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[Alur]

my guess w/ no evidence would be
~85% of ppl play qm regularly
~40% of ppl play hl (i feel like this is a highish guess but I dunno)
~20% of ppl play unranked
~10% of ppl play tl
~3% of ppl play ai

I can't find it off hand but they gave stats on this. It's more or less what you said excepting AI, I believe. I think there's quite a bit more AI play than people thought, but in general Unranked and TL are significantly lower pools.

i dont expect new players to see long queue times, but that is also like the realm of uncertainty where they try to identify smurfs and in general don't trust your rating, I'd imagine there are more calculations and rules involved with newer accounts

It didn't used to be long queue times. It may not be now, I'm not sure. They were definitely longer for a bit there, though, because Blizzard came out and addressed it and said it was due to some issue in the algorithm IIRC. Last time I saw it pop up in thread I remember someone in here who was new complaining about times in the not too distant past...though that could've been complaints about 2 or 3 min queues for all I know.

 

[Alur]

Wow, Kel'Thuzad splash screen is already up at 7:45 AM PST. Game is hung on authentication, though.

 

[Prelude.]

It's statistically irrelevant since it's just 2 games, but in both of my recent unranked games I queued in instantly and both had super low level players, which is something incredibly rare in qm for me.
I remember other new players having trouble finding games on vs ai/qm, but it might just be a no-mmr related issue. But yeah, lowest/mid/highest difficulty in vs ai is the way to go. Maybe lowest isn't the best since people use that for quick quest games.

 

[Alur]

NAXX IS OUT

 

[thekillermuffin]

How much is the "Big Bundle", with Kel'thuzad and all the fancy skins? I want that bundle. Note: I own all heroes minus Kel'thuzad (obviously).

 

[Alur]

KT bundle is 1480 or something like that.

The bundle with Jaina/Zag/Sonya and their skins is 3045 and appears to have 3 tints for each hero of their new skin.

EDIT: Sonya skin and Zag skin are both only epics, though, so might not be worth buying that whole bundle unless you just REALLY like all 3 skins.

 

[thekillermuffin]

Interesting. I basically want:

- A Dreadlord Jaina tint
- Kel'thuzad and at least one Star Lich tint
- Kel'thuzad announcer

Might just buy Kel'thuzad and forge the others or something.

 

[Prelude.]

Damn, up already? FeelsEUman

 

[Alur]

Was gonna buy the bundle too til I saw the other two skins are epics. I don't play any of those heroes much but Zag and I'm not sure how I feel about her new skin.

Waiting in queue to try out KT and his announcer right now.

 

[brian!]

http://us.heroesofthestorm.com/esports/en/news/21031890

article about glaurung written by his former manager on cog

 

[Sothis Krieg]

Tried Garrosh for the first time (in EU so i dont have the new hots build, don't know if he is changed in the new patch). I Need some practice to combo Q and E though.

Are people playing him here and what is your go to build ?

 

[brian!]

yeaaaahh garrosh is awesome, really strong

my standard is:
1. e range
4. cdr off of autos
7. into the fray
10. taunt
13. shield off of q (i read that the shield has armor applied to it, havent tested it but still been picking this for fun)
16. stun usually but they all seem good
20. taunt upgrade (so broken)

but I think a lot of his talents are good, against an auto attack reliant team going q quest -> 40% atspd reduc on q hit is really good, lots of uptime and worth losing into the fray imo, depending on the comp. his lvl 4 all seem fine, you can pick the w reset one if for some reason you are stuck soloing. his lvl 13 are all pretty good too.

 

[Alur]

Didn't know he and Cattle lived together. Didn't someone say Fan lives nearby with another player as well? I have trouble believing Fan lives with anyone knowing how his former teams have characterized him as a loner. He seems to have used his stream to come out of some of that.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Didn't know he and Cattle lived together. Didn't someone say Fan lives nearby with another player as well? I have trouble believing Fan lives with anyone knowing how his former teams have characterized him as a loner. He seems to have used his stream to come out of some of that.

Fan moved into the same complex and jun came to live with him. Glau moved in with Cattle couple months ago when he left Utah.

 

[brian!]

tempo storm house failed cuz it wasnt a luxury apartment complex

 

[Alur]

Tempo Storm house failed because they had too many type A's and too few Kaeyoh's/So1dier's who could adapt and go with the flow. Also no supervision.

 

[brian!]

"kaeyoh did you eat my funyuns?"
"yes, but I bought you some more from the conveniently located minimart in the lobby"
"cool man remember to bring your keycard for the pool, they have aquatic calisthenics at 10"

problem solved..

