Community Collaboration Patch AMA w/ DOGKaiser

[Zero_MnotW]

Community Collaboration Balance Patch AMA w/ DOGKaiser scheduled Friday, June 1st



DOGKaiser would like to invite everyone to an "Ask Me Anything" session about the Community Collaboration Patch hosted here on June 1st, from 13:00-15:00 EDT. You can post your questions until 12:00 EDT (noon) on June 1st.

Please post your questions below and follow along when DOGKaiser spills the beans on what it took to make this patch a reality.

Here's DOGKaiser's Patch Preview Interview for your reference:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geXoS4BFEhM

DOGKaiser's first round of responses: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?425421-Community-Collaboration-Patch-AMA-w-DOGKaiser&p=15131658&viewfull=1#post15131658

[ChillyWater]

Favourite Dota port?
Favourite Hon-unique hero?

Edit: Not sure if right time or not...

[TwistedGeass]

Well, nice to hear community is taking half responsibility on this patch. I just feel most of changes mentioned are mostly for competitive scene.

About hellflower and kuldra, have you tried/thought of reducing kuldra's cooldown? Now that it's cc lasts so much less it wouldn't hurt having a lower cooldown, and can motivate people to build it again. I get the feeling all late game cc items will be obsolete if this nerf hammer keeps falling over them.

Any plans regarding Magebane? Do you think he's balanced or needs to be nerfed/reworked? Ignore this question if he was changed in this patch!

[Kingbekir90]

When will be change the Free-to-Play System ?My friend want play HoN if the FTP is changed.

[Tyiriel]

When will be change the Free-to-Play System ?

My friend want play HoN if the FTP is changed.

How do you mean? HoN is FTP, do you mean that they should get all the heroes or be able to play all the game mods? why would people then buy the game?

[Xvain]

can s2 support Chinese style linebreak plz?
im making a chinese translation patch, but hon's auto linebreak is based on the space character
in chinese there is almost no space in a sentence, the linebreak can follow on any chinese character
could you please make an option in core_XX.resources or somewhere else, to support chinese style linebreak plz?

and also, amplify the font memory(or sth else?) to support bigger font and word size plz?
i found the korea client font is all word size 10, thats like..lol

sry for my poor english:)

[pandamanana]

What do you think about the idea to take each DOTA port hero and overhaul them with the S2Games touch? I like Tiny and Pudge as much as the next guy, but with the release of DOTA 2 coming up, I'd love to see S2Games take these great heroes and make them even better.

[Averi]

Hi. In what basis do you choose heroes from HoN Dream site? thank you.

[Inomares]

How/why did you lose to DivA? Sheer luck or did you get outplayed? (You owe me 200 silver + interest). Do you plan on getting revenge/a rematch?

Also, what's your opinions on Gemini's current state? Do you think the nerf hit him too hard?

[Sagiroth]

Just few questions:
1. Do you mind to create in future some alt avatars for people who doesn't pay for gold coins and could be afford for reasonable amount of silver coins? for example alt avatars such as: magmus,tempest,devo which cost around 300-470 silver.
2. Any chance that hon account could be paid aswell as it was before f2p? I bet many people might like that.
3. Y U NO fix MK :) Don't see him on the list. And if not, why that?
4. Mid Wars seem to be fun but for a short period of time. I think people just get bored. Do you think you might add something new ?
5. Will you add any fun events in future gameplay that might give a chance to get some aditional silver coins?
6. Thank you.

[Natslx]

Terrible patch, nerf Salforis and MK PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

[Hematology]

When will Staff of master work with all heroes' ultis? :)

[Doomhammar]

Any Engineer changes coming?

Any new community items coming?

Any new orbs coming?

[Zerotorescue]

You promised 3.0 to be released soon about half a year ago, you going to stop slacking?

Then again, S2 isn't really well known for keeping their promises often.

[Mernie]

- What are you guys planning on doing with sacraficial stone, since it's been asked to rework it for quite some time now

-While it was easy to get 5s with the javelin, it is still pretty hard to land a javelin. (for gods sake it's not an arrow) I didn't see it get pulled off that well in the competitive scene unless it was a mag/valk lane. So what really made it worth to change this?

-What are you planning to do to change this tank meta game? It's clearly all those tanks are picked cause of all the new nuke heroes s2 has been making, so is there any way or will this remain and will there just be glass cannons and tanks in all the games?

[Reldnahc]

How tall is everyone at S2?

[pianoboii]

What is the logic behind balancing heroes in HoN? As far as DotA2 and LoL goes, when a hero is underpowered/not picked, they buff him/her slowly until he becomes strong enough to be picked in the competitive scene. In HoN, when a hero is too weak, they give him a small buff about once in an eternity and just focus on nerfing strong heroes.

There is nothing wrong with nerfing a hero but I hate how you guys nerf strong heroes 100% of the time instead of buffing weaker heroes. There's a reason why only 30ish heroes are picked competitively out of a whooping 100+ heroes. A great example would be Moraxus currently. Six months ago, nobody ever used him. If you guys would have just given him a small buff then, it would have instantly attracted the attention of the pros. They would realize that he had great potential and was very powerful and they would have started using him long ago. But no. Rather, he was still unpicked for another five months until ONE pro used him and everybody started using him again. And that's even without a buff. Now, if the trend continues, I'm sure you're going to nerf him to the point where he's only a mediocre pick rather than a strong pick.

So why? Why must you do this? I seriously think that you should just leave Moraxus alone and buff some other heroes that haven't been picked for ages! Seriously! So many heroes have the potential to be top picks in the competitive scene but they just aren't strong enough to be top material.

Another example would be Midas. I agree that he was OP when he was first released (just like every other new hero you have released lately. I mean, come on, without even looking at the numbers I can tell whether or not a hero is OP or not) so I nerf was needed. I think switching the CD on the heal and the flasks was a great change. It was perfect that way. He was considerably weaker than when he was first released but not to the point where he isn't any good anymore. But then you went and nerfed his armor/agi. Why!? He was fine the way he was. He was strong in the sense that he was tough to kill and could do a lot of damage. Like Pebbles with a built in PK but lower base damage and ranged.

What you should have done instead was buff some weaker hero that could stand up against Midas. A good example I can come up with is Defiler. Was top material a long time ago, is now next to worthless. Buff her little bits at a time, see how she does in the competitive scene when she gets picked and then move on from there rather than ignoring her. If she was stronger, she could have easily been a strong pick against Midas due to not having minions for him to kill (unlike, let's say, Keeper) but no point in using her if MIdas could just burst her down when she pushed.

That's just my two cents. I just really want to know why you would rather nerf heroes to oblivion than buff never used heroes.

