ITN - 155

#155 - Into the Nexus: “Ty-Cuss”

• Garrett • Kyle

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

Huge Thanks to everyone for the Heroes Charity Brawl

Destroyed the $3230 goal and raised over $5000 for Make a Wish!

https://www.gofundme.com/HeroesCharityBrawl2

News

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

Balance Update

Many of these feel very HGC targeted.

Tychus

Down 5.3% to 46.7 Overall

54% Towers of Doom

47% Tomb of the Spider Queen

Basic Attack Range decreased from 5.5 to 4.5

Overkill (Q)

Cooldown decreased from 15 to 13 seconds
Mana Cost reduced from 75 to 65

Commandeer Odin (R)

Attack range increased from 8.8 to 9

Talents

Level 1: Press the Advantage (E)

Range increase reduced from 1.9 to 1.5
Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds

Level 13: That’s the Stuff! (Trait)

New functionality:

Minigun heals Tychus for 100% of the bonus damage done to Heroes after the ability ends.
This will show a Heal preview during Minigun's duration that will heal Tychus as soon as the ability goes on cooldown.

Level 13: Neosteel Coating (Active)

Increased Spell Armor from 50 to 75

Developer Comments: Tychus has proven to be just as good at Assassin-busting as he is at Tank-busting, which was never our intention. This has made drafting him a good choice against just about any enemy team composition, which has led him to be one of the highest contested Heroes in HGC. We would like to see him gain the most value from sticking to front-line targets so we are lowering his Basic Attack range to limit his options while allowing other ranged Heroes to trade a bit more favorably against him.

Varian

Down 3.5% to 47%

Towers of Doom 52%

Blackheart’s Bay 46.7%

Charge (E)

Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds

Colossus Smash (R)

Damage bonus increased from 75 to 100%

Twin Blades of Fury (R)

Basic Attack damage penalty reduced from 25 to 20%

Level 4: Warbringer (E)

Now increases Charge's slow from 75% to 85%, instead of adding a stun

Level 13: Juggernaut (E)

Damage reduced from 6% to 5% of the target's maximum Health.

Developer Comments: The frequency and power of a ranged point click stun was too powerful from Warbringer. While it may have been “balanced” in terms of winrate, its potency wasn’t healthy or fun for opponents. It didn’t offer many options for opponents that were stunned and then Taunted for over 2 seconds, greatly increasing the reliability of other abilities (like Sulfuras Smash). By making Warbringer a massive slow instead of a stun, it allows enemies to use abilities to defend themselves (or forces a Varian to use Taunt early, greatly reducing the duration of his opening crowd control). We’ve shifted more of the power of Warbringer over into the mobility aspect to compensate (since Warbringer makes Charge a 6 second cooldown now). The other part of these changes is providing some buffs to the Assassin focused Heroics to bring them up to par with Taunt, so that Varian can frequently opt into any of the Heroic choices to really fulfill the multi-class Hero fantasy that makes him unique.

Murky

Down 6.1% to a flat 50% winrate

61% Dragon Shire

Lowest 47.4% Battlefield

Murky Base Maximum Health reduced from 761 to 730
Base Health Regeneration reduced from 30.43 to 29.20

Slime (Q)

Slow duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
Slime slow amount reduced from 25 to 20%

March of the Murlocs (R)

Cooldown increased from 80 to 110 seconds

Level 1: Fishy Deal (Active)

Number of Bribe stacks needed to bribe a Mercenary increased from 7 to 8
Maximum stacks increased from 30 to 32

Level 1: Egg Hunt (Trait)

Vision range of Fake Eggs reduced by 1

Level 4: Slime Time (Q)

Slow reduced from 35 to 30%

Level 7: Slippery When Wet (E)

Movement Speed bonus increased from 35 to 40%

Level 7: Time to Krill (Passive)

Slow reduced from 8 to 7%

Level 13: Rejuvenating Bubble (E)

Healing reduced from 50 to 40% of maximum Health

Developer Comments: Murky slimed his way back to the top of the Nexus, and we’re all still cleaning the gunk out of our shoes as a result. His release pushed him much further than intended, so we’re targeting a series of nerfs at some of the frustrating aspects of the Hero. Overall, his effectiveness will be less reliable, and his ability to slow and zone opponents will be less powerful. Nerrrrfgggle Mrrggl.

