Support NeoGAF

[Ketch]

Lame. I could've sworn that before he just had to be in a lane.

his body can soak, the hat has to kill.

so you can hide ina bush and soak one lane, while hatting a creepwave in the other lane to push and get xp for the kills.

the locusts also give you xp when they kill a minion, but that's pretty rare unless you get the upgrades at 16.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Don't forget that the mines can clear waves as well, he can soak 3 lanes in theory.

 

[kirblar]

First time playing with Entomb (and playing Leoric vs real people in a while)

God that thing's fun.

 

[Alur]

you gotta get kill the minion with the hat to get the xp

The hat doesn't have to kill. You just have to have it on. It will passively soak EXP just like your body. I just tested it in try mode to be sure, as that was how I remembered it when I played him. I don't know why you wouldn't be actively speeding it up by using your abilities, just saying you don't actually have to if you so desired. Then again, maybe you're saying the same thing.

 

[Ketch]

The hat doesn't have to kill. You just have to have it on. It will passively soak EXP just like your body. I just tested it in try mode to be sure, as that was how I remembered it when I played him. I don't know why you wouldn't be actively speeding it up by using your abilities, just saying you don't actually have to if you so desired. Then again, maybe you're saying the same thing.

no, I thought you had to kill stuff to get the xp. That's weird, I thought it would work the same as with dots or azmodan globe, if you kill it and your body is not around you still get the xp but you have to kill it. I guess I never noticed the difference since I always trying to kill the minions anyway.

 

[Alur]

Yeah, I think that's probably it. People are killing anyway so you just don't really think about it.

If you had to last hit everything with hat like you do mines that would be rough.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Grubby is streaming @Gamescom right now

https://www.twitch.tv/followgrubby

Zarya's boosts here damage by a proportional amount of damage she absorbs with her shields. The stacks decay over time.

 

[scoobs]

Wow, Zarya looks incredibly strong. Lots of supporty talents. She's going to be kind of like Tyrael I think, except instead of movement speed she brings crazy damage. I'm so excited for this patch

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Zarya gets cleanse at 16!

Grenade has charges

 

[scoobs]

Zarya gets cleanse at 16!

Grenade has charges

Am I crazy or does she seem like... incredibly strong?

Very excited to check out this new melee assassin, Grubby is playing him next I think

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Raynor changes incoming.

Alarak's W is able to be drawn from point A to B, that's quite the big departure from the way abilities work. E is point and click not a skillshot and his Q silences. His trait seems to be increased ability damage that you can give up piecemeal for various talent upgrades. He also gets to pick the other heroic at 20

4k health at 20 seems decent.

 

[scoobs]

Alarak seems insane, his W is going to be absolutely game changing (and super annoying to play against)

The Valla rework! Her talents are completely different

 

[Turdburger]

After watching Grubby's stream for a bit:

Alarak

The good:

• His trait - You do X% more damage to heroes but can "spend" this bonus to gain utility. Interesting concept that I really like.
• The heroic you don't pick at 10 is available at 20 - I really love this concept, but Counterstrike is so terrible that it really makes it meaningless right now. Regardless, it's a really cool idea.
• He can be an initiator - A charge + Q hit on an opposing ranged carry or support will shit on that hero. HOTS needs more hard initiation and mistake punishment, and this hero has it.
• Rewind with a Price - I really like the broken version of Rewind he gets at 20. I think this is a no-brainer pick in competitive because you're going to be able to pop this twice in a team fight and I think every most heroes would trade 8% permanent ability damage for two cooldown resets in a big level-20 game-deciding team fight.
• Telekenesis's versatility - This ability looks super flexible, and despite its disappointing cast range I hope to see it make numerous plays.

The bad:

• Counterstrike - Come on, Blizzard. You give a no-mobility hero a heroic that is a gap closer which basically enables his whole kit and then this. Seriously?
• The Q is somewhat disappointing. It has obvious synergies with hooks and various stun setups, but its charge time limits its effectiveness at hitting most heroes that this skill would be most valuable to hit (Illidan, ranged carries with escapes, ETC, Muradin before they use their escapes) and sitting there poking tanks with this skill is not going to do much. Getting this skill off on someone that matters in a time that matters is going to be frustratingly unreliable.
• His E is a boring straight-line nuke. Was there not anything more interesting they could do here? What a complete waste of a skill. There are so many interesting ways you can make an assassin hero do damage. Why this?
• The reliance on Charge - In a game that prides itself on offering two heroic options, why would one of them be a skill so essential to a hero's kit and the other be complete trash? Charge allows Alarak to initiate and essentially be an actual hero. I don't really like the idea of designing a kit that essentially requires a certain ultimate be picked to be used effectively.

