So after having him been in HotS for some time now, bringing terror and ruin with him, can we talk about his design now and why it might not be good for HotS?
Every game with Deathwing feels worse than any other without. In games with Deathwing, Healers matter less, characters with alot of CC matters much less and most things really just matter less.
Furthermore, his kit of not being able to be interacted with, both by allies and enemies, makes him hard to deal with if he is very good or very bad. You can’t help him if he is in a struggle and you can’t focus/counter him if he is dominating.
So why the hell did this design go through? I like that he is different, just like characters like Lost Dwarfes and Abathur is different, but with those you can do things with and against, change your gameplan on the go, but in quick play, where you just que into him, you have no chance at all.
I would usually say, that he needs a revamp, but the problem is at the core of his design idea, not something that can be easily tweaked. So… I think HotS have become a worse game, just by having Deathwing in it.
What do you think? What is your experience with the new destructur of HotS?
I think he has a good place in the meta.
He synergises with healers who struggle with healing more than 4 targets (like Morales, Whitemane, Anduin). He fits the role of solo lane, he fits the role of global, he fits in a dive comp. He counters heavy CC comps.
Sure if you face him with a bad comp in QM you’re gonna have a bad time, but that goes for a lot of heroes. I’d much rather face DW without %-dmg DW than Ili+Aba without CC on my team.
From my experience there are 3 things that make you lose vs DW:
Not having %-damage
Having too many melee (Which he can easily heal off and stack immolation with lvl1+4 talent on Incinerate)
Engaging too hard while he has 4 armor plates. (If you poke him out to 3 or 2 plates before fully engaging he just dies)
Additionally you could add
4. Standing in his ult
5. Fighting him while he has Destroyers Rampage at 20.
With time people will learn how to play vs him and he will be less OP. Same thing as with Qhira.
That said, I think he still should be nerfed. His damage is way to high for a bruiser. Maybe nerf Destroyer form and buff Worldbreaker to make him play around the forms more.
Im not really talking about Deathwing being balanced or not. You can easily make him a “balanced” hero, that has an average win rate.
But the problem is that he is such a huge feast-or-famine hero, that changes the game completly around him, as some heroes just completly dive or rise in usefulness. I play alot of healers in HotS and seeing Deathwing on either side just makes me sigh, as i either will have a tank, that i can’t heal or an opponent, i can’t push, root or stun away from me.
It again comes down to his core design idea: Being non-interactable. That would proberly work in a game like LoL and a bit in Dota2, but HotS is all about CC, being able to control movement and doing so many other things, than just direct dps. Hell, we have multiple heroes, who have ults, that is only about CC.
Deathwing ruins all that and goes completly against the main core aspect of the game in my opinion.
u forgot spellpower or dmg debuffs which most supports and tanks have
also highly mobile heroes or those who grant mobility like lucio make it rly hard for dw and talents like heatwave become useless if ur teammates arent too dumb.
I think it is cool to have first hero which mechanics brings whole lot of challenge. Many strats will change and let the adaption to the new world begin
I really dislike deathwing in general. Having a hero which does not interract with any support or cc skills makes no sense. I get that he was supposed to be cool with his unstoppability and unhealability but it just isn’t. He does not interract with most of the heroes in the roster at all and feels like he’s from a different game. Every game he is with my team or against me feel really unfun.
I get it when it comes to picking heroes around him, but that is only good in a game, with no quick play.
Quick play is kinda destroyed by him. Not only do you feel forced to pick something, that can actually do something against him, but you are also discouraged to play healers, because if you have a DW as your tank, the healers job becomes frustrating.
For how cool his design is, he does so much bad for the rest of the game. I would very much be for the idea, that he is not pickable in quick match.
You said yourself that the thread is about DW design not balance. Yet your argument is that DW brings unbalanced games.
I do disagree with the healer sentiment. I find it to be new challenge to focus on 4 players instead of 5. What comes to QM DW balance that can always be resolved by numbers.
I agree with FlurryFang. Deathwing should be deleted from the game. With his lot of healt and armor it takes too much effort to take him down even if he played badly. He is like a living barrier for his team mates but with a lot of dmg and its too hard to kill assassins behine him. If he goes down first in the team fight (what he shouldn’t cause u are supposed to focus assins and heal but u cant cause dw is just to big) in the meantime u kill his team mates he will respawn and with his meteor droping sh*t he can prevent u from looting the objectives like the terror seeds while his teammates respawn and get there.
I hate this char.
Free this week and if you play qm you cannot say this hero is balanced.
