Unlabelled Heroes of the Storm - Is it really necessary for Arthas to stop moving to self cast Death Coil?

11/06/2017 12:57:00 pm
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Heroes of the Storm - Is it really necessary for Arthas to stop moving to self cast Death Coil?

Is it really necessary for Arthas to stop moving to self cast Death Coil?

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 08:37 AM PST

I have been playing Arthas in Unranked a lot more lately, and have been having some good results. However, one thing that has really been clunky and cumbersome is the fact that Arthas stops walking when he self casts Death Coil.

I understand it may be a balance decision of sorts, but it FEELS so bad that I find myself really wishing it was more fluid.

submitted by /u/Manic_Mo
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I am a Cho main, and I just reached level 100. Ask me (and my Gallfriend) anything!

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 09:26 AM PST

Proof

I've previously made a level 20 Cho thread, but that was before the rework and before Heroes 2.0 (the previous level 20 is the current level 54). Some 400 games later, and here we are at lvl 100.

Ask me or my Gallfriend anything :)

EDIT: Here's some gameplay since it was requested a few times and people might be interested. This was from today, AA build, Master level TL with a comp I love to play with (double support, cho'gall, bruiser). We first picked Cho'Gall, they banned Ana and picked Auriel.

submitted by /u/lemindhawk
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Heroes Of The Storm Devs On The Fate Of Hanamura And Balance Changes

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 02:01 PM PST

Why does Johanna's/Tychus's trait need mana?

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 04:10 PM PST

Out of the 25 heroes with traits that function as abilities only 2 of them require mana. 3 give mana and 6 of the heroes do not use mana. So why do Johanna and Tychus need to use mana for their traits?

Johanna: Iron skin - 25 mana 20 second cool down.

Tychus: minigun -25 mana, 12 second cool down

Baseline trait abilities that do not need mana:

  • Azmodan: General of Hell

  • Dehaka: Essence Collection

  • Genji: Cyber Agility

  • Kael'that: Verdant Spheres

  • Malfurion: Innervate

  • Probius: Warp in Pylon

  • Ragnaros: Moten Core

  • Rexar: Misha, Focus! * this is really unique and used to control Misha

  • Stukov: Bio-Kill Switch

  • Tassadar: Oracle

  • Tyrande: Hunter's Mark

  • Xul: Level 1 talents * not realy a trait but part of his base kit

  • Zagara: Creep Tumor

  • Zul'jin: Berserker

Other baseline trait abilities that give hero mana:

  • Arthas: Frostmourne Hungers

  • Gazlowe: Salvager

  • Guldan: Life Tap

Other baseline trait abilities for heroes with no mana:

  • Chen: Fortifying Brew

  • Cho/Gall: Ogre Hide/Ogre Rage

  • Junkrat: Total Mayhem (used to detonate mines)

  • Murky: Spawn Egg

  • Valeera: Vanish

submitted by /u/laserchaseman
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I’m disappointed Blizzard didn’t mention a potential 3rd ban or draft changes

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 12:58 PM PST

There are so many heroes that have been added to the game since the inception of 2 bans per team that a 3rd ban really seems needed soon. I, alongside many podcasts and predictions from Dignitas Bakery and others really believed Blizzard would announce a 3rd ban for the 2018 HGC season. I was shocked to not hear any mention of it from the panels. Come next blizzcon we will have over 90 heroes in this game, and 2 bans isn't enough. The concern over support choking through 6 bans isn't a concern anymore as blizzard added a ton this year. We aren't even close in the % of bans to other mobas. I can't imagine blizzard making any huge/drastic draft changes in the middle of a HGC season.

submitted by /u/XXLepic
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Zul'Jin tint that we deserve

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 02:58 PM PST

So, I've been wanting classic wc3 troll colors for Zul'jin for the longest time. Please Blizzards, you spew out tint after tint, add this one. Pretty please? I even made this mock-up to see how it would look like in-game.
EDITED: TAZDINGO! - Made a better preview. What do you guys think, anyway?
Upd: Heh, never expected a serious discussion about lore-ramifications of adding colors to a character in a videogame but there you go.

submitted by /u/TazDingus
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Best Dressed - HGC Finals - Blizzcon Baby!

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 03:08 PM PST

GENERAL INFO

The HGC Finals - Best Dressed is a 10 casters, free for all fight of fashion for glory, honor and fun.
Serving as the culmination of the 2017 season of HGC, opening week consists of four days of suits, dresses and ties, taking place over Octobber 26-29.
Who will emerge victorious, who will get to move on from the opening week and get a chance to cast Blizzcon? Join us now to find out!

If any of the casters feel objectified, insulted or that this is in anyway in bad taste, let me know and I'll remove the post. I have just noticed the clothes of the casters over the last year of HGC and though the finals was a fine time to make it into a bit of a competition while talking clothes. Based on Khaldors Twitter, some of the casters also think a lot about what they are wearing.

Time

This match started when our casters were born and they found their style, not the same time as this post.
I am writing the previous day while watching the current days HGC, so I am always one day behind.

Streams

PARTICIPANTS

RULES

The HGC Finals - Best Dressed is a point based fashion contest.
Each participants outfit will be judged in three categories;

  • Tie / Jewelry
  • Accessories
  • Overall

Each category can award from 1 to 5 points.
Bonus points are available for playing to your strengths, ability to flex or whenever I like. And if no accessories are found, I will give points for hair or something.

Feedback from Day 4

Previous Days Thread
Thank you all for the feedback and discussions in the last thread.

Today we get two for one, as I didn't have time to make a separate post for day 1. Each participant has worn two outfits since we last saw them and each will be judged individually. That means a total of 30 points up for grabs! 30 points, that's twice as many as the normal 15!
Also, sorry for the horrid image quality. Blame it on whomever decided to film Blizzcon on a roughly camera shaped potato.

Round - Blizzcon!

Click day 1 and day 2 for a picture of their outfit

Kaelaris

Day 1

The red button hole jacket makes a return, this time with a purple shirt and a striped tie that carries over the purple from the shirt. I still think the button hole in red is a bit distracting, but it works much better with purple than with blue.
Points
Tie: 4/5 - The stripes are nice and the extra colors add some highlights to a muted jacket and shirt. The knot is nice and it appears a good size for the shirt and man.
Accessories: 2/5 - The button hole could be covered up with a nice pin, removing the red and adding a bit of style.
Overall: 3/5 - A pretty good look, the tie works and the jacket fits.

Day 2

Blue with blue with blue on a blue stage. Kaelaris have gone full camouflage for the last day. Does it work? Sure. Does it stand out in anyway? No.
Points
Tie: 4/5 - I really like the smooth texture of the tie. The knot is symmetrical and even.
Accessories: 2/5 - Again a bit of bling is lacking. A tie bar would have looked good in the dark blues of this outfit.
Overall: 2/5 - I know a host should blend so to not take the attention, but I had a hard time seeing him. A bit of contrasting colors would have been nice.

Total: 17

Grubby

Day 1

Grubby has gone from being one of the worst dressed on opening day to rocking a dark look that contrast his bright personality really well. Black jacket and tie with a light blue shirt with a pocket square he refolded a couple of times over the day. It ended up looking really good.
Points
Tie: 3/5 - A black tie can be depressing to look at if contrasted with a white shirt, but the light blue Grubby has gone with softens everything up. It's hard to judge the knot as the tie is a solid dark color, but it looks good.
Accessories: 3/5 - The pocket square is just lovely with the shades of blue from almost black to matching the shirts blue. If only it had been folded properly from the start.
Overall: 4/5 - Grubby has found a style that works for him and continues to improve it. After the orange and black outfit I had feared that he would go back to boring things, but he has proved me wrong.

