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Gamescom 2015
Photos to be added as soon as possible!
Updates as they come from Blizzard; next Heroes announcements at 6 pm CEST on August 7th
New Heroes
Rexxar
- Ranged Warcraft Warrior
- Delayed release due to Blizzard wanting to really focus Rexxar's skills around his pet, Misha
- Misha has her own HP and hero space, allowing her to block Heroes in
- Trait: Misha
- Has a range from Rexxar, if he runs too far away Misha will automatically return
- While away from Rexxar, trait becomes "Call Pet", which calls Misha to his side
- While by Rexxar's side, trait allows him to direct Misha to go to a location
- Q - Spirit Swoop
- Shoots a hawk that slows all enemy units and Heroes it hits
- Line ability shot from Rexxar's location
- W - Misha, Charge!
- Misha leaps forward and stuns any heroes in her path
- Short range charge that starts at Misha's current location
- E - Mend Pet
- R1 - Unleash the Boars
- A wave of boars charge forward in an area, hunting down enemy Heroes
- Enemy Heroes hit are slowed, revealed and take minor damage
- Cone-shaped long range ability
- R2 - Bestial Wrath
- Greatly buffs Misha's abilities and attack damage
- Misha walks on her hind legs, gains ghost claw visual
- Gameplay Observations:
- Even though he's ranged, Rexxar offers an extraordinary set of utility abilities and, with Misha, can dish out some serious damage. Rexxar himself can be easily killed, though, so Misha is the key to his survival and warrior potential.
- Misha will hunt enemy Heroes down to the ends of the Earth unless you recall her or run out of her range. Be aware and ready to call her back.
- Misha can capture camps, including boss camps.
- Positioning Misha so that she can successfully get her stun off and get some serious auto-attack damage off is incredibly important.
- There is a talent that allows Misha to charge a second time if she does not hit a target the first time around; this can be incredibly helpful if your positioning is off.
- Misha can take some serious tower hits. That, when paired with Mend Pet, can make Rexxar a very strong diving and pushing champion.
- Unleash the Boars can feel like an underpowered ult, but it can also hit stealthed enemies, interrupt Tribute or Hearthstone casting and the extra slow, paired with Spirit Swoop, can be devastating.
- Blizzard did a great job at making Misha a star of the show. Once positioning her in fights becomes intuitive, Bestial Wrath will wreak havoc on the enemy team's back lines.
Kharazim
- Melee Diablo Support
- Has a choice of three Traits to start the game
- Can be built for more sustained damage or healing
- Traits:
- Transcendence: Every three auto attacks, Kharazim heals himself
- Insight: Allows Kharazim to restore his mana
- Iron Fists: Increases attack damage
- Q - Radiant Dash
- Jump to an ally or an enemy; if an enemy deals moderate damage
- Works on a charge system
- W - Breath of Heaven
- Short-range AoE heal and speed boost
- His main support ability
- E - Deadly Reach
- Extends Kharazim's auto attack range and deals bonus damage on empowered attacks
- R1 - Seven-Sided Strike
- Strikes seven times on the "toughest" enemies, dealing 7% HP damage per strike
- Kharazim is untargetable for the duration of this ability
- R2 - Divine Palm
- Places an aura on an allied Hero, reviving them upon their death
- Gameplay Observations:
- Last hero being released with the "Eternal Conflict" Diablo theme
- While he can be built damage, the majority of his talents are very support-focused
- ie Cleanse, Clairvoyance, Foresight (Radiant Dash reveals the area)
- Divine Palm appears to resurrect the allied hero to full hp.
- Divine Palm creates a giant yellow aura beneath the hero it's currently on, so it's glaringly obvious who has been ulted.
- Seven-Sided Strike does do 49% HP damage; however, it can be spread out over many enemies and in many team fights, it felt absolutely useless except as an escape from potential CC.
- Radiant Dash is almost always paired with Breath of Heaven; use it to position yourself in the midst of your team to hit the highest number of allied heroes.
- For League of Legends players, the best comparison for Divine Palm is Zilean's ultimate Chronoshift
Artanis
- Starcraft Warrior
- Focus on diving in but will likely have limited escape capabilities
- Will fight or die for Aiur
- Very early stages of development
Medic
- Ranged Starcraft Support
- "single-target healing"
- Appears to have an AoE shielding ability
- Unsure at the moment whether this is an AoE shield or a single-target shield with a range indicator
- Grenade ability
- Heroic ability: Medivac
- After a cast time, Medic jumps into a Medivac with its own HP bar
- Other heroes can enter the Medivac with Medic
- Medic can launch the Medivac across the map to wherever she'd like
New Map: Infernal Shrines
- Three-lane Map
- Emphasis on laning presence
- Three shrines on the map: Molten, Arcane and Frozen
- One activates at a time. Once active, when a Hero is present low-hp Skeletons will begin to spawn
- First team to kill 30 Skeletons summons a Punisher of the Shrine's element
- Unlike Bosses and Golems, Punishers will focus down Heroes and ignore buildings unless a Hero is unavailable to beat up
- Map has the design and colours of Battlefield of Eternity with the Shrine set-up of Sky Temple
- Nazeebo is able to stack his Death Ritual incredibly fast from skeleton kills
- Jaina, Nazeebo, Sylvanas and Rexxar were among my favourite Heroes on this map due to their ability to consistently kill low hp minions quickly
- Based on positioning, this could be a good map for Heroes like Leoric due to the Shrines being a central location with space all around them
Quality of Life Changes
Ranked Placement Matches
- All ranks will be reset but internal MMR will be kept on record
- Will combine mandatory placement matches with past history to give you a "true" rank
- Initially going to be under-tuned so everyone isn't suddenly much higher up than they should be
- After reset, we will still be in "preseason"
Rank 1 Changes
- Fine-tuned how players in Rank 1 gain and lose points so it feels more balanced with levels 40-2
- Will eventually add a Grand Master rank, so changes made now will help the flow of players when GM is released
- Grand Master will NOT be in the upcoming patch
Team League
- Five-player parties are now only eligible to play in Team League
- Team names will no longer be available
- Gold will be returned to those who spent it on making teams
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Caldeum1977 Posts
If Blizzard is announcing this much now, I wonder what they have in store for Blizzcon...
