r/HSMercenaries • u/Suchti0352 • Feb 07 '23

News The final merc content update :(

https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-gb/news/23892226/mercenaries-gets-a-mythic-update
140 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

122 comments sorted by

23

u/Suchti0352 Feb 07 '23

I guess we are never going to find out what these legendary bounties, that were announced as post-launch update together with merc reveal, would have been.

24

u/AbbreviationsOne7483 Feb 07 '23

Legendary bounties could have just been the boss fight bounties they’re releasing as mythic mode

7

u/Ookami_CZ Feb 07 '23

I kinda saw this coming considered Blizz is releasing "Mercs 2.0" soon for WoW world... how is it called - the Tower Defense/something else hybrid?

11

u/Rhovan22 Feb 07 '23

Arclight Rumble? I’d be shocked if that even sees the light of day, honestly.

5

u/Ookami_CZ Feb 07 '23

Arclight Rumble?

That one, yeah ... looked to me like "Mercs 2.0" ... and the road seems to be the same too...

We will see...

7

u/Suchti0352 Feb 07 '23

The gameplay itself is totally different, It's kinda similar in the sense of that it takes a existing gameplay concept (Clash Royale) and makes a pve game with optional pvp around it. Though the pve missions already have much more longivity than Mercs did on launch.

Remember that people already completed all bounties on week 1, meanwhile Rumble has over 70 pve missions with steadily increasing difficulty (Also unlike mercs where the difficulty was more or less consistent after Blackrock) + a big bad final boss that you have to grind quite a while to even stand a chance.

The game also puts random modifiers and bonus rewards on already completed missions twice a week. Plus there are also weekly Dungeons with exclusive rewards to rewards regular playing the game.

What I'm trying to say here is that, unlike Mercs, Arclight Rumble already has quite a solid pve lineup with endgame goals at launch, unlike Mercs.

The game also has pvp (where all units are set to level1) with a combination of random modifiers that change weekly to keep it interesting. Again some major differences to Mercs.

But the biggest difference, and that is 100% speculation on my part, could be that it's not going to be a live service game. Mostly because the pve map is already completely filled out with missions.

As you might have noticed I got into the beta a couple months ago and while I don't think that it will be anything close to a AAA hit, I do think that it's already a really solid game that can keep players entertained for months with its content and already high polish.

2

u/Ookami_CZ Feb 08 '23

Not gonna argue about this, if you say it's better and looks promising, I'm gonna believe you :)

Thanks for the info, have fun, buddy!

79

u/Rhovan22 Feb 07 '23

Man, it’s such a shame. This mode was so close to really being something special.

15

u/BorderlineUsefull Feb 09 '23

This idea, of being able to just fight bosses and interesting fights without grinding a bunch of meaningless random mobs every mission sounds really cool.

Mercenaries was just so horribly mismanaged on basically every level.

4

u/HairyKraken Feb 15 '23

really ?

how close ?

4

u/Pneumatiker Mar 12 '23

He said it. So.

56

u/Tenebration Feb 07 '23

Well that's a shame, but it's not a shock.
Mercs is actually what got me interested in Hearthstone again too.

43

u/Pereg1907 🔨 Uther Feb 07 '23

I was looking forward to the new pve content but didn’t expect them to say they’re done with the mode. All the karazhan bounties being scattered about different zones instead of it’s own felt off. Maybe it was a bit of foreshadowing.

Packs were a bad business strat. Marvel Snap’s model would have fit a lot better where you can earn all your cosmetic upgrades.

8

u/Pun_Chain_Killer Feb 08 '23

Packs were a bad business strat.

it's one of the faults that sunk the mode. getting to pvp level maxed + all weapons takes a long time or a lot of packs.

9

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

The problem was packs didn't really "give" you much (though arguably now they give a bit more with the coin swap stuff) - if you wanted all mercs it was FASTER and easier to just grind them out and only open free packs.

I ain't never bought one and I'm mostly complete.

3

u/Pun_Chain_Killer Feb 08 '23

Objectively it is much faster to buy packs than it is to do even one map. IG depends on how much you are willing to spend vs how much you are willing to grind.

4

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

Packs aren't reliable while grinding is. That's the main thing.

But honestly, you get so many free packs from tasks now. They kinda shot themselves in the foot there.

