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

[ChaosOS]

Straight up Tychus is a difficult hero to play and a relatively niche hero as he stands, as he excels vs. tanky compositions with heroes like Cho'Gall and Azmodan while struggling against highly mobile, longer ranged heroes like Li Ming. As it stands he could use either buffs to base HP or give him some more defensive options beyond the level 13 leach or reduced spell damage, as I feel forced to pick the resistance talent at 1.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Side note: Neosteel Coating is a hilarious talent to pick up when their KT picked Pyroblast. Hmm, he's targeting me with a great big fiery orb of doom? Oh no! Guess I'll just...step away from my teammates and pop Neosteel Coating.

[Gray Mage]

So, just played Towers of Doom this morning. At one moment we had 1 core HP vs 24 from the opposing team. That only made the comeback win more sweet.
Best match ever.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I love hearing so many comeback stories from Towers of Doom. Really cool.

BTW, in case you hadn't heard, this weekend will be 50% bonus XP and every hero is on free rotation. Party time!!!

[Gaelbert]

I love hearing so many comeback stories from Towers of Doom. Really cool.

BTW, in case you hadn't heard, this weekend will be 50% bonus XP and every hero is on free rotation. Party time!!!

So many Vikings, Abathurs, and Murkies in all of my games. I've been playing a ton of Zeratul recently and it's been a blast. 3/4 games I go up against 5 squishies and wreck, have had multiple 25+ kill games with no deaths (loving Gathering Power with the Q build). Unfortunately that last 1/4 seems to always be some combination of Cho'gall, Tassadar, Brightwing, and Johanna where I can't do anything all game and have to go for the basic attack build.

Been introducing a friend of mine to HotS, he's completely new to the genre and only has limited experience with RTS controls in general. He's really fallen in love with Azmodan, the Q-stack minigame, the ability to do long range damage, and his high health pool all seem to be pretty solid for a newer player. I'm trying to figure out who else he might like to play as, I'm thinking Nazeebo has some similarities (shorter range but similar tankiness with Death Ritual). He likes Kael'thas but the abilities are a little too complicated (plus Kael's pretty squishy if you don't land the stuns and don't know positioning).

[Gandariel]

Well the classic "newbie friendly " guys are Raynor, Muradin and Li Li.

By the way, I'm enjoying this everyone-is-free thing: you can just jump in a games in 5 seconds!

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Been introducing a friend of mine to HotS, he's completely new to the genre and only has limited experience with RTS controls in general. He's really fallen in love with Azmodan, the Q-stack minigame, the ability to do long range damage, and his high health pool all seem to be pretty solid for a newer player. I'm trying to figure out who else he might like to play as, I'm thinking Nazeebo has some similarities (shorter range but similar tankiness with Death Ritual). He likes Kael'thas but the abilities are a little too complicated (plus Kael's pretty squishy if you don't land the stuns and don't know positioning).

Nazeebo would be a great follow-up to Azmodan, and adding in the Zombie Wall is a good way to ramp up some complexity. Make sure he knows that you can press W again to get rid of the Zombie Wall, in case you trap a teammate. Also, "make sure minions die from your ongoing damage" is kinda similar to the Q-stack minigame.

Raynor has a lot of ranged damage, some safety in the form of Adrenaline Rush, a sort of minigame with Seasoned Marksman, and is pretty simple overall.

You could always see how he takes to Murky, but I think everyone should play Murky at least once. Hitting E to become invlunerable is pretty nice!

If he wants to branch out, Li Li is a great first support because of her passive speed boost.

By the way, I'm enjoying this everyone-is-free thing: you can just jump in a games in 5 seconds!

Depends. I took 3 minutes per game when queueing as Dehaka. He was a pain to get to 5.

[Gaelbert]

Nazeebo would be a great follow-up to Azmodan, and adding in the Zombie Wall is a good way to ramp up some complexity. Make sure he knows that you can press W again to get rid of the Zombie Wall, in case you trap a teammate. Also, "make sure minions die from your ongoing damage" is kinda similar to the Q-stack minigame.

Raynor has a lot of ranged damage, some safety in the form of Adrenaline Rush, a sort of minigame with Seasoned Marksman, and is pretty simple overall.

You could always see how he takes to Murky, but I think everyone should play Murky at least once. Hitting E to become invlunerable is pretty nice!

If he wants to branch out, Li Li is a great first support because of her passive speed boost.

