I played my first game of HL in years, my whole team was arguing, each one wanted to blame something different to explain why we were losing, some were blaming individuals, others our hero selection, some the map and game balance. There was a big argument about what to argue about.
Ah, you're new here. Welcome to HotS. It's worse on the weekends.
XBL: Morgan Coke Yes, there is a space, not an underscore. I'm old school like that.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Did they mention details about exactly how performance based matchmaking is going to work? We've discussed this multiple times here and there are a lot of ways that it can go catastrophically wrong
Nah that will be talked about at a later panel I assume
Did they mention details about exactly how performance based matchmaking is going to work? We've discussed this multiple times here and there are a lot of ways that it can go catastrophically wrong
Nah that will be talked about at a later panel I assume
Just don't give details. Any details you give people will try to game :P
really shows where hots is in the blizzard totem pole when you see hots just has to present on the main stage, and hearthstone and overwatch have their own giant arenas lol.
edit: oh neat, the hero pages for alex and hanzo are up
Did they mention details about exactly how performance based matchmaking is going to work? We've discussed this multiple times here and there are a lot of ways that it can go catastrophically wrong
I don't think I've ever seen a moba use it to actual positive effect. DotA 2 did it for a while and it lead to people playing Zeus and just ulting on cooldown for damage numbers. Overwatch had issues with healers on successful groups rating up faster than their dps at one point as well (I have no idea if they fixed that). In the end all the numbers in the world don't matter if your team loses, and while people lose plenty of games because of their teammates they also win then because of them too. With match times being as short as they are in hots I'm surprised they feel like they actually need this. I could see some value in placements if they want to hedge their placement matchmaking, but in general I'm always worried about these kind of things encouraging people to play for a stat once they think they won't win.
The new Overwatch hero (Moira, shoots slow AoE heal balls, AoE death balls, stealth/teleport, and ult: death/heal beam) already seems like she's going to be fast tracked into HotS.
Here's the OW stuff. I wouldn't be shocked at all if all three of these end up in HotS by middle of next year. Especially BlizzardWorld, which is just... so fanservicey ridiculous.
really shows where hots is in the blizzard totem pole when you see hots just has to present on the main stage, and hearthstone and overwatch have their own giant arenas lol.
edit: oh neat, the hero pages for alex and hanzo are up
I like that both of Alexstraza's other skins actually give her more clothes. It's a nice change.
Alexstraza abilities:
Trait: Dragonqueen. After 1.25 seconds, transform into a dragon and gain 500 Health. While Dragonqueen is active, Alexstrasza's Abilities are empowered [details in each ability], and her Basic Attacks deal 143 damage and heal allied Heroes for 43 in an arc in front of her. Additionally, the duration of incoming Stuns, Roots, Slows, and Blinds is reduced by 50%. Lasts 15 seconds.
Unknown cooldown on that.
Q: Gift of Life. Sacrifice 15% of Alexstrasza's current Health, healing an ally for 150% of that amount. Dragonqueen: Breath of Life Cooldown greatly reduced and does not cost Health.
W: Abundance. Plant a seed of healing that blooms after 3 seconds, healing nearby allied Heroes for 20% of their maximum Health. Dragonqueen: Preservation Heal area and amount greatly increased
E: Flame Buffet. Launch a fireball, Burning enemies hit for 75 damage over 5.5 seconds. Hitting enemies that are already Burning deals 125 bonus damage upon impact, Slows them by 40% decaying over 2 seconds, and refunds the Mana cost. Dragonqueen: Wing Buffet Damage and Knockback enemies in an arc.
Ult1: LIFE-BINDER. Bind Alexstrasa's life force with an allied Hero. After 2 seconds, the Hero with a lower percentage of Health is set to the same Health percentage as the other Hero.
Ult2: CLEANSING FLAME. After 1.25 seconds, take to the sky and drop 5 fireballs over 6 seconds at the position of the mouse cursor. Fireballs deal 150 damage to enemies and heal allied Heroes for 300 Health. 2 seconds after dropping all fireballs, Alexstrasza lands at the position of the mouse cursor.
