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[hypotc]

So, Hero League.. I had been stuck between rank 17-20 in HL for like two or three weeks. The moment I hit rank 16 everything turned, and I've mostly been winning games since then. Currently at rank 10. I wonder if I will hit another speedbump though. It seems like my MMR has suffered because I probably sucked a lot on my first games played during the alpha.

 

[Alur]

So, Hero League.. I had been stuck between rank 17-20 in HL for like two or three weeks. The moment I hit rank 16 everything turned, and I've mostly been winning games since then. Currently at rank 10. I wonder if I will hit another speedbump though. It seems like my MMR has suffered because I probably sucked a lot on my first games played during the alpha.

It does seem that there are a few speed bumps. I smurfed two accounts to rank 1 and both stalled around rank 3-6 for me, which is always annoying. I still had bonus points though so it wasn't too bad as one win is more points than two losses.

I'm doing my main account now, though, and have crawled it up from the crappy 2k MMR I had it at to about 2550. On this account one win gets me less points than one loss sometimes, though, so it's one step forward and two steps backward often. That has gotten me as high as rank 5, but I keep going back and forth between rank 5-7. Currently rank 6 and kind of fed up with it, so taking a break. The best way to get out of this range is a lot of games in a row, though, as it's hard to make much ground if you only play 2 or 3 with that kind of point gain/loss ratio.

And yes, your first games are heavily weighted. If you end up with a low MMR coming out of that, it definitely takes a good deal longer versus winning 50% or more out of the first 20-30 and getting those wonderful bonus points on each victory to rank up quick.

 

[Zafir]

I haven't even played since the event started, so I probably won't be getting the portrait. Dx There's just too much other stuff to be doing at the moment.

 

[Alur]

Are you Overwatching, Zafir?

Matter of fact are any of the thread regulars besides Nirolak in Overwatch yet? I think our branch of the Overwatch Rejects Club is pretty full.

 

[RumblingRosco]

No Overwatch beta for me. Curse you, Blizzard.

 

[kirblar]

I'm not in.

 

[Alur]

I'm hopeful that the rumor wishful thinking that having a Digital Pass for Blizzcon increases your likelihood for Beta is true.

Probably for the best that I'm not in yet, though, cause I gotta get dem portraits.

That thread about Overwatch features on the HOTS reddit hurts my feels...but feels good all the same. Hopefully it doesn't go unnoticed.

 

[Zafir]

Are you Overwatching, Zafir?

Matter of fact are any of the thread regulars besides Nirolak in Overwatch yet? I think our branch of the Overwatch Rejects Club is pretty full.

I wish.

Nah, Tales of Zestiria came out, and I've just been busy really. So my free time has been either playing Tales of, or maybe Dota if I get asked. But I've not even played Dota that much recently either.

I wish my spending habits on hots increased my chances of getting into the Overwatch beta.

 

[Maledict]

After watching the overwatch streams, what I've realised I want more than anything is a better fundamental game for matchmaking and matches in general.

1) Quick match should have a 30 seconds "swap your character" window when your team has been chosen, like in Overwatch. It needs something, ANYTHING to improve it right now. The simple fact is MOBA's dont work by randomly throwing characters together into team,s and if Blizzard won't let us draft it they need to do something to stop teams like Leoric + Muradin + Nova + Abathur + Azmodan being created against a team of Leoric + Nazeebo + Kael + Tychus + TLV. (shock news, we lost that one).

2) MMR needs to be shown. Full stop, end of story. I'm not a moron, show me the dman number.

3) Hard enforce the limits around what it will match MMR - like Legue does with its leagues and rating system.

In fact, revamp the entire stupid hero league ranking thing as the concept is silly right now. Replace it with something with graduated tiers, hard enforce locks between those tiers, make it all transparent. Make the queues even longer if needs be.

