The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
edited June 2017
Asking non-professional casters to intentionally break their flow is probably not the best idea, I'd think. Having a good running commentary is hard enough, just do you.
Asking non-professional casters to intentionally break their flow is probably not the best idea, I'd think. Having a good running commentary is hard enough, just do you.
Asking non-professional casters to intentionally break their flow is probably not the best idea, I'd think. Having a good running commentary is hard enough, just do you.
We'll just judge you excessively
:P
You joke, but this is the PA forums - judging people is a second hobby around here :P
Do we need to turn on our profanity filters for the stream commentating?
I'm asking for a friend...
I mean I'm gonna make a conscious effort not to I think
I curse like a sailor and have the BIGGEST potty mouth when I'm playing, and that's fine for that. But for something like commentating a tournament, which is more organized/serious, and has a wider audience than just ME AN' THE PALS, I think I'd wanna be a bit more professional about it :P
So I'mma keep it RATED G
FOR, UH.
GENEROSITY? B-BECAUSE I'M BEING GENEROUS IN NOT, CURSING, ALL THE TIME,
The seasonal loot box thing doesn't bother me too much since they are still adding bundles, but I do think the massive tint inflation is a lazy way to crap up loot boxes.
Like the summer boxes only really have 2 new skins, and another they roped into it, but there are almost 20 tints of those 3 skins. That's a bit silly.
Next patch adds 1 hero and 5 new no-animation-changes skins (including the second skin for Malth). And this adds up to 26 new tints.
It's kinda insane. That's a lot of lootboxes just to get back to the same shard drop rate as before the patch. And then they'll just add even more tints.
And the bigger issue is there remains little way to deal with this beyond jumping on the lootbox lottery train. The featured items are low in number and only change once per week. And the prices are complete bullshit now in many cases.
It's really clear that they are trying to milk us for money via the lootbox lottery by making it really annoyingly difficult to impossible to just buy the shit you want. And they've inflated prices on top of that.
I'm gonna wait on this summer event before I judge it but if this starts getting into some OW style bullshit, I'm gonna be pissed off. I mean, given the bundles on the PTR it seems like there's a good chance the bundle won't even include all the tints. Which leaves you wondering how the hell you get all the tints/the tints you want.
shryke on
0
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
yeah but this is a tourney of the pals so it's coo
Hey Baby Dover, the PA folks might want to curse during the stream...
No, no! Them, not me!
Well this is strange. I want to support this with an AWESOME but then I feel like I'm celebrating your kid's saddening face.
... eh, I'll do it anyway.
0
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
edited June 2017
With Auriel being in free rotation I am getting my first chance to try her and I really really like her playstyle. Problem is that I've got a wishlist of heroes worth about 64k gold and I only have a little over 20k and 1.5k gems to spend. Current wishlist: Lucio, Xul, Sonya, Morales, Auriel, D.va, Artanis
Is she good enough to spend gold/gems on or are one of the other heroes on the wishlist more important? Here's what I've got right now:
Of the free rotations I don't own Chen, Auriel, Artanis, Medivh, or Arthas
I'm trying to get a good enough roster to be ready to start tackling Hero League seriously. Which leads me to think Lucio/Morales might be more important because I am missing a sustain healer.
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Auriel is slightly niche (not super niche though, probably more broadly applicable than Morales), but when she's good she's really fucking good. Actually probably the best sustained healer in the game because if your team is doing damage, you have an AoE nuke heal every 5 seconds or some shit.
I would prioritize Auriel, Xul, Sonya, and Artanis.
They are consistently in pretty good spots, and fun.
I would probably replace Xul with Lucio tbh. While this gives you two healers, Xul is in a pretty bad spot imo. His waveclear is good, but it's outshined by heroes like Guldan (Q Build) or Nazeebo who can clear multiple waves just as effectively at range with equivalent self-sustain. I think he only works as a niche pick on maps where you can easily rotate between two lanes, so Spider Queen and BHB. His teamfight is alright, but it's still not as good as the aforementioned heroes.
Bnet: CavilatRest#1874
Steam: CavilatRest
0
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Also, I tried to play Arthas, but Johanna seems to be the better pick IMO.
