#137 - Into the Nexus: “Take Charge”

• Garrett • Kyle 

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

Reminder we have an interview with John DeShazer and Claudio Gentilini at the end of the show for podcast listeners.

News

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

BlizzCon Review

Blizzard Stats:

46% players in Quick Match; 30% Ranked; 16% VS AI; 8% Unranked

They're going to redistribute some of the rankings

Majority of players should be in Silver and Gold, but Silver has too many players right now, more will go to Gold.

Diamond is too over-represented. They want it more exclusive.

Future Season Test: Hero League is going to become solo queue only. This is to showcase personal skill.

Future Season Test: Team League will be for 2s, 3s, 5s queues. This is to showcase coordinate team skill.

They're hoping to get higher team league engagement which will add significance to ratings in team league.

New Promotion: Nexus Challenge November 15th - Jan 4th

• Party Up with 1 or more friends
• Play at least 15 Heroes of the Storm games in Co-op vs. AI, Quick Match, Unranked Draft, or Ranked modes

• Oni Genji Skin
• Zarya
• Oni Genji Portrait
• Oni Genji Portrait
• Oni Genji Spray

• 30 Games

• Auriel
• Greymane
• Kerrigan
• Li-Ming
• Orochi Hovercycle Mount
• 30 Day Stimpack between November 5* and January

Varian & Rag First Impressions

I REALLY like them

Shattering Throw

Warbringer too good

Links

• http://www.heroesnexus.com/talent-calculator/94-varian#eBA

Mini Patch Now Live

KAEL'THAS - Minor Buff

• Talents Level 7

• Sun King's Fury (W)

• Increased damage bonus from 30 to 35%

MURKY  - Minor Buff

• Slime (Q)

• Damage increased from 82 to 86

• Pufferfish (W)

• Damage increased from 390 to 410

Developer Comments:  “Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!” Translated, that means he’s getting a 5% buff to most of his damage, but expect to see larger Talent changes in the early part of next year.

VALLA - Minor Nerf

• Talents Level 4

• Punishment (W)

• Bonus damage per Hatred stack decreased from 5 to 4%

• Level 7

• Arsenal (W)

• Cooldown reduction per Hero hit reduced from 3 to 2 seconds

Developer Comments:  Valla is sitting in a really good spot right now, but we feel like the damage output compared to ease of use is too high on her Multishot talents. The changes to Punishment and Arsenal should incentivize players into taking the higher skill-vs-reward talents on those tiers.

SAMURO - Minor Nerf

• Basic Attack Damage decreased from 93 to 88
• Mirror Images (Q)

• Damage dealt reduced from 30 to 25% of Samuro’s damage

• Illusion Master ®

• Damage increase reduced from 15 to 10%

• Talents Level 13

• Shukuchi (E)

• Teleport range decreased by 20%

Developer Comments:  While there are a lot of knobs for us to turn in order to help bring Samuro’s win rate more in line, we felt that his damage output (especially burst) was where we wanted to start first. We are happy with his survivability options and feel his fantasy should cater towards being elusive. We also realize that damage and confusion are really all he brings to a team, so we wanted to be careful with the changes. We feel that these small tweaks to his damage (and the fact that they compound on each other) will cause a reasonable drop in his win rate and will continue to closely monitor him.

MALFURION Minor Nerf

• Talents - Level 1

• Shan'do's Clarity (Trait)

• Cooldown reduction decreased from 10 to 8 seconds

• ​Moonburn (W)

• Bonus damage against non-heroes reduced from 100 to 75%

• Level 4

• Elune's Grace (Passive)

• Ability range decreased from 30 to 25%

Similar to ETC, Malfurion is simply a little too powerful. We’re toning down some of his talents to keep him more in line with other supports.

E.T.C. - Minor Nerf

• Maximum Base Health decreased from 2556 to 2428
• Base Health Regen from 5.32 to 5.06
• Talents - Level 1

• Prog Rock (E)

• Quest reward ally heal reduced from 53 to 50

• Level 7

• Echo Pedal (Passive)

• Bonus damage to Minions and Mercenaries reduced from 100 to 75%

• Level 13

• Face Smelt (W)

• Slow amount reduced from 60 to 50%

Developer Comments:  ETC is a little too strong at all levels of play, so we’re looking to trim down his power. He also has a few over performing talents in Prog Rock, Echo Pedal, and Face Smelt, so we’re lowering their power to make the other talents on their tiers more competitive.

MURADIN - Minor Rework

• Base Maximum Health increased from 2556 to 2633
• Health Regen increased from 5.32 to 5.48
• Talents - Level 4
• Crowd Control (W)

• Added functionality:

• Now also refunds 5 Mana per enemy hit

• Level 7

• Skullcracker (Passive)

• Added functionality:

• Now also passively increases Muradin’s attack speed by 25%

• Iron-Forged Momentum (Passive)

• No longer decreases the cooldown of Dwarf Toss

• Level 16

• Heavy Impact (E)

• Stun duration reduced from .75 to .5

Developer Comments:  Muradin’s pick rate in both Hero League and Pro Play continues to be extremely high. Oddly enough his win rate is actually below average in most levels of play. We realize that he brings a very versatile kit that allows him to be a great solo-Warrior for his team. Our main change to offset his Health is to remove the escape effectiveness of Iron-Forged Momentum. Next week we will also be reducing the amount of Health that Avatar provides. The rest of the changes are minimal and targeted towards talent win/pick rates.

