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Heroes of the Storm |OT2| Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

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kirblar

Member
Wizard stuff from Razer:

Trait: Critical Mass. All cooldowns reset on a kill or assist (jesus christ)
Q: Magic Missile Targeted strike
W: Arcane Orb - Relatively slow, does more damage the farther you are
E: Teleport Short distance, Short cooldown
Ultra 1- Disintegrate
Ultra 2- Wave of Force - Nuke w/ knockback, sounds like a ranged face melt

Necromancer is a Melee Specialist

From Reddit's transcript-

Xul - d2 Necromancer is generally a close range character

Trait: raise skeletons from dead minions (up to 4, last 15 seconds), very annoying if you skill into it

q: spectral scythe reverse skillshot, creats scythe from you, comes towards Xul, can be manipulated by movement, good lane clear

w: cursed strikes (core counter ability?) basic attack becomes Area attack, curses target, reduces attack speed by 50%

e: bone prison target ability, click on enemy hero in close range, this hero gets a warning, 2 seconds later he will be rooted for 2 seconds

r1: Poison Nova aoe ability, huge amount of damage over time

r2: skeletal mages creates a wall into distance, slows everybody they hit (but doesn't block movement)

also has an ability on 1-button:

Bone Armor gives you shield and helps you survive when going in

Xul can talent into Mortal Strike on Q at level 20.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
neco... fuck
 

Maledict

Member
Love the patch notes, love the new approach to patching, and both the new heroes sound ace. Particularly want the wizard in my veins now!
 

Syf

Banned
Wow they really did it, they announced two heroes and neither are from Warcraft. Both are pretty hype, rip wallet (I'm Canadian so this will be like buying a house)
 

Maledict

Member
Yep - it's why she doesn't have Black Hole, or Time Warp I'm guessing. Time Warp in particular is an odd one to be missing, as it was such a key wizard ability in d3 and one of the main showcased spells.

It does leave me hoping there's a male wizard coming st some point in the future - whilst she sounds cool, there's a lot of key important stuff missing from the character that isn't missing on other Diablo heroes (maybe Fetishes and dogs for the witch doctor?)
 

Fmal

Banned
Is Necromancer the first time they've acknowledged their earlier entries in their series? Does this mean we'll finally get some Brood War heroes??
 
They picked Fallen Sword for crusader... and they didn't give her the horsies.

I would have preferred Phalanx or Bombardment. Crusader was my main with the flail that gave me a 2nd bombardment and stacking lots of crits. Nuked the shit out of mobs.

Is Necromancer the first time they've acknowledged their earlier entries in their series? Does this mean we'll finally get some Brood War heroes??

Diablo isn't in his D3 form
 

Alavard

Member
Is Necromancer the first time they've acknowledged their earlier entries in their series? Does this mean we'll finally get some Brood War heroes??

Um.

Diablo uses a model that is clearly based on Diablo 1/Diablo 2 rather than Diablo 3. Nova has an Amazon skin. Lt. Morales is a medic, which is a Brood War unit (and not even buildable in Starcraft 2 multiplayer).
 

Fmal

Banned
Sure, but Diablo is still in D3 too at least, even if it is in the weird Leah form. It's too bad they didn't follow suit and keep Duke in the Siege Tank instead of inventing a lamer character.
 

Maledict

Member
Technically there are two classic Diablo necromancers in Diablo 3 as well - quests in Act 2 and 5 where you help them keep the balance.

I do wonder if this is an indicator for Diablo 4 - were fairly sure no further expansion pack is happening for D3 at this stage, and given its sales they have to be looking at another instalment. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it were announced at Blizzcon this year with the necromancer in it.
 

Alur

Member
Not sure how I feel about necro being a melee specialist. Fine with specialist, but the melee part is concerning because I can't even remember a melee hero who wasn't tanks/heals being released that was actually viable.

Seems like they really struggle with the risk vs reward of that, and the only templates are Gaz, Abby, and Murky. One is booty and the other two are basically their own game within a game...maybe he will be too though.