I imagine that's a playstyle thing. I prefer Johanna as well, but if we're talking strictly "who's the better pick", Arthas is much more favored in higher tiers of play. But if the playstyle doesn't click, it doesn't click, and you play who you're comfortable with.
Also they don't reaaaaally fill the same role. Johanna gets people together, Arthas keeps people together. Arthas also like, does damage. But he can't interrupt channels.
All that being said I rarely see auriel busted out in hl. Your so dependent on your dmg actually doing damage, and them knowing to keep it up to get healed and not just running away/backing/fountain.
It's too hard getting paired with someone you don't know to know you'll pull it off, not that you can't, but it's a little all your eggs in one basket, and sadly for anything ranked, minimizing variance is usually better.
PSN SeGaTai
0
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
All that being said I rarely see auriel busted out in hl. Your so dependent on your dmg actually doing damage, and them knowing to keep it up to get healed and not just running away/backing/fountain.
It's too hard getting paired with someone you don't know to know you'll pull it off, not that you can't, but it's a little all your eggs in one basket, and sadly for anything ranked, minimizing variance is usually better.
That's not inherently wrong, but in that case Morales and Lucio could struggle just as much if not more, because they actually do even less damage than Auriel does. And if you don't trust someone to do damage, I wouldn't trust them to do anything with the help of Morales' beam, either. Supports are in a rough spot there in general, if I had to support I'd play planning on success rather than failure because of it.
All that being said I rarely see auriel busted out in hl. Your so dependent on your dmg actually doing damage, and them knowing to keep it up to get healed and not just running away/backing/fountain.
It's too hard getting paired with someone you don't know to know you'll pull it off, not that you can't, but it's a little all your eggs in one basket, and sadly for anything ranked, minimizing variance is usually better.
I adapted to this when I was leveling Auriel by tweaking talents so I didn't have to rely on my idiot teammates for energy.
1: Searing Light - literally refunds 30%+ of your energy every time you use it. Also awesome for securing kills.
4: Majestic Span - pretty "meh" tier, this is most useful
7: Energized Cord - this is where your heals really take off. You just get soooo much energy from even just auto-ing things. Works synergistically with 1 and 4.
10: Crystal Aegis - instantly refill your Energy bar, save someone
13: Blinding Flash/Converging Force - depends on enemy comp
16: Reservoir of Hope - you can get some ridic chunky heals and DPS once you get a few stacks built up here.
20: Shield of Hope - an extra AoE heal button that's better than Storm Shield.
XBL: Morgan Coke Yes, there is a space, not an underscore. I'm old school like that.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
I would prioritize Auriel, Xul, Sonya, and Artanis.
They are consistently in pretty good spots, and fun.
I would probably replace Xul with Lucio tbh. While this gives you two healers, Xul is in a pretty bad spot imo. His waveclear is good, but it's outshined by heroes like Guldan (Q Build) or Nazeebo who can clear multiple waves just as effectively at range with equivalent self-sustain. I think he only works as a niche pick on maps where you can easily rotate between two lanes, so Spider Queen and BHB. His teamfight is alright, but it's still not as good as the aforementioned heroes.
That's a solid point. Nazeebo does everything Xul does but better.
With malf getting kneecapped to broccoli tier, and Lucio still in garbage tier after his nerfs, Auriel, Rehgar and Uther are the only 3 general hero league supports. You should own them.
Xul is an awful character right now, he is worse at the only thing he does than Zagara and Azmodan, and they both fight better than him.
Sonya and Artanis are both good bruisers, Sonya moreso. Artanis is good against AA heavy comps because of his ult and strength against people who want to hit him. Also very strong on BoE due to Amateur Opponent.
I mean he's more than fine, he's great. He's got amazing waveclear, a ridiculously potent point-and-click CC button, some really nasty teamfight damage, and two really good Ults (although Skelly Mages is generally the better pick).
He is far from awful.
Admittedly yes, Nazeebo does kinda just do everything better than Xul (assuming Dead Rush over Spider build). But Nazeebo is Nazeebo, he's Godking of Specialist Mountain. Xul is still a very good Hero and still does his thing super well though, in spite of that.
With malf getting kneecapped to broccoli tier, and Lucio still in garbage tier after his nerfs, Auriel, Rehgar and Uther are the only 3 general hero league supports. You should own them.
