#235 - Into the Nexus: “Passing Wind”
• Garrett • Kyle
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/502831428-user-60002053-235-into-the-nexus-passing-wind.mp3
Season 3 2018 is coming to a close! Season 4 begins next week, September 24th. To get you ready, Garrett and Kyle host a meaty episode full of Live Balance changes, a Developer AMA and a PTR changes with a Garden of Terror rework alongside a Kerrigan and Brightwing update. All of this punctuated by the discussion surrounding solo lane tanks and solo queue Team League.
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
Played a fun game drafting only what https://hotsdraft.com/draft/ told me to.
- Season 4 2018 starts next week and this is going to be a meaty episode to prepare you for your placements next week when everything here is live.
- Reset my points
News
Live Balance Update
https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/22484230/heroes-of-the-storm-patch-notes-september-19-2018-2018-9-17/
Hanamura Temple
NOTE: These changes are intended to slightly increase the amount of overall experience available from mercenary camps, but in a more consistent spread.
- Sentinel and Engineer camps have had their XP and XP scaling values adjusted to grant more overall experience
- Recon camps have had their kill and capture XP adjusted to grant slight less overall experience
Buffs
Chromie
5% buff to her Health & Regen. Her trait’s bonus damage is up 12%. Dragon’s Breaths will be coming out one second sooner thanks to a CD reduction. Mounting Sand, Deep Breathing and Mobius Loop all received major buffs as well.
Stats
- Base Maximum Health increased from 1323 to 1390 [+5%]
- Health Regen increased from 2.76 to 2.9 [+5%]
Abilities
- Cooldown reduced from 9 to 8 seconds [-11%]
- Bonus attack damage increased from 125 to 140% [+12%]
Talents
- Bonus Echo damage increased from 40 to 50% [+25%]
- Damage per quest stack increased from 3 to 5 [+66.6%]
- Hits required to complete quest reduced from 20 to 12 [-40%]
- Cooldown reduction for Hero hit increased from 2 to 3 seconds [+50%]
- Mana refund from Hero hit increased from 50 to 100 [+100%]
Falstad
He’s been on a modest rise in the winrates.
Mana costs are down for Hammerang, Lightning Rod, and Barrel Roll. Lightning Rod and Barrel Roll also received CD reductions. The only ding to Falstad is 5 seconds added onto the CD of Flight, bringing it up to a full minute.
Abilities
- Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60 [-14.25%]
- Cooldown reduced from 15 to 13 seconds [-13.3%]
- Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60 [-14.25%]
- Cooldown reduced from 14 to 13 seconds [-7%]
- Mana cost reduced from 75 to 70 [-6.5%]
- Cooldown increased from 55 to 60 seconds [+9%]
Nova
Been struggling in the winrates for a long time now. Don’t get too excited though, the buffs here are to underpicked talents: Advanced Cloaking, Perfect Shot, and Explosive Shot. It is worth mentioning though that her movement speed bonus on Advanced Cloaking has been DOUBLED.
Talents
- Advanced Cloaking (Trait)
- Movement speed bonus increased from 5 to 10% [+100%]
- Cooldown reduction on Hero hit increased from 3 to 4 seconds [+33%]
- Area of effect damage increased from 70 to 80% [+14.25%]
Anub’arak
Been hovering around the 50% WR for a while. 1 second off the CD of Carapace.
Abilities
- Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
Arthas
Modest buff to Health & Regen.
Anub’s Carapace. Arthas, ETC, and Tyrael all getting more Health & Regen. Are we still trying to make up for the loss of base armor from 4 months ago. Feels like longer.
Want to make sure and talk about Frostmourne Hungers getting 2 seconds shaved off its CD. More empowered Basic Attacks means more than just increased damage, it means more Mana generation.