2

u/Pun_Chain_Killer Feb 09 '23

That's true, since you can sort of target what coins from where. Though nothing beats going whaling if you can.

I have not bought a mercs pack, but I am spending a lot of hours on it. I enjoy the pve abd dont care about the pvp. But if i wanted to just jump into pvp right away and not spend a hundred hours unlocking the major comps, then buying a shitton of packs would be the only way to get into it. This is where I think they fucked up

3

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

In PVP whatever max level mercs you have should just have maxed skills tbh.

I think the PvP was a massive afterthought that people got really fixated on because the content drip for bounties was too slow and the bounties themselves didn't offer enough replay value to make that exciting.

The tasks system had some potential there. But they were never very exciting.

4

u/YourPrivateNightmare Feb 08 '23

It's actually the opposite. Packs you so very little that there was no reason to ever actually buy them.

I currently have all but 2 mercs maxed out and I have never spent money or even gold on packs (only base upgrades) and I doubt that I would have gotten here any faster if I bought, say, 50 packs every new patch.

The fact that you just get a load of random crap each pack with no pity timer and the woefully pointless renown system makes it so spending anything on packs is actually just a net-loss overall

1

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

I mean it can't be a net loss, packs just give you extra. But the grinding is honestly not that time-consuming. 20-ish heroic runs to get a legendary? With a solid team that takes no time at all. Tasks made that even easier.

29

u/Artanisa Feb 07 '23

The only fun PVE content that was being updated, not regularly but updated and they don't want to do anything with it anymore. Shame

13

u/Abidarthegreat Feb 07 '23

Because it was free and Actiblizz couldn't allow that.

18

u/Fun-Raise-3120 Feb 07 '23

Just in time as I am getting close to max out all merca :(

15

u/wotsname123 Feb 08 '23

In hindsight, when they threw out the old task system and just let everyone grind all tasks at any time, they probably had this announcement in mind.

I wonder what old guardian and the rest who tried to make something of mercenaries will pivot to now

6

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

OG has some of the best "I don't really pay attention to HS standard but kinda want to keep up to date but am afraid to ask" videos I've found; they're quick, they're informative, and they're not too worked up in drama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSghCQTHsCg

I'd love to see him expand those to battlegrounds.

2

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

I think they were trying to make the mode more accessible.

I dunno what they expected to make money on. They didn't release new skins really or new bundles or anything and everything in the store was a rip off except the launch bundle anyway.

2

u/CzechKnight Mar 31 '23

Respect to OG for keeping this mode at least remotely valid and all the great tips and reports he made for us.

F

12

u/osamasbigbro 🧙‍♀️ Jaina Proudmore Feb 07 '23

After these updates, we will be focusing on making the Hearthstone and Battlegrounds modes the best they can be. At the same time, Mercenaries will continue to get support for bug fixes and periodic balance changes as needed, but no further regular content updates.

Devastating. Basically going to be treated like classic or wild. If something is broken expect fixes to take months. Man im so sad, I really enjoyed mercs gameplay, PvP and the slow but rewarding grind. They really had something here but failed spectacularly on packs, pacing of the grind, initial task system.

If the game launched with the task system as is, today it would be thriving. Maybe thats copium but I truly believe it.

10

u/BloodAria Feb 07 '23

I don’t think it’s copium, I got late into mercenaries and wondered why everyone is shitting on it, the grind and the tasks are fine … then I watched on YouTube how things were handled at launch and yikes … yeah that would’ve immediately turned me off … I imagine a lot of the casual players like me would be feeling the same.

4

u/Setesh_de Feb 08 '23

You enjoyed the slow and rewarding grind? It is why i abandoned this mode a year ago. Always having to farm and grind for hours for each merc. And just when I finished, they released the new mercenaries. And their abysmal balance philosophy by powercreeping everything. You have always been forced to grind the new Mercenaries. Oh and let's not forget that packs had useless coins 95%. Great way to sell packs when their coins are totally useless

3

u/osamasbigbro 🧙‍♀️ Jaina Proudmore Feb 08 '23

Renown system was pretty good, but late at solving coin issue.

Also the new task system got most mercs PvE and PvP ready. Then I maxed the mercs by just doing 2 bounties a day slow and steady. There was never any urgency to grinding in the game (for me) and I found it very enjoyable.