4) Bans in hero league. Bans bans bans bans bans bans bans.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

No Overwatch here, but I'm not sure if I'm interested in it yet either. I'm garbage at arena shooters and I don't generally find them that interesting. Aside from that, the characters look like rejected Wildstar designs, which in turn look like rejected Dreamworks designs. There's like two characters I like the look of. I'm sure if I tried it and it clicked I'd get over the art style.

 

[Milly79]

After 254 games (209 QM/HL - 45 AI) I have finally reached level 20 with Kael'Thas. I finished with a 58.4% winrate, not terribly bad.

Here's some pics:

Anyone else have any level 20s on GAF?

 

[Alur]

After 254 games (209 QM/HL - 45 AI) I have finally reached level 20 with Kael'Thas. I finished with a 58.4% winrate, not terribly bad.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Anyone else have any level 20s on GAF?

Closest is 17 with Abathur and 15 with Kerrigan.

 

[Maledict]

He's the best hero in the game, I can only envy Milly with my level 15 on him.

(Seriously do think he's an amazing hero, despite the flaws in his talent tree)

 

[Milly79]

Blizz, y u do dis?

Perfect scenario for Gaz.

 

[Alur]

Perfect scenario for Gaz.

Dat Brightwing in that game was hella pro.

 

[brian!]

I only have a couple of lvl 10s

 

[Mengy]

After 254 games (209 QM/HL - 45 AI) I have finally reached level 20 with Kael'Thas. I finished with a 58.4% winrate, not terribly bad.

Anyone else have any level 20s on GAF?

Congrats! I don't even have a level 10 yet, LOL!

 

[Ketch]

Blizz, y u do dis?



Perfect scenario for Gaz.

perfect scenario for gaz and yet he still wasn't a factor after 10 minutes in

 

[Milly79]

He's the best hero in the game, I can only envy Milly with my level 15 on him.

(Seriously do think he's an amazing hero, despite the flaws in his talent tree)

Agreed, as do I. Gonna find it hard to play him after grinding that much, but I couldn't waste the XP. I'm pretty sure I was already at 18 when the XP bonus was turned on. Really wish there were more than 2k gold at 20, or at least there was a system in place to keep collecting the XP. I'd assume they may add more levels? Who knows. Such a grind, however.

The small number talent choices in my picture were mostly misclicks, since I typically use CTRL+ X number. He really does need more diversity. I do miss empowering Q. No point when you can double bomb someone to death half the time.

I will admit it took me 18 levels to see that D Q W with an E thrown in there (if possible) is best pre-13 for ganks/kills. I'm a shitter.

 

[Maledict]

I'm more about the stun myself pre-13. I think that's the key to Kael, is landing his stun - him and Tyrande are the only ranged assassins with a built in ranged stun, and without it he's just a worse Jaina I find.

There's something so appealing about throwing someone up in the air as you then set fire to their hair.

(It's also funny how the muscle memory works on him - I can now do the Phoenix / stun / double bomb + flamestrike combo so fast and without thinking. Not saying I hit anything but I can do the combo! )

 

[Yoshichan]

Congrats Milly. You the best Kael 💕💫

 

[brian!]

I prtty much do dw q w no matter what the situation is

 

[Milly79]

I prtty much do dw q w no matter what the situation is

I find it leads to a lot less kills unless you have someone backing you up.

 

[brian!]

Yeah i die a lot i just want max deeps

I probably chase outplays on kael more than any other hero

 

[gryvan]

Anyone else have any level 20s on GAF?

Holy shit

This makes me feel like a filthy casual

 

[Alur]

There's something so appealing about throwing someone up in the air as you then set fire to their hair.

One day the NSA or police will read this. RIP Maledict.

Holy shit

This makes me feel like a filthy casual

He's a filthy something alright. Animal, scoundrel, noob, shittar, etc etc

 

[Ketch]

I kinda feel bad for those guys, but god damn is it fun playing rexxar against people who suck. Like you can see them not knowing what to do about it.

 

[Cerato]

Current favorite thing ever is sticking to someone's back as arthas and riding them across the map until they die.

