I think Dean has made it pretty clear he's not answering Mercs questions because he's not on that team. But I can tell you the answer to any questions about the bugs, because what else would they say? "We're working on it, patch coming soon"
And the answer to the grind or the meta: "We're gathering data to evaluate these issues in the next 1-2 weeks."
They never give answers to those questions unless they have imminent action to announce, and they just don't announce important news in Dean's AMAs.
Has any videogame in history ever launched without any bugs? I can't imagine that, especially these days with massive multi-platform releases. It would be quite the improvement if everyone published their known bugs from the start - I think this is a GREAT look. Being open is way better than saying nothing.
I'm gonna go with a conservative estimate and suggest that 90% of Hearthstone players don't follow the pre-release announcement cycle very closely or at all. Calling it "too little too late" is pretty silly for a mode they intend to support for years. People will come to Mercenaries in their own time, and this video will be up for them whenever they finally do.
Quest Mage *overall* is at 51.1% on HSReplay - if you cherry pick specific builds which have very poor data, you'll find outliers at higher percentages, but that's not how data analysis works. You have to look at the WHOLE batch of Quest decks to make an argument about nerfing, and looking at the whole batch it's just not even close to a problem right now. You just personally don't like it and are leaning hard into confirmation bias.
Your opinion places you in a TINY minority of players who like Warlock being utterly broken in Wild. To not acknowledge this is really myopic. Blizzard doesn't design the game with you alone in mind - they have to try to please the maximum number of players.
Crafting a whole deck golden is on you. They were always going to change things, and you simply didn't plan well for the future.
If that were the only way to obtain packs, maybe you'd be right. But it's not even close to the entire free rewards package. It doesn't take a lot of brain power to get that, either, but you're arguing in bad faith soooo... missing obvious things is to be expected.
Iksar could hardly have made it clearer, but let's try one more time here, for the VERY simple readers: he is not allowed, on penalty of losing his job, to discuss ANY details of Mercenaries right now. The fact that people keep willfully pretending not to understand that is both rude and annoying. He said at the top he wouldn't entertain any Mercs questions - anyone breaking that rule should expect to be either ignored or mocked.
Sure, a game that you can literally get to first place in the world while paying zero dollars is a "cash grab." You REALLY nailed that take, so smart man.
Imagine having an utterly subjective opinion on the quality of an extremely popular game and thinking that you're objectively right.
It's their job to make a good game, and as far as I'm concerned they've done it successfully for years - that's how they got the resources to expand the team and develop entirely new game modes. If you don't like it, literally no one is making you play it. Move on and stop making new accounts just to complain. It's honestly pathetic.
I love that you think your cookie-cutter, copy-and-pasted "criticism" qualifies as non-conformist. Keep drinking that haterade, man, because anyone still sticking dollar signs in company names truly comes across as a joke.
Developing a new mode players have been extremely excited for is not a "cash grab" - grow up. By your definition, every single employed person going to work every day is engaged in a "cash grab," and that's an utterly asinine perspective.
If you come to relax, then just ignore this and continue to relax. Games can't warp their design around the small (but extremely vocal) group of people who develop completionist anxiety. If that's your issue, I imagine you're MUCH more upset by daily quests, and those aren't going anywhere.
The quest doesn't have to work in every single match-up for it to be valuable. In pocket metas, maybe you tech it in to give a more consistent win condition in long control mirrors. A massively armored Control Warrior won't die to C'Thun, but will obviously die to the Shard.
We don't have way more workplace sexual harassment issues? Woooow. I didn't realize you had never spoken to a woman before in your life. Good luck, man. You're gonna need it.
You really can't see how objectifying women in the workplace and objectifying women in the product produced by that workplace are directly connected? I really don't think you're arguing in good faith here, because this stuff is pretty blindingly obvious.
What's a "pre-school teen"?
