So Alarak is...daunting? I'm guessing I'm trying to land W/Q,AA,E if they run? Nailing those quest shots is tough. Not gonna give up too soon, but he definitely feels like a high-skill level character.
Alarak is one of the highest skill-floor heroes in the game. You put yourself in significant danger when you use the combo, and you are also relying on teammates to follow up even when you land a good one.
At least before the rework, Alarak's difficulty appeared to be dependent on how you played him. If you went for Discord Strike combos then yeah, he was a pain to learn.
Lightning Surge Alarak, on the other hand, was easy. All you had to do was stand back and poke enemies over and over. If you can catch something behind them or use the lighting to clear out a wave of minions that's all the better, but even if you can't you've still done a bit of damage and gained a bit of healing at nearly zero cost. Forget about using Telekinesis for comboing, reserve it for escaping danger, slowing fleeing enemies, or occasionally saving allies. Use Discord Strike as a tool to fuck up anyone with the audacity to approach you. In teamfights, use Lightning Surge to poke from complete safety before the fight begins, then use it after the fight starts to shred multiple enemies at once. If the enemies are too scattered to burst with Lightning Surge, use Telekinesis to yank one out towards your team. If an enemy dives your squishy characters, use Discord Strike to punish them.
None of this requires much of a sense of timing, twitchy reactions, or even situational awareness, and personal risk to Alarak is minimized. You don't need to be comfortable with Discord Strike and Telekinesis to make the playstyle work, but it does give enough practice with them that if you want to switch over to a combo build you'll be in a much better position to do so.
I don't know how much the rework has changed this, though. I'd love to get my hands on him permanently, but I've been putting off actually purchasing him.
It hasn't. Matter of fact he's even better now because you can also get massively stupid Sadism stacks(provided you don't die) on top of a talent for permanent stacking 3% damage bonus on Lightning Surge every time you hit a hero in the center.
The only real nerf to it was the removal of the cooldown reduction so you can't get 2 second cooldown Surges anymore. But now it hits like a train to center targets so it evens out.
It hasn't. Matter of fact he's even better now because you can also get massively stupid Sadism stacks(provided you don't die) on top of a talent for permanent stacking 3% damage bonus on Lightning Surge every time you hit a hero in the center.
The only real nerf to it was the removal of the cooldown reduction so you can't get 2 second cooldown Surges anymore. But now it hits like a train to center targets so it evens out.
Excellent, especially the Sadism stack thing. The best part of the pre-patch build for me was rolling my eyes whenever one of my teammates somehow managed to let the enemy kill them, then consoling myself with the fact that at least their deaths were making me stronger.
It hasn't. Matter of fact he's even better now because you can also get massively stupid Sadism stacks(provided you don't die) on top of a talent for permanent stacking 3% damage bonus on Lightning Surge every time you hit a hero in the center.
The only real nerf to it was the removal of the cooldown reduction so you can't get 2 second cooldown Surges anymore. But now it hits like a train to center targets so it evens out.
Excellent, especially the Sadism stack thing. The best part of the pre-patch build for me was rolling my eyes whenever one of my teammates somehow managed to let the enemy kill them, then consoling myself with the fact that at least their deaths were making me stronger.
You actually want a new talent called Rite of Rakshir instead, which places a mark on a target that gives you 3% Sadism every time you Discord them, or 6% when you kill them and the cooldown is reduced to 10 seconds. (Normally 300 seconds)
The ally death talent only goes to 30%, but Rite goes to something bonkers like 400%. (though you'll never realistically hit that level)
You also get a talent at 16 that lets you cast a second free Surge when you hit any hero with the center. Now it says "on a different primary target", but I've been able to rapidly fire off a two-surge burst on the same target without much issue. It might be a bug.
So Alarak is...daunting? I'm guessing I'm trying to land W/Q,AA,E if they run? Nailing those quest shots is tough. Not gonna give up too soon, but he definitely feels like a high-skill level character.
Alarak is one of the highest skill-floor heroes in the game. You put yourself in significant danger when you use the combo, and you are also relying on teammates to follow up even when you land a good one.
At least before the rework, Alarak's difficulty appeared to be dependent on how you played him. If you went for Discord Strike combos then yeah, he was a pain to learn.
Lightning Surge Alarak, on the other hand, was easy. All you had to do was stand back and poke enemies over and over. If you can catch something behind them or use the lighting to clear out a wave of minions that's all the better, but even if you can't you've still done a bit of damage and gained a bit of healing at nearly zero cost. Forget about using Telekinesis for comboing, reserve it for escaping danger, slowing fleeing enemies, or occasionally saving allies. Use Discord Strike as a tool to fuck up anyone with the audacity to approach you. In teamfights, use Lightning Surge to poke from complete safety before the fight begins, then use it after the fight starts to shred multiple enemies at once. If the enemies are too scattered to burst with Lightning Surge, use Telekinesis to yank one out towards your team. If an enemy dives your squishy characters, use Discord Strike to punish them.
None of this requires much of a sense of timing, twitchy reactions, or even situational awareness, and personal risk to Alarak is minimized. You don't need to be comfortable with Discord Strike and Telekinesis to make the playstyle work, but it does give enough practice with them that if you want to switch over to a combo build you'll be in a much better position to do so.
I don't know how much the rework has changed this, though. I'd love to get my hands on him permanently, but I've been putting off actually purchasing him.
Lightning Surge Alarak fell off in damage as the game went on generally in my experience. He's a strong lane bully early but late game you are gonna need to be comboing people to get your damage on and secure kills.
It's slightly worse now I'd say in that the talents are somewhat better, but everything depends on those centre shots that just aren't reliable enough. You no longer have the cooldown reduction either and can't take any of the new CD reduction talents because they conflict with vital tiers for the E build. And that cooldown reduction was a huge power increase for an Alarak building around E.
