I'm not sure the restriction on Walk the Plank is really enough to justify reducing it to 3 mana though, since you normally try to kill minions as soon as they are played and they are undamaged anyway. It also has the option to target your own minions, which is minor but not entirely useless, preventing it from being an objectively worse Assassinate.
So it's in an awkward spot where it should really cost 3.5 mana (at least in the context of rogue hard removal. I don't want other classes thinking their mana costs follow the same rules!), and nearly all cards that should cost X.5 mana end up overpowered at X mana or too weak at X+1. I'm sure Wild would handle it at 3 mana with no problem in this case, but it's still a risky precedent to set.
Deadly Poison is getting the Nature school? I'm glad they're only using natural ingredients, but does it really count as nature magic? I guess they have to stretch a bit to give rogue and warrior any spells with magic schools.
I guess dormant minions were one take on that. You could also include cards like Loatheb and Chaos Gazer. They have also done it via hero powers in solo content.
Coming to think of it, Metamorphosis already set a precedent for a temporary hero power, so adding these effects through spells that read "Change your hero power to .... until your next turn" could work with minimal effort to develop.
I just don't understand why equality gets nerfed from 2 to 4 mana when used in aggro paladin screwing any chance of control paladin(unless you play braindead libram), but warlock gets plague of flames.
Partly its because Equality is ('was' now, I suppose) an evergreen card and they didn't want it being too central to paladin for the rest of time, whereas Plague of Flames would rotate out eventually. More importantly than that though, classes are not created equal, and nor should they be. That doesn't mean some classes should be stronger than others overall, but they will each have strengths and weaknesses with different tools and archetypes.
In the case of board clears, warlock has always been one of the best classes, while paladin has been OK but not exceptional at it. In fact, pally class design always has (spell-based) removal revolve around debuffs rather than dealing damage or outright destroying minions, which demonstrates just how mediocre the class is at it (while also making it unique and interesting).
----------------------------
Regarding the main topic of the thread, the amount of removal warlock has at the moment is high partly because we're at the end of a HS year. When set rotation comes the class will have fewer tools and should hopefully not feel so frustrating to play against. Except when Tickatus gets played, but there's nothing that can be done to cheer you up when that happens.
Finally, I don't think we know much about when the next rotations happens. It sounded like the Barrens set will be out whenever it is ready, which could be anywhere from mid March to late April for all I know.
Pre-purchase offers end March 22. To my knowledge, that has never been incorrect as an indicator of the launch date. It's pretty much always the very next day, or at least later that week.
Pre-purchase has always ended on the same day as the release, BUT these are not normal times and the deeper we get into the pandemic the more each set's development can be affected. I suspect the 22nd of March is when they want to release it, but as Iksar said in a Q&A, if they need to push it back into April they will.
Blizzard using STS as the reference point is more than enough justification for the community to do the same. Plus, there are still enough unknowns about Mercenaries that it's not worth worrying too much about what game it will be most similar to, and it's fine to focus on the known fact that Mercenaries will have features akin to those in STS that the existing HS game modes don't have.
it's possible to buy the bundle til march 22nd. This gave my assumption about the launch ...
Ah, good catch!
Normally I would agree that that is good evidence that it will release on the 22nd of March, but since nothing is very normal at the moment I am conscious that it might just be a placeholder date. Even so, it probably indicates when they want to release it, and the question is whether it will be ready for that date.
While you are right that STS is not unique in the aspects it shares with (what we know about) Mercenaries, that doesn't stop it being the/a primary influence. Being an influence doesn't require you to have actually invented the game mechanics, it just requires you to be the trigger for ideas.
Compare it to music: musicians can be inspired by music from the last decade, but that music is unlikely to be especially original in its construction. Nevertheless, you would credit them as inspirations because that is what put the ideas in your head. Expressing it the other way around: it would be ridiculous to credit the Beatles as inspiration for a pop/rock song if you've never actually listened to them.
