Hearthstone Mercenaries: Mysterious Stranger Appearance Rate Changes
Blizzard just nerfed the most reliable way to get Tasks for your Mercenaries, which was the easiest way to gain their most powerful Equipment and the Coins needed to upgrade them. Progress on these things will no doubt slow down considerably. This change should already be live.
Quote from BlizzardWe are adjusting the appearance rate of Mysterious Stangers to be based on the relative level of the strongest Mercenary in your party compared to the suggested level of the Bounty. This move is to encourage people towards more engaging gameplay instead of repeatedly taking on low-level Heroic Bounties with highly over-leveled Parties.
The tasks were pretty much the only way to consistently get rewards for specific people. They have absolutely been nerfed.
They could have "hotfixed" increased rewards for other missions. They didn't. They know exactly what they're doing.
This game mode is toast.
You still get the tasks, just move on from Barrens to Felwood. From what they say, if the level of your strongest Merc is close to the suggested level you still find the Stranger coin. And you feel a bit less like you're playing some ridiculously easy s**t just for grinding, since a lvl30 mercenary can solo a Barrens run, so if this pushes away people from doing that the game might actually look less grindy. Of course the communication is bad as always, and they could have setup some form of compensating for players who were doing that, maybe like increasing the Stranger coin chances if you run on the actual level you should be playing with your team.
Uh, no, you very reliably get four tasks every day at the upgraded campfire.
I think it feels a lot better to play the game for fun and stop being so obsessed with OMFG MUST REACH MAX UPGRADE ASAP
Oh, boy! Daily Millhouse and Grommash tasks!
I should have said reliably get Tasks for Mercs you WANT the Tasks for and not random ones.
If you have all the Mercs or even most of them, and have not done all the Tasks for them, then there's a chance you get them at your Campfire. So that makes it you have a handful of Mercs who;s Tasks you want and 50-ish that you can get one from.
I don't want random ones. I want the specific ones that I need the Task 7 equipment for to make them a viable bring on the higher level bounties I'm now forced to do.
Blizz purposefull balanced things around the Task 7 Equipment being very good and vital for many Mercs. They should nto be surprised that people are therefor clamoring for ways to get their hands on them.
I honestly only have 1 Merc at max level Tasks done. Most of them I'm fine doing whatever with once I have their Task 7 Equipment. But getting to that Task 7 level is so important.
That is why we need a reliable way to get Tasks.
It would be Nice if they allowed us to choose a bundle of 4 task with the log in like un duels (when u choose cards). Like that u can more reliably single out a mercs task.
Which is there, if you read. Just stop sending your lvl30 in ridiculous Barrens runs and move them on to Felwood. Which is a bit more like playing and the fact that fights last more than one turn kinda makes some tasks actually quicker to complete.
I completed all the normal bounties with zero task 7 equipment. Just sayin'.
I play merc and enjoy it. a lot.
Give it a try, people. Once you andvance you must think, plan, suit your party with some good ones and some "beginners" to adnvance
or end a task. Then you end with a smile, most of the time.
It is not auto pilot mode. and that's why i like it.
Advance many types/classes, get familiar with the rulles (who doubles who), plan your party and adjust your minions againt those in current battle.
Merc is interesting fresh way to play. Good job Bliz.
Do you guys still playing Mercenaries? KEKW
I think the change is the right one, the problem is they didn't do any compensations on other areas. One of the things they should do is put 2 of the options in the level 30 paths to double the chances in 1 run. The other thing they NEED to implement is make it so daily tasks can not be above level 7 if you have other options that are lower. Getting a level 10 task from the daily refill is stupid.
Honestly I am only playing mercs till next mini expansion...and then I will just play it one off..
I understand the intent of the nerf and I somewhat agree with the IDEA of it.
But the reason people were doing it is because it is the ONLY way to reliably get Tasks.
And Tasks are vital, not only to progression but to the FUN of the game too, because they force you to actually play with a variety of Mercs, instead of just your best ones over and over in order to get Tasks and Coins.
We need a reliable way to get Tasks, to keep progression going and to keep the game fun and varied.
And keeping the game fun and varied is why they did this nerf in the first place, so finish that train of thought and implement a better way to get Tasks so the game stays fun.
"This move is to encourage people towards buying more coin bundles"
Fixed.
If you REALLY can't play anything harder than Barrens. Otherwise you can move on to Felwood and still get your Stranger coins.
This will skew pvp pretty badly for people that haven't already farmed task 7 weapons. Players at the top have the advantage of better gear and ability levels due to grinding these events. Now players will be unable to reach those levels of growth without significantly more time investment.
Why 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 experience feels paper thin, how am I supposed to find grinding in this mode fun or rewarding when there is no depth and very little personality? Even the backgrounds when you move from area to area just change the colur hue and that is it, it's kinda pathetic.
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 more of their time with it. If you really like it that much go try Darkest Dungeon or one of the other similar but far better titles already out there. Mercenaries doesn't offer enough. If they keep updating it, and adding gameplay elements maybe one day I will try again, but in it's current state its a half-baked 5 out of 10 game.
with reason yesterday out of nowhere I did not find a single mysterious one, a shame because since the game came out I have farmed like crazy and I have several characters at max level and I thought to continue farming for the others but now it is as if they had removed it because since yesterday no I have had none, the company must realize that this type of movement cannot do it until the game has stabilized and has more fame, with this movement you harm the few people who play hours of hours and take away the desire to play to the newcomers ..
I still found them. I'm using Felwood as a levelup ground and I didn't notice a difference.
That's actually embarassing.
Hey, you only need mysterious strangers to progress tasks, and there are quite a few mercs which really need level 7 equip. Otherwise you go specific bounty run for specific merc coins, and I daresay that for any legendary coin you need to face level 30 encounter (so the same probability to get the stranger).
What's all this fuss about?