Yearly Archives: 2015

Heroes of the Storm Update: Lunara, First Daughter of Cenarius

By Mohammad Abubakr

Heroes of the Storm Update: Lunara, First Daughter of Cenarius

For a player coming from Dota 2, the update cycle for hero releases in Heroes of the Storm seems unreal. I’m used to seeing a new hero after months or even a year, but Blizzard promises to deliver a new hero every month. This may be seen as a bad sign as the heroes could be rushed and just pushed into Heroes of the Storm but this is not the case. The heroes are well designed, although some better than others, and play well. You will not have to worry about buggy heroes just because they are being pumped out at this rate. Just after the release of Cho’Gall and a new battleground, Blizzard has gifted us with another new hero: Lunara.

While not as exciting as the innovative and revolutionary Cho’Gall, who is played by two players, Lunara is still a fun and interesting hero. The first daughter of Cenarius, Lunara is a centaur that plays the role of a ranged assassin. Ranged assassins, for those unfamiliar with HoTS, are responsible for dealing damage and killing enemies from afar. You will not see these heroes in the midst of fights for long unless they are being supported by their team. They can easily be focused down and defeated if caught out of position.

Lunara is a medium difficulty ranged assassin

It is not unusual for ranged assassins to be very squishy and be unable to tank damage, but Lunara is especially squishy. She also has no escape ability aside from her 20% movement speed bonus passive which replaces her mount and doesn’t seem to help much. Her first ability, Noxious Blossom, explodes an area with pollen dealing damage. This ability can be useful to poke from afar, albeit without much effectiveness, and push waves. Her second ability, Crippling Spores, increases the duration of Nature’s Toxin (more on that later) and slows enemies.

Wisp, Lunara’s third ability, is a bit weird. It summons a movable wisp that grants vision in an area. This ability seems odd to be found on a ranged assassin. Due to the Wisp dealing no damage, Lunara has trouble keeping up with other ranged assassins. This seems like an ability that is more suited to supports instead of a ranged assassin. While both her first and second ability work well with Nature’s Toxin, which is a poison dealing damage overtime applied with auto attacks or spells, Wisp just does nothing. The enemy can kill this wisp, making this ability useless when it is on cooldown.

Nature’s Toxin can finish off enemies who think they got away

Fortunately, both her ultimate abilities are quite useful. Thornwood Vine holds three charges which can be used to send forth vines dealing damage in a line. This is a great ability when you want to focus on damaging multiple enemies and apply your poison to multiple heroes. However, Leaping Strike is my go-to ultimate ability due to its mobility and single target damage. This ability can be used to leap over an enemy, slowing them and dealing damage. It also has two charges allowing it to be used to get in and jump back out as needed. It can be a lot of fun leaping around to better position yourself, get away, or chase down enemies. Leaping Strike provides much more utility than Thornwood Vine, in my opinion.

As far as the talents go to improve these abilities, they are nothing unique or special. You can pick between the various talents depending on the situation and your playstyle. However, I would recommend sticking to one style when it comes to talents. If you focus on improving your Noxious Blossom, then continue to improve it. If you prefer to increase your poison damage over time, focus all your talent points on doing so. Picking one of each will not do you any good in the long run, you will just have a lot of weak abilities.

Leaping Strike is great for chasing and finishing off enemy heroes

The theme of being weak doesn’t end even if you do focus on the right talents. While Lunara is a blast to play, she is very weak. Sometimes the low win rate (33% for Lunara at the moment!) can be explained by players’ inexperience, but it seems like Lunara is in need of some buffs. She lacks in the damage, mobility, and range department. Her auto attacks are not very strong and she attacks very slowly from a low range. If you couple this with her poor mobility (no, a 20% movement speed boost is not enough), she can be very difficult to position correctly and still deal enough damage. There are many other heroes which can fill in for Lunara and contribute more for the team.

