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#1 Sep 20, 2012 at 05:06 UTC - 1 like

Over the last few weeks I've done a ton of research (aside from actually sitting in at the BlizzCon panels over the years and playing the game myself) and brushing up on my Blizzard All-Stars knowledge, and finally decided to begin my informational series for the game. I've been playing a lot of DOTA2 recently, which is what sparked my renewed interest in All-Stars. Sure, the game isn't out quite yet, but why should this stop us from hyping it up?

If you want to learn about Blizzard All-Stars, watch my series! I released the first episode today (9/19) and will be following it up with more episodes I've already planned out, covering known gameplay mechanics, heroes, items, and then of course, some speculation and suggestions.

Episode #1 - An Introduction
Episode #2 - Heroes Showcase
Episode #3 - Stats & Itemization
Episode #4 - Mount Mechanic
Episode #5 - Regeneration Globe Mechanic & Creep
Episode #6 - Tower Mechanic
Episode #7 - Neutral Camp/Jungle Mechanics
Episode #8 - Boss Battle Mechanic
Episode #9 - Lore and Map Design
Episode #10 - UI Review/Analysis
Episode #11 - eSports Features & Technical Aspects
Episode #12 - Recent Updates & Future Speculation
Episode #13 - Sigaty/Browder Interviews & Heart of the Swarm Beta Keys!
Episode #14 - Impact of Heart of the Swarm & Hearthstone

Last edited Mar 24, 2013 by Sixen

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#2 Sep 20, 2012 at 07:40 UTC - 0 likes

Words cannot describe my hate... the comment on the video is not aimed toward you or anyone though haha.

Still cant believe they removed K/D/A's just so the losers wouldnt Whine... That really Irritates me, they did that same crap on SC2 Quick Matches... Now I cant see if My Ratio is getting better or not... and it is REALLY irritating, and all because little jimmy is a bitch...

Do the losers a pat on a back, and a good try with a thumbs us? is that really what gamers need to be patted on the back and tell them they did good as long as they tried...

I hate my Generation... if it ment the rest too then eradicate my entire generation... even if it does include me... and the next one, they are just as bad....

Last edited Sep 20, 2012 by Taintedwisp

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#3 Sep 20, 2012 at 08:06 UTC - 0 likes

@Taintedwisp: Go

They are trying something different, let them experiment, maybe something good will come out of it.

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#4 Sep 20, 2012 at 09:12 UTC - 0 likes

blizzard is going for so casual, you can set all spells to autocast

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#5 Sep 20, 2012 at 16:12 UTC - 0 likes

Quote from zenx1: Go
blizzard is going for so casual, you can set all spells to autocast

Yeah I noticed.. in WoW I spam revenge and sheild block and I am one of the best tanks on a High Pop server...

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#6 Sep 21, 2012 at 07:33 UTC - 0 likes

Quote from Taintedwisp: Go
Still cant believe they removed K/D/A's just so the losers wouldnt Whine... That really Irritates me, they did that same crap on SC2 Quick Matches... Now I cant see if My Ratio is getting better or not... and it is REALLY irritating, and all because little jimmy is a bitch...

I was a bit skeptical at first as well, but think about it a little further. When you're playing in a game of DOTA2, you're all about playing for yourself if you're in a pub. You engage the enemy, someone else runs in and steals your kill by getting the last hit... Now you're angry. If you're on a pre-made team, getting takedowns is almost the same as just getting an assist, so what are we looking at here? Encouraging more teamwork for pubs and keeping the same amount of teamwork for pre-mades. Seems like a pretty solid system imo, ;).

Quote from zenx1: Go
blizzard is going for so casual, you can set all spells to autocast

Not necessarily, they're just giving the game their traditional "easy to learn, difficult to master" approach. They are adding some features to the game that will help shrink the learning curve, but at the same time, there is still complex strategy involved, like: team composition, ganking, laning, pushing, teamwork, stats, etc, :).

