Heroes of the Storm - Blizzard MOBA

actually, one of the major benefits of MOB As is that while their curves are steep, you cant really "pay to win" as given the competitive esport nature of these games, most characters are equally viable in skilled hands.

payment largely comes in the form of cosmetic costumes for characters.

edited 3rd Apr '14 9:11:55 AM by midgetsnowman

Yeah, they've carefully dodged the pay to win problem. The worst thing a paying player could really do to you is play a character you're unfamiliar with. LoL has a "glyph" system that allows you to customize and tweak your stats, the glyphs can only be bought with the in-game currency, so if you want your 3% more damage glyph you'll have to grind matches to buy it. You also shouldn't be fighting somebody who has obviously been playing the game much more, I believe the matchmaker tries to avoid one-sided matches like that.

"Smurfing" is probably the worst thing that will happen to a new player. It's a Sock Puppet account so that a much more experienced player can enter newbie games and stoke his ego by stomping them to paste.

Right., and while a paying player likely has a quicker route to having a wider selection of champions, some of the cheap champions (such as Ashe) are still not only competitive, but considered some of the stronger characters,

Not to mention even buying flavor of the month characters like Jinx doesnt really constitute paying to win because Jinx is high risk for high reward, and in a newbies hands will likely get stomped.

(Ashe for example may be one of the more vanilla carries in loL, but if she gets enough kills, she can utterly decimate enemy teams)

edited 3rd Apr '14 9:34:29 AM by midgetsnowman

Don't call my Jinx "flavor of the month", them's fightin' words! But yeah, Jinx has a learning curve and she's not for inexperienced players.

Also, Fighteer, a "carry" is another aspect that Blizzard is trying to step away from. It's a character who is weak in the early game but if they're properly supported, so they can level and buy gear, they become capable of leading the offense and crushing the enemy team.

edited 3rd Apr '14 9:49:21 AM by Rotpar

I think explaining all the aspects of the genre that are not present in this game to someone unfamiliar with it is a waste of time.

I'm certain that this will develop a meta-game like any other competitive title, and that there will be balance and tuning changes that will screw up the established meta-game and generate tons of whining. While games may come and go, players are a constant.

hey, I love Jinx. I'm just acknowledging its the nature of MOBA for characters that require being bought to not be necessarily better, but do different things. Jinx and Ashe are both carry type. and require different playstyles, but that doesnt mean Jinx is outright Better than Ashe in all situations, or vice versa.

In short, the nature of MOBA tends to lend less to pay to win (unless you want to be a very shot-lived game) and more towards Pay to get variety without lots of work earning it

edited 3rd Apr '14 10:53:23 AM by midgetsnowman

Valid point, but I thought a League derail was pending so I explained the relevant jargon. It is inconvenient to join an unfamiliar discussion and it may as well be Greek.

edited 3rd Apr '14 5:08:25 PM by Rotpar

Close and restart your Battle.net client if you haven't already; they've enabled chat in it.

New news

New playable characters; LiLi, a faerie dragon, a Zerg queen, and Murky. Bunch of new skins. They're also working on Sylvanas, Kael'thas, and Chen.

edited 12th Apr '14 10:13:50 PM by Rotpar

Hehe. I like Muradin's skin.

Although I don't think they really needed to remove the glowing eyes from every character. For some such as Kerrigan, it's probably something she should have.

Is there a list of all the characters revealed so far?

The wiki in that link has characters both confirmed and others which are inferred to be definitely on the way.

Best piece of news out of the whole deal.

(He's officially going to be an Abathur skin now, in case you're wondering what that means.)

Blizzcon 2014, November 7 and 8!

New Hero revealed: Murky, the baby Murloc. I am dead serious. Among his powers is the ability to rapidly respawn from eggs. There's also a list of "Murloc Facts", some of which are shout-outs to various popular memes, including Tobuscus!

edited 20th May '14 4:22:23 PM by Fighteer

I...the...wow.

That was unexpected.

Also League Of Legends often has themed skins—like both of the main factions having a special forces squad or that five unlikely characters are in a heavy metal band together. Will Murky get a pajama skin, so that we can have a Blizzard slumber party with Abathur and others?

edited 20th May '14 4:41:01 PM by Rotpar

I found his voice clips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaCnrAwP7IY&feature=player_embedded

edited 20th May '14 4:41:56 PM by VutherA

I had someone point me towards this article regarding the development of the game.

It's a pretty interesting read and look behind the scenes.

This is the truest thing ever said about DOTA. That's what it should have been titled, "Shitting on People'', especially the people on your team, them most of all.

edited 24th May '14 10:45:44 PM by Rotpar

Let me get this straight, both Chen and Lili are playable characters?

There's gonna be endless banter between those two, whether they be on the same or opposing sides...

Chen was shown at 2013 Blizzcon but I don't think he's officially confirmed to be in HotS MOBA.

edited 25th May '14 8:24:28 AM by VutherA

Thats true of most MOBAS. Theres always gonna be that guy who screams at his team.

Well, according the article they made design decisions with the intent to mitigate that. "The enemy is your enemy, not your team."

Which is probably a large part of the reason why this game is looking so darn promising.