Day 2

On the last day Grubby flexes into a three piece suit. Luckily he has gone for a dark grey vest with a black jacket and a white shirt so each item doesn't draw attention from each other. To add color he picked a dark red tie and pocket square.
Points
Tie: 3/5 - The color is really nice, but the knot is a bit loose and it could have been a larger knot to add just that more color to the outfit.
Accessories: 4/5 - The pocket square is really nice and livens up the whole outfit. To not fold it very neatly adds a bit of informality to the very serious three piece suit, I like it.
Overall: 4/5 - I think this is a really good look on Grubby. The colors pop, it fits him and he looks like someone about to do an important job.

TOTAL: 21

Skimmy

Day 1

After today, Trikslyr shouldn't be so sure he will reign as King of Pink forever. A black jacket and a pink shirt plus pocket square sits around a grey tie with a white pattern of small leafs(I think). The pocket square is folded so nicely it's almost too much, but only almost. Love the attention to detail in that.
Points
Tie: 3/5 - The tie is very nice in color and in pattern. The knot is too big for a button down collar and the tie itself seems too wide for the jacket.
Accessories: 5/5 - Teach me your pocket square folding ways please, so nice.
Overall: 2/5 - The jacket is too small, and with the too big knot and wide tie it looks like the tie is almost forced into the jacket under duress. It's a shame, because all the parts are good.

Day 2

Rocking a third button down Skimmy continues to get me into trouble as I quite like them with ties and many others disagree. The shirt is a light blue and the tie is dark blue with dots. The jacket is black with a blue and yellow pocket square in a random fold.
Tie: 3/5 - I really like dark ties with light details, and this is no exception. The knot is however too big for a button down.
Accessories: 2/5 - After flawless pocket square use throughout, Skimmy stumbles just at the finishing line. The yellow doesn't fit into anything else in the outfit, and the small blue details aren't enough to tie everything together.
Overall: 2/5 - This outfit does very little for me, and as Skimmy have been so well dressed throughout, I expect more.

TOTAL: 17

JHow

Day 1

JHow reuses the tie from the opening day and I still like it. It's matched with a white shirt and a black jacket. It is all in all a very similar outfit to the one from the opening day, but he has added a big dimple to his tie.
Points
Tie: 4/5 - I liked it without the dimple and I like it with the dimple. It's a good tie and the knot is large enough to fill the collar.
Accessories: 2/5 - I really miss something flashy from JHow. Doesn't have to be anything big, but maybe a nice tie pin would add a bit of play to the outfits.
Overall: 3/5 - It's the same solid outfit we've seen before. After the checkered shirt from last, I was hoping for something a bit more daring.

Day 2

Goddammit, I understand saving the best for last but this is too much. Lovely dark blue jacket, light blue shirt, checkered tie and a crisp white pocket square. The tie is lovely, and looks as good as the checkered shirt from day 4. The blues of the shirt and jacket match really well and the white pocket square adds brightness without being blinding because of the white squares in the tie.
Points
Tie: 5/5 - Super nice tie, the pattern is lovely and the knot is just the right size. Tiny dimple, even knot tugged all the way into the collar, super.
Accessories: 4/5 - The pocket square is a really nice addition to JHows very standard outfits and I hope to see them again. It could have been folded a bit sharper, to lay it a bit flatter on the jacket and not cast such a large shadow.
Overall: 4/5 - An outfit that is very much in his style but still interesting. Super end to Blizzcon to see this.
TOTAL: 22

Wolf

Day 1

If Khaldor was wearing Wolfs outfit I could have made endless Agent 47 jokes. Because he is wearing a black jacket, red tie and a shirt that I think is light grey, but it's hard to tell when everything is filmed on a potato.
Points
Tie: 2/5 - The red suits Wolf well. The knot is too small for a wide collar and should be placed in the middle of it.
Accessories: 3/5 - The muted tones of the tie could need something more to spice up the outfit, and the watch helps with this. I could use more.
Overall: 3/5 - A very safe outfit with a jacket that fits and a too small knot.

Day 2

After the wool of opening day, Wolf introduces tweed to the competition. The jacket is brown tweed, the shirt is white and the tie is from day 4... and Skimmy. The tie is dark blue with a pattern of thin white lines forming squares.
Points
Tie: 1/5 - The tie looks like it is from the future next to the jacket, not fitting in at all. And the knot is too small.
Accessories: 2/5 - A tweed jacket just screams for Wolf to wear his glasses again. He looks good in them and they would compliment the jacket nicely.
Overall: 1/5 - The tie doesn't work with the jacket, at all.

TOTAL: 12

Khaldor

Day 1

Our leader going into Blizzcon is wearing a black jacket, maroon shirt and grey tie with lighter grey and black stripes. It is probably Khaldor most muted outfit and where all the others have had something "pop" out to catch attention, there really isn't much here.
Points
Tie: 2/5 - The dark color of the tie on the dark color of the shirt makes it hard to even see. It is a nice knot, right size and everything. But black and grey to liven up a maroon shirt isn't enough.
Accessories: 3/5 - Talking about enough, there really isn't anything out of the ordinary. Khaldor gets 3 points for the tan and the physique he has clearly worked for. He's a good looking dude.
Overall: 2/5 - In the dark of the commentators corner Khaldor never really separates from the background.

Day 2

Now this is more like it. Light grey suit, german red shirt and a grey tie. The lighter colors make it stand out much more from the background. I suspect that Khaldor watched his own outfit from day 1 and choose to correct the colors on day 2.
Points
Tie: 3/5 - Grey with light grey and black stripes works much better to the lighter shirt and suit. The knot is as always excellent.
Accessories: 4/5 - For this outfit the shine of the watch is enough. The already light and airy look would be clustered with too many accessories.
Overall: 4/5 - The fit is excellent, the colors likewise. The suit works well for the man and the situation.

TOTAL: 18

Trikslyr

Day 1

The second bow tie enters the nexus. This one is blue and light blue in stripes and quite big. Sitting in a a wide collared light blue shirt with a blue jacket, it could have been too big but it matches Trikslyr well. The jacket is a bit long in the sleeves, but seems to fit.
Points
Tie: 4/5 - The bow tie is very nice and bound very even. I sure hope it isn't a pre-tied one...
Accessories: 3/5 - The bow tie lends itself to a more playful outfit, and Trikslyr seem to embody that with his soft features and messy hair.
Overall: 4/5 - Trikslyr shows that Skimmy isn't the only one that can pull out the cheeky bow tie and does so in matching colors. Very nice

Day 2

The King of Pink strikes again. The jacket is dark blue, the tie is a wild blue pattern(for details on the tie see Wolf day 4) and the shirt is pink. I've said it before and I'll say it again, pink just looks good on Trikslyr. The blue of the jacket is just light enough to stand out from the background and dark enough as to not draw attention.
Tie: 4/5 - I really like the tie, it is interesting enough to have out twice. The knot is very big, but works in the wide collar.
Accessories: 3/5 - The tie is enough in itself, but the outfit could have used something shiny to make it stand out a bit more from the background.
Overall: 4/5 - The jacket seems to fit well and the tie is super. And well, the shirt is pink so you know it works.

TOTAL: 22

Gillyweed

Day 1

For the first time we see a dress in color. I must admit, I am a sucker for red dresses and this one has me won over. It gives a nice contrast to Gillyweeds complexion and hair. The outfit does look a bit bare with nothing on the arms and only the needle work on the top part to provide any details.
Points
Jewelry: 3/5 - A necklace would be horrid on this dress, but I do find myself needing a nice brooch or something similar.
Accessories: 2/5 - The hair does look good, but I do miss something on the arms or wrists to give just a bit more to the outfit.
Overall: 3/5 - A beautiful dress is left to fend for itself without help. It still wins, but could have been so good with the right items added.

