#160 - Into the Nexus: “Tell me what you taunt, what you really really taunt”
• Garrett • Kyle
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
- Got my Arthas Master Skin.
- Haven’t been try-harding at all as a result of chasing level 10’s.
- Unless you were Joce and Dills in Quick Match today. I got really bossy.
News
Reminder, you can go to ITNcast.reddit.com to submit stories or upvote submissions for the next episode.
Cassia is out!
- Releases at 41% winrate HL
- Win rates by game time suggests she has weaker power spikes than others.
- Suffers heavily against dot and burst damage. Dive is also an issue.
- Does well against high mobility targets and stealthies.
- Great winrates against Tracer, Kharazim and Illidan (you’d be moving while they auto you)
- Pairs well with the things that counter her.
- Huge winrate spike against Chromie
- Highest winrate: Battlefield of Eternity (Makes sense with Charged Strikes)
- Warhead Junction and Cursed Hollow also. Good dueling maps.
- Lowest Winrate: Blackheart’s Bay and Tomb of the Spider Queen
- Suggesting her lower (or expensive) lane clear and lack of Merc-ability
- Ball of Lightning picked 75% of games
- Win rate almost the same as Valkyrie.
Current Build
- Ring of the Leach
- Surge of Light
- Ball of Lightning
- Lunging Strike
- Penetrate
- Infinite Lightning
Links
April 4th Balance Update
We have entered a mage meta.
Tassadar and ETC are out. (sorta)
The Butcher
- Alt clicking your fresh meat icon will broadcast out your stacks
E.T.C.
Down 9.1% to 2nd lowest winrate overall
- Down even further in Masters.
- Still positive 50.7% on Tomb of the Spider Queen
- Health reduced from 2428 to 2100
- Health Regeneration reduced from 5.06 to 4.37
Abilities
- Instead of increasing nearby allies' Basic Attack speeds, Rockstar now grants E.T.C. 20 Armor for 2 seconds when he uses a Basic or Heroic Ability. This effect does not stack with itself.
- Wonder if they tested stacking the timer at least.
Level 1 - Guitar Hero (E)
- Healing gained from Basic Attacks increased from 35% to 40%.
- No longer increases Attack Speed.
Level 7 - Echo Pedal (Passive)
- Damage reduced from 29 to 15.
- Damage bonus against Minions and Mercenaries increased from 75% to 250%.
Level 16 - Show Stopper (Q)
- Armor reduced from 25 to 15.
Developer Comment: These changes to E.T.C. are a continuation of our attempt to align Warriors with a “big picture” role, so that we can continue to see a variety of them regardless of who’s really strong at the moment. Alongside a lot of specialization, we need a couple generalist Warriors, and we think E.T.C. (as well as Muradin) should fill that role. They should always be a safe pick for your team because they fit into every team composition or battleground, but may be outperformed by the specialized Warriors in their ideal situations. We found that having Attack Speed on his Trait pointed him toward Basic Attack teams and maps like Battlefield of Eternity, where sustained damage was important. Instead, we’ve decided to add general Armor, but wanted to make sure that it still had that fun “bard” style gameplay where playing optimally includes spreading out abilities. We’ve updated Show Stopper to provide less Armor, because stacking Armor makes every point more and more valuable. Lastly, we’ve reduced Echo Pedal’s damage against non-Minions and Mercenaries so that it’s the obvious pick when you need wave clear, but Hammer-On and Pinball Wizard are better during a team fight.
Is the nerf bat coming for Muradin? again...
Links
Heroes Mastery Taunts Revealed
Whenever you issue an in-game taunt using a hero who has reached level 15 or higher, which is equivalent to level 10 in the previous progression system, that hero will now display unique “mastery” visual effects overhead. The hero will also play their taunt animation, as well as the voice line you selected for their loadout. Mastery taunts won’t stop at hero level 15, either. Their visual effects will continue to evolve across several tiers, becoming more epic as your hero reaches new heights in the progression system!
Links
Veteran Loot Chest Update
Calculator:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HlDOKj_0uZNTzXvDa8Y8nOmQ1557HJDBaOSZwFcU-Mk/copy
I am level 675
I am 346? =(
- 5 Common, 31 Epic, 3 Veteran
- Duplicate protection has been removed.
- But this means more shards.
- There is bad-luck protection.
- Contents of the loot chest are determined when opened.
Current Sweet Loot Strategy:
- Don’t open loot chests if there is nothing you want. (Wait for it to be added to the game)
- Set aside 250 gold per loot chest you are receiving. (For me this is 16,500
- Reroll the heck out of Epic and Veteran Chests.
- If you want a hero, buy them. Hero duplicates will be one of your best sources of shards.
- Keep as many legendary items as you can. Duplicates will be your best chance at shards.
If you want to get real exact about maximizing your 2.0 release night:
- Don’t level heroes 1-5
- Feel free to play level 6 heroes, but don’t go to 8
- Don’t play your current level 20 heroes. They won’t go any higher.
Links
Dev Q&A Tidbits
- Retiring the concept of master skins. Heroes will not be guaranteed to release with 2 additional skins.
- Brawls will give hero xp with 2.0
- Kel’Thuzad is on “the list” with 300+ other heroes.
- Victory poses are a feature they are currently looking to add (and expand tech for)
- In our Summit interview this was mentioned as a challenge because the MVP screen exists outside of the game itself.
- A skin is now Legendary or Epic based on its “coolness” factor rather than having voice/unique animations and so on.
