The Rest of Blizzcon. And a Realization

Welcome back friends!

I'm sorry for the delay in writing this post, but I realized a few things last week when I tried to sit down to write a true "Part 2". I was really struggling to find motivation to go through all of the Heroes and Hearthstone news bit by bit. There are plenty of places where you can get that information in a far better format than I can give you. And if I'm struggling to write it then chances are it's not an enjoyable experience for the people trying to read it. With those things in mind, what I want to do going forward is focus on giving my opinions and talk about the things I found most interesting. With that in mind, lets jump into the Heroes and Hearthstone stuff that got me excited.

Heroes of the Storm got the kind of news you would expect from a game with frequent updates. Lunara and Genn Greymane were announce for future release, and Cho'gall and the Towers of Doom map have, as of now, been released to the masses. I've only had a chance to play a few games on Towers of Doom and so far the map feels really strange. I like that the ultimate goal is different than that of any of the other maps since you don't push for the core in that way, but I still haven't figured it out. You're meant to fight over towers to make your altars fire more shots, but it's VERY easy for the other team to quickly retake a tower. My concern is that the struggle to take the towers isn't worth the effort most of the time, and teams will be better off focusing solely on team fighting over alters. I'm sure there will be situations where you can win a team fight at an alter and then hold off on capping while you take an extra tower or two, but time will tell. I'm really interested in what the competitive scene does with Towers of Doom and what heroes end up shining on it.

Now for one of my favorite parts of Blizzcon! Cho'gall was one of the heroes I predicted we would have announced at the con, but I don't think anyone had any idea that this would be what we ended up with. 2 players on 1 hero is something no other MOBA has done before and continues Blizzard's trend of trying to break the mold of heroes in interesting ways. Abathur is one of my favorite heroes to see in the hands of strong players. Other than the familiarity of the characters, the removal of items and last hitting as mechanics were the things that really drew me into heroes. In my opinion it's the things that Blizzard is doing differently with Heroes of the Storm that are the best parts of the game. Cho'gall follows that trend in a magnificent fashion. I don't remember the last time I laughed out loud this much in a multiplayer game. I had gotten to the point where I would check out the new heroes that came out and if they clicked with me I would get a bunch of games in, but if they didn't I would find myself getting easily distracted by Hearthstone or WoW. Cho'gall has made me want to play Heroes almost exclusively every time I open Battle.net. He's not the most competitive hero in the game but he is absolutely one of the most fun. I have had multiple moments of greatness where both heads were in sync and we managed to kill 3-4 enemy heroes almost single handedly. On top of all that, he was free. I got him because I ordered the Blizzcon Virtual Ticket (which I would have done anyway), but I can also give him to anyone who doesn't have him simply by playing 2 games together. So not only is he an absolute blast to play, he's free to anyone who wants him basically. Both Lunara and Greymane look interesting and I'm sure I'll have more to say about them once they release.

Hearthstone in a way had the exact opposite effect at Blizzcon. People predicted Ulduar, Icecrown, and Karazhan. Every single person was wrong. League of Explorers took everyone by surprise and continued to give Hearthstone an identity independent from Warcraft. We are getting brand new characters like Reno Jackson, Elise Starseeker, and Sir Finley Mrrgglton in addition to a more narrative experience throughout the Adventure. I think Blizzard does a great job when it comes to designing the encounters. League of Explorers is no exception with the Temple Escape and Mine Cart encounters. They are by no means difficult to complete but the flavor make them a fun change of pace. Originally I thought the cards were a little underwhelming. However, cards like Reno Jackson and Tunnel Trogg are having a big impact on the ladder. I'm not sure if I like what Reno Jackson decks are doing to aggressive decks and deck building going forward, but I can't argue with the strength of the card considering I have yet to lose a game at rank 7+ with Reno Warlock. Time will tell how much of a long term impact League of Explorers will have on competitive Hearthstone. What we have so far seems promising.

There are a couple other things I want to touch on quickly. First, I am a bit concerned that Overwatch is losing a lot of steam that it gained with the initial beta launch. Outside of a couple dedicated streamers the viewership numbers have plummeted and even an expanded beta weekend seemed to do little to keep the hype train fueled. With Blizzard unsure as to whether or not there will even be more heroes to announce eventually, I'm not sure what will help besides the release of the game and that is still a way off. Secondly, a ton of Legion information is being data mined from the alpha game files. Tons of item models and quest line information are coming out as a result. Be careful where you click if you are looking to avoid major spoilers. We are also getting hints at the Artifact weapon acquisition scenarios as well as every model and color for each weapon. These scenarios are very exciting and as a result I feel like I want to have each class leveled to 100 for the Legion launch for no other reason than to experience each one of these scenarios and story lines first hand. Each one looks like its very own version of the Warlock green fire quest and if that is the case players should be really excited.

Well that will do it for this week. Let me know what you think of a possible format change for the blog and if there is anything specific you want me to talk about.

Thanks as always for reading! Until next time,
Chris

Blizzcon in review part 1

Welcome back friends!

The most magical time of the Blizzard year has come and gone. The hand sanitizer bottles have been emptied, the food trucks have dispersed, and nerds from across the planet have returned to their homes. And what I thought would be an underwhelming Blizzcon, ended up really hyping me up for the next year. It would be silly of me to try and cram two days worth of reveals and information into a single blog post, and if I tried you guys would end up with less information and opinion than this kind of event deserves. So instead I'm going to break it up into two posts over the next few weeks. This week I want to dive into the World of Warcraft: Legion info as well as the Overwatch reveals. Next week I'll do a quick review of the League of Explorers Hearthstone adventure (which caught literally everyone who doesn't work for Blizzard off guard), and the new heroes and battleground in Heroes of the Storm. After that I'll do an early review of patch 2.4 in Diablo once the PTR, which launched last night, has helped get a more complete picture of how those features will work. With so little Diablo coverage at Blizzcon it will be easier to analyze the changes once players have had a chance to see how they work in-game. Alright, with this week's disclaimer out of the way, lets dive into Legion.

In order of appearance, the first thing we got regarding Legion was the opening cinematic at the Blizzcon opening ceremony. We shouldn't be surprised at this point. Every time Blizzard releases a cinematic they set a new standard. This time around we got some story beats mixed in with the usual action scenes similar to Warlords of Draenor. However, for Warlords we knew that Grom was going to turn down Gul'dan's offer of power so that wasn't anything new. This time we are finding out that Varian has come to strive for peace as Anduin does. And while the cinematics team had us thinking Varian might not make it through it alive, there are also some questions that we will hopefully find answers for in the pre-launch event. What made Sylvanas and Varian suddenly cool with working together. The "sup bro" head nod in there didn't have the feel of working together despite our factional disputes. Instead it just feels like a quarterback looking at his receiver before the play. They both know what they have to do and they are almost going to enjoy doing it. In addition to that, when we last left Jaina she was advocating destroying the Horde entirely at the end of Siege of Orgrimmar. If Varian has opted to work with the Horde toward peace, then where does that leave Jaina. The emo white streak of hair is growing by the second I imagine.

The first panel up was the World and Content Overview panel. Here we got a deeper look at the zones of the Broken Isles as well as the first two raids of the expansion. The zones are absolutely gorgeous. I think the environmental design in World of Warcraft has been outstanding since Cataclysm and sometimes it seems like it goes unnoticed. Legion has a ton of zone variety and that goes a long way when we are going to be in these zones for 18 months or more.

Outside of the visuals, we also learned that the leveling experience in Legion will be non-linear. You can start in any zone you want other than Suramar and the content in that zone will scale to your level. This is a nice touch in effort to preserve the freshness of the leveling experience throughout the expansion, but I worry that we won't be able to take advantage of it as much given the Artifact system and how it may push people away from playing alts. I'll get into that a little more later.  Team 2 took a page out of Diablo 3's playbook and the new CMs look a lot like Greater Rifts. Rather than scaling the player down to a certain item level and using a time limit to set the difficulty, they have decided to scale the difficulty of the dungeon up. Where the Diablo comparison comes in is there is a keystone used to begin a Challenge Mode dungeon and the you complete that level of dungeon you are rewarded not only with a loot chest as a reward, but also a higher rank keystone. As you climb in ranks within a dungeon the health, damage, and in some cases number of trash mobs will increase in order to make things for difficult and require new levels of coordination and skill. If that wasn't enough of a challenge, there are also different effects active each week that add a unique variable that will require different answers week by week. 

