#404 - Into the Nexus: “The Probe Meta?”
• Garrett • Kyle • NotParadox or Guest
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https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
The meta is changing. The CCL has upped the pace of the game. Johanna is now a high damage off-lane. Probius is a zoning double soaking spell caster. Rehgar is just plain running amok. Garrett and Kyle give you the scoop, as well the business of battle-pass and your emails.
Probius’s First CCL Match
Storm beats Simplicity with the help of 3 probious picks.
https://youtu.be/mLoTRaG01No?t=5519
https://heroesprofile.com/CCL/Match/Single/?replayID=542
https://heroesprofile.com/CCL/Match/Single/?replayID=543
https://heroesprofile.com/CCL/Match/Single/?replayID=544
STRMRutzou Talents
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, Shawn B, Mike R, & JM Tibbles!
Patron Thanks Doc for keeping track
Johanna gets top damage in the CCL
https://youtu.be/RLQJFQDoNpQ?t=4334
https://heroesprofile.com/CCL/Match/Single/?replayID=550
Kyle’s Arrow Keys
Dota Battle Pass Contains Model Update
https://www.dota2.com/labyrinth
Links
Emails
DadLawnRngr
What's the right play when playing smart vs herding chickens and joining the clown car? Example on Towers. I play Malth, tell my team I'm double soaking and to own the 4 man bot. It's inevitable they just don't have the discipline to just push in bot, so I've kinda given up on trying to teach them, and just enjoy the ride. Is it wrong that I gave up trying to teach? I'm conflicted.
Lear
I watch your show all the time. Here's an idea I thought of that might have been proposed before.
Kael'thas' Flamestrike's size is now the same size as the Verdant Sphere's buffed version, but the area of effect is now a donut shape, meaning there's a smaller circle inside that does nothing. The circle is about the size of a small hero. The buff from Verdant Sphere now applies some kind of a debuff on the enemies hit or a damage over time. It does not fill the empty circle.
Hope this counts as a "exciting on paper but not OP" idea.
Best regards!
Chad
With all of the commotion surrounding the upcoming ™ balance patch I thought I’d share an idea I’ve had floating around my head for years regarding tactics to help balance this game.
I haven’t found the right buzzword for this…. Reverse buff? Simple buff? Ham fisted buffs? I dunno. For example, it’s something like this:
Thrall – Keep him exactly how he is, moldy talents and all, 10% health increase. Thrall isn’t a “bad” hero but he just doesn’t really shine in anything. Perhaps being a little more durable would make him viable.
Probius – Don’t touch a thing, base 5% move speed increase. How many times have you ALMOST escaped as Probius only to die for Auir in a puff of blue smoke? It’s also entirely believable and true to the Blizzard universe that a little probe could zip around slightly quicker.
Alexstrazza – Abundance essentially tells the enemy team “Hey everyone! They need to stand here to heal! HELLO!!!!” Activate time decreased from 3 seconds to 2. No other changes.
This isn’t how every hero should be balanced, but there is a place for it. However, sometimes balance changes tinker with far too much, overcomplicate or even fundamentally change a hero’s playstyle. We’ve seen this game disable heroes if something is broken or even do a hotfix. If only one thing is changed at a time it could easily be dialed down. For example, let’s say they increased Thralls HP by 10% and he’s just running away with it and overpowered AF. How hard would it be to turn that dial from 10% down to only a 5% increase, or 3%? Since only one dial is being turned at a time, it’s easy to adjust. It's not like they’d have to rework an entire talent tree.
Same with Alexstrazza. Instead of a complicated hero rework lets turn one of these dials and see if it helps. If it was too strong then change the activate time to 2.5 seconds instead of 2.
Probius as well, Let’s say the base 5% movespeed doesn’t do anything and his winrate is exactly the same, or even lower for some reason. No harm no foul on a hero that has a 1% popularity rate and try something else.
Do either of you guys have a "simple" rework idea for any heroes?
MNC Dover
I was listening to the recent ITN podcast talking about Probe not feeling very thematic to StarCraft, and I 100% agree. I feel that Nova is the same as well. So I whipped up a rework for her and would love to have you two put it through the "Exciting/Overpowered" filter.
Pinning Shot [W]
Removed (choose a W at level 1 like Xul or Kharazim)
Holo Decoy [E]
Removed
Nuclear Strike [E]
Nova launches a Nuclear Missile similar to the ones found in Warhead Junction (damage TBD). Charges like Dva/Tracer from dealing damage to minions, structures, and mercs. At 100% charge, the Nuke becomes available.
Permanent Cloak [D]
Now called Personal Cloak
Adjusted functionality: Activate to gain Stealth (25 mana + 2 mana per second while moving). Cooldown 3 seconds.
Ghost Protocol [1}
Removed
Comscan [1]
Reveal an area of the map for 6 seconds. Similar function to Tassadar's talent. 60 CD, full map range.
These changes make Nova a more thematic Ghost from SC. She has to be conservative with her cloaking, but some talents help with that. Nova goes from a boring ranged assassin to a map control/support unit, although she still has her Snipe build stuff.
Level 1 Talents:
Long Shot, Covert Ops, and Advanced Cloaking removed.
New Talents:
EMP Rounds (W): Skill shot AoE that deals small damage to an area with a large extra damage amount to Shields and depletes 5% mana.
Lockdown (W): Deal small damage, slow an enemy by 30% and freeze their ability cooldowns for 2 seconds.
Irradiate (W): Target enemy takes poison damage over 4 seconds. Nearby targets take the same damage.
Yes, Irradiate is a Science Vessel ability, but it would help Nova with some much needed lane clear for her new Nuke ability. :)
I won't go into a full talent rework, but they would be more focused on improving her base kit. Stuff like an increase in % gain on E, auto-charge E (20 talent), an extra W charge, increasing minion/merc stats while nearby, cloak energy usage reduction, faster mana gain out of Cloak, extra ComScan charge + CD reduction, and so on.
I think these changes would make her feel way more like a hybrid Ghost from SC1 and 2, while making her more impactful in SL. Obviously, if anything is too strong, number tweaks would be in order.
Anyway, hope you both have a nice holiday season!
Outro
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