I sincerely hope he is cause I plan to play him regardless.
 

Maledict

Member
I think the labels are just causing them more and more issues now. The fact he's a specialist doesn't mean he's like gazlowe or murky - he sounds very much like a bruiser whose power is partly in his pets more than anything else. That bone armour ability is very telling - clearly, it's there to let him go into melee range, and it basically does the same work as a large self heal if used properly.

He has a lot full of cc and disruption abilities, and sounds like he would thrive in a melee heavy environment, but gets labelled a specialist because he has minions I guess.
 

Maledict

Member
No date given, but they talked about hitting the three /'four week cycle still. Wizard was confirmed as the next one released.
 

Alur

Member
I think the labels are just causing them more and more issues now. The fact he's a specialist doesn't mean he's like gazlowe or murky - he sounds very much like a bruiser whose power is partly in his pets more than anything else. That bone armour ability is very telling - clearly, it's there to let him go into melee range, and it basically does the same work as a large self heal if used properly.

He has a lot full of cc and disruption abilities, and sounds like he would thrive in a melee heavy environment, but gets labelled a specialist because he has minions I guess.

I agree it seems like they tried to beef him up, but if they did I have little faith that it wasn't at the expense of damage...ultimately being squishy or being bad damage will both make him less desirable.

As for "a lot of cc", I see an attack speed debuff and a very delayed root. Neither are a stun which is what shakes the money maker and makes heroes viable right now in HOTS unfortunately.

The mortal strike at 20 certainly sounds very interesting. That could be OpieOP late game provided he can get there.

I'm hopeful you are right and the mitigation + the control he does have makes him a decent hero, but he veers from the template of what we've seen a successful hero be (CC heavy or burst heavy or both) in this game so I'm a little pessimistic. I think Leoric is the only one who escaped that mold to be actually good (that isn't a healer) and that was on the back of his ridiculous death mechanic.

There's no reason to think they can't make something different viable again like they did with Leoric, but that recent track record got me legit shook.
 

brian!

Member
Big part of why leoric is good is because entomb is opy and so impactful, so the cc thing stands

Hard to tell about any of these heroes without talents, necro seems like theyd be solid as fuk with good talents. Dunno why youd want armor made of bones tho, dood thinks hes cubone?
 

Alur

Member
I'm just talking about us here on the plebe level though.

Entomb wasn't really the ult of choice in QM/HL for long after he dropped. It quickly shifted to March and stayed that way for a long time when he was insane in regular play. People kept fucking shit up with the Entomb and there were too many escapes at the time, and March was instant value because dummies stood in it. It was also being used in competitive play.

The Entomb comeback seems to be as much a product of the pros using it/him again as anything to me. Entomb is 52.6% and March is 47.4% pick rate right now so they are still pretty close. He's one of the few heroes that people like both ults and use them both a decent amount I guess.
 

brian!

Member
Yeah most ppl liked march early on but i do remember entomb being go-to a little after the passive nerf, anecdotal ofc

March is also a trap for a bunch of ppl who see like oh dmg and sustain vs. none of that, better pick march, same w/ ltts on butcher a lot of ppl get trapped into furnace similarly.

hinterland too, tho the switch there def coincided with it being picked up at higher lvls i think

My brother goes blast and march because they are more fun for him
 

Alavard

Member
Super pumped for Li-Ming (the Wizard). I'm always drawn to characters with high mobility.

I'm not nearly as excited to play Xul, the Necromancer, but he still looks like a great addition, and is clearly going to make a lot of Diablo 2 fans very happy.
 

Alur

Member
March is also a trap for a bunch of ppl who see like oh dmg and sustain vs. none of that, better pick march, same w/ ltts on butcher a lot of ppl get trapped into furnace similarly.

I don't find it to be a trap in the same way you are lumping it in with Furnace. With Lamb, unless you misclick, you are pretty much guaranteed to get someone so you can see it's value compared to the value you get with Furnace.

