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#393 - Into the Nexus: “Don’t Mana Tap That”

• Garrett • Kyle • NotParadox or Guest

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Patch time is here! While the main movers and shakers may be missing, there are some new toys for some of your old favorites. Gazlowe, the harbinger of the lower leagues is getting a base kit nerf, Maiev gets a fancy 20 unlock and Stukov Balisto power has been lowered. Garrett wants Zagara back, Kyle wants more from Thrall. We’ve got all the details and plenty of opinions. Enjoy!

Intro:  Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!


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

September 27th Patch

Tank

ETC | Underpicked Talent Refresh

Developer Comment: E.T.C.'s strength has usually been centered around his powerful Heroics, but lately that hasn't helped him make the cut. We're trying reinforcing that identity with baseline Armor and a buff to Stage Dive before we look to broaden his power.

Rockstar [Trait]

Level 1 - Guitar Hero [E] | Underpicked: Prog & Block were the go-tos.

Level 4 - Crowd Surfer [Q] | Underpicked: Loud Speakers 70% pickrate at 4

Level 4 - Speed Metal [Trait]  | Underpicked

Level 7 - Hammer-on [E] | Underpicked: Pinball Wizard 62% pickrate at 7

Level 7 - Echo Pedal [Passive] | Underpicked

Level 10 - Stage Dive [R2] | Underpicked: Mosh Pit has an 83% pickrate

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=E.T.C.


Bruiser

Gazlowe | Nerf

Developer Comment: Gazlowe is a pretty dominant force in all non-master levels of play right now. We are starting with some baseline nerfs and will look to potentially make some talent adjustments in a later patch.

Rock-it Turret [Q]

Deth Lazor [W]

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Gazlowe

Thrall | Light-Rework (Underpicked Talent Refresh, Lv.13 rework, & new 20)

Developer Comment: Thrall has begun to struggle in solo lane matchups, often unable to sustain himself after trading blows. We feel his Mana costs are too high due his reliance on frequently casting abilities to charge Frostwolf Resilience, even if choosing to learn Mana Tide. There seems to be a demand for a strong auto attack talent at 20, with many Thralls choosing Nexus Blades, so we're adding Elemental Momentum to keep the tier exciting.

Feral Spirit [W]

Level 1 - Echo of the Elements [Q] | Competitive:  30% Pickrate

Level 4 - Feral Resilience [W] | Underpicked

Level 13 - Frostwolf's Grace [D] | Go-To pick: 63% pickrate

Level 13 - Spirit Shield [Active] | Underpicked:

Level 20 - (New) Elemental Momentum [Passive]

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Thrall


Support

Zarya | Underpicked Talent Refresh & Go-To Ult Buff

Developer Comment: Zarya's Basic Attack build is underperforming compared to her other options, so we're consolidating a few talents and giving her a new one in the form of Deep Burn. Historically, even slight buffs to Zarya have had a huge impact on her efficacy, so we're making light touches this time around. We'll be keeping a close eye on her performance and making more adjustments in the future if needed.

Level 1 - Feel the Heat [Trait] | Zarya has really solid talent diversity at 1

Level 4 - I Am the Strongest [W] | Underpicked

Level 7 - Hit Me [Trait] | Underpicked

Level 7 - To the Limit [Passive] | Underpicked

Level 7 - (New) Deep Burn [Q] | Pinpoint Accuracy is the popular pick at 7

Level 10 - Graviton Surge [R2] | 60% pickrate over Expulsion Zone

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Thrall


Healer

Ana | Underpicked Talent Refresh

Developer Comment: Ana has a grouping of talents that are becoming more and more popular, so we're helping their competitors. We hope Sharpshooter's additional functionality lets the best snipers truly shine.

Level 1 - Contact Healing [W] | Competitive: 23% pickrate

Level 1 - Vampiric Rounds [Trait] | Underpicked: Slumber Shells 59% pickrate

Level 4 - Biotic Enhancements [W] | Competitive: 20% pickrate

Level 4 - Debilitating Dart [Active] | Underpicked: 10% pickrate

Level 16 -Sharpshooter [Q] | Competitive: 31% pickrate / Active Reload 60%

Level 16 -Concentrated Doses [Q] | Underpicked: 9% pickrate

Level 20 - Deadeye [R2] | Underpicked: 13% pickrate (Armored Stance is even worse)

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Ana

BlizzKofalt responded to a thread talking about Sharpshooter’s shortcomings

“We had a very similar discussion internally before releasing Ana's latest changes. You're right, the most direct route to making Sharpshooter competitive is to adjust its consistency.

