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Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha Thread: [Artifacts Removed]

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I'm Slev#1848 for anyone who wants to do some GAF games.

My initial impressions I enjoy. It's a fun game and I enjoy the blizzard IP set of characters.

It certainly is more friendly that other MOBAs for casual users.

Biggest thing is there is no item buying. I actually enjoy this. You kill things for experience.

Talent choices seem more of a user preference than blatant A > B (Though there are a few that are clearly better at this point).

The maps are fun and overall it seems extremely polished for a technical alpha. Though there is currently no ranked play so I assume they are still working on that internally.

I'm not a huge fan of MOBA's but this is good enough to play a game or two every other night for me.

Heroes seem pretty fairly priced as far as how much gold they are. At level 5 you are given enough gold to buy one of the 4 cheapest heroes (2k gold).

Overall I think its fun but uncertain if it will put any sort of dent into LoL/Dota.
 
Just got into this Alpha so booted it up last night while the Sony stream was playing on the TV. Friend helped me level up a bit and I got Diablo.

Did I make a mistake? He seems okay, but so newbish to this.

Also ran into a team that had a Murky who'd use his bubble to float to our core and attack it over....and over.....and over....and over.

That....seems kind of dumb?

It was satisfying as hell getting a few kills with Diablo and later on with Tychus, but still no grasp yet on the overall heroes and who's good or not.

Hate Murky already, though.
 
Just got into this Alpha so booted it up last night while the Sony stream was playing on the TV. Friend helped me level up a bit and I got Diablo.

Did I make a mistake? He seems okay, but so newbish to this.

Also ran into a team that had a Murky who'd use his bubble to float to our core and attack it over....and over.....and over....and over.

That....seems kind of dumb?

It was satisfying as hell getting a few kills with Diablo and later on with Tychus, but still no grasp yet on the overall heroes and who's good or not.

Hate Murky already, though.

Diablo is in the middle of the pack in terms of balance. Needs decent teamwork to do well. His meta build requires talents that you get after reaching account level 8, unfortunately. Otherwise, you're good. He's technically the second or third weakest Warrior, but the only Warrior people consider straight up bad is Muradin.

Murky is considered to be either fine or entirely toxic to the game, depending on who you ask. At the end of the day, he's surprisingly balanced even if you find him annoying. He's best dealt with using Assassins (Nova and Zeratul especially) or Supports (Mule).
 
Officially my longest game...

lY36SeX.png

40 minutes, 200k XP. Well worth the game length for all of that extra XP. Reason the match went on so long wasn't because we were even teams (they had a commanding lead the entire game) but because MULE is crazy good being used on the core... We hung back by the core when they'd charge in, they tried to focus the core, we focused them down, repair, then we'd push, rinse and repeat.
 
Odd game shows up in my client but I can't click play. Did this happen to anyone else today? I was excited to see the game icon but I can't click play....
 
30 game quest with Murky has moved me up to almost half way through level 39... So close to level 40 finally. Time to switch it up to Uther for awhile.
 
Odd game shows up in my client but I can't click play. Did this happen to anyone else today? I was excited to see the game icon but I can't click play....

Alright, now that some time has passed, does it work now? If not, you're going to have to hit up support. Also double check that you got an email (should have arrived from now) and that it's shown up on your web b.net account.
 
Sounds like you have the same issue as Svafnir. I'm guessing it's decently common; either it's showing up randomly in launchers where it's not supposed to, or (more likely) people are getting flagged for the alpha but there's a hiccup in the process.
 
Sounds like you have the same issue as Svafnir. I'm guessing it's decently common; either it's showing up randomly in launchers where it's not supposed to, or (more likely) people are getting flagged for the alpha but there's a hiccup in the process.

Probably the former versus the latter. Flagging generally happens first in your account and can be delayed to the launcher, and judging by the forum there have been a few times alphas have shown up where they shouldn't be (HotS and WoD).
 
I had that happen when a friend stopped over to show off Hearthstone back when he was in the beta (and myself not). He logged in, installed it, and played on his account for a bit. From that point on I could see the game in my list when I was logged in, could click on it, but could never hit the Play button until the game hit wide release.
 
the hell is this?

