I wanted to add a “non-balance” within the title, but it was getting too long, so it didn’t let me. However, do think of it as “the last non-balance patch”, rather than just “the last patch”. I was also thinking of asking about a single change, but at least for me it was gonna be too difficult to decide, so I did it like this instead.
As for me, the changes I’d like to see are:
Major AI improvements.
Added a menu, with commands you can issue to AI teammates, which opens by holding the “X” button.
Greatly improved the death recap tab. Now it remembers all of the instances of damage you have taken before dying, and you can scroll left and right to see them all. It also registers CC, even if its source hasn’t damaged you.
Also added a “damage recap” tab, which is like the death recap, but allows you to see the last instances of damage and CC you have taken, even if you haven’t died.
Increased the exp globe pull radius by 2.
You can select a hero loadout for “Random Draft, Only Mid” games during the draft phase.
Greatly improved Custom Games: Added UI for existing Lobbies. Players now get exp and gold from playing Custom Games with standard settings. All of the old brawl maps are available as Custom Games (such as Pull Party and Dodge Brawl, as well as true AROM maps).
Garden of Terror reverted back to its old state, with the following differences:
[E] Sprint removed. The terror is moving at 130% speed, reduced to 80% for 5 seconds upon taking damage.
[W] Damage bonus against structures reduced from 200% to 125%.
(At least in my experience, the Terror’s insane structure damage, combined with its 130% sprinting move speed, while being unstoppable, were the things that made the map feel bad)
Improved version of Haunted Mines brought back to the map pool.
You can now select the enemy AI’s difficulty in Try Mode.
Legacy Items (mounts, portraits) will occasionally be put for sale.
Not a small patch by any means, but here it is. 1 or 2 new heroes that compliment each other, bring back old hero league, bring back haunted mines, add all chat, and justice for Probius.
oh good, another topic for doom-mongering instead of just asking for relevant changes, making suggestions or anything else that isn’t decrying the game to be in fear of dying.
Because not only would the premise be pretty terrible if that is the case, now you’re tacking on that much more emotional blackmail onto anyone that reads this forum and doesn’t comply with the demands. Cuz oh boy, that’s the sort of thing a passion-driven content creation enjoys having: guilt and backlash by ungrateful plebs in perpetual cycles of complaints.
Ya know what would be a billion times better that more of this doom-demand pandering? Cuz opening up something for plain suggestions instead of “Well if the game is going to die, do this first please” crap that’s been spreading here.
The map used to be more unique back then. They just needed to balance the Terror better after they made all vehicles unstoppable. Instead they turned it into a generic amalgamation of Cursed Hollow and Tomb of the Spider Queen, with a stronger objective.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Thisalee_Crow
We have to face the music. No matter if you wanna accept it or not, the patch cadence is slowing down rapidly. We aren’t too far from the time when the game will stop being patched altogether.
You can see the patch history for yourself, can’t you:
after ~85% of the year has passed, we’ve gotten 6 patches (0 heroes) for 2021.
13 patches in 2020 (with 2 heroes).
22 patches in 2019 (with 4 heroes).
39 patches in 2018 (with 7 heroes).
41 patches in 2017 (with 15 heroes).
I am expecting a hero release by the end of the year, which will be the 7-th and final patch for the year. And in 2022 I’m expecting up to 4 patches for the year, with no heroes. And maybe 2 patches in 2023.
I don’t like it either, but the game IS indeed dying.
I prefer the old GOT, I think it was probably my favorite map because there were so many different ways the game played out because of how you could choose to split or group up for bosses. I also dislike the token mechanic because people just often ignore it because “we can get the next”.
I actually don’t mind chasing the terror. It’s something you don’t really do on other maps, so I’d like to keep the sprint. I do miss being able to snare it though. I think 5 seconds is way too long though, considering most snares don’t even last that long and this is a vehicle. The Terror needs a way to be able to move across the map if the enemy has pushed in. You just have a useless terror that can’t even get to the other side with your changes.
If it was the last, I guess it wouldn’t matter which changes are made.
But I guess I’d want call of the Nexus back, with QM comps being guaranteed a tank and healer.
The reason the terror had sprint is because it started at your core. You had to walk all the way to the opponent’s side of the map. So without sprint, if you were headed for a keep, most of your duration would be lost in travel time.
You’d have to wait 2 years for them to make that patch lol.
I want the custom games section to get a huge overhaul, featuring access to all of the awesome brawls we had once upon a time so you can make games yourself of thse game modesy ou might not have gotten to try.
So he’d have 130% speed to get to the enemy base, but once it engages into combat, it can’t just dash away from the enemy. However, it will still be able to do that if it doesn’t take damage for 5 seconds.
Except you don’t need to wait for it to be at your structure to start attacking it. So you could more easily stop it from reaching them. It basically gives a free slow to the entire enemy team on an objective. With the current wording, minion damage would constantly slow it down. And damage over time would be great against it. And you won’t even be able to auto attack enemies anymore ,because you can’t ever catch up to them when they stutter step. It will feel like everyone who attacks you is moving at mount speed.
TBH that’s all I’m hoping for, a new hero by the end of the year. I think a new hero is very important to the health of HOTS too. I can only judge by the forums and the more than half of my friends list who are taking a break from HOTS until a new hero is released.
That is debatable. If I recall correctly, the Terror could 1-shot whole minion wave due to its splash damage. So minion waves could potentially slow it down, but not for long.
Furthermore, we are talking about BALANCING. The Terror could straight up 3-shot some of the squishy heroes late game. And its polymorph was a sufficient CC allowing it to do just that.
It was straight up the most overpowered objective from all of the HotS maps, so it can’t just be released as it used to be.
Even if it’s slowed all of the time, it was still rather bulky and could take some beating before dying.
However, it’d be unacceptable to keep its free “out of jail” card the way it was. I’d say that they should apply this change and balance it from there. If it is indeed in a bad spot, then they can reduce the penalty to 90% or just remove it and keep its in-combat speed at 100%. Or they could make the slow decaying over 5 seconds, so it’d get 100% speed after just 2 sec. Or they could keep its sprint, but make damage interrupt it.
There are plenty of possible solutions, but having an unstoppable overpowered vehicle able to zoom through the battlefield at 130% speed, no matter what, was part of the problem in its design after making vehicles unstoppable.
Dont forget the throw seed and leave tactic cause the seed could dmg forts/keeps on its own. Not like now where the seed only turns them off until its killed.
I’ve said this since they announced Garden of Terror’s rework: they should’ve done the new seed gathering mechanic, but kept the vehicle as a reward. The problems with old GoT were the dull NPC race at night, both teams getting Terrors at the same time sometimes, idiots letting them rot, and the Terrors themselves starting your base.
I do think that the current version of Garden of Terror is a significantly more balanced and fun map. However, the objective reward itself is duller than dirt. It should’ve just spawned a pilotable terror at the collected seed once you got three, with something more interesting than the speed boost ability (maybe a ground pound AoE since they have an animation for one already).
I’ll be fine with Nova [small] rework concept instead, but this could be done within a balance patch afterwards.