#267 - Into the Nexus: “Priest Boy King Face”

• Garrett • Kyle • Jeff or Guest

#Heroes #of #the #Storm #HotS #Blizzard #Entertainment #Warcraft #Diablo #StarCraft #Overwatch #Hearthstone #WoW #Garrett #Kyle #Weinzierl #Fergusson #Video #Games

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

Into the Nexus is back with a heaping pile of news! Anduin, meaningful map changes and a new ranked map rotation, Garrett and Kyle got you covered. BlizzCon 2019, strategies and more! If this is cadence then cadene is good.

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!

News

New Hero: Anduin

With Shalamayne by his side, Anduin, King of Stormwind, has entered the Nexus to take his place by his warrior father's side. Anduin is a Ranged Healer who comes with an arsenal of abilities aimed at keeping his teammates alive, but also has the potential to unleash the Light's swift justice to enemies on the battlefield.

Trait - Leap of Faith (D)

• Faith instantly pulls an allied Hero to Anduin's location, granting them Unstoppable while they travel
• Cooldown: 80 seconds

Flash Heal (Q)

• Cast for 0.75 seconds to heal an allied Hero for 260.
• Cost: 30 mana
• Cooldown: 4 seconds

Divine Star (W)

• Send light that deals 140 damage to enemies and then returns to Anduin, healing allied Heroes for 130 in a wider path. Healing increases by 25% per enemy Hero hit.
• Cost: 45 mana
• Cooldown: 9 seconds

Chastise (E)

• Shove a swell of light forward, dealing 145 damage to the first enemy Hero hit and Rooting them for 1.25 seconds
• Cost: 40 mana
• Cooldown: 10 seconds

Holy Word: Salvation (R1)

• After 0.5 seconds, Channel to invoke the Light for 3 seconds. While nearby, allied Heroes heal for up to 25% of their max Health and are Protected.
• Cost: 70 mana
• Cooldown: 80 seconds
• Level 20 - Light of Stormwind                                                        

• Holy Word: Salvation is increased up to 30% of maximum Health and upon ending, allied Heroes gain 40% Movement Speed for 3 seconds.                                        

Lightbomb (R2)

• Imbue an allied Hero with the Light. After 1.5 seconds, it explodes, dealing 150 damage to enemies and Stunning them for 1.25 seconds. The target gains a Shield that absorbs 140 damage per enemy Hero hit. Lasts for 5 seconds.
• Cost: 70 mana
• Cooldown: 60 seconds
• No Level 20 Augment Talent

Priest References:

• Renew
• Inner Fire
• Binding Heal
• Power Word: Shield
• Inner Focus
• Lightwell
• Holy Nova

Level 1 Choice - 5.5 Ranged Auto Attack

• Renew

• Basic attacks against Heroes empower the next Flash Heal to also heal for 115 over 5 seconds.

• Pursued by Grace

• Damaging an enemy Hero heals the lowest Health allied Hero near Anduin for 28.

• Bold Strategy                                                                

• Anduin gains his other level 1 talents, but Flash Heal's cooldown is increased by 1 second.        

Auto Attack Build

• Level 4 - Moral Compass - Divine Star fires Basic Attacks at 2 Heroes close to its apex for 70% damage.
• Level 20 - Varian's Legacy - Basic Attacks burn enemies for 87 damage over 3 seconds and Anduin heals for 50% of the damage dealt.

Lightwell

Level 16 Talent - Lightwell

• Cooldown: 70 seconds
• Summon a Lightwell that periodically heals a nearby allied Hero for 75. The well only fades after healing 10 times or when recast.
• This cooldown is reduced by 1 second each time Anduin heals an allied Hero.

Level 20 Talent - Desperate Prayer

• Cooldown: 40 seconds
• Activate to desperately heal an allied Hero for 540, but kneel for 2 seconds, unable to act.
• Using Desperate Prayer places Flash Heal on a 10 second cooldown.

• Level 16 Talent - Inner Focus

• Cooldown: 20 seconds
• Activate to reset the cooldown of Flash Heal and its next cast heals for 40% more.
• Damaging enemy Heroes with Divine Star Reduces this cooldown by 10 seconds.

