Heroes of the Storm

can you just play this now?

I'm watching Day9 day off now, it looks a lot more interesting than LOL to me.

I feel people are discounting how much talents effect this game. There aren't really "pushing lineups" but you can spec yourself to push far better. Case in point Raynor. I'm using him simply because I know him the best. At level 1 you can choose to either scale your attack damage every level up or you can choose that your shots remove ammo from the towers. Later you have the choice to increase the damage of your basic shot or increase your damage to structures. So you are really choosing if you want to be a DPS fighter or if you want to be a strong pusher. It certainly adds a layer of complexity to the game.

I'm also a huge fan of these objectives. They force out action at spots. And the perma-cloaked characters are certainly every bit the ganker that Bounty Hunter and the like are in DOTA. I haven't played one personally but I played against a Zeratul that I was cursing for constantly ganking my Raynor.

Also does anyone know if you get a random hero at the "Free to Play Hero" unlock tier or is it pre-defined? I got Abathur and I assume based upon the amount of Abathurs I see everyone gets him.

Dandain_sl said:

My biggest thing is just don't call it a moba and don't expect it to be. Its not - The map defines lol and dota as much as last hitting, the item shop and the fact that the map does not have quests or events. There is a reason they are very very close in relative design. This is definitely just like WoW Battleground from the perspective of Warcraft the RTS.

Click to expand...

Blizzard knows that they are too late on the scene (by no one elses fault but their own) that is dominated by LoL and Dota 2 so they have nothing to lose by trying to go a more casual route and introducing some other concepts/objectives

Man Abatur is fun as hell to play

Has there ever been a hero like that in another moba? I know the type doesnt exist in LoL.

I don't believe so. At least not in DOTA2 and if you say not in LoL I'm guessing it's a fresh concept.

I also had my first rager today. You'd think in a super casual game in alpha where everything and all progress will be wiped soon you wouldn't take it so seriously. Uther decided to park his ass at fountain though once we lost a keep somewhat early.

khalid_sl said:

They didn't say it was made for gaming rejects. They are making it accessible to people that don't want to deal with the bullshit that exists in LoL.

As others have pointed out already, shit like rampant snowballing and last hit are shitty mechanics. They also are in no way exclusive to what MOBAs should be about either. Last hit was only put in because of an engine issue early on in the games. Rampant snowballing actually makes the game less interesting to me, because it makes comebacks virtually impossible.

You people sound exactly like all the people complaining about how WoW has no skill and ole-skool EQ was so great because of shit like corpse-runs, having to have food in your inventory, a spellbook in your face while sitting down and the like. Fuck off.

Click to expand...

People like tedious nontrivial game mechanics because it weeds out the retards and casuals. Number of people I did end game content with in EQ that were bad players...maybe 2? Number of people I did end game content with in WoW that were retards...too many to count and it made a great game not fun to play. HotS will not have a competitive scene that is taken seriously (if it has one at all) because it lacks "shitty mechanics" aka hard to master skills.

MaulNutz_sl said:

People like tedious nontrivial game mechanics because it weeds out the retards and casuals. Number of people I did end game content with in EQ that were bad players...maybe 2? Number of people I did end game content with in WoW that were retards...too many to count and it made a great game not fun to play. HotS will not have a competitive scene that is taken seriously (if it has one at all) because it lacks "shitty mechanics" aka hard to master skills.

Click to expand...

QFT

MaulNutz_sl said:

"shitty mechanics" aka hard to master skills.

Click to expand...

Not all shitty mechanics add something to games, sorry. HoTS can have skill and not be shackled by dumb shit like last hit. That is one of the best things about Blizzard, when they go into a genre they refuse to be shackled by the tedious shit in the other games. I thought hearthstone was going to be too simple to be successful and I was clearly wrong there.

