#388 - Into the Nexus: “Slamage”
• Garrett • Kyle
Tracking Link:
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
Spiders, Skeletons and Banelings! Oh my! Patch time is here and changes are being felt. Garrett and Kyle cover the strange disappearance of Zagara as she was disabled by Blizzard. She's back, but a little less potent than previous, with a promise to keep the updates coming. Nazeebo seems the big winner with Leoric getting some real nice bake-ins as well. Deckard Cain likely going to be bringing some pain coming up, and a bizarre buff to Hanzo?! All this and more from your favorite Heroes hoppin hosts. Stay tuned!
Recording live on Wednesday next week! Should be at the same time. May end up a little later into the evening.
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, Chris K, Shawn B, & Mike R!
Patron Thanks Doc for keeping track
News
Friday August 20th Patch
Zag was disabled for less than 24 hours.
Blizz_Daybringer: The team was working on finalizing the balance patch early this week, but due to random development hurdles, it looked like we weren't going to be able to get the patch out this week. Luckily enough, with some heavy lifting from the team, we were able to fix the issues and green-light the patch early this morning.
Disabling a Hero for a handful of hours was not intended, but with us in a space where we were not 100% confident that we could patch this week, we felt like it was the right thing to do.
All this said, we hope you enjoy the patch and are eagerly reading and absorbing your feedback. Have a wonderful weekend!
Links
Tank
Stitches
Developer Comment: We’re overall happy with Stitches’ position, but his stickiness is overshadowing why players pick other Tanks.
Shambling Horror [D]
Level 4 - Tenderizer [Passive] - 64% pickrate
Level 16 - Pulverize [W] - 65% pickrate
Bruiser
Leoric
Developer Comment: Being the King brings many duties, and being the Skeleton King is no different. Leoric players are often expected to fill a wave clearing role that is dependent on the current Kneel, Peasants! to succeed. We're bringing much of its benefit baseline, and trying something a little weird with Kneel, Peasants! Let us know if you consider it treasonous.
Skeletal Swing [Q]
Wrath of the Bone King [Trait]
Level 4 - Kneel, Peasants! [Q]
Healer
Deckard
Developer Comment: Deckard's healing related talents have been underperforming lately, so we're hitting their numbers as well as cutting down some of the travel time on his potions. Scroll of Identify is also getting a blast of ~*spice*~, because why not.
Healing Potion [Q]
Horadric Cube [W]
Level 1 - Scroll of Identify [E]
Level 4 - Potion of Shielding [Q]
Level 4 - Rejuvenation Potion [Q]
Level 10 - Lorenado [R2]
Level 13 - Super Healing Potion [Q]
Level 13 - Potion of Revival [Q]
Level 13 - Ancient Blessings [Trait]
Lt. Morales
Developer Comment: When we shuffle a Hero's talents, we often reduce their base power so we can make their talents more exciting. In Lt. Morales' case, we've found we don't have to pay as high a price as we expected.
Healing Beam [Q]
Safeguard [W]
Level 4 - Trauma Trigger [Passive]
Level 7 - Vanadium Plating [W]
Melee
Qhira
Buffs to Revolving Swing talents.
Developer Comment: Many of Qhira's Revolving Swing talents have never really captured the attention of Qhira players, as they often leave Qhira spinning out. We're giving these buffs a whirl to see how they play out.
Level 1 - Fatal Wounds [W]
Level 4 - Ensnaring Swing [E]
Level 13 - Pulsing Pain [E]
Level 16 - Lingering Ailment [E]
Level 16 - Swing Life Away [E]
Level 20 - Utility Belt [E]
Ranged
Hanzo
Developer Comment: Hanzo has slowly become a less reliable choice for most players, so we're increasing his health and adding some quality of life changes.
Natural Agility [D]
Underpicked talents
Level 7 - The Dragon Hungers [Q]
Level 7 - Sharpened Arrowheads [Passive]
Level 10 - Dragonstrike [R1]
Underpicked talents
Lunara
Developer Comment: Lunara has been doing some weeding, and now some of her lesser picked talents have begun to bloom.
Level 1 - Hippity Hop [Z]
Level 7 - Choking Pollen [Q]
Level 7 - Wild Vigor [W]
Level 10 - Thornwood Vine [R1]
Level 13 - Abolish Magic [Active]
Nazeebo
Developer Comment: It's been a hot minute since we touched the Naz man. We like that he's a late-game PvE powerhouse, but we feel there's room for him to have more PvP impact early on. We're adjusting both his Spider and Toad builds to have more of a unique identity and to make them a little more consistent. We're also dumping a pile of jungle spices on his 20s to make them more competitive with the ever-popular Vile Infection.
Corpse Spiders [Q]
Level 1 - Widowmakers [Q]
Level 1 - Pandemic [E]
Level 4 - Blood Ritual [Trait]
Level 7 - Spirit of Arachyr [Q]
Level 13 - Guardian Toads [E]
Level 13 - Superstition [Passive]
Level 16 - Spider Colony [Q]
Level 20 - Humongoid [R1]
Level 20 - Annihilating Spirit [R2]
Level 20 - Fury of the Storm [Passive]
Level 20 - (New) Bad Medicine [Active]
Valla
Developer Comment: Valla’s damage is nearing close to where we’d like it to be – but her safety while doing so is a bit high.
Level 4 - Arsenal [W]
Level 7 - Hot Pursuit [Trait]
Level 13 - Gloom [Active]
Level 20 - Death Siphon [R1]
Zagara
Developer Comment: In contrast to our usual ethos, Zagara is seeing her talents pay the price for an increase in power in her base ability. While the immediate effect is Zagara has less impactful Baneling talents, we feel that Baneling Barrage is a more interesting ability than from where we started, and we have more room for future changes.
Baneling Barrage [Q]
Level 1 - Volatile Acid [Q]
Level 7 - Baneling Massacre [Q]
Level 20 - Pack Instinct [W]
Links
Mochrie’s Mood Meter
“The Mood Meter is a really effective tool to help teammates communicate their state of being with one another in an easy and mutually understood way.
Highly recommend y’all use it with your teams and even just when tryharding. Knowing each other's emotional state is huge.
Links
Emails
Daniel
I have enjoyed the 2 for 2 is it fun/balanced discussion. I've thought it would be nice to have Nova be able to be enjoyed outside of QM one tricks. what about some sort of valeera/deathwing treatment where she can have a different set of skills cloaked versus visible with a significantly higher health pool uncloaked versus cloaked. I will let you experts think through some talent ideas but just my thoughts on the topic.
Outro
Patreon Shout Out
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Thanks to Gorath for our intro music and briangriffithmusic.com (@briangriffith) for our outro..
Personal Stuff
Garrett
Kyle