With the Classic Set joining the Legacy Set in Wild, all Classic cards and their Golden versions will now be craftable and disenchantable. Basic cards and their Golden versions will be granted to all players that have Wild unlocked for free at rotation, as will the normal versions of Demon Hunter Initiate cards (Golden Demon Hunter Initiate cards will still be craftable and disenchantable).
So it sounds like there's no need to rush to 60 for Basic cards, since we'll be given all the golden ones we're lacking anyway.
As for Core set cards:
Quote From Blizzard in Core set announcement
Like the Basic Set, you’ll earn Core Set cards by leveling up each class. All Core Set class cards are rewarded between levels 1-10 for each class, and Neutral Core Set cards will unlock based the sum of all your class levels combined, up to the combined level of 60. Golden versions of Core Set cards can be unlocked by completing Achievements associated with winning games as each class.
So again there's no need to rush to 60 with DH, since only a combined level of 60 matters. Golden versions will be earned via achievements, not class levels.
Finally, I don't think we know much about when the next rotations happens. It sounded like the Barrens set will be out whenever it is ready, which could be anywhere from mid March to late April for all I know.
BTW There’s also some art shown in a Mercenaries reveal confirming Vol'jin, Ragnaros and Gruul as Mercenaries
Sure, and the official press kit (https://blizzard.gamespress.com/Hearthstone-BlizzConline-Press-Kit) shows art for the 3 tiers of Gruul, King Krush, Rag and Sylvanas. Based on his stage 3 art, my money's on Krush having something to do with the adapt keyword, though what that translates to in the game mode I have no idea.
Using the same name to describe both those characters and the game mode is a bit annoying really. I know why they did it, but was it really so bad to use different names to avoid confusion and ambiguity?
I suspect it is simultaneously a hint at her proficiency with many poisons, and a hint at her accessing cards from other classes (light green = hunter, light blue = mage etc).
By the looks of it she's been wearing that tabard in WoW for ages, so I'm not sure the connection to the Black Flame is a HS Easter Egg as much as implicit canon.
Then again, this is the character who walks around with 2 Perdition's Blades like its nothing. So I'm not entirely sure how seriously we should be taking her WoW model...
I love this kind of posts and this one is pretty well constructed, well done!
I think that you are right with almost everything; as you said before, I think the 10 mercenaries will be released in this expansion.
I will focus on the Priest mercenary because I love to play Priest. I'm fine with a Draenei being the mercenary for Priest because it's a wonderful race and I've always loved how Draneis look. The only problem that I have here is that the devs said that they wanted to give Priest the Shadow archetype in the core set and in this expansion and the future ones.
I don't understand too much about Wow, but judging every Draenei card released in HS, I think that they are more Holy-related than Shadow-related, so the Priest mercenary would be a Holy Draenei, and it makes me a little bit sad because I want them to focus on the Shadow archetype they said they would implement in Priest and I think that a legendary for this archetype would be needed.
Do you think that there is a possibility of a Shadow-related Draenei Priest legendary? Or do you think that if Dranei is the mercenary race chosen for Priest, he/she will be 100% related to Holy?
There have been some shadow draenei in the past, most notably Auchenai Soulpriest, which holds the honour of having 2 cards that reference it in Auchenai Phantasm and Embrace the Shadow. So there is precedent for a shadow draenai character.
Since the mercenaries look to effectively be player characters in WoW, a shadow priest specialisation is perfectly possible since there's nothing stopping a player playing as a draenai shadow priest (I'm pretty sure).
I would also say that we have 2 legendaries per class for precisely this sort of reason. It allows them to print flashy cards supporting two very different archetypes. So even if the mercenary is holy, that doesn't stop the second legendary being shadow focused.
Before you read my response, I want to acknowledge how tough the past year has been on many/most people. My answer is not intended to belittle that at all. In fact it is more interested in raising questions than imposing answers.
