Agreed. I would spend money so fast. Its like Blizzard doesn't like my money.
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Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha Thread: [Artifacts Removed]
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
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Agreed. I would spend money so fast. Its like Blizzard doesn't like my money.
I'd like say, the reason this hasn't opened up is because it still is very much in an alpha stage. Servers can be wobbly at times and hero balance is a far ways off (as you can tell from the last page) so a mass influx of players would be chaos. Not to mention there are still modes that have yet to be implemented. I hope you guys get an invite into the alpha/beta when it comes!
I feel like that you will see the casual aspect of it a lot more due to the fact it's a Blizzard game. In fact, it seems that's what they want. Hell, a lot of the complaints I see is that HotS is not set up well enough for competitive play by other MOBA players.
I imagine they'll adopt something like their Hearthstone ladder, where you'll always be against people your skill level. There's no real way around having some kind or ranking system to keep the regular players from getting stomped by the full timers.
Little website update action going on. Can't tell if the picture of the "Judgement" skin for Uther is new. They've also got Anub'arak hanging around in a screenshot too... I wish they'd just announce him.
New skins are up as well. Kandy King Muradin for 14.99 and Spectre Illidan for 9.99.
New skins are up as well. Kandy King Muradin for 14.99 and Spectre Illidan for 9.99.
Well there's already a rudimentary hidden elo system in place already from what I can tell. I was stomping my early games but now it has stabilized a bit.
A casual competitive league would be exactly what I would play with in this game. At the end of the day, if I queue up as Sgt. Hammer the game reminds me that it's very, very fun and I'll enjoy keeping up with it.
Speaking of which...do you (or does anyone else) know the implication behind the "this player is close to your skill level" star that sometimes pops up in the LFG box on the main screen?
It's weird because most of the people it shows that are close my level are either level 40 or less than level 15. I win the majority of my games, so seems weird that new players would have the same skill level unless they've just been world beating.
I have the same issue too and I notice it in matchmaking; I tend to get either matched with (both on my team and the opponent's team) a combination of low level players and level 40s.
Part of the issue is just that the MMR probably has a wide initial range and takes a good while to settle in, and part of it is the low amount of available players it can group together. So as long as some of the low level guys win a decent amount of their first games, they can get matched with the rest of us. It's also indicative that we're not hot shit.
Part of the issue is just that the MMR probably has a wide initial range and takes a good while to settle in, and part of it is the low amount of available players it can group together. So as long as some of the low level guys win a decent amount of their first games, they can get matched with the rest of us. It's also indicative that we're not hot shit.
yo_soy_el_topo
Member
Played a lot of these games and am very surprised at how fun the matches can be. Like all in the genre it takes awhile to find a good even match but when it breaks out it's great!
Well I can only speculate but in Dota 2 there is an hidden mmr that they use to do match making until you calibrate in ranked. I'm sure they use a similar system to match people up but the pool is so small right now that they can only do so much to pair up people.
Myself I'm currently lv11 but I've had people marked with a star at lv9 or as high as lv21. I don't know what they measure but probably fight contribution, ping communication and so forth. As a point of comparison, the designers for Hearthstone use the cumulative level of heroes that you have to help in unranked match making if you don't play much ranked.
lyrick
Member
I tend to see a lot of players that I've teamed with in the past (and won the game) appear with the star next to their portrait. Their levels are all over the place typically lvls 8 -> 40 with many in the 20 & 30s.
ToyMachine228
Member
That Judgement skin is great! My frothing demand increases.
npanciroli
Neo Member
Really enjoying this. Bought (with coins) Malfurion since I don't see many healers and it's super fun. Almost feels like WoW arena with Diablo perspective and Starcraft controls.
The Lamonster
Member
I'm new to MOBAs and not quite sure what I should be doing in this game.
My instinct has been to pick a lane and help the NPCs get through the several gates until we pave a path to the final tower and destroy it. Every match feels the same, no matter what hero I use.
If I decide to run around and help the other heroes or do the objectives, I feel like most of my time is spent running all around the map, wasting valuable time that I could be using to help my NPCs get through the gates.