[donaldigos]

How tall is everyone at S2?
Can we get a tinker based hero . with high dmg nukes and reset all cooldowns ulti would be awsome and couldnt wait for it the only part i miss is this kind of hero :!

[AetosDios]

What's going on with Gemini? He's an amazing concept for a hero but if any hero needs a remake, it's him. Will we see any much needed changes made to such a great hero?

[Zesbeer]

Looks like more s2 fail.

no change to the fact that pred and swift have lvl 1 built in magic immune, or a change to make ports consistent (ie have some sort of downside like pk) or any sort of change to make animations match but as a mod said "another case of people going off of animations" HE AND HE SEES NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. seeing as animations are the only indicator of were a skill ends and how to skillfully counter said skill or dodge skills. no nerf to tremble mound spam with 600 hp and 5 armor and 10 hits to kill. gj on failing s2

[nubbi]

What's up with Furion Port? Or is it just an ajusted :nymp2:?

[skeloperch]

Will we be able to vote on certain changes? For example, if you were to rework, let's say, Frost Field Plate, would we be able to vote on whether we want the item to be more of an tank item, or a caster item?

[LaStHlTMaGiC]

Why was Valk, Tort etc Night vision normalised a few patches ago?

Are there any plans to make use of the Night/Day mechanic via Hero, item, spell effect?

Nightstalker semi port - discuss?

[Violette]

Can you at least FIX THE F******ing Mac Microphones???
After waiting 7 month to get sound back now we dont have the ability to use or mics????wtf??? and crashes for all mac ppl 50% of time... so sad.

[Izual]

Any plans to implement another Community hero or at least Community inspired hero?

[iAristhea]

dude i'm using a mac and i just started and my mic is fine must be your computer

[SlicerDigZ]

Will matchmaking be fixed for 1800's+? That is all

[Merc`]

Looks like more s2 fail.

no change to the fact that pred and swift have lvl 1 built in magic immune, or a change to make ports consistent (ie have some sort of downside like pk) or any sort of change to make animations match but as a mod said "another case of people going off of animations" HE AND HE SEES NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. seeing as animations are the only indicator of were a skill ends and how to skillfully counter said skill or dodge skills. no nerf to tremble mound spam with 600 hp and 5 armor and 10 hits to kill. gj on failing s2

Only a 1450 noob like yourself would speak like this tbh...NOTHING you have said is even close to being true or close to needing a nerf....

[Zesbeer]

Only a 1450 noob like yourself would speak like this tbh...NOTHING you have said is even close to being true or close to needing a nerf....


k ill go play oped heroes like you so i can be 1600 and be ignorant to facts.

[KawaiChan]

Which is better. Nerfing OP hero to balance things out or Buffing UP hero to makeup for OP hero?

[Kvx]

Is a rework/nerf on MK gonna happen?

[Behemoth]

Only a 1450 noob like yourself would speak like this tbh...NOTHING you have said is even close to being true or close to needing a nerf....

So you must be blind because 99% of the skill animations do not accurately represent the damage or effect radius. I've seen people trying to run to the side to dodge Ra's stun or Bubble's shell, even though they aren't hit by the animation at all, it still hits them and does damage. THAT needs to be fixed.

There was an huge thread back in the beta forums about this and the only things that came out of it were a keeper of the forest fix. They said they fixed SS/Hag's skills, but nope they still don't accurately indicate aoe.

[iPickGlacius]

Port Techies
This is not a question.
It is a demand.
But seriously, how about Armadon? Are we gonna see some changes on him?

[T13ST0]

Any Engineer or Gemini changes coming? Because you know mines realy ruined the old playstyle of Engineer and Gemini is rarely seen because of his ulti. i Have a few suggestions if you want to hear them.

[Example27]

Are there any plans to add new items?

[xDahliahx]

Any plans to correct the projectile (auto-attack) system ? e.g. Witch Slayer launches an auto-attack while the projectile is in air geomancer digs in, when he digs out (far away) to the surface again the projectile (auto-attack) still hits him.

[gotti619]

Will you change the skills of a hero in the near future? I mean completely like on Kraken/Rampage/...

[T13ST0]

I have a suggestion for Gemini rework.
It goes like this.
1st ability: Stays the same.
2nd ability: Effects stay the same but change the visuals from fire and ice dogs to air and earth dogs.
3rd ability: Either effects stay the same or a change that I will explain below with ulti.
Ulti: Lvl 1 ulti: He splits into 2 dogs (fire and ice), lvl 2 ulti: 3 dogs (fire,ice and air), lvl 3 ulti: 4 dogs (fire,ice,air and earth). 1st option is that each dog has increased stats like : fire (increased atk dmg),earth ( more tanky), air (more ms) and ice ( i don't really know). The 2nd option is that each dog would aply a specific effect on you with his atks like: fire would aply a dot (100 dmg over 3 sec), ice would aply a slow (15% for 3 sec), air would aply a debuff (any1 who atks you would get 100 ms boost for 3 sec) and earth would stun (for 0.5 sec and there woud be a cd of 3 sec before he could stun again). If you killed 1 dog tehy would all die and they would last for about 15 to 25 sec.
And now onto his 3rd skill. As I said before I needed to explain the ulti 1st for the 3rd skill to be more clear.It can have 2 options for how it's gonna work. 1st option:each atk you would have a 25% chance to burn you enemies for 25/50/75/100 dmg for sec,25% chance to slow the target for 5%/10%/15%/20% for 3 sec, 25% chance to aply a debuff that would grant anyone that hits the affected unit 25/50/75/100 ms for 3 sec and 25% to stun the target for 0.2570.5/0.75/1 sec, each effect would have 3 sec cd (so you couldnt stun the target to death) but you will still be able to dish out 1 effcet per atk. The 2nd option of work is that one of these four effects would go off every 4th atk but same effect couldn't occour twice in a row. His 3rd ability would be an atk modefier.

