Heroes of the Storm Thread

[Artimicia]

Ok so Artimicia's secret is that I've been getting into this game in recent times. I played League of Legends and SMITE but I haven't been too into MOBAs in general. However, that changed a bit with this game which honestly I think is kinda like a sleeper great game at this point. I mean, I don't know how many other people are playing in total or anything but it's pretty easy to get into games and start playing.

So the setup is basically just like all the other MOBAs you have lanes, champions, and you fight with your forces against the enemy in kind of small battles. The maps are quite a bit smaller than LoL and other MOBAs in my experience so far, so it's more about small combat and the creep situation is different. They also took out gold and the item shop, as well as made leveling the same across all characters.

All in all, in my opinion, just about all these elements are improvements on the MOBA genre. For instance, I feel like I am basically just playing a game with friends similar to the old play 4 player N64 or something, just there to have fun and not to obsess over everything.

I can write more but I'm not sure if anyone else here has tried it out.. it's worth mentioning it's still very RPG like other KOBAs you have levels in the game but also an overall level outside of the game as well as things you can buy at the shops with gold won.. I don't know... seems like a few people here are possibly playing =-)

[Klutz64]

I played it when it first came out and the community was pretty nice. Then it turned into pretty much every other MOBA community so it can go ahead and join the rest of the genre and burn in hell.

[Annubis]

Played it some with friends but we all gave up on it (we give up on games quickly to be fair though)

I don't like Blizzard's vision of PVP where they focus on hiding individual player performance as much as possible to instead focus on presenting everything as a team effort.

[Artimicia]

Hm it's true that it has the "team focus" but I think that's something where I think it's a big strength and some people might think it's a big weakness and all that.

[Annubis]

Hm it's true that it has the "team focus" but I think that's something where I think it's a big strength and some people might think it's a big weakness and all that.

Well, I did say « I don't like ».
Others could prefer this. I am not one of them.
I hold no contempt for the game, I just play other things.

[Monsoon]

I play quite a bit of HOTS. It and Diablo III are my PC multiplayer jams of choice, and HOTS avoids several of the things I really hated about League of Legends when I briefly tried it several years ago. HOTS has:

- no gold farming
- no last-hitting
- no item shop
- short matches (20-30 minutes instead of 50-60 minutes)
- a focus on team fights and objectives rather than lane struggles
- Blizzard characters, many of whom I really like

Yeah, HOTS has a reputation as "the easy MOBA"  but I enjoy playing it with my friends. I login several matches a week, if only to stay fresh and to my daily quests. I even spent some money on the holiday sale last year to pick up a few skins and mounts. It's the only game where I have done micro-transactions at that level.

[kofvscapcom]

I still play this game a bunch with friends when we have time. The wildly varying maps spices things up and I feel the lack of stuff like last hitting/denying or worrying about equipment build lowers the execution barrier and boils things down. My only major complaint for the game would probably be that skins and stuff cost way too much.

[Monsoon]

Quick HOTS update from BlizzCon!  

"Forged by Fire" trailer
Hero announcement trailer

Next hero is Varian Wrynn, the king of the Alliance in World of WarCraft.  Varian is the first dual-role hero in HOTS, as a Warrior/Assassin.  His talent choices at level 10 are very different and impactful, even changing his character model at level 10 to be either a sword-and-shield, two-hander, or dual-wield WoW Warrior (SnS is a tank, the other two are DPS).  His level 4 talent choice (turning his parry move into a powerful barrier or his charge move into a powerful stun) are also key to his builds.  Varian's stats and traits change dramatically depending on your level 10 choice.  

Varian In Development video, showing skins and moveset
Varian's skills and talents from the show floor

The hero coming after Varian is Ragnaros, a powerful fire elemental in World of WarCraft that was one of the original WoW raid bosses.  He has a lot of powerful fire spells and is classified as an Assassin, and is the size of a typical hero when in "hero form."  Ragnaros's special ability is to "occupy" either an allied Fort or Keep, or occupy an empty crater that used to hold a Fort or Keep (so he can use his ability in enemy territory).  Occupying one of those spaces turns Ragnaros into his giant stationary "boss form" and all of his moves change into souped-up attacks.  Boss Form looks incredibly powerful and fun, but it's on a very long 100-second cooldown and is of course limited to where he can use it.  

Ragnaros In Development video, showing skins and moveset
Ragnaros's skills and talents from the show floor

[Artimicia]

Ah thanks Monsoon! I was just logging in to get to all that actually, but it looks like you did a perfectly good job!

My favorite thing I think was the Varian announcement, I can't shake the suspicion it was all based on the departing Chris Metzen (You were a warrior, no matter where you go) and all that. Well Ragnaros is pretty cool too.

[Artimicia]

I was playing more of this last week yeah it's still been fun been trying out different characters, giving Kerrigan a try most recently...

[kofvscapcom]

ragnaros is out I think. Managed to finish the nexus challenge, the free characters and mounts definitely cool. Zarya is really interesting to play.

but generally too much other stuff to play now, and you get gold pretty slowly in this game.

[Monsoon]

Ragnaros comes out in the main game next week, on Tuesday the 13th.  He's out on PTR now, so people are posting streams and videos. 

[Artimicia]

Ragnaros comes out in the main game next week, on Tuesday the 13th.  He's out on PTR now, so people are posting streams and videos.

The transform into a base thing is pretty over the top.. might be really good though.

[kofvscapcom]

big 2.0 update just happened, they're basically giving you 20 characters for free and implementing a whole new loot box system. I would say give it a shot if you haven't already, skins are actually obtainable without buying them now.

[Mickeymac92]

big 2.0 update just happened, they're basically giving you 20 characters for free and implementing a whole new loot box system. I would say give it a shot if you haven't already, skins are actually obtainable without buying them now.

Now that's the news I needed to hear.

EDIT: Or not. Guess it was worth a shot, but this just isn't my thing...