Thought(s) of the week
In the game of Dota 2 there is a sad little hero who is the bane of the game. The opposing team shutters at his pick, and secretly are terrified. His allies curse the pick and in vocal talk. That hero is the Techies. It’s probably the most polarizing hero in the game. The reason is in their design. Their job is to place land mines, and it pushes a gameplay of methodically slinking around setting traps on unsuspecting heroes. They’re designed to be isolated from both teams, rarely grouping and never fight head-on.
In the game of Heroes of the Storm, there is a similarly polarizing hero. Novices aren’t sure exactly what he does, and often by 10 minutes allies are complaining about their disadvantage in the game. That hero of course is Abathur. Like Techies in Dota 2, Abathur has a skillset that is fundamentally different from that of traditional heroes. Except in this case, Blizzard designers went to the extreme with Abathur. And I hate this hero because of it.
A little background on our friend Abathur. First introduced in Starcraft II, Abathur is Kerrigan’s Evolution Master. He evolved Kerrigan and is responsible for the swarm’s enhancements. To remain faithful to his character, Blizzard developed Abathur as an enhancement character. He sticks onto a unit and provide a couple nukes and a shield. Geneticists don’t get their hands dirty so this is all done remotely of course. So most games he’ll be safely secure, exerting his influence across the map. It’s this very aspect that I find so broken with Abathur.
If there’s a hero that the opposing team never bothers to kill, that’s poor hero design.
Every “Hero” has the same foundation. They have an attack, mana, and four abilities. They handle differently and play certain roles, which makes the MOBA genre so fun and varied. With Heroes, Blizzard has subjectively structured the game for the team fights, hence the map objectives. And the game really shines during team fights. Spells whiz around, heals and burst damage come out of nowhere, it’s really the best thing Blizzard has nailed. However when you introduce a hero like Abathur, you weaken that sense of a five-on-five brawl.
An Abathur game is an unremarkable experience. For the opponent, there’s no point in trying to hunt him down, so you ignore him all game. If there’s a hero that the opposing team never bothers to kill, that’s poor hero design. And in the history of the game, no one has stopped a fight over the fear of Abathur’s symbioses.
On your team, he does his thing but no one notices what that is. When you lose fights you blame the handicap of going four on five every fight. It is frustration (a good Abathur has a big impact on fights) but it stems from the sense of being an underdog. It’s not fun having Abathur in the game since there is no interaction between him and the rest of the heroes. He is completely independent to a degree unlike any other hero.
Let me put it like this, I’ve never had a game with or against Abathur where I had a memorable experience with him. And that I think is a fundamental flaw in his design. Take Murky. They did a great job creating a completely unique hero who with his respawn plays completely differently from any other hero. Yet he still has the coherent base of a hero in the game. Abathur lacks this. He’s there for the sake of creating a hero that is faithful to his fictional biography, and when that hero impacts the way a team plays, that’s a problem.
Free to Play of the Week: ETC
Elite Tauren Chieftain (ETC) seems to be an increasingly popular hero pick in the game. When I first saw him, I kind of thought it was a joke. ETC has always been a ridiculous concept (guitars in Azeroth?!) but in this game, he is rocking his way to the top.
ETC is a frontline hero. He can self heal, initiate (or escape) fights and deals nice AOE damage with his nuke. His ultimate provides his Rock God versatility as it’s either team fight oriented with a channeled AOE stun, or absolute mobility with teleportation.
Aesthetics: Big. He’s got three guitars and pulls a quick rift with every spell cast. Beyond his general pleasing character design, the one thing I like about ETC is his animations. Just very smooth and well done. Overall great translation into the Heroes universe.
Skillset: I briefly touched on this above, but ETC has a very, very sound skill set. His heal is not amazing but with the low cooldown he can spam it to his life’s content. His power slide gives him a lot of mobility and the stun is a great way to knock other heroes off tilt. Really though, it’s all about his ultimates when talking ETC. Which one you choose is almost completely dependent on the map. On the larger maps (think: Sky Temple) his teleport ability should be the default selection.
His second Ultimate (Mosh Pit) is a channeled stun that catches nearby heroes, forcing them to dance their pants off. This ability is great but there are two challenges. Firstly, there’s a short delay as ETC readies his guitar. It’s about 1-2 seconds, but in game, it feels like forever. Somehow whenever I would channel, it kept getting interrupted. Secondly, it requires a significant level of coordination. Even if you catch three heroes in it, you can only hope your team reacts and starts to pummel them. In reality, this doesn’t happen more often than not. And when it doesn’t you’re stuck surrounded by a handful of angry enemy heroes.
He’s a fun hero to play though. Compared to other Warrior class heroes, he’s got good mobility, and for any team, he’s a tough hero to take down. But he doesn’t feel as tanky as Diablo, or have the burst that Sonya does. I would say, those are his most pronounced limitations, a good middle path warrior. When jamming with ETC, make sure you position well, and coordinate with your mates.
Difficulty: Medium. Of his three regular skills, only one is a skill shot. The only difficulty is landing that darn Mosh Pit ultimate.
Verdict: Buy! He’s extremely cheap at 2,000 gold and can play a role in any lineup.
Around the Storm (News, articles, current & upcoming tournaments)
- The Enter the Storm Qualifier #1 concluded this past weekend. To not much surprise, El NeXo took first in the Qualifier #1 defeating SK Gaming 2-0. El NeXo is a pretty established team that has a good track record. Congratulations to them! Remember, this is only Qualifier 1 of 3 so continue to register if you and your team are interested. Register here.
- The ESL Major League group stage wraps up this week. Team LDLC and Gamers2 remain in the pole position in Europe as they’re both undefeated against the competition (LDLC has only lost to Gamers2). In America Barrel Boys is undefeated. All results can be found here.
And as always, never forget to Play The Objective.
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