Stats
- Base Maximum Health increased from 2650 to 2782 [+4.9%]
- Health Regeneration increased from 5.52 to 5.80 [+5.4%]
Abilities
- Frostmourne Hungers (Trait)
- Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds [-16.6%]
ETC
Stats
Tyrael
Received the most minor of buffs to Health & Regen but Righteousness also had CD and Mana cost reduced.
Stats
- Health increased from 2468 to 2517 [+1.9%]
- Health Regeneration increased from 5.14 to 5.24 [+1.9%]
Abilities
- Cooldown decreased from 10 to 9 seconds [-10%]
- Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45 [-10%]
Nerfs
Mephisto
Damage is down on Lightning Nova and Consume Souls’ Slow isn’t nearly as slow (down to 25%).
To try and balance the Heroic scales though they’ve buffed Durance of Hate greatly. The missile now travels 25% further and 25% faster. The root duration gained half a second and the damage went from 160 to 250.
Developer Comment: Mephisto is certainly making an impact on the Nexus. He's been on the higher end of Hero winrates and, judging from how players with a lot of games are performing with him, we expect that he will continue to rise as players gain experience. Our goal with these changes is to bring his overall damage down, balance out a few of the Talent tiers performance, and increase the consistency of Durance of Hate.
Abilities
- Damage reduced from 48 to 45 [-6.25%]
- Damage bonus reduced from 4% to 3% [-25%]
- Maximum damage bonus reduced from 40 to 30% [-25%]
- Slow amount reduced from 40 to 25% [-37.5%]
- Missile Speed increased by 25%
- Ability range increased by 25%
- Root duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds [+25%]
- Damage increased from 160 to 250 over its duration [+56.25%]
Talents
- Damage bonus upon hitting 20 Heroes increased from 60 to 100
- Basic Ability cooldown reduction from Basic Attacking Heroes increased from .75 to 1 second
- Shield amount reduced from 50% to 40% of Lightning Nova’s damage dealt to Heroes
- Damage reduced from 144 to 138
- Damage reduced from 12% to 10% of enemies maximum Health
- Cooldown reduced from 60 to 40 seconds
Tyrande
We all saw this coming, but not what form it would take. Keep an eye on your Mana because Tyrande’s Q heals for less and costs 50% more. Shadowstalk got a minor ding to its heal as well. And if you’re Starfalling for Q reduction the heal/cost nerf will affect that Heroic’s healing ability as well.
Stats
- Mana cost increased from 10 to 15 [+50%]
- Heal amount reduced from 275 to 265 [-3.6%]
- Heal amount reduced from 40 to 38 [-5%]
Talents
Lunar Blaze was running away with the pick rate at Level 4 but Trueshot Aura had a respectable percentage as well. Both have been nerfed. Your Lunar Flares won’t be traveling as far and Aura’s extra damage isn’t as high.
- Bonus range from reduced 50 to 40% [-20%]
- Bonus Basic Attack damage reduced from 20 to 15% [-25%]
- Activated Basic Attack damage reduced from 20 to 15% [-25%]
- Duration reduced from 10 to 8 seconds [-20%]
- Your won’t be healing your target with autos for as long. But Everlasting Light and Mark of Mending haven’t been messed with. Great diversity at this tier.
- Movement Speed granted from Light of Elune reduced from 20 to 15% [-25%]
- Darnassian Archery (Active)
- Duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds [-25%]
Fenix
Abilities
- Cooldown increased from 75 to 90 seconds [+20%]
Genji
Abilities
- Damage reduced from 205 to 190 [-7.3%]
Raynor
Stats
- Basic Attack Damage reduced from 103 to 101 [-1.9%]
Sgt. Hammer
Abilities
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 16 seconds [+33.3%]
Talents
- Shifting out of Siege Mode now removes the Unstoppable effect.
