ITN - 30

#30 - Into the Nexus: “Stimulus Package”

• Garrett • Kyle

Sponsors:

Doghouse Systems.com

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!

Tweaked Audio.com

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!

Last Weeks F2P Rotation had Azmodan

Nova/Azmodan/Illidan/LiLi/Sonya/Uther/E.T.C

News

New Hero Jaina Proudmoore

Jaina Proudmoore has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of her Abilities.

Abilities:

Frost Bolt (Q)

Fires a bolt that deals damage and Chills the target.

Blizzard (W)

Creates a storm of ice at target location, damaging and Chilling enemies.

Cone of Cold (E)

Deals damage in a cone and Chills targets.

Trait:

Frost Bite

Your Abilities Chill targets, slowing them and causing them to take increased damage.

Heroic Abilities

Summon Water Elemental (R)

Summons a powerful Water Elemental.

Ring of Frost (R)

Creates a freezing ring that roots and damages enemies.

Trikslyr: Jaina has been a part of Warcraft history for some time now. Bringing her into the Nexus had to be a fun and exciting task. What goals did the design hope to accomplish in doing so?

Kent-Erik: “We wanted Jaina to represent the epitome of Frost Mages in World of Warcraft.”

“One of the coolest things about Frost Mages is their ability to freeze opponents, and then get free Critical Hits against frozen targets. With that moment in mind, we created her Trait: Frostbite. Jaina’s spells Chill enemies, and using extra abilities on Chilled enemies do bonus damage!”

Trikslyr: What are some of the talents designed specifically for Jaina that players should be ready to try? How about her Heroics?

Kent-Erik: “In looking at the generic talent Rewind, we thought there was something fun there in resetting your abilities, but realized it would simply be too strong on Jaina, given her spell and damage potential. Instead, we came up with Icy Veins, which causes her cooldowns to tick down 3 times as fast for 5 seconds. This ended up really strengthening her Frostbolt build, especially if you go Ice Lance, which causes your Frostbolt to have a 2 second cooldown after hitting a chilled target. You can have Jaina throwing out Frostbolts every second if you play your cards right!”

Stimpacks Added to the Shop

Stimpacks will soon be coming to the Nexus, and once they arrive, will be purchasable to earn bonus Gold and experience points from Heroes matches.

Each game completed while a Stimpack is active will award an additional 100% XP and 150% Gold.
To purchase a Stimpack, simply head to the in-game Shop and click on the new Stimpacks tab to view all available durations.
A Stimpack’s effects will begin immediately after purchasing, and will last for a set amount of time depending on the duration purchased.
A Stimpack’s XP bonus will only affect out-of-game Hero and Player Level progression and has no effect on actual gameplay during a Heroes match.

Please note: While a Stimpacks tab will appear in the Heroes of the Storm in-game Shop on patch day, Stimpacks themselves will not yet be available for purchase. We will be adding Stimpacks to the Shop in the days to come. Kindly read on for complete details that will apply to Stimpacks when they are added in the future.

In the days following the arrival of our next Technical Alpha patch, you’ll be able to give your out-of-game progression a serious pick-me-up with the addition of Stimpacks. A Stimpack is a timed buff that will net you an additional 100% XP and 150% Gold for each match you complete while a Stimpack is active on your account.

How do Stimpacks work?

You’ll see a Stimpack’s bonuses applied on end-of-game score screens for each Heroes match you complete while it is active. If you’re ever curious about how much time you’ve got left before your Stimpack expires, you can always mouse over your selected hero in the Party Panel at the top of the screen to view the amount of time remaining. You’ll also be notified of your active Stimpack’s remaining duration in the Chat box upon logging into Heroes.

There are a few things you’ll probably want to keep in mind about Stimpacks before they arrive:

A Stimpack’s XP bonus will only affect your out-of-game Hero and Player Level Progression, and has no effect on actual gameplay during a Heroes match.
Stimpack benefits are additive. This means the bonuses they provide are added to the base amount of XP or Gold you receive by playing a game of Heroes.

For example: Imagine you have an active Stimpack, and earned 100,000 XP and 30 Gold for winning your latest Heroes match. In this case, the Stimpack will award you with an additional 100,000 XP and 45 Gold, totaling 200,000 XP and 75 Gold for that game.

Stimpacks will not provide benefits to any Quest rewards or other XP bonuses (such as Play with Friend, Double XP Weekend, and etc.)

