#163 - Into the Nexus: “Heroes 2.GOOOOO!”
• Garrett • Kyle
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
New to Heroes? New to ITN? Welcome
Into the Nexus is a talk show about Heroes of the Storm that has been running since the first week of the Technical Alpha. This is a talk show listened to by many as an audio-only mp3 on iTunes, Google Play, or most other podcast outlets. It’s also available at YouTube.com/Amovetv or you can catch the live recording Thursday nights at 8pm Eastern over at Twitch.tv/Amovetv.
Kyle is our resident guru and coach. He’s been playing MOBAs since the dawn of the original DOTA Warcraft 3 mod. He has hit Diamond every season since Diamond was a thing, and Rank 1 prior to that. My name is Garrett, the host and perpetual student guiding this show through news, strategy, and emails from the community.
Our strategy discussion today will be a new-player-friendly back-to-basics discussion of the game.
News
Reminder, you can go to ITNcast.reddit.com to submit stories or upvote submissions for the next episode.
2.0, Genji and Hanamura Released!
Talking Points
- How was launch?
- Any luck in your loot chests?
Account Level Border portraits:
Genji Release -
- 44.2% HL
- 50.4% Quick Match
Maps
- Highest: Cursed Hollow - 48.2
- Lowest Infernal Shrines - 38.5
Best Friends
| Not Friends
| Good Against
| Worst Enemy
|
Links
D’va Next
Pretty damn cool cinematic. Not what I was expecting though.
Links
Reduced Map Pool (and how to analyse Win Rates Calmly)
The pool of Battlegrounds available in matchmaking game modes has been reduced until the week of May 15, 2017.
The following 6 Battlegrounds are currently available via matchmaking:
- Hanamura
- Braxis Holdout
- Cursed Hollow
- Infernal Shrines
- Sky Temple
- Towers of Doom
This has been done in order to help players find games on the newest Battleground, Hanamura, more often. Additionally, this should help newer players acclimate to Heroes of the Strom more easily, without forcing them to learn all 13 Battlegrounds at once.
After May 15, the Battleground pool will be updated, but will remain reduced for several more weeks.
Analysis:
- All are point control maps (with a moving point on Hanamura)
- Chen becomes Highest Winrate main tank at 56.2%
- Artanis becomes second highest Bruiser under Anub at 53%
- Probius earns highest winrate at 59.4%
- Gazlowe 53% , Zagara 3.0% up
- Zul’Jin Earners highest ranged Auto Attacker
- Leoric and Rexar Up
- Li li and Auriel climb due to their recent buffs.
- Watch out for Cho’Gall
- 5/6 have powerful merc rotations (Braxis being the outlier)
- Samuro becomes 2nd Highest Winrate 59.1%
- Sonya
- 4/6 have powerful boss strats.
- Tyrael
- Brightwing
- 4/6 are Poke maps
- Kael’thas, Jaina and Cassia climb
Links
Balance Update
Auriel - 3rd Highest Winrate Support 51.6%
Resurrect ®
- New Functionality: Increased cooldown from 70 to 120 seconds
- Reduced channel time from 3 to 0.5 seconds
- Level 20 - Light Speed (R)
- New Functionality
- Removed the increased Health upon reviving
- Now causes the cooldown of Resurrect to recharge 100% faster while previous target is alive
Uther - Rework - Climbs 2.6% to 50.6% winrate
Removed passive Armor
Base maximum Health increased from 2054 to 2156
Health Regeneration increased from 4.28 to 4.49
Eternal Devotion (Trait)
- Added Functionality: Still becomes a ghost on death
- When Uther heals anyone with a Basic Ability, they gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds. This effect does not stack with itself.
Holy Light (Q)
- Healing amount reduced from 427 to 380
- Now also heals Uther for 190 if cast on an ally
Holy Radiance (W)
- Healing amount reduced from 219 to 160 (now matches damage)
- Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60
Removed Generic Talents:
- Protective Shield
- Cleanse
- Shrink Ray
- Hardened Focus
Level 1 - Three Quest Talents
- Wave of Light (W) - Holy Radiance
- Passive: Damaging or Healing a Hero with Holy Radiance gives 10 mana back and reduced the cooldown by 1 second.
- !Quest: Heal or damage 60 Heroes with Holy Radiance
- !Reward: Increase the duration of Eternal Devotion’s Armor effect to 3 seconds
- Hammer of the Lightbringer (E) - Hammer of Justice
- Passive: Uther’s Basic Attacks restore 1.5% of his maximum Mana
- !Quest: Hit 75 enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks
- !Reward: Basic Attacks also reduce the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 1 second
- Silver Touch (Q) - Holy Light
- !Quest: Reduce damage taken from Heroes using Eternal Devotion's Armor effect
- !Reward: After reducing 40 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by 20
- !Reward: After reducing 80 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by an additional 20 and increase the cast range by 50%
Level 4
- Holy Shock - Holy Light can be used on enemies for 50% damage, self healing still procs.