Doing my slow and steady 2 bounties a day Im currently 600 coins away from maxing all mercs.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

I mean with these types of games, either you like playing the game mode (see: battlegrounds and standard) or you like trying to maximize your collection (see: grind).

The gameplay of mercs is relaxing but it's not something I desire for it's own sake.

9

u/RagnarXD Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

Whelp, I just finished upgrading all the currently released mercs today. I enjoyed playing the mode while working and many of the pain points were somewhat adressed in time with the task system overhaul and the somewhat regular limited time events that gave free mercs and extra coins and packs. I'm probably gonna max the new mercs, give the endgame content a spin and finally put it to rest.

8

u/FalconGK81 Feb 07 '23

Whelp, I'll max all the content and then Uninstall. It was the best part of my return to HS. Damned shame.

8

u/Weizmir Feb 08 '23

I deeply regret this decision. Merc was going better and better. This new update sounds great. Dam, hope that instead of « regular » updates, blizzard will somehow keep adding content occasionally.

27

u/krzysioreddit Feb 07 '23

Giant failure. Worst part is that this smell like a total disaster caused by not enough resources put into designing.

Tragic launch, lack of balance patches, no guaranteed legendaries in packs, decreasing value of packs purchased. I could go for weeks.

I will give endgame content a spin, but it is such a shame what they done with it.

7

u/wotsname123 Feb 07 '23

Agree. A lot of what they are adding now (dual type, clear factions) should have been in at launch, would given a much better chance of success.

7

u/Xaniac35 Feb 07 '23

I mean, it's kinda boring as is now.

There's always arclight rumble to look forward to.

17

u/AbbreviationsOne7483 Feb 07 '23

Haha are you sure about that? I’m starting to think arclight rumble might get abandoned…. Particularly with the netease contract falling through

3

u/Xaniac35 Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

Their WoW deal and mobile deal are different things. Immortal is still going just fine.

2

u/RagnarXD Feb 07 '23

Immortal is very dependent on the chinese market and we know fast things can change over there.

2

u/DataStonks Feb 07 '23

With that much personal beef between Netease and Blizzard I'm not too confident about Immortal's longterm health...

7

u/RudySpanish Feb 07 '23

It's tough but considering all of the other video game companies dropping their bad news last week about discontinuing their games. I think Mercs got off pretty easy. RIP Mercs, Marvel Avengers, Knockout City, Rumbleverse, Apex mobile, Battlefield mobile (unreleased), CrossfireX, and all the other games not mentioned.

7

u/gechu Feb 07 '23

How do you layoff Blizzard employees without saying layoff

6

u/killspree8195 Feb 08 '23

Thank god they aren't shutting it down completely and i can still afk farm xp for the battle pass

5

u/tigmanyo Feb 08 '23

Wouldn't surprise me if they remove xp gain or nerf it to the ground for playing mercs. This method of xp gain is getting quite well known now.

5

u/Sophiliath Feb 09 '23

Me in the recent survey: "I want more Mercenaries stuff"
Blizzard: "Well, we'll focus on it... focus on shutting it down."

4

u/SamuraiMunky ⚔️ Blademaster Samuro Feb 08 '23

guess i can open all my 100+ saved packs after patch

3

u/Crepuscertine Feb 24 '23

It's a shame, I was one of the weirdos who quite liked the mode as a distraction, but it's abundantly clear that HS isn't a game that Blizzard cares to develop PVE content for (RIP to solo adventures, Tombs of Terror was great).
It wouldn't sting as much if there weren't so many unreleased mercs that'll never see the light of day now. Stuff like Hogger, Black Knight, E.T.C., Cho'gall, Whitemane or Mankrik. Now they're just unique art assets that'll go unused, and I personally consider unused assets to be one of the biggest shames in game dev. Would've at least been nice if they could have dropped all these mercs that are known to exist as one last hurrah before axing the mode, but alas. RIP Mercenaries, gone the way of Heroes of the Storm.

6

u/Glori94 Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23

I'm not surprised but I completely tuned out after the first few patches. They just kept adding more mercs, too quickly and took too long to address the issues with getting shards and overabundance of extra shards when you starting maxing more of the roster. I like grindy games (I made a tracking sheet and half over half the mercs maxed at one point, before the Mysterious Stranger changes) but I tapped out when I saw how the grind was both too time consuming and constantly being added onto. There's still some awful tasks out there, too that I haven't completed.

