Four new playable Mercenary characters are coming to Hearthstone in tomorrow's 22.0 patch and we've got some big names that are making their debut.
Unfortunately, not all of the new Mercenaries will be playable right away, with the new Vanessa VanCleef addition arriving when Fractured in Alterac Valley goes live on December 7. What is cool though is out of the four, only one of them is Legendary (two Epic, one Rare) so it won't be a huge pain to get them all unlocked.
Vanessa VanCleef will be awarded for free at the start of the Fractured in Alterac Valley free rewards track, and her Portraits can be earned with the Tavern Pass. This is a new way to earn Mercenaries with this being the first expansion that is releasing since the introduction of the Mercenaries game mode.
The original datamined version - check out how much she has changed!
Here's the preview that Blizzard provided in the patch notes of the new characters and their abilities and equipment.
Are you looking forward to playing any of these characters in Mercenaries?
Quote From Blizzard Mercenaries will be getting its second infusion of Mercenaries, Bounties, and Bounty Bosses with the 22.0 patch! The Mercenaries listed here will enter the fray when the 22.0 patch goes live, while Vanessa will go live with the expansion on December 7.
NEW MERCENARIES
Valeera Sanguinar (Legendary Fighter)
- Blood Elf
- 13/73 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Sinister Strike 5: (Speed 3) Gain +10 Attack this turn and Attack the lowest Health enemy. Combo: Gain Stealth.
- Ambush 5: (Speed 6) Deal 10 damage. If this Mercs was Stealthed, deal 25 instead.
- Fan of Knives 5: (Speed 7) Deal 7 damage to all enemies. Your other Mercs are (3) Speed faster next turn.
- Equipment:
- Hidden Paths 4: Passive: Whenever a friendly character loses Stealth, give them +6 Attack.
- Shadow Dagger 4: Ambush is (3) Speed faster and gains “Deathblow: Gain Stealth.”
- Unnatural Smoke 4: While this Merc has Stealth, friendly characters a (4) Speed faster.
Sky Admiral Rogers (Epic Caster)
- Human
- 11/76 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Sky Guard 5: (Speed 5) Gain +5 Attack and Attack an enemy. If it’s a Pirate, gain Immune while Attacking this turn.
- Master Tactician 5: (Speed 2, Cooldown 1) Deal 12 damage to an enemy, or restore 12 Health to an ally. It goes next.
- Firing Position 5: (Speed 6, Cooldown 1) Deal 25 damage to all enemies that have already acted.
- Equipment:
- Swash Buckling Sash 4: Sky Guard gives an additional +5 Attack.
- Ship’s Bell 4: Master Tactician deals 4 more damage and makes the target go last.
- Scout’s Spyglass 4: Passive: After this Merc Attacks, deal 4 damage to all enemies. (Deals Critical Damage to Pirates).
Trigore the Lasher (Rare Protector)
- Beast
- 10/80 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Frenzied Attack 5: (Speed 7) Attack an enemy. If this took damage this turn, deal 12 damage to a random adjacent enemy.
- Backlash 5: (Speed 1) The next time an enemy damages an adjacent ally this turn, Gain +5 Attack and deal this Merc’s Attack damage to them.
- Regrow Heads 5: (Speed 4, Cooldown 1) This takes Critical Damage this turn. At the end of next turn, restore full Health to this Merc.
- Equipment:
- Infused Amber 4: Frenzied Attack deals 4 more damage.
- Razor Claw 4: Backlash gives an additional +4 Attack.
- Regenarative Scales 4: Regrow Heads restores 16 Health the turn it is cast.
Vanessa VanCleef (Epic Protector)
- Pirate
- 10/75 maxed stats
- Abilities:
- Burgle Barrage 5: (Speed 7) Attack an enemy. Combo: Steal 5 Attack from them.
- Makeshift Weaponry 5: (Speed 3) Spend stolen Attack to deal that much damage to all enemies.
- Shifting Satchel 5: (Speed 5, Cooldown 1) Deal 16 damage to an enemy. Give +1 Cooldown to an Ability they didn’t use this turn.
