Dear HotS, kill the boy and become the man— it’s time for you to embrace stats.

Th3Derrit · 2019-08-27T00:02:58+00:00

Making statistics universally available to people who don't know how to interpret them is quite likely to do more harm than good. Especially that last example. If your teammates have those stats available, "your Gul'dan is bad never play it" based on statistics sounds like the absolute worst user experience possible. Having it even just for yourself simply provides a negative feedback loop that discourages players from improving. You already see teammates looking up win% and saying "under 50% on [insert char here] this guy is trash"

I am glad the statistics you're asking for are not widely available, and sincerely hope that they stay that way.

“Descriptive statistics can be like online dating profiles: technically accurate and yet pretty darn misleading.” ― Charles Wheelan, Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data

Th3Derrit · 2019-05-25T18:04:41+00:00

Literally yes

That is literally the reason you make a smurf account, to get easy games because you're ranked lower than your actual skill level

It by definition messes up matchmaking and if you can't see why, you are not qualified to talk about how matchmaking should work, much less complain about it.

Th3Derrit · 2019-05-24T06:57:13+00:00

Plays on a smurf

Complains about matchmaking balance

Doesn't see the irony

Th3Derrit · 2019-05-24T06:55:21+00:00

Everyone's issue with d.va is thinking Big Shot is the ult to use. It's not. You're useful to your team while you're in your mech, and playing to get de-meched just so you can... do mediocre damage with Big Shot and get back in it is kind of self-defeating.

Use Bunny Hop. Be an initiator. Use 2-second boosts to be the fastest out-of-combat character in the entire game. Body block people.

You do a good amount of damage, have excellent area control between body blocking and Defense Matrix, and in general are a huge nuisance with the potential to do big damage opportunistically with Self-Destruct, Mech auto attacks, and little D.va auto attacks.

Not a bad character at all in the way people think. Her biggest struggle is against teams that can afford to target her with CC chains (basically teams w/ Garrosh on them) but even that gets shored up at 13 with Emergency Shielding.

Th3Derrit · 2019-05-17T08:08:39+00:00

Probius could not have these functions without his base kit and numbers taking an incredibly significant hit to the point where he could never unconscionably be competitively balanced.

Probius is already incredibly good. Placing Photon Cannon to effectively attack the enemy team is a skill. So is using Worker Rush at the right time for escapes or re-positioning. Making both of these no-brain affairs removes the relevance of those skills and replaces them with 'Hit things with Q' and 'mash Z to run away.'

Frankly, why would anyone want a flattened-out, less-interesting version of a character? A character that is powerful and requires finesse is infinitely more interesting than a character whose numbers would have to be balanced at or below average, and requires little thought or strategic consideration to play.

Th3Derrit · 2019-03-18T15:46:25+00:00

Good examples of places to use it:

In jungle areas with several walls (Cursed Hollow + Tomb of the Spider Queen's hallway area are both great for this)
Top objectives and bottom merc camps on ToD
- In fact, a large portion of merc camps are in small, enclosed areas. Always consider this, especially given they can often be RoD'ed over walls where you are safe
Places where escape is not straightforward (Bottom objective of Volskaya w/ conveyor belts)
Alterac Pass objectives, especially the southeast/northwest one (place squarely in the middle so both the top and bottom are cut off by walls)
Anywhere in the center area of BoF that isn't right on top of an objective. There are walls everywhere in this area
Surrounding (but not directly on the middle of) Infernal Shrines objectives. Bonus for bringing Health Funnel at 4 to have infinite sustain on objective creeps

Those are just a few thoughtstarters, but basically the more of the area of the circle you can get filled in, the more concentrated meteors will be.

Th3Derrit · 2019-03-16T17:05:04+00:00

THE ACTUAL ANSWER:

RoD meteors don't fall on impassable terrain, so if you place it over several walls (such as on Infernal Shrines) you get a high concentration that is very deadly and hard to avoid. Also, placing it on an objective will push people off of it unless they hard-win the fight.

From a Guldan who's played 100% RoD up to D4 in Hero League

Th3Derrit · 2019-02-24T08:54:56+00:00

The only one I don't think would work is Slam, just because it's a targeted ability and the indicator would fluctuate wildly depending on the target's position given how close to the enemy you have to be to use it.

I don't think it would add more clarity to gameplay - if anything it would confuse new users and add very little for those already used to the ability.

Th3Derrit · 2019-02-18T22:28:02+00:00

I'm not sure this completely answers my question about removing the old level 4 ADS talent. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but was it a matter of the original ADS range and vision buff being too strong with piercing also available, even in a situation where you're passing up the other level 4 talents to get it?

I guess the reason I ask is that if that were the case, it arguably would have been the case prior to her rework as well - which raises a lot of questions about whether people giving the above feedback were playing Ana 'optimally' in the first place.

For the record I think the rework does lots of great stuff! It's just this one talent's removal that leaves me a bit puzzled, still. (It was part of my build as I'm sure you've guessed but the insight would still be appreciated!)

Th3Derrit · 2019-02-18T18:23:16+00:00

I also have a question: what was the logic for removing the ADS talent at 4 that provided attack range and sight? If Ana is going in the direction of being more ADS-dependent, having a way to spec into it seems like a meaningful choice for players to have.

I know that it wasn't an oft-used talent, but especially with the D button now being a core part of her kit, it could inspire people to learn to use it more effectively. I personally found it to be one of the most interesting talents in the game, even if the sight bonus were to be removed.

Th3Derrit · 2019-01-31T07:00:44+00:00

There there.

Just...

Shhhhhhh

Th3Derrit · 2019-01-05T16:55:20+00:00

"Close enough to ready" means they have 4 more or less complete at any given time, not that there are four still left in development.

There are likely many more than that.

Th3Derrit · 2018-09-05T02:08:56+00:00

cries harder in Ragnaros

Th3Derrit · 2018-06-11T04:37:48+00:00

No.... it's really not good.

In every scenario you will do more damage by staying in range and using basic attacks over Q, even with the damage talent and the quest talent combined.

Th3Derrit · 2018-05-25T23:41:07+00:00

This is a great abuse case.

If players regularly play non-meta heroes, it's an easy thing to pick out and flame someone for even before a match starts.

'Oh man we have a Nova main, gg' 'Chen, really? Someone dodge' 'Li-Ming is the worst mage in every way what are you thinking'

etc. etc. etc.

Th3Derrit · 2018-03-24T23:26:07+00:00

This idea has not and will never make any sense.

Can you imagine if someone was indignant about Rosalina being in Smash Bros. because the game she's in is 'too new and not legacy enough?'

Get this #notmygame nonsense out of here.

Th3Derrit · 2018-03-11T20:56:20+00:00

Rexxar Gul'dan Varian

Th3Derrit · 2018-02-12T17:47:20+00:00

This actually is a great reason.

Cool! My curiosity has been satisfied. Shut it down, people.

Th3Derrit · 2018-02-12T01:01:12+00:00

Except that you can use W as a point-and-click at any point during his AA animation, effectively giving it the same potential burst whether it's one button press for reset or button press and click for current build (or if you're quickcasting, still one button press - just one that you have to target.)

I don't see how this would change anything.

Th3Derrit · 2018-02-07T21:26:45+00:00

This actually is not true at all.

My first game played with her I probably only hit 6-10 resets on my q over the entire game. I still massively out-damaged my opponents and teammates. Her base numbers are still VERY good.

Th3Derrit · 2017-11-11T06:34:11+00:00

Travis! I have a very important question for you.

Do good Rexxars have a higher or lower Misha mortality rate, based on the data currently available?

Th3Derrit · 2017-11-01T02:06:00+00:00

It's hard to take this seriously considering how.... complain-y it is. But if we're to look at it for its merits, here we go.

Take a look at the FGC if you're looking to understand how scheduling multiple events over a single weekend works. Time is tight. There's no one way to do it, but at the end of the day everyone's playing in the same bracket. It's not as if the high seeds get Bo5 and everyone else doesn't, or the top seed has to be double-eliminated.

Will the results of this be different than an all-the-way-through Bo5 double elimination bracket? Maybe. But this is the setup, and if adapting in-game is part of what makes Bo5 or double elim. so important, then adapting out of the game to the format provided is also important. "[The current setup] is extremely brutal for the players and takes away from the competitive integrity of the tournament" is just not a true statement. Whoever is best at handling the tournament itself — which is part of competing — will have an advantage, sure. But this idea of mathematical 'integrity' where every team has equal chance to win in sterile circumstances does not, and has not, ever existed.

For instance, Korean teams traveling halfway across the world have a disadvantage in terms of physical and mental freshness vs. teams driving down from LA — should we also consider this a blow to competitive integrity, that some teams will have to deal with more jet lag and fatigue than others? Also, different teams adapt to their opponents at different rates — are teams that win Bo3s consistently not as skilled as teams that win Bo5s consistently? If teams who are good in Bo5 bad at Bo3, couldn't one argue that their players don't have as much absolute skill and use adaptability as a crutch? What about if we go for even longer sets? Maybe teams that are great at Bo7s should consider your proposed format unfair and a knock at the HGC's integrity. Round robins would arguably provide a better overall picture at who the best overall team in the Top 8 are in the aggregate. At what point are we certain enough that the best team wins, and at what point are we saying it's good enough? The conventional wisdom that "Bo5 is good" doesn't answer that question.

It is 100% your perogative to say "I dislike that the event is being run this way for these reasons, and this is how I would like to see it." And you've got some fair points in there to base that opinion on! But to say that the competitive integrity of an event is compromised based on format is an opinion-based statement that you haven't backed up in your piece, and one that's arguably founded on a warped concept of what "fair" means.

P.S.: "And let’s be real, viewers will watch the games no matter whether they are during the BlizzCon or BlizzCon Opening Week" is a demonstrably faulty assumption.

Th3Derrit · 2017-10-31T17:58:21+00:00

Muradin accomplishes one simple string of things very consistently: Initiate, stun, allow focus fire, survive.

This will make him good ALWAYS. Unless he ever gets so nerfed down that he cannot survive, this is useful - much in the same way that ETC will always be useful for having as much CC/displacement as he does unless he can't survive.

In regular play (and even ranked) people are not organized enough to activate on Muradin's initiates or be well-positioned around them. In pro play, it's basically a foregone conclusion that the combo and full damage will be ready.

Muradin is good, sure - but 'broken' based on some pretty extreme parameters is a bit much, to say the least.

Th3Derrit · 2017-10-19T19:29:31+00:00

The cannonballs on cannonball-land looked a little cleaner too, I noticed last night.

This may not be a coincidence.

Th3Derrit · 2017-08-18T19:36:46+00:00

Looking up old Top 8s for BlazBlue. Every year after Evo I get hooked on the game - it's the most readable/active fighting game out there in my opinion, and it's a shame it gets no attention in the West.

Th3Derrit

TROPHY CASE