Heroes of the Storm

[Alan]

Code: Select all

	   Tomb of the Spider Queen	36	00:22:18	72.2 %
		Infernal Shrines	20	00:18:16	65.0 %
		Blackheart's Bay	29	00:22:02	62.1 %
		Battlefield of Eternity	27	00:23:43	59.3 %
		Dragon Shire	38	00:22:20	52.6 %
		Garden of Terror	29	00:24:45	51.7 %
		Cursed Hollow	33	00:20:50	51.5 %
		Sky Temple	38	00:17:53	50.0 %
		Haunted Mines	32	00:21:05	43.8 %

Looks like I'll never get to 50% on Haunted Mines.

[Jonathan]

Butcher is definitely fun but even with practice I die too much against AI.

Well, this is still true. I'm savvier at initiating but I fail with brand too often. I'm pretty sure I need to alter my ability rotation (been taking Invigorate for the stickiness) but right now I fail at The Butcher too hard to buy him.

Meanwhile, Thrall's winrate has skyrocketed on Hotslogs. Might buy him during the everything's 50% off sale for Thanksgiving... I think a lot of the warriors' winrate increase is due to being picked against Cho'Gall (who has the worst HL record of all time). I don't really think the scaling changes affected Anub'arak's relative strength. I think that's Cho'Gall effect. Might be that Thrall is in that same boat, since he's got Giant Killer. Thrall won't be free this week, unfortunately.

[Alan]

I heard that the new scaling has really helped him. I might pick him up as well over Thanksgiving since I seem to like melee assassins.

Meanwhile Jaina's fallen below 50% for the first time that I can remember.

I've been playing Sylvanas almost exclusively lately. I really like her kit overall and her playstyle, though I do wish she had a little more talent diversity. It seems like the only real choice for her is at level 1. Valla plays very similarly to Sylv in terms of mechanics, and she's fun because you can build her in such distinct ways.

[Jonathan]

Ok, theorycrafting for Battlefield of the Eternals QM, because I struggle with Diablo on that map. Normally, I gather souls w/Firestomp talents and then steamroll, but the early objective and lack of laning in this map makes that build suck.

Devil's Due
Soul Catcher
Battle Momentum
probably Apoc
Siphon the Dead
Domination, possibly IP if needed
Lord of Terror

Strategy for this build is to win the last immortal fight around level 17-20, which is usually decisive on this map. If we win earlier immortals, great, but hopefully with Soul Catcher + Devil's Due I can prevent a complete curbstomp which is all that is really necessary, because immortals with weak shields go down pretty fast in the early game. With Domination+Battle Momentum, I should have a CC train going for picking off enemy heroes in the battlefield. Siphon the Dead is necessary for some kind of sustain, and I just have to mash it on cooldown.

Apoc is pretty good with the twisty terrain on this map, and the bunched up heroes, and it gets better with BM. Lightning is a good choice if we need more damage.

I didn't do this. I did:

Devil's Due
Soul Catcher
Battle Momentum
Lightning Breath
Firestorm
Rampage
Hellstorm

If I really wanted Domination, I'd probably pick up Life Leech instead of Siphon the Dead since it doubles the procs of Battle Momentum. Not sure I really want Domination. Apoc probably would have been good for messing with their Morales, but I did zone with Lightning Breath in our decisive 3v5 engage around our immortal so our monk and fish could catch up before the enemy could collapse on us.

Anyway, I completely forgot we had monk on our team and played the same as I do without a support. I don't play with supports enough, much less 2 support vs 1.

I definitely could have initiated on their Nazeebo after we popped Lili for another early pick at level 1, but I was really absorbed trying to time Artanis's blade dashes and stun him out of it.

[Alan]

That monk was pretty bad, he wasn't really playing him as a support. It would be forgiveable if he had specced for damage and played him as an assassin, but he didn't do that either.

[Jonathan]

Utility 11 63.6 %
Bruiser 8 62.5 %
Siege 20 60.0 %
Tank 27 55.6 %
Healer 12 41.7 %
Sustained Damage 6 33.3 %
Support 4 25.0 %
Burst Damage 0 0.0 %
Ambusher 0 0.0 %

New! At Hotslogs.

http://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TeamCompositions

Double tank + healer is bad, but double tank plus Tyrande or Tassadar is good! Ambushers are bad, unless you comp for them with double mages, in which case they are good.

