heroes Heroes Brawl - Escape from Braxis: Nov 22

[Stan 5,243]

Escape from Braxis is the first Heroes of the Storm PvE Brawl. Instead of fighting the enemy team, you will be surrounded by the Omegaswarm and the goal is to press through the onslaught and make it to the extraction point. Win three games to receive a standard Loot Chest.

Escape from Braxis is probably the best brawl to date. It feels like playing Diablo in Heroes of the Storm!

Blizzard (Source)

Things aren’t looking great, soldier. You’re stranded on Braxis and the UED is overrun. The Omegaswarm has surrounded you on all sides, and your only shot at survival is to press through the onslaught, make it to the extraction point, and get off this forsaken rock. Will you fall victim to the Swarm, or can you work together and Escape from Braxis?

Rules:

• At the beginning of the Brawl, your team will have the following roster of Heroes to choose from:
  • Warrior: Artanis, Arthas, Johanna, Muradin, Sonya, Tyrael, Varian, Zarya
  • Support: Brightwing, Kharazim, Li Li, Lt. Morales, Lucio, Malfurion, Rehgar, Uther
  • Specialist: Azmodan, Gazlowe, Sgt. Hammer, Nazeebo, Xul
  • Assassin: Cassia, Falstad, Greymane, Gul'dan, Illidan, Jaina, Kael'thas, Kel'Thuzad, Ragnaros, Raynor, Thrall, Valla
• Player Death:
  • When a Hero dies, they can be resurrected by Allies after a short channel time.
  • If all players die, the mission is failed.
• Players start at Level 10 and have access to their full talents with a few exceptions (i.e. Bribe)
• Enemy zerg Heroes will spawn periodically throughout the brawl and will drop new active items exclusive to Escape from Braxis.
• Push through the onslaught and survive to Escape from Braxis and win the Brawl!

Rewards

Complete three matches of Escape from Braxis to earn a Loot Chest!

Find out more about the Heroes Brawl game mode on our Heroes Brawl site; and as always, you can find more information on this week’s Brawl by clicking the Brawl Info button at the bottom of the play screen when preparing to queue for the Brawl game mode.

[MightyLemur 3]

:O

Edited November 23, 2017 by MightyLemur

[Caldyrvan 377]

I know HotS is a PvP game and a PvE brawl is surprising, but I never liked brawls.

This sounds interesting, the first brawl I'm looking forward to play it :)

Edited November 23, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[Valhalen 1,484]

I've been waiting for this for SO DAMN LONG.

[Aglommon 21]

We'll see how it goes but PvE brawls can be a good addition, not to mention that with the many Blizzard universes, there's a lot of possibilites for PvE content.

[XeaKon 23]

I hope it will fullfill the expectations.

[SirGeorge113 1]

  On 11/23/2017 at 8:33 PM, Aglommon said:

We'll see how it goes but PvE brawls can be a good addition, not to mention that with the many Blizzard universes, there's a lot of possibilites for PvE content.

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I'd love to see a boss battle brawl that could have an OW, WOW, SC and Diablo variant. They could even help people learn HoTs fundamentals like not standing in the boss stuns/roots...

[HenrySteinway 20]

Wow I want it to be right now. I believe it's a step to more serious pve content. Just like in other moba's lol. LoL for example.

[Caldyrvan 377]

  On 11/23/2017 at 10:40 PM, HenrySteinway said:

like in other moba's lol. LoL for example.

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lol? LoL? lOl? LOL? :D

[Stan 5,243]

I don't know whether this is a bug or not, but you actually need to win three games, not just play them.

[HenrySteinway 20]

  On 11/24/2017 at 12:20 AM, Stan said:

I don't know whether this is a bug or not, but you actually need to win three games, not just play them.

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Ummm.. Only in pvp you may lose and gain something.. In pve you gotta win.

[Valhalen 1,484]

Has anyone played this Brawl yet? I'll only be able later in the night. How is it?

[Stan 5,243]

  On 11/24/2017 at 12:52 PM, Valhalen said:

Has anyone played this Brawl yet? I'll only be able later in the night. How is it?

