It seems like you can get 330-340 xp a hr afking mercs pve.
o Ranked Hearthstone averages 400 xp a hr at 50% win/lose
o Bgs averages to about 300 xp/hr at 50% win/lose
o Mercs pve is pretty afk and averaged 330-340 xp a hr for pve wins, and 260 xp a hr for pve losses like the other modes.
But you can win 100% of the time in pve even afk, so 340 xp a hr afk seems good.
330-340 xp a hr is about equivilent to 10-11 gold a hr. Not anything major, but it’s pretty easy afk.
(Here’s a list of xp per hr from firestone. The 330-340 xp a hr tested from mercs seems to be between Casual/bgs and ranked.
It might be inflated since it’s only pve wins, but you can win pve 100% of the time if you want to. Pve losses probably average out to 300 xp/hr too if you lost 50% of the time. )
You can end the reading here if you want
(Everything below was just calcs and tests to find it)
== Tests and maff stuff (100% skippable) ==
I did some tests of my own just for fun to make sure.
== Tests to get xp/hr == (Afked matches in air elemental barrens heroic. And then one shot them)
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- AFK 6 min + 10 sec (animation time) at air elemental: = 35 xp = 340 xp a hr PVE Win
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- AFK 20 min + 5 sec = 113 xp = 340 xp a hr PVE Win
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- AFK 6 min + 18 sec = 35 xp = 333 xp a hr PVE Win
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- AFK 20 min + 1 sec = 114 xp = 340 xp hr PVE win
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- 4 min + 10 sec loss test = 18 xp = 260 xp hr / PVE Loss
So it appears you might be getting like 340 xp a hr a merc win, and 260 xp a hr a merc loss, matching other modes. But you can easily win 100% of the time in pve vs pvp, so you can get guarenteed wins even while afking in mercs vs bgs.
10 gold a hour isn’t really a lot, sure, but i think with the weekly f2p xp a week boils down to.
**== Daily quest xp a week == **
( Is equal to = 12,650 xp a week, => 420 gold / week, or 60 gold a day at {50 gold per 1500 xp} after lvl 100. )
Calculations
o 7 x 950 xp (dailies) + (2500 xp + 1750 + 1750 xp) weeklies
= 6650 daily quest xp + 6000 weekly quest xp = 12,650 avg xp a week. (Which, at 50 gold per 1500 xp, ~= 420 gold a week, or about 60 gold a day average.
So it seems like, if you’re f2p you’d be looking at like 10 gold a hr worth of xp afking mercs next to the weeklies being worth like 60 gold a day.
So unless you afk for over 6 hours a day, daily quests are still likely going to be most of your xp, but it can be a nice extra and it’s pretty low effort to afk mercs.
You can use a timer, or just afk until the clock hits either around the half hour (:30) or hour (:00) marks to get the max 30 min xp.
But if you just want to run extra for piece of mind, doing 3 loose afk runs a hr finishing at :20, :40, and :00 shouldn’t be too bad. There’s a xp cap after 30 minutes i hear, so i wouldn’t afk longer than 30 mins.
== Ease of Afk: Minor ==
Unlike battlegrounds it’s incredibly easy to just walk away or do more matches whenever you want. So if you lose track, i’d just one shot the encounter, and afk another honestly.
==(Can afk during stranger grind)==
You can do the heroic air elemental grind, and just one shot and afk any time. This way you can get easy afk xp with little effort.
==( Is it 320 xp a hr or 340 xp a hr? Idk)==
I heard other people report 320 xp a hr, but mine seem to be about 330-340 xp a hr for pve wins.
(I don’t count time on map or loading screens though, only just start of match to the xp pop up, so that might be it.)
Tl;dr Mercs, is ez afk, 330-340 xp a hr for pve wins you can one shot. => 10-11 g/hr. You can afk it during homework/lecture pretty easily.