Giving all enemies an enrage or giving the entire dungeon a passive damage aura add a nice twist that allows for different classes, specs, and talents to shine in different weeks. At the end of the week the team with the highest rank clear will be given additional rewards. I can see these new CMs being a very interesting secondary end game with teams battling for the top spot every week. This also keeps dungeons relevant throughout the expansion since new tiers of raid gear and higher item levels will allow players to clear higher ranks. 

Then we have the first pair of raids! The Emerald Nightmare will serve as this expansions Highmaul. Personally, I'm not a fan of the lower item level introductory raid, but it seems to be a system Blizzard is comfortable with since they have gone back to it every expansion since Mists of Pandaria.  In the Emerald Nightmare we will climb a corrupted World Tree to enter the Emerald Dream in order to cleanse it from it's corruption. The zone looks beautiful since the Dream mirrors our Azeroth and we see corrupted versions of Mulgore and Felwood. We will work our way through the Nightmare in order to stop Xavius, who helped orchestrate the corruption of the Emerald Dream, and to rescue or defeat a corrupted Cenaruis who was tainted by his ties to the Dream. Hopefully the interesting story aspects of the Emerald Nightmare will make up for the fact that it quickly be dismissed once Suramar Palace is released and we have a true tier raid. Suramar Palace is our tier 19 raid and for a reason yet to be explained is Gul'dan's new base of operations. As we venture into the home of the Nightborne elves we will take on 10 bosses of the Demon and Night Elf varieties before we finally take down Gul'dan the green skinned hunchback of Draenor. The only visual depiction we have or the Palace is concept art, but if Legion follows in the footsteps of Draenor raiding I will not be disappointed. 

On Saturday the developers got on stage to tackle the true meat of the expansion and talked about the game systems. Garrisons were very much at the core of Warlords of Draenor and had their hand in a majority of the game systems. Unfortunately this came at the detriment of the expansion and the content suffered as a result. I think the opposite will be true for Legion. Artifact weapons and Class Order Halls seemed to be tied into a majority of the expansion in what seem to be all the best ways. Blizzard has a great page on the WoW site with the story behind each spec's Artifact. Players will get their Artifact weapon through a unique experience for each spec and it will be the only weapon they'll have for the entire expansion. Once they have it they will be able to level it up with Artifact Power earned through questing, dungeons, rare spawns, raids, world bosses, battlegrounds, and arenas......so......everything! As you level up the weapon you unlock new levels of your Artifact's skill tree. 

The weapon tree starts with an active ability fitting thematically with the weapon then expands into a series of choices like ability buffs or passives. Eventually, if you want to, you will be able to get enough artifact power to completely fill out the tree, but they have said it will take months to do so. This is where my comment from earlier comes in. If an Artifact takes that much time and effort to fill out and maintain then it makes alts a lot of work to keep up to par. It's obviously not necessary to fully level a weapon for a second or third character, but it may be enough of a turn off despite Blizzard's efforts to keep the leveling experience fresh. It's a mild concern but I don't want to take away from how awesome Artifact weapons are. In addition to Artifact Power, players will be able to add Relics to their weapon. 

Relics will be acquired in the same ways as artifact power, but rather than unlocking damage buffs or new abilities they increase the item level of your weapon and allow additional ranks of certain weapon ranks. This allows you to specifically target certain traits that you want more of an effect from and eventually add ranks to traits that don't have them at launch. This adds an additional sense of progression throughout the expansion. Subsequent raids can drop Relics that have higher item level increases and stronger effects. Each weapon has two Relic slots with different elemental types associated with them. In the case of the Affliction Warlock weapon above, they have a Shadow slot and a Fel slot. This creates competition between different specs and classes when it comes to looting Relics in a dungeon or raid scenario. For example Destruction Warlocks will also want Fel Relics as well as Fire Relics, and Demon Hunters will likely want Shadow Relics and Fel Relics for one of their specs. More competition for drops increases the shelf time of raid tiers and that can't hurt especially later in the expansion. Artifact Weapons along with Demon Hunters seem to be the major features of this expansion and the weapons are really impressive from what I've seen so far. I can't wait to spend hours of my life leveling different alts just to experience the Artifact quests.

Class Order Halls seem poised to take the place of Garrisons as a directory of sorts guiding players to what they should be doing in Legion. The idea is to have a strong class themed location where all the best heroes of that class can go to team up against the Legion. We'll get class quests, a place to upgrade our Artifacts, and special perks that fit the theme of the class. There are plenty of ways for Blizzard to lead players in gameplay but I think the Order Halls also help to reinforce the thematic class changes that have been touted since Gamescom. Judging by the class previews this week, there is a huge amount of detail put into the class reworks and I expect the Class Halls to showcase that. It's hard to get a real opinion about them without seeing them, but I'm optimistic they have learned from Garrisons how much is too much of a good thing.

Overwatch also had some news! Blizzard announced a simultaneous release on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 in Spring 2016. The pricing breakdown is this; PC version for $40 which includes all 21 heroes and a Widowmaker skin for preorder, Origins Edition on all 3 platforms for $60 which adds 5 hero skins referencing their past along with the usual goodies for other Blizzard games, then there is the Collectors Edition for a whopping $130 which adds a Soldier 76 statue and the other things we've grown to expect from a CE like the soundtrack and art book. I think this pricing model hits the mark with the exception of the Collector's Edition that seems like a ton of money to add a statue. I love that Overwatch will no be free to play and I don't have to worry about grinding out heroes in a game that asks me to be open to swapping between them. The 5 skins and bonuses for other games are enough for me to warrant a $60 price tag on a game with only one game mode, but I would understand if people felt differently. I've also seen a lot of complaining across the internet that we don't have any information on how we will unlock future heroes. It seems ridiculous to complain about pricing for heroes you don't actually know are even going to come. If we get DLC a month after the game releases that asks for $20 or more for additional characters and maps then I'll be right there complaining with you, but for know it feels like people are crying over milk they might spill in a year.

Three new heroes were announced along with a new map. Mei and D.Va we're both teased in the weeks leading up to Blizzcon, and Genji has been on our minds since the game was announced. I've added links to their character pages to save from spelling out every ability. Mei seems like a remarkably strong character in the right hands. The ability to freeze enemy characters is unlike we've seen in Overwatch outside of Zarya's ultimate, and her Ice Wall will make for some very interesting plays and new vantage points. D.Va is the hardest to judge for me at this point. Her auto attacks while in her mech deal a ton of damage and her ultimate creates a sort of mini-game of timing your Self-Destructs and trying to quickly recharge your mech. The problem for me is that both her Boosters and Defense Matrix seem really underwhelming but that may be because I haven't had a chance to use them myself. And Genji marks the long waited arrival of green robot ninja guy! The developers made an interesting comment during one of the panels in regards to how difficult it was to balance a melee character. They ended up reworking his entire kit to make it more ranged focused with his ultimate causing him to draw his sword and go stab crazy for a few seconds. His mobility is better than most and I think he will truly shine in the hands of really skilled players. I would love to dive into these heroes a bit further but it doesn't make much sense since I haven't had the chance to play the game yet. 

Metzen also announced a few things during the World of Overwatch panel on Saturday. He reiterated on the graphic novel they announced at San Diego Comic Con that details the beginnings of Overwatch. We also saw a preview of a series of cinematic shorts, each independent of each other, that give some insight into the characters and the world. These are so exciting! People have been asking for Blizzard's cinematics department to expand and create more free standing content. I believe this is their first steps and eventually we will see longer and more in depths pieces coming out of that department. However they choose to deliver the story of this world I will be there eating it up. 

Well...