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It's really cool. There are even AI opponents such as Murky with an Abathur hat, Dehaka, Diablo, Butcherlisk etc. It felt like playing Greater Rifts in Heroes of the Storm :). At the end of the brawl you need to defeat a boss. I am quite impressed with the endless possibilities of the Heroes of the Storm game engine.

[Valhalen 1,484]

  On 11/24/2017 at 1:20 PM, Stan said:

It's really cool. There are even AI opponents such as Murky with an Abathur hat, Dehaka, Diablo, Butcherlisk etc. It felt like playing Greater Rifts in Heroes of the Storm :).

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Found a video! Looks a bit easy, though. Would be far more challenging if you were really swarmed by the same amount of Zergs (including the big baddies) from Braxis, PLUS 5 enemy AI heroes, PLUS the Infected Boss.

 

[Oxygen 446]

Interesting BlizzCon fact: I had a chance meeting with the dev who worked on this brawl (we ended up drinking quite heavily [well, I did anyway] in my room along DunkTrain and SolidJake). I was looking forward to this one.

[Fliits 112]

I hope they make one with a diablo theme.

Edited November 24, 2017 by Fliits

[Undeath 67]

I guess it's just the first try, the pve game modes to come will be a lot more interesting. This one is just so unengaging and easy, you beat it with 5 supports team and your eyes closed like no problem.

[SociKraft 1]

Wow, this sounds awesome, can't wait to try it later.

[Leadblast 28]

I love this Brawl, but you really need a Warrior-heavy lineup to succeed. Mages are really useless here. I know because I just had a go with Tyrael (me), Gul'dan, Jaina, Brightwing and Lucio. Both Jaina and Gul'dan were literally ripped apart by bosses. We lost at the second stage. I simply couldn't protect them all the damn time. 

Compare a Warrior lineup with Fury Varian, Sonya, Tyrael and a single support (even a single healer like Morales) which works like a charm. Assassins really need to be bruiser-like (Illidan) or at least reliant on AA like Falstad/Valla/Raynor (and even in this case you better have only one of these).

Edited November 26, 2017 by Leadblast

[Caldyrvan 377]

Finally I had some time to play the new brawl :)

What I like:

• The idea for this brawl in general
• The pre selected heroes and the selection screen
• The design
• Loading screen music is the music playing while in mission briefings when playing zerg in Starcraft 1, really cool :)
• "XP & gold/time" seems to be good if you win.

What I don't like:

• The wrong draft, like low health heroes and/or no heal, means you can just go afk or die on purpose.
• When a player is replaced with AI (disconnect or whatever) the AI just moves around mindlessly, embarrassing for Blizzard that they didn't code the AI for that.
• When you have a good drafted team it's too easy, I call it boring.

Overall I would give it a 6/10 (I wanted to give only 5 but to hear this music during the loading screen is just great).

Edited November 26, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[PrivateJoker 27]

  On 11/25/2017 at 11:59 PM, Leadblast said:

I love this Brawl, but you really need a Warrior-heavy lineup to succeed. Mages are really useless here. I know because I just had a go with Tyrael (me), Gul'dan, Jaina, Brightwing and Lucio. Both Jaina and Gul'dan were literally ripped apart by bosses. We lost at the second stage. I simply couldn't protect them all the damn time. 

Compare a Warrior lineup with Fury Varian, Sonya, Tyrael and a single support (even a single healer like Morales) which works like a charm. Assassins really need to be bruiser-like (Illidan) or at least reliant on AA like Falstad/Valla/Raynor (and even in this case you better have only one of these).

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It's not that mages are useless, healers are. You need waveclear, and most supports don't have that. The quickest run I had was one where I was the only Warrior (Arthas), and our support was Rehgar (definitely one of the best laners, as far as supports go). We also had a Gul'dan, Xul, and I think it was Raynor? Honestly, as Arthas, it felt like they were doing everything without me, which makes sense, because in that lineup, Arthas has the shittiest waveclear. Even the enemy heroes melted so quick that sometimes I couldn't even land hits to farm Eternal Hunger. It wasn't until the final encounter with the boss that it seemed like being tanky was a big asset.