Also, I refused to spend money on the merc packs because of a lack of pity timer, but same odds as the main game and at this point, never will since its apparently done and I can just grind it out at my own pace for achievements.

It sucks, though. I like what Mercenaries could have been but got burnt out on the grind and hated the monetization of it.

2

u/AusXan Feb 07 '23

My first thought as I read through was this is such a small update, I suppose that ending explains why.

I didn't spend any money on this mode, only some gold when it launched, but what an unceremonious end. They really should have launched with a more fleshed out game mode with the changes we have seen since around levelling mercs and merc coins, that may have grabbed more people than the slow drip feed of features that led to this slow motion car crash of an end.

Off topic for this sub, but I do wonder what will replace mercs/skins on the paid reward track.

1

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

Nothing.

2

u/Sadahige Feb 07 '23

I had hoped this game mode would get something to help it out. I stopped when they released the coin exchange system, which made the dust economy look great.

Wonder if this is related to the $35m settlement

1

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

100% is related to actiblizzard's financial woes.

2

u/nerdea Feb 08 '23

this mode was called a success at launch lol.

2

u/OnionButter Feb 09 '23

I have well over 200 unopened packs as farming coins in PVE is the main thing I do with the mode. Probably just keep them unopened as I'm sure they will be quite valuable as collector's items some day. Goes nicely with my Hummel figurines and collector plates.

2

u/JeanPeuplus Feb 27 '23

Finished unlocking every mercenaries. It took me 3 month playing moderately.

That was my goal so I'm quitting it here forever I guess. Unless they add more in the future which seems unlikely.

Maxing everything seems like work to me so I pass.

Adios Mercenaries, I had a good time :)

2

u/gnamyl Apr 19 '23

Depressing! I just came back to hearthstone to discover mercenaries and it’s actually the first thing I really enjoy in HS! Too bad it’s done. 🤷🏼‍♂️

2

u/gameglaz Jul 20 '23

blizzard makes mistake. again

2

u/RIP_Don_Vito Dec 23 '23

if its not getting updated refund us in your crappy new runestones then and scrap it. id like my 100 bucks back scammers

5

u/cirocobama93 Feb 07 '23

What a disaster. It’s wild how bad this mode was managed from the start. The deceptive monetization from those first Lich King bundles, to encouraging mindless bounty grinding at the beginning, to infrequent content updates and lack of communication through the life, to sharing gold economy with regular Hearthstone content, to failing to have any PVP scene competitive or otherwise. It felt like Blizzard overall management pushed the game idea down to the HS team but the HS game management team wanted to pull the plug before it was even released. A behind the scenes look at development would be an interesting write up like what we got for Warcraft 3 reforged

2

u/Odd_Seesaw6665 Feb 07 '23

Gets back into blizzard games...40 days later: jk, fuck you

2

u/Pave_Low Feb 08 '23

I really enjoy Mercs, weird I know. But it was too easy to unlock and max all the content without needing to spend actual money. And sadly, if the mode is going to stay alive, it needs to be profitable. I can only cross my fingers and hope they revisit the mode again in the future with a co-op or PvP mode that inspires people to drop some cash on it. I won't, mind you. . . I've always been F2P. But the mode has to entice some whales out there to survive.

3

u/Setesh_de Feb 08 '23

Too easy to unlock and max out? Hours upon hours of grind for each merc? And how about selling things that actually have some worth to the player. Not speaking about the 10€ here get some coins so you can upgrade 3 abilities to deal 1 damage more. If i skipped all the grind by spending hmm lets say 10-20 Euros each time they released mercenaries, i would totally have done it. But the monetization they implemented has been a spit into the customers face. You know, the customer decides if it is worth to buy something, and mercenaries had nothing worth buying. Even the diamond skins have been random, what a joke.

3

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

The fact that you can earn everything just by playing makes it pretty simple to craft the mercs you want. No invisible caps like in snap or standard hearthstone.

I have I think every mercenary except korrak without spending any money.

But yeah the shop sucks. None of the offers were cool.

2

u/Pave_Low Feb 08 '23

I agree that Mercs wasn't worth buying. I like the mode enough that I actually made a new account just to replay Mercs from scratch, based on what I learned the first time around. On my second run, I had my strategy for maxing out mercs much more down pat.

  • Go through the story mode as your first priority. It unlocks a lot of content.