I never got an invite email but Heroes is showing up in my launcher now...but I can't play it.



edit: this is a cruel tease. It's not showing up on my b.net website account either.

So after seeing this, I checked my b.net app and had it there as well. Felt sad since I figured it was just the same issue.

But then I checked my b.net account and I'm actually in. Installing now, wooo.

(I'm sorry Lamonster.)
 
So after seeing this, I checked my b.net app and had it there as well. Felt sad since I figured it was just the same issue.

But then I checked my b.net account and I'm actually in. Installing now, wooo.

(I'm sorry Lamonster.)

Grats and welcome!

(edit) And finally!!

oZWJ5xL.png


Getting Uther to 15 wins finished me off... now I have a sack of gold and nothing really to spend it on... Bring on the wipes!
 
Getting Uther to 15 wins finished me off... now I have a sack of gold and nothing really to spend it on... Bring on the wipes!

What happens to your gold and exp after a wipe? What about heroes you've purchased?

Also, is there a bonus for spending real money in the store during the alpha/beta phase a la Hearthstone?
 
What happens to your gold and exp after a wipe? What about heroes you've purchased?

Also, is there a bonus for spending real money in the store during the alpha/beta phase a la Hearthstone?

If I am understanding it all correctly, anything purchased with gold, and gold you have unused, will be lost after a wipe. Any money you spend will be refunded to your battle.net balance.

And I don't think they have announced any bonuses like that yet, but I may be wrong.
 
What happens to your gold and exp after a wipe? What about heroes you've purchased?

Also, is there a bonus for spending real money in the store during the alpha/beta phase a la Hearthstone?

Last wipe they didn't reset purchases. We don't know if next wipe they'll refund (to battle.net accounts) purchases, but we do know they'll do it before release.
 
I'm in! Got in a few weeks ago, but finally settled into my new place so that I can play on a semi-regular basis. Are there any GAFer's who wouldn't mind playing with a complete MOBA newbie?

Miletius#1828, feel free to add me.
 
I've been in for a few days but just started last night. No MOBA experience whatsoever. I finally got my first versus win after 5 games. Some games I'm awesome, some I'm just cannon fodder.

Murky and Zeratul(?) are at the top of my shit list already. Zeratul is like old school WoW rogues in PVP. Not fun.

I've only played Raynor and the Witch Doctor (Nazeebo). Witch Doctor is fun when Zeratul isn't around.

Strangely (to me at least) everyone has been fairly nice in game. No rage quitting, no shit talking, but not a lot of in match cohesion either. I'd really like to find a group to run with.

Miletius#1828, feel free to add me.

I added you.

Mayordolo#1243 is my tag if any other GAF folk want to play or teach/learn together.
 
Decided to start playing again after not touching it since level 9. Played quite a few games, most were miserable.. then I got a god send of a group. Our Malfurion was excellent. Helped that the other team wasn't great... we team wiped them right off the bat. Also grats on 40, considering making the slog as well, just in case they give out another lanyard.

 
Strangely (to me at least) everyone has been fairly nice in game. No rage quitting, no shit talking, but not a lot of in match cohesion either. I'd really like to find a group to run with.

There is very very little incentive to "rage quit" since you can't rejoin another game if you quit one. The only way to leave mid game is to close the game completely, and if you restart the game, it'll automatically reconnect you to the match you left. In other words, you're stuck with that match until it's over either way.

As for shit talking? It still happens quite often, but less than many other games and it inevitably comes from the person with the least amount of contributing XP and usually most deaths.
 
Have they said if skins may be available for gold at some point? Don't plan on spending any money on skins/mounts. I'd be completely okay with them being some absurd amount of gold. Something to work towards after unlocking heroes.

Also, check your emails. Blizzard sent out a survey to people with and without the alpha.
 
I've been in for a few days but just started last night. No MOBA experience whatsoever. I finally got my first versus win after 5 games. Some games I'm awesome, some I'm just cannon fodder.

Murky and Zeratul(?) are at the top of my shit list already. Zeratul is like old school WoW rogues in PVP. Not fun.

