heroes of the storm

All posts tagged heroes of the storm

Last week’s HotS heroes

Posted by Peter (Devee) on June 25, 2014
Posted in: Heroes of the Storm. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It’s a new week, so I’m done playing the heroes from last week – Gazlowe, Nova, Stitches, Diablo, Kerrigan, and Tyrande.

Gazlowe is a specialist hero that can collect scrap from destroyed structures that restores mana and reduces cooldowns, place turrets, shoot lasers, and more. He was fun even I wasn’t overly effective with him. His Deth Lazor ability was interesting because it charges. When you first hit the button to activate it, it begins to charge. The longer it charges, the more damage it does and the further its range. I was always tempted to let it charge fully, but I should learn to fire it off faster.

I did significantly better with Nova than I do with most other heroes. In fact, I’d never stayed alive as long as when I used her. Whenever out of combat  for two seconds, she cloaks, and she can also spawn a hologram decoy (and doing so doesn’t break her cloak). These abilities make it easier to hit and run. Moreover, it makes it fun to hit and run. I really wasn’t expecting to like her very much, but playing her was great.

Stitches is a warrior abomination that can Gorge on enemies, consuming them and trapping them in his own stomach. Why would I need to say anything else about this hero?

Diablo is another warrior hero. He has a variety of abilities including AOEs, a charge, and more, but I particularly liked his Overpower ability that slams a hero behind him, dealing damage and stunning. Displacing an enemy, even if just for a split second, can be useful. Also, it was fun just being Diablo. His lore in the game also says “…and his gender… malleable.”

Kerrigan’s an assassin that seemed rather plain to me. She was okay while I used her, but nothing stands out about her in my mind. She can leap to enemies and pull them to her as well, which is always useful. I don’t think I’ll be playing her much more.

The support hero Tyrande was the last hero I tried of the bunch. She can heal herself and others, send an owl across the map, revealing and damaging enemy heroes, damage and stun enemies in an area, and more. I liked her, but I think I like all the support heroes. It’s hard to pick one that clicks with me best. I have to admit, getting a pet owl is pretty cool.

Another week, more heroes

Posted by Peter (Devee) on June 18, 2014
Posted in: Heroes of the Storm. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Last week I made sure to try all the free heroes again. It was a good bunch!

First, there was Falstad, a ranged assassin. I really liked him. He’s always mounted, but periodically he can fly to any location on the map. Being able to jump straight to the action (or back to heal) is pretty a fantastic ability. He also has “Hammerang,” which throws his hammer like a boomerang. It’s almost like playing a hammerdin in D2.

Nazeebo is a ranged specialist that was okay but didn’t particularly click with me. He summons spiders or toads to hurt enemies or can summon a zombie ring (called Zombie Wall for some reason) that both traps and attacks. Zombie Wall can be pretty great as long as it’s correctly aimed. Having a ring of zombies around nothing isn’t too helpful.

Tassadar is ranged support that can shield, become invulnerable and invisible, and damage enemies in an area while slowing them as well. I enjoyed using him, but I didn’t care for him as much as some of the other healers I’ve tried. One of his heroic abilities was Force Wall, which creates a force field that blocks pathing. I wasn’t very effective with it.

Arthas is a melee warrior and another one of those iconic characters I was excited to play originally. Given the trend with Heroes of the Storm, I was expecting to be terrible with him, but it wasn’t quite the case. He was probably the best warrior I’ve played. His heroic ability, Summon Sindragosa, is good but not as satisfying as it should have been. She didn’t even tell the mortals to suffer as their pathetic magic betrayed them. What the Twisting Nether? That was the worst part of all of Icecrown Citadel.

One dwarf just wasn’t enough, so Blizzard gave us Muradin, a melee warrior. I didn’t like him as much as Arthas. Like Falstad, Muradin can throw his hammer, but it’s different. He also has an ability that sounds fun called “Dwarf Toss,” but it’s really just a leap. His Haymaker heroic ability is pretty cool though, doing a lot of damage and knocking targets back.

Lastly, there’s Zeratul, a melee assassin. He’s fast and can blink, but I didn’t care for him much at all.

My second week in Heroes of the Storm

Posted by Peter (Devee) on June 11, 2014
Posted in: Heroes of the Storm. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

TychusFive new heroes to play this week (because one of the six was Raynor, who is always free).