Xul is an awful character right now, he is worse at the only thing he does than Zagara and Azmodan, and they both fight better than him.
Sonya and Artanis are both good bruisers, Sonya moreso. Artanis is good against AA heavy comps because of his ult and strength against people who want to hit him. Also very strong on BoE due to Amateur Opponent.
I think Khara is viable support as well, but he's definitely got a much higher skill floor with how Palm works (my favourite thing is when the person you palm takes that as an excellent opportunity to run away from all sources of dmg).
In terms of bruiser/off-tanks I would also learn Dehaka as well.
I would prioritize Auriel, Xul, Sonya, and Artanis.
They are consistently in pretty good spots, and fun.
I would probably replace Xul with Lucio tbh. While this gives you two healers, Xul is in a pretty bad spot imo. His waveclear is good, but it's outshined by heroes like Guldan (Q Build) or Nazeebo who can clear multiple waves just as effectively at range with equivalent self-sustain. I think he only works as a niche pick on maps where you can easily rotate between two lanes, so Spider Queen and BHB. His teamfight is alright, but it's still not as good as the aforementioned heroes.
That's a solid point. Nazeebo does everything Xul does but better.
I don't know about that. Xul is much better/more reliable at getting picks.
He might not be where he used to be but I've still had great luck with him as my goto pick in HL and QM. If I can pick him, I do.
I've found the guy still does his job. He pushes a lane hard but also spawns canon fodder to eat up ammo faster or push down enemy structures more quickly. At 7 when you can heal from minions, he's pretty rough in a lane. I've come back from near losses in some skirmished because people fought me in a lane where I could clear minions which then turned into skeletons which both healed me and pressured the enemy. Exploding corpse at 13 helps get even more value out of the little guys.
As far as team fights, he's great depending on what you're doing. His W punishes AA heroes. Love hurting some tanky Artanis.
He has a point and click root which sets up SO much BS if played right.
His Q scythe has been hit over the ages but its secured enough kills that I don't complain. Cost could be lowered.
Also for Team Fights, I always pick Skeletal Mages now. Never Nova. Nova is sometimes good. Mages always seems good. Controls a team fight area. Acts as an escape with the slow. And it prioritizes heroes. It's so good.
Then his free Shield, which is always the explosive one now for 15% health. Killed so many people not expecting that when it pops and its ready every Team Fight given only 30 second cooldown.
Personally, I think Xul is just fine in a "use him and have fun knowing you're not hurting your team" mindset.
But like Thrall, that pale skinned necromancer needs some talent love. He's got one build, pretty much, with a couple variances. 4 you can go mana efficient or Jailors for 2 more skeletons on your root. 16 you can go more skeletons or bone prison causing vulnerable.
20 as well is usually Mages or Bone Spear (mostly mages for me now if I usually see us securing at least 1 kill before they get one in a skirmish, and always if they have Murky or Vikings).
But generally the others are set.
Level 1 is almost always the same. 4 is only 2 options. 7 is only one. 13 is only 1. 16 is 2.
I want to see him get some love with his talents one day but I am scared they'll break what I love as well, so I'm being patient. I see a lot of quest talents in his future like everyone else's.
But man, if you get a free weekend with Xul, take him for a spin several times. He's so good.
I still got his HotS release pic as my phone background and its in my rotation as one of them for my Desktop at home.
+5
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
With malf getting kneecapped to broccoli tier, and Lucio still in garbage tier after his nerfs, Auriel, Rehgar and Uther are the only 3 general hero league supports. You should own them.
Xul is an awful character right now, he is worse at the only thing he does than Zagara and Azmodan, and they both fight better than him.
Sonya and Artanis are both good bruisers, Sonya moreso. Artanis is good against AA heavy comps because of his ult and strength against people who want to hit him. Also very strong on BoE due to Amateur Opponent.
Ugh, I really hate Rehgar (unless they've seriously reworked him since I played him a year or so ago), so yeah I should probably pick up Auriel.
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Against uncoordinated teams Kharazim is a monster healer. It's not the beefiest heal in the world, but when the other team is spreading damage and you get that solid heal on 3 or 4 people it's such a huge HP swing.
I would prioritize Auriel, Xul, Sonya, and Artanis.