He does like Raynor, the Adrenaline Rush is a perfect "get out of jail free" card.

He's seen me play with Murky some and he's impressed, but I'm not sure it'd be good to teach someone the basics of HotS with a character who is nearly suicidal. Same thing with Li Li, I play a really aggressive Li Li that's almost like a tank, I can get away with it because we're queueing far below my level and because she basically never dies, but I worry I'm not setting a great example.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Eh, I'd say Li Li is fine for beginners, she's very forgiving because of her passive and Blinding Wind.

[Gray Mage]

Anyone seeing the finals of Heroes of the Dorm?

[Gaelbert]

Anyone seeing the finals of Heroes of the Dorm?

Didn't watch it since I didn't have ESPN2, and I was pretty sure ASU was going to crush. Turns out I was right.

Any of you watch the pro scene at all? NA had a big shuffle with a lot of players switching teams, and it caused a ton of upsets in the qualifier for Dreamhack last weekend. MichaelUdall and akaface (from ASU) joined Gale Force, and they ended up beating Cloud 9 (supposedly the #1 NA team and the global champions last year) despite being massive underdogs. And the victory looked pretty convincing too.

[Gray Mage]

Didn't watch it since I didn't have ESPN2, and I was pretty sure ASU was going to crush. Turns out I was right.

I thought it was being transmitted online on youtube. At least I did see those matches there and it said live. But yeah, they got reckt.

Edit: I missed that game (vs C9). Have you got a link for the VOD?

[Gandariel]

Who has two thumbs and is gonna play a lot more Artanis now?

[turbo164]

Who has two thumbs and is gonna play a lot more Artanis now?

I can't speak for number of thumbs, but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV2EfLMd5pM

(Artanis clip at 1:33)

[Gray Mage]

Who has two thumbs and is gonna play a lot more Artanis now?

Didn't know Hydras had thumbs.

Did a new patch come out?

[ChaosOS]

Patch notes here: http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20099322

TL;DR Artanis gets half zealot charge baseline + small HP nerf (reversion of prevous buff), Greymane always explode Q reworked into quest for more damage, hidden tychus buff that seems to be giving grenade a significant DoT component, and CHEERS LOVE, THE CAVALRY IS HERE

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Tried Tracer in the shop. Interesting hero. Very much like Zeratul's blink-heavy build with Vorpal Blade, but a bit more safety. Q-W-Q seems to be bread-and-butter for harassing in lane (Blink in, Melee them, Blink out, continue to charge Pulse Bomb) against melee characters, not sure what the best course of action against ranged characters is. Also not sure of how to effectively use Recall; that'd take some time. Very fun, though! Blink feels so good.

[ChaosOS]

The big thing about Tracer is that she is quite good at dodging skillshots and staying out of melee, but ranged DPS a la Raynor simply don't care about how fancy her blinks are; He just keeps shooting bullets into her, and in that straight duel tracer simply dies unless she somehow times pulse bomb + melee to burst through his E trigger

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Yeah, Tracer has a very very bad day against ranged AA.

[Gaelbert]

I thought it was being transmitted online on youtube. At least I did see those matches there and it said live. But yeah, they got reckt.

Edit: I missed that game (vs C9). Have you got a link for the VOD?

Here you go. Other games to watch are C9 vs. Tempo Storm (on JHow4444's past broadcasts on Twitch) and pretty much all of Naventic's games (I think they're on JHow's channel, maybe Gillyweed's). Naventic looked a little shaky in a couple of matches, but I love the pickup of bigempct. Seems like they have a pretty wide hero pool now, and it let them run some fun comps that you wouldn't normally see. They played a game with ETC, Illidan, Greymane, Xul, and Rehgar here (at 2:14:27).

Other fun parts of this weekend's tourney: Splitpush ETC with Stage Dive on Dragonshire, C9 running Anubarak, Kael'Thas being an absolute monster in general, lots of stunlock play with Dehaka.

[ChaosOS]

So, between various hints and leaks tomorrow is going to be a big day. Season 1 will be announced, potential mount rewards for pre-season, Chromie and Medivh as new heroes, Widowmaker Nova skin, plus some other things.

MP4 Link since blizzard is constantly taking down all the mirrors of the "In Development" video on Youtube http://cache-3.sendvid.com/ouefc2bh.mp4

[ryuplaneswalker]

OMG CHROMIE

*Runs around with a Chromie Flag* WHOOOOO!

