IIRC stands for “If I Remember Correctly” and I just got my 5 packs. Bunch of portraits thanks to me having all rare mercenaries but I got them.
There is so much a diminishing return on packs that past a certain point they are effectively worthless.
That said this format has to be the most mishandled one I have seen. So poorly explained as to be at pig in a poke levels in pre-release
Poorly handled pack mechanics (portraits should be counted as cards and they aren’t)
No “merchant” to convert one Mercenary’s coins to another
Announced a fighting pit that given how fast mercenaries level is going to be effectively useless.
True, but as bad as it is, RSL does have things mercenaries does not:
An option to convert one piece of equipment to another (yes it is crap but at least it is there)
Daily “don’t have to do anything” award just for logging in
Every 30 days for the first 6 month you are guaranteed to get a reasonably powerful character to level.(rather than diminishing returns on each pack you buy)
You can have multiple versions of the same character on your team (rather than skins for your characters)
So it is more on the level of ‘what do you want in your burnt coffee?’
Split packs for portrait packs and token/card packs
Ad draft/arena mode to grind coins in PVP instead of PvE
My brain is like: I can grind coins for cards I have but I won’t grind coins to buy a champion I don’t have (consider it, because there are more ppl like me)
U have huge potential because of your player base and u waste it. U can’t say mercenaries was a success because other games don’t have that huge player base and u can’t compare to them. Check how many players play this mode compared to for example registered accounts or active accounts not vs other games. U write about hours of play compared to what? U have the biggest player base on the planet and this mode decreased it and your “smart” policy is like earning as much as possible till players get tired of the monthly, pointless, boring grind. Maybe it is good in a short distance. I predict this mode will be never competitive. It will die like duels when a stupid crowd realizes that they have to repeat this grind every month every expansion, doing the same hand ravaging. If not your hearthstone player base this mode would be already shut down. Guess everything u launch will be eaten by the crowds, no matter how tiring, exhausting and bad it was. I really thought this mode has a future, but it seems like companies want to milk money from players, cancel the project, launch another game/mode, milk money, and repeat.
Illidan worst legendary card for years, worst hero in Heroes of the Storm, worst hero in BGs and now worst merc. They are just doing it on purpose at this point.
Smite is better than Grommash and he’s a junk rare. Grommash seems like he was designed as a epic first, then changed to a dead legend. For f2p low coin 50-300 legends vs 2000 coin rates feel like a downside.
the system doesn’t feel good win or lose if you open up a legendary you can’t level or lose until you do the semi tedious grind to max tasks to get 1000/2000-2500 coins to max, but some mercs are indeed playable on 1x lvl 5 move and one gear. You just might have a one dimensional diablo that can only stomp but not apocalypse that well, and ditto with a cairne that can only endurance aura well and not much else. But a grommash? Oh yeah he’s almost unlevelable junk tier trash. For all intents and purposes samuro is the real f2p legendary with rare coins to make his power legendary and people should be bad he didn’t get f2p killed with a 1/5th income reducing ‘legendary’ tag, unlike in other games, unless you’re a whale, apart from abilities, limiting coins and only having 1/3rd to a fifth the coins is almost pure downside. All abilities equal for the first 10-50 hrs or more of each mercs gameplay, all abilities identical power level, legend scarcity and rarity is a 200 coin vs 2000 coin downside you must grindatholic to overcome in a mode with 1-5 minute player PvP quest that instantly concede or play the op comps against you with no player matchmaking whatsoever. 2 xyrella + samuro != diablo cairne
There’s no way this isn’t the biggest issue with Mercenaries mode. Multiple maxed Mercs means sitting around with a ton of coins that you can never do anything with.
Whatever coin dump that is created should be similar to in game coins used to buy packs. Usable in 100 coin increments so we can buy things with the coins we have.
drop the game man,
you know it’s bad, just let that ship sink.
i can mention every RPGmaker and the worst RPGmaker game out there still have better gameplay value than mercenaries mode.
this is comparison of worst RPGmaker game VS mercenaries :
Mercs :
spending 20 hour to see incremental damage from 8 to 9.
Worst RPGmaker game i found :
spending 20 hour to see incremental damage from 100 to 2000
everything else is the same :
no story related content
no replay ability value which means once you finish it, there is no reason to play that game ever again.
just grind / make your character stronger.
the only thing good about mercenaries is the fighting pit [multiplayer option],
and it’s seems to be dead from hotfixes.
i would totally recommend other games if you only play PVE part of mercenaries.
you might want to check mercenaries fighting pit to check if you enjoy it or not before abandoning it.
in case if you don’t enjoy the fighting pit, then might as well get better alternative.
in case if you love the fighting pit, then good for you and enjoy your game.
