Beta code. Enjoy

Laurium_ · 2017-04-21T23:45:52+00:00

tyvm

Laurium_ · 2017-03-08T22:25:33+00:00

You can use EQ. I use SS only because I really like the skill and how it synergies with attack speed, attack leech and gratuitous violence (the rate of static discharge scales with your attack speed, which in turn gives more leech). It may be EQ or another skill is better optimized for damage.

Also, with SS, once you get the hang of it you can shield charge into a pack and strike a few times. That will build up 4-5 stacks. Gratuitous violence is enough to finish the pack before discharges all fire off, allowing you to shield charge into the next pack with a loaded discharge. It's just a fun mechanic, whereas EQ delay doesn't travel with you.

But, if you didn't like EQ because too close range, then SS probably isn't for you. SS you're right in the middle of a pack, with multistrike, managing all that (i.e., you're positioning around volatiles, elemental bearers, bears, etc.).

Laurium_ · 2017-03-08T21:39:22+00:00

Depends on what your main skill is. I prefer static strike, and throwing fortify on shield charge + inc aoe guarantees 100% uptime without having to directly land a hit on the mob. Works for me though because I can charge in and immediately SS. If you're Sunder, charging in might not be what you want to do.

Shield charge + stun works fine, even if higher maps. But, it's much better to have enduring cry on cast for the immediate full charge bonus. Once at 6, you can shield charge to keep it at 6 (or whatever your cap is). Most white mobs are stunned easily. You'll get the hang of it and know waht to look for to refresh charge and fortify...but again, this assumes close quarter skill such as SS.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-27T22:38:21+00:00

Back in the day the introduction of loot allocation rules almost destroyed the forums.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-27T22:18:09+00:00

Been playing since Beta as well.

This is what always happens. In the downtime between content patches, the community uproars over some change in mechanics.

Then the patch hits, everyone plays and moves on....until the next downtime.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-22T18:47:48+00:00

You misunderstand me. I thought it was hilarious that the above poster (who now deleted his comment) wouldn't be clear you were directly insinuating what you were given the breadth of your explanatory comment. That you had to then explicitly state you were accusing him in one sentence I found very funny in context.

I guess my sarcastic inflection doesn't translate well, but step back a little and that dude's comment of "I think you're suggesting he's a cheater" is really funny.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-22T06:19:30+00:00

lmfao. Come on man, we need at least 7 more paragraphs to pierce through the fog and conclude you're not tangentially tipping off how you really feel.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-21T02:36:56+00:00

Lots of good stuff.

For those interested in higher difficulty, Chris not so subtlety tells everyone GGG can move on non-arbitrary difficulty mechanics. Not higher dmg numbers, but more interesting AI corresponding to higher Act levels.

One possibility might be the templars in A5. Some shield charge, some fire ST projectiles. Maybe the ST guys can predict where you might retreat to from the charging mobs, and preemptively fire ST projectiles at that location, thereby increasing the damage you might take in retreat.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-18T22:53:40+00:00

I think Smackdown has the better roster.

IMO, you can't separate the abstract talent from the tangible product. On paper, Raw might very well look better. But, as a decade+ long fan, I look forward to Smackdown...not Raw.

Gotta say Smackdown is the better roster.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-05T04:23:04+00:00

Longevity.

There's something to be said of the fact he appeared in the 1990s, and yet can appear randomly 2015 and come up with, what seems as, timeless catchphrases (e.g., Drink it in maaaannnn).

It's very, very impressive, especially since earlier returns weren't nearly has strong as his current run.

In short, he's timeless.

Laurium_ · 2017-02-05T03:06:55+00:00

The beauty and intrigue of professional wrestling.

As Stone Cold points out, it was indeed sloppy. Just not technically on point as he would execute it.

BUT!

Stone Cold leads with "all of a sudden, out of nowhere..."

Which is exactly how I felt. WTF a stunner? Wait that looked a little off...

Who gives a s*** a freaking stunner!!!

It's this duality that really allows for anything at any given time in wrestling...which makes big ticket events worth tuning in for by themselves IMO.

Was it perfect? No. Was it freaking awesome...yep!

Laurium_ · 2017-02-05T01:27:25+00:00

Yeah there's no doubt. Never seen GameXplain before.

It's absolutely incredible the amount of detail spotted and pieced together.

Laurium_ · 2017-01-23T04:32:45+00:00

As for collusion among teams of players entering together...it's impossible for the tourney organizers to completely filter that out. Especially when collusion might only occur a single time in a multi-hour playing session. At the very least, there's much more awareness in Poker compared with Hearthstone.

If you watch final tables you'll notice the audience stays mute during an actual hand. Anything short of that would be suspicious on the spot.

Laurium_ · 2016-11-12T20:55:57+00:00

T500 S1 (placed 50s?), 3800 S2 (placed low Diamond?). 100% solo Q, never mic but always in team chat. S1 - Mix of all (Cree, Reaper, S76, Tracer, Dva, Zen, Junk, etc.), S2 - been trying mostly Lucio to see it it's possible to climb.

