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Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha Thread: [Artifacts Removed]
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
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CommandThrower
Member
I've got a question for those who are in the alpha:
Did you get an e-mail with confirmation that you've been selected or "flagged" for the beta, or does that information just show up on your Battle.net account? I've heard some folks have access to the alpha and didn't get informed of such via e-mail; it was just on their Battle.net account ready to download.
Did you get an e-mail with confirmation that you've been selected or "flagged" for the beta, or does that information just show up on your Battle.net account? I've heard some folks have access to the alpha and didn't get informed of such via e-mail; it was just on their Battle.net account ready to download.
TurtleSnatcher
Member
Got an email
Looks like hero base movement speed is being increased with the new patch. Good news.
Full notes: http://www.heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/news/13789932/heroes-technical-alpha-patch-notes-april-15-2014
Full notes: http://www.heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/news/13789932/heroes-technical-alpha-patch-notes-april-15-2014
SneakyStephan
Banned
Can anyone recommend a good streamer to watch some matches of this game (like singsing in dota for example)
preferably one who uploads his stuff to youtube
preferably one who uploads his stuff to youtube
http://www.twitch.tv/zp_tv
This guy is by far the best streamer in terms of people who share knowledge about the game right now. I don't think he's uploading stuff to Youtube but his stuff is archived on Twitch.
TurtleSnatcher
Member
Put a little time into the new heroes today so I figured I might as well do a write up.
Li Li is classified as an "Easy" support, and it really shows. Most of her abilities require no targeting, so she falls more on the buff/debuff side. Without much crowd control she's focused more on heavy healing that facilitates continued pushing and long fights. As a result, she's really low impact to play even when she's having an effect on the game. Her kill potential is low but she's also fairly slippery. You wind up with a hero that asks you to follow your team around mashing every cooldown as soon as it comes up, and as long as you're standing near allies everything will happen. She's like a manifestation of the MOBA joke about supports who just spam every button on the keyboard to do their job.
Li Li has two ultimates. "Water Dragon" is a single target damage ability with a three second charge up time. Honestly it feels like one of the weakest ultimates in the game. You can only begin the charge once you enter the range of an enemy hero, and while Li Li is charging it the rest of her kit is interrupted completely, so she can't do anything else. Like the rest of Li Li's kit this spell cannot be aimed, so enemies can either walk out of range and blow the cooldown completely or move to intercept the brunt of the damage by being the nearest target to Li Li.
Right now Li Li's second ultimate is unquestionably superior, but maybe somehow even less exciting to use. "Jug of 1,000 Cups" is a very basic AOE heal for all allies around Li Li. It works of its own accord, prioritizing low health targets and favoring heroes over minions. This ability is also channeled, and Li Li is unable to do nothing else during this period.
The extreme passivity of Li Li's kit is immensely underwhelming, and she comes across as another support entry in HotS that just lacks the ability to make plays on their own, the kit failing to work for the hero and instead feeling completely subservient to other players.
On the bright side, Brightwing is actually one of the most entertaining heroes to play in HotS right now. Brightwing's global map presence winds up filling the same role as Abathur while executing more soundly on the idea. With the ability to hop to any ally around the map on only a twenty second cooldown Brightwing maintains the aspect of warping around to help allies, but is actually able to participate in the objectives being fought over. This comes at the cost of poor mobility outside of the jumps, but Brightwing's active presence in fights carries the risk/reward that's missing from Abathur. Brightwing depends on allies to move around the map and get things done, but Brightwing carries a huge presence in fights and feels more independent than most other supports in HotS.
Brightwing passively carries a heal that pulses out from the character in waves every few seconds, creating an extra element to positioning that has to be weighed against the hero's weak defensive statistics. Brightwing is fairly vulnerable when isolated, but with enemy polymorphs, movespeed/attack blocking buffs, and ultimates that create space she can weigh using tools offensively or defensively. The kit really winds up benefiting the ability to warp to any ally, and teleporting around the map to win trades, take objectives, and heal up allies makes Brightwing feel like one of the few heroes that actually fits the objective dependent and push heavy HotS.
Li Li is classified as an "Easy" support, and it really shows. Most of her abilities require no targeting, so she falls more on the buff/debuff side. Without much crowd control she's focused more on heavy healing that facilitates continued pushing and long fights. As a result, she's really low impact to play even when she's having an effect on the game. Her kill potential is low but she's also fairly slippery. You wind up with a hero that asks you to follow your team around mashing every cooldown as soon as it comes up, and as long as you're standing near allies everything will happen. She's like a manifestation of the MOBA joke about supports who just spam every button on the keyboard to do their job.