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Medivac drops hahahaha thats awesome. And prolly just more refined stuff at Blizzcon. They really try to keep their products on the radar now.
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Mexico2170 Posts
I think they'll announce a sc2 event at BlizzCon.
Probably a new game mode, the Arena that has been datamined.
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sc2 event makes sense, but only if SC2:LotV is going to come soon, they'll time it so they coincide, I'd bet, to generate hype.
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If they don't have another event before it, I 100% foresee the SC2 event being showcased like that. I wonder if Medic will come out before it begins, though, as she seems relatively fleshed out design-wise, just needs to be balanced. If they don't release her by then, I expect her to be the first hero released and I believe they'll push to have Artanis ready to showcase for Blizzcon for sure.
On the same vein, iirc we don't have an actual release date for Rexxar or the monk. Monk will be soon, as it's the last Hero coming out for The Eternal Conflict, but Rexxar could be whenever. They might be what Blizz gives us to tide us over until Blizzcon, which would make sense.
One of the things I'm most interested in is how they'll port Overwatch characters in once it's at least in open Beta. Playing Overwatch, there's some serious potential to simply port the characters over with their in-game abilities now, so I can't wait to hear more there too.
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Medic/Artanis and a SC themed map should be scheduled for release roughly 2-4 weeks before LOTV is released to link to the two together.
Looking at a Octoberish release for Heroes content and Novemberish release for LOTV (with typical release schedule from the past). However since its slated for 2016, expect a December release for Heroes and January LOTV.
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Nice more SC heroes!!!
Well is it safe to assume Artanis will be the hero gained from the pre-order of LotV? Or will we have a surprise SC warrior with the game? Any indication for people that are on site?
 gj blizzard
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Sorry for the double post but damn, just watched the video with the new announcements and the new skins....Judgment Uther looks bad ass...I might actually buy and starting playing Uther when that is released o.O
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Sgt. Doomhammer is a truly outstanding skin... DAT ULT, IRON STAR LAUNCH! Man, they really made those abilities incredibly cool.
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Caldeum1977 Posts
On August 08 2015 07:30 KobraKay wrote:Nice more SC heroes!!! Well is it safe to assume Artanis will be the hero gained from the pre-order of LotV? Or will we have a surprise SC warrior with the game? Any indication for people that are on site? gj blizzard
They said today that Fenix was planned on being the first SC warrior, but he also had a death trait and they didn't want to release him around the same time as Leoric. So since we're not getting him yet, I think it must be Artanis for the pre-order hero.
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As someone who frequently plays and enjoys support, news of the medic super makes up for losing cleanse. I'm excited!
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On August 08 2015 11:51 Valiver wrote:Show nested quote +On August 08 2015 07:30 KobraKay wrote:Nice more SC heroes!!! Well is it safe to assume Artanis will be the hero gained from the pre-order of LotV? Or will we have a surprise SC warrior with the game? Any indication for people that are on site? gj blizzard They said today that Fenix was planned on being the first SC warrior, but he also had a death trait and they didn't want to release him around the same time as Leoric. So since we're not getting him yet, I think it must be Artanis for the pre-order hero.
Nice! Thanks for the info.
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On August 08 2015 07:30 KobraKay wrote:Nice more SC heroes!!! Well is it safe to assume Artanis will be the hero gained from the pre-order of LotV? Or will we have a surprise SC warrior with the game? Any indication for people that are on site? gj blizzard
Can confirm: If you pre-order LOTV You get Artanis in-game!
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Grubby reported on changes he saw in Gamescom build
The following is his unedited post in full:
Hey, Guys.
So I'm at gamescom and got a chance to play the gamescom build it already has a number of changes. I'll try to recall as many possible to share a little sneak peek. No guarantees, the human mind is fallible.
Overall
•you can now see the team total's XP breakdown if you hover over it. E.g.: 8.2% from buildings and 6% from TD's and 14.5% from lane minions soak
•when a Hero dies, his death timer immediately shows up in the death queue. So no more waiting for Uther's spirit to disappear before knowing his return time.
•shields are now white, kinda same as on the U.S. Heroes tourneys like HotD. It is much clear now than before what's the shield. Nice changes all around so far here.