That's not the case with Entomb as you can trap your own team, trap someone who can easily escape, or trap yourself into your own death. You can also completely whiff, which I see happen pretty regularly. Lots of ways to fuck up Entomb and any time spent in QM or HL with a Leoric and you'll see it happen like clockwork.

That's the reason people switched to March then, along with the fact that it seemed he was played a lot more in a sustain style with less deaths instead of now being played in a more Murky "annoy the shit out of them" and don't worry about dying style that Caff really popularized with his play and his posts.

Now with what you see in QM it feels like it traps people more as there seem to be less escapes (particularly in the last couple heroes released). I think that's helped it come back a lot.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Is Necromancer the first time they've acknowledged their earlier entries in their series? Does this mean we'll finally get some Brood War heroes??

Well, I realize he's not exactly in Brood War, but Tassadar is a StarCraft 1 character.
 

Alur

Member
That Li-Ming teleport though...I hope that it is super annoying. Would like to see another hero that is as hard to kill as Lili and old Leoric due to evasion.

EDIT: Finally got to see the model of necromancer. Oh baby.
 

brian!

Member
Yeah its not the same type, mainly thinking about b1g dmg mentality vs. actual use mentality, but it's conjecture and anecdotal from ingame chats and stuff, i definitely remember the consensus around release being something like march being a general pick and entomb being a more specific pick

Im prtty excited for the new heroes but mainly because i think the animations will look nice
 

Alur

Member
The only downside to seeing these two is that I don't even want to play now because I want to play them =/.

Still two weeks at least til Li-Ming, and then at least another three for Xul. Sad lyfe.

EDIT: Somehow I am 5-2 with Lunara in QM. How did this happen?

i definitely remember the consensus around release being something like march being a general pick and entomb being a more specific pick

That sounds about right. After a month or so, March was definitely seeing more general use unless you just lucked into the team picking a bad comp against Entomb where you could really exploit it. I need to master him on my main account one of these days. I did it on an alt, but I mainly only play the one account now that I climbed out HL MMR hell.
 
That Li-Ming teleport though...I hope that it is super annoying. Would like to see another hero that is as hard to kill as Lili and old Leoric due to evasion.

EDIT: Finally got to see the model of necromancer. Oh baby.

why dont you Share with us ALUR!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

GIF-angry-friends-furious-grr-joey-mad-Matt-LeBlanc-GIF.gif
 

Milly79

Member
You getting salty over QM losses that are beyond our control. :p /aramlyfe

The better question is what's stopping you? "Best hero since KT" - Milly79 huehue

They are within our control most of the time. We're shitter status.

And he is. Doesn't mean he's UP. I really like going in and getting blown up every time. /s

Already looking to buff him.
 

Alur

Member
They are within our control most of the time. We're shitter status.

We are that, but we can't help Rehgar dcing at the start of the game and never coming back or Tassadar quitting out at level 15 for whatever reason like we had in those first two games last night. Just a bad run all around. Not the first, won't be the last.
 

Milly79

Member
We are that, but we can't help Rehgar dcing at the start of the game and never coming back or Tassadar quitting out at level 15 for whatever reason like we had in those first two games last night. Just a bad run all around. Not the first, won't be the last.

I wasn't even salty yesterday.
 

Alur

Member
A high skill cap mage is interesting.

That'll give us: low - KT medium - Jaina high - Li-Ming

I hope her overall output can match up with their burst and potentially rival KT. I also hope the next hero after Xul is another ranged burst hero.
 

Alur

Member
He's always been listed as high. But D+W+W has never been any kind of skillcap at all.

He's right there with Raynor for stupid-easy heroes to do a lot of damage with.

Definitely much harder to be a good Jaina than a good Raynor or KT.
 

kirblar

Member
He's always been listed as high. But D+W+W has never been any kind of skillcap at all.

He's right there with Raynor for stupid-easy heroes to do a lot of damage with.

Definitely much harder to be a good Jaina than a good Raynor or KT.
Living bomb becoming uncastable on targets who already have it would help a ton.
 
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