I’ll cut to the chase, QM (and Brawl or any other “fun” game mode) need their own UI PANEL away or next to PLAY button. Unranked Draft and Storm League take spotlight priority - so that new and old players can jump into draft immediately.
While we’re at it, Blizzard needs to make a new comprehensive tutorial about basics (like drafting, maps, countering) and have it preferably near Unranked Draft and Storm League section. This would be even better if we had ingame news about Nexus Anomalies and other important updates in the PLAY section or make NEWS section for it.
QM doesn’t represent how HotS is truly played. It’s RANDOM game mode that teaches players bad habits and gives them false bragging rights about hero balance etc.
NB: HotS SHOULDN’T BE BALANCED AROUND QM or any other fun game mode!
QM being the most popular game mode isn’t a good enough excuse for a counter argument. You can still enjoy QM.
While in the current era it seems like a lot of work for a “dead game”, it really helps with the competitive longevity and keeping new players informed about updates etc.
Discuss. Since this thread is probably gonna hit the void really soon I would imagine.
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I don’t recall that ever being done - except in the very rare instance of Nova and ultimately the stealth mechanic itself.
Both of which received radical changes because of Quick Match players, not because they were an issue in high MMR ranked play or professional tournament play.
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It’s already late for anything to be done for QM at this point.
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I will quote you for any other replyers. It shows them who they are talking too
Pyroblast says hi btw
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True. Nova can never truly shine in ranked. And one of the reasons why stealth rework even happened was mostly because of QM.
Yeah, it represents how it’s mostly played. You don’t like QM, that’s fine. Don’t play it. Your suggestion doesn’t even fundamentally change anything except for a UI shift.
I mostly learned how to play in QM because you truly learn all facets of the game instead of being coddled into the illusion of perfect comps, which rarely happen even under the best of circumstances. I’ve learned so much more in QM by truly allowing myself to experiment, take risks, and find novel solutions.
When I finally did join ranked, I did not suddenly flounder to “bad habits”. I did just fine.
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UI shifts are important and have a large impact on perspective. Are you aware how media works? It’s pretty much the same.
Regardless, I disagree with your blame shifting of QM. It’s a perfectly fine MODE you can pick. It’s not forced on you beyond having to have enough heroes to start draft no matter how much you want to devalue its place in the game.
Personally I think QM would be more ok if I didn’t have to struggle with that mentor system all the time, if that’s still a thing of course, basically queues you with new players.
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It truly is awful playing with new players.
However, his change wouldn’t really do anything about that though. You’re gonna mentor a noob in UR if that’s their point of entry.
It’s also an unfortunate inevitability as games age. The amount of new players coming in don’t just magically appear to create fulfilling games in just their bracket. You either don’t let new players join, or you let them join, restrict their queues, and they basically don’t get games anyways. There’s no real elegant solution here.
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Yeah that’s honestly the harsh truth that I still cannot accept.
Well at least my ranked experience is going well, 73% lifetime win rate lol.
The really bad part about QM is the fact there there is no barrier to entry. Just pick a character and hop into QM. Then, when your team is calling you a potato, you just say the usual…" I’m new to this toon, and it’s just QM, bro…"
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Actually you have it backwards. QM is the most played PVP mode which would indicate that it should be put front and centre on the main page and the draft modes off to the side. The most played mode overall is vs AI which is much more like QM than a draft mode. HotS players for the most part don’t like drafting
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The current UI is fine in that it shows the progression for new players to start.
AI- where any new player should start
QM- Where you ease into playing against others
Unranked- Where you learn how to draft and what comes with it
Ranked- for if you truly care about your own ranking as opposed to others
Brawl- NIRVANA
Custom Games- for trying out wacky stuff or hanging with friends
Blizzard doesn’t need to make tutorials about drafting, certainly not having to put it into the game. Anyone who actually cares about draft will either find one of the many tutorial videos and forums posts to base their decisions on, or they will simply not care and decide to learn by doing.
Also the only real time the game was ever balanced around QM remotely was the Stealth update, which was frankly a long time coming as it was getting increasingly difficult to build heroes and talents around.
And heroes were CERTAINLY never balanced around Brawl otherwise the Chromie rework would have died in its crib
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Also don’t really want new players to get into draft right away. Unless you want people who don’t know the heroes and don’t have the ones you would like playing with you all the time
This is true, people don’t really want to accept it, but QM is the most popular PVP mode and this:
People find this even more baffling, as do I, but numbers speak, this games playerbase is casual for the most part.
I’m not sure about that, but it hasn’t helped that there are no guilds in Hots so people can easily find groups, or even a useful LFG system. The focus has always been QM for good or bad.
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Ok I feel you, I hear you, but where I’m at, QM is literally the only mode that still has players.
Trying to get a game in Hero League takes so much time, I could have had a game or two if I had just gone QM
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From my perspective, QM is exactly how this game is played.
What I love most is adapting. I love trying different and unusual builds to suit the needs of the game. Modifying my play for when we don’t have a tank / healer.
The strategy of drafting is also very fun. I wish i could do more of it but unfortunately as Ptolemios said:
Maybe the solution would be to remove Unranked Draft?
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I’ve suggested that before and the response has been quite negative. Personally I would have rather seen Unraked draft removed and still had HL and TL as people used to treat TL as a casual ranked mode. Considering the decline in players I wouldn’t miss URD if it encouraged more people to play SL.
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The game is vs. AI.
Then there is a noticable PvP fraction, which is QM and ARAM.
Last and least there is a marginal fraction who plays draft/ranked and likes to pretend their playstyle was the game. Rather pathetic.
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