Heroes of the Storm

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Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Alan wrote:Guess I'll be starting form scratch once I eventually get tired of Dark Souls 3
I was misled. They announced a new matchmaking model to be used in all queues, but your existing win/loss record will be input to the new model. They also announced a new unranked draft queue.

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20131413

Drops a week from Tuesday.

Alan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Alan »

Cloud9 disbanded and MVP Black may move onto a different game?

Sounds like competitive HOTS is kinda dying. I do think that the way Blizzard has set up the tournaments makes it difficult to follow; there's a binge of like 24 hours of matches over 2 days every few weeks and nothing in between. LoL has a much more viewer (and probably competitor) friendly structure of weekly league play (each team playing just one match, so there's a relatively clear start and stop time) with playoffs, so even though I don't play League and have no interest in doing so, I've probably watched more competitive League in the past few months than Heroes.

But then League teams pay their players salaries, and players aren't so dependent on tournament winnings. Not going to happen anytime soon for Heroes.
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Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Devs playtesting some changes and getting early feedback on the forums:
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/forum/topic/20745285499

  • longer cooldown on fountain but more health in a regen globe, so you can outplay your opponent in lane
  • longer term, rethinking the role support/healer has

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

OMG, I played against a 5 stack in QM and their Medivh never died. I tried hard to focus him, too. The cock blocking never ends.

Chromie doesn't feel dangerous unless you stop moving. Mewnfare can convince his team to build a poke comp around her but that won't happen in QM.

First impressions of unranked draft: chattier than QM. Abathur was a contested pick. Mages were banned. Enemy team first picked Malf and followed that with Murky/Abathur, so just because you get to draft doesn't mean you get a sensible comp.

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

I leveled Dehaka to 5. I think I will buy him. My games with him continue to be bimodal. Either the enemy team wins in under ten minutes or we stomp them with 2x-3x the number of kills. I have yet to play a close game on Dehaka.

My QM build is always regeneration, essence on takedowns, and Symbiosis. I can't make anything else work.

I bought Chromie. Pretty easy to get the most hero damage with her. Fairly impossible to out duel any other hero. I think she will get a rework so I going to practice my W.

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Free Hero weekend has started. Everyone is available.

I will Medivh you if you Medivh me!

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Vinny's friend Medivhed me!

Pro tip: spam your best heroes in QM for a dozen games, because while your MMR did not reset the uncertainty did. I think I took my QM MMR into dumpster tier by spamming Chromie and Dehaka.

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

OK, I'm still not good at the Chromie skillshots, but I least understand her. She is good at hitting channeling heroes on a map like Tomb. I won Towers last night, even though my team lost most team fights, because I delayed objectives with poke until my team could secure them.

To be decisive, you need good W. The build is:

1 W
4 W
7 center W
10 loop
13 range
16 10% ability power for Q poke + W
20 AoE loop or double Q

With this build you can W waves so you have OK wave clear, which really helps with her weakest area. I suck still at completing the W quest but I am still practicing.

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Dave »

Image
I'd buy this skin
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Nice. I like how he is randomly still skeletal.

I have been playing more unranked. I like drafting but damn the UI sucks. Everytime I try to ban something other than KT (which doesn't require discussion) it is a like a mini game to try to click the hero I want to ban before the time runs out.

http://www.hotslogs.com/Player/MatchDet ... D=79898873

I almost derped my last game at the draft because the first player wanted KT and I couldn't figure out how to select a reasonable alternative before time ran out. His Illidan was a poor replacement for KT on Shrines. Also, for some reason one of our DPS drafted a second healer.

Fortunately, we went up against a no healer team with Lunara and Tracer, so we got Lili and Muradin for Slowing Winds / Give 'Em The Axe. It worked but we didn't have enough waveclear so we fell behind in levels.

We lost all but one punisher until 20, at which point we did not go to the shrine as 5 and lost our wolf. They took a keep with the punisher and advanced on our core 4v5. I went in with Avatar+ Hardened Shield and soaked everything they had, then my team cleaned them up. We won the next two punishers in a row and won.

I will be glad when I get out of the no-healer MMR. I have had one unranked game with 3000+ MMR players, which I lost. Mostly I have played people under 2000 MMR. I try to spam Zag/Xul for easy wins but I wind up tanking just as often.

Unranked continues to be a lot chattier than QM, in a good way.

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/201 ... 6-7-5-2016

Huge talent balance pass to bring less-picked talents up to snuff. Additionally, the regen globe has double the regen and the healing fountain has a 20 second longer cooldown. And minions do bonus damage to structures.

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Actually, Zagara got reworked. Shit.

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

With the arrival of this week’s patch, until the week of Tuesday, August 23, the first 30 heroes who set foot in the Nexus will become free-to-play in Training and Versus AI mode games.

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

https://www.destructoid.com/heroes-of-t ... 6509.phtml

Auriel abilities and some traits. She puts the hope beam an ally and gets a resource based on how much damage the ally inflicts. She uses the resource to AoE heal. I think her heal is supposed to be tuned for burst heal since she can't sustain heal. Sounds fun, but her heroics seem... problematic.

The new Uther talent build is a lot of fun. By 16 you've got burst and sustain in equal measure.
1 Hammer mana
4 Beacon
7 situational
10 situational
13 Hammer heal
16 50% damage protection
20 resurrect

I usually get fire at 7 for the waveclear. The hero damage is pretty crap, but the waveclear is effective. The nice thing about mana on basic attacks is Uther basically doesn't have to b on several maps as long as there is something to smack with the hammer. Just stay out and soak.

