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Heroes of the Storm |OT3| Chromiehounds

scoobs

Member
So Fnatic and MVP Black the clear favorites for Blizzcon at this point right? Dignitas doesn't seem to be on the same level anymore for whatever reason.
 

Maledict

Member
It's not the patch - they have changed their team dynamic substantially. Bakery is now shot caller and drafter not JPL, and Mene is no longer their ranged carry player. From what I can gather the French players were really not happy with the team dynamic, so they needed to change things to make the team happy. According to THH the team dynamic stuff is hugely improved, but obviously in game they are weaker as they have to adjust to some very big changes.

In the end I think it will work out, because they are superb players, but it's going to take a while and they won't be at the mid-season brawl.
 

Ketch

Member
So when you say it's "bad" do you mean "I think it's bad" or "I've played it and it's bad"? Cuz it's the top win rate build by a quarter mile. I feel like you haven't played it. It's crazy

I have played it. It was the first build I tried on him because I wanted it to be good.

It's not as good as Executiiner + vulnerability.

Have you tried the E build? It fills xuls biggest weakness. Single target burst damage and its point and click.

The problem with Q build is the range, spread, and delay. It's too unreliable to aim. You're just hoping someone runs into it.

You can spam it. And it's great for spreading mortal wounds. But it's not must pick.

The build you posted earlier would be much better with either executioner and vulnerability OR the earlier Q talent.
 

Alur

Member
Xul talk

40EyhGp.gif


re: Dig, though, what do you mean the team dynamic was bad? Like they didn't wanna be shotcaller, or they didn't like their roles, or they don't like the attention Bakery gets, or what? What was making arguably the most consistent team in the game since HOTS esports began be unsettled?

EDIT: as a casual observer, I don't know how you have the best performance of a western team at an international tournament in forever and want to change anything (I count their wins as more impressive than Fanatic's outside of those two going head to head).
 

scoobs

Member
I have played it. It was the first build I tried on him because I wanted it to be good.

It's not as good as Executiiner + vulnerability.

Have you tried the E build? It fills xuls biggest weakness. Single target burst damage and its point and click.

The problem with Q build is the range, spread, and delay. It's too unreliable to aim. You're just hoping someone runs into it.

You can spam it. And it's great for spreading mortal wounds. But it's not must pick.

The build you posted earlier would be much better with either executioner and vulnerability OR the earlier Q talent.
You say these things, but the stats say otherwise. Xul can't melee safely, therefor your build rarely gets value other than vulnerability which always get value because it enables your team to blow someone up. However, as you know Xul isn't unique in that way, plenty of heroes reduce armor. You can easily swap any of the 16 talents in and out and not change my build in any way. The 16 tier of talents is personal preference, what matters is Q @ 13 and trait at 4 and 7.

You can continue thinking whatever you want, but until the stats back you up I just think you're dead wrong.
 

Maledict

Member
I doubt it's about Bakery's popularity, given that one of the changes was to make his role more prominent.

Basically they just weren't enjoying the dynamic. Mene plays HoTS more than any other pro player in the game (seriously, he plays thousands of games) but he was restricted to a tiny amount of heroes in competition. JayPL I guess didn't like the stress. In a French interview Mene said that being in the team was like a job, and they have no personal interactions with the rest of the team outside of games which sounds a bit sad.

It wasn't about performance, it was about being happy playing the game.
 
re: Dig, though, what do you mean the team dynamic was bad? Like they didn't wanna be shotcaller, or they didn't like their roles, or they don't like the attention Bakery gets, or what? What was making arguably the most consistent team in the game since HOTS esports began be unsettled?

EDIT: as a casual observer, I don't know how you have the best performance of a western team at an international tournament in forever and want to change anything (I count their wins as more impressive than Fanatic's outside of those two going head to head).

jaypl has appeared, and voiced, discontent with the game overall and competitive on numerous occassions.

the bad thing is with dig and roll 20 both underperforming I;m about ready to skip this phase and the clash already.
 

