Sorry, I know this isn't the place to ask, but where do you guys find team comps? Wanna get back into Mercs PVP again.
On the main page, you can toggle between Hearthstone decks and Mercenaries parties. There aren't nearly as many parties posted, and very few of them have guides, but it's a place to start
I thought it was time for an update. After playing Mercenaries daily since launch and completing daily tasks, I actually earned enough coins to craft almost all missing Mercs. Thanks to the new Training Grounds, I now have some of the best Mercs already at level 30, and even with their abilities and equipment still needing lots of upgrades, they are competitive in the Fighting Pit. I'm finally having fun in PvP (and ironically, I'm facing the AI again about a third of the time, even though I'm bringing my A-Team). As I'm sure you all know, speed manipulation is king, so my A-Team is Lich King, Diablo, Jaina, Varden, Cairne and Valeera. I'm winning most games, and they're mostly all good, close matches.
I guess that patience is required here. I bought only one bundle (the Valeera one) and I don't remember how many packs with gold (not too many though), so if you want to be mostly or totally F2P, you need to grind. EVENTUALLY, you'll get there. In the meantime, I actually find the bounties pretty fun.
Still, the mode does favor P2W: I lost badly today to someone who had a fully upgraded Lokholar. There's no way someone grinded enough coins to fully upgrade his abilities in the 5 days since he came out, right? Anyway, I'm not sure if Lokholar will turn out to be one of the better Mercs, but he schooled me because I haven't played him yet and was not familiar with his moves.
TLDR: there's light at the end of the tunnel if you want to play Mercenaries F2P and are willing to grind for it. Just enter the Fighting Pit at your own risk.
As someone who's been doing a lot of bounty hunting, I think the greatest path to success is finding the best treasures. As several have noted above me, treasure like Hex and Assassinate can be OP against the right bosses. I've also found that Xyrella's treasure that makes Blinding Luminescence hit neighbors is insanely good in almost every match.
Next best tip is find strong synergy: a squad with all Nature or Holy abilities, for example, can dish out massive damage, even without critical hits. I've cleared many bosses with Morgl, Bru'kan and Guff. Again, treasures make a big difference. Getting Nature damage bonus treasures, or "Lightning Bolt hits a neighbor" for example, can stack up your damage really fast.
Most bosses have a weakness, so figure out the best way to exploit that.
Never underestimate Freeze effects. Some bosses have ridiculously OP abilities, and if you can freeze them before they act, no problem. Just be aware that if they don't act, they didn't use the ability, so if it has a cooldown, they'll still be able to do it next turn.
Sorry, English teacher here, and I just have to reply.
Pronunciation matters because if you mispronounce some words, people literally will not know what you mean. Also, there are some words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently and mean two very different things. Pasties (rhyming with "nasties") are meat pies in a pastry crust, originating from the UK. Pasties (rhyming with "tasties") are small adhesives worn by exotic dancers to cover their nipples.
If you go into a London pub and ask for the wrong pasties, you might have a bad experience.
Ok I'm getting really steamed now. I haven't been able to cue up against the AI in weeks, no matter how crappy and mismatched my squad is. So I said, fine, I'll play "fair" and bring my A-game mercs. EVERY SINGLE opponent has maxxed out Lich King who PERMANENTLY slows all my mercs, completely locking me out of every game. I tried various strong comps: nature combos, holy combos, get killed every time. Mind you, I'm playing CASTERS, who can kill the Lich King quickly. It just doesn't matter. By the time he's dead, Cairne comes in and does the same damn thing.
Either you're a whale who bought the best legendaries, or you've grinded them out with INSANE time commitment. I guess the rest of us are just screwed.
I’m unsure if these small changes will help to repopulate the Mercenaries. Are there players still playing the gamemode?
We've had quite a bit of discussion over here. Personally, I choose to be cautiously optimistic. These immediate changes might only go so far, but having a team dedicated to Mercenaries should yield more good things down the road.
