Heroes of the Storm - Blizzard MOBA

As of today, Blizzard All-Stars is now Heroes of the Storm. We've known they've trademarked the title but the rumors have been it was for the next World Of Warcraft expansion.

What do we know about the game anymore? Last I recall it was a heavily customized Starcraft 2 map. I've been hoping they would make it a stand-alone game if they were spending years working on it. Only characters I remembered for the roster:

Thrall
the Lich King
Kerrigan
Diablo?

I wonder what Blizzard intends to bring to the table to compete with the others. Warcraft III is better known as the game that DOTA was made in than a Warcraft title. I think most of its sales at some point was for DOTA, like Arma 2 for the Day Z mod.

Very late first post edit to link to our page for the game.

edited 8th May '15 9:23:44 PM by Rotpar

Everything I know about is basically just from here.

Well, on one hand Blizzard has a history of going into new genres and thinking "we can do that better", and whatever you feel about the end product their financial success speaks for itself. On the other hand, I can't really imagine this working out very well for them if they're trying to sell it as a full product. It seemed more charming as an SC 2 mod.

Where did you hear it would be sold? I was still under the belief it would be free-to-play as earlier stated.

It might be F 2 P for people who own SC 2, which would still bring in sales albeit for SC 2. That would have happened for WC 3 if players didn't have a multitude of ways to share that game for free.

All I know about this is that there's a Warcraft abomination stitched together from Starcraft Zerg and that that's awesome.

Wow, I had no idea there was that much known for the game.

The cinematic of the game is being played right now at Blizzcon.

Someone is probably gonna put it up sometime soon.

Logo.◊

Pic◊tures◊ of◊ the ◊Cinematic.◊

Bah screw it, Go here for the pictures.◊ It will probably include other games as the Opening Ceremonies go on, but you can see gameplay pictures as of this writing.

One last thing, BETA OPT-IN BEGINS TODAY!

edited 8th Nov '13 11:29:20 AM by tclittle

And here's the cinematic trailer:

Also, have a gameplay sneak peek and a developer interview.

Ah, Blizzard cinematics, how much do I love thee?

I hope "Legends speak... etc" doesn't stay the background.

A blue and red god kidnapping Blizzard characters to fight in battles to the death "For no purpose other than ladder points!" was great.

Also, the official website in general has been significantly updated, showing some tidbits of the characters, maps, and skins in addition to the videos above.

edited 8th Nov '13 3:58:15 PM by VutherA

Wow, looks like they're doing some crazy stuff. Hope it works out in a genre dominated by "three lanes, jungler, carry goes top".

edited 8th Nov '13 7:54:25 PM by Rotpar

I'm really curious to see who all the characters are. I've played all three of the series, but only most of the way for Diablo (finished D2 expansion) and Warcraft (finished W3 expansion), so anything from Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft alone will be unfamiliar to me.

It did amuse me though that the dev video thing called it the "hero brawler genre". Of course, it's not like they could refer directly to DOTA... >_>

Well, DOTA isn't the genre. That did surprise me too.

I feel like that term was a fair bit more revealing that Multiplayer Online Battle Arena though.

Amusingly there were other custom maps on Warcraft 3 that also would fit the term "hero brawler" pretty damn well too.

Memory serves me right, MOBA was coined by League when they were tired of being called a Dot A-clone.

Some info:

• Experience is shared between all players on your team. If you kill a creep, a player, or a tower everyone on your team gets the experience.
• There is no gold and there are no purchasable items.
• You start with all of your skills, and with each level they increase in strength. It is not like Dota 2 or League of Legends where you choose between skills to level as the game proceeds.
• Every few levels you can choose between a few talents. This, in a way, makes up for the lack of items in the game. This is where players make reactive decisions based on how the game is playing out. In some cases it's better to have one talent than it would be to another. On the character I played all my talents, save for my ultimate, were passive.
• You get your ultimate at level ten.
• You get experience while you're dead.
• At the moment there is no benefit to last hitting. You get no extra experience.
• Aimed abilities have a League of Legends like crosshair to indicate where your skill will go.
• On the map I played it was possible to collect items on the map that give buffs to your team or debuffs for the other team.
• Jungle creeps can be captured and used to push your lanes.
• You have a spell that sends you back to spawn similar to the mechanic you see in League of Legends.
• There are no teleportation scrolls. You use a mount to travel around the map quickly.
• Both my character and my mount had a variety of custom skins to choose from.

Interesting....

Team experience will definitely make it easier for terribad players like me to not suck (as badly).

Double pooooooooooost...

I haven't watched any interviews, but what's the revenue model going to be for this game? Skins for sale? Heroes for sale?

Not sure.

I am so hoping this finds its niche. I enjoy MOBA games but it's hard to have a good time when the games have a razor-thin margin of error. I want to just have a good time, smash the enemy with a character I like, and let the best team win. Not worry that my first mistake cripples my team and costs us the match but still takes half an hour to resolve.

Agreed, actually. I keep wanting to get into a MOBA, but all this business with needing to last-hit and so on just makes me feel really blase about.

New info is front page on MMO Champion. Among other things, the Lost Vikings are in development for the game.

Interesting statement: one of the reasons for the shorter matches is so that new players spend less time getting upset in a losing game. Also, strangely naive comment about the toxic community, basically "we'll see and react if toxic players come". I'd assume the assholes are coming and take a stance against it from the get-go.

We got gameplay vods.

edited 24th Dec '13 12:53:08 PM by MetaSkipper

One Vo D per post only?

Mmo-Champion has been poking around the nwwly released alpha client.

Looks like a solid site for more info: Heroes Nexus.