---------------
The cold and rational viewpoint is that we should hardly be surprised about a character dying in a game based on something called "Warcraft". A game in which players and card texts casually use words relating to death, and in which many characters are in a state arguably worse than death (I'm looking at you, mindless scourge). We can jokingly call Hearthstone a children's card game, and point at Warcraft as an exaggerated and cartoony fantasy franchise, but that dramatically understates how dark the story often is. Death is everywhere in it, and the only difference here is that you are explicitly shown the emotional response of a loved one.
For the sake of starting a meaningful discussion, I wonder what your thoughts are regarding Hearthstone's handling of Scholomance. In WoW it is incredibly dark, and if you feel bad for Mankrik you'll turn away in horror at the atrocities performed by Doctor Krastinov.
The question is: is HS's 'family friendly' take on Scholomance any less sinister? The implication is that the atrocities are just getting started, and so the logical step is that the characters we see there will soon be (un)dead. Just look at what Disciplinarian Gandling actually does!
Perhaps the card closest in flavour to Mankrik is Infiltrator Lilian, which tells the story of a character who despises the undead being killed and brought back as the very thing she hates. Surprise, surprise, she lashes out at the world in anger, just as Mankrik does. Granted, WoW lore lets us dissociate that process from Scholomance, but the process still happens.
It's interesting - and not at all unusual - that even in that context the fate Mankrik's wife manages to provoke a significant emotional response.
Nice one, thanks for the write up! Any chance Hunter gets the Night Elf? Sometimes I wish that class was on the evil side just for some more bad assery.
I can't contribute much, but maybe we can go a little deeper in detail. I think it is the Warlock mercenary that creates something like a portal in the cinematic, with a big entity looking out of it. Summoning Demons again would be a bit boring so shortly after Willow, so what could she be doing instead? You say she's a Forsaken, so do you think Resurrect Warlock could be a thing?
Re night elf hunter: that was my first thought as I normally picture n'elfs as druids and hunters. That remains perfectly possible, though it does seem less likely to me, mostly because the parallels with the WoW Classic cinematic are so strong. The dwarf hunter in the snow with his bear and rifle was the first character we saw in that cinematic, and perhaps the least likely to change as a result.
As for hunter being on the evil side, does that mean you consider n'elfs to be evil? It's presumably not a wider horde=good, alliance=bad mentality else dwarf would count as evil too.
---------------------------
Re the warlock summoning demons: sadly I think that class is doomed to forever take the boring approach of summoning demons whenever there's a cycle of cards/themes that allows it. Galakrond, the Wretched? Summons imps. Rafaam's Scheme? Summons imps. Even in the Boomsday Project when warlock was originally going to be mathematicians, we got boring old demonology instead. In the Barrens we already know warlock has suffered the same fate because what does Imp Swarm (Rank 1) do? It summons imps of course.
Looking at the forsaken in a broader context, I would not draw much of a link between them and resurrection. Yes they were resurrected themselves, but they don't do any resurrecting of their own unless they happen to be a class that resurrects normally (at which point the class matters, not the race). That assessment fits with the distribution of forsaken art/characters and resurrection in HS: for the most part they have nothing to do with each other, but Catrina Muerte does happen to be at the overlap.
There is a bit more hope that a forsaken character drives a deathrattle theme in warlock, but that association is a bit tenuous too as there's a whole lot of forsaken minions that don't have deathrattle.
The question had asked specifically about skins using/referencing characters from outside the Warcraft universe, e.g. the Three Kingdoms ones we got recently. The main point in Ben's reply was really that they were open to it so long as it meshes well with the high fantasy Warcraft environment.
Note it wasn't really a general reluctance to make skins, just caution about messing with the theme and fantasy of the game. Given the complaints about K/DA in LoR, I can't blame them!
Speculation is always fun, so I couldn't resist doing a bit of sleuthing when I heard about the new 'mercenary' characters we'll be seeing. This thread is primarily about the characters that will appear as Legendary minions in constructed, but will involve a discussion about the characters appearing in the Mercenaries game mode to set out all the evidence.
