|
Mexico2169 Posts
Blizzard has announced a new test map for Heroes of the Storm where they'll be trying changes to both the early game death timers and the scaling of the heroes throughout the game.
As we continue to evolve Heroes of the Storm and sharpen its gameplay, we’ll run into scenarios where we think adjustments might be needed to make the overall playability of Heroes a stronger experience for all. As such, we’ve identified some potential areas of the game that can be tuned to help matches feel more even, clean up potential snowballing, and make individual players feel a bit stronger with their decision making.
Death timmers
We’ve identified that there may be a difficulty in achieving objectives in the early game due to our death timers and how quickly players can get back into a fight. To help setup teams and players to make important strides in the games, while also increasing the importance of not dying in the early game, we’ve adjusted death timers for the first 10 levels. You can see the changes below: As you can see above, the death timers heading into the mid to late game will mostly go unchanged. We believe these changes will set up players to take advantage of secured takedowns early with possible aggressive play on objectives, towers, or minion waves. Overall, this will allow players more choices on how they handle takedowns of their opponents while being able to progress the match in a quicker manner.
Snowball prevention
At the same time, we have seen, in many games, that an early level lead can create a snow-ball situation that could be difficult to comeback from. In the current version of Heroes, game levels 1-14 had a very large stat difference from one level to the next. We identified later levels had less of a stat difference and power levels are more noticeable with talent picks instead of level gains. In an attempt to mirror the late game, we are flattening out the earlier levels to be more in line with how Heroes operates towards the late game.
The Test Map is available on PTR now, and will also be available to play on October 6th in the live game, 2015 for a limited time.
You can read the full blog here.
Poll: What's your first impression about these changes?Awesome! (12) 46% Will need to test them first (11) 42% I have some doubts (2) 8% I don't like them (1) 4% 26 total votes Your vote: What's your first impression about these changes? (Vote): Awesome! (Vote): I don't like them (Vote): I have some doubts (Vote): Will need to test them first
|
Looks interesting. They said these particular changes will not go in before Blizzcon
David Kim @tiggs @BlizzHeroes @DustinBrowder Will these possible changes impact Blizzcon? (I like them by the way)
Heroes of The Storm ✔ @BlizzHeroes @tiggs @DustinBrowder No. These changes are not intended to hit before Blizzcon. We'd like to make sure Road to Blizzcon is not impacted.
4:59 PM - 1 Oct 2015
|
Mexico2169 Posts
Oh cool that's good to hear because Death timmers, and hero scaling are core mechanics and changing them could have unintended consecuences. Could someone clarify what does this is suppoused to mean?
Alongside the overall stat changes, we’ve taken the additional stats you’d earn from leveling and directly ingrained the numbers straight into the heroes themselves. These changes will go a long way in helping heroes feel more appropriate in the roles they were designed for. Assassins, for example, output much more damage but are easier to pick off with their low health pools.
|
I imagine they meant much higher base values (lvl 1) on stats, much less scaling.
|
That's how I read it too, which is what I have my doubts about.
The reason early levels are more impactful is because with the straight scale, the % increase gets less and less. So they're just going to keep the straight scale but make it lower to make the % / level small all the time? That seems the wrong way to go about it.
But I'm sure people on ptr will give better details.
|
I just had a first tribute that ran until lvl 9 because of short early death timers (we were 5v4 but they kept denying us while their murky split pushed). So this change feels good to me. It might also help the early game heroes like Kerrigan a bit.
For the stats change... I don't know, it's hard to figure what that will mean.
|
stats change sound interesting, but I wish they would also try to make talent advantages less impactful, like yay talents but no stats boost. Would kinda suck if 4 and 7 will also become avoid fighting at all cost. As for the death timers, hopefully they change Viking death timers back then. Cause I am really bad at keeping Baelog alive.
|
The death timer adjustments are very welcome and very much needed. I am a little less clear on what the stat changes will amount to. It sounds like they are going to be differentiating more between assassins and warriors, which is probably a good thing. Hard to evaluate until we see the numbers.
|
Unexpected, but sounds cool. Hopefully the game will become better.
|
Will have to test first, but in theory i think the death timers change will be good.
Fine tuning the way heroes scale is nice too, in theory, since its a bit incosistent across the roster. About snowballing, as long as its not changed too much it should be fine, comeback mechanics are not bad right now so i just hope they don't change it into something worse in the opposite side of the spectrum (only talent tiers are relevant).
|
141 Posts
I wonder if the stat changes make Azmodan stacking easier or harder.
|
On October 02 2015 13:27 r_gg wrote: I wonder if the stat changes make Azmodan stacking easier or harder. You kill minions easier but the stack is relatively less powerfull.
|
So from what I gather heroes will start with the stats they now have around lvl ~8 but the increase per level will be exponential instead of linear now calibrated such that the heroes are similar around lvl 16. Thus fighting lvl 7 vs 9 is easier for example. And lvl 22 vs 20 is more of a difference than it is now. The idea behind this is good I think. It's hard to see how this changes stuff though, heroes are more differentiated at start so Jaina bursts harder but is more glass cannon etc. This could have some weird impacts especially for ganking, siege or stacking tactics early that are hard to gauge. But overall I think the idea is great. At high level the earlygame is not impactful enough, kills don't happen that often and when they do they hardly matter on maps where objectives are of minimal importance. Combined with longer death timer it makes the early game more important which I'd like. It may lead to more snowballing and shorter games at pro levle but that's not a big deal imo, I don't mind if a lopsided game also just ends quickly instead of the usual finish at lvl 16 vs 14 or lvl 20 vs 18 that you see often now.
|
Specialists can now aggressively push towers,forts and grab camps, boss earlier. Tanks can wave clear faster. Assassins remain unchanged but the added death timer means they have more impact after a kill. Supports no change.
If split pushing early game becomes superior to what i think was the double warrior comp exp grind into submission. I can see double warrior fading out and double assassin coming in.
Also im very concerned with the extended death timers removing the dynamics of early game objectives. If death timers are long enough the winning team will complete the full objective every time with no counter play. Theres a fine line on early objectives right now that offer room to outplay your opponents and i dont want to see that go away.
|
I was pretty vocal about wanting longer early game death timers since alpha so this is a welcome change. I feel with the longer death timers and the smoother leveling power the game will play more more naturally like you'd expect a MOBA-type game to play. Where the big benefit of killing a hero is removing them from play.
|
Pretty happy about the death timers because people are too careless early game. It's even worse if we gain a small advantage and people suicide into mid game and THEN the opposite team has the upper hand. This will happen way less.
Also this counts as a Murky buff so count me in!
|
On October 02 2015 20:31 Noidberg wrote:
Supports no change.
Depends on how the scaling goes for talents vs auto attack/hp.
|
Assassins should change also, they will essentially be more 'assassiny' earlier on with higher relative damage and lower relative health. This would make them more vulnerable to other assassins, but also more effective at killing other assassins, so positioning will likely become more important. I could see this making ranged assassins more favored and melee assassins less favored.
|
I wonder what that does to Nova, she already seemed about as extreme as the hp / dmg output ratio could get.
Also, glad to see that scaling will not be flat, makes much more sense now. Especially if levels after 20 actually matter, would be nice for the team ahead to be able to close out games without fear of wiping/throwing because once both teams hit 20 it's basically even again.
|
|
|
|
|