 

Conclusion: Not Currently Viable

To conclude, Lunara is not a very viable hero in her current state. There are many better ranged assassins that can provide a lot more for the team. She deals mediocre damage, is difficult to position, and does not provide much crowd control. I enjoyed the time spent playing Lunara but always felt like games would be much easier if I was playing a different assassin. You have to work much harder to do the same that other assassins can do with less effort.

Lunara’s Leaping Strike is a lot of fun to use

I hope Lunara receives some buffs in the future. Even simple changes such as increased range or attack speed can make a big difference. I would hold out on purchasing Lunara if you are hoping to play her in a competitive environment and win but if you are simply looking for a fun hero, Lunara will not disappoint you. At first it may seem odd how such a simple and ‘plain’ hero can be fun, but sometimes simplicity done right can lead to a lot of enjoyment. Blizzard has extended the winter sale, be sure to pick up Lunara for half the price while you still can!

Warframe – The Second Dream Xbox One Booster Pack Giveaway

OnRPG has partnered with Digital Extremes to celebrate the arrival of Warframe‘s “The Second Dream” update on Xbox One with 3 day credit booster packs!

The secrets are now revealed. Journey on The Second Dream to discover the origins of the Warframes and what exactly they are. But that’s not all. The new archer Warframe arrives alongside a slew of new weapons, a new tileset, balance changes, and plenty more! There’s never been a better time to be a space ninja.

 

These codes double the amount of resources players earn from pickups in Warframe on Xbox One. Limited to one code per Warframe account. These codes are set to expire on March 31, 2016.

 

To Redeem your Key:

  • Sign in to www.warframe.com/promocode. If you don’t have a Warframe account yet, sign up at www.warframe.com.
  • Enter your Code in the ‘Promo Code’ field and click ‘Submit’.
  • The item(s) will be activated on your account immediately. No need to Equip
    in-game!
  • Download/Start up Warframe and get your space ninja on!

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Joycity Comes Bearing Game of Dice Gifts

Joycity Comes Bearing Game of Dice Gifts news header

Joycity’s mobile game, Game of Dice has exceeded 4 million downloads and was a Top 5 most downloaded game in Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. To celebrate, Joycity is unloading a sleigh full of free updates for players. Along with a holiday event for all players, Joycity has also added a brand new Christmas-themed map and a cornucopia of new features including:

  • Special Christmas In-Game Event
  • New Christmas map
  • New ‘Craft’ menu
    – Craft various items with Characters, Skill Cards, and Instant Entry Tickets
  • New Guild Match feature
    – Get rewards and raise Guild rankings by participating on Guild Match every weekend (Users can play matches against other guilds)
  • Enhance Dice to ★6! (Golden/Siren/ Magical Dice)
    – Enhancing Dice to ★6 will unlock 4 new abilities
  • MAX Character Grade Extended (5-Star Diamond Grade)
    – Characters can evolve beyond 5-Star Platinum Grade
  • New Skill Cards added
  • Hologram Sticker system for Skill Cards
  • New luxury shop open and VIP benefits upgraded
    – Users can buy special event skill cards from the luxury shop using luxury points, which can be earned by drawing or combining skill cards

Guilty Gear XRD –SIGN-: What’s the Big Deal?

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign PC Port

Recently, ArcSys released Guilty Gear XRD onto Steam; this is the current game in the franchise, with Guilty Gear XRD –REVELATOR- having as of present no release date scheduled for America that I’m aware of. It’s coming, but likely not until sometime next year. It’s been out in Arcades in Japan, but that’s not the point here. PC gamers who are involved in the fighting game community have Street Fighter IV, Mortal Kombat X and King of Fighters. There are other niche’ titles like Arcana Hearts and Skullgirls, but that’s not exactly an EVO title. Tekken 7’s not out for some time, and SF5 won’t be out for a few months yet. The Street Fighter V beta may be out on PC by the time this is published, and that’s going to shake things up for the good of all. But this is a very nice, clean port of GG XRD –SIGN-! It’s beautiful, and it’s as close to a perfect port as I’ve seen in a long time. While not a huge GG player, I do love the different anime-style gameplay (as compared to SF/MK/Tekken) and though the majority of FGC players play on consoles or the rare and majestic arcade, the PC leap is coming, and it’s big.

