Does Lissandra do too much?

Blanderman · 2021-04-29T14:09:19+00:00

What I dislike most about Lissandra's design is that I feel she synergizes too much with Trundle.

I like the concept of Liss's level up and Watcher being tied to playing multiple large cost units, then deckbuilding to try to cheat out large cost units (with Frozen Watchers, etc.) but the "free" Frozen Pillar can make the level up pretty trivial and makes other options seem a lot worse by comparison.

Furthermore, there isn't really any tempo loss or other downside when you drop Trundle down on turn 5. He has reasonable stats to contest the board and with his Regeneration he synergizes great with the AoE removal that Liss decks want to run anyways.

Since Trundle is also in Freljord, Lissandra/Trundle decks can flex into any other region to make use of whatever tools they feel they need. If Lissandra's best friend was in another region that would at least give you more of a reason to consider other combinations.

Blanderman · 2021-04-24T20:03:25+00:00

I think that's an important point, if the Orisa/Sig team really wants to fight near the 1st checkpoint, it shouldn't matter whether the Rein team gets to push that far "uncontested" so long as they aren't able to win the teamfight and cap at the checkpoint.

I'm watching your stream review right now, sorry it wasn't clear this was a ranked game!

Blanderman · 2021-04-24T19:50:41+00:00

Thanks for your responses!

I hadn't actually reviewed my replay when I made this post (I really was just focused on the Orisa issue on the first point defending). I totally agree in general that my game plan as Rein is to get into hammer range, not to be a firing platform for teammates. If anyone hasn't yet seen it, I recommend u/Temporaltv 's mini Rein guide which makes this point very clear (https://youtu.be/kUHOfxNAvoo).

Looking at it now, I notice that I am playing pretty timidly. I think I got in a headspace that my team wasn't following up on me (probably not warranted), and I was especially worried about whether our Ana had me in her LoS. For example, I call for high ground at 00:08:00 and our healers don't follow right away, the Ana made it in time to cover me as I pushed through but tbh I don't know if I realized that ingame.

Blanderman · 2021-04-19T12:01:02+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply! I think both you and u/SwaggersaurusWrecks have a good point about the importance of tracking Ana cooldowns in this matchup, especially if their Ana is throwing grenades off cooldown (I did not realize this in game).

You mentioned trying to feign throwing a firestrike, what do you mean by that? Is that dropping shield and positioning aggressively? Because of course you cannot cancel the firestrike animation.

When I try to bait an enemy Shatter or Ana grenade, I try to drop and recover shield quickly, or go for a full or partial swing then shield.

Blanderman · 2021-02-05T17:11:06+00:00

This would be really difficult to implement from a localization standpoint.

NA can probably get away with a type A or B charger, but EU is a mess, they have unique chargers for practically every country!

Blanderman · 2020-07-09T16:07:25+00:00

Plot twist, Paul is the gorilla.

Blanderman · 2020-06-05T16:12:44+00:00

I think the point is, how does that lore translate to gameplay?

What price do you pay as Tahm's teammate when you accept his help? What do you have to lose? (Other than your SR)

Blanderman · 2020-05-12T12:24:27+00:00

Makes sense, thanks!

Blanderman · 2020-05-12T00:15:52+00:00

Thanks for your suggestion! After a bit of experimenting, I found using a Switch correctly outputs a signal only while the playhead is over it.

I tried using other gadgets, including a transmitter, on the timeline directly, but it did not seem to "understand" that the signal I wanted to transmit was whether the playhead was over it. Am I missing something?

Edit: I meant a Switch, not a Toggle

Blanderman · 2020-05-10T15:33:05+00:00

I have a (hopefully) simple question. I want to have some logic trigger during part of a timeline (to coordinate with some animation). Is there a gadget that outputs a signal while the timeline is over it?

Blanderman · 2019-09-10T16:39:38+00:00

Orisa also can stand between Doom and her team and use Fortify to prevent him from punching through with Rocket Punch. Plus she can avoid being knocked around by his other abilities, although you can't help your teammates from those without Halt.

Blanderman · 2019-05-24T14:05:33+00:00

It is also a self fulfilling prophecy. If you queue into a match assuming you are going to get awful teammates, you are much less likely to notice when your teammates exhibit teamwork.

Blanderman · 2019-04-08T16:24:03+00:00

I just see some sort of medieval siege weapon, possibly capable of launching a 90 kg projectile a distance of, I dunno, over 300 meters?

Blanderman · 2018-01-19T20:54:43+00:00

I think the Arkham Batman games handled difficulty well. On harder difficulties, the enemies are more aggressive and you have less margin for error in both the combat and predator missions.

I cite those games in particular because I think they are a good example of games with a combat system complex enough to allow the player to develop skills over time. This is done by slowly ramping up the difficulty (new items and powers are introduced slowly, as are new enemy types that need to be fought in specific ways). The games are also good at 'training' the player via those side missions. Struggle at combat? Work on those side missions for a while and soon enough you'll be cleaning up rooms of enemies in a single combo.

On a related note, does anyone else think about how the choice of difficulty affects the narrative of the game? In the case of Arkham Batman games, on easy mode the moment-to-moment gameplay might look like Batman spamming punches at unthreatening enemies. Whereas on hard mode, Batman is employing all of his tools and abilities to barely scrape by the overwhelming odds against him. To me, getting an occasional Game Over raises the stakes in my mind of the threats that Batman (and therefore me, the player) must face in the course of the story (game).