First I played Tychus, an assassin. As someone who doesn’t play Starcraft, I’m pretty sure Tychus is just Raynor II. Okay, he doesn’t really play the same in Heroes of the Storm, but he  certainly looks the same. He has to rev up his gun, making him a fairly slow hero. I wasn’t too fond of him.

elite tauren chieftain

The Elite Tauren Chieftain, the warrior, is an awesome hero. Just look at him. I’m pretty glad Blizzard chose to include him, because it’s definitely a fun idea. As for playing him, I wasn’t great at first. He has some good crowd control abilities, but he also appears to be tankier than he really is. I was pretty bad at him when I selected him, but I got better at him through Abathur (more on that later).

tyrael

I was excited to play Tyrael, a warrior. He’s good at protecting other heroes, which I suppose makes sense given his role in the Diablo franchise. One of his abilities has him throw his sword, dealing damage where it lands. Tyrael can then teleport to the store. He wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but I liked him nonetheless.

Uther

I liked Uther, a support hero, much more than I expected. Once again I find myself playing the healer. It’s really my role, isn’t it? He heals allies, has an ability that damages enemies and heals allies, stuns, and more. He might be a hero I need to purchase in the future.

Abathur

Abathur, a specialist, is the strangest hero I’ve played. He can send Locust down lanes and place Toxic Nests that explode when enemies contact them and help reveal the map. However, what makes him interesting is that he can place a symbiote in other heroes. Once this is done, the camera follows that hero, and you’re given new abilities. From the hero with the symbiote, you can stab a target with a spike, shoot spikes out around the hero, or shield the hero. Most interestingly of all, Abathur is able to create a duplicate of an allied hero temporarily and controls it. Of course, that means that to be good at Abathur, you have to be good at every hero, but it’s really quite fun. I did really well with him (despite not being great at every hero), and I plan on practicing with him more.

 

First impressions of Heroes of the Storm

Posted by Peter (Devee) on June 4, 2014
Posted in: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

heroes of the storm

Having never played a MOBA, ARTS, hero brawler, or whatever you want to call the genre, I knew that with the release of Heroes of the Storm, my time to enter the genre had come. I heard they had a steep learning curve, but by the time I really had the itch to try, I knew about Blizzard’s entry and just decided to wait. I wanted to play as these Blizzard heroes!

As someone without experience in genre but with a lot of love for Warcraft and Diablo, I’m having a lot of fun with the game. There are lots of characters progression choices I might not have tried yet, but it’s not difficult to get a general understanding of the game. Every Tuesday, Blizzard changes what heroes are available to play for free. You can purchase heroes to unlock them permanently. By the end of the week last week, I had a good understanding of what heroes I could play well and what heroes I played terribly. We’ll see about this week.

haunted mines

Haunted Mines is my favorite battleground so far. Periodically two mines open leading to an underground cavern infested with undead. As the undead are killed, they drop skulls that can be picked up by heroes. When all the undead are vanquished, golems are summoned on the surface, one for each side. Their strength is proportional to the number of skulls acquired be heroes on their side.

From what I can tell, these battleground-specific mechanics are incredibly important. It’s rather disappointing when people forget about them.

Another battleground, Blackheart’s Bay, is pretty fun. Chests spawn periodically that drop gold doubloons when attacked. In addition, certain enemies can be killed for doubloons. The doubloons can be given to Blackheart, a pirate, to purchase his services in blasting the enemy team with cannon fire.

cursed hollow

The third battleground, Cursed Hollow, doesn’t really excite me. Tributes to the Raven Lords spawn periodically, and when three are collected by a single side, the other side is cursed, causing their minions to have less health and their towers to stop firing. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but I don’t enjoy it as much as the previous two.

The final battleground is Dragon Shire, and I don’t care for it. There’s an obelisk at the top of the map and one at the bottom. When both are held by the same side, a player on that side can interact with the Dragon Altar in the center of the map to turn into the Dragon Knight, a powerful unit. Maybe I just need to try turning into the Dragon Knight a few more times for the battleground to grow on me, but right now, I always hope I don’t get this battleground.

HeroesOfTheStorm 2014-06-02 20-28-20-86

At the time of writing this, I’d played seven heroes. I certainly have opinions on them, but I’ll admit that because I was quickly learning the game and getting better, maybe I’d enjoy some heroes more if I tried them again.

I was terrible with Illidan, a melee assassin hero. I guess I’m not good at the whole get in and get out thing.