•pre-cleanse disappeared
General balance:
•gathering power 0% at start, 1% per Takedown and 50% retention at death. This is an overall nerf and makes GP a situational pick even on heroes like Kaelthas or Nova.
•Bolt of the storm cool down 70s(up from 40s)
•Mercenary lord is now at level 4 for all heroes (I think) that had it at level 7. It has merged with Superiority, giving both talents former advantages.
Kerrigan
•Sweeping Grasp level 1 talent is gone and is now default part of her "E".
•Mana-return E lvl 1 talent with 10 mana per target hit, max of 60.
•No more seasoned marksman I think.
•Massive trait talent changes and buffs. 20s on longer shield talent instead of 12s. Has a level 7 which gives 100% bonus HP and Mana regen whenever shields are active.
•Her own form of sprint. 25% bonus move speed for 4s, CD 75s. Worse, right? BUT it activates each time you get a Takedown. She's FUN to play damn.
•her own form of Blood 4 Blood: essence for essence. 10% max life dmg, 20% max hp added to her assimilated shields. Worse, I think? But benefits if you are using it when full life or using it for the extra regen from lvl 7 talent.
Kaelthas
•Gravity lapse base range and speed has been increased to what Nether Wind (4) was.
•Nether wind was not removed, it adds even more range and speed now.
•the gravity lapse cool down level 1 talent got buffed by -3s CDR from -1s CDR. So E's CD is 13s and was reducible at max to 10s, now to 4s.
•flamestrikes base damage and living bomb base damage are slightly higher I THINK.
•mana flamestrikes talent at level 4 now gives 5% max mana back per kill up from 20 mana per kill. That makes it better post level 16 but worse pre I think? Quick maths, could be wrong.
•Fission Bomb (7) is now 30% dmg bonus and 30% radius explosion increase (chard from just 75% dmg).
•pyro last radius increased a bit.
•pyromaniac (13) gives -2s CDR per tick up from -1s CDR (it's insane!).
•chainbomb and flamethrower still exist
•backdraft (16) now offers 50% slow for 2.5s (!!!) on living bomb targets
•flamestrikes talent (16) now gives a 50% dmg flamestrike same location automatically at 1st later
Azmodan
•the lord of hells demon warriors are going to be less bad. Most of the bad talents got collected like a 2-in-1. Don't remember exactly how but you'll have for example less PvE dmg combined with more duration.
•bound minion(4) was removed. However at level 20 he got a 2nd trait charge (another general) and reduced its cool down by... Like 10s? This reduces his level4 and initial global strength and remote catapult buffs which imo is a good thing. But it brings back up his push power at level 20.
•E does 25% bonus damage on structures now. I think it used to be 50%?
•he can go full E build at level 1,4,7,13. Mana reduction and +25%(bringing it back up to its original 50%) structure damage at the level 1 talent. Level 4 brings that 15% life leech that he already had. Level 7 brings a 4th Power level (HA ME GA ME HAAAAA) and 3rd is good old March of sin still.
•mana reduction talent for Q at 13, seems not to compete.
•stacking build still possible and mostly unchanged.
Jaina
•water elementals SUMMONING no longer chills or does damage. No further changes that I can recall or noticed. Good change imo, WE was OpieOP.
Nazeebo
•Level 7: three choices. Gidbinn = +33% timer on SPIDERS and ZOMBIES. Second choice: 4s zombie wall reduction talent. Third choice: all 5 of the plague toads upon impact give -1s CDR on toads and return 5 mana.
•Level 13: zombie 5 uproot walking dead guys now also have the +50% dmg embedded in it that was previously at level 7.
•thing of the deep (13): all basic abilities range goes up by 25%
•loses sprint at 13
•gets hardened focus at 16
•16 didn't change for the rest
•ravenous spirit felt stronger (maybe bigger radius again?)
Tyrael
•sanctficationi is now channeling 0.5s I think, but tyrael is free to go once it completes, and it leaves the invul zone in that location
Arthas
•gains merc lord embedded with superiority (read general changes, wrote this about Arthas cos it may seem unexpected lol).
That is all Grubby could share at the moment, but the full list of changes should come out next Tuesday when the public test realm becomes available.
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Yeah, unfortunately press in general aren't allowed to take notes or photos of the game unless you're an ambassador or staff. Once I have the opportunity I'll be adding these comments to the main article!
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Nazeebo - (13): all basic abilities range goes up by 25% •loses sprint at 13
This will be a game changer, can foresee the range being decreased later on.
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asdf Nova relied on those 15% so much. Now you need the deadly decoy. its nice that it doesn't lose the full stacks anymore though. But if the cap is 5 stacks still ..
I hope the max stacks will be 10 or 15! One can hope.
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Caldeum1977 Posts
On August 09 2015 07:18 FeyFey wrote:
asdf Nova relied on those 15% so much. Now you need the deadly decoy. its nice that it doesn't lose the full stacks anymore though. But if the cap is 5 stacks still ..
I hope the max stacks will be 10 or 15! One can hope.
I think the cap will still be 15%.