Day 2

The last dress of Blizzcon is a simple black thing. In contrast to the dress on the first day, which was also black, this one is simple enough to look classic. The fabric going across the chest creates a nice detail and the silhouette is sharp enough for her to stand out from the background.
Points
Jewelry: 3/5 - The dress is simple and shouldn't be cluttered, but something to provide a bit of contrast would be nice.
Accessories: 4/5 - The simplicity of the dress carries no accessories well and I really like the large curls in her hair.
Overall: 4/5 - Keep it simple, it works for a reason. It would have become boring if done for 6 days, but for one it works.

TOTAL: 19

Dreadnaught

Day 1

Blue jacket, white shirt, fantastic tie. The tie is dark blue with a random pattern of small light blue flowers, it is super busy and would drown in another shirt and jacket, here it just gets the attention.
Points
Tie: 5/5 - Another really good tie from Dreadnaught. The knot is nice and big, snug in the collar and symmetrical.
Accessories: 3/5 - No accessories seems to be Dreadnaughts style, but I think he could begin adding some going forward. He looks good, he could look better.
Overall: 4/5 - The jacket seems to fit well, the tie is a nice bold attention grabber and the shirt does everything there is required.

Day 2

I know here is a tie in the picture, but on a shirt that is the same color it is very hard to see. I do notice that there is some texture in the tie, but because of the image quality it is difficult to make out. It is a shame as the tie actually looks interesting, it is just impossible to see.
Tie: 2/5 - I can't really judge it as I can't see it. But the knot is very nice and symmetrical.
Accessories: 1/5 - Anything to outline the tie in anyway or add a bit of color to the jacket.
Overall: 2/5 - I'm sure this looks better in person as the purple and grey looks nice together. But on stream I found it incredibly hard to see the tie.

TOTAL: 17

Cloaken

Day 1

On day 4 I claimed that Trisklyrs outfit would work with a different shirt. Today Cloaken proves me right. The tie is the same, the jacket is the same light blue but the jacket is now white. It looks great. It of course helps that Cloaken always wears a fitting suit and that we seem him in full person.
Points
Tie: 5/5 - It is a very nice tie, and it works really well with a white shirt. The knot is as it should be.
Accessories: 4/5 - The outfit doesn't need any accessories to be interesting, and as he shouldn't grab attention it is fine there isn't any.
Overall: 4/5 - To repeat myself from day 4: "I think this is another outfit that does exactly what it should for Cloaken, and the tie is just so very nice."

Day 2

After Grubby showed us the black shirt on day 4, it was only a matter of time until someone else tried their hand at it. But black shirts are tricky and this outfit shows it. Pairing a black shirt with a grey jacket can work, but the jacket has to add something in the form of an interesting fabric choice or pattern. The purple of the tie is also sound in theory, but with a black background it struggles to stand out. When it is met with the light of the jacket the jacket overpowers the tie, resulting in a tie that is both to dark and to light for the outfit.
Tie: 2/5 - There is nothing wrong with the tie, but a dark shirt requires a much brighter tie.
Accessories: 2/5 - A purple pocket square could help the tie get more out of the jacket, and that would probably help the outfit.
Overall: 2/5 - The weakest of Cloakens outfits, but a bold choice to try out the black.

TOTAL: 19

GLOBAL STANDING

Name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Blizzcon Total
Gillyweed 7 12 11 14 19 63
Khaldor 10 15 10 9 18 62
Dreadnaught 9 9 11 15 17 61
Cloaken 10 7 12 13 19 61
Trikslyr 12 5 12 10 22 61
Grubby 5 10 10 14 21 60
Skimmy 12 8 9 10 17 56
Wolf 11 9 12 11 12 55
JHow 8 5 10 9 22 54
Kaelaris 8 10 7 10 17 52

Awards!

Best Dressed of the HGC Finals is Gillyweed!

Highlights include: Not wearing the same outfit twice, the flower dress of day 4 and me spotting a wedding ring. She can now brag to everyone about her great taste! ggwp

Best Outfit - Khaldor! - Day 2

The judges said: "I think Khaldor has compiled something near the perfect outfit. Everything is bound tightly in the singular purpose of showing of the tie, and the tie in return shines brightly on everything else, including the man wearing it. Bravo!" and they stand by it.

Best Tie - Trikslyr! - Day 3

The judges said: "Not only can Trikslyr wear a pink tie, he is also fashionable enough to know that a tie this shade of pink requires all the attention. A big and very wide short knot fills the collar and just lets the tie do its thing." May the King of Pink reign supreme for many years to come.
Honorable mention to Skimmys flamingo tie from day 2.

Most Improved - Grubby! - Day 1 to Blizzcon

From the worst dressed to one of the best. Only 3 points from first place, if Grubby had started out stronger, he would have won it all. He shows great promise and everyone looks forward to seeing what he shows up in next time.

Conclusion

That is it my dudes. We have our winner. It was close, but I think we ended up with a proper ranking. Everyone was really well dressed and I enjoyed watching the progress of outfits over the week.
I hope the caster has found it fun, that the readers have found it interesting and that I will have time to do it again some time.

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4 Junkrat ults in 5 seconds

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 07:12 PM PST

Of all the recent hero releases, Cassia's one was the "quietest"

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 06:03 PM PST

Its almost like she just 'slipped' into the game. Does anyone else have that feeling? If so, why?

submitted by /u/SacredReich
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When Baal gets added to the Nexus...

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 04:52 PM PST

I hope we can get his Demon Palanquin from his cinematic as a mount, and not just as a hero-specific one. What better way to strut your superiority by having little demons carry you around?

It'd also be fun if Cho'Gall could carry it on his shoulder and the little demons are just sitting on it taking a coffee break.

submitted by /u/Acrymonia
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Shout out to CyaSteve

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 02:22 AM PST

Over the years CyaSteve aka /u/esportsMatt has done a lot for the HotS community. Early on he was a mod for this subreddit and helped run tournaments. Later he was hired by Blizzard and worked on coordinating official HotS esports.

He just tweeted (link) that he will be moving on from working on HotS. Let's take a moment to thank him for all the great work he's done, and wish him the best for the future!

submitted by /u/Pensive_Goat
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Shout-out to Bakery & Co

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 12:46 PM PST

Jumped in the solo queue line for the HotS demo Saturday evening. When got to front was disappointed they had run out of the participation badges, but then was directed to lane 7 to fill as the 5th, walk up and was just like.... "Wait, I know these guys." Welcomed me and was great to hear you were taking things in stride and already able to joke about losing. Great you guys were taking it all in stride and staying positive.

The games were super fun, thanks for praising me as Artanis God, was a great ego boost. The 2nd game was the tough one though, we just couldn't finish that 12% core.

Anyway, thanks guys, have some well deserved downtime and look forward to watching you again next season!

submitted by /u/akatokuro
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I'm addicted to quest talents/passives

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 02:31 PM PST

As an "other MOBA's" former player, even tho I've preferred HotS since I tried it in alpha, one of the few things I had always missed was some kind of "personal objective" attached to your hero pick through the game, something that somehow promoted individual skill harder & gave some carry potential. For example, in other games you got things as "simple" as creep score (minion last hits to farm gold), which is another personal goal that you need to put effort during the match in order to get stronger/win. Those things somehow differentiate between bad/average/good players (in general and/or with a particular hero). And suddenly quest talents began to pop up here in HotS, and it was something that filled exactly that little void in a fresh and unique way for each character. I'm pretty sure some people may not like'em, but personally I'm really happy to see that kind of talents/passives becoming more popular and "core" to the game.