By the sounds of each each class will have a mercenary character, with us currently knowing about the troll shaman Bru'kan. We don't yet know the other 9, but we do see that Bru'kan appears on Chain Lightning (Rank 1) (as well as the Rank 2 and 3 versions), which seems to be a quick and simple way to show the growth of the character from a low level scrub to a high level powerhouse worthy of a legendary card.
So these Rank cards likely give us clues about the other mercenaries. Currently the only other Rank card we know is Imp Swarm (Rank 1), which shows a female forsaken warlock. 2 down. 8 to go.
OK, so it's optimistic to say anything about all 10 at this point, but we actually know a surprising amount already: In the Barrens cinematic and the key art we see 5 prominent characters, two of which are Bru'kan and the forsaken warlock. It stands to reason then that the other 3 are also mercenaries, giving us a tauren druid, blood elf mage and orc warrior (presumably the Rokara mentioned in the Deep Dive).
That leaves 5 classes vacant, who I first assumed would also be seen in the Barrens expansion, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Here's where the Mercenaries game mode key art comes in. In it we see 3 categories of characters:
Basic heroes: Valeera, Rexxar and Illidan (I assume all 10 will be present in the game mode).
Other characters we are are already familiar with in HS: Rag, Eudora, and a baby King Krush in the top corner (at least I assume it is Krush based on the artwork titled King Krush 1 in the press kit https://blizzard.gamespress.com/Hearthstone-BlizzConline-Press-Kit).
Previously unknown characters, notably including Rokara and the tauren druid from the Barrens cinematic.
One of the 3 complete unknowns is a monkey (maybe a baby King Mukla?), who we can safely assume is NOT one of the class mercenaries. That leaves a human female with a hammer and a gnome with a fine set of facial hair, who I assume to be the paladin and rogue mercenaries respectively.
It doesn't look like we have any direct info on the hunter, priest or DH mercenaries yet, but we do still have 1 clue: so far the horde and alliance races have been represented exactly once (except goblins, sorry guys). I doubt we'll see a pandaren, so that gives us night elves, dwarves, draenei and worgen as options. Honestly, since the whole theme is very WoW Classic centric, I don't expect to see a worgen who, like goblins, joined in during Cataclysm. Yes, blood elves and draenei joined in after Classic too, but only a little bit, and they have to make up the numbers somehow.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and also assume they want the race-class combinations to mirror those seen in the WoW Classic cinematic, not least because they directly reference it in the Barrens cinematic with the tauren scattering dust(?) over a cliff overlooking a river, and with the forsaken consuming the life of surrounding grass to summon a demon. So that gives us a dwarf hunter.
Obviously they cannot do night elf druid as per the WoW cinematic, but that's convenient because DHs can only be elves, so the night elf needs to be the DH anyway. Finally that leaves a draenei priest, which is about as fitting as you could ask for.
So, all in all, I predict we will have the mercenary race - class combinations of:
Horde
Alliance
Orc warrior
Human paladin
Troll shaman (Not technically a prediction, I know. Shush.)
Dwarf hunter
Forsaken warlock
Gnome rogue
Tauren druid
Night elf DH
Blood elf mage
Draenei priest
Along with this, I don't expect the 5 alliance classes to get a Rank spell this expansion.
This all falls flat on its face if the 2nd expansion isn't alliance focused, but everything points towards it (even the Year name) so I'm not too worried.
------------------------------
Edit: from the Q&A it looks like the alliance mercenaries will be in the Barrens expansion, but otherwise the speculation remains intact.
I'm not sure the restriction on Walk the Plank is really enough to justify reducing it to 3 mana though, since you normally try to kill minions as soon as they are played and they are undamaged anyway. It also has the option to target your own minions, which is minor but not entirely useless, preventing it from being an objectively worse Assassinate.
So it's in an awkward spot where it should really cost 3.5 mana (at least in the context of rogue hard removal. I don't want other classes thinking their mana costs follow the same rules!), and nearly all cards that should cost X.5 mana end up overpowered at X mana or too weak at X+1. I'm sure Wild would handle it at 3 mana with no problem in this case, but it's still a risky precedent to set.
