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Heroes of the Storm |OT3| Chromiehounds
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
scoobs
Member
I get the feeling we'll figure out the best way to play Hanimura, and maybe it will become one of the better maps just like we did with Towers of Doom. That map was met with some serious negativity on release, and now its the most played pro map and probably the best designed map in the game aside from Cursed Hollow.
Or its just poorly designed and they'll make changes, but I think we need much more time with it to find the correct way to play it.
Or its just poorly designed and they'll make changes, but I think we need much more time with it to find the correct way to play it.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
I dunno, I felt really good about Towers of Doom during beta even though when it launched it was a nightmare during the learning curve. Hanamura is something ToD never was - boring.
Hanimura is just *weird*. If both teams just focus on their objective the game is a draw. No other map is like that. I also find it odd how the payload timings work, there's something confusing about the timings. Like I don't get the pay-off for delaying their payload - it seems like unless you delay for absolutely ages, there's no difference when the next payload appears?
scoobs
Member
I would disagree with it being boring. Its constant team fighting which I love, and the merc camps/boss are the most interesting yet. I'm really curious what the pros decide is the best way to play the map. Right now nobody fucking knows what they're doing and its just kind of a free-for-all bloodbath. Once strategies start showing up on a consistent basis we'll have a better idea if this is actually a shit map or not.
I mean can you blame him after witnessing this for a whole two minutes. I was puzzled as well and just plain laughing at them trying to explain what happened or at least justify it in some respect.
Yeah I played Malf on both Infernal Shrines and Towers of Doom. I had trouble in Towers of Doom with my positionning I think and trying to figure where everyone were trying to go. There was one vivid instance where I should have healed Varian instead of you that resulted in his death pre tower contesting but I'm sure there were other moments that could have went better. Even though I went 0 death in that ToD match, I still think I was carried in that one.
IIRC the "next" payload (ie: the one that the current payload is on cycle with) won't spawn for ~2 minutes or something after the one on the field is delivered. So in essence by delaying you are gumming up their ability to keep up. So if you both have two up, you deliver one and they deliver one, but you delay their second and deliver yours, their next one will spawn at the same time as yours, but their second one will spawn after yours because of the way the timer works. You can effectively ice them out this way, as we have done several games on PTR and live.
(take the timing number with a grain of salt, I'm unsure on that, that's just a number I've heard thrown around on a few streams)
Games at least tend to be decently close on Hanamura, though I've not really had any concerns about draws. I've only seen 3 total blowouts, and only gotten one shutout myself. Compared to the last two maps (Braxis, Warhead) the fact that it often stays close is a plus in my book.
I fucking love Hanamura. I'm surprised there are a lot of people against it.
For me, the fact that it's constant teamfighting is exciting as hell and it is a map that feels distilled down to the very things that make HOTS such an awesome game. Constant action, skirmishes, etc. There's never a moment on Hanamura where there's not shit to do like you get sometimes on BOE or other maps. I don't know that pros finding the right strat will do much for regular pleb play, though. People love to team fight whether they should or not, and Hanamura is kind of the personification of that. It's subtitle could be "Encouraging Bad Habits - The Map".
I do understand people equating it to a brawl, though. It plays a lot more like what I thought brawls would be like, for sure, but to me it's very fun. I love the constant clashing.
I only catch a few NA games as they are on so late for me, but what the freaking hell was that. What on EARTH was going on?
I'm less on the hate bandwagon than I was at first but I still don't like it. I do agree that Hanamura encourages bad habits throughout the duration of it. What I don't like is that there are so many more decisions to be had all at the same time that it's hard to coordinate something meaningful in the end. The fact that you can focus mercs, focus forts, control mid jungle rotations, focus on payloads or just do a little bit in all categories and still win is disorienting. I feel that the gray area in Hanamura decision tree is far too vague for its own good and will take a long time for solid strategies to develop.
There's a lot of messy stuff in the clip but macrowise it's pretty solid, nt is in the unfortunate position of having all their waves frozen by sss while down 2 levels but they cant just sit in their base while sss furthers their lead so they opt for a split push to catch up on soak. Arthas cant kill valeera by himself (barring some really bad play from casa). This means that the 1v1 between casa and arthas is a win for nt duee to comeback mechanics, so they make the call to fly falstad down and have the rest of the team prioritize not dying at top and delaying. Casa in turn realizes that a 4v3 for his team while they are down lvls is pretty sweet and tries to go for the delay on arthas/falstad but he dies, no camera on that so it's hard to see what went down. Nt is still in a bad position due to sss freezing the lanes and clearing top, all that remains on the board for them is that merc camp next to them so they go for that, but they start it kind of late (it really seems they didn't expect how low dmg their comp was). Casa does a good job stalling out his death but nt cant capitalize on the 4v3 both due to the map sss constructed and having a pretty shitty comp for siege, but they have to try or they will fall further behind and sss will just win w/ 20.
