I opened a pack today and found much to my annoyance that I was granted a skin for an epic I have, rather than an epic merc I dont have.
I heard a lot of talk about there being some kind of protection so you'll only ever get skins once you have all the mercs of that particular rarity, but I guess today I can see that that is not the case.
Yeah, that's what really peeves me up the most - that bosses will sometimes just not give you the specific coin you need. For some reason it'll instead just roll around your merc team. I feel that team5 have set a low drop rate for epic and legendary coins in the boss chest, which is a dick move because its hard enough to grind as it is.
Ive been playing mercs everyday from release, have been grinding up tasks like everyone else, completed the pve, all my mercs except for 3 are level 30, and Im still dumbfounded that there are some even crazier than myself, grinding up the tasks up until #17. I think the highest Ive gathered is #10.
Just curious about those who grinded up the tasks. Is it really faster getting coins for mercs you dont have yet this way? Or will just battling the specific bosses for specific coins be faster? All my effort and Im still at least 100 coins away from an epic, 300 away from a legendary.
Felwood in general but Ive seen plenty in the first boss area. Yes, they look like bears. If it has a beak, its a moonkin. There should be a label if you scroll on their portrait, but it should be fairly obvious when you spot them.
Malfurion/Brukan/Guff just destroys this boss, especially if you have Malfurion's equipment that heals with every nature ability. Its mostly a caster/shooter battle because of icehowl's high attack, so if you dont have the nature bros, your next bet would be likely shadow, dragon or fire comp.
Don't own Malf and the other two are Level 20… My best team is Xyr+BS, Milhouse and the Human Protectors (Cariel, Cornelius and Varian)
Regarding the Furbolgs: I'm just dump. I got the quest after the "Felwood-last-boss-bounty" quest and was sure I have to do it in Winterspring because the quests seemed to build on each other.
Brukan/Guff should be relatively easy enough, but it pretty much relegates brukan to spamming muddy footing so Guff can do double damage instead of the better lightning bolt. Your last choice is up to you. Anacondra if you have it, but Xyrella should do well enough.
You dont need to lead with this team all the way. Just have Xyrella/Samuro clear everything until the boss battle, then you can try your luck with Brukan/Guff. Either way, you need casters for the last battle, or be lucky enough to get a treasure with immune while attacking (Samuro can absolutely get it). I think level 20 is decent as long as Guff can do at least 8 damage with brambles (level 3 I think).
Felwood in general but Ive seen plenty in the first boss area. Yes, they look like bears. If it has a beak, its a moonkin. There should be a label if you scroll on their portrait, but it should be fairly obvious when you spot them.
Malfurion/Brukan/Guff just destroys this boss, especially if you have Malfurion's equipment that heals with every nature ability. Its mostly a caster/shooter battle because of icehowl's high attack, so if you dont have the nature bros, your next bet would be likely shadow, dragon or fire comp.
Probably because of the masters tour and the fact that the midset is likely out within 2 weeks. Wouldn't make much sense to make balance changes in between the two, though I wouldn't put it past them to nerf something slightly before or on the release of the midset itself.
The main reason for the equipment being only a +1 is because you can also upgrade them up to three times. So at the end, its usually +3, of which added to the upgrades on the abilities themselves will make quite an impact. That's mainly why pvp at the highest level requires tons of grinding for those not prepared to swipe their credit card.
As for pve, you'll find that specific equipment will make your task a hell lot easier, and therefore easier for grinding. Even something as innocent as a small buff to Xyrella's blinding luminescence (as though as this needs additional buffs as it is) will trivialize most of winterspring's enemies.
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.
The comments made about Ignite is actually interesting, because it somewhat signals that they're not preparing to nerf ignite, even though its fairly problematic in wild (the usual "killing you from 30 while you watch as the rope never burns away" issue). I hope this does not dissuade them from addressing that mage problem we're having in standard. Because Ive not played any hearthstone hearthstone since mercs came out, partially because of mercs but also because queuing into the polar opposites of both quest mage and aggro druid has strained too many blood vessels. You simply cannot tech against anything because going one way makes it a near auto concede on the opposite end. Its getting ridiculous.