Li Li has two ultimates. "Water Dragon" is a single target damage ability with a three second charge up time. Honestly it feels like one of the weakest ultimates in the game. You can only begin the charge once you enter the range of an enemy hero, and while Li Li is charging it the rest of her kit is interrupted completely, so she can't do anything else. Like the rest of Li Li's kit this spell cannot be aimed, so enemies can either walk out of range and blow the cooldown completely or move to intercept the brunt of the damage by being the nearest target to Li Li.
Right now Li Li's second ultimate is unquestionably superior, but maybe somehow even less exciting to use. "Jug of 1,000 Cups" is a very basic AOE heal for all allies around Li Li. It works of its own accord, prioritizing low health targets and favoring heroes over minions. This ability is also channeled, and Li Li is unable to do nothing else during this period.
The extreme passivity of Li Li's kit is immensely underwhelming, and she comes across as another support entry in HotS that just lacks the ability to make plays on their own, the kit failing to work for the hero and instead feeling completely subservient to other players.
On the bright side, Brightwing is actually one of the most entertaining heroes to play in HotS right now. Brightwing's global map presence winds up filling the same role as Abathur while executing more soundly on the idea. With the ability to hop to any ally around the map on only a twenty second cooldown Brightwing maintains the aspect of warping around to help allies, but is actually able to participate in the objectives being fought over. This comes at the cost of poor mobility outside of the jumps, but Brightwing's active presence in fights carries the risk/reward that's missing from Abathur. Brightwing depends on allies to move around the map and get things done, but Brightwing carries a huge presence in fights and feels more independent than most other supports in HotS.
Brightwing passively carries a heal that pulses out from the character in waves every few seconds, creating an extra element to positioning that has to be weighed against the hero's weak defensive statistics. Brightwing is fairly vulnerable when isolated, but with enemy polymorphs, movespeed/attack blocking buffs, and ultimates that create space she can weigh using tools offensively or defensively. The kit really winds up benefiting the ability to warp to any ally, and teleporting around the map to win trades, take objectives, and heal up allies makes Brightwing feel like one of the few heroes that actually fits the objective dependent and push heavy HotS.
TurtleSnatcher
Member
Great write up dimb
I find Li Li extremely simple as well. Almost too simple but.. still enjoyable. Her heal is pretty strong and at higher levels and with the correct talents, she is a pretty decent healer in a 'hold the lane' type of area with one other. Her Ult with the water serpent is pretty weird. I was confused at first using it. The range is pretty weak and her being so squishy leaves her fairly prone. Still think she is okay though and her mobility to get out due to her passive is not too shabby.
I find Li Li extremely simple as well. Almost too simple but.. still enjoyable. Her heal is pretty strong and at higher levels and with the correct talents, she is a pretty decent healer in a 'hold the lane' type of area with one other. Her Ult with the water serpent is pretty weird. I was confused at first using it. The range is pretty weak and her being so squishy leaves her fairly prone. Still think she is okay though and her mobility to get out due to her passive is not too shabby.
Yeah, definitely don't think Li Li's bad, but she doesn't have the ability to shift the tempo in the fight with one ability, so she doesn't really feel as rewarding as I want.
In general, I feel like the most recent patch has really changed a lot about the game and went a long way towards making it more fun. From my experience so far the snowballing is still out of control, if not worse. I wonder what Blizzard even tuned in regards to it, because it wasn't detailed in the notes at all.
TurtleSnatcher
Member
I've had the opposite reaction to snowballing. It is way better now. If the team doesn't manage to take advantage of an early to mid game jump that they built up, the other team is going to come back no matter what and bring it back to even or near even.
What's going on with this game? It gets a grand total of 300 viewers on twitch. Is it really just shitty/too casual/whatever? Hearthstone took off day 1 and hasn't looked back. I have to admit, as a DOTA player I was looking forward to a shorter game alternative but no items/last hitting/shared levels etc sounds pretty lame.
With no open beta, it's hard to play with people you know.
KojiKnight
Member
The game is really really incomplete at this stage... there isn't a whole lot of coverage in general (internet personalities aren't paying it much mind). I think Blizz let people play this game a little too early... hopefully since they just added a couple more heroes they'll send out more invites.
Calm Killer
In all media, only true fans who consume every book, film, game, or pog collection deserve to know what's going on.
I got an email.
Lactose_Intolerant
Member
they played it for about 3 days then went back to the games they always play
When? Today?
Calm Killer
In all media, only true fans who consume every book, film, game, or pog collection deserve to know what's going on.