They are consistently in pretty good spots, and fun.
I would probably replace Xul with Lucio tbh. While this gives you two healers, Xul is in a pretty bad spot imo. His waveclear is good, but it's outshined by heroes like Guldan (Q Build) or Nazeebo who can clear multiple waves just as effectively at range with equivalent self-sustain. I think he only works as a niche pick on maps where you can easily rotate between two lanes, so Spider Queen and BHB. His teamfight is alright, but it's still not as good as the aforementioned heroes.
That's a solid point. Nazeebo does everything Xul does but better.
Nah. Nazeebo has worse waveclear, especially early. He's got way less reliable lockdown too. Nazeebo is a late game damage monster, but he doesn't waveclear and rotate as well as Xul and takes longer to get going.
Xul will get you lane and XP dominance in a way Nazeebo just can't.
With malf getting kneecapped to broccoli tier, and Lucio still in garbage tier after his nerfs, Auriel, Rehgar and Uther are the only 3 general hero league supports. You should own them.
Xul is an awful character right now, he is worse at the only thing he does than Zagara and Azmodan, and they both fight better than him.
Sonya and Artanis are both good bruisers, Sonya moreso. Artanis is good against AA heavy comps because of his ult and strength against people who want to hit him. Also very strong on BoE due to Amateur Opponent.
Ugh, I really hate Rehgar (unless they've seriously reworked him since I played him a year or so ago), so yeah I should probably pick up Auriel.
I know people are calling Time of Death on Malf but I'd wait it out. Seeing the changes myself, losing Cleanse is considered the biggest deal along with his manage regen going into a bad spot, but he could still be quite good (IE more balanced). In Pro play is where Cleanse is often this Holy Grail.
We're not in the pros. Cleanses often get wasted, I've found. "Great, I used Cleanse to get him out of that root ... and he's still dead."
At level 7 in its place you get higher damage on his moonfire (eh) or constant SLOW poking on the enemy (this is good).
He still has great roots. His healing was only hit from the HOT section, not the upfront. The mana went up on it but the mana went DOWN on moonfire poking.
You will have to back for mana more often but I'm not convinced he's dead.
Kharazim is good too, he's just a bit different from the others. I put him in that Li Li bucket of capable of solo healing, but really works best with another support due to his kit synergizing really well with others. He's also nice with a heavy frontline comp.
edit: re malf, he's not super rip at midtier, but the TD mana change really hurts him as a solo. imo i think he'll be a good second support because the moonfires are hot, he can sustain fairly well, roots are still valuetown, and that fills a lot of holes other supports have. But Malf needs someone who can stop burst from blowing people up, which he used to do with cleanse. But if he goes with Auriel for Aegis, Rehgar with Ancestral, Kharazim with Palm, or Uther just existing because uther says no to burst, he can still do work.
I would prioritize Auriel, Xul, Sonya, and Artanis.
They are consistently in pretty good spots, and fun.
I would probably replace Xul with Lucio tbh. While this gives you two healers, Xul is in a pretty bad spot imo. His waveclear is good, but it's outshined by heroes like Guldan (Q Build) or Nazeebo who can clear multiple waves just as effectively at range with equivalent self-sustain. I think he only works as a niche pick on maps where you can easily rotate between two lanes, so Spider Queen and BHB. His teamfight is alright, but it's still not as good as the aforementioned heroes.
That's a solid point. Nazeebo does everything Xul does but better.
Nah. Nazeebo has worse waveclear, especially early. He's got way less reliable lockdown too. Nazeebo is a late game damage monster, but he doesn't waveclear and rotate as well as Xul and takes longer to get going.
Xul will get you lane and XP dominance in a way Nazeebo just can't.
This is true, Nazeebo's waveclear really only comes into it's own at level 7 with the W build, while other builds will definitely lose to Xul push-wise in lane. I think Nazeebo's lockdown is based on your ability to properly place walls to trap enemies or bodyblock, and sometimes I feel Xul's root needs some extra displacement or follow up to ensure that the target doesn't just walk behind a gate early on.
Tranq's hps is pretty low, I think it's like 150ish per second at 20? It's not nothing especially if damage is very split, and depending on the comp there is certainly a place for it now with Dream nerfed so badly, but Dream can just straight up win fights.