Level 7
- (New) Armor of Faith (Trait)
- Holy Light recharges 100% faster for 6 seconds when Uther is Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced
- (New) Guardian of Ancient Kings (Trait)
- Healing a Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced Hero with a Basic Ability increases the Armor bonus of Eternal Devotion from 25 to 75
- (New) Hand of Protection (Active) (Custom Cleanse)
- Activate to make target ally Unstoppable for 1 second. Cannot be cast on yourself. 90 second cooldown. Basic Attack reduce this cooldown by 5 seconds.
Level 13
- (New) Well Met (E)
- Hammer of Justice also reduces enemy Hero Movement Speed by 25% and damage by 25% for 3 seconds
Level 20
- (New) Divine Protection (Trait)
- Eternal Devotion's Armor can now stack twice. Each new application will refresh the duration of both armor effects
Valeera - Falls 3.2% down to 46.7% (51.5% in Quick Match)
Abilities
- Eviscerate (E)
- Damage reduced from 100 to 85 per combo point
Talents
- Level 13
- Death from Above (Q)
- Teleport range reduced from 7 to 6
- Level 20
- Coldblood (E)
- Removed
Developer Comment: In an effort to reduce the frustration of playing against Valeera, we're reducing her burst damage potential. Especially in Quick Match when counter picking isn't an option, the ability for a stealth assassin with disabling effects and high burst damage isn't fun or healthy for the game, so we're toning it down some.
- Zagara: Damage dealt by Hunter Killer and Roach summons will no longer be reduced by Armor.
- Up 3.4% to 52.0%
- Gazlowe: Can now correctly issue commands to active Rock-It! Turrets while dead.
- Up 1.8% to 53.3%
- Zul’jin: Taz'dingo! Will now correctly prevent Zul’jin from dying when cast at the same moment that he would have taken fatal damage.
- Up 4.7% to 52.9
Q&A Tidbits
Heroes
- Lt.Morales rework is coming soon
- Tyrande and Alarak were confirmed to get more significant changes
- Genji
- Fact that Genji talent tree is improving his kit rather than expanding it, is a conscious decision. They don’t want to give him too many tools (like CC or so)
- In one of implementations Genji’s Deflect worked exactly like in Overwatch, but there was a problem with “deflecting” abilities like Flamestrike, and due to some other technical difficulties they changed it to something that “better fits heroes of the storm”
- There are much more anti auto attack mechanics in nexus than "anti casters" and it’s something that they’re working on to balance out.
- Silence mechanics were meant to counter casters, but they’re as useful against them as against other heroes. There’s lot of room for improvements there.
Battlegrounds
- Map veto system is not planned, but map rotation is coming relatively soon.
- They want to be more “aggressive” with updating battlegrounds, maybe even in line with constant heroes changes.
- Hanamura
- First version of healing pulse (Hanamura merc drop ability) had AoE cleanse.
- While testing 8 core HP Hanamura, game times were pushed to average 24 mins which is longer than they want. It’s on their radar tho, and they’ll adjust it accordingly if needed.
- At first they were afraid of Hanamura being too complicated with all mechanics, but as much excited with implementing them, so they sticked to that route.
Other
- They are trying to implement some kind of loss forgiveness regarding those affected by other players toxic behaviour, and possibly while someone in a team disconnects.
- They’ll consider adding some animation variations as loot prizes (MVP screen poses for example)
- Streamer/Caster announcer packs are possible and they’re looking into „out-of-Heroes” loot items. Same story with HGC/Esport items.
- New collection content may possibly come in “theme drops”.
Links
- https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/67acgw/hanamura_and_genji_live_qa/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/67c9g0/heroes_of_the_storm_qa_summary/
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, and Mythdol.
Patron Thanks
- Jakub Ficner
- Adam Porter
- Christoffer Bjerge
- Maya Ziv
- OldManLinus
Strategy
#EliteDontGetYelledAtGuide
In a nutshell
- Heroes is a team-based game
- If you’ve played other MOBAs the big thing to remember is that your entire team levels together. In most scenarios a single hero cannot carry for the team. You’ll need to work together.
How to Win Heroes of the Storm
- Without purchasing items or individual gold “Freshening up” isn’t a good move after winning a fight. Get something done immediately with the map.
- Things to do while the enemy is dead
- Take a Keep
- Destroying the inner large building gives a catapult spawn to that lane. Your win chance shoots up to 84 - 92 %
- Capture a boss
- First team to grab a boss has a 70 - 81% chance to win
- Win the Objective (“Capturepointology” - Jeff Kaplan)
- Winning the first and second objective gives you a 70 - 87% chance to win
When to fight
- When you have a talent advantage
- When you have a numbers advantage (watch the mini map)
- When you have enough damage present to win the skirmish you pick
Avoid Fighting
- When Heroics are on cooldown
- When the enemy uses Timed Abilities
- When you are missing enough damage to win
When to move into Ranked Play?
- When you can cover all your bases.
- When you have replacement picks for your main hero
- When you know exactly why you are taking a hero from the map
- Drafting for the comp is complicated and will often take you off of your mechanically good picks.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/67acgw/hanamura_and_genji_live_qa/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/654wmq/bakery_fastresponse_hero_league_tips/
- https://gfe.gg/news/post/understanding-draft-part-2
- https://www.hotstimers.com/
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
Kyle
Kylefergusson.com
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