- Equipment:
- Deadblades 4: Burgle Barrage is (4) faster and always Combos.
- Extra Pockets 4: After using Makeshift Weaponry, this Merc keeps up to 5 Attack.
- Blade Catcher 4: Whenever this Merc is Attacked, steal 4 Attack from the Attacker.
Vanessa VanCleef will also be awarded for free at the start of the Fractured in Alterac Valley free rewards track, and her Portraits can be earned with the Tavern Pass. Each new Mercenary will come with its own Task Chain, similar to those of existing Mercenaries.
Comments
I just bought the FiAV mega bundle, only to receive 100 Garrosh coins and to then realize that I should absolutely have waited some more hours for the 22.0 update to hit, then grab the bundle and get Valeera Sanguinar from it. Well, ouch. I mean, I will get her later on still, but.. it does dampen my excitement about the bundle a bit.
So for anyone out there who owns all legendary mercenaries and is about to grab the mega bundle: Don't repeat my mistake. Wait for the 22.0 update. Get yourself a free Valeera Sanguinar. You're welcome.
Note to self: Only grab bundles 1-2 days before expansion releases from now on.
New Mercenaries are very nice but... If they keep adding new ones every 1-2 months, I am afraid, F2P players, or people that don't play Mercenaries too much (just some here and there) - can't expect to ever be competitive in PvP mode. Kind of sad to be honest.
I don't have any interest in PvP, but I feel for other F2P players. Even tho you don't need all Mercenaries to be competitive... it still takes shit ton of time.
And you don't know if, in some future - some Mercenary might suddenly become good in PvP meta, because of strong synergies.
As a F2P myself, I thought that maaaybe in 6-12 months I will try some PvP more. But now I know - I won't ever be able to keep up with the grind, lol.
Very fine points. I'm somewhat concerned with their speed of adding in new Mercs, instead of resolving all the other concerns first. A lot might yet change in players' favor once those solutions to excess coins and other improvements finally arrive.
That's what I heard in Rarran's YT video interview with a Mercs dev - they plan plan to add new Mercs roughly every month or so...
And as you said, there are other common concerns at the moment. Personally for me, it's another "feel bad" thing.
I know that Mercenaries might (and probably will) get better in some months... but will I still be interested to keep playing it, even casually? I'm not sure, and right now I'm pretty disappointed.
Yes, that's a big if. I tend to look at Duels for comparison - started out shaky, with hero powers and treasures gated behind having enough cards of X expansion, and multiple other problems, but still eventually course correcting to an extent and enjoying a little resurgence. So Mercenaries could still make up for a somewhat rough start, hopefully it won't take them forever.
Hmm still nothing on the changes to pack openings... which they hinted at in the last big patch.
My Main issue with mercenaries is I spend quite a lot of Gold on it. Start of Mercenaries was fun and middle game was fun so I spent gold thinking end game would be fun. It was not. It was boring grind over and over.
It's good to know, when to stop. Seeing how opening more packs isn't worth it (as in, later it's possible that you don't get Mercenary in maaany packs), I decided to not invest gold in it. PvP might be ok'ish, but getting to PvP takes too much time to be worth it in my opinion.
Currently I "play" or rather use Mercenaries mostly as an additional XP grind towards Reward Track. As in - I do something on my PC, and leave HS client with Mercenaries "in-battle" in the background... and it gives me 168 xp every 30 minutes. I collect some coins for Mercenaries that I want to, I still have to click few times every 30 minutes...
You can do this if you want to get some of your gold back. And you should not feel bad about it, you do not ruin PvP experience for others, you do not use bot or other 3rd party program to do this.
This almost makes me hope for a Vanessa skin on the Tavern Pass (for regular Hearthstone I mean) but I doubt they'll do it so soon after Edwin.
Sky Admiral Rogers seems like the reliant Cairne/Diablo Counter we've been waiting for. Just equip his 2. ability and use it on Diablo to completely deny his Fire Stomp (as long as Rogers hasn't been slowed)