I'm not trying to disrespect Xul! I like him, he's a bunch of fun! Even with waveclear though, Nazeebo does it more safely than Xul, which is an important part of "who lane clears better". He's also not really much worse with the right build. Level 7 on and you can clear waves with a couple abilities, then move on to the next before it even finishes.
I've been super underwhelmed by the healing it put out when someone took it against me. It's not enough to like, keep someone up.
I think with Tranq the idea was always to pop it at the beginning of the fight, and then it basically mitigates a whole bunch of damage for its duration. It's not as much a "you are low health, time to Tranquility for heals!" type of ability. It's been a while, but I think that's the way it was used best?
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Honestly I heal just as much, if not more, with Kharazim than I do on other supports. It's all a matter of how you play.
The real issue with Kharazim, assuming you know what you're doing, is not that you can't heal. The real issue is that your teammates don't know how to play around dash (in particular, giving you avenues of escape or staying within range for healing).
If you have to rely on yourself to maintain dash mobility then you might as well play a backline healer, because you won't be using Kharazim's kit to his fullest. It's an exacerbated version of when people run away from healers in general. Or, as an offensive analogy, Greymanes who don't know how to weave in and out of melee range to get the most damage in safely.
I mean he's more than fine, he's great. He's got amazing waveclear, a ridiculously potent point-and-click CC button, some really nasty teamfight damage, and two really good Ults (although Skelly Mages is generally the better pick).
He is far from awful.
Admittedly yes, Nazeebo does kinda just do everything better than Xul (assuming Dead Rush over Spider build). But Nazeebo is Nazeebo, he's Godking of Specialist Mountain. Xul is still a very good Hero and still does his thing super well though, in spite of that.
Chromie /xul are lane bffs. His CC is the kiss of death.
Posts
I'm asking for a friend...
I curse
A lot
So I have to make a conscious effort not to. So my vote is I don't care if you do.
WoWtcg and general gaming podcast
WoWtcg and gaming website
We'll just judge you excessively
:P
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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You joke, but this is the PA forums - judging people is a second hobby around here :P
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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I mean I'm gonna make a conscious effort not to I think
I curse like a sailor and have the BIGGEST potty mouth when I'm playing, and that's fine for that. But for something like commentating a tournament, which is more organized/serious, and has a wider audience than just ME AN' THE PALS, I think I'd wanna be a bit more professional about it :P
So I'mma keep it RATED G
FOR, UH.
GENEROSITY? B-BECAUSE I'M BEING GENEROUS IN NOT, CURSING, ALL THE TIME,
rated g for generosity
that's my slogan
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
Next patch adds 1 hero and 5 new no-animation-changes skins (including the second skin for Malth). And this adds up to 26 new tints.
It's kinda insane. That's a lot of lootboxes just to get back to the same shard drop rate as before the patch. And then they'll just add even more tints.
And the bigger issue is there remains little way to deal with this beyond jumping on the lootbox lottery train. The featured items are low in number and only change once per week. And the prices are complete bullshit now in many cases.
It's really clear that they are trying to milk us for money via the lootbox lottery by making it really annoyingly difficult to impossible to just buy the shit you want. And they've inflated prices on top of that.
I'm gonna wait on this summer event before I judge it but if this starts getting into some OW style bullshit, I'm gonna be pissed off. I mean, given the bundles on the PTR it seems like there's a good chance the bundle won't even include all the tints. Which leaves you wondering how the hell you get all the tints/the tints you want.
No, no! Them, not me!
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Well this is strange. I want to support this with an AWESOME but then I feel like I'm celebrating your kid's saddening face.
... eh, I'll do it anyway.
Is she good enough to spend gold/gems on or are one of the other heroes on the wishlist more important? Here's what I've got right now:
Of the free rotations I don't own Chen, Auriel, Artanis, Medivh, or Arthas
I'm trying to get a good enough roster to be ready to start tackling Hero League seriously. Which leads me to think Lucio/Morales might be more important because I am missing a sustain healer.
Xbox Live / Steam
They are consistently in pretty good spots, and fun.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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Also, I tried to play Arthas, but Johanna seems to be the better pick IMO.