This has by far been my longest post ever,

and it's only covering 2 of the now 6! games in Blizzard's stable.

I'm sure there is more I could say but I don't think anyone wants to read anymore rambling this week. Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by! We've got a bunch more Blizzcon to talk about next week!

Until next time,

Chris

PSA

Hello team!!

With Blizzcon starting tomorrow it seems silly to write a full post now when all the news and excitement is slated to take place over the next two days. I look forward to breaking down all the news here over the next week or two. There are a couple of things I didn't mention in last week's post;

As the rest of the internet is speculating, I think Overwatch will be announced as a Xbox One exclusive given Microsoft's presence at Blizzcon this year and the controller support already built into the early beta builds of the game.

Deckard Cain will be announced as one of the new heroes in HotS. This would follow the trend set last year with Lost Vikings. Blizzard said they felt like they had to get TLV out because of the number of requests they got at Blizzcon 2013. Everyone's favorite deceased Horadrim has been one of the most requested heroes since last years event. I'm sure some of those requests were in jest, but I don't think that will stop Blizzard.

That's all I can think of for now. Enjoy Blizzcon! I'll be watching right along with you.

Until next time,
Chris

CORRECTION: stupid ass GameStop let the cat out of the bag early and opened preorders for Overwatch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC for $59.99. Good news for all console players. I for one am happy to see a price tag as opposed to a free-to-play model. I get nickeled and dimed enough with Hearthstone and HotS. I expect some kind of season pass model eventually unlocking maps and heroes, but I hope they can manage to do it better than Evolve did. GG!

eSports and the future of Blizzcon

Welcome back team!

Can you feel it? The leaves are changing color, there is the chill in the air, and all across the world a collection of the world greatest heroes and villains are doing battle! That's right friends, Overwatch is finally here. Yesterday over 200 streams and 200,000 viewers took to Twitch to show off one of the most anticipated games of the year. While I want to take this time to complain that I am an outsider watching what seems to be the rest of the internet enjoying Overwatch, I instead want to talk about what this game's release could mean for future Blizzcon's going forward.

We have come a long way from the days when Blizzcon featured only the Starcraft and World of Warcraft championships. ESports had taken a back seat to game and expansion announcements despite MLG being front and center. World of Warcraft was in it's prime and Starcraft 2 was the new shiny, but by the end of the event it still kind of felt like an afterthought.

Fast forward to 2015 and the landscape has changed drastically. Hearthstone has exceeded Blizzards wildest expectations and become a esports standard. There is a league or tournament running nearly every weekend. People like Reynad and Amaz have turned the game into a lucrative business resulting in professional teams that have expanded from Hearthstone and into other games as well. Heroes of the Storm went from a extremely rough Blizzcon preview, through not one but two name changes, and is close to finding it's place among the two other two other big name MOBAs. I say close because there is still work to be done. The ranking and matchmaking system needs work in order to allow players to use ranked play as a means to prepare for tournament play. Part of the issue is the player base isn't big enough to find even matches for all players quickly and Blizzard's response to that was to implement a system that will match you with anyone once enough time has passed. This doesn't work for professional players because there is a diminishing return on skill gained playing games well below the tournament level. If Blizzard takes care of things on their end then the players will come, and that will solve the other issues. Once that happens I believe Heroes of the Storm will find itself competing with League of Legends and DOTA 2. Then there is Overwatch. If it finds the success that many people are predicting it will as a competitive esport, we will live in a world where there are 4 (or 5 if you think WoW arena still counts) major esports under the Blizzard umbrella.

Last week Activision Blizzard announced an esports division that will serve as the third leg of the company. They are putting their money where their mouth is by hiring former CEO of ESPN Steve Bernstein and former MLG President Mike Sepso. If this doesn't prove that Blizzard is marching forward full speed into esports I don't know what does. This is exciting because the more support for Blizzard esports the more pressure on them to balance their games and provide changes like the one to matchmaking in Heroes. Players will strive to be in the now bigger spotlight, and the casters and production crews will be held to a higher standard as well. In that sense everyone comes out a winner. However, with that kind of power and presence behind the competitive gaming side of things gives it it's own spotlight and that is why I think we will see changes coming to Blizzcon in the future.

Last year following Blizzcon, ticket holders were sent a survey regarding the esports portion of the event and whether or not they would purchase a ticket solely for the esports side of things or one only for the show floor. They also asked whether or not any of the competitions took away from your capability to see any panels. My initial thought while filling out this survey was that they were considering selling tickets separately or in a combo pack of sorts so that more people could see the parts that interested them. Every year Blizzcon tickets sell out almost immediately then there is a mad shuffle to try and get tickets assigned to everyone in your group. One has to assume that some number of ticket holders are going strictly for panels while others are going strictly for esports events.  If that is the case it seems likely that if they two were sold separately then some number of people would have access to panel tickets that in the past would have gone to people only going to watch Starcraft 2.

There are a few ways Blizzard could split the two sides of Blizzcon and honestly I'm not sure which would work best. They could simply run things as they do now and split admission into two halves, and attendees who want both tickets would have to manage their time as they always have. But Blizzard could also extend Blizzcon to a 3 or 4 day event. ESports semi-finals and finals could take place on Thursday and Friday then the announcements and panels would be held on Saturday and Sunday. People who want the entire experience would have a packed 4 days and people who only want one or the other have the usual 2 day experience we have now. I understand there are a lot of issues with this way, and I don't think this is the way they should go, but I think it's worth a discussion. This would mean two more nights away from work and family and two more nights of travel expenses. In addition to that, I think the demo areas during the panel section would see a huge increase in wait times. Right now the people in the Starcraft or Hearthstone arena are not in line waiting to play Overwatch or Legion, but in this version of Blizzcon those arenas are closed and all those people are now slowing things down in demo lines and taking seats in panels. These are huge problems that would need addressing but it's still an option.

Another more risky option would be to separate the two halves entirely. The esports championships could be one half of the year and Blizzcon proper could be another. This would make the competitions have the feel of the DOTA 2 International or the fighting game championships at EVO where all eyes are on that event while it's going on. I'm torn on this idea because as someone who hasn't been able to make it to Blizzcon yet I would hate to think I wouldn't be able to see the Hearthstone World Championship decided while I was there. But at the same time, I like the idea of Blizzcon proper being Blizzard's forum to say "here's what were up to in the games and worlds you love." while the esports event is their chance to say "here are all the awesome things you guys are doing with our games.". Again, I don't think this is something they will do, but I think the writing is on the wall that something is going to be changing eventually.

Let me know what you think Blizzard might do with this new esports sister company, and let me know what effect, if any, you think it will have on Blizzcon.

Thanks as always for reading! Until next time,
Chris

Predictions based on the Blizzcon schedule

Welcome back friends!

Before I get started on the topic at hand, I just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who checked out last weeks post. It was by far my most read post and I got a lot of great feedback on Reddit and Twitter. It really got me excited about writing and keeping things going so once again, thank you!

It's just over two weeks until Blizzcon at the time I'm writing this. The official schedule is out so it's time to diligently analyze every aspect for any secrets it may hold! I will be referring to the official Blizzcon site version. Feel free to pull that up and compare so I can save time listing individual times and stages.


Hearthstone:
There are only two Hearthstone panels this year and it seems a majority of the focus will on the World Championships just like last year. This falls in line with what we should expect so closely following a true expansion release. I do expect to see a new Adventure announced at the opening ceremony, and detailed at the Friday panel. Very clever by the way Blizzard "come warm yourself by the fire and hear a tale of adventures yet to come". I see what you did there. If I were a betting man I would put my money on Karazhan being our next Adventure. Some people have used The Grand Tournament as evidence of Icecrown Citadel being next, but when they announced TGT they framed it as what the denizens of Northrend were doing after the events of WotLK. Team 5 has been very lenient with the time frames and pacing of content releases so I don't think on expansion points to the next. However, the Blizzcon 2015 card back does have a very "Sindragosa's Fall" look to it if you ask me. I think the eventual addition of Death Knights, however distant it may be, is the biggest argument for them holding off on ICC. I could be wrong though.