Lost a game earlier today to a Paladin who played Lady Liadrin, then played a whole bunch of Librams on a small minion, traded into my enormous [Hearthstone Card (Forest Lord Ivus) Not Found], played all the Librams again on the next small minion and traded that, then so on for 2 or 3 more minions, cleared my taunt, then went face with the last one. Almost all of this happened after the rope had reached its end, at least to my view. It FELT to me like my opponent had cheated the time, but I guess that they probably did not. I do wonder, though, since they would have had to wait for each batch of Librams to cycle back to hand, if they didn't abuse the game mechanics somehow. Felt bad, either way.
I'm still enjoying doing a few bounties daily and SLOWLY leveling up all my Mercs. I had given up on the Fighting Pit, but decided to try it out again today, thinking that at Rank 0 I might have some luck. Threw together 5 level 30s and a level 13, hoping for an easy match vs AI. Nope: got creamed by 6 maxxed out level 30 Mercs, mostly Legendaries too. That type of matchmaking is completely unacceptable, IMO.
YES! Welcome back, Swizard! And great article as always! I play mostly Standard, but whenever I feel like trying the Wild side, I look for one of your decks!
You have over ten thousand extra coins for each of these Mercs, AFTER fully upgrading all of their abilities and equipment? Did you buy any bundles, or just grind a LOT? Or both?
The only thing I think I wasn't clear on is the Boon tasks. I always choose a bounty where there is at least one Boon, but my problem is that I get offered the wrong one (for example, it's always Caster or Fighter if what I need is Protector, even after MANY re-rolls). I know it's a bit tin-foil-hatty to suggest this is deliberate, but it's happened too often to be coincidence.
Also, I agree that my "system" of using the Fighting Pit to level up against bots is a little cheaty, but my larger complaint is still there: matchmaking takes VERY long and the matches are super unfair (even when I play my best Mercs, my opponents have more upgrades).
I'm glad to know that the devs are listening and fixing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and info.
First off, I have some complaints, but I do not believe this belongs in the salt thread. Overall, I really enjoy playing Mercenaries, and I want to air my frustrations here, and see if others feel similarly (and maybe have suggestions).
Mercenaries is VERY fun. I love the questing aspect of it, the colorful characters, and the progression of upgrading their abilities and equipment. I recently completed all the bounties on Normal, and am working on Heroic.
The economy is BAD. It is very hard to gain coins for any specific Merc. Plus, I just maxed out my first Merc (Cariel) and am still earning coins for her. A recent bounty gave me THREE coin drops for Cariel, totally useless. Would it be so hard for the game to check for maxed out Mercs before awarding coins?
The task board is fraught with frustration. I had an empty spot, but it still said "the campfire is full" when I encountered the coveted "Mysterious Stranger." I have also caught the game not tracking my accomplishments (needed to Deathblow 75 times as Grommash, but it did not count every time I did it, I checked repeatedly). Finally, whenever I get the "Use Boon: Caster" task, it takes forever to find a board with that Boon on it. I start a bounty, check the map, no Boon: Caster, so I retire and start over. I reroll the board 8-10 times, finding BOTH other Boons alternating, before I finally get the one I need. This has happened to me several times.
And last of all, I have quit entirely on the Fighting Pit. It used to be the best way to earn coins and level up Mercs quickly (bring a mismatched squad with one low level Merc and five level 30's, get matched with an AI and profit). It has been over a week since I faced an AI. Instead, I get matched with overpowered players and get creamed, and that's AFTER waiting 4-6 minutes for a game. It's clear that very few players are playing Mercenaries, or the matchmaking wouldn't take so long.
If you sat through my whole rant, thanks for your patience. I would love to know that other players enjoy Mercenaries as much as I do, and are equally frustrated with its faults. And if so, what can we do about it?