I think Dean has made it pretty clear he's not answering Mercs questions because he's not on that team. But I can tell you the answer to any questions about the bugs, because what else would they say? "We're working on it, patch coming soon"
And the answer to the grind or the meta: "We're gathering data to evaluate these issues in the next 1-2 weeks."
They never give answers to those questions unless they have imminent action to announce, and they just don't announce important news in Dean's AMAs.
Has any videogame in history ever launched without any bugs? I can't imagine that, especially these days with massive multi-platform releases. It would be quite the improvement if everyone published their known bugs from the start - I think this is a GREAT look. Being open is way better than saying nothing.
At least they're letting you know so you can decide whether or not it's a dealbreaker.
Pretty sure they give away at least that many every expansion - they certainly give a ton of codes to streamers to distribute on their channels.
I'm gonna go with a conservative estimate and suggest that 90% of Hearthstone players don't follow the pre-release announcement cycle very closely or at all. Calling it "too little too late" is pretty silly for a mode they intend to support for years. People will come to Mercenaries in their own time, and this video will be up for them whenever they finally do.
Quest Mage *overall* is at 51.1% on HSReplay - if you cherry pick specific builds which have very poor data, you'll find outliers at higher percentages, but that's not how data analysis works. You have to look at the WHOLE batch of Quest decks to make an argument about nerfing, and looking at the whole batch it's just not even close to a problem right now. You just personally don't like it and are leaning hard into confirmation bias.
Your opinion places you in a TINY minority of players who like Warlock being utterly broken in Wild. To not acknowledge this is really myopic. Blizzard doesn't design the game with you alone in mind - they have to try to please the maximum number of players.
Crafting a whole deck golden is on you. They were always going to change things, and you simply didn't plan well for the future.
If that were the only way to obtain packs, maybe you'd be right. But it's not even close to the entire free rewards package. It doesn't take a lot of brain power to get that, either, but you're arguing in bad faith soooo... missing obvious things is to be expected.
Yeah, free-to-play rewards are SOOO greedy. You really nailed this take.
Iksar could hardly have made it clearer, but let's try one more time here, for the VERY simple readers: he is not allowed, on penalty of losing his job, to discuss ANY details of Mercenaries right now. The fact that people keep willfully pretending not to understand that is both rude and annoying. He said at the top he wouldn't entertain any Mercs questions - anyone breaking that rule should expect to be either ignored or mocked.
Sure, a game that you can literally get to first place in the world while paying zero dollars is a "cash grab." You REALLY nailed that take, so smart man.
So only one side is allowed to weigh in? That's a really weird stance.
Imagine having an utterly subjective opinion on the quality of an extremely popular game and thinking that you're objectively right.
It's their job to make a good game, and as far as I'm concerned they've done it successfully for years - that's how they got the resources to expand the team and develop entirely new game modes. If you don't like it, literally no one is making you play it. Move on and stop making new accounts just to complain. It's honestly pathetic.
I love that you think your cookie-cutter, copy-and-pasted "criticism" qualifies as non-conformist. Keep drinking that haterade, man, because anyone still sticking dollar signs in company names truly comes across as a joke.
Developing a new mode players have been extremely excited for is not a "cash grab" - grow up. By your definition, every single employed person going to work every day is engaged in a "cash grab," and that's an utterly asinine perspective.
If you come to relax, then just ignore this and continue to relax. Games can't warp their design around the small (but extremely vocal) group of people who develop completionist anxiety. If that's your issue, I imagine you're MUCH more upset by daily quests, and those aren't going anywhere.
The quest doesn't have to work in every single match-up for it to be valuable. In pocket metas, maybe you tech it in to give a more consistent win condition in long control mirrors. A massively armored Control Warrior won't die to C'Thun, but will obviously die to the Shard.
We don't have way more workplace sexual harassment issues? Woooow. I didn't realize you had never spoken to a woman before in your life. Good luck, man. You're gonna need it.
You really can't see how objectifying women in the workplace and objectifying women in the product produced by that workplace are directly connected? I really don't think you're arguing in good faith here, because this stuff is pretty blindingly obvious.