I just lost a match with a 6 level deficit. Enemy team won first shrine and just rolled with it. They got up +3 levels on the first shrine, obviously won the second, and got up another +3 levels from the second shrine. And that was game.
I was watching some streams and just from that I'm thinking it'll be my favorite, too. Without having played it yet, I mean.
The Punisher is insane. I have seen him either straight up kill dudes or leave them with barely any health. And that attack speed though?! Brutal indeed.
Also, Heroes with really good aoe or wave clear really shine on Infernal Shrines. Sylvanas with Unstable Poison will DECIMATE the objective.
I just lost a match with a 6 level deficit. Enemy team won first shrine and just rolled with it. They got up +3 levels on the first shrine, obviously won the second, and got up another +3 levels from the second shrine. And that was game.
I'd venture a guess that this is the reason it's not ready for release this patch... that sounds a little too broken. I'd assume they need to badly tweak numbers on it.
I just lost a match with a 6 level deficit. Enemy team won first shrine and just rolled with it. They got up +3 levels on the first shrine, obviously won the second, and got up another +3 levels from the second shrine. And that was game.
I'd venture a guess that this is the reason it's not ready for release this patch... that sounds a little too broken. I'd assume they need to badly tweak numbers on it.
i am curious how they are going to tune this since the map mechanic is designed to continue punishing a losing team. technically yes all of them do, however none so far actively hunt down the other team. that is both demoralizing and can quickly create those snowball scenarios.
a map mechanic that hunts and kills heroes also inherently gives you the ability to push, meaning it's the benefit of other map mechanics coupled with something that forces the enemy team out of position or to retreat
+1
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Perhaps make the punishers scale their aggression against heroes versus pushing depending on the level difference? At even levels it prioritizes heroes, when the team with the punisher is ahead it'll go for buildings but will take big swipes at nearby heroes, and if the team with it is behind it'll purely chase down heroes (creating valuable space to push/farm to make up the level difference).
@Lucascraft What exactly caused the level difference? Punisher killing your heroes and knocking off their XP generation? The enemy team taking advantage and scoring kills? XP generated from killing mobs to charge the objective? Something else?
I'm also curious to see if the Mortar/arcane/frozen abilities affect both teams or only the team it's chasing... Does the big bugger screw with the lane as a whole or just screw with the losing team. I think it'd be a lot more entertaining if it dropped abilities that turned the whole lane into mayhem and affected both teams... it might keep the enemy team from an easy capitalization on damaged heroes in the lane it picks.
Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
Oh my god its not even FAIR to play Abathur this week. Guaranteed to be playing one on the other side and they likely have no idea what they are doing. And.... I got my first SLAP KILL. Not just any slap kill, I won a SLAP FEST and killed the enemy aba myself!
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Can Aba hat himself?
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
Nah, but he had walked into my mines so he was weak. He tried to get me hatting a minion but my hands were flyin faster than E Honda.
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Decided to buy Kerrigan yesterday (about to grab the Succubus skin). Played my first match with her in a while. Didn't land a single combo, still won.
@Lucascraft What exactly caused the level difference? Punisher killing your heroes and knocking off their XP generation? The enemy team taking advantage and scoring kills? XP generated from killing mobs to charge the objective? Something else?
I'm also curious to see if the Mortar/arcane/frozen abilities affect both teams or only the team it's chasing... Does the big bugger screw with the lane as a whole or just screw with the losing team. I think it'd be a lot more entertaining if it dropped abilities that turned the whole lane into mayhem and affected both teams... it might keep the enemy team from an easy capitalization on damaged heroes in the lane it picks.
Gotta earn your kills.
Probably a combination of a lot of things.
At the first shrine they pulled ahead because they were able to take the outer wall and the fort and tower. That's a lot of XP at the 2:30 mark. Plus the Punisher got them kills as well. It's one thing to defend a wall against a Golem or Immortal. It's another to have a monster that will literally jump your wall and start wrecking your team while the enemy is also trying to kill you. The entire dynamic is different.
By the 2nd Punisher, we were already at a pretty significant disadvantage, and they were able to repeat the previous push with greater effect. Because they were already up +3 levels on us, the 2nd Punisher let them take the middle lane outer fort and wall, plus continue pushing into the inner base, take the second wall and second keep, and then the core. Plus the kills they were racking up on us from the Punisher. That's how we ended up with a -6 level deficit. Out of control snowball.
