Tag Archives: fantasy

Heroes of the Storm: Season One Announcement, New Additions, and Tracer Impressions

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There’s been a fair bit of news on the Heroes of the Storm front recently. It’s not often I have enough to say about Heroes to fill a whole post, but this time, the Blizz gods have provided.

Drafting heroes in ranked play in Heroes of the StormRanked revamp and season one:

The biggest news is that Heroes’ lengthy pre-season is finally coming to a end in June. The start of season one will bring a new ranked system similar to StarCraft II’s, with leagues ranging from bronze to grandmaster.

I don’t play ranked much, so this doesn’t make a huge difference for me, but I’m glad it’s coming for those who care about such things. I also like that end of season rewards will be based on highest rank achieved rather than your rank at the end of the season. Lower stress that way; encourages you to strive to the best you can without worrying about losing your current rewards.

Speaking of rewards, I’m also excited to learn that preseason will also have its own set of rewards once it concludes. My reward tier will grant me 2,500 gold, an elemental wolf mount, and a unique portrait, which is pretty sweet. Even if I already have more gold, mounts, and portraits than I know what to do with…

The other news is less positive.

New hero and skin announcements:

The next two characters to join the Nexus will be Chromie, an assassin, and Medivh, a specialist, and I can’t say I’m happy with that.

Now, these are both characters that I like, though they’re not exactly favourites, but they don’t seem like good additions right now. We really don’t need any more Warcraft heroes at the moment, nor more assassins, and we definitely don’t need more Warcraft mages.

Chromie in Heroes of the StormHeroes already has three mage characters, two of them from the Warcraft universe, and they’ve dominated the meta basically forever. Meanwhile, we still only have one Diablo angel, and we’ve only gotten one (underwhelming) StarCraft hero since autumn.

To be fair, Medivh at least looks like he’ll have an interesting playstyle. Looks like he’s going to be almost all utility — portals, crowd control, and the like — and that’s fairly unique. Chromie is just another bursty skillshot-based assassin, though.

Meanwhile, Overwatch’s Widowmaker has been announced… as a legendary skin for Nova.

This feels like a disservice to both Nova and Widowmaker fans. Nova fans lose the opportunity for a cool Nova skin, and Widowmaker fans lose the opportunity to play her as her own unique hero. While I’m not much interested in Widowmaker myself, I definitely agree that she could have been her own unique character with a distinct kit from Nova.

I’m not often unhappy with the decisions Blizzard makes in regards to Heroes of the Storm, but this is definitely one of the exceptions.

Tracer impressions:

Taking down the enemy core as Tracer in Heroes of the StormThe end of April saw the hotly anticipated release of Tracer in Heroes of the Storm. Having been let down a little by Overwatch itself, I was super excited to player Tracer in Heroes, and I bought her as soon as she went up for sale.

But it seems I’m just destined for disappointment where Overwatch is concerned.

It’s not that she’s bad. She’s pretty strong actually, though I think tales of her OPness have been greatly exaggerated.

It’s just that she’s not very exciting to play. Nothing she does feels impactful. She just dances around, whittling people down with her “death by a thousand cuts” auto-attacks. Even her ultimate is underwhelming.

So I pretty much just lost interest in Tracer after I got her to level five for the gold bonus. I guess I’ll have to wait for Pharah or D.Va if I want my Overwatch fix in Heroes, and that’s assuming they turn out well.

Bleh.

I suppose the good news is I don’t have to fit yet another assassin into my roster. I’m already juggling Jaina, Lunara, Nova, and Li-Ming, and I also like to dabble with Thrall, Illidan, and Valla once in a while.

Also, for a girl who spends so much time talking about the Cavalry, you’d think she’d know how to ride a horse. I mean, this isn’t half as bad as making Li-Ming’s sidesaddle, but what the Hell?

The Secret World Resumes Free Trials + Beginner Tips

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After doing away with the buddy key system a few weeks ago, The Secret World has now launched a new free trial program. Rather than requiring a referral from someone, anyone can sign up for the new trial immediately, and it now lasts for ten days.

A windswept Egyptian canyon in The Secret WorldI don’t think you will still get additional free days for completing thirty missions, but you should still get the $10 worth of cash shop points for doing so, I imagine.

I’m posting about this because, in typical Funcom fashion, they have decided to basically not advertise this at all. Increasingly I am convinced that their marketing department consists of a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters — though I doubt they’d spring for that much staff, honestly.

And as I have said countless times before, TSW is an absolutely brilliant game that everyone should try. It has the best story in the MMO world (possibly in all of gaming), unmatched mission design, beautiful graphics, and near limitless build customization.

Beginner tips:

Since the new trial will hopefully lead to more people giving The Secret World a try, I now present a brief list of beginner tips.

You should always have two separate weapons equipped — two different swords, for instance, offers no benefit. Nearly all resource builder abilities generate resources for both equipped weapons, so you should have a resource consumer for each weapon to maximize your damage. Beyond that, you can feel free to focus on a single weapon if you choose. My main’s build is entirely blade abilities save for one blood consumer.

After being stonewalled by a bugged mission, my main unleashes his frustration on the Atenists in The Secret WorldMost active abilities only function if you have their corresponding weapon equipped, but most passive abilities will work with any weapon. You can and should begin unlocking abilities from weapons you don’t use just to access their passives.

Unlock the passives Lick Your Wounds (fist weapons) and Immortal Spirit (blades) as soon as possible. They’re the simplest, easiest way to add survivability to your build early on.

Attack rating is the most important stat for leveling builds. You need only a small amount of health. One to two minor talismans with healing rating can be worth it if your build uses self-healing or leech abilities. For secondary stats, penetration and hit tend to be the most valuable early on. Defensive secondaries are never worth it unless you plan to tank dungeons.

Do not attempt to blow through story missions, such as Dawning of an Endless Night, all at once. You’re meant to slowly work through them while doing other things. If the story mission sends you to another zone, make sure you’ve finished the content of the current zone before moving on.

That said, TSW’s leveling curve is fairly forgiving, so you can afford to skip the occasional mission if you wish. Just try to at least do a majority of the missions for each zone.

The finale of issue 14: Call of the Nameless in The Secret WorldTSW does not have a “respec” feature in the traditional sense. You cannot refund spent skill or ability points. However, you will never stop receiving new points, and unlike most RPGs, you actually level faster in TSW the farther you progress, so if you’re unhappy with your current build, it won’t take long to unlock e nough points to change to something new.

Spend your skill points on all three talisman lines and whichever two weapon types you favour. Each weapon has two skill lines, but you only need to advance one to start. The damage line is usually preferable. Skills determine the level of gear you can equip, and in the case of weapons, only the highest line matters for what you can equip, hence focusing on one.

Do not post anything vaguely resembling a spoiler or hint in general chat. Trust me on this. The Mission Hints channel is open season, however.