However, part of what makes Sharpshooter unique is its inconsistency and the struggle involved. So, we're first trying leaning further into its core fantasy. It may not work, but there's always the next patch.

You'll notice that this change is remarkedly different than our change to Debilitating Dart. We don't feel that Debilitating Dart's fantasy is rooted in it's inconsistency, and so our change is solely focusing on making it more reliable.”

Brightwing | Buff?

Developer Comment: Our overly-friendly Faerie Dragon has been slowly collecting a few more wins than she should. We are bringing down a few of her base stats to bring her more in line with the rest of her peers.

Health reduced from 1450 to 1425. [-1.7%]

Health regeneration reduced from 3.02 to 2.97.

Soothing Mist [Trait]

HOTSlogs Says

Li Li | Buff

Developer Comment: Li Li has been working on her throwing arm, which should help her spells become a tiny bit more consistent, especially when cast at longer ranges.

Healing Brew [Q]

Blinding Wind [E]

Level 7 - Let’s Go! [Active]

HOTSlogs Says

Stukov | Nerf + Underpicked Talent Refresh

Developer Comment: Reactive Ballistospores is just too strong in its current form, completely dominating his tier 1 choices. We are making some adjustments to it in order to help level out the talent tier while also buffing some other under-performing Talents throughout his tree.

Level 1 - Fetid Touch [W] | Wildy Underpicked: 7%

Level 1 - Reactive Ballistospores [W]  | 65% pickrate

Level 1 - Low Blow [E] | Competitive: 27% pickrate but lower winrate

Bonus damage to Heroes below 50% Health increased from 100% to 125%.

Level 13 - It Hungers [E] | Competitive: 23% winrate. Overall decent diversity at 13. But Virulent win with a 51% pickrate

Level 16 - Universal Carrier [Q] | Underpicked: 13% pickrate

Level 16 - Superstrain [Q] | Competitive: 35% pickrate

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Stukov


Melee Assassin

Maiev | Light Rework + Unpicked Talent Refresh

Developer Comment: It can be hard for Maiev to outmaneuver her opponents late in the game, so we're excited to see what Maiev players will do with an extra charge of Vault of the Wardens. This is also the first time we're adding new functionality through a level unlock rather than converting a baseline quest or popular talent, so we're interested in your feedback. Additionally, Containment Disc has fallen quite a bit behind Warden's Cage at all levels of play, so we're adding a Silence to further isolate targets and to interrupt big moments.

Vault of the Wardens [D]

Level 4 - Pin Down [Q] | Competitive:

Level 7 - Bonds of Corruption [W] | Underpicked: 11% pickrate

Level 10 - Containment Disc [R1] | Underpicked: 22% pickrate

Level 16 - Armored Assault [Passive] | Underpicked: 19% pickrate

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Maiev

BlizzKofalt responded to a thread wondering why Genji isn’t getting the same love as Maeiv

Most of her changes were not focused on increasing Maiev's overall strength, and instead were about rising weaker/under-picked talents to be on par with the popular choice. At higher skill levels of play, buffs to weak talents often have a minor impact on a Hero's overall strength, as these players were not picking the weaker talents. That said, there are high skilled Maiev players who picked some of these talents and are now going to be stronger.

So why the new baseline functionality? Simply because her 20 talents are weaker than her fellow Melee Assassins, and it's visible when comparing level 20 talent win rates. More popular Melee Assassins at Master Storm League include Heroes like Zeratul and Alarak, who have incredibly strong options such as Shadow Stride and Hasty Bargain. Maiev's level 20 talents have a wide range of effects with decent parity, which we like, but they don't help her secure wins as often.

