heroes Upcoming Heroes of the Storm AMA Schedule

[Stan 5,240]

The Heroes of the Storm dev team released a schedule of three upcoming reddit AMAs. The first AMA dedicated to Art and Animation is scheduled for Wednesday, July 11. Ranked Play & Matchmaking will be discussed the week of August 6 and the final one about Hero Balance & Design will be up the week of September 10.

Heroes of the Storm AMA Schedule

• Art and Animation: Wednesday, July 11 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PDT. (7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. CEST)
• Ranked Play Changes and Matchmaking: Week of August 6.
• Hero Balance and Design: Week of September 10

Blizzard (Source)

On the Heroes team, we love taking the opportunity to talk with the community about game-related topics in “Ask Me Anything” threads on the Heroes of the Storm Subreddit. These not only help us provide more insight behind the dev team’s decisions, but also give you the opportunity to ask questions and share feedback directly with the people who work specifically on the areas you have questions about.

As part of our ongoing commitment to improve communication, we’re kicking off a series of three new AMA threads, so that you can get answers to all of your most burning Heroes of the Storm questions. Here are the topics and dates for each of our upcoming AMAs:

• Art and Animation: Wednesday, July 11 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PDT. (7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. CEST)
• Ranked Play Changes and Matchmaking: Week of August 6.
• Hero Balance and Design: Week of September 10

We’d like to focus the discussion during each AMA on a different area of the game’s development. This will allow us to provide more in-depth answers to your questions compared to the AMAs we’ve done in the past. It’ll also allow us to bring in specific groups of devs who have specialized knowledge and are better equipped to dive deep into the topic at hand.

We’re excited to hear from you, and we hope you’ll have some good questions ready for us! Stay tuned for information on future AMAs and let us know if there’s a specific type of AMA that you’d be interested to see.

Head to the official Heroes of the Storm forums to discuss this post with other players.

[Valhalen 1,484]

Time to ask about The Lost Vikings rework again. Now that we got Raynor they're the only ones left. 

[Arcling 898]

51 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

Time to ask about The Lost Vikings rework again. Now that we got Raynor they're the only ones left. 

Them along with Abathur and Kerrigan. They are the last ones with some old talents like Overdrive and Mule.

[Valhalen 1,484]

2 hours ago, Arcling said:

Them along with Abathur and Kerrigan. They are the last ones with some old talents like Overdrive and Mule.

Envenom, lol.

[Aasgier 36]

Didn't Blizzard (indirectly) state that they would keep MULE for Abathur because they consider it crucial to Aba's gameplay?

[Morcalivan 86]

It really isn't. Unless we're talking minions here. Mule can be removed by opposing players easily. And mines take out minions too quickly for mule to be of value. If they really want to keep it then at least call it 'Infest' and make sure it can't be destroyed, maybe draw out the heal over a longer time with smaller amounts.

I'd much rather they make mines more valuable and seperate them by levels. Maybe add a fourth mine choice by getting rid of Mule. The Spike Burst talents are also pretty lazy and ineffective compared to healing. Most talents are really. Gicing up those two first shields and the last shield requires a bit more of an advantage I think then all current talents.

Locust can still be effective on certain maps and the two fourth level mine talents are both pretty useful if you use a non-healer build. But the adrenal overload kinda forces the player to disregard the role of Abathur just to add a slight boost to an existing player as opposed to saving many teammates and finishing many kills.

Right now I can't really justify ever taking anything outside of two early shields, two stabs with monstrosity, and a shield and twin symbiote finish. The other talents don't compare to all the benefits that build does.

If you aren't bounce around your teammates saving them from death and turning fleeing death into a secure kill, while using mines to waveclear, disrupt flanks, scout, or finish off runners by mining future escape routes as they advance on you, then you're doing it wrong.

The other builds are for funtime in AI games and nothing more so far. I cringed watching Abathur being played on HGC. The other day. Mule and then a Spike Burst talent, all while solo supporting. YEESH. If you're goinf to solo support at least make sure you can help your teammates fight. The range boost on stab allows Abathur to kill pursuers while they're out of range. Use it. ?

Also, the AI when you disconnect. It chose my talents for me a few times that ruined the entire build. Abathur requires you to mostly pick a path. Stab/Heal, Locust/Mine, etc. The fact that a disconnect can end our ability to play is idiotic. Why even let us back in thet game?

So if they modified Abathur, I'd like to see talent types spread out with no repeats like in lvl 4. Mule replaces or its art/mechanics modified, and the AI fixed to not screw us over. Or give every hero taletnt resets as well for disconnects.

