Good news to everyone who has been waiting ever so patiently for Hearthstone to release their hyped Mercenaries mode - we have a date - sort of.
In today's chaotic announcements, some may have glossed over the new Year of the Gryphon roadmap that Blizzard posted. This update puts the Mercenaries mode solidly in Phase 2 with a definitive statement that we'd be seeing the mode, finally. Of course, nothing is ever perfect so it could always receive more delays, but we're hoping that the mode is on its final polish and we'll get to play some Mercs soon.
The exact timing of the mode is not confirmed yet, though we do know that Phase 2 should last until late November or early December so we've still got a little over 4 months to go until they reach the deadline. Honestly, I'm expecting to see it sometime after the mini-set, if it doesn't come out alongside the mini-set in the middle of the expansion cycle. Mercenaries will be a great way to get players back into the game and excited about Hearthstone when it gets to that slow part of the expansion, which is why it is so important for Blizzard to release engaging content.
Speaking of engaging content, we've got plenty of fun to look forward to during Phase 2 as seen on the larger roadmap. Nothing too outside of the ordinary, though we remain curious if Tavern Brawls will be getting some love.
We don't know a whole lot about it yet but there was recently a survey some folks received we managed to get some details from. Are you looking forward to Hearthstone's Mercenaries mode?
Comments
seeing them proudly displaying "Tavern Brawls" as a major key point makes me sad.
I am looking forward to Mercenaries, hoping it's going to be a good one!
Hearthstone is...fine, I guess - kind of tired of it at this point - and I like Battlegrounds, but I want Mercenaries. Seeing it delayed is annoying, but hopefully that means there's a solid product waiting at the end.
I mean we've all been playing it for going on 7 years now. It's actually kind of amazing that we all enjoy it still (or at least I hope so). Think about how many games many people pick up play, and then never play again as soon as the new "hot" game comes out. (I.e. FIFA, COD, Madden, etc). I actually like the fact that I consider Hearthstone one of my core games.
Sure my play time waxes and wanes with my other gaming interests, but I always end up coming back (in a healthy way.....not like in an unhealthy WoW-MMO Addiction way haha).
I do wonder if the game is gonna get revamped or new code though. At this point they have to be encountering some serious coding issues and it often seems like with the multiple game modes they've tried (Arena, Duels, BG's, Solo Adventures, and now mercenaries) that maybe starting over fresh with "Hearthstone 2" and cutting the bad modes (Duels is just a better Arena mode for example, though I still enjoy Arena for it's "sealed pack draft" feeling.
It might be worth mentioning that they cancled/delayed the "spell locked" feature they previously planned for the third phase.
I noticed it too, wanted to inform everyone, you were faster :)
My guess about why 3rd Phase "spell locked" got delayed...
1. it's the same developer group, that is now working on new game modes (Iksar said in Q&A that there will be multiple new modes). So when Mercenaries got delayed, next mode whatever it might be - got pushed even further.
2. The "spell locked" thing was just a "Mercenaries update".
Either way, sad that it got delayed this much. New game modes are a thing that is still keeping me playing and hoping for more.