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[Celegus]

Well I know which brawl I'm only doing 3 times and done. I can't believe blizz is going to make me play nova again, I got her to 5 over a year ago and hoped I never had to play her again.

 

[Xeteh]

So I had barely touched HotS over the last year and hadn't seen the change to Sylvanas' ultimate. Goddamn Mind Control is fun, I've always liked Sylvanas in the game but I was having a blast last night.

 

[kirblar]

So I had barely touched HotS over the last year and hadn't seen the change to Sylvanas' ultimate. Goddamn Mind Control is fun, I've always liked Sylvanas in the game but I was having a blast last night.

"Oh Hi Li Ming! Where were you going?"

 

[brian!]

What the snipe AoE?

yeah

 

[scoobs]

Christ. I'm going to have to do his one with you guys, or I'll likely go insane

 

[Milly79]

Tomorrow night scooby. I'll be on around 9cst till late.

 

[Xeteh]

Oops, wrong thread. MY BAD.

 

[Alur]

Tomorrow night scooby. I'll be on around 9cst till late.

Do we have a date bb

 

[scoobs]

Can we hold hands?

 

[Alur]

Whatever you guys wanna do.

Also that Nova portrait is pretty good. Best brawl one yet, perhaps?

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

popped during GCWC

 

[scoobs]

During the broadcast? What do you mean? I would be a little surprised if they announced a new hero during a tourny broadcast, but I do think its safe to say Vol'jin is definitely coming at some point. Although ... we have actually SEEN Zul'jin in gameplay previews before, so I'd assume he'll arrive sooner than Vol'jin does. Then again, who the fuck knows anymore. Alarak came out of fucking nowhere

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

The image w/o the captions. They've been teasing a bit for some time.

 

[Milly79]

Oh boy

 

[scoobs]

Vol'jin is a shadow hunter right? Support incoming?

 

[Dr. Buni]

More Warcraft. Jesus Christ.

 

[Kioshen]

This brawl could go sideways real fast. I'd also like to do this brawl with you guys but I don't think i'll be able to make it tomorrow. Oh well.

 

[scoobs]

More Warcraft. Jesus Christ.

They really don't space them out very well, do they? They have about 20x more known lore characters in the Wacraft universe than the others.

 

[Alavard]

Vol'jin is a shadow hunter right? Support incoming?

Blizzard specifically said we're not getting another support for a while at Blizzcon, so I doubt it.

 

[Milly79]

Warcraft best universe anyway

 

[Kioshen]

They keep dying in that universe so the nexus picks them up at an alarming rate.

 

[Maledict]

Just watching what looks to be Digs final match at gold worlds. Aethero really looks weak compared to the rest of the team to be honest. A year ago at blizzcon he was probably the bets tyrael in the world, now he looks out of place and unskilled.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

He was the only Tyrael a year ago and he was part of liquid for a couple weeks which sucks skill right out of you. Honestly though he's been juggled around teams and roles all year.
Remember how fan performed for GFE? Athero went through that 3 times or so this year. While he's definitely the weak link his hero pool and Jay back on tank has broadened their drafts considerably.

 

[Maledict]

He was the only Tyrael a year ago and he was part of liquid for a couple weeks which sucks skill right out of you. Honestly though he's been juggled around teams and roles all year.
Remember how fan performed for GFE? Athero went through that 3 times or so this year. While he's definitely the weak link his hero pool and Jay back on tank has broadened their drafts considerably.

I would agree, but they just went with a three warrior comp into auriel with Tychus as their only dps on infernal shrines. That was a bad draft in my eyes.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I would agree, but they just went with a three warrior comp into auriel with Tychus as their only dps on infernal shrines. That was a bad draft in my eyes.

I was more surprised that they got out drafted by a strategy they helped popularise in game 1.

 

[Alur]

Vol'jin? Zul'jin? Hype.

Gimme dat mon.

 

[scoobs]

Ready to unleash my voodoo powers on some fools

 

[brian!]

That comp would have been more successful if they had taken the bigger they fall, but mainly they were outplayed

 

[Prelude.]

How's Nova? I can't win for shit in this brawl but she seems fun.

Edit: Ok, I won, I wasn't using her cloak properly.

 

[brian!]

For normal games kind of play her as a normal ranged and use her longer range to poke out with autos. For the brawl iunno probably gotta play like a secret agent + assume that ppl do see you

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Case in point w/r/t Team Liquid, they failed to qualify. This team is a pitfall for any talent.
Shit either granpkt and bkb or Cris won't be able to qualify. I feel like the former would be a bigger loss.

 

[brian!]

Id much prefer bkb + hes actually good and exciting to watch

 

[Maledict]

I think bkb is overrated.

