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Heroes of the Storm: Gazlowe

Ravious mentions playing HotS as an assassin. My experience has been completely different because I have mostly been playing Gazlowe, an anti-NPC specialist. This isn’t LoL, it does not play like LoL, and if I am going with it I am going with it.

I picked up Gazlowe because I got a daily quest to play three games as a specialist, with no specialists available in the free rotation unless I gained a bunch of levels (poor design). Gazlowe was the cheapest, and he sounded interesting. Melee is not my strength, but he is a melee with Heimerdinger’s skills and anti-structure talents. I’m in.

I get that some people manage to be bad at Heroes of the Storm, but either Gazlowe is top tier or I’m just rather good with him. I do 30-40% of our team’s siege damage, sometimes more. There are games where I have top score for siege and hero damage and xp contribution. In a MOBA that focuses more on NPCs than killing other players, Gazlowe focuses on NPCs. You could build him another way, but why?

I take the passive for Gazlowe’s R: +150% damage against minions, mercenaries, and structures. Turrets do a bit of tanking, and Gazlowe chops down the towers. You can even upgrade him to melee the ammo out of towers, although I prefer more mana for more turrets. Against minions, he starts with two AE attacks, and you can upgrade his turrets and basic attack to hit multiple targets and then add a damage aura. Late game, it takes me longer to get back on my horse than to clear a wave of minions.

It is making the game pall for me the way that cultural victories did in Civ V. Players are what provide the variety in MOBAs, and Heroes of the Storm makes the other players less important. Gazlowe can make them irrelevant. And he wins.

: Zubon

[WoW] Flying into Cheat Mode

Blizzard has responded well to the outcry of the previous developer decision to ban flying from the latest expansion. They’ve decided to give [back?] flying as part of the open world end game.  Once unlocked on one character with collecting treasures, working on faction reputations, doing all the Draenor things, etc., all other characters get access without all the hoops.

I think one commentator in the official Blizzard post nails it, and gets downvoted heavily for the wisdom. The top comment says “this is reasonable”, and then the response from the one is that ‘if you’ve already done everything in Draenor, what reason is there for flying’. Continue reading [WoW] Flying into Cheat Mode

[LotRO] Fellowship Maneuvers

More games need to steal adapt fellowship maneuvers from The Lord of the Rings Online. It is a great mechanic that raises the skill ceiling and rewards group play without punishing soloers.

For those who have never played LotRO, a “conjunction” or “fellowship maneuver” is a group bonus opportunity. They randomly trigger occasionally in groups, and some classes have the ability to trigger them (notably Burglars). When they happen, the target is stunned for a few seconds, and everyone in the group can pick a color. The combination of colors creates an effect, with bonuses for coordinated maneuvers (mostly poker hands, order matters). A green-blue full house gives your group a big heal and mana refill, while a long straight can wipe trash mobs, put a big DoT on the boss, give you that heal and mana refill, and/or summon NPC allies.

This is a great way to support group play. It takes nothing away from solo players, but it provides a bonus to being in a group, and the bonus scales up with the group size. Playing with a couple of friends, you can occasionally get a nice little bonus. Playing with a full, organized group, you hit big bonuses all the time and steamroll.

Consistently hitting big fellowship maneuvers is the difference between a good group and a great group in LotRO. FMs encourage exactly the right sort of great group: clear communication, identifying roles, coordinating effort, and providing flexible support when circumstances knock someone out of a planned role. Groups that make good use of the system would be great groups anyway. This rewards them for doing things right and encourages players to group more and to group well. If you don’t talk to your group, you probably cannot hit those FMs. If you find a group you like playing with consistently, you will probably be in better practice at hitting FMs.

The mechanical particulars may not lend themselves to every game, but the fundamental idea and in-game execution are excellent. Full kudos to whoever designed and implemented that system.

: Zubon

Heroes of the Storm Non-Impressions

I have been trying Heroes of the Storm. It is kind of like League of Legends for people who don’t like the “fight the opposing champions” part very much, more of competitive PvE with some chance to kill your opponent. Old Blizzard refined the best of a genre into a polished project; New Blizzard seems to simplify a genre in search of an accessible product.

