#40 - Into the Nexus: “Title”

• 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!

Dancing on the Stairs.

Stun bugs.

News

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

Balancing Imbalances with John Hodgson

There are three main methods for identifying a balance problem in the game:

• The primary means we have to identify problems is actually engaging with the game ourselves.

• Largely about “feel”, not coldly examining the statistics. When something feels or looks “wrong” – if an Ability or Hero just seems unavoidable, indestructible, or feels unfair in a way that seems like a step too far.

• Second, we listen to a lot of feedback from the community at large.

• Feedback gives the development team clues on what to look at: if we hear about it, we’re off to investigate it ourselves by playing, watching, or looking into the statistics.

• Finally, we look at trends from game data

• Hero and Talent pick rates, win rates, and the like, through different filters (player skill level, number of players in a party, which Battleground, etc).

If all three factors are throwing up red flags, it’s time to react. Recently, we cut the Resurgence of the Storm Talent from the game, largely because the warning bells were going off everywhere: we felt something was wrong when we were playing it, we noticed it dictating which Heroes were considered “good”, we got tons of negative feedback about it, and lastly, statistics showed a near-universal high pick-rate across many skill levels!

There are two main ways to execute on a balance change: through tuning or redesign.

• Tuning is the much simpler, faster, and more easily validated method.

• It’s just about changing the numbers – damage, cooldown, range, duration, and so on. We call these numbers “balance hooks” or “knobs”, and they allow a balance designer to quickly and easily change the power of a Hero. The balance design team works hard adjusting and giving feedback on these tunable values in order to make things fair, while still retaining the power of Abilities and Traits that define a Hero’s power.

• Redesign means a change in the way something works at a mechanical level.

• Oftentimes, simple number tuning is not enough to address a feeling of unfairness, possibly because tunable numbers are simply not there! For example, Tyrael’s “Cast Aside” Talent (which was cut last patch) was very binary in its function: it’s a knockback/interrupt, and it’s either on or off. It’s difficult to balance the power of that Talent because there’s nothing to adjust. It’s removed for now, but we’re looking into redesigns of a competitive Talent that can take its place while also allowing for balance tuning, should the need arise.

Links

• http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/17989308/from-the-bullpen-balancing-imbalances-2-20-2015

Better Murky Incoming

Trikslyr : “Murky is getting some love in a future patch. There are a few cool ideas being floated around internally that are being tested before we push them live. Can't provide any details, yet. But, as a fellow Murky player, I can say I'm excited to try them out with you.

For now, work on those Octograb combos and keep making use of that egg! Thanks for the feedback and feel free to continue sharing your thoughts.”

Links

• http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/forum/topic/16285588886

Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN

Patron Thanks

• Nick C
• Chris M
• Lukas P

Strategy

BGRanger writes in to ITNcast@gmail.com

A friend and I recently got into a heated discussion during a quick match game on the garden map. He would always take control of the garden terror and go balls deep into their nearest fort to get the siege damage from it. Our team would sometimes try to follow, but not being very coordinated, he often ended up in their fort alone. He would quickly die as a result and would yell at our team for not being there with him. Another teammate responded saying he didn't know how to use the garden terror, which leads me to the question.

What is the proper way to use the garden terror? Is it more for siege damage or is it better to try to kill the hero team with it? I think that it would be more helpful to lay back from the fort and then move in once you have picked  off some of the heroes to get more total siege damage in but am I wrong?

We talked about Garden of Terror back on episode 15, but times have changed.

Team Liquid’s Garden Terror Guide

• It has rather high single target damage, but it does not do extra damage to structures like the Dragon Knight does
• ideal for disrupting team fights, pushing a lane, or clearing up mercenary pushes quickly.
• The Garden Terror has a timer of one minute and 30 seconds

The three abilities:

• Spore Queen’s Curse - After a short delay, enemy heroes in the target area are turned into plant zombies for 5 seconds. While heroes are under the effect of this spell, they move more slowly and are unable to cast any spells.

• ...great at disabling heroes during a team fight or during a push, and probably what makes the Garden Terror so versatile.
• If you catch a hero in the center of the spell, the curse will land twice and disable them for a long time.
• You can place it in chokes to prevent heroes from safely travelling down corridors, use it to zone out heroes in team fights, or disabling crucial enemies to be able to turn a fight in your favor.
• You can also put it on top of a Plant Horror Overgrowth and prevent a melee hero from attacking it

• Plant Horror Overgrowth - Disables and damages all enemy structures within a large area as long as the Horror Overgrowth (“Flowerpot”) remains alive. Deals heavy damage to minions within its area of effect.

