I like Sniper Master the way it is. Would be annoying if you are basically free to spam if the enemy is near walls or minions. Also like the decision to drop stacks and help with clearing a boss or so. But maybe I just fear they will nerf the max damage boost XD. If you have max stacks no assassin is save :D .
I wouldn't say Anub, Illidan and Butcher are 'low tier' in the current meta, they're just quite niche. Butcher comps and Illidan comps get brought out occasionally by pro teams, and Anub comes out as a counter to heroes like Cho'Gall. Anub's two stuns + web blast make him pretty useful, but his low health pool make him easily burstable. Comps with Illidan, Tass, Brightwing etc are pretty viable, though Xul is looking like a direct counter to Illidan.
Tychus and Kerrigan are simply outperformed in their roles by other heroes, which is why they aren't picked very often. But in HL, teams are less co-ordinated so a Kerrigan can get picks easier and Tychus can dominate a lane, for instance. Odin still does huge damage, and Kerrigan can still destroy 1v1 - it's simply that a good team will shut them down, and most teams would rather have Thrall and Raynor over Kerrigan and Tychus.
It's also worth considering that people who pick these heroes in master level HL are probably very experienced with them and can use them a lot more effectively than some Russian with 1.5k mmr.
It's also worth considering that people who pick these heroes in master level HL are probably very experienced with them and can use them a lot more effectively than some Russian with 1.5k mmr.
Yeah, so readers beware: do not rush in to pick these heroes in heroleague.
it's mostly that when you see that Anub or Butcher, they are there for a reason. People don't first pick them into counters. Small sample size heroes always have inflated winrates because: a) they are picked mostly when there's a reason to pick them other than personal preference b) people don't really know how to play vs them (mostly true at lower level, I can't count how many games I've lost to joke comps)
On March 01 2016 06:40 Ej_ wrote: it's mostly that when you see that Anub or Butcher, they are there for a reason. People don't first pick them into counters. Small sample size heroes always have inflated winrates because: a) they are picked mostly when there's a reason to pick them other than personal preference b) people don't really know how to play vs them (mostly true at lower level, I can't count how many games I've lost to joke comps)
This is false. Sometimes they do, often they don't. Small sample heroes also include a lot of the stuff like "I'm bored let's try this for a change" or "my streamers want this hero". And they also just include far more mispicks, those happen and are not a neglectible part for very unpopular heroes.
Small sample heroes just have small samples and high variability. 250 ish games may seem like a reasonable sample but note that we aren't taking an independent sample here, the majority of games on some of those heroes comes from just a few players.
It's absolutely a limited number of people playing heroes they are really experienced with in optimal situations over a small sample size that led to the unexpected win rates for those heroes.
The overall win rates across all levels gives a better idea of the average player's power level with most heroes. Then the win rates are:
If you're very strong with one hero and you only use it on the right map, with the right team and versus the right opponents, you'll have a wonderful winrate. I do that with Nova (versus squishies) and ETC (versus a team without backline stuns), and my winrates are high with these 2 even though my account has a below average winrate. But my winrate with an allaround hero like Thrall (with whom I'm pretty good) is very low right now because I get him when I'm 1st to 3rd pick so I pick him too much.
That's why Li Ming has such a relatively low winrate. Everyone plays her, in every map, with every team. In the right hands she's an unstoppable broken monster with a 65% winrate. But you'll get a good Li Ming 1 out of 5 games. It was the same with KT.
It still surprises me sometimes how badly players can play heroes such as KT or Li-Ming. For some reason they keep thinking they can frontline, ignore all the defensive talents when up against a dive heavy comp and half the time also suck at actually dealing damage. I had a Li-Ming who had the lowest hero damage by far (about 70% of tank Muradin's dmg), kept trying to solo forts (on Towers of Doom ffs) and just got blown up repeatedly by Greymane and Zeratul. Naturally, Cannonneer was taken over Illusionist.
At times on free rotation I almost feel pressured to play a free-to-play hero just so I know they won't suck hard with it. (on harder heroes like Zeratul or Kerrigan)
well Li Ming has rather hard to hit skill shots, so if you are bad, you take the in your face build and pray your team follows up. Kael is a rather short ranged hero and if its one thing that casuals hate its constantly repositioning themself.
In short, if a mage is available in free rotation, play it or you will suffer. Or play the direct counter for easy games.
Li-Ming's win rate is likely to spike up after Reghar get's nerfed. Generally Li-Ming is vs Reghar right now for hero league. Of course Quick Match is it's own animal and none of the listed stats are for Quick Match. The top 10 win rates for heroes lvl 5 and higher in quick match at all skill levels combined over the last 7 days is:
The Monkey Elder has vanished from the Nexus, and this year’s Lunar Festival event has reached its conclusion, along with several limited-time promotions.
Lunar Festival Special Event quests are no longer available, and players can no longer earn progress toward, or unlock, the rewards they offer.
Lunar Festival bundles have been removed from the in-game Shop. Review the Shop section of the patch notes below for details.
New Hero
Xul, Cryptic Necromancer, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.
Trait
Raise Skeleton
When a nearby enemy Minion dies, it becomes a Skeletal Warrior for 15 seconds. Up to 4 Skeletal Warriors can be active at once.
Basic Abilities
Bone Armor (1)
Activate to gain a Shield equal to 25% of your maximum Health for 3 seconds.
