#168 - Into the Nexus: “No one can stop death”

• Garrett • Kyle • Dunktrain

Sponsors:

• Patreon.com/ITN

Our Patrons support Into the Nexus at Patreon.com/ITN. If you enjoy the show consider supporting it with 25 cents, a dollar, or however you would like! We thank all our Patrons for their support!

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

Had a much happier week in heroes because I played what I want and stopped chasing the meta.

Dunk will be joining us next week. Anxious to hear his thoughts after we get to play Malthael.

News

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

Malthael

Trait - Reaper’s Mark

Basic Attacks afflict non-Structure targets with Reaper’s Mark for 4 seconds. Marked enemies are revealed and take damage equal to 2.5% of their maximum Health every 1 second.

• Non-Structure. Does this mean the boss?

Q - Soul Rip

Extract the souls of nearby enemies afflicted by Reaper's Mark, dealing 100 damage and healing Malthael for 44 per target hit. Heroic targets heal Malthael for an additional 3% of the Hero's maximum Health.

• 44 a hit plus 3% of their maximum health if a hearo

W - Wraith Strike

Instantly teleport through an enemy afflicted by Reaper's Mark, dealing 59 damage and refreshing Reaper's Mark.

E - Death Shroud

After 0.25 seconds, unleash a wave of dark mist that applies Reaper's Mark to enemies it hits.

Heroic - Tormented Souls

Gain 20 Armor and unleash a torrent of souls, continually applying Reaper's Mark to nearby enemies for 4 seconds.

Heroic - Last Rites

Apply a death sentence to an enemy Hero that, after 2 seconds, deals damage equal to 50% of their missing Health. Repeatable Quest: Enemies killed while under the effect of Last Rites permanently reduce its cooldown by 5 seconds, to a minimum of 15 seconds.

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes/malthael/

May 31st Patch

Alarak

Talent Diversity and Draft Encouragement

Level 4 - Chaos Reigns (Q)

• Damage bonus for hitting 15 enemy Heroes reduced from 60 to 50
• Damage bonus for hitting 2 enemy Heroes with a single cast of Discord Strike reduced from 60 to 50
• Damage bonus for hitting 3 enemy Heroes with a single cast of Discord Strike increased from 60 to 80

Level 4 - Show of Force (Passive)

• Damage increased from 70 to 77

Level 13 - Pure Malice (Passive)

• Sadism gained per Ally death increased from 6 to 10%
• Maximum Sadism bonus increased from 30 to 40%

Level 13 - Rite of Rak’shir (Active)

• Sadism bonus for killing the targeted Hero reduced from 6 to 5%

Cassia

Nerf to main level 1. Falls about 1%, at 47%

Level 1

• Charged Strikes (Active)

• No longer causes attacks to bounce when attacking Structures.

Ragnaros

Slight nerf to the main build (but not its most important talent). Up 2.2% to 54%.

• Level 1

• Sulfuras Hungers (Q)

• Bonus damage upon quest completion reduced from 100 to 90

• Level 4

• Catching Fire (Passive)

• Health regen reduced from 1.5 to 1.25

• Level 13

• Cauterized Wounds (Q)

• Healing bonus reduced from 50 to 40%

Samuro

Decision making increase. Up 1.9% to 57%.

• Wind Walk (E)

• Cooldown increased from 13 to 15 seconds
• Duration increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Zul'jin

Mage build was seeing some play. Up 2.6% to 51.9%

• Guillotine (R)

• Can no longer be interrupted. Once cast, the axe is falling.

Probius

Nerf and talent encouragement. Down 2.1% to 53%

• Disruption Pulse (Q)

• Damage decreased from 150 to 142

• Pylon Overcharge (R)

• Damage reduced from 52 to 48

Talents

• Level 4

• Turbo Charged (Z)

• Movement Speed bonus decreased from 20 to 10%

• Level 7

• Particle Accelerator (Q)

• Damage cap bonus increased from 40 to 50%

• Level 13

• Aggressive Matrix (D)

• Damage bonus increased from 25 to 35%

• Shield Battery (D)

• Shield amount reduced by roughly 8%

Tassadar

Buff! Up 7.3% to 47.6%

• Basic Attack damage increased from 12 to 15

Abilities

• Plasma Shield (Q)

• Life steal amount increased from 30 to 45%

Talents

• Level 4

• Khala’s Embrace (Q)
• Life steal amount increased from 60 to 90%

Tyrande

Buff to what Tyrande has become. Down 2.9% to 43.2%

• Shadowstalk (R)

• Cooldown reduced from 30 to 20 seconds
• Mana cost reduced from 50 to 40

Talents

• Level 1

• Ranger (W)