Alur

Member
Wait, you're out cause you're teams are underperforming? Damn, you'd have had a rough, esports free year in NA then given all the swapping and falling flat on their faces that has been happening for us.
 

scoobs

Member
My favorite team is roll20 and while they're clearly not the top of NA anymore I'm still interested in watching. I like when there's chaos and the weaker teams break through, that's why it's fun. If the same teams win all the time then there's no reason to watch.
 

Alur

Member
Same FWIW. Seeing Team Freedom and No Tomorrow even mount a halfway reasonable challenge is so much more interesting to me than Tempo Storm sleepwalking to the top again. The only thing that would make it more enjoyable for me would be if NVT had broken up and those players were distributed among the other teams making them even better (in theory).


Think 61% of healing is a personal record for me and the second or third most I've ever seen from one game that wasn't on a pro player's stream. Was just like a perfect storm of us bullying them and the team comp being conducive to the spread of Stu's Q.

I fucking love Stukov's base model. This blue tint + the blue surfboard...mmmm.
 

Alur

Member
Already said, cause it's ugly af. Looks like a goofy Pirates of the Caribbean mashup of the Jolly Roger and Davey Jones' face on his arm. Not really a fan of the colors, either, except perhaps the pink/purple one. I feel the same about the Alarak skin that is in that same vein (to some degree).
 

scoobs

Member
Anyone else weird like me and completely avoid playing new heroes for the first month they're out? I have barely played Malthael, and haven't touched Stukov outside of Try Mode. Really not sure why I do this.
 

Alur

Member
I still haven't played Malthael more than a game, but that's mainly because I haven't played as much. Also he's melee. Stukov doe, dats my jam. Plus new Murky skin recently and Xul rework and so forth.
 

Ketch

Member
GFE just picked tyrande in HGC. McIntyre hyper carry build? If so dreads head is gonna xplode

He went ranger lvl 1 so I think this is something different

It's something bad
 

Alur

Member
Dread just loving to shit on Tyrande. He lives for this moment.

Also, Gilly no longer has pink hair. I just noticed.
 
i mean EU is one of the most dominant regions right now unquestioned, but i see no scenario where any of the 3 teams NA is sending to the clash stand any chance against the EU folks. EU definitely looks better, but NA doesnt necessarily look that much more improved, just that the previous tops seem to be struggling more
 

scoobs

Member
Not sure there's a better feeling than completely shutting down a one trick Vikings player on Garden Terror. Tychus, it turns out, obliterates vikings.
 
Apparently Dignitas is still pretty live for the clash, because liquid list to zealots I presume.
If either experts beat liquid (and dig beats tricked) or team good guys (bkb) beat experts they are in.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Forgot to post this for those that care about sales. Next week:

Upcoming Hero Sales
Sonya — Sale Price: 250 Gems
Rexxar — Sale Price: 250 Gems
 
Forgot to post this for those that care about sales. Next week:

Upcoming Hero Sales
Sonya — Sale Price: 250 Gems
Rexxar — Sale Price: 250 Gems

It'd be cool if they had a wishlist to notify when a hero is on sale.

I'm not sure what I want but just spent like 35k over the past week so I am about broke in gold. But I do have 300 gems.
 

Vimes

Member
I feared 2.0 would go to shit as soon as there was a special event and I was right. Rerolled several times on almost every surf chest.

I just want a goddamned surfboard

Is this so much to ask



EDIT: Also been playing every night but my mate plays one AI game and gets 5 chests from the sweeps
 
I feared 2.0 would go to shit as soon as there was a special event and I was right. Rerolled several times on almost every surf chest.

I just want a goddamned surfboard

Is this so much to ask



EDIT: Also been playing every night but my mate plays one AI game and gets 5 chests from the sweeps

How has 2.0 gone to shit though? I you can just craft it.