Theoretically it's more powerful now but practically it's unreliable imo.
Also, I have descended into MMR hell. My winrate is absolutely tanking (like 3 out of the last 20 games tanking) and it's basically 75% moron teammates.
And to some extent, it's not even their fault since there's no reason I should be matched with these morons.
And yet, this is what games look like:
I am literally 5x some of these people's levels.
And this isn't even the worst ones, it's just the ones I finally decided to screenshot. I was matched with double digit level groups last night.
So D. Va: Hit or Shit? I can't seem to make her work so far. Meka can't tank, does garbage damage, the self destruct is more or less easily avoidable/super-situational to the point of basically robbing you of a third ability for the majority of the time. Pilot mode is a stripped down dumpster fire version of a very basic AP hero with no abilities until late game and near zero survivability. Defense matrix is worthless due to the small size and how it doesn't track enemies, or allow you to rotate letting enemies just walk right past you and smack you for full damage.
She can't tank, can't mitigate unless your opponent is brain dead, goes long periods without an E ability (which can also be easily avoided, and can be affected by player state altering abilities like chain grabs) and has no survivability in pilot mode until late game and even then that's only if you took torpedo dash (which is on what, a 16 second cool down? Arguably the Pew! Pew! Pew! ability counts as a survivability tool as well since it lets you have decent poke that lowers your Meka cooldown)
She CAN do damage... If the enemy is stupid or if your team runs interference for you, but her range is incredibly short outside of an upgrade you can't afford to take at high levels of play.
Am I playing her wrong? Is there some hidden potential here that I'm missing or am I correct in regretting spending my gold on her?
@WingedWeasel told me the other night that he was thinking about playing Stitches more lately, and I know that @Dibby has always told me that Stitches was one of those characters that's always been kind of a blind spot for him. So, I figured I'd take some time to do a little write-up on him, since he's by far my most played, and likely most successful warrior:
The big thing that I think people underestimate about Stitches is his damage; it is actually really good. He isn't a burst-damage assassin by any means, but Slam builds will wear an enemy team out pretty quickly with sustained AoE. Mega Smash at 13 causes his W to hit half the screen, and with Pulverize at 16 drops it down to a 6 second cooldown that applies a 75% slow (which is massive). Even without Hungry For More, Stitches is a walking blob of hit points that can Devour for a 20% self-heal, so he can trade and poke like a champ. In addition, a fully tricked-out Slam will essentially one-shot a minion wave (several minions will survive with slivers of HP remaining), so he's extremely good at wave clear. And his Hook can be utilized to force pick-offs on vulnerable heroes, which can lead to huge late-game momentum shifts. I typically take Gorge over Putrid Bile (and Blink later on) because I like being able to Hook someone back to me, Gorge them in, Blink back even further, and then lock them down with my team (remember I can slow them by 75% every 6 seconds).
Heavy Slam at 1 increases Slam damage by 50%
Putrid Ground at 4 allows Slam to apply Vile Gas
Toxic Gas at 7 increases Vile Gas' damage by 50%
Gorge or Putrid Bile at 10
Mega Smash at 13 increases the range and arc of Slam by 25% (Flea Bag is a great alternative, as it will instantly reset the cooldown on Slam if Stitches gets stunned, provided you also have ...)
Pulverize at 16, which reduces the cooldown on Slam by 2 seconds and causes it to apply a 75% slow for 1 second
Blink is my go-to at 20, but Hardened Shield is also great, and if you go Putrid Bile I think Regenerative Bile is a great upgrade - I rarely find Hungry, Hungry Stitches to be beneficial
I can play Stitches as a solo warrior, but I prefer not to. Instead, I think he fits best as a second (or even third) warrior, best utilized as a sustained damage dealer and wave clearer, capable of scoring huge picks against low-mobility heroes.
That sounds like the slam build I use as well. I just don't usually feel what people play in QM aligns with stitches. Then again I'm not sure he really works with my playstyle anyway. It feels weird playing without more hard cc.
Edit: to clarify I mean both what my teammates pick and what the others team picks.
I am planning to redo my favorites, and since you can only have 10 just exclusively play those I think. 4 warriors (anub'arak, arthas, stitches, Dehaka), 3 assassins (Sylvanas - I know technically specialist, gul'dan, ragnaros), and some healers (malfurion,BW,rehgar).
I've been kinda feeling around on a bunch of heroes lately and not really happy with the way things have been going. I want to play more abathur and tlv but it just doesn't come together in QM. I have some very pointed problems I want to correct the on these heroes so hopefully this will let me focus.
So D. Va: Hit or Shit? I can't seem to make her work so far. Meka can't tank, does garbage damage, the self destruct is more or less easily avoidable/super-situational to the point of basically robbing you of a third ability for the majority of the time. Pilot mode is a stripped down dumpster fire version of a very basic AP hero with no abilities until late game and near zero survivability. Defense matrix is worthless due to the small size and how it doesn't track enemies, or allow you to rotate letting enemies just walk right past you and smack you for full damage.
She can't tank, can't mitigate unless your opponent is brain dead, goes long periods without an E ability (which can also be easily avoided, and can be affected by player state altering abilities like chain grabs) and has no survivability in pilot mode until late game and even then that's only if you took torpedo dash (which is on what, a 16 second cool down? Arguably the Pew! Pew! Pew! ability counts as a survivability tool as well since it lets you have decent poke that lowers your Meka cooldown)
She CAN do damage... If the enemy is stupid or if your team runs interference for you, but her range is incredibly short outside of an upgrade you can't afford to take at high levels of play.