Heroes of the Storm:

Heroes is a tough game to really hype up at a single event. Sure, we will get a video at the opening ceremony detailing the next few heroes and/or battlegrounds, but because the game is based around constant smaller updates there isn't much they can do to knock peoples socks off. They could announce an unranked draft mode or a new in-game event, but they have on record in saying that those things won't be coming this year. The only feature I can think of that they would announce is a true in game draft mode with bans. The tournament scene, including Blizzard run events, has used a two ban system and it is absurd that people need to use an outside client to run the draft for these events. Blizzard knows this and I think they are doing everything they can to bring a true draft system into the game. We should also find out when Season 1 will finally start. We have been in "preseason" for far too long. Grandmaster League as well as some kind of reward system should accompany the start of any official season because people need to know what they are striving for besides a higher rank. As far as new heroes go, we don't have much to go on. There is a Hero Deep Dive panel on Friday that promises a closer look at all the new heroes coming our way. If I had to throw out some guesses I would say Zul'jin, Cho'gall, and Zamuro the Blademaster based solely on work in progress stuff from forever ago. They are developing heroes so far in advance at this point that we have no way to know if another hero just happened to become release ready before the ones we have already seen screenshots of. Finally, there is a Battlegrounds panel on Saturday afternoon. I'm interested to see if Blizzard will return to more neutral maps like the first 7 or continue to branch out into their traditional universes. I don't know which I would prefer since I don't really like Battlefield of Eternity or Infernal Shrines very much. The idea of an Alterac Valley style map does peak my interests, but I really like the original maps and their takes on traditional fantasy. Either way I am excited to see what Heroes has coming.

Starcraft:

With Legacy of the Void set to release immediately following Blizzcon, I don't expect many surprises. Story bits will be kept secret, WCS is going on during the event, and the new units won't be changed this close to release. I think this years Starcraft coverage will have two sides. First, they will take the opportunity to give the trilogy the celebration it deserves heading into its final chapter. Then they will assure people that they will continue to balance and support the game for years to come. It should be common knowledge at this point that Blizzard values the most diehard of their fans. There are still periodic updates to Diablo 2 people should not be worried about losing support for Starcraft 2. I am very curious what the future of the Starcraft universe will bring. Real-time strategy games are pretty much nonexistent outside of SC2, and a SC3 would be years away at this point. I have some tin-foil hat theories about a potential new game in the Koprulu Sector but I will save that for another post. Either way I am excited for the story of this series to come full circle despite my RTS ineptitude.

Overwatch:

We already know that the Overwatch Beta will begin on October 27th. There was some worry that Blizzard would have it start immediately following Blizzcon, but I think that would have taken too much of the attention away from Legacy of the Void. Overwatch will still steal a good amount of the Thunder however as everyone and their brother heads to Twitch to see the lucky few fight for some payloads. The Blizzcon slate for Overwatch is a slightly more sparse than I thought it would be. Friday's "What's New" panel will no doubt feature new maps and heroes (presumably Green Robot Ninja will make his debut finally), but that doesn't offer anything more than what we got at PAX East months ago. I am very excited for the World of Overwatch panel on Saturday. Lore isn't something everyone cares about but I can't wait to dive into another Blizzard world. The stream from Blizzard HQ last week looked really polished and seemed to have a good baseline version of the game in place. While I don't like how limited the initial beta phase is going to be, I love that it will be launching with in-game voice chat as well as a spectator mode. Despite how little there seems to be on the schedule, the good news is pretty much everything we learn about Overwatch at this point is exciting new information.

World of Warcraft:
This year there is a 90 minute panel on the world of Legion immediately following the opening ceremony. This, along with the lack of a mysterious open slot in the schedule, rules out any big unknown release and cements Legion as the big ticket item for this year. Friday we will get a deeper look at the zones of the Broken Isles and the dungeons and raids therein. Metzen will likely be there as well giving information on the various story threads teased at Gamescom. After that there is a cinematics panel. This is a nice secondary panel considering how awesome the in-game cinematics were throughout Warlords. If we don't get the Legion opening cinematic at the opening ceremony then I would expect to see it here. Saturday we have the usual panel detailing the changes to in-game systems and the new features of the expansion. I think this panel will be when we find out more about  the changes in store for talent specs as well as more insight into Artifact weapons for other classes. Follow that up with the good ole Q&A and that's a wrap on the World of Warcraft coverage. This year seems as though it will be very similar to last year. We'll get a lot of information but nothing that isn't already a known quantity.

Diablo:
Finally we get to the biggest disappointment on the schedule. I have gone on record more than once predicting a Diablo 3 expansion first at Gamescom, and then again at Blizzcon after Legion stole the show in Germany. Unfortunately, here we are on the eve of Blizzcon and we find a single panel on the entire schedule. Rather than discuss a newly revealed Act 6 and new playable class, it will instead feature "New Content and Features for Reaper of Souls". Don't get me wrong, I love the work the Diablo team has put into Reaper of Souls. It is in a fantastic place compared to where it began and they continue to release quality updates at no new cost to players. But that doesn't take away from the disappointment of no second expansion. New legendary and set items can only do so much to keep the game fresh. I love the newness of a season rollover but I find myself wearing out as things progress and the time to gear ratio continues to grow. Maybe Diablo is to a point where they are happy to cater to the more hardcore crown who grind 500+ paragon every season and who enjoy a season long grind. I find myself just on the outside of that group. I get to Paragon 400 or so but then lose interest once I have seen what the new items have to offer. I enjoy that part of the game but I want more from Diablo than that. New lore, a new class, new areas and tile sets to keep things interesting. I want to know what threat the Nephalem ultimately pose to the Sanctuary. I want to know where Itherael went. I want to know what happens when Diablo is eventually resurrected in the Burning Hells. I want to know what's going on in other parts of the world. And apparently some people want to know what happened to Leah's soul, but I honestly never grew attached to her character. I could go on forever about what a new expansion could mean for Diablo, but for now all we can do is see what new things Blizzard is working on for Reaper and hold on to some hope for Gamescom next year.


I think Blizzcon should be a blast as always, but I think this year will be a bit on the tame side.
TL;DR for predictions:

Hearthstone Adventure. Guessing Karazhan but could be Icecrown based on the card back.

Zul'jin, Cho'gall, and Zamuro (WC3 Blademaster) and a map or two for Heroes.

Story bits and hype builders for Legacy of the Void.

Green Robot Ninja, one other Hero, and a new map or two for Overwatch. More Story!

Legion details across the board. Opening cinematic?

Diablo disappointment. jk jk

Thanks as always for reading and welcome back to those checking back in after last weeks post. I hope to keep you coming back. Until next time,

Chris

Hearthstone's Catch-up Mechanic

Greetings Travelers!

Today I want to talk about something that has been in the back of my mind since the announcement of The Grand Tournament. How long is it until Hearthstone becomes inaccessible to new players? I talked a bit about the issue when discussing power creep and Blizzard's possible solutions, but I didn't go into the other side of the discussion. No matter how strong cards are in terms of power creep, the sheer number of cards can be a daunting barrier to entry. On one hand, making newer cards more powerful invalidates the money or time players spent earning the older cards that may become obsolete. But on top of that the number of cards in total can make it feel impossible for new players or players looking to step into more competitive play to acquire the cards necessary to do so. The question on how does Team 5 handle this issue has come up on The Angry Chicken, The Instance, Well Met, Reddit, Blizzard's official forums, and countless other places. The more I think about possible solutions the more I come back to a single idea I really like, but I'll get to that.