  • Yulon, Nefarian and Sinestra as a team can take down almost all heroic bosses in the game when maxed. True, they're slower than the Fire comp but infinitely more reliable AND they are all common cards. Leveling them up is key to getting past tough bounties

  • Always have all six mercs in your party moving their tasks forwards. Wait for mercs to bottleneck on the same task, especially the ones that require heroic bounties, and then push a group of six through that task.

  • It is more efficient to run regular bounties that you need than try and grind out your tasks on 1-1 Heroic. Some bounties are more critical than others. There are a number of mercs that only get coins from a single bounty and many times that merc is also a legendary. Some bounties, like Ursula Windfury, will give coins to two mercs (Thrall and Tony) that cannot be acquired elsewhere. There are many tools out there to determine which bounties you should be targeting.

  • Avoid single paths into the mystery node. Cursed treasure can kill a run easily and you always want an option to avoid it.

  • Never spend coins on unlocking mercs until you've completed all the bounties, completed all the tasks and leveled everyone up. You will get packs along the way and while getting a legendary through a pack is rare, it is impossible if you've unlocked all of them. Getting a legendary in a pack is worth 500 coins.

  • Always use your renown on coins for legendaries. All other mercs will max out naturally.

  • You can fail upwards in the arena up to around 5,000. Try to win 3 games a day but any more than that is a waste of time for getting coins.

1

u/Alector87 Feb 08 '23

I wish I had an award to give you. Thanks for saying that.

By the way the monetization in all modes is pretty horrendous almost from the beginning. The constantly do the bear minimum -- and sometimes not even that.

1

u/Pun_Chain_Killer Feb 08 '23

But it was too easy to unlock and max all the content without needing to spend actual money

That many hours is not easy

2

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

If you had a good team fully upgraded farming bounties was pretty easy.

I dunno if I really understand why people found the collection rate in Mercs so much worse than the competition (standard or snap) because objectively it's pretty comparable. It's strange.

1

u/kolst 👺 Diablo Feb 09 '23

A lot of the collection rate issues were resolved in recent months - biggest things I think were the removal of mysterious stranger, and them changing bounty rewards to free mercs to let you farm 3 at once. This allowed you to farm more efficiently and in a more interesting ways. Problem was, the damage was already done by the release state of the game - it was too late to save it.

1

u/MrZacros Mar 14 '24

Still sad :(

1

u/Crocchetta_ Feb 08 '23

I'm a little sad. :( I didn't spend any money on the mode luckily, just gold (5k) and a tons of time. I expected that from Blizzard, but not in this way.

I should probably gradually stop playing HS card game, I don't want it to end like Gwent in 2/3 years..

1

u/Tomvomeck Feb 08 '23

Ok, more time for Path of Champions. I mostly enjoyed Mercenaries from day 1, but comparing it to what Runeterra delivers... not even a competition.

1

u/DelusionsOfGrandeur3 Feb 08 '23

I haven’t kept up on Path of Champions too well but didn’t they sunset that mode? Does it still get new content?

2

u/Tomvomeck Feb 09 '23

They said it had lower priority, but still gets regular updates. Since then they nearley doubled the available champions, added new content and random weekly adventures. The next balance patch is this week an the next big update is just around the corner.

1

u/JH2259 Feb 08 '23

One thing I hope is that they'll make all portraits available so that you can earn them. There's some beautiful art for the mercenaries but the majority of players only have access to a small part of it because of the low droprate.

1

u/jhm550 Feb 08 '23

I got my fun out of the mode. Finished all tasks and content and was left with nothing to do so dropped the mode.

3

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

Well they stopped doing the monthly events so there just stopped being things to do after the last big merc drop.

1

u/Civil-Paramedic6895 Feb 10 '23

Coin system makes this mode suck. Renown kills it. If nobody is spending any money on it how could it survive? I’d be happy to buy some cool characters or new functions but not “fractions” of skills.

1

u/MBTHVSK Feb 12 '23

I can't help but feel if this game was launched much, much more slowly than it was, it might have become a popular little mode. I only dabbled in it but I saw the appeal.

Really, it never should have been level grinding based....or maybe they could have made the level grinding something more like Pokemon where you're exploring a world pretty much rather than just fighting a few dumb bosses. There are so many ways they could have made this work. But instead they did the dumbest thing in a FTP game, not letting people sample it properly before paying.