Deckard
Talents
- Shield amount reduced from 135 to 122 [-9.6%]
- Ancient Blessings (Trait)
- Cooldown increased from 30 to 60 seconds [+100%]
Whitemane
Abilities
- Heal amount reduced from 145 to 140 [-3.4%]
- Cooldown increased from 5 to 6 seconds
Talents
- Bonus damage increased from 50 to 75% [+50%]
- Mana return on hit increased from 10/25 to 20/40 [+100%/+60%]
Solo Lane Adjustments
- Solo lane’s were the hot topic this week as Zergling (of Scythe Esports: Currently #1 OD Team) pointed out why the solo lane is “boring to watch” for heroes of the storm and why Blaze, Yrel and Dehaka reign supreme over it.
In short:
- The solo lane is boring to watch
- There’s no reason to clear unless you’re double soaking 2 lanes or trying to join your team for a fight
- Solo Lane fights don’t happen (outside of hard-win matchups) because the risk isn’t worth the reward
- Infinite Ammo
- Objectives help alleviate this (ex: Dragonshire) but there aren’t enough of them.
- The best example is Dragon Shire. It is a risk to cap the Dragon Shire point top, cause you are far from towers and it comes down to waveclear priority to make the opposing off lane to choose the point or soak.
This is a hard problem to fix, some solutions can be
- 1) Bringing back ammo (which I don't think Blizzard wants to go back)
- 2) Nerf Blaze/Yrel/Dehaka (but this won't change the meta, as it'll just fall down to the next hero with waveclear, could be even junkrat/fenix if they get nerfed)
- 3) Provide an incentive to push (I'm not quite sure what that could be that wouldn't be abused.) 4) Buff minions in a way that target specifically structures over heroes when in a certain range. (For example, when in range of structures, targets Structures/Minions)
Zergling’s Full Post:
The off lane has evolved through the metas and it has finally reached a point where beefy off laners with wave clear are the predominate pick. Which includes Blaze/Yrel/Dehaka dominating the solo lane.
1) Why doesn't anyone push the lane, why do off laners just stay mounted?
- The main reason why many off lane pros don't push lanes, is to not be zoned off of the experience or be put in into a dangerous position to be ganked. So majority of the time, if you can hold the lane with your body or kite it (like wubby does) to your towers. It allows you to safely clear the minion wave without any threat and it puts the opposing off laner in a potential to be ganked.
2) But, why do they sometimes clear the lane instead of holding it?
- The only reason to ever fast clear a wave as off lane is if you're double soaking 2 lanes and able to do that while your 4 man gets value elsewhere on the map. Or you fast clear the lane, so you can rotate out of lane faster to your team for a 5v4 or 5v5 fight.
3) Why don't you just trade HP and push the lane as offlane?
- The risk of doing (this) isn't rewarding enough. Unless you have a hard winning match up (Yrel vs Thrall), there is no reason to ever push. This is due to the fact of INFINITE TOWER AMMO. Ever since this change, it changed the off lane meta forever. As long as you have 1) Sustain and 2) Waveclear, you can deny any push from the other offlane and safely soak behind/front of your gate.
- Also when you're pushing, if you do somehow get a tower for your troubles, the xp from the Tower is only 250 exp. Which isn't worth the risk of getting ganked, zoned from soak, expending resources. You also lose your double globe advantage in the solo lane cause if the other solo lane holds the lane in front of his towers, you have to go under tower shots to get a globe. In any case scenario, who ever has waveclear with sustain will always outrate vs the pusher.
4) INFINITE AMMO
- Ever since this change, there is no reason to push the lane. This allows to any character in the game to clear lanes easily as long as they can sustain the minion damage. If you have waveclear on top of that, you can just easily clear or hold the wave to win the solo lane.
- So, when do kills happen in the offlane? The only time kills get achieved in the offlane is when an offlane is double soaking (which means they clearing when minions crash mid map) or when they have to get some of sort of objective in the lane. The best example is Dragon Shire. It is a risk to cap the Dragon Shire point top, cause you are far from towers and it comes down to waveclear priority to make the opposing off lane to choose the point or soak.