The Punisher demon is relentless and super aggressive, and when he's hunting your team it makes it pretty easy for the enemy team to kill you. He's such a distraction. The Immortals and Golems at least ignore you and are predictable. The Punisher is less predictable and way more aggressive.
Oh my god its not even FAIR to play Abathur this week. Guaranteed to be playing one on the other side and they likely have no idea what they are doing. And.... I got my first SLAP KILL. Not just any slap kill, I won a SLAP FEST and killed the enemy aba myself!
It's not even fair to play Zeratul this week. Hunted down so many Abathurs.
There was a game on Spider Queen where I killed an Abathur twice, early game. From that point on I didn't see any Locusts on the map, and I thought "GEE THAT'S STRANGE".
He was hiding in the Hall of Storms for the entire rest of the game. Ahahaha. I put the fear of god in him.
That makes me want to play abathur and just reverse gank the heck out of these glutenous zeratuls.
MINE FIELD IN YO' FACE!
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
There is kind of nothing you can do about that as Aba. Its not really fear, its smart. You are literally unable to look at the space around you 95% of the time, let alone for the near impossible to see for some people but apparently not others shimmer. So of course he gets to find and kill aba for free. The best you can do is layer some mines but you really can only get like 7-9 without speccing mines before they start fading. Of course, maybe you should spec mines and give Zera a huge middle finger if he wants to FOLLOW HIS NOSE down the yellow locust road. Also I think I would take locust nest too just to be an asshole. But otherwise, you kind of have to hide in base because you aren't going to be safe period. That isn't map awareness, you will NEVER see him coming.
Oh my god its not even FAIR to play Abathur this week. Guaranteed to be playing one on the other side and they likely have no idea what they are doing. And.... I got my first SLAP KILL. Not just any slap kill, I won a SLAP FEST and killed the enemy aba myself!
There is kind of nothing you can do about that as Aba. Its not really fear, its smart. You are literally unable to look at the space around you 95% of the time, let alone for the near impossible to see for some people but apparently not others shimmer. So of course he gets to find and kill aba for free. The best you can do is layer some mines but you really can only get like 7-9 without speccing mines before they start fading. Of course, maybe you should spec mines and give Zera a huge middle finger if he wants to FOLLOW HIS NOSE down the yellow locust road. Also I think I would take locust nest too just to be an asshole. But otherwise, you kind of have to hide in base because you aren't going to be safe period. That isn't map awareness, you will NEVER see him coming.
The trick to Aba vs Zera and maintaining aggressive placement is map awareness... preemptively place mines as burrow beacons and just be SUPER aware of where he is and change lanes frequently... he might catch you out, but if you stay on it there's a good chance he'll waste his time dicking around chasing you around the map. Meanwhile your locusts push, you soak xp and you hat friendlies when the enemy is only at 4 heroes because their roamer is fucking around playing hunt the worm... also shoot a stab at the bastard any time you see shimmer (typically from minions)... try to mess with his head.
It's good to practice your positioning with an enemy Zera... helps focus your mind on map awareness because if you're not paying attention you get fuggin stabbed. Also if you let yourself get cornered behind walls the whole match you're losing out on half your XP soak.
Disclaimer - This is only really viable on larger maps, smaller maps it doesn't work as well... spider queen and mines are too small and zera can traverse them very quickly for the gank. If he's actively hunting you, you miss too much hat time avoiding him... Sky temple though... pffft screw that zeratul. If you see him bot you've got tons of time to camp top lane and vice versa.
@Lucascraft Dude that really blows... sounds like that map still needs some major tweaking to avoid that kind of a snowball.
Oh my god its not even FAIR to play Abathur this week. Guaranteed to be playing one on the other side and they likely have no idea what they are doing. And.... I got my first SLAP KILL. Not just any slap kill, I won a SLAP FEST and killed the enemy aba myself!
I've been abathur hunting with tychus. It's not even fair. Even though he's not supposed to be a great aba hunter.
There is kind of nothing you can do about that as Aba. Its not really fear, its smart. You are literally unable to look at the space around you 95% of the time, let alone for the near impossible to see for some people but apparently not others shimmer. So of course he gets to find and kill aba for free. The best you can do is layer some mines but you really can only get like 7-9 without speccing mines before they start fading. Of course, maybe you should spec mines and give Zera a huge middle finger if he wants to FOLLOW HIS NOSE down the yellow locust road. Also I think I would take locust nest too just to be an asshole. But otherwise, you kind of have to hide in base because you aren't going to be safe period. That isn't map awareness, you will NEVER see him coming.
