[D]HotS and the first few months of pro play.

Balgrog

United States1221 Posts

June 06 2012 16:57 GMT

So this blog is mainly here to discuss and theorize about how the first few months of the pro scene will be, and how it could be be potentially worse than the first few months of WoL. As of right now WoL is shaping up to be a pretty great games, we have our cream of the crop players identified, they are consistent instead of having that one trick that allows them to win for while, then once it is figured out they disappear, so I am enjoying where we are at right now.

We have confirmation that HotS beta is coming out very very soon, as in June I'm pretty sure. This is what brings me to my main point of discussion. With HotS beta coming out, players who have not done well in WoL will get the beta and play only that to have a leg up when the better players do switch over. I am saying this on the assumption that the current successful pros will stay with WoL until the full transition to HotS. Since players of lesser caliber will have the new game more figured out, and the mechanics down by the time the switch happens, they will be able to compete with better players than them and possibly win money. This is only one point of discussion for me, time to move on to the next one

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Hey boys remember when there was nothing you could do to stop me?

I bring up the reaper for a reason. I believe that this is a prime example of a brand new game that is not balanced. In the beginning of WoL there were those crazy strats with units that could just not be stopped when pro's figured out how to use them properly. We are headed straight for this in HotS for the first few months. Yes it will only be a add on for WoL so it won't be as bad as it was in SC2 vanilla, but there is still going to be that extreme learning phase, especially for zerg with the swarm host and how to properly utilize that, and protoss to figure out a mothersip-less way to deal with the late game mass broodlords.

So what I pose to you fellow TL'ers, is do you agree with these points, if so to what extent do you think that these points are true. What do you think will happen in the first few months, how long will it take for things to go back to how they should be, by this I mean no crazy stupid strategies are winning tournaments, the races at tournies in pro levels are semi balanced, the community is pretty well segregated into who is top tier, who is middle and who is low.

Talin

Montenegro10532 Posts

June 06 2012 19:41 GMT

I don't think it'll be much better than SC2 vanilla. The engine is the same, so the level of control and mechanics might not drop too much, then again it isn't astoundingly impressive even right now in WoL, and I don't think that was ever the problem with vanilla SC2 either despite the brand new engine and "feel" of the controls.

Strategies, timings and unit compositions will be the problem, enough to make up for awful gameplay as the players are figuring out new things to abuse, and until they figure out how to stop them. It's almost a given that we'll see new equivalents of 4 Gate, 1/1/1, etc. They will be just as difficult to stop. Needless to say there will probably be a dozen patches after the actual release too that will make additional significant changes. It will inevitably be a mess.

I've already said this a number of times, but there are few things more painful to watch than watching players play a new and unexplored RTS game. WoL is only in its last year showing signs of potential and starting to reward actual skill over strategy/knowledge (albeit not by much). HoTS will take just as long to reach the level of WoL, and the worst thing is that it won't even be the last expansion, so it too is destined to suffer the same fate in the end.

I don't think a lot of people are aware yet as to how ugly the transition will be, but the moment beta footage and replays start popping up, there will be nothing short of Balance Ragnarok in the community, and all hell will break loose.

GinDo

3327 Posts

June 06 2012 21:32 GMT

I wonder about the major tournaments. Will they switch to HOTS during the beta? Playing HOTS beta full time will allow pros to get an edge over those who don't, but they risk alot of instability as the game is patched.

The other alternative is to 50/50, but that will result in the same issues we see in the Kespa leagues.

Zombo Joe

Canada850 Posts

June 06 2012 23:06 GMT

Double Reactor Factory Battlehellion allin will be very op.

Balgrog

United States1221 Posts

June 07 2012 00:49 GMT

On June 07 2012 06:32 GinDo wrote:
I wonder about the major tournaments. Will they switch to HOTS during the beta? Playing HOTS beta full time will allow pros to get an edge over those who don't, but they risk alot of instability as the game is patched.

The other alternative is to 50/50, but that will result in the same issues we see in the Kespa leagues.

There is no way tournaments will switch to HoTS during the beta. Only limited numbers of players will be receiving the beta and why would they switch to a shitty game that most of the fans can't even play yet when they have WoL that can provide great games to watch and what not. No the switch won't happen until HoTS is released.

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[D]HotS and the first few months of pro play.

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