If it was up to me, every talent to pick at lvl 1 would be a quest one, cause I find them really funny and as said, it's something that somehow shows if you've really mastered, or at least have an idea about how to pilot a hero, even if they ain't hyperhard goals to achieve (Ana is a great example of this, with 3 quest talents to choose at lvl 1). And it's nice when they got these milestones (for example: do X 20 times, then do X 40 times for an even better upgrade), so at least you get a power spike even if you don't manage to completely finish it early. Dunno, I love the system, and these days I always try to pick heroes with quests: Cassia for Q build, Ana, Muradin, both KT's, ETC, etc. (bad pun intended). What do you guys think? Would you like to see more of these talents with new heroes/reworks (it looks like it's happening anyway)? Do you think having quests as a core element at lvl 1 for every hero would be a nice change for the game? I understand it would get a ton of time and effort to design/balance, but still just as an opinion.

Well, that's all. Apologies for my English, and have a nice day :)

submitted by /u/vicvii7
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Hanzo POTG by KendricSwissh Hanzo Main

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 04:58 AM PST

Can We Put Silenced Players in Their Own Hellish Queue?

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 02:39 PM PST

Seriously, likes its cool that these people can't verbally abuse me in chat, but the percent of them being a troll is absolutely ridiculous. I can always mute them if they're being toxic but when they're silenced its just seems to tilt them further. I don't want to play with these people whether they're talking or not :/

submitted by /u/nmllr93
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Lore of The Lost Vikings – Character, Abilities and Quotes Lore

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 09:03 AM PST

Hey folks!

Well if I'm posting this then StarCraft didn't get the Firebat like the leak hinted this BlizzCon, so I'm defaulting to the other thing I had planned this week, everyone's favorite three pillaging and exp soaking Norsemen, the Lost Vikings! Hopefully this doesn't get buried in residual BlizzCon hype, but hey we'll see.

But Subsourian, you say, this isn't StarCraft, I didn't know you cared about anything else in this world! Well I don't, but I did play a good bit of both Lost Vikings as a kid (never beat them mind you), and since a lot of you I know only know of it as "the game Blizzard made before it was Blizzard" I'd like to show you some of the cool details they added for these classic characters. Blizzard really knocked it out of the park with them, so I hope a lot of you learn something!

Fair warning, this turned out to be an absolutely massive thread that just came in under the reddit character limit. So wall of text warning.

All previous Lore Of episodes

Three Lost Heroes

Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce and Olaf the Stout were three Vikings brothers hailing from the outskirts of a Viking village somewhere near the Baltic Sea. Each were married to Nordic wives with children (Olaf and Erik with two, Baleog with one), with the only one we know the name of being Olaf's daughter Gerda. Each year the village held a great hunt, which was followed by a feast of all the spoils the Vikings found. However, as per usual Erik, Baleog and Olaf all overslept, and decided to rush out on their own before their Viking comrades got all the glory. Each of them managed to find their own haunch of meat.

Yet they were oblivious to the giant spaceship above them; conqueror, zookeeper and Emperor of the Croutonian Empire Tomator brought his ship into Earth's orbit. Noticing the three brothers and their ritual of strength, Tomator decided they would make great specimens for his great galactic zoo. That night, as the three brothers were sleeping, Tomator used his tractor beam to take the three Vikings up into the air, and teleported them onto his ship. Yet his teleportation device short circuited (something we'll find is common in his ships), and the three Vikings were instead teleported into his ship's corridors.

The Vikings met up, with Erik deciding he'd be the leader, and began to fight through Tomator's ship to try to find a way back. Along the way they met an alien named Aftiek, who had also been kidnapped, and told them of their situation and how to escape. The Vikings destroyed Tomator's computers, and made it to a time portal, hoping to use it to escape home. Instead, they wound up in prehistoric times. Now fighting through dinosaurs, hedgehogs and tribesmen, the Viking brothers found their way to a volcano. They rescued a cave girl inside, who psychically helped stop the volcano's eruption, allowing the access to another time portal.

The Vikings then ended up in something approaching ancient Egypt, raiding a pyramid to get to its time portal. Their travels took them to a future factory, and then a weird alternate dimension made of balloons and candy. Finally, they made it back to Tomator's ship. With their wits and combined skills, the three Vikings pushed Tomator into his own forcefields, finally luring him to an airlock where they shot the alien warlord out of his own ship. Olaf insisted he could pilot the ship, but instead set it to self-destruct. The three Vikings managed to escape through one last time portal, ending up back home to their families.

Yet after they came back they found their lives to be boring. Baleog retired from being senior polar bear wrangler to be a gladiator, but quit after he was banned from bringing his own weapons, so he founded a school of plunder to teach young Vikings, and became a bestselling Viking writer. Olaf decided to become a sumo wrestler, but since Vikings hadn't invented sumo wrestling he set out to find the Land of the Rising Sun, instead finding the land of the Noonish Son before turning back, stopping in Italy along the way. Olaf appeared in Lifestyles of the Large and Bearded, and raised his daughter Gerda to have a bigger appetite than he had. Erik became bored with village life, and founded a monk order named the Order of the Leaping Mountain Goat, which sought to find enlightenment, but he went so deep into a trance be believed he was an iguana, so he beat himself with a tuna can until he snapped back into reality. With their personal adventures in what passed in the mid-1990s as humor done, the three returned to their villages and met once again.

Tomator Returns

Because there isn't too much lore, I'll take a second to talk about the two versions of Lost Vikings 2, the SNES one made fully by Blizzard and the 3D port "Norse by Norsewest" for the Playstation, Sega Saturn and PC, which I played. The port was done by Beam Software, and didn't have anyone from Blizzard (at the time Silicone and Synapse) involved. It was basically the same game, except "modernized," so instead of the iconic 2D SNES sprites, everyone looks like 3D Five Nights at Freddy's abominations.

This is the ending cutscene of the SNES version

This is the ending cutscene of the Playstation version

The game also had voice acting, which was generally OK, but the only one with a Nordic accent (and by "Nordic" I mean "American trying really hard to imitate Arnold Schwarzenegger") was Baleog, with Erik sounding like a generic hero and Olaf sounding like Big the Cat (though voiced by the guy who did Winny the Pooh and Lorewalker Cho). Another thing to note was the redone soundtrack, which replaced Glenn Stafford's iconic tracks with what would happen if you distilled the early 1990s into raw sound (which to a video game music fan is like redoing a David Bowie album with Vanilla Ice). And that's hard to do, since the first soundtrack was also pretty 90s. Let's take the iconic Smuggler's Bag soundtrack:

This is what it sounds like on the SNES version

This is what the Playstation version sounded like

Anyway, enough rambling, let's get to the lore.

One day, the Vikings were going boating on their ship Ragnarok (the Viking Longboat ult) as they do every Thors-day, when they were once again caught by Tomator, who wanted revenge on the Vikings. He teleported them into containment, and prepared to send them to the gladiatorial arena, sending one of his battle robots to take them away. But the ship had a power surge, and the Vikings clobbered the robot, looting it. Erik got a new helmet and some advanced shoes, Baleog got a new bionic arm and a lightsaber, and Olaf got a better shield that allowed him to shrink. The three brothers prepared to beat the snot out of Tomator, but Olaf found the time portal button, saying "Do not touch." As he couldn't read, he saw that as "donuts" and teleported them back in time.

The group ended up in Transylvania, where they met a witch (who was either a babe or a ripoff of the Wicked Witch of the West, depending on the version). She offered to teleport them closer to a time machine if the Vikings gathered three items for her, which would be the trend of the game. After Baleog insulted the witch, she teleported him to the Pit of Despair, leaving Erik and Olaf alone. The two rescued a werewolf named Fang (who they keep referring to as literally every other animal), who offered to help them. The three got the items, found Baleog and found the time machine.