The trick to Aba vs Zera and maintaining aggressive placement is map awareness... preemptively place mines as burrow beacons and just be SUPER aware of where he is and change lanes frequently... he might catch you out, but if you stay on it there's a good chance he'll waste his time dicking around chasing you around the map. Meanwhile your locusts push, you soak xp and you hat friendlies when the enemy is only at 4 heroes because their roamer is fucking around playing hunt the worm... also shoot a stab at the bastard any time you see shimmer (typically from minions)... try to mess with his head.
It's good to practice your positioning with an enemy Zera... helps focus your mind on map awareness because if you're not paying attention you get fuggin stabbed. Also if you let yourself get cornered behind walls the whole match you're losing out on half your XP soak.
Disclaimer - This is only really viable on larger maps, smaller maps it doesn't work as well... spider queen and mines are too small and zera can traverse them very quickly for the gank. If he's actively hunting you, you miss too much hat time avoiding him... Sky temple though... pffft screw that zeratul. If you see him bot you've got tons of time to camp top lane and vice versa.
One fun thing to do is wait till you know where their team is, then make sure you have Z off cooldown and poke your head out for a bit in one lane. Be really aggressive, make sure they see you, wait as long as you think you can depending on the map and such. Then hide in a bush and Z to the other side of the map somewhere safer. Leave mines behind for lols.
Usually, someone will go running across the map looking for you.
From the streams it feels like the Punishers on the new map may be overtuned. The map looks really snowbally to me, but what do I know?
Edit: Heh, I made this post before I saw that the second page of this thread is mostly talking about this. Whoops! Looks like most of us are in agreement.
forty on
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Playing Aba on free week is actually hilarious.
It ensures you don't get a bad aba and lets you basically be a king among men.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
There is kind of nothing you can do about that as Aba.
Thoughtful positioning is key. Unlike Nova, who can attack from range and mitigate cannon fire with Decoys, Zeratul is forced to take tower damage when he attacks you. Sloppy positioning behind your structures will get you killed pretty easily, so try to stand in a place where he's going to take maximum turret fire when he appears, and in a place where he can't easily Blink to safety. Ideally, you want to be in a position where he either can't Blink past your gate, or he can just Blink past your gate, but he'll take like 3-4 tower rounds as he's trying to run away, which will kill him and result in a trade. He probably can't safely kill you until around level 7; up until that point, he just doesn't really have enough burst to global you yet (if you're properly positioned, I mean; if you're not, then he can obviously kill you much sooner). With regard to mine placement, there's no need to go crazy and wall yourself up with them; a single, thoughtfully-placed mine will absolutely dissuade him from closing in for the kill. If he's broken out of stealth before he gets a chance to open up, he will fucking panic and nope out as quickly as he can.
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I played with nova all last week and was bad to good with her but then I was just learning how to play the game
That free stim pack was a tempting offer that I took advantage of even though I did not really get to use it every day
I have been playing Sonya and though it's against my better judgment I am tempted to buy her and the Wrath outfit
There is kind of nothing you can do about that as Aba. Its not really fear, its smart. You are literally unable to look at the space around you 95% of the time, let alone for the near impossible to see for some people but apparently not others shimmer. So of course he gets to find and kill aba for free. The best you can do is layer some mines but you really can only get like 7-9 without speccing mines before they start fading. Of course, maybe you should spec mines and give Zera a huge middle finger if he wants to FOLLOW HIS NOSE down the yellow locust road. Also I think I would take locust nest too just to be an asshole. But otherwise, you kind of have to hide in base because you aren't going to be safe period. That isn't map awareness, you will NEVER see him coming.
Yes I realize aba is in a huge disadvantage in a 1v1 vs practically anyone BUT, it's possible if the zeratul doesn't realize he just walked over 6 mines that cause both slow and extra damage. A long shot but we'll see.
The most exciting thing about this upcoming patch is that @Variable is starting to play the game.
and yes, Hammer was my main hero for a few weeks -_-'
and Tassadar before that >.<'
and Zagara before that though! All the nyduses (nydi?) were proxied
Abathur seems pretty strong on the new Infernal Shrines map. The key to winning the shrine is being able to kill the skeletons at the same time as fending off the enemy team. Spike Burst is very good for this.