Hope you like it and i would love to hear suggestions! :D

[KawaiChan]

I have a suggestion for Gemini rework.
It goes like this.
1st ability: Stays the same.
2nd ability: Effects stay the same but change the visuals from fire and ice dogs to air and earth dogs.
3rd ability: Either effects stay the same or a change that I will explain below with ulti.
Ulti: Lvl 1 ulti: He splits into 2 dogs (fire and ice), lvl 2 ulti: 3 dogs (fire,ice and air), lvl 3 ulti: 4 dogs (fire,ice,air and earth). 1st option is that each dog has increased stats like : fire (increased atk dmg),earth ( more tanky), air (more ms) and ice ( i don't really know). The 2nd option is that each dog would aply a specific effect on you with his atks like: fire would aply a dot (100 dmg over 3 sec), ice would aply a slow (15% for 3 sec), air would aply a debuff (any1 who atks you would get 100 ms boost for 3 sec) and earth would stun (for 0.5 sec and there woud be a cd of 3 sec before he could stun again). If you killed 1 dog tehy would all die and they would last for about 15 to 25 sec.
And now onto his 3rd skill. As I said before I needed to explain the ulti 1st for the 3rd skill to be more clear.It can have 2 options for how it's gonna work. 1st option:each atk you would have a 25% chance to burn you enemies for 25/50/75/100 dmg for sec,25% chance to slow the target for 5%/10%/15%/20% for 3 sec, 25% chance to aply a debuff that would grant anyone that hits the affected unit 25/50/75/100 ms for 3 sec and 25% to stun the target for 0.2570.5/0.75/1 sec, each effect would have 3 sec cd (so you couldnt stun the target to death) but you will still be able to dish out 1 effcet per atk. The 2nd option of work is that one of these four effects would go off every 4th atk but same effect couldn't occour twice in a row.

Hope you like it and i would love to hear suggestions! :D

Now we wouldn't called that Gemini anymore would we?

Edit:

OT: Would you guys to consider to remove the effect on Null-stone from blocking global spell like Vindi,flux,Sand and TB ulti?

[T13ST0]

Now we wouldn't called that Gemini anymore would we?

Edit:

OT: Would you guys to consider to remove the effect on Null-stone from blocking global spell like Vindi,flux,Sand and TB ulti?

True it wouldn't be Gemini anymore but there are other names like Elementalist (not really). :p

[Vek]

why are noobs so ****in retarded?

[wonzling]

1. Do you think automuting + autoignore in chat would be a viable way for HoN to address excessive raging players?

Automute could e.g. trigger once a player becomes manually muted by a certain percentage of players ingame, like 40%. Automuted players would by default be muted, but can be unmuted manually, of course.

2. Do you think powercreep is an issue?

[Kingbekir90]

lol

Sry for my bad english.
I mean it would be better if we got some heroes for free to learn it better.
Every week the heroes are changed and thats difficult for my friend to learn it and Now he go b to LoL.

[Mernie]

lol
Every week the heroes are changed and thats difficult for my friend to learn it and Now he go b to LoL.

I don't see any difference, LoL works the exact same way...

[BloodyTeddy]

What will happen when there a too many heroes to fit in the hero chart? the hero icons are already kinda small, you wont be able to make the chart bigger and bigger forever

[TheAllFather]

Are you planning to somehow find a permanent solution for Jeraziah's boredom?Like giving him back his BETA passive strike?
First his loses his Pure damage , gets speed to compensate.
Now loses speed also , and some strength.

I am aware he is a powerhouse in games and a game changer , but he is simply TOO BORING now.Nymphora for example , another support IS NOT AT ALL boring with all her skills.

My suggestion would be to give him back the beta passive strike he had (similar to gladi's) which would slow enemies and buff allies speed on hit , along with the awesome animation to stop him from being boring and perhaps some damage.(the potential of people playing him carry was not a reason for removal , let people play whatever way they want , its they that will miss potential).

[SirPurri]

I've understood that you are 100% focused in Hon right now, but is S2 planning for making a new game in the future?(like savage 3 perhaps :))
If you have some clue, what is it going to be like?
And how much are you practicing to beat Diva?

[OhHappyDay]

How do you feel about the fact that DotA 2 will be offering all current and new heroes for free and their F2P model ONLY allows for cosmetic upgrades?

It is a sharp contrast to the F2P model that HoN has.

[Galnegunnar]

1. Why are s2 not nerfing Tundra and Moraxsus? I mean they are so dominant on the competitive scene and is almost banned every game. I also wonder how you would nerf them so they become balanced.

2. Staff of the Master upgrades on other heroes? Any thoughts in doing it?

3. Are you planning on makeing a fifth ban in Ban Pick? I really think it is needed now that there is so many heroes.

[Budfox]

Do you think the grind for silver coins could get buffed in a way? it takes me between two and three months of game play to get 3000 coins, now that is fine for a legacy account but for a f2p account I can't buy any heroes for 2-3 months because i am saving for a cool alt avatar or something very expensive, do you think that is something you would look into?

[iCrap]

I wounder why you keep nerfing glacius all the time? He is nothing like he used to be :( I want old glacius back!

[Torekai]

What guidelines do you use for item balancing and how to you incorporate slot efficiency into this? My research with this revealed to me that there are still several items that do not follow a unified measure. Do you have a formula showing the effects of slot efficiency and the diminishing returns associated with it, or is it more of a guideline that items are balanced around?

Thank you for your work on this patch and balancing in general, and I hope to see more frequent and substantial balance tweaks.
- Torekai

[Skyve]

What were interesting changes/ideas that did not make it in?

There were a lot of suggestion to Blitz.
Attact range, Cast Speed, Turn Rate, Ult CD. Why you thinkt that just the Buff in the CD of his ult is enough?
His concept is be faster than the other heros but his fells like a very slow hero.

[Flandre]

Loads of heroes received stat changes in this patch. Why was emerald warden left untouched? It is clear that he is overpowered, just look at his win %. Tuning down his stat gains to be in line with other ranged carries is the perfect way to balance him

[Talvinakki]

When are you going to nerf Nomad?
And rework Wildsoul, please

[Skullscraper]

Will this game gets Multi Core Support?

[im_an_orange]

Just few questions:
1. Do you mind to create in future some alt avatars for people who doesn't pay for gold coins and could be afford for reasonable amount of silver coins? for example alt avatars such as: magmus,tempest,devo which cost around 300-470 silver.
2. Any chance that hon account could be paid aswell as it was before f2p? I bet many people might like that.
3. Y U NO fix MK :) Don't see him on the list. And if not, why that?
4. Mid Wars seem to be fun but for a short period of time. I think people just get bored. Do you think you might add something new ?
5. Will you add any fun events in future gameplay that might give a chance to get some aditional silver coins?
6. Thank you.

Dat guy is right. But How about fixing Ramp's magic immunity during charge? Or magebanes 7 sec 1000000000 units teleport? :)))))
T-Up for no. 1 !!!

EDIT: And Deadwood !!!!!!

