#150 - Into the Nexus: “Lost but smiling”

• Garrett • Kyle 

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Intro:  Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!

Patron Hangout Tomorrow!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/next-patron-7892174

News

Call in episode tomorrow 4pm Eastern!

Reminder, you can go to ITNcast.reddit.com to submit stories or upvote submissions for the next episode.

Jan. 27th Balance Update

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20506310/heroes-of-the-storm-balance-update-january-27-2017-1-27-2017

• We’re both lost in this meta, but it’s fun puzzle.
• Things have changed so much that I’m out of Hero League for right now.

• Don’t ask anyone if they can play something.

• I’m having fun learning heroes I’ve avoided.
• The only sanity to be found right now is in Team League.

• And I don’t mean 5-stacks exclusively

• (Make up for eachother's weaknesses)

Ragnaros

Base Health/Regen reduction. Popular talents reigned in.

• Base Maximum Health reduced from 2100 to 2000
• Base Health Regen reduced from 4.4 to 4.2 per second

Talents

• Level 1

• Sulfuras Hungers (Q)

• Quest completion damage bonus reduced from 120 to 100

• Level 4

• Catching Fire (Active)

• Health Regeneration bonus reduced from 2 to 1.5 per regen globe gathered

• Level 13

• Cauterize Wounds (Q)

• Healing reduced from 60 to 50% of damage dealt

Thrall

Devs say this is their “continued effort to bring Thrall's two Heroics closer in line with each other.” Expect changes to other talent soon.

• Earthquake (R)

• Slow amount reduced from 70 to 50%

• ​Sundering (R)

• Cooldown reduced from 80 to 70 seconds

Zul'jin

Devs say their data shows a solid win-rate for Zul'jin's Basic Attack build while his ability-supporting talents are slightly under-performing. These changes are aimed at addressing that issue. Expect more changes in the future.

• Twin Cleave (W)

• Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50

• Guillotine (R)

• Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds

Talents

• Level 1

• Boneslicer (Q)

• Damage bonus increased from 15 to 20%

• Arcanite Axes (W)

• Cooldown reduction per Hero hit increased from .5 to .75 seconds

• You Want Axe? (Passive)

• Damage bonus per stack reduced from 1.5 to 1.25

• Level 4

• Let the Killing Begin (Passive)

• Buff duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds

• Level 7

• Wrong Place Wrong Time (W)

• Damage from 140 to 150

• Level 13

• Voodoo Shuffle (Active)

• Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds

• Level 16

• Ferocity (Trait)

• Attack speed bonus reduced from 40 to 35%

Zagara

• Creep Tumor (Trait)

• Movement Speed bonus from 15 to 20%
• Cooldown from 20 to 18 seconds

• Hunter Killer (W)

• Base damage from 62 to 65
• Damage scaling from 3.5 to 4%

Talents

• Level 20

• Endless Creep (Trait)

• Movement Speed bonus from 15 to 10%

Uther

• Now has 10 Armor

Devs say this is simply the first of a few changes they want to make to Uther. They want to ensure that he has a distinctive niche beyond bringing Divine Shield.

Artanis

Devs are happy to see him as prominent as he is now. They’re reigning in his over-performing talents and hoping to promote more diverse talent picks.

• Level 4

• Shield Surge (Trait)

• Bonus shield amount reduced from 80 to 75%

• ​​Level 7

• Chrono Surge (Q)

• Duration of Attack Speed increased from 4 to 5 seconds

• ​​Level 13

• Templar's Zeal (Q)

• Cooldown recharge rate increased from 100 to 150%

• Graviton Vortex (E)

• Cooldown reduction decreased from 6 to 5 seconds

• Level 16

• Titan Killer (W)

• Damage reduced from 2.5 to 2% of enemy Hero's maximum Health

• Plasma Burn (Trait)

• Damage increased from 50 to 55

Diablo

Devs are targeting his talents that are over and under tuned.

• Lightning Breath (R)

• Increase turn rate by 25%
• Damage reduced from 100 to 50
• Damage effects per second increased from 2 to 4

Talents

• Level 4

• From the Shadows (Q)

• No longer grants additional stun time.
• Additional range increased from 33 to 40%

• Level 13

• Fire Devil (W)

• Bonus attack damage reduced from 25 to 20%

• Hellfire (W)

• Bonus damage from Heroes hit increased from 10 to 12%
• Max damage value increased from 100 to 120%

• Level 16

• Domination (E)

• No longer grants cooldown reduction on Overpower

• Level 20

• Hellgate (Active)

• Cooldown increased from 90 to 100 seconds

Sonya

• Whirlwind (E)

• Damage increased from 339 to 441 over 3 seconds
• Healing increased from 20 to 25% of damage done (tripled versus Heroes)

Talents

• Level 7

• Poisoned Spear (Q)

• Damage increased from 100 to 150% of Ancient Spear
• Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds

• Level 13

• Life Funnel (E)

• Healing increased from 30 to 35% to correspond with base Whirlwind changes

Developer Comments:  Sonya has steadily been dropping to the bottom of our Hero winrates, primarily because a lot of Heroes fulfill her role slightly better. The focus of these buffs is to improve her winrate, but also to solidify the reason to take Sonya: when you can get a lot of value out of Whirlwind because of the map mechanic, an abundance of Mercenaries, or an enemy team that consistently groups up.