I came up with a bunch of ideas for how to balance the Infernal Shrines map.
--Reduce power of the first punisher. They did this on Haunted Mines to reduce early game snowballing
--Require more skeleton kills at the shrines. 30 is too few. I would say the number needs to double. Make it 60. (Or more).
--The losing team retains skeletons. If retaining full amount is too strong, maybe allow losing team to keep half.
--Increase Shrine Activation time. Once a shrine is clicked, it starts in 10 sec. That's not long enough for people to travel across the map.
--Start first Shrine activation later. I think the first Shrine is popping around 1:30 into the match. That's too soon for such a powerful objective.
@Lucascraft I kinda hope they tune the skelly kills to be like seeds on gardens. Let you maintain a current count as opposed to a race to 30 every time. It only punishes the losing team more... an alternative would be to make skellies like dubloons and require 40 kills for your second turn in, then 50, etc.
More on the point of Aba vs stealthies... For me at least, my counter to either zera or nova is heavy use of mines in the jungles... instead of mining close to yourself and hoping for some damage or a near reveal, mine the shit outta the jungle to help keep an eye on roamers... on most maps there are only so many efficient paths between lanes and it's unlikely that a zera is going to take a big roundabout route to find you (for the zera players on this thread, take weird jungle routes to avoid mines lol). If you mine the hell out of those routes and keep an eye on the map you'll see zera pop up all the time and be able to predict where he's going. The result is that you can either move if you're in danger or call his direction if he's trying to gank another of your lanes.
Also... if paired against a duo stealth comp, build for locusts instead of a hat. It's very hard to keep an eye on one stealthier... I've only rarely been successful against two of them that are hunting you. They just have too much map coverage.... however nova has crap lane clear and zera's is only OK, so build locusts and push the shit out of the lanes while keeping to the safety of forts and towers.
Reghar's undergone a bit of a rework, and people who are better at him than I am will tell you that he's been hit pretty hard. From where I'm standing, I still feel that he's top-tier. His Ancestral Healing ultimate is a single-target heal with a low, low, 70-second cooldown that may as well be considered a full-restore. The trick to playing him effectively, though, is learning how to time it appropriately. My issue with Reghar has always been that I wait until the last possible moment to pop his ult, and because of the brief delay before it goes off, the person I'm trying to heal often dies. So be aware of that - there's definitely a skill in learning when and how to effectively utilize his ultimate. He also has a Chain Heal, and can instantly mount into his Ghost Wolf form for added mobility.
/shows up to this thread 20 minutes late with Starbucks
So I actually for real played Reghar in a tournament recently. My team didn't get very far due to two players being divas (sigh) but a bunch of people have complimented my Rehgar skills SO here it goes
Regarding his Ult: you want to CAST it as your allies enter a teamfight, around when they start taking damage. It's better to drop it on your tanks, as it is the tank's job to soak damage and disrupt. So, basically, as your frontline charges in, drop Ancestral on them. They'll start taking damage and getting spiked down by the other team's DPS. Ancestral will GO OFF as they get down to low HP and spike them back up to full, giving them what they need to kill the other guy.
Other times to use it: the SECOND Nova, Zeratul, or Illidan decloaks to kill. Nova hits hard enough that you may be fucked, but with the other two, if you START Ancestral BEFORE the other guy starts taking damage, by the time the Assassin has your buddy down to 1 HP it will go off and they'll be back at full against somebody who has burned all their cooldowns. Then you laugh! Whee!
I generally build Rehgar by pumping all his heals, but taking the trait that gives regen while in Wolf form. You do spend a lot of time running around the map as a wolf, and that greatly improves your ability to stay out in lane without having to Fountain or B.
Finally, don't underestimate the Wolf. First striking from Wolf form actually does a decent chunk of damage. If you've got an enemy who has turned tail and your buddies can't quite get the speed to chase, go Wolf and chase them down. I have actually gotten A LOT of kills as Rehgar because the rest of my team whittled someone down who then immediately went to escape, and I'm like haha I can instantly mount! And when I attack from mount I do a bunch more damage! Now I bit you in the butt and you are dead.
In combat if you're actually doing damage and not just hanging out yelling at people to stay alive (YOU'RE NOT DYING ON MEEEEEEEEEEEEE) you want to go wolf as much as possible. Like, every time that thing comes off cooldown be wolf. Your DPS will be much better for it.