[Yugoloth]

Nerfs to Emerald Warden would be wellcomed. To his wolves skill range, and to his bird, Gawain. Maybe gawain could become an activable skill, with lower CD at higher levels, like berserker ult or drunken master ult.
And maybe Cthulhuphant needs a change, a buff. His description says "physical damage" but i dont get how. His auto attacks are not super powerful, now he is also nerfed, and he is not a carry. In example, Jera aura slows for 28%. Thats very annoying, but elephant aura is not that effective. He should get a little rework instead of so many nerfs.
Scouts passive skill, disarm, should be just that, a disarm for 2 seconds, not also a 2x crit. I mean: there is not a certain item that gives a "disarmer" moddifier".Now he can disarm for 2 seconds, and with items like brutalizer and flurry that becomes a perma disable.
Thats my contribution.

[GodlyHua]

How do you mean? HoN is FTP, do you mean that they should get all the heroes or be able to play all the game mods? why would people then buy the game?

Ok.. S2 has been planning to change the F2P system. Making it 20-25 permanent heroes and 5-10 rotating heroes for the new "free to play" players. So his question is when will this become official or patched"?

[w3wStarBoy]

Bltiz still not get enough
ANd we NEED TO NERF EW, a hero can play with semi, hard - carry, counter push ,semi-gank with high hp, high damage in lv 11 and destroy 2/3 HP with only 200 mana,
because this stupid hero
Some hero DR, Deifier, Thunder is fk hard to play again

[Nubice]

Do you feel MK is balanced? And if so, what hero do you think can really counter him? (so disregarding the dual lane option)
Do you think the hero deny system is coherent? (so which DoT allow denies and which doesn't)
What kind of new Hero does Newerth need?

[Keris]

1. Same question as SirPurri (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/member.php?3360943-SirPurri). Savage 2 gameplay is quite awesome btw.
2. Is there any plant to tweak gunblade ultimate? since 90 sec with so little dmg & effect make this skill ineffective. I think y should lower the cd.

[DECANTER]

With the idea in mind that you balance the game around competitive players - why are Shrunken Head and Portal Key left untouched?

Two items that are essential to every single team composition in every matchup (no exceptions). They are essential because of how strong their active abilities are; far and away the two strongest active items in the game. To me, the word balance means that you're trying to keep items and heroes in-line with one another to some extent. While these items aren't "un-counterable", its impossible to argue that they aren't the two strongest and most common "end-game" competitive items around.

Why not lower the invuln on shrunken head to three seconds, and shorten the blink range on PK while quadrupling the cooldown?

[KindoRamns]

With the idea in mind that you balance the game around competitive players - why are Shrunken Head and Portal Key left untouched?

Two items that are essential to every single team composition in every matchup (no exceptions). They are essential because of how strong their active abilities are; far and away the two strongest active items in the game. To me, the word balance means that you're trying to keep items and heroes in-line with one another to some extent. While these items aren't "un-counterable", its impossible to argue that they aren't the two strongest and most common "end-game" competitive items around.

Why not lower the invuln on shrunken head to three seconds, and shorten the blink range on PK while quadrupling the cooldown?

I agree with all of thise except the "quadrupeling the cooldown" on pk. that would be what like a minute and a half cooldown? I'd say bump it up to like a 40 second cooldown and increase the delay of being able to use it after being attacked to maybe 4 or 5 seconds from 3.

[Fnitter]

Since S2 has previously stated that they balance for competitive play, how come Drunken Master was nerfed so hard? He was never banned and only picked in rare occasions, what problems did he cause to competitive play?

[blankpage]

What is the current status on HonTV for osx/linux?
Is s2 aware it hasnt been working for half a year?
When is the ignore function going to start working?
Any plans on brining back the banlist?

[BigBlackMale]

Do you work out?

[DECANTER]

I agree with all of thise except the "quadrupeling the cooldown" on pk. that would be what like a minute and a half cooldown? I'd say bump it up to like a 40 second cooldown and increase the delay of being able to use it after being attacked to maybe 4 or 5 seconds from 3.

I'd bump the cooldown up to 60 at least, but I like your idea of raising that PK attack-delay from 3 to 5 as well.

[HonBadger]

Hello and thanks for opening up to the community for questions.

A few quick questions / observations.

1. Are you planning on putting anything else in the observatory? It would be great to see something special that had to do with sight that was purchasable only at the observatory - Something like a special ward (Maybe one that can't be counter warded or eye'd... or allow the purchase of a portion of the map to be revealed for a time (much like the farseer ability in WC3, with S2 tweaks of course.)

2. Since you've decided to up the cost of pickled brain - sac stone is even worse... can you please take a look into lowing it's price, fixing it's build, or making it better? I'd personally like to see grave locket build into sac stone, as they both lower re-spawn time. You could add a mechanic that if grave locket had a charge on it when sac stone was created it would start with 1 charge on it.

3. I have a ton of ideas and thoughts on this game, as it is a lot of what my friends and I think about and discuss... do you have a preferred method of receiving game suggestions? (The forms are normally saturated with haters and trolls... but I'll totally use a form if needed.)

Thank you again for making a ridiculously awesome game! I've tried playing other games, and I always come back to HoN. Thank you S2!

[DOGKaiser]

Favourite Dota port?
Favourite Hon-unique hero?

Edit: Not sure if right time or not...

Wretched Hag
Shadowblade


Hi. In what basis do you choose heroes from HoN Dream site? thank you.
My fellow designers choose whether to use them or not.



How/why did you lose to DivA? Sheer luck or did you get outplayed? (You owe me 200 silver + interest). Do you plan on getting revenge/a rematch?

Also, what's your opinions on Gemini's current state? Do you think the nerf hit him too hard?
Well after I saw him huddled in a corner after my smack-talk I felt pretty bad for the guy. Next time I won't be so kind.

It's something that we're discussing and working on but it is not finalized yet so I can't speak on it just yet :)


When will Staff of master work with all heroes' ultis? :)
It's likely that we will make staff work with more heroes but it is going to be a work in progress for heroes that currently do not have staff ulties.


Any Engineer changes coming?

Any new community items coming?

Any new orbs coming?

Not likely but perhaps in the future.
Yes new items are in the works and a few are close to release.
None of the current items in the works have orbs, sorry :(


- What are you guys planning on doing with sacraficial stone, since it's been asked to rework it for quite some time now

-While it was easy to get 5s with the javelin, it is still pretty hard to land a javelin. (for gods sake it's not an arrow) I didn't see it get pulled off that well in the competitive scene unless it was a mag/valk lane. So what really made it worth to change this?

-What are you planning to do to change this tank meta game? It's clearly all those tanks are picked cause of all the new nuke heroes s2 has been making, so is there any way or will this remain and will there just be glass cannons and tanks in all the games?
Speaking of new items in the works...
This nerf is only to lower levels of the skill. The gain for hitting early arrows is still quite high.