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#7 Sep 21, 2012 at 13:54 UTC - 0 likes

@Sixen: Go

Only thing I don't like about the removal of K/D/A is that they removed the deaths, I'd like to be able to see how I'm doing.

About sharing rewards, I like that. I find it really annoying in LoL that I can do the most damage, but majority of the money goes to the guy who just hit last. Or I accidentally killsteal simply because my auto attack or Dot landed right after someone else burst that got the enemy down to 1% (or when Im the one doing the burst and someone else just lands 1 hit at the wrong time) And in LoL you don't get an assist if you don't buff anyone getting an assist or damaging/debuffing the dying player (You can tank as much damage as you want, no assist), so sometimes I have to pick between not getting any money due to no assist or just outright killstealing because anything I do would just do too much damage. Then there are situations where someone got an enemy to barely any health and are now chasing that person, and I can intercept and kill - But that would be a killsteal, wouldn't it? But what if the enemy can outrun my ally? And I'm again put into the "all or no money" situation. I regularly play Diana, who is really good at just jumping in and finishing off people, but the killstealing stuff just puts unnecessary (mostly-)social restrictions on my performance.

And playing as a support can also be annoying. You autoattack an enemy, or aim a stun/debuf at the enemy, and it hits just after someone else ability/burst combo and you accidentally get the kill, which you aren't supposed to. This gets even worse with Alistar as your ultimate increases your attack damage massively, and any ability you use makes you deal damage over time to everyone around you, so its really easy to killsteal. In addition to that, I'm not allowed to last hit minions and have to rely on gp10 items for my income, AND I'm the guy who's supposed to buy all the consumables like wards and the detection potion. And with most supports, I'm forced to play passively, just sitting around in the bush waiting for an opportunity to stun my opponent so that my lane partner can do some damage, which happens close to never if I'm not playing against an idiot.

I highly prefer shared rewards over the k/d/a system (As for score, it'd be nice if they kept k/d/a, but made the person who dealt the most damage get the kill point. No extra reward included, or just a little, like 20-30% more gold)
I also really like the idea of gold per team on scoreboard instead of just a simple kills comparison - It's far more accurate. Its easy to have more kills than the enemy team but less money.

About last hitting - it's an annoying chore. Although I think it'd be better if they had added a system similar to SMITE's - You always get gold if you're close to dying minions, but get more if you actually last hit. Maybe they could just make you get +5 gold on each last hit in addition to what you usually get, maybe limit it to once per 5 seconds or 2-3 times per minion wave, so that there is a bit of incentive to actually hit the minions. (Maybe give the last hit bonus a little bit of "error correction", like shooting/hitting it within 1-2 seconds of it dying. I hate it how in LoL graphically sometimes you score the last hit, but a minion missile or something dealt damage before you, killing the minion)
I can't remember how the health globe system works though, it might be a good replacement. Maybe make last hits increase health globe drop chance? That way if you're getting outharassed, you can focus on minions to try and get your health back up.

Also, the removal of last hits makes it more important to get rid of your opponent instead of just preventing him from shooting at minions. Instead of zoning him away from his minions via harass, you'll have to force your opponent out of lane to get the money lead on him.

I want to see this in action though. I'm not entirely sure whether I like it that minions can just be ignored completely - There's a battle going on, and you just ignore it. It works in SMITE, but that's a third person game and you don't always see the minions. Allstars, like all dota games, will have the isometric view or whatever its called, so you'll almost always have that relatively ignorable battle on your screen. Still, I'm not gonna think badly of it before I try it. Maybe the health globe system makes it work, or the tower ammo system ends up really encouraging killing minions to push the lane.

In any case, I can't wait to try this out :p

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#8 Sep 21, 2012 at 18:56 UTC - 0 likes

I think with any sort of co-op competitive game with shared goals/resources, it becomes much more about the team than the individual. That may be a double edged sword, because you always want to be rewarded for being proactive, and you don't want others being rewarded for slacking off. Either way, if this helps prevent leavers and promotes team play, I'm all for it.