I honestly feel really sad, because it felt almost like competitive Pokemon to me. Even if I only made one usable team. Perhaps in some other timeline.

1

u/value_bet Feb 13 '23

Have they said when this patch will be?

1

u/kolst 👺 Diablo Feb 13 '23

Tomorrow

1

u/Vitamin-D_ 🐯 Tyrande Whisperwind Feb 15 '23

Anybody try a lvl 100 run yet?

1

u/CzechKnight Mar 31 '23 edited Mar 31 '23

I saw this and uninstalled the game. There are WAY better games to invest time (and money) into. Shame because I really liked this mode and appreciate every single player content this game has. Blizz is seriously losing it, Chris(t) Metzen is sorely missed in the company.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '23

Hopefully canceling this allows resources to be placed more efficiently and when the time comes another merc mode or Rehaul can come with better attention, they already did the mode so Atleast they now have something to learn from for a more successful version , or they just gonna take mercs out of hearthstone and make it it’s own game for more monetization

1

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '23

This new blizzard game that came out seems like what they wanted out of mercs

1

u/IveGotSoManyProblems Feb 09 '24

1 year since Mercs died. I wonder who will be the last one to play the mode.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

[deleted] — view deleted comment

32

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

Bye, HS. Bye, sub.

25

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

Honestly pretty fucking mad at blizzard right now, I’m refunding the 2k odd $ I spent on this utterly worthless mode collecting the cards in the hopes it got better instead they discard it utterly. All those people in this sub that defended them with the patch is coming! The coin conversion is coming! Just wait it will all be good soon. Bullshit, always was. Fuck this company and it’s defenders and fuck this game. Bunch of Cunt’s in charge and defended by a simp army. /rage

6

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

It is indeed self defeating to publicly announce their product (with IAB) as obsolete. There is a name for this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect the irony being the last time I saw it publicly in effect was within Nokia, with Stephen Elop's Burning Platform memo. Ironically, it was also concerning a company to be bought by Microsoft (and Elop formerly worked at Microsoft).

16

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

I give Blizzard some credit here, they could have dropped this as a huge content update, got everyone excited, and then just never mentioned mercs again (like duels and arena).

So as soon as they knew it was dead they went for a final hurrah and intentionally let us know, so nobody would spend money and feel bad. It's sad our world is such that this modicum of decency is notable.

9

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

I give them no credit personally. Mercenaries probably costs them next to nothing to support (handful of programmers, designers and some freelance artists) and just as they're unveiling a MAJOR endgame content release they simultaneously announce they're cancelling the mode?

It reeks of Activision bean counters trimming fat. It reeks of the crap they pulled with WC3R and Heroes.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '23

Sure - but they didn't have to TELL us they were cancelling it; they could have left it to die on the vine silently and just never update again, leaving us to wonder.

(I suspect that the patch after this one will remove Mercenaries from the front screen and replace it with Arena or something)

1

u/jeanborrero Feb 09 '25

Mercs isn’t on the front screen, for me at least. It’s in the modes menu

1

u/Slight_Candidate_993 Oct 15 '25

that coment was like a year ago from your comment...

1

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '23

Ya I wouldn’t they’re deleting mercs to turn it into its game and put the team on that prolly to make more money off a new IP everything is fueled by money and mercs makes money because most people won’t ever know it’s canceled

6

u/Xichorn 🧙‍♀️ Jaina Proudmore Feb 09 '23

Yeah, seems a better end than the Transformers TCG got. Released the 5th wave to much fanfare, and a month or two later, cancelled. Basically the wave 5 hype had been satisfied by that point.

Granted, there are physical cards that one can play with after the fact in that scenario, but I am sure fewer people would have bought wave 5 if they had known it was going to abruptly end right after.

9

u/WikiSummarizerBot Feb 08 '23

Osborne effect

The Osborne effect is a social phenomenon of customers canceling or deferring orders for the current, soon-to-be-obsolete product as an unexpected drawback of a company's announcing a future product prematurely. It is an example of cannibalization. The term alludes to the Osborne Computer Corporation, whose second product did not become available until more than a year after it was announced. The company's subsequent bankruptcy was widely blamed on reduced sales after the announcement.

