So, Mysterious Stranger on Air Elemental was gutted. While it is sad, and while you can argue about the priorities Blizzard have (let's face it, we all know what they are, Bobby "Goblinlord" Kotick needs a new 150M$ bonus check), it doesn't change the fact the Random Event Tile (RET for short) is still very shallow in terms of gameplay. Getting one of 4 options (Potato, Portal, Sabotage and Stranger) is boring and feels cheap. So what can we do about it? Here's my suggestions:
- Remove Stranger altogether (I have a different approach for task collecting);
- Add a lot of events (both good and bad), allowing for more variety of gameplay throughout the map and, more importantly, allowing for more than one RET on the map.
So, what are the events I'm suggesting?
- Keep the Hot Potato. It's a genuinely interesting gimmick, it only falls into sore eyes because we want the Stranger;
- Keep the Portal, but add the option to walk into it or not;
- Keep the Sabotage, even if it's boring and has almost no gameplay impact [it remains mostly as a placeholder for more interesting detrimental effects, with a smaller chance than other events];
- Boons become RETs. You won't know where they are on the map anymore;
- Spirit Healer can be found on RETs;
- AMBUSH!!! -> You face a team of 6 Mercs all at once who were payed to stop you on your tracks. But it turns out, those mercs were payed partly in advance, and they were payed with up to 25 coins for a random epic/legendary merc (rarity and number of coins depending on the bounty you're in);
- Bananas! -> King Mukla passed by here and forgot some bananas. Your team picks them up and eats them, granting a +X/+X buff (again, depending on the bounty);
- Sidequest! -> Send one of your mercs alone on a sidequest, removing him temporarily from your team. He promises he'll come back to you before the final boss and he returns with a special treasure (like the ones you gain when you face elite battles), or he finds a new task for him (if you didn't finish all his tasks. If you did, he returns with a couple of merc coins, with a higher chance of those coins being for him) [both the task and the amount of coins he finds also depend on the bounty and you find less coins than the AMBUSH!!! event];
- Mud Pit! -> Oh great, now you're all muddy. And look at the dirt on our treasures! We have to clean them up. You won't be able to use your treasures next battle;
- Bob! -> "Hey there, friend, glad to see you. Here's a treasure to make sure your travels are safe". You gain a random treasure for a random merc (you don't even choose 1 of 3);
- Wrong turn! -> You can only find this in the middle of the map. It changes your pathing, nothing too special [it's also mostly a placeholder, low chance to get it on the event pool].
These are just some ideas, there could easily be more of them, both beneficial and detrimental. These ideas also represent pathings with more than just 1 RET (for example, I could easily see bounties from Heroic Blackrock Mountain with 5 RETs, especially when you consider that Boons would stop showing up as Boons themselves [some tiles would still be Spirit Healers, you just also have a chance of finding them in a RET]).
Now, regarding the Mysterious Stranger, my answer is actually simple. You ALWAYS find one after completing a bounty. However, to avoid abusing early level bounties, the level of your task depends on your bounty.
- Barrens -> Up to Task 2 (the first 3 bounties), Task 3 (the next 3 bounties), Task 4 (the last 3 bounties);
- Barrens Heroic -> Up to Task 3 (the first 3 bounties), Task 4 (the next 3 bounties), Task 5 (the last 3 bounties);
- Felwood -> Up to Task 8 (the first 3 bounties), Task 9 (the last 3 bounties);
- Felwood Heroic -> Up to Task 9 (the first 3 bounties), Task 10 (the last 3 bounties);
- Winterspring -> Up to Task 14 (the first 3 bounties), Task 15 (the last 3 bounties);
- Winterspring Heroic -> Up to Task 15 (the first 3 bounties), Task 16 (the last 3 bounties);
- Blackrock Mountain -> Up to Task 17 (the first 3 bounties), Task 18 (the last 3 bounties);
- Blackrock Mountain Heroic -> Up to Task 18 (all bounties).
These are my suggestions for events to spice up bounty runs. What do you guys think of them? Guaranteeing Mysterious Stranger as an extra reward severely diminishes frustration with grinding and the increased amount of events makes each bounty more unique and engaging. EDIT: Also, throw in more ideas if you have them, maybe we could actually see some of them in-game.
PS: Turns out it's hard to think of detrimental effects without simply gutting your team. I feel only Mud Pit! really worked as a one and done detrimental effect (Sabotage and Wrong Turn! feel very meh), with the more extreme ones (AMBUSH!!! putting you in a 6vs3 fight and Sidequest! temporarily disabling a merc [maybe you can choose which one, maybe not]) compensating the detrimental effect with a reward. I feel that is a way detrimental effects can be more engaging.
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