How tall is everyone at S2?
Pretty much everyone is taller than DivA


What is the logic behind balancing heroes in HoN?
Collecting a large amount of feedback from players of all levels with the competitive side taking precedence.


What's up with Furion Port? Or is it just an ajusted :nymp2:?
Furion is not a valuable hero in HoN. Many things that Furion provides for DotA are already provided in HoN such as ganking.


Why was Valk, Tort etc Night vision normalised a few patches ago?

Are there any plans to make use of the Night/Day mechanic via Hero, item, spell effect?

Nightstalker semi port - discuss?
It was a mechanic not displayed in the game interface and it is very difficult for players to calculate the impact it is having and typically gives a false impression of the enemy team having vision with wards.

Not likely unless it's we display it in the interface.

Nightstalker unlikely. Day/Night hero? -possible I'll leave that up to the creative design team.


Any plans to implement another Community hero or at least Community inspired hero?
I'll have to leave this to the creative design team as well.


Which is better. Nerfing OP hero to balance things out or Buffing UP hero to makeup for OP hero?
A combination of both in order to maintain a proper balance of the game. When you just buff or just nerf heroes you end up forgetting about other areas of balance in the game such as items.


Is a rework/nerf on MK gonna happen?
Most likely, we'd like to keep the identity of the hero while removing some of the frustrating parts of the hero.


Are there any plans to add new items?
Yes


Any plans to correct the projectile (auto-attack) system ? e.g. Witch Slayer launches an auto-attack while the projectile is in air geomancer digs in, when he digs out (far away) to the surface again the projectile (auto-attack) still hits him.
This is working as intended. Geomancer's dig does not disjoint.


Will you change the skills of a hero in the near future? I mean completely like on Kraken/Rampage/...
It's possible but not likely on Kraken or Rampage.


1. Do you think automuting + autoignore in chat would be a viable way for HoN to address excessive raging players?

Automute could e.g. trigger once a player becomes manually muted by a certain percentage of players ingame, like 40%. Automuted players would by default be muted, but can be unmuted manually, of course.

2. Do you think powercreep is an issue?
Powercreep is an issue if taken too far. I do not think HoN has taken it too far.


What will happen when there a too many heroes to fit in the hero chart? the hero icons are already kinda small, you wont be able to make the chart bigger and bigger forever
Maybe we'll just make the random button take up the whole screen and then your only option will be to random.


I've understood that you are 100% focused in Hon right now, but is S2 planning for making a new game in the future?(like savage 3 perhaps :))
If you have some clue, what is it going to be like?
And how much are you practicing to beat Diva?
100% focused on HoN doesn't leave much time for a new game.
I don't need to practice to beat DivA.

[Kaee]

Have there been any thought to slightly increase the speed of Gladiators Ultimate to match HoN's faster gameplay?

If you could personally rework one hero in HoN which would it be and why?

Whats a typical day in the life of Dogkaiser, the lead balancer for Heroes of Newerth?

[DrunkenGrunt]

seriously, what kind of ...people.... did u chose to represent the community?

1.couriers cannot carry eye? - Eye on courier never gave true-vision nor any vision at all :S and if it did, u could just remove it. There was no real ****ing "safety" in it because u still had to transfer the eye to ur own inventory in order to scout for wards. Now if an eye is needed on emergency after a successful team-fight in order to push and kill the enemy again composed of :reve::madm::keep::fayd: for example, what will we do now? we cant ship an eye anymore and must rely on rev wards only, which are still good but in certain situations an eye is much better...

2. reduced duration of :hellflower: - so u decreased the effectiveness of :kuldrassheepstick: first and now feel like doing the same to HF?! at least make both items give more stats in compensation for their reduced effect durations!! If all u wanted was to avoid teams getting many :hellflower: and :kuldrassheepstick: then just put a cd on it like you've done with :puzzlebox:!!!! yes/no and why?

3. increased cost of pickled brain by 100g - whats the logic behind it? Some pros bought mass of it and u decided a nerf was needed? (wouldn't surprise me...)

4. ok, u sliiiightly buffed Blitz, NOW INCREASE HIS GODDAMN MEDIOCRE RANGE, WTF. will u ever do that?!

5. when are u gonna fix your animations so that they show their true aoe.

6. Re-work the herodex and make it the EVERYTHING-DEX! and recheck the skill descriptions, for example, it doesnt show the range of gladiators pitfall. when will u fix that?

Like someone else said here, i dont understand this obsession of nerfing every ****ing hero that is "op" (because a pro learned new ways to play with him/her) until that hero becomes a mediocre pick, instead of buffing weaker heroes that could have a chance to counter these "op" heroes but lack the stats or dmg... U wonder why theres like 30 constant picks in the comp scene and much of them were unchanged dota heroes? bcus u've turned the rest of ur 70+ heroes into mediocre picks in the comp scene. and the more u nerf the heroes the less competitive this game will become :S

I've payed a lot of money for this game which i believed to be the nr1 moba out there, but you S2 are slowly pushing me away from it by disappointing me again and again and its a damn shame, i really liked this game from the beginning...

[DOGKaiser]

How do you feel about the fact that DotA 2 will be offering all current and new heroes for free and their F2P model ONLY allows for cosmetic upgrades?

It is a sharp contrast to the F2P model that HoN has.
DotA 2 is free to do business the best way they see fit. I am no expert in sales so I am not going to try to pretend I know what is the best decision :)



1. Why are s2 not nerfing Tundra and Moraxsus? I mean they are so dominant on the competitive scene and is almost banned every game. I also wonder how you would nerf them so they become balanced.

2. Staff of the Master upgrades on other heroes? Any thoughts in doing it?

3. Are you planning on makeing a fifth ban in Ban Pick? I really think it is needed now that there is so many heroes.
Moraxus is a relatively new hero to the scene that has barely been changed in the last 6 months. It is likely that many teams haven't tried or figured out how to best deal with the hero. Every meta has it's powerhouse heroes and it seems that Moraxus has become one for this meta. Tundra is being looked at, most people seem to agree that his movespeed and/or armor could use a slight nerf and that's probably the direction I'll head with the next balance patch.

Yes, staff of the master changes were pushed back in favor of other changes we've worked on but they are still in the works.

There is no plan in making a fifth ban. There is a plan to release a new competitive mode.


I wounder why you keep nerfing glacius all the time? He is nothing like he used to be :( I want old glacius back!
Nerfing him all the time? I'm not sure about that! :)


What were interesting changes/ideas that did not make it in?
Sandwraith rework - the ideas given/tried did not work out.


