so, i've seen videos of kael vs TLV, but you don't truly appreciate it until you're annoyed with them and how crazy boat and norse force still are, and then they suddenly cease to exist from full hp and shield. and take down anyone near them. Watched our Kael cause multiple 3 TLV wipe and 1 or 2 randoms nearby from a single flamestrike living bomb. It was insane.
edit: how the fuck is it fair for a -1 level kael to do 75% of valla's hp in a single flamestrike. 1500 damage with the bomb. if multishot hit people for 80% of their hp it'd be the end of the world. I was 17 he was 16, nobody else around, just flamestrike and bomb.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited May 2015
Ok, it's official. The CPU is pants on head stupid. I needed some Diablo Warrior games so I played some Sonya vs CPU. First map is Blackheart's Bay - none of my team ever turns in coins. Except Li Li, who has decided she is going to solo all the merc camps for coins (also attack a chest just long enough to get 2 coins to turn in, even though it had 5 in it and the enemies were like, in our base at the time). Enemy starts pushing a lane, my team ignores them, or sends like, one hero to help me fight off 3-4. Or even more often, ignores me, lets me die, THEN comes to help only to die themselves. Thanks CPU. I don't even know what they were doing most of the time, but we lost horribly. (also that is the last damn time I pick Block over War Paint)
Next map, Cursed Hollow. Again, they start with their bullshit of ignoring every map objective and just start dying over and over and over to the enemy team. Enemy team already had 2/3 tributes. I finally said fuck it. I pinged Uther and Jaina to god damn follow me. Oh my God, suddenly we were taking objectives and actually killing heroes! It's amazing! It's like, if the CPU actually helps me and does the map objectives, we can win! I won that one - it wasn't even close. Guess I know what I'm gonna be doing in the Vs. AI mode from now on....
I still had to laugh my ass off when I died, and Jaina and Zagara were LITERALLY spinning in circles trying to figure out what to do. They couldn't decide if they wanted to attack the enemy base or run away, so they ran back and forth, in one spot, for something like 2 minutes before finally Zagara decided to be brave, all by herself vs like 4 enemy heroes inside their base, died, and Jaina, still running in place, started to get chased away by the enemy heroes. I can't remember if she even made it away - I think she died. Seriously Blizzard. What the hell.
Edit: Also I'm pretty sure they still haven't fixed Uther's AI to realize when he dies, he can't attack shit anymore -_-
kael'thas is designed to do more damage with his abilities than valla
in a single ability? D Q is 1500 damage at level 16 with gathering power stacks. That's like hitting Jaina's full combo minus ult except from a significantly greater range away on a 7 second cooldown and much harder to dodge because there is no 2nd wave of flamestrike.
Kael'thas has no escapes, that's supposed to counter-balance his ridiculous burst. Same reason why Nova's allowed to nearly insta-gib people as well, except she has cloak, so fuck her.
But you're right, I think his damage is maybe a bit too much.
in addition, bursty mage-type characters will always have an advantage over squishy sustained characters like valla, this is true across pretty much all mobas
in addition, bursty mage-type characters will always have an advantage over squishy sustained characters like valla, this is true across pretty much all mobas
i only said valla because i was on valla at the time. his ludicrous burst for pressing a single button that's barely a skillshot with how big the aoe is and how fast it comes out doesn't care what character your on. it's 1/4th of ETC's hp, which given his role is absurd.
if it was hard or he had to put himself in danger to do it, ok we could talk. but it's incredibly easy to land and so safe with flamethrower. and if you miss, who cares it's up again in half a blizzard.
Tyrande and Tass count as your one support in matchmaking? That's really dumb The reason one support is so good is that you're alwyas at full hp between fights. Tyrande with the new heal can at least bring a reasonable burst heal to save someone in a fight and top off outside of it, Tass is stuck with his shield. It's good and Tass is a great hero, but as a solo support he's kinda garbage against real healers.
Also I'm not exactly great at tass so it's even worse for me. :x
Tyrande and Tass count as your one support in matchmaking? That's really dumb The reason one support is so good is that you're alwyas at full hp between fights. Tyrande with the new heal can at least bring a reasonable burst heal to save someone in a fight and top off outside of it, Tass is stuck with his shield. It's good and Tass is a great hero, but as a solo support he's kinda garbage against real healers.
Also I'm not exactly great at tass so it's even worse for me. :x
Now that they've adjusted the matchmaker to eliminate no support vs support matches it should be a lot easier for them to evaluate Tass-as-solo-support vs other supports and make additional adjustments if necessary. He would probably get some Tyrande-style healing buffs if needed.