 

[TDLink]

I kinda feel bad for those guys, but god damn is it fun playing rexxar against people who suck. Like you can see them not knowing what to do about it.

I don't feel Rexxar is very good. Misha is too easy to kill and if she dies Rexxar basically can't do anything. He's a warrior role but he isn't really super beefy either so he isn't really a tank. And if you do have a proper tank on the team, he's kind of a waste of space. I think Blizzard needs to change some things about him.

 

[Ketch]

I don't feel Rexxar is very good. Misha is too easy to kill and if she dies Rexxar basically can't do anything. He's a warrior role but he isn't really super beefy either so he isn't really a tank. And if you do have a proper tank on the team, he's kind of a waste of space. I think Blizzard needs to change some things about him.

I think he's pretty decent. The bear is actually fairly tanky, and can get down right ridiculous if you talent for it. The only time it dies easily I feel is due to mis-micro, as you should be able to pretty much heal and call him back out of almost anything. Unless of course the enemy team spends a lot of resources on him and that's still a really good outcome... it's like when the enemy is blowing cooldowns on a murky.

He's definitely not a main tank though. It's really hard to find the right comp for him but he fits more into a bruiser or specialist role. My favorite thing about him is that he's got really great talent options. He's got great talents for damage, wave/merc clear, sustain, and CC. I think he works best paired up with long range damage dealers, dive partners, and CC combos.

I really like him on infernal shrines, and he's probably also really good on battlefield and cursed hollow. A lot of tight hallways that you can just care free send the bear into for vision and disruption. It provides a lot of opportunities to get free damage and strong initiations on the enemy team. For example, on infernal shrines during the objective you can sic the bear on an enemy hero and get free damage and vision of them until they decide to do something about it, and then you call it back, heal it up, and do it again.

You put that on an enemy backliner and they've got a real problem. They either need to waste cooldowns on what's essentially a summoned murky, or reveal their position and take free damage. You combine that with anything that can follow up and as soon as they waste cooldowns on the bear they're dead. You're essentially forcing a fight, you just need to be sure that your team is ready and willing to follow up.

 

[Werd]

After a week+ of doing really well with Leoric and Zagara I'm trying to just get Illidan over hte top to level 9 for the gold and am getting slaughtered. These comps just kill me too fast and that earlier winning got me out of the MMR range where people don't* just roam around to be picked off alone. Any tips on him right now?

 

[Ketch]

After a week+ of doing really well with Leoric and Zagara I'm trying to just get Illidan over hte top to level 9 for the gold and am getting slaughtered. These comps just kill me too fast and that earlier winning got me out of the MMR range where people just roam around to be picked off alone. Any tips on him right now?

what build are you using? Meta is better in basically every scenario.

but you really need to duo with a support to get good results with illidan right now. specifically uther for the d-shield.

 

[zoukka]

Game seems pretty dead in twitch.

 

[Pooya]

I didn't play for like two months, logged in again recently to try free Artanis, playing for a few days now, trying new heroes and use the bonus xp.. well I'm bored again. yeah...
I feel this game is as good as its maps and there hasn't been good new maps since forever, diablo ones sucked if you ask me. I'm out again until something notable and new comes out. Morales, Rexxar, Monk were all boring as dirt to me. Artanis was cool though.

 

[sobaka770]

Game seems pretty dead in twitch.

Most top streamers are trying Overwatch. ZPs might even be switching full-time. However there was decent viewership for Blizzcon games. Don't forget that HotS doesn't have a lot of tournaments like Dota 2 ( where its pretty much daily) and its too young to get pro-streamers with decent viewership.

 

[Maledict]

Have we heard anything about Hots from the Activision / Blizzard financial reports this morning?

 

[protonium]

Game seems pretty dead in twitch.

 

[Milly79]

Misha is tanky as fuck.

 

[zoukka]

Misha is tanky as fuck.