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On August 08 2015 18:42 Vaalia wrote:Show nested quote +On August 08 2015 07:30 KobraKay wrote:Nice more SC heroes!!! Well is it safe to assume Artanis will be the hero gained from the pre-order of LotV? Or will we have a surprise SC warrior with the game? Any indication for people that are on site? gj blizzard Can confirm: If you pre-order LOTV You get Artanis in-game!
Nice! Just pre-ordered. Guess I'll get one Artanis for free ^^
Now onto play the prologue missions, after that, watch the start of OGN Heroes league :D
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On August 09 2015 11:26 Valiver wrote:Show nested quote +On August 09 2015 07:18 FeyFey wrote:
asdf Nova relied on those 15% so much. Now you need the deadly decoy. its nice that it doesn't lose the full stacks anymore though. But if the cap is 5 stacks still ..
I hope the max stacks will be 10 or 15! One can hope. I think the cap will still be 15%.
well getting 15 kills usually doesn't happen outside of Quickmatch though or if you have a Murky, Vikings on the enemy team. Gathering Power heroes would become pretty strong picks against those 2 then. Well I guess that change will hurt Falstad the most. His damage Ult will be weak.
But its interesting that they nerf all the general abilities and give a few heroes special versions that work better with their character. Will make each hero more unique even if there are 100.
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pretty excited for kerrigan changes (in particular free sweeping grasp) kerrigan is my main and I feel a slight talent tweak has been a long time coming.
it seems like the changes are to enable some more shield synergy which I am very happy about her trait as it is is kind of lackluster and rarely comes into play as a strategical factor, its more like glorified health regen.
I would say essence for essence is an improvement over the standard blood for blood, its basically the same thing as blood for blood but you wont feel bad for just using it at the start of the fight, on the contrary using it as often as you can and trying to keep the shield going makes you more resistant to bursty characters.
I don't think there is much of a worry that the shield will time out, taking the 20 second duration talent practically guarantees it wont time out and even without it its typically not very difficult to deal some damage once every 6 seconds.
On August 09 2015 23:09 FeyFey wrote:Show nested quote +On August 09 2015 11:26 Valiver wrote:On August 09 2015 07:18 FeyFey wrote:
asdf Nova relied on those 15% so much. Now you need the deadly decoy. its nice that it doesn't lose the full stacks anymore though. But if the cap is 5 stacks still ..
I hope the max stacks will be 10 or 15! One can hope. I think the cap will still be 15%. well getting 15 kills usually doesn't happen outside of Quickmatch though or if you have a Murky, Vikings on the enemy team. Gathering Power heroes would become pretty strong picks against those 2 then. Well I guess that change will hurt Falstad the most. His damage Ult will be weak. But its interesting that they nerf all the general abilities and give a few heroes special versions that work better with their character. Will make each hero more unique even if there are 100.
note that half of the stacks are retained upon death in this new version so if you ever have 15 stacks then you will "only" need 8 new stacks to get up to max again.
on the topic of character specific versions of general talents. yes.
this is something blizz has been doing for a while, for example:
Azmodans Bound Minion (char specific promote)
Brightwings Peekaboo (char specific clairvoyance)
Diablos Life Leech (char specific giant killer)
Illidans Immolation, Reflexive Block (char specific burning rage, block)
Kerrigans Psionic Pulse (char specific burning rage)
Lilis Elusive Feet, Herbal Cleanse (char specific block, cleanse)
Murkys Living the Dream (char specific gathering power)
Raynors Raiders "Recruitment" (char specific bribe)
Rehgars Healing Totem, Forward Momentum, Farsight (char specific healing ward, battle momentum, clairvoyance)
Sylvanas Remorseless (char specific follow through)
Vikings Olaf the Stout, Viking bribery, Its a Sabotage, Hunk'a Burning Olaf, Nordic Attack Squad (char specific block, bribe, Demolitionist, burning rage, giant killer)
Zagaras Infest (char specific promote)
I'm sure I have missed some.
I love that they are doing this :D more of this please :D (of course, not to the point that we would be neglecting ability/trait-modifying talents, those are even more awesome :D)
as for why generic talents exist in the first place, they are useful and positive for the game for a variety of reasons, but they don't have that cool factor us players really like 
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No sprint on Naz? RIP, entirely unplayable.
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On August 09 2015 23:09 FeyFey wrote:Show nested quote +On August 09 2015 11:26 Valiver wrote:On August 09 2015 07:18 FeyFey wrote:
asdf Nova relied on those 15% so much. Now you need the deadly decoy. its nice that it doesn't lose the full stacks anymore though. But if the cap is 5 stacks still ..
I hope the max stacks will be 10 or 15! One can hope. I think the cap will still be 15%. well getting 15 kills usually doesn't happen outside of Quickmatch though or if you have a Murky, Vikings on the enemy team. Gathering Power heroes would become pretty strong picks against those 2 then. Well I guess that change will hurt Falstad the most. His damage Ult will be weak. But its interesting that they nerf all the general abilities and give a few heroes special versions that work better with their character. Will make each hero more unique even if there are 100.
I'm actually OK with losing GP (and I say this as a KT main). It's an incredible ability, but the game has too much burst as it is. Having fewer of those "oh, I died?" moments is going to be better for gameplay and teamfights overall. The KT Jaina Zera meta is wonky in that teamfights are over in one or two abilities.
