It's a weird logic with set rotations that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me as well. And it's something that's been decided upon in the ancient times of Ben Brode. Most people got used to it, generally not questioning the whole concept much.
But things have changed greatly since, they have mini-sets and a core set - there's definitely a number of viable alternatives that could be considered.
Yes, it's as you say yourself - max level parties have a much higher chance of running into other players in a similar position (most of people won't have lots of upgrades for all ablities/equipment, indeed). You would need to slot in a couple of low levels for that to change and see more A.I. queues. But it's a good thing, as long as you get the exact PvP matches you want!
Aye, there are some similarities. Even if the AI in PvP at least seems to 'try' a little harder and won't always do what you would expect it to (as I mentioned with Tavish where I was certain it would be an off cooldown trap on turns 2/3, but the bastard kept spamming ability 1).
With the totally random parties I threw together there were some demanding fights (and a couple losses), but most of the time one can get the upper hand without sweating a lot.
And as far as the optimization tendencies go... guilty as charged. Except I never have it in me to grind anything too repetitive a la Strangers.
It's not uncommon at higher ratings, especially this early on. We've had similar situations with Duels if you recall, where it was very likely to get a rematch if you requeued soon after at X amount of wins. And then another. Plus queue times counted in long minutes. There was a lot of doomsaying back then as well, and yet the mode has persevered.
With Mercs the gating systems in place are even higher on average, so yeah, it is a very small exclusive club for the time being. But they do seem quite passionate about it. Making it more appealing and open to the rest of the playerbase is in devs' hands, other than just time and patience doing some work there.
In some ways it counts as a falstart. They could do a lot to turn this around within the next few months (and get that rumored mythic/legendary difficulty right to pose an engaging challenge), but whether they are able to get there... I'd like to hope so.
Hope it's nothing too bad, wishing a full recovery ahead of time! I've never been more grateful for mobile devices than in situations like these. At least Mercs sure can do a good job of keeping one occupied.
They have definitely stumbled quite a lot right out of the gate, and it's become clear that another month or two of testing and development could've proved to be very beneficial. But I still believe it's very much possible to course-correct and expand on a variety of features.
In terms of purchases, I'm pretty much in the same boat. I haven't bought that $5 welcome pack yet, but plan to do so both as an encouragement towards the Mercenaries team and for Blizzard data to register how much we like non-greedy deals. Other than that, I find the mode quite comfortable for casual play.
They have a long way to go indeed, but it's all different departments admittedly. Marketing folks conjuring up offers left and right, seemingly with little input from the developers. It can just reflect poorly on the actual people behind the gameplay features, creating that greedy impression.
Ah, the proper VODs. Truly life saving. Even though they might've accidentally spoiled the final result for B.net clients across Europe, I'm still looking forward to catch up on several matches.
Seeing vastly different players and a greater selection of decks (not to mention varied caster pairings) always makes it far more entertaining, despite the meta not having much new to offer. The Stormwind backgrounds with small bouts of appropriate intermission music landed well, I missed the latter from previous MT.
Ooh dang, I went the caster route. I recall it jokingly coming up during broadcasts so many times, how he has been 'adopted' by the French community but not quite hailing exactly from there. I will adjust to the "French-speaking", thanks for pointing out. :)
I ran into that issue as well, but I assure you it's an unusual one. Still doesn't excuse the mess. I always left the broadcasts on before without any trouble.
In this case it looks like the HSEsports channel had some technical issues halfway through (it also kept disabling the "live" function for me). It even broke down at some point, the numbers went down greatly. The main Hearthstone channel broadcast seemed to be more stable later on. And yes, it's strange they have multiple broadcasts like that, but each does get at least several thousand viewers. Yet far from the greatness we'd like to see.
Yes and no. It's pretty much possible to get through Normal challenges even with the base, free crew (especially Cariel/Samuro/Xyrella); highrolling strong treasures and learning enemy moves goes a long way. Then what might universally be "the best" for a specific zone or boss can vary greatly - you can get a lot of mileage out of synergistic Nature or Shadow comps, for example.
It's a little harder to pinpoint with players' collections being far from the same (and rerolling zones can give you more favorable encounters/nodes, not to mention the treasures, too) and their coins for ability/equip upgrades varying greatly. With PvP there's just been more "static" data, the leaderboards, and the combat generally following the same set of rules.
Oh yes, some people sure are determined with all these task completions.
I don't really find the time to hunt the poor stranger guy pretty much at all, but it is indeed a faster route on average. Just because the tasks give you so many coins for your Mercenary of choice (on top of extra random ones, and even packs for the final few). Heroic bosses especially are far more time consuming coin-wise, and not even absolutely guaranteed to give you what you want.
It's a weird logic with set rotations that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me as well. And it's something that's been decided upon in the ancient times of Ben Brode. Most people got used to it, generally not questioning the whole concept much.
But things have changed greatly since, they have mini-sets and a core set - there's definitely a number of viable alternatives that could be considered.
