Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - December 19, 2018

[Charge me Doctor]

My dishonesty? Show me where I lied. They shutdown the official esports section which has nothing to do with the average players. Until they announce the game is shutting down there is nothing stopping the players from playing.

Except average players may enjoy watching esports, and maybe learn a thing or two from it. It doesn't stop players from playing, but it definitely detriments from experience. Esports scene is a very big thing for dota-likes.
I'm 100% sure that there will be community-managed championships, but losing official tournaments is going to hurt playerbase.

[Stormcall]

Except average players may enjoy watching esports, and maybe learn a thing or two from it

Maybe, but I doubt it. ESports appeals to the hardcores for the most part, the casual players who make up the largest part of the playerbase for the most part just don't care. I mean, I am dedicated to the game more than a lot of people are, and I don't give a single fuck about eSports, so do you really think the dude living in bot lane with Jim Raynor or the Illidan diving in 1v5 or the guy who only plays Nova or any of the other sorts who make up the majority of QM is gonna pay them much notice?.

[Syegfryed]

Maybe, but I doubt it. ESports appeals to the hardcores for the most part, the casual players who make up the largest part of the playerbase for the most part just don't care..

thats totally false, esports appeal a lot the casuals, every sport in general appeal casuals, not only "hardcore football players" watch football

you can see how much views dota and lol have on twitch and championships, its impossible have so many only with hardcore fans as public.

[Charge me Doctor]

Maybe, but I doubt it. ESports appeals to the hardcores for the most part, the casual players who make up the largest part of the playerbase for the most part just don't care. I mean, I am dedicated to the game more than a lot of people are, and I don't give a single fuck about eSports, so do you really think the dude living in bot lane with Jim Raynor or the Illidan diving in 1v5 or the guy who only plays Nova or any of the other sorts who make up the majority of QM is gonna pay them much notice?.

You are implying that you are a representative of majority of playerbase. If you don't care about esport it doesn't mean that majority of playerbase doesn't. You are also implying a lot of bad stuff like majority of playerbase are bad players.
Esport is an entertainment. "elite" entertainment of sorts, since you have to be involved in this game to be able to even comprehend what's happening. It's not like popular sport games, where everything is kept simple by scoring a ball into the net, so literally anyone can enjoy it. And it works like general hobbies do - if you like something, you'll enjoy watching other doing that. If you like drawing - you will seek other people who draw, you will look at professionals doing it to see what equipment and how they use it to achieve desired effect.

So yes, your dude living in bot lane with Jim Raynor (you are giving yourself out, that you are league player with this "ADC supposed to farm bot" mentality seriously. Things that work in league doesn't work in HotS, you have to understand that first to git gud) is very likely to watch the stream of heroes of the dorm when his battle.net autoloads on OS load and pops him an ad with it. He maybe even see that Jim Raynor kicks ass and log in to play couple of games to validate what he've seen or be disappointed.

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thats totally false, esports appeal a lot the casuals, every sport in general appeal casuals, not only "hardcore football players" watch football

you can see how much views dota and lol have on twitch and championships, its impossible have so many only with hardcore fans as public.

I bet it comes from wishful thinking that if you watch esports it somehow makes you not casual or hardcore -.-

[Mormolyce]

For Zagara, I checked ingame and her Hunter Killer damage is increased to 71. Just in case someone was wondering which way it went.

I can't imagine why Blizzard would even consider buffing those things, they are absurdly strong.

[Charge me Doctor]

I can't imagine why Blizzard would even consider buffing those things, they are absurdly strong.

i wonder for which characters this health buff results into +1 auto to kill the hunter

[Stormcall]

You are implying that you are a representative of majority of playerbase. If you don't care about esport it doesn't mean that majority of playerbase doesn't. You are also implying a lot of bad stuff like majority of playerbase are bad players.
Esport is an entertainment. "elite" entertainment of sorts, since you have to be involved in this game to be able to even comprehend what's happening. It's not like popular sport games, where everything is kept simple by scoring a ball into the net, so literally anyone can enjoy it. And it works like general hobbies do - if you like something, you'll enjoy watching other doing that. If you like drawing - you will seek other people who draw, you will look at professionals doing it to see what equipment and how they use it to achieve desired effect.