Just listening to THH, and hearing Mac talk about how Varian is good at several things but not really good at anything in particular so he won't be picked. It's giving me flashbacks to the start of the year, when Dunk said literally exactly the same thing about Greymane, and we all know how that went down... ;-)

 

[scoobs]

Well they also buffed Greymane after release and that is mostly what lead to his rise in popularity. You don't see Greymane fucking at all anymore, and his win rate is bottom 5 in the game.. Varian is better than release Greymane, but I'd mostly agree that he doesn't do anything particularly special aside from solo bosses, which is a gimmick

 

[kirblar]

Well they also buffed Greymane after release and that is mostly what lead to his rise in popularity. You don't see Greymane fucking at all anymore, and his win rate is bottom 5 in the game.. Varian is better than release Greymane, but I'd mostly agree that he doesn't do anything particularly special aside from solo bosses, which is a gimmick

This is mostly due to Valla being overtuned, imo. At least in competitive.

 

[Maledict]

Well they also buffed Greymane after release and that is mostly what lead to his rise in popularity. You don't see Greymane fucking at all anymore, and his win rate is bottom 5 in the game.. Varian is better than release Greymane, but I'd mostly agree that he doesn't do anything particularly special aside from solo bosses, which is a gimmick

They said that after the initial buff, and he was already showing in EU and Korea, but NA got to do what NA got to do. At the time they still had the running EU meta joke but that's gone at least now.... ;-)

I would also say that colossus smash Varian feels very like greymane to me now as someone who usually plays ranged carry characters. His ability to literally remove me from the game in a second is terrifying and I don't know what I can do about it.

 

[scoobs]

You kill him first is what you do, or you get saved by your support. He's basically signing his own death sentence by going in w/ Colossus Smash if your team is ready for it.

 

[brian!]

Varian is too new to see much comp. play but his kit is very relevant in it's current state.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Greymane was literally picked multiple times today in GCWC.

 

[scoobs]

His kit, minus the tank spec, is very relevant. 6 second stun and tons of burst or tons of sustain is always going to be good. I cannot imagine a scenario where a comp match has a tank Varian in it.

 

[kirblar]

Greymane was literally picked multiple times today in GCWC.

Yeah, the idea that he's disappeared from competitive is silly.

(You just need to ban Valla to have him appear!)

His kit, minus the tank spec, is very relevant. 6 second stun and tons of burst or tons of sustain is always going to be good. I cannot imagine a scenario where a comp match has a tank Varian in it.

His kit is a nightmare in HL, but gets blown up easy in 5v5 because of the 0 escape thing.

 

[brian!]

Tank can be good but you cant all in on the gimmick, it has a way shorter cd than cleanse tho

His main weakness is tass, gotta ban or take that

 

[scoobs]

Yeah, the idea that he's disappeared from competitive is silly.

(You just need to ban Valla to have him appear!)

His kit is a nightmare in HL, but gets blown up easy in 5v5 because of the 0 escape thing.

Ya, you need a good front line w/ stuns to follow up on your charge to secure kills early in the fight or you're basically just dead.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

A point and click stun is the closest to hard counter to tracer that's in the game. If Dig had picked Varian instead of thrall game 1 they might have stood a chance.

 

[brian!]

Still weak to tass, but prtty dependent on how well tracer positions, he should do well against her tho. His cds synergize like crazy w/ tass and khala helps make up for his inability to prevent multiple dives

Tass has fine synergy w/ tb, but it's one of those situations where youd be better off taking illidan who can stick whereas tb varian would need a bw or malf to guarantee hits

 

[Dice]

Brawl might be fun with an actual team, not random feeders with no altar strategy.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Looks like Cris will be the one to make it. To believe Granpkt and BKB went from top of EU to not even qualifying a bit more than a year later is pretty sad. Not saying either is amazing right now but Team Arthas, became Virtus Pro, was the first team I was rooting for in EU.

Also Zarmony from 2nd place at Blizzcon to not making it as well.

HGC Europe is done and the results are

Dignitas
Fnatic
Misfits (technically the reigning EU champions)
Two Bees Determined (notables include adrd, nic)
BeGenius (notables include Unnstable, Danatan)
Damascus Boyz (this team is stacked remmerballer, Alex, Gnappe, ethernal, Crozzby)
Russian Circus (notables include zwHydra, CEBKAJE)
Diamond Skin (notables include Cris, chriZplosion, Nande who I just found out is Austrian)

 

[scoobs]

I spent my night playing Tracer with my low mmr RL friends and holy shit I felt so bad for the guys we were playing. I could tell they were new and I just flattened them. Hope they don't hate the game now and quit.

 

[Milly79]

You're an awful man, Scoobs.

Ghost protocol is fun as fuckkk. May be the best brawl yet.

 

[Ketch]

I spent my night playing Tracer with my low mmr RL friends and holy shit I felt so bad for the guys we were playing. I could tell they were new and I just flattened them. Hope they don't hate the game now and quit.

I did that with Sonya and illidan for a couple games with one of my RL friends when he tried the game. Went like 20/0 a couple times and then he ended up boosted as fuck and then quit the game and never came back.