So naturally it's boring, but I want to love it. What am I doing wrong? What should my priorities be?
My instinct has been to pick a lane and help the NPCs get through the several gates until we pave a path to the final tower and destroy it. Every match feels the same, no matter what hero I use.
If I decide to run around and help the other heroes or do the objectives, I feel like most of my time is spent running all around the map, wasting valuable time that I could be using to help my NPCs get through the gates.
So naturally it's boring, but I want to love it. What am I doing wrong? What should my priorities be?
It's like, you have the very basics down. At the end of the day, you push through to the win. Objectives are made to help do that too, when you can't just push through a lane thanks to enemy heroes. But if you aren't getting pushed back while in lane, then it sounds like you've only been playing Practice mode?
Not just sitting in the lanes.
Help your team mates. For this game in particular, you want to be doing the map objectives.
In four out of five cases, those objectives are the most important thing.
Here's my always list for objectives (as in always drop what you're doing and go for these):
The coins on pirate map.
The tributes on Cursed Hollow.
At least one shrine on Dragon Shire.
There are special caveats to the Haunted Mines. Mercs are better on the first mines spawn, for example, however getting a respectable amount of skulls starting with the second golem is usually recommended. You skip the first because the golem it spawns scales with the level of the players, and it's just not very strong in the beginning. It's a wrecking ball late game, though.
Anyway, you go for the objectives because either (A) they are game defining or (B) if you don't go for them, your team will be at a 4 v 5 disadvantage (and likely lose) which will slowly snowball on you.
Up until level ten, unless you are chasing objectives and/or getting mercenaries you should be in the lanes getting EXP, killing minions and attempting to push. Past that, it varies depending on the type of hero you are playing, but for most of the heroes the best bet then becomes getting objectives and mercs and pushing through together as a group.
I've never played other MOBAs so I don't know how it compares, but this is definitely a very team oriented game. Staying in a lane all the time is bad for business. There's times to be there for sure, but when an objective is up, mercs need to be gotten, or a team fight is going to occur you should be with your teammates.
Not legitimately no, unless you are super lucky. You can pray to the gods. Wish upon a star. Win the lottery. Those are about the odds it seems. I'm surprised we have as many people as we do in the Alpha to be honest.
The Lamonster
Member
Thanks for the tips, dudes!
No doubt, once it hits beta. After beta? Ehhh.....it depends. Hearthstone wasn't reset after it left beta.
I am going to miss almost all the heroes I unlocked. I am NOT going to miss owning Raynor and Murky :-(
Letterbomb
Banned
What's wrong with Murky? He seems stupidly fun.
MattPeters
Member
Got a alpha invite a few days ago, wanted the Warlords of Draenor invite instead.
Too bad I cant trade with someone, I have no desire to currently play HoTS.
Too bad I cant trade with someone, I have no desire to currently play HoTS.
They are going to talk about new Hero, new Battleground, and updated Progression System.
How exciting news is that! Do you reckon the new hero will be Anub'Arak?
Nothing I just don't like paying him personally.
Is it not possible to give the key to someone else?
ToyMachine228
Member
Blizzard flags battle.net accounts for access to things. There are no keys involved at all.
I was super sceptical of this game to begin with, but it has really grown on me to the point where I have now spent nearly $70 on getting the hero bundle, Muradin's sexy Kandy King skin and the robot dog.
I'm loving the fact that it is casual, because it means I just get pure enjoyment out of it and games only last max 20 minutes. Having no items, no gold and just pure smack people's faces in is oh so satisfying, and really throws out the whole "oh god this one guy is dragging everyone down/so fed" that plagues Dota and LoL. I feel like I can now focus on how to build my hero and then do as much awesome face smashing as possible as a team.
Definitely going to be playing this for ages to come, and it really helps that I've got a number of friends already accepted so we can steamroll pre-made 5's.
I'm loving the fact that it is casual, because it means I just get pure enjoyment out of it and games only last max 20 minutes. Having no items, no gold and just pure smack people's faces in is oh so satisfying, and really throws out the whole "oh god this one guy is dragging everyone down/so fed" that plagues Dota and LoL. I feel like I can now focus on how to build my hero and then do as much awesome face smashing as possible as a team.