Going forward, we are confident that if Maiev does become over dominant that we can address it. It wouldn't surprise us if some of these buffed talents were already strong enough to be a competitive option and they were just simply undervalued. We don't believe any of these recent changes affect Maiev's core identity, so we can easily reduce them or revert them if needed.

So where are we at with Genji? Genji has a powerful base kit, leaving him with many talents that aren't super exciting or strong. Additionally, Genji is our 11th most played Hero, and is viewed and played differently across our many player groups. We remain content with his overall status, and don't believe he needs a rework, but we think we can make some changes to make his talents more exciting and impactful.


Ranged Assassin

Kael’thas | Buff

Developer Comment: It's been a hot-minute since we showed our resident fire mage some love, so we are making a few baseline changes to increase his survivability, as well as tweak a couple of underperforming talents.

Gravity Lapse [E]

Level 4 - Energy Roil [E] | Underpicked: 16% pickrate

Level 4 - Mana Tap [Trait] | Competitive: 33% pickrate

Level 10 - Phoenix [R1] | Underpicked: 32% pickrate

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Kael%27thas

Kel’thuzad | Buff

Developer Comment: Much akin to Kael'thas, we feel like Kel'Thuzad has been left out in the cold for too long. We are giving him some slight baseline buffs while also tuning up some underperforming talents.

Glacial Spike [1]

Level 7 - Ice Cold [1] | Underpicked: 13% pickrate

Level 13 - Icy Grasp [W] | Underpicked: 10% pickrate

HOTSlogs Says

https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/TalentDetails?Hero=Kel%27Thuzad

Valla

Developer Comment: While Multishot is actually being slightly outperformed by Hungering Arrow builds, we feel like its still too powerful for how safe of an option it is. We would also like to see a bit more auto-attack focused builds so we are going to start slowly increasing the strength of some of those Talents, starting with Creed of the Hunter.

Base

        Multishot [W]

            Damage decreased from 165 to 159.

            Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds.

Talents

        Level 1

            Puncturing Arrow [Q]

                Damage per enemy Hero hit decreased from 7 to 6.

            Creed of the Hunter [Trait]

                Maximum bonus damage from Basic Attacking enemy Heroes increased from 5% to 6%.

                Gambit Attack Speed increased from 20 to 25%.

Zagara

Developer Comment: The previous Health changes hurt Zagara more than we had intended and are backing off of them a bit. On top of that, Broodmother was being heavily outshone by her other level 20s so we decided to add a bit of extra spice to it.

        Vitals

            Health increased from 1500 to 1550.

            Health regeneration increased from 3.12 to 3.23.

Talents

        Level 20

            Broodmother [Q]

                Additional functionality: Gain 20% bonus Attack Speed.


Emails

Corny

What if vile infection was like butcher meat and you unlocked it when you got X amount of stacks?


MadWalrus

Hi guys, love the show and everything you do. I have a random question for the show. Heroes has some awesome skins. Kyle and Garrett, what are your top three favourite skins?

Mine would be:

1) Johanna orc skin - as a WoW orc warrior this skin speaks to me on so many levels and I love the voice line and taunt changes.

2) Sonya black tint Nexomania skin - just good fun, the way the crowd cheers when you slam really feels “hype” and the level 20 crater upgrade is awesome!

3) Auriel WoW spirit healer skin - the wings effects, little glowing eyes under the hood and the fact it’s a WoW spirit healer get the thumbs up from me.

Those are my top three. There are honourable mentions Infested Tychus, Ghost Kerrigan, Basketball Azmodan all come to mind.

Keep up the great work, and I’ll see you around.


DomSithe

One light discussion topic I wouldn't mind you guys answering if the patch doesn't drop: What are your favourite heroes/announcers from a voice acting perspective? Are there any heroes you want to like more cause of their lines, but can't cause of their style?


Brandon0706

Me and a friend are really interested in getting better at the game and want to start playing storm league, but after our placements I'm low gold and hes low bronze. We feel like we know the game pretty well but with a lower elo like this we get stuck with people who A) dont, and B) think they do so they wont take our advice. Any tips on hero combos that we could "duo carry" with to climb to a rank more fit for our game knowledge?


Outro

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Thanks to Gorath for our intro music and briangriffithmusic.com (@briangriffith) for our outro..

Personal Stuff

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