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On August 10 2015 22:21 Crownlol wrote:
No sprint on Naz? RIP, entirely unplayable.
Just as Kael and Jaina are, right?
To be honest I love that he is losing Sprint and is getting something else to compensate and he is one of my most played heroes. He still has Ice Block that is sometime used even on pro level. Heavy spell-casting range assassins(because let's be honest, he is an assassin) having Sprint is really stupid anyway.
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On August 11 2015 00:16 Ramiz1989 wrote:Show nested quote +On August 10 2015 22:21 Crownlol wrote:
No sprint on Naz? RIP, entirely unplayable. Just as Kael and Jaina are, right? To be honest I love that he is losing Sprint and is getting something else to compensate and he is one of my most played heroes. He still has Ice Block that is sometime used even on pro level. Heavy spell-casting range assassins(because let's be honest, he is an assassin) having Sprint is really stupid anyway.
Ok, I'm not sure where to start here. I'm a Nazeebo/KT main with 100+ wins between them and you're a Naz main too, so let's discuss:
>Comparing Naz to The Wondertwins
KT and Jaina can both oneshot opponents in a single rotation from full HP. If they had mobility they'd be full on godmode (as if they're not strong enough already). Jaina has permasnare to escape, while KT has a multi stun. Naz just has zombies which can be oneshotted or avoided.
>Let's be honest, he is an assassin
You couldn't be more wrong about that. There's zero burst in his kit, which defines an assassin. He's pretty much a support, except with good splitpush and AoE tickle DoT. The current meta is ALL burst, and Naz has none. At higher levels, you're pretty much just there for Zombies and lategame Humongoid PvE damage.
Naz needs Sprint because he's so hilariously weak against bursty assassins/warriors. Getting an increase in range DOES work well with his poke/harass kit, and it's going to be awesome with Zombies (which again, is the only reason to pick Nazeebo). Naz is often in bad positions because you're really only there to use Zombies like SC2 ForceFields, and Sprint is the only thing that lets you escape. Spiders aren't exactly as good as Flamestrike in a teamfight, man.
The only excuse I can see for Nazeebo to lose Sprint is because it was allowing Naz to way overextend without really risking anything. You can backdoor huge damage to structures and just lolsprint if any defenders come. I can see how players would get frustrated by not being able to kill me as I just trot away after soloing a fort. But without that power, there's just no reason to take Naz.
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Oh and KT is essentially dead. Wish I could refund master skin and his cost for Jaina's, because he's useless now. Much worse off than Naz.
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I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I'm really excited to play post-patch KT. I was not a big fan of the play style for the flamestrike + ignite build for KT. Obviously it was very strong, but just didn't feel super fun.
On the flip side things that are really fun, gravity lapse!!! This upgrade was already really good, but just hard to take over gathering power (especially in pub games, actually sees quite a bit of use in pro play). This was already a ton of fun as the KT player to get a good gravity lapse off with nether winds.
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On August 11 2015 00:45 Crownlol wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2015 00:16 Ramiz1989 wrote:On August 10 2015 22:21 Crownlol wrote:
No sprint on Naz? RIP, entirely unplayable. Just as Kael and Jaina are, right? To be honest I love that he is losing Sprint and is getting something else to compensate and he is one of my most played heroes. He still has Ice Block that is sometime used even on pro level. Heavy spell-casting range assassins(because let's be honest, he is an assassin) having Sprint is really stupid anyway. Ok, I'm not sure where to start here. I'm a Nazeebo/KT main with 100+ wins between them and you're a Naz main too, so let's discuss: >Comparing Naz to The Wondertwins KT and Jaina can both oneshot opponents in a single rotation from full HP. If they had mobility they'd be full on godmode (as if they're not strong enough already). Jaina has permasnare to escape, while KT has a multi stun. Naz just has zombies which can be oneshotted or avoided.
You can also avoid Kael's stun and if you start focusing Kael down he is pretty much as good as dead, stun won't help you there unless it is 1v1 situation.
>Let's be honest, he is an assassin
You couldn't be more wrong about that. There's zero burst in his kit, which defines an assassin. He's pretty much a support, except with good splitpush and AoE tickle DoT. The current meta is ALL burst, and Naz has none. At higher levels, you're pretty much just there for Zombies and lategame Humongoid PvE damage.
There is zero burst in his kit? Nazeebo can burst down heroes alone in 3 seconds of his Zombie wall. Yes his burst isn't as good as Jaina's or Kael's but those 2 probably have the highest in the game. You are saying that he is support and obviously word support doesn't mean what you think it means. He has 0 supporting abilities, if you consider Zombies to be supporting ability then I guess Jaina and Kael are also supports since they have snare and stun...
The word "meta" is just pile of crap, if you are good enough and trained enough and work around your picks and strategies you can do whatever you want. If you are watching tournament scene you can notice that apart from few obviously must-pick heroes, different heroes are popular in EU, NA and Asian scene, and some teams are winning with heroes that are considered to be bad like Murky, Nova, Gazlow etc.