Stitches

Much health

• Health increased from 2738 to 2900
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.7 to 6 per second

Zarya

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 21 to 20

Abilities

• Particle Grenade (Q)

• Damage reduced from 74 to 71

Talents

• Level 1

• Maximum Charge (Trait)

• Energy gain from Regeneration Globes reduced from 20 to 15

Developer Comments:  We're pretty happy with Zarya's gameplay and how often we're seeing her, but we think toning down her damage slightly is in order to keep her in line.

Bug Fixes

• Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing damage absorbed by Plasma Shield to display as double on the tab/score screen.
• Tychus: Fixed an issue causing Overkill to deal less damage than expected.

• 20% damage missing from his Q.

• Zeratul: Bonus Ability Power granted by Grim Task is now properly removed on death.

Role Update Coming

Centaurik:

Good News Everyone!

We are definitely in discussion on expanding our roles. We agree that the 4 (or 5...) currently in use don't do every Hero justice. We think we could do something better, but we're still pretty early on in talks, as it has an impact on quite a few number of systems.

But! I can say that we are updating the Hero Description texts in a very near patch! We're gonna be a lot more blunt with them, and straight up say how that Hero is pointed, explaining when they excel. We're also discussing if there are ways we could surface this now-more-useful information in the place you really want it: the draft screen! Anyways, it's still in dev, but something you can be looking forward to soon(ish...ish...well you know how these things work by now...)

Links

• https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/5r6nar/heroes_needs_to_update_their_roles/

Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN

Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, and Philip P.

Patron Thanks

• Mark Scott
• Chris H
• Denise Soden
• Jason Mitchell
• David Harwell
• Feralfish        
• Jeremiah Nemechek
• Jim Krenz

Emails

Matt AKA WildThunder

Hey Guys,

Love your show, can’t wait till Thursday comes around each week.

To get right to it,  I play nearly every night, either by myself or with friends I have met through the Amove channel. We are currently in a chair league team (div 2) together where I fill the "sub" position due to time restraints. Over the last 1-2 months, I have seen my win rates drop drastically. I keep up with the new heroes, follow twitch streamers and their replay analysis, ie. you Kyle, Mcintyre, Chu8, and try to play the power picks as much as possible, have even tried to go back to my go to heroes like valla and raynor or malf. But still loss after loss after loss. I was nearly 60% winrate and now I'm down to 39%.

I don't mean to complain but I legitimately don't have any idea what to do. I have tried supporting, tanking and assassin and yet can not seem to get a consistent win streak going. Seems to be 1 win, 7 losses. Its getting to the point that I just want to quite playing, but I love the game and the people I play with and that seems like a terrible idea.

Can either of you come up with anything else to try?

FYI, Last season I was at Gold 3 HL. This season placed Gold 5 after going 3-7 in placements and hasn't gotten any better and have dropped down to silver 1, I have pretty much stopped playing HL at the moment because I don't want to drop further and get stuck in a worse spot for next season.

Much love,

• We think we’re at a point where Team 1 is touching the game too much
• Individual games at the moment are very volatile

Kyle’s Guide to the Current meta:

• Never ask if your teammates can play a certain role.

• Don’t ask anyone if they can play something.

• Make sure your team never fights from behind in XP

• Make them feel like their winning from the start.
• Draft enough CC and lane clear. Everything else can be made up for with an xp lead.
• Never miss a team fight. Take camps and objectives right after winning a fight.

• Everything is too chaotic, people have forgotten their basics. No matter what you are doing across the map, they will pick a 4 vs 5.

• Control the map and get mercs, but never miss a team fight.

• Dehaka
• Brightwing
• Ragnaros

• Win so super crazy hard in the early game.

• Ragnaros
• Sylvanas
• Malfurion Follow up
• Artanis with Follow up

• Srey’s Teirlist

Another Good’in if we need it - Christer From Norway

I`ve played Heroes of the storm for a quite a while, but only veeery casualy and often with AI opponents. I`ve recently decided to get a little more serious and trying to increase my skills in the game. I have 1 major issue when it comes to the game. Whenever I am in a team fight, I am spamming my abilities as quick as I can with little to no plan or teamwork. I get so stressed when I`m in the middle of things that I just throw out abilities and heroics and run around like a headless chicken while everything is on cool down before I am eventually killed. I know I`m not doing my team any good and I`m aware of the problem, but how do I solve it?

How do I get rid of my panic attacks in game and make me keep my cool?

If Time - Idiomkrone

Garrett, totally off topic but figured I'd ask. My family is going to be in Florida end of March, and one of the thing we want to do is a gator boat tour. Do you have any recommendations for that kind of thing? Or any other not-so-obvious must do things? ;). Thanks!

Outro

Patreon Shout Out

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iTunes Thanks

• TheDwils: I have had every Google Nexus phone since the original, and I have to say, this the podcast for Nexus lovers everywhere. Cal and Garrick are very knowledgeable about all of the latest and greatest. Don’t know what they will talk about now that this great line of phones has been cancelled. Into the Pixel doesn’t have the same ring to it!
• Turk Zapt

Into the Nexus is produced by Amove.tv and our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, and Philip P.! ITN coffee mugs and glasses are over at bit.ly/amovestore.

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, Facebook.com/Amovetv, And ITNpodcast.reddit.com.

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

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Kyle

A-move Radio

Kylefergusson.com

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