We are about to embark on one busy day for Hearthstone Mercenaries, with a few special reveals already all lined up before the major Patch 24.4 can deliver some of the promised content. As this past weekend was pretty much entirely focused on all the new Constructed cards coming with the announced Maw and Disorder Mini-Set for Murder at Castle Nathria, there wasn't a good opportunity to talk about what else might be in store for the game mode.
The last time we received a proper update from the development team behind the Mercenaries was almost exactly three months ago, on June 27. Back then, along with the three free portraits being given out as a thanks for the continued support, we also got to learn something more about the planned systems for the excess coins woes.
Now, if you've been keeping up with the community comments within our articles, you might already be aware that there was another (short) dev message brought to us around the same time as the Mini-Set reveals started taking shape. Not the best timing admittedly, but then that's also something we are very much used to. In any case, it's still worth bringing up!
Hearthstone Mercenaries Update - Maw and Disorder Mini-Set
Don't expect any great revelations here - this is mainly reinforcing what've been told before. The larger plan is finally coming together, albeit slowly.
Quote From Blizzard The following is being posted on behalf of the Mercenaries team:
We know players are eagerly waiting for some way to use their excess coins. We’ve previously shared that we have a two-stage plan for that solution. We are nearly ready for stage one of that plan. In Patch 24.6, we will be introducing a new system that will let you exchange excess coins for a resource you can then trade for Coins for Mercs you haven’t yet Maxed. In stage two of our plan, this system will also tie into challenging end-game content. We’re excited to share more information about each stage of the plan, closer to when it launches.
In the meantime, Patch 24.4 is just around the corner and it includes tons of new Mercs, new Bounties, and more! Check the reveal calendar for upcoming reveals, and we’ll see you in the Fighting Pit.
So that first notable stage is going to take place either in late October or early November (unfortunately, that means it won't be quite ready in time for the first birthday of the game mode, which falls on October 12). Patch 24.6 will then also mark the announcement of the next bigger-than-normal expansion, if Hearthstone team adheres to their typical release cadence. Exciting times on the horizon... relatively soon (tm).
Upcoming Patch 24.4 - New Mercenaries, Bounties, Something Else (?)
At least in this case, we should know all the answers almost immediately. We'll be trying our best to keep up with all of the upcoming Mercs reveals!
If you recall what happened almost four months ago when Patch 23.4 was set to arrive on June 1 - 18 new characters, 14 new bounties (including the "secret" cow level), and Mystery Treasure as a random option for Heroic runs - then just expect something along those lines.
In fact, we've already learned about some potential numbers with the rumors that Blizzard Japan has issued a press release to certain regional news sites. Such as this one. We only really have approximate translations to work with, stating the following:
- 14 new Mercenaries
- 19 new Bounties
- A new mysterious zone to explore
- Mentions of some visual customization bundle (which could be just special constructed character skins for all we know)
That about fits the expectations, and we've seen such international early "spoilers" prove to be correct in the past. But nothing is officially confirmed until it is there in the Blizzard blog, at least in English.
In any case, make sure to follow along with us and all the reveals if you are interested in what exactly this round of Mercenaries' updates might bring! Some of the content creators teased "the coolest designs they've seen yet".
Quote From Blizzard
- September 26
- All day, starting at 6 am PDT/ 1 pm GMT - Mercenaries Community Discord Reveals
- 7 am PDT / 2 pm GMT – Mercenaries Community Youtube Reveal
- 9 am PDT / 4 pm GMT – Mercenaries Community Twitter Reveal
- 3 pm PDT / 10 pm GMT – Patch Notes
Any particular wishes as to what you would like to see? And how large is your own pile of excess Mercenaries coins at this point?
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
A cynical part of me is thinking
Stage 1: "a new system that will let you exchange excess coins for a resource you can then trade for Coins for Mercs you haven’t yet Maxed"
Stage 2: Exciting and exclusive new endgame content where you'll need to use your excess coins to- what? You don't have excess coins? Why? Oh, you exchanged them for [resource]? Oh, that's too bad... Shop's over there, just sayin'...
Would bigger-than-normal mean more than 135 cards at launch? Weren't they talking about doing four expansions per year and not having mini-sets?
Speculation around the tavern whispers of a Death Knight class being introduced in the next expansion.
I would assume they would do the same thing as with DH and make an initiate set, and give it five extra cards per expansion for the first year, so it would make far more sense to introduce a new class at the beginning of a new year. Before DH expansions had 45 neutral cards, then it was 30 for the first year, then finally 35. I wonder if it would go to 20, then 25, or if they'll start making 145 card expansions. At some point there won't be enough neutral card slots to take away for a new class, and maybe we've reached it already.
There are some fundamentals here that aren't addressed that need be.