• Combo Town

• Flash Heal
• Inner Focus
• Flash Heal
• Divine Star
• Desperate Pray
• Inner Focus
• Flash Heal

• 2 Seconds left on Divine Star
• 4 second left on Flash Heal

Critiques:

• Stiff Animations
• Generic Portrait animations
• No Lip-sync in store or queue

Links

• https://heroeshearth.com/hero/anduin/
• https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/22976064/heroes-of-the-storm-live-patch-notes-april-30-2019-2019-4-30/
• https://twitter.com/Parker_Animator/status/1121205697398628352

Battleground Update

Big DEAL! Vehicles and Objective monsters have attack priority from towers and forts/keeps

Dragon Shire

• Dragon Shire has received a significant update to its art

• Looks wider but is the same from all reports
• When the dragon is captured a flaming weather effect turns on
• Runes will glow if you walk by

Battlefield of Eternity

Developer Comment: We've added Towers near each team's central Healing Well to prevent certain Heroes from being able to destroy them too easily

• The gate near each team's Summoner Mercenary Camp now has two Towers on either side of it

Small heroes like Genji could hide against the wall and hit the well, taking it out

Infernal Shrines

Reducing Punisher RNG

Developer Comment: These changes are designed to bring the 3 types of Punishers more closely aligned in power, while preserving what makes them special. Mortar is now a properly scary amount of damage up front, while Arcane had its damage reduced but maintains the highest damage over a long period of time. Frozen has had structure disabled added to it, further encouraging teams to dive into enemy towns alongside him.

• Re-tuned the damage across all three Punisher types to bring them closer in parity

Arcane Punisher

• Arcane damage increased from 52 to 53
• Arcane damage scaling reduced from 11 to 8 per minute

Frozen Punisher

• Frozen damage base increased from 110 to 120
• Frozen area increased from 3 to 3.25
• Number of Frozen explosions reduced from 6 to 5
• When Frozen explosions damage an enemy Structure, they are disabled for 3 seconds

Mortar Punisher

• Mortar damage base increased from 90 to 115
• Mortar damage scaling increased from 5 to 17 per minute

Volskaya Foundry

50% increase to structure damage. Get buildings with the early Triglav

Late game team fight Triglav

Developer Comment: We’re making these changes to the Triglav Protector to shift a little of the vehicles power out of its team fight potential, and into its pushing power (particularly in the early game).  We believe that it has to has some teeth to discourage enemies from committing to a team fight when it pushes, but its capability to nuke someone from almost full health was a little too powerful.  We’ve changed Rocket Fist’s root into a knockback to make landing all its abilities more difficult as well, but still force enemies to disengage when it connects.  We’ve also taken this time to adjust some of the scaling of the Protector, so that it follows a more typical power curve in relation to Heroes, Minions, and Mercenaries.  We’ve removed the Swap Vehicle button as well.  While it was cool, it was a hold out from the previous undesired gameplay of a solo player controlling both seats of a vehicle that we discouraged via the Spell Power buff to both seats being occupied.

Swap Vehicle (R)

• Removed

Pilot - Triglav Protector

• Now properly scales Health and Basic Attack damage at the first minute of a game

Basic Attacks

• Starting damage reduced from 200 to 140
• Scaling damage reduced (Based on game time) from 10 to 7 from minutes 1 to 5
• Scaling damage reduced from 15 to 10.5 from minutes 6 to 10
• Scaling damage reduced from 20 to 14 from minutes 11 to 15
• Scaling damage reduced from 25 to 17.5 from minutes 16 to 20
• Scaling damage reduced from 30 to 21 from minutes 21 to 60
• Now deal 50% bonus damage to Structures

Health

• Health scaling increased from 1100 to 1375 from minutes 16 to 20
• Health scaling increased from 1375 to 1650 from minutes 21 to 25

Charge (Q)

• Impact radius reduced from 2.5 to 2
• Starting damage decreased from 225 to 140
• Scaling damage decreased from 20 to 14 per minute
• Damage bonus to non-Heroes increased from 200% to 400%

Rocket Fist (W)

• Width increased from 1 to 1.5
• No longer roots Heroes, but knocks them back equal to the full distance the Rocket Fist would travel instead
• Starting damage reduced from 200 to 150
• Scaling damage increased from 10 to 15 per minute

Gunner - Triglav Protector

Particle Cannon (Q)

• Starting damage decreased from  225 to 190
• Scaling damage increased from 15 to 19 per minute

Gatling Cannon (W)

• Impact radius reduced from 0.5 to 0.3
• Starting damage reduced from 45 to 38
• Scaling damage increased from 3.5 to 3.8 per minute