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#9 Sep 23, 2012 at 02:54 UTC - 0 likes

@Triceron: Go

I dunno I would say LoL has Successfully Killed leavers without taking out Personal Achievement. and if there is one way, I am sure there is a way that this could be done with the limits given. Perhaps, If you leave your last game before it ends, your hero is Auto Selected for you, And you get no bonus.

That could really annoy people.... And they wouldnt be leaving games...... and the only way to make it stop is to play 1 full game.

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#10 Sep 28, 2012 at 00:24 UTC - 0 likes

@Taintedwisp: Go

There absolutely must be some kind of penalty for leavers in any DOTA game. It doesn't need to harsh, but there needs to be something to prevent the average guy who doesn't care about others from leaving. Just making you receive no experience until you complete one full game should be enough, unless you leave games intentionally to troll.

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#11 Sep 28, 2012 at 00:53 UTC - 0 likes

@zeldarules28: Go

Yeah, I dont think my proposal would be harsh, just really annoying haha

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#12 Sep 28, 2012 at 01:21 UTC - 0 likes

As I never played a dota game Allstars will be my first experience in this genre. So far these changes sound positive to me. If I'm playing a team game I don't want selfish rewards like kills that only cause arguements in a team. And as Mighty said there are other ways to be very useful to your team that won't be rewarded in the same way.

Its like giving points to the player who scored a goal in a soccer game, not the team, and expect goalkeepers to not feel left out. ;-)

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#13 Sep 28, 2012 at 03:57 UTC - 0 likes

I'd love to see blizzard implement the quick-announcements system from Smite. You can press a set of 1-3 hotkeys to quickly shout something to your team. For example, you could press V (to activate the system), and then H + 1 for "help needed in top". Or V,H,2 for "help needed mid". It's a really nice system that lets you get information to your team without having to type.

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#14 Sep 28, 2012 at 23:31 UTC - 0 likes

Did Blizzard really say they were thinking of adding collectible items too? Like the leoric's crown and stuff. This is the first I've heard of that, but if it's true it sounds pretty awesome.

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#15 Sep 30, 2012 at 02:47 UTC - 0 likes

Hey Sixen, could you please add a list of the episodes to come for us. ;) They do not have to have a "release"date but the titel would be cool.

Thanks -Hamburger252

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#16 Oct 04, 2012 at 05:54 UTC - 0 likes

Whew, sorry about the late response, but I finally got it done, :).

Quote from TheAlmaity: Go
@Sixen: Go

Only thing I don't like about the removal of K/D/A is that they removed the deaths, I'd like to be able to see how I'm doing.

Truth, although I feel like this was an obvious one since they also removed your losses from the stats screen in Melee, :(.

Quote from TheAlmaity: Go
@Sixen: Go About sharing rewards, I like that.

I actually really like this new system as well, aside from what you've mentioned, someone like Dazzle in DOTA will do a ton of healing and not even get an assist, because he didn't do any damage to the enemy, so this takedown system should be great.

Quote from TheAlmaity: Go
@Sixen: Go I highly prefer shared rewards over the k/d/a system (As for score, it'd be nice if they kept k/d/a, but made the person who dealt the most damage get the kill point. No extra reward included, or just a little, like 20-30% more gold)

IMO, worst case scenario, they could just do takedowns (which is a combination of kills and assists) and deaths in a scoreboard... That'd be ideal, ;).

Quote from TheAlmaity: Go
@Sixen: Go I also really like the idea of gold per team on scoreboard instead of just a simple kills comparison - It's far more accurate. Its easy to have more kills than the enemy team but less money.

I actually wasn't a big fan of this to begin with, but after I thought some more about it, I actually came to a very similar conclusion.