- In the end, if there isn't a reason for pushing lanes the reward the risky play, heroes like Blaze/Yrel/Dehaka will always be meta. They are all sustain, hard to kill, and good waveclear. They fit perfectly in this meta of the offlane and that is why they are so dominant compared to Malthael/Sonya/Thrall/...
These are the reasoning behind the off lane meta and why it is this way. That is why some pros are complaining about the offlane, cause there is no reward to push and you are stuck with fat characters hitting another fat character with a wet noodle. Trading is pointless, pushing is pointless, and the only reason is to kill minions. And if you have a hard winning top lane that allows you to push, they opposing off lane should just hold the minion wave at his wave to win the globes (x2) and minion wave.
This is a hard problem to fix, some solutions can be
- 1) Bringing back ammo (which I don't think Blizzard wants to go back)
- 2) Nerf Blaze/Yrel/Dehaka (but this won't change the meta, as it'll just fall down to the next hero with waveclear, could be even junkrat/fenix if they get nerfed)
- 3) Provide an incentive to push (I'm not quite sure what that could be that wouldn't be abused.) 4) Buff minions in a way that target specifically structures over heroes when in a certain range. (For example, when in range of structures, targets Structures/Minions)
Blizz_AZJackson’s Response In Short:
- The team agrees the lack of interaction is an issue.
- Advocates caution against overly-simplified “causes” (ex: Infinite Ammo)
- They saw this become more of an issue after the release of Blaze/Yrel. More so than after Infinity Ammo. This is why Blaze and Yrel were targeted this patch. More on that in a second…
- There were many reasons for changing Tower Ammo. They want to explore other ways to make laning interactive outside of reverting that change
- One cool suggestion that I thought was neat was ChaosOS’s post about the mage minion having Sapper-like qualities to it.
- In regards to my view on the specific problems and where I’d like to see the solo-lane go, the two things I’d like to see are:
- More management of Health, Mana, and getting value in trades against the enemy hero. When heroes have too much sustain (ex. Blaze and Yrel), it’s a heavy de-motivator to interact with the opponent since that damage will quickly be undone.
- More reward for winning the lane. Right now I believe that the risk/reward for shoving the opposing hero out and pushing with the lane is not enough in favor of the player who is outplaying their opponent in the lane.
Blizz_AZJackson’s Full post:
We’ve been reading a lot of the discussion on the solo lane, and are still talking with each other internally about what the true causes and solutions are for the current state of the solo lane.
Here are some of my thoughts on the current state of the solo lane:
- I agree that there is an issue with there not being enough interaction between some heroes in the solo lane, and that at the highest levels it’s not great that the optimal play is to kill minions and largely ignore the enemy Hero.
- As a side note here, a constant struggle we have as developers is that we want to create a game where offensive play is generally the optimal strategy. It’s important that, most of the time, offensive play is optimal so that the game has exciting moments and is driven towards its inevitable conclusion. However, at the extreme top end of play, pros are actually encouraged to find any situation where the optimal play is to be safe so that they have a better chance to consistently win more often, as offensive play is generally also more risky, and therefore less desirable.
- I believe it’s a complicated problem. There are a lot of factors going on, and saying that the cause is purely something like infinite tower ammo is a bit scary to me as we could easily make a mistake and create system-level changes that don’t actually resolve the true issues, which could, at best, do nothing to solve the problem, and at worst create more issues with the flow of the game as a whole.
- From my perspective, we didn’t really see these issues so much after Tower Ammo specifically came out, and we saw it a lot more with the release of Blaze and Yrel, who are both heroes with incredibly high sustain, good waveclear, and who are difficult to gank. Because of this, we targeted the sustain of both of these heroes in our balance patch which is coming out today. I don’t think this will completely solve what’s going on, but it’s a step that we wanted to take in the short term and see how that works.
- I admit that this could be an incorrect observation, as it could have just taken this long to have other root issues of the solo lane experience come to light.