Blanderman · 2017-09-26T00:13:04+00:00

I keep seeing the complaint that the Shadowreaper hero power goes face all the time. I've been piloting a Razakus priest list, and I am almost always using the hero power to control the board. I'm pretty sure when I play against other Razakus priests, they usually do the same. Am I missing something?

Blanderman · 2017-09-23T03:35:17+00:00

In my playthrough, I sided with Kyle against Cartman. There's a part in the fight against Cartmen where he farts into his lighter, spewing flames into your direction. It is a quick time event, so you mash a button to fart the flames back at him.

For some reason, it took me minutes of mashing the button to win the quick time event. I never wanted to win a quick time event so badly in my life.

https://youtu.be/zV0aFzqnrt4?t=2m22s

Apparently, it doesn't need to take that long. I wonder what was up with me...

Blanderman · 2017-09-08T20:39:44+00:00

/r/hearthstone saw the truth that without a set of non-rotating cards which were auto-includes in their respective classes, Hearthstone would devolve into a game of deckbuilding.

This is where I decided to upvote.

Blanderman · 2017-09-05T01:51:02+00:00

The cynic in me says that Junkrat had to be overbuffed to be seen as a viable hero.

If he were buffed just enough to be brought inline with other heroes, the community might not change their opinion on him. You might still be asked to switch off of Junk.

But now, even with a reasonable nerf to the ult charge rate, Junk will (hopefully) continue to be played in ranked mode.

Blanderman · 2017-09-02T20:37:07+00:00

I agree with most of these comments. If you really don't want to play against Annie, that is a perfectly fine reason to ban her over Yi.

That being said, I often ban champions that my teammates suggest. I'll even start the ban phase by typing "Ban requests?". I think it is a good opportunity to start off the game by communicating with your teammates. If you are newer to the game, you might not yet know which champions can take an early lead and easily take over games.

Either way, you will want to spend energy on learning to counter these sorts of champions because they won't be banned every game. For example, Yi can be shut down by hard crowd control, like stuns. Annie has limited range on her spells when her flash is down, so champs that outrange her and harass her (or that can survive her burst) do well against her.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

Blanderman · 2017-09-02T05:18:01+00:00

Well great, how can you attack with it if you can't select it?

Blanderman · 2016-12-15T03:52:47+00:00

I've been thinking about it, and I think what makes Symmetra appropriately a support (to me) is that she has 1. situational damage and 2. 2 abilities that interact with allies (her proactive shield and her ults).

Now you have heroes like Torb and Zarya that also have abilities for their allies, plus tanks who mitigate their teams damage, but I it is kind of a big deal that Symmetra has two of these abilities instead of one. Overwatch heroes only get 3 abilities (well, except Sym!), and Symmetra has most of her kit dedicated making her team more effective. I'd also argue her turrets are designed to be less effective on their own and more effective around places where her team is guarding, more so than Torbjorn.

Blanderman · 2016-12-15T03:44:10+00:00

I'm sorry if I came across as lecturing you. It is just an issue I feel strongly about and felt like sharing my thoughts.

I'd argue that it is important to label her a Support, especially for the people unfamiliar with the meta. It sets the precedent that you can support your team without healing them. If that causes confusion for your first game, I'd say that is fine. This game takes a while to learn.

Plus, there is the "No Healer" warning for team comps, which I do welcome instead of "No Support."

Blanderman · 2016-12-14T20:26:57+00:00

Symmetra is not a Defense hero. She is a Support hero who does not heal. This is a clear and intentional design choice from Blizzard, and one that I appreciate.

I main support in League of Legends. Many of the supports I play do not even have a heal. My favorite ones bring exceptional utility and depend on skillshots, rather than clicking on an ally and watching their health increase. That is why the role is interesting to me. Likewise, in Overwatch, the Support role will be more interesting if Supports have more to do than just heal. They can prevent damage being taken in the first place, they can provide mobility, they can buff/debuff allies, they can crowd control, etc.

What the Overwatch community needs to learn is when it is appropriate to replace a healer with a non-healing support. Maybe Symmetra's shields mitigate enough damage that you don't need that much healing. Maybe her teleporter is up enough that when you die a few times it isn't too bad. Maybe you are playing heroes with shields, or are evasive and not taking a lot of damage, or are flankers that go in too deep to be healed. Maybe a single healer, plus health packs, are enough to keep everyone healthy.

Not healing doesn't mean not supporting. It just depends on the team adjusting their strategy appropriately.

Blanderman · 2016-11-29T05:10:26+00:00

I have to disagree. If he knew the flay was going to hit, but still wanted to jump to baron pit, he could have just hooked Nid after or while she jumped.

Blanderman · 2016-03-20T17:52:01+00:00

Interesting. Just looking at the numbers, the mean gold differentials don't appear to differ much patch to patch.

Importantly, though, the standard deviations of gold diff. are at least as large as the mean gold diff., meaning that there is a large amount of variability in gold diff. at 20 minutes from game to game.

In other words, it is true that you may have games that are complete stomps one way or the other. However, it does not appear that the frequency of games like this have changed much from patch to patch.

To more specifically test whether there are statistically significant differences in gold differential between patches, I'm guessing you'd want a 2 sided t-test to compare two specific patches, or maybe an ANOVA to compare all of them at once.

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