid?), I suggest checking out Final Fantasy 14. I am about 200 hours in and am not even half way through the story.
as funny as that would be it's also impossible since solving the riddle gives you the ?-card to initiate the puzzle. Can't get that if your hand is full.
I think this is a good opportunity to highlight a quote from Ben Lee during a Blizzconline Interview "Hearthstone has become a platform for card games"
The box is a big part of Hearthstone's identity. Many promotional images feature it, so any menu overhaul will have to feature the box doing what it does (opening, closing, making noises, glowing, etc.) which would require a complete redesign. So yes, it would be very hard.
Edit: Since I didn't mention it, redesigning the UI here would be more than adding or dragging these buttons. A complete "mechanical change" would be required, and only the devs know if that is possible at this point. Besides, this layout was not made with more game modes in design, so no matter what it will be super clunky.
If the basic gameplay is enjoyable, I plan to treat Mercenaries as a very casual mode that I'll take at my own (slow) pace. Too often I lose interest in games once I reach the end-game, so I have no issues with being in a never-ending 'grind' so long as I'm under no pressure to do it more than is fun. Thanks to it having a large single-player component, I don't see why there would be any such pressure, so I'm still reasonably optimistic myself.
I am expressing my own personal opinion, and you are free to disagree with it. I personally do not like the current state of the game. I do agree that they have been quicker to respond via nerfs and communication lately, but I do not personally enjoy playing 30 games and having 0 of them reach turn 10. That is my main gripe; each game feels predetermined as soon as I see what class my opponent is. Maybe this is recency bias, but I am currently having the least amount of fun I have had playing this game since I joined during TGT.
Ooh, on tomorrow’s episode of “shit that should never have been in the game” what will we nerf next? Another hit to Shaman? Maybe shoot Hunter in the knee,you know, just to slow him down a bit. Maybe a bit of Mage? Who knows!
It was long overdue tbh. Players have been begging for more cosmetic options within the game and Blizzard finally got their shit together. Yeah, it seemed a bit extreme at the release rate but its not like we have to buy every single one of them - I'm certain not everyone likes every single thing that comes out. Most of it being cosmetics, no problemo!
The extra bundles we've seen, those aren't even needed by most players and if you do feel like buying it because it would be useful, you're getting card packs at a discount. I'd hardly call that a negative for anyone. We even have better pre-order bundles now.
Game quality? Hard disagree. Game balance? They've never reacted quicker to problems with balance than now. I'm no Blizzard shill, I'll give them hell when they deserve it, but this ain't it, chief. Had you have brought this up a couple of years ago, I'd have hard agreed that the game was in a pretty bad place. They went through a couple of really struggle bus years, if anything, we're in the golden age of the game. I don't know if it was the old blood not wanting to make major shakeups to their baby, but ever since Ben Lee joined the team as Game Director, the vision of Hearthstone has been improved and executed well. There also has never been a time when the developers have been so actively communicating with everyone which has been an incredibly welcome change.
It seems they were aware of this and there is hard to notice text at the bottom of the patch notes for Duels. They moved Meek Mastery to second pool rightfully in my opinion.
A fucking joke. The Demon Seed turned a previously healthy Wild meta upside down and made ALL control decks go completely extinct. Look! 0. No Reno decks anywhere, archetypes that were staples since LoE but a singular, uninteractive card made them obsolete. The Wild meta will be fucked until the Warlock quest is redesigned.
I'll try to find some clues, but if it's some big brain 4D chess riddle that requires a degree in economics to complete I'll just wait for the walkthrough
Mercenaries: My First Impressions
I just finished watching the Mercenaries stream and I wanted to share my thoughts about it in general and create some discussion.
First off, the mode in itself is Hearthstone's greatest departure from its core experience. So much that at times I thought this could be a completely standalone game, only with a layer of Hearthstone paint. If we didn't have that, not much resemblance would remain of the main game. This is concerning for Blizz, because the mode could alienate the core HS players because it's so weird and different, but fail to attract new, outside audiences because it's part of an established game where they would be far behind long-time players.
What struck me about the art style was that it's... not very pretty. It looks basic, barren at times. The main mode doesn't have amazing spectacles either, but every deck has at least 15 different artworks. The board evolves throughout the game, with minions being summoned and destroyed. However, in Mercenaries, it's just 6 GIFs in a 3x2 table? It's very static. Yes, there are fancy entrance and ability animations but many of those are recycled and there are lots of empty, boring grayish/brownish space on the board.