[1know 2]

I smell preview of a new hero

[PrivateJoker 27]

7 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Time to ask about The Lost Vikings rework again. Now that we got Raynor they're the only ones left. 

they've said in recent past AMAs that they have no plans for a TLV rework. They know they need one, but they don't know what to do with them. We should just expect more reworks for heroes that literally nobody sees anything wrong with, like Diablo and Azmodan, but nothing for TLV because it's hard.

[Valhalen 1,484]

43 minutes ago, PrivateJoker said:

they've said in recent past AMAs that they have no plans for a TLV rework. They know they need one, but they don't know what to do with them. We should just expect more reworks for heroes that literally nobody sees anything wrong with, like Diablo and Azmodan, but nothing for TLV because it's hard.

Don't even get me started on Diablo. I miss his old kit so damn much.

[mada7 29]

11 hours ago, PrivateJoker said:

they've said in recent past AMAs that they have no plans for a TLV rework. They know they need one, but they don't know what to do with them. We should just expect more reworks for heroes that literally nobody sees anything wrong with, like Diablo and Azmodan, but nothing for TLV because it's hard.

I don't see a problem with saying "it's not going to happen until we have an actual idea for what we want to do with the hero". They can't exactly rework a hero until they have some ideas for what they want to rework it into. I also get why they are in no hurry to work on them as they are by far the most complicated and difficult hero to play (abathur is 2nd but the vikings take the crown) and playing with a bad vikings player is a truly miserable experience. A rework always encourages players to play the semi-new hero and having a large influx of new vikings players will lead to a lot of bad experiences unless they find a way to make them an easier hero to pick up and play so they would need to hit a bullseye in one shot for the rework to be a good idea.

[Xaethron 36]

22 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Time to ask about The Lost Vikings rework again. Now that we got Raynor they're the only ones left. 

You're forgetting Illidan though. Who still have bolt and an AA quest that takes forever to complete.

 

 

You're all forgetting Illidan ?

Edited July 7, 2018 by Xaethron

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 hour ago, Xaethron said:

You're forgetting Illidan though. Who still have bolt and an AA quest that takes forever to complete.

 

 

You're all forgetting Illidan ?

He is viable, though. He has his niche when paired with the Abathur Symbiote build.

Now The Lost Vikings are trash now, since everything can just kill them in seconds. And since the changes of the structures no longer running out of ammo, their split pushing became much less effective than it was before.

Edited July 7, 2018 by Valhalen

[Aasgier 36]

17 hours ago, PrivateJoker said:

they've said in recent past AMAs that they have no plans for a TLV rework. They know they need one, but they don't know what to do with them. We should just expect more reworks for heroes that literally nobody sees anything wrong with, like Diablo and Azmodan, but nothing for TLV because it's hard.

Both Azmodan and Dibbles needed a rework. Saying that "nobody sees anything wrong with them" is a blatant lie - all the streamers I watch complained about Dibbles before his rework and I think for the right reasons. Dibbles was invalidating pretty much every melee assassin while outtanking every tank in the game, which was just ridiculous. 80% pickrate whille still having a 53% WR... like really? Let's not forget that he had piss-poor talent diversity too. Objectively speaking - the Diablo rework has been a major improvement.

That being said, there were definately other ways to rework Dibbles - and I can understand some might have preferred it if Dibbles would have been reworked into a melee assassin instead, which is fair enough. But that is personal preference, and while this is something I definately would not have minded personally, it is just not the choice Blizzard made.  Would I have preferred a Melee Assassin Diablo? Personally, yes, mostly because I'm dogshit on main tanks ? . And because slamming people in the wall for a lot of HP was fun, especially with opposing tanks. But the latter is subjective and the former a problem residing between chair and keyboard, and neither of them are good bases to build off if you are looking to balance your game.

And Azmodan's build was highly restrictive not to mention that the Basic Abilities you didn't talent into were just a waste of mana. And Laser build is nothing but a meme. The way he was reworked being the way to go is something entirely up to debate, but that he needed a rework in some way cannot be denied and giving him Taste for Blood baseline was something that I would have done myself in his rework well before Blizzard even mentioned it (I suggested it on a stream way back in March). Also the fact that Black Pool is gone (even if I hate its replacement and I would not be surprised if Tides of Sin gets replaced again in the future) means that his abilities can be way more useful baseline without breaking things alone will give Blizzard a much easier time tuning him to have a good spot in the game. I'll save my judgement for after I have played him, but I think pure design-wise (he might be undertuned or even overtuned) it's definately an improvement even if he might have lost some of his identity.

I understand you don't like that some of your favourite playstyles get removed, but let's keep subjective and objective arguments seperate if we can.

