#Also with the release of Orphea

[official-alan-dabiri]

Call to Arms Call of the Nexus has been added to Quick match, rewarding players for queuing up for roles in short supply by giving bonus exp. This is not immediately active because we just added a new hero, and literally everyone not playing Orphea would receive this bonus.

Another way to get bonus exp: Boosts! They’re just stimpacks. Mostly. Don’t worry about it, we just saw the Diablo team fall flat on their faces and thought maybe we should distance our monetization systems from the other game series.

Spellpower modifiers have been adjusted to be more consistent, especially with Spellpower stacking becoming a thing now. We’ve had some... Interesting experiences with Nanoboost lately, and if we left these interactions as they are, then Jun might be playing Ana next season, and we won’t let that meme die.

Experience from all merc camps is now granted on capping the point. This was previously inconsistent and now is unified across all maps. I’m regretting this whole “consistency” thing we started doing a few patches ago, because it turns out nobody was talking to anybody else, so there’s a lot of these sorts of problems.

Dragonshire changes? The most quintessential HotS map being updated? How? Do the capture points now work like the new Braxis points? Is the dragon knight being altered or turned into a lane-pushing boss? Is- oh. Just art updates. False alarm! The map is still fine!

I don’t know if anyone noticed (I sure didn’t) but there was another HotS comic last week, featuring our newest hero: Orphea! With her release, we now have the first playable Heroes of the Storm universe character. She’s basically a smaller Li-Ming, so expect her to get a billion skins in the next three months while other heroes get ignored.

In related patch notes: We’ve nerfed Orphea already, absolutely murdering adjusting two of her most fun broken talents and slightly tweaking her base kit.

I haven’t had a good game of Gul’dan in a long time, so we’re buffing his Q talent at 16. A lot. Don’t worry, though, nobody else is going to know. We called it his W talent on the notes, so everyone will ignore it.

[ison-sl]

YASS YASS HALLOWEEN! It's my favorite period of the year and I have to say i'm super excited about this new release. It's witchy, it's bitchy, it's fierce and yassss it's Halloween season biiiiiitch!

The "orphea jumpsuit" is available in 12 themed shades and 5 sizes (maitreya, hourglass, freya, isis & legacy). Inside each pack you'll find a texture change HUD for the collar and an option for you to hide the straps.

Please try the demo and I hope you guys love it.

Also stay tuned for some Halloween themed gifts coming in the next few weeks....😁

❤️ Harry

[velmaemyers88]

Heroes of the Storm reminds us it isn’t dead with a new, original hero and ranked system

Heroes of the Storm seemed to be on its last leg when Blizzard Entertainment cancelled all future esports events for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) in December. But the PC game isn’t dead yet.

Blizzard announced today that Heroes of the Storm is getting a new character, Qhira. It will also be releasing a change to to the game’s ranked modes with the introduction of Storm League. Both will come out on August 6. Qhira is available to try on the PTR (public testing realm) version of the game now.

Qhira will be this MOBA’s second original hero, following the launch of Orphea last November. Since then, Blizzard has released just two more characters: Imperius from Diablo and Anduin from World of Warcarft. Most characters in Heroes of the Storm come from Blizzard franchises like Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. Qhira is from the Nexus, the fictional setting of the game that has brought all of these characters together. She is also the game’s first black female hero.

As for her playstyle, Qhira is a melee assassin. She excels at fighting enemies up close. She has a grappling hook that she can attach to the terrain or enemies, which then launches her forward.

Storm League begins

Before it was in a “preseason”, but now Storm League enters its first official season along with Qhira. This new ranked system replaced both the old Hero and Team Leagues. Combining things into a single mode makes for faster queue times when trying to find a game.

You’ll now have to play fewer placement matches — three instead of the old standard of 10 — before you get your starting rank. You will also no longer have to play a promotion or demotion game before changing your rank.

This first season of Storm League will also come with a quest line. Completing it will give you seasonal rewards and make you eligible for the Grand Master Leaderboards.