ZARYA Off-pick talent encouragement

Talents - Level 1

• Demolitions Expert (Q)

• Quest reward of hitting 5 Heroes increased from .375 to .5

• Together We Are Strong (E)

• Increased Energy per damage dealt from 10 to 9
• Increased the maximum Energy gained from 25 to 30

• Maximum Charge (Trait)

• Quest completion time increased from 120 to 150 seconds

• Level 4

• Defensive Shielding (Passive)
• Block charge duration from 12 to 6 seconds

• Level 7

• Hit Me (Trait)
• Bonus Energy from Zarya’s Shields decreased from 20 to 15%

• Level 13

• Unstoppable Competitor (W)

• Unstoppable duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds

• Endurance Training (Passive)

• Damage reduction decreased from 25 to 20%

• Level 16

• Plasma Shock (Q)

• Slow duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds

• Cleansing Shield (E)

• Added functionality

• Also decreases Cooldown of Shield Ally from 12 to 10 seconds

• Level 20

• Unyielding Defender (Active)

• Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds

Developer Comments:  Zarya’s power level is slightly higher than what we’d like, and in general her Energy Talents are stronger than all the other options on their tiers. These changes should increase Talent diversity and deliver a slight nerf to the Hero..

Links

• http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20352063/heroes-of-the-storm-balance-update-november-10-2016-11-9-2016

Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN

Patron Thanks

• Will Noble
• Robert Russell
• Krond        
• Vyctor Blackstone
• Andrew Bullard
• Zachary Selders
• Alex P

PTR - Releases Next Tuesday

General

• Players can now play through the Tutorial and Battleground Training using three different Heroes: Jaina, Muradin, and Tyrande.

New players will be able add one of these 3 Heroes to their Hero Collections for free!

Leoric’s prices reduced to $8.49 USD and 7,000 Gold.

Players can now select their preferred roles when queuing as Auto-Select in Quick Match and Versus A.I. games.

Stealth

Abilities that reveal Stealthed/Cloaked Heroes will no longer remove the Stealth/Cloak effect, but will instead temporarily reveal the cloaked Hero.

• The following talents now function while under the effects of Stealth granted by another player (ex: Tyrande’s Shadowstalk):
• Nova

• Tactical Espionage
• Advanced Cloaking
• Covert Ops

• Samuro

• Way of the Wind
• Harsh Winds

Developer Comments:  Some revealers, like Oracle from Tassadar and now Scouting Drone, are very binary in their ability to reveal Heroes, by design. But their purpose is to provide scouting and position of the enemy, and not to negate the effects of Talents or Abilities that rely on Stealth to provide their benefit. While examining these conditional Talents, we decided that it would be more interesting to allow synergies between external sources of Stealth these Talents. We like that choices like Tyrande’s Shadowstalk or Medivh’s Invisibility become more interesting if you have allies that gain additional benefits from Stealth on your team.

Scouting Drone

• Now also reveals Stealthed/Cloaked Heroes

Seasoned Marksman

• Basic Attack damage can now be gained past the previous cap of 40 bonus damage
• Activated Attack Speed bonus increased from 30 to 40%

Dragon Shire

• Dragon Knight

• Rubble Maker (Passive) now also reduces the duration of Blinds by 50%

Garden of Terror

• Garden Terror

• Terror of the Garden (Passive) now also reduces the duration of Blinds by 50%

ALARAK

• Abilities - Lightning Surge (E)

• Range increased by roughly 10%

ILLIDAN

• Talents - Level 1

• Unending Hatred (Passive)

• Increased Basic Attack damage bonus upon quest completion from 10 to 20

• Battered Assault (W)

• Added functionality:

• Now also increases the duration of Sweeping Strike from 3 to 5 seconds
• Increased the bonus damage gained from hitting 2+ Heroes with Sweeping Strike from 125 to 150%

• Level 4 Unbound (W)

• No longer reduces the cooldown of Sweeping Strike

• Added Functionality:

• Quest: After hitting 30 Heroes with Sweeping Strike, gain a second charge of Sweeping Strike

• Level 7

• Thirsting Blade (Trait)

• Increases healing amount of 50 to 60%

• Level 16

• Marked for Death (Q)

• Damage reduced from 225 to 180

Developer Comments:  We’re aiming to make a few of the earlier talent choices for Illidan more competitive options, and open up a greater variety of playstyles for Illidan players. By increasing the bonus of Unending Hatred, we think farming Minion waves and Hunting into fights will be enticing on certain Battlegrounds. By allowing Unbound to grant 2 charges of Sweeping Strike, we think that Talents like Battered Assault and Blades of Azzinoth will showcase an Illidan that can dance across an enemy team and do a lot of damage while doing so.

THRALL

Abilities

• Earthquake ®

• Added functionality:

• Now deals 50 damage to Heroes with each pulse (will now trigger Frostwolf Resilience)

• Sundering ®

• Stun duration reduced from 1.25 to 1 seconds

Developer Comments:  We have mentioned before that sometimes we will stubbornly hold on making balance changes to some Heroic abilities because we believe they are actually very powerful in their current form, even if they are not currently seeing much play. This has been the case with Earthquake, but Sunder has consistently been the go-to pick since Thrall’s inception. We hope this change will help shake up the pick rates of Thrall’s Heroic abilities.

ABATHUR

• Toxic Nest (W)

• Abathur is now locked out of casting Toxic Nest for .5 seconds after exiting Symbiote

SYLVANAS

• Talents - Level 7

• Possession (Active)

• Can now be used on Catapult Minions

XUL

• Abilities - Skeletal Mages ®

• Is now cast using vector targeting (Click+Drag)

Links

• http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20344328/heroes-of-the-storm-ptr-patch-notes-november-7-2016-11-7-2016

Zera and Kharazim Rework

Heavily edited down

ZERATUL

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1545 to 1622

• Singularity Spike (W)

• Mana cost increased from 60 to 80

• Blink (E)

• Mana cost reduced from 75 to 50

Removed

• Block (Passive)
• Regeneration Master (Passive)
• Rapid Displacement (E)
• Seasoned Marksman (Passive)
• First Aid (Active)
• Follow Through (Passive)
• Searing Attacks (Active)

New Level 1 Talent: Shadow Hunter (Passive)

• Gather Regeneration Globes to lower the Mana cost of Blink by 2.  After gathering 20 Regeneration Globes, your Basic Attacks reduce the cooldown of Blink by .75 seconds.

Level 7 - New Talent: Slip into Shadow (E)

• Your Blink has 2 charges and its cooldown is increased by 8 seconds.

New Talent: Seeker in the Dark (W)

• Your Singularity Spike takes 50% longer to explode, and can be reactivated while it is attached to an enemy to teleport to them.  After reactivation, your Movement Speed is increased by 30% for 3 seconds.

Wormhole (E)

Moved from level 13

Level 13 - New Talent: Shroud of Adun (Passive)

• You gain a shield equal to 15% of your Maximum Health over 5 seconds while under Permanent Cloak.

Level 20 - Protective Prison (R)

• New functionality:

• Enemies are slowed by 50% for 3 seconds once Void Prison Ends.

Developer Comments:  There were two main goals behind this rework: Upgrade Zeratul’s talent tree and introduce some interesting new choices, and better sell the fantasy of being a Dark Templar. As always is the goal with our Hero reworks, we didn’t want to change the way he is played, but rather amplify and improve upon it. Overall, he has felt the same to play against in our internal testing, but with a couple new tricks up his sleeve. We hope that our current Zeratul fans will find some new toys to play around with, and that new users will feel more like the mobile shadow-assassin you’d expect from a Dark Templar Hero.

KHARAZIM

• Breath of Heaven (W)

• Healing increased from 280 to 290

Removed

• Healing Ward (Active)
• Foresight (Q)
• Overtake (E)
• Protective Shield (Active)
• Clairvoyance (Active)
• Cleanse (Active)
• Circle of Life (W)
• Soothing Breeze (W)

Level 1 - Iron Fists (Trait)

• Added Functionality:

• Every third Basic Attack now also increases your Movement Speed by 30% for 2 seconds.

Level 4

• New Talent: Spirit Ally (Active)

• Place a Spirit Ally that heals allies in a large area around it for 2% of their maximum Health every second for 10 seconds.  Has 150 Health.  You can Radiant Dash to Spirit Allies.  45 second cooldown.

• New Talent: Earth Ally (Active)

• Place an Earth Ally that reduces Heroic Basic Attack damage nearby allied Heroes receive by 50%. Has 400 Health and lasts 10 seconds.  You can Radiant Dash to Earth Allies.  30 second cooldown.

• New Talent: Air Ally (Active)

• Place an Air Ally that grants vision of a large area around it for 40 seconds. Has 70 Health.  You can Radiant Dash to Air Allies.  20 second cooldown.  2 charges.

Way of the Hundred Fists (Q)

• Moved from level 7

• Now deals a volley of 6 Basic Attacks that each deal 50% of your Basic Attack damage.

Level 16

• New Talent: Cleansing Touch (Q)

• Radiant Dashing to an allied Hero grants them Unstoppable for 1 second

Developer Comments:  Kharazim’s Talents have been updated to create more compelling choices at every tier. To do this, we’ve made sure that Iron Fists / Bruiser style Kharazim is viable by increasing its damage uptime, removed a lot of the generic Talents and replaced them with Kharazim specific options like Mystic Allies, and re-arranged a lot of the tree so that you don’t have to sacrifice as much healing to pick mobility, utility or damage..

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

• Name

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

The Angry Nerd

Kyle

A-move Radio

Kylefergusson.com

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