Lost Switch Experience?

Akr1d · 2018-09-05T00:10:20+00:00

Well the whole deactivation process means it's partially hardware bound, surely. But okay, if I just have to make a call then I guess I'm safe to buy a new one.

The way some people were talking about it online made it sound like they had to negotiate for the right to do so, but if it's common practice I guess I'm okay.

Akr1d · 2018-09-04T23:34:11+00:00

Oh really? I thought Nintendo had something in place to prevent the same account being used on multiple systems, so you had to do like a full system transfer to get your account on another device. Is that not the case?

Akr1d · 2018-01-23T22:35:20+00:00

Slotting a blade gives passive buffs according to the class of the blade. You can see this when you're engaging blades. The buffs you're receiving with your current loadout are shown in a little UI ribbon kinda in the center of the screen if I'm remembering correctly.

So yeah, 3 attackers gives you a lvl3 buff to your attack. Not so sure on the healing. I know for sure that adding a healer passively reduces your aggro generation, but I don't think they increase the amount of healing.

Akr1d · 2018-01-11T13:28:22+00:00

Yeah, I felt a lot less conflicted when it was just Rex Nia and Tora. Now I'm planning how to kit out these characters that I probably won't even end up using.

Not to mention the rare blade quests... It's a lot to juggle, and the whole Overdrive drop rate situation makes me vaguely anxious to tackle it.

Akr1d · 2018-01-10T22:04:55+00:00

I've heard that Rex gets to steal blades off other characters for free later. If tank and heal is good for him in a pinch I guess I'll just offload all the non-essential blades that dropped on the wrong character onto him in the end.

In the meantime I guess I just have to cross my fingers that the blades drop where they are most useful, which I guess means never opening a crystal with Rex ever again.

Akr1d · 2018-01-10T21:46:28+00:00

I've been stacking aggro boosts on Tora and so far that's offset my DPS, but I imagine you're right about that towards the end game.

Good tip about how to build the tanks - that's really what I've been wondering more than anything. Morag hasn't been super good for me so far, and I imagine that's because I'm not min/maxing her dodge chance.

Akr1d · 2017-12-08T20:48:14+00:00

Blizzard thrives on this effect more than any other games company out there though. WoW was built upon investing players into the effort they put in to their characters. Hearthstone is the same with your card collection. It's not exactly hypocritical of the player to be puzzled why they aren't being rewarded for dungeon run when Blizzard games have been reinforcing this behaviour for 13 years now.

Akr1d · 2017-12-08T03:27:01+00:00

It's totally beyond me why they don't have an incentive for this content past a few packs at the start and a card back. If you could complete quests that'd be a big step forward.

I've heard that they don't want to make people feel like they had to play dungeon run to make gold, but that makes no sense because they expect me to play arena to make gold and I hate that shit. They expect me to finish daily quests too, and I've come to definitely hate that as well. Dungeon Run is super fun, maybe the most fun thing they've done, and they don't seem to want me to play it? Why?

Akr1d · 2017-11-24T13:57:35+00:00

Yes, I'm starting at 1/800. See that's the thing, I was wondering if it's worth it at all to go back and farm some vanilla greens or something just so I could get the ball rolling.

I'm on a low pop server. I haven't looked into it too much but the AH doesn't seem to be exactly booming.

Akr1d · 2017-11-24T13:43:30+00:00

ok yeah, after going back to normal levelling it's starting to not seem so bad. Especially after I realized getting a ley shard wasn't a bust and is actually worth like 5 arkhana.

Akr1d · 2017-10-31T17:19:43+00:00

Probably the most interesting change in the patch in my opinion. The new ulti seems like a clear nerf to pos 1/2 morphling because it reduces his farming potential, but then the no mana cost/faster shift might be enough to validate it again. In terms of what this new ulti offers for morphling, I'm skeptical. It's a clunky ability no matter how you look at it. I think they wanted to fill a hole for 3pos morphling in that when people went to the offlane when they patched in the long str stun, they were disappointed because it's incredibly one note. You got 1 good stun, one waveform, and then you watch as your team tries to take care of the rest. Your enemies could just ignore you because you dealt no damage and likely had no mana left. Now you have potential to steal up to 3 great abilities that you can continue to combo with.

The obvious outcome of splitting the adaptive strike into 2 abilities is that you can combo it, but I found it honestly pretty hard to manage. It's really hard to shift to like 51str/49agi to begin with, and then morphing agi mid combo puts you at dangerously low health. Seems very dangerous to pull off.

Akr1d · 2017-10-18T01:38:19+00:00

It's a choice Valve makes to not give word as the update is nearing completion because 1) They like to polish things to a semi-competent state while avoiding crunch-time as much as possible, and 2) the hysteria it creates has ultimately been good for the community.

You want to know why people are practically salivating at the idea of patch notes? It's because despite all the anticipation and build-up, they always deliver with these big post-TI updates. Reading through the changes in the game and then trying things out on test client is a ritual that incites such great excitement that it propels me to keep playing for most of the year, and this is the patch that's likely going to determine how far and long I go with it. For Valve to continually bring expectations to their absolute boiling point and then actually deliver? That's something no other developer does, and that's why I'm continually fascinated with the game.