Credit: Source link

The post Heroes of the Storm reminds us it isn’t dead with a new, original hero and ranked system appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/heroes-of-the-storm-reminds-us-it-isnt-dead-with-a-new-original-hero-and-ranked-system/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=heroes-of-the-storm-reminds-us-it-isnt-dead-with-a-new-original-hero-and-ranked-system from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186645102212

[reneeacaseyfl]

Heroes of the Storm reminds us it isn’t dead with a new, original hero and ranked system

Heroes of the Storm seemed to be on its last leg when Blizzard Entertainment cancelled all future esports events for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) in December. But the PC game isn’t dead yet.

Blizzard announced today that Heroes of the Storm is getting a new character, Qhira. It will also be releasing a change to to the game’s ranked modes with the introduction of Storm League. Both will come out on August 6. Qhira is available to try on the PTR (public testing realm) version of the game now.

Qhira will be this MOBA’s second original hero, following the launch of Orphea last November. Since then, Blizzard has released just two more characters: Imperius from Diablo and Anduin from World of Warcarft. Most characters in Heroes of the Storm come from Blizzard franchises like Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. Qhira is from the Nexus, the fictional setting of the game that has brought all of these characters together. She is also the game’s first black female hero.

As for her playstyle, Qhira is a melee assassin. She excels at fighting enemies up close. She has a grappling hook that she can attach to the terrain or enemies, which then launches her forward.

Storm League begins

Before it was in a “preseason”, but now Storm League enters its first official season along with Qhira. This new ranked system replaced both the old Hero and Team Leagues. Combining things into a single mode makes for faster queue times when trying to find a game.

You’ll now have to play fewer placement matches — three instead of the old standard of 10 — before you get your starting rank. You will also no longer have to play a promotion or demotion game before changing your rank.

This first season of Storm League will also come with a quest line. Completing it will give you seasonal rewards and make you eligible for the Grand Master Leaderboards.

Credit: Source link

The post Heroes of the Storm reminds us it isn’t dead with a new, original hero and ranked system appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/heroes-of-the-storm-reminds-us-it-isnt-dead-with-a-new-original-hero-and-ranked-system/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=heroes-of-the-storm-reminds-us-it-isnt-dead-with-a-new-original-hero-and-ranked-system from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186645102212

[weeklyreviewer]

Heroes of the Storm reminds us it isn’t dead with a new, original hero and ranked system

Heroes of the Storm seemed to be on its last leg when Blizzard Entertainment cancelled all future esports events for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) in December. But the PC game isn’t dead yet.

Blizzard announced today that Heroes of the Storm is getting a new character, Qhira. It will also be releasing a change to to the game’s ranked modes with the introduction of Storm League. Both will come out on August 6. Qhira is available to try on the PTR (public testing realm) version of the game now.

Qhira will be this MOBA’s second original hero, following the launch of Orphea last November. Since then, Blizzard has released just two more characters: Imperius from Diablo and Anduin from World of Warcarft. Most characters in Heroes of the Storm come from Blizzard franchises like Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. Qhira is from the Nexus, the fictional setting of the game that has brought all of these characters together. She is also the game’s first black female hero.

As for her playstyle, Qhira is a melee assassin. She excels at fighting enemies up close. She has a grappling hook that she can attach to the terrain or enemies, which then launches her forward.

Storm League begins

Before it was in a “preseason”, but now Storm League enters its first official season along with Qhira. This new ranked system replaced both the old Hero and Team Leagues. Combining things into a single mode makes for faster queue times when trying to find a game.

You’ll now have to play fewer placement matches — three instead of the old standard of 10 — before you get your starting rank. You will also no longer have to play a promotion or demotion game before changing your rank.

This first season of Storm League will also come with a quest line. Completing it will give you seasonal rewards and make you eligible for the Grand Master Leaderboards.

Credit: Source link

The post Heroes of the Storm reminds us it isn’t dead with a new, original hero and ranked system appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/heroes-of-the-storm-reminds-us-it-isnt-dead-with-a-new-original-hero-and-ranked-system/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=heroes-of-the-storm-reminds-us-it-isnt-dead-with-a-new-original-hero-and-ranked-system

[williamsjoan]

Heroes of the Storm Receives its First Hero Since Blizzard Scaled Back Development

Blizzard has finally added Imperius, the archangel of valor from Diablo III to the large roster of MOBA Heroes of the Storm. Normally, this would be seen as a standard and exciting addition to the game. Unfortunately, this announcement feels a bit less impactful and exciting now that we know Blizzard will be slowing down development on Heroes of the Storm.

