Coming into the patch, I had 35 merc packs banked through various means, with the expectation (since I had a full collection prior to the patch) that that would be plenty to collect all of the new mercs, including Belinda, who I was most looking forward to playing around with.
Since then, I've gone through 60+ packs (with the rest bought with gold out of frustration/experimentation) with no Belinda. I did however get two portraits for legendary mercs I already had.
Setting aside how absolutely terrible it is that a cosmetic can prevent you from obtaining something pertinent to actual gameplay, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how wrong this setup is.
The expectation is that you're not supposed to open packs with nothing but coins unless you've already collected everything for a certain rarity. Since I get plenty of all-coiners and -don't- have even all blue portraits, it would be fair to assume that portraits are on a separate rarity track, no? This is clearly, however, not the case, if getting portraits counts against your pity timer for getting actual mercs.
I find Mercenaries very frustrating like most. On the one hand the game play is really good. Yes, there are some balance issues, but those can be fixed. But the grind is terrible and the monetization is atrocious. I also had a complete set going into the new patch, and I had 32 unopened packs saved up. 32 packs got me the 2 new rares and the 2 new epics. I also got a golden Jaina portrait, but no Belinda. I had plenty of gold saved up so I figured to go to around 40 packs to see if I could get her. I got Belinda at 42 packs. In the past I have opened 46 packs to get a legendary which I do not consider that bad but I have seen people say that they have had it much worse. There really really needs to be a pity timer at least at 40 packs. Also annoying that of those packs I got very little coins that I needed for Edwin and Vanessa, the only mercs that I need coins for. Mostly the packs were just a bunch of useless coins.
Please fix this blizzard. I really want to like this game mode.
"Mercenaries Packs contain 5 Mercenaries items, which can include Mercenary Cards, Mercenary Portraits, or Mercenary Coins. Each Mercenaries Pack contains at least one Rare or better Mercenary Card until all Mercenary Cards are collected from that rarity tier."
"Mercenaries Packs contain 5 Mercenaries items, which can include Mercenary Cards, Mercenary Portraits, or Mercenary Coins. Each Mercenaries Pack contains at least one Rare or better Mercenary Card until all Mercenary Cards are collected from that rarity tier."
Um... I mean it turns it into a stack of coins, but you still pulled a merc.
..then the only other explanation is the lack of, or a functionally different pity timer for mercs
It took me nearly 70 packs since my last legendary to get Belinda
There is no pity timer at all.
Like Merc packs suck, and the content got too frustrating to farm, so I kinda gave up on the mode personally. It was fine when I could reasonably finish bounties.
There are no words to describe the utterly shameless their monetarization is. You can buy endless packs to get basically nothing. A few coins. Please don't spend a single dime on Mercenaries, it's not worth it.
The monetization of Mercenaries is not shameless, it's just stupid. The game itself is quite F2P-friendly. If you commit some time to grind in PVE you can eventually get any merc you want max'ed. In comparison, grinding ranked standard does very little to progress your collection and help you craft the deck that you want.
The issue with the current monetization is that game is really really not P2W-friendly as, once you have all of the mercenaries and most of the max'ed, buying a large amount of packs will contribute very little towards you acquiring and upgrading the new mercenaries just released, meaning that the person who spends 50-100$ on packs will have a very small comparative advantage to the F2P guy.
Coming into the patch, I had 35 merc packs banked through various means, with the expectation (since I had a full collection prior to the patch) that that would be plenty to collect all of the new mercs, including Belinda, who I was most looking forward to playing around with.
Since then, I've gone through 60+ packs (with the rest bought with gold out of frustration/experimentation) with no Belinda. I did however get two portraits for legendary mercs I already had.
Setting aside how absolutely terrible it is that a cosmetic can prevent you from obtaining something pertinent to actual gameplay, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how wrong this setup is.