In terms of gameplay, it doesn't look too bad, there are many factors in play like positioning, speed, schools, the Tank/Melee/Caster R/P/S triangle, etc. You must choose 3 out of 6 mercs at the start of a game, that's 20 combinations if I'm correct, there's room for variance and adaptability. The deckbuilding aspect, however, looks pretty simplistic: "I type Murloc into the searchbar and choose 6 of them". We'll see how tribe/spell school focused the "decks" are going to be, but with ultimately only having to choose 6 mercs + 6 equipment, the experimentation and flex spots of the traditional 30 card deckbuilding are missing. Also, the thing that will ultimately greatly simplify your choices is that there's a big power difference between mercs with different levels, which leads me to the next point, and the elephant in the room:
Monetization. For me, the way progression is handed is a major turnoff. Frankly, it's insulting. Hearthstone is already a very expensive game, in terms of your money and your time, which is your gold (or both). Either you play Standard, where half of your collection is deleted every April, or you play Wild, where there are thousands of collectible cards. Not even €130 worth of preorders give you all cards in an expansion. Battlegrounds is €20 or gold every 4 months for the ability to choose a better hero, and both Arena and Duels require payment to enter. And when they show us 3 PREORDERS, 2x €50 and 1x €30, that was just upsetting. How much are they expecting us to pay? How many whales do they want to milk? It's just all so overblown compared to normal, offline, singleplayer games (that cost 90 at most with DLC for a complete, balanced experience).
It just doesn't feel pleasant that non-whales will have to play those time-consuming, computer-generated and therefore soulless "campaign maps" to just have one roll at the slot machine. Oops, didn't get the mercenary that's in the meta? Well, play more and more for more rolls until you become so disillusioned with the grinding that you buy our packs. Any semblance of a decent progression is shattered when a whale can just buy packs until they have all mercs at max level. They said they wanted "asymmetrical PvP matches", but we all know what that means: buy packs until your numbers are higher so "the balance" tips in your favor.
Overall, I am disappointed. I don't want to completely disregard the mode, but this is not what I expected. This was never Slay the Spire, this is only a numbers game. Buy packs to win.
What are your thoughts?
Diablo, the Lord of Terror Enters Hearthstone in its New Mercenaries Game Mode
This article helped me a ton in understanding how the packs would function: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/296433
Under the "Mercenaries Packs" tab. They'll be a lot like regular Hearthstone packs, with a Legendary pity timer and roughly equivalent average drop rate for Epics and Legendaries. You'll always gain a new Mercenary (if you don't own all the ones for that rarity), and then the remaining four items could be more Mercenaries, Mercenary coins (unique to each Merc, spent to craft said Merc or to upgrade their abilities), or Portraits (alternate skins for said Mercs).
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
Fun is subjective, I think meta is fine.
Hearthstone's Sarge Enters World of Warcraft as a Rideable Mount - Cross Game Mercenaries Promotion + WoW Subscription Perks Coming
Since this is relevant if anyone wants to play a good story centric MMO with things to do once you hit the endgame other than raid (what is there to do in WoW other than raid?), I suggest checking out Final Fantasy 14. I am about 200 hours in and am not even half way through the story.
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
as funny as that would be it's also impossible since solving the riddle gives you the ?-card to initiate the puzzle. Can't get that if your hand is full.
Diablo, the Lord of Terror Enters Hearthstone in its New Mercenaries Game Mode
Diablo and Lich King's pre-bundles cost $50 a piece.
Sylvanas' cost $30.
So you're essentially buying a pack a dollar, with a cosmetic on top.
not...terrible but I don't know how packs work to know if it is a good deal or not
Hearthstone's Main Menu Gets an Overhaul - Play is Now Hearthstone, Battlegrounds Out of Beta, Mercenaries Joins the Fun
When Hearthstone gets sideline inside its own game
They should just make new games at this point rather than tying everything to the clunky and limited HS UI. Mercenaries should be standalone.
Hearthstone's Main Menu Gets an Overhaul - Play is Now Hearthstone, Battlegrounds Out of Beta, Mercenaries Joins the Fun
I think this is a good opportunity to highlight a quote from Ben Lee during a Blizzconline Interview "Hearthstone has become a platform for card games"
Hearthstone's Main Menu Gets an Overhaul - Play is Now Hearthstone, Battlegrounds Out of Beta, Mercenaries Joins the Fun
The box is a big part of Hearthstone's identity. Many promotional images feature it, so any menu overhaul will have to feature the box doing what it does (opening, closing, making noises, glowing, etc.) which would require a complete redesign. So yes, it would be very hard.
Edit: Since I didn't mention it, redesigning the UI here would be more than adding or dragging these buttons. A complete "mechanical change" would be required, and only the devs know if that is possible at this point. Besides, this layout was not made with more game modes in design, so no matter what it will be super clunky.