Am I playing her wrong? Is there some hidden potential here that I'm missing or am I correct in regretting spending my gold on her?
D. Va seems super OP in my tier (scrub tier) specifically because people will focus her to the exclusion of literally everything in the world, not realizing she's going to have 3 health bars. I'm hoping people learn to treat the bot as a tank.
D.Va has solid damage, but she can't focus it on one person in mech mode. Her boosters are really good all around and can do a lot of things for her. Matrix will win fights if you can get their assassins under it when they unload.
So D. Va: Hit or Shit? I can't seem to make her work so far. Meka can't tank, does garbage damage, the self destruct is more or less easily avoidable/super-situational to the point of basically robbing you of a third ability for the majority of the time. Pilot mode is a stripped down dumpster fire version of a very basic AP hero with no abilities until late game and near zero survivability. Defense matrix is worthless due to the small size and how it doesn't track enemies, or allow you to rotate letting enemies just walk right past you and smack you for full damage.
She can't tank, can't mitigate unless your opponent is brain dead, goes long periods without an E ability (which can also be easily avoided, and can be affected by player state altering abilities like chain grabs) and has no survivability in pilot mode until late game and even then that's only if you took torpedo dash (which is on what, a 16 second cool down? Arguably the Pew! Pew! Pew! ability counts as a survivability tool as well since it lets you have decent poke that lowers your Meka cooldown)
She CAN do damage... If the enemy is stupid or if your team runs interference for you, but her range is incredibly short outside of an upgrade you can't afford to take at high levels of play.
Am I playing her wrong? Is there some hidden potential here that I'm missing or am I correct in regretting spending my gold on her?
I've been watching a lot of D.Va play and I've played her a lil bit myself and here's what I can tell you:
she gud. like real gud.
Okay, so let's address these issues one by one, cause there's a lot to dissect here.
1. "Meka can't tank." Yes and no. Yes, she is not a "tank" in the primary sense of the word. She's very much an off-tank, she is not and never will be a main-tank. However, she gets MUCH tankier at 13 with either Ablative Armor or Expensive Plating. Her main strength insofar as tanking isn't necessarily being a tank, it's making the enemy team waste all their buttons on you. D.Va has multiple health bars, and utilizing these multiple health bars is key to success. You can be extremely aggressive with your play when in Meka, and then your team will be able to clean up when you pop out into Pilot. Enemy team will be battered and low on mana and without buttons.
2. "[Meka] does garbage damage." Again, yes and no. Honestly I feel like D.Va's Meka is one of the best waveclear tanks in the game right now. Her autoattack is ridiculous for clearing waves. You can clear all three front/backline minions at the same time, and it's pretty fast. It's extremely efficient because it uses no mana. So her siege/PVE damage is great. Now, vs other Heroes? Not as great, sure. But her main strength is just being able to stick on someone. If you can catch someone out at low health, and they don't have an escape, they dead. Her damage doesn't seem like much vs other Heroes but it does add up. It's constant and fast and she can AA while moving. No other tank can do that. Aside from her Meka AA though, Boosters also deals a lot of damage with Nitrous.
3. "Self Destruct is more or less easily avoidable." Yes. The primary function of this ability is zoning. Think if Gazlowe's bombs were the size of the entire screen. That's the function there. Occasionally, yes, you'll hit someone. But it's best used to force the enemy team away from the location. It's great when they're pushing in on towers/forts, it's great to drop on objectives, it's great to use when they're trying to do/invade Boss. It's very versatile.
4. "Pilot mode is a stripped down dumpster fire version of a very basic AP hero." Whew, okay, so. Pilot Mode's DPS is through the roof. Like it's ridiculously high. And for a Tank to be able to become a ranged Assassin? And stay a ranged Assassin for as long as you need/want to? That's huge. Even without GG WP, D.Va does a ton of damage. Then you get GG WP and she becomes a monster. She's even better for sieging at this point, she will shred through towers and forts and objective bosses. Big Shot gives her super long range poke. And then at 20 with Pew Pew Pew she can just SHRED people.
5. "[...] with no abilities until late game and near zero survivability." Ehh, not quite. She actually has a TON of survivability in Pilot form... assuming you're playing at a safe distance and poking with autos and Big Shot. How does she have a ton of survivability? Call Meka. Again, multiple health bars. Imagine this scenario: You're in Meka, you get blown up. You eject, and you're able to safely run away. You start poking in with Big Shot, shaving off the CD of Call Meka. But oh no, someone jumps you! You stand there and just auto the fuck out of them and then Call Meka at the last moment. Full health again. Now you can stick on them with Meka autos. You chase after them with Boosters. Oops, maybe you get blown up again. But now you're on your 3rd health bar and you snipe the kill with Big Shot. Plus there's also Nanoweave Suit if you really need it, and that talent is super duper good.
6. "Defense matrix is worthless." Noooo no no no no. Defense Matrix is one of her best abilities. I've easily prevented over 1000 damage with it before. It's all about positioning for this. If enemies walk right past you then you weren't positioned correctly. You have to like, come in from the side or a flank with it rather than popping it while frontlining. You can also move while it's up and keep people in it with the edges of its hitbox. Difficult but doable if you cast it in the right position. But like, if a Butcher charges in on my squishy teammate, I just Matrix him and he can't do anything. Matrix utterly screws over melee Heroes and it's fantastic. Also there's the talent that slows Heroes inside it, if you really need to keep them there.
So anyway, that all aside, let's talk about D.Va's role for a sec. She's not a tank, yes. She's a dive/chase Bruiser. She works best in two-tank scenarios because you have your main CC/peel tank frontlining and then you have D.Va providing backup. She can hit Boosters, charge into the enemy team and knock them back, loop around and knock a priority target into your team instead. Then you position yourself in front of them to bodyblock and they die. Boosters is by far her single best ability. It's engage, it's disengage, it's an escape, it's a pick tool. It's super versatile. It screws with the enemy's positioning so, so much.