Edited July 7, 2018 by Aasgier

[gamerk2 20]

On 7/6/2018 at 9:36 PM, PrivateJoker said:

they've said in recent past AMAs that they have no plans for a TLV rework. They know they need one, but they don't know what to do with them. We should just expect more reworks for heroes that literally nobody sees anything wrong with, like Diablo and Azmodan, but nothing for TLV because it's hard.

As I've noted before: Grouped TLV actually outduel (generally .66 to 1) most Assassins if you build them for damage.  Nordic Attack Squad times 3 TLV equals a ton of bonus damage (1% HP per auto-attack per Viking over 5 seconds!), and the stun given by Large and In Charge allows TLV to outduel (and by that, I mean one TLV survives) most enemies 1v1.  Hell, if all Blizzard did is move Executioner to a talent tier where you could take it alongside Large and In Charge (which itself would activate Executioner) the TLV's grouped damage output would border on the obscene, and would make nuking a Viking (Eric) a priority in most fights.

The point on the above is simple: Give TLV benefits to being in a group alive, be it stacked damage, stuns, slows, or whatnot.  Especially since Play Again! is a thing should one (or more) of them die.  Basically, trade survivability and XP soak for major benefits if every Viking is alive, with much less potential as each Viking is killed off.  Nordic Attack Squad is a good example of what I'm looking for; more skills that scale with the number of Vikings.

The other change I would make would be controversial as hell, but would lower the skillcap on TLV quite a bit: Give a level 1 talent that when taken will cause the two non-controlled TLVs go under AI control.

The downsides are obvious: You give up a level 1 talent, and AIs aren't exactly good players.  On the other, this allows less skilled TLV players the ability to focus on one particular TLV.  Of course, you'd need robust talent trees for each individual TLV for this to be effective, as well as skills that buff TLV when apart.

The problem here is Blizzard doesn't want to have one set of talents for grouped TLV alongside an entirely separate set of talents for each individual TLV.  It makes each pick more or less automatic based on playstyle, but that's probably the only way to do TLV at all.

If anyone else has any better ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[gamerk2 20]

12 hours ago, Aasgier said:

Both Azmodan and Dibbles needed a rework. Saying that "nobody sees anything wrong with them" is a blatant lie - all the streamers I watch complained about Dibbles before his rework and I think for the right reasons. Dibbles was invalidating pretty much every melee assassin while outtanking every tank in the game, which was just ridiculous. 80% pickrate whille still having a 53% WR... like really? Let's not forget that he had piss-poor talent diversity too. Objectively speaking - the Diablo rework has been a major improvement.

That being said, there were definately other ways to rework Dibbles - and I can understand some might have preferred it if Dibbles would have been reworked into a melee assassin instead, which is fair enough. But that is personal preference, and while this is something I definately would not have minded personally, it is just not the choice Blizzard made.  Would I have preferred a Melee Assassin Diablo? Personally, yes, mostly because I'm dogshit on main tanks ? . And because slamming people in the wall for a lot of HP was fun, especially with opposing tanks. But the latter is subjective and the former a problem residing between chair and keyboard, and neither of them are good bases to build off if you are looking to balance your game.

And Azmodan's build was highly restrictive not to mention that the Basic Abilities you didn't talent into were just a waste of mana. And Laser build is nothing but a meme. The way he was reworked being the way to go is something entirely up to debate, but that he needed a rework in some way cannot be denied and giving him Taste for Blood baseline was something that I would have done myself in his rework well before Blizzard even mentioned it (I suggested it on a stream way back in March). Also the fact that Black Pool is gone (even if I hate its replacement and I would not be surprised if Tides of Sin gets replaced again in the future) means that his abilities can be way more useful baseline without breaking things alone will give Blizzard a much easier time tuning him to have a good spot in the game. I'll save my judgement for after I have played him, but I think pure design-wise (he might be undertuned or even overtuned) it's definately an improvement even if he might have lost some of his identity.

 I understand you don't like that some of your favourite playstyles get removed, but let's keep subjective and objective arguments seperate if we can.

Diablo simply has the kind of kit you can't put on a hero today.  Two different ways to disrupt enemies, which happen to be excellent pairs to each other is a bit much.  And both his Heroics are situationally awesome; pick A if your team has CC, pick B if your team needs CC.

Because of his revive mechanic, Diablo should be the most squishy tank in a fight.  Sure, you get a great kit, great heroics, above average damage as a tank, and a fast respawn, but you should die about as fast as a Thrall does when focused.  If Diablo isn't frail in a fight, then Blizzard hasn't built him right.

As for Azmo, I've yet to play him since his re-work.  I ALWAYS took Black Pool; I've never seen the point to his other ult when compared to the damage boost a Q + Black Pool gave (nevermind his E + Black Pool).  I can't see his new ult as anything but a downgrade since it only affects his Q, though I tentatively like his other changes.