Wade "Dreadnaught" Penfold, former pro-player and caster of Beyond the Nexus hosts a Q&A. Here are the highlights.
Santa-Dread comes early this year
Most of us Dreadnaught fans have been awating the master's return but, like a present from Santa, Wade Penfold stopped by Reddit and hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything), delivering happy little insights like presents for all the boys and girls of the Nexus.
For anyone that may be unfamiliar, Dreadnaught played as support and shot-caller for team Tempo Storm. Dread co-host's the amazing Blizzard-sponsored series Beyond the Nexus and currently performs as one of the top technical casters in Heroes of the Storm. You can read through the entire Reddit post here. Otherwise, here are the questions we thought stood out.
infinite007 asks: I noticed you always emphasized soak and wave-clear a lot
Dreadnaught: The best way to get experience quickly is wave-clear, if your opponent has it and you don't, you lose on rotation. You lose on rotation, you are always getting ganked and losing front walls (more experience disadvantage) if you are losing that much time/experience, you are losing the game.
The only direct counter to wave clear is kill potential, and most kill comps MUST get the pick or they proceed to get out pushed. Making wave-clear the most effective and reliable source to help your team to victory.
Hermes13 asks: If you had to pick one thing that NA could do differently to increase team performance, what would it be?
Dreadnaught: Realize that the team's overall performance is more important than the individual performance. What I mean is that when a team loses, it's the team's loss and when they win, it's the team's win. Something that I think NA fails at when looking at Heroes compared to traditional sports when you are on a team for traditional sports it is very much a group effort. You are a part of something bigger than yourself, but you all strive to improve individually. The minute someone begins to struggle in traditional sports, it's everyone's responsibility to help them get to the point to where the team is stronger.
BuckHunter17 asks: Currently, what do you think are the biggest "noob trap" talents in HoTS?
Dreadnaught: On Malfurion (since he is really meta right now, or at least was before patch) at Lvl 4/7 Vengeful Roots and Strangling Vines.
I plan on putting out far more content next year.
You're a new Malf player, you see that you can do a little bit of damage and you are like, this is my moment I will pick talents to do more damage as a support.
You take the level 4 and realize that it legit just spawns a Treant that tries to tickle your opponents and then try to make up for it by picking 100% increase damage at 7.
You see 100% and you are like THIS HAS TO BE BUSTED. 100% BONUS DAMAGE IS INSANE. Then you realize your roots do laughable damage in the first place and you lost all your utility by not taking Elune's Grace and Cleanse. I would honestly rather you take M.U.L.E. than Strangling Vines.
werfmark asks: If blizzard gives you free choice to make a couple balance tweaks, what would you do?
Dreadnaught:
- Nerf the Q splash range on Rag.
- Nerf Sylvanas passive to only slow turret auto-attack speed significantly.
- Buff Archon and increase Tass shield cooldown.
- Remove Tyrande from the game.
Sanguinary_Guard asks: if casting and coaching offered the same benefits, which would rather do?
Dreadnaught: If everything is equal, time/money/work/stress. in order: Player, Coach, Casting
AzizLighting asks: What draft concepts do you think mid-tier pro teams struggle with that's holding them back? How about concepts Hero Leaguers don't quite get?
Dreadnaught: Without a doubt an understanding of how insanely valuable wave clear is. This is the biggest thing that I think all solo-queue struggles from right now. The other would just be an understanding of how your teamfights should look and what your opponent's win condition is. When you know it, draft to avoid it at all costs.
Titanroll asks: What's the best counter vs a double war + double Support comp?
Dreadnaught: Solid front line solo warrior, burst DPS, burst melee, sustained DPS, and just solid support.
Make sure to try to get short cooldowns on your heroics, they when initial engagement, and sustained fight. But, once your cooldowns cycle faster than theirs, you fight again and should win.
Most people don't even realize that at level 1 getting a kill is worth less than clearing a whole wave.
Andraes asks: Who's on your Heroes all-American team for each region, NA, EU, KR? (you can do first and second teams if you want)
Dreadnaught: No personality or mentality is considered here.
- NA: K1pro, KingCaffeine, Zuna, Jun. I am torn on the Melee though, possibly Fan.
- EU: Breez, Bakery, Mene, Darkmok, then either Snitch/scHwimpi/Quackniix
- KR: Noblesse, sCsC, Rich, Hide, last is hard here too. Either duckdeok, NaCHoJin, or Sake.
Moonprayer: What is something interesting that you'd like to see from another MOBA build into Heroes of the Storm.
Dreadnaught: Turret Focus Priority. Meaning that our Turrets prioritize Heroes over minions whenever someone attacks someone under a turret. I don't like how weak our turrets can feel with the current state of the game, though I am torn because this is only another buff to Sylvanas Passive and I think it is already too strong.
Dubabear asks: What resources if any would you recommend for players to better understand map meta, strategies, and become more knowledge of every map to improve their gameplay?
Dreadnaught: My youtube I think, though it is not every map anymore and it is a bit dated/limited, is a very good source to look anything up.
Past that, anything bakery has provided is really solid.
Outside of those, I honestly have not seen solid enough information coming from one source enough for me to feel comfortable sending you their way.
Nevstorm5 asks: What do you think the HotS scene is missing in the form of content? More specifically what kind of specific content would you like to see for the scene such as articles, videos, etc.?
Dreadnaught: I really want to answer this, but I plan on doing these myself moving into 2017 and don't want anyone taking the ideas. So I can say this, educational content from a credible and well thought out source in the most digestible form possible.
sirmarius7 asks: what are your thoughts on Kharazhim? Trying to find out if hes a viable pick right now but he feels pretty wishy washy.
Dreadnaught: Kharazim, he is solid but very difficult to play properly, probably the highest skill ceiling support in the game right now. Try this build: http://www.heroesfire.com/hots/talent-calculator/kharazim#kg8t
Then focus on applying pressure to the frontline, you have high DPS but remember healing is your main focus. When a tank gets out of position, but a lot of dps into him. Above all, focus on healing, every palm you use on yourself is a bad palm, purely on the sense that you should always be saving others. Hope this helps, just know he is very difficult.
Wrapping up
The entire Heroes community owes a debt of gratitude to Dreadnaught for all the passion he has poured into the community. If you found any of this information useful, reach out to Wade and let him know on Twitter or his Youtube channel that he helped you in some way. Hell, send him a dollar on Twitch. We should be crowd-funding a few thousand dollars to make a video for each Battleground. I hope I speak for all of us aspiring Heroes players when I say:
Thank you Dreadnaught for putting yourself out there and making a difference!
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