Scorching Laser (E)

• Impact radius reduced from 2.25 to 1.25
• Starting primary impact damage reduced 75 to 60
• Scaling primary impact damage increased from 3 to 6 per minute
• Starting delayed explosion damage reduced from 500 to 380
• Scaling delayed explosion damage increased from 25 to 38 per minute

Links

• https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/22976064/heroes-of-the-storm-live-patch-notes-april-30-2019-2019-4-30/

BlizzCon Announced November 1st and 2nd

Tickets on sale May 4th and 8th

We’re kicking things off a day earlier this year with what we’re calling the BlizzCon Pregame Festivities, a “Welcome to BlizzCon” get-together in the plaza outside the convention center on Thursday, October 31, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT. This casual gathering will give everyone a place to meet up and hang out with friends, enjoy food and drinks, and do a /readycheck before the main event begins Friday morning.

We’re also making room for more indoor activities this year by expanding the show into Hall E on Friday and Saturday. If you’ve been to BlizzCon before, that’s usually where registration and the BlizzCon Store resides—this year, the store’s heading to the North Hall, registration is moving off-site (nearby), and we’re recapturing the Hall E area to make room for some BlizzCon fun. We’ve got some playful plans in the works for that space, so stay tuned for more information.

And as always, BlizzCon 2019 will feature everything you’ve come to expect from the convention—the epic opening ceremony, developer panels across multiple stages, the Community Night contests, hands-on demos, world-class esports competition, and much more!

No Booth at Gamescom

As part of a renewed effort this year to maintain our focus on development, for our current games and our future projects, we won’t have a booth at gamescom 2019. The show is an important one for the European and global gaming community, and we’re going to miss meeting players in Cologne this year. You’ll still be able to find Blizzard gear in the gamescom 2019 shop area, and we’re looking forward to returning to the gamescom showfloor in the future. We’re also looking forward to sharing more details about the projects we’re currently working on when the time is right.

Pros:

• StarCraft and WarCraft 3 esports
• Panels and announcements
• Blizzard Artists saying “don’t miss this one”

Cons:

• $229 - 15% increase

Links

• https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/22955736/welcome-back-to-blizzcon
• https://news.blizzard.com/en-gb/blizzard/22937753/blizzard-and-gamescom-2019

Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN

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

Patron Thanks Doc for keeping track

• Jeremy Amacher
• Ryan
• John Gniadek

Strategy

Battleground Rotation Update

Ranked Battlegrounds

The Ranked Battleground rotation has been updated

Added to Rotation - Garden of Terror

• Tanking the Shamblers/Guardians/Seedlings
• Multiple Flanks

• Weaker Mage / Backline Map

• v Kael’thas
• v Gul’dan
• v Malfurion
• v Alexstrasza
• v Whitemane
• ^ Fenix
• ^ Falstad

• Merc City

• Brightwing
• Falstad

• Distant Lanes

• Murky
• Lost Vikings
• Samuro
• The Butcher
• Nazeebo
• Azmodan
• Sylvanas

Added to Rotation - Hanamura Temple

• Braxis like but weaker objective, more camps.
• 4/1 split
• “Middle lane” with unbribable Samurai

• Extra Experience

• Out of lane / No monster fights

• ^ Ana
• ^ Anub’arak
• v Diablo - 37% winrate
• v Li Ming - 38%

• If objective is lost break even with a push

• Wall and two towers
• The well
• One shot into fort

Removed from Rotation

• Braxis Holdout
• Volskaya Foundry

Predictions

• Rexxar

• May even go up, has a higher win-rate on Garden of Terror than Braxis
• Hanamura Advantage?

The full Ranked Battleground Rotation is now as follows:

3 Lane Collect things:

• Cursed Hollow
• Garden of Terror

3 Lane Channel Objective:

• Alterac Pass
• Infernal Shrines
• Tomb of the Spider Queen
• Towers of Doom

3 Lane Point Control

• Sky Temple
• Dragon Shire

2 Lane Maps

• Battlefield of Eternity
• Hanamura Temple

Links

• https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/22976064/heroes-of-the-storm-live-patch-notes-april-30-2019-2019-4-30/

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 CrusaderDave. 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 YT Clips

Jeff Cannata joined Garrett and Kyle for Into the Nexus this week and conversation turned to life in the lower leagues. The trio talked about the overabundance of Kael’thas and thoughts toward

For the full unedited podcast episode go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e23zDBi27YA

Into the Nexus is supported by our wonderful patrons via Patreon! If you would like to help support the show go to http://Patreon.com/itn. The ITN Patrons are responsible for many improvements to the podcast including the addition of monthly contributers Jeff Cannata and DunkTrain.