I've gotten 1 of each event skin from chests. I crafted one tracer, but then got like 3 recolors. And I got 2 or 3 tychus. Finally got 1 stitches.

I've never played in an event before. So is it worse now?
 

Alur

Member
This is the first event post 2.0.

Now that we have some space from it's launch (or relaunch), 2.0 kind of takes on a different tone IMO. It's quite a bit of good laced with some very frustrating stuff.

pros:

- account leveling system
- rewards for said leveling
- skins, mounts, etc much more accessible for average player without huge expenditure
- collection is fun
- updated profile + stats is even better

cons:

- the bundle system is abhorrent. it initially looked like you could nab the skins + mounts that were released in the same manner as before, but in reality you just get a tint of each and the price is still pretty damn high.
- 5+ different tints of a lot of new items makes it even harder to get the one you want
- the cost to craft said items is very prohibitive versus what you can earn for duplicates. 2400 to craft one tint of a surfboard, but any random legendary is only gonna give you 400. You'd need basically 6 duplicate legendaries, 24 duplicate epics, countless dupe rares and commons. And that's to get just a tint if you want a specific one.
- for every old skin they go back and pump new tints out on (which is sometimes a good thing because some skins/heroes need the variety, don't get me wrong) that makes the loot boxes that much more bloated with stuff.

tl; dr ----------

Overall, gameplay and experience wise I think HOTS is definitely improved. It's a better experience for a player, particularly a F2P one.

If you were like me and collected the mounts, or like several others in thread/in game that I know, you liked being able to buy what you wanted when something good for you came along. There's really no opportunity to do that now outside of the +1 bonus skin for new hero releases. If you want a new legendary mount or skin (as many of them seem to be, or epic, if not) you have to hope that the tint you want is included in that bundle or you will have to fork over a large sum of shards...which are actually quite prohibitive to farm post launch unless you're rolling in gold still. Couple that with the bloating of the boxes themselves and I'm not as thrilled with 2.0 as I once was.

And don't even get me started on those cloud mounts being shards only. I had ~12k shards from my vet loot boxes saved up and it still pained me to spend so many. I can't imagine what it was like for the majority who had far less but want one and had no other avenue to get it.
 

Vimes

Member
I've been playing since alpha, and pretty regularly since 2.0, and I'll still barely have enough shards for one surfboard mount before the event ends. Only thing I've ever spent shards on is the saddle horse.

I've a mind to just hoard them all for a potential holiday event instead of buying the surfboard.
 

scoobs

Member
This is the first event post 2.0.

Now that we have some space from it's launch (or relaunch), 2.0 kind of takes on a different tone IMO. It's quite a bit of good laced with some very frustrating stuff.

pros:

- account leveling system
- rewards for said leveling
- skins, mounts, etc much more accessible for average player without huge expenditure
- collection is fun
- updated profile + stats is even better

cons:

- the bundle system is abhorrent. it initially looked like you could nab the skins + mounts that were released in the same manner as before, but in reality you just get a tint of each and the price is still pretty damn high.
- 5+ different tints of a lot of new items makes it even harder to get the one you want
- the cost to craft said items is very prohibitive versus what you can earn for duplicates. 2400 to craft one tint of a surfboard, but any random legendary is only gonna give you 400. You'd need basically 6 duplicate legendaries, 24 duplicate epics, countless dupe rares and commons. And that's to get just a tint if you want a specific one.
- for every old skin they go back and pump new tints out on (which is sometimes a good thing because some skins/heroes need the variety, don't get me wrong) that makes the loot boxes that much more bloated with stuff.

tl; dr ----------

Overall, gameplay and experience wise I think HOTS is definitely improved. It's a better experience for a player, particularly a F2P one.