But they were then teleported into the Dark Ages (which was a crystal cave). They rescued the sorcerer Kar-in (another attractive woman, keeping with the trend of Blizzard character design), who was new to magic. She teleported them closer to the time machine, but along the way the four again got split up. The group then rescued a dragon named Scorch (who in the Playstation version is voiced by a guy doing a bad Sean Connery impersonation) who swore to help them. They then made it to the time machine. They'd go through a few more zones, ending up in a pirate ship where they were aided by a family of gypsies who swindled them, the Amazon Rainforest where they met witch doctors who thought they were heralds of the gods, and finally ending up in an apocalyptic future, where human rebels were fighting against robots. They were helped by a rebel named Conroy, who lead them to Tomator, who had trailed them into the future to get his revenge. They dropped bombs on Tomator, breaking his hover machine.

But Tomator wasn't an alien warlord at all, as they broke his machine they found he was actually a human child named Tommy (who shows up in levels throughout the game to mock the Vikings), who was playing fast and loose with the timestream because mid-1990s video games had become boring to him. Tommy's parents then came in, scolding him for messing with time and space, and sending the Vikings, Fang and Scorch back to their boat. They then decided they'd sail west and discover something, but then they noticed they were sailing in circles. From behind a large chair, Tommy sat watching them from his view screen, laughing.

Would the Vikings make it out of Tommy's trap in Lost Vikings 3? Nope. Warcraft ended up being too popular. You can personally blame u/StuntedSlime in the next Warcraft thread for killing the series. But it's probably for the better, the mechanics are rather dated even for a platformer, and if the slow spiral to insanity of this summary was any indication what little seriousness the series had was very much thrown out the window in the sequel. So I expect Heroes will be the last time we see our Viking friends outside of cameos.

Abilities

  • D: Viking Horde – The Lost Vikings are noted to be great at pillaging, with Baleog founding a school to teach Viking children how to pillage better.

  • Q: Spin to Win! – This likely comes from a meme in the League of Legends community, from the character Garen who could use the ability Judgment to spin wildly. Upon release this was considered to be overpowered, hence the name.

  • W: Jump! – Lost Vikings is a 2D platformer, but only Erik can actually jump. Olaf can use his shield to float (and hop a bit by farting in Lost Vikings 2) and Baleog can swing with his robotic arm in Lost Vikings 2, but Erik is the only one who can jump (and in 2, he can double jump).

  • Number Keys: Select Vikings – In TLV, you switch between three Vikings, in the PC with the control button (and in the SNES version with select). In the game, the order is Erik, Baelog, Olaf, while in Heroes it's Olaf, Baelog, Erik (thanks u/Athari_P for pointing that out).

  • R1: Longboat Raid – The three Lost Viking brothers have a longboat named the Ragnarok, which they take out every Thors-day to go fishing and do some light plundering. It only appears in Lost Vikings 2, where they get kidnapped from and end up at the end. After the game, they decide they want to use it to try to "sail west and discover something."

  • R2: Play Again – Like the old arcade style of Lost Vikings, after losing a level the player would be taken to a screen asking them if they wanted to play again. Sadly, rather than a scantily clad Valkyrie bringing them back from the dead like in Lost Vikings 2, it's just a rock with a bunch of runes on it. The Vikings appearing in a bolt of lightning is similar to how they respawn in the play again screen in the first Lost Vikings.

Talents

  • (Level 1) Olaf the Stout – Olaf's title is Olaf the Stout, though he later tells Scorch the Dragon his title is "Olaf the Fantastic."

  • (Level 4) Erik the Swift – Erik is titled "the Swift," since he can run faster than the other Vikings, jump, and run his head into walls to break them.

  • (Level 7) Baleog the Fierce – Baleog is titled "the Fierce," as he's the only one who can use a sword and bow against enemies, as well as use a grapple arm in Lost Viking 2.

  • (Level 7) Pain Don't Hurt – A quote from the movie Roadhouse. The Lost Vikings, especially Baleog, are known for quoting movies in their dialogue.

  • (Level 16) 64 KB Marathon – In the old days, 64 Kilobytes was a common file size limit, as 90s computes didn't have much in the way of memory storage. There remains a common thing of 64K demos, where programmers try to pack as much as they can into 64 Kilobytes.

  • (Level 20) Ragnarok 'n' Roll! – Ragnarok is the end times in Viking mythology. The Lost Viking's longboat, which this talent improves, is named Ragnarok. This is also a quote from Tychus when he commands the prototype walker the Odin in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The Vikings also ended their first game with a "Viking rock concert."

  • (Level 20) Checkpoint Reached – Checkpoints are points in games where if a player dies, they can go back to. Interestingly, neither Lost Vikings had checkpoints, rather having a password based level system where you could go back if you knew the password (and handily there was a section in the manual you could write them down in).

  • (Level 20) The Sequel! – The Lost Vikings spawned Lost Vikings 2, which often made jabs at itself for being a sequel for the sake of having a sequel.

Poke Quotes

The Vikings are a bit weird with their poke quotes, where some are for the individual characters are together. I'll group them to make this a bit easier.

All Three

Olaf: "Aye! I think somebody poked me." Erik: "I'll poke ya, you're just imagining things!" Baleog: "Ow! No someone's defiantly poking us!" Olaf: "See?"" Erik: "You see, you don't feel poking! Ow, knock it off!" Baleog: "HE'S RIGHT! OLAF'S RIGHT! I SAW THAT!" Olaf: "I told ya!"" – Lost Vikings predates Warcraft 1, so they aren't familiar with the poke quotes common in Blizzard top down RTS games (though the sequel was after Warcraft 1).

Erik: "Get lost, will ya?" Olaf: "Done." Baleog: "He's not talking to you ya (Swedish sounding gibberish)." Olaf: "Oh." – A reference to the Lost Vikings name, where the Vikings are known for getting lost in space and time.

Erik: "Seventeen years of nothin', and they bring us back for a MOBA? Figures." Baleog: "It's not a MOBA, it's a hero brawler!" Olaf: "Hero brawler herba heba, you made that up!" Erik: "Nope, but Blizzard sure did!" Baleog: "You guys are so getting us fired, you know that?" – When Heroes of the Storm first came out, Blizzard heavily marketed the game not as a MOBA, but as a Hero Brawler to try to distance itself from being compared to games like League of Legends and DotA2. Many fans considered this to be a bit silly since they were very clearly the same genre with some minor variations. Lost Vikings 2 was also released in 1997, now 20 years ago.

Baleog: "I'm gonna POKE YOU IN A MINUTE!" Erik: "Baleog, calm down! Breath. You're gonna BLOW A GASKET!" Baleog: (breathes heavily) Erik: "Nice." – Baleog is the fierce one of the group, and has anger issues. A common way to deal with anger is breathing to calm yourself, something which isn't helped by screaming breath at someone.

Olaf: "You know, if we're gonna be lost somewhere, at least this place is nice. Ehhh kinda. Na." – A lot of the places the Lost Vikings go to are hostile lands where everyone tries to kill them, from prehistoric times to weird dimensions to a Terminator style future. Still Heroes is fairly hostile in itself.

Olaf: "Ohhhhh, my belly has never looked so high definition." Erik: "Huh, not sure I consider that an upgrade." – The Lost Vikings started in the SNES with sprite-based graphics. When they moved to 3D is was in its early stages, so Olaf's belly was literally a single sphere attached to his torso. The Heroes graphical upgrade is a vast improvement.

Erik: "What ever happened to Scorch and Fang?" Baleog: "Eh, nobody remembers those guys." Olaf: "I do! Who can forget a dragon and a marmoset?" Baleog: "A marma-marma-what?" Olaf: "A marma-marmoset!" – Fang the Werewolf and Scorch the Dragon were playable characters from Lost Vikings 2 (And I remember Blizzard, I always remember). Scorch could fly and shoot fire while Fang could climb walls and slash enemies. They would switch out with the Vikings depending on the level. The running gag with Fang is that he was a werewolf, but the Vikings would keep calling him different animals.

