Hearthstone Mercenaries; How PvP matchmaking works

The developers provided some useful insights on the PvP mode alongside the launch of Hearthstone Mercenaries on Tuesday. There are two ideas at the core in the new system, the first one is that the ratings are calculated based on the player’s skill over time or the equipment level and ability or mercenary level. The other one takes ability, rating, equipment levels, party roles and mercenary level in account. This ensures that the matches are played fair and have a calculated queue time. 

Ratings

The Hearthstone Mercenaries PvP system has two ratings, the internal rating and the external rating. The player’s current skill level is the internal rating as these figures do not change at the beginning of every season and it is calculated post the placement initial matches. However, these figures cannot be viewed by the player and it gets adjusted based on how frequent the player is playing or if the player is taking a break from PvP mode. 

The external rating gets reset at the start of every season and can be viewed by the players unlike the internal rating. The figures can come closer to the internal rating based on the number of games a player has played in the season. However, the internal rating is considered for matchmaking whereas the leaderboard shows the external rating. 

Levels of Mercenary

The mercenary levels play a significant role in terms of matchmaking and rating updates. The PvP system allows the players to pair up with the opponents having the same mercenary levels, keeping in mind that the player might have low win probability if they pair up with an opponent of high mercenary level. However, a formula is used to calculate a level score if the player has been paired up with someone of higher mercenary level. 

Equipment and ability tiers

The tiers of abilities are taken into account in every mercenary and an ability score calculates the strength of mercenary abilities. The ability score has a less significant role if the players and opponents are at the highest level. 

The tiers of equipment are determined with different parameters as compared to the tiers of ability. It is not important for the players to have their equipment paired with the mercenaries. 

The developers of Hearthstone Mercenaries monitor the matchmaking system and rating as well. For more tech related news subscribe to our YouTube Channel if you haven’t done it yet.