KojiKnight
Member
No e-mail, just checked and it's there right underneath Hearthstone today. Time to test this puppy out (actually came here to report this since it's installing)
Must be the next wave of invites, there was a brief mention about this on Reddit. Supposedly people will be flagged in weekly from now on too.
Wow. As someone that actually likes Blizzard's modern output (I think Hearthstone and Reaper of Souls some of the best work Blizzard has ever done), I was really excited to get an alpha invite this afternoon. I'm not sure if it's just really, really early, or maybe I'm spoiled by Dota, but my time with it so far has been a total snoozefest. Again, this is only after a few hours so I'll be really glad to uncover some depth with more play, but it seems really shallow and cumbersome. Shockingly so. There's not nearly enough emphasis on personal skill to turn a match (once a team has a full level's advantage it seems really easy to play it safe and peck away, or otherwise snowball). Movement feels clunky. And the netcode seems pretty bad... my movements appear to be greatly delayed in half of the matches I play and I have absolutely no issues with any other game. Also, the cosmetics are grotesque for the most part and the prices on mounts equally so. Which would be kind of whatever if the game had earned it, but it's a shell of a mess right now so charging twenty bucks for a unicorn mount cosmetic strikes me as one of Blizzard's most cynical pieces of monetization yet.
Blech.
Blech.
Dota 2 would be up your alley. What you are asking for is what would go against the core of this game being a team game. The rest of your issues I definitely see being fixed as this is an alpha and blizzard has already come out and said that a lot of the cosmetics, ui etc will change. Did I mention that it's an alpha?
Even if it's a team game HotS has real issues right now when it comes to rewarding individual effort or accomplishments. The game can be super frustrating right now because people underpreforming or not doing their job actually puts the whole team behind. It's not even a situation like League or Dota where they can just feed one lane, but they actively work against your team gaining experience properly to remain competitive in the match. You can be doing stuff right and not even have the opportunity to carry a match in HotS because everyone on the enemy team outlevels and outscales you, and it becomes impossible to target weak points when their entire team is just growing faster than everyone on yours.
Not having items also plays into not being able to turn things around from behind. In something like League you can often try to itemize in a way that combats which enemy champions are carrying the game. In HotS it really just feels like there's nothing you can do. Even if you manage to take objectives they often just help you push, which you can't really follow through on as the weaker team.
CuckFupertino
Banned
So uhh, are other people having trouble getting into a game for Co-op (people vs. bots)? As far as I can tell, it's mandatory that I play one of these games before I progress, is it not?
TurtleSnatcher
Member
RE: Cosmetics mounts - The bundles help a bunch also really doubt some of these prices are final. I mean.. it is a TECH alpha here..
RE: 1 level difference/skill - I totally disagree. When it snowballs to like 3-5 levels is when it gets insane. 1 level does nothing except if a team gets in a huge encounter and they are at 10 and the other is at 9 as ultimates can be fairly huge.
RE: Simplicity - Well it kind of supposed to be like that. That was their goal, but you would probably enjoy some of the more interesting chars like Abathur etc.
Either way - it is a Tech Alpha. I have no idea why people are thinking this is any indication of it being final or near final or even a representation of it being what it will be in the end. Just in the past month, tons has already changed.
It is not. Just play another game with AI on your team vs other AI to get to the next level for versus mode.
Got an email invite today and just started the tutorial.
I definitely love the art design and graphics aesthetics a lot. I mean it looks like a Blizzard game, did some of you expect non-Blizzard art style??
Personally I'm fine with the de-emphasis on individual skill, I don't care about hardcore play.
As for items, I'm ok with the way it is *or* going to LoL-style passive items. I do NOT want Dota2 items where every single one has an active skill on it... that's way too much and I hate that in Dota2.
Quick question: Where do you re-bind hotkeys? Do you have to do that in an .INI file for now or something? I need to do that pronto
I definitely love the art design and graphics aesthetics a lot. I mean it looks like a Blizzard game, did some of you expect non-Blizzard art style??
Personally I'm fine with the de-emphasis on individual skill, I don't care about hardcore play.
As for items, I'm ok with the way it is *or* going to LoL-style passive items. I do NOT want Dota2 items where every single one has an active skill on it... that's way too much and I hate that in Dota2.
Quick question: Where do you re-bind hotkeys? Do you have to do that in an .INI file for now or something? I need to do that pronto
KojiKnight
Member
Falstad... why you so sexy?
theMrCravens
Member
I got in so early for the Hearthstone beta I had forgotten the feeling of despair not getting accepted.New wave of invites? *rushes to check*
Still nothing
TheSadRanger
Banned
I'll add ya, I got my e-mail yesterday for the alpha invite.
