#387 - Into the Nexus: “Sleeper Heroes”
• Garrett • Kyle • NotParadox or Guest
Tracking Link:
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
Into the Nexus brings you the Heroes of the Storm tidings every week, and it’s no different today! Garrett and Kyle are sad to report that the patch has been delayed, but devs seemed to have a fiery surprise awaiting us. The dudes always wish to share with you the good word about Regen Globes. They also want to point out to you a few specialized Heroes that you might be overlooking. Dust off those oddies, and enjoy this Heroes of the Storm helping.
Season Extended
Unannounced month and 2 week extension
New date: 9th of November
Links
Joined Boogan Forever as a tank Sub
Moved Falstad over to the main account
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, CheezyBob, Chris K, Mike R, & Shawn B!
Patron Thanks Doc for keeping track
Bonanza Tonight!
Giveaway
News
Patch Delayed?
Looks like the next patch is delayed. Redditor Jrex sounded the ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ SUMMON PATCH NOTES ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ horn to which DWarner replied with a Ragnaros-flair “TOO SOON!”
Links
There was a great PSA from Reddit this week
Via Redditor taunt-varian who posted:
Would you like every hero in the game have the ability to heal 10% hp and mana their teammates and theirself on a 30 second cooldown?
Inside the post itself was an all-caps tirade about how that already exists and it’s called picking up globes!
“Oh, i don't have a globe quest, why should i pick the globeees?"
BECAUSE IT GIVES YOU 10% HP AND MANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PICK.
THE.
GLOBES.”
Strat Talk
Unpopular But Winning: Current HOTS Sleepers
Sick of praying for a Zag pick? Try these sleepers instead
5 - Lost Vikings - 52% WR: 4.8% Popularity
* Honorable mention for a Hero that isn’t insane to learn: Rexxar (54% WR 7% Popularity)
4 - Mephisto - 52.5% WR: 6.5% Popularity
3 - Samuro - 54% WR: 5% Popularity
2 - Tracer - 55% WR: 7% Popularity
1 - Kerrigan - 55% WR: 4% Popularity on HOTSlogs
Links
Emails
Valkamer
Is Heroes ready for additional bans?
SuperJase (rhymes with space)
I have a question for the show (even if some people think it's silly): cosmetics don't seem to get the attention they deserve outside of the occasional reddit threads demanding AWESOME.SKIN.IDEA for MY.AWESOME.MAIN.WHO.IS.THE.BESTEST.HERO.IN.THE.GAME.
However, cosmetics are part of what makes this game so incredible: atmosphere, lore crossovers, memes etc. my gripe is this: there are so few loadout slots (only three per hero), but many, many skins and mounts and sprays etc. for those of us who love to match mounts to skins, place a lore-matching banner with a crossover skin, have a matching colour set etc, this is a nightmare because setting up a good loadout can take a long time, yet there are so few loadouts available. I almost cringe when I get a legendary skin in a loot box because I know my loadouts are full for that hero and I'll have to overwrite one to use the new skin.
Do you think that it would be a good idea to attach loadouts to each skin instead of each hero (so each skin has three loadouts)? And perhaps allow setting the skin selection to random (random selection pre game from all loadouts), and even setting the announcer to random.
That way all the effort put into creating mounts and skins and other cosmetics could be better utilised by those of us who really appreciate the great visual effort that has been poured into this great game (one of the things that really sets it apart from other MOBAs).
Frollino95
Me and my duo buddy recently found a third friend interested in playing the game, in particular tanking. he's not completely new to the concept of MOBAs, he was one of the poor souls that were playing paragon, but despite his previous experience with the genre we find it particularly difficult to explain his role and what he should mechanically do in fights and whatnot, without dumping info on him like a waterfall of "stay in that bush while we do the camp" and "we lost the fight, rotate bot to grab some exp and wait for us to come back alive".
What do you think is the best, easiest or most important stuff a new tank should know? and in what order do you think it's better to explain them to him?
https://gamestoday.info/pc/heroes-of-the-storm/cavalierguests-art-of-the-tank-2-0/
Ben
Firstly thank you for making a fantastic show. Keep up the great work you guys do in both this podcast and all the others you are part of.
Secondly, in the most recent episode Garrett mentioned he was concerned about the competitive scene with Pokemon Unite as he doesn’t trust Nintendo and I’m writing to clear something up as someone who’s played both the TCG and VGC (Video game championship) as well as the less commonly seen Pokken. You don’t have to trust Nintendo as all of this side of things will be handled by The Pokemon Company International (TPCI for short) who have been running the world championships for both the regular video game and the TCG since 2014. It’s a yearly event held in the summer (missing the last two years for obvious reason) with Blizzcon level of streaming and casting, usually by community streamers/casters so they know what they’re talking about, currently (needless to say the further back you go the less fidelity but they have consistently advanced along with technology).
If you need more reassurance feel free to youtube some videos from previous years, as for the worry of kids playing, don’t worry they have always had 3 age brackets for all of there games/competitions (juniors 3-12, seniors 13-17 and masters 18+) with hefty prize support handed out, generally merchandise and scholarships (which are exchangeable for cash prizes for masters).
The next world championships is due to be held in the summer of 2022 here in the UK in London.
Much thanks and keep smiling
Chad - How to Fix Haunted Mines
I know I’m in the minority but Haunted Mines never really bothered me. I always felt it was a wild, chaotic, fun match going up and down the mines.
I’m torn between two different ideas. The first is during the skull phase all players are forcibly teleported into the mine. There is no way out and the exits are blocked by rubble or magic from the Raven Lord and/or The Grave Keeper. However, you can hearth back to the hall of storms to heal and then teleport back into the mine. You cannot leave the hall of storms, there is simply a portal inside the hall of storms back to the mine and you cannot exit. I’ve also thought of several ways the players can be arranged during the mine teleport phase:
- Randomly placed
- Pseudo-randomly placed (There are 10 pre-determined locations)
- Each phase teams are placed on opposite sides apart from the other team
Another mechanic is to add minecarts that travel on predetermined tracks. Imagine Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It would be fun to see teammates flying by above and below you, going underground briefly and appearing again. This is another movement assisting mechanic such as the portals on Towers of Doom and Warhead Junction or the moving tracks on Volskaya.
Once all 100 skulls are collected players can now leave through several different exits that are now unblocked, or just hearth.
The second idea is to discourage pushing cheese during the skull collecting phase. Once the skull phase begins all merc camps disappear. Towers, Forts, Keeps and the Core gain 25% range and their damage is doubled. I’ve thought of maybe even adding 20 armor to all structures. This would definitely discourage attempting to push during the skull phase. You could still do it, but likely not advised.
Let me know which version you like better, or if there are any other improvements I missed.
TL;DR
Option 1 - A forced, inescapable thunderdome in the mines until the skulls are collected.
Option 2 - Towers, Forts. Keeps and Cores are buffed so much you might as well just go into the mine. Merc camps disappear too.
*Edit - A few things slipped my mind. (It's been what, 4-5 years since it's been in rotation?)
Suggestion by u/Senshado - Both lanes should not get a golem at the end of the objective. The first to 50 skulls get the golem the other team doesn't get anything. I like that. Or, all the skulls need to be collected and it affects how strong the objective winning teams golem is, similar to BoE. There would have to be 99 skulls to avoid a 50-50 tie though.
There's also been some comments on the golem scaling or the golems not being strong enough. Ok, then let's tweak the numbers and make them stronger.
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
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