Always best stat an all category (and some player don t play him so good). The impact of his presence is too much important (especialy to secure objective). He just broke hots and all the game design from 75% of the other char. Some players are explaning that it s possible to counter DW … it s true but even if you counter him he will have a more important impact in the game than all other char countered ! So it mean the char is absolutly unbalanced. You just need to check the global stats(winrate, pick, ban, mvp% …) of DW to show all people which defend him are blind and just support blizzard like fanboy without personnal real opinion (or just play him). Regarding the actual population playing hots I think dw is exactly the kind of game design (0 fun to play against or with) which will destroy definitively this game. But I think this kind of big dragon should represent a big amount of money for Activision Blizzard
Something I’ve noticed is how his Unstoppable causes some abilities to completely mess up. Take Qhira’s Revolving Sweep. She can’t latch onto Deathwing at all, even though, in my mind at least, it’s not a CC.
I’m a DW player but also I play other characters. Today I had a nice match vs DW and killed him 5 times with Pyroblast. DW is a great noob killer so don’t act like a noob Just remember how this character works and how slow he is and then he won’t be as deadly as he looks like.
Noob killer which is ban in 100% diamond/ master ranked game xD. The only noob in this forum is yourself. “I kill DW with pyroblast” omfg … try to think 5mn before say something like this, it s pathetic. You can kill every char with pyroblast. But need 4 to kill DW xD worst argument ever ! Go watch stream/stats and come back later for a serious discussion. (Classic DW player + blizzard fanboy …)
Worst than your previous post … So pyroblast is a counter cause the spell can kill DW below 25%hp … guy stop to be so blind !
And nice list about stasis char but 90% of DW lvl 1 choose the auto stasis for each life quarter. pyroblast is a good choice you are right xD (sorry I forgot … you have to use pyroblast on 20% deathwing !! xD). And even if you try to counter this he will be 10time more powerfull than any other char countered. Continue to defend this st upid char with this kind of argument. Nerf is coming for sure !
Of course nerf is coming cause of whinners like you. And after nerf DW will be unplayable.
DW doesn’t have stasis and you just don’t understand how that 1 lvl talent works. It gives him Protected for 0.75s after he looses one of his plates (not on demand). Kael casts longer Pyro than DW has his Protected. Just use it when DW has last plate - what can’t you understand?
Kael should always use his Pyro on hero that has 40-20% hp to kill that hero.
And if DW is so OP, 10 times more powerfull than any other char, play him and show me your winrate. You seems like a guy who doesn’t get Hots mechanics so I guess you will have 40-50% winrate in 30 and more matches.
I perfectly understand how this talent work … the only think important is to show how st upid is your previous post . You want to use a pyroblast against a char with 3 invulnerability (better than stasis so). And your advice is to use the biggest nuke (with long cast time and time to hit) in this game vs char with 20%hp … omfg this is garbag e. Next time just cast your other spells you will be more usefull . I don t want to play a char just because he is broken (not like you ). If ou want to discuss about personnal stat let s do it. I am diamond and DW is just ban in each game because nobody want to play against or with this sh it in serious game. (This is only for “kids fanboy” like you). Go watch stream and stats of this char, 10sc to find this with google (best stats ever and biggest pick ban rate ever). But sometime I play QM with friends and this char just Broke each game in this mod. So he will be nerf cause of statistical proof … Guy like you are not important. Go buy next broken char to have more than 20% winrate in QM and post in this forum : “Yes my char can OS a full team but you can counter me if you use 6 pyroblast when i am 20% hp !!” … you are the reason of why so many player stop to play this game.
Funny cause I think the same about you. It’s really hard to believe that you have better rank than gold in this game. I had diamond once, now I have platinum, but the difference between us is that I know how to use pyroblast and I won’t waste it on “every char at full hp”.
About DW again: watch how some good players deals with it, for example Fan Heroes of the Storm gameplays on YouTube. He is in Grandmaster rank so he plays better than both of us.
). If ou want to discuss about personnal stat let s do it. I am diamond and DW is just ban in each game because nobody want to play against or with this sh it in serious game. (This is only for “kids fanboy” like you). Go watch stream and stats of this char, 10sc to find this with google (best stats ever and biggest pick ban rate ever). But sometime I play QM with friends and this char just Broke each game in this mod. So he will be nerf cause of statistical proof … Guy like you are not important. Go buy next broken char to have more than 20% winrate in QM and post in this forum : “Yes my char can OS a full team but you can counter me if you use 6 pyroblast when i am 20% hp !!” … you are the reason of why so many player stop to play this game.