I've only played Raynor and the Witch Doctor (Nazeebo). Witch Doctor is fun when Zeratul isn't around.

Strangely (to me at least) everyone has been fairly nice in game. No rage quitting, no shit talking, but not a lot of in match cohesion either. I'd really like to find a group to run with.

I added you.

Mayordolo#1243 is my tag if any other GAF folk want to play or teach/learn together.

Added. Quick question for you vets -- should I just go ahead and buy the heroes bundle? Seems like a decent deal to get a variety of heroes, I'm not sure I'm liking being limited to 5.
 
Decided to start playing again after not touching it since level 9. Played quite a few games, most were miserable.. .

Hah, this has been the vast majority of my matches as well. I've played 8 or 9 now, still only one win. At least 2 or 3 have had an early game or mid game time where one of our guys just goes and sits in the base for 2 or 3 minutes when there is no pressure coming to the base and then we never recover.

There is very very little incentive to "rage quit" since you can't rejoin another game if you quit one. The only way to leave mid game is to close the game completely, and if you restart the game, it'll automatically reconnect you to the match you left. In other words, you're stuck with that match until it's over either way.

As for shit talking? It still happens quite often, but less than many other games and it inevitably comes from the person with the least amount of contributing XP and usually most deaths.

I did not know that. Thanks for the info KojiKnight.

I only realized last night that I could look at EXP stats in game.

EDIT: I had a good game with some folks earlier, invited 2 of them. They added 2 friends and we ran 4 games and won 3. That was as many as I had won in 8 levels. Made it so much better.
 
I'm having mixed feelings on this. Need some time to gather my thoughts on it though. Some games it seems really fun, and other times its just kind of unrewarding and meh.
 
I'm having mixed feelings on this. Need some time to gather my thoughts on it though. Some games it seems really fun, and other times its just kind of unrewarding and meh.


I'm definitely getting that unrewarding feeling.
Level 35 now. Can't see myself playing after lvl 40 very much.


With that said anyone who wants to add me Boose#1149.
 
Hey everyone, next time you log in please type /join GAF to join the GAF channel and just post when you get on and every few matches to see if you can find anyone else around.
 
So after a little more time with it, I'm starting to lean in the direction of not liking this game.

The team level mechanic is a good idea but has some very negative side effects. It makes the game feel extremely unrewarding. No matter how well I do in a game, I'm no better off than a brand new player who has no idea what he is doing or someone who is just plain awful. That's good for those new or bad players, but new players stop being new after a point and overall people get better at the game. Yet, they will never really be rewarded for it in a match.

The talent system also does a poor job of making up for the lack of items AND skill points/builds. There needs to be something else to help give some diversity. This also brings me to my next point.

I think a lot of the hero designs are rather lackluster. Especially compared to what they could have been when you look at their source material counterparts. Diablo is a perfect example of this.

The Lord of Terror gets two of his signature moves; the D3 version of his fire stomp, and his lightning breath. The latter being a heroic ability that wont always be picked. Where is the fire storm? Why not give him a talent that turns his fire stomp into something more like the D2 fire nova version? Why does he ride a horse instead of having his running on all fours charge move?

There are several heroes that just make me scratch my head. Why is Tassadar a Sentry instead of a High Templar? He doesn't even have psionic storm, for crying out loud.

Honestly the whole game just sort of feels like its not entirely sure what they want it to be.
 
I'm definitely getting that unrewarding feeling.
Level 35 now. Can't see myself playing after lvl 40 very much.


With that said anyone who wants to add me Boose#1149.

As someone who hit level 40.... I haven't touched the game since then. There is very little incentive to keep playing after hitting it, and I've got other games to play. To be fair though, I've probably put 60-70+ hours into the game since I got into tech alpha which is much more than I've spent on most retail titles.

More heroes won't instantly make this better... there just needs to be more to aim for.
 
Hey everyone, next time you log in please type /join GAF to join the GAF channel and just post when you get on and every few matches to see if you can find anyone else around.

Will do. I got in a few groups yesterday and the win total is much higher. Pugging is not a fun time if you are concerned with winning. The friend EXP bonus is great too.