Zarya

The good:

• Pretty much everything. I always thought Zarya would be perfect for HOTS, and this hero is going to be useful, unique and fun to watch because she can initiate on objectives with her Heroic and can counterplay opposing plays (to an extent) with her shields.

The bad:

• The level 16 cleanse talent. AFAIK this talent doesn't have a drawback; it is simply a CC removal on a 12-second cooldown. That's pretty broken with the way HOTS currently works.
• The zoning Heroic - This is going to be another one of those Heroics that gets changed massively at some point because nobody is going to want to pick it. It's just straight up less fun, less cool, and it's less effective. I seriously do not understand how Blizzard misses the mark on Heroics so often. The suck-in is so much better and has SO many obvious synergies, and it ENABLES other synergies as well. The zoning ultimate? A crappy, glorified psionic storm. What a joke.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I'm not sure I can agree on Zarya's Expulsion Zone. It has a third of the cooldown and seems like a great zoning tool. Not to mention that it deals damage and is thereby boosted by the trait. Get a 300% bonus then drop that baddie.

 

[scoobs]

The suck in also can be blinked out of, saw li Ming do it. I think the "shitty" ultimate is going to be good. Prevent escapes on fleeing heroes, steal bosses, escape tool, gonna be dope

 

[Turdburger]

The suck in also can be blinked out of, saw li Ming do it. I think the "shitty" ultimate is going to be good. Prevent escapes on fleeing heroes, steal bosses, escape tool, gonna be dope

Interesting, didn't know that. are you sure she wasn't cleansed? I guess it makes sense since you can cast skills. that definitely takes it down a notch

I'm not sure I can agree on Zarya's Expulsion Zone. It has a third of the cooldown and seems like a great zoning tool. Not to mention that it deals damage and is thereby boosted by the trait. Get a 300% bonus then drop that baddie.

True, but it's a damage dealing ability that pushes heroes out of the zone in which it deals damage. You'll be lucky to get one or two pulses of damage out of it. Also, what exactly are you going to be zoning? It's not that big of an area. It seems like a good thing to place on an enemy front wall, but if you're casting these on a capture point like a boss pit wouldn't you rather suck everyone in to combo with everything else your team has? Lastly, Stage Dive has less than 2/3 the cooldown of Mosh and offers potential global presence but Mosh is nearly always picked unless there are simply too many hard and direct counters. It's hard to refuse an ultimate that can instantly win you the game at any point and offers relatively little punishment for whiffing on.

Both are hard countered by Sanctification

I think its best value is preventing fleeing heroes from getting away. But even that effect is just a win more effect

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

You also have to consider that Zarya has no ability to peel whatsoever. ETC is a hero that's perfectly fine with never using his heroic all game, heck even w/o one he'd be a beast.
Expulsion Zone is gonna be good in all the situations Holy Ground would be, just have to be more conservative with it.

 

[Maledict]

So Valla has been completely reworked in the same way as Zagara - total rework at every level, including a change to her Rain of Vengeance heroic (now has charges), her Vault (increase damage after vaulting) and trait (8% damage per stack). Her talents look completely different, and she's much much much more focussed on her trait now.

https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofth...l_breakdown_of_all_the_new_valla_talents_and/

The level 20 range upgrade will be silly...

EDIT: And Jaina is back in Europe big time. So much for the nerf...

 

[scoobs]

So did they change Kerrigan's Ultralisk ult or was that just the skin they were showing off?

 

[Milly79]

What was wrong with Valla aside from mana issues? She had multiple builds already.

After looking, they really killed multi-shot, at least from an early game perspective. Seems they're trying to make her more AA based.

 

[Maledict]

What was wrong with Valla aside from mana issues? She had multiple builds already.

After looking, they really killed multi-shot, at least from an early game perspective. Seems they're trying to make her more AA based.

I think they felt she was boring, and that (like many older heroes) her trait was basically ignored by people. Also since the multishot nerfs her build diversity had really dropped.

It's one those complete reworks, like Zagara, where they have probably been working on her for some time because they aren't happy with her but she isn't seen by the public as a huge problem because she can see what wins.

 

[dnmt]

So did they change Kerrigan's Ultralisk ult or was that just the skin they were showing off?

Skin only.

 

[dnmt]

Going off Grubby's stream the new Valla looks insanely fun and powerful but yeah, it doesn't seem like you have much choice now except investing in her trait and AA.

 

[Milly79]

I think they felt she was boring, and that (like many older heroes) her trait was basically ignored by people. Also since the multishot nerfs her build diversity had really dropped.

It's one those complete reworks, like Zagara, where they have probably been working on her for some time because they aren't happy with her but she isn't seen by the public as a huge problem because she can see what wins.

Guess that is the case. Now just give me The Butcher rework.

