Heroes of the Storm Catch-All

mooosicle wrote:

Speaking of specialists, I've been leveling up sylvanas. I've been using w build in previous patches but I like q build now. I still like the w heal at L16 though. She is very awkward to use in a team fight though, stutter stepping is weird with her

Yeah it's fiddly because you need to be spamming Q at the same time, plus whatever you use to auto attack (I use the A key usually). Sylvanas was my most played hero before the rework, then after it I just couldn't find a build I liked. Recently stumbled upon a nice build that mixes her trait and W, I think I saw Trikslyr use it, and won 5 straight games with her. If you're interested it goes like this-

1. Paralysis
4. Lost Soul
7. Barbed Shot
10. Wailing Arrow
13. Life Drain
16. Overwhelming Affliction
20. Either bolt or fury depending on situation.

She is so good on maps with objectives that you push with like Infernal Shrines or Battlefield of Eternity, because disabling the towers helps you get so much more value out of the punisher/immortal. It vexes me when we win an objective on those maps and someone says 'Syl push bot' when the objective is top for example. Makes no sense and doesn't utilise her main strengths at all. She isn't a solo later. Glad you're enjoying her, post your Q build!

Anyone playing Uther lately? I've been trying to get some experience with the more high skill cap Uther build seen in competitive play, relying on using all his utility talents to support the team, i.e. shield, cleanse, shrink ray etc.

Results have been pretty bad, as I struggle to keep my cool in hectic team fights and end up wasting or miscasting my talents.

Guess it's not called "piano Uther" for nothing.

JohnnnyG wrote:

Anyone playing Uther lately? I've been trying to get some experience with the more high skill cap Uther build seen in competitive play, relying on using all his utility talents to support the team, i.e. shield, cleanse, shrink ray etc.

Results have been pretty bad, as I struggle to keep my cool in hectic team fights and end up wasting or miscasting my talents.

Guess it's not called "piano Uther" for nothing.

The latest patch allowed a slightly simpler build, check out this pallytime video. I've never played Uther because I've always been put off by the complexity of that piano build. He's on my list of things to do, but at our level Johnny there are easier support heroes to play in hero league

kergguz wrote:
JohnnnyG wrote:

Anyone playing Uther lately? I've been trying to get some experience with the more high skill cap Uther build seen in competitive play, relying on using all his utility talents to support the team, i.e. shield, cleanse, shrink ray etc.

Results have been pretty bad, as I struggle to keep my cool in hectic team fights and end up wasting or miscasting my talents.

Guess it's not called "piano Uther" for nothing.

The latest patch allowed a slightly simpler build, check out this pallytime video. I've never played Uther because I've always been put off by the complexity of that piano build. He's on my list of things to do, but at our level Johnny there are easier support heroes to play in hero league ;)

True, I'm perfectly happy with some hero where I can sit safely on the backline and mindlessly click on people!

I've played as Moradin, Diablo, and Arthas now, and I have pretty conclusively concluded that I'm terrible with Warriors. I seem to be less terrible with Arthas, maybe I could dabble with him occasionally.

I tried Lin Lin this morning and really, really enjoyed her. I'll definitely be back there, and I'm going to need to try some other support characters as well, she was my first. It's hard to tell after one game but I may have liked Lin Lin more than Azmodan.

Also played two games as the Gall half of Cho'Gall, man that's just hilarious fun.

Yonder wrote:

I've played as Moradin, Diablo, and Arthas now, and I have pretty conclusively concluded that I'm terrible with Warriors. I seem to be less terrible with Arthas, maybe I could dabble with him occasionally.

I tried Lin Lin this morning and really, really enjoyed her. I'll definitely be back there, and I'm going to need to try some other support characters as well, she was my first. It's hard to tell after one game but I may have liked Lin Lin more than Azmodan.

Also played two games as the Gall half of Cho'Gall, man that's just hilarious fun.

Yeah, love some Cho'Gall when the opportunity comes up.

And warriors are arguably the hardest role to play, other than some specialists. It requires strong awareness of what's going on in any given fight and you have to prioritize disrupting the enemy team and protecting your own teammates.

And if the rest of the team doesn't have your back, it's not going to go well.

2 good games with Cyrax last night. Hopefully we'll continue to win so we can move out of Bronze!

PWAlessi wrote:

2 good games with Cyrax last night. Hopefully we'll continue to win so we can move out of Bronze!

If you're duo queueing and have voice comms you have a big advantage, so I'm confident you can make it through. Good luck!

PWAlessi wrote:

Anyone interested in trying to get a 5-man team together for some ranked team play? I'm in the US (East coast).

I'd be interested in getting some regular scheduled stuff going once a week if others could commit. Right now I'm trying to grind out my team league placements -- 5 more -- before the season ends. I like the idea of getting a regular group together and perhaps even getting into some Chair League.

I would be up for something regular, although I don't have the 14 heroes I need to do the drafts yet.

Ok, I'll throw together a poll to see if there is a night and time for where enough people would want to playing regularly on the NA servers.

Sign up for any day(s) of the week and time slot(s) that would work for you. I've never done a doodle before, so I don't know how well it handles timezones, but the intended times on the poll are Sunday - Thursday from 6 pm eastern - 11 pm eastern. I don't expect anyone to have that entire block, I'm just trying to see if we can set a night where GWJ can sign up to play 2-4 games with a somewhat regular crew once a week.

I'm hoping these types of game will be focused around having fun together as a group and less so on skill level or competition.

Also, Hots supports an in-game chat room feature. When in Hots, you can type /join gwj in order to join the gwj channel. It's mostly dead now, but maybe if enough folks use it it will become a thing.

Promotion game. Troll takes Hammer. We throw. I lose 203 points. Now I need to win 3 in a row to get promoted. f*ck you HOTS.