Nazeebo has been picked quite a lot at the pro level and is one of the heroes with most win-rates on hotslogs(even though that doesn't say much). I've seen multiple times Zagara and Nazeebo as 2 damage dealers combined with 2 tanks at the pro level.
Naz needs Sprint because he's so hilariously weak against bursty assassins/warriors. Getting an increase in range DOES work well with his poke/harass kit, and it's going to be awesome with Zombies (which again, is the only reason to pick Nazeebo). Naz is often in bad positions because you're really only there to use Zombies like SC2 ForceFields, and Sprint is the only thing that lets you escape. Spiders aren't exactly as good as Flamestrike in a teamfight, man.
Of course that Spiders aren't good as Flamestrike but come on, you define assassin as someone who has to have burst and that simply isn't true. There are quite a few sustain assassins in the game, Raynor, Illidan, Tychus don't have burst like Jaina and Kael have. Of course that Nazeebo isn't just an assassin but he is also one of my most played heroes and the only heroes I can compare him with are ranged assassins with their poking and positioning.
The only excuse I can see for Nazeebo to lose Sprint is because it was allowing Naz to way overextend without really risking anything. You can backdoor huge damage to structures and just lolsprint if any defenders come. I can see how players would get frustrated by not being able to kill me as I just trot away after soloing a fort. But without that power, there's just no reason to take Naz.
Yes, you keep saying this but on top level Sprint isn't even used all the time... Today I've watched MYM vs. some other team(BOB I think?) where BOB had Nazeebo with Ice Block...
Also, he might be getting Hardened Focus as well, and Nazeebo with 25% range on his spells and having them cooldown 50% faster if he has 80%+ HP sounds sick. Gidbin also seems to buff Spiders and Zombie wall only, but 33% instead of 25% which is again nice buff.
Hey, maybe I am wrong and he will become bad but from all of this all I am getting is that he could be really fragile but at the same time really scary if positioned well and if he has a good team behind him. I certainly can't wait to play him as I didn't like Sprint on him to begin with even though sometimes it was necessary.
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On August 11 2015 01:26 MoreFaSho wrote:
I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I'm really excited to play post-patch KT. I was not a big fan of the play style for the flamestrike + ignite build for KT. Obviously it was very strong, but just didn't feel super fun.
On the flip side things that are really fun, gravity lapse!!! This upgrade was already really good, but just hard to take over gathering power (especially in pub games, actually sees quite a bit of use in pro play). This was already a ton of fun as the KT player to get a good gravity lapse off with nether winds.
What playstyle is left!? They nerfed the hell out of rolling bombs, and now they've nerfed his burst spec. He went from being only a little below Jaina in power to losing his most important talent (and the replacement is ridiculously bad) and being much, much worse than her. The only hope is that Living Bomb's base damage has increased enough to offset the *other* nerf to Fission Bomb, or that these are a typo. Or that there's some hidden buff somewhere in here, like they revert the nerf to reapplying Bomb.
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Hey, maybe I am wrong and he will become bad but from all of this all I am getting is that he could be really fragile but at the same time really scary if positioned well and if he has a good team behind him. I certainly can't wait to play him as I didn't like Sprint on him to begin with even though sometimes it was necessary.
Support doesn't just mean healing or buffing. Nazeebo is a support character in that he assists his team, but doesn't do the big burst or huge solo plays. He helps other carries like Jaina or Valla do that by disrupting the enemy team, chipping at their health, helping escape, and turning fights in a way that favors our team (using zombies to force movement etc).
I just don't see how he's going to become scary. 25% range is a thing, I'll give you that. Chucking Spiders and Zombies from further away will definitely be nice, and Resolve will maintain his current position as a great poker.
All of the big plays and big contributions I make with Naz fall into two categories: Sick SC2 forcefields and intense backdoor pressure (heh). Removing sprint is a *massive* nerf to one of those categories. It doesn't really impact the other one *too* much. Naz will be in a better place post-nerf than KT will.
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I don't see Naz as an assassin. He has very good damage - sustained damage. His burst is nowhere near the mage's (old Ravenous was something different), which is why I never saw his sprint as something as problematic as Jaina's sprint. The reasoning why it was arguably op on her, is that she could dive, burst all her damage potential in the blink of an eye and sprint out. Naz can't do that. He also has the tools to push in towers beyond what an assassin can do. Which definitely makes him a specialist.
Now that is completely separate from the question of whether he will come out weaker or stronger after the changes, it's way too early to tell I think. It's just that it was not absolutely necessary to remove sprint from his kit, they could have left it on him, they just made the design decision to remove it, which is fine.
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I don't know guys, your classifications are quite strange.
Assassins don't need to have burst, the role assassin is simply another way of saying dps class or damage dealer. If all assassins need to have burst then Raynor and Tychus definitely are not assassins. If some hero has a ton of sustain damage than he can be considered being an assassin.
Secondly, support means healing, buffing or debuffing, otherwise 100% of the heroes can be classified as supports as there is not a single one that doesn't have some ability to support his team.
Now Nazeebo is obviously a specialist, but the reason why I consider him to be an assassin is because he has a lot of sustain damage and if played correctly it is very hard not to have the highest hero damage on your team, unless you have Jaina/Kael/Valla too.
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On August 11 2015 02:48 Ramiz1989 wrote:
I don't know guys, your classifications are quite strange.
