Heroes of the Storm II: Thread. Augmented. Logical Decision

[Togath]

So I tried the current brawl...
And it actually wasn't too bad~
Was surprisingly dynamic even despite us all being Greymane and there only being one lane(though I'm not quite sure how we managed to beat the enemy team with a 2 level lead and no towers down).

Video's up.
Now I just need to get around to another match today to get the new box~

[Gandariel]

Holy cow it's a LOT of free stuff. I wonder if i'll win something. Looks statistically feasible, actually.

Probably gonna buy the Tychus skin, because it's just really good. Tracer and Stitches are meh.

Question: Are the skins seasonal? Do they disappear from the store after a while?

@All greymane Silver City. I don't like Silver City, but i do love all-same-hero brawls. I once had an only sonya "Attack/defend" map (push payload), it was hilarious.

@ChaosOS Wow, really well written article. I appreciate the fact that his is a framework you're establishing for future articles.
As I said, i don't like the whole "hero roles" discussion, because for every "fix" someone else could say " but isn't X more of a Y", or "this is too many groups".
Anyways, your proposal seems better made than most.
As for the actual placements, the only one that seems "odd" to me is Sonya as a Warrior when Twin Blades varian is Slayer (but you mention it's because of lategame talents)
I wouldn't give too much weight to Talents in the selection, because Talents easily change the "placement" in your system (Falstad can be a Mage, Iron Fist + Seven-sided Kharazim is not a support)

[Draken]

Holy cow it's a LOT of free stuff. I wonder if i'll win something. Looks statistically feasible, actually.

Probably gonna buy the Tychus skin, because it's just really good. Tracer and Stitches are meh.

Question: Are the skins seasonal? Do they disappear from the store after a while?

@All greymane Silver City. I don't like Silver City, but i do love all-same-hero brawls. I once had an only sonya "Attack/defend" map (push payload), it was hilarious.

@ChaosOS Wow, really well written article. I appreciate the fact that his is a framework you're establishing for future articles.
As I said, i don't like the whole "hero roles" discussion, because for every "fix" someone else could say " but isn't X more of a Y", or "this is too many groups".
Anyways, your proposal seems better made than most.
As for the actual placements, the only one that seems "odd" to me is Sonya as a Warrior when Twin Blades varian is Slayer (but you mention it's because of lategame talents)
I wouldn't give too much weight to Talents in the selection, because Talents easily change the "placement" in your system (Falstad can be a Mage, Iron Fist + Seven-sided Kharazim is not a support)

The sprays at least are marked in an "Event" tab, so I think those will vanish. Also event loot boxes. Also increased shard costs for event stuff.

It is the same deal as in Overwatch, probably also going to only be available during the event.

[Togath]

Admittedly, it does feel more like HotS gives us a real chance to obtain the stuff without dropping 50$. To me at least.

[Draken]

Admittedly, it does feel more like HotS gives us a real chance to obtain the stuff without dropping 50$. To me at least.

Well, there are a lot more recolors if nothing else, so less incentive to try and get absolutely everything. But yeah, easier to get more lootboxes in Heroes, specially if you go towards heroes you don't usually/ever play for quick levels.

[Gandariel]

Alright, so I guess I'll be holding on to some dust if I don't get the Tychus skin in chests.

Anyways, about 600k people will be receiving free stuff next month.

We don't know the true numbers, but I would estimate HotS has a few* million players, which means something like a 10-15% chance of winning?

*: My counting follows Heroes of Might and Magic 3 monster grouping, which is the only true way of counting things.

[Togath]

Plus shards+gems seem easier to get than gold in Overwatch(heck, gold is easier to get than gold in Overwatch).
Looking at the sweepstakes, do I need to opt in, or does it auto do it for me? The odds seem unexpectedly good, to be honest, though I don't have super high hopes of winning anything.

[Draken]

There was nowhere to opt in that I saw, the page indicates it is an automatic ballot.

[GolemsVoice]

I'll definitely buy one of the Tychus beach skins if I don't get them in a box. Just too hilarious to pass up on.

[Draken]

And just checked the contest's contract and my country isn't eligible, bah.

[ChaosOS]

Balance patch notes: http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/...2017-6-28-2017

I'll put up a blog post analyzing these tomorrow. Biggest thing for me is Hammerdin Uther got a pretty big buff, and Anub'Arak was untouched.

Also, @Gandariel, I want to give at least a little bit of weight to talents for heroes that can get significant playstyle changes. "Mage Falstad" still has strong basic attacks and is still mostly sustained ranged damage so I feel it's reasonable to keep even that under Marksman. And thanks for the kind words!

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Solid changes.

Genji: some talent rebalancing and hitting his poke, exactly where was needed. Also hit the sleeper powerful Dodge talent, which a lot of people overlook.