One of my biggest problems with Quick Match is that a solo queue person can make educated predictions about enemy team composition based on the free hero rotation and the popularity/rarity of certain heroes. Abathur very rarely comes up on free rotation, so when he goes free you can make an educated guess that the enemy team has one. And then preemptively counter-pick him.
That's a bit unfair to the Abathur player. I mean, you should expect it, because anyone can come to the same logical conclusion that I just posted. So if you plan to play Abathur during Abathur free week, you gotta expect that there will be people such as @Bobkins Flymo who will be playing the role of the predator and punishing your choice of character. It's just gonna happen.
Hero League gives you a more "pure experience" because you can see when you are being counter-picked, and your team has a chance to counter-counter. If you pick Abathur, and then they pick Zeratul, you have a chance to draft a Tassadar or someone else with vision/reveal to assist.
With Quick Match, you are going in completely blind, and that is a huge disadvantage. You could queue as Abathur and get a team full of ranged dudes and have an extremely poor hat selection. Or you might get double stealth and not be able to leave your spawn room.
One of my biggest problems with Quick Match is that a solo queue person can make educated predictions about enemy team composition based on the free hero rotation and the popularity/rarity of certain heroes. Abathur very rarely comes up on free rotation, so when he goes free you can make an educated guess that the enemy team has one. And then preemptively counter-pick him.
That's a bit unfair to the Abathur player. I mean, you should expect it, because anyone can come to the same logical conclusion that I just posted. So if you plan to play Abathur during Abathur free week, you gotta expect that there will be people such as @Bobkins Flymo who will be playing the role of the predator and punishing your choice of character. It's just gonna happen.
Hero League gives you a more "pure experience" because you can see when you are being counter-picked, and your team has a chance to counter-counter. If you pick Abathur, and then they pick Zeratul, you have a chance to draft a Tassadar or someone else with vision/reveal to assist.
With Quick Match, you are going in completely blind, and that is a huge disadvantage. You could queue as Abathur and get a team full of ranged dudes and have an extremely poor hat selection. Or you might get double stealth and not be able to leave your spawn room.
I would really, really like them to add an unranked draft mode. I am really tired of seeing the same free week heroes in every single QM game.
Posts
@milk ducks Apparently Azmo's Rain O' Grunts is crazy on the new objective.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
I just lost a match with a 6 level deficit. Enemy team won first shrine and just rolled with it. They got up +3 levels on the first shrine, obviously won the second, and got up another +3 levels from the second shrine. And that was game.
I was watching some streams and just from that I'm thinking it'll be my favorite, too. Without having played it yet, I mean.
The Punisher is insane. I have seen him either straight up kill dudes or leave them with barely any health. And that attack speed though?! Brutal indeed.
Also, Heroes with really good aoe or wave clear really shine on Infernal Shrines. Sylvanas with Unstable Poison will DECIMATE the objective.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
I'd venture a guess that this is the reason it's not ready for release this patch... that sounds a little too broken. I'd assume they need to badly tweak numbers on it.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
i am curious how they are going to tune this since the map mechanic is designed to continue punishing a losing team. technically yes all of them do, however none so far actively hunt down the other team. that is both demoralizing and can quickly create those snowball scenarios.
WoWtcg and general gaming podcast
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I'm also curious to see if the Mortar/arcane/frozen abilities affect both teams or only the team it's chasing... Does the big bugger screw with the lane as a whole or just screw with the losing team. I think it'd be a lot more entertaining if it dropped abilities that turned the whole lane into mayhem and affected both teams... it might keep the enemy team from an easy capitalization on damaged heroes in the lane it picks.
Gotta earn your kills.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
Figures....
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
Game is 2ez.
Probably a combination of a lot of things.
At the first shrine they pulled ahead because they were able to take the outer wall and the fort and tower. That's a lot of XP at the 2:30 mark. Plus the Punisher got them kills as well. It's one thing to defend a wall against a Golem or Immortal. It's another to have a monster that will literally jump your wall and start wrecking your team while the enemy is also trying to kill you. The entire dynamic is different.
By the 2nd Punisher, we were already at a pretty significant disadvantage, and they were able to repeat the previous push with greater effect. Because they were already up +3 levels on us, the 2nd Punisher let them take the middle lane outer fort and wall, plus continue pushing into the inner base, take the second wall and second keep, and then the core. Plus the kills they were racking up on us from the Punisher. That's how we ended up with a -6 level deficit. Out of control snowball.
