PvP appears to be for those who want it, although there will also be rewards for playing (first wins of the day, perhaps, and end-of-Season stuff). You can still earn rewards by just playing PvE bounties, though, so I wouldn't deem it "essential".
There doesn't appear to be, so it seems mostly for "flavor" reasons; as in, you wouldn't want to see Malfurion Freezing people 'cause that would be weird. Gameplay-wise, currently the only difference it will make is with Jaina: Jaina's first ability deals additional damage if the enemy is Frozen.
To go along with what FortyDust said, you get 8 of the 52 Mercs for free just from playing the tutorial, so you're already given a decent starting point beyond what a traditional "gacha" tends to give.
If you click on Diablo you can see all of his abilities, equipment, and portraits. One of them is the Dark Wanderer portrait; it will be available from packs, presumably.
Edit: Or do you mean you want the art itself, for an avatar or whatever? I might have misinterpreted :/
Blink Fox - Mind Thief is just too cool to ignore. Considering there are boss abilities and the like that players wouldn't normally have access to, this could be a really fun character to mess around with.
Jaina Proudmoore - I like Freezing people, and she could combine well with others who can Freeze (like The Lich King). Plus she's a waifu, so there's that.
Xyrella - Neutering an enemy's Attack could make them worthless. Her Flash Heal is whatever, but it works toward upgrading Atonement so that's fine. Use Atonement against Protectors (or combine it with Diablo's Apocalypse) for insane damage.
Diablo - Speed kills, and Diablo can seriously slow down an opponent with Doom Charge, then punish everyone with Fire Stomp. Apocalypse could allow for a 100-to-0 nuke against a target, which will be immensely satisfying.
Tirion Fordring - I think Divine Shield will be great, becoming more impactful as abilities ramp up in damage. Providing DS to the whole team could seriously upend your opponent's turns. Judgment of Humility could just outright negate an Attack-based character, too.
Valeera Sanguinar - Her damage output looks incredible, and Fan of Knives can ensure you're always going first when you need to (keeping in mind the Cooldown). With Twin Blade Daggers you could boost your allies' Speed by 6 at max tier, which seems insane.
Cairne Bloodhoof - I think Speed will be King in a lot of ways, so improving your team's Speed or slowing down the enemy will be strong. Cairne can do both, while also being able to heal himself or gain Taunt when necessary.
The Lich King - TLK does a lot of similar things to Cairne; the slows from Frostbite aren't as immediately impactful but they are permanent. The two might even go well in a party together, doubling down such that the enemy always goes last while you punish them for it with Mercs like Diablo.
The Leapfrogger combo might be completely dead after this; hard to say. The nerf to the Frog was one thing, but removing Macaw's ability to self-target kills the infinite loop.
I'm like 99% sure they're that color because of Pokemon: Fire (red) beats Grass (green), Grass beats Water (blue), and Water beats Fire. For anyone who has played those games this would seem perfectly natural, as it has been that way for about 25 years. I could say something like "tanks are red because Warriors are associated with red", but come on: it's Pokemon lol :D
(How on earth do I insert my screenshots here? halp)
You can use the Insert Image button up above the text box (looks like a picture, on the right). You can also copy an Imgur link and post that directly; it will automatically turn into the picture.
Whipped out my Wild Highlander Menagerie Warrior for this one, and ventured into Casual:
Procced Noz against a QL Warrior, who beat me despite losing turns to the Juggernaut animation.
Beat a classic Deathrattle Hunter of old with few (if any) newer cards. Noz did not proc.
Neither did he proc against a Boar Priest, who I kind of let win so I could see the Sword of a Thousand Truths in action (and give them the achievement if they didn't have it already). I probably would have lost anyway, but I leaned in nevertheless.
Despite what I'm about to say, I am still excited for Mercenaries. I think it will be fun and have a fair amount of depth to its Pokemon-esque collecting, leveling, and battling systems. With that in mind...where the fuck is Blizzard?
This is not a normal card reveal-season where one can just disappear for three weeks without a word: it's a brand new game, and there exists a very vocal subset of the player-base which is upset. The reveal stream was a whirlwind of information, and left a bad first impression for some. PC Gamer called it "a masterclass in how not to announce a game." Blizzard needs to do right be these people and provide more details: an AMA, play-time with a streamer, another blog; something to help rebuild the lost hype. I want Mercenaries to be my go-to Hearthstone game in the future, but as the days go by in silence my concern that it will be dead-on-arrival continues to grow.
Don't let me down, Team 5: you and I both need this win, and right now you're blowing it.
Seven wins on Heroic, using Avalon's Big Paladin deck save for one change: I do not own Soggoth the Slitherer, so I switched him out for Legacy Ysera.