People have often suggested a rotating format similar to how Magic the Gathering handles new sets. The most popular and most played format includes only the last 2 years of sets, and the older cards are playable only in casual modes and secondary formats. I hate this idea for a number of reasons. First, Hearthstone's is a game with no secondary market. In Magic you have the option to sell off cards before they rotate out of playability in order to recoup the money spent getting them to play with in the first place. In Hearthstone our only option is to disenchant cards in exchange for a percentage of the dust required to craft a new card of the same rarity. This emphasizes the feeling that the cards you spent time or money to add to your collection have become worthless in comparison to what you don't have. In addition to that, rotating formats have a tendency to push some players away as decks that they have grown to love and play well are taken away from them. Imagine spending 2 years playing Midrange Druid or Handlock. You refine your play for months, learn your mulligans, learn how to tweak the deck for different match ups, and that is YOUR deck. Then suddenly you find out that next month Force of Nature or Molten Giant will no longer be allowed in Ranked Play. Pro players or players repeatedly making pushes to Legend have no trouble changing decks in order to optimally climb the ladder, but a majority of players don't have the skill required to do so or the willingness to commit the amount of money needed to do so.

Rotation comes up not only because it gives new players fewer sets of cards to focus on when buying in. And on top of that it helps some of the new cards see play that are competing with older cards that are strictly more powerful. I think this is the wrong way to look at it. We don't want TGT to release and have 75+ cards instantly slotted into new and existing decks. If that happens then that means power creep has become a real issue. I prefer to think of it in terms of cards like Mysterious Challenger. Say what you will about Secret Pally, but Mysterious Challenger alone made cards that previously saw little to no play and brought them to the forefront. Redemption and Repentance we're virtually never player while cards like Avenge and Blessing of Kings had only recently found a home in an Aggro Pally that was kind of a flavor of the month deck. Cards that make players take a second look at cards they had previously passed over are truly influential and those are the cards we should be looking for rather than cards that simply slot into a deck over an existing card. Feign Death looks mediocre now but every time a new minion with Deathrattle is printed it may be worth taking a look at. All it takes is that one Pirate card to create a viable Rogue deck to take advantage of it. A couple of cards that give you an advantage for having Overload all of a sudden makes everyone look at Shaman decks with new eyes. The goal of new sets shouldn't only be to introduce new cards and themes, but to also effect existing cards in new and interesting ways.

In my opinion the issue isn't giving new players fewer sets to buy in to. The issue is how difficult it can be to get one viable deck you are happy with. Whenever new players email into a podcast asking how to get started, the answer is almost always play area to earn gold and dust. The arena grind can be so tedious and frustrating and I have talked to multiple players who have been turned off of the game for that reason. I think Hearthstone needs an affordable and quick way to get players into playing on the ladder without feeling like they can't compete. I think there is a way to accomplish this while also giving players access to a good base of competitive cards to start a collection without dumping $100+ into packs. I think Hearthstone needs to offer pre-constructed decks, and I have a couple of them made up as an example.

I believe both of these decks accomplish multiple goals for new and existing players. They offer a viable starting off point for players looking to begin climbing the ladder. Both have the exact same breakdown of rarities; 7 basic cards to fill out the core of the deck, 14 commons, 5 rares, 3 epics, and 1 legendary. And they both have the same breakdown of expansions; 15 classic cards, 4 GvG cards, and 4 TGT cards. This gives players more cards from the largest set that still contains the core of most decks, while also adding a few useful cards from other sets. I purposely left out cards from the Adventures because I think those cards are easily singled out and purchasable if players decide they they want Loatheb or Emperor Thaurissan as opposed to buying enough packs to craft a particular legendary. Both decks come with a core of class cards like Savannah Highmane and Ancient of Lore and a neutral Legendary that can go into other decks they may hope to build later. I think if Blizzard were to roll out a couple of reconstructed decks at $15-$20 as an east access route to semi-competitive play, people would jump at the option. The incentive to buy more still exists as well. If a player has a few big wins with Force of Nature they will look to get enough dust to craft the second one. Or they may decide that Mad Scientist would be great in their Hunter deck after looking through the Crafting mode and decide to purchase that wing of Naxxramas.

Blizzard is clearly making a ridiculous amount of money off of Hearthstone so they may not need to do this, but I think it would be a tremendous show of good faith on their part to let current and potential players know that accessibility is important to them. Hearthstone doesn't have the advantage of Heroes of the Storm and it's free to play hero rotation. Also, people don't mind paying for a game that they know they will get enjoyment out of but I worry that if people can't find the fun quickly enough to be enticed to spend money because they are repeatedly getting crushed by paid players then they may be pushed away prematurely. It is important that players be given a means to be successful to a degree while they learn the game and invest themselves in it and build their own collections. As a result Blizzard wins because they have more players enjoying the experience from early on, and we the players win because the community continues to grow and more players are innovating.

Let me know what you think about the idea. Do the decks need to change? Is there another avenue Blizzard could take? I'd love to hear feedback on this.

Thanks as always for reading. Until next time,
Chris

The secret to Warcraft's in-game story

Greetings Friends!

The leveling experience in Warlords of Draenor was fantastic. It stood as one of the high points in a series of disappointing aspect of a much anticipated expansion. There was a pretty smooth path from zone to zone and story to story, but when we finished up the quest lines in Nagrand we were left with a "what now?" feeling. We were given various one-liners from different NPCs to hint at what was going on in Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry but nothing to continue the story that was so rich on the way to 100. Pandaria had it's issues just like every other expansion, but there was no shortage of early max level content. We had daily quests and rep grinds that while excessive and seemingly mandatory, still gave us insight into the world and the characters we would be interacting with for two years. We found out all about Taran Zhu and why he was so grumpy. We found out about Klaxxi society that ended with a nice little payoff a year later in Siege of Orgrimmar. The Isle of Thunder continued the story through the second raid tier but in a different way. As the island unlocked we found out more about the Mogu and the Thunder King. More about the Zandalari and their reasoning for awakening him. The one thing that very subtly intertwined with all of these story points together is the one thing I think could have saved the story in Warlords of Draenor. We needed scenarios!

Scenarios served two very useful purposes in my opinion. First, they were a nice time sink for DPS players while waiting in queue for dungeons or LFR. When you had an hour long queue to join the newest wing for LFR it didn't feel as bad when you could get into a scenario in 5 minutes, have a dungeon waiting when you finished it, and then got your invite to a LFR shortly after that. Secondly, we got story dialogue throughout some of these scenarios that did a good job to round out the story experience and to give some insight into what was going on behind the scenes. Blizzard has touted for ages that the main character in the World of Warcraft is the world itself, and the reason Warcradr has been successful for so long is the minutia of the world and the characters within. Scenarios are a fantastic vehicle to deliver those little details. For example, the Lorewalkers prefaced the Blood in the Snow scenario with information on what was going on amongst the Council of the Three Hammers and the distrust toward the Moira. Then throughout the scenario the dialogue not only portrays the strengthening of Varian and Moira's relationship within the Alliance but also shows us some of what the Zandalari are doing. Likewise, the Dagger in the Dark scenario has us accompany a reluctant Vol'jin on a mission from Garrosh Hellscream. In a 10 minute instance with virtually no wait time, we find out what interest Garrosh has in ancient Mogu magics and also what his true intentions were in sending Vol'jin specifically into those caves. In addition to all that, the progression through the Isle of Thunder was broken up by scenarios that allowed us to play through our infiltration of the island rather than us just showing up one day and finding out that the inner walls had been breached.

Imagine if scenarios had been carried over into Warlords of Draenor! We could have found out more about how Ner'zhul summoned the Dark Star into Shadowmoon Valley. We could have seen why the Ogres chose to ally themselves with Grommash and the Iron Horde and why Kargath seem so buddy buddy with his former captors in Highmaul. What was Kilrogg doing between launch when he disappeared from Tanaan and the cutscene where he drinks the Demon Blood. I just wish we had something outside of the Garrison campaign quests to let us know what was going on out in the world  after we hit max level. Even something as small as scenarios could have helped give some importance to the Warlords that were supposed to be such a huge selling point of going to Draenor in the first place. In a previous post I outlined a version of a patch release schedule that would have staggered Tanaan Jungle's opening. I think a version similar to Isle of Thunder where at first we invade in an effort to breach Grom's defenses after we force him to fall back after our victory in Blackrock Foundry. Then over time we work our way further into Tanaan and Grommash continues to lose strength to the point where Gul'dan feels like he can make his move to take over. Each section of Tanaan could have had it's own scenario to give context to it rather than have it serve as only an apexis crystal area. Make it a big cohesive experience Blizzard! A great leveling experience followed by scenarios and dungeons not only feeding us gear but also information on whats happening around the world. And let that lead into immersive raids like you have shown you can do over the last 2 expansions.