Yes, it's as you say yourself - max level parties have a much higher chance of running into other players in a similar position (most of people won't have lots of upgrades for all ablities/equipment, indeed). You would need to slot in a couple of low levels for that to change and see more A.I. queues. But it's a good thing, as long as you get the exact PvP matches you want!
Aye, there are some similarities. Even if the AI in PvP at least seems to 'try' a little harder and won't always do what you would expect it to (as I mentioned with Tavish where I was certain it would be an off cooldown trap on turns 2/3, but the bastard kept spamming ability 1).
With the totally random parties I threw together there were some demanding fights (and a couple losses), but most of the time one can get the upper hand without sweating a lot.
And as far as the optimization tendencies go... guilty as charged. Except I never have it in me to grind anything too repetitive a la Strangers.
Such a sharing spirit! I might end up doing the same if there isn't enough time today to play to 2 losses.
It's not uncommon at higher ratings, especially this early on. We've had similar situations with Duels if you recall, where it was very likely to get a rematch if you requeued soon after at X amount of wins. And then another. Plus queue times counted in long minutes. There was a lot of doomsaying back then as well, and yet the mode has persevered.
With Mercs the gating systems in place are even higher on average, so yeah, it is a very small exclusive club for the time being. But they do seem quite passionate about it. Making it more appealing and open to the rest of the playerbase is in devs' hands, other than just time and patience doing some work there.
In some ways it counts as a falstart. They could do a lot to turn this around within the next few months (and get that rumored mythic/legendary difficulty right to pose an engaging challenge), but whether they are able to get there... I'd like to hope so.
Hope it's nothing too bad, wishing a full recovery ahead of time! I've never been more grateful for mobile devices than in situations like these. At least Mercs sure can do a good job of keeping one occupied.
They have definitely stumbled quite a lot right out of the gate, and it's become clear that another month or two of testing and development could've proved to be very beneficial. But I still believe it's very much possible to course-correct and expand on a variety of features.
In terms of purchases, I'm pretty much in the same boat. I haven't bought that $5 welcome pack yet, but plan to do so both as an encouragement towards the Mercenaries team and for Blizzard data to register how much we like non-greedy deals. Other than that, I find the mode quite comfortable for casual play.
They have a long way to go indeed, but it's all different departments admittedly. Marketing folks conjuring up offers left and right, seemingly with little input from the developers. It can just reflect poorly on the actual people behind the gameplay features, creating that greedy impression.
Ah, the proper VODs. Truly life saving. Even though they might've accidentally spoiled the final result for B.net clients across Europe, I'm still looking forward to catch up on several matches.
Seeing vastly different players and a greater selection of decks (not to mention varied caster pairings) always makes it far more entertaining, despite the meta not having much new to offer. The Stormwind backgrounds with small bouts of appropriate intermission music landed well, I missed the latter from previous MT.
Meanwhile, looking back...
Ooh dang, I went the caster route. I recall it jokingly coming up during broadcasts so many times, how he has been 'adopted' by the French community but not quite hailing exactly from there. I will adjust to the "French-speaking", thanks for pointing out. :)
I ran into that issue as well, but I assure you it's an unusual one. Still doesn't excuse the mess. I always left the broadcasts on before without any trouble.
In this case it looks like the HSEsports channel had some technical issues halfway through (it also kept disabling the "live" function for me). It even broke down at some point, the numbers went down greatly. The main Hearthstone channel broadcast seemed to be more stable later on. And yes, it's strange they have multiple broadcasts like that, but each does get at least several thousand viewers. Yet far from the greatness we'd like to see.
Haha, hope it's been worthwhile.
Yes and no. It's pretty much possible to get through Normal challenges even with the base, free crew (especially Cariel/Samuro/Xyrella); highrolling strong treasures and learning enemy moves goes a long way. Then what might universally be "the best" for a specific zone or boss can vary greatly - you can get a lot of mileage out of synergistic Nature or Shadow comps, for example.
It's a little harder to pinpoint with players' collections being far from the same (and rerolling zones can give you more favorable encounters/nodes, not to mention the treasures, too) and their coins for ability/equip upgrades varying greatly. With PvP there's just been more "static" data, the leaderboards, and the combat generally following the same set of rules.
Glad to be of assistance!
Update 1: added a note towards the end of the article about the upcoming Battlegrounds Ratings Correction.
Update 2: added a message from Paul "Kaizor" Nguyen at the end of the Mercenaries section.
Doh, that sucks. I certainly wasn't even aware of such problems.
Oh yes, some people sure are determined with all these task completions.
I don't really find the time to hunt the poor stranger guy pretty much at all, but it is indeed a faster route on average. Just because the tasks give you so many coins for your Mercenary of choice (on top of extra random ones, and even packs for the final few). Heroic bosses especially are far more time consuming coin-wise, and not even absolutely guaranteed to give you what you want.
Funnily enough that seemed to be true in a number of cases, I've seen so many Battlegrounds and Constructed stalwarts.