I guess it didn't make into the next patch either, eh? Or Zeebs? I'm sure we would've seen the news about that.

Going off Grubby's stream the new Valla looks insanely fun and powerful but yeah, it doesn't seem like you have much choice now except investing in her trait and AA.

That's cool though, I guess. She's more fun to play than Raynor.

 

[Alur]

Her trait was def. ignored. It was all multi-shot for the longest time back pre-release. I think she's still one of my 3 most played heroes in my in-game profile and I don't think I've touched her but once or twice in over a year so the rework should be cool.

Zarya with Cleanse, though? Like legit, standard Clenase?

 

[Maledict]

Her trait was def. ignored. It was all multi-shot for the longest time back pre-release. I think she's still one of my 3 most played heroes in my in-game profile and I don't think I've touched her but once or twice in over a year so the rework should be cool.

Zarya with Cleanse, though? Like legit, standard Clenase?

On a 12 second cool down apparently...

 

[Milly79]

Her trait was def. ignored. It was all multi-shot for the longest time back pre-release. I think she's still one of my 3 most played heroes in my in-game profile and I don't think I've touched her but once or twice in over a year so the rework should be cool.

Zarya with Cleanse, though? Like legit, standard Clenase?

*Cleansing Shield* (E)
Shield Ally removes all disabling effects and reduces duration of further disabling effects by 50% for the duration.

 

[Maledict]

So not a proper cleanse then - similar to how cleanse worked for a while on patches.

 

[Alur]

Are there any youtube vids up yet or her gameplay or is he still streaming or what? I haven't been able to look yet.

Sucks that we have what, 4 or 5 weeks til Alarak and then another 2 til Zarya even though they are playable on the floor right now. I'm not too fussed about Alarak either way, but I want that pink hair straight into my veins.

 

[Milly79]

Alarak is gonna be fun as fuck. Cannot wait to get my hands on that guy.

 

[Alur]

Whoever said he looked like a sith lord, they were right. Even down to the force lightning. SWTOR sorc + assassin callbacks ahoy!

 

[Milly79]

Even better, right?!

 

[Alur]

Maybe for you. I can't do that melee lyfe outside of a couple of tanks.

Also didn't realize the EU regional was on.

 

[kirblar]

wtf @ this Fnatic draft- Falstad/Syl/Tyrael/Anub/Rehgar- how the fuck are they supposed to kill anything? Dignitas is going solo Tassadar in response because there's zero pressure!

 

[brian!]

Tass pretty weak pick, dig prob thought that fnc hope to single out targeta but the comp is full of incidental aoe

Force wall is really useful against that comp though

How did the game turn out

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Solo Tass works on Tomb with heroes that can self sustain. Fnatic beat them with that multiple times before.

They stomped Fnatic.

 

[kirblar]

Tass pretty weak pick, dig prob thought that fnc hope to single out targeta but the comp is full of incidental aoe

How did the game turn out

Fnatic got destroyed. Tass was fine- they had absolutely no burst or pressure on Fnatic's side.

 

[Maledict]

Tass pretty weak pick, dig prob thought that fnc hope to single out targeta but the comp is full of incidental aoe

How did the game turn out

It was tomb - dig won. EU plays solo Tassadar on tomb and it seems to work a lot for them. Fanatic didnt have enough burst to burn someone down fast enough (they use AA falstad as well on that map).

 

[brian!]

Yeah i like solo tass on that map too hes really useful on tomb

Tass is mainly for using against st burst, but his vision on that map lets the team pick the fights

 

[Duress]

Looking forward to the bg's more than the heroes

 

[kirblar]

Double Tank + Sylvanas is so f'ing dumb. No damage. Need a bruiser to pull that off, not a second tank.

 

[brian!]

Double Tank + Sylvanas is so f'ing dumb. No damage. Need a bruiser to pull that off, not a second tank.

It's pretty distinctly eu lol

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Getting 4 for 1d and almost winning, this game was so frickin close. I'd have 0 idea what to call in a situation like that.

 

[Maledict]

Their mistake was not committing to one or the other. Dig did exactly the right thing and sent their dps back to defend with Gust, which meant they were never going to solo the core down in time versus a late game punisher.

 

[brian!]

This is groups?

 

[Ketch]

Sounds like zarya is already gonna need a nerf

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

This is groups?

Yes group A. Fnatic has to go up against the winner of losers bracket next.

 

[kirblar]

Zarya (Shield Talent) and Auriel (Aegis) definitely seem to indicate a Cleanse change is on the way where the effect is no longer a standalone spell and is only attached to other abilities.

This is a very good thing for viewers and players alike.

 

[brian!]

Oh wait does the shield cleanse in hots like it does in ow

 

[kirblar]

Oh wait does the shield cleanse in hots like it does in ow

You can talent into it.