• Added functionality:
• Now also increases Sentinel Width by 25%

• Ranger’s Mark (D)

• Basic Attacks required per decreased from 60 to 50

• Level 7

• Huntress’ Fury (D)

• Splash range increased by roughly 30%

Anub'arak

Nerf to main build. Down 3.2% to 52.7%

• Burrow Charge (E)

• Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds

Talents

• Level 4

• Bed of Barbs (Q)

• Movement Speed slow reduced from 30 to 25%

• Level 16

• Epicenter (E)

• Cooldown reduction decreased from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds

Dehaka

Scary little buff. Up 2.8% to 50.9%

• Dark Swarm (W)

• Duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds

• Brushstalker (Z)

• Movement Speed buff duration increased from 1 to 2 seconds, and amount increased from 15 to 20%

Talents

• Level 1

• Enhanced Agility (Trait)

• Movement Speed buff duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds

D.Va

Nerf, but slightly more disruption. Barely moves .2% - 51%

Boosters (Q)

• Cooldown reduced from 10 to 9 seconds
• Cooldown before being able to cancel the ability decreased from 1 to .5 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1

• Hit the Nitrous (Q)

• Movement Speed reduced from 375 to 325%
• The tooltip was adjusted to reflect the Movement Speed bonus, instead of the total speed, which is why these numbers will now appear 100% lower.

• Pro Moves (Passive)

• Movement Speed duration increased from 1 to 1.25 seconds

• Level 13

• Ablative Armor (Passive)

• Reduce the threshold where Ablative Armor is active from 5% to 4% of D.Va’s maximum Health.

• Level 16

• GG, WP (E)

• Damage bonus reduced from 75 to 50%

Developer Comment:  D.Va’s winrate has risen steadily since release, as most of our new Heroes do, and secured her position as “#1 Mech Nexus, GG NO RE”. These adjustments will help Boosters feel better to use, and also even out the viability of the Talents at level 1. Ablative Armor was triggering a lot more often than we thought it should, so D.Va decided that we needed to nerf this. Lastly, GG WP was really strong at the tier, so we’re tuning the damage down slightly so that it isn’t always the must pick option.

E.T.C.

Buff to auto attacks? Up 3.7% to 47%

• Attack Speed increased from 1 to 1.25 attacks per second.

Talents

• Level 16

• Aggressive Shredding (E)

• Cooldown reduction per Basic Attack reduced from 1 to .75 seconds

Links

• http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20749068/heroes-of-the-storm-patch-notes-may-31-2017-5-31-2017

Mini-News

Scarras’s final thoughts on Try Hard spark conversations about Hero and ability clarity.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/6ee51x/clarity_in_hots/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/6dd8o5/scarras_thoughts_on_his_hots_experience_tryhard/

Tomb of the Spider Queen is broken: Spider Queen’s aren't launching their wave attacks. It has been fixed.

Lots lots more roster change ups. You can read all about it:

• My favorite news: Roll20 the digital table top sponsors Team 8.
• https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/6e607x/true_problem_with_the_current_hgc/
• http://us.heroesofthestorm.com/esports/en/news/20814466/hgc-welcomes-three-new-teams
• https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/6ea2ay/even_in_death_confirmed_to_replace_bstep_in_hgc_na/
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SYKF_gDCrEQq8XjyeQFMgQSMDlZbr5HsuV2wYTRn7lk/edit#gid=0

Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN

Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, and Mythdol.

Patron Thanks

• Jeff Laurent
• William Sterling
• Dave Wiener
• Todd Sullivan
• Linehouse
• JUSTIN DIRUZZA
• Cliff Su
• Chris Bonsall

Strategy

New Resources:

Psalm’s Heroes of the Storm Library

• Assassin for Tempo Storm
• Tier Lists for Every Map

• Divided up by role too.

• Talent builds for his favorite heroes

Interesting bits:

• Hero League Tier S

• Greymane
• Anub’arak

• Reactive Parry is the Artanis solo lane level 1 talent
• Great greymane spec’ing guide
• Li Ming, power hungry unless you need force armor
• Runs either Multi-shot valla or Monster Hunger
• Take Lacerate slow at 16 if you need more snag on Zuljin

Ryoma’s Updated Solo Lane Guide

• Simple advice for each main solo lane hero and their counter solo lane.
• Includes honorable mentions for those heroes who might find themselves suddenly in the solo.

Basically

• Think about what your opponent wants and how they get it

• Don’t give them it.

Outro

Patreon Shout Out

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

Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, and Mythdol. 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

The Angry Nerd

Kyle

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 a free 120gb SSD added to your already amazing Doghouse gaming PC.

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!