Had some annoying FPS and latency issues my first ranked match. Kept my current rank, as @NinjaBryden pointed out in another post. However, after my first 5v5 ranked match ( a loss, paired with one other 10B, a 7S, a 6B, and a 5G - nice!), it stated I lost 5 points. After the match, I am now SA gold. Nice.
A super confusing, underwhelming, and poorly executed start to the patch so far!
Catherine was fun to play, but overall, I didn’t feel she was SO much stronger like many people think she will be.
Warhawk seems pretty fun to play so far for me. I still don’t like hearing his voice though. I’m also disappointed in the seeming lack of a contender skin this season.
Just my early theory, and not one I am going to stand by too steadfast just yet, but it could be a case of perception = reality. There’s been talk about how strong Catherine will be. So now, we could see her popularity spike and just see a lot more of her, and then feel she is stronger. As a Catherine main, the few games I’ve already played so far, I don’t feel that much stronger than I was prior.
Just my two cents. I think she’s always been strong and viable, and now we’ll just see more skilled players using her because of a buff. We’ll see. Time will tell!
Why Samuel? He wasn’t touched and other mages weren’t really nerfed. Honestly I think Lyra, Leo, Inara and Gwen are the top bans at least at tier 10 bronze. Past that you see more targeted bans depending on comp. I’ve even seen Baptiste ban in scrims on YouTube because of how good he is at countering some comps.
Catherine seems strong, but the right amount of strong.
I haven’t noticed a difference with Inara. The extra damage is certainly welcome, but she still usually doesn’t kill on her own. She never had a problem with her ability damage, her weakness as a damage dealer has always been that after her A+B she doesn’t do anything significant. That hasn’t changed. She’s always been useful in spite of not being a good killer, and that hasn’t changed either.
Caine is a bit less oppressive, but I don’t think he’s fixed. The ranged execute mechanic is just a bad idea. It’s just too effective in team fights.
I’ve only seen a bit of Warhawk; so far he’s not impressive. His Ult is wicked, but I’ve only seen him built CP, and he seems to take too long between abilities for his CP to do significant damage. It might be a matter of people learning him, and I’ve only seen him in a few matches.
The Alpha buff doesn’t really address her problem in 5v5. In 3v3 she might be better, but relying on healing to survive in melee in 5v5 is like eating soup with a fork.
Alpha is actually dominating in 5v5, i dont know what you mean. Being a huge bully in the early game is why people always pick grump. Alpha is now even better than him.emphasized text
Imho alpha was really strong even in 4.3, played her few times (as I generally love hero from back in the days, i.e. have an idea how to play her) - was fun, defo one of the better melees (as we all know they suffer nowdays)+she has a decent chase/stick potential and I won all the matches. The buff will defo make me play here more and into more enemy team compositions. Actually for most I like the changes they did, but so many more heroes needs a buff/slight nerf/change…
The recent patches are really small and doesn’t fix a lot + doesn’t even really change the meta heroes (for example, while cath buff is good, it’s the only captain buffed and in reality the captains to pick remains yates and lyra). I am putting aside bug fixing, new content, UI changes and so on - this is obviously on the back foot.
Alpha was always any early game bully though; that hasn’t changed. Alpha’s weakness was in late game fights where she has a hard time escaping or enduring focus fire.
Using Grumpjaw as a comparison, his perk is based on how long he’s in a fight, and it refreshes every time he basic attacks, so he keeps his mitigation no matter how many enemies hit him. He can also use his A either to initiate, or to escape, which helps if he’s in a bad spot.
Alpha doesn’t bring any utility, so her value in team fights is to get stuck in and do damage. Improving her healing doesn’t really make her better in that role since the healing was never what was wrong with her.
I never really stopped using her — she was always a great early game bully. She could 1v1 virtually anyone and either win, or make them run while she reboots.
The matchmaker is great… I am soloq and play with some really bad t4 like 2 players in my team (that also insulted and spam pinged) losing vs coordinated team. Then I que again right after and guess what? THE SAME 5 ENEMY PLAYERS AS THE GAME BEFORE!!! I am not only put vs a full party as soloq, but the game did that to me twice IN A ROW (with 2m que, not a long wait)! Ffffffffff…air.
Well - as I’ve made clear in another post, I can’t begin to express my frustration with the first 3-4 weeks of a seasonal reset. I find MM at it’s worst. I will admit that as the VST and MMR finally match up after sweating through very tedious games, the MM does a much better job, imo. The last 6-8 weeks of a season are often mostly filled with quality games. The MM is not perfect, certainly not at the start of seasons, but it does get better over time.