He does still have Healing Ward, which even in its current state could be used to heal up between team fights.
Tyrande and Tass count as your one support in matchmaking? That's really dumb The reason one support is so good is that you're alwyas at full hp between fights. Tyrande with the new heal can at least bring a reasonable burst heal to save someone in a fight and top off outside of it, Tass is stuck with his shield. It's good and Tass is a great hero, but as a solo support he's kinda garbage against real healers.
Also I'm not exactly great at tass so it's even worse for me. :x
Now that they've adjusted the matchmaker to eliminate no support vs support matches it should be a lot easier for them to evaluate Tass-as-solo-support vs other supports and make additional adjustments if necessary. He would probably get some Tyrande-style healing buffs if needed.
He does still have Healing Ward, which even in its current state could be used to heal up between team fights.
I don't think he needs them, he has a great kit that works well and makes him a total asshole late game because he's unkillable. I just don't think it works as a solo support kit against heroes like BW/Uther/Rehgar. Doubly so if you happen to roll anything except all assassins and just burst the shit out of people.
Wish I knew why my connection was melting every night after 1:30-2. Trying to play Nova or ETC with 3 seconds of input lag and 5 second screen freezes every time a fight starts is a less than enjoyable experience.
TLV are just straight up broken, so while I like that Kaelthas are a counter to them, that also sort of makes him pretty fucking broken too.
X beats Y doesn't mean X is overpowered just because Y might be. Kael's talents just happens to perfectly fuck over the vikings (each one gets a bomb from flamestrike, and they they spread it to each other, and basically a lot of burst is the result).
Jaina is still higher than him on just about every Tier list.
Welcome to Heroes of the Storm! The game is finally open to everyone, and you may feel a bit intimidated by lacking the year or so of experience players gained during closed testing. There's not much to do about that, but hopefully this little guide will set you on the right track.
Part 1: Starting Off
The game will probably ask for your moba experience and whether or not you want to do a tutorial. I suggest doing it, as it'll get you acquainted with the general feel of the game while also familiarizing with certain mechanics. Even if you are a hots fanatic that has been watching streams for months or whatever, I still suggest the tutorial since it also nets you a cool 1,000g. It's not much, but it's a decent chunk that is more than any daily quest.
Next step is up to you: you can play a single-player bot match, co-op bot match, or dive into regular Quick Match. The single-player bot match is fine if you want to learn a character or whatever, but I strongly urge against playing in there for too long. The rewards are very poor, and the bot AI in solo mode is on the easiest setting. You will develop bad habits playing against this kind of bot too much! Instead, graduate to co-op and see how you do. If you are losing bot matches, then I won't sugarcoat this: you are in a special kind of gutter for skill level, and you should probably stay in co-op until you're winning basically every match.
From there it's time to promote yourself to the "main" game mode: Quick Match. This is standard 5v5 where you choose your hero beforehand. The goal from here is for you to reach level 6 so you can unlock daily quests, as they will be your primary source of gold in the long run. From here you can familiarize yourself with the free rotation heroes, and focus on leveling your account and amassing sweet sweet gold.
If nothing else read this: You should be leveling each hero in the free rotation to at least level five, so you score 500 gold and unlock all of their talents. This is actually a very hearty amount of gold: you can almost get up to 20,000 gold by leveling every hero to level five. Also, at level 10 you unlock a free, week-long Stim Pack, giving you huge experience and gold gains. Try to plan to hit level ten during a week when you have some free time, as this thing will activate the second you hit level 10, and it'd be a pity to waste it.
Part 2: Entering the Big Leagues
So eventually you'll hit some big milestones: at 25 you are free from talent-gating, and at 30 and 40 you unlock the two leagues. BOTH leagues require you to own at least ten heroes to participate, and the free rotation heroes do not count toward that total. I think you can use the free rotation in league play, but they don't satisfy the ten hero requirement.
Hero League is the first, and is basically rank solo play, but you are free to party up at your leisure. Don't be intimidated by this mode: you will see a ton of awful players just like in Quick Match. The main "pro" to hero league is that your team is more likely to be balanced than the slapdash shtick of Quick Match. The downside is that you will be encouraged to pick from a small pool of top tier heroes, although generally speaking you can play what you like in the low rating matches. Maybe at rank five or so players may look down on your hot Murky pick, but so long as you pick smartly nobody will say anything. So if your team has two assassins and a specialist, be smart and pick a solid warrior or support.