Spectral Scythe (Q)
Summon a scythe at target location that travels toward you after a 1 second delay, damaging enemies in its path.
Cursed Strikes (W)
Once activated, your Basic Attacks over the next 4 seconds deal damage in a wide arc and reduce the Attack Speed of enemies hit by 50% for 2 seconds.
Bone Prison (E)
After a 2 second delay, root target enemy in place for 2 seconds.
Heroic Abilities
Poison Nova (R)
After a short delay, release poisonous missiles that deal massive poison damage over 10 seconds to all enemies hit.
Skeletal Mages (R)
Summon 4 Skeletal Mages in a line that attack nearby enemies and slow them by 30% for 2 seconds. Lasts up to 15 seconds.
Shop
Bundles
New Bundles have been added for a limited time!
Serpent King Xul Bundle
Eternal Conflict Bundle
Eternal Conflict Ultimate Bundle
Heroes
Xul has been added to the in-game Shop
Mounts
New Mounts
Cloud Serpent – Exclusively available through purchase of the Serpent King Xul Bundle. This Mount will become purchasable as an individual item about four weeks from today.
Mount Removals
Lunar Dragon – This Mount was exclusively available by purchasing the Lunar Festival 2016 Bundle, and will return as an individual item in the future.
Price Reductions
Thrall’s prices have been reduced to $8.49 USD and 7,000 Gold.
Skins
New Skins
Serpent King Xul
User Interface
Custom Games
Observer Slots
Four more Observer Slots have been added to Custom Game lobbies, which now allow for up to 6 Observers in total. This change also affects Replay lobbies, meaning that up to 16 players can now use Watch with Others to view Replays simultaneously.
In-Game UI
General
Abilities that use charges will now display charge cooldown timers over the Ability icon.
Buffs that use charges, such Block or Focused Attack, will now display charge cooldown timers in the Buff bar found next to the Hero portrait.
Cooldown and Status Announcements
Players can now press ALT and left-click any of their Ability or Talent icons to quickly indicate their remaining Ability cooldown durations to teammates via chat messages.
This can also be used to indicate the current number of charges on Abilities like Brightwing’s Phase Shift, or Xul’s Raise Skeleton.
Additionally, players can now also use ALT + Left-click to indicate when an Ability is not on cooldown, but they do not have enough Mana to cast it.
Players who are below 25% of their total Health or Mana can now ALT + Left-click their own Health and Mana bars in the lower-left corner of the screen to inform teammates that they are low on the associated resource.
Take a look at our recent blog post to see how these features will appear in-game.
Heroes
Assassin
Nova
Snipe (Q)
Damage increased from 295 (+4% per level) to 310 (+4% per level)
Snipe Master (Talent)
Damage bonus per stack increased from 12% to 15%. This effect can still stack up to 5 times
Developer Comments:We are continuing to tune Snipe Master to make it a more attractive choice, assuming you are consistently landing your Snipes.
Support
Rehgar
Lightning Shield (W)
Electric Charge (Talent)
Bonus to Lightning Shield radius decreased from 33% to 25%
Stormcaller (Talent)
No longer increases Lightning Shield duration
Earthshield (Talent)
Shield amount reduced from 15% to 12% of the target’s maximum Health
Ancestral Healing (R)
Cooldown increased from 80 to 100 seconds
Bloodlust (R)
Mana cost reduced from 125 to 75
Developer Comments:The initial round of Rehgar nerfs weren’t quite enough to bring his winrate down to a level that we think is healthy. We like that his base kit feels powerful, so we are aiming to reduce the synergy between his Lightning Shield Talents. We are also increasing Ancestral Healing’s cooldown to better reflect the healing power it brings to a teamfight. The Bloodlust Mana change is simply a quality of life improvement. Overall, we enjoy how Rehgar plays right now, and are excited to see him bring other Heroes, such as Illidan, back into prominence. With that in mind, we’re aiming to cautiously nerf Rehgar over time as we bring this Shaman in line with other Healers.
Bug Fixes
General
Corrected several typos and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
Battlegrounds
Towers will now properly fire Ammo provided by an allied M.U.L.E. immediately after 2 Ammo has been restored.
Heroes and Talents
Fixed an issue that could cause Tychus to walk or stand while Mounted.
Brightwing’s Phase Shift cooldown will no longer be reset after activating the Rewind Talent.
Gall will no longer be separated from Cho after manually exiting a Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.
Gazlowe’s Rock-It! Turrets will now properly attack Doubloon Chests on Blackheart’s Bay.
Li-Ming’s Critical Mass Trait will no longer trigger when one of The Lost Vikings is killed if she did not participate in the takedown.
Fixed a rare issue that could cause the effects of Li-Ming’s Aether Walker Talent to become permanent under specific circumstances.
Fixed an issue that could cause Li-Ming’s Magic Missiles to fire in erratic directions when cast immediately after exiting Archon form.
The effects of Nova’s Explosive Round Talent will now be properly applied to Snipe after casting Rewind and Snipe in rapid succession.
The Gladiator’s War Shout Talent will no longer cause Rehgar’s Bloodlust to affect Heroes outside its intended area of effect.
Fixed an issue that could cause Uther to become stuck in a death state if he was killed while the Redemption Talent’s cooldown expired.
New strat for screwing over players who are queueing with the new hero. Since their queues are like 20mins atm, just queue as another hero to make it fast, then DC right as you are matched, thus canceling the Xul player's queue and making them wait another 20mins.