Hearthpwn

- merged thread -

Blizzard never really accepted that keleseth was 'badly designed' they just accepted that it made it made people salty. From their point of view it enabled Timmy to win games without directly saying "Timmy wins the game", based purely on RNG. Hence we see it back in the game again, and yes, on steroids.

Constructed hearthstone will never, ever move away from this design style. It has been clear now for some time. No amount of complaining will change it, even if it did turn out to be in many competitive decks and so nerfed in the future, it would be only temporary until they print more cards just like it, or atleast cards that have a similar result on the game. They want idiots to win 48% matches. That is just the way it is.

This is why Battlegrounds and Arena are better modes.

Quote from ArcyroX >>

damn Vanessa looks fine :P

 Cleavage isn't woke enough for Bliz these days, but goddam if their new approach hasn't become 'thick thighs save lives'

Quote from BroF1sT >>

Big B is looking shaky, all this Hatred and Outrage are headed towards the man in the driving seat, hope his resignment from Activi$ion gets announced in the upcoming 72 hours. Guys, this is actually HUGE; I can gladly deal with any card delays for such a fundamental change for Hearthstone's future. The weekly cosmetics greed and disaster modes like Mercenarys NEED to stop and soon.

https://www.wired.com/story/activision-blizzard-employees-done-with-ceo-bobby-kotick/

https://www.polygon.com/22786117/activision-blizzard-walk-out-bobby-kotick-resignation-demands

 

 You honestly think they'd be any better with a new face leading? They aren't going to give the job to a 'gamer'... it's gonna be another suit without morals, or interest in art or the industry...just more $$$. I mean, I don't know who leads EA or Ubsioft, they all behave the same way...glossy skin deep PR, while churning out products with zero artisitc integrity (there are exceptions every so often, just not very many of them).

The endless skins kinda suggest they are desperate, but they clearly aren't because no one is buying this shit for one jandice skin.

 You don't need to stay on tier one to do well with DIablo, no idea if that is optimal or not, but the hero is straight up powerful. Not altogether convinced he's that fun to play either, strategy just seems to be to make sure you are strong for raid turns so you get a full set of upgrades, then you use them to level safely, he doesn't feel as unique as he should, somehow reminds me of deathwing (who is totally boring)...oh well.

You want to know what it is?

When they first released the questlines last expansion Warrior was close to the bottom with a sub 50% winrate. They had to buff some of the pirates just try and get it over 50, which they achieved...I think it settled around 54%-55% prior to the mini-set.

The reason they (Blizzard) went all in is because people were actually playing the deck a lot prior to the first round of buffs... Reddit and sites like this one were full of complaints about how shit it felt to play Questline warlock and mage. And yet people were still trying to play questline warrior, a terrible deck at the time, in large numbers.

Blizzard recognised that they had actually stumbled upon a fun deck ("holy shit boys, we haven't done that in while!"), and so promptly set about turning it into a broken one for the masses. The irony being that more stupidly broken it gets the less fun it is to play.

Quote from FortyDust >>

Quote from Psy_Kik >>

Mercs will never be patched and balanced like a normal game - it's a Gacha - that means balancing will largely come in the forms of new insanely power-creeped content designed to directly counter the most powerful content from the prior period. Forcing all players to keep up, enabling new players to jump in, as the old methods/characters are suddenly useless, no matter their level.

 ... so, exactly the same as Hearthstone.

 Yes, but even more egregious.

Mercs will never be patched and balanced like a normal game - it's a Gacha - that means balancing will largely come in the forms of new insanely power-creeped content designed to directly counter the most powerful content from the prior period. Forcing all players to keep up, enabling new players to jump in, as the old methods/characters are suddenly useless, no matter their level.

The game mode doesn't need balancing as a priority anyway IMO, it needs features - it should never have been launched in it's current state - compare to Darkest Dungeon where all your charatcers are indivduals with personality traits that shift over time...how they all have gear slots and therefore loot on your 'runs' actually matters. I'm sorry but Mercs is paper thin in comparison. New zone and all you get a colour hue shift, that says it all. Bleh.

Why the hell would I ever 'farm' anything in this mode without also a chance at some kind of loot? Where is the upgrade system in this game? Why do the characters not have gear slots, why do they not have personality traits that adjust over time? The whole thing feels paper thin, how am I supposed to find grinding in this expereince fun or rewarding?

This mode is two inches deep, and not especially wide either. I've already had my fun with it (a couple of days) I can't understand anyone spending that much of their time with it. If you really like it that much maybe go try Darkest Dungeon or one of the other similar but better titles already out there. Mercenaries doesn't offerenough. If they keep updating it, and adding gameplay elements maybe one day I will try again, but in it's current state its a 5 out of 10 game.

It doesn't stream well - many games don't. The economy within the mode is uber-greedy, with nothing to do with excess coins. I haven't even hit this wall yet, only those who really whaled the launch have I suspect, but knowing it is enough to put me off the grind.

That said, I think the mode is fun to play, as someone who enjoyed games like Darkest Dungeon, it is a more casual version of that with Blizzard flavour.

Artifact went straight off the cliff edge - I don't see this happening to Mercs, its going to bumble along in the background and every so often you'll play some of it, when not in the mood for ladder or battlegrounds, and that is fine with me.

I already consider the mode massively more successful ( and fun) than Duels ever was, even though I enjoyed Dungeon Runs.

There is absolutely no way this was an oversight. It is as they intended, unbelievably greedy, and is IMO the single biggest negative I have against the mode. They have somehow implemented a system that makes the card-dust conversion in regular heathstone look generous. I don't think many of us even thought this was possible.

I had something similar to this revelation about videogames with 'no end' as like a seven year old when playing Everquest. It 'goes nowhere'- 'it achieves nothing' - 'it's pointless' ... yada yada.

Then I grew up some more and realised that almost everything a man does in life is pointless because you yourself are pointless, nearly all of us are. Don't come ranting on here like this, talking like your time is relevant or valuable...it isn't and it never will be. You, like everyone else here are a meaningless one in eight billion. If videogames make you happy then play them, it's as simple as that. You weren't going to be Einstein otherwise. Drop the ego.

Nah. If you consider it new in game content, it's cheap in gold terms. I already had way more time out of the mode than I would have if I'd bought 10 standard packs or whatever with the gold. Essentially they made the single-player experience of mercenaries free, and that is actually quite a lot of content. There is stuff about the mode and the coin system I don't like, but as they decided they were going to charge gold entry free... be grateful they went for a nominal total and that it's not thousands...it easily could have been.