Erik: "You ever get the feeling of déjà vu?" Baleog: "For the 4,649,354th time, NO!" – A running gag in Lost Vikings when the player would retry the level is Erik going "Do you ever get the feeling of déjà vu? In the sequel, Baleog would get continually more annoyed as Erik asked that.

Baleog: "This guy's not doing nothing, wake me up when this is over." Erik: "No wait! (snoring) (sigh) He's out. Alright, what happens when we have to move?" – If the player stays still long enough at the start of a level in Lost Vikings 2, a similar dialogue will take place between the characters.

Erik: "How are you guys holding up? I think I need a bath." Baleog: "Bath? Vikings don't need no stinking baths." Olaf: "We don't need no stinking Vikings either." – At the end of one of the prehistoric levels in the first Lost Vikings, the Vikings will have a similar dialogue.

Olaf: "Do you ever think we'll see Tomator again?" Erik: "Tomator? You mean Tommy? It was a little kid named Tommy." Baleog: "Maybe… He's out there somewhere." Olaf: "Tommy can you hear me? Feed me, feed me, touch meeee." – Tomator is the antagonist of the Lost Vikings series, initially an alien warlord and zookeeper of the Croutonian Empire, he ended up being a bored human kid named Tommy. The song Olaf is singing is from the rock band "The Who's" rock opera "Tommy," and the song is "See Me, Feel Me." The other joke is Olaf likes eating. Get used to that that's a lot of his quotes.

Olaf: "Just so we're clear, I still have dibs on Erik's helmet." Baleog: "I get his boots." Erik: "Seventeen years. Nothing changes." – This is a callback to the first post-level dialogue the Vikings have in the first level of Lost Vikings, where they decide to split up Erik's stuff when he dies. A callback to how the series started.

Olaf: "Hey, you guys remember we were in World of Warcraft?" Erik: "(sigh) That was just a reference Olaf." Baleog: "Yes Olaf, we're not dwarves, we're Vikings! (snicker) Except for Erik. He's a dwarf." Erik: "You take that back!" – In the dungeon Uldaman in vanilla World of Warcraft, Horde players fought out three lost dwarves in Viking gear named Erik, Baleog and Olaf, an obvious homage to Lost Vikings. They later show up in the Badlands to help Alliance players in Cataclysm. It's also a joke at the fact Erik is much shorter than the rest of his brothers. (see the post of u/Stuntedslime below for more info).

Erik

"I'm the fast start smart Viking. The fast stupid Viking didn't make it past Lost Vikings 0.1." – Erik is the "leader" of the group, and the fastest. This may be a reference to the development of Lost Vikings, which started similar to the game Lemmings where hundreds of Vikings would be on screen. This was trimmed down to 5, and then later 3 Vikings the player directly controlled.

**"Did you know Olaf is a father of two? I have no idea how he manages that with being lost all the time." ** – All three of the Viking brothers are married and live in the same village, and Olaf has two children, one named Gerda. Though Erik brings it up as a weird thing, he's also a father of two.

"The Nexus is pretty normal to me. You want weird, go to Whackyworld." – Whackyworld is the second to last set of levels in the first Lost Vikings, a reverse alternate dimension made of balloons and candy filled with reverse-universe Vikings. I still think the candy part of the level looked like blood.

"Why does Olaf keep following Chen with his mouth open?" – A running Heroes gag is that Olaf has been drinking Chen's brew, following him around the field.

"I once cooked minute rice in 27 seconds. It means I'm swift! Get it?" – Erik's thing is being fast, so fast he cooks something designed to be cooked in a minute in even quicker.

Baleog

"Who do you think you are, Tomator? If I weren't on the other side of the screen I'd-" – Tomator (or Tommy) is the galactic overlord and young human child that manipulated the Vikings, trying to use them for his games. Similar to the player.

"I've got a quiver full of swords, and I know how to draw them!" – In Lost Vikings 1, Baleog used a bow and arrow and a sword. Heroes cut out the middle man (since his ranged options were almost objectively better) and combined the two.

"Yeah, I'm the Fierce, you got a problem with that?" – Baleog is known for his bad temper.

"Wait a minute, the world's best navigators are Vikings? Clearly my friends and I are doing something wrong." – Vikings were known explorers, navigators, and charted many unknown lands, including landing in the Americas before Columbus. The Lost Vikings on the other hand don't have those skills.

Olaf

"Ouchen! Why can you poke me in this game? Imma poking you back ahnebia noben." – Olaf isn't used the poking thing, having predated Warcraft.

"You are bad and you should feel bad" – :(

"Thor's bors! Why are you botherin me!" – Thor is a Viking god, and in the first Lost Vikings if you fail a level 15 times Thor will personally shout down from Valhalla to scold the Vikings.

**"My shield doubles as a dinner tray, and a lazy suzan! Spinnin around and roundin!" ** – A lazy suzan is a table top that spins around, and Olaf uses his shield in a variety of ways, including using it as a parachute. He also spins it around if you take the Spin to Win talent.

"If you follow Chen around closely enough with your mount open, that barrel of his leaks, slurpity doppen hey!" – Another Chen quote, showing Olaf found how to get brew from Chen without him noticing.

Interaction Quotes

Auriel: "One day, you will be home again." – Auriel is the archangel of hope, and though the Vikings are always hopelessly lost Auriel personifies their hope of returning home.

Auriel: "Do not be so quick to discredit them, together you are strong." – This is in response to one of Baleog's quotes saying Auriel would be a better teammate than his brothers. Auriel admires that when the three Vikings work together they can overcome anything.

(To Butcher) Olaf: "Hello! I'd like some cold cuts please!" / *"Wait a minute, you aren't a real butcher are you?" – A butcher is someone who prepares and sells meat, something Olaf just assumed the Butcher is by his title.

Baleog: "Hey look! It's that weasel Fang!" Greymane: "I'm a WORGEN! W-O-R-G-E-N, WORGEN!" – A running gag in Lost Vikings 2 is that the Vikings keep mixing up what animal Fang the Werewolf is, and worgen are the Warcraft version of werewolves. One of Fang's quotes is "I'm a WOLF, W-O-L-F, WOLF!"

Muradin: "Uh, you boys ever been to the Badlands?" Erik: "Well we certainly haven't been to any good lands." – In World of Warcraft, three dwarves named Erik, Baleog and Olaf dressed as Vikings can be found in the dungeon Uldaman, in the Badlands, and later in Cataclysm are part of a quest chain in the Badlands. Baleog is saying the group hasn't been to any land that hasn't tried to kill them.

Olaf: "Oh, and what kind of Viking are you?" Muradin: "Sonny I'm a Mountain King not a Vi-king. Whatever that is." – Muradin's class in Warcraft III is Mountain King, and Vikings don't exist in the Warcraft universe (though the Vrykul are similar).

Olaf: "Oh, and what kind of Viking are you?" Maraudin' Muradin: "I'm a marauder not a- bah nevermind." – In StarCraft II, Vikings are a transforming terran air fighters and walkers. Maraudin' Muradin thinks Olaf is confusing him with that unit.

(To Murky) *Baleog: "Have I fought one of your relatives before?" – Murky, being cutesy and green, is similar to many of the enemies the Vikings fought in their travels.

(To Murky) Erik: "Hmm, are you related to Aftiek?" – Aftiek was an alien creature in the first and last levels of the first Lost Vikings who helped them escape and defeat Tomator. They have a similar cute and bubbly appearance to Murky.

(To Murky) Erik: "How did a sea serpent end up here, and such a tiny one too?" – Vikings, being a seafaring culture, have a lot of sea serpents in their mythology.