Watch some D.Va streams if you can, you will learn a lot about her playstyle.
Also, addressing the "D.Va does no damage thing" for a sec...
Two very different games, but I pumped out a ton of damage. That first one dragged on forever and we had no healer and lots of deaths, but I was 2nd highest damage on my team, below our Nazeebo.
So D. Va: Hit or Shit? I can't seem to make her work so far. Meka can't tank, does garbage damage, the self destruct is more or less easily avoidable/super-situational to the point of basically robbing you of a third ability for the majority of the time. Pilot mode is a stripped down dumpster fire version of a very basic AP hero with no abilities until late game and near zero survivability. Defense matrix is worthless due to the small size and how it doesn't track enemies, or allow you to rotate letting enemies just walk right past you and smack you for full damage.
She can't tank, can't mitigate unless your opponent is brain dead, goes long periods without an E ability (which can also be easily avoided, and can be affected by player state altering abilities like chain grabs) and has no survivability in pilot mode until late game and even then that's only if you took torpedo dash (which is on what, a 16 second cool down? Arguably the Pew! Pew! Pew! ability counts as a survivability tool as well since it lets you have decent poke that lowers your Meka cooldown)
She CAN do damage... If the enemy is stupid or if your team runs interference for you, but her range is incredibly short outside of an upgrade you can't afford to take at high levels of play.
Am I playing her wrong? Is there some hidden potential here that I'm missing or am I correct in regretting spending my gold on her?
When I play D.Va, I generally lead the team is Siege Damage and Damage Taken, and end up around 22-25% hero damage, which sometimes leads and sometimes doesn't. She's ridic. It's all about dem extra healthbars.
D.Va is also an AMAZING solo laner on 2 lane 4v1 splits, due to no mana issues and healthbar resets.
XBL: Morgan Coke Yes, there is a space, not an underscore. I'm old school like that.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
I find d.va very easy to deal with in draft modes. Her damage is so bad double support crushes her, and characters like malf or zeratul ensure she has no extra healthbars.
Zeratul is my favorite since post 7 using self destruct near him means you just die.
I may just be seeing bad dvas, but I run into a lot that are "never dying" and keep calling down new mechs, but just keep feeding an unending stream of half-deaths when their mechs die.
3DS Friend Code:
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
So D. Va: Hit or Shit? I can't seem to make her work so far. Meka can't tank, does garbage damage, the self destruct is more or less easily avoidable/super-situational to the point of basically robbing you of a third ability for the majority of the time. Pilot mode is a stripped down dumpster fire version of a very basic AP hero with no abilities until late game and near zero survivability. Defense matrix is worthless due to the small size and how it doesn't track enemies, or allow you to rotate letting enemies just walk right past you and smack you for full damage.
She can't tank, can't mitigate unless your opponent is brain dead, goes long periods without an E ability (which can also be easily avoided, and can be affected by player state altering abilities like chain grabs) and has no survivability in pilot mode until late game and even then that's only if you took torpedo dash (which is on what, a 16 second cool down? Arguably the Pew! Pew! Pew! ability counts as a survivability tool as well since it lets you have decent poke that lowers your Meka cooldown)
She CAN do damage... If the enemy is stupid or if your team runs interference for you, but her range is incredibly short outside of an upgrade you can't afford to take at high levels of play.
Am I playing her wrong? Is there some hidden potential here that I'm missing or am I correct in regretting spending my gold on her?
When I play D.Va, I generally lead the team is Siege Damage and Damage Taken, and end up around 22-25% hero damage, which sometimes leads and sometimes doesn't. She's ridic. It's all about dem extra healthbars.
D.Va is also an AMAZING solo laner on 2 lane 4v1 splits, due to no mana issues and healthbar resets.
Testifying: Morgan puts out a lot of siege as D.Va. She's comparable to Xul when he's on her.
I still haven't seen one really own a teamfight, but I'm pretty sure as Dibby was saying her biggest impact there is as a giant distraction and buffer in the way that Leoric and Zarya tend to be.
I find d.va very easy to deal with in draft modes. Her damage is so bad double support crushes her, and characters like malf or zeratul ensure she has no extra healthbars.
Zeratul is my favorite since post 7 using self destruct near him means you just die.
Then those are bad D.Va's. Good ones would be doing the "Wandering Keg" bit to isolate someone from those double supports, then rolling your team with the resulting advantage.
@General_Armchair Those aren't necessarily bad D.Va's. Yeah, you're getting exp off of them, but their team is also never down a person. That's huge. Now, if that D.Va isn't contributing anything to the fights, then yes, they're worthless, but if they are.. it's strongk.
Also, one really good use of Self-Destruct is to go in with boosters and split up the enemy team, then activate it, so the 2-3 guys close to your team have the choice of walking across the explosion and taking damage, or getting picked by your team.
That is one HUGE drawback to D.Va, she requires her team to take advantage of her plays and setups, and a lot of the time, especially with whatever's been going on lately, that just won't happen.
XBL: Morgan Coke Yes, there is a space, not an underscore. I'm old school like that.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
It comes down to how much the Dva is earning compared to how much she's giving away with her half deaths. Some can be getting their money's worth, but the potential is there for her to feed a lot of XP by accumulating a large death score without achieving much to show for it.
Dva needs to make certain that she's making trades that are in her favor.
In pugs I see a lot of dvas with more deaths than the rest of the team combined. That's a lot of XP and a lot of extra weight Dva needs to pull to compensate for.