Deadly Poison is getting the Nature school? I'm glad they're only using natural ingredients, but does it really count as nature magic? I guess they have to stretch a bit to give rogue and warrior any spells with magic schools.
I guess dormant minions were one take on that. You could also include cards like Loatheb and Chaos Gazer. They have also done it via hero powers in solo content.
Coming to think of it, Metamorphosis already set a precedent for a temporary hero power, so adding these effects through spells that read "Change your hero power to .... until your next turn" could work with minimal effort to develop.
Partly its because Equality is ('was' now, I suppose) an evergreen card and they didn't want it being too central to paladin for the rest of time, whereas Plague of Flames would rotate out eventually. More importantly than that though, classes are not created equal, and nor should they be. That doesn't mean some classes should be stronger than others overall, but they will each have strengths and weaknesses with different tools and archetypes.
In the case of board clears, warlock has always been one of the best classes, while paladin has been OK but not exceptional at it. In fact, pally class design always has (spell-based) removal revolve around debuffs rather than dealing damage or outright destroying minions, which demonstrates just how mediocre the class is at it (while also making it unique and interesting).
----------------------------
Regarding the main topic of the thread, the amount of removal warlock has at the moment is high partly because we're at the end of a HS year. When set rotation comes the class will have fewer tools and should hopefully not feel so frustrating to play against. Except when Tickatus gets played, but there's nothing that can be done to cheer you up when that happens.
Pre-purchase has always ended on the same day as the release, BUT these are not normal times and the deeper we get into the pandemic the more each set's development can be affected. I suspect the 22nd of March is when they want to release it, but as Iksar said in a Q&A, if they need to push it back into April they will.
Blizzard using STS as the reference point is more than enough justification for the community to do the same. Plus, there are still enough unknowns about Mercenaries that it's not worth worrying too much about what game it will be most similar to, and it's fine to focus on the known fact that Mercenaries will have features akin to those in STS that the existing HS game modes don't have.
Ah, good catch!
Normally I would agree that that is good evidence that it will release on the 22nd of March, but since nothing is very normal at the moment I am conscious that it might just be a placeholder date. Even so, it probably indicates when they want to release it, and the question is whether it will be ready for that date.
While you are right that STS is not unique in the aspects it shares with (what we know about) Mercenaries, that doesn't stop it being the/a primary influence. Being an influence doesn't require you to have actually invented the game mechanics, it just requires you to be the trigger for ideas.
Compare it to music: musicians can be inspired by music from the last decade, but that music is unlikely to be especially original in its construction. Nevertheless, you would credit them as inspirations because that is what put the ideas in your head. Expressing it the other way around: it would be ridiculous to credit the Beatles as inspiration for a pop/rock song if you've never actually listened to them.
I don't think we've heard any more about the release date since this Q&A: https://outof.cards/hearthstone/2600-dean-ayalas-community-qa-4-classic-set-rework-teaser-craftable-heroes-possible-march-expansion-2v2-rewards-track. Based on that, (late) March is possible but don't be surprised if it is released in April instead.
There's a similar lack of certainty about when card reveals will start, but we should be hearing about Core set cards this week at least.
So it sounds like there's no need to rush to 60 for Basic cards, since we'll be given all the golden ones we're lacking anyway.
As for Core set cards:
So again there's no need to rush to 60 with DH, since only a combined level of 60 matters. Golden versions will be earned via achievements, not class levels.
Finally, I don't think we know much about when the next rotations happens. It sounded like the Barrens set will be out whenever it is ready, which could be anywhere from mid March to late April for all I know.
Sure, and the official press kit (https://blizzard.gamespress.com/Hearthstone-BlizzConline-Press-Kit) shows art for the 3 tiers of Gruul, King Krush, Rag and Sylvanas. Based on his stage 3 art, my money's on Krush having something to do with the adapt keyword, though what that translates to in the game mode I have no idea.