Quote from TheAlmaity: Go
@Sixen: Go Maybe they could just make you get +5 gold on each last hit in addition to what you usually get, maybe limit it to once per 5 seconds or 2-3 times per minion wave, so that there is a bit of incentive to actually hit the minions.

If they did this, there's still a bonus (and thus an advantage) for those who are last hitting, which means the skill curve remains the same.

Quote from TheAlmaity: Go
@Sixen: Go I can't remember how the health globe system works though, it might be a good replacement. Maybe make last hits increase health globe drop chance?

Basically: you kill the flagbearer minion and it drops a health globe 100% of the time, which gives you health/mana.

Quote from TheAlmaity: Go
@Sixen: Go I want to see this in action though. I'm not entirely sure whether I like it that minions can just be ignored completely - There's a battle going on, and you just ignore it.

Possibly toward the end-game, this may happen, but it also happens in games like DOTA. Regardless, minions (specifically the flagbearer) can turn the tide of battle, let's say you kill him in the middle of your fight, you can then gain an advantage via the globe.

Quote from Triceron: Go
Did Blizzard really say they were thinking of adding collectible items too? Like the leoric's crown and stuff. This is the first I've heard of that, but if it's true it sounds pretty awesome.

Yup! This is how hero customization will work, that being a great example. Let's say there's a Leoric hero (which there isn't, at least not yet), if you win X games with him, you unlock a different looking crown, etc. Perhaps you'll be able to purchase these customizations as well, instead.

Quote from Hamburger252: Go
Hey Sixen, could you please add a list of the episodes to come for us. ;) They do not have to have a "release"date but the titel would be cool.

Thanks -Hamburger252

I just put up the fourth episode as well, I'll consider putting up the full list, we'll see, ;).

Last edited Oct 04, 2012 by Sixen

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#17 Oct 05, 2012 at 16:49 UTC - 0 likes

Great video. I just wanted to know more about the artifacts and the other items in general.

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#18 Oct 26, 2012 at 18:17 UTC - 0 likes

Great videos, but a lot of Disappointments to me.

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#19 Nov 11, 2012 at 01:27 UTC - 1 like

@Taintedwisp: Go

I hear you. The only group of people that will near-universally play this are the internet-owning Blizzard employes and people who don't have the time neccessary to play a match of DotA.

Any and all SC2 related things put on hold for now.

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#20 Feb 28, 2013 at 09:50 UTC - 0 likes

@Sixen: Go

I don't want to offend, but your series gives off this huge sense of fan-boy-ism. I mean, it makes sense, and it's fine to be really devoted to one particular company's products, but you failed to acknowledge any other point of view.

I for one disagree with many of the things said both by you and Blizzard. Things like "armor is just a hidden form of health" or "weapon speed is just a hidden form of damage" are totally ignorant. A variety of stats and item effects increases the uniqueness of gameplay by more than the sum of its parts.

Ex.:

Weapon speed is more useful to heroes with abilities that proc on attack or items that proc on attack.
Armor and Spell Resist are not just hidden forms of health. They make you strong against some enemies but the investment leaves you weak against others.
Things like lifesteal and health regeneration provide sustainability but again, the investment means you may be lacking in damage or health, which, as an example, may leave you weak to burst damage.

Without this variety there will never be a reason to vary your item selection... One set of items will always be best on a particular hero, even moreso if you can only buy four items.

Also, the notion of a siege hero was based on very faulty premises. Yes, the objective of the game is to destroy the enemy's base, but the purpose is not to do that by outranging towers. Such an idea, at least in my opinion, takes the fun out of the game. Yes, you can say that if a siege hero is attacking your tower uninhibited, then it is your fault for not defending it - but then, if you always defend against these siege heroes, they have no purpose. So they are a subtraction from the game in both cases.

I know your video series was meant to be informational, but a truly informational series would present more than just one point of view. You raised no questions.

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