Also, EQ raiding required very little skill. Hell, we had all kinds of people multiboxing, try that in almost any WoW raid and its fail. In fact, pretty much the entire cleric roster was boxed in most guilds in EQ. It wasn't until pretty much WoW that we saw raid fights that required constant movement and reaction that you saw how bad people were.

Sulrn_sl said:

QFT

Click to expand...

Well, on the plus side, if HoTS is significantly easier to master than Dota2, maybe you won't be stuck in the shit tier on it.

mures_sl said:

Nah, just in "technical alpha" now so it'll probably be ~6 months before it is in open beta, assuming it goes to open beta before launch.

Click to expand...

the fuck did I just install then... did I accidentally install hearthstone?

khalid_sl said:

Not all shitty mechanics add something to games, sorry. HoTS can have skill and not be shackled by dumb shit like last hit.

Click to expand...

Pretty much the most retarded mechanic that kept me away from LOL. Dont make last hit, dont make last hit. Oh no you killed their hero, that was BAD man!

pure fucking shit.

Quineloe_sl said:

the fuck did I just install then... did I accidentally install hearthstone?

Click to expand...

They call it a technical alpha, but really just consider it a closed beta. They sent out invites to some nonstreamers randomly, so maybe you got lucky?

Either that, or enjoy hearthstone!

khalid_sl said:

Not all shitty mechanics add something to games, sorry. HoTS can have skill and not be shackled by dumb shit like last hit. That is one of the best things about Blizzard, when they go into a genre they refuse to be shackled by the tedious shit in the other games. I thought hearthstone was going to be too simple to be successful and I was clearly wrong there.

Also, EQ raiding required very little skill. Hell, we had all kinds of people multiboxing, try that in almost any WoW raid and its fail. In fact, pretty much the entire cleric roster was boxed in most guilds in EQ. It wasn't until pretty much WoW that we saw raid fights that required constant movement and reaction that you saw how bad people were.

Click to expand...

Wat about last hitting.

Also, tedious shit as in having to go through the story 3 fucking times in DIII until you can get to the hardest difficulty and start receiving the best gear? More like other companies paved the wave for Blizzard to not be stupid and they still were until just recently.

khalid_sl said:

Well, on the plus side, if HoTS is significantly easier to master than Dota2, maybe you won't be stuck in the shit tier on it.

Click to expand...

Oh is he one of those people who goes on and on about how great hard games are but is really, really bad at hard games? Reminds me when SC2 game out and the iccup D+ players were claiming how easy SC2 is while sitting at middle platinum.

It's like Blizzard killed their dog or something. In their effort to discredit everything, people are literally equating EQ with skill.

khalid_sl said:

Well, on the plus side, if HoTS is significantly easier to master than Dota2, maybe you won't be stuck in the shit tier on it.

Click to expand...

That would be a plus if it wasn't a Facebook Arena (since we're not calling it a MOBA anymore??) game. I think I like that though HoTS is a FAG...

Tenks_sl said:

Oh is he one of those people who goes on and on about how great hard games are but is really, really bad at hard games? Reminds me when SC2 game out and the iccup D+ players were claiming how easy SC2 is while sitting at middle platinum.

Click to expand...

The need to be challenged is an innate feature for most successful people. Just saying.

I'm extremely bad at soccer, but I love it with a passion both on and off field. I was great at farming WoW and sold accounts/gold for spending money does that earn me e-street cred - not likely because it was a simple game and 2-300 an account doesn't nearly match the 2-10k that EQ accounts went for.

Does being a gold farmer earn you street credit regardless of the game?

Blizzard took out the tedium of EQ while improving and making the gameplay fun as hell. My fear with HoTS is that they assumed last hitting was just more tedium, while it's actually gameplay. Removing items is one thing, simplifying builds is one thing, but what's left in lane? They're trying objectives, we'll see if it works out. It's funny to, because if they took out items and builds and allowed people to actually concentrate 100% on the last hits without the information overload, it probably would have made it a funner wack-a-mole for newbie players.