- We had many reasons for tower ammo being infinite, and we would like to explore other ways to make laning interactive outside of reverting that change. We’re totally open to feedback and suggestions here, and will be having discussions going forward about how to make this more interactive. One cool suggestion that I thought was neat was ChaosOS’s post about the mage minion having Sapper-like qualities to it.
- In regards to my view on the specific problems and where I’d like to see the solo-lane go, the two things I’d like to see are:
- More management of Health, Mana, and getting value in trades against the enemy hero. When heroes have too much sustain (ex. Blaze and Yrel), it’s a heavy de-motivator to interact with the opponent since that damage will quickly be undone.
- More reward for winning the lane. Right now I believe that the risk/reward for shoving the opposing hero out and pushing with the lane is not enough in favor of the player who is outplaying their opponent in the lane.
What they did to help combat this in yesterday’s patch :
Blaze
Developer Comment: Blaze is performing very well in professional play but is currently our lowest winning Warrior in the game. To balance his effectiveness in the pro scene, we’re increasing the cooldown and lowering the effectiveness of Bunker Drop. His laning phase is also not as interactive as we’d like it to be, so we’re increasing the Mana costs of his abilities to reduce his perpetual wave clear and sustain in the early phases of the game. In exchange for these nerfs, we’re giving him some base survivability buffs, reducing the cooldown of Jet Propulsion, and improving some of his talents.
- Base Maximum Health increased from 2775 to 2900
- Health Regeneration increased from 5.78 to 6.04
Abilities
- Mana cost increased from 25 to 30
- Mana cost increased from 40 to 50
- Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
- Flamethrower damage reduced from 179 to 170
- Cooldown increased from 60 to 80 seconds
- Mana cost increased from 40 to 80
- Damage increased from 52 to 55
- Self-Slow amount decreased from 50 to 40%
Talents
- Endurance Stimpack (Active)
- Shield amount increased from 450 to 480
- Mana restoration reduced from 50 to 30
- Regeneration Globe collection cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 8 seconds
- Attack Speed slow increased from 40 to 50%
- Thermal Protection (E)
- Cooldown reduction decreased from 2 to 1.5 seconds
Yrel
Abilities
- Mana cost increased from 50 to 65
- Mana cost increased from 50 to 65
- Mana cost increased from 50 to 65
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, and Pythagos.
Patron Thanks Doc for keeping track
- Geoff Engelstein
- Christian Meola
- Nate
PTR - Team League
Developer Comment: Heroes of the Storm is primarily a team-based experience and, with this change, we’re hoping to make it easier to have that experience without putting restrictions on party size. In our current system, competitive solo players do not have many opportunities to find groups of players to play with in a ranked queue. To give these players more options for their competitive experience, we have removed all party size queue restrictions from Team League. Our hope is that this leads to a more robust Team League experience and that solo players find more regular groups to play with.
- Team League now supports all party sizes, including solo players.
- All solo players will need to choose which League to play for the first time after the patch.
- You click on the league box where your rank / wins is listed.
- Team League rules apply, you need 16 heroes but not to level 5.
PTR - Garden of Terror First Impressions
- Played 4 games on the new Terror
- Mercenary camps have been opened up
- “Cubbys” have been removed (stitches gorge locations, Murky egg hiding places)
- Seedlings are like Alterac Pass guards but do not respawn.
- Terror pushes hard if left alone but
- Potted plant loses health as its duration runs. Very low health if targeted
- Terror has cleave and 1 shots minions but slows down massively vs. mercenary camps where it is forced to do normal damage
- Terror has the Skull Boss Slam stun, very dangerous.
