Support NeoGAF

[zoukka]

Kael singlehandedly makes Hots a shit game right now. Of course they need to address ignite.

 

[Ketch]

So get rid of flamethrower and fission bomb, the actual boring talents. Or you know balance shit instead of removing it.

 

[Interfectum]

Excited for Rexxar so I can go face in Heroes too.

"Rexxar team fight is up here buddy."

"I hunt alone."

 

[Milly79]

Kael singlehandedly makes Hots a shit game right now. Of course they need to address ignite.

Lol, yeah. Nothing to do with Zeratul. Or Jaina. Or every hero with a stun. It's all Kael. You're right.

 

[davepoobond]

Ignite did seem pretty OP. It was cool, though.

I'm sure there's something else they can pull from lore to make the replacement more interesting than what sounds like a placeholder

 

[Rhaknar]

Murky ruins the game

 

[Yoshichan]

Everyone ruins the game! The game would be balanced if everyone could only choose Raynor.

 

[super-famicom]

Murky ruins the game

There should be a different breed of Murloc for each role in the game.

 

[Rhaknar]

Rexxar announcement ruined the game

true story

Spoiler

because I cant play him yet

 

[danielcw]

I dunno about you guys, but I've got the medic as my wallpaper now. This is the most exciting hero for me... I hope they get the similar voice actor!

Is there any reason they can't use the same voice actor, or rather actress as in Starcraft (2)?

 

[Yoshichan]

Is there any reason they can't use the same voice actor, or rather actress as in Starcraft (2)?

Nothing I know of! I hope they do!

 

[Ketch]

Everyone ruins the game! The game would be balanced if everyone could only choose Raynor.

Exactly.

 

[davepoobond]

Is there any reason they can't use the same voice actor, or rather actress as in Starcraft (2)?

do we know if its the female medic for sure or if it was one of those other nerdy scientist dudes from Wings of Liberty?

 

[Yoshichan]

do we know if its the female medic for sure or if it was one of those other nerdy scientist dudes from Wings of Liberty?

Looks female to me... I think?

 

[Yoshichan]

Heroes of The Storm ‏@BlizzHeroes 3m3 minutes ago

Dynamic Bundles arrive soon, featuring reduced prices based on items you already own! Details: http://blizz.ly/1Utveed

About fucking time

 

[Milly79]

That domination bundle is trash tier compared to the conquest.

 

[Yoshichan]

That domination bundle is trash tier compared to the conquest.

? Link

 

[brian!]

Read some of the rank changes, i dunno what they meant about making the points system more consistent but it sounds good

 

[kirblar]

do we know if its the female medic for sure or if it was one of those other nerdy scientist dudes from Wings of Liberty?

Referred to as she onstream.

 

[kirblar]

Read some of the rank changes, i dunno what they meant about making the points system more consistent but it sounds good

Avoiding a rank/MMRmismatch via not showing rank till placements are done.

 

[Ketch]

Read some of the rank changes, i dunno what they meant about making the points system more consistent but it sounds good

Are their notes somewhere? Can you link?

 

[brian!]

Cant link but its on reddit

 

[Ketch]

Shit. Guess I'll never ever find out then.

Edit: funny that they just announced like 4 heroes and the first audience question is about more heroes.

 

[brian!]

Oh they still allow 3-4 player stacks in ranked, thats pretty fucked up

 

[Ketch]

Oh they still allow 3-4 player stacks in ranked, thats pretty fucked up

That's the way it is now.

 

[Svafnir]

Finally hit rank one, it was a horrible grind for me. I play every hero and the start I was playing really stupid comps and heroes, feel like I was in a "elo hell" forever to make up for my bad start.

Ah well, now to wait for rank v2! Wish grandmaster league was launching at the same time, would be nice to have an actual leader board.

 

[brian!]

That's the way it is now.

Yuh its messed up

 

[Celegus]

Medic!! Looks awesome!

 

[danielcw]

GOLD MAY BE HEADED YOUR WAY
As part of these bundle improvements, and to help thank those among you made purchases early on during Heroes of the Storm development, we’re going to grant gold to any players who may have purchased the same item more than once by buying a bundle that contained items they already owned.

[...]

We’ll begin granting Gold to players who made duplicate purchases via bundles, or created named Team League teams, in a few days. If you’re among these players, be sure to watch out for an email from us at the address associated with your Battle.net account.

That's nice

do we know if its the female medic for sure or if it was one of those other nerdy scientist dudes from Wings of Liberty?

Either way I hope they use the same voice actor as in SC2.

 

[Duress]

It's going to be one of those man with woman voice or vise versa

 

[danielcw]

It's going to be one of those man with woman voice or vise versa

English Medic voice actor in SC2 sounds like a woman to me. At least in the 2 "pissed" samples I listened to.

 

[Yoshichan]

I'm confused what the fuck ya'll mean with "male voice".

How does this sound like a male?