I'm sorry, but you are simply wrong. Lots of people, I daresay the majority of people, just play to have fun, doing whatever it is they like doing, and don't worry about how "pros" play. Enjoying playing something does not correlate to automatically enjoying watching OTHERS do it. I play WoW, and I play it a lot. I played Diablo 2 for 15 years. Got tons of friends who play WoW now, and played Diablo 2(and later Diablo 3) with me. Know how much we watched Diablo vids? Almost never. We did look up a video when we heard someone say a summoner necro could deal with Uber Diablo, we wanted to see how they did it. WoW vids? The more serious raiders sometimes watch raid vids to learn the mechanics, but they don't watch it cause they enjoy watching it, and the less serious raiders don't even bother watching at all, they just queue up in LFR and whatever happens, happens. The players who really watch and follow eSports are, for the most part, the people who really ARE seriously into the game, not the people who log on to play a few quick matches every day, which is the majority of the playerbase(Blizz themselves have confirmed that QM is by far the most popular game type).

And that Raynor dude who spent most of the game farming bot lane? I don't remember his exact level, but it was in the mid 500's. I mean yeah, that's not someone who's played since release obviously, but it's a high enough level that if he followed esports and tried to emulate pro players, that's not the shit he would be doing, is it?

[Mormolyce]

i wonder for which characters this health buff results into +1 auto to kill the hunter

I mean it's so stupid, it's AI controlled damage, it relentlessly pursues you, and you cannot repeat cannot tank it. So naturally the counterplay should be to kill it. But it already has way too much HP for that to be viable. So literally, she presses W and you have to leave the lane, period.

I played Zag for years and abused the shit out of that, I know how strong it is on the giving and receiving end. No character can compete with her in a lane.

On top of which she can lay creep with a tiny cooldown and you need stealth vision or untargeted AOE just to clear. Even if you CAN clear it, she can lay it so fast you're probably investing a lot of your own CDs just to delay her creeping up the whole lane. Basically the game mechanics prevent counterplay. I've been saying for years that the creep node should become visible if you're standing close enough to it.

[Charge me Doctor]

I mean it's so stupid, it's AI controlled damage, it relentlessly pursues you, and you cannot repeat cannot tank it. So naturally the counterplay should be to kill it. But it already has way too much HP for that to be viable. So literally, she presses W and you have to leave the lane, period.

I played Zag for years and abused the shit out of that, I know how strong it is on the giving and receiving end. No character can compete with her in a lane.

On top of which she can lay creep with a tiny cooldown and you need stealth vision or untargeted AOE just to clear. Even if you CAN clear it, she can lay it so fast you're probably investing a lot of your own CDs just to delay her creeping up the whole lane. Basically the game mechanics prevent counterplay. I've been saying for years that the creep node should become visible if you're standing close enough to it.

Yesterday i had to play against Zagara on Probius and damn it's way harder than before. I can't reliably blast hunters anymore since two war rifts on top of it doesn't kill it now and still eat a bunch of shots. And while i do that - i can't push, i can't pressure, i can't do damage to her, i can't stop creep spread. All she had to do was dropping pods on pylons and W+left click on me to keep me behind the walls. And you know the most fun part? It's fucking mana positive since she never run out of mana.

Getting shield and level 4 helps but that has a major drawback of not having 10 seconds CD on Z and not having more MS in Pylons during fights.

Oh yeah, she was also immune to ganks by being Zagara, but still i had none because my friends are assholes.

[Mormolyce]

Yesterday i had to play against Zagara on Probius and damn it's way harder than before. I can't reliably blast hunters anymore since two war rifts on top of it doesn't kill it now and still eat a bunch of shots. And while i do that - i can't push, i can't pressure, i can't do damage to her, i can't stop creep spread. All she had to do was dropping pods on pylons and W+left click on me to keep me behind the walls. And you know the most fun part? It's fucking mana positive since she never run out of mana.

Getting shield and level 4 helps but that has a major drawback of not having 10 seconds CD on Z and not having more MS in Pylons during fights.

Oh yeah, she was also immune to ganks by being Zagara, but still i had none because my friends are assholes.

Good thing they did that because Zag is too weak and Probius really needs a nerf right?

LOL.

[Charge me Doctor]

Good thing they did that because Zag is too weak and Probius really needs a nerf right?

LOL.

Well before i felt fine playing against Zaggara. If she played smart and waited to summon hunters after i pop both rifts, so i have to literally walk out of exp range to get this shit killed by turrets - but i also could play smart and keep on rift in a pocket and only ever use Qs and pop one rift right before i get next charge. It felt like i'm actually playing against her, now it's just "taking two waves of creeps costs you 70% of your health" thing.

There is also one weird thing about Zagara - why the fuck her roaches target players? Shouldn't they target closest targets instead? How come Zagara drops a pod into the middle of 7 creep wave but roaches still attack you, because you stood in range of their attack? I wish my photon cannons worked this way, shit.