PTR - Kerrigan Rework
Heavily edited down
Developer Comment: Kerrigan is receiving an update to increase the tactical depth of using her abilities and increase the impact that her Talents have on her playstyle. We've reduced the range on Ravage but added a second charge so that smart Kerrigan players can use it to maneuver on the battlefield, as well as utilize a lot of her Talents to get the most out of the ability. We've added a secondary explosion to Primal Grasp so that Kerrigan will want to continue to worry about her positioning after her initial engagement occurs, as well as provide the opportunity for new Talent interactions. We've also added a skillshot component to Ultralisk so that the Heroic can feel like it has a big moment when it is first unleashed. Overall, Kerrigan should play mostly the same, but have increased room for mastery and playstyle specific builds.
- 2 Charges but reduced range and damage was not quite halved.
- Charges increased from 1 to 2
- Range reduced from 8 to 6
- Mana cost reduced from 40 to 20
- Damage reduced from 210 to 130
- Added functionality: Now also refunds 20 Mana when used on an enemy that dies within 1.5 seconds
- Damage reduced from 261 to 180 [-31%]
- Pull damage reduced from 114 to 25 [-78%]
- Added functionality: 2.5 seconds after using Primal Grasp, Kerrigan damages all nearby enemies for 180 damage
- Splash radius increased from 1.5 to 2
- The initial cast of Ultralisk is now directional skill shot that causes the Ultralisk to charge in the targeted direction until impacting an enemy Hero. It deals 250 damage and stuns for .5 seconds to the first Hero it hits.
- Shield amount increased from 10% to 15% of damage dealt
Interesting Talents:
Level 4 : Kinetic Fulmination (W)
- Damaging an enemy increases the damage of Kerrigan's next Impaling Blades by 15%. Stacks up to 150%. Lasts 10 seconds.
Level 7 : Boundless Fury (Q)
- Casting Ravage on an enemy Hero grants a charge of Ravage. Can only occur on each Hero once every 10 seconds
Level 13 : Volatile Power (Trait)
- Increase the base Shield amount gained from Assimilation by 15%, but reduce the duration of Assimilation Shields from 6 to 3 seconds
Level 13 : New Talent - Chrysalis (Active)
- Activate to place Kerrigan in a chrysalis with 550 Health for 5 seconds. Kerrigan regenerates 5% Health per second while inside the chrysalis. 90 second cooldown.
Level 16 : Mounting Potency (Q)
- Casting Ravage on an enemy increases Kerrigan's Spell Power by 5% for 4 seconds, stacking up to 40%
Level 16 : Painful Spikes (W)
- After stunning an enemy with Impale, Kerrigan deals an additional 75 damage the next 6 times she damages them within the next 5 seconds
Level 16 : New Talent - Unbridled Energy ®
- When Kerrigan damages a Hero with a Heroic Ability she gains 30% Spell Power for 4 seconds
Level 20 : Omegastorm ®
- New Functionality: Maelstrom's duration is increased by .125 seconds every time it
Brightwing Rework
Heavily edited down
Developer Comment: Late last year we decided that we wanted to add a fun mini-game to Brightwing utilizing her Arcane Flare as the focal point. As it often happens, while making the initial changes we started diving in deeper and deeper. Nearly a year later, we are excited to showcase a fully updated talent tree alongside some fundamental game-play changes to our resident Faerie Dragon. With a baseline AoE cleanse-type effect and added healing potential to her Arcane Flare, Brightwing should bring some new major play-making abilities to her team.