Don't forget to check out the ITN subreddit at ITNcast.reddit.com to submit stories or upvote existing submissions. Follow http://Twitch.tv/amovetv for the live show and game streams. All VODs of the live recording can be found at YouTube.com/amovetv.

Into the Nexus is a Heroes of the Storm podcast. Garrett Weinzierl and Kyle Fergusson will be taking you through the Nexus every week. Segments include news, strategies, and plenty of community interaction.

Get ITN

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Questions for Future Shows [DO NOT DELETE]

Frank via ITNcast@gmail.com - Playing “competitively” makes the game less fun?

Hey Garrett and Kyle,

Historically, I’ve been a “queue up with friends in quick match” player. A few months ago, a few friends and I decided to start a team to play in the various competitive leagues, mainly Heroes Lounge. We have a coach who competed in official Blizzard esports events, we have regularly scheduled practices, scrims, and matches. I’m very proud of the improvement we’ve made. We’ve all become better players, and we synergize pretty well most of the time.

However, this has had an unfortunate side effect for me. Whenever I play without my teammates, either in solo queue, or partied with randos, I tend to get pretty tilted because they don’t play the way my team does. For example, I play dps. When I’m playing with my team, I know my Muradin will jump on that exposed Tyrande, I will follow up as Greymane, and we will get the kill. With a rando Muradin, he jumps too late, or doesn’t jump at all and I go in but he doesn’t follow. Or I’m playing Tracer with the team, and I know my support has my back so I can play aggressive and focus the backline, but if I play with a rando support, he doesn’t have my back, and I can’t put on that pressure, or I go in and die and get flamed for being too aggressive.

This seems to happen more often than not when I play without the team. It makes me want to never play without them, and unfortunately, we can only play together two or three times a week, since all of our schedules are busy. I’d like to practice, on my own time, the heroes, combos, and builds that intend to use in the competitive scene with the team, but if I don’t have my team, it doesn’t feel like a good time investment. Sometimes it even feels like I’m becoming a worse player. It’s definitely more frustrating than fun.

Is there any advice you two can share with me regarding this dilemma?

Sincerely,

Frank

B needs our help

I like the Storm League, but I am doing horrible! I have 33.1% WR vs my former 49% and 51% HL and TL games. Man, it really sucks going into every game thinking I am going to lose. I was placed Plat 5, I am now Gold 2, looking to be Gold 3 soon. I wish I wasn't placed that high because losing this much is awful.

I really don't understand how this change can mess me up so bad. I don't understand what I am doing wrong. As I am typing this, I have lost 7 in a row. This is the worst change to game I have seen in the way it affects me. It doesn't seem like you two have had the same experience at all. This has ruined rank play for me, I really hope a change comes so I can enjoy ranked play again.

aCreepyBadGuy

Greetings ITN,

I genuinely love the Amove.tv lineup; and listen to EVERY podcast weekly. It’s a delight and you guys are amazing at everything you do.

So I’m playing my favorite MOBA Heroes of the Storm, and as a low tier player I have come accustomed to some things happening in my games. Some are easier to handle than others; but recently over the past few months after HGC Apocalypse, I have seen a rise in the number of trolls and smurf accounts down here in the lower echelons of high level play. Individuals with the sole purpose of ruining games, harassing teammates and losing on purpose. (said individuals are reported by multiple people from both teams)

Now I’m aware this is a ‘thing’ in just about every multiplayer game you choose to play nowadays, but it’s getting to the point were individuals are getting reporting, having their accounts banned and creating new ones to continue the cycle. As a result myself and some of my peers who still LOVE the game in every sense of the word, are just put off by the amount of distasteful content in a community that used to be a sanctuary for off kilter characters from the Blizzard universe.

I find myself playing less, but I still love the content, enjoy the positivity from the ITN Cast, but my question is when will the community decide to change it’s outlook on this ‘so not dead’ game, and begin to love again. Or at the very least stop harassing players who genuinely want to enjoy friendly online competition.

We sincerely just want to have a good time.

Respectfully,

aCreepyBadGuy