Hearthstone's Warlock Nerf Announced - Stealer of Souls & Flesh Giant Both Receiving Cost Increases
laughable, I can still play the flesh giants for (0) mana by mid game, even if it's 10 mana.
Hearthstone's Mercenaries Debut Stream - Everything New We've Learned About the Mode Releasing in October
If the basic gameplay is enjoyable, I plan to treat Mercenaries as a very casual mode that I'll take at my own (slow) pace. Too often I lose interest in games once I reach the end-game, so I have no issues with being in a never-ending 'grind' so long as I'm under no pressure to do it more than is fun. Thanks to it having a large single-player component, I don't see why there would be any such pressure, so I'm still reasonably optimistic myself.
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
I am expressing my own personal opinion, and you are free to disagree with it. I personally do not like the current state of the game. I do agree that they have been quicker to respond via nerfs and communication lately, but I do not personally enjoy playing 30 games and having 0 of them reach turn 10. That is my main gripe; each game feels predetermined as soon as I see what class my opponent is. Maybe this is recency bias, but I am currently having the least amount of fun I have had playing this game since I joined during TGT.
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
I hope the puzzle doesn't give us brain damage like the last one , but hey at least the card back is worth it this time
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
Alright, hear me out guys, but what if we just… mill Spectral Sight
August 2021's End of the Month 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks
Ahah I posted this comment and clicked on the main page you already posted It as an article :D
They should include some images for different game modes in the patch notes or some visual separators between sections in my opinion.
Hearthstone's Warlock Nerf Announced - Stealer of Souls & Flesh Giant Both Receiving Cost Increases
Ooh, on tomorrow’s episode of “shit that should never have been in the game” what will we nerf next? Another hit to Shaman? Maybe shoot Hunter in the knee,you know, just to slow him down a bit. Maybe a bit of Mage? Who knows!
Hearthstone's Main Menu Gets an Overhaul - Play is Now Hearthstone, Battlegrounds Out of Beta, Mercenaries Joins the Fun
Kind of awkward to have Heathstone and gamemodes that are also Hearthstone but different.
Feels like the Menu design is just outdated at this point and needs a general overhaul. Only so much you can do with 4 buttons
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
How do you feel ripped off by Blizzard? I'd love to know!
Hearthstone's Main Menu Gets an Overhaul - Play is Now Hearthstone, Battlegrounds Out of Beta, Mercenaries Joins the Fun
Why can't they just rework the whole main menu instead of having menus inside menues? A tad annoying, and shouldn't be that hard.
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
It was long overdue tbh. Players have been begging for more cosmetic options within the game and Blizzard finally got their shit together. Yeah, it seemed a bit extreme at the release rate but its not like we have to buy every single one of them - I'm certain not everyone likes every single thing that comes out. Most of it being cosmetics, no problemo!
The extra bundles we've seen, those aren't even needed by most players and if you do feel like buying it because it would be useful, you're getting card packs at a discount. I'd hardly call that a negative for anyone. We even have better pre-order bundles now.
Game quality? Hard disagree. Game balance? They've never reacted quicker to problems with balance than now. I'm no Blizzard shill, I'll give them hell when they deserve it, but this ain't it, chief. Had you have brought this up a couple of years ago, I'd have hard agreed that the game was in a pretty bad place. They went through a couple of really struggle bus years, if anything, we're in the golden age of the game. I don't know if it was the old blood not wanting to make major shakeups to their baby, but ever since Ben Lee joined the team as Game Director, the vision of Hearthstone has been improved and executed well. There also has never been a time when the developers have been so actively communicating with everyone which has been an incredibly welcome change.
August 2021's End of the Month 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks
Hard to notice you say?
Lol I'm joking.
August 2021's End of the Month 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks
It seems they were aware of this and there is hard to notice text at the bottom of the patch notes for Duels. They moved Meek Mastery to second pool rightfully in my opinion.
Hearthstone's Warlock Nerf Announced - Stealer of Souls & Flesh Giant Both Receiving Cost Increases
A fucking joke. The Demon Seed turned a previously healthy Wild meta upside down and made ALL control decks go completely extinct. Look! 0. No Reno decks anywhere, archetypes that were staples since LoE but a singular, uninteractive card made them obsolete. The Wild meta will be fucked until the Warlock quest is redesigned.
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
I'll try to find some clues, but if it's some big brain 4D chess riddle that requires a degree in economics to complete I'll just wait for the walkthrough
A New Hearthstone Puzzle Card Back "Gift of Elune" Has Been Added - Solve the Mysteries of Stormwind
Burn my sight? Sounds like demon Hunter to me, though mage also likes burning.
My guess is we'll need to play certain cards in a single turn like last time though I'm not sure which ones.
It's possible that this puzzle requires three classes and the last expansions puzzle will be the remaining two.