Similar to his brother, Malfurion, a ranged support hero, let me down. Or maybe he was just boring. I’m more inclined to try Illidan more than Malfurion.

Valla the demon hunter, a ranged assassin, was fun, but I still seemed to die a lot. I probably need more practice.

I enjoyed Raynor, another ranged assassin, but he also seemed very bland. That’s probably why he was chosen for the tutorial as well. I doubt I’ll be playing him much in the future.

Sonya the barbarian, a melee warrior, is pretty fun, but that’s probably because I can be a little more reckless. I felt like I got stuck a lot with previous heroes and couldn’t get away. At least Sonya can take a few hits!

Sgt. Hammer, a ranged specialist, is a Siege Tank operator. She’s a really cool hero. There are definitely some different ways to play her, but she was best at taking out enemy buildings.

Lastly there’s Li Li, a ranged support hero and the last hero I tried. I wasn’t expecting to like her, but I enjoyed her quite a bit. Oh, man. My favorite so far has been a healer. I guess I know that it really is my true calling.

I’m a little nervous about playing too much. By the time Hearthstone was officially released, I was bored of it. On my current account, I haven’t even unlocked all the heroes. It felt like playing the same content again. Am I going to play Heroes of the Storm a lot now during the technical alpha and not feel like playing more it releases? We’ll see. Even if I do, I bet they can pull me back into the game. I’m sure Hearthstone will get me playing again when Curse of Naxxramas releases!

 

 

Heroes of the Storm

Posted by Peter (Devee) on November 22, 2013
Posted in: BlizzCon, Heroes of the Storm. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I’ve never played a MOBA (or Action RTS or whatever). I’ve been mildly interested, but with Blizzard’s game, in its many names, being on the horizon, I always felt like waiting. Why try to learn League of Legends or one of the many others when I’d rather play as my favorite Blizzard characters? The hardcore players might decide one of the others is more balanced than Heroes of the Storm once it releases, but I don’t think that’ll matter for me. I want to be Thrall, Arthas, and Tyrael!

Blizzard showed this cinematic trailer this year at BlizzCon. It’s funny how effective it is. It doesn’t say much about the game, but it looks awesome! I don’t know how much I’ll like it, but I’ll definitely check it out.

Guild dinner at Blizzcon

Posted by Peter (Devee) on November 11, 2013
Posted in: Blizzard and Battle.net, BlizzCon, Carpe Flux Capacitor, Diablo III, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Reaper of Souls, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

guild dinner at blizzcon

BlizzCon was this weekend, and I found the announcements pretty exciting. Despite living just twenty to thirty minutes from the convention center, I didn’t go. I think it feels less special as a convention because it’s so close, but I do watch the stream. I’ll be posting about some of the announcements and my feelings about them later. I have something more important to mention first!

What would World of Warcraft be without people with whom to play? Some of my guildies came down, and got to hang out this weekend. I’m second from the right, in the red shirt. I stole the pic from my guild leader, so hopefully she doesn’t mind. I went to dinner with three out-of-towners and Mooglegem on Friday night, and Saturday night the group of us above went to dinner. That includes four people I met (in person) this weekend, which was great.

In the photo, you might notice a cookie jar between a glass of water and a beer. Moogle baked cookies and brought them with her in that jar. While we in line at a restaurant, she handed them out to us. A girl behind us got excited, asking where we got the cookies. Moogle explained that she baked them and brought them with her. She seemed sad, and Moogle offered her a cookie. She got really excited, accepted, tried it, and then told Moogle how good it was! Later, when we were seated, Moogle offered cookies to our waiter and waitress. The waiter took one fairly early and thought it was great. It was later in the meal when the waitress accepted, and she also told Moogle how good she thought it was. A few minutes later, a different waitress came over to us, telling us that she didn’t know who baked the cookies but that her coworker shared a piece with her and she thought they were amazing. Moogle gave one to her too. Everyone loves cookies!

As for the content from BlizzCon itself, I was pretty impressed. I think Warlords of Draenor sounds very exciting and the changes are, generally, good ones. I’m also pleased with what I saw of Reaper of Souls. I’ve never played a MOBA, but I’m optimistic about Heroes of the Storm (and the trailer was fantastic). I’d actually not played Hearthstone in a while, but the convention made me excited to play once more. Adventures sound particularly cool! And I guess StarCraft was there. I don’t play it. I’ll post more in-depth about the announcements in the future!