#110 - Into the Nexus: “Title”
• Garrett • Kyle
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
News
Reminder, you can go to ITNcast.reddit.com to submit stories or upvote submissions for the next episode.
Unranked Draft
With this new game mode and the Ranked Play Revamp, we will also be implementing a couple of behind-the-scenes changes that should address some concerns regarding fair matches and immobility on the ladder.
MMR NORMALIZATION
MMR SEEDING
UNCERTAINTY BOOST
What are we changing?
Links
Chromie Changes Tomorrow
Blue buffs, red nerfs.
CHROMIE
Sand Blast (Q)
Dragon’s Breath (W)
Talents
Developer Comments: A Hero like Chromie is one that we would expect to come out with a lower than normal win rate. She has many counters, has a high skill floor, and requires her teammates to play around her poke style. Even anticipating the gradual increase in effectiveness as people figure her out, we think that she has room for buffs.
Chromie is the type of Hero who has high damage potential (and man, when she hits those home runs they’re a sight to behold), but is also very inconsistent. She’ll always be that way to a degree, which is by design. We’re attempting to buff her damage throughput to offset this inability to pick her targets, without making her “one shot” potential any scarier than it is.
We’ve increased her Health slightly as well so that she is a little more resistant to incidental damage. If enemies find a way to close the gap and focus her down, her still relatively low Health and lack of escapes will allow teams to eliminate our terrifying gnome-dragon, as they should.
Links
Anniversary Bonus XP Event
Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Heroes and there will be a 50% XP boost running from tomorrow until June 14 as part of the celebration. There is also a portrait up for grabs if you log in during the event, and a new bundle hitting the shop.
Links
Upcoming Developer Q&A
Trikslyr posted in the Heroes subreddit yesterday announcing a Q&A next week on Tuesday, June 7th at noon Pacific. The Q&A will last for two hours and will focus on changes coming to heroes with the Ranked Play Revamp.
Links
MVP Black Coach Kim’s Interview
"There are couple instances where they ended up patching the game in a direction that make you lose interest. In case of Dota2, the character's' skills are all flashy and exciting, but in Heroes you can't help but feel the skills have been toned down over time. As everyone agrees, the rate of Hero release is also too slow. And there are no tournaments outside of the Blizzard sponsored ones. I don't know whether MVP Black's players will continue playing Heroes after this year."
It's quite shocking to hear the world's top team say they might switch games. It shows how much current Blizzard have failed to satisfy the active pro-players both in-game and in eSport management. We asked Coach Kim to expand on it more.
Coach Kim says for Heroes to grow, Blizzard need to adopt the strengths of other games. He was especially vocal about the necessity of implementing a crowd funding system like Dota 2. We conclude this interview with Coach Kim's dire words for the growth of Heroes' esport:
"Even if we are No.1 ranked in the world, there aren't any tournaments, and not much sponsors. The 1st place prize of the first SC2: Wings of Liberty tournament was $100K, and there were three tournaments every month. I don't think Blizzard has a solid grasp on how to run Heroes yet. It's been 5-6 years since SC2 started off like that, yet a 5v5 game like Heroes awards $70K to the winner. And this is despite Korea being better off than most."
"Dota2 has a really great crowd funding system, while LoL's Riot provide strong support for the teams. I can't really say no to players who want to move to a different game. You don't earn much even if you win all the international tournaments. My players are still young, so they still have opportunities to play in different games. Both my players and I are sad by the reality of we have to face despite being best in the world."
"Dota 2 has several tournaments, and you can win couple dozen grands even if you make it through the qualifiers. It's hard for players to not feel disappointed when you compare that to having to win champions for $70K. I think Blizzard is living in the past. I think every tournament should be following a crowd funding system like Dota 2. I believe it's a good system that teams, players, and users, can all benefit from. I really hope Blizzard will realize that fast."
Links
Dustin Browder (& other blue) Tweets
Mini Section: Devs post!
Trikslyr: Surrender button will not be added
Greymane and Marked for the Kill changes incoming
Ravinix: More camps coming to try mode
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Patron Thanks
Emails
Krushinator
Hello Garrett, Kyle,
I want to get your take on role specialization as a "weekend warrior" type of player. I really like playing warriors, and really dislike playing assassins. With Season 1 on the way I want to do my placement matches for Hero League to see if I can get a mount, but I don't like playing (and mostly don't own) any of those first pick assassins that I see on streams. Is first picking a warrior such a bad thing, or do I need to buy the mages/high impact assassins to play Hero League?
Thanks for the show, lean with it rock with it,
DelRayPete
I had a recent HL game where my team ended up winning. After the game, I received a friend request from a teammate who was silenced, I knew it wasn't going to be anything good but I like to hear what people want to say. He went off on a hate filled rant towards me. It didn't really bother me because he is just some random dude on a computer from god knows where. However, it made me think that there should be a greater punishment than silencing. If these players were suspended/banned would anyone miss them?
I have attached some screenshots that have the conversation. Notice this game was his only win in recent history.
Keep up the great show!
Keith
Hey fellas. Been listening to you guys since episode 1 and wanted to congratulate you on your 100th episode!
My main question is regarding upcoming heroes and if you think they are gonna do a dreadlord like Mal'Ganis or Tichondrius?
If they do go this route, do you think they will do similar abilities as they had back in Warcraft 3 or something completely different? Would really appreciate your thoughts on this.
Outro
Patreon Shout Out
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 produced by Amove.tv and our Patreon producers Declan H and CheezyBob! 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
Kyle
A-move Radio
Kylefergusson.com
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