Hmm...I watched the Trump videos a couple times each now, but must have missed it. All well; seems cool if that's the case. Gives Brightwing more use*, being the only character who can willfully swap back to the bench. Otherwise someone has to die, and I'd rather not let that happen in the first place lol
* Not that I'm ever going to use that little shit, except maybe after everyone else is maxed out.
Open those images in another tab, and you'll find their direct link. Should end in .png
As for proving it's Heroic, we can tell because the vault handle is glowing blue, allowing you to open it for rewards :) Also the vault background-details look different in general IIRC (the axes in particular: they're gold).
I won’t put tlk on the starters because his main ability has 2 turnS CD
Do we know if one's abilities further their Cooldown while on the bench? Because if not, you'll always have to wait the two turns to use Frostshield regardless of when TLK enters the fight. Same for Millhouse and his Greater Arcane Missiles.
and use whichever ones look most cool at the time I find them.
Doesn't matter that Brock was a ground gym that completely countered Pikachu. Level him up enough and quick attack can still do the trick. :D
*Pushes glasses up nose* Actually, Brock was the Rock gym, while the final gym in Viridian City was the Ground gym (originally). Geodude and Onix being Rock/Ground was a bad coincidence more than anything. Just sayin' :)
Oh, I didn't notice this the first time, but the crafting cost for Legendaries is 500 coins, not 600. That was a typo in the FAQ and has since been fixed.
I bought the Diablo and Lich King bundles: I like them both, I think they could be strong together, and I wanted a solid head-start in Mercenaries for article write-ups and the like.
Based on what I saw in Trump's Mercenaries videos, I think the Starting Party has a solid game-plan: 2/2/2 Role coverage, with battle comps leaning 2/1 in favor of your Role advantage (leaving the two disadvantaged people on the bench). This means my dream starting comp - Lich King/Diablo/Xyrella - isn't really a good idea because the "balanced" approach leaves one of them vulnerable to double damage in basically all situations (which the PvE AI will target, from what I could tell).
With that in mind, here's my go-to Party (assuming I pull them):
TLK and Cairne are Speed-manipulators, which I think could be powerful. They also come with healing and Taunts.
Diablo is a Speed-manipulating Fighter, and can punish enemies who go slower (see a pattern?). Tirion is more defensive, but can neuter Attackers.
Xyrella can also counter Attackers, heal, and nuke enemies after she's healed a bunch. I'm not sold on Anduin, but there are two Humans in the comp already so I might as well consider it. Couldn't think of a second Caster that fits what I want to do. Maybe Uther?
If you go back into the Shop, you might find Rank 2 available to purchase (assuming you're interested): I'm not positive if that's how it works - I'm not gonna buy the bundle, myself - but there must be a way for Ranks 2 and 3 to drop.
Now as for Mercenaries, I see a terrible design choice in how mercenaries are crafted in terms of PVP and the collection in general. You can't see your opponents abilities in PVP, you're expected to just know them, and you cannot see abilities of mercenaries in the collection without crafting it first. You're expected to guess and hope you're not wasting resources.
Single player is fine though, looks whatever to me but I can see people enjoying that
Isn't that true of traditional Hearthstone, as well? You're expected to know on some level what your opponents are capable of, either by research or prior experience. When you encounter someone running Jaraxxus, you'll either know beforehand exactly what J-rax can do, or you'll find out shortly; the same thing happens when you encounter a player on the Ranked ladder.
As for not being able to see abilities in the Collection, did this occur in an early-access video where we know it to be true? I agree that it would be a stupid design choice, but I don't believe they would simply not let you preview a Merc character at all. Even if it were true, such things can be fixed between now and release *shrugs*
Only 2140 dust from refunds: I dusted Illucia but kept everything else within playable amounts (so x2 on the normal cards, plus The Demon Seed and Command the Elements).
There are Mercs where positioning matters: Tirion, for example, can provide Divine Shield to adjacent allies. Bru'kan zaps adjacent enemies with chain lightning, so positioning can matter defensively, as well, if you're playing PvP. We even saw it in Trump's video, when the Caster Air-Elemental boss blasted both of his Protectors and killed them simultaneously because they were adjacent to each other.
You also should consider that, in Heroic, strategy will matter even more as the stakes go up. It's just like Pokemon or any PvE strategy game, really: starting out there won't be many choices for characters or movesets, but with time and energy you can expand your roster and really dive into the meat of the game.
For the time being, The Lich King being labeled as Human is a buff: there are no Undead-synergy abilities currently in the game, while Anduin and Varian provide pro-Human builds to work him into.
Vol'jin seems super good for Shadow teams, so I can totally understand nerfing his stats.
It hasn't changed my mind 'cause I'm already on board...I just hope the early access videos and new information might win some people over, because I'm frankly tired of the "this looks boring"/"this looks like shit"/"this looks pay2win" people out there trying to ruin it for me and others.
I expect someday there will be a max-level increase, so you'll need more coins eventually. This could mean we'll continue to see coin drops even if you're maxed out, with the argument that you'll want them in the future.
