Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes - July 10, 2018

[The Stormbringer]

Mmm, Jimmy is so tanky now. It's worth having to remember to manually pop his heal when I can get that much more health!

[Stormcall]

Except that's not the actual playstyle Azmodan had. His playstyle was to stack a long range nuke,

No, it actually wasn't. That was ONE of his playstyles, but not at ALL his only one. NOW it is his only playstyle, but that was NEVER all Azmodan was about.

[RH92]

No, it actually wasn't. That was ONE of his playstyles, but not at ALL his only one. NOW it is his only playstyle, but that was NEVER all Azmodan was about.

Then what was Azmodan about? I really wish to know the well kept secrets.

[Archpriest]

Then what was Azmodan about? I really wish to know the well kept secrets.

I can't speak for anyone other than myself but I saw three, equally viable, ways to play old Azmodan:

Focus on splitpushing (stronger demons, more demons, long range globe to summon more more demons!)

Focus on teamfights (Strong and fast globes)

Focus on duels (Lazoooor! Also good at sieging buildings!)

No matter what build you took Azmodan was, at the very least, decent at sieging and I would argue that was his defining trait. And I liked that. The main problem with the old Azmodan was that his globe and lazer felt really weak vs. other players without talents to the point where using them untalented almost felt like a waste of mana. At the same time balancing his laser build must have been difficult because it was either quite useless or GODMODE depending on the enemy team.

Having played the rework a bit now I would say that most of the changes are for the better - if nothing else because its easier to buff underperfoming talents. I do however think they nerfed his summoning aspect way too much. It had already taken a hit when towers lost ammo and this just makes them worse at pushing down buildings.

[Stormcall]

Then what was Azmodan about? I really wish to know the well kept secrets.

Not well kept at all, basically everyone knew them but you, see the guy's post below you for example of 1 guy who knew them, or look at the HotS reddit for tons more.

[RH92]

Not well kept at all, basically everyone knew them but you, see the guy's post below you for example of 1 guy who knew them, or look at the HotS reddit for tons more.

Azmodan is always played the same, just because one build has certain strengths and weakness doesn't mean it changes playstyle. No matter what build, Azmodan has to spam minions, drop Globes from far away and sweat his fat ass trying to lasor someone down before they interrupt him.

Sure I don't play Azmodan myself, but never ever I had to look at his talent to change the way I fight him or felt he is doing something different and I have faced all the mentioned builds.

It is not like a difference between Illidan with Metamorphosis or Hunt. Or less extreme difference in approach between Tyrael's Holy Ground and Law and Order builds.

[Deleted]

Azmo always lacked oomph. On one hand, he's very funny, and every game I played as Azmo had quite the... ah... Sensible Chuckle content. On the other hand, he's one of the few heroes I never won a game as In the end, support easily outheals my orbs, the cooldown is extremely long, so it can't do safe sustained damage like Hanzo, and he's no Chromie to delete enemies either.

Worst thing with him was always his Troopers though. Zagara's hydralisks, Gazlowe's turrets, even Anub's beetles, now those are stronk, but why even bother deploy troopers?

In D3 at least they force ppl to move with that super heavy club smash stun of theirs, but in HOTS they just waddle forward and look fancy with their weaksauce Burning Wrath aura, the only thing they're ever useful for is face-checking a bush and tanking bruisers. Not referring to the D adds, here, though, these are fine

I kind of hoped his rework would've made his adds more nasty.

[Stormcall]

Azmodan is always played the same, just because one build has certain strengths and weakness doesn't mean it changes playstyle. No matter what build, Azmodan has to spam minions, drop Globes from far away and sweat his fat ass trying to lasor someone down before they interrupt him.

Laser was basically useless and not worth the mana most of the time if you went Orb build. Orb was trash if you went laser build, and again, wasn't worth the mana unless you were certain you could get a kill with it.

Just like there's a difference between Q build Valla, Multi Shot Valla, and AA Valla, even though all builds AA, all builds use Q, and all builds use Multi. If your idea of "different playstyles" means "doesn't use specific skills at all", then, well, nearly EVERY hero only has 1 playstyle.

[RH92]

Laser was basically useless and not worth the mana most of the time if you went Orb build. Orb was trash if you went laser build, and again, wasn't worth the mana unless you were certain you could get a kill with it.

Going different builds on Azmodan never really changed the way you play him. You just made one ability stronger and that's it.

It was hardly good design, if going a certain build makes rest of your kit useless.

Just like there's a difference between Q build Valla, Multi Shot Valla, and AA Valla, even though all builds AA, all builds use Q, and all builds use Multi. If your idea of "different playstyles" means "doesn't use specific skills at all", then, well, nearly EVERY hero only has 1 playstyle.

You apparently don't understand what I mean. In my opinion playstyle means how you play the Hero, not just making certain abilities stronger.

Going by the Tyrael example having Law and Order makes Smite worth using against enemies, even though it is mainly a good peeling and enabling ability, and synergy with Reciporate made him really good in your face brawler while going Holy Ground made you play more passive and trying to set up flanks where you can block paths and have them trapped. It changes the way you try to use your abilities and how you approach team fights.

[Stormcall]

You apparently don't understand what I mean. In my opinion playstyle means how you play the Hero, not just making certain abilities stronger.

And that's exactly what Azmo's builds did. If you focused on TfB Globe, you focused on stacking it as quick as possible, often with a teammate to help you stack, and threw long range dunks to do massive damage especially when enemies were clumped up. If you went laser build, you focused on pushing up to a keep or tower, apply laser, then back out of range and burn the tower down. You could also duel well in 1 on 1 fights, whereas dunkmodan would not want to engage someone alone. As laserdan, you didn't worry about dunks unless you just saw a chance to guarantee a kill, but since you weren't stacking, it was a lot less likely to happen. They definitely did NOT play the same, including under your definition.