Team League is the same thing, only you create a persistent five-man team with four other friends. One player will have to spend 500 gold to create the team, and then everyone needs to meet the basic requirements (own 10+ heroes and level 40). How serious you treat this depends on your friends. You can fuck around in the low 30s and have fun, or be REAL SERIOUS and get those high tier picks.
At this point you need to consider which heroes to buy so you can play these cool modes. If you've been following this guide, then you've been playing a wide range of heroes and have an idea which role and heroes you like. If you are planning to do leagues, then I highly suggest you buy multiples of each role so you aren't in the awkward position where your team needs a support but the enemy team picked the only one you have.
Part 3: Capitalism is Terrible
I'm not going to lie: hots has perhaps the worst free-to-play system on the market. Everything is overpriced, gold gains are awful, and ways to speed up the process are complete rip-offs. The only silver lining is that Blizzard is notoriously slow getting heroes out the door, so you can catch up with them if you're diligent and play on a regular basis. The basic thing to remember is to complete your dailies (you have store up to three in case you miss a day or two) and play with friends when possible (bonus experience for your account and heroes).
Do not buy stim packs. Do not buy stim packs. Do not buy stim packs. The math has been done to death, and they're a terrible deal unless you play 10+ games a DAY for a MONTH SOLID. And that's just to break even with buying a hero for ten bucks! And that's just for the thirty-day pack! The week-long one is even worse!
Bundles are typically...mediocre. See, Blizzard has a habit of weighing down their bundles with a lot of cosmetics. In theory you are saving a lot of money...but in reality you are spending a very uninspiring five bucks a hero and then "saving" a lot of money on skins and mounts that are overpriced to begin with (twenty bucks for a unicorn mount). There is one exception to this: the Starter Bundle. You get three heroes, a mount, and a week-long stim pack for just five bucks. That's less than two bucks per hero, and the mount and pack are free. Not too shabby, but remember to buy it when you have time to take advantage of the stim pack.
If you wish to spend money on heroes, then wait for a weekly sale. Each week a hero and two cosmetics go on sale for 50% off. This make heroes and cosmetics MUCH more reasonable in terms of price, although I dunno if I'd consider it "saving" all that much due to how inflated standard prices are...but hey, it's the best way to go if you want to spend real cash dollars.
One last thing: don't buy new heroes with gold. Two weeks after launch they will automatically go down to 10,000 gold, so by being patient you save yourself 5,000.
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
You mind want to update that guide since co-op isn't called co-op anymore. It's 'Versus A.I.' now.
Is the load/install patch button in client new? I dont recall ever seeing it before but then again i dont think I was ever online at the time they pushed a hotfix. Since I couldn't really do anything it is actually required, but having the button there makes it seem optional.
I wish I could get a skill bonus or something in HL when we lose. Like, maybe subtract it from the points lost so if I play great on a team of terribles, I don't lose so many points?
Last night was rough. Had a game where I earned 8K exp, the rest of my team combined for 10K. Then that scenario repeated like five times in a row. It was the badness. Then we finally won a game and I picked up an extra 200 points in skill bonus. I outplayed my team by the same amount in all of those games, but only in the one victory where the oppo team was as horribly as my random teammates did the game correctly bonus my better work.
Dunno, just feels like something that could be improved to help solo quers in HL better find the correct MMR ranking/grouping/reduce frustration.
XBL: Morgan Coke Yes, there is a space, not an underscore. I'm old school like that.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
I wish I could get a skill bonus or something in HL when we lose. Like, maybe subtract it from the points lost so if I play great on a team of terribles, I don't lose so many points?
Last night was rough. Had a game where I earned 8K exp, the rest of my team combined for 10K. Then that scenario repeated like five times in a row. It was the badness. Then we finally won a game and I picked up an extra 200 points in skill bonus. I outplayed my team by the same amount in all of those games, but only in the one victory where the oppo team was as horribly as my random teammates did the game correctly bonus my better work.
Dunno, just feels like something that could be improved to help solo quers in HL better find the correct MMR ranking/grouping/reduce frustration.
I don't actually think skill bonus reflects how you did in that game; I think skill bonus is really for the cases where your MMR is not reflected in your rank. There's a good reddit post here.
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
.... wow so uh, it was a bad idea as a n00b to be maining LiLi to start? I didn't even KNOW my serpent was Doing The Thing, that is how clueless I am, I just went "these traits sound nice"
There are no bad supports in this game. Every single one does something well. Some are just a lot harder to use than others or much more niche than others.
