This map ended up being surprising. I was expecting it to be harder than Wicked Crossing based on what I remembered from doing my Veteran walkthrough, but I feel it was actually a little easier. We were able to insta-call every wave with every hero, which is always a good sign. Also good is that the map continues to be the enjoyable kind of hard
It's worth noting that the Undying Fury mini campaign came out while I was in the middle of recording for this map, and along with it some balance changes. In particular I had already recorded Torres (he's the first character I do), and he gets a lot of love in the patch - on paper at least. It remains to be seen what kind of difference it will truly make, as I simply did not feel like re-recording his video. Might it have bumped up his grade a little bit? Possibly, but I don't think it's going to impact his final ranking in any significant way, so we'll wait until heroic mode to try the changes out.
Impressions
Alliance is already settling into a top row vs. bottom row dichotomy of heroes just like Vengeance did. The first six heroes are all on the struggle bus, while Broden kicks off a series of top performers. Most of the grades are not surprising in the least, except that I had to give Anya a C+. I'm really frustrated by this, as I love her character and kit design, but her DPS is just waaaay too low. I have a sinking feeling that we're looking at a Lynn situation all over again.
It's worth taking a moment to reflect on the heroes, now that we're a little over halfway through the series. It's very apparent how things are going to shake out in the final rankings. Broden and Kosmyr are going to be neck and neck for the top spot. I'm picking Broden to edge out the big K, but I could very well be wrong. Meanwhile, on the other end Torres and Raelyn are duking it out for the bottom spot, but for totally different reasons. Torres has a good kit but is under-tuned, while Raelyn is reasonably powerful (for a free hero) but over-specialized. Based on what I'm seeing on paper at least, this balance patch might actually give Torres the edge going forward, but we'll see.
Final Grades
- Vesper - B
- Raelyn - C
- Nyru - B
- Torres - B-
- Anya - C+
- Grimson - B
- Broden - A+
- Therien - A
- Onagro - A-
- Warhead - A
- Lumenir - A
- Kosmyr - A+
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