My goal with angry Uther is to accompany my front line and use my stun on cooldown. I can do some bodyblocking and peel for squishies, too.

I haven't actually bought Uther but I wanted to last unranked draft I played, so I'm going to buy him finally. I played wind Lili instead and outdamaged their Illidan and Greymane, so, you know, good enough.

http://www.hotslogs.com/Player/MatchDet ... D=81569946

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

New Zag: still very strong but much less scary at level 1. Nydus is now the default heroic. Only get Maw if you have the wombo. I think her builds are not dependent on your comp, just the enemy comp. I personally do not split push because I don't think my teams could handle it.

I like this versus mage heavy comps:
1 E
4 Serrated
7 E
10 Nydus
13 Protection
16 Giant killer hydra
20 Nydus

The 2% health as damage on hydra plus the surprising E damage can burst a squishy before they realize they are in trouble. Protection helps you survive a spell rotation.

Versus melee comps:
1 Q
4 Serrated
7 Q slows
10 Nydus
13 situational
16 Mutalisk
20 Nydus

The kiting you can do with Q slows is unreal. It is a lot of stutter but the rewards are really high. Heal on hunter killer plus mutalisk keeps you alive through an extended team fight. Mutalisk dies to AoE, though, so deploy it carefully or choose expansion.

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

http://thenexusgg.com/tiers/

This is an interesting take on trying to capture the meta dynamically. Obviously hotslogs win rates are similar data, but I don't think they tell the entire story. For example, Muradin is definitely still contested despite his relatively low winrate. This site accurately reflects that. I haven't looked at it before and after a big patch to know how quickly it tracks changes, but hey, at least they're trying.

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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Here's my draft nowadays.

First pick/show:
Xul/Zagara (one is often banned)
Sgt. Hammer (Battlefield of Eternity)
Brightwing (Towers of Doom)

If I don't have first pick and nobody shows warrior, I'll show warrior:
Diablo
Muradin if they are AA heavy
E.T.C. if they are melee heavy
Anub'arak if they are mage heavy
Johanna if I need to peel dive off my backline

If I'm last pick and we don't have heals, I'll heal:
Lili if they are AA heavy
Uther if we need a stun or cleanse (really only versus Mind Control, Octograb, and maybe Mosh)
Brightwing otherwise

If we have a frontline and heals, I'll fill:
Raynor
Falstad for AA and global, not burst
Kerrigan

It hasn't happened yet, but in theory if we wound up with a Thrall or Sonya I could fill with Arthas if the roots would be useful. I have a feeling Arthas is going to be highly contested on the new map, too. I could play Tassadar with Illidan or Tracer. Chromie is my best burst so I'll try real hard not to get stuck with that role, but I'd play her if needed. Apparently Lunara is good on the new map, so I'll probably pull her out then. I don't currently draft Gazlowe, Azmodan, Murky, Sylvanas, or Tracer but I would if asked. I wouldn't draft Valla or Malfurion. The Butcher is getting reworked so I don't even know.

I'd counterpick Leoric into Cho'Gall, Stitches into Hammer, or Muradin into Chen.

New patch today!

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/202 ... -9-13-2016

Biggest things:
Mount speed is 30%, not 40%. You can't be sloppy in your rotations.
Regen globes disappear after 6 seconds, not 8 seconds. You can deny your opponent the globe while laning.
If you play draft (ranked or unranked, doesn't matter), the game will count for all the daily quests you have regardless of whether you played a hero that matched the quest. Now unranked is faster for quests than AI if you have conflicting quests (e.g. play Warrior and play Assassin).
Free hero for logging in. Tyrande, Anub'arak, or Thrall.
Only six maps in the rotation for the next few weeks:
  • Braxis Holdout
  • Towers of Doom
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Sky Temple
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/202 ... -9-19-2016

Another patch next week with a Nazeebo rework. He is now a three talents per tier hero like all the recent designs. They made Death Ritual baseline and put all his heals from Voodoo Ritual into a talent. Corpse spiders is now a proper skillshot (no spiders unless you hit with it). Gargantuan no longer follows you around. His role as a DoT mage with a push component is unaffected.

Malfurion's level 7 Enduring Growth was made almost baseline. They improved his health/mana, healing throughput, and nerfed his health/second on a single target. His trait gives cooldown reduction on the target. This means he could solo heal while also having Cleanse, mule, or the damage buff on his root.

Chen has a hero-specific amplified healing that triples in performance while he drinks.

ETC had his main build taken away.

Diablo can't choke slam the DK or plant. Boo.

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Alan wrote: But then League teams pay their players salaries, and players aren't so dependent on tournament winnings. Not going to happen anytime soon for Heroes.
http://us.heroesofthestorm.com/esports/en/news/20271292
Blizzard is throwing down. Heroes Global Championship quals start in November.
the players on the top eight teams in each region will be contracted and guaranteed both compensation and regular competition

Jonathan
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Re: Heroes of the Storm

Post by Jonathan »

Jonathan wrote:
Uther if we need a stun or cleanse (really only versus Mind Control, Octograb, and maybe Mosh)
I need to add Temporal Loop to this list. I threw a game as Uther against Chromie yesterday because I didn't pick up Cleanse.

I actually drafted Tyrael yesterday! We won. We had first pick Morales. They had Chromie, Valla, Xul. I got some value from Sanc versus Temporal Loop, slowed their Valla with Imposing Will, and was never threatened by Xul. I went too ham on their backline, though. The game was closer than it should have been. I should have peeled Valla off my Morales more.

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