Assassins don't need to have burst, the role assassin is simply another way of saying dps class or damage dealer. If all assassins need to have burst then Raynor and Tychus definitely are not assassins. If some hero has a ton of sustain damage than he can be considered being an assassin.
Secondly, support means healing, buffing or debuffing, otherwise 100% of the heroes can be classified as supports as there is not a single one that doesn't have some ability to support his team.
Now Nazeebo is obviously a specialist, but the reason why I consider him to be an assassin is because he has a lot of sustain damage and if played correctly it is very hard not to have the highest hero damage on your team, unless you have Jaina/Kael/Valla too.
Assassin means high damage meant to kill an opposing player, usually burst. If there were more classifications in the game, I wouldn't even classify Tychus as assassin. He's more of a ranged bruiser almost, Raynor is almost the same but this game doesn't really have a class for duelist.
Support does *not* have to mean healing buffing and debuffing. It's anything that assists your team. Forcefields from Tassadar (if people took that talent) are a support ability. There are plenty of support in games that don't heal and buff (or even debuff), although many do. Look at support Lux and Zyra from LoL for instance. Since this game created a role, the janky support/utility kit of Nazeebo can be shoehorned into the "Specialist" role which doesn't exist in other games. If Naz was in LoL or DotA2 he'd be considered support/utility.
Sustained damage (and especially PvE damage) is the opposite of what an assassin does. This game just shoehorns these classic roles into a handfull of classifications. Small AoE DoTs are literally the opposite of what an assassin role is (think Zeratul).
Really, I wouldn't even consider KT or Jaina as assassins, but this game has no Mage classification (dump high burst at the outset of a fight to assist your Assassins).
In either the traditional or the HotS terminology, Nazeebo is *not* an assassin.
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On August 11 2015 03:31 Crownlol wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2015 02:48 Ramiz1989 wrote:
I don't know guys, your classifications are quite strange.
Assassins don't need to have burst, the role assassin is simply another way of saying dps class or damage dealer. If all assassins need to have burst then Raynor and Tychus definitely are not assassins. If some hero has a ton of sustain damage than he can be considered being an assassin.
Secondly, support means healing, buffing or debuffing, otherwise 100% of the heroes can be classified as supports as there is not a single one that doesn't have some ability to support his team.
Now Nazeebo is obviously a specialist, but the reason why I consider him to be an assassin is because he has a lot of sustain damage and if played correctly it is very hard not to have the highest hero damage on your team, unless you have Jaina/Kael/Valla too. Support does *not* have to mean healing buffing and debuffing. It's anything that assists your team. Forcefields from Tassadar (if people took that talent) are a support ability. There are plenty of support in games that don't heal and buff (or even debuff), although many do. Look at support Lux and Zyra from LoL for instance. Since this game created a role, the janky support/utility kit of Nazeebo can be shoehorned into the "Specialist" role which doesn't exist in other games. If Naz was in LoL or DotA2 he'd be considered support/utility. Sustained damage (and especially PvE damage) is the opposite of what an assassin does. This game just shoehorns these classic roles into a handfull of classifications. Small AoE DoTs are literally the opposite of what an assassin role is (think Zeratul). Really, I wouldn't even consider KT or Jaina as assassins, but this game has no Mage classification (dump high burst at the outset of a fight to assist your Assassins). In either the traditional or the HotS terminology, Nazeebo is *not* an assassin.
It is hard to compare this to Dota 2 or LoL, in Dota 2 heroes that are cores(assassins/carries) are played as supports and some supports can be played solo mid as cores(Bounty Hunter is typical assassin that is played as support in Dota 2) and the whole aspect of those games is different just because of the items.
Maybe he isn't an assassin, but I wouldn't call him support either, especially when teams picks him as one of the main damage dealers.
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I really think Blizzard is making a mistake nerfing KT like this. I am not a KT main at all but it was interesting having these poke comps. The game is just becoming way too generic with all these heroes nerf.
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On August 11 2015 04:49 FreeZEternal wrote:
I really think Blizzard is making a mistake nerfing KT like this. I am not a KT main at all but it was interesting having these poke comps. The game is just becoming way too generic with all these heroes nerf.
We'll have to wait to see the patch notes, but supposedly they're doing a major rework. The problems with Kael right now are 1) he only has one good build, and 2) the power curve of that build is completely retarded in that Kael is a pretty bad hero until he hits 16, at which point he becomes a monster. According to Grubby, the changes to Kael will open up additional builds and fix his scaling issues. We'll just have to wait and see how effective he ultimately is.
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On August 11 2015 04:59 xDaunt wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2015 04:49 FreeZEternal wrote:
I really think Blizzard is making a mistake nerfing KT like this. I am not a KT main at all but it was interesting having these poke comps. The game is just becoming way too generic with all these heroes nerf. We'll have to wait to see the patch notes, but supposedly they're doing a major rework. The problems with Kael right now are 1) he only has one good build, and 2) the power curve of that build is completely retarded in that Kael is a pretty bad hero until he hits 16, at which point he becomes a monster. According to Grubby, the changes to Kael will open up additional builds and fix his scaling issues. We'll just have to wait and see how effective he ultimately is.