General_Armchair on
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Nova has a talent that lets her move at 125% movement speed compared to a mounted player's 130%, otherwise it doesn't make her move any slower. Orbital Strike (I'm assuming that's what you mean by ion cannon) is global.
This was at the START OF THE MATCH
Its a level 1 talent. Unless you mean she was using orbital strike at the start.
Also, she could've just popped a decoy and went to a different lane without ever unstealthing. On smaller maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen, the distance between lanes is mere seconds, especially at 125% move speed.
Nobody here is saying that you are lying, Brain. But there's a really high burden of proof if you're saying that a game like HotS, which is online-only and is itself based on a very robust SC2 engine, has somehow been hacked such that players can spam heroics on instant cooldowns. Not to mention the Blizz Launcher Warden itself has a ton of built-in hacking preventions.
Have you watched the replay yet? It should be very apparent if Nova is transporting herself across lanes at superfast speeds or if Illidan is using Hunt when it shouldn't be available.
I have watched it and I was shocked to see the nova swapping places with the hologram and illidan not being as squishy as you would think using hunt often
I did not face the butcher but he had the glowy 100 blood weapon from the start
Nova had the orbit strike from the start of the match I thought something was wrong when she used it at level 6
So I had to write a long letter to blizzard reporting the team and where you can find the fishy stuff in the video
It was the fastest reply I ever got
This was the crow curse map
Would you be able to post the replay file for this? I'd be curious to see what's going on.
It comes down to how much the Dva is earning compared to how much she's giving away with her half deaths. Some can be getting their money's worth, but the potential is there for her to feed a lot of XP by accumulating a large death score without achieving much to show for it.
Dva needs to make certain that she's making trades that are in her favor.
In pugs I see a lot of dvas with more deaths than the rest of the team combined. That's a lot of XP and a lot of extra weight Dva needs to pull to compensate for.
Also, I will say, it is NEVER worth dying in Meka form early game. That affords you nothing and gives the enemy team half exp of a kill, which is pretty substantial early on (and potentially lands your dumb butt in danger).
For early game, treat Meka like a normal Hero; have that fear of dying instilled in you. THEN when you hit mid/late game, start treating it like an extra health bar.
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
It comes down to how much the Dva is earning compared to how much she's giving away with her half deaths. Some can be getting their money's worth, but the potential is there for her to feed a lot of XP by accumulating a large death score without achieving much to show for it.
Dva needs to make certain that she's making trades that are in her favor.
In pugs I see a lot of dvas with more deaths than the rest of the team combined. That's a lot of XP and a lot of extra weight Dva needs to pull to compensate for.
Also, I will say, it is NEVER worth dying in Meka form early game. That affords you nothing and gives the enemy team half exp of a kill, which is pretty substantial early on (and potentially lands your dumb butt in danger).
For early game, treat Meka like a normal Hero; have that fear of dying instilled in you. THEN when you hit mid/late game, start treating it like an extra health bar.
She's a bit like Murky in that regard - you can trade, but you have to make sure that you're getting value for it. You can't just feed mindlessly.
I find d.va very easy to deal with in draft modes. Her damage is so bad double support crushes her, and characters like malf or zeratul ensure she has no extra healthbars.
Zeratul is my favorite since post 7 using self destruct near him means you just die.
Then those are bad D.Va's. Good ones would be doing the "Wandering Keg" bit to isolate someone from those double supports, then rolling your team with the resulting advantage.
@General_Armchair Those aren't necessarily bad D.Va's. Yeah, you're getting exp off of them, but their team is also never down a person. That's huge. Now, if that D.Va isn't contributing anything to the fights, then yes, they're worthless, but if they are.. it's strongk.
Also, one really good use of Self-Destruct is to go in with boosters and split up the enemy team, then activate it, so the 2-3 guys close to your team have the choice of walking across the explosion and taking damage, or getting picked by your team.
That is one HUGE drawback to D.Va, she requires her team to take advantage of her plays and setups, and a lot of the time, especially with whatever's been going on lately, that just won't happen.
Even with double distance D.va's displacement is very small in teamfights and not nearly enough to isolate properly positioned teams especially since they have to 4v5 on damage. Additionally she isn't unstoppable during boosters, so if she dives into a team she's extremely vulnerable to stuns and roots and then she instantly pops and dies.
She's strong against heroes that have to use cooldowns to kill her mech so then can't finish her, but mages are so weak right now in general compared to double support and double warrior I don't feel she's super threatening.
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
I think I'll probably hold off on the Welcome bundle until the next hero comes out since there are only 4 heroes I don't know right now, so chances I might get the new hero should be decent.
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ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
I think I'll probably hold off on the Welcome bundle until the next hero comes out since there are only 4 heroes I don't know right now, so chances I might get the new hero should be decent.
Are they still releasing heroes about every 2-3 weeks?
OK, Alarak experiment was a complete bust last night. Over 3 games, I didn't land a single kill and died about 3-4 time each game. Of course this was QM, so the MM wasn't doing me any favors. He feels a lot like Thrall, another character I'm terrible with.
I watched some videos of wrecking with him, but I couldn't pull it off. Never completed any quests, partially because I have no idea where the center of the lighting is, which lead to pitiful damage output. No way to get close to AA either. I don't know, I'm probably just playing him wrong.
Switched to Kerrigan for 2 games and didn't fare much better. Q, W, E combo into my own death was sad. Again QM wasn't helping though with no Support or Tanks to help.
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Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
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Ok, this makes me feel better. Maybe I'm just over committing with her booster most of the time, but for the most part it feels like the Meka gets shredded any time I boost into enemy players. I still feel like pilot form is shoehorned into focusing on not dying and staying away from fights until you get Pew!. That and Pew! is basically required in play beyond mid level because bunny hop does terrible damage and seems to paint a target on me when I use it since I have only ever managed to pull off bunny hop for it's entire duration against medium difficulty bots.