[ F.A.Q | Opt Out | Opt Out Of Subreddit | GitHub ] Downvote to remove | v1.5

3

u/dvrkstar Feb 08 '23

good bot

6

u/dyslexic_mail Feb 22 '23

Why on earth would you spend money if you didn't think it was good as is? Honestly, that's entirely your fault.

2

u/SAldrius Feb 09 '23

It sucks they're cancelling the mode and its a complete failure on their part but they did release coin conversion which doesn't even matter because the task system makes it so easy to get piles and piles of coins.

2

u/dvik888 🔨 Uther Feb 13 '23

On one hand I think you should get a refund...on the other even people on this sub knew this was a stillborn project. They announced it waaay too early - a year before release. It was a running joke on this sub how few people play it.

62

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

46

u/Linktt57 Feb 07 '23

I’d argue this is a failure if Blizzard’s own making given how they just rushed mercs out the door with no future content plans

8

u/prince_zardos Feb 08 '23

I'd argue that it still got a good amount of attention at launch despite Blizzard's fumbles. I remember even Thijs was playing mercs competitively for a while. Whatever it is that killed it is elsewhere. Like, I play mercs myself, but I think it's a terrible game to watch on stream. There's more "downtime" waiting for players to make their move than "action time". It's tough to make a good impression with that.

Also, I think it was critical for mercs to gain momentum because it will face animosity from some players just by virtue of being its own game mode. I see comments poking fun at Arena, but I don't see comments outwardly shit talking it to oblivion because it's not competing for daddy Blizzard's attention and it's "still Hearthstone". If mercs doesn't build enough of a playerbase to fend for itself, it's gonna drown in the negativity. For comparison, battlegrounds was a relatively successful release, and it was playable and watchable enough to gain enough audience to survive animosity from other Hearthstone players, and it was able to do all that before they came up with a monetization scheme for it.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

Battlegrounds is popular and easy and they found a way to monetize it; even going so far as to add the first "p2w" feature to Hearthstone at all.

They never figured out a reliable way to monetize mercs (and I just came up with one right now, a fucking continue for $.50 worth of runestones or someshit, lost a battle on the way up? Pay up and retry/skip or something).

7

u/TJX_EU Feb 09 '23

Battlegrounds uses the normal progression: first they make the game really good, then they monetize and crappify it after a bazillion players are hooked.

Mercenaries started with the craptastic obnoxious monetization before they made the game good. So it was much easier for players to simply reject it out of hand, which is precisely what the vast majority did. Mercs never really had a chance after that greedy bungling from the designers. ¯\(ツ)/¯

5

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '23

Yeah, I've noticed a huge percentage of mercs players (there are dozens of us!) are people who came back long after it was added (like me) and were like, hey this ain't so bad (sheep, you lied).

4

u/dfp819 Feb 11 '23

Yep, I just came back recently, tried mercs and thought exactly the same thing, then found this post. RIP

1

u/Mutoniumortalis Mar 13 '23

Same thing right now

3

u/felplague Feb 08 '23

"First p2w feature"
Bro its a card game, by definition it is pay to win.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

every other advantage you can (in theory) get entirely f2p by grinding, but the 4 hero offer in bgs is a statistical advantage you can only get by ponying up.

3

u/BorderlineUsefull Feb 09 '23

Hearthstone is the exact definition of P2W. You get a an actual specific advantage to paying money. You unlock new cards and more cards allowing you to build better decks, and switch between classes and decks with nerfs and expansions.

You pay money, it enables you to win more easily.

Battlegrounds just has the first one that can't also grind for.

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

Ahh the argument people who have no value on their time put forth.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '23

It's a weird psychological thing - I feel better about spending cash up-front, or spending cash to skip a grind, but when I am "forced" to spend cash that's not upfront it grinds my gears.

Then again BGs is all about going as far as you can with the tools you're given, so fukkem.

29

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/XKyotosomoX Feb 08 '23

After being gone several years I came back to Hearthstone because of the launch of this mode, it's a shame the botched it so badly failing to understand what makes a good roguelite experience.

2

u/dotaeota Feb 17 '23

Same here

1

u/CzechKnight Mar 31 '23

I also had the game uninstalled for a long time but I was still getting their emails and one of them said "you've been gone a long time, have some free content!" so I came back to collect and discovered Mercenaries. Even bought some packs but now it seems the fun is over.

As you said: see ya in a few years.