(To Nazeebo) Erik: "Hey you look familiar, or… hmm… Aren't you the other witch doctor?" – In Lost Vikings 2, the Vikings end up in the Amazon, and find a group of witch doctors similar to Nazeebo who welcome them as heralds of the gods and teleport them closer to the time machine they need. Every level has a different witch doctors with long and complex names in spite of having the same sprite, so they refer to each other as the "other" witch doctors.

(To Candy Nazeebo) Olaf: "You look delicious, can I eat you?" – Olaf has a one track mind on food, but at least he's polite.

Olaf: "Oh no, it's T-Tomator!" Samuro: "This "Tomator" must be a great warrior." – Tomator is the antagonist of Lost Vikings, and is a green alien overlord who looks like the orcs. He is not actually a great warrior, as his stuff breaks constantly and you can throw him into energy fields easily.

Baleog: "Aren't you that witch from Transylvania?" Sylvanas: "No. And you should lay off the brew before a fight." – In the first level of Lost Vikings 2 (Transylvania), The Vikings get the help of a witch, who either looks like Sylvanas or the Wicked Witch of the West depending on the version you play. When Baleog insults her, she sends him to the Pit of Despair for a level.

Thrall: "For honor and glory!" Olaf: "For lasagna!" – Olaf likes lasagna, between Lost Vikings 1 and 2 he sailed to the Mediterranean and discovered the secret of lasagna from the Italians.

Erik: "Wait, you're from the future and you're not an enemy?" Tracer: "I'm not from the future, I'm from the present! I think." – Overwatch takes place in the future from where the Vikings are (in the medieval era). The Vikings often go to the future, once in to Terminator style post-apocalypse future, and most things there tries to kill them, though they have made friends there like the rebel Conroy.

Tracer: "And I thought I was lost." Erik: "We just want to go home." – The Vikings, as per their name, as lost in time, something Tracer also has had happen to her when she first was displaced from time.

Kill Quotes

(Generic) Baleog: "Wrangled like a polar bear!" – Baleog's job after Lost Viking's 1 was chief polar bear wrangler. The Lost Vikings character description for Heroes said they came to the Nexus after getting bored of polar bear wrangling.

(Generic) Baleog: "Say hi to Freya for me!" – Freya is the Viking god of love, fertility, buty, and fine possessions.

(Generic) Baleog: "Hope you wrote down the level's password!" – Neither Lost Vikings games had a save system, rather they had four letter passwords they would tell you at the start of each level that you could input to come back to them. The manual had a handy section to write them in.

(Generic) Erik: "Crumbled like a Croutonian." – Croutonians are Tomator's race, the Viking's arch villain, at least before he was revealed to be a human kid named Tommy.

(Generic) Erik: "Who knew I was this good at fighting?" – In both Lost Vikings games, Baleog is the only one who can actually fight enemies, while Erik can only jump, run and bash walls. Erik could, however, run into enemies with his helmet, a fact I never knew until now (thanks u/Todzik).

(Generic) Olaf: "I've got to put that on 'Lifestyles of the Large and Bearded!'" – Lifestyles of the Large and Bearded is a magazine mentioned in the Lost Vikings 2 manual, which Olaf featured in.

(Generic) Olaf: "That one was for my daughter Gerda!'" – Olaf (and the other Vikings) are fathers of two. Olaf is particularly proud of his daughter Gerda, who can out eat her father.

(Abathur) Erik: What kind of alien was that?" Olaf:* Farba heba what am I an alien expert? I don't know!" – While most aliens the Vikings fight are usually more cute and stylized, Abathur is a bit more horrific. There's an unused modified version of this quite with Olaf's quote saying he saw him at BlizzCon (likely a reference to the Abathur cosplays there) where Erik and Olaf sound more similar to their Lost Viking 2 voices.

(Armored Characters) Baleog: *"That's what you get for wearing all that junk!" – The Vikings all wear light armor, and rely on Olaf's shield for protection, and often fight heavily armored robots.

(Bug Character) Olaf: "Huh, bug off!" – A saying meaning go away.

(Candy Skin Character) Olaf: 'Mmm, yum!" – Olaf likes food.

(Cho'gall) Erik: "Three heads are better than two big guy!" – Cho'Gall is two ogres in one body, but the lost Vikings are three characters in one.

(Dwarf Characters) Erik: **"Have fun is Asgard!" – Asgard is the Viking realm of where the Norse god live. Erik is confusing dwarves with Vikings.

(ETC) Baleog: "It's a Rocky Road!" – A likely a reference to the Dubliners 1964 Folk song, Rocky Road to Dublin.

(Gazlowe) Baleog: "Come on, I've smashed fancier robots than that!" – A common enemy for the Lost Vikings in future levels is robots, and many of them have the similar run down look of Gazlowe's pack.

(Lost Vikings) Olaf: "Ha ha ha! Now you have to restart the level!" – One rather annoying part of both Lost Vikings is that if you lost a single Viking to the many instant death traps, you'd have to do the whole level over. To add insult to injury the game would keep going even if you lost one but not let you finish the level, meaning you'd either have to kill the other Vikings or manually restart.

(Orc Character) Baleog: "Take that, Tomator!" – Tomator looks like an orcs, and is a green muscled brutish character (before he's revealed to be a small kid named Tommy). Interestingly, while Olaf and Baleog have lines confusing Orcs with Tomator, in one of the explanations for why he's absent for a level Erik was teleported to the Warcraft universe in Lost Vikings 2 (ending up in the Swamp of Sorrows during Warcraft 1) and he's the only one to not confuse the Orcs with Tomator

(Pandaren) Olaf: ""Ohhh! Teddy bear" – The Vikings, being Norse, have never seen a panda, so they associate it with their bears (though teddy bears also weren't around). Ironically Olaf tried to go to Asia in the Lost Vikings 2 manual, but gave up.

Killing Vikings Quotes

Dehaka: "The essence of three. Must collect the rest." – Dehaka consumes the essence (genetic makeup) of enemies to evolve, and likely can taste the similarities of the three Viking brothers. Each Viking counts as a full kill for Dehaka's essence purposes.

D.Va: "Blizzard Classic? More like Blizzard ancient." – D.Va, being from the near future, sees the Vikings as being even more ancient. There are Lost Vikings machines in Overwatch, but these seem to reference the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty arcade game about a lost Viking fighter (which was also a reference to Lost Vikings, references on top of references).

Tracer: "You must be even more lost now." – Both the Lost Vikings and Tracer have been lost in time before, so Tracer can relate to them.

Other Quotes

Baleog: "At least we got infinite lives." / "How many lives we got left?" – Lives were a common mechanic in older games where players had a limited number of times they could die. As much as Baleog mentions it, Lost Vikings didn't have a lives system, just health, and if a Viking died you restarted the level.

Baleog: "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled worse than Olaf!" – A reference to "Monty Python and the Holy Grail's" mocking Frenchmen, and their quote "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries!"

Baleog: "I'm on a boat!" – A reference to the Lonely Island song, "I'm on a Boat."

Baleog: "Who needs a bow and arrow?" – In the first Lost Vikings, Baleog used both a sword and bow and arrow. In Heroes, he just throws his swords.

Baleog: "I-I'm healed? I love this game!" – Baleog is surprised he's able to be healed. This is odd since healing is a mechanic in Lost Vikings, where you can find food to recover health (though there were a lot of instant death traps).

Baleog: "Burnination!" – A reference to the old Homestarrunner video Trogdor the Burninator. Blizzard made Trogdor references as far back as Warcraft III.

Erik: "Nobody took my stuff, right?" – The first post-level dialogue is Olaf and Baleog discussing what they have dibs on from Erik when he dies, and this plays when Erik is resurrected.

Erik: "Dancing with the Blizzard All-Stars. Wait, wrong title." – Blizzard All-Stars was once the name of Heroes of the Storm, after the lawsuit that meant it couldn't be called Blizzard DotA. Also a reference to the television show "Dancing with the Stars."

