Meno di una settimana è trascorsa dall’ultima patch che non solo ha condotto nel Nexus Kael’thas ma ha anche apportato notevoli modifiche ad altri eroi ed all’intero gioco (qui potete dare una veloce ripassatina al tutto :P); tale è stato anzi l’impatto sulla community di questi cambiamenti che i dev si son ritrovati sommersi di domande alle quali sono dunque seguite le più svariate risposte: sebbene in fin dei conti molte di esse coincidono semplicemente con le motivazioni che hanno spinto a quanto è stato di recente implementato in HotS, spunta di tanto in tanto qualche spunto di interventi futuri che vale la pena tenere sott’occhio; di seguito ve ne riportiamo un sunto (fonte HeroesNexus):

• Abathur’s cooldowns (Stab, Spike, Carapace) persisting after re-casting Symbiote, rather than refreshing, is not an intentional change. To be fixed in a future patch.
• The changes to warriors were already being worked on almost 4~ months ago, and have no relation to the “metagame” (Diablo/ETC were the most popular picks). They’re design driven, not balance driven.
• In playtesting Gazlowe felt stronger, and they feel the changes were more buffs than nerfs, specially the laser related changes, but will keep an eye on him.
• Some buffs and debuffs were removed because they’re trying to convey as much information where players look – either by animations on heroes or on top of health bars.
• Pyroblast cannot be cast on minions because in playtesting players mistakenly used it on those.
• Some heroes may have few weaknesses and too many talents to cover those weaknesses, and nerfing them is preferable to having power creep by buffing everything else.
• Art team has shown interest in having a Wretched Kael’thas skin.
• Sanctification (Tyrael’s area of effect invulnerability Heroic) likely to see some tweaks in the future.
• Stitches in on their radar and may get some tweaks/buffs to help him.
• Conscious design decision to reduce ETC pusher/sieger capabilities (with Echo Pedal and Trait changes) – not his core fantasy/kit.
• Lots of factors determine upcoming Hero releases – specific fantasy (internally), community excitement, what the game needs (more warriors/supports, SC/Diablo), what cool mechanics they’d like to try.
• Possession changes should keep the conversion mechanic but make the heroic more epic.
• Upcoming removal of Unstoppable trait from “Quick Dive” abilities (Kerrigan‘s Ravage, Illidan‘s Dive, Diablo’s Shadow Charge) – only Diablo got it this patch, but others will be changed too.
• They agree talent/build diversity for heroes like Illidan and Arthas may be problematic, and will analyze that going forward.

Non dimentichiamo tuttavia che la settimana appena cominciata prevederà anche l’importante passaggio alla fase di Open Beta, in attesa dell’atteso rilascio del 2 Giugno (non dimenticatevi del nostro evento in proposito!); forse in vista di questo traguardo il sistema di matchmaking ha visto un lieve miglioramento nei server US (ma non temete, presto arriverà anche qui da noi), come annunciato nel forum ufficiale:

We wanted to let you know that we’ve just implemented an additional change meant to improve matchmaking. This initial change is currently live in the US and will be deployed in other regions early next week. The following rule will now apply to matchmaking:

• Under most circumstances, a team with no Supports will now match versus an opposing team with no Supports
• This rule will not affect a premade party of five members

As we noted in our Matchmaking blog, we’ll continue to examine the matchmaking rules and make adjustments as needed, and we’ll let you know as soon as further improvements come online.

…non resta dunque che prendere in parola mamma Blizzy e sperare in un sistema sempre più accurato, viste le frequenti lamentele che, come funghi, spuntano a proposito della situazione attuale! Noi, come sempre, vi terremo aggiornati.