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