The expectation is that you're not supposed to open packs with nothing but coins unless you've already collected everything for a certain rarity. Since I get plenty of all-coiners and -don't- have even all blue portraits, it would be fair to assume that portraits are on a separate rarity track, no? This is clearly, however, not the case, if getting portraits counts against your pity timer for getting actual mercs.
Pretty sure that's a bug. Portraits come only after you have all mercs of that rarity - that's what I've heard and seen.
AFAIK all-coiners are unlocked when you have all mercs of blue rarity - or should be.
think I should file a ticket?
..except the website won't let me, lol
"You can't submit this ticket.
An error has occurred. This may be a temporary error, so please try again later."
Small indie $69B company.
The portraits did not stop you from getting a legendary merc.
explain, please
I find Mercenaries very frustrating like most. On the one hand the game play is really good. Yes, there are some balance issues, but those can be fixed. But the grind is terrible and the monetization is atrocious. I also had a complete set going into the new patch, and I had 32 unopened packs saved up. 32 packs got me the 2 new rares and the 2 new epics. I also got a golden Jaina portrait, but no Belinda. I had plenty of gold saved up so I figured to go to around 40 packs to see if I could get her. I got Belinda at 42 packs. In the past I have opened 46 packs to get a legendary which I do not consider that bad but I have seen people say that they have had it much worse. There really really needs to be a pity timer at least at 40 packs. Also annoying that of those packs I got very little coins that I needed for Edwin and Vanessa, the only mercs that I need coins for. Mostly the packs were just a bunch of useless coins.
Please fix this blizzard. I really want to like this game mode.
How about when i rolled an epic in a pack and it was a portrait for a merc instead of a new epic merc that I didnt have? That can't be intended
u can get portrait for merc that u have already even if there is a mercs thet u missing and that's sux.
and all that useless coins for maxed mercs, and they keep popping out of rng rewords and packs, fills bad man (
You have a guaranteed merc per pack, but then you have four flex spots which can be *ANYTHING*.
But no matter what your odds are of getting a portrait, your odds of getting a merc in those flex spots is unchanged.
Technically you can, but it's in place of coins, not in place of a merc.
Nope.
"Mercenaries Packs contain 5 Mercenaries items, which can include Mercenary Cards, Mercenary Portraits, or Mercenary Coins. Each Mercenaries Pack contains at least one Rare or better Mercenary Card until all Mercenary Cards are collected from that rarity tier."
..then the only other explanation is the lack of, or a functionally different pity timer for mercs
It took me nearly 70 packs since my last legendary to get Belinda
Um... I mean it turns it into a stack of coins, but you still pulled a merc.
There is no pity timer at all.
Like Merc packs suck, and the content got too frustrating to farm, so I kinda gave up on the mode personally. It was fine when I could reasonably finish bounties.
There are no words to describe the utterly shameless their monetarization is. You can buy endless packs to get basically nothing. A few coins. Please don't spend a single dime on Mercenaries, it's not worth it.
I'm pretty sure that portraits have their own rarity, that's also why they tried to distinguish them more from regular mercs in the latest patch.
The monetization of Mercenaries is not shameless, it's just stupid. The game itself is quite F2P-friendly. If you commit some time to grind in PVE you can eventually get any merc you want max'ed. In comparison, grinding ranked standard does very little to progress your collection and help you craft the deck that you want.
The issue with the current monetization is that game is really really not P2W-friendly as, once you have all of the mercenaries and most of the max'ed, buying a large amount of packs will contribute very little towards you acquiring and upgrading the new mercenaries just released, meaning that the person who spends 50-100$ on packs will have a very small comparative advantage to the F2P guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvmORCCyyA0&t=443s
Even Rarran gave up on this game mode.
Yes, you can farm all day, but it takes a s***load of time to max your heroes.
And yes, what I said, you pay for nothing, it's just not worth giving money for it.
I should be clear, I haven't given up on it FOREVER, but I wanna see improvements before I reinvest time/resources into the mode.