Lúcio

Up 2.8%

Amp it Up (E)

Healing Boost reduced from 16.5 to 15.5

Level 4: Boombox (Active)

Duration increased from 20 to 30 seconds

Party Mix (W)

Bonus range decreased from 25 to 20%

Malfurion

Down 2.2% to a flat 50%

Entangling Roots (E)

Root duration reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds

Twilight Dream (R)

Mana regen reduced from 1.5 to 1.25

Level 16: Tenacious Roots (E)

Root duration bonus decreased from .5 to .25 seconds

Developer Comments: Malfurion has seen a lot of play at all levels to the point that he is crowding out other Support heroes. While we like his established place in the Nexus, his Entangling Roots is much stronger for its consistency relative to the CC that other heroes in the game provide, particularly when he takes the Tenacious Roots talent. We’re also happy to see that Twilight Dream is so highly valued considering it’s against a strong Healing heroic, but wanted to lower some of the hidden power that it provides in its Mana regeneration to make the decision of which Heroic to take a little more thoughtful.

Tassadar

Up 0.4% to 48.4

Level 1: Khaydarin Resonance (Q)

New functionality:

Quest: Regeneration Globes grant an additional 50% Mana.
Reward(1): After collecting 15 Globes, increase the value of Plasma Shield by 15%.
Reward(2): After collecting 30 Globes, increase the duration of Plasma Shield by 100%.

Developer Comments: One of our major goals with Hero reworks is attempting to keep as many of the current builds and playstyles that exist for a Hero, trim out older or unhealthy ones, and hopefully open doors for new ones to emerge. When shifting the old Khala’s Embrace to a questing talent (Khaydarin Resonance), we had hoped to lock the immense power that it brought behind a barrier that was difficult to overcome on a lot of maps. In theory, this would make it feel rewarding to take on certain maps, but rarely the most powerful choice. Instead, we found that locking this kind of potential behind an extremely difficult Globe-collecting talent made for a more frustrating experience than a fun one. When taking a step back and considering our options, we felt it best to remove the permanent shielding capabilities and replace it with a less-powerful questing talent.

Rexxar

Down .8% to 51.8%

Now has a visual indicator for Misha’s leash range.
Can now issue Misha commands outside of her leash range. Misha will run to the edge of her range and leash if she attempts to go beyond.

Effects of the Patch

Winners:

Lucio - 2.6%
Kerrigan 1.2%
Diablo .9%
Zul’jin - .8%
Zeratul - 2.1%
Lunara - 1.5%
Sonya - 1.3%

Losers

Sgt. Hammer 3.5%
Tychus 1.9
Uther 1.3
Artanis 1.1
Varian
Malfurion

Links

New Hero Reveal Friday

Via a translated press release for the IEM event in Katowice (where the Western Clash is being held).

Something warping in

Links

Quick Match Queues Decreased

In general, queue times have been reduced by about 50-75%. Came in with the Lucio patch.

Previously, the matchmaker would "hold" players from getting a match until the players who had been waiting longest found a game. With some careful testing, it was determined that players in normal skill ranges were able to easily find a game without having to hold others. These players will now be released and able to quickly find another match that suits them.

Links

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/heroes/topic/20753505247#post-1

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

Patron Thanks

Kevin Panczyk
Matt Parker
Corey McDonough
Erik Sczygelski
Cannon1002
Nathan Jones
Jeremy Rodriguez -Twamy-
Mathieu Perreault

Strategy

Picking for the Map: HGC Viewer Drafting Guide

Draft Priorities

Enough Damage to win the Video Game
Body
CC
Lane Clear
Varied damage types.
And Now Poking?