Lili doesn't get as much attention normally as the other supports (minus the hilarious bug she had going on) but even without that she's still got the lowest cooldown, most mana efficient heal in the game. Her blind is rough on popular auto-attack damage dealers like Illidan and Sgt. Hammer as well.
.... wow so uh, it was a bad idea as a n00b to be maining LiLi to start? I didn't even KNOW my serpent was Doing The Thing, that is how clueless I am, I just went "these traits sound nice"
There are no bad supports in this game. Every single one does something well. Some are just a lot harder to use than others or much more niche than others.
Lili doesn't get as much attention normally as the other supports (minus the hilarious bug she had going on) but even without that she's still got the lowest cooldown, most mana efficient heal in the game. Her blind is rough on popular auto-attack damage dealers like Illidan and Sgt. Hammer as well.
I wish I could get a skill bonus or something in HL when we lose. Like, maybe subtract it from the points lost so if I play great on a team of terribles, I don't lose so many points?
Last night was rough. Had a game where I earned 8K exp, the rest of my team combined for 10K. Then that scenario repeated like five times in a row. It was the badness. Then we finally won a game and I picked up an extra 200 points in skill bonus. I outplayed my team by the same amount in all of those games, but only in the one victory where the oppo team was as horribly as my random teammates did the game correctly bonus my better work.
Dunno, just feels like something that could be improved to help solo quers in HL better find the correct MMR ranking/grouping/reduce frustration.
I don't think I'll solo queue HL for a while
I think three players is actually a nice group to queue with in HL
I know for a while Valve had a weird hidden formula for your mmr which included stuff like gpm and such. It was complex and odd. They tweaked it, got rid of it, brought back a new version, got rid of it again or something like that.
But they have been tinkering with a hidden MMR formula for a while now.
I played a few Hero League games with Ubel and I think FizzyElf this weekend. I feel like we're either getting trounced, or we're absolutely dominating people. It feels a little disheartening to be stuck at rank 40 the whole time but I guess there are a lot of good / more frequent players out there.
Also, I just realized today that it's HotS Logs. Not Hot Slogs.
Just need to get a lot more people into Hero League. A lot more. We just played 4 games with a premade. In our first two games we were a partial premade of 3 people. We got matched against the same team of another 3man premade twice in a row. In our second two games, we had a full 5 and we got matched twice in a row against the same group of 5. That should not be happening. Especially not with a 6 minute wait in between games. There simply are not enough players playing Hero League to give fair matchups right now.
In the latter two games we played, the 5man we were against both times was of much higher skill than us and it wasn't a fair match either time. We also waited forever to find that match. That means nobody of our own skill level was queuing. The first two game we played as a 3man were much more fair. We split the two games 1 and 1. We lost the first and I blame that solely on the two randoms we got. We got two terrible ones and the other 3man got two decent randoms. In the second match, the scenario was reversed and we got 1 decent random and 1 random who at least didn't throw the match.
I wish I could get a skill bonus or something in HL when we lose. Like, maybe subtract it from the points lost so if I play great on a team of terribles, I don't lose so many points?
Last night was rough. Had a game where I earned 8K exp, the rest of my team combined for 10K. Then that scenario repeated like five times in a row. It was the badness. Then we finally won a game and I picked up an extra 200 points in skill bonus. I outplayed my team by the same amount in all of those games, but only in the one victory where the oppo team was as horribly as my random teammates did the game correctly bonus my better work.
Dunno, just feels like something that could be improved to help solo quers in HL better find the correct MMR ranking/grouping/reduce frustration.
I don't think I'll solo queue HL for a while
I think three players is actually a nice group to queue with in HL
eh, sometimes the larger group we have for league, the more likely we get matched against a team far beyond us
we had to face such a team a minute ago twice, lost barely any ranked points either match since apparently we weren't supposed to win
On an unrelated note, the sonya and gaz skins from that trailer are in the shop now. No johanna though.
Yeah, the two games we lost to much higher teams were both six-minute wait times, and that's the point at which the match-maker stops trying to match skill, so it just grabbed the next available premade, which happened to be much, much higher rated than we were.
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
Is there a deadline for the cross-promotional stuff? Like an end date for when they're no longer available? I only have 42 wins in Hearthstone. It's gonna be a while before I hit 100, considering I only win about 1/4 matches because my decks are terrible.