Also, Tyrande + Tassadar is great, but either plus healer ain't so hot.

Ambusher are OP on Dragon Shire, if you back them with burst damage. Sustained damage is the name the game in Battlefield of Eternals and Cursed Hollow; you can also sub in siege. Shrines is a 2x siege or siege+utility kind of map. Blackheart's, you should mix your siege and burst or sustained and burst.

[Jonathan]

The interesting thing is that tank, healer, mage, sustained dps, and siege does have a slight advantage (~52%) if you comp it, so that's the most common comp. Substituting Kerrigan or Zeratul for the mage has bad odds, though.

[Alan]

Seems that in general solo Tass or Tyrande does quite well.

[Dave]

I was close to buying the Wrath Sonya skin, but $3.74 is so much!

[Jonathan]

Shit, I don't know what I was thinking with Valla. I should have played Murky with your Thrall!

[Jonathan]

My goal is to break 150 QM games before December so this stuff quits happening.

Likely going to end the month close to 120. Boo. I'm really looking forward to playing on teams that have an average MMR that is the same as mine. So close.

[Jonathan]

Bob Ross Fan Club had a very peculiar game on Dragon Shrines as their last game of Enter the Storm yesterday. They lost every single Dragon, killed one (I think) hero late game and then marched straight up into the enemy keep and took keep+core. Enemy split defense and base rush. The enemy got wiped on defense and couldn't base race fast enough vs. BRFC's 5 man core takedown. If the enemy had committed to one move could have turned out very differently.

Also, pros are 5 manning a tower in the first 30s before soak.

[Alan]

Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova

She's actually pretty good now, and I have to say, pretty fun to play. Especially since they got rid of her worst map.

[Dave]

Heh, so the current drama is about the "Recruit a Friend" for a Vulture bike mount! I still have a WoW RaF to select (already have the 2 player rocket mount!)

I bet that will be the next RaF reward, a mount 2 people can ride!

[Alan]

I bought Lunara, she's pretty fun to play. Don't know how strong she will really be or what her optimal build is but it seems like she has two very different playstyles depending on what ult you pick. With Thorns you are committing to a poke playstyle and spreading your DOT on the whole enemy team, with Leaping Strike you do pretty good burst damage and are impossible to escape from. In either case using her wisp effectively is essential; kind of like Zagara's creep. She is really squishy, so you need to be protecting your flanks with vision.

[Alan]

We should do Nova-Murky duo queue. Two of the most annoying heroes in QM to play against.

[Dave]

Murky is actually pretty fun to play... against AI! Actually like all 3 of his base skills.

[Jonathan]

Got Lunara to 5.

I feel more effective on her than Valla, but the stats don't usually reflect that?

I'm definitely not sure how to build Lunara. Hotslogs is no help because her win rate is abysmal.

[Jonathan]

I won a game on Battlefield of Eternity with Diablo's standard build! The secret: Johanna on my team.

[Alan]

I tried a game of Murky before he went off rotation. He's pretty fun! I might have to buy him at some point.

Otherwise I'm pretty much sticking to my main roster: Tyrande, Nova, Sylvanas, Jaina, Sonya. I'd like to get better with KT and Raynor, and keep my Kerrigan skills up though so I'll probably play them a bit more. Probably Thrall and Artanis too. I got Kharazim during the sale but don't really enjoy him that much.

I think playing too much Nova hurts your play with other heroes a bit; it did for me when I tried playing other heroes again. I don't think stealth is so much a crutch as it is an otherwise inapplicable advantage. Since she has no escapes and is so squishy, positioning is still very important for her; however, the way you position is a bit different in that you sometimes want to be in a less optimal position and throw a decoy in the optimal spot to make the other team think you're where you're not. Her inability to clear waves or take camps means that you spend more time/energy thinking about where the enemy team is and following your own team around rather than taking the initiative in terms of gaining map control, and it is just natural for you to think in terms of getting kills rather than winning objectives or taking structures head on, since her primary contribution to winning objectives is getting picks or one-shotting a member of the other team and giving her side a 5 v 4. With gathering power, except in the end game it's better for Nova to bail on her team early than for her to get caught and lose her stacks. A fully powered Nova with Rewind can 100 -> 0 targets instantly, so overall her whole mechanic rewards a selfish playstyle.

This makes her fun to solo queue with, but can change your mindset and approach to the game in ways that hurt you when you don't play her.