You can see examples of good decisions (nt going hard on top fort when casa draws two to hin) and bad (lots of pussyfooting at sss top wall and slow decisionmaking to call for the top merc camp), but the whole situation was sss being in control and nt desperately trying to make do w/ what they had available
Def agree w/ alur that the "i have no idea whats happening" stuff is schticky, it doesnt bother me much and it's kind of funny, but it also kind of gives way to memey and handwavey responses to stuff that has logic behind it
Jawmuncher
Member
Is the new week of nexus challenges up yet (not home so I can't check)?
I'm not home either but I don't see why it would be. Last week's started on Tuesday (when 2.0 launched).
Jawmuncher
Member
Human Trashcan
Banned
Got Cho'gall out of a regular-ass lootbox. I may never play him because of mechanics.
Hi guys, I pícked the game because 2.0 and find it really fun, its my first moba too, just one thing, I just got 14 heroes to level 5 and finally can play ranked, thing is I cant find a match, its because I'm playing my placements, or is hero league kinda dead?? Finding that really sucked the fun away.
HL is plenty active so it's probably a temporary problem right now. Since you just got your basic hero pool done. I would highly recommend queueing in unranked draft first before venturing in ranked. It will help you get a feel for drafting and see if your hero pool is large enough.
Okk thanks guys, hope thats it, I mostly play assasins and specialist, I guess I'll level up some warriors just in case.
Anyway, when does the map pool change??
TheSadRanger
Banned
Is D.Va going up on PTR tomorrow?
You should have at least 2 heroes that you are comfortable to play within each category (tank,bruisers,support,melee ass, ranged aa and magic assassins). It's not a hard requirement per se but it will greatly help you in making sure team compositions are healthy. You don't queue as a specific role in HotS and you don't always pick in the same order. Sometimes you can first pick and sometimes you are the last pick. By going at it with a small pool of heroes you are limiting yourself and your team which can lower your chances of winning.
Edit: Rereading myself, it sounds kinda patronizing but it's not my intention. If playing ranked is your thing go at it but I highly recommend trying unranked draft first.
Map pool restrictions usually last 2 weeks from what I can remember but we don't get new battlegrounds very often.
scoobs
Member
She should be two weeks out I think, so PTR next week if they do a PTR
If these are your first ranked matches ever it's probably just a fluke. The vast majority of HOTS players are within range of the starting MMR so there's plenty of bodies to fill games.
I do agree with Kioshen, though. Spend more time in quick match learning heroes and their interactions and in unranked learning the draft before doing ranked if you care about your rank at all. If you aren't ready and tank your placements and end up in a lower league you will likely sorely regret it.
Shouldn't be for another week. Genji just came out last week.
scoobs
Member
lol that's cute. Prepare your APM
You can set map camera waypoints with F1 to F3 IIRC. It helps a lot when you need to watch multiple lanes closely.
Bonus xp for random select? Why Blizz why?
and btw the reason I was even trying to kill Murky this morning is because we were the 2 only ppl contesting the last cursed hollow point, so we were just slapping each other with no results until someone showed up I guess :3
and btw the reason I was even trying to kill Murky this morning is because we were the 2 only ppl contesting the last cursed hollow point, so we were just slapping each other with no results until someone showed up I guess :3
This reddit posts sums up my thoughts on the Hanamura map, or at least my confusion:
I feel like the map is basically distilled HOTS, giving people a playground for the general modus operandi of the game (constantly fighting whether they should or not). It surprises me people don't like it when the vast majority of players see their games on other maps play out just like this for the most part, in my experience.
I feel like the map is basically distilled HOTS, giving people a playground for the general modus operandi of the game (constantly fighting whether they should or not). It surprises me people don't like it when the vast majority of players see their games on other maps play out just like this for the most part, in my experience.
I'm not even sure how much there is to learn because one simple trick (kek!) can win you most matches on the map.
From another post in that same thread:
That's pretty much how we've played it and it's worked pretty well. We just contest everything, even if it's momentarily. Every second you hold them up matters. Letting them walk one in free on you is a mistake.
From another post in that same thread:
That's pretty much how we've played it and it's worked pretty well. We just contest everything, even if it's momentarily. Every second you hold them up matters. Letting them walk one in free on you is a mistake.
KevMan1815
Member
Wait, is this really a thing? Is it a significant boost? I was out of the country all last week and am finally catching up.
Alpha Centauri
Member
Wow. I just had one of "those" teammates. The ones who look up the allied team's hotslogs and immediately started making fun of my teammate for having a sub 40% winrate with the hero they picked.
What an asshole. It's fucking unranked. Dude and his partner was hella toxic in match too.
What an asshole. It's fucking unranked. Dude and his partner was hella toxic in match too.
no idea if its significant but I noticed random select had a little green thing, I hovered over it and it said bonus xp for using it
scoobs
Member
Report the toxic turds and move on, nothing else you can really do. Even the slightest hint of a salt lord in my game and I immediately mute them.
Karsticles
Member
Dahbomb and I were playing last night, and this dude raged out about Dahbomb taking a solo lane with Nova and not joining one of the fights.
It was goddamn Quick Play.