 

[Alur]

LOL

Man Kel'Thuzad is actually fun. I'm glad. The comboing is pretty sweet. It's a bit rough with the crazy comps in QM for getting consistent damage, but the stacking is def too easy. I did it at level 9 one game and level 12 another without ever having touched him before.

 

[Orochinagis]

Good lord, not even KT skin is legenday, only Jaina, I feel like a kid on a candy store with those cheap prices.

So far KT feels like KT but on ice, and lot of text on his skills

 

[Alur]

Of all his skills, the Q is the weirdest to use for me. Keep trying to aim it like a Chromie W but it pops on first thing it hits.

The global ult is strange to use too. You don't always have an idea of where to use it and it's almost annoying having to remember to use it every 15 secs. The resets at 20 are hilarious though. I've blind killed 3 people and 100-0'd one other who stood in it repeatedly at a merc camp.

 

[Orochinagis]

Lv20 abilities are interesting, there is no only one viable but all which feels good.

Surprised both abilities are PVP oriented , I dont like the first one , just for trollish plays I guess

 

[Milly79]

9 Chests (7 common, 1 Epic, 1 Legendary)

Rerolled each common once, one twice, pulled 3 legendaries.

Deathknight Sonya emoji pack and new Zag skin were the only new items.

Rerolled the legendary chest 4 times. 4 fuckin dupes.

Feelsgoodman

 

[Alur]

The dive meta is as bad as advertised for Kel'Thuzad. If you get lucky and have the divier comp you can be disgusting. If you are unlucky, though, even landing your CC won't save you.

I'm still not entirely sure WTF to do with this global ult at least 30-40% of the time. When there's multiple options for location and such, it's just a fire and forget kind of ability. It's like you're just hoping someone is there. It only really seems to shine at 20 or with a combo because it's not too hard to avoid unless you get slowed. I haven't played Cursed or Tomb yet with it however to use for interrupt.

 

[protonium]

.

 

[Alur]

It doesn't hit minions or structures. So if you don't know where they are due to multiple options (usually midgame), you're just kinda chucking it out there or holding it since it gives no benefit unless it hits someone.

 

[scoobs]

The dive meta is as bad as advertised for Kel'Thuzad. If you get lucky and have the divier comp you can be disgusting. If you are unlucky, though, even landing your CC won't save you.

I'm still not entirely sure WTF to do with this global ult at least 30-40% of the time. When there's multiple options for location and such, it's just a fire and forget kind of ability. It's like you're just hoping someone is there. It only really seems to shine at 20 or with a combo because it's not too hard to avoid unless you get slowed. I haven't played Cursed or Tomb yet with it however to use for interrupt.

I envision using it kind of like how I use Azmo for dunks, and Nova w/ her global ult. Constantly looking around the map for opportunities to follow up on my team CC'ing or trying to kill someone. When there are no opportunities, use it in conjunction with the rest of your personal combo.

 

[Prelude.]

Blizzard: We've hyped up KT so much, let's push the update out sooner than usual!

Blizzard EU:

 

[Alur]

Sure that's obvious, but I think I'm doing a bad job making my point or something. This thing is on a _15 second cooldown_. It's constantly up. There's a lot more time than I would have expected where there's no opportunities to be found so you're just kind of fishing. They're on their side of the map. Your team is on yours. You can't wave clear with it like with dunks.

It is a bit like a smaller Precision Strike, but I dunno anything about looking for opportunities to use Precision Strike. In my experience it's mostly obvious when or where to use it, and in those situations the KT global feels fine. It's when you have no cue to go off of that it feels awkward. It's a first world problem, for sure, but having to blindly throw it out or even to use it on someone clearing a creep wave late game feels pretty bad when it whiffs...and it is easy to avoid in the lane clearing situation. When used in a team fight with all the chaos, however, it gets great value.

 

[brian!]

no you do need a cue, it's kind of pointless to blindly throw it out unless maybe you are checking camps (and even then they'll just dodge it). the opportunities have to come from the mini map. for example let's say there's a 4/1 split and their soloer has the edge on yours. just blast him, your laner is winning now, and if they aren't the enemy laner is more scared now. if you have like a muradin or anything with cc you can combo with them every time your cd is up. iunno, kind of think of it like abathur hat i guess. if there is no opportunity just sit on the cd

 

[Kioshen]

Sooooo what's new around these parts.

 

[Prelude.]

Man, this new mm sure hates specialists, they keep putting them all in the same game. I just played Azmo, Murky, Gaz vs Sylv, Naz. At least it wasn't 3v0 like usual.

 

[kirblar]

You know what could be kinda evil? Valeera/KT. Stun out of nowhere into Fissure.

 

[brian!]

Yeah it should work with any stun, stuns on your soloer very valuable w/ a kt pick. Can do it with slows too

 

[Milly79]

Sooooo what's new around these parts.