More heroes won't instantly make this better... there just needs to be more to aim for.

I'm level 11 now and I only have 5+ match experience each with Raynor, Nazeebo (Witch Doctor), and Li Li and I have to say I agree with this. The heroes aren't where they need to focus now.

A lot of the other complaints I don't get, since I'm not a MOBA veteran, but there is certainly a lack of carrots to chase in Alpha. That said, I am unconcerned.

Hearthstone beta gold rewards were terrible, absolutely terrible, and there was no real ranked/ladder play for the longest time so when you hit 3 star master it was just like...what now? In the end it turned out swell.

The game as it stands is pretty fun for me, minus what I would call a real disadvantage in snowballing. I've read it's nothing compared to before, but almost every game comes down to the level 6-12 range where inevitably a two or three level disparity breaks out and it's super hard to overcome. Couple that with certain heroes like Murky that seem to be running a lot when you pug and you are only getting 1/4th exp for every Murky kill (needs to be buffed) and you need someone to babysit your keep til you can find their egg. Murky is a disaster for pug groups, whether they are on your team or on the other team. Either way you are like 50% more likely to lose, IMO.
 
So after a little more time with it, I'm starting to lean in the direction of not liking this game.

The team level mechanic is a good idea but has some very negative side effects. It makes the game feel extremely unrewarding. No matter how well I do in a game, I'm no better off than a brand new player who has no idea what he is doing or someone who is just plain awful. That's good for those new or bad players, but new players stop being new after a point and overall people get better at the game. Yet, they will never really be rewarded for it in a match.

The talent system also does a poor job of making up for the lack of items AND skill points/builds. There needs to be something else to help give some diversity. This also brings me to my next point.

I think a lot of the hero designs are rather lackluster. Especially compared to what they could have been when you look at their source material counterparts. Diablo is a perfect example of this.

The Lord of Terror gets two of his signature moves; the D3 version of his fire stomp, and his lightning breath. The latter being a heroic ability that wont always be picked. Where is the fire storm? Why not give him a talent that turns his fire stomp into something more like the D2 fire nova version? Why does he ride a horse instead of having his running on all fours charge move?

There are several heroes that just make me scratch my head. Why is Tassadar a Sentry instead of a High Templar? He doesn't even have psionic storm, for crying out loud.

Honestly the whole game just sort of feels like its not entirely sure what they want it to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4RoK5Uoip8

The one thing I can say about the game is that it doesn't ever let me feel like I'm unrewarded for my skill. There are many ways you create turnarounds, there are sneaky things you can do with placement or talent choice that will catch people off guard, and I'm always improving my strategic reads on the enemy so I know when to retreat or when to prepare for an incoming merc attack before they're even taken. I feel rewarded as a player rather than feel rewarded as a powerful character, is what I think I want to say. Maybe I'm just easier to please.

As for builds, there are a number of alternate builds and tweaks you can do for pretty much every character. The issue is that "optimal" builds have already been thought out and the only thing that can make them diverge are enemy characters or talents that are threatening enough (like Murky). I know for example that if there's a single healer on my team while there's a stealth hero on the enemy team, I'll often take one or two of the health recovery talents like Regen Master or Vampiric, so that I'm a much worse target to burst on.

As for lore, I have almost zero experience with Warcraft and Diablo stuff, and even though I'm a Starcraft fan I found no problem with Tassadar for whatever reason. Like, even with Zeratul having an Arbiter's ability, it feels like a good contrast. They're not just representing a single unit or character, but multiple attributes of their race.

As someone who hit level 40.... I haven't touched the game since then. There is very little incentive to keep playing after hitting it, and I've got other games to play. To be fair though, I've probably put 60-70+ hours into the game since I got into tech alpha which is much more than I've spent on most retail titles.

More heroes won't instantly make this better... there just needs to be more to aim for.

I just want 99 levels.