This is terrible news. Swizard has been a major presence in our lovely Out of Cards community, and I've had plenty of fun matches and in-game conversations with him. You will be greatly missed, my friend.
Even more distressing is that the state of the game could be so bad as to drive away dedicated players like Swiz. Personally, I've also been very frustrated with how many things have been handled recently, but the game is still enough fun for me that I'm sticking with it. I sincerely hope Blizzard's approach changes soon, so they stop alienating and discouraging their players.
I just got Drek-Thar from the Rewards track. Should I disenchant him now, since I will eventually get him at the end of the faction war? Or should I keep him and disenchant the golden one I will get later? Will that be possible?
But there was another big change they said NOTHING about: it used to be that if they couldn't find you an appropriate match in the Fighting Pit within a minute or so, they would pair you with a similarly-leveled AI (which was great, cuz you can beat the AI easily most of the time). That is no longer the case! Twice now I've had to wait over 4 minutes for a match, only to have my ass handed to me by a much more powerful band of mercs. I am PISSED.
Decided to go for it, and no regrets. Kurtrus is an insanely powerful hero card, and very fun to play. Combined with Felfire Deadeye, might even be OP. It does require some set up, and you will fail against non-minion-based decks. However, you can provide HUGE burst damage pretty easily, even killing priests through the taunt and deathrattles of Lightshower Elemental and Mo'arg Forgefiend. I recommend this hero card!
All the uncraftable rewards really bother me. I know it's just freebies and I shouldn't complain about stuff they give out for free. For me, though, I've never cared about cosmetics: I've always just disenchanted every golden card I get (unless I don't have a normal copy). I have come to view golden cards (as well as any copies in excess of 2) as free dust I can use to craft cards I want. Now they keep giving me cards (both normal and golden) that I cannot disenchant, so it FEELS bad to me to have these cards I don't use and can't turn into real value. It means that my progress on the Rewards Track gives me less than other players who like golden cards. I wish we had more freedom to choose what rewards we get.
On the main page, you can toggle between Hearthstone decks and Mercenaries parties. There aren't nearly as many parties posted, and very few of them have guides, but it's a place to start
I'm stuck on Popsicooler! Any tips?
Hi everyone,
I thought it was time for an update. After playing Mercenaries daily since launch and completing daily tasks, I actually earned enough coins to craft almost all missing Mercs. Thanks to the new Training Grounds, I now have some of the best Mercs already at level 30, and even with their abilities and equipment still needing lots of upgrades, they are competitive in the Fighting Pit. I'm finally having fun in PvP (and ironically, I'm facing the AI again about a third of the time, even though I'm bringing my A-Team). As I'm sure you all know, speed manipulation is king, so my A-Team is Lich King, Diablo, Jaina, Varden, Cairne and Valeera. I'm winning most games, and they're mostly all good, close matches.
I guess that patience is required here. I bought only one bundle (the Valeera one) and I don't remember how many packs with gold (not too many though), so if you want to be mostly or totally F2P, you need to grind. EVENTUALLY, you'll get there. In the meantime, I actually find the bounties pretty fun.
Still, the mode does favor P2W: I lost badly today to someone who had a fully upgraded Lokholar. There's no way someone grinded enough coins to fully upgrade his abilities in the 5 days since he came out, right? Anyway, I'm not sure if Lokholar will turn out to be one of the better Mercs, but he schooled me because I haven't played him yet and was not familiar with his moves.
TLDR: there's light at the end of the tunnel if you want to play Mercenaries F2P and are willing to grind for it. Just enter the Fighting Pit at your own risk.
I can confirm this. The game does not like it when you try to train an unowned merc.
Great thread idea!
As someone who's been doing a lot of bounty hunting, I think the greatest path to success is finding the best treasures. As several have noted above me, treasure like Hex and Assassinate can be OP against the right bosses. I've also found that Xyrella's treasure that makes Blinding Luminescence hit neighbors is insanely good in almost every match.