Just need to get a lot more people into Hero League. A lot more. We just played 4 games with a premade. In our first two games we were a partial premade of 3 people. We got matched against the same team of another 3man premade twice in a row. In our second two games, we had a full 5 and we got matched twice in a row against the same group of 5. That should not be happening. Especially not with a 6 minute wait in between games. There simply are not enough players playing Hero League to give fair matchups right now.
In the latter two games we played, the 5man we were against both times was of much higher skill than us and it wasn't a fair match either time. We also waited forever to find that match. That means nobody of our own skill level was queuing. The first two game we played as a 3man were much more fair. We split the two games 1 and 1. We lost the first and I blame that solely on the two randoms we got. We got two terrible ones and the other 3man got two decent randoms. In the second match, the scenario was reversed and we got 1 decent random and 1 random who at least didn't throw the match.
watching chu8 stream the other night he was saying he thought queuing with a group of 3 lead to more fairly balanced games than queuing with five
Is there a deadline for the cross-promotional stuff? Like an end date for when they're no longer available? I only have 42 wins in Hearthstone. It's gonna be a while before I hit 100, considering I only win about 1/4 matches because my decks are terrible.
what's your collection like? the hearthstone thread can help you make a cheapo aggro deck that should hopefully help you get wins faster
Is there a deadline for the cross-promotional stuff? Like an end date for when they're no longer available? I only have 42 wins in Hearthstone. It's gonna be a while before I hit 100, considering I only win about 1/4 matches because my decks are terrible.
what's your collection like? the hearthstone thread can help you make a cheapo aggro deck that should hopefully help you get wins faster
I have zero GvG cards. I quit before the expansion came out. I also have zero Naxx cards.
I think my strongest decks are my shaman deck and my hunter deck. Shaman I just flood the table with cheap crap and try to bloodlust them, and hunter is just a beast deck.
.... wow so uh, it was a bad idea as a n00b to be maining LiLi to start? I didn't even KNOW my serpent was Doing The Thing, that is how clueless I am, I just went "these traits sound nice"
There are no bad supports in this game. Every single one does something well. Some are just a lot harder to use than others or much more niche than others.
Lili doesn't get as much attention normally as the other supports (minus the hilarious bug she had going on) but even without that she's still got the lowest cooldown, most mana efficient heal in the game. Her blind is rough on popular auto-attack damage dealers like Illidan and Sgt. Hammer as well.
Li Li also becomes a disgusting monster of a healer once she hits 20 and gets Kung Fu Hustle. Good luck ever trying to kill her, or someone on her team.
I think Li Li is pretty decent though. I'm not really fond of her W since it just doesn't really DO anything (oh wow look extra damage that's still pretty negligible!), but Mending Serpent alleviates that a little bit. And Mending Serpent is actually a good pick now that Healing Ward is terrible. I think it's always been a little bit of a sleeper pick, it's just that Healing Ward outclassed it previously.
Aside from her W, though, the rest of her kit is pretty decent. 1000 Cups is still a really good Ult, although it suffers from being interruptible. Shake It Off is actually just a plain ridiculous talent and it means you'll likely never be CCed for more than 0.25 seconds. She has access to a Cleanse on a THREE SECOND COOLDOWN if you pick up Herbal Cleanse. Plus it increases the target's movespeed by 20%. That's really strong! Although, granted, you don't get it until 16 and the actual Cleanse talent is available at level 7 to everyone else. But still, a three second cooldown Cleanse.
Also for as much as I've seen people bitching about Water Dragon, it's fucking good. I honestly think it's somewhat underrated. I would not recommend taking it if you're the sole healer, but if you have two healers, go for it. It's a rock solid initiate and it can actually turn teamfights super quick. Yeah, the damage isn't what it used to be, but holy shit it's a 70% slow for 4 seconds on a 45 second cooldown.
Li Li's pretty good, honestly. Not Uther or Rehgar levels of good, but I think she's fine in a solo queue environment.
Ugh, the worst feeling: getting disconnected in the middle of a match due to an unexpected, random power outage Which then lasts an hour. I was playing support too, I feel so terrible for my team x_X it was only a bot match, but still.
Just need to get a lot more people into Hero League. A lot more. We just played 4 games with a premade. In our first two games we were a partial premade of 3 people. We got matched against the same team of another 3man premade twice in a row. In our second two games, we had a full 5 and we got matched twice in a row against the same group of 5. That should not be happening. Especially not with a 6 minute wait in between games. There simply are not enough players playing Hero League to give fair matchups right now.