• The Overgrowth essentially kills everything that is non-heroic.
• towers and forts are disabled and take massive “AoE” damage.
• An unattended Overgrowth can nearly take down towers alone and take about one third of the health of a fort, and if the Garden Terror is nearby, it can be cast again with almost no down time.
• The easy counter is to just focus down the Flowerpot and kill it. This creates a dance between heroes trying to snipe the Flowerpot and the Garden Terror to trying to place Spore Queen’s Curse in a way to disrupt or prevent the Flowerpots from being sniped.
• Another use of the Garden Terror is to clear up lanes that are heavily pushing. A Garden Terror can easily make a detour and plant a single Flowerpot to demolish a knight or ogre push with a ton of minions.

• Sprint - Gives the Garden Terror a short speed boost of 30% over 3 seconds.

Other Notes

• It’s generally bad to suicide onto a fort in the hopes of killing it, and instead either slowly poking with your team or running around to multiple bases is more effective in terms of overall damage dealt.
• The Terror is also quite useful as a split push tool: the Garden Terror can push the top or bottom lane, and the rest of the team can push the other side of the map.
• with Spore Queen’s Curse and high hero damage, the Garden Terror is ideal for team fights as well.
• It’s common to see plant vs plant fights if the other team has a Garden Terror of their own
• The two big decisions to make:

• Push with the team
• Or split push while the team pushed another lane.

Links

• http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/games/478900-heroes-of-the-storm-map-guide-garden-of-terror

Wishlist

If you would like to send in your hopeful hero, email itncast@gmail.com with “Wishlist” in the subject name.

DaThiefLord

I was wondering what heroes you would like to have added to the game. My number 1 would be Edwin Vancleef as a pure rogue hero with shadowstep and backstab.

I'd also like to see all the classes from wow represented at least once.

Love the show.

Edwin Vancleef : Defias Kingpin

Role:

Q : Primary Damage/ Primary Heal

W : Secondary Damage/ Area Effect/ Summon Minion

E : Escape/ Evasion/Stun/Movement

R1:  Offensive

R2 : Defensive

Trait :

VanCleef is the last boss of the Deadmines instance in Westfall, which is best attempted at level 18 or above. He can be somewhat challenging for a new group that is not well equipped, as he summons other Defias to help him at 50 and 25%. For a low level instance, the loot he drops is very good, especially Cruel Barb, which is a highly sought after one-handed sword for Rogues and Warriors. Also, Deadmines is probably one of the funnest instances in the game, so I would always recommend going to fight VC. This is one of the earlier instances you should not skip if you are Alliance.

For those who don't know, the Defias were the stonemasons of Stormwind who repaired when it was ruined by the orcs. When VanCleef and the stonemasons asked for reward for their troubles the nobles of Stormwind turned them away. Because of this, VanCleef started the Defias, a group of outlaws against Stormwind to commend past wrongs against them, and get the pay they so rightly deserved. I totally agree with Solander, I think the Defias are the 'goodguys' here.

Builds Combo Points

• Backstab - Gives Combo Points
• Sinister Strike - Gave Combo points
• Garrote - Silence, Combo points

Spends Combo Points

• Kidney Shot - Longer with Combo points
• Slice and Dice - Longer with Combo Points
• Evisorate - Damage per combo point

Traits or Ultimates

• Combo Points
• Shadow Step
• Summons Defias Blackguards
• Summon Cookie

Other Signatures

• Sap
• Vanish
• Deadly Poison - Before attacking
• Kick - Interupt
• Evasion - Click to dodge

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=639/edwin-vancleef#criteria-of

http://www.wowwiki.com/Edwin_VanCleef

http://www.hearthhead.com/card=306/edwin-vancleef

http://www.wowhead.com/class=4/rogue

Emails

Butchypoo

Last night a group of 5 of us on voice chat were playing some quick matches and we had the crazy idea.... What would happen if we all went support. We did and it was freakin fun! Our goal was to get 1 Takedown. We played on garden of terror and wasted the other team. I don't know if this was just a fluke or if we were really on to something here. Me and my group still have some more testing to do, but I feel like this play style could change the Quick Match Meta.

Thanks for the show!

Mohamed from Sweden

Hey guys,

I just want to thank you for a great show! I Love listening to you every friday on the subway on my way to work. Keep up the good work!

What do you think of Tyrande? I really like her, not a great support healer but heals decent with Healing Ward and does quite good dmg and speccing the Owl witdth and damage can be useful in many situations! Would be nice hearing you discuss her on the show.

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

• ProtonMurphy
• Spence805

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

Kylefergusson.com

http://stormcastshow.spazbotstudios.com/ep31/

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!