The Punisher demon is relentless and super aggressive, and when he's hunting your team it makes it pretty easy for the enemy team to kill you. He's such a distraction. The Immortals and Golems at least ignore you and are predictable. The Punisher is less predictable and way more aggressive.
It's not even fair to play Zeratul this week. Hunted down so many Abathurs.
There was a game on Spider Queen where I killed an Abathur twice, early game. From that point on I didn't see any Locusts on the map, and I thought "GEE THAT'S STRANGE".
He was hiding in the Hall of Storms for the entire rest of the game. Ahahaha. I put the fear of god in him.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
That makes me want to play abathur and just reverse gank the heck out of these glutenous zeratuls.
MINE FIELD IN YO' FACE!
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
Dude! Post the replay!
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
The trick to Aba vs Zera and maintaining aggressive placement is map awareness... preemptively place mines as burrow beacons and just be SUPER aware of where he is and change lanes frequently... he might catch you out, but if you stay on it there's a good chance he'll waste his time dicking around chasing you around the map. Meanwhile your locusts push, you soak xp and you hat friendlies when the enemy is only at 4 heroes because their roamer is fucking around playing hunt the worm... also shoot a stab at the bastard any time you see shimmer (typically from minions)... try to mess with his head.
It's good to practice your positioning with an enemy Zera... helps focus your mind on map awareness because if you're not paying attention you get fuggin stabbed. Also if you let yourself get cornered behind walls the whole match you're losing out on half your XP soak.
Disclaimer - This is only really viable on larger maps, smaller maps it doesn't work as well... spider queen and mines are too small and zera can traverse them very quickly for the gank. If he's actively hunting you, you miss too much hat time avoiding him... Sky temple though... pffft screw that zeratul. If you see him bot you've got tons of time to camp top lane and vice versa.
@Lucascraft Dude that really blows... sounds like that map still needs some major tweaking to avoid that kind of a snowball.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
I've been abathur hunting with tychus. It's not even fair. Even though he's not supposed to be a great aba hunter.
Steam: TimIsOnSteam
Battle.net: TimIsOnBnet#1745
Switch: SW-7012-4788-7410
PSN: TimIsOnTheNet
One fun thing to do is wait till you know where their team is, then make sure you have Z off cooldown and poke your head out for a bit in one lane. Be really aggressive, make sure they see you, wait as long as you think you can depending on the map and such. Then hide in a bush and Z to the other side of the map somewhere safer. Leave mines behind for lols.
Usually, someone will go running across the map looking for you.
Edit: Heh, I made this post before I saw that the second page of this thread is mostly talking about this. Whoops! Looks like most of us are in agreement.
It ensures you don't get a bad aba and lets you basically be a king among men.
Thoughtful positioning is key. Unlike Nova, who can attack from range and mitigate cannon fire with Decoys, Zeratul is forced to take tower damage when he attacks you. Sloppy positioning behind your structures will get you killed pretty easily, so try to stand in a place where he's going to take maximum turret fire when he appears, and in a place where he can't easily Blink to safety. Ideally, you want to be in a position where he either can't Blink past your gate, or he can just Blink past your gate, but he'll take like 3-4 tower rounds as he's trying to run away, which will kill him and result in a trade. He probably can't safely kill you until around level 7; up until that point, he just doesn't really have enough burst to global you yet (if you're properly positioned, I mean; if you're not, then he can obviously kill you much sooner). With regard to mine placement, there's no need to go crazy and wall yourself up with them; a single, thoughtfully-placed mine will absolutely dissuade him from closing in for the kill. If he's broken out of stealth before he gets a chance to open up, he will fucking panic and nope out as quickly as he can.
Yeah, but then you might get on a team with a terribad Aba.
That free stim pack was a tempting offer that I took advantage of even though I did not really get to use it every day
I have been playing Sonya and though it's against my better judgment I am tempted to buy her and the Wrath outfit
Yes I realize aba is in a huge disadvantage in a 1v1 vs practically anyone BUT, it's possible if the zeratul doesn't realize he just walked over 6 mines that cause both slow and extra damage. A long shot but we'll see.
The most exciting thing about this upcoming patch is that @Variable is starting to play the game.
and yes, Hammer was my main hero for a few weeks -_-'
and Tassadar before that >.<'
and Zagara before that though! All the nyduses (nydi?) were proxied
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
--Reduce power of the first punisher. They did this on Haunted Mines to reduce early game snowballing
--Require more skeleton kills at the shrines. 30 is too few. I would say the number needs to double. Make it 60. (Or more).