Trait: Target unpathable terrain or building to jump to the other side of it.
Q: STORM BOW
Activate to charge an arrow that deals 270 damage to the first enemy hit. Storm Bow's range increases the longer it is Channeled. Reactivate to fire.
W: SCATTER ARROW
Fire an arrow that deals 85 to the first enemy Hero hit. Scatter Arrow can collide with terrain and Structures, splitting into 5 arrows that travel extra distance, ricochet up to 4 additional times, and deal 85 damage each to the first enemy hit.
E: SONIC ARROW
Fire an arrow that grants vision in a large area for 8 seconds. Enemies inside are revealed for 1 second. If Sonic Arrow lands directly on an enemy, it deals 150 damage to them and follows them as they move.
Ult1: DRAGONSTRIKE
After 1.5 seconds, summon a pair of Spirit Dragons which travel forward, dealing 52 damage every 0.25 seconds to enemy Heroes in its area. Enemies in the center take 150% damage.
Ult2: DRAGON'S ARROW
Fire a missile that travels across the battleground. Explodes upon hitting an enemy Hero, dealing 100 damage to all nearby enemies and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds. After traveling a medium distance, the damage is increased to 200 and the Stun duration to 1.25 seconds. After traveling a long distance, the damage is increased to 350 and the Stun duration to 2 seconds.
Hanzo really is the most boring fucker imaginable in every way. Alternate ult: Shoots an arrow... that explodes!
Even his alt skin is just "Hanzo, but in red with the eyebrows and ears set to maximum."
Yeah that's uh.
Disappointing. I thought there would maybe be some cool things to do with him. But nope. Just, "OW abilities in HotS, basic ranged assassin otherwise."
Alex on the other hand. Oh yes I think I will play a lot of games as her.
Contains some deets about all the mechanical updates coming.
Stealth deets:
STEALTH REWORK
In order to properly balance Stealth for both casual and high-end play, we're making it easier to spot stealthed Heroes. This is accompanied by buffs to the Stealth Heroes.
Changes
Stealthed Heroes are much easier to spot
Keeps and Forts will reveal stealthed Heroes
To offset these changes to Stealth, we will be buffing Samuro, Nova, Valeera and Zeratul:
Samuro: Improving Samuro's ability to fake out opponents; Image Transmission available at baseline on a 25s cooldown Nova: Increasing mobility during Stealth and overall damage with Snipe Master added at baseline Valeera: Openers will teleport Valeera a medium distance after being stealthed for 3 seconds; longer silence and blind duration Zeratul: Adding a new Heroic that rewards high mechanical skill; increasing mobility with Vorpal Blade at baseline
Laning deets:
REFINING THE EARLY GAME
To better showcase individual skill in lane matchups, we're exploring ways to make the laning phase more meaningful without increasing overall game length.
Changes
Removing Ammunition to encourage aggressive play and require more player agency for winning a lane
Removing standalone towers and adding True Sight to Forts
Regen Globes can be collected by either side for a brief period before expiring, allowing players to win lanes harder
Standardizing first objective timers to 1:30 or 3:00, both with a 30-second warning, depending on Battleground
Merc deets:
MERCENARY UPDATES
To create more impactful choices about how, when, and which Mercenary Camps to capture, we are making changes to various Mercenaries.
Changes
Siege Giant Camps - Heroes can now dodge Neutral Siege Giant attacks at all times
Knight Camps - The Caster Mercenary in a Knight Camp will now generate an aura that offers increased Armor for units inside its area of effect
Hellbats - Hellbats will debuff armor when they attack a Hero
All Other Mercenaries - Will receive balance tuning to ensure they are always meaningful.
Hanzo really is the most boring fucker imaginable in every way. Alternate ult: Shoots an arrow... that explodes!
Even his alt skin is just "Hanzo, but in red with the eyebrows and ears set to maximum."
Yeah that's uh.
Disappointing. I thought there would maybe be some cool things to do with him. But nope. Just, "OW abilities in HotS, basic ranged assassin otherwise."