Show Spoiler
Don't know why I chose Heroic; I've got 14 tickets left to use up, so maybe that had something to do with it lel. My Greatsword insisted on picking Tirion (which would cost me the rest of the Greatsword), or Cariel, one of my lower-end Legendaries. Never got to play the Y'Shaarj dream.
This has been true for a while: people with Battlegrounds perks get early access to new heroes. If your friend doesn't have perks, they have to wait about two weeks until after their release before Cariel and Nguyen are offered to them. The "guarantee" that someone in the lobby with perks received a new hero as an option is what the bug is about.
PvP appears to be for those who want it, although there will also be rewards for playing (first wins of the day, perhaps, and end-of-Season stuff). You can still earn rewards by just playing PvE bounties, though, so I wouldn't deem it "essential".
That fish is fucking terrifying.
There doesn't appear to be, so it seems mostly for "flavor" reasons; as in, you wouldn't want to see Malfurion Freezing people 'cause that would be weird. Gameplay-wise, currently the only difference it will make is with Jaina: Jaina's first ability deals additional damage if the enemy is Frozen.
To go along with what FortyDust said, you get 8 of the 52 Mercs for free just from playing the tutorial, so you're already given a decent starting point beyond what a traditional "gacha" tends to give.
If you click on Diablo you can see all of his abilities, equipment, and portraits. One of them is the Dark Wanderer portrait; it will be available from packs, presumably.
Edit: Or do you mean you want the art itself, for an avatar or whatever? I might have misinterpreted :/
Weird that Medivh, ETC, and Lorewalker Cho are in the reveal trailer, but not in the game itself *shrugs* Got to save something for later, I guess.
My favorite Casters from this list:
My favorite Fighters from this list:
My favorite Protectors from this list:
The Leapfrogger combo might be completely dead after this; hard to say. The nerf to the Frog was one thing, but removing Macaw's ability to self-target kills the infinite loop.
Glad to see the Doomsayer got hit as well.
Fair enough, but I didn't know that at the time :P Ragnaros was a Caster in the streamer reveal, as was Alexstrasza
Right? I would have included Ragnaros instead of Sylvanas. I might have went for the trifecta, then, as Sylvanas' abilities are not compelling to me.
Edit: Or Jaina! We could've used a hero instead of three villains.
I'm like 99% sure they're that color because of Pokemon: Fire (red) beats Grass (green), Grass beats Water (blue), and Water beats Fire. For anyone who has played those games this would seem perfectly natural, as it has been that way for about 25 years. I could say something like "tanks are red because Warriors are associated with red", but come on: it's Pokemon lol :D
You can use the Insert Image button up above the text box (looks like a picture, on the right). You can also copy an Imgur link and post that directly; it will automatically turn into the picture.
Also, welcome to the site :D
I'm currently laid up on medical leave due to my back, so maybe I have too much free time to worry about this lol :/ ...
Whipped out my Wild Highlander Menagerie Warrior for this one, and ventured into Casual:
1 out of 3 ain't bad, all things considered.
Despite what I'm about to say, I am still excited for Mercenaries. I think it will be fun and have a fair amount of depth to its Pokemon-esque collecting, leveling, and battling systems. With that in mind...where the fuck is Blizzard?
This is not a normal card reveal-season where one can just disappear for three weeks without a word: it's a brand new game, and there exists a very vocal subset of the player-base which is upset. The reveal stream was a whirlwind of information, and left a bad first impression for some. PC Gamer called it "a masterclass in how not to announce a game." Blizzard needs to do right be these people and provide more details: an AMA, play-time with a streamer, another blog; something to help rebuild the lost hype. I want Mercenaries to be my go-to Hearthstone game in the future, but as the days go by in silence my concern that it will be dead-on-arrival continues to grow.
Don't let me down, Team 5: you and I both need this win, and right now you're blowing it.
https://outof.cards/forums/hearthstone/legends-of-runeterra/game-modes/mercenaries
Ask and you shall receive :) Took a minute for it to appear due to caching.
Seven wins on Heroic, using Avalon's Big Paladin deck save for one change: I do not own Soggoth the Slitherer, so I switched him out for Legacy Ysera.
Don't know why I chose Heroic; I've got 14 tickets left to use up, so maybe that had something to do with it lel. My Greatsword insisted on picking Tirion (which would cost me the rest of the Greatsword), or Cariel, one of my lower-end Legendaries. Never got to play the Y'Shaarj dream.
This has been true for a while: people with Battlegrounds perks get early access to new heroes. If your friend doesn't have perks, they have to wait about two weeks until after their release before Cariel and Nguyen are offered to them. The "guarantee" that someone in the lobby with perks received a new hero as an option is what the bug is about.