Using the same name to describe both those characters and the game mode is a bit annoying really. I know why they did it, but was it really so bad to use different names to avoid confusion and ambiguity?
But that's not even close to the original card. He's being tuned for balance purposes, not completely reworked.
I suspect it is simultaneously a hint at her proficiency with many poisons, and a hint at her accessing cards from other classes (light green = hunter, light blue = mage etc).
By the looks of it she's been wearing that tabard in WoW for ages, so I'm not sure the connection to the Black Flame is a HS Easter Egg as much as implicit canon.
Then again, this is the character who walks around with 2 Perdition's Blades like its nothing. So I'm not entirely sure how seriously we should be taking her WoW model...
There have been some shadow draenei in the past, most notably Auchenai Soulpriest, which holds the honour of having 2 cards that reference it in Auchenai Phantasm and Embrace the Shadow. So there is precedent for a shadow draenai character.
Since the mercenaries look to effectively be player characters in WoW, a shadow priest specialisation is perfectly possible since there's nothing stopping a player playing as a draenai shadow priest (I'm pretty sure).
I would also say that we have 2 legendaries per class for precisely this sort of reason. It allows them to print flashy cards supporting two very different archetypes. So even if the mercenary is holy, that doesn't stop the second legendary being shadow focused.
Before you read my response, I want to acknowledge how tough the past year has been on many/most people. My answer is not intended to belittle that at all. In fact it is more interested in raising questions than imposing answers.
---------------
The cold and rational viewpoint is that we should hardly be surprised about a character dying in a game based on something called "Warcraft". A game in which players and card texts casually use words relating to death, and in which many characters are in a state arguably worse than death (I'm looking at you, mindless scourge). We can jokingly call Hearthstone a children's card game, and point at Warcraft as an exaggerated and cartoony fantasy franchise, but that dramatically understates how dark the story often is. Death is everywhere in it, and the only difference here is that you are explicitly shown the emotional response of a loved one.
For the sake of starting a meaningful discussion, I wonder what your thoughts are regarding Hearthstone's handling of Scholomance. In WoW it is incredibly dark, and if you feel bad for Mankrik you'll turn away in horror at the atrocities performed by Doctor Krastinov.
The question is: is HS's 'family friendly' take on Scholomance any less sinister? The implication is that the atrocities are just getting started, and so the logical step is that the characters we see there will soon be (un)dead. Just look at what Disciplinarian Gandling actually does!
Perhaps the card closest in flavour to Mankrik is Infiltrator Lilian, which tells the story of a character who despises the undead being killed and brought back as the very thing she hates. Surprise, surprise, she lashes out at the world in anger, just as Mankrik does. Granted, WoW lore lets us dissociate that process from Scholomance, but the process still happens.
It's interesting - and not at all unusual - that even in that context the fate Mankrik's wife manages to provoke a significant emotional response.
Re night elf hunter: that was my first thought as I normally picture n'elfs as druids and hunters. That remains perfectly possible, though it does seem less likely to me, mostly because the parallels with the WoW Classic cinematic are so strong. The dwarf hunter in the snow with his bear and rifle was the first character we saw in that cinematic, and perhaps the least likely to change as a result.
As for hunter being on the evil side, does that mean you consider n'elfs to be evil? It's presumably not a wider horde=good, alliance=bad mentality else dwarf would count as evil too.
---------------------------
Re the warlock summoning demons: sadly I think that class is doomed to forever take the boring approach of summoning demons whenever there's a cycle of cards/themes that allows it. Galakrond, the Wretched? Summons imps. Rafaam's Scheme? Summons imps. Even in the Boomsday Project when warlock was originally going to be mathematicians, we got boring old demonology instead. In the Barrens we already know warlock has suffered the same fate because what does Imp Swarm (Rank 1) do? It summons imps of course.