There were a lot of suggestion to Blitz.
Attact range, Cast Speed, Turn Rate, Ult CD. Why you thinkt that just the Buff in the CD of his ult is enough?
His concept is be faster than the other heros but his fells like a very slow hero.
Cast speed is the next area that will be looked at for Blitz if he still needs changes.


Loads of heroes received stat changes in this patch. Why was emerald warden left untouched? It is clear that he is overpowered, just look at his win %. Tuning down his stat gains to be in line with other ranged carries is the perfect way to balance him
Emerald is a powerhouse in lower level games but barely ever used in high level matches. On the other end, Parasite is a hero with an extremely low win % but in high level he's considered extremely powerful. This indicates that win% is not always an accurate value to use when considering how powerful a hero is for every level of play.


Ok.. S2 has been planning to change the F2P system. Making it 20-25 permanent heroes and 5-10 rotating heroes for the new "free to play" players. So his question is when will this become official or patched"?
It is definitely being worked on but we want the best system for everyone as well as to have any bugs worked out.


With the idea in mind that you balance the game around competitive players - why are Shrunken Head and Portal Key left untouched?

Two items that are essential to every single team composition in every matchup (no exceptions). They are essential because of how strong their active abilities are; far and away the two strongest active items in the game. To me, the word balance means that you're trying to keep items and heroes in-line with one another to some extent. While these items aren't "un-counterable", its impossible to argue that they aren't the two strongest and most common "end-game" competitive items around.

Why not lower the invuln on shrunken head to three seconds, and shorten the blink range on PK while quadrupling the cooldown?
These are two items that are very popular but they also affect so many different areas of the game that touching them is difficult at best. Most of the time it's better to address the heroes that may use these items rather than the items themselves.


Since S2 has previously stated that they balance for competitive play, how come Drunken Master was nerfed so hard? He was never banned and only picked in rare occasions, what problems did he cause to competitive play?
Drunken Master was actually not even on my list to change, it was the competitors that brought it to my attention. I agreed with their assesment and he was nerfed accordling. Unfortunately it was probably too hasty and he ended up nerfed too hard which is why you've already seen some slight reverts for him and will likely see another small one in the future.


Do you work out?
I play sports or anything competitive but I do not work out. I hated running track because it felt like working out but I played over seven years of soccer since it seemed more like a sport for example.


Hello and thanks for opening up to the community for questions.

A few quick questions / observations.

1. Are you planning on putting anything else in the observatory? It would be great to see something special that had to do with sight that was purchasable only at the observatory - Something like a special ward (Maybe one that can't be counter warded or eye'd... or allow the purchase of a portion of the map to be revealed for a time (much like the farseer ability in WC3, with S2 tweaks of course.)

2. Since you've decided to up the cost of pickled brain - sac stone is even worse... can you please take a look into lowing it's price, fixing it's build, or making it better? I'd personally like to see grave locket build into sac stone, as they both lower re-spawn time. You could add a mechanic that if grave locket had a charge on it when sac stone was created it would start with 1 charge on it.

3. I have a ton of ideas and thoughts on this game, as it is a lot of what my friends and I think about and discuss... do you have a preferred method of receiving game suggestions? (The forms are normally saturated with haters and trolls... but I'll totally use a form if needed.)

Thank you again for making a ridiculously awesome game! I've tried playing other games, and I always come back to HoN. Thank you S2!
We are not finished with the observatory and have run through some ideas to add something unqiue to it. One of the things talked about was a reveal but it hasn't worked out how we wanted it to.
Time will tell what will happen to sac stone...
I would suggest you try to get into SBT or RCT as they have much easier access to S2 staff.


Have there been any thought to slightly increase the speed of Gladiators Ultimate to match HoN's faster gameplay?

If you could personally rework one hero in HoN which would it be and why?

Whats a typical day in the life of Dogkaiser, the lead balancer for Heroes of Newerth?
It's not a terrible idea, I might look into it but no guarentee's :)

Tempest because I $#!@ hate my SBTers. Seriously I'm pretty sure every tempest player will ultimate me even if I am solo :)


seriously, what kind of ...people.... did u chose to represent the community?

1.couriers cannot carry eye? - Eye on courier never gave true-vision nor any vision at all :S and if it did, u could just remove it. There was no real ****ing "safety" in it because u still had to transfer the eye to ur own inventory in order to scout for wards. Now if an eye is needed on emergency after a successful team-fight in order to push and kill the enemy again composed of :reve::madm::keep::fayd: for example, what will we do now? we cant ship an eye anymore and must rely on rev wards only, which are still good but in certain situations an eye is much better...

2. reduced duration of :hellflower: - so u decreased the effectiveness of :kuldrassheepstick: first and now feel like doing the same to HF?! at least make both items give more stats in compensation for their reduced effect durations!! If all u wanted was to avoid teams getting many :hellflower: and :kuldrassheepstick: then just put a cd on it like you've done with :puzzlebox:!!!! yes/no and why?

3. increased cost of pickled brain by 100g - whats the logic behind it? Some pros bought mass of it and u decided a nerf was needed? (wouldn't surprise me...)

4. ok, u sliiiightly buffed Blitz, NOW INCREASE HIS GODDAMN MEDIOCRE RANGE, WTF. will u ever do that?!

5. when are u gonna fix your animations so that they show their true aoe.

6. Re-work the herodex and make it the EVERYTHING-DEX! and recheck the skill descriptions, for example, it doesnt show the range of gladiators pitfall. when will u fix that?

Like someone else said here, i dont understand this obsession of nerfing every ****ing hero that is "op" (because a pro learned new ways to play with him/her) until that hero becomes a mediocre pick, instead of buffing weaker heroes that could have a chance to counter these "op" heroes but lack the stats or dmg... U wonder why theres like 30 constant picks in the comp scene and much of them were unchanged dota heroes? bcus u've turned the rest of ur 70+ heroes into mediocre picks in the comp scene. and the more u nerf the heroes the less competitive this game will become :S

I've payed a lot of money for this game which i believed to be the nr1 moba out there, but you S2 are slowly pushing me away from it by disappointing me again and again and its a damn shame, i really liked this game from the beginning...
The people choosen have put a lot of time and thought into HoN
1. Looking at past pro players in how they used courier with bound eye will show you how much safety is involved when using the two to counter ward.
2. Both items will still be used in low and high level of play, trust me.
3. Ring of sorcery has been purchased in mass for competitive play and will still be purchased after this change but possiblely not in mass.
4. It is not likely Blitz's range will be increased. It is not the idea of the hero to have a high attack range.
5. We would like all animations to represent their true AoE's. You are free to inform us of the ones that you feel are incorrect.
6. Herodex does not show everything that we would like but it is helpful for many areas so you aren't required to go into practice mode.