Agree, ton of useless is really negative reponse from gameplay. And their review of design said, it’s not a issue in their agenda…And they suggest us “play” some game… what a batch of useless. Arrogent. Never listen to players…
More over the coin dump in PVE doesn’t even follow what the chests say.
" Earn some coins for the Mercenaries in your party plus a random one of the following:" (three sets of coins appears)
I forget how many times I have taken an unmaxed team through and only gotten coins for one of the Mercenaries in the party and the rest for what is in the chest. That is not what the statement says.
Similarly I have many rare without all the portraits (which are shown as cards before you turn them over) and yet times I would get all coins.
"Each Mercenaries Pack contains at least one Rare or better Mercenary Card until all Mercenary Cards are collected from that rarity tier."
But portraits are displayed as cards ergo they are cards. So this isn’t following the rules set forth either.
After a bunch of weeks experiencing the PVE content I have to say it gets utterly boring and repetitivly.
And for this the coin issues (farming and getting them) is only the peak of the iceberg.
The character building needs more depth. Why you cant choose your third or fourth ability by yourself? Obviously it does exist a pool of class specific abilities. If we would get to choose and swap one the mercenary abilities the game would instantly win a whole new dimension.
The game needs altering bounty runs. Surprising events, more complex paths and (somehow) meaningful choices during the runs like fighting an elite opponent in order to get that fat treasure.
Why dont add cool events like taming elements with thrall by activating totems during a fight or hunting big beasts with tavish? The adventures (Blackrock, League of Explorers, Naxxramas…) from the past years shows us the developers are able to tell light-hearted stories during the matches.
The treasures and rewards should be somehow meaningful. Equipment has to be shareable between your mercenaries. Introduce normal, epic and legendary equipment pieces to find as treasures or in packs would do the job. Of course they can be upgraded. During the bounties you also can find potions with various effects.
Many rogue-like games offer a currency thoughout the bounty run. Maybe we could add some kind of bar tender Bob or merchant in the end of each bounty offering a range of rewards (quests, equipment, coins) at the end or in the middle of a bounty run.
I know it’s been touched on a few times in this thread but I’ll throw some fuel to the fire: Overcapping Tokens on Maxed Mercenaries.
From a consumer standpoint, if the biggest method for progression is going to be packs, issues really crop up the more you max mercenaries. Because packs reward you tokens for anything, once you start getting to a point where–let’s say half of your mercenaries are maxed–packs become a really risky way to progress your mercenaries. Understand that this is predicated on PURCHASING packs with money, not f2p gold.
Logically, the situation presents as such:
Packs are the fastest way to obtain tokens.
There is no duplicate logic in packs or resource to convert excess tokens.
The more mercenaries you max, the more “useless” tokens you accrue.
The more you play the game, the more mercenaries you max.
//Therefore: The more you play the game, the less value you get out of packs.
You can still grind f2p to progress your characters; it’s just an incredibly slow and unpleasant experience for mercenaries such as The Lich King or any of the newly added mercenaries that are ground at the highest level bounties. The idea of capitalizing on a time saver is completely fine to me–packs SHOULD help you save time. What they SHOULDN’T do is essentially be a gamble, which at the current point, they are to those who spend the most time playing. The more you play the game, the less appealing packs are as a purchase, and this is a huge concern for me as I’m not particularly sure how this translates to the long term success and health of Mercenaries.
I am sympathetic to the tremendous amount of work required to implement a solution to this issue; I am however concerned by the messaging relayed by the Blizzard team on this. I would think that making sure your consumers WANT to purchase your goods/services would be priority #1 for any company, and for Blizzard to be vague about how/if they want to address this issue leads me to think that perhaps the true ugliness of excess tokens eludes them.
Anyways, sorry for the rant–just a person that was pleasantly surprised by Mercenaries and wants to see it succeed.
Based on the recent patches, I don’t see any reason to return any time soon.
Doesn’t look like anyone has learned anything from previous attempts at “balance”, so Ranked is a waste of time. I played 15 matches so far today. Had to take a break from it because I’m tired of seeing the same 2 decks over and over. 7x Face Hunter, 7x Aggro Druid and 1 Pirate Warrior (tossed in for flavor?) made for a very boring morning.
We all know Quest Mage is the real problem with Ranked, right?
Mercenaries looks exactly like I expected it would by this point: Repetitive grinding for nothing. PVP is not enjoyable at all. Whether versus AI or live players, the queues are long. Every match is determined by the first merc to die. They wrecked this mode when they swiftly nerfed it after release. The task system is all screwed up. The XP is bad. The bounties are boring. There’s minimal story and zero depth. No replayability unless you like grinding the same bounty over and over again. The short-sighted cash grab gameplan failed hard.
I’ll check in a few days when FiAV releases and see if anything interesting comes of it.
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