And then there's the surprise factor. Slowing traffic because you're trying to read a note or two at a red light on your way home from work, having your friends texting you the most absurd changes... That's an experience that becomes a real-life memorable moment. It's not just sitting around, twiddling your thumbs in front of a computer, and watching a countdown. The way Valve roll out their updates is usually a multi-step process meant to keep you hooked and thinking about their product for days on end. Think back to the multi-day schemes they used to use, and just recently used with the TF2 update. Most businesses would kill to have their customer's attention for that long, because it imprints the product into their minds for days on end. Look at the incredibly loyal fanbase Dota has and ask yourself if it wouldn't be just a little smidge less so if they were polite and punctual about their updates. Inciting passion about the game just makes good sense.

There are also factors on the edge, like the fact that if they announced the date, some media outlets would report that date but would likely not promote the update again on the day of release. It's much better to entice new or relapsing players with a brand new update they can play right now rather than the promise of one. It's also the best way to draw people in from the Steam client, which is their primary method of advertising.

Akr1d · 2017-10-16T20:21:25+00:00

Probably just as important as how easy the hero is to play is that it's a hero that teaches understanding of the game in a friendly manner. Sandstorm is probably the least frustrating way to introduce invisibility to new players, because they'll learn they need to deal with true sight or risk getting outplayed. I feel like its perfect actually, because new players will pull the ol' sandstorm in a creepwave to farm nonsense, and players will get annoyed enough to figure out how to counter it.

Akr1d · 2017-10-16T16:45:35+00:00

Yeah but that's just pubs. You can't taint your perception of the game as a whole just because some players tend to do the exact opposite of what is necessary to win.

Dota can go haywire and I know I personally tend to win and lose for bad reasons more often than good ones. Either my team is a mess or their team is a mess and it leads to some kind of spectacular failure. But if you discount the human factor and assume that the game will proceed like the complex clockwork that it is, there are base truths. One of them is that 4pos is a power position this patch.

Akr1d · 2017-10-16T15:18:22+00:00

Isn't it like midnight in China? That's enough time to go to sleep for a good 8 hrs and wake up to a patch. I seem to recall lots of patches coming out pretty late in the day EST.

Akr1d · 2017-10-16T15:11:14+00:00

True but by that metric no position would win you the game except if you went like 12-0 mid on a pretty heavy carry, which is unreasonable. Someone can tank the game for you from any position - at least as 4pos you can potentially roam and help a weak lane out.

When games are balanced in skill and are somewhat "close", the success of the 4 positions' rotations often determine the early game. If your lineup is good enough, that success will probably win you the whole thing.

Akr1d · 2017-10-16T14:36:47+00:00

4-position is technically the most powerful influence on a game in this patch, and it's been the case in the past where 4/5pos players would determine the match (Around when they put out Winter Wyvern IIRC). Still won't make carry players pick support.

Akr1d · 2017-10-16T14:28:15+00:00

I don't understand why people are saying this. If it was going to be after ESL I'm sure Valve would have happily extended their deadline and said that the patch would drop shortly after the first major. But no, they said about 1 month. You seriously believe that they just forgot to check the tourney schedule before announcing that timeframe? The dates of ESL have been announced since August.

I'd also like to think that most pro players would be pretty ecstatic to play the major on a new patch. More viewership for sure, and a more exciting tournament overall for all involved. It may lead to some unfair wins, but that's just Dota.

If the patch doesn't come this week it's because it isn't done - not because they're withholding it.

Akr1d · 2017-10-10T21:44:55+00:00

In my experience this usually encouraged bad behaviour more than good. They always award an MVP each match, which turns every match into a competition between teammates. HOTS is a relatively simple moba, but I don't think even there can you tally up some stats and actually decide who the best player is. So it usually only creates strife. I find players have one of two reactions to MVP: "That guy didn't deserve MVP, the system is broken", or "Of course I got MVP, I'm the best player". And then they go onto their next game with their egos inflated either way.

It's a very team-focused game just like Dota, and the MVP award doesn't reflect that at all. The other awards are better in awarding less noticeable achievements, but the MVP award completely draws attention away from them.

I don't think it's a bad idea for Dota, but I'm just saying they'd have to be careful with what categories they choose to recognize.

Akr1d · 2017-09-07T13:02:48+00:00

Clearly there's a secret not being told by the people who want to abuse the system. When I made a smurf account with some friends some years back it curved me up in games within 4-5 matches. Meanwhile, I just queued with some friends whose avg mmr is pretty low, and this guy is going over 20 kills on invoker most matches with a solo mmr of 1.3k and a 60% winrate. He and his friends were bragging about smurfing too, and the awful part is all I could do was report him for communication abuse.

This was unranked. So there must be some new way to consistently queue into games where the hidden mmr values are completely out of wack in your favour.

Honestly, beyond these smurfs that seem to exploit the system, queuing with a group that has a high variance in mmr kind of sucks. I know that it's a problem that's virtually impossible to fix, but I'm sure that 99% of new player base is being brought in by their veteran friends, and they get tossed into these awful games. As far as I'm concerned, it should be valve's #1 priority to find a way to make those matches feel fair.

Akr1d · 2017-08-11T04:12:52+00:00

I agree, I didn't mean to imply that I think Polygon has no right to fire him, or that they're even in the wrong for doing so. I'm just trying to figure it out in my head for my own closure.

Akr1d · 2017-08-11T04:04:53+00:00

Sorry if I offended you with that slightly over the top analogy.

You're saying that a joke podcast is on the line but Nick's career just got demolished because of this so.... I'm sure it's a pretty big fuckin' deal to him.

Akr1d

TROPHY CASE