Definitely going to be playing this for ages to come, and it really helps that I've got a number of friends already accepted so we can steamroll pre-made 5's.
What's the point of checking the box to opt-in for an invite then ?
KojiKnight
Member
WoD beta is so broken right now (constant CTDs) there is no reason to even bother yet. I'm lucky if I can even get it to log into the world, let alone play for more than a few minutes.
Jesus, selling skins when the game is in Alpha. What has gaming become.
You get the money back. Not a big deal.
The Lamonster
Member
The in-game shop needs testing, just like the gameplay. Purchases will be reset during testing and the money spent will be turned into Blizzard credit.
This is a lame excuse and you know it. They can do the shop testing internally. All other company do so and dont have Blizzard money.
The Lamonster
Member
There's more to it than just the technical aspect, such as "will people pay x price for x item?"
And you get a mount as reward for testing their eshop.
Is there any semblance of a competitive scene yet? I only ask because I am wondering how the multiple battlegrounds affects the competitive balance to the game. Also wondering how balanced these heroes are.
...or are they simply not going to care much about a competitive scene at all?
...or are they simply not going to care much about a competitive scene at all?
dave is ok
aztek is ok
It'd be funny if it was Anub'Rekhan and not Anub'arak for that Hearthstone Naxx cross-promotion
Super excited about a new battleground and I'm fairly certain Anub'arak is the hero. We saw him in the last video they released and we know he's in the files. I can't wait for him, I don't have a warrior/tank hero really.
KojiKnight, you managed to get in BOTH the alpha for HotS and the beta for WoD? Who do you know?
For one, as far as alphas go this thing is pretty polished. For two, idiots like me are willing to pay them now because why not. I already know I'm going to be playing it at launch regardless. Three, as said above, the money is refunded with each wipe. Four, it is also being used to gauge prices. I'm fairly certain some changed with the last patch but I can't swear to it.
I have 22000 gold because I bought the couple heroes I use with cash when I first started. I might have purchased 3 with gold at this point. Not an ideal way to do it, mind you, but I'd rather give Blizzard my $7.99 than buy another game in a Steam sale I'll pick up and put down in less than a day...or never play at all.
I have people on my friends list who are queueing serious (at least to them) 5 man's against other groups every night. At one point I ran with them, but I am not now "because he's not 40" as a couple of them have said. The majority I run into pretty much shun anyone sub 40, and definitely sub 30. It's definitely taken a more serious tone since the last patch at the beginning of the month.
With that said, I don't know that you'd call it a "scene". There's obviously no tournaments at the moment and people can't create custom games ATM because it is currently disabled. People are getting their tryhard hats on already, for certain, but it is just alpha which everyone conveniently forgets. The player pool is still pretty small. There's only so much you can do with that.
Heroes are fairly well balanced for where we are now, but there are (like any game) obvious front runners for the competitive scene. Each month brings a major shift, though, so it has stayed pretty fresh meta wise the two months I've been in.
Some additional batleground info went up today.
Looks fun.
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/14806627/designer-insights-garden-of-terror-7-16-2014
Also some new previews of the "master skins" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPjCPgcgiJg
All in all a nice news day.
Looks fun.
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/14806627/designer-insights-garden-of-terror-7-16-2014
Also some new previews of the "master skins" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPjCPgcgiJg
All in all a nice news day.
Level 40, finally. Had more gold than I thought, too.
I kind of wish I had harnessed the power of incomplete hero quests before. It makes it super quick. It took me all of 3 games to get 750,000 EXP to finish it because I was 3/4 on one quest and 1/2 on two others (which also completed a daily for me).
The real question...what now?
They are going to talk about new Hero, new Battleground, and updated Progression System.
How exciting news is that! Do you reckon the new hero will be Anub'Arak?
They've been teasing him, and he's right there in that img, so I think it's safe to say he will be the next released hero.
Goof around and have fun? Learn some new heroes?
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