Treasures in Mercenaries are horrible, with the vast majority of the options not merely being binary, but being pointless. Some are actively detrimental. This encourages an even tighter adherence to specific comps for PvE.
In PvP, a few comps dominate all others, though there have been good changes made in this area. Matchmaking is garbage (which is hilarious given how they touted the matchmaking system on end) but that will likely be ignored/treated as a feature.
The devs are working to bring the game to basic competence (e.g., deal with coin issues) and ignoring these other problems, which is astounding. Coins should have been handled pre-launch.
Excess coins wasn't an issue at launch coz the Devs didn't realize how quickly players would be accumulating excess coins. So at launch, it wasn't even thought of as an issue
I personally don't buy that. People were pointing out on week 1 of release that not only there was nothing to do with excess coins, but also that there was no protection from bounties and packs giving you coins for maxed characters. Even if you concede that the devs didn't think this would be an issue early on (which is honestly ridiculous because it's such an incredibly obvious problem) it doesn't change that they dragged their feet on providing a solution for literally an -entire year-. That's one whole year in which they allowed a whole game mode to sell an increasingly useless product for real money.
That's an awful look no matter which way you cut it and really gives credibility to the idea that either the mode was rushed out the door before it was ready or Blizzard just stopped giving a shit about it after the lukewarm reception it got.
Why not both?
Guess I don't play this mode enough to feel this pain of "excess coins"
Writing as a person who has been grinding mercs all the way back then, having unlocked every merc, and currently holding 90 unopened packs...perhaps its time to just admit that this game mode has failed and start planning a complete overhaul, like everything.
The game is too linear to ever be fun, too unfriendly to newcomers, and lacking any sort of excitement. The plot is laughable, and as more and more locations are added I'd bet no one actually even remembers what the damn plot was in the first place let alone what's up with the new ones. There's no change in strats, like ever. Tweak as much as you like, we're still going to use the same moves over and over until someone dies, from boredom or otherwise.
The coin change is welcomed, if only because Ive enough cariel coins to simulate what it feels like to live under a Zimbabwean economy. But at this point, having maxed out a good 70% of all the mercs, it all seems to lack any meaning.
Here's to hoping that the bigger than expected expansion actually changes something. Or its going to be yet again fire team all the way, finished in 2 weeks and then another 3 months beating up ferocious quilboar for the millionth time.
Is it though? From a pure pve standpoint (which is the focus of the mode) new players don't have any disadvantages whatsoever. Their bounties are at most going to be just as hard for their first playthrough as for the old players during their first playthrough. In fact it might even be easier for them, because they have access to improvements like the training grounds, instant task chains and more. Plus they can skip too hard zones once they beat all winterspring bounties.
Sure, fire is a extremely efficient comp, but by far not the only one that's capable of beating bounties. For example I enjoy comps like Pirates, Orcs or even Holy (with tyrael as a dps) way more, because I actually have to adapt and think about what attacks I use on who or what Treasures I pick. Maybe you should try out something else if you want to have a bit more fun during your bounties.
On the newcomers comment, that's only really true in terms of difficulty, but its kinda the same argument most players tend to make towards newcomers in regular hearthstone: "just play face hunter/aggro druid/etc." While that is a legit argument, you're still being starve in terms of variety; looking out the window as everyone plays that brand new toy while you're stuck with what's left. The grind may no longer be as harsh, I'll grant you, but still substantial.
Besides, you'll usually get screwed during those special events where completion relies on a more diverse team.
On the second comment, you can play a variety of decks, which I have myself, but in my opinion its not really a change in strats. Just queue the same moves over and over, every match up until the boss. Then things start getting better, but not before 20 min of creeps spamming the same shit. There's no galaxy brain really being employed anywhere, not even with treasure choices; the only way you'd add any semblance of pressure is when you gimp yourself into a specific pattern of play. And then you lose one important merc and down goes that house of cards.
What Im trying to say is that the game is simple, linear, and in need of an overhaul. Variety isn't the problem here, the game is simply built that way, and my opinion is that it need not be so.
I don't think that these skins are for Mercs. The source is about the patch in general and this information was seperat from the other Mercs news. Also the translation mentioned that it's a "class" bundle, further hinting at that these skins are for constructed. I also don't think that Blizzard dares to further monetize the mode in its current state.
As for the rest the patch seems to have 4 less mercs than last time, even though the devs claimed that that patch was below what they wanted because they just shifted to this "one big update every 4 months" model and only had 2 months for that patch. I hope that the 5 extra bounties are worth it. I'm also confident that the new zone will be Darkmoon themed, because a bunch of bosses have been datamined months ago. Plus it would also fit the current Mercs Story, which last time ended with the LoE taking down Ysharj as the 2. old god and a foreshadowing that there is more to come.
You are most likely right, and it wouldn't surprise me. Strange of them to advertise any bundles in the patch news, but perhaps that's the new world order for them.