If anyone else wants to play, arcstrike#1175
There are plenty of people who don't like any of those things you just listed.
KojiKnight
Member
This... even playing the original dota, weapon min/maxing was always my least favorite part. Anyways, there is more then enough room for both styles of game in the genre.
blitz64
Member
Bind keys are not available yet.
But the developers said they are working on it and coming soon.
I'm seriously really jelly of all you guys getting into the Alpha. I really want to play this, I feel like this will be the MOBA I can get into. And I really want to get into it, I love all of Blizzard's characters, and I'm digging some of the changes and features Blizzard incorporated into this MOBA.
But yeah, #teamJelly
But yeah, #teamJelly
Ahh okay thanks for answer! That way I won't keep looking for it right now
I got my invite yesterday.
It's fun as long as everyone on your team actually tries to play the game. One guy who doesn't do their part ends up costing you pretty quickly. It's insanely frustrating.
Gazlowe is super fun. For League players, he's basically a melee Heimerdinger with a lot of health. He completely controls and stalls lanes by himself for half the game then ultimately transitions into a semi carry with his wave clearing abilities.
It's fun as long as everyone on your team actually tries to play the game. One guy who doesn't do their part ends up costing you pretty quickly. It's insanely frustrating.
Gazlowe is super fun. For League players, he's basically a melee Heimerdinger with a lot of health. He completely controls and stalls lanes by himself for half the game then ultimately transitions into a semi carry with his wave clearing abilities.
KojiKnight
Member
Coop is suuuuch an easy way to make XP... I'd have thought for sure that versus would grant bonus. The only downside (if you're XP grinding) is that you can't do your dailies there which isn't a huge deal.
Dr. Buni
Member
Well, of course there are people who don't like what I listed. I meant the lack of denying, etc... sounds underwhelming to me, because I do like those things.
The Lamonster
Member
Heroes of the Storm made the cover of People Magazine!
Y(4g~~60_57.JPG)
Purple Cheeto
Member
Maybe they've made this better since I played but it, it just wasn't fun. It was like they took out most of the fun parts of the genre and made it slow and dull.
The map features and mini quest stuff is fun but the basic DotA gameplay is just not good.
The map features and mini quest stuff is fun but the basic DotA gameplay is just not good.
Sounds like you should stick to dota then?
All games don't need to be the same.
What are the "fun parts"?
Hopefully not last hitting and denial.
I always thought the team fights were the fun part, and it seems like it does that pretty well.
SafetyFirst
Member
Long time Blizzard fan just invited to the alpha on Thursday. Tyrande is my favorite so far, just unlocked her first skin. Add me for some games: Safety#1464
Going to add everyone else I found in the thread.
Going to add everyone else I found in the thread.
Dr. Buni
Member
I don't recall ever saying all games should be the same and I have no idea why are you acting so defensively.
KojiKnight
Member
Don't worry about it too much, some people just get defensive if you have criticism of something they like. Though yours sounds less like criticism and just more like stating personal preference, which makes even less sense for him to get defensive over.
Need to figure out some better strategies... my XP rate seems to be all over the place even with the same heroes. Some times I'm top of the list by a large margin, other times I'm dead last...
I do enjoy Tyrande, but it feels like the more support I have to go with her (shield, etc) the more complex she gets to play... and the number keys are a TERRIBLE place for these added abilities, imo. As far as I can tell, there is no easy way to alter them.
I'm really enjoying Gazlowe, but he's really inconsistent for me... the turrets seem to be my biggest source of damage if I spec into them, but if I do, I lose out on their utility (slowing) so I have a much harder time getting away.
Also... FUCK Zeratul... Bastard does WAY too much damage for having stealth and blink. All you have to do to play zeratul is wait till any hero is at half health, spam attacks, blink towards them when they inevitably try to stun/slow you, finish them off and then run away to stealth or until blink is up again. This happens over the course of 3-4 seconds and almost never gives enough time for anyone else on your team to react.
There are quite a few gamers who like the teamfight aspect of MOBAs, but dislike many of the other mechanics popular with the genre. They like the fact that these mechanics were removed in HotS, and there's no other MOBA out there that caters to them this way. So when Dota/LoL fans criticize the removal of those mechanics, some HotS fans perceive it as an attempt to take the one MOBA they like and turn it into yet another Dota clone in a sea of Dota clones.
(I like Dota, but I see no need for another clone. I'm glad to see Blizzard attempting something different, whether or not it ultimately works out.)
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