We first learned about Blizzard’s plans to scale back development on the game back in December. According to Kotaku, Blizzard is aiming to cut cost and release more games; as a result, they have been shifting developers away from Heroes of the Storm, the least popular title within their current lineup, to other projects. Blizzard then made a public announcement about the matter on December 13 and tried to lighten the blow by stating that great projects like World of Warcraft and Overwatch have come out of shakeups like this:

“Over the past several years, the work of evaluating our development processes and making hard decisions has led to new games and other products that we’re proud of. We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history. We’re also at a point where we need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects.

As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we’re excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they’ll bring to those projects. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make tough choices like this. Games like Diablo II, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Overwatch, and more would not exist had we not made similar decisions in the past.”

Still, support for Heroes of the Storm hasn’t been completely cut off. The game will still be receiving new updates and heroes like Imperius, just at a slower rate than before. The biggest aspect of Heroes of the Storm that was impacted by this decision was its eSports scene as both the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm will not be returning in 2019.

As for Imperius himself, the Diablo III character seems like a very brutal and fun one to use. His abilities favor single target damage and allow players to buff themselves and debuff enemies before going in for the kill. That being said, he is weak to enemies who can move fast and kite him like Tracer and Orphea.

You can check out a full gameplay breakdown video for Imperius below. While development may be slowing down and the eSports scene for the game has been dismantled, Heroes of the Storm still has a hefty and passionate player base and is currently available on PC.

The post Heroes of the Storm Receives its First Hero Since Blizzard Scaled Back Development by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.

Heroes of the Storm Receives its First Hero Since Blizzard Scaled Back Development published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[jomalleyharrypotterfinal-blog]

LGBTQ representation, or the lack thereof, in Harry Potter

Throughout all of these posts, I have talked about different types of representation within the media, specifically looking at Harry Potter. Within every post, I have been able to find some sort of academic article featuring the representation within the series. Sadly, this is not the case for LGBTQ+ representation. There is such a lack of queer visibility within the Harry Potter series and it seems that fans are the only ones who really care. There are no characters in all seven of the books series that identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer. There was obviously some criticism about that but in my own opinion not enough, simply because it is not the norm to have openly queer characters. After the last book was released in 2007, Rowling made it a point to reveal that she always thought of Dumbledore as gay while writing her books. Many fans were overjoyed with this news because finally there was some sort of representation for a community who has virtually none in books or on the movie screen. In my opinion, I feel that is was kind of a half ass way to have representation. For her to throw that fact out, after all, is said and done is taking the easy way out. It is so important to have representation for the LGBTQ+ community since our world places a heavy emphasis on heteronormativity. Corrine Marie Wickens discusses LGBTQ+ representation in her dissertation, Queering Young Adult Literature: Examining Sexual Minorities in Contemporary Realistic Fiction Between 2000-2005.

“Fiction that incorporates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning of heterosexuality itself (GLBTQ) themes and characters has been noted among the most widely censored novels for young adults (American Library Association, 2007; Finnessy, 2002; Karolides, 2002). Despite many teachers’ and librarians’ anxiety about even recommending a novel that includes homosexual characters, let alone minor homosexual references, more novels with GLBTQ characters and themes are receiving starred reviews, e.g. Boy Meets Boy (School Library Journal), receiving major book award nominations, e.g. Orphea Proud (nominated for Michael L. Printz Award), winning awards themselves, e.g. Target, Keesha’s House, Postcards from No Man’s Land (Printz honors and award winners) and Luna (National Book Award honorees).”

With the regular series ending there have been many spin-offs and recreations that have been made to keep the series and its fans involved with the Harry Potter Universe. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a five movie prequel series that gives the fans many origin stories that they have always been wanting. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play that begins where the Deathly Hollows leaves off, 20 years after the battle of Hogwarts. All of these, of course, have been hits within the Harry Potter fanbase and are also bringing a new generation into the franchise. With one problem, still, a massive lack of queer representation, and everyone, myself included are not happy.