Alex on the other hand. Oh yes I think I will play a lot of games as her.
Unless his talents are a Green Arrow quiver of random gadget arrows, I don't even see how he'd be fun to play.
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
I'm really curious about the matchmaker changes. Given Overwatch has tried to use more data than just wins/losses and there was a pretty significant backlash from the community about it, I wonder if they learned any lessons from that experience (and other MOBAs' experiences) in terms of how to build a system that reflects player skill, that can't be gamed, and that ultimately reflects a player's contribution to winning the video game (and not how much damage they did).
I used to be heavily into sabermetrics in a past life, and it's not an easy thing to solve for even in the context of something as event-driven as baseball. Basketball has even more complex problems and they have an actual score that drives which team wins the game (for example, plus-minus is difficult to contextualize without a ton of data).
Now that I think about it, something like plus-minus would actually be much easier to implement in HotS given every game will likely have different players in it, and matches are so short and so frequent that you quickly accumulate enough of a robust sample to derive a decent value.
0
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
edited November 2017
Weird. Giving Keeps & Forts True Sight kinda leaves there like, no real point to stealth. I guess Zera can dive the first set of towers early still and blink out. Oh, and I guess it hides you on the minimap like Phantom Assassin's passive, which is nifty.
And lol I didn't even notice they actually called it True Sight. I guess that term ported from Warcraft to DotA, then?
Shit those stealth and laneing changes seem big. Will depend how big the fort true sight aura is but for stealth heroes that already played with the assumption people can see the shimmer, they are all better at deleting someone out of position, minus Sam.
Being able to pick up other team's orbs also seems big if you have a ranged versus melee solo lane. Sonya's win/pick rate is going to stay obscene
I really don't like removing ammo. Their reasoning doesn't even make sense. Ammo is what lets you show your skill in lane because you can wear the enemy down.
Also I'm unsure of some of these stealth changes. I like the stealth nerf but I wonder about some of these compensatory buffs.
The orb thing is gonna make laning brutally one-sided too I think.
Weird. Giving Keeps & Forts True Sight kinda leaves there like, no real point to stealth. I guess Zera can dive the first set of towers early still and blink out. Oh, and I guess it hides you on the minimap like Phantom Assassin's passive, which is nifty.
And lol I didn't even notice they actually called in True Sight. I guess that term ported from Warcraft to DotA, then?
I really don't like removing ammo. Their reasoning doesn't even make sense. Ammo is what lets you show your skill in lane because you can wear the enemy down.
Also I'm unsure of some of these stealth changes. I like the stealth nerf but I wonder about some of these compensatory buffs.
The orb thing is gonna make laning brutally one-sided too I think.
Hanzo really is the most boring fucker imaginable in every way. Alternate ult: Shoots an arrow... that explodes!
Even his alt skin is just "Hanzo, but in red with the eyebrows and ears set to maximum."
Yeah that's uh.
Disappointing. I thought there would maybe be some cool things to do with him. But nope. Just, "OW abilities in HotS, basic ranged assassin otherwise."
Alex on the other hand. Oh yes I think I will play a lot of games as her.
Unless his talents are a Green Arrow quiver of random gadget arrows, I don't even see how he'd be fun to play.
Doing many damages from off-screen is fun for some people!
Hanzo really is the most boring fucker imaginable in every way. Alternate ult: Shoots an arrow... that explodes!
Even his alt skin is just "Hanzo, but in red with the eyebrows and ears set to maximum."
Yeah that's uh.
Disappointing. I thought there would maybe be some cool things to do with him. But nope. Just, "OW abilities in HotS, basic ranged assassin otherwise."
Alex on the other hand. Oh yes I think I will play a lot of games as her.
Unless his talents are a Green Arrow quiver of random gadget arrows, I don't even see how he'd be fun to play.
Doing many damages from off-screen is fun for some people!
Is he even off-screen for anything but his ults?
He seems like a super-generic ranged assassin. Q is a simple straight-line damage ability. W is the exact same almost, but can also bounce a bit if you hit a structure. E is a slightly-better ward.