In the latter two games we played, the 5man we were against both times was of much higher skill than us and it wasn't a fair match either time. We also waited forever to find that match. That means nobody of our own skill level was queuing. The first two game we played as a 3man were much more fair. We split the two games 1 and 1. We lost the first and I blame that solely on the two randoms we got. We got two terrible ones and the other 3man got two decent randoms. In the second match, the scenario was reversed and we got 1 decent random and 1 random who at least didn't throw the match.
Queuing as 2 or 3 definitely helps, though there are other 2-man/ 3-man teams that you'd have to contend with. At least with 2, you should aim to dominate a lane then start calling the shots
oh and the leader of the group gets to pick first more often than not, which definitely helps
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Couldn't you just raise the gamma?
Read it (heh) and fave'd it but couldn't find the link to drop here until just this moment.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
edit: how the fuck is it fair for a -1 level kael to do 75% of valla's hp in a single flamestrike. 1500 damage with the bomb. if multishot hit people for 80% of their hp it'd be the end of the world. I was 17 he was 16, nobody else around, just flamestrike and bomb.
Next map, Cursed Hollow. Again, they start with their bullshit of ignoring every map objective and just start dying over and over and over to the enemy team. Enemy team already had 2/3 tributes. I finally said fuck it. I pinged Uther and Jaina to god damn follow me. Oh my God, suddenly we were taking objectives and actually killing heroes! It's amazing! It's like, if the CPU actually helps me and does the map objectives, we can win! I won that one - it wasn't even close. Guess I know what I'm gonna be doing in the Vs. AI mode from now on....
I still had to laugh my ass off when I died, and Jaina and Zagara were LITERALLY spinning in circles trying to figure out what to do. They couldn't decide if they wanted to attack the enemy base or run away, so they ran back and forth, in one spot, for something like 2 minutes before finally Zagara decided to be brave, all by herself vs like 4 enemy heroes inside their base, died, and Jaina, still running in place, started to get chased away by the enemy heroes. I can't remember if she even made it away - I think she died. Seriously Blizzard. What the hell.
Edit: Also I'm pretty sure they still haven't fixed Uther's AI to realize when he dies, he can't attack shit anymore -_-
in a single ability? D Q is 1500 damage at level 16 with gathering power stacks. That's like hitting Jaina's full combo minus ult except from a significantly greater range away on a 7 second cooldown and much harder to dodge because there is no 2nd wave of flamestrike.
But you're right, I think his damage is maybe a bit too much.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
i only said valla because i was on valla at the time. his ludicrous burst for pressing a single button that's barely a skillshot with how big the aoe is and how fast it comes out doesn't care what character your on. it's 1/4th of ETC's hp, which given his role is absurd.
if it was hard or he had to put himself in danger to do it, ok we could talk. but it's incredibly easy to land and so safe with flamethrower. and if you miss, who cares it's up again in half a blizzard.
Like Tyreal, Thrall and even "The Hunt" Illidan
Kael'Thas' absolute powerspike comes at level 16 when he puts living bombs with Flamestrike. Just have to abuse his immobility until then
Streaming 8PST on weeknights
Also I'm not exactly great at tass so it's even worse for me. :x
She became bajillion times harder when I tried Wrath. Turns out 1.5s AoE stuns are pretty good. Not having that when you can have that seems weird.
also I don't think I've ever been hit by a flamestrike when I've not been stunned. It doesn't seem to come out that quick to me
Now that they've adjusted the matchmaker to eliminate no support vs support matches it should be a lot easier for them to evaluate Tass-as-solo-support vs other supports and make additional adjustments if necessary. He would probably get some Tyrande-style healing buffs if needed.
He does still have Healing Ward, which even in its current state could be used to heal up between team fights.
I don't think he needs them, he has a great kit that works well and makes him a total asshole late game because he's unkillable. I just don't think it works as a solo support kit against heroes like BW/Uther/Rehgar. Doubly so if you happen to roll anything except all assassins and just burst the shit out of people.
Wish I knew why my connection was melting every night after 1:30-2. Trying to play Nova or ETC with 3 seconds of input lag and 5 second screen freezes every time a fight starts is a less than enjoyable experience.
Jaina is still higher than him on just about every Tier list.
Welcome to Heroes of the Storm! The game is finally open to everyone, and you may feel a bit intimidated by lacking the year or so of experience players gained during closed testing. There's not much to do about that, but hopefully this little guide will set you on the right track.
Part 1: Starting Off
The game will probably ask for your moba experience and whether or not you want to do a tutorial. I suggest doing it, as it'll get you acquainted with the general feel of the game while also familiarizing with certain mechanics. Even if you are a hots fanatic that has been watching streams for months or whatever, I still suggest the tutorial since it also nets you a cool 1,000g. It's not much, but it's a decent chunk that is more than any daily quest.