The second Fantastic Beasts movie was released in November of this year which explores Grindelwald, who is unmistakably the wizard that Dumbledore has feelings for. The two were neighbors in their childhood and “had a very intense relationship when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas, and ideology, and each other.” Director David Yates explained. So many people were very excited when an origin movie about Grindelwald was coming out because we would finally be able to see an openly gay Dumbledore on screen, or so we thought. Rowling, who wrote all of the movies, decided that Dumbledore’s feelings toward Grindelwald were not important enough to include because there is no mention of his sexual identity in the film. Elisabeth Joffe is a Harry Potter fan who identifies as queer was interviewed by Insider and said that she is “not looking for a gay rom-com out of the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ series. That is not my expectation here. But the idea that [Dumbledore’s feelings toward Grindelwald] are not essential to the narrative is surprising to me”. Maybe Warner Brothers Pictures or the writers or someone decided that if there was an openly queer character the movie would not be as successful. Whatever their reasoning is, it is no denying that leaving out Dumbledore’s sexuality was an opportunity missed to have representation is a mainstream film.

The Vox took note of the lack of representation in their article The Harry Potter Universe still can’t translate its gay subtext to text. It’s a problem. Their article mainly focuses on the Cursed Child play, where there is a lot of underlying romantic tension between the two main characters, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, the sons of Harry and Draco respectively. The play uses language that leads the reader to believe that they are falling for one another only to end the play with the fact that both boys are interested in girls.

“The fandom’s anger over Albus/Scorpius is especially potent right now because many fans have already spent years being angry at Rowling for her treatment of other queer characters in her books. At this point, the abundant straightness of the wizarding world is the most damning evidence of the Harry Potter universe’s failure to evolve.”

A student from the University of Virginia wrote a letter to J.K Rowling online recognizing that although she would probably never see, it needed to be said. In his letter The Gay Romance in The Cursed Child: A letter to JK Rowling. Jack Chellman talks about his love for the series and how much he has grown with the series, but how the series has not grown with him and the changing times.

“I don’t want it to hurt. I would love to laugh off my expectation of a gay romance, to sweep it aside as the pining of a young gay man for representation he doesn’t need. But I can’t, and it does hurt because the relationship you crafted between Albus and Scorpius does more than ignoring an opportunity for LGBTQ representation. You wrote a gay romance. You pulled us along by the power of that romance. And then you told us it was unacceptable.”

Creating a narrative that expresses a same-gender attraction and then taking it away enforces that our world is heteronormative and that that is what is normal and accepted, anything else wrong or not true. This not only hurts those in the LGBTQ+ but allows for hatred and prejudice to have more power. Without healthy conversations and representation in the media, the less likely it is for LGBTQ+ persons to feel like they have proper representation. We will not see the representation we so desperately want without people like Rowling making our community visible in the mainstream media. Rowling completely disregarded this missed a very important opportunity by creating yet another heteronormative narrative.

Wickens, Corrine Marie. “Queering Young Adult Literature: Examining Sexual Minorities In Contemporary Realistic Fiction Between 2000-2005.” Https://Core.ac.uk, Texas A&M University , 0AD, core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4276591.pdf.

Renfro, Kim. “Why Devoted 'Harry Potter' Fans Feel Betrayed by J.K. Rowling and the 'Fantastic Beasts' Franchise.” INSIDER, INSIDER, 2 Feb. 2018, www.thisisinsider.com/fantastic-beasts-jk-rowling-dumbledore-lgbt-backlash-2018-2.

Romano, Aja. “The Harry Potter Universe Still Can't Translate Its Gay Subtext to Text. It's a Problem.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 4 Sept. 2016, www.vox.com/2016/9/4/12534818/harry-potter-cursed-child-rowling-queerbaiting.

Chellman, Jack. “The Gay Romance in The Cursed Child: A Letter to JK Rowling.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 Aug. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-gay-romance-in-the-cursed-child-a-letter-to-jk_us_57a2a99de4b0c863d4002748.