Looking at the forsaken in a broader context, I would not draw much of a link between them and resurrection. Yes they were resurrected themselves, but they don't do any resurrecting of their own unless they happen to be a class that resurrects normally (at which point the class matters, not the race). That assessment fits with the distribution of forsaken art/characters and resurrection in HS: for the most part they have nothing to do with each other, but Catrina Muerte does happen to be at the overlap.
There is a bit more hope that a forsaken character drives a deathrattle theme in warlock, but that association is a bit tenuous too as there's a whole lot of forsaken minions that don't have deathrattle.
He definitely specified Wrath and Swipe, yeah. No shame in missing that though; it's impressive you got info down as fast as you did!
The question had asked specifically about skins using/referencing characters from outside the Warcraft universe, e.g. the Three Kingdoms ones we got recently. The main point in Ben's reply was really that they were open to it so long as it meshes well with the high fantasy Warcraft environment.
Note it wasn't really a general reluctance to make skins, just caution about messing with the theme and fantasy of the game. Given the complaints about K/DA in LoR, I can't blame them!
Speculation is always fun, so I couldn't resist doing a bit of sleuthing when I heard about the new 'mercenary' characters we'll be seeing. This thread is primarily about the characters that will appear as Legendary minions in constructed, but will involve a discussion about the characters appearing in the Mercenaries game mode to set out all the evidence.
By the sounds of each each class will have a mercenary character, with us currently knowing about the troll shaman Bru'kan. We don't yet know the other 9, but we do see that Bru'kan appears on Chain Lightning (Rank 1) (as well as the Rank 2 and 3 versions), which seems to be a quick and simple way to show the growth of the character from a low level scrub to a high level powerhouse worthy of a legendary card.
So these Rank cards likely give us clues about the other mercenaries. Currently the only other Rank card we know is Imp Swarm (Rank 1), which shows a female forsaken warlock. 2 down. 8 to go.
OK, so it's optimistic to say anything about all 10 at this point, but we actually know a surprising amount already: In the Barrens cinematic and the key art we see 5 prominent characters, two of which are Bru'kan and the forsaken warlock. It stands to reason then that the other 3 are also mercenaries, giving us a tauren druid, blood elf mage and orc warrior (presumably the Rokara mentioned in the Deep Dive).
That leaves 5 classes vacant, who I first assumed would also be seen in the Barrens expansion, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Here's where the Mercenaries game mode key art comes in. In it we see 3 categories of characters:
One of the 3 complete unknowns is a monkey (maybe a baby King Mukla?), who we can safely assume is NOT one of the class mercenaries. That leaves a human female with a hammer and a gnome with a fine set of facial hair, who I assume to be the paladin and rogue mercenaries respectively.
It doesn't look like we have any direct info on the hunter, priest or DH mercenaries yet, but we do still have 1 clue: so far the horde and alliance races have been represented exactly once (except goblins, sorry guys). I doubt we'll see a pandaren, so that gives us night elves, dwarves, draenei and worgen as options. Honestly, since the whole theme is very WoW Classic centric, I don't expect to see a worgen who, like goblins, joined in during Cataclysm. Yes, blood elves and draenei joined in after Classic too, but only a little bit, and they have to make up the numbers somehow.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and also assume they want the race-class combinations to mirror those seen in the WoW Classic cinematic, not least because they directly reference it in the Barrens cinematic with the tauren scattering dust(?) over a cliff overlooking a river, and with the forsaken consuming the life of surrounding grass to summon a demon. So that gives us a dwarf hunter.
Obviously they cannot do night elf druid as per the WoW cinematic, but that's convenient because DHs can only be elves, so the night elf needs to be the DH anyway. Finally that leaves a draenei priest, which is about as fitting as you could ask for.
So, all in all, I predict we will have the mercenary race - class combinations of:
Along with this, I don't expect the 5 alliance classes to get a Rank spell this expansion.
This all falls flat on its face if the 2nd expansion isn't alliance focused, but everything points towards it (even the Year name) so I'm not too worried.
------------------------------
Edit: from the Q&A it looks like the alliance mercenaries will be in the Barrens expansion, but otherwise the speculation remains intact.