Yeah never waste an auto-attack on that hairball.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

I didn't play for like two months, logged in again recently to try free Artanis, playing for a few days now, trying new heroes and use the bonus xp.. well I'm bored again. yeah...
I feel this game is as good as its maps and there hasn't been good new maps since forever, diablo ones sucked if you ask me. I'm out again until something notable and new comes out. Morales, Rexxar, Monk were all boring as dirt to me. Artanis was cool though.

Diablo maps were sloppy and derivative, I'll give you that. I actually kind of like both now after getting used to them. Shrines oddly has no real mechanical identity considering how much work obviously went into the map and the different punishers. Battlefield is just a clusterfuck but at least it is different.

Have we heard anything about Hots from the Activision / Blizzard financial reports this morning?

Candy Crush fruit to be the next HotS hero announced at Blizzcon. Plays like Lost Vikings only there's 6 of them and they can't attack, all they do is soak. If you lose to them, the player using them gets half your gold.

Also Candy Crush now playble during WoW raids with /gems command

 

[Alur]

I kinda feel bad for those guys, but god damn is it fun playing rexxar against people who suck. Like you can see them not knowing what to do about it.

That was a nice one. Maybe not for them, but not often you get to carry that hard in HOTS.

For anyone wondering, here's what we had:

Maybe someone should ask Browder for comment? This was like a 3-4 minute queue before midnight PST. No clue WTF happened.

 

[Alavard]

That was a nice one. Maybe not for them, but not often you get to carry that hard in HOTS.

For anyone wondering, here's what we had:



Maybe someone should ask Browder for comment? This was like a 3-4 minute queue before midnight PST. No clue WTF happened.

Holy hell. That is bad.

 

[Alur]

It was a fun one for me and Ketch. Bad news bears for everyone else, though. The Sonya didn't even really know to come to objectives, just kind of started following the herd.

It'd be like the equivalent of me and Ketch playing with actual pros...except at least we are at the point where we could understand what's going on, even if the skill gap is huge. These dudes didn't even all understand what was happening even before the skill gap.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

That only happens to me when I'm playing well into the next day.

 

[Star Falcon]

Haven't followed the announcements for a while... any news on the next hero(s) or is it pretty much all a mystery until Blizzcon? Just playing casually at the moment a couple games a week, (finally) bought the Butcher so having some fun with him!

 

[Alur]

LotV collector's/deluxe digital reward for HOTS is available starting today.

Players who purchased StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Collector’s Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition will soon find digital rewards appearing across each Blizzard game they play!

Below, we’ve provided the approximate dates (PST) you can expect to find these rewards in-game:

November 2:
Diablo III – Probe pet and Protoss transmog

November 3:
Heroes of the Storm – Void Speeder mount
World of WarCraft – Archon Pet

November 10:
Hearthstone – Protoss cardback
StarCraft II – Purifier Adept and Colossus skins

Looks like it's time to go surfin', surfin' USA.

EDIT: It's not there yet, though.

Haven't followed the announcements for a while... any news on the next hero(s) or is it pretty much all a mystery until Blizzcon? Just playing casually at the moment a couple games a week, (finally) bought the Butcher so having some fun with him!

There's been some fairly educated guesses, but thus far nothing confirmed. They are keeping a tight lid on it.

 

[Ketch]

It was a fun one for me and Ketch. Bad news bears for everyone else, though. The Sonya didn't even really know to come to objectives, just kind of started following the herd.

It'd be like the equivalent of me and Ketch playing with actual pros...except at least we are at the point where we could understand what's going on, even if the skill gap is huge. These dudes didn't even all understand what was happening even before the skill gap.

Yea their etc went face melt build.

I laughed.

 

[brian!]

Dam ice cold

 

[RumblingRosco]

Tried to wrap up a quest quickly this morning in an AI game. Actually met an AFK Abathur. Like for real. Someone on my team said he was AFKing the previous game too. We all agreed to report the shit out of him afterwards. What a douche.