The last part about avoiding/addressing stuff in an AMA is likely going to sting at some point. Because surely there's more pressing questions about the latest thing which is mercs, than what we're seeing addressed here. Like the visual errors, bots in pvp (never played it, but apparently its a thing), and the fact that on the last merc tournament what we've seen was total domination of both Cairne bloodhoof and Xyrella being in nearly if not every team.
Mercs have exceeded my expectations, but I have to say that the grind can be felt. Given that I have no interest whatsoever in the pvp other than just watching the occasional tournament, I feel happy that I dont have to grind for that at least, because from what Ive seen it seems like if you're serious about the pvp aspect of mercs, you'll going to be grinding for tens of hours just to get those abilities to rank 5.
Xyrella would need some sort of tuning at some point. She basically just invalidates most attackers, and that ability is enormously fast, faster than most. Not surprising that most at the top end tend to be mercs that shoots rather than attack.
Which brings me to another question, why are there even attacks when shooters do just about as much damage, dont take counter damage, and cannot be stopped by taunt or roots? Murloc and beast builds just dont work simply because of taunts, and Xyrella's blinding luminescence just cancels it.
If you intend to buy packs and can wait, then its better to save up the coin.
But mercs being a synergistic game, getting a specific merc now might be better overall for your enjoyment. For example, the murloc build is probably centered around old murk-eye, mutanus, and morgl. You can try swapping around, but I found that having these three together really makes the murloc build work. Since there's not many murlocs about, if you absolutely want to play murlocs you just need all three of them, and if you have the coin for that last murloc merc, then why not? Given that the packs juggles around three rarities, and then three different portraits of each merc, it might take quite a while before you chance upon that specific merc you want.
Some are also cheaper than others. Common mercs are only worth 300 coins, which really isn't much when you think about it. Wish theres a way to disenchant shit we dont need for stuff we actually want.
hearing 100th time the same voice from a merc is annoying
I do not know how to check the abilitiesmof enemy before/at the beginning of battle
Otherwise it is very repetitive and not really exciting, I may get bored very soon.
You can check what the enemy in PvE is going to do just by scrolling on its pic. It'll show you what they will do, and the speed of the attacks on that turn. Far as I know you cant actually check the enemy's full abilities roster, but no doubt at some point some website will catalog it out.
As for PvP, no clue at all. I think its the similar pokemon deal, where you cant really see your opponent's list of attacks.
Actually I would like to know all abilities at the beginning of battle, so I can select the appropriate team. Also, this would help to plan the battle - for example whom to take out first based on the next moves
Most if not all turn based games dont actually display the enemies' full moveset. Its specifically designed to introduce a learning curve of sorts, to gradually learn what your opponent is capable of and to act according to what presents itself. In any case, Im sure at some point someone will list it all down, so we only have to wait for the wiki to populate.
hearing 100th time the same voice from a merc is annoying
I do not know how to check the abilitiesmof enemy before/at the beginning of battle
Otherwise it is very repetitive and not really exciting, I may get bored very soon.
You can check what the enemy in PvE is going to do just by scrolling on its pic. It'll show you what they will do, and the speed of the attacks on that turn. Far as I know you cant actually check the enemy's full abilities roster, but no doubt at some point some website will catalog it out.
As for PvP, no clue at all. I think its the similar pokemon deal, where you cant really see your opponent's list of attacks.
And one last thing; the games quite unimpressive in terms of aesthetics. A small nitpick to be sure, but it is what it is.
So from a design perspective, this game was designed purely for mobile phones and not for desktop. There's a lot of unused space during battles with the board very bare and non-interactive compared to the traditional game boards we used to.