Another example: Let’s say that you partied with a friend for the 50% Play with Friend XP bonus, and also completed a Daily Quest for 200 Gold during the winning game mentioned above. In this case, you’d earn a total of 250,000 XP and 275 Gold for that match.

In order to pick up a Stimpack for your adventures in the Nexus, simply head to the Heroes of the Storm in-game Shop, and then click the new “Stimpacks” tab to view the options available to you. Your Stimpack’s timer will begin immediately after purchasing, and buying another will extend your existing duration by the amount purchased.

That just about does it for our primer on the addition of Stimpacks to Heroes of the Storm. Keep an eye on the official Heroes of the Storm site for more announcements from the Nexus, because our next patch is just around the corner!

New Alpha Patch

Art

Shops and Items

Winter Veil

The Feast of Winter Veil has come to the Nexus! Spread the holiday cheer with the festive new Mount, Bundles, and Hero Skins listed below!

Reign-deer Mount
Great-father Winter Rehgar Skin
Winter Veil Jaina Skin
Winter Veil Jaina Bundle
Winter Veil Complete Bundle

Head here for complete details on the items added to the Shop with today’s patch.

BattleGrounds

General	Hearthstone : A flat amount of Health and Mana are now restored after using Hearthstone to return to the Hall of Storms. Town Halls no longer contain all of a town’s experience points. While Town Halls retain a majority of the experience, the surrounding towers protecting the town now yield experience as well.
Cursed Hollow	Tribute channeling time reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
Dragon Shire	The Dragon Knight is no longer targetable by allied Abilities or Talents Heroes with a permanent Cloak will now properly Decloak when exiting the Dragon Knight.
Garden of Terror	Garden Terror (Summoned) Spore Queen’s Curse (Q) Radius decreased by 10% Heroes with a permanent Cloak will now properly Decloak when exiting the Garden Terror.
Haunted Mines	Underground Minions Starting Health and Health scaling increased by 20% Underground Grave Golem Starting Health and Health scaling increased by 20% Grave Golem (Summoned) Damage scaling decreased by 20% Health scaling decreased by 20%

Neutral Talents

Buff

Conjurer's Pursuit

Now also increases Mana regeneration by 0.5 per second in addition to its other effects

Imposing Presence

Attack speed slow amount increased from 30% to 50%

Nerf

Promote

Now heals the target to full Health
Now has a 15 second duration
Charge cooldowns have been reduced from 60 to 30 seconds

Resurgence of the Storm

Cooldown increased from 120 to 180 seconds

Rework

Rewind

Now refreshes all Basic Ability cooldowns rather than reducing them by 10 seconds
Cooldown increased from 60 to 90 seconds