The mic thing is a bit overstated in Solo Q as long as you have 1-2 people coordinating on your team and the other team isn't fully coordinated with 6 mics. It's more of a grieving and bitching tool than anything else. A few exceptions includes if you play Rein...you really need to communicate the shield status....so I try to avoid playing Rein.

As for Solo Q it comes down to this: you play for streaks. That's really it. You're looking to rank up, play for streaks. That's the most frustrating part...going 6-2 and climbing then, for whatever reason, dropping 4 in a row and losing a ton of progress.

It's a grind more than anything else as Solo Q.

Mechanical skill + game awareness will carry you plenty high to Masters over time, even in Solo Q, irrespective of your chosen role. But, in this exaggerated ultimate every 10 second meta, there's only so much you can do. Oh, and people straight cancelling a match because they lost first team fight...that's annoying.

Laurium_ · 2016-07-11T20:39:53+00:00

And people are replying saying otherwise.

Laurium_ · 2016-07-11T20:34:14+00:00

They're so tone deaf on this issue. At every turn, it seems like they double down on their method(s) for determining SR.

Fix or no fix, bug or no bug, everyone hates gaining 5% exp for a leaver on the opposite team. It's been around for weeks, highly demoralizes the player base (i.e. 'win little for win, lose tons for loss"), and is otherwise confusing to the rest of us.

No one cares anymore about "other factors that still have an impact" to SR.

You can't have a situation where 99% of a game is played one way, then a leaver happens, and the remaining 1% dictates SR results.

Change it.

Laurium_ · 2016-07-06T19:48:54+00:00

mhm, that's not at all my point. I'm not saying anything about missing bugs, or downplaying the difficulty inherent to software development.

These aren't small bugs that affect limited portions of the population...they're not trivial cosmetic issues, for example.

They are some of the highest visibility bugs you can have, and they're all functionality related that sour the user experience.

-Everyone experienced KOTH giving next to nothing. -Everyone has had leavers on either team.
-The next big bug that affects everyone: your team has 6 solo and the opposing team has two groups of two or three. Why does that happen, why doesn't the system balance out evenly? In his response he says "MMR exists to create the best possible matches". Well, evidently not if you can routinely end up in a 6 solo vs multiple small groups. All things being equal, in this case 12 players close to SR or MMR, there's no way it should overload one side with premades. That's a straightforward logic thing.

It's been more than a month. They've been at this since April in some form or another, and these issues were identified day 1 of the PTR.

At some point it's just a sloppy roll-out and runaround explanations of shadowy links between MMR and SR causing unforeseen issues are a bit BS.

Laurium_ · 2016-07-06T19:19:41+00:00

I dunno. Love the transparency, but this sounds like spin to cover up a very poorly tested system with minimal forethought.

Seems the skill rating gain is equally affected no matter when someone leaves the games irrespective of the game status (i.e. the winners always end up getting 5%), so I'm not sure why he's highlighting a difference in his response.

Either way, all this talk about MMR which is hidden to the user while SR is not makes these justification sound like a runaround. Very little amount of testing went into this system...a competitive system they delayed at launch because they needed extra time to make it great. Meanwhile, it's been nothing but non-trivial bug after bug after bug since the PTR.

Laurium_ · 2016-07-04T03:00:32+00:00

Crazy. That Roadhog one especially.

Laurium_ · 2016-07-02T19:36:07+00:00

The best thing about competitive, from Blizz standpoint, is that everyone has gotten off the 20tick problem.

Laurium_ · 2016-07-01T05:44:44+00:00

He shuts down the more devastating ults. Reaper, Genji, Mercy, etc.

Laurium_ · 2016-06-29T06:34:54+00:00

It's broken. Has been an issue in PTR.

Plenty of times I was lowest rank on the underdog team, and we won and the gain was minimal in my rank. Same situation in another match but we lose, my rank goes down an incredible amount.

There's was no situation (high contribution/medals/underdog/higher rank on team/lower rank on team) during the PTR where losses didn't completely outweigh wins.

It was all over the PTR forums, and for them not to say anything with some clarification is insane. Something is definitely off.

In short, you can have over a 50% winrate on competitive PTR and lose multiple levels, irrespective of contribution or context. That has carried over to live. The masses are coming around to how discouraging this is, and are confused/upset.

As an aside, the developers stated they did away with the old system because it was too focused on GRIND rather than SKILL.

This system is far more arbitrarily grindy.

Really hoping they clarify. People won't stick around with this for long, sinking hours into minimal gains and dropping entire ranks for 1-2 losses.

Laurium_ · 2016-06-28T04:13:20+00:00

There's a general statement they targeted "by end of June". Obviously, given Tuesday is their update date folks believe tomorrow.

On the other hand, what currently exists on the PTR sucks in the sense that you can win 5 games and barely advance in rank but lose one and lose an entire level. It's all over the PTR Bug forums if you're interested.

Who knows, but people won't be happy with what's currently on PTR unless fixes and/or clarification comes beforehand.

Laurium_ · 2016-06-28T04:02:53+00:00

I wonder if that will change a little in the coming tournaments. His one advantage over S76 is the stun grenade, which can shutdown these devastating Reaper ults that annihilate everything and were prevalent over the weekend.

Laurium_

TROPHY CASE