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign PC Port

But there aren’t many fighting game options for PC that are current and actively played in the community other than Ultra SF4 and Mortal Kombat, and I’m glad ArcSys is branching back into the PC market. Sure, they release Blazblue titles on Steam; a year or two after nobody plays them anymore! The Arcade Port of CS1 [Continuum Shift] was ripped right out of an arcade cabinet and distributed across the internet. The Arcade port was on so many computers, it likely led to ArcSys being mistrustful of the power and reach the PC fighting game community had. Most of Steam’s fighting games in general were old/classic games, like the earlier KoF games. If this sells well, it could really change the fighting game scene on PC, where maybe we’ll see the next Blazblue and Guilty Gear on PC to go along with Street Fighter V! That’s an exciting thought to me; I may be the Head Console Peasant but I do love my PC.

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign PC Port

Guilty Gear is a part of the “Anime” fighting game style. We have the 3D games like Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, the 2D almost Western style, with Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, games of their ilk. Then there are the anime fighting games. King of Fighters, Blazblue, Melty Blood, Guilty Gear; these are way different from their compatriots. There’s more…personality. I’m not saying that the anime fighting games are a superior breed, because personally I prefer Street Fighter, but there is a lot of very important things going on right now with Guilty Gear. They’re doing something special that no other game has done in recent memory. Guilty Gear XRD TEACHES people how to play the game! Sure, a few other games have tutorials, where they might show you how to do special moves, but Guilty Gear’s Tutorial is so freakin’ important. From the ground up, walking, to chaining moves together for combos, it covers everything.

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign PC Port

Literally everything! It teaches you how to do Option Selects, and uses one that’s relevant and useful, instead of obscure and cool looking. Option Selects are when you input a combination of buttons and the game will register a different action dependent on what the other player is doing. The one they use is a kick and a throw. If you are in range for the kick, your character will kick; otherwise he’ll attempt to throw. Guilty Gear helps you become a better GG player, as well as a better fighting game player just in general. It teaches the technical mechanics from offense to defense; Instant Blocking, Fuzzy Jumping, Counter Hits, Clashes! It doesn’t just throw you into a mode where it says “Do the combo!” It shows you how to do it and why. How to properly anti-air and every other technical option you might need to survive a real tournament someday. ArcSys is helping the community in a smart way. There’s also the Challenge Mode that has combos to learn, but they aren’t optimal. They’re to feel out how a character plays, as well as to practice execution, to get your timing on point for when you are working on actual gameplay. Skullgirls is the only other fighting game on the market pushing anything remotely close to this, and Guilty Gear just upped the quality bar.

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign PC Port

Guilty Gear is good for the fighting game community at large. There’s such a humongous, almost impossible gap between pro players and the casual community; these improved tutorials are not going to make scrubs good overnight, but it’s going to go a very long way into helping PC players new to fighting games to get a leg up, while showing fighting veterans the key differences GG brings to the genre. I’ve always kind of shied away from the franchise because the combo strings they offer up are pretty damn ludicrous, and they are kind of daunting (unless it’s Slayer and his four hit combo of death).

The notion that PC gamers want to play current fighting games is not ridiculous, and the success of GG XRD will definitely help pave the path that Capcom will try to pave with Street Fighter V and its cross compatibility with console. This is certainly one port I’m glad to have access to, that is until we shoot the Bottom Tier video where Takanub/Kyle bodies us both for a half hour. That. . . I’m a bit less excited for.

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign PC Port

Ready to see Guilty Gear Xrd’s PC port in action? Hit up our sister site MMOHuts for the full video!

Guilty Gear Xrd Bottom Tier