By all means, more power to you! I don't think he sounds bad, just... bleh. Boring.
Hanzo really is the most boring fucker imaginable in every way. Alternate ult: Shoots an arrow... that explodes!
Even his alt skin is just "Hanzo, but in red with the eyebrows and ears set to maximum."
Yeah that's uh.
Disappointing. I thought there would maybe be some cool things to do with him. But nope. Just, "OW abilities in HotS, basic ranged assassin otherwise."
Alex on the other hand. Oh yes I think I will play a lot of games as her.
Unless his talents are a Green Arrow quiver of random gadget arrows, I don't even see how he'd be fun to play.
Doing many damages from off-screen is fun for some people!
Is he even off-screen for anything but his ults?
He seems like a super-generic ranged assassin. Q is a simple straight-line damage ability. W is the exact same almost, but can also bounce a bit if you hit a structure. E is a slightly-better ward.
By all means, more power to you! I don't think he sounds bad, just... bleh. Boring.
I figured his Q had a really long range when fully charged, at least. And that it'd require some more leading than most abilities do. Might be wrong on those assumptions though.
Edit: Like, his kit is certainly a lot more interesting to me than Lunara's, for example.
The Escape Goat on
0
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
the lane changes are interesting, it makes it a lot harder to stick someone in a lane to just soak it without losing hard as the other hero will get 2 orbs, but it also makes characters like zagara a lot less oppressive since they can't suck up all your cannon shots with summons.
Lunaras kit is simple in the same way malths is simple because you are focusing on spreading your dot around. If your just shooting arrows, then your focusing on a single target, so hanzos kit is boring (hot take)
PSN SeGaTai
+1
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Posts
Ah, you're new here. Welcome to HotS. It's worse on the weekends.
Battle.net: morgancoke#1589
Titan's Creed: Jump first, don't ask questions, punch everything
Nah that will be talked about at a later panel I assume
Hanzo IS boring compared to EVERYTHING.
should be interesting, since there seems like a lot of big mechanical changes.
Just don't give details. Any details you give people will try to game :P
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
edit: oh neat, the hero pages for alex and hanzo are up
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes/alexstrasza/
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes/hanzo/
Snaxxramas is just ... beautiful.
I don't think I've ever seen a moba use it to actual positive effect. DotA 2 did it for a while and it lead to people playing Zeus and just ulting on cooldown for damage numbers. Overwatch had issues with healers on successful groups rating up faster than their dps at one point as well (I have no idea if they fixed that). In the end all the numbers in the world don't matter if your team loses, and while people lose plenty of games because of their teammates they also win then because of them too. With match times being as short as they are in hots I'm surprised they feel like they actually need this. I could see some value in placements if they want to hedge their placement matchmaking, but in general I'm always worried about these kind of things encouraging people to play for a stat once they think they won't win.
reinhardt is like the only OW character I really want.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Awesome!
I like that both of Alexstraza's other skins actually give her more clothes. It's a nice change.
Alexstraza abilities:
Unknown cooldown on that.
Q: Gift of Life. Sacrifice 15% of Alexstrasza's current Health, healing an ally for 150% of that amount. Dragonqueen: Breath of Life Cooldown greatly reduced and does not cost Health.
W: Abundance. Plant a seed of healing that blooms after 3 seconds, healing nearby allied Heroes for 20% of their maximum Health. Dragonqueen: Preservation Heal area and amount greatly increased
E: Flame Buffet. Launch a fireball, Burning enemies hit for 75 damage over 5.5 seconds. Hitting enemies that are already Burning deals 125 bonus damage upon impact, Slows them by 40% decaying over 2 seconds, and refunds the Mana cost. Dragonqueen: Wing Buffet Damage and Knockback enemies in an arc.
Ult1: LIFE-BINDER. Bind Alexstrasa's life force with an allied Hero. After 2 seconds, the Hero with a lower percentage of Health is set to the same Health percentage as the other Hero.
