#329 - Into the Nexus: “Where we’re going we don’t need angles.”

• Garrett • Kyle 

Tracking Link:

https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/

Sponsors:

• Patreon.com/ITN

Our Patrons support Into the Nexus at Patreon.com/ITN. If you enjoy the show consider supporting it with 25 cents, a dollar, or however you would like! We thank all our Patrons for their support!

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

Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN

Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, Chris K, Mike C., and Eric C.

Patron Thanks Doc for keeping track

• DTAltair
• Christian Meola

News

Patch 2.51 Movers and Shakers

Cassia - up 8.1%

Alarak - up 4.2%

Samuro - up 3.4%

Lt. Morales - up 2.9%

Mei - 56.1%

• Best 1 - Ice Storm (Heat Transfer Popularity)

Genji - Down 2.6%

Tychus - Down 2.8%

Nazeebo - Down 2.9%

Yrel - Down 3.1%

Kael’thas - down 3.2%

Whitemane - Down 3.7%

Xul - Down 4.7%

Weather:

Weather Phenomena

• 12.3% Up - 8.6% Down

Call For Help

• 8.9% Up - 18.8% Down

Blue Posts

Tyrande Ranger Lacks synergy with later talents like Harsh Moonlight and Empower

Harsh Moonlight and Empower still only hit the first hero with the level 1 peirce on board

BlizzAZJackons: Will Fix

Thank Today’s Sponsor

Bombas

INTRO

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• They’ve literally re-thought every little detail of the socks we wear to make them way more comfortable.
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Emails

RamenEmpire

You wake up in a cold sweat and realize you are AZJackson (Think freaky Friday). You look at a phone that’s next to you and there’s a text from yourself that says “Needed a break, be back in a week.” While living the life of AZJackson, what game changes do you make with the dev team before you’re back to yourself, and what do you do so AZ doesn’t remove it when he’s back?

DTAlair

How do I get back into ranked while having a low win rate percentages?

I gave up on playing ranked quite a while back because I was constantly bringing in friends that were new to the game and teaching them how to play and such in QM and I lost a lot, and I mean A LOT, so my win rates on my favorite/best heroes went skyrocketing down. Then going back into ranked I was yelled at every game for my hover choices saying that my win rate was too low and to pick something else. Ranked isn't fun if I'm always being told what I should play.

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, Chris K, Mike C., and Eric C.. ITN shirt at shirts.amove.tv. Coffee mugs and glasses are over at etched.amove.tv.

Catch the live show Thursday at 5pm Eastern / 2pm Pacific on Twitch.tv/Amovetv. Mobile live stream provided by Alpha Geek Radio.

Follow the show on Twitter @ITNcast and ITNpodcast.reddit.com.

Thanks to Gorath for our intro music and briangriffithmusic.com (@briangriffith) for our outro..

Personal Stuff

Garrett

• Follow Garrett @GarrettArt
• NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.
• The Angry Chicken: A Hearthstone Podcast
• R2-T2

Kyle

• Twitch.tv/kylefergusson
• Kylefergusson.com

For Next Episode:

kreefonghong

Wanted to get your thoughts on some observations I've been having on healer performance.

At first I was getting down because I couldn't get big heal numbers, like the 100k plus healing games.  

Then I started looking closer and noticed that in some games, there just wasnt that much damage being done by the enemy team.  

What SEEMS to be a good predictor of my wins is if I can out heal the opponent's best damage dealer by a greater percentage than the opponent outheals mine.  I'm sure there are other factors like full team damage and self heals, but it seems like most healers are balanced around getting the same healing numbers as the opponents main dps.  

(Other factors like the "clutch heals" stat feels like they almost correlate with losses).

What are your thoughts on what constitutes a "good healing game"?  

Since March:

• Xul Rework - March 11th
• Call For Help and Tassadar Rework - April 14th
• Cassia and Tracer Rework - May 6th
• Mei Release and Weather Anomaly - June 23rd

Call For Help

• Core Abilities added and unchanged
• Cannon Towers, Forts and Keeps

• Damage to Heroes increased by 10%.
• Damage Decrease by 10% Cannon Towers, Forts and Keeps
• Attacks reduce Hero Armor by up to -40 -20
• Forts and Keeps attacks reduce enemy Hero Armor by 10.
• Forts and Keeps no longer slow enemy Heroes.
• No Aggro on Cannon Towers
• Structures will only focus their attacks on enemy Heroes if they attack an allied Hero who is also in their range.
• Self-damage from Heroes will no longer cause structures to focus them.
• Periodic damage over time will no longer cause structures to focus Heroes

Climate Phenomena

• Rain Storms

• Strike all heroes with lightning every 25-40 seconds, increasing Movement Speed and granting a Lightning Shield that damages nearby enemies.

• Movement Speed increased by 15%.
• Damage nearby enemies for 46 damage per second.
• Buff lasts 8 seconds.

• Snow Flurries

• Heroes accumulate a small shield over time while out of combat.

• Heroes gain 28 Shields every 0.5 seconds, stacking up to 224 (8 stacks total).
• Shield lasts until destroyed or until the Snow stops falling.

• Foggy Mists

• Allows Heroes to gain Stealth after standing in shrubs for a few seconds.

• After standing in a shrub for 1.5 seconds, Heroes gain Stealth.
• Stealth lasts 40 seconds or until attacking, taking damage, using an ability, or until the Foggy weather dissipates.

Wishy: Team balance for quick match; Remove it. The game is designed around the draft, make unranked the default game mode instead of QM

Corny: Do you think always having a tank/healer in qm could come back AND not have insane que times if you give proper rewards? example, shards, lootboxes, gems?(5 maybe) or even something exotic like a priority que you can spend on a non-tank/healer for qm

BigDiggles: Has the heroes team considered implementing new modes of play?

In specific, I used to play Magic The Gathering and they had scheduled tournaments with entry fees and prizes. Have you guys considered like a weekly solo queue draft tournament, where you could enter with gold/shards and the winners would get extra chests and possibly other fun rewards?

Also old school brawls were really fun! Wish y’all would bring more of them back.

Gib: get rid of blackheart’s bay and warhead junction.  Nobody likes them.  They’re not fun.  Make them go away!

Oh, was that not a question?  Weird.

Zatoichi8: when you look at data to balance a hero, how much does rank effect your choices if you break it down by rank that is

Valkamer: How much does balance go into the initial decision to begin working on a hero design?

(Example: “Hey, we want another tank to flesh out the meta in ranked play. Let’s work on Reinhardt to be Valkamer’s Christmas gift 2020.)

 If you were you create a dream team of devs for a show match, who would be in which position?

Duplex: Has the team considered making Tyreal a support rather than a brusier

I mean tank..though tbh he plays more like a bruiser currently than a tank

Spiffjbug: What is the wildest most crazy idea you have, but can never use as its would never work? And When is Broodlust coming?

Bahamut: WHEN CUSTOM GAMES UPDATE?!

Daxx: Will Healer ever have the ability to self cleanse?

Clan/Guild Tags?  Would like to see it for some of these Leagues.  Wouldn't need a whole system.  Maybe 3/4 letters or Characters and maybe a chat channel. [ITN] for instance.  Once in/on Team you get added to the amove chat

NotxNsane: since every new hero or rework makes them OP, don't you think it's time to give all Healers the Reghar treatment with more damage and waveclear? It's a bit frustrating that every other class has them in some form.

BadgerLord: Has the team ever considered adding something akin to the Commendation system that Overwatch has? Letting people give a "Like" to someone if they were a good healer, or tank, or offlaner, or shot caller etc... Then you can see the player's history when they are in Draft like "This player has been given the good healer award X number of times." Instead of just "This player plays healers"

Riokaii: Question for AZJackson: What were your biggest lessons and important feedback you heard from players from the first 2 anomalies (especially the tower changes, and that big feedback thread). (Maybe weather now too?)

Question for AZJackson: Is there a goal/purpose behind the anomalies? Tryinf to fix/improve a potentially flawed aspect of the game? Just change to keep the game fresh? They have mentioned in the past that they are careful with hero balance to not "only do change for the sake of change" but weather feels counter to that notion.

Question for AZJackson: Why was Solo Queue abandoned? (Opportunity to dispel any myths regarding player population size being the main factor etc.)

Question for AZJackson: Related to previous question ^ What is the intended purpose of Unranked? Is it meant to act as an onramp to transition players into ranked (and then primarily becoming SL players)? Can Unranked match the Ranked map pool? (If not, why not remove/combine it with QM? UR has the longest queue times and the least-clear purpose atm)

Question for AZJackson: Is Sharing more data with players on the table? It helps give more data-driven and relevant feedback. (atm it currently feels as if players have to guess whether their anecdotal evidence matches blizzard's internal data, and if it doesnt match, that feels like it is often used as a way to handwave disregard the feedback)

Fibbel: Ask him why creep expanding into Bush no longer gives vision unless tumor is in the bush

Oh also ask him why they stealth neared naz’ s spiders to not prioritize heroes if they hit minions first

UKMuzik: any thoughts for tracking your rank historically in the UI, graph to track plat > gold > plat and so on

PtahDrJay: What are the downsides of dual MMR for solo and teams that the community may not be realizing?

Corny:ust so somethings on the books, id like to know if AZJ has anything to add about the wells discussion.  Is it actually a problem? is there anything in the works if it is? j