I kind of want to review it in pieces, because there are interesting design decisions being made, including some very nice pieces of polish. I think that will miss the overall point, though, because the gameplay is less compelling due to a combination of factors and missing factors, not something that will be apparent from one design choice in particular. I’ll probably go on to discuss a few details anyway.

If you always wanted a MOBA where the players were more of generals shepherding their forces than assassins fighting around them, this could be for you, or you might be able to find someone still playing Demigod.

: Zubon

[GW2] Hidden Mechanics: Community and Death Scaling

A Guild Wars 2 Reddit user took it upon themselves to memory-hack Guild Wars 2 to find out what is up with scaling and player death. It seems that the Guild Wars 2 client is actually sent the numbers for the enemy’s health, but those numbers are kept hidden for good reason.

Guild Wars 2 is all about inclusivity, and seeing a number can have a detrimental effect. When a player runs up to hit a mob to help another player this should be a good transaction even if the mob’s health goes up bit. Seeing the mob’s health go up in number is more off-putting than noticing the per-player DPS affects a smaller portion of the over all health as the health bar goes down.

However, there is a secret mechanic, which should not be secret. Or, it should have been kept secret, but now it’s not. How does dying affect scaling? Continue reading [GW2] Hidden Mechanics: Community and Death Scaling

Card Hunter

I have started playing Card Hunter. I was enthusiastic about it before release, mentally moved on, and am now getting back to it. I have enjoyed it, although its luster seems to fade quickly.

Card Hunter feels great, a mix of retro aesthetic with modern functionality. Personally, I am way past tired of the retro trend of faux 8-bit graphics; this reaches back even further to the classic Dungeons & Dragons modules. That nostalgia appeals to me. It recreates a bit of the tabletop experience, with dice and miniatures.
Continue reading Card Hunter

[GW2] Stronghold, Round Two

Tuesday’s Stronghold beta was good. I feel things are moving forward with the polish of the game mode. Mrs. Ravious and I had a lot of fun duo-queuing, and the household stance is we can’t wait for this PvP game mode to go live. However, there are still a few blemishes and a bit of fat for Stronghold.

The Meta Shift

I wrote last time that having a poor amount of player knowledge and meta is probably the worst part of Stronghold. I realize they are still far out in early beta, and a whole weekend or week of Stronghold play just might not be helpful to ArenaNet. Still, there is no time to cement anything player community wise in 24-hours.

The most important aspect of Stronghold that I felt many players seemed to miss was the gameplay shifts. Supply and creeps are especially important in the early stages, and hero summons and lord room rushes are the late game. I found many times players would still be running supply even after all doors were down. I would get a hero, and no one would join me in the push. Players have to be ready to switch gears, and that teaching didn’t take a lot of times, I felt. Continue reading [GW2] Stronghold, Round Two

Tinker Update

If you were on the fence about Tesh’s Tinker Dice, the Kickstarter has expanded to include seven colors, and it ends this week. It stands a fair chance of reaching its stretch goal, given usual last minute interest in campaigns that have already been funded.

: Zubon

By the Numbers

I rarely pass along press releases or advertisements except to mock them, but Stardock gets a nod for this one:

Come see what’s been keeping our players busy ruling their galaxies, with over 41,538 games completed, 7,158,087 ships destroyed, and 1,706,224,660 credits awarded since Galactic Civilizations III‘s May 14 launch.

Granted, we mock MMO PR for statements like “accounts” or “characters created” instead of “subscriptions,” and Stardock is providing these numbers instead of trumpeting something like a #1 sales rank, although you can get anything to #1 if you define your sub-sub-sub-category carefully enough…

: Zubon

[GW2] The Verdant Itzel Story (Beta)

Yesterday I was able make portions of the first and second closed beta runs for Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns. I decided rather than try and take in everything in those short two-hour sessions I would laser focus on one thing. The Itzel meta–event chain in northeast Verdant Brink caught my eye, and that is what I did pretty much the entire time.

Storytime

Each Outpost in the beta had an attached meta-event. The southeast Outpost seemed to be dealing with a Vinecrawler from what I heard in map chat. The Itzel outpost dealt with the hylek (frog people) issues. These meta-events provided a complete story. I will describe the Itzel outpost story in detail below so SPOILER alert. Skip to the next section to remain unspoiled. Continue reading [GW2] The Verdant Itzel Story (Beta)