[Leadblast 28]

Healers are good, but the bulk of the team needs to be Warriors. Without them, you're going to fail. I didn't really care much for waveclear - Varian only has Lion's Fang for waveclear but it's all he needed anyway, he still is a fantastic bruiser with a Twin Blades build. Other warriors like Tyrael or Muradin can pick a burning aura talent. The important thing is to have some form of sustain and/or inherent tankiness. A mage like Jaina has good waveclear, but she has no sustain or tankiness whatsoever.

Arthas is good, has decent waveclear as long as he doesn't run out of mana. Definitely better waveclear than Raynor.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Leadblast

[Godeyes 25]

Guys srsly - I don't want to sound like a douche but everyone that is saying you can't finish it with mages compos or without support must be really bad at HotS overall O_o
The game is really nice addition (I made ~30 runs) but it is REALLY easy. You can beat it with EVERY composition. The best times we got (around 6 mins) were with heavy melee compos WITHOUT healer. There are so many healing globes on your way + insta full-heal bonuses that taking healer is kinda waste of dmg.
Also, you don't need warriors/tanks at all - full assasin/support team clears it very fast and efficiently. BUT warriors are just good here - Artanis with his lev 1 talent or Johanna with one of her lev 2 talents.

This is good oportunity for you to learn how to mitigate dmg and use your full dmg potential. Just take full mage compo and deal with it :D But if you want to play ez mode then go:
Johanna + Artanis + Greyman + Valla + Rehgar
Johanna/Artanis + Greyman + Nazeebo + Xul + Kharazim

[PrivateJoker 27]

  On 11/26/2017 at 8:59 AM, Leadblast said:

Healers are good, but the bulk of the team needs to be Warriors. Without them, you're going to fail. I didn't really care much for waveclear - Varian only has Lion's Fang for waveclear but it's all he needed anyway, he still is a fantastic bruiser with a Twin Blades build. Other warriors like Tyrael or Muradin can pick a burning aura talent. The important thing is to have some form of sustain and/or inherent tankiness. A mage like Jaina has good waveclear, but she has no sustain or tankiness whatsoever.

Arthas is good, has decent waveclear as long as he doesn't run out of mana. Definitely better waveclear than Raynor.

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I mean... that's just objectively not true. I just told you about how one of my runs had only 1 Warrior. That's not "the bulk of the team". There's probably many possible team compositions that can clear this Brawl, because it's pretty easy. I don't think there's "a formula", but it doesn't surprise me to hear that a team with both Lucio and Brightwing struggled, especially if they weren't very good players. But mages are awesome. I can't see any reason Jaina would struggle, especially if you have healers. Her biggest weakness is lack of mobility, which is literally not an issue in PvE.

[Leadblast 28]

Dude, no one ever needs mobility in this Brawl. I just told you that you need tankiness and sustain to succeed here, and no mage has that. Gul'dan has an ability that steals hp from enemies but he is completely helpless and stationary while channeling it - literally a sitting duck. He cannot sustain himself with THAT, one stun and he's done for.

If you think this Brawl is so easy and there's no "magic recipe" lineup for it, try picking only a mix of mage assassins and specialists. I can guarantee you will fail.

Also, a healer in this Brawl is basically functioning as a reservoir of hp just in case someone else takes more damage than normal, but that's not quite the same as true sustain. Brightwing and Lucio have big AOE heals, but once they have spent their heals, they're done. Once their heals are in cooldown, they're vulnerable again. True sustain comes only in the form of lifesteal talents or abilities like Illidan's trait. Morales may be the only exception as her heal works in a similar way, delivering a gradual amount of hps per second, and most importantly it won't stop healing unless she runs out of energy. Even then she needs a partner nearby to work, and obviously she would like that partner to be tankier than a mage.

Also, see the image attachment. I had this brawl run, and we lost.

As you can see I was the only Warrior in the team.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Leadblast