[official-alan-dabiri]

First and foremost, every hero in the game is now 10% faster. This means that everything you knew is now invalid. Rotations are faster, skillshots are harder to land, area denial is harder. Basically, from this one small change, no one knows how to play anymore.

Anub has returned to his former position as a highly contested tank in all situations. As our intent for him is to be an anti-mage tank instead of a universally-desired pick, minor nerfs are being applied to try and push him back into that niche. Also, our previous attempts to outright murder his viability have failed, so we’re just gonna keep on chipping away...

In the wake of our other changes, ETC has become the highest winrate tank in the game, primarily because we’ve recently buffed a lot of DPS where the only counter is “just CC chain them to death lol.” A slight nerf is due.

It turns out Mal’Ganis is still in the game? I literally forgot he existed until I saw him on the notes here, even after the immense buffs he received in a recent patch. A lot of his abilities carry a lot of different things for him - engage, disengage, and CC - so even the slightest buff to one of them might be enough. It would probably help if the buff was to the correct ability, though. Buffing his Q instead of his E is basically a joke.

MY BUFFS FOR AIUR! We’ve... Well, actually, we’ve done basically nothing for Artanis here. We buffed his underpicked talents on level 4, but they compete with Shield Surge, so they won’t be picked, and we buffed his underpicked talents on level 13, but they compete with Triple Strike and Phase Bulwark, so honestly we shouldn’t have bothered.

The brand new Brewmaster hero, Chen Stormstout, who was just added last patch and definitely wasn’t a real hero before then, has been performing slightly below expectations. Because we need to encourage people to buy new heroes, which he is one of, we’re making some slight buffs to how his new double-ability W works, and then giving considerable buffs to underpicked talents. New hero. Chen Stormstout. Brand new.

Speaking of newer heroes (What? His was only two hero releases ago! What do you mean it’s been like six months?) Imperius has finally found his place in the meta, and slipped into a rut that means adjustments to him are the best opportunity for talent diversity. Some talents are being made baseline, some are being removed, some are being moved from level 16 to level 4, some are being folded into others, and some are being entirely reworked. T A L E N T   D I V E R S I T Y !

Speaking of Imperius, he’s entirely replaced Sonya. Like, we’re gonna pretend she just “fell out of the meta” for unrelated reasons at the exact instant he was added, but we know. Unfortunately, everyone on the HotS team who knew how to play her and could figure out what she needs are working on Starcraft Ghost 2 now, so we’re just going to buff her base health and hope that people start picking her again.

After obliterating Yrel by giving her a debilitating thirst for mana, we began to worry that she might turn to fel sources of strength and start an offshoot race of draenei who are brooding green-eyed scene kids. To prevent this, we’re giving her considerable buffs to a lot of her talents - even talents that people were already picking! That’s how you know we’re serious.

In an attempt to reduce the impact of what has become the “banana effect” which effectively removes one ban from any team who can’t play her, we’re making two-pronged adjustments to Ana. In the first prong, we’re nerfing her level 4 W talent in an effort to reduce the impact of her full W build. In the second prong, we’re buffing other talents in order to trick players into not going W build.

Minor talent diversity adjustments have been made to Medivh, Rehgar, Maiev, Falstad, Mephisto, Orphea, and Illidan in the form of buffs to talents with pickrates around 20% or below.

There are exactly two (2) good stealth heroes. One of them is Valeera, and the other is Zeratul. Unfortunately, the gulf between their respective viabilities is large enough for Azmodan to fit his hitbox through without touching either one of them. As such, Valeera is getting massive buffs to a lot of her talents, making her an excellent hero in the situations where she was already an acceptable pick. Meanwhile, Zeratul is getting a nerf to wormhole that absolutely kills the talent - and therefore the hero - against any team comp with CC.

Greymane - or Fuzzy Raynor, if you prefer - is getting a significant buff. A flat 5% autoattack damage increase is going to be monstrous when combined with his existing kit and builds. The talent diversity changes that accompany this are going to be drowned out by the sheer damage he’s going to be able to put out.

A friend of mine read these patch notes before I did. He told me they buffed Valla, so she might be good. I asked if they buffed her HP by literally any amount. He said yes. This means that she is OP first pick first ban material now. I don’t need to know anything else.