Come to think of it though, the Stormwind game board itself is the least interactive board we've got, so maybe blizzard isn't bothered with aesthetics anymore 😢
Im pretty sure most mobile games these days have plenty of stuff going on and should have no problems filling the screen with animated doodads. I mean, most phones nowadays are fairly robust enough to act as emulators for earlier console games.
If I were to take a guess I think its a deliberate aesthetic choice because its supposed to be a gladiator's arena, which is usually just a flat field. The problem with going with this near realistic take is that its very boring to look at. And of course the game itself is modeled after its progenitor hearthstone, so its only an unfortunate mix of an empty board with flat characters.
It really doesn't compare well with raid shadow legends (which is fully 3d) or even with slay the spire (which though flat, at very least the characters look more than just a pasted on portrait). But these are similar complains early on in battlegrounds, so we'll have to see whether the general audience can look past it
Do you have the complete set for epics yet?
I opened a pack today and found much to my annoyance that I was granted a skin for an epic I have, rather than an epic merc I dont have.
I heard a lot of talk about there being some kind of protection so you'll only ever get skins once you have all the mercs of that particular rarity, but I guess today I can see that that is not the case.
Yeah, that's what really peeves me up the most - that bosses will sometimes just not give you the specific coin you need. For some reason it'll instead just roll around your merc team. I feel that team5 have set a low drop rate for epic and legendary coins in the boss chest, which is a dick move because its hard enough to grind as it is.
Ive been playing mercs everyday from release, have been grinding up tasks like everyone else, completed the pve, all my mercs except for 3 are level 30, and Im still dumbfounded that there are some even crazier than myself, grinding up the tasks up until #17. I think the highest Ive gathered is #10.
Just curious about those who grinded up the tasks. Is it really faster getting coins for mercs you dont have yet this way? Or will just battling the specific bosses for specific coins be faster? All my effort and Im still at least 100 coins away from an epic, 300 away from a legendary.
Its coming on 2nd November. So keep your pants on, its going to happen
Love the free skin. Just wished they'd let us choose which of the 5 we want. Oh well, pirate garrosh is still cool in its own right.
Been like this for some time now. But its likely just a visual bug because it comes in and out whenever it pleases.
Brukan/Guff should be relatively easy enough, but it pretty much relegates brukan to spamming muddy footing so Guff can do double damage instead of the better lightning bolt. Your last choice is up to you. Anacondra if you have it, but Xyrella should do well enough.
You dont need to lead with this team all the way. Just have Xyrella/Samuro clear everything until the boss battle, then you can try your luck with Brukan/Guff. Either way, you need casters for the last battle, or be lucky enough to get a treasure with immune while attacking (Samuro can absolutely get it). I think level 20 is decent as long as Guff can do at least 8 damage with brambles (level 3 I think).
Felwood in general but Ive seen plenty in the first boss area. Yes, they look like bears. If it has a beak, its a moonkin. There should be a label if you scroll on their portrait, but it should be fairly obvious when you spot them.
Malfurion/Brukan/Guff just destroys this boss, especially if you have Malfurion's equipment that heals with every nature ability. Its mostly a caster/shooter battle because of icehowl's high attack, so if you dont have the nature bros, your next bet would be likely shadow, dragon or fire comp.
Probably because of the masters tour and the fact that the midset is likely out within 2 weeks. Wouldn't make much sense to make balance changes in between the two, though I wouldn't put it past them to nerf something slightly before or on the release of the midset itself.
The main reason for the equipment being only a +1 is because you can also upgrade them up to three times. So at the end, its usually +3, of which added to the upgrades on the abilities themselves will make quite an impact. That's mainly why pvp at the highest level requires tons of grinding for those not prepared to swipe their credit card.
As for pve, you'll find that specific equipment will make your task a hell lot easier, and therefore easier for grinding. Even something as innocent as a small buff to Xyrella's blinding luminescence (as though as this needs additional buffs as it is) will trivialize most of winterspring's enemies.
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.