Malthael: the nerfs/buffs surprise me. Was honestly expecting some trait-based changes. Instead, they hit Tormented Souls and a couple of other overperforming talents and propped up his weaker talents.

Thrall: Resilience buff, exactly as expected. Some really solid buffs to talents. Little bitty (almost inconsequential) nerf to his Bolt.

Zeratul: while he's not at the highest winrate, Sentenced has definitely been the dominant talent at that tier. Definitely deserving of a nerf.

Zul'jin: 50% damage increase on Guillotine? Did I read that right? Also, Ensnare might work out to be pretty usable now! Which is exciting, because that's a pretty hype talent.

Medivh: really nice buff to Raven Familiar, which is basically unused as far as I know. That's a fine spike to reliability, but can it replace Master's Touch?

Probius: THERE we go. That should be a nerf that brings it (and Probius, since this ult is propping up his winrate) in line.

Brightwing: I remember seeing a request for this change. VERY huge buff at baseline, IMO. Changing Pixie Dust to gain Physical Armor for the duration is also super strong.

Lucio: that's the change I've been wanting to see: add Amp it Up healing back in to make his healing more cooldown-dependent.

Tassadar: the new Kael'thas, but these nerfs were definitely merited.

Uther: whoa, was hammer build really underperforming? WOOHOO even more CDR! Like this is actually pretty huge. Two attacks gets through 5s of cooldown (since he attacks 1/second)...so I think that's pretty much three attacks to refresh your stun. Nerf to Benediction is fair; the triple stun has always been strong on Uther. And Guardian of Ancient Kings was definitely super good against certain comps (like Malf).

D.Va: Man, has Nitrous really been that much of a problem? It's definitely an overwhelmingly strong pick, though. Only other one I pick is the passive speed boost for taking damage, since it's great against fast attackers and DoT characters.

Dehaka: mostly a nerf--although I initially misremembered Ferocious Stalker, thinking it was an AP boost, and this is definitely not a nerf. I think it can be a really strong Enhanced Agility synergy pick now.

[Gandariel]

Yeah, all the changes look pretty reasonable.

@Anub'arak nerfs: Please please please only nerf Cocoon.
Raise the CD, give it some other arbitrary nerf (cocoon loses health rapidly if Anub isn't close?). But please stop nerfing his base kit!

My feeling is that they'll nerf Epicenter again (this time reducing the impact area), and that will finally make Debilitation viable (but not that other awful thing).

Also, I feel anub' is untouched because they want to do a bigger rework. Like, make his beetle build functional, etc.

[Draken]

Things Draken learned this afternoon:

1. Sun's Out Lootboxes do not, in fact, guarantee Sun's Out loot.

2. Silver City Brawl is giving a bog standard lootbox, rather than a Sun's Out Lootbox. Well, as point 1 tells, this is meaningless.

3. In a 5-man Probius team, it doesn't matter who dropped the Pylon/Warp Rift, everyone (on the same team) benefits from the power field (mana/cannon placement) and anyone can explode the rift.

[ChaosOS]

Patch analysis: https://heroeshearth.com/b/chaosos/r...balance-patch/

Most shocking thing when I ran the numbers was that in any fight long enough to get off a second Amp it Up (6 seconds with Up the Frequency), UtF overtook Rejuvenescia in pretty much all scenarios.

[Gandariel]

Great analysis! Just read it on the train.

I don't really play any of the affected heroes, so I don't have many strong feelings about them.

Question: isn't Primal Swarm still the best talent for level 13 Dehaka?
Your write-up focuses more on the other two, but frankly I've never even considered picking them when Primal Swarm is so consistently strong and versatile.

I like how they handled Malthael's nerfs, although tbh I feel they're not gonna be enough.

Happy to see the support scene being shaken, although I don't really play support (except for Auriel, cause she's awesome)

[Lunix Vandal]

Zul'jin: 50% damage increase on Guillotine? Did I read that right?

Almost -- base damage was increased, but the maximum low-health bonus damage was decreased. Post-patch Guillotine should be strictly better at high health, while dealing the same damage as pre-patch when you're at 1%.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Stukov spotlight is up! It's...really not what I expected from Stukov.

Some really potent support abilities, though. And oh my word the ults look hilarious, especially Shove. Maybe a little too goofy for Stukov? Dunno.

[Gandariel]

Well, he got the Kerrigan treatment.
A common complaint is that HotS Kerrigan is not very loyal to the character. It looks like the developers read "Queen of Blades" next to her name, and then just made the hero kit around that without reading anything else.

Similarly, it looks like they read "infested" next to Stukov, and then just made the hero about that.

(In Starcraft, Stukov is all about summoning hordes of very weak minions).

In any case, his mechanics look very interesting and fun. Overall he looks like an awesome hero. I like all 3 his abilities and his trait.
The push ult is gimmicky but probably terrible (you have to keep channeling while you're pushing the enemy, right?). The other one is... Basically a worse Gust.