I would probably replace Xul with Lucio tbh. While this gives you two healers, Xul is in a pretty bad spot imo. His waveclear is good, but it's outshined by heroes like Guldan (Q Build) or Nazeebo who can clear multiple waves just as effectively at range with equivalent self-sustain. I think he only works as a niche pick on maps where you can easily rotate between two lanes, so Spider Queen and BHB. His teamfight is alright, but it's still not as good as the aforementioned heroes.
Steam: CavilatRest
I imagine that's a playstyle thing. I prefer Johanna as well, but if we're talking strictly "who's the better pick", Arthas is much more favored in higher tiers of play. But if the playstyle doesn't click, it doesn't click, and you play who you're comfortable with.
Also they don't reaaaaally fill the same role. Johanna gets people together, Arthas keeps people together. Arthas also like, does damage. But he can't interrupt channels.
It's too hard getting paired with someone you don't know to know you'll pull it off, not that you can't, but it's a little all your eggs in one basket, and sadly for anything ranked, minimizing variance is usually better.
That's not inherently wrong, but in that case Morales and Lucio could struggle just as much if not more, because they actually do even less damage than Auriel does. And if you don't trust someone to do damage, I wouldn't trust them to do anything with the help of Morales' beam, either. Supports are in a rough spot there in general, if I had to support I'd play planning on success rather than failure because of it.
I adapted to this when I was leveling Auriel by tweaking talents so I didn't have to rely on my idiot teammates for energy.
1: Searing Light - literally refunds 30%+ of your energy every time you use it. Also awesome for securing kills.
4: Majestic Span - pretty "meh" tier, this is most useful
7: Energized Cord - this is where your heals really take off. You just get soooo much energy from even just auto-ing things. Works synergistically with 1 and 4.
10: Crystal Aegis - instantly refill your Energy bar, save someone
13: Blinding Flash/Converging Force - depends on enemy comp
16: Reservoir of Hope - you can get some ridic chunky heals and DPS once you get a few stacks built up here.
20: Shield of Hope - an extra AoE heal button that's better than Storm Shield.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Titan's Creed: Jump first, don't ask questions, punch everything
That's a solid point. Nazeebo does everything Xul does but better.
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Xul is an awful character right now, he is worse at the only thing he does than Zagara and Azmodan, and they both fight better than him.
Sonya and Artanis are both good bruisers, Sonya moreso. Artanis is good against AA heavy comps because of his ult and strength against people who want to hit him. Also very strong on BoE due to Amateur Opponent.
I mean he's more than fine, he's great. He's got amazing waveclear, a ridiculously potent point-and-click CC button, some really nasty teamfight damage, and two really good Ults (although Skelly Mages is generally the better pick).
He is far from awful.
Admittedly yes, Nazeebo does kinda just do everything better than Xul (assuming Dead Rush over Spider build). But Nazeebo is Nazeebo, he's Godking of Specialist Mountain. Xul is still a very good Hero and still does his thing super well though, in spite of that.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
I think Khara is viable support as well, but he's definitely got a much higher skill floor with how Palm works (my favourite thing is when the person you palm takes that as an excellent opportunity to run away from all sources of dmg).
In terms of bruiser/off-tanks I would also learn Dehaka as well.
Steam: CavilatRest
I don't know about that. Xul is much better/more reliable at getting picks.
Uther seems like his opposite, dps wise, but Uther does more healing than anything now.
The best thing about Kharazim is the statues he can talent into that help his allies against whatever type of top heavy the other team is.
He might not be where he used to be but I've still had great luck with him as my goto pick in HL and QM. If I can pick him, I do.
I've found the guy still does his job. He pushes a lane hard but also spawns canon fodder to eat up ammo faster or push down enemy structures more quickly. At 7 when you can heal from minions, he's pretty rough in a lane. I've come back from near losses in some skirmished because people fought me in a lane where I could clear minions which then turned into skeletons which both healed me and pressured the enemy. Exploding corpse at 13 helps get even more value out of the little guys.
As far as team fights, he's great depending on what you're doing. His W punishes AA heroes. Love hurting some tanky Artanis.
He has a point and click root which sets up SO much BS if played right.
His Q scythe has been hit over the ages but its secured enough kills that I don't complain. Cost could be lowered.