That said, I've been playing on average 3-4 hours a week lately, rather than the previous 12-15 while I was leveling up to 40. Part of it is because all I want to do is hoard gold, part of it is waiting for more content/for it to get out of beta so I can get more friends playing, and part of it is me deciding that I've already put in at least 50 hours into the game (I wish I was counting) and need a break. If a larger GAF community starts up I'll probably end up playing a ton more, as that's what kept me going in TF2 after I reached this many hours. The only group I play with regularly are the Something Awful people, and while they're really really fun to play with I always end up wanting to go 100% try hard mode when I'm with them.

So, I avoid playing and mostly hoard gold, but when I do play I'm all "oh hell yeah I forgot this game is fun and I won't always be the single medium to high mmr player on a mostly new team to balance things out." Part of the problem I suppose is that my favorite heroes are very much not solo queue carry heroes, and lately there are fewer people playing Supports. All that said, when Zagara comes out I know I'm going to lose another 10-20 hours just playing only her.
 
Played a bit last night. The game seems like it can be fun. I got that Pirate ship map twice and didn't like it that much. It was a bit hectic but getting everyone to gather up to deposit the coins seemed rather annoying to coordinate.

If anyone wants to play, I'll get on every now and then this week and will get on a bit more starting next week.

Btag: luxuriasin#1498
 
I can't stay alive with Valla (Demon Hunter) long enough to do anything for my team.
Played 6 games as her today and only managed 2 decent-good games.

She dies so fast to other assassins.

Think I'm gonna leave her alone for awhile and get the skin tints for Raynor.
 
Made it to level 17 now, got the first two Li Li skin tints. So far I've spent a good bit of time with her, Stitches, the Witch Doctor and Raynor. They are all pretty fun in their own ways, though I cannot seem to do anything of note with Raynor.

Also tried Kerrigan and Gazlowe. Not a big fan of Kerrigan, think I'd rather play Stitches than deal with that since he's a little more durable, but Gazlowe is fun when you can get set up. In a pug, though...pretty hard to set up. He's awesome on the Cursed Hollow or whatever it is, and the pirate map. Just set up turrets all around those things, good times.

At level 17 I have something like 12700 gold. That sucks, IMO, considering if I were to buy Stitches for example that'd be 10000 of it gone. I'm torn between buying two 5500 heroes or one big one, but I'll wait to see what the freebies are next week. Stitches is free this week so no need to buy him at the moment.

They definitely need to implement like 20 gold for a loss and 50 for a win. Some amount, at any rate.

Just for fun, in order of annoyance after around 40-50ish games played:

Murky > Brightwing >> Li Li > Tyrael = Zeratul

Also, there is sadly never anyone on in the GAF channel :(. I saw Miletius on there tonight, but he was already in game so my group couldn't invite him.
 
Does the bonus experience from playing with friends or on the weekend take into account quests or is it just the game experience?

They really need to do something about winning experience and fast game experience. 20k for winning in a game where you earn over 100k naturally is really bleh. And then there's the quick games where you only get 50k total with the bonus. Shouldn't be penalized for having a great team and ending the game quick.
 
Weekend and Friend experience is a multiplier on the base match experience.

Making the Win experience bonus a fraction is actually a piece of design I like. For the losing team, it means they get an incentive to make a comeback than quitting the game early. Even if they lose, the act of trying to comeback leads to gaining more experience. In the case where you win quickly, then the win experience is a much larger percentage of the experience earned (in your example, almost half) and it's your guaranteed cut off reward.

In general, the experience you gain (and therefore, much of the gold you gain) is linearly proportional to the amount of time spent in game, so unless you're getting long queue times I don't see winning a game quickly as a penalty. The worst possibility is just losing a game so quickly that your team didn't even earn 20k experience. But then Hero and Daily Quests turn around and reward you whether you win or lose (with one exception) which helps smooth over the rough edges of speedily lost games, and give all the other cases a nice bump.

I don't think that gaining gold per game is the answer, especially when they have this experience and quest system already. I'd prefer if it was just tweaked, but Blizzard has an incentive to leave things as they are.
 
Does the bonus experience from playing with friends or on the weekend take into account quests or is it just the game experience?

They really need to do something about winning experience and fast game experience. 20k for winning in a game where you earn over 100k naturally is really bleh. And then there's the quick games where you only get 50k total with the bonus. Shouldn't be penalized for having a great team and ending the game quick.