OK, Alarak experiment was a complete bust last night. Over 3 games, I didn't land a single kill and died about 3-4 time each game. Of course this was QM, so the MM wasn't doing me any favors. He feels a lot like Thrall, another character I'm terrible with.
I watched some videos of wrecking with him, but I couldn't pull it off. Never completed any quests, partially because I have no idea where the center of the lighting is, which lead to pitiful damage output. No way to get close to AA either. I don't know, I'm probably just playing him wrong.
Switched to Kerrigan for 2 games and didn't fare much better. Q, W, E combo into my own death was sad. Again QM wasn't helping though with no Support or Tanks to help.
Try practicing the combo and e centre strikes in try mode before you start playing. The range on w and e can take time to get a sense for. But don't force it, if you don't enjoy a hero that style might not just be for you right now.
So, I'm interested in helping put together another PA tournament. How does Saturday, June 10th sound? I'm open to changing weekends if that doesn't work. But, just polling for interest, how many folks might be available on that date?
Ok, this makes me feel better. Maybe I'm just over committing with her booster most of the time, but for the most part it feels like the Meka gets shredded any time I boost into enemy players. I still feel like pilot form is shoehorned into focusing on not dying and staying away from fights until you get Pew!. That and Pew! is basically required in play beyond mid level because bunny hop does terrible damage and seems to paint a target on me when I use it since I have only ever managed to pull off bunny hop for it's entire duration against medium difficulty bots.
Never boost into enemy players. Do the D.Va loop. Go in a 3/4 circle from your starting position hitting the other team and then come back to yours. Depending on how they're standing, you can often isolate one near your team.
XBL: Morgan Coke Yes, there is a space, not an underscore. I'm old school like that.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
So, I'm interested in helping put together another PA tournament. How does Saturday, June 10th sound? I'm open to changing weekends if that doesn't work. But, just polling for interest, how many folks might be available on that date?
So, I'm interested in helping put together another PA tournament. How does Saturday, June 10th sound? I'm open to changing weekends if that doesn't work. But, just polling for interest, how many folks might be available on that date?
I think I'll probably hold off on the Welcome bundle until the next hero comes out since there are only 4 heroes I don't know right now, so chances I might get the new hero should be decent.
You can just buy it now and not open the Welcome Chest.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
So, I'm interested in helping put together another PA tournament. How does Saturday, June 10th sound? I'm open to changing weekends if that doesn't work. But, just polling for interest, how many folks might be available on that date?
Depending on the timing, I should be. Can't really do evenings Saturdays but if it's similar to where Dover's been aiming I'm good.
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At least before the rework, Alarak's difficulty appeared to be dependent on how you played him. If you went for Discord Strike combos then yeah, he was a pain to learn.
Lightning Surge Alarak, on the other hand, was easy. All you had to do was stand back and poke enemies over and over. If you can catch something behind them or use the lighting to clear out a wave of minions that's all the better, but even if you can't you've still done a bit of damage and gained a bit of healing at nearly zero cost. Forget about using Telekinesis for comboing, reserve it for escaping danger, slowing fleeing enemies, or occasionally saving allies. Use Discord Strike as a tool to fuck up anyone with the audacity to approach you. In teamfights, use Lightning Surge to poke from complete safety before the fight begins, then use it after the fight starts to shred multiple enemies at once. If the enemies are too scattered to burst with Lightning Surge, use Telekinesis to yank one out towards your team. If an enemy dives your squishy characters, use Discord Strike to punish them.
None of this requires much of a sense of timing, twitchy reactions, or even situational awareness, and personal risk to Alarak is minimized. You don't need to be comfortable with Discord Strike and Telekinesis to make the playstyle work, but it does give enough practice with them that if you want to switch over to a combo build you'll be in a much better position to do so.
I don't know how much the rework has changed this, though. I'd love to get my hands on him permanently, but I've been putting off actually purchasing him.
The only real nerf to it was the removal of the cooldown reduction so you can't get 2 second cooldown Surges anymore. But now it hits like a train to center targets so it evens out.
Excellent, especially the Sadism stack thing. The best part of the pre-patch build for me was rolling my eyes whenever one of my teammates somehow managed to let the enemy kill them, then consoling myself with the fact that at least their deaths were making me stronger.
You actually want a new talent called Rite of Rakshir instead, which places a mark on a target that gives you 3% Sadism every time you Discord them, or 6% when you kill them and the cooldown is reduced to 10 seconds. (Normally 300 seconds)
The ally death talent only goes to 30%, but Rite goes to something bonkers like 400%. (though you'll never realistically hit that level)
You also get a talent at 16 that lets you cast a second free Surge when you hit any hero with the center. Now it says "on a different primary target", but I've been able to rapidly fire off a two-surge burst on the same target without much issue. It might be a bug.
Lightning Surge Alarak fell off in damage as the game went on generally in my experience. He's a strong lane bully early but late game you are gonna need to be comboing people to get your damage on and secure kills.
It's slightly worse now I'd say in that the talents are somewhat better, but everything depends on those centre shots that just aren't reliable enough. You no longer have the cooldown reduction either and can't take any of the new CD reduction talents because they conflict with vital tiers for the E build. And that cooldown reduction was a huge power increase for an Alarak building around E.
Theoretically it's more powerful now but practically it's unreliable imo.
And to some extent, it's not even their fault since there's no reason I should be matched with these morons.
And yet, this is what games look like:
I am literally 5x some of these people's levels.
And this isn't even the worst ones, it's just the ones I finally decided to screenshot. I was matched with double digit level groups last night.