Unless you mean the medivac, in which case medic =/= medivac

 

[Complistic]

Judging by how that medic has their hips cocked, that's definitely a woman.

 

[Alur]

Someone asked about the new base bundles:

STORM BUNDLE

Anub'arak Tyrande
Falstad Storm Lord Falstad Skin
Gazlowe Grimskull Nazeebo Skin
Nazeebo Roller Derby Nova Skin
Nova Wrath Sonya Skin
Sonya Cyberwolf Mount
Tassadar Rainbow Unicorn Mount

With the arrival of our next patch, we’re also going to add two brand new hero-only Dynamic Bundles. Check out the upcoming Conquest and Domination Bundles below!

CONQUEST BUNDLE

Arthas
Jaina
Rehgar
Sonya
Zagara

DOMINATION BUNDLE

Chen
Diablo
Kerrigan
Gazlowe
Uther

 

[Yoshichan]

Out of all the online games that I've played (mind you, I've played online games since 1994), this game has the highest toxic playerlayer-ratio. I never did play LoL enough to judge that community, but I honestly sometimes wish I could uppecut 90% of this games' player base.

 

[Savitar]

Judging by how that medic has their hips cocked, that's definitely a woman.

It's a woman.

Definitely a woman.

Now if this was Square it might be questionable.

 

[jaundicejuice]

I've been screwing around with Possession for a few matches now because I'm just bored of insta-locking Black Arrow every match. I've been rolling with this build.

1) Barbed Shot
4) Paralysis
7) Unstable Poison
10) Possession
13) Splinter Shot
16) Will of the Forsaken
20) Dark Lady's Call

The goal being push more than one lane between objectives, stall or shift lane pressure. At 10 Possession can turn an entire creep wave, minus catapults. If you intercept a creep wave before yours and the enemy wave clash, you can double a wave pushing a lane. You're kind of a low rent Azmodan at 10. The problem is if you stay in the converted lane, it cuts into your siege damage output and puts you at greater risk.

With the first three talent picks Sylv can basically instantly melt a creep wave. At 13 you need only Shadow Dagger and fewer Withering Fire charges to melt a wave. So you want to blow your Possession charges and shift to another nearby lane to melt it. If there isn't a nearby lane that looks safe to convert or push and your team isn't fighting, I go merc. I find Will of the Forsaken is kind of necessary during free Butcher week. It's not as good as Ice Block, which can outright cancel the charge, but if you time it correctly neither the charge nor the slow nuke will affect Slyv. In general it's pretty good for escaping a lot of things and heroes that are generally problematic for Sylvanas split-pushing.

Dark Lady's Call is actually kind of useful, it shuts down siege ogres completely, they end up fighting each other and on Battlefield of Eternity you can nab the summoning merc which can dramatically shift the lane pressure once the dogs are dead. It's less useful on the 3 and 4 merc mobs but you can nab one and melt a wave in short order at that point in the game.

The trade-off is, obviously, you lose a massive teamfight tool but I've been choosing this build when I'm on teams that can't function well enough to teamfight. Still happens every now and then. I still show up and help with every fight and objective but overall there's only so much you can do sometimes.

 

[Nirolak]

The medic footage is here: https://youtu.be/Lo8CtytKAw8?t=3083

 

[Yoshichan]

The medic footage is here: https://youtu.be/Lo8CtytKAw8?t=3083

Yes! Thank you!!

 

[aka_bueno]

any USGAF wanna team up? I'm gonna jump on for a bit, my bnet is in the OP link!

 

[TomShoe]

66% win rate on ETC. Feels good.

 

[Savitar]

Coming soon, dynamic bundles.

 

[DaMasta113]

Coming soon, dynamic bundles.

Nice! I was hoping for this..

 

[Complistic]

Having a lot of fun on azmodan this week. The guy smokes melee assassin's that overstay their welcome.

 

[super-famicom]

The medic footage is here: https://youtu.be/Lo8CtytKAw8?t=3083

Oh man, totally buying her.

 

[Ketch]

The monk actually pisses me off already. It's gonna be Tassadar all over again in quick match. Did they learn nothing?

And he's gotta be leveled to 5 before I can even take him into HL.

 

[kirblar]

CH CH CH CHANGES! https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/3g6o7c/grubby_about_gamescom_build/ (Thanks to Grubby!)

Oh, look, KT got a base damage buff on Q/W. I am 100%, totally shocked!

Overall

you can now see the team total's XP breakdown if you hover over it. E.g.: 8.2% from buildings and 6% from TD's and 14.5% from lane minions soak
when a Hero dies, his death timer immediately shows up in the death queue. So no more waiting for Uther's spirit to disappear before knowing his return time.
shields are now white, kinda same as on the U.S. Heroes tourneys like HotD. It is much clear now than before what's the shield. Nice changes all around so far here.
pre-cleanse disappeared

General balance:

gathering power 0% at start, 1% per Takedown and 50% retention at death. This is an overall nerf and makes GP a situational pick even on heroes like Kaelthas or Nova. Max is still 15% bonus.
Bolt of the storm cool down 70s(up from 40s)
Mercenary lord is now at level 4 for all heroes (I think) that had it at level 7. It has merged with Superiority, giving both talents former advantages.

