| Faction Discussion — Schism |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 · «PREV / NEXT» |
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 12:32 AM |
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MurlocAggroB said:
Second creature reveal; the tier 4 Grand Shoth.
It's been solidified - Schism is my main. It's a flying, self-replicating Pit Lord with a kickass design.
Yep, Schism is really fighting for that spot against Hive for me.
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MurlocAggroB
Known Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 01:47 AM |
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I was trying to figure out what the creature's design reminded me of, and I think it's the Argi from Age of Mythology.
Just, a cool slimy tentacle eyeball monster guy.
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MattII
Legendary Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 01:54 AM |
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Edited by MattII at 03:16, 28 Aug 2025.
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To me it looks like a mix of the Mutalisk and Hyrdalisk from the Starcraft franchise.
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 03:04 AM |
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MattII
Legendary Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 03:18 AM |
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Edited by MattII at 03:18, 28 Aug 2025.
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That's the second creature I've come across that resembles the Mutalisk, the other one being the Waspfolk from the Hive.
Honestly, my views on this factionare split. In theory, it's a well-assembled faction with an overarching theme. In reality, it's still all of that, but it's not a Heroes faction. Heroes factions (barring the 'medieval Europe' human faction) have never been that uniform in appearance, so it actually feels a bit...alien to me. The same with Hive.
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Charrclaw
Known Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 10:12 AM |
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As a lifelong player of Inferno/Chaos, I might finally switch. Just because I don't want to see several units of the same design on my board.
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Charrclaw
Known Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 01:55 PM |
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pls delete, it is a doublepost
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Gnomes2169
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Duke of the Glade
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posted August 28, 2025 04:36 PM |
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Guys, I know we don't play sequels numbered beyond 3 here, but Starcraft 2 still falls under that category, and the Shoth is CLEARLY a Zerg Corruptor with bat wings stapled to it. C'mon, the 3-talon claw mouth? The bulbous carapace body with tentacles flowing behind it? Definitely a corruptor with wings.
If you're calling out the design, you gotta get it right. 
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Yeah in the 18th century, two inventions suggested a method of measurement. One won and the other stayed in America.
-Ghost destroying Fred
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MattII
Legendary Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 09:06 PM |
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Gnomes2169 said:
Guys, I know we don't play sequels numbered beyond 3 here, but Starcraft 2 still falls under that category, and the Shoth is CLEARLY a Zerg Corruptor with bat wings stapled to it. C'mon, the 3-talon claw mouth? The bulbous carapace body with tentacles flowing behind it? Definitely a corruptor with wings.
If you're calling out the design, you gotta get it right.
Eh, maybe. The tentacles are a lot longer though, and form the shape of a Hydralisk's body. BTW, until recently, my computer wasn't good enough to really play SC2, so I don't know about the units in that game.
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Galaad
Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
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posted August 28, 2025 10:27 PM |
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MattII said:
BTW, until recently, my computer wasn't good enough to really play SC2
It was about time for an upgrade 
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MattII
Legendary Hero
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posted August 28, 2025 10:41 PM |
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Galaad said:
MattII said:
BTW, until recently, my computer wasn't good enough to really play SC2
It was about time for an upgrade
I have. But since I barely play many of the games I currently own anway, getting a new one isn't really in the cards.
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Charrclaw
Known Hero
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posted August 29, 2025 04:07 PM |
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 29, 2025 04:31 PM |
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Ok, the music is incredible. The townscreen looks great. The faction identity and lineup though? Those don't speak to me. I'm getting powerful Northrend vibes, except instead of the Lich King and an undead menace I see zerg. Could have been a good take on Necropolis maybe. But yea... Feels bad when they were almost there.
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Guide to a Great Heroes Game
The Young Traveler
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Gnomes2169
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Duke of the Glade
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posted August 29, 2025 05:11 PM |
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Looks like the town has a LOT of access to shooting potentially. I counted 4 full-time shooters (3 that shoot from the base unit on, and their tier 1 appears to have a shooting upgrade), and one of the corruptor-looking Shoths has an ability that lets it shoot as well. So there's a lot of ranged pressure in this faction.
There's also a lot of movement manipulation and resiliency in their abilities:
-The "Pure Horrors" part of the faction (tier 1 (Ra'shoth), 4 (Shoth) and 7 (abyssals)) all having the Summoning Rite to turn their dead allies into new, permanent bodies based on how big those dead allies were and how many "summoning" models are in the unit will only really be useful in a battle that isn't going well for you... but could easily stall things out long enough to give a blaster Magic hero the space they need to blow their enemies up. Gives them a "What slumbers may never die" vibe for sure.
