Heroes of the Storm

Patch looks really interesting overall, but I'm pretty bummed out they're gonna rape Jaina like that - iceblock is absolutely essential to surviving against heroes like Nova/Zeratul/Butcher/LM/etc (basically anyone with burst and either range or the ability to close in quickly), now in it's place she's just got some gimpier version of Kerrigan's trait which she has to spec for and which any of the above will burn through easily until she hits 20, and she no longer has Bolt for maneuverability.

Kinda shitty that they go on about their big KT revamp and then turn Jaina into a fucking wet paper towel. It almost feels like they're going out of their way to make sure only 1 - 2 mages are viable at any given time.

Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
Improved Ice Block (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 20
Cooldown reduced from 60 to 20 seconds
Duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds
Frostbite (Trait)
Ice Barrier (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13

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Neph_sl said:

It is a channel though. So Sylvanas is essentially stunned for the duration too.

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right, i mean the only time you're going to do it is if your team is aware of it and protecting you regardless.


Jaina nerf sucks but having Ice Barrier at 13 to replace it might not be completely awful, on paper it should be a relatively decent survival talent even if you get ambushed. You'll still be able to mitigate a good chunk of damage they do, specially if they're dumb enough to sit in your blizzard ticks.

Then if you have that, and a 20 second iceblock cooldown, she's going to be incredibly hard to kill at level 20 lol

Yeah 20 second IB at 20 is nice, at 20, but no better than having IB and Bolt, and without IB at 13 she's going to spend 10 - 20 either feeding the other team or hugging the healer and unable to move in from the backline to do any damage. Yeah the shield will help with her sustained surviveability, but she's already pretty solid there as long as you can position her well and utilize her snares. Her real problem is with burst, when Zeratul/Nova jump her out of nowhere (especially Nova at 10+ with her ults, either snipe/PS combo or TT is basically instagib without iceblock, and you won't have time to get a shield up to mitigate even part of it), or when she gets chained by Butcher, or when LM throws an orb and then pops disintegrate, or when Xul hits her with a Bone Prison (which happens all the fucking time due to her short range) - those are the moments where IB is the difference between life and death, and now she's not going to be able to do shit against them until she's level 20.

Just another reason to ignore her and play LM, but it's a shame, because I enjoyed both of them, and with the KT changes I was looking forward to having a full 3 (!) mage heroes to play.

Some nice game features happening.

Disliking a majority of the KT changes, most likely means I won't be getting him now (was saving gold for it after playing him a lot while free)

This game is entirely unplayable for me atm... like a slideshow despite my internet being completely fine with everything else wtf :\

Needless_sl said:

This game is entirely unplayable for me atm... like a slideshow despite my internet being completely fine with everything else wtf :\

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PTR is probably slammed

Tons of cool shit coming, hoping the Illidan changes are solid but also really excited to see Tychus, Sylv and even Gazlord.

I just played Tychus and yeah he shreds tanks pretty well but still suffers from his original hamstring of really needing someone to slow targets for you

Also I love these "quest" talents. Great addition.

Tenks_sl said:

PTR is probably slammed

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PTR was oddly fine for me, i swapped to live to play with a buddy and it turned into a slideshow lol. Weirddddd.


The Gazlowe turret lasers is so great hahah, specially if you can stack a bunch of turrets. I was dicking around and had like 7 active with death laser it just chunked half of arthas' health in try mode. Illidan is interesting, i don't know if those changes will make him all that viable but hopefully! I miss playing that dude

I actually think gazlord might be broken good on PTR atm lol

Mind Control is godlike lol

Tenks_sl said:

I just played Tychus and yeah he shreds tanks pretty well but still suffers from his original hamstring of really needing someone to slow targets for you

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Also to piggy back on this Tychus seems like he is no longer a great early game hero, either. Since you don't gain access to his Q on 1 talent. Also they didn't document it but some of his level 1 talents are different than the notes. Like I said he has a level 1 quest talent on E where he gains 1% MS after using E. After gaining 25 orbs his E is 50% longer. He didn't have bob-and-weave which was using E three times in a row.

Spend a bit of time trying out Kael on the PTR and I'm tentatively optimistic about the revamp - only major issue I had was the way they attached his Barrier to the Mana Addict quest mechanic - means you're stuck going with Mana Addict at lvl 1 even more than he is currently (no cool Convection/Flamestrike builds ), and from what I experienced, the result is both that you get the Barrier later in the game (18 - 20ish, instead of 16) unless you go out of your way to farm orbs, and that the speed at which you get barrier varies a lot from map to map (Battlefields/Shrines for example will give it a lot faster than DS).

Otherwise had a ton of fun (well, other than having to avoid an Illidan in every match) having LB spread by default is awesome, and he can pump out a lot more DPS with combos like Gravity Crush + Sun King's Fury. Still squishy and positioning-dependent enough that he's not OP by any means, but at least he felt fun to play and can put out competitive DPS.

If you alternate between two lanes constantly you should get those 25 stacks pretty damn quick no? like.. before level 10?

I'm gonna have to try him out on PTR.

Illidan seems pretty good again, not broken but good. His "dive" build is actually pretty sick when you hit people with dives over and over (each consecutive dive does like 700 damage).. makes getting away from him virtually impossible lol

Needless_sl said:

If you alternate between two lanes constantly you should get those 25 stacks pretty damn quick no? like.. before level 10?

I'm gonna have to try him out on PTR.

Illidan seems pretty good again, not broken but good. His "dive" build is actually pretty sick when you hit people with dives over and over (each consecutive dive does like 700 damage).. makes getting away from him virtually impossible lol

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I think it took me in the 13-16 range as Tychus to complete my quest on Tomb which is probably the best map for it

On most maps a 4-1 rotation is the strongest possible laning option. Be in the 4, that is 4 globes/minute. Tributes give a globe, Sky Temple big guy gives a globe, every merc camp, etc. So minute 6-8 you should have gotten 25 globes. In low level games this is much harder because people don't know the word "rotation" and on some maps, like BoE, it is also harder. But BoE is the worst map for Jaina and KT anyway. Though most people play BoE badly, you're not in lane for like a minute unless you have to defend because you didn't draft appropriately or rotate early.

mures_sl said:

How do you figure battlefields is a good gathering globe map? You're never in lane, its only two lanes so no easy rotation, the two globes you get IF you win the objective? doesn't make up for all the time spent not in lane.

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I was referring in general, i skipped over the battlefields part. Any "Quest" talent is going to be trash on that map obviously.

Also what I like about the quest talents is it gives an actual incentive to kill heroes early game. If KT took the two quest talents it now becomes vital you actually gank and kill him fairly often. Now deaths are an actual opportunity lost for personal hero growth.

Big patch out today. Anyone play on the PTR and have impressions?

Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes - March 29, 2016