Overall i'm happy. Cool hero, cool abilities. Also a support, which is neat.

[Draken]

Well, HotS Kerrigan is fairly close to the Kerrigan you play in the "Supreme" mission of Heart of the Swarm, so its kind of as good as they could do? She doesn't have the heal, obviously and got her combo instead of the dash. And also melee. Ok, all she kept is the Q.

And Stukov's forces are all about that. Stukov himself only shows up as a pretty generic hero unit in the other HotS, so they really didn't have much to work with there. Working him around a theme of pestilence does fit somewhat and reminds me a bit of the first Skygeirr mission, when we "meet" him and get infestors.

[Spore]

You can't make Stukov a tower specialist/building infestor - since that is Ragnaros' niche. You can't make him the Zerg summoner because that is Zagara. You can't even give him infested Terran aircrafts because that is Raynor.

He is probably a nod towards the players requesting a new healing support to shake up the supporting scene a bit. I will probs buy him day 1 so they are successful in that way.

[Keltest]

Indeed. While I wouldn't have called it, the zerg are all about regeneration and infestation, and I am in need of a new support to learn.

[Togath]

I honestly don't know much of the lore... but he looks really cool visually! Like Mr. Bison crossed with alien tentacles.

[Silverraptor]

I was sure stukov was going to be a ranged style Xul, summoning infested terran and the like. So I'm torn. On the one side, I do not like the direction they went with his character, as it doesn't really fit at all. On the other, his kit seems really cool and fun to use. Is this what it feels like to hate and love something at the same time?

[Gandariel]

I vaguely recall hearing the devs saying they regret putting so many summoners in the game, and that they'd like to refrain from putting more for a while.

Given so, Stukov's kit does look really fun, so overall I'm just happy.

I'm 99%sure his shove ult will see no play, which is kind of sad because it looks super fun. The other one is still pretty decent anyways... Better than Brightwing's ult, worse than Gust.

[Spore]

I vaguely recall hearing the devs saying they regret putting so many summoners in the game, and that they'd like to refrain from putting more for a while.

To push Starcraft Broodwar and Starcraft 1 there could have been so many fun heroes but they chose the one that screams summoner. As Artanis is basically a giant zealot they are probably waiting for Fenix to be released as his Purifier self. With Warfield's niches taken care of by Hammer, Tychus and Raynor I can only think of one other major player in Starcraft 1.

Samir Duran.

[Draken]

To push Starcraft Broodwar and Starcraft 1 there could have been so many fun heroes but they chose the one that screams summoner. As Artanis is basically a giant zealot they are probably waiting for Fenix to be released as his Purifier self. With Warfield's niches taken care of by Hammer, Tychus and Raynor I can only think of one other major player in Starcraft 1.

Samir Duran.

100% sure when they release this particular character, he will be closer to his SC2 persona, Narud, than his ghost disguise in SC1.

Personally, I want to see the Overmind as a hero that takes over your team's core and spawns overlords with an aura that allows you to control your team's minions.

[Keltest]

To push Starcraft Broodwar and Starcraft 1 there could have been so many fun heroes but they chose the one that screams summoner. As Artanis is basically a giant zealot they are probably waiting for Fenix to be released as his Purifier self. With Warfield's niches taken care of by Hammer, Tychus and Raynor I can only think of one other major player in Starcraft 1.

Samir Duran.

Arcturus Mengsk? Raszagal? Aldaris? Duke? The Overmind?

Also, Artanis is one expression of a zealot, but Fenix could easily be a pure bruiser rather than the pseudotank and playmaker that Artanis is.

[Spore]

Arcturus Mengsk? Raszagal? Aldaris? Duke? The Overmind?

Mengsk is a controller and coward and would never personally enter the battlefield. What could Raszagal bring to the battlefield that isn't covered by Zeratul? Aldaris is a politican and strategist. What would he bring to the battlefield? I mean his only BW model is a recycled Tassadar. Duke is similar. One unit model (siege tank) and general/politician.

I am not saying those arent important to the SC lore but with the exception of Raszagal all are political leaders rather than warriors.

[Keltest]

Mengsk is a controller and coward and would never personally enter the battlefield. What could Raszagal bring to the battlefield that isn't covered by Zeratul? Aldaris is a politican and strategist. What would he bring to the battlefield? I mean his only BW model is a recycled Tassadar. Duke is similar. One unit model (siege tank) and general/politician.

I am not saying those arent important to the SC lore but with the exception of Raszagal all are political leaders rather than warriors.

Aldaris is a Judicator. His kit could be crowd control and stasis, like the Arbiters (also judicators). He also is shown to be proficient with hallucinations and, presumably, other High Templar powers.

Also, Abathur is a hero, so I don't think "they aren't a fighter" is a particularly good argument.