Next step is up to you: you can play a single-player bot match, co-op bot match, or dive into regular Quick Match. The single-player bot match is fine if you want to learn a character or whatever, but I strongly urge against playing in there for too long. The rewards are very poor, and the bot AI in solo mode is on the easiest setting. You will develop bad habits playing against this kind of bot too much! Instead, graduate to co-op and see how you do. If you are losing bot matches, then I won't sugarcoat this: you are in a special kind of gutter for skill level, and you should probably stay in co-op until you're winning basically every match.
From there it's time to promote yourself to the "main" game mode: Quick Match. This is standard 5v5 where you choose your hero beforehand. The goal from here is for you to reach level 6 so you can unlock daily quests, as they will be your primary source of gold in the long run. From here you can familiarize yourself with the free rotation heroes, and focus on leveling your account and amassing sweet sweet gold.
If nothing else read this: You should be leveling each hero in the free rotation to at least level five, so you score 500 gold and unlock all of their talents. This is actually a very hearty amount of gold: you can almost get up to 20,000 gold by leveling every hero to level five. Also, at level 10 you unlock a free, week-long Stim Pack, giving you huge experience and gold gains. Try to plan to hit level ten during a week when you have some free time, as this thing will activate the second you hit level 10, and it'd be a pity to waste it.
Part 2: Entering the Big Leagues
So eventually you'll hit some big milestones: at 25 you are free from talent-gating, and at 30 and 40 you unlock the two leagues. BOTH leagues require you to own at least ten heroes to participate, and the free rotation heroes do not count toward that total. I think you can use the free rotation in league play, but they don't satisfy the ten hero requirement.
Hero League is the first, and is basically rank solo play, but you are free to party up at your leisure. Don't be intimidated by this mode: you will see a ton of awful players just like in Quick Match. The main "pro" to hero league is that your team is more likely to be balanced than the slapdash shtick of Quick Match. The downside is that you will be encouraged to pick from a small pool of top tier heroes, although generally speaking you can play what you like in the low rating matches. Maybe at rank five or so players may look down on your hot Murky pick, but so long as you pick smartly nobody will say anything. So if your team has two assassins and a specialist, be smart and pick a solid warrior or support.
Team League is the same thing, only you create a persistent five-man team with four other friends. One player will have to spend 500 gold to create the team, and then everyone needs to meet the basic requirements (own 10+ heroes and level 40). How serious you treat this depends on your friends. You can fuck around in the low 30s and have fun, or be REAL SERIOUS and get those high tier picks.
At this point you need to consider which heroes to buy so you can play these cool modes. If you've been following this guide, then you've been playing a wide range of heroes and have an idea which role and heroes you like. If you are planning to do leagues, then I highly suggest you buy multiples of each role so you aren't in the awkward position where your team needs a support but the enemy team picked the only one you have.
Part 3: Capitalism is Terrible
I'm not going to lie: hots has perhaps the worst free-to-play system on the market. Everything is overpriced, gold gains are awful, and ways to speed up the process are complete rip-offs. The only silver lining is that Blizzard is notoriously slow getting heroes out the door, so you can catch up with them if you're diligent and play on a regular basis. The basic thing to remember is to complete your dailies (you have store up to three in case you miss a day or two) and play with friends when possible (bonus experience for your account and heroes).
Do not buy stim packs. Do not buy stim packs. Do not buy stim packs. The math has been done to death, and they're a terrible deal unless you play 10+ games a DAY for a MONTH SOLID. And that's just to break even with buying a hero for ten bucks! And that's just for the thirty-day pack! The week-long one is even worse!
Bundles are typically...mediocre. See, Blizzard has a habit of weighing down their bundles with a lot of cosmetics. In theory you are saving a lot of money...but in reality you are spending a very uninspiring five bucks a hero and then "saving" a lot of money on skins and mounts that are overpriced to begin with (twenty bucks for a unicorn mount). There is one exception to this: the Starter Bundle. You get three heroes, a mount, and a week-long stim pack for just five bucks. That's less than two bucks per hero, and the mount and pack are free. Not too shabby, but remember to buy it when you have time to take advantage of the stim pack.
If you wish to spend money on heroes, then wait for a weekly sale. Each week a hero and two cosmetics go on sale for 50% off. This make heroes and cosmetics MUCH more reasonable in terms of price, although I dunno if I'd consider it "saving" all that much due to how inflated standard prices are...but hey, it's the best way to go if you want to spend real cash dollars.