Erik: "Do you guys ever feel like we're being watched?" – A reference to a Lost Vikings 1 conversation where they break the fourth wall in addressing a player.

Erik: "Are you not entertained?" – A reference to the film Gladiator. A lot of the Lost Viking's dialogue in their game reference movies.

Erik: "Vikings, to arms! Tonight we dine in Hel!" – Hel is the Viking underworld. This is also a reference to a movie quote from the movie 300.

Erik: "I can attack in this game?" – In both Lost Vikings, Erik can run, jump, and break walls, but only Baleog can actually directly attack, though Erik could run into enemies with his helmet to damage them.

Erik: Haven't healed like that since the Valkyrie." – In Lost Vikings 2, on the Game Over screen a Valkyrie will appear to revive the fallen Vikings to continue.

Erik: Time for a self indulgent character jam session!" – Lost Vikings 1 ends with the Vikings having a rock concert over the credits of the game.

Olaf: "Don't make me use my secret gas attack." – In Lost Vikings 2, Olaf can fart to gain a small hop.

Skins

  • Classic – This changes the Vikings to look how they looked in the first Lost Vikings. While 2 would change them to be the red/green/blue we all know now, it wouldn't be until the Beam Studio PC/Playstation/Saturn port of Lost Vikings 2 that their colors would be distinct (which Blizzard was not involved in).

  • Sequel – This changes the Lost Vikings to be how they looked in Lost Vikings 2, with technology they steal from a robot Tomator sent to apprehend them with. Erik got turbo boots and a special helmet that allowed him to breath underwater, Baleog got a bionic arm that allows him to bunch from a distance and grapple, as well as lightsabers (which he never used except in art), and Olaf got a new shield that allows him to shrink.

    • Heroic – Changes the Lost Vikings to have the color schemes of various heroes from Marvel's "The Avengers." Olaf is changed to look like Captain America, and his shield is similar to the Captain's shield, Baleog looks similar to the comic interpretation of Hawkeye with purple clothes, and Erik looks similar to Quicksilver, who also runs super fast.

  • Pajama Party – This skin is a reference to another classic platformer from the same time period as Lost Vikings by ID Software, Commander Keen. Commander Keen had a game between Commander Keen 3 and 4 named "Keen Dreams," but due to licensing issues it was not given a wide release. It featured the protagonist fighting vegetables in a dreamland in his pajamas, like the Lost Vikings skin. The description is poking fun at Keen Dreams, which isn't considered a mainline Commander Keen game but has been well received in hindsight and is considered a "lost episode" of the series. Baleog's carrot quiver may also be a reference to that game as its main enemy was giant vegetables, including carrots. The description is also a jab at those silly people who care too much about Blizzard lore.

    • Toon – Each seem to be a reference to various Warner Brothers cartoon characters, with Baleog changing his color scheme of Bugs Bunny, Erik looking like Pepe Le Pew, and Olaf possibly being a Wile E. Coyote reference.

So this became a gigantic wall (rare for my "off mainline lore" week ones) but I hope some of you newer Blizzard fans learned something. I doubt we'll ever see a Lost Vikings 3, but if anyone wants to check it the first game is available for free on Battle.net (though 2 I expect is locked in licensing hell and we won't see ported to PC). It's a bit dated, but it is a fun game, and is a key part of Blizzard history.

Next week will be Sarah Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, another massive lore heavy one because I hate my hands. It'll be split between the lore itself on Friday and the quotes/interactions on Sunday. So look forward to that, and I'll see you all next week!

submitted by /u/Subsourian
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List of 185 heroes to be added to the Nexus

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 06:47 PM PST

The devs constantly mentioned they have a huge list of ~185 heroes that are on the list of potential adds to the Nexus (obviously a lot won't make it but the list is their framework).

Does anyone have a fan made list thats about this large which they think would be similar to this? (the 185 is apparently mostly compiled of the most popular blizz characters/based off certain fan lists although im sure theres 10-20% of crazy characters in there)

Just would be cool to browse a list and nerd theorize over the potentially cool heroes to come in 2018

submitted by /u/Dreamio
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Stealth nerf in last few days regarding basic attacks that deal ability damage

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 05:29 PM PST

Previously, when you were either blinded or an enemy had evasion up, ONLY your basic attacks would miss, but basic attacks that did ability damage would still connect. And by previously I mean like I've just noticed this happening in the last two days. For instance, Ragnaros would miss with basic attacks against an Illidan using Evasion, but I could always use Q for Empower Sulfuras, which says my next basic attack does ability damage, and it would still hit. However, now it says my Q misses, even though it is supposed to be ABILITY damage, not basic attack damage.

submitted by /u/igniteice
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Ana feels much more like a sniper than Nova does

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 01:07 AM PST

I think Blizz did a great job with the "feel" of Ana and while playing her it made me think of why I've always felt that Nova feels very unsatisfying to play.

All of Ana's abilities aside from nano boost are skill shots. She also plays at a significant range (especially after completing range quest) and needs to consistantly land her skills in order to be effective. A real "sniper feel"

Nova on the other hand doesn't feel like a sniper, and never really has. She has one skillshot (2 I guess of you count precision strike) and a slow on a point and click ability making her one skillshot even easier to land. Combine this with her One in the chamber build and she feels more like a sustained ranged AA assassin with a single burst ability. Shit even triple tap is a point and click.

I know Nova is a very popular (QM) hero and that she is getting some changes after the stealth rework but I really feel that she should be almost purely skillshot based in order to feel more like the hero should regardless of balance/viability. This would also I'm increase the skill needed to play her (makes sense for a sniper)

Was just wondering if anyone shares these feelings?

Edit:

To all those saying Nova isn't a sniper but a ghost: I mean sure. To be honest I would even rather her be more "Ghost-like" and less sniper like but the current iteration is even less "ghost" than sniper so if they wanted to keep the current fantasy but improve upon it than Ana's direction would fit Imo - if you want to go the ghost rout you have to completely change the current iteration.

submitted by /u/Megaman1575
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Junkrat Shenanigans

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 03:58 PM PST

Rosterpocalypse - What we know

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 12:14 PM PST

All,

I just want to get all of the roster updates in one spot so we can track them.

HH - Unable to make roster changes this phase will come in with same squad that beat out EiD

LagF - None known

SSS - None Known

SSG - Drop TigerJK - https://twitter.com/TigerJKhots/ Drop TalkingTrees - https://twitter.com/TalkingTreesy

Tempo Storm - None Known

GFE - Udall Retired - Currently replacement is unannounced.

Team Freedom - None Known

Roll20 - Drop Prismaticism - https://twitter.com/Prismaticismism

submitted by /u/SnargleRs
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[SKIN CONCEPT] First Mate Junkrat

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 08:32 PM PST

Drew a pirate skin concept for Junkrat.

Grenades become canonballs, RIP Tire becomes RIP ship wheel, Rocket Ride becomes Ship Ride, etc...

submitted by /u/dehakabra
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Will removing ammo be a buff or a nerf to our Nexus summoners?

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 05:08 AM PST

I keep going back and forth on this.

Summons were always great for eating shots in order to deplete a towers ammo. That's not possible now, so it seems like a nerf.

But considering that towers will now ALWAYS be a threat, maybe this is a secret buff to Zag and company in that teams will always want a summoner to help with a push on a wall since minion waves will go down faster with towers always firing?

So maybe a nerf that somehow makes them more relevant? Thoughts?

submitted by /u/SundaySchoolBilly
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Heroes Global Championship BlizzCon Finals Recap - CavalierGuest

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 09:54 AM PST

Heroes of the Storm Hero Deep Dive - Live Recap Thread

Posted: 05 Nov 2017 05:48 AM PST

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