#32 - Into the Nexus: “Title”
• Garrett • Kyle
Sponsors:
Into the Nexus is proudly sponsored by Doghouse Systems.com. If you use the code ITN at checkout, you will get double memory on your next Doghouse System!
Into the Nexus is also sponsored by TweakedAudio.com. The same code, ITN, will get you 30% off and free shipping on your entire order of noise-reducing earbuds from Tweaked Audio!
Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
Welcome to the show our friend Mike aka Dday formerly of the Nexus Champ roster and current writer NexusChamp.com. Here to talk the Heroes meta before a long winter break. =)
No show next week, Christmas.Tentative Show New Years Week.
News
Store Changes
Links
Games On Net Talks to Heroes Dev Highlights
GON:
Relatedly, let’s talk about the addition of Stimpacks – What’s your motivation behind introducing these and what makes them a better option for a customer than just being able to purchase gold outright with real-world money?
John:
We wanted to provide a way that players can boost progression, and we know that a significant portion of our player base doesn’t have the available playtime to progress to the level they’d like.We see Stimpacks as a way to get to progression rewards more efficiently for those players, similar in some ways to a World of Warcraft Level 90 Boost or directly buying Hearthstone packs.
The reason we’re moving forward with Stimpacks instead of (as you said) purchasing gold with money, is that we still want game rewards to be earned through gameplay, not just by buying the reward directly. We’re exploring ideas beyond just Master skins that will require gold and/or experience.
GON:
Can you tell me a bit more about the new maps, Sky Temple and Tomb of the Spider Queen? What’s the map objective in Tomb of the Spider Queen?
John:
Sky Temple was demoed at BlizzCon and will be released early next year. The battleground is a huge floating ancient-Egypt themed Battleground in which capture-point “shrines” activate occasionally during the game. Players can stand on the shrines to control them for their team, and in turn the shrines bombard enemy towns with laser beams as long as they remain uncontested by the other team and stand their ground against the angry guardians of the shrine. The shrines are pretty important to pushing for a win, so there’s a lot of movement between lanes in a scramble to control these points.
We plan on releasing Tomb of the Spider Queen a little while after Sky Temple. We’re still tweaking the specifics, and look forward to sharing more of the details closer to release. What I can say is that Tomb of the Spider Queen was concepted roughly in tandem with Sky Temple, and we wanted to contrast the gameplay of the two. Sky Temple is huge and focuses on team-fighting at Battleground hotspots, but Tomb of the Spider Queen is much smaller and focused on staying in lane to complete objectives. We’ve found the differences in the Battlegrounds significantly change the dominant Heroes and strategies, and we can’t wait to see how players react!
GON:
Relatedly, can you detail why Heroes uses a rotating hero model and not an all-heroes-free-but-you-pay-for-skins model? What advantages does this offer?
John:
First, on the player side, buying a Hero with money or Gold immediately gives players a sense of ownership and commitment to their favorites. Second, on the development side, we believe that this model is the best way for us to continue to support the game at the scope we’re planning – more maps, more Heroes, and more features that require extensive production and testing.
We want to make sure we deliver the high quality you might expect for investment on multiple levels – the Hero itself, with a unique skillset and many gameplay customization options through Talents, exclusive unlocks like portraits, Mounts, skins, and more. This model allows us to deliver on this level of depth and quality for each Hero, and sustain that level for the future.
Links
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Strategy
Arthas
Garrett talks a lot about how great Arthas is, but when I tried him out, I just felt like I wasn't really doing much. How do you play him and what makes him your favorite?
I would like to get good at him but something about him seems to evade my grasp. Could you maybe do an in-depth discussion on playing him?
Thanks,
- CheezyBob
http://www.heroesnexus.com/heroes/24-arthas
Emails
Chris
It was just a brief mention in your news section this week, but what would you think of a fungal growth ultimate for Abathur?
I think that this would be perfect for all those locust spawning meta folk since they are out in the world anyways.
As always thanks for the show.
Jared Leggett
Hello ITN Casters Garrett and Kyle,
In episode #31 you had a short conversation about Kaelthas and especially about his potential hero traits. Since he’s a Blood Elf, what would you think about something that encourages the player to use his abilities as much as possible such as something like “Kaelthas gains a boost to ability damage proportional to the percentage of his total mana pool that he has used.” I.e., if Kaelthas currently has 50% of his total mana remaining, his abilities numerical effects are increased by X%. The idea is that Kaelthas hits harder when his mana is low, but it becomes important that all of his abilities hit or it’s just wasted mana. Also, if he has a trait such as that, he should not have access to Conjurer’s Pursuit unless there’s another talent option at lvl 1 that is viable enough to offset that bonus, such as he gets double mana regeneration from regeneration globes or moon wells but less health regeneration from those same sources. He might also get some sort of Mana Burn ability, too. Who knows (besides the Devs)?
I think that since it appears likely that Kaelthas will be the next hero in the Mage archetype in Heroes of the Storm, this is going to be a really big draw for people who are more familiar with the MOBA genre than people, like myself, who either have never played a MOBA before or have not had good initial experiences in the other MOBAs. I am anticipating that he will also have a fairly high skill cap.
Thanks guys and I can’t wait for the next podcast,
LaniusAIE
Hey Guys,
As I am new to MOBS I have a question and a comment. Is it viable to go with a defensive build in Heroes? For example going with a defensive Tassadar build, using shields on, for example, Towers to negate or minimize the impact of Golems and Barrages?
Further as a new player its hard to be always be map aware and though pings are helpful, they are not as nearly as good as suggestions from a more experienced players. In that thought I was wondering if you would consider a ITN mumble (et al) server as one of the Patreon stretch goals.
Keep up the great work
Outro
Multiple emails looking for premades : /join amovetv
Patreon Thanks
ITN is supported by our badass Patrons. You can become a ITN Patron by going to Patreon.com/itn.
iTunes Thanks
Into the Nexus is a produced by Amove.tv and Declan H. You can see more about this and all the other A-move shows at Amove.tv. You can also email the show at ITNcast@gmail.com or continue the conversation over at forum.Amove.tv.
Catch the live show Thursday nights at 8pm Eastern on Twitch.tv/Amovetv. Mobile live stream provided by Alpha Geek Radio. Go to mobile.alphageekradio.com.
Follow the show on Twitter @ITNcast
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
Kyle
A-move Radio
Kylefergusson.com
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Our code, ITN, will get you double-memory on your next Doghouse gaming rig.
The same code, ITN, will get you 30% off and free shipping on your entire order of noise-reducing earbuds from Tweaked Audio!