So I’ve been dipping my toes back into some ranked matches, the match quality has been surprisingly good, considering, with only a couple of terrible rainbow lobbies.
I’ve had a few very satisfying matches where I’ve picked E.T.C, a tank I think to pick only slightly more the Arthas. So often in my ranked games, in the ban phase tanks are a popular targets, and usually represent more than 50% of the six bans. Due to the low number of heroes in the tank pool, this often leaves me with choices such as Malganis (I love playing him, but easily countered by CC), Blaze, Stitches and Tyrael.
I’m not much of a Blaze player, and Tyrael and Stitches are more situation picks, this often leaves E.T.C. sitting on the shelf after the second ban phase. So I’ve been taking him on maps such as Dragonshire, TOD, Cursed Hollow and Sky Temple, to much success, which is a surprise to me.
Stage Dive, that’s often why I’ve really been picking him, when other obvious global heroes are banned on maps like Dragonshire, E.T.C is often overlooked.
I had an amazing game with E.T.C on TOD. The team I was matched with was full of friendly banter, something that is rare now, where often people never type a single word. Blah, blah, the most enjoyable part of the match was the 5-minute+ stalling of the first objective.
Three shrines popped, each team took their own shrines top, leaving an epic battle for the shrine bottom lane. The idea was really just to stall, so that Azmodan could keep pushing top. The battle went on for over five minutes, so long, that my team got to level 10. It helped that we had Leoric who could quickly respawn, as for most of the battle I was running with almost no mana. Props to the Greymane (a hero I don’t see often enough in ranked), who helped to kill the Stitches that I body blocked when he wedged himself into a corner.
Anyway, I was able to hearth and Stage Dive back into battle and our healer capped the shrine. The enemy should have given that up sooner, despite the enemy Falstad keeping Azmodan occupied, it would have been more prudent to have used his global far sooner, to help his team secure the shrine.
The match snowballed from there, and we ended by securing all enemy towers, and I used Stage Dive to escort three sappers over the kill zone for the final shots needed on the enemy core. Both teams played well, and it was a pleasure to have such a long-drawn-out battle, where nobody lost their cool, when they could have early when Azmodan died 2 times in the first couple of minutes.
Also, enemy team, you really should have banned Brightwing, just saying.
*Oh good lord, what a ramble. Oh well, I’m too lazy to edit it. TLDR: I now enjoy playing E.T.C.
These types of games can be interesting in how teammates take talents they would otherwise not take. Being that I am still relatively new to Tyrande I didn’t deviate too much from an Icy-veins build.
Her Shooting Star talent at level 20 really hates walls when no one is around.
I’m not locked in this match with you…You’re locked in this match with me!
Warhead Junction Map. With so much support, I went the Seismic Slam route since I was going to have to deal with Arthas quite a bit. It turned out to be the best choice with me winding up being slightly the bread winner. The Zeratul was a champ in hunting down the bots that went off by themselves.
I am seriously considering tunneling Sonya for a bit outside of Sylvanas and Kel’Thuzad. The A.I likes to get up close and personal, and Sonya is great in those situations. Even when dealt a bad hand, she has the means of just going off and spamming camps and focusing on wave clear.
Also, I have a love/hate with her Death Knight skin. I have longed for Shadowmourne (axe in her right hand) in World of Warcraft, but even when able to nuke the raid from orbit the Shadowmourne quest requires at minimum three people to fulfill (Blood Queen Lana’thal primarily due to the mechanics) and up until Legion that legendary axe could not be used as a transmog (I am a sucker for axes) with me being a lone wolf in WoW, it was a bear just to get the precursor in Shadowsedge.
To this day I kick around getting the replica. I got the Frostmourne one, I sometimes consider getting the sword’s sibling.
Pre-Legion Unholy DK main as well…but boy did I NOT like the changes to Unholy when Legion launched.
more people need to pick Seismic Sonya this like my favorite build for her and you dish some incredible damage
all for the expense of your W key
I say a fair trade
I love games where I can go on auto pilot and not be concerned with being the bread winner or wind up entering in crisis mode because people punched up a difficulty or two above what they should be fighting against.