On the other side, it would feel shitty in the short-term that you gain coins for characters you're done with. Even if you'll need more in the future, denying us those excess coins would keep everyone on an even playing-field going into expansions and the like; you wouldn't be able to dump your excess coins into better abilities right away because you wouldn't have any.
Kind of leaning toward the first one, because it's easier to manage; as-in, you wouldn't need to program a check or a stopper. Something else to consider is this: if you stop earning coins for maxed-out characters, it will become easier and easier to level the ones that you have left. Blizzard might not want that.
Hmm...I watched the Trump videos a couple times each now, but must have missed it. All well; seems cool if that's the case. Gives Brightwing more use*, being the only character who can willfully swap back to the bench. Otherwise someone has to die, and I'd rather not let that happen in the first place lol
* Not that I'm ever going to use that little shit, except maybe after everyone else is maxed out.
Yeah sorry I could have explained that more fully lol >_>
I'll mention something to Avalon: he's been busy with exams, so might not have seen it/gotten to it right away.
Open those images in another tab, and you'll find their direct link. Should end in .png
As for proving it's Heroic, we can tell because the vault handle is glowing blue, allowing you to open it for rewards :) Also the vault background-details look different in general IIRC (the axes in particular: they're gold).
Do we know if one's abilities further their Cooldown while on the bench? Because if not, you'll always have to wait the two turns to use Frostshield regardless of when TLK enters the fight. Same for Millhouse and his Greater Arcane Missiles.
Very true haha.
*Pushes glasses up nose* Actually, Brock was the Rock gym, while the final gym in Viridian City was the Ground gym (originally). Geodude and Onix being Rock/Ground was a bad coincidence more than anything. Just sayin' :)
Oh, I didn't notice this the first time, but the crafting cost for Legendaries is 500 coins, not 600. That was a typo in the FAQ and has since been fixed.
I bought the Diablo and Lich King bundles: I like them both, I think they could be strong together, and I wanted a solid head-start in Mercenaries for article write-ups and the like.
Based on what I saw in Trump's Mercenaries videos, I think the Starting Party has a solid game-plan: 2/2/2 Role coverage, with battle comps leaning 2/1 in favor of your Role advantage (leaving the two disadvantaged people on the bench). This means my dream starting comp - Lich King/Diablo/Xyrella - isn't really a good idea because the "balanced" approach leaves one of them vulnerable to double damage in basically all situations (which the PvE AI will target, from what I could tell).
With that in mind, here's my go-to Party (assuming I pull them):
Lich King, Cairne / Diablo, Tirion / Xyrella, Anduin(?)
Might as well disable all Dragons until the fix comes: Tarecgosa has felt pretty integral to Dragon comps lately, at least in my experience.
If you go back into the Shop, you might find Rank 2 available to purchase (assuming you're interested): I'm not positive if that's how it works - I'm not gonna buy the bundle, myself - but there must be a way for Ranks 2 and 3 to drop.
Isn't that true of traditional Hearthstone, as well? You're expected to know on some level what your opponents are capable of, either by research or prior experience. When you encounter someone running Jaraxxus, you'll either know beforehand exactly what J-rax can do, or you'll find out shortly; the same thing happens when you encounter a player on the Ranked ladder.
As for not being able to see abilities in the Collection, did this occur in an early-access video where we know it to be true? I agree that it would be a stupid design choice, but I don't believe they would simply not let you preview a Merc character at all. Even if it were true, such things can be fixed between now and release *shrugs*
Only 2140 dust from refunds: I dusted Illucia but kept everything else within playable amounts (so x2 on the normal cards, plus The Demon Seed and Command the Elements).
You can type in "refund" and find the cards that are currently providing full dust exchanges.
There are Mercs where positioning matters: Tirion, for example, can provide Divine Shield to adjacent allies. Bru'kan zaps adjacent enemies with chain lightning, so positioning can matter defensively, as well, if you're playing PvP. We even saw it in Trump's video, when the Caster Air-Elemental boss blasted both of his Protectors and killed them simultaneously because they were adjacent to each other.
You also should consider that, in Heroic, strategy will matter even more as the stakes go up. It's just like Pokemon or any PvE strategy game, really: starting out there won't be many choices for characters or movesets, but with time and energy you can expand your roster and really dive into the meat of the game.
For the time being, The Lich King being labeled as Human is a buff: there are no Undead-synergy abilities currently in the game, while Anduin and Varian provide pro-Human builds to work him into.
Vol'jin seems super good for Shadow teams, so I can totally understand nerfing his stats.
Yes: they will cost 100 gold, same as traditional Hearthstone packs. In fact, most of the monetization seems to line up with Hearthstone-proper.
It seems official: Valeera is the one that's "missing" https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/mercenaries
This really sucks; she was one of my favorites.
It hasn't changed my mind 'cause I'm already on board...I just hope the early access videos and new information might win some people over, because I'm frankly tired of the "this looks boring"/"this looks like shit"/"this looks pay2win" people out there trying to ruin it for me and others.
I could see it go either way, honestly:
Kind of leaning toward the first one, because it's easier to manage; as-in, you wouldn't need to program a check or a stopper. Something else to consider is this: if you stop earning coins for maxed-out characters, it will become easier and easier to level the ones that you have left. Blizzard might not want that.