If you were like me and collected the mounts, or like several others in thread/in game that I know, you liked being able to buy what you wanted when something good for you came along. There's really no opportunity to do that now outside of the +1 bonus skin for new hero releases. If you want a new legendary mount or skin (as many of them seem to be, or epic, if not) you have to hope that the tint you want is included in that bundle or you will have to fork over a large sum of shards...which are actually quite prohibitive to farm post launch unless you're rolling in gold still. Couple that with the bloating of the boxes themselves and I'm not as thrilled with 2.0 as I once was.

And don't even get me started on those cloud mounts being shards only. I had ~12k shards from my vet loot boxes saved up and it still pained me to spend so many. I can't imagine what it was like for the majority who had far less but want one and had no other avenue to get it.
My main issue is this: I used to spend a lot of money on this game because they allowed me to buy exactly what I wanted. Now I spend no money on this game because I can't buy what i want, and furthermore I don't feel like buying loot boxes will reward me with things that I want. So instead of spending literally hundreds of dollars on this game like i had in the past, I spend $0.

I'm sure theyre making more money from whales who buy loot boxes until they get what they want, but for people who want specific skins and mounts, this system is problematic.
 

Vimes

Member
My main issue is this: I used to spend a lot of money on this game because they allowed me to buy exactly what I wanted. Now I spend no money on this game because I can't buy what i want, and furthermore I don't feel like buying loot boxes will reward me with things that I want. So instead of spending literally hundreds of dollars on this game like i had in the past, I spend $0.

I'm sure theyre making more money from whales who buy loot boxes until they get what they want, but for people who want specific skins and mounts, this system is problematic.

Yup, this is me. During non-event times it's fun to open chests, but before 2.0 I spent maybe $80 on the game and now I'm spending nothing. Wall to wall events where I play a bunch and want one damn skin but don't get it is exactly what fucks me off about overwatch, and frankly I was dreading to see how heroes 2.0 did things. Thought the rerolls would at least give me some leeway but they've done jack shit for me. No skins, no mounts. Just some shitty icons and two decent sprays. (I've never used sprays and never seen people use them, btw. Lovely feature guys.)

Are whales even bloody happy after they get what they want? Frankly even if I got the damn board after spending $20 on chests (not even a guarantee! seriously who pays for RNG?) I'd just feel hollow inside. I feel like this whole business model just exploits the mentally ill.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
I dunno why I just noticed, but you're on a HOTS sabbatical aren't ya?

not really, but I resubbed wow and I want to get the most out of the sub. Ive been sneaking dailies vs AI
 

Won

Member
Playing on and off mostly in ranked loot boxes in this game are somewhat of a rare event. And I did spend money on skins in the past in this game, which isn't going to happen with loot boxes.

So this whole 2.0 system is a dud from my perspective. But that's usually true for all systems that forfeit honest and straightforward business in favor of whale hunting and gambling.
 
2.0 was perfect for a casual buyer like me. I spent enough every now and then to get the newest hero and if I like the associated skin the bundle. Otherwise I just craft some of the cheaper skins I like or take what I get in lootboxes.

I've been levelling more heroes lately got Illidan Genji Uther and some other heroes to 10 finally so been opening a decent number if lootboxes.
Even got some stimpacks that sped up the process another thing I never bought before 2.0
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Breh I can see your match history, don't lie to me. :D

Also, rip my feels. No response earlier from my whisper. Feels EU man.

when I saw the whisper you were offline
 

Ketch

Member
This is the first event post 2.0.

Now that we have some space from it's launch (or relaunch), 2.0 kind of takes on a different tone IMO. It's quite a bit of good laced with some very frustrating stuff.

pros:

- account leveling system
- rewards for said leveling
- skins, mounts, etc much more accessible for average player without huge expenditure
- collection is fun
- updated profile + stats is even better

cons:

- the bundle system is abhorrent. it initially looked like you could nab the skins + mounts that were released in the same manner as before, but in reality you just get a tint of each and the price is still pretty damn high.
- 5+ different tints of a lot of new items makes it even harder to get the one you want
- the cost to craft said items is very prohibitive versus what you can earn for duplicates. 2400 to craft one tint of a surfboard, but any random legendary is only gonna give you 400. You'd need basically 6 duplicate legendaries, 24 duplicate epics, countless dupe rares and commons. And that's to get just a tint if you want a specific one.
- for every old skin they go back and pump new tints out on (which is sometimes a good thing because some skins/heroes need the variety, don't get me wrong) that makes the loot boxes that much more bloated with stuff.

tl; dr ----------

Overall, gameplay and experience wise I think HOTS is definitely improved. It's a better experience for a player, particularly a F2P one.