Other than Lucio becoming a chalk outline because they tried face tanking a fort, it was a game that was unremarkable beyond the constant A.I death dings. I ensured top and bottom lanes didn’t get over runned and other than picking off the bots a few times (Overwhelming Affliction is good for poking the A.I) I was just being an experience soak sponge.
Edit: Hello, achievement portrait. It had only taken me nearly ten years.
Aaaaaand coming in behind the Pugilist Priest, Anduin, comes the Archangel of Aggression, Auriel.
Auriel had given up hope on coming to a peaceful resolution and instead opted to hope she did not get too much blood on her robes as she used them to strangle the hopelessly outmatched A.I.
She must have watched too much hockey or wrestling as the walls had many a dent in them from being the place where the bots came to a gentle rest after being lovingly caressed to the speed of sound prior to impact.
If this Auriel had been in Diablo 3, there would have been many a demon yeeted out of the High Heavens and Rakanoth would have been folded up like origami for trying to put her into time out. Diablo might have found himself having to climb all the way back up to the High Heavens if Auriel had as much attitude as the one that I was matched with.
Probably would have fell to Sanctuary along with Tyrael, lost her powers, and be forced to use drapes to past tense the hopelessly stupid people that’d try to throw hands with her. Or just stab them with her sword, because she does have one of those things, she just prefers to keep up the facade of being the nicest of the angels…until no one is looking that is.
“No, I have absolutely no idea why there is so much blood, clumps of hair, or body parts in this room. The room was in such a horrid state when I walked in. Oh no, the blood on me was from when I slipped and fell from seeing such a horrendous sight. Yes, it was quite the tumble as you can see, I got it all over myself. Oh dear, I have clumps of hair on me as well? How unfortunate.”
Deckard Cain would have been pass tensed Magda coughing up butterflies on him. She would be coughing up body fluids as she was hopelessly beaten into the pits of Hell by Auriel.
Edit: I encountered a monster of a Kerrigan.
Thrall was a stat sponge, but Kerrigan was a well oiled machine with her combos.
Took a small break, decided to mix things up quite a bit from the norm
Holy cow I love playing Yrel
Some incredible games and some incredibly close losses too where I feel I’ve found a new main. Legitimately this character feels amazing and it’s like rediscovering a main like I felt when I “got” Vikings.
If you are reading this, go play a new character you’d never consider playing before. You might find a new main! (Or just reinvigorate your love for your current main)
So much this. The most fun I’ve had recently is challenging myself to play heroes that never clicked with me for one reason or another. Lately I’ve been learning Probius, a hero that is somewhat easier to play, after the last rework.
Speaking of heroes put on the shelf, I’ve never quite been to get a firm grasp on how exactly you play Yrel. The charging of abilities, managing that trait, it never feels very intuitive or fluid. She remains the only bruiser in the roster that I can’t figure out well enough to even bring into a QM game.
This is something I’ve been meaning to post for a week now, and it’s a fine example of why I don’t mute chat. There are still players out there who are friendly and have a sense of fun!
Apologeis, I had to smoosh (cut and paste) this chat together, so the flow of chat is retained. For some context, the Qhira used her revolving sweep and landed square behind the enemy towers. The Li Li player was a bit miffed, and this was the exchange.
The Tyrael responds with a spontaneous rendition of The Safety Dance, and the Tass finishes the quote. This was a team of all random players, which made it all a bit magical. There was no further sass from the Li Li, this is just one example of how you can defuse tension and form a team bond, even if it is just for one match.
That was kinda how I got into Kel’Thuzad, though my motive was that when he is in free rotation it kinda becomes a 4v5 with him, so I thought “well, I think I can do better than the average PvE” KTZ.
One hundred and three levels later.
She’s fun as all get out in the A.I ballpit. If the A.I team has little to no cc to deal with her she can sit on them for ages. Even against cc heavy bot teams she can still do quite a bit. Just have to pick different talents.