It is important to nerf and buff heroes otherwise your game will end up lopsided.

[PrinceZexu]

Three questions

1). I'm going to E3 next week. I heard you guys will have an after party. How does one get into said after party?

2). Do you currently think Hellborne has a huge map advantage over Legion team?

3). What was the reasoning behind moving Magebane's cast speed reduction on his aura?

[Crusifics]

Is there anyway to make Mesmerize (an ability on Succubus that disables) be more team friendly? It seems not many people who play the game knows what mesmerize does and doesn't even know what it looks like. I try to tell my team at the start to not attack the mesmerized target with the pink imps over head or they'll be stunned unless they use an ability but it doesn't seem to stop people from doing so and I get the rage in the end making succubus a not very fun hero to play.

TL;DR Mesmerize is not well known in the game and when used not many people know what it is until they auto-attack the target. Are you guys looking in ways to fix this? Maybe change the graphic or have the ability change the colour of the hero for the duration?

Some people even think Succubus Hold is Mesmerize and don't attack at all!

[zstarkey42]

Are these the only balance changes we're going to see for a while? While I agree with most of them, I don't see the point of all the minor stat adjustmnts, though. Can we expect buffs or reworks to other heros that have been asked for a long time? i.e Tremble, Gemini. Are any of these getting buffed anytime soon, or simply reworked?

[BubblleBee]

What do you think of the hero Predator?

[Baer]

1. Do you think that Legacy status created a small split in the community (Legacy <-> f2p)?
2. And do you think Legacy has to be reworked together with the current f2p model to create a bright future for HoN? Or asked the other way, do you think that the current f2p model is the way to go?

I'm a legacy player myself and I feel quite superior to f2p players for other reasons :chip:.

[Reinvearth]

Hello dogkaiser, i am player from hon garena
Wanna ask some questions

1. Skill 2 fayde, can you fix that? Yah after i casted because his shadow blocks him to hit the heroes , fayde freezing until the shadows enemy gone (cant aim the heroes,) can you fix that?
2. How about riftwalker? It would be good if her skill 1 didnt have delay time, just like datk seer in dota,

Thanks
And sorry, my english really bad

[Chisel_Slim]

tips/tricks/general guide for shadow blade after this recent patch?

[H4PPYP00P3R]

You, Mr DOGKaiser, do a very difficult job and I believe you do it very well. I like the directions you take the game and think that you deserve more credit than is afforded to you. Keep on being awesome.



Do you enjoy the tanky style of play that we witness in many games? The long, drawn-out fights always seem more epic to me. People get to see the full potential of their heroes during these times.

You have said before that you think Bubbles is perhaps the most balanced hero in the game. What brings him into this position?

Are there any updates on the intelligence style blade that we have been promised to compliment Firebrand and Icebrand?



I wish you a lot of luck with everything. I genuinely enjoy hearing what you have to say on these matters.

[Sherwood]

Are you going to allow a system that lets the Support Hero Accursed be reliably credited for assistance towards killing enemy heroes by being supportive at ranged?
Early on, he is rarely in melee scenarios/able to get into melee scenarios. His ranged abilities are an shield who detonation is not definitely going to occur or detonates too early/late or a single target nuke that often or not is better used for healing his team.

He is a support hero whose third ability is a supportive debuff that can only be applied via his melee auto attacks. As a result it helps him a lot to have farm that allows him to safely apply it or to be able to successfully melee attack. If he is less farmed due to less assists than another support hero, it means he is at an disadvantage. Nothing to do with the player, it's all to do with the hero. How it currently is, it encourages Accursed to use Cauterise offensively (which isn't helpful).

Accursed is the only melee hero who doesn't have some sort of reliable ranged 'assist tagging' capabilities. As more heroes are added, Accursed will be further at a disadvantage.

S2 are you aware of this problem?
Can you fix this problem without changing the Heroes' flavour of play? I don't know... perhaps allow assists from effective heals (cough my sig).

[Gringos]

What is your current take on Sacrificial Stone?
It's still the least used item together with Icon of the Goddess.
Have you ever considered using IotG in another (new) item recipe? What do you think about replacing IotG with a Blessed Orb and the Grave Locket to build SacStone?

[dcw]

1) Are you considering addting watchtower to match making? if so when? if not why?
2) Can we get some more MAPS please? for the love of pete!

[iSlapMelons]

Three questions:

1) Blitz's E cast time. Why is it still there?

2) DS's unbreakable. 45sec cooldown on level 1? What was that for?

3) Gemini. When is his remake coming?

[Clarke99]

Community Collaboration Balance Patch AMA w/ DOGKaiser scheduled Friday, June 1st



DOGKaiser would like to invite everyone to an "Ask Me Anything" session about the Community Collaboration Patch hosted here on June 1st, from 13:00-15:00 EDT. You can post your questions until 12:00 EDT (noon) on June 1st.

Please post your questions below and follow along when DOGKaiser spills the beans on what it took to make this patch a reality.

Here's DOGKaiser's Patch Preview Interview for your reference:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geXoS4BFEhM

DOGKaiser's first round of responses: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?425421-Community-Collaboration-Patch-AMA-w-DOGKaiser&p=15131658&viewfull=1#post15131658


No girls here eh? Gotta love the fack "it's a group of guys"

[YAValanche]

Thanks for doing this DogKaiser. I hope you're still answering questions ^_^



What do you think about the current emphasis on banning Junglers in tournament matches? Up to 4 bans are often spent removing Junglers, due to the big advantage jungling provides in terms of total XP/gold available to a team. Do you feel like this is something that affects the overall balance and if so, do you have any ideas you can discuss on how to address it?



If Mana Ring's total cost was too seen as too cheap for its usefulness, especially in higher tier matches, why not add a recipe, rather then increasing the cost of Pickled Brain?



Why does the Blood Chalice not provide 50% mana regeneration as a passive ability? Most built items retain the stats/abilities of the items that went into them. For sure it provides mana to the hero in a unique way, but I think it's strange that passive is removed entirely. I actually can't think of another item that doesn't retain the stats of the items it builds into from.



The Magebane. Thoughts on his balance relative to the rest of the hard carries? Fact: Every hero is counterable. Heresay: but it seems like if a team is desperate to win, he is often that hero. He is a staple ban, and it seems people dislike Magebane pickers as much as Scout pickers; the difference is Magebane is actually picked competitively. I have been really happy seeing The Dark Lady, Silhouette, Puppet Master, and Valkyrie in the competitive scene lately. I know the passive spell-cast slow was removed recently - do you feel like that was sufficient?



Last question - what was your favourite change from today's balance patch?