This wasn't happening only like 2 weeks ago.
She can't tank, can't mitigate unless your opponent is brain dead, goes long periods without an E ability (which can also be easily avoided, and can be affected by player state altering abilities like chain grabs) and has no survivability in pilot mode until late game and even then that's only if you took torpedo dash (which is on what, a 16 second cool down? Arguably the Pew! Pew! Pew! ability counts as a survivability tool as well since it lets you have decent poke that lowers your Meka cooldown)
She CAN do damage... If the enemy is stupid or if your team runs interference for you, but her range is incredibly short outside of an upgrade you can't afford to take at high levels of play.
Am I playing her wrong? Is there some hidden potential here that I'm missing or am I correct in regretting spending my gold on her?
That sounds like the slam build I use as well. I just don't usually feel what people play in QM aligns with stitches. Then again I'm not sure he really works with my playstyle anyway. It feels weird playing without more hard cc.
Edit: to clarify I mean both what my teammates pick and what the others team picks.
I am planning to redo my favorites, and since you can only have 10 just exclusively play those I think. 4 warriors (anub'arak, arthas, stitches, Dehaka), 3 assassins (Sylvanas - I know technically specialist, gul'dan, ragnaros), and some healers (malfurion,BW,rehgar).
I've been kinda feeling around on a bunch of heroes lately and not really happy with the way things have been going. I want to play more abathur and tlv but it just doesn't come together in QM. I have some very pointed problems I want to correct the on these heroes so hopefully this will let me focus.
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D. Va seems super OP in my tier (scrub tier) specifically because people will focus her to the exclusion of literally everything in the world, not realizing she's going to have 3 health bars. I'm hoping people learn to treat the bot as a tank.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
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Been away for 4-5 months due to reasons and not playing Heroes was necessary at the time.
Have a couple of free days so I decided to try this again.
What the hell did y'all do to this game?
(rhetorical question)
Azmodunk is still the slam jam though, so it's OK.
But yeah, I have like 60K gold, 6K gems, and 4K shards or something, iirc.
Nothing crucial to spend it on, right?
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wra
I've been watching a lot of D.Va play and I've played her a lil bit myself and here's what I can tell you:
she gud. like real gud.
Okay, so let's address these issues one by one, cause there's a lot to dissect here.
1. "Meka can't tank." Yes and no. Yes, she is not a "tank" in the primary sense of the word. She's very much an off-tank, she is not and never will be a main-tank. However, she gets MUCH tankier at 13 with either Ablative Armor or Expensive Plating. Her main strength insofar as tanking isn't necessarily being a tank, it's making the enemy team waste all their buttons on you. D.Va has multiple health bars, and utilizing these multiple health bars is key to success. You can be extremely aggressive with your play when in Meka, and then your team will be able to clean up when you pop out into Pilot. Enemy team will be battered and low on mana and without buttons.
2. "[Meka] does garbage damage." Again, yes and no. Honestly I feel like D.Va's Meka is one of the best waveclear tanks in the game right now. Her autoattack is ridiculous for clearing waves. You can clear all three front/backline minions at the same time, and it's pretty fast. It's extremely efficient because it uses no mana. So her siege/PVE damage is great. Now, vs other Heroes? Not as great, sure. But her main strength is just being able to stick on someone. If you can catch someone out at low health, and they don't have an escape, they dead. Her damage doesn't seem like much vs other Heroes but it does add up. It's constant and fast and she can AA while moving. No other tank can do that. Aside from her Meka AA though, Boosters also deals a lot of damage with Nitrous.
3. "Self Destruct is more or less easily avoidable." Yes. The primary function of this ability is zoning. Think if Gazlowe's bombs were the size of the entire screen. That's the function there. Occasionally, yes, you'll hit someone. But it's best used to force the enemy team away from the location. It's great when they're pushing in on towers/forts, it's great to drop on objectives, it's great to use when they're trying to do/invade Boss. It's very versatile.
4. "Pilot mode is a stripped down dumpster fire version of a very basic AP hero." Whew, okay, so. Pilot Mode's DPS is through the roof. Like it's ridiculously high. And for a Tank to be able to become a ranged Assassin? And stay a ranged Assassin for as long as you need/want to? That's huge. Even without GG WP, D.Va does a ton of damage. Then you get GG WP and she becomes a monster. She's even better for sieging at this point, she will shred through towers and forts and objective bosses. Big Shot gives her super long range poke. And then at 20 with Pew Pew Pew she can just SHRED people.
5. "[...] with no abilities until late game and near zero survivability." Ehh, not quite. She actually has a TON of survivability in Pilot form... assuming you're playing at a safe distance and poking with autos and Big Shot. How does she have a ton of survivability? Call Meka. Again, multiple health bars. Imagine this scenario: You're in Meka, you get blown up. You eject, and you're able to safely run away. You start poking in with Big Shot, shaving off the CD of Call Meka. But oh no, someone jumps you! You stand there and just auto the fuck out of them and then Call Meka at the last moment. Full health again. Now you can stick on them with Meka autos. You chase after them with Boosters. Oops, maybe you get blown up again. But now you're on your 3rd health bar and you snipe the kill with Big Shot. Plus there's also Nanoweave Suit if you really need it, and that talent is super duper good.
6. "Defense matrix is worthless." Noooo no no no no. Defense Matrix is one of her best abilities. I've easily prevented over 1000 damage with it before. It's all about positioning for this. If enemies walk right past you then you weren't positioned correctly. You have to like, come in from the side or a flank with it rather than popping it while frontlining. You can also move while it's up and keep people in it with the edges of its hitbox. Difficult but doable if you cast it in the right position. But like, if a Butcher charges in on my squishy teammate, I just Matrix him and he can't do anything. Matrix utterly screws over melee Heroes and it's fantastic. Also there's the talent that slows Heroes inside it, if you really need to keep them there.