1. Battleground Selection

Teams will look to prioritize Heroes that have exceptional impact, such as the ability to apply pressure at range (also called “poking”), or to rotate around the Battleground quickly to secure objectives.

Poking at a Tribute on Cursed Hollow is a great place for Sgt. Hammer, but she’s substantially less effective when rotations are critical, like on Braxis Holdout.

Sometimes it will come down to having specific counters available, such as Varian on Dragon Shire (to lock down the Dragon Knight).

Varian is one of the 10 most chosen characters on Dragon Shire, and boasts the highest win rate of any Hero that has been played more than five times total on this map in HGC to date.

Some high priority Battleground-specific picks have turned out to be reasonably powerful — for example, Sylvanas (for locking down structures) and Kerrigan (who can very quickly defeat the Guardians) on Infernal Shrines.

Conversely, certain choices that may seem valuable actually underperform massively: Artanis and Valla are both common recommendations on Battlefield of Eternity (for their Amateur Opponent and Monster Hunter talents, respectively), and are top 10 choices on the map, but have extraordinarily low win rates. Valla may be tremendously powerful under the right circumstances, but her win rate on BoE suggests that this map isn’t one of them.

2. Hero Priority - What are good early picks.

Teams will pick characters that have been demonstrably successful for them (or in general), or that are map agnostic — so that a timely ban doesn’t invalidate their niche strategy. A team going for a composition designed to maximize an Illidan’s damage or follow up on E.T.C.’s Mosh Pit falls apart if the opposing team sniffs it out and bans that lynchpin character.

Malfurion

E.T.C.

Tychus

Ragnaros

Li-Ming

Valla

Rehgar

Falstad

Varian

Zeratul

3. Composition - Following up,.

Watch for follow-up picks that support existing selections.
If a team gets Ragnaros, they’ll look to pair him with burst-damage Heroes like Zeratul or Li-Ming.
Statistically, an early Falstad likely signals an E.T.C. tank preference, because of their Heroic Ability synergies.
While Rehgar is often thought of as being the ideal healer for auto attack Heroes, his win rate skyrockets when taken alongside mages like Jaina or Li-Ming.

These options make Rehgar a pivotal character in any draft.

Finally, Malfurion’s popularity bears out — his win rates paired with most anything other than Jaina or Artanis are solid, but he really shines alongside Tyrael or Thrall with those additional snares.

Links

Emails

Spencer

Lately I was also inspired by esports compositions & mechanical play. Like you had with Zeratul, I recently tried falstad again. I played him early on in the games life & determined that his playstyle was not for me. As a ranged assassin oriented player I have master skins for Nova, Raynor & Tychus but for whatever reason despised Falstad, until now. I don't know if it was his kit, his squishiness or my lack of global prowess. Whatever it was I was playing a bad falstad. Its easily been a year since I've last played him. Watching the teams from HGC use him really inspired me - especially with mighty gust. The risk/reward you get from flying behind the enemy team and pushing them into your own is hilarious. Long story short I have extended my ranged assassin roster thus growing my available toolset for hero league. I felt the similarities from our stories and thought it was worth a share. Don't be afraid to revisit a hero that we failed with in the past. :)

Hugs

1. What are a few heroes you haven't seen in a long time and what are a few ways you think Blizzard could make them more playable?

2. I'm a little bit of a noob and my favorite heroes are Kerrigan, for her combos, and a Alarak, who moves people into bad positions than punishes them for having bad positioning. I'm wondering what talent picks I should go for as for Kerrigan I go Impaling blades and Alarak I go Telekinesis.

Outro

Patreon Shout Out

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iTunes Thanks

Name

Into the Nexus is produced by Amove.tv and our Patreon producers Declan H & 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

The Angry Nerd

Kyle

A-move Radio

Kylefergusson.com

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