Going forward I would love to see scenarios make a comeback in Legion. Let dungeons and raids show us the big picture, but let quests and scenarios show us the little things that truly bring the world to life. The Val'kyr dungeons can show us the gist of their society and history while the scenarios and quests show us what Slyvanas' interest is in it. Give us more insight into her agreement with the Val'kyr and their motives in offering it in the first place. In Suramar we can find out how the Nightfallen Elves have remained hidden from us for so long. Give us a first hand look at Azshara's commands to Tidemistress Athissa were and let us speculate on what her ultimate goals are. Show us what led to Xavius joining with the Burning Legion after serving the Old Gods in their effort to corrupt the Emerald Dream. We deserve a look at the details and to know why these characters and places should matter to us. I think scenarios do that in a way that quest cannot and that provide enough secondary benefits to make them worthwhile to most players.

Let me know if you disagree. Perhaps the reason we didn't get scenarios in Warlords was that Blizzard saw that the participation numbers didn't warrant the effort to include them. I'd love to hear what others think would be a suitable vessel for early end game immersion.

As always thanks for reading and until next time,
Chris

Junkrat and Roadhog

Welcome back heroes!

I spent most of last week trying to decide between two topics, but I ultimately decided I didn't have enough thought put into either of them yet to make one interesting post. While I don't really like skipping a week of writing, we got rewarded with a couple of exciting new heroes for Overwatch. Fall 10th is quickly approaching and every announcement and preview for Blizzard's newest IP reminds us that it can't come soon enough. Last week we got two new faux news posts via the Overwatch Twitter referencing a couple of fugitives wanted for among other things, a bank robbery.

My initial though upon seeing the wanted poster was "So Professor Putricide and Fat Bane are our next heroes". I was excited about the possibility of new heroes obviously, but there wasn't much there providing any depth. But  when the heist map came out I got a lot more excited.  The map gives a little insight into the kind of characters we are dealing with. The comedic relief is there in a way we haven't really seen yet.

By no means is Overwatch a super-serious or hyper-realistic game based on what we've seen so far. But all we have been given insight into is the a global robot crisis and a eventually sabotaged world organization striving for redemption. We haven't seen the breadth of possibilities in a world based on our own. One of the greatest benefits of a game based on future Earth is how easy it is for players to relate to the places, characters, and issues. An ongoing struggle between Orcs and Humans, or a race of Alien locusts a million strong threatening to consume all life in the galaxy are fantastic worlds to experience and make for amazing games, but there is something cool about the possibility of people and places you can truly relate to. Every time a new hero is previewed, there are comments on Reddit posts and twitter about how awesome it is to have a medic from Switzerland, or an activist DJ from Rio de Janeiro. Fighting through King's Row and seeing Big Ben, or making your way to a capture point in Hanamura and seeing cherry blossoms, both give a feeling of being somewhere you can really relate to. Whether is on the internet or in person you have seen those things. They are iconic parts of the world we live in today. I think this map is our first glimpse into the humor of the world of Overwatch, and I think it's really important to the immersion into it's universe. But enough about the world. Let's talk about these heroes.

Tuesday we got our introduction video for Roadhog and Junkrat and in my opinion they are both really exciting. These guys both look like they came straight out of Mad Max. Hailing from the now irradiated Australia (as if the Outback need to be more dangerous), they are on a robbery spree spreading from England to Japan to California. They have visual aesthetics and, at least from what we can tell from Junkrat's ability preview, personalities like nothing we've seen from Overwatch so far.

Roadhog is our next Tank hero and his kit is really strong. His main weapon is a shrapnel shotgun with both short and slightly longer range fire mode, which really really promotes an in your face style of play. His longer range fire looks devastating in choke points or narrow corridors. That up close style combines perfectly with his Shift ability. Rather than a skill to increase his movement speed to get to some hard to reach location, Roadhog has a Chain Hook he can use to pull enemies to him. This type of ability has been used in all kinds of games and has been ridiculously strong every time when used properly. His E ability "Take a Breather" heals him for 300 health, half of his total health pool, on a 6 second cooldown. That kind of healing is nothing to scoff at and it will be invaluable considering he has no real escape mechanism or shielding ability like other tanks. Finally, his ultimate ability "Whole Hog" sprays scrap in a frontal cone for what seems like an eternity, knocking back everyone it his with each shot. While I don't think the scenario from his preview video where he knocks 3 players back about 20 yards and off a cliff will ever realistically happen, this ability will be very strong when it comes to controlling an area like a capture point or payload, or perhaps interrupting any channelled abilities that come out as the game grows. Overall I think Roadhog is a nice contradiction to some of the other tanks currently in the game. He will want to be on the front lines actively pushing against the other team as opposed to a Reinhardt or Winston excelling at defending a location.

Junkrat is a new Defense hero, and he brings a lot to be excited about. He is probably the closest we will get to Team Fortress 2's Demoman with his grenade launcher as his basic fire. As you would expect, these grenades bounce off of walls which will allow Junkrat to flank and harass defensive set ups from a position of safety. His Shift ability, Concussive Mine, serves as both a mobility tool and a disruption ability for the other team. He tosses out a mine, and then has the option of when to activate it and send whoever it hits flying. We will have to wait and see how difficult it will be to use the Mine as a reliable way to get around a map, but the fact that it can be used that way will allow skilled players to make awesome plays with it. His E ability tosses out a trap that will immobilize the first opponent to run through it as well as deal a small amount of damage. This is another useful took for zone control, which remains the main theme for these two heroes. I really like how there is a visual indicator on the UI whens someone triggers the trap. This will allow Junkrat to toss a trap in a strategic location, focus on defending another area with his grenades and concussion mine, and then when his trap is triggered, turn and try and secure a kill. Not having to babysit the trap, but still be able to take advantage of it is really nice. I might even like to see something similar for Symmetra and her Sentry Turrets. Junkrat's ultimate ability, "Rip-tire", is really unique and will be really useful in the right hands. You take control of a bomb-rigged tire and can drive it into enemies where it explodes on the first target it hits. The ability will be really useful when it comes to breaking through defenses. We have seen the strategy of setting up a Bastion and/or Torbjorn turret in a choke point or a capture point used in a couple of the preview videos. The Rip-tire gives us the option to send it along a wall or around a corner and explode on top of this set up potentially giving us the window we need to break through. From the video it looks like the tire has a 50hp health pool. This suggests that the tire is killable by the enemy team. If that's the case it will require good driving in order to make good use of the ability. I also want to know what Junkrat's status is while he is controlling the tire. Is he immobile and attackable, or does he become immune while it's out similar to Abathur's Ultimate Evolution ability in Heroes of the Storm. His passive ability causes his grenades to explode after he dies, potentially finishing off whoever he got into a skirmish with, but I expect once players have a chance to Junkrat has a really fun personality and what seems to be a really high skill cap. I'm really excited to see what the top players will be able to do with him once we finally get a crack at this game.

Both of these heroes get me even more excited for the kinds of characters Blizzard can bring into this game. I also expect the bank heist map to be one of the next maps we see, but given the origin of these guys, a radioactive area of Australia including a disheveled Sydney Opera House would be amazing. Blizzcon is quickly approaching and if we don't see a beta announcement at the European Road to Blizzcon event (where Overwatch will be playable), that's where we will find out when we can finally get off the hype train and into the game. I expect Blizzcon to be heavily focused on Overwatch, a Diablo expansion, and Legion details, but I will get into that in another post leading up to November 6th. 

Thanks as always for reading. Let me know what you think about these heroes or what you would like to see from future heroes. Also, let me know what you expect to see at Blizzcon!

Till next time, 

Chris

Diablo 3 Patch 2.3

Welcome back Nephalem! GLORIOUS!