Hero specific:
Kerrigan

Sweeping Grasp level 1 talent is gone and is now default part of her "E".
Mana-return E lvl 1 talent with 10 mana per target hit, max of 60.
No more seasoned marksman I think.
Massive trait talent changes and buffs. 20s on longer shield talent instead of 12s. Has a level 7 which gives 100% bonus HP and Mana regen whenever shields are active.
Her own form of sprint. 25% bonus move speed for 4s, CD 75s. Worse, right? BUT it activates each time you get a Takedown. She's FUN to play damn.
her own form of Blood 4 Blood: essence for essence. 10% max life dmg, 20% max hp added to her assimilated shields. Worse, I think? But benefits if you are using it when full life or using it for the extra regen from lvl 7 talent.

Kaelthas

Gravity lapse base range and speed has been increased to what Nether Wind (4) was.
Nether wind was not removed, it adds even more range and speed now.
the gravity lapse cool down level 1 talent got buffed by -3s CDR from -1s CDR. So E's CD is 13s and was reducible at max to 10s, now to 4s.
flamestrikes base damage and living bomb base damage are slightly higher I THINK.
mana flamestrikes talent at level 4 now gives 5% max mana back per kill up from 20 mana per kill. That makes it better post level 16 but worse pre I think? Quick maths, could be wrong.
Fission Bomb (7) is now 30% dmg bonus and 30% radius explosion increase (chard from just 75% dmg).
pyro last radius increased a bit.
pyromaniac (13) gives -2s CDR per tick up from -1s CDR (it's insane!).
chainbomb and flamethrower still exist
backdraft (16) now offers 50% slow for 2.5s (!!!) on living bomb targets
flamestrikes talent (16) now gives a 50% dmg flamestrike same location automatically at 1st later

Azmodan

the lord of hells demon warriors are going to be less bad. Most of the bad talents got collected like a 2-in-1. Don't remember exactly how but you'll have for example less PvE dmg combined with more duration.
bound minion(4) was removed. However at level 20 he got a 2nd trait charge (another general) and reduced its cool down by... Like 10s? This reduces his level4 and initial global strength and remote catapult buffs which imo is a good thing. But it brings back up his push power at level 20.
E does 25% bonus damage on structures now. I think it used to be 50%?
he can go full E build at level 1,4,7,13. Mana reduction and +25%(bringing it back up to its original 50%) structure damage at the level 1 talent. Level 4 brings that 15% life leech that he already had. Level 7 brings a 4th Power level (HA ME GA ME HAAAAA) and 3rd is good old March of sin still.
mana reduction talent for Q at 13, seems not to compete.
stacking build still possible and mostly unchanged.

Jaina

water elementals SUMMONING no longer chills or does damage. No further changes that I can recall or noticed. Good change imo, WE was OpieOP.

Nazeebo

Level 7: three choices. Gidbinn = +33% timer on SPIDERS and ZOMBIES. Second choice: 4s zombie wall reduction talent. Third choice: all 5 of the plague toads upon impact give -1s CDR on toads and return 5 mana.
Level 13: zombie 5 uproot walking dead guys now also have the +50% dmg embedded in it that was previously at level 7.
thing of the deep (13): all basic abilities range goes up by 25%
loses sprint at 13
gets hardened focus at 16
16 didn't change for the rest
ravenous spirit felt stronger (maybe bigger radius again?)

Tyrael

sancti is now channeling 0.5s I think, but tyrael is free to go once it completes, and it leaves the invul zone in that location

Arthas

gains merc lord embedded with superiority (read general changes, wrote this about Arthas cos it may seem unexpected lol).

I know a certain someone who's going to be very happy about the Snowman change.

Zeebo getting buffed is awesome.

 

[Yoshichan]

So many fucking changes... all of these are huge. Also:

Kerrigan

Sweeping Grasp level 1 talent is gone and is now default part of her "E".

So they turned Kerrigan from a challenging (but satisfactory) character to play as, to another standard herp derp character? Was this the inevitable "change" (or buff) that they were going to give her? Pfft...

Time to continue reading...

edit: Bolt of the Storm getting nerfed despite not being the auto-pick for every character at level 20 anymore.

 

[kirblar]

Uh, what? The E upgrade was mandatory outside of solo-Q (where you might need to grab one of the others.) Changes nothing about her skill-cap or the difficulty of lining up her sweep->stun placement, they just made her WAY more forgiving to lower level players with a number of these changes.

Bolt getting nerfed is wholly deserved.

 

[Yoshichan]

Kerrigan goes from fun to herp

Got a problem with me thinking that this game needs more challenging and interesting characters?