Ult2: CLEANSING FLAME. After 1.25 seconds, take to the sky and drop 5 fireballs over 6 seconds at the position of the mouse cursor. Fireballs deal 150 damage to enemies and heal allied Heroes for 300 Health. 2 seconds after dropping all fireballs, Alexstrasza lands at the position of the mouse cursor.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Q: STORM BOW
Activate to charge an arrow that deals 270 damage to the first enemy hit. Storm Bow's range increases the longer it is Channeled. Reactivate to fire.
W: SCATTER ARROW
Fire an arrow that deals 85 to the first enemy Hero hit. Scatter Arrow can collide with terrain and Structures, splitting into 5 arrows that travel extra distance, ricochet up to 4 additional times, and deal 85 damage each to the first enemy hit.
E: SONIC ARROW
Fire an arrow that grants vision in a large area for 8 seconds. Enemies inside are revealed for 1 second. If Sonic Arrow lands directly on an enemy, it deals 150 damage to them and follows them as they move.
Ult1: DRAGONSTRIKE
After 1.5 seconds, summon a pair of Spirit Dragons which travel forward, dealing 52 damage every 0.25 seconds to enemy Heroes in its area. Enemies in the center take 150% damage.
Ult2: DRAGON'S ARROW
Fire a missile that travels across the battleground. Explodes upon hitting an enemy Hero, dealing 100 damage to all nearby enemies and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds. After traveling a medium distance, the damage is increased to 200 and the Stun duration to 1.25 seconds. After traveling a long distance, the damage is increased to 350 and the Stun duration to 2 seconds.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Even his alt skin is just "Hanzo, but in red with the eyebrows and ears set to maximum."
Yeah that's uh.
Disappointing. I thought there would maybe be some cool things to do with him. But nope. Just, "OW abilities in HotS, basic ranged assassin otherwise."
Alex on the other hand. Oh yes I think I will play a lot of games as her.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
The Stun Arrow That Scales With Distance is a required MOBA trope though, so someone had to have it.
Contains some deets about all the mechanical updates coming.
Stealth deets:
Laning deets:
Merc deets:
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
Unless his talents are a Green Arrow quiver of random gadget arrows, I don't even see how he'd be fun to play.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
I used to be heavily into sabermetrics in a past life, and it's not an easy thing to solve for even in the context of something as event-driven as baseball. Basketball has even more complex problems and they have an actual score that drives which team wins the game (for example, plus-minus is difficult to contextualize without a ton of data).
Now that I think about it, something like plus-minus would actually be much easier to implement in HotS given every game will likely have different players in it, and matches are so short and so frequent that you quickly accumulate enough of a robust sample to derive a decent value.
And lol I didn't even notice they actually called it True Sight. I guess that term ported from Warcraft to DotA, then?
Being able to pick up other team's orbs also seems big if you have a ranged versus melee solo lane. Sonya's win/pick rate is going to stay obscene
Also I'm unsure of some of these stealth changes. I like the stealth nerf but I wonder about some of these compensatory buffs.
The orb thing is gonna make laning brutally one-sided too I think.
buffs to abathur 8-)
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
someone at blizzard has been playing cuphead since theres a bunch of 1930s era sprays which is a fun aesthetic.
Yeah not fond of the ammo/orb changes.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Doing many damages from off-screen is fun for some people!
Is he even off-screen for anything but his ults?
He seems like a super-generic ranged assassin. Q is a simple straight-line damage ability. W is the exact same almost, but can also bounce a bit if you hit a structure. E is a slightly-better ward.
By all means, more power to you! I don't think he sounds bad, just... bleh. Boring.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
http://media.blizzard.com/heroes/media/promo/blizzcon-2017/gameplay-stealth.mp4
I figured his Q had a really long range when fully charged, at least. And that it'd require some more leading than most abilities do. Might be wrong on those assumptions though.
Edit: Like, his kit is certainly a lot more interesting to me than Lunara's, for example.
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/game/events/dragons-of-the-nexus
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
i'm curious to try it.
Because a hero can be conceptually boring but mechanically satisfying
Granted I'll be too busy playing a life-and-death breathing DRAGON but still
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile