HotS Beta

[Rumudiez]

First of all, does anyone have it besides me?

It's ridiculous. I got really sick of playing WoL as a Terran player, but I can't stop playing Heart of the Swarm~ every new unit is so overpowered.

Anyone elses opinions so far?

[jesseOlyWa]

   I play. I tend to spend quite a bit more time on WoL, though. HoTS usually inspires a bit too much rage for me right now. Hopefully in another patch or two things will be more to my liking. My rage at the game is prolly similiar to why you like - i play zerg.


--jesse

[Rumudiez]

I absolutely can't play Terran in HotS... rofl, I absolutely love playing Zerg and Protoss! Infestor/swarm host/corrupter and oracle/phoenix are so easy and fun for me.

[hashbaz]

FYI there is already a HotS thread: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=36541

gl hf

[Rumudiez]

That thread is mostly QQ, but I tried to convert it... We'll see: either way, another wave of invites went out so having a fresh thread without hate might get some of the new beta participants to look at the game more positively.

[sovano]

Simply if you want to discuss HotS seriously, you're better off talking on Teamliquid or Reddit. I already made my point in the other thread.

[ekw808]

I just cant get back into SC2 even though I played SC1 for over 10 years, all of those years of dedication just went to waste. SC2 is like a whole new game, and I just don't have the time to relearn everything to be as good as I once was...

[sovano]

I admit, the transition was a bit difficult for me as well going from BW to SC2. This doesn't seem to be true for BW progamers though. If you've been keeping up with SC2 tournaments, they've been doing quite well. Especially Rain.

[hashbaz]

A few of them have done well.  Most have been pretty average so far.  Perhaps they are still coming up to speed, or perhaps the game is different enough that their dominance won't transfer.  The HotS rollout is a good time for them to be coming on, in any case.

[jesseOlyWa]

    I think this is true for the first month or so after the Pro SC:BW players switch, but most of them are in high masters after the second or third month. (I base this on a discussion in State of the Game that took place this week or last.) 

    I watched Hyun's first tourney when he made the switch last year. (I think it was Hyun, anyway.) He went into the touney with only a month of play time, and won the first game decisively. The next two he lost, but it seemed to me that the loss was due to not having a full appreciation of the Queen and the importance of injecting. His opponent (not sure who that was now) recognized that and modified his play in the second and third games to emphasize this weakness. This was a weekly tourney on ESL, not one of the big events.

    I acknowledge that that's only one match and one pro, however I listen to a couple weekly SC2 casts and, when the discussion comes up, the consensus is that current BW pros real strength is in their APM and perfect build order execution. Both of those do translate to SC2 pretty well, and usually result in a pretty quick rise to the top. (I should clarify, it's the memorization and execution of a build order that translates, not the order itself.)

    This only applies to Korean pros. I don't know if the BW scene was large enough anywhere else for there to be enough pros to make any generalizations.


--jesse

[sovano]

Its actually the mechanics that BW players bring over to SC2 that is enabling them to transition to at least high masters, if not GM. They've developed those skills quite well in BW, now they just need to understand the game. That's why some BW teams are hiring SC2 players like Clide, Boxer, and some other guy I can't remember at the moment. HotS will help level out the playing field somewhat, but a majority of what is new can be transferred from WoL to HotS.

[hashbaz]

OTOH as Idra likes to point out mechanics are not as important in SC2 as they were in Broodwar.  Flawless mechanics will win you fewer games vs. solid intuition and decision making.

Both aspects are important in both games of course, but the competitive advantage of many of the Kespa players who are now transitioning is their mechanics, which is less of an advantage in SC2.

[Rumudiez]

Simply if you want to discuss HotS seriously, you're better off talking on Teamliquid or Reddit. I already made my point in the other thread.

And I would, if I wanted to hear "really high, should-be-promoted diamond" players cry about balance in match-ups with the only source being their own poor ability to play the game... This isn't to discuss how "bad" of a job Blizzard has done in balancing any of their new games and frankly, I detest average gamers who think their new releases aren't up to par. Innovating fifteen year old genres is a huge task in and of itself that no one I've met has any clue on how to do better than Blizzard or any other game company, and people demanding something as jaw-dropping and awesome as what they got in the first wave of good RTSes today are out of perspective and deserve to be let down with every single game release.

Long story short, no balance QQ: just what you find FUN about the game. Posting something like that on TL would probably get me temp banned anyways, lol.

[vun]

Simply if you want to discuss HotS seriously, you're better off talking on Teamliquid or Reddit. I already made my point in the other thread.

This is a keyboard forum, yet people also talk about guns, knives, trackballs, electronic cigarettes and all sorts of things I never imagined I'd see discussed here.
I don't see why people shouldn't be able to talk about HotS here as we've already established there are quite a few SC2 gamers on GH. This is simply a thread where those who are playing HotS, or are interested in playing it, can voice their opinion on it.

[sovano]

Simply if you want to discuss HotS seriously, you're better off talking on Teamliquid or Reddit. I already made my point in the other thread.

This is a keyboard forum, yet people also talk about guns, knives, trackballs, electronic cigarettes and all sorts of things I never imagined I'd see discussed here.
I don't see why people shouldn't be able to talk about HotS here as we've already established there are quite a few SC2 gamers on GH. This is simply a thread where those who are playing HotS, or are interested in playing it, can voice their opinion on it.

You're twisting my words to convey something that I hadn't originally intended it to be. What I'm saying is you're more likely to find more insightful discussions, even among the midst of crap on TL and Reddit, BECAUSE those sites are dedicated to SC2. Notice, I said more likely, not definitely. Would you expect to find a bunch of experts on programing on a computer science forum or a gaming forum? That's what I'm trying to point out. Although by all means if you guys want to have a discussion about HotS beta, by all means go for it. I haven't played the beta enough yet to really drop some knowledge off as I have to dedicate my time to WoL for my CSL team. However, to actually contribute to this thread, I will say that they really need to rework late-game PvZ still. It's a clusterf*ck of broodlords still with no real answer. The tempest seemed liked a silly idea, but now removing their range has seemed to make it worse. Though that's just my opinion. As for the Oracle, it still needs work.