The comments made about Ignite is actually interesting, because it somewhat signals that they're not preparing to nerf ignite, even though its fairly problematic in wild (the usual "killing you from 30 while you watch as the rope never burns away" issue). I hope this does not dissuade them from addressing that mage problem we're having in standard. Because Ive not played any hearthstone hearthstone since mercs came out, partially because of mercs but also because queuing into the polar opposites of both quest mage and aggro druid has strained too many blood vessels. You simply cannot tech against anything because going one way makes it a near auto concede on the opposite end. Its getting ridiculous.
The last part about avoiding/addressing stuff in an AMA is likely going to sting at some point. Because surely there's more pressing questions about the latest thing which is mercs, than what we're seeing addressed here. Like the visual errors, bots in pvp (never played it, but apparently its a thing), and the fact that on the last merc tournament what we've seen was total domination of both Cairne bloodhoof and Xyrella being in nearly if not every team.
Mercs have exceeded my expectations, but I have to say that the grind can be felt. Given that I have no interest whatsoever in the pvp other than just watching the occasional tournament, I feel happy that I dont have to grind for that at least, because from what Ive seen it seems like if you're serious about the pvp aspect of mercs, you'll going to be grinding for tens of hours just to get those abilities to rank 5.
Xyrella would need some sort of tuning at some point. She basically just invalidates most attackers, and that ability is enormously fast, faster than most. Not surprising that most at the top end tend to be mercs that shoots rather than attack.
Which brings me to another question, why are there even attacks when shooters do just about as much damage, dont take counter damage, and cannot be stopped by taunt or roots? Murloc and beast builds just dont work simply because of taunts, and Xyrella's blinding luminescence just cancels it.
If you intend to buy packs and can wait, then its better to save up the coin.
But mercs being a synergistic game, getting a specific merc now might be better overall for your enjoyment. For example, the murloc build is probably centered around old murk-eye, mutanus, and morgl. You can try swapping around, but I found that having these three together really makes the murloc build work. Since there's not many murlocs about, if you absolutely want to play murlocs you just need all three of them, and if you have the coin for that last murloc merc, then why not? Given that the packs juggles around three rarities, and then three different portraits of each merc, it might take quite a while before you chance upon that specific merc you want.
Some are also cheaper than others. Common mercs are only worth 300 coins, which really isn't much when you think about it. Wish theres a way to disenchant shit we dont need for stuff we actually want.
Most if not all turn based games dont actually display the enemies' full moveset. Its specifically designed to introduce a learning curve of sorts, to gradually learn what your opponent is capable of and to act according to what presents itself. In any case, Im sure at some point someone will list it all down, so we only have to wait for the wiki to populate.
You can check what the enemy in PvE is going to do just by scrolling on its pic. It'll show you what they will do, and the speed of the attacks on that turn. Far as I know you cant actually check the enemy's full abilities roster, but no doubt at some point some website will catalog it out.
As for PvP, no clue at all. I think its the similar pokemon deal, where you cant really see your opponent's list of attacks.
Im pretty sure most mobile games these days have plenty of stuff going on and should have no problems filling the screen with animated doodads. I mean, most phones nowadays are fairly robust enough to act as emulators for earlier console games.
If I were to take a guess I think its a deliberate aesthetic choice because its supposed to be a gladiator's arena, which is usually just a flat field. The problem with going with this near realistic take is that its very boring to look at. And of course the game itself is modeled after its progenitor hearthstone, so its only an unfortunate mix of an empty board with flat characters.
It really doesn't compare well with raid shadow legends (which is fully 3d) or even with slay the spire (which though flat, at very least the characters look more than just a pasted on portrait). But these are similar complains early on in battlegrounds, so we'll have to see whether the general audience can look past it
It might be related to the free packs from watching the GM playoffs. I received 2 packs myself, not so sure why you have 4 though.
You upgrade those buildings with gold (regular hearthstone gold) while mercs and their abilities costs coins.
So yes, unless youve encountered a visual error, you're paying normal hs gold for those upgrades.