Heroes of the Storm

[Alan]

It sounds like they are having a hard enough time as it is with matchmaking, not just in QM where they have to take the pre-selected hero into account but also in HL, where they only need to worry about MMR.

[Dave]

Double XP week! Don't think I've played a QM or watched a full game on twitch in a month.

Just grinding gold away for no reason!

[Alan]

How much gold do you have now?

[Dave]

A bit over 80k on main acct and 75ish on XP acct. Working on getting Artanis to 10! Got Tyreal to 10 on the XP acct so bought Illidan to level to 10 next. Pretty fun to dive into random stuff and murder everything every once in a while then let Autohotkey do its thing!

[Alan]

Autohotkey?

[Dave]

It's a "free, open-source macro-creation and automation software for Windows that allows users to automate repetitive tasks." Essentially, I just tell the game I really really want to just attack their core and spam my abilities without actually touching the keyboard/mouse. http://ahkscript.org/

I'm sure there are bots out there that can actually "play", but would rather just feed the AI some XP and get to level 20+ when I come back, turn off AHK, and kill some stuff after speccing up to a random level 20 talent! Usually I make my "main" account rejoin around level 15 if I'm paying attention and then just push core once both are in-game. You need to be actively rejoining to get XP/gold, so I don't need to time it exactly correctly, it just wastes time since you'll be "waiting for results" more. That is why the first hero I bought on the XP acct was Abathur since I could just possess myself (AI) and just spam all 3 skills in a general direction like their core... but when they added Beginner AI, it would end games too fast which was good for the annoying "play 8 games" but bad for if you just want the most XP for doing the 3 game dailies.

[Jonathan]

HotS: not just for having fun any more!

[Dave]

I got an hour after waking up before work to watch the local news, browse the web, check some streams/scores, and play some games. Gotta multitask if I want to do 3xHoTs games in an hour for the daily!

[Alan]

I like your definition of "playing some games."

[Jonathan]

Regeneration Master
Vampiric Assault
Rapid Fire
Ult depends
Stim Pack
Lock and Load
Nexus Frenzy

This is good but it's a late game power spike, like old Ignite-KT. By getting survival talents early, you're basically delaying your threat level. And, since regen does essentially nothing until ~ten minutes of collecting globes, you're really vulnerable early game.

But man, doing 3000 damage with each Run'n'Gun every 8 seconds after 20 is lethal as hell. And you're self-healing >500 through that, too. It's a nightmare for the other team to deal with unless they apply blind, which obviously shuts this down.

The internet confirms my sensation that Odin is a damage nerf for this build, which is fucked up.

[Jonathan]

We just need to practice using comms. Not only shotcalling and target calling, but sharing map awareness. There were several points last night where I was seconds late because I didn't know what was going on.

I really like Diablo with double mage. Burst damage is the best sustain.

[Jonathan]

I bought Murky because they're never going to make him free and I wanted a new specialist! Time to go murk, die, and murk again.

[Jonathan]

Slime Pufferfish Rewind Pufferfish Octograb is a lil bit too much button mashing for my old man fingers.

I leeroyed into bots for an entire match and lost with 7 deaths. I can do bots with about 1.25 deaths after practice. Still lots to learn! I do not like bubble build, which is fine because pufferfish and slime builds are both better winrate.

[Jonathan]

https://youtu.be/HU26fececxQ?t=50

DK vs. Na'Vi

Really interesting draft and game on Haunted Mines!

[Alan]

That was a pretty incredible comeback.

[Jonathan]

https://mobile.twitter.com/DustinBrowde ... 4632123392

Shit, you have to play 150 games to be ungated by game count in the matchmaking. I'm at like 75?

[Dave]

https://youtu.be/HU26fececxQ?t=50

DK vs. Na'Vi

Really interesting draft and game on Haunted Mines!

Quad warrior comps next!

The hoverboard is awesome btw:

[Alan]

From what I'm hearing/reading, Artanis is going to be more of an Illidan kind of hero, where he can be very strong if in the right comp. I could see myself enjoying him. Maybe.

I've played him a few times and do enjoy him. He has the same playstyle as Sonya, but in terms of timing for entering an engagement he's a little more similar to Illidan since he is a good deal weaker than Sonya. He does a lot of damage if you stay alive for most of the fight, and his laser beam is really nice, both for damage and zoning. If you put it on their main damage dealer it takes them out of the fight for 8 secs (or kills them), which lets you deal damage a bit more safely. His phase prism is not an engage, it's best for displacing someone during a fight, either to put them into an AoE effect or to prevent them from escaping. His Q can be used as a finisher, but the main purposes for it are to lower your shield cooldown (which is pretty much a required lvl 7 talent for him) and for getting out of range of AoE effects. His W and his autoattacks are his primary damage source (along with the ult).

[Alan]

Artanis is a fucking boss. Really fun playstyle.

[Alan]

https://youtu.be/HU26fececxQ?t=50

DK vs. Na'Vi

Really interesting draft and game on Haunted Mines!

Quad warrior comps next!

The hoverboard is awesome btw:

That mount makes me wish I had preordered LoV even though I would never play it.