Wow

 

[Kioshen]

Wow

You know you missed me.

 

[Alur]

Yeah it should work with any stun, stuns on your soloer very valuable w/ a kt pick. Can do it with slows too

Whatchu talking about stuns on a soloer though? You were talking about the 4/1 split, but in pub games when you get the ult at 10 no one stays in lanes really anymore.

 

[Prelude.]

Patch is live in EU but I can't get in, feelsbadman.

 

[Kioshen]

Kinda fun not knowing what the hell is happening on screen again.

 

[Milly79]

KTZ's minimap icon looks too similar to Probius.

 

[protonium]

.

 

[protonium]

 

 

[brian!]

Whatchu talking about stuns on a soloer though? You were talking about the 4/1 split, but in pub games when you get the ult at 10 no one stays in lanes really anymore.

I mean like if you have dehaka sitting top lane fighting someone, if he stuns someone you can ult whenever it's up. Same for someone who is losing or about to die, you can use your 15 cd ult to make that kill not happen, etc. Ppl are usually still in lane post 10 in my games, it's not really efficient to stop soaking.

 

[Alavard]

I really like the Morales rework. The change from mana to energy feels really good.

 

[Kioshen]

I just realized this but when I randomly selected an assassin it gave me Varian !? I figure his role changed in QM?

 

[Alur]

I mean like if you have dehaka sitting top lane fighting someone, if he stuns someone you can ult whenever it's up. Same for someone who is losing or about to die, you can use your 15 cd ult to make that kill not happen, etc. Ppl are usually still in lane post 10 in my games, it's not really efficient to stop soaking.

I've been in diamond since basically alpha and I rarely see people in lane post 10 and rarely have. I don't see it in pro games either. I see people pass through and clear, certainly, as that is common sense, but no one is really standing in lane anymore that isn't a laner Raynor or one of those Gaz/Azmo/Zag split push fanatics.

In general, though, yeah stuns make sense to set up the global. Just the way you characterized it was like you've got a Dehaka facing a Thrall post 10 and he gets the Q + W and you follow with the global...I mean I can see that happening because they got there together, but I just don't see people doing the circle dance around creeps post 10 like I thought you were implying. I think it's more of a "you can now contribute to picks from a bad rotation mid game with your global ult".

 

[brian!]

i mean going back to lane is the right thing to do after an objective if there's nothing to pressure, when punisher dies ppl go back, every 2 lane map is always being laned, you will always get a situation as kt post 10 where you can ult another lane and get value. I don't mean like ppl standing in lane while it's empty, I mean more that there will be ppl who are covering soak for your team across the map

basically what I'm trying to say is yeah it's not good to throw his ult into the fog of war, you need to see what's going on and interject with the ult, if you make something happen, even like zoning or something, then you made good use of your ult

i misread the lvl 20 reset talent for the longest time, I thought it was get a reset off a kill from the cast

 

[Alur]

Nah it's just on hit. I've landed 4 in a row once and 3 in a row 2 other times. Pretty good shit.

 

[scoobs]

Yoooo Thrall is crazy boys. Get on the hype train now so you can say you were into him before he was flavor of the month. This build is hilarious, you do so much fucking damage & craaaazy tanky

 

[brian!]

Nah it's just on hit. I've landed 4 in a row once and 3 in a row 2 other times. Pretty good shit.

oh my bad I was talking about the gliding one, the whole time I thought it was reset off of last hitting and I was pretty cold on it because the cd is 4 minutes, but it just refreshes whenever you are near a kill. so you can totally use it for an escape and not feel bad about it

kelthuzad's talents are really cool and well designed imo, picking from them feels really different compared to the rest of the cast
his lvl 1 in particular is really innovative. the q one is the weakest but it enables his q build which culminates with the shade pick at 20 (which is strong untalented too, the fukkin pools stack dmg). so the real choice you have to decide on if you're not trying to be a siegey q guy are between the w and e talent. I read on reddit that the dmg+ portion of it is pretty much the same. that is AWESOME because it means you are picking for two main reasons: 1. you believe either the .5 sec additional root or the 15% hunters mark is more valuable, and 2. you believe as a player that you are more likely to land more ws or more es. man the idea that you'd pick a talent based on which skillshot you are better at hitting is really great. it really feeds into the theme of his kit. every hero sees better efficiency when you put work into practicing them, some more than others. but kt is the first where being good at him gives you exponential returns and it's BAKED INTO HIS KIT with stuff like the quest and his lvl 1 talent choice. that's really cool, good shit blizz

 

[kirblar]

There is no way they let you keep chaining Es off buildings like you can currently do w/ Kel'Thuzad. Same basic issue that Cassia had with Charged Strikes.