I’ll break down some “bad habits” I see people do but really for the most part its much more gamesense than anything super micro intensive.
The only ability I frequently manually full charge is Jump. The other two should be mostly relegated to instant casts with the trait. This does mean like other older characters (Arthas, Tyrael) that you shouldn’t neccessarily use an ability just because its off cooldown and you could benefit from it (I think the most often I see people charging their Q when they should be stutter stepping and AAing instead.)
Additionally, things get even easier when you start taking R2. Having two quick uses of your trait allows you to use all of your abilities in quick succession without spending more than ~70 mana.
Speaking of R2…
You should be using this frequently. Even in non-combat scenarios, jumping on a minion wave with E and instant Qing heals you and damages the wave for over half (or later in the game, kills the wave instead) and allows you a quick rotation. A lot of the time in fights you’ll actually be stalling with your movement and other abilities until you can use instant casts.
Additionally, if you go Sacred Ground on 10, you can be FAR more liberal in your use of your trait since you essentially have a second charge of it on a 25 second cooldown. I cannot emphasize enough how much freedom that heroic gives you (I’ve used it multiple times to secure a kill with an instant jump out of it.)
Speaking of builds, I’ll go over my general talent philosophy with Yrel.
There are really only two must pick talents, and one of which is a bit controversial.
The first, and really not controversial talent, is her level 16, Templar’s Verdict. 7% Max Health is a lot, and -15 Armor on an Isolated target makes it blatantly obvious even to the most brainrotted QM allies to “KILL THIS ONE!!!” Additionally, at 16 and above, you can start just tapping W (0.25 seconds of charge time) to still get the full benefits of this, allowing even more freedom of movement.
*Why this is better than the alternatives: Holy Wrath would be good if it came earlier but you don’t need help with waveclear at this point and 7% max health on W is more meaningful damage than this is in teamfights. Divine Favor is already weak but extra weak if you take Sacred Ground.
The other thing that I’d argue is important is actually her 10. I cannot emphasize how important, especially post-buff, Sacred Ground is for Yrel. I actually consider her to be a Level 10 spike character just due to the sheer strength of this heroic. Let me list some stuff you are capable of pulling off AT 10 with Sacred Ground
flawlessly tank fort/keep shots for your team and bully enemy heroes while in range of their own structures to allow your team to burn them down
force fights on enemy mercenary camps
win any position based objective assuming no wombos or knockbacks.
instantly reset trait cooldown on a 25 second cooldown to chase/retreat quickly with jump
literally the world is your oyster at this point.
*Ardent Defender is fine but like, it’s an incredibly long cooldown and unless the enemy team has both tons of knockback (muradin, stukov, etc) AND is hard targetting you with anti-armor attacks (tychus, lunara, etc), Sacred Ground will prevent more damage while also giving you far more freedom with your trait.
Some other talent stuff.
On 7, it’s really hard to justify any other option than Divine Steed. Holy Avenger can be good in really heavy Dive comps (Tyrael + Kharazim nonsense) but full charging Leap mid fight is actually often fairly difficult and unncessary espicially considering unlike the other two abilities, it always does the same (quite high mind) damage. Divine Steed can be used to rotate quickly, yes, but also as an escape if timed properly, a gap closer, etc. Again, one of those abilities that has just a huge amount of use cases but requires a bit more remembrance to use (its quite easy to forget its’ an option to instant mount if you aren’t already used to Yrel things). Righteous Momentum is probably a fine option, I just rarely pick it because it encourages Yrel to hard charge, losing precious AA damage and leaving you all the more vulnerable to CC.