I remain impressed with the work the Diablo 3 team is doing at Blizzard. After possibly the rockiest launch in Blizzard history, and amidst a tremendous amount of criticism in the games first year, they have repeatedly released updates to the game that vastly improved the gameplay experience. Reaper of Souls added Adventure Mode and the Rift system that helped alleviate the repetition of restarting games to farm the most populated zones over and over. Patch 2.1 brought Seasons, Greater Rifts, and Leaderboards to bring back the feeling of the D2 ladder system. And patch 2.2 began the revamp of some underwhelming Legendaries and Set items, as well as the introduction of some new extremely powerful ones. Patch 2.3 is following suit and all of these updates, with the exception of Reaper of Souls itself, were 100% free to the players. In a gaming space dominated by release day patches, and first month paid DLC, I just have to point out how awesome that is. But enough fan boy talk, let's get into some of the details of 2.3.

Adventure Mode Revamp:
The big change here (other than Kanai's cube which we will get to later) is the change to Rifts and Greater Rifts. Nephalem Rifts no longer require keys to be farmed from bounties, and Greater Rifts no longer require trials and instead Greater Rift Keys can be used to open a GR at a difficulty of your choice that you have unlocked. Trials to enter greater rifts were ridiculously tedious and only really served to add a step before you could start ranking up in Greater Rifts. The only thing I don't like about the change is that you can no longer slow roll greater rifts while you are gearing up at level 70. In previous seasons you could run a rank 1 GR and steamroll through it in no gear at all, and then you could just wait until about 4 minutes remaining on the timer, then kill the Guardian and your key would only rank up one level. You could repeat this process until you couldn't clear anymore. This would net you a decent number of legendaries and would really speed up the initial gearing process. Because you no longer have rank specific keys, you need to farm a key for each level you want to increase so that gearing tactic isn't really an option.

The other big change to Adventure Mode was the addition of the act specific crafting materials. When you complete all the bounties in a specific act, in the cache you will also receive crafting materials for use with Kanai's cube. This isn't a huge thing but it is an added incentive to step away from rifts once in a while. Late in the season the repetition of grinding rifts and greater rifts over and over for slight upgrades can really get old. Most players who fully invest in a season will probably get all the crafting materials that they need early in the season and then ignore them, but for the average player I think it's nice to have a change of pace to keep things interesting.

New Sets 2.0:
2.3 gave us three new sets for the classes that got neglected in in 2.2. The least impressive set is probably the Seeker of the Light set for Crusaders. The Hammerdin is back baby! The feeling of tossing out hundreds of hammers was a blast in D2 and I can confirm that this set is a ton of fun to play, but the overall power level seems to be behind the other two new sets. The main problem I have with the set however is that it suffers from some of the same issues as the Roland's set before it. You are at the mercy of what mobs are around you and you kind of need to stutter step through a rift and on higher difficulties it can be really tedious. Spirit of Arachyr is the new set for Witch Doctors and while some people are having some success with it, the real new set for them is the Helltooth Harness. The new Helltooth's damage scales insanely and you have a ton of options in what skills you want to use. In past seasons Witch Doctors have been relegated to support duty in group play, and have been a few tiers behind other classes on the leaderboards. This season Witch Doctors are right in the mix at the top and this set is the reason why. If you haven't tried a WD yet or maybe have played them in the past but left them behind for another class, then I urge you to give it a shot this season. And that brings us to the flavor of the month, the Monk. Uliana's Stratagem is the new hotness and it seems like virtually everyone is playing a Monk this season because of it.  Exploding Palm has been a fan favorite ability capable of HUGE damage, and the new set combined with different legendaries from this season and seasons past have brought it all together. Monks have possibly the best mobility in the game between Dashing Strike and Epiphany, now on top of that this set emphasizes non-stop use of their hardest hitting ability, and an ability that grants complete invulnerability in Seven-Sided-Strike. My goal going into the last two seasons was to clear Greater Rift 40 with each of the new sets.  I got it done pretty easily in Season 3 so I look forward to trying it in Season 4 with these new sets.

Kanai's Cube:
The biggest addition this patch is without question Kanai's Cube. The cube does multiple things to speed up the intitial gearing process, as well as help you find those few items that you just haven't been able to find or get from Kadala. The ability to equip the effects of legendary items without having it take up an equipment slot gives a huge increase in power as well as gives us something to do with crappy versions of legendaries we otherwise wouldn't be able to use effectively. Builds in the past have been limited by useful items taking up the same slot. Carnevil and Mask of Jeram for Witch Doctor Fetish builds is just one example. But the other abilities on the Cube are equally important. I found both of my Monk's fist weapons as well as the staff that I broke down in the cube, by using the Upgrade Rare Item recipe on Kanai's cube. Optimal builds are sometimes locked behind the barrier of finding a specific item. Kridershot enabled a build last season for Demon Hunters with unparalleled sustained damage, but it was literally impossible without it. We can take extra pieces of a set and use the Cube to turn them into different pieces of the same set in order to finish our sets faster. And once you have completed your sets and gotten all the pieces of gear your need to begin pushing the leaderboards, you can reforge pieces to try and get the perfect item. The cube opens up entirely new styles of play and makes some difficult to find items obtainable without an absurd amount of play time.

All in all I really think 2.3 brought more to Diablo 3 than any patch besides the initial launch of Reaper of Souls, and the things I went over aren't even close to everything. I'm continually impressed with the work Blizzard is willing to put into a game that hasn't been paid for in years except by new players. I'm excited to see what they have in store for us at Blizzcon in a couple months.

Thanks as always for reading, until next time.
Chris

Random Musings

Hello Team and welcome back!

Sorry for the week delay on this post. My original plan was to wait and do a Diablo patch 2.3 review and quick breakdown, but the as I started playing through the patch I decided the post would be better saved until I had more time to dive in. There are a lot of changes for Season 4 and I want to have a chance to try everything out before I give an opinion on them. This week I want to just touch on a few things across the scope of Blizzard games that have gotten my attention as of late.

World of Warcraft:
6.2.2 is FINALLY here and with it flying in Draenor. I have said in the past that I really like the compromise Blizzard made in allowing flying after a reasonable group of achievements are completed. I have no problem with them wanting us to experience the content they spent a lot of time and effort creating before simply flying over it. Unfortunately, I feel like it took entirely too long after  the 6.2 launch for flying to be unlocked. I spent weeks completing all of my Tanaan Jungle dailies, farming rares, and taking in the zone. But as time went on I got frustrated with running across the map every day, only to not make it to Terrorfist or Vengeance in time to loot them. As a result I simply stopped logging in until flying was released. If flying came within the first 3-4 weeks it would have served to prolong the enjoyment of a new zone and content. Instead we ended up with flying after a new expansion announcement that undoubtably pushed a number of players away until it's release. This left flying as a less exciting last hurrah of an underwhelming expansion.

Starcraft:
In typical Blizzard fashion we got an announcement of an announcement this week. They announced that we will find out the street date for Legacy of the Void, as well as get our first look at the intro cinematic, on September 13th. The cinematics are my favorite part of a new release from Blizzard and they knock it out of the park every time. And with Legacy of the Void being the finale of Starcraft 2 there are a ton of story threads for them to bring to life. The release date is nice, especially for the players worried that we may not see the game before Blizzcon. We don't know for sure that we will get it before then but I think this announcement date makes it more likely.

Hearthstone:
The Grand Tournament is in full swing and things have definitely been shaken up on the ladder. Paladin of many varieties have taken over. The most surprising of all has been the Secret Paladin (or Riddler Paladin, or Christmas Tree Paladin, or whatever you want to call it). That list is just one of many that people have been having success with, but eventually there will become a stock list and in return people will learn how to play around that stock list. But for the time being this deck is everywhere and there are a ton of first time legend posts all over the Hearthstone reddit praising Uther with a bunch of ?s around his head. Other decks taking advantage of the new set are a Dragon Priest that just plays above budget minions on every turn of the game and never loses control of the board, and a resurrection of the Token Druid decks of seasons past. Overall it seems like TGT has had a less drastic effect on the metagame than GvG had, but it is still making things feel somewhat fresh. I've been having a ton of fun with Tempo Mage with the only additions being Effigy and Rhonin, but the Secret Paladin deck has brought back some of the Secret hate so it's becoming a riskier play at higher ranks. All in all I'm pretty happy with how things are shaping up.