You aren't being punished if a game goes by fast, you just go into another game and get the same XP per, more since you get the win bonus on top of it.
 
No one would ever buy heroes if that's the case.

I don't buy this argument at all.

If the reward is twenty gold, that is 500 games to get a 10,000 gold hero. It's also 275 games to buy a 5,500 gold hero. I don't see folks just farming 'em out. It's not gonna break Blizzard's bank

Then there's 50, as I suggested, for a win. That is 200 games for a 10,000 gold hero and 110 games for a 5,500 gold hero. If anything, those proposed numbers are possibly too low not too high.

Hearthstone gives out 40/50/60 gold per daily quest, gold for every three wins, and the packs are only 100 gold. They are still making money hand over fist. I think a gold reward for playing the game or a bonus for winning or winning three, etc. is not only realistic, it's necessary for longer term investment from players.

I mean you're basically looking at a game where a casual player, which is Blizzard's supposed audience with this game according to MOBA vets, would have to play to level 16 right now to get two 5,500 gold heroes or one of the big 10,000 gold ones. That's not much incentive to keep going once the player realizes that unless they are truly head over heels for the game. Me, I just pay the cash. But judging by most of GAF's take on Hearthstone, they are all about the F2P and detest the pay-to-win and right now it's really the only viable option to have more than two or three heroes available that aren't on the weekly list.
 
Made it to level 17 now, got the first two Li Li skin tints. So far I've spent a good bit of time with her, Stitches, the Witch Doctor and Raynor. They are all pretty fun in their own ways, though I cannot seem to do anything of note with Raynor.

Also tried Kerrigan and Gazlowe. Not a big fan of Kerrigan, think I'd rather play Stitches than deal with that since he's a little more durable, but Gazlowe is fun when you can get set up. In a pug, though...pretty hard to set up. He's awesome on the Cursed Hollow or whatever it is, and the pirate map. Just set up turrets all around those things, good times.

At level 17 I have something like 12700 gold. That sucks, IMO, considering if I were to buy Stitches for example that'd be 10000 of it gone. I'm torn between buying two 5500 heroes or one big one, but I'll wait to see what the freebies are next week. Stitches is free this week so no need to buy him at the moment.

They definitely need to implement like 20 gold for a loss and 50 for a win. Some amount, at any rate.

Just for fun, in order of annoyance after around 40-50ish games played:

Murky > Brightwing >> Li Li > Tyrael = Zeratul

Also, there is sadly never anyone on in the GAF channel :(. I saw Miletius on there tonight, but he was already in game so my group couldn't invite him.

Probably for the best, as I am apparently super bad at the game. I think I just need more experience with the heroes though. Hope to see more GAFers in the channel though, would love to play with a group.
 
You aren't being punished if a game goes by fast, you just go into another game and get the same XP per, more since you get the win bonus on top of it.

This assumes you're going to play another game. There's more incentive to just draw a game out, especially if you're dominating. So the losing team who lets just say for arguments sake isn't good, has to sit their and deal with it while the opposing team destroys every building. Just add another 20k bonus experience for a win under 15 minutes.

I should clarify that I completely understand what you guys are saying, I'd just like to see more experience for winning, just not as huge as an experience difference as there is in Dota between the winning and losing team.
 
Probably for the best, as I am apparently super bad at the game. I think I just need more experience with the heroes though. Hope to see more GAFers in the channel though, would love to play with a group.

What part of the game are you struggling with? Staying alive, exp output, or just in general?

My experience is that it's more about finding the one hero you "get" before it really all falls into place. For me, I didn't play well til I did the Witch Doctor. Then I paid for Li Li and it was like the characters I normally play in MMOs (and she's OP as hell) so it helped a lot. The only problem I've encountered running Li Li is when I get grouped with another support and we struggle to put out the damage in team fights.

I don't know what playstyle you like, but IMO it's best to start with a character who is quite mobile/able to escape or quite durable. Stitches, Li Li, Arthas, and Nova are some examples. Basically any of the warriors except Sonya.
 
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