[GolemsVoice]

Hooo boy, Chromie and Medivh. I kinda wish they'd add more non-Warcraft characters, but these are super cool news. I also like that they continue their superhero theme with the alternate skins.

[Gray Mage]

Oficial video is up, and it seems we're getting some new skins too, incluiding Widowmaker Nova that had been teased before. Chrona squeduled for mid may and Medivh mid june. Midivh confirmed specialist.

SolidJake put some videos up with a preview of their abilities and talents. They seem really cool. Chromie's E seems to have a lot of good uses and I think we might see some cool synergy moments with it. Her trait seems OP though.

Medivh's W seems too OP and I'm expecting it to be nerfed.

[ChaosOS]

In Development Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJgwQ7lGgnA

Ranked Play Update: http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/...evamp-5-6-2016

TL;DR Ranks replaced by Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum/Diamond/Master/Grandmaster. Bronze-Diamond are Division 1-5 (1 being highest), master shows points (More is better), GM shows top 500 players and their exact rank.

Ranked play rewards also incoming, Gold+Portrait+Mount based on rank, you can double dip for Team League (Mostly relevant just for the Gold rewards). All this coming Mid June (With Medivh?)

As for new heroes

Chromie:
Trait get talents 1 level earlier (3/6/9/12/15/19)
Q: Long-Range Line skill shot, only hits first hero, 1s cast time
W: Delayed Long-Range AOE, small area but not visible to enemies
E: Stasis trap, 2s arm time 2s duration
R1: Sustained (Costs mana/second) medium-large slowing AOE, slow ramps up over first 5s of duration
R2: Reverse recall, if you know DOTA it's Kunkka's E on a 3s timer w/o the ability to activate early. Basically mark target at their current location, they return to it in 3 seconds no matter where they've travelled


Medivh
Trait/Z: Raven form, 15% boost and reduced vision but flying movement and untargetability/immunity
Q: Short line skillshot deals damage to all enemies, CD and mana refund if it hits a hero
W: 1.5s damage immunity to target hero on a 5s CD
E: Create a portal between two locations, baseline where you stand and target but level 1 talent to let you place first portal too
R1: Poly bomb. Imagine infinite chain bomb but polymorphing instead of damage
R2: Large, long range line skillshot that puts all enemies hit into stasis

[CarpeGuitarrem]

On the one hand, Medivh has none of the damage, all of the non-healing support stuff. On the other, yeah, total damage mitigation is pretty powerful.

Chromie is gonna be a game-changer, once she's no longer the New Damage Hero First-Ban.

[ChaosOS]

PTR Patch notes! http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20112698

TL;DR Chromie incoming, Arthas, Anub'Arak and Falstad tuning/talent updates

[Gandariel]

No idea why they keep making changes to Falstad, since he's always been in a very good position. I mean yes, he's a "hard" character and they want to show off how HotS is complex and strategic, but damn. There are so many heroes that deserve more attention than he does.

As for everyone else... yay?
Happy about the Anub'arak buffs (since he's one of my favorite heroes), although i'm a bit afraid they're too much.
He wasn't very far away from being good IMO.

Arthas got SO many buffs. Everything seems good (i especially like the "if enemies stay in your E for a while, they get rooted").

As for everything else, small changes everywhere. The alternative names for Battle momentum were pretty funny

[ChaosOS]

Also, PSA: NEXT TUESDAY (5/17) NOVA AND NAZEEBO WILL DROP TO 7K AND 4K GOLD RESPECTIVELY

[CarpeGuitarrem]

No idea why they keep making changes to Falstad, since he's always been in a very good position. I mean yes, he's a "hard" character and they want to show off how HotS is complex and strategic, but damn. There are so many heroes that deserve more attention than he does.

I'm honestly fine with him getting some small nerfs. Falstad is top-tier, and easily in the Top 3 of assassins, I'd say. Plus, he's been very safe, especially with Flow Rider. These nerfs are gonna hurt some, but they'll force Falstads to risk a bit more for their damage, similarly to the Raynor nerfs a while back.

The change to fountains is pretty nifty. I like how they let fountain-sniping be a thing, but toned down its power now. It'll also impact ARAMs mildly, nerfing Azmodan a little bit there.

Also, I've been trying some stuff out on the PTR, and the questing indicator (both visual and sound) is a nice little Quality of Life change.