So anyway, that all aside, let's talk about D.Va's role for a sec. She's not a tank, yes. She's a dive/chase Bruiser. She works best in two-tank scenarios because you have your main CC/peel tank frontlining and then you have D.Va providing backup. She can hit Boosters, charge into the enemy team and knock them back, loop around and knock a priority target into your team instead. Then you position yourself in front of them to bodyblock and they die. Boosters is by far her single best ability. It's engage, it's disengage, it's an escape, it's a pick tool. It's super versatile. It screws with the enemy's positioning so, so much.
Watch some D.Va streams if you can, you will learn a lot about her playstyle.
Also, addressing the "D.Va does no damage thing" for a sec...
Two very different games, but I pumped out a ton of damage. That first one dragged on forever and we had no healer and lots of deaths, but I was 2nd highest damage on my team, below our Nazeebo.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
When I play D.Va, I generally lead the team is Siege Damage and Damage Taken, and end up around 22-25% hero damage, which sometimes leads and sometimes doesn't. She's ridic. It's all about dem extra healthbars.
D.Va is also an AMAZING solo laner on 2 lane 4v1 splits, due to no mana issues and healthbar resets.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Titan's Creed: Jump first, don't ask questions, punch everything
Zeratul is my favorite since post 7 using self destruct near him means you just die.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Testifying: Morgan puts out a lot of siege as D.Va. She's comparable to Xul when he's on her.
I still haven't seen one really own a teamfight, but I'm pretty sure as Dibby was saying her biggest impact there is as a giant distraction and buffer in the way that Leoric and Zarya tend to be.
Then those are bad D.Va's. Good ones would be doing the "Wandering Keg" bit to isolate someone from those double supports, then rolling your team with the resulting advantage.
@General_Armchair Those aren't necessarily bad D.Va's. Yeah, you're getting exp off of them, but their team is also never down a person. That's huge. Now, if that D.Va isn't contributing anything to the fights, then yes, they're worthless, but if they are.. it's strongk.
Also, one really good use of Self-Destruct is to go in with boosters and split up the enemy team, then activate it, so the 2-3 guys close to your team have the choice of walking across the explosion and taking damage, or getting picked by your team.
That is one HUGE drawback to D.Va, she requires her team to take advantage of her plays and setups, and a lot of the time, especially with whatever's been going on lately, that just won't happen.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Titan's Creed: Jump first, don't ask questions, punch everything
Dva needs to make certain that she's making trades that are in her favor.
In pugs I see a lot of dvas with more deaths than the rest of the team combined. That's a lot of XP and a lot of extra weight Dva needs to pull to compensate for.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Would you be able to post the replay file for this? I'd be curious to see what's going on.
Also, I will say, it is NEVER worth dying in Meka form early game. That affords you nothing and gives the enemy team half exp of a kill, which is pretty substantial early on (and potentially lands your dumb butt in danger).
For early game, treat Meka like a normal Hero; have that fear of dying instilled in you. THEN when you hit mid/late game, start treating it like an extra health bar.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
She's a bit like Murky in that regard - you can trade, but you have to make sure that you're getting value for it. You can't just feed mindlessly.
Even with double distance D.va's displacement is very small in teamfights and not nearly enough to isolate properly positioned teams especially since they have to 4v5 on damage. Additionally she isn't unstoppable during boosters, so if she dives into a team she's extremely vulnerable to stuns and roots and then she instantly pops and dies.
She's strong against heroes that have to use cooldowns to kill her mech so then can't finish her, but mages are so weak right now in general compared to double support and double warrior I don't feel she's super threatening.
Are they still releasing heroes about every 2-3 weeks?
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On a related note: A LEVEL 5 ACCOUNT IN MY GAME?!?!?! WTF BLIZZARD?!?!?!
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Titan's Creed: Jump first, don't ask questions, punch everything
I hope you reported!
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I watched some videos of wrecking with him, but I couldn't pull it off. Never completed any quests, partially because I have no idea where the center of the lighting is, which lead to pitiful damage output. No way to get close to AA either. I don't know, I'm probably just playing him wrong.
Switched to Kerrigan for 2 games and didn't fare much better. Q, W, E combo into my own death was sad. Again QM wasn't helping though with no Support or Tanks to help.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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I think the turnaround point was when I said "look, let's just mute and report Jaina and move on, we can still win this" - and my team did!
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Titan's Creed: Jump first, don't ask questions, punch everything
Ok, this makes me feel better. Maybe I'm just over committing with her booster most of the time, but for the most part it feels like the Meka gets shredded any time I boost into enemy players. I still feel like pilot form is shoehorned into focusing on not dying and staying away from fights until you get Pew!. That and Pew! is basically required in play beyond mid level because bunny hop does terrible damage and seems to paint a target on me when I use it since I have only ever managed to pull off bunny hop for it's entire duration against medium difficulty bots.
Try practicing the combo and e centre strikes in try mode before you start playing. The range on w and e can take time to get a sense for. But don't force it, if you don't enjoy a hero that style might not just be for you right now.
Steam: CavilatRest
Never boost into enemy players. Do the D.Va loop. Go in a 3/4 circle from your starting position hitting the other team and then come back to yours. Depending on how they're standing, you can often isolate one near your team.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Titan's Creed: Jump first, don't ask questions, punch everything
Nobody wants to play with you Butters, go home.
I should be able to do that.
You can just buy it now and not open the Welcome Chest.
Depending on the timing, I should be. Can't really do evenings Saturdays but if it's similar to where Dover's been aiming I'm good.
Steam: CavilatRest