In order to open up other builds they'd need to fix his other issues. Right now he's essentially only playable *because* with Ignite and 5stack GP he becomes a monster right at 16.
I (even as a KT main) don't actually prefer that method of gameplay - just throw out circles and if they hit you win, if you they miss you lose. I preferred building full bomb specs when he came out.
I'd actually rather see KT be based more on Living Bomb and fire dots than just being a gimped version of Jaina like he is now (and of course would be entirely unpickable with the proposed nerfs). Perhaps a talent that increases the DoT portion of Living Bomb a ton, but is on the same tier as Fission Bomb. Take that talent and the bomb slow talent and he becomes this fiery spreader of doom which fits the fire role a little better. Or a talent that makes Flamestrike deal additional damage to targets already afflicted by Living Bomb, which makes his gameplay more complex than just "land DQ, stun sometimes".
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On August 11 2015 04:59 xDaunt wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2015 04:49 FreeZEternal wrote:
I really think Blizzard is making a mistake nerfing KT like this. I am not a KT main at all but it was interesting having these poke comps. The game is just becoming way too generic with all these heroes nerf. We'll have to wait to see the patch notes, but supposedly they're doing a major rework. The problems with Kael right now are 1) he only has one good build, and 2) the power curve of that build is completely retarded in that Kael is a pretty bad hero until he hits 16, at which point he becomes a monster. According to Grubby, the changes to Kael will open up additional builds and fix his scaling issues. We'll just have to wait and see how effective he ultimately is.
I saw a post on reddit that compared Ignite damage to Shock and Awe... and KT won that comparison. It's absolutely absurd as both a power spike and as general damage capability.
KT will still be viable after this, just like he was still viable after the Chain Bomb / Ignite nerf. A ranged Assassin with hard-CC is still something unique in the game (minus Raynor's talented-Q).
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I think Pyromaniac is going to be interesting. Certainly more risky to play without the range of Flamethrower, but a 6 second reduction on all your basic cooldowns, including living bomb means you can lay down a lot of damage quick, but will burn out of mana fast. It also means your gravity lapse comes back up fast.
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On August 11 2015 02:11 Crownlol wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2015 01:26 MoreFaSho wrote:
I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I'm really excited to play post-patch KT. I was not a big fan of the play style for the flamestrike + ignite build for KT. Obviously it was very strong, but just didn't feel super fun.
On the flip side things that are really fun, gravity lapse!!! This upgrade was already really good, but just hard to take over gathering power (especially in pub games, actually sees quite a bit of use in pro play). This was already a ton of fun as the KT player to get a good gravity lapse off with nether winds. What playstyle is left!? They nerfed the hell out of rolling bombs, and now they've nerfed his burst spec. He went from being only a little below Jaina in power to losing his most important talent (and the replacement is ridiculously bad) and being much, much worse than her. The only hope is that Living Bomb's base damage has increased enough to offset the *other* nerf to Fission Bomb, or that these are a typo. Or that there's some hidden buff somewhere in here, like they revert the nerf to reapplying Bomb.
I mean they buffed the splash on living bomb some it will be able to do more damage with chainbomb at 13 epecially if you D->W->W and it sounds liek the new 16 upgrade is still strong just not AS strong. I also really like the buff to gravity lapse. Again we'll see, I think my winrate with KT might actually go UP as I was pretty good with positioning for living bombs, but yea, jaina will probably still be clearly stronger (I think she was already, although ult nerf hit her slightly).
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On August 15 2015 06:28 MoreFaSho wrote:Show nested quote +On August 11 2015 02:11 Crownlol wrote:On August 11 2015 01:26 MoreFaSho wrote:
I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I'm really excited to play post-patch KT. I was not a big fan of the play style for the flamestrike + ignite build for KT. Obviously it was very strong, but just didn't feel super fun.
On the flip side things that are really fun, gravity lapse!!! This upgrade was already really good, but just hard to take over gathering power (especially in pub games, actually sees quite a bit of use in pro play). This was already a ton of fun as the KT player to get a good gravity lapse off with nether winds. What playstyle is left!? They nerfed the hell out of rolling bombs, and now they've nerfed his burst spec. He went from being only a little below Jaina in power to losing his most important talent (and the replacement is ridiculously bad) and being much, much worse than her. The only hope is that Living Bomb's base damage has increased enough to offset the *other* nerf to Fission Bomb, or that these are a typo. Or that there's some hidden buff somewhere in here, like they revert the nerf to reapplying Bomb. jaina will probably still be clearly stronger (I think she was already, although ult nerf hit her slightly).
This will be the era of Jaina for sure, but the ult nerf has more effect than one might think due to the effect it has on her combo - it forces the combo to be in a slightly different order so that the target still gets chilled immediately. Good players will know this is is coming and consequently have a better chance of escaping it.
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Definitely, right now the WE summons so quickly that when she has it off cooldown she can initiate her combo with impunity really. Now the WE will help her initiate combo of course, but at least you'll see it coming =p.
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Yeah, nerf to WE was definitely needed. It is also easier to miss with all of her other spells, WE was instant and I can see a lot of Jaina's screwing up and not getting the kills that they would get easily pre-nerf.
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EPT