Next best tip is find strong synergy: a squad with all Nature or Holy abilities, for example, can dish out massive damage, even without critical hits. I've cleared many bosses with Morgl, Bru'kan and Guff. Again, treasures make a big difference. Getting Nature damage bonus treasures, or "Lightning Bolt hits a neighbor" for example, can stack up your damage really fast.
Most bosses have a weakness, so figure out the best way to exploit that.
Never underestimate Freeze effects. Some bosses have ridiculously OP abilities, and if you can freeze them before they act, no problem. Just be aware that if they don't act, they didn't use the ability, so if it has a cooldown, they'll still be able to do it next turn.
Happy Hunting!
Sorry, English teacher here, and I just have to reply.
Pronunciation matters because if you mispronounce some words, people literally will not know what you mean. Also, there are some words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently and mean two very different things. Pasties (rhyming with "nasties") are meat pies in a pastry crust, originating from the UK. Pasties (rhyming with "tasties") are small adhesives worn by exotic dancers to cover their nipples.
If you go into a London pub and ask for the wrong pasties, you might have a bad experience.
Ok I'm getting really steamed now. I haven't been able to cue up against the AI in weeks, no matter how crappy and mismatched my squad is. So I said, fine, I'll play "fair" and bring my A-game mercs. EVERY SINGLE opponent has maxxed out Lich King who PERMANENTLY slows all my mercs, completely locking me out of every game. I tried various strong comps: nature combos, holy combos, get killed every time. Mind you, I'm playing CASTERS, who can kill the Lich King quickly. It just doesn't matter. By the time he's dead, Cairne comes in and does the same damn thing.
Either you're a whale who bought the best legendaries, or you've grinded them out with INSANE time commitment. I guess the rest of us are just screwed.
We've had quite a bit of discussion over here. Personally, I choose to be cautiously optimistic. These immediate changes might only go so far, but having a team dedicated to Mercenaries should yield more good things down the road.
Lost a game earlier today to a Paladin who played Lady Liadrin, then played a whole bunch of Librams on a small minion, traded into my enormous [Hearthstone Card (Forest Lord Ivus) Not Found], played all the Librams again on the next small minion and traded that, then so on for 2 or 3 more minions, cleared my taunt, then went face with the last one. Almost all of this happened after the rope had reached its end, at least to my view. It FELT to me like my opponent had cheated the time, but I guess that they probably did not. I do wonder, though, since they would have had to wait for each batch of Librams to cycle back to hand, if they didn't abuse the game mechanics somehow. Felt bad, either way.
I'm still enjoying doing a few bounties daily and SLOWLY leveling up all my Mercs. I had given up on the Fighting Pit, but decided to try it out again today, thinking that at Rank 0 I might have some luck. Threw together 5 level 30s and a level 13, hoping for an easy match vs AI. Nope: got creamed by 6 maxxed out level 30 Mercs, mostly Legendaries too. That type of matchmaking is completely unacceptable, IMO.
YES! Welcome back, Swizard! And great article as always! I play mostly Standard, but whenever I feel like trying the Wild side, I look for one of your decks!
You have over ten thousand extra coins for each of these Mercs, AFTER fully upgrading all of their abilities and equipment? Did you buy any bundles, or just grind a LOT? Or both?
Thanks for your thoughtful responses.
The only thing I think I wasn't clear on is the Boon tasks. I always choose a bounty where there is at least one Boon, but my problem is that I get offered the wrong one (for example, it's always Caster or Fighter if what I need is Protector, even after MANY re-rolls). I know it's a bit tin-foil-hatty to suggest this is deliberate, but it's happened too often to be coincidence.
Also, I agree that my "system" of using the Fighting Pit to level up against bots is a little cheaty, but my larger complaint is still there: matchmaking takes VERY long and the matches are super unfair (even when I play my best Mercs, my opponents have more upgrades).