EDIT: I won my next game...997 points. 3 points to next level. f*ck you HOTS.

EDIT 2: When you win your game before your promotion match, it should bank your extra points so you only have to win 2 in a row to get promoted.

PWAlessi wrote:

EDIT 2: When you win your game before your promotion match, it should bank your extra points so you only have to win 2 in a row to get promoted.

Pretty sure I read that this is what's happening in season 2. Sorry can't find the source but I think it was in one of their reddit AMA's.

Well, I won 12 of my last 13 games to go from Bronze 2 to Silver 5. Now, on to gold!

Gratz! Yeah you really need big streaks to make any headway in the promotion game system, whether that's up or down. Part of the reason I've stopped playing in the last few weeks is because I was winning about 50% and going nowhere. You might say that this means blizzard have placed me perfectly, and I was getting very fair games. And while I agree that's probably true, spinning wheels in the mud for a hundred games or so was a bit tiring.

Thanks! Yeah, that makes sense. I got frustrated too when I wasn't making any headway. That was pretty much when I committed to putting in some effort to get better. I started watching some pro games. I also watched Youtubers analyze amateur games to see what I might be doing wrong. I also focussed a lot more during games on what I should be doing, my positioning, when I should use my skills, etc. Also, I stopped playing ranked when I drank 'a bit too much'. That surely helped.

On a bright note, I didn't realize before that you get 250 points when you get promoted. So, at least, you have to lose 3 games in a row to get immediately demoted again.

Yeah I think I just reached my level. I could commit the extra time to get better, but I've done most of what you said so the only thing I could really do is do more of it, and unfortunately it's not realistic for me given the amount of work and family stuff I have going on (plus all those other games I want to play! )

I'm Silver 2 (or 3 maybe, can't remember?), and I think that's my ceiling unless I find a way to bend time to my will!

Yeah, I guess that's the problem of being a 'Gamer with Job' (and family)...not enough time for ALL THE GAMEZ! (I have the same problem)

kergguz wrote:

Gratz! Yeah you really need big streaks to make any headway in the promotion game system, whether that's up or down. Part of the reason I've stopped playing in the last few weeks is because I was winning about 50% and going nowhere. You might say that this means blizzard have placed me perfectly, and I was getting very fair games. And while I agree that's probably true, spinning wheels in the mud for a hundred games or so was a bit tiring.

As far as I can tell 50% winning rate is actually a slow decline in levels. Roughly 180 pts per win vs 200+ pts per loss. Not sure why they did it that way. I really haven't got to play that many games this season so I'm not sure if it changes but that is what it's doing to me now.

From the poll that went up last week, it looks the times that work best are either Monday or Wednesday from 9 - 10 eastern. Let's call it Wednesday for now and see if we can get a regular group going.

njudah wrote:

From the poll that went up last week, it looks the times that work best are either Monday or Wednesday from 9 - 10 eastern. Let's call it Wednesday for now and see if we can get a regular group going.

So, 9:00 tonight? I'm down with that.

EvilDead wrote:
kergguz wrote:

Gratz! Yeah you really need big streaks to make any headway in the promotion game system, whether that's up or down. Part of the reason I've stopped playing in the last few weeks is because I was winning about 50% and going nowhere. You might say that this means blizzard have placed me perfectly, and I was getting very fair games. And while I agree that's probably true, spinning wheels in the mud for a hundred games or so was a bit tiring.

As far as I can tell 50% winning rate is actually a slow decline in levels. Roughly 180 pts per win vs 200+ pts per loss. Not sure why they did it that way. I really haven't got to play that many games this season so I'm not sure if it changes but that is what it's doing to me now.

I was getting +210 points for a win, and -190 for a loss, give or take a few points. You get more than 200 pts if your internal MMR suggests you should be at a higher rank, and vice versa. So I was very, very slowly climbing. Too slowly for me to remain interested.

kergguz wrote:

I was getting +210 points for a win, and -190 for a loss, give or take a few points. You get more than 200 pts if your internal MMR suggests you should be at a higher rank, and vice versa. So I was very, very slowly climbing. Too slowly for me to remain interested.

Oh, I should have known. Blizzard and it's cryptic MMR....

EvilDead wrote:
kergguz wrote:

I was getting +210 points for a win, and -190 for a loss, give or take a few points. You get more than 200 pts if your internal MMR suggests you should be at a higher rank, and vice versa. So I was very, very slowly climbing. Too slowly for me to remain interested.

Oh, I should have known. Blizzard and it's cryptic MMR....

Yeah they should just show it and have done with it. About a third of the complaints about the game will vanish overnight.

Sorry about my recent absence, got moved from 1st to 3rd shift for a bit, now I'm back. Let's have some great games tonight!

cyrax wrote:

Sorry about my recent absence, got moved from 1st to 3rd shift for a bit, now I'm back. Let's have some great games tonight!

We just need 2 more for a full team!

PWAlessi wrote:
cyrax wrote:

Sorry about my recent absence, got moved from 1st to 3rd shift for a bit, now I'm back. Let's have some great games tonight!

We just need 2 more for a full team!

I've got a newborn at home (literally born yesterday), so there's a fair to middling chance I'll be up anyway. I'll try joining you all.

Couple of decent team games last night. Thanks to Moos (mouse) for the tips. It's a totally different game when you're playing with a coordinated team of 5. I'd love to get a regular team together.

Did no one post these? Only just noticed them today. Zarya!

Those new battlegrounds look great too.

Redwing wrote:

Did no one post these? Only just noticed them today. Zarya!

Stupid in dev videos making me want to play the game again....

Yes the new battleground looks cool, the current rotation was getting a bit staid. And Zarya seems like a great fit, I always thought her ultimate would translate really well.