Hero Changes

Buff	Abathur Toxic Nest (W) Vile Nest (Talent) Slow duration increased from 2 to 4 seconds Slow amount reduced from 50% to 40% Ultimate Evolution (R) Cooldown no longer starts immediately after casting, and instead begins once the cloned Hero expires or is killed. Illidan Sweeping Strike (W) Basic Attack damage bonus increased from 25% to 35% Immolation (Talent) Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds Damage reduced from 17 (+3 per level) to 13 (+2.5 per level) Muradin Second Wind (Trait) Threshold for improved Health regeneration increased from 30% to 40% Health Third Wind (Talent) Threshold for improved Health regeneration increased from 40% to 50% Health Stoneform (Talent) Heal amount increased from 40% to 50% of Muradin’s Health Sonya Whirlwind (E) Lifesteal amount increased from 30% to 40% Leap (R) Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds
Nerf	Anub'arak Imposing Presence (Talent) has been added to Anub’arak. Rewind (Talent) has been removed from Anub’arak. Harden Carapace (W) Shield amount reduced from 120 (+30 per level) to 90 (+22 per level) Locust Swarm (R) Heal per tick reduced from 10 (+2 per level) to 10 (+1.5 per level) Arthas Frozen Tempest (E) Mana cost increased from 10 per second to 12 per second Azmodan Bound Minion (Talent) Now heals the target to full Health Now has a 15 second duration Chen Wandering Keg (R) No longer grants a Shield Nova Booster Shot has been renamed to Perfect Shot Hot Shots (Talent) Has been renamed to Anti-Armor Shells Damage bonus reduced from 330% to 300% Rewind (Talent) has been removed from Nova Snipe (Q) Damage reduced from 120 (+34 per level) to 115 (+31 per level) Stitches Vile Gas (Trait) Damage per second decreased from 14 (+2 per level) to 10 (+2 per level) Tyrael Judgment (R) Damage reduced from 125 (+10 per level) to 60 (+8 per level) Tyrande Empower (Talent) Now instantly reduces cooldowns by 2 seconds, rather than cooling down by 4 seconds over a 2 second period Shadowstalk (R) Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds Uther Holy Light (Q) Heal amount reduced from 150 (+44 per level) to 135 (+40 per level) Holy Radiance (W) Gathering Radiance (Talent) The damage and healing bonuses for each target hit are no longer separate. Now increases damage and healing by 5% for each target hit, retaining its previous 50% maximum. Zagara Infest (Talent) Now heals the target to full Health Now has a 15 second duration Creep Tumor (Trait) Zagara now regenerates a flat 1.5 Health per second while on Creep. Reconstitution (Talent) still increases Health regeneration on Creep by 300% (4.5 Health per second.)
Fixed Exploit	Nazeebo Voodoo Ritual (Trait) Death Ritual (Talent) Units other than lane Minions no longer grant permanent Health/Mana when killed while under the effects of Voodoo Ritual. Permanent Health/Mana gains increased from 4/2 to 5/3 Falstad can no longer use Fly to escape root effects. Zeratul’s Void Prison now pauses, rather than cancels, channeled abilities.
Rework	Tassadar Basic Attack Distortion Beam (Talent) Slow amount reduced from 25% to 20% Oracle (Trait) Duration reduced from 7 to 5 seconds Mental Acuity (Talent) Now reduces cooldown by 15 seconds, up from 10 Scryer (Talent) Movement Speed bonus increased from 15% to 20% Psionic Storm (W) Cast range reduced from 10 to 9 Overload (Talent) No longer increases Psionic Storm damage Now increases Psionic Storm cast range by 33% Psi-Infusion (Talent) Mana restored increased from 5 to 7 per target struck by Psionic Storm Static Charge (Talent) Critical Strike damage reduced from 100% to 75% of Tassadar’s Basic Attack damage Second Strike (Talent) Time between casts reduced from 3 to 2 seconds Void Shift (E) Deep Shift (Talent) Duration increased from 0.75 to 1.5 seconds Prescience (Talent) Effect cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds Archon (R) Duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds

Links

Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN

Emails

Beckett - Jaina Strat

Hey dudes,

I just wanted to talk about Jaina who has this insane combo.

At level 1 you can get a talent called deep chills which slows enemies by 35% when hit with her passive.

At level 4 you can get arcane intellect, which draws two cards, wait no, it refunds 25 mana on hit with abilities.

At level 7 you can get ice lance which reduces the cool down of frostbolt by 2 seconds if it hits a chilled target.

This means that you can permanently slow a enemy by 35% and have 5 mana frostbolts every 2 seconds. Its why Jaina is my new favorite hero.

Dave

Hey Garrett and Kyle,

I don't think that needing 10 heroes unlocked to play ranked will be effective. I like to be a team player and so will try to have at least one of each hero type that I can play (eg in lol: tank, support, jungle, AD and AP carry) but I like to play ranged support so might have 2 of these characters that I'm really good with... That's still only 7 characters!

Most people (like the ones with golden heroes in hearthstone) only play one or two characters so they will have to pay the '10 hero tax' but will just go back to their mains and not be able to pick up and play any of these.

Let me know if you disagree, and keep up the great shows! Dave.

Sorry if that's a bit long to read on air. In summery:

Most people only play one or two mains or don't have time to master lots of heroes. In my opinion the '10 hero tax' is an artificial barrier that won't change people's play habits.

Outro

Patreon Thanks

ITN is supported by our badass Patrons. You can become a ITN Patron by going to Patreon.com/itn.

William I
E4gleScout

iTunes Thanks

Vo_Quasar

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. Past VODs are at Youtube.com/starcastshow.

Haitham Ahmad Youtube Comment

Too often I hear you say no one uses toads in diablo 3. As someone who has logged 200+ hours on multiple WD and have a spot on the seasonal leaderboards (albeit probably gonna lose the spot closer to end of season) I can assure you pet docs both SMK and Rhenoflayer builds use plague of toads. It's the fastest sycophants generator. Look at the leaderboards and see for yourself. <3 u still of course

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

Just because we aren’t running ads at the top doesn’t mean these codes are any less awesome!

Doghouse Systems.com

Our code, ITN, will get you double-memory on your next Doghouse gaming rig.

Tweaked Audio.com

The same code, ITN, will get you 30% off and free shipping on your entire order of noise-reducing earbuds from Tweaked Audio!