The other talents are far more comp dependant than 7/10/16, so I’ll go into example builds now, before touching on level 20s and finishing up (this post is already way longer than I anticipated when I started writing, but by god I love yapping)
Standard Build
Maraad’s Insight (Dauntless) / Hand of Freedom / Divine Steed / Sacred Ground / Velen’s Chosen / Templar’s Verdict / Hallowed Ground (Seraphim)
Maraad’s Insight works far better with Sacred Ground than the alternative level 1s, though Dauntless significantly helps your early game matchup into Artanis/other strong AACs. Hand of Freedom is critical for beating laners such as Xul, or helping allies deal with roots/helping them escape. Velen’s Chosen is important for late-game damage output, with your Jump dealing almost 900 damage when this is fully charged at level 20. Hallowed Ground is my prefered choice on 20 since it gives you even more freedom to move your “I’m taking half damage, screw you” zone around, though Seraphim may be more important against high CC teams like Anub’arak, and so on.
“QM Tank” or Anti-Dive
Light of Karabor (Dauntless) / Aegis of Light / Holy Avenger (Divine Steed)/ Sacred Ground / Aldor Peacemaker (Repentance) / Templar’s Verdict / Hallowed Ground (Seraphim)
Light of Karabor + Aldor Peacemaker make you nigh unkillable under Sacred Ground while helping allies survive dives. Similar story with Aegis of Light + Repentance.Holy Avenger is much stronger with Aegis of Light when dealing with very mobile assassins on your backline (ex. Illidan/Qhira diving your healer). Not only is this build great for saving your allies, it also serves as a great pseudo-tank in tankless QM games.
On 20s: A lot of people will scream that Seraphim is must pick. If you are doing a good job cooldown watching, unless there’s a huge amount of knockback/anti-armor stuff on the enemy team, its’ totally unnecessary with Sacred Ground buffs. In fact, it’s often a good thing for the enemy to focus their CC on a target with 50 permanent armor instead of on your squishy teammates.
TL:DR, don’t overcharge abilities, weave AAs in, TAKE SACRED GROUND PLEASE ITS SO GOOD, character is much more versatile in function than on paper once you understand the particularities of the kit.
Sadly, they made her controls unique to her, so that every other hero trains you to misfire her abilities. That can take more than 12 levels to get used to—or maybe I’m just slow in learning.
Stukov can be surprisingly good at running down bots to slap them to death on Hanamura.
In regards to Yrel. I did NOT know Sacred Ground reset her trait. Thank you BouncyBoi, I did not need to be more aggresive with the most loveable space goat, but here I am. Last few matches I had been far more aggresive with her and wound up demolishing the hero damage charts after learning that. I do not think the A.I needed that additional nonsense.
In regards to her level 16 talents: Even though Templar’s Verdict had been nerfed, it is still a pseudo heroic even when not charged up due to the 6% health loss (which is a good chunk by that level) and 15% armor reduction. Fully charged or using trait, that is also a stun and a knockback. What makes that talent nasty is that regardless of charge amount, it is 6% health and 15% armor reduction, so just a casual swing of Yrel’s hammer can chunk players/bots.
The other two talents just do not measure up. There was time when Holy Wrath synergized with Maraad’s Insight for some chunky health, but that lasted about a heartbeat, and that was when the talent did something around 50-75% damage to its now 35%. I do not think they synergize anymore either.
Divine Favor is a training wheels talent I suppose. It exists for players not experienced within PvE and QM. Once you get comfortable with Yrel’s playstyle as well it become far less of a crutch.
Both Heroics do–one is just in a 120 sec cool down while the other is 25
You can fairly comfortably duel enemies under their keep thanks to the sheer strength of the armor buff lmao
Holy Wrath would be fine on an earlier tier, maybe Level 4 as an alternative to the garbage healing on trait. Templar’s Verdict is just too good.
I think Divine Favor far too heavily favors hard charging ironically enough. Maybe if it baseline gave an extra charge it’d be good but rn it’s just bad.
I played ARAM choose zagara
risky since my pvp Zagara can be iffy squiffy if I don’t pay attention
I’m just proud of myself for the two maw uses that I managed to pull off
the first we were at the core things were going south and I was about to die so I mawed the three that were picking my bones apart
the second I managed to say “NUhuh” to Alextrasza’s Life binder ult (the percentage heal that almost always gets someone up to around 90% health) and secure a ETC kill
silver star Undondory your work went unappreciated but looked like it helped