Everything Else:
I want to group the other games together and just touch on them briefly for different reasons. Diablo 3 season 4 has begun and so far I am loving the changes and the new items. Like I said before, I want to commit a full post to that so I won't go into it here. A seemingly large portion of the Heroes of the Storm player base seems to have a huge problem with the new ranked play system. It feels like every stream I watch features the streamer on his high horse about how broken the matchmaking is and how the people he is paired with are so much worse than he is. This has rendered Heroes unwatchable for me for a couple reasons: 1) Stop fucking complaining about it. We all know the matchmaking isn't where it needs to be and Blizzard has said as much. And even if you are in fact better than EVERYONE you are playing with, people don't want to hear you cry about it. If you want to make sure everyone on your team is at your level, build a 5 stack. 2) Matchmaking is broken for everyone. If you have someone still going through their placement matches in your games, then chances are the other team is going through the same thing. Your team doesn't exist in a vacuum so communicate with your team and play better than the other one. I'm sure people will disagree with me but I felt the need to rant on this a bit. Finally. there has been zero Overwatch news to report on since the Gamescom reveals. Blizzard has joked a few times that the beta will start on "Fall 10th" so lets just hope that thats sooner than "Soon TM".

Well that's gonna do it for this week. Sorry again for the delay and thanks as always for reading,
Chris

Grand Tournament Standouts

Greetings Travelers!

It's been a little longer than usual since my last post, but luckily this gave Blizzard time to preview the entire set for GvG and to announce the release date of the 24th. Any time a new set comes out, countless professional players rush to Youtube and Twitch for their set reviews. I enjoy hearing what the best players in the world have to say about the newest cards, but I don't like 2 hour long videos that go through every card in detail. So what I thought I would do is go through a few standout cards that I plan on focusing on when I begin crafting cards for the ladder.

The first Legendary I want to talk about is probably the strongest in a vacuum. A 10 mana card had better have a text box that wows you and Varian doesn't disappoint. I expect him to slot into Control Warrior builds immediately as well as possibly finding a home in a Dragon Warrior if that deck develops. Control Warrior aims to trade with your early minions one for one until they overwhelm you with one haymaker minion after another. Varian hits the board and can bring another bomb with him to completely take over the game. In a control mirror, the game often comes down to who gets the most out of their mana and who draws more cards. Varian not only draws 3 cards when he hits play, but he also has the potential to give you a huge mana advantage.

Rhonin is the other class Legendary that i think is going to make a big splash. He is similar to Varian in that he is a form of card advantage tacked on to a huge minion. The current Tempo Mage decks aim to leverage their minions with spell based effects alongside cheap efficient removal spells. The problem the deck has is transitioning to the late game. Rhonin is a finisher in his own right, but his Deathrattle provides an arsenal of cheap spells to fuel Mana Wyrms, Flamewakers, and Archmage Antonidas. And even without any of those getting 9 damage for 3 mana is an absurd rate. I don't expect him to break into Freeze Mage decks but Tempo and Mech varients will find a spot for Rhonin.

Dragon decks have been trying to worth their way into the metagame since Blackrock Mountain fully released. One of the reasons they haven't become a force on the ladder is that they lack mid-game Dragons to bridge them to the late game where cards like Malygos and Ysera can take over the game. Chillmaw has a unique effect in that his/her effect triggers when it dies rather than when it comes into play. Rather than give your opponent information about the contents of you hand when you play it, you leave them with a decision. They can trade their minions in to kill it assuming they will lose them anyway to the damage effect, or they call your bluff and use removal on it. Because it has taunt, your opponent does not have option to ignore Chillmaw.

The last Legendary I want to talk about is Eydis Darkbane. A 3/4 for 3 mana is already worth playing, but when you add on the text box we've got a real card to talk about. Aggro Paladin is already taking over to a certain extent and this card is an instant addition. Curving this card into Blessing of Kings on turn 4 will go completely uncontested in some games. If an aggressive Shaman deck emerges after TGT I think she slides right into that deck. And Mech Mage will instantly add her as well. This card is a perfect example of why Blizzard has been slow to add low-cost legendaries. The less mana available to answer a strong card, the more careful you need to be. Think Undertaker. Enough said.


Mulch might be the class card I am the most excited about. Druid has had the downside of weak minion removal since the beginning of Hearthstone. Wrath and Swipe while strong in some situations, do little against strong late game threats. Naturalize has always been an option, but giving your opponent 2 cards from their deck was too big of a cost. Mulch lands in a nice middle ground. We have to pay 2 more mana, but our opponent gets a random minion that they still have to pay for. There will be times that you give them a great minion and lose, but the tempo gained from killing any minion for only 3 mana should make this a worthwhile spell for most Druid decks.

The other piece of the Dragon deck puzzle is Twilight Guardian. This card serves as another mid-game card for Dragon decks that also happens to be a Dragon on it's own. That means that this card fills both roles within the same deck. It's stats become better than average because you have other dragons, and it also triggers your other cards abilities while it's in your hand. The possibility of going from Blackwing Technician on 3, to Twilight Guardian on 4, to Blackwing Corruptor on 5 with all of their effects triggered will lead to some very lopsided board states. It's also worth noting that 6 health is something of a sweet spot that allows this card to survive many situations that something like Senjin Shieldmasta would not. The second attack from a Death's Bite being just one example.

Healing Wave is not a fancy card by any means, but similar to Mulch, it fills a need that Shaman has had since day one. They have never had an efficient way to regain health. Shaman has been driven to the bottom rung of the Hearthstone ladder due in no small part to its inability to recover in the face of early aggression. Most of the time against an aggressive deck you will win the Joust with this card and gaining 14 health against a Face Hunter or Aggro Paladin will almost certainly win you the game outside of any Divine Favor shenanigans. It's not a big flashy legendary but it is damn good at what it does.




Darnassus Aspirant could be the best card in the set. Druid has fallen out of favor lately partly because of it's reliance on Wild Growth. Being able to accelerate the mana gain of the game is one of Druid's cornerstone traits. The Aspirant gives them a second card to accelerate them from 2 mana to 4. If your opponent can't answer this card on turn 2 then you gain a huge advantage and can start to take control of the board. If they do answer it, then you are back on curve. If a more aggressive token or aggro Druid deck hits, then this card will be a big reason why. Mirror Entity also hates seeing this card get played and should make for some fun fail moments.



Master Jouster is a card I am a little unsure about. When you win the Joust this card is insane. A full +1/+1 on Sunwalker is a really big deal. I already touched on the importance of 6 health before, and adding a divine shield on top of it would make this card a home run. However the nature of Joust makes this card a big risk. Against the aggressive decks this card should win the Joust most of the time. But in the midrange or control mirror, losing the Joust on this card will be backbreaking. There is a chance that this card helps to push aggro decks out of the metagame for a while, but I am really apprehensive to call it a home run just yet.



The last card I'm gonna talk about is pretty minor compared to all the legendaries and epics, but I think it is very good and pretty important. 2 damage for 1 mana is standard for spells without some kind of drawback. Living Roots adds in the option to create 2 1/1s instead, making the card better in all stages of the game. You no longer have to rely on your hero power and Wrath to deal with troublesome minions like Knife Juggler. And in the event you draw it later in the game, you can always make 2 minions and force your opponent to play around a potential Savage Roar. I really hope this card helps bring back the old Token Druid with Violet Teacher and all that good stuff.



Well that's it as far as cards I want to talk about today. I know some people will wonder why I didn't go into any of the Shaman Totem cards but I feel like those have been talked to death in other places and I want to wait and see what decks develop. Overload is such a tough mechanic to overcome but we will see what happens with it. Let me know what cards you are excited about.

As always, thanks for reading.

Until next time,
Chris