One last thing: don't buy new heroes with gold. Two weeks after launch they will automatically go down to 10,000 gold, so by being patient you save yourself 5,000.
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Last night was rough. Had a game where I earned 8K exp, the rest of my team combined for 10K. Then that scenario repeated like five times in a row. It was the badness. Then we finally won a game and I picked up an extra 200 points in skill bonus. I outplayed my team by the same amount in all of those games, but only in the one victory where the oppo team was as horribly as my random teammates did the game correctly bonus my better work.
Dunno, just feels like something that could be improved to help solo quers in HL better find the correct MMR ranking/grouping/reduce frustration.
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I don't actually think skill bonus reflects how you did in that game; I think skill bonus is really for the cases where your MMR is not reflected in your rank. There's a good reddit post here.
There are no bad supports in this game. Every single one does something well. Some are just a lot harder to use than others or much more niche than others.
Lili doesn't get as much attention normally as the other supports (minus the hilarious bug she had going on) but even without that she's still got the lowest cooldown, most mana efficient heal in the game. Her blind is rough on popular auto-attack damage dealers like Illidan and Sgt. Hammer as well.
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I argue that Tyrael is pretty bad for a support.
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I don't think I'll solo queue HL for a while
I think three players is actually a nice group to queue with in HL
But they have been tinkering with a hidden MMR formula for a while now.
Also, I just realized today that it's HotS Logs. Not Hot Slogs.
In the latter two games we played, the 5man we were against both times was of much higher skill than us and it wasn't a fair match either time. We also waited forever to find that match. That means nobody of our own skill level was queuing. The first two game we played as a 3man were much more fair. We split the two games 1 and 1. We lost the first and I blame that solely on the two randoms we got. We got two terrible ones and the other 3man got two decent randoms. In the second match, the scenario was reversed and we got 1 decent random and 1 random who at least didn't throw the match.
eh, sometimes the larger group we have for league, the more likely we get matched against a team far beyond us
we had to face such a team a minute ago twice, lost barely any ranked points either match since apparently we weren't supposed to win
On an unrelated note, the sonya and gaz skins from that trailer are in the shop now. No johanna though.
watching chu8 stream the other night he was saying he thought queuing with a group of 3 lead to more fairly balanced games than queuing with five
what's your collection like? the hearthstone thread can help you make a cheapo aggro deck that should hopefully help you get wins faster
I have zero GvG cards. I quit before the expansion came out. I also have zero Naxx cards.
I think my strongest decks are my shaman deck and my hunter deck. Shaman I just flood the table with cheap crap and try to bloodlust them, and hunter is just a beast deck.
Li Li also becomes a disgusting monster of a healer once she hits 20 and gets Kung Fu Hustle. Good luck ever trying to kill her, or someone on her team.
I think Li Li is pretty decent though. I'm not really fond of her W since it just doesn't really DO anything (oh wow look extra damage that's still pretty negligible!), but Mending Serpent alleviates that a little bit. And Mending Serpent is actually a good pick now that Healing Ward is terrible. I think it's always been a little bit of a sleeper pick, it's just that Healing Ward outclassed it previously.
Aside from her W, though, the rest of her kit is pretty decent. 1000 Cups is still a really good Ult, although it suffers from being interruptible. Shake It Off is actually just a plain ridiculous talent and it means you'll likely never be CCed for more than 0.25 seconds. She has access to a Cleanse on a THREE SECOND COOLDOWN if you pick up Herbal Cleanse. Plus it increases the target's movespeed by 20%. That's really strong! Although, granted, you don't get it until 16 and the actual Cleanse talent is available at level 7 to everyone else. But still, a three second cooldown Cleanse.
Also for as much as I've seen people bitching about Water Dragon, it's fucking good. I honestly think it's somewhat underrated. I would not recommend taking it if you're the sole healer, but if you have two healers, go for it. It's a rock solid initiate and it can actually turn teamfights super quick. Yeah, the damage isn't what it used to be, but holy shit it's a 70% slow for 4 seconds on a 45 second cooldown.
Li Li's pretty good, honestly. Not Uther or Rehgar levels of good, but I think she's fine in a solo queue environment.
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Queuing as 2 or 3 definitely helps, though there are other 2-man/ 3-man teams that you'd have to contend with. At least with 2, you should aim to dominate a lane then start calling the shots
oh and the leader of the group gets to pick first more often than not, which definitely helps
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