Also for Team Fights, I always pick Skeletal Mages now. Never Nova. Nova is sometimes good. Mages always seems good. Controls a team fight area. Acts as an escape with the slow. And it prioritizes heroes. It's so good.
Then his free Shield, which is always the explosive one now for 15% health. Killed so many people not expecting that when it pops and its ready every Team Fight given only 30 second cooldown.
Personally, I think Xul is just fine in a "use him and have fun knowing you're not hurting your team" mindset.
But like Thrall, that pale skinned necromancer needs some talent love. He's got one build, pretty much, with a couple variances. 4 you can go mana efficient or Jailors for 2 more skeletons on your root. 16 you can go more skeletons or bone prison causing vulnerable.
20 as well is usually Mages or Bone Spear (mostly mages for me now if I usually see us securing at least 1 kill before they get one in a skirmish, and always if they have Murky or Vikings).
But generally the others are set.
Level 1 is almost always the same. 4 is only 2 options. 7 is only one. 13 is only 1. 16 is 2.
I want to see him get some love with his talents one day but I am scared they'll break what I love as well, so I'm being patient. I see a lot of quest talents in his future like everyone else's.
But man, if you get a free weekend with Xul, take him for a spin several times. He's so good.
I still got his HotS release pic as my phone background and its in my rotation as one of them for my Desktop at home.
Ugh, I really hate Rehgar (unless they've seriously reworked him since I played him a year or so ago), so yeah I should probably pick up Auriel.
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Nah. Nazeebo has worse waveclear, especially early. He's got way less reliable lockdown too. Nazeebo is a late game damage monster, but he doesn't waveclear and rotate as well as Xul and takes longer to get going.
Xul will get you lane and XP dominance in a way Nazeebo just can't.
I know people are calling Time of Death on Malf but I'd wait it out. Seeing the changes myself, losing Cleanse is considered the biggest deal along with his manage regen going into a bad spot, but he could still be quite good (IE more balanced). In Pro play is where Cleanse is often this Holy Grail.
We're not in the pros. Cleanses often get wasted, I've found. "Great, I used Cleanse to get him out of that root ... and he's still dead."
At level 7 in its place you get higher damage on his moonfire (eh) or constant SLOW poking on the enemy (this is good).
He still has great roots. His healing was only hit from the HOT section, not the upfront. The mana went up on it but the mana went DOWN on moonfire poking.
You will have to back for mana more often but I'm not convinced he's dead.
edit: re malf, he's not super rip at midtier, but the TD mana change really hurts him as a solo. imo i think he'll be a good second support because the moonfires are hot, he can sustain fairly well, roots are still valuetown, and that fills a lot of holes other supports have. But Malf needs someone who can stop burst from blowing people up, which he used to do with cleanse. But if he goes with Auriel for Aegis, Rehgar with Ancestral, Kharazim with Palm, or Uther just existing because uther says no to burst, he can still do work.
This is true, Nazeebo's waveclear really only comes into it's own at level 7 with the W build, while other builds will definitely lose to Xul push-wise in lane. I think Nazeebo's lockdown is based on your ability to properly place walls to trap enemies or bodyblock, and sometimes I feel Xul's root needs some extra displacement or follow up to ensure that the target doesn't just walk behind a gate early on.
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I'm sure he will still be fine for us plebs who are bad at Cleanse and won't miss it anyway.
You guys remember when he was still good and people did Tranquility over TD? And the TD got buffed super hard and everyone went that way.
... I mean ... Tranq is still good, isn't it? In this mostly not bursty meta?
I think with Tranq the idea was always to pop it at the beginning of the fight, and then it basically mitigates a whole bunch of damage for its duration. It's not as much a "you are low health, time to Tranquility for heals!" type of ability. It's been a while, but I think that's the way it was used best?
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The real issue with Kharazim, assuming you know what you're doing, is not that you can't heal. The real issue is that your teammates don't know how to play around dash (in particular, giving you avenues of escape or staying within range for healing).
If you have to rely on yourself to maintain dash mobility then you might as well play a backline healer, because you won't be using Kharazim's kit to his fullest. It's an exacerbated version of when people run away from healers in general. Or, as an offensive analogy, Greymanes who don't know how to weave in and out of melee range to get the most damage in safely.
Chromie /xul are lane bffs. His CC is the kiss of death.
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