I really enjoy putting the bells and whistles on the work of everyone that comes before me in the pipeline. Modelling, Animation, Design etc.

It's super satisfying to see a piece of art come together, and since VFX is near the end of the dev process I get to help put the icing on the cake and see everyone's reactions when they finally see the finished product.

#GGOG

Hey Pscythic!

Great question. I think the answer is a bit complicated, so I’ll try to give my views on it in as simple of a way as possible. Hopefully nothing gets misinterpreted!

I’ll start with a few declarative statements. I’ll clarify that these are just my point of view, and not necessarily those of everyone on the team, so I wouldn’t take this as gospel:

1. I think lane manipulation is and always has been a part of our game, particularly at the higher levels. There are micro instances where it’s a good idea to let enemy minions hit you in front of your tower to make the waves crash near your tower in order to gain advantages like enabling a gank by a nearby teammate or to soak safely in a bad match up.

2. I don’t believe that being encouraged to freeze a lane ever is a terrible thing for the game. However, I do believe that if this is happening all the time at all stages of the game that it is a problem, largely due to encouraging too much passive play when we want our game to be about aggression.

3. In our experience, the experience globes haven’t universally motivated passive play. In general, they have motivated more aggressive play and more interesting combat, as both sides are trying to get a better position so that they can collect the experience globes for themselves.

4. Our game is very differently paced from other MOBAS due to a variety of factors. I’ve seen the narrative that two people are just going to sit near their minions and do nothing while they collect XP, but, at least in my mind, our games just don’t play out that way. We have multiple 2, 3, and 4 man rotations on nearly all of our maps happening at different points of the game, we have map objectives that heavily encourage teams to fight 4v4 or 5v5 depending on the map and game state, and we have mercenary camps that add another layer of depth to where heroes should be positioned on the map at any given point and time. All of these factors heavily disrupt the idea of being able to sit in a lane for multiple minutes on end while doing nothing but soaking XP. Because of this, I don’t believe that due to this change that the optimal play for all 5 members of each team is going to be to sit near minions and collect globes. If I’m wrong and this kind of passive play does dominate proper gameplay, then we would make changes to ensure that it isn’t the case anymore.

Overall I would say that yes, this is a big change to the game, and it’s something that we are going to iterate on, and, like all changes to our game, it’s something that we can remove, keep, or only keep the best parts depending on how it pans out.

Hey, Gnub, I'll pass this along to the team. Thanks for the feedback.

Dva is still a ways off, but we're working hard on it!

Both are coming along nicely! Tass recently got some of his new art FX (courtesy of /u/Blizz_Thomas) and we're pretty much finalizing his balance/design changes. He should be in your hands soon™

I always thought he got reincarnated. Relevant: https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/dwdco3/if_you_could_have_any_heros_ability_in_the_game/

Who's your favorite Champion and why is it Orphea?

Working with the amazingly passionate and talented developers on this team, and being able to interact with you guys has been an inspiring and truly unique experience for me.

.seY

Why do you play the heroes/game modes that you play?

What stops you playing the heroes/game modes that you don't play?

Yes

Yes.

Hi There!
Quick Match has been a topic that has blighted my dreams, affected my relationships, altered my gravitational pull with the Earth, caused many discussions in the office, and largely just followed me around like a shadow made of tears and frustration.
From issues stemming from New Heroes being 2/3rds of the queue for the first week or so of a hero's release (seriously, how do you expect us to be able to matchmake that?), or issues with Call of the Nexus, or to the time it broke for 3 days and made any match it wanted to, Quick Match has kept me awake when I would rather be asleep for far too long.
However, what can we do with it? It's our most popular game mode and we are, I think, the only MOBA that allows you to pick a hero before entering matchmaking. We are Just. That. Nice.
So, what do we do with it?
- Nothing: You can just play it as is, get some amazing games, get some... other games, play the newest and shiniest hero... eventually?
- Blind Pick/All Pick: We become more like other MOBAs and you can pick your hero in turn and do/don't get to see what your opponents pick until the timer is up, and then the guy that didn't get what he wanted leaves the game and overall sadness goes up in the world by 0.002%
- ANARCHY: We just turn all the Quick Match rules off and hope the problem solves itself!
As us Brits like to say: Answers on a Postcard addressed to the Nexus and I'll collate the responses.

I don't think I would care as long as I could get a selfie throwing a peace sign and winky face like D.va in front of either or.

I would like to know why you think he deserves to live on. What do you know?!

Hey Pscythic, thanks for the question!

I think that saying that Abathur’s locust trait serves absolutely no purpose is a bit of a hyperbole, but I understand the sentiment.

I largely agree with you, and I think since the removal of tower ammo they have had a less clear role in the game, and that they can use a change to make them feel like a better, more effective part of Abathur’s kit. I’ve made a note to think on it.

Thanks for the post!

Is there a hero that you aren't good at but you really like to play anyways? Why?

Hi there!
There are a couple of factors involved with this:
- Uncertainty: The more time between games, the less confidence the matchmaker has in your skill rating and so the more it is adjusted
- Dampening: At extreme ratings, we limit the ability to move in a particular direction. This is so we don't get people off in Narnia without the ability to play with anyone
- Bronze 5 Hugeness: Bronze 5 covers a large skill rating and has its own dampening in it as well, so while you are moving the same rating, you might not be moving the same ranked points until you get to Bronze 4.
This last point is something we're taking very seriously and investigating what to do about it.

Yep, That's pretty accurate for me, except with less modelling and more fire and sparkles... but mostly i'm just waiting for someone to bring donuts and/or cake.

Sadly, non-ARAM Brawls are pretty expensive to maintain. We'd love to keep the Brawl mode hidden, and set up something fun there, for a week or two, on special occasions, such as seasonal events.