--The losing team retains skeletons. If retaining full amount is too strong, maybe allow losing team to keep half.
--Increase Shrine Activation time. Once a shrine is clicked, it starts in 10 sec. That's not long enough for people to travel across the map.
--Start first Shrine activation later. I think the first Shrine is popping around 1:30 into the match. That's too soon for such a powerful objective.
More on the point of Aba vs stealthies... For me at least, my counter to either zera or nova is heavy use of mines in the jungles... instead of mining close to yourself and hoping for some damage or a near reveal, mine the shit outta the jungle to help keep an eye on roamers... on most maps there are only so many efficient paths between lanes and it's unlikely that a zera is going to take a big roundabout route to find you (for the zera players on this thread, take weird jungle routes to avoid mines lol). If you mine the hell out of those routes and keep an eye on the map you'll see zera pop up all the time and be able to predict where he's going. The result is that you can either move if you're in danger or call his direction if he's trying to gank another of your lanes.
Also... if paired against a duo stealth comp, build for locusts instead of a hat. It's very hard to keep an eye on one stealthier... I've only rarely been successful against two of them that are hunting you. They just have too much map coverage.... however nova has crap lane clear and zera's is only OK, so build locusts and push the shit out of the lanes while keeping to the safety of forts and towers.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
/shows up to this thread 20 minutes late with Starbucks
So I actually for real played Reghar in a tournament recently. My team didn't get very far due to two players being divas (sigh) but a bunch of people have complimented my Rehgar skills SO here it goes
Regarding his Ult: you want to CAST it as your allies enter a teamfight, around when they start taking damage. It's better to drop it on your tanks, as it is the tank's job to soak damage and disrupt. So, basically, as your frontline charges in, drop Ancestral on them. They'll start taking damage and getting spiked down by the other team's DPS. Ancestral will GO OFF as they get down to low HP and spike them back up to full, giving them what they need to kill the other guy.
Other times to use it: the SECOND Nova, Zeratul, or Illidan decloaks to kill. Nova hits hard enough that you may be fucked, but with the other two, if you START Ancestral BEFORE the other guy starts taking damage, by the time the Assassin has your buddy down to 1 HP it will go off and they'll be back at full against somebody who has burned all their cooldowns. Then you laugh! Whee!
I generally build Rehgar by pumping all his heals, but taking the trait that gives regen while in Wolf form. You do spend a lot of time running around the map as a wolf, and that greatly improves your ability to stay out in lane without having to Fountain or B.
Finally, don't underestimate the Wolf. First striking from Wolf form actually does a decent chunk of damage. If you've got an enemy who has turned tail and your buddies can't quite get the speed to chase, go Wolf and chase them down. I have actually gotten A LOT of kills as Rehgar because the rest of my team whittled someone down who then immediately went to escape, and I'm like haha I can instantly mount! And when I attack from mount I do a bunch more damage! Now I bit you in the butt and you are dead.
In combat if you're actually doing damage and not just hanging out yelling at people to stay alive (YOU'RE NOT DYING ON MEEEEEEEEEEEEE) you want to go wolf as much as possible. Like, every time that thing comes off cooldown be wolf. Your DPS will be much better for it.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
That's a bit unfair to the Abathur player. I mean, you should expect it, because anyone can come to the same logical conclusion that I just posted. So if you plan to play Abathur during Abathur free week, you gotta expect that there will be people such as @Bobkins Flymo who will be playing the role of the predator and punishing your choice of character. It's just gonna happen.
Hero League gives you a more "pure experience" because you can see when you are being counter-picked, and your team has a chance to counter-counter. If you pick Abathur, and then they pick Zeratul, you have a chance to draft a Tassadar or someone else with vision/reveal to assist.
With Quick Match, you are going in completely blind, and that is a huge disadvantage. You could queue as Abathur and get a team full of ranged dudes and have an extremely poor hat selection. Or you might get double stealth and not be able to leave your spawn room.
Murky....
If you like trolling your opponents Murky is the easy choice
6k gold doesn't take all that long to generate and they're resetting HL with the next patch anyway.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
I would really, really like them to add an unranked draft mode. I am really tired of seeing the same free week heroes in every single QM game.