Abilities
- Outer damage from 87 to 75
- Inner damage from 260 to 180
- Missile speed increased ~30%
- Added functionality: If an enemy Hero is hit by the center of Arcane Flare, instantly pulse a free Soothing Mist
- Duration from 1.25 to 1.5 seconds
- Cooldown from 10 to 12 seconds
- Cooldown from 55 to 60 seconds
- Added functionality: Heals the target for 20% of their maximum health
- Heal amount reduced from 115 to 105
- Added functionality: Activate to instantly pulse a calming wave, clearing all Stun, Root, Slow, and Silence effects from nearby allies (Cleanse Removed)
- 120 second cooldown
- No longer grants passive healing to Soothing Mist
- Damage reduced from 303 to 225
- Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds
- Level 20 : New Talent – Intensive Winds ®
- Lower the cooldown of Emerald Wind to 3 seconds. It now costs 200 Mana
Interesting Talents :
Level 1 -
- Increase the cast range of Polymorph by 30%. Anytime a nearby enemy Hero is killed, reset the Cooldown of Polymorph
- Increase the heal amount of Phase Shift to 30% of targets max Health
- Every Minion killed near you lowers the cooldown of Phase Shift by 2 seconds
- Every Minion killed near you grants you a Bribe Stack. Hitting an enemy with the center portion of Arcane Flare grants you 5 Bribe Stacks
Level 4
- New functionality: Increase the slow amount of Polymorph to 40%. When it expires, it explodes dealing 2% of all nearby enemy Heroes max Health in damage
- Increase the range of Arcane Flare by 50%. If it hits an enemy Hero, lower the cooldown to 2 seconds.
- New Talent – Magic Spit (D)
- Increase your Basic Attack range by 20%. Attacks against Heroes reduce the cooldown of Soothing Mist’s active by 5 seconds
Level 13
- Movement Speed decay duration increased from 1.5 to 3 seconds
- Movement Speed bonus reduced to 40%
- New Talent – Safety Dust (E)
- Increase the duration of Pixie Dust by 1 second. Healing dealt by Brightwing is increased by 25% on targets with Pixie Dust
- New Talent – Pixie Power (E)
- Lower the cooldown of Pixie Dust by 3 seconds and increase the Spell Armor it grants to 50
Level 16
- Phase Out (Active) - 20 second cooldown
- Activate to phase out and become invulnerable for .5 seconds
- Enemy Heroes hit with the center of Arcane Flare are Silenced for 1 second and deal 25% less damage for 3 seconds.
Level 20
- New Talent – Invisible Friends ®
- Blink Heal grants you and the target stealth. They are unrevealable for .5 seconds. While under this effect, they regenerate 20 Health Per Second
- New Talent – Faerie Protector (Active) - 60 second cooldown
- Activate to instantly cast Pixie Dust on all nearby allied Heroes
- New Talent – Speedy Dragon (Passive)
- Gain 20% permanent movement speed
AMA Tidbits
Master/Grandmaster Queue times :
- We've seen a dramatic overall increase in match quality as a result of our prediction rates tightening significantly. We've also seen longer queue times, particularly during off-peak hours.
- We've also seen some situations recently where players have had their MMR dramatically diverge from their rank. This makes it even harder for those players to find matches over time, as we're typically looking for matches that band them nearer to their rank in order for that player to more easily move into the appropriate league and division. If a bronze player with a high MMR keeps getting matches with platinum players, that doesn't help that player leave bronze, and the platinum players tend to get tilted because they don't think bronze players belong in their games.
- First, we're working on adding dynamic matchmaking restrictions that scale based on the number of players in the queue. If you're playing during off-peak hours. you may end up with the occasional rainbow game--but you'll find games.
- Second, we're looking into situations in which players are having a hard time finding games due to their MMR and rank points being too divergent. This is unacceptable and we're going to resolve the situation.
- Lastly, we're taking a long, hard look at the entire ranked play system. Removing queue restrictions from Team League is a small step towards larger changes. We think it's time to take a step back and take a look at our existing ranked play framework and ensure that it's the right fit for Heroes of the Storm today.
- We're discussing getting rid of points actually and mapping MMR bands directly to a more granular rank system. That said, this is all early and we'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Heroes Comments :
- Illidan: Not his meta, maybe a buff.
- Malthael: Tormented Souls may get more interesting
- Chen: No update in the next few months.
- Tassadar: may be shifted towards being a full High Templar
- Xul is find but he’s being watched.
Maps :
Blackheart’s Bay will receive a light update, nothing as big as Garden of Terror
Links
Outro
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