Heroes of the Storm - Blizzard MOBA

I'm in love

A well-designed tutorial? Some Lampshading humor concerning the premise? Able to try out any hero on a single lane practice map, with controls to start/stop the action, level up, and reset things?

Those classical annoyed lines when you click on a unit too much?

Wow!

It's like they took all the things that turn me off a regular MOBA and binned them!

Ahh. I wish I could try this game. It looks interesting enough.

That said though...british accent Tyrande? So weird.

She's had one starting with either Cataclysm or Mists of Pandaria (can't remember which at the moment).

10 bucks says despite all of blizzard's casual friendly stuff, at least part of the community will be just as toxic as dota or league

Blizzard games always draw a fairly sizable group of assholes. Particularly evident on the official forums.

So, my two weeks of HOTS: Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. lose. lose. lose. esol. esol. esol. LOSE.

Hey, at least you're actually able to play the game.

I lost most games at first, but getting a better understanding of objectives, of when to retreat, helped somewhat. What heroes are you playing?

A variety of them. I haven't bought one and am abusing the rotation. Last night I was playing Arthas and getting my ass kicked because people kept expecting me to solo the witch doctor and Sgt. Hammer. And Hammer's a pain in the ass because she can drop a massive mine field if she's allowed to hang out in an area.

The big controversy in the game as of now is Murky. Murky's kit is designed around dropping an egg off on the map and being able to quickly respawn there, otherwise having almost no damage or durability. The problem is that his egg is very difficult to hard, surprisingly hard to kill, and he can drop it off in the heart of his base. He has one really worthwhile attack, a slowly detonating pufferfish that does extra damage to buildings.

Meaning that Murky can endlessly Zerg Rush a lane and single-handedly wreck a base. I've basically had Murky suicide-bombing down my throat and by the time I had mopped up his fish mines he had already run back from his nearby egg.

What I'm afraid of is Blizzard caving into the demands, virtually everyone is screaming that he needs to be removed or completely rebuilt. I don't want to see him removed or rebuilt, I think his kit needs a few tweaks and some desperate number passes. But he is one of the game's specialist characters, the non-stock MOBA kits and play styles. If he gets the axe, I'm afraid that Sgt. Hammer, the dedicated siege character, will be next, then why not Abathur, the "parasite" who sits in base and drives a turret on an ally, etc? "I don't like these characters, League of Legends and DOTA don't have them, therefore nobody should."

Also, what's really disappointing is that there's supposed to be a map editor. That'll kill half of this game right there since people will only make the three-lane Summoner's Rift map. Because of course, all the interesting map mechanics that encourage teamwork and make this game different are bad: three lanes, no mechanics, means "real" skill.

Last time Blizzard made a videogame with map editing on it, it spawned an entire new, glorious genre.

There's nothing wrong with a map editor, except in a game trying to defy genre conventions where everyone bitches that it's defying conventions. Yes, there is faint hope for something groundbreaking to happen...but it probably means that HOTS becomes Blizzard DOTA after all.

That only assumes that a vast majority of players decided they actually want to go play on the boring DOTA-wannabe maps and nobody sticks around to play the really interesting stuff.

Warcraft III defied conventions.

Groundbreaking happens because of people seeking new ways. Map editing can only open up new possibilities and god dammit we need those. If anything, I am not sure Blizzard is capable of it: opening the customers a window, can only better it. We do outnumber them.

Granted though, I am talking just by what sounds logical and possible. I have not played the game at all.

We'll see what happens. I have little faith in MOBA players accepting something different.

I have little faith in most MOBA players too, as I have little faith in most map editors. But something is likely to come that is good when you open a wiiiide audience to collaborate.

I still think Brityrande is weird though. How does she play out?

Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose.

When I play her? Garbage. In everyone else's hands? Able to destroy me faster than I can kill her as an assassin.

edited 27th Jun '14 10:29:07 AM by Rotpar

In the name of the moon, she will punish you.

If this showed up on my Battle.Net client, does it mean I got a beta invite?

Check your email. Probably.

The easiest way to tell is to check your Battle.net account and look at your list of activated products. If you have a beta invite, it'll appear on the list.

Okay, apparently it's not in beta yet, just alpha.

Played a bit though. Haven't out how I get gold yet, I assume it's from daily quests, which I haven't unlocked yet. Looks like we might get XP from everything bar the first two tutorials though.

Daily quests and leveling to level 5 or above gives gold each level (level 5 = 2000 gold).

Ooh, each level above 5 as well? Nice.

The levels above 5 give less gold—the first 2000g is just to get you started—but while level 6 might give you only about 500g (if I recall), level 31, say, gives 1000g.