Overall I feel like HoN is sublimely balanced. Keep up the great work.

Thanks!!

[HYESZ]

Do you feel that heroes/items that interact Do you think a melee hero with above average range (like 250 or something; enough to attack a creep from behind an allied unit or so) would introduce inherent problems with the design andr standards of abilities/item (like abysmal skull), or would it be a matter of the heros kit?

Similarly, do you think breaking max movement speed for certain characters (like blitz or warbest) would present significant problems?
Or what if it was raised alltogether? (for example to 750)

[PzKw]

When are we doing the next community patch to visit all the stuff we didn't get to in the last one, and meet the actual stated intent of the patch?

[fudgecookies]

Terrible patch, nerf Salforis and MK PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

MK is already nerfed enough. the only nerf they can do is probably change his skills which is stupid.

[Sphynx]

What does an increase/decrease of an attribute by 0.05 do in this patch? Over 24 level ups it is only a matter of 1.2 stat and doesn't affect the end game by a whole lot (0.168 armor, 22.8hp, 15.6mp, ~0.04hpregen, ~0.5mpregen). Early game its at most a +/-1 to mana/hp and +/-0.007 armor.

[Jeroz]

those 0.05 ones are more likely just to standardise the stats. Now there shouldn't be any that has stat gain with double decimal points. It's not really a balance change but to streamline the process, nor don't think it should have an impact anyway.

however even without those ones there are still 22 heroes out of 30 that had significant changes. I don't really think it's smart to keep on dwelling on it and ignores the actual balance changes.

[Cyferion]

How do you see Blitz as a hero? His highly "Blitzkrieg" ability is highly situation, yet is very unrewarding.

It surprises me that you didn't allow him to go beyond 522ms (with ability), he is after all, the only hero designed around pure movespeed manipulating mechanics.

[Mediocre]

"balance changes too 30 heroes incoming!"

I dont consider stat round-ups in the 0.05 range "balance changes".

[MAKEEMSAYUGH]

Will s2 rework recent heroes that I think most find to be fairly useless or at least always overshadowed by other heroes of a similar nature. Namely blitz , shadowblade, Gemini , kinesis. While these heroes are unique, they have little impact on a game, minus a farmed shadow blade, however this hero can only carry, farms very slowly and has a horrid early game . Kinesis is debatable , some like her burst potential . I however feel that there is no point picking him over standard int solo / supports such as tort, witch , pyro.



also, will s2 acknowledge the power of built in escape mechs in future hero design? Such factors dominate competitive play and have been the death of former powerful heroes like soulstealer , which is now dumpster tier.

[ElementUser]

When will you redeem yourself for the loss against DivA during the S2 Midwars Tournament? :D

[MushidoZ]

Here are my questions and worries :

1)
DogKaizer: When you just buff or just nerf heroes you end up forgetting about other areas of balance in the game such as items.

I believe shrunken and portal key are in much bigger need of attention than, say, hellflower, as it makes some heroes skyrocket in terms of strength (deadwood and pebbles come to mind), as you more or less hint there:

DogKaizer: These are two items that are very popular but they also affect so many different areas of the game that touching them is difficult at best. Most of the time it's better to address the heroes that may use these items rather than the items themselves.

So then, why aren’t characters like deadwood nerfed?

2)
Why is it that pestilence’s movespeed skill prevails over blitz’s ult? Why is a regular skill stronger/more effective than another character’s ultimate?… when all of his skills are already pretty much weak?

3)
Blitz is mad fun to play, and I recently discovered him. He is however pretty weak. I read you are talking about buffing him, but my question is, would it be possible to keep his spirit alive and have SIGNIFICANT changes that would make him stronger without ruining its gameplay?

4)
Shouldn’t Blitz’s blitzkrieg have no movespeed damage limitation? Would it be viable or the max would make this gamebreaking like deadwood’s ult that has absolutely everything in one single attack?

5)
I never understood why deadwood have a copy paste of with slayer / pyromancer’s ults, with added benefits (and mighty strong ones at that!). I also never understood why witch slayer has the same ult as pyromancer (with minor change to the damage), why flint has pretty much the same ult as scout, and probably some other examples the like I can’t seem to pinpoint right now. SOOOO the question is : Are there any plans to make those characters' ultimates DIFFERENT (as in, new ones, that other heroes do not have), in more ways than adding a slow / armor removal, etc.? Wouldn’t that make the game/those characters more unique and more fun to play than if they all have the same ultimates? Isn’t that the point of having different heroes, after all? (I think ultimates, above all, should be UNIQUE, a character’s signature move)

6)
DogKaizer: Emerald is a powerhouse in lower level games but barely ever used in high level matches. On the other end, Parasite is a hero with an extremely low win % but in high level he's considered extremely powerful. This indicates that win% is not always an accurate value to use when considering how powerful a hero is for every level of play.

I “could” somehow agree with you on that, but you don’t take everything into consideration. Parasite is picked pretty often by noobs and somehow happens to be often in the free picks of the week. Noobs make ratio go down, as parasite need a “minimal” level of skill to be played. Similarly, warden is picked even more often… and she still manages to get a high win ratio. Warden IS definitely in need of nerf, and I believe starting with lowering the range on those wolves and not make them attack heroes she cannot see would be a step in the right direction. I think those wolves should work like Dota’s tinker’s missiles, that deal only dmg (not slow) and cannot hit what he cannot see. Do you think my thinking wrong or unfair in any fashion?

7) Why is Night Hound’s cloud so freaking crazy? Are there plans to make the aoe/silence/slow/miss percent/relatively low cooldown cloud deal less benefits? Maybe even be switched and decided on by the players as to what effect the cloud does? (like steam boots activated to change the stat). Just a pointer, but NightHound's cloud skill is muuuuuuuch stronger than about 90% of all other heroes' ultimates.

8) It doesn't take very long to notice that devourer and flint are banned or picked in 100% of midwars (very often banned by both team leaders). While I believe devo is fair in a regular match, he is complete bull in midwars. Flint, however, is bull in both (in my opinion). Are there plans / ideas to make it so that those two be altered for midwars OR that banned them count as half a ban, or have them auto banned OR adding more bans to the midwar system so that it is not wasted every single time on devo and flint, with both team leaders banning them? Wordy... but meh

9) What is your take on "jungle pulling", that is, people agroing creeps so that they attack their lane creeps and lure them in forest, basically cutting the lane, giving free exp / gold to the one doing it, and so on? I consider this as cheating / abusing game mechanics. Are there plans to make that opening in the forest removed / those creep spawns be pushed further away from creeps?

[fn0rd]

One last Question: Will you answer the questions u didnt answer?