I'm glad to know that the devs are listening and fixing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and info.
First off, I have some complaints, but I do not believe this belongs in the salt thread. Overall, I really enjoy playing Mercenaries, and I want to air my frustrations here, and see if others feel similarly (and maybe have suggestions).
Mercenaries is VERY fun. I love the questing aspect of it, the colorful characters, and the progression of upgrading their abilities and equipment. I recently completed all the bounties on Normal, and am working on Heroic.
The economy is BAD. It is very hard to gain coins for any specific Merc. Plus, I just maxed out my first Merc (Cariel) and am still earning coins for her. A recent bounty gave me THREE coin drops for Cariel, totally useless. Would it be so hard for the game to check for maxed out Mercs before awarding coins?
The task board is fraught with frustration. I had an empty spot, but it still said "the campfire is full" when I encountered the coveted "Mysterious Stranger." I have also caught the game not tracking my accomplishments (needed to Deathblow 75 times as Grommash, but it did not count every time I did it, I checked repeatedly). Finally, whenever I get the "Use Boon: Caster" task, it takes forever to find a board with that Boon on it. I start a bounty, check the map, no Boon: Caster, so I retire and start over. I reroll the board 8-10 times, finding BOTH other Boons alternating, before I finally get the one I need. This has happened to me several times.
And last of all, I have quit entirely on the Fighting Pit. It used to be the best way to earn coins and level up Mercs quickly (bring a mismatched squad with one low level Merc and five level 30's, get matched with an AI and profit). It has been over a week since I faced an AI. Instead, I get matched with overpowered players and get creamed, and that's AFTER waiting 4-6 minutes for a game. It's clear that very few players are playing Mercenaries, or the matchmaking wouldn't take so long.
If you sat through my whole rant, thanks for your patience. I would love to know that other players enjoy Mercenaries as much as I do, and are equally frustrated with its faults. And if so, what can we do about it?
This is terrible news. Swizard has been a major presence in our lovely Out of Cards community, and I've had plenty of fun matches and in-game conversations with him. You will be greatly missed, my friend.
Even more distressing is that the state of the game could be so bad as to drive away dedicated players like Swiz. Personally, I've also been very frustrated with how many things have been handled recently, but the game is still enough fun for me that I'm sticking with it. I sincerely hope Blizzard's approach changes soon, so they stop alienating and discouraging their players.
THIS right here
I just got Drek-Thar from the Rewards track. Should I disenchant him now, since I will eventually get him at the end of the faction war? Or should I keep him and disenchant the golden one I will get later? Will that be possible?
But there was another big change they said NOTHING about: it used to be that if they couldn't find you an appropriate match in the Fighting Pit within a minute or so, they would pair you with a similarly-leveled AI (which was great, cuz you can beat the AI easily most of the time). That is no longer the case! Twice now I've had to wait over 4 minutes for a match, only to have my ass handed to me by a much more powerful band of mercs. I am PISSED.
Decided to go for it, and no regrets. Kurtrus is an insanely powerful hero card, and very fun to play. Combined with Felfire Deadeye, might even be OP. It does require some set up, and you will fail against non-minion-based decks. However, you can provide HUGE burst damage pretty easily, even killing priests through the taunt and deathrattles of Lightshower Elemental and Mo'arg Forgefiend. I recommend this hero card!
All the uncraftable rewards really bother me. I know it's just freebies and I shouldn't complain about stuff they give out for free. For me, though, I've never cared about cosmetics: I've always just disenchanted every golden card I get (unless I don't have a normal copy). I have come to view golden cards (as well as any copies in excess of 2) as free dust I can use to craft cards I want. Now they keep giving me cards (both normal and golden) that I cannot disenchant, so it FEELS bad to me to have these cards I don't use and can't turn into real value. It means that my progress on the Rewards Track gives me less than other players who like golden cards. I wish we had more freedom to choose what rewards we get.