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Heroes9 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Insight on PTR from the pros

You might have played on the PTR, and formed your own opinion on the upcoming changes. Here is what the pros are saying.

This Tuesday the Public Test Realm (PTR) went live for the second time. Last time the PTR gave the opportunity to get some first impressions on a new map, Battlefield of Eternity, as well as showing what changes (buff and nerfs) would happen to a variety of heroes. This time around, we got all of that and then some: Infernal Shrines, the monk Kharazim and a whole list of hero and talent changes.
We took the time to get to know what some professional Heroes players think of the changes.

The following insights were gathered from the Twitch streams of these players:

Dreadnaught
is the support player and shotcaller of Tempo Storm. Tempo Storm is currently the highest ranked NA team on the GosuGamers rankings. You can watch Dreadnaught's stream most days at http://www.twitch.tv/dreadnaught_heroes.

KingCaffeine is the warrior player for Cloud9 Maelstrom. Cloud9 Maelstrom has been at the top of the NA scene for months now, and its often considered Top 2 together with Tempo Storm. KingCaffeine streams regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/kingcaffeine.

Blinks is the support player for compLexity Gaming, one of the best performing and longest playing teams in North America. Blinks is found streaming at http://www.twitch.tv/theblinks.


Infernal Shrines

  • KingCaffeine believes the map enables aggressive compositions as a default strategy, not just to surprise your opponent.

 

  • Blinks likes the map, and doesn't believe that the map's objective will snowball into an early advantage too much. He also believes that pushing with the Punisher is better because it is too easily defeated on its own.
     

 

Kharazim

  • Dreadnaught calls Kharazim the 'Illidan of support heroes'. If you can get a quick kill during a teamfight, Kharazim will allow his team to chase the fleeing opponents more effectively through speed increases on his W. His Q will also guarantees that no opponents will nearly escape. The Transcendence trait is the best one according to Dreadnaught, it allows Kharazim to stay in fights longer which results in more activations of his W.
    Dreadnaught is a bit more hesitant about longer team fights. The monk requires a level of security to be able to do auto attacks which enable his trait, and when his Q runs out of charges he loses a lot of value. Divine Palm is not enough to turn around team fights, and can easily whiff or be played around by good teams.
    Finally, Dreadnaught believes that Seven-Sided Strike struggles when hitting multiple targets, yet is extremely effective when hitting a single target like a high HP warrior.

 

  • Blinks is very adamant about there not being a viable assassin-like build for Kharazim. His lack of CC and his reliance on auto-attacks limits that. However, Blinks believes that he is very viable as a solo support.
    He sees Seven-Sided Strike as 'probably trash', and Divine Palm as a 'usually worse Ancestral Healing'. The risk of Divine Palm missing is too high, and Kharazim's level 20 talent that reduces Divine Palm's cooldown to just 5 second after whiffing is not good enough to warrant a pick.
    Finally, Blinks is confident that double support compositions could see play relatively soon.
     

 

Kael'thas

  • Dreadnaught is excited about the new variety of solid builds for Kael'thas centered around Living Bomb. When you pick Pyromaniac, you will have to sacrifice the safety of Flame Thrower but will get a LOT of damage in return. The lack of Flame Thrower can also be compensated by Arcane Barrier, which adds a lot better shields to Kael'thas' defenses.
    Dreadnaught does point out that the old longrange build is still possible, it is just weaker now because of the nerf to Gathering Power and the removal of Ignite.
    Finally, Pyroblast is now considerably better due to the increased range of casting.

 

  • KingCaffeine focuses on the Backdraft talent, stating that its slowing effect is very important for chasing scenarios.
     

 

Nazeebo

  • compLexity's Blinks believes the extra range, that a variety of new and reworked talents give, is huge for Nazeebo.

 

  • Tempo Storm's Dreadnaught is happy to see the improvements on Ravenous Spirit, but it is still not (and will probably never again be) as strong as it was during the beta.

 


Sgt. Hammer

  • Blinks is hopeful of the improvements to Sgt. Hammer. He does think that players will need some time to get used to the unique playstyle of Sgt. Hammer again, since she has not seen a lot of play in the competitive scene. Special compositions are required to support Sgt. Hammer in a game; finding those will require some experimentation.

 

  • Tempo Storm's Dreadnaught thinks Sgt. Hammer now does good damage and is overall in a better place. But she still requires extremely safe play, even after pickingthe most defensive talents.
     

 

Azmodan

  • Dreadnaught picks out Sins Grasp as a very strong ability for Azmodan that makes him stronger in the early game. It is also by far his strongest level 4 talent according to Dreadnaught.
    Due to several buffs, Azmodan will probably have a second viable build that focuses on pushing lanes. Especially his E is expected to wreck battlefields.
     

Kerrigan

  • Blinks expects that Kerrigan will soon be first banned a lot in competitive matches; and not just against compLexity that is known for aggressive compositions.

 

  • Cloud9 Maelstrom's KingCaffeine is of the opinion that Kerrigan will be especially strong on Infernal Shrines, and will be picked before other top picks like Jaina/Zagara/Zeratul. The heals associated with her Ravage ability will heal her back up again quickly when spammed on the shrines' spawning minions.
     

 

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