Mercenary Changes

  Mercenaries got a big rework recently.  I like to think of this more as streamlining them to make them function more like PvP Champions and less like the PvE Characters we'll level up through Dungeons.  Instead of having various powers that grow stronger as you level them up in PvE content, each of them has a charge power that functions like the Champions we current play with, though there are some important differences.

  The first difference is that Mercenaries have a Passive Power that is always active, and functions outside of charges.  This wasn't exactly news since many of the previewed mercenaries had passive powers, however with the new Mercenaries as they've been previewed, the Passive abilities seem much more the focal point: Bebo randomly repairs discarded artifacts, Ashahsa gives you cards when you attack with flying troops, etc.  The second difference is that the Mercenaries previewed don't have the threshold requirements for their abilities like the PvP champions.  This might seem like there is a bit more flexibility in deck building now, but the Mercenaries appear incredibly specific.  The powers are such that you want to build around them.

  Mercenaries also appear to be functioning as the Reserves (or sideboard) element in PvE Dungeons & Raids, where during particularly difficult encounters--though not bosses--you can bring a mercenary with its own custom deck in to fight.  While Cory did mention that you could use them multiple times after you have already beat a Dungeon, the initial challenge is still mostly up to your character.  There's also speculation that they can be used in things like Keep Defense and "Wild-West" style games that incorporate cards from PvE to create an "anything goes" type format.

  One of the ramifications of these mercenary changes is that, since they now mimic Champions, we might see mercenaries released into the Beta Client for testing (which I would very much appreciate).  Though they are still kind of congregating under the "PvE Content" umbrella, the design process and implementation of of them shouldn't be too difficult to get into the client soon, so if we get to cash in out Ashahsa Tokens from the Wheels of Fate or get our Bebo Kickstarter Reward card, it will probably invigorate my desire to hop on hex and wander about the Proving Grounds, or at the very least build some new decks.

  Since I'm going to Gencon this year, I'm excited about getting the chance to grind enough Hex Games to earn a Brosi Buk, a completely new Mercenary.  I love the random card element of Brosi's Charge Power, though his passive is too easy to abuse in Highlander, so he's probably a perma-ban in that format.  Allowing players more options in custom games is also something I'm hoping gets implemented at some point in time during Beta.  I know between Trading, the Tutorial, Guilds, the Doubleback, and other game features, it will be difficult to squeeze all of these things into Beta, but the ability to test the Mercenaries (and multiplayer) is something I think the game would be better for if it was testing during Beta.