-The number of abilities that manipulate movement (the tier 2 slow, the Frost ability we already saw on the Tier 4 Shoth, the tier 6 Command: Fear teleport and Disgorge Storm and, finally, the Abyssal Overseer's Moment of Insanity all reduce or force movement in some way) seems fitting for an ice faction, but might feel oppressive if stamina generation is too fast for the Schism troops. Being able to bog down a vital unit for one round? Okay. Not awful. Being able to do it every single round for an entire battle AND teleport them away in a faction with this much shooting, because the abilities are always up? No longer okay.
The abilities that are absolutely too much, though, come from the Betwitcher's Hour Glass and the Arbitrator's Frozen Pages. Being able to turn off hero abilities and shut down their spellcasting, even for a turn, on what I can only assume is functionally a cooldown-based ability, is just too much. Maybe if each of them was once-per-battle they'd be... fine, but it's still too much. Especially the Arbitrator's Frozen Pages. Maybe turn that one into a "Enemy hero spells cost twice as much mana for two turns" ability and it would be fine, but turning off magic entirely is unacceptable for a game called "Heroes of Might and Magic." I don't know, it just feels like abilities like that should be handled more like a scalpel and be punishing but not ruinous, but instead this one is a hand grenade addressed, "To Whom It May Concern."
Outside of the lineup, though, the music is marvelous and feels like a proper horror/ lovecraftian theme, and the aesthetic of the ice elven heroes being DISTINCTLY NOT DARK ELVES makes me feel like my theory that these are fallen/ corrupted Vori (along with references to Vori texts in one of the Grand Shoth's creature entries) more and more likely. Solid, even. Frozen soli- *Shot dead immediately*
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Yeah in the 18th century, two inventions suggested a method of measurement. One won and the other stayed in America.
-Ghost destroying Fred
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Galaad
Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
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posted August 29, 2025 05:13 PM |
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Ernsmk
Tavern Dweller
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posted August 29, 2025 06:45 PM |
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Schism Devlog is up on Steam too.
Really appreciate how thoughtful Unfrozen has been with connecting Olden Era to old parts of the lore. There's more lore basis for an Eldritch-plane faction in the M&M universe than I realized.
Feels good to have a dev actually have this much respect for the series, after H5-6-7.
Hope it's as fun to play as it is to look at.
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The_Green_Drag
Supreme Hero
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posted August 29, 2025 07:25 PM |
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I always like a ranged heavy town, and Schism is extra unique with 3 ranged units with none of them being the Tier 7. Lots of cool abilities, especially their take on H3 demon summoning. Town screen and ice theme are both nice.
Falls apart for me with the visuals and parts of the line-up. I really don't like the creature choice or designs of the tier 5 and tier 6 units. I wish they would have deviated from the tentacle-monster theme with these slots and added some broader snow themed units like a Frost giant or Ice troll, or really any myth unit that also lives in the snow environment that isn't from this plane between planes.
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Rimgrabber
Promising
Famous Hero
Voice in Gelu's Head
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posted August 29, 2025 07:33 PM |
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While I do agree that the tier 5 and especially tier 6 creature leave something to be desired, overall I am super happy with this town. I especially like the tier 7 creature and the cultists being a mid-range creature is a really cool mechanic that I don't think heroes has seen before unless you count the breath attacks.
The music is beautiful and fits perfectly. The townscreen looks a little bit messy but overall still looks really good. I'm really excited to play this faction and I'm also really excited to read the hero bios and the troop flavor texts to learn more about this faction's lore.
Cahf ah nafl mglw'nafh hh' ahor syha'h ah'legeth, ng llll or'azath syha'hnahh n'ghftephai n'gha ahornah ah'mglw'nafh. Vulgtmah throdog cthulu! nilgh'ri vulgtmah schism!
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted August 29, 2025 08:29 PM |
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Called it!
Very surprised by multiple units being pit lords, but I'm not complaining. Super exciting faction.
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mvassilev
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 29, 2025 10:06 PM |
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I appreciate that they tried to give a lore justification, but what's the point if they're not actually using creatures from the lore? They could've had Venom Spawns and creatures from the MM8 Plane Between Planes, but instead we get Ra'Shoth and Aga'Shoth, whatever those are. And all of these guys look too similar to each other, just look at the portraits, can you really tell them apart?
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Eccentric Opinion
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