- There will not be any remodels with 2.0
- Though Arthas and Brightwing were mentioned.
- Only select heroes will become announcers.
- API is still being worked on.
- Voice chat is still a major priority.
- Uther rework coming soon (™) Summit Uther build was not final.
- Banners, emojis and such will have HGC tie ins.
- Taunts will continue to lock you into the animation, they want them to be risky.
- Sprays have a cooldown and only last for 8 seconds.
- In the future, Supports may be able to target their allies easier using party frames or targeting helpers.
- This seems huge. Interested in your thoughts as an old-school WoW Priest.
- Featured items will include all new skins and heroes that are released, so you can buy them with gems during that time.
- Alarak will be getting a popular level 4 talent baked in (wink wink)
Links
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, and Mythdol.
Patron Thanks
- Jerek Dain
- Blair Hasenpflug
- Ricky G.
- Nicholas Garcia
- Charles Bamford
- John Peace
- Luke Johnson
- Daanish Syed
Strategy
Power Spikes
This is actually pretty short. More to put the thoughts into people's heads and inspire them to learn more.
- Think about when your hero is most powerful. In most leagues, noticing that you have a late game or early game comp wont be particularly helpful. Instead note when you are at your most power and if your team is capable of getting to that level for you.
- Example: Kael’thas on Infernal Shrines. Great map pick, but you notice that nobody on your team can take camps. Does your team have enough map control to afford delaying camps until you are 10? (with Phenix? 16 with Fury of the Sunwell)
- Will focusing on soaking and late game tilt your team? Do they need to feel like they are winning earlier?
Early Game Heroes:
Snowball potential but you need level and talent advantage to shine. Early game deaths are brutal.
- Auriel
- Chen
- Dehaka
- Ragnaros
- Sonya
- Sylvanas
- Xul
- Zarya
Late Game Heroes
As quests and talents build, the pressure put on an equal leveled enemy is too much. Playing safe is key.
- Cho’Gall
- Lunara
- Probius
- Tracer
- Murky (Death Timers)
- Tyrande (Death Timers)
- Azmodan (Quest)
- Falstad (Quest)
- Kharazim (Insight Quest)
- The Butcher (Meat)
Level 7
Level 10 spikes
- Abathur
- Gazlowe
- Johanna
- Tassadar
- Thrall
- Uther
Level 13
Extreme Late Game:
All Game Heroes
They certainly gain power with talents, but each choice is important and stacking. No delayed stacking.
- Anub’arak
- Artanis
- Diablo
- ETC
- Gul’dan
- Jaina
- Kael’thas
- Li Ming
- Lucio
- Malfurion
- Rehgar
- Tychus
- Valla
“Horse Shoe” (Good Early Game and late game, but struggles mid-game)
- Alarak
- Arthas
- Azmodan
- Brightwing
- Illidan
- Lt. Morales
- Rexxar
- Sgt. Hammer
- Tyrael
- Zagara
- Zul’jin
“Reverse Horseshoe”
Links
Emails
Jason
I'm an older player with fairly demanding time constraints which prevent me from getting in more than 10-15 games per week. Due to this, I'm currently ranked mid-Silver with aspirations to make it to gold one day. I mention my age only because I don't expect to be faster than my counterparts so I must be smarter. My question relates to effective Draft strategies and comes to you in two parts:
1.) Given that I have more reading and listening time available to me than game-time, are there any tips you can provide that will allow me to become better at banning? I already leverage Hotslogs as a reference but find myself frequently going Rag first then either healer or tank 2nd. While this rarely draws complaints, I think I could be better here.
- Keep banning powerful map picks.
- I just don’t want to lose to Sylvanas at the 7:00 minute mark.
- Ban troublemakers for your league.
- Lucio gets players to coordinate. Ganks feel brutal and rewarding. A lot of draft mistakes are canceled out with movement speed.
- Tassadar shields making targeting very difficult.
- Get rid of globals or double soakers. Don’t let the enemy team have an early level lead.
- Early lead means early kills, which means rehearsed executions in the late game.
- Second ban, limit their Tanks, Healers, Lane Clear or Brawlers
2.) Where can I go to learn more about effective team comps and how to counter enemy team comps? I'm certain some of my games are lost at the Draft screen and I want to prevent this where I can.
- Focus on your own draft. Be bossy if you know better.
- Say roles, not specific heroes! People will think they can pull off an artanis for the first time in 3 months.
- Make sure your team has what it needs to win the map. (Lane Clear, Objective Control, Poke, Merc). Encourage pure roles picked early.
- Hit the ground running by being so darn effective at what you do.
- Get a tank and healer.
- Picture the enemy engagement. Will their tank be able to dive past yours? Does their bruiser dive past your tank? Get an off tank, bruiser or CC assassin then. Does their entire team fall apart if the main tank goes down? Bust him with Tychus or Leoric.
- Combine remaining roles to find the perfect hero.
- Bruiser and Merc? Sonya.
- Support and Bruiser? Zarya
- Damage and Support? Li Li
Thanks for continuing to share your knowledge with the community. Much appreciated!
Outro
Patreon Shout Out
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Thanks to Brian Griffith, the musician responsible for our intro music. He can be found at briangriffithmusic.com or @briangriffith on twitter..
Personal Stuff
Garrett
Follow Garrett @GarrettArt
NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.
The Angry Chicken: A Hearthstone Podcast
The Angry Nerd
Kyle
A-move Radio
Kylefergusson.com
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