If you were like me and collected the mounts, or like several others in thread/in game that I know, you liked being able to buy what you wanted when something good for you came along. There's really no opportunity to do that now outside of the +1 bonus skin for new hero releases. If you want a new legendary mount or skin (as many of them seem to be, or epic, if not) you have to hope that the tint you want is included in that bundle or you will have to fork over a large sum of shards...which are actually quite prohibitive to farm post launch unless you're rolling in gold still. Couple that with the bloating of the boxes themselves and I'm not as thrilled with 2.0 as I once was.

And don't even get me started on those cloud mounts being shards only. I had ~12k shards from my vet loot boxes saved up and it still pained me to spend so many. I can't imagine what it was like for the majority who had far less but want one and had no other avenue to get it.

My main issue is this: I used to spend a lot of money on this game because they allowed me to buy exactly what I wanted. Now I spend no money on this game because I can't buy what i want, and furthermore I don't feel like buying loot boxes will reward me with things that I want. So instead of spending literally hundreds of dollars on this game like i had in the past, I spend $0.

I'm sure theyre making more money from whales who buy loot boxes until they get what they want, but for people who want specific skins and mounts, this system is problematic.


I kind of have the opposite experience. I gave up spending money on the game before 2.0 hit, like just didn't get any cosmetics or new heroes except for gold mounts.

I've gotten so much free shit out of 2.0 that I just can't be mad it.

Like yea, I agree the summer stuff is crazy expensive. I'm surprised they upped the price on legendaries. But I don't feel any urge to own that stuff. And when I was looking I guess it seemed like some of it was actually pretty cheap too? Like some of the tints? I didn't really take the time to understand cus I'm not interested in most of the recent cosmetics. The only thing I've thought looked cool so far has been the new xul skin and the pirate stukov. I'm not into much of the goofy stuff.

So for me 2.0 has been great. Getting more stuff for less so far for sure. But I can understand the frustration. Like if I felt like the surfboards or smiley face clouds were cool I'd probably be annoyed.
 

Altairre

Member
Just had one of those rare quickmatch games where people actually work together as a team. Dehaka that secured multiple kills with his rotations because people really want to kill Murky and overextend for that while the rest were soaking properly. People pinging and responding to pings. So good. Absolutely stomped the other team.

Some good ass Guldan play by Prelude as well. Immediately quit the game after cause it ain't going to get better than that today.
 

DTC

Member
Looking for more people to play hots w/. My battle tag is DTC#1226

I used to have a fairly large group of people to play hots w/ but most disappeared from hots recently :/


Edit: Yeah i'm NA
 

Prelude.

Member
Just had one of those rare quickmatch games where people actually work together as a team. Dehaka that secured multiple kills with his rotations because people really want to kill Murky and overextend for that while the rest were soaking properly. People pinging and responding to pings. So good. Absolutely stomped the other team.

Some good ass Guldan play by Prelude as well. Immediately quit the game after cause it ain't going to get better than that today.

Thanks, you baited them well too. You were a good Tyrande in the previous game too, but for some reason, in my experience as well, every game with a Tyrande is awful. It's almost always because of her team, but still. I didn't play a lot of games, but I have a 0% winrate with her, it's pretty ridiculous.

Looking for more people to play hots w/. My battle tag is DTC#1226

I used to have a fairly large group of people to play hots w/ but most disappeared from hots recently :/
I'm assuming NA since you didn't mention it.
 
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