Heroes of the Storm Overview
You can find more Heroes information on the Heroes of the Storm wiki.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Heroes of the Storm
  • The game is about involving the Blizzard Heroes and playing with friends.
  • Warcraft 3 was when things really took off.
  • The WC3 editor and the new game mechanics were important in allowing players to create MOBA style games.
  • WC3 added lots of new art for players to use in the editor.
  • Blizzard originally made the feature rich tools for themselves, but players took them and made some awesome content.
  • The SC2 editor was a powerful tool, so the team took it and made a game with it. The feedback was positive and the team wanted to work on it some more.
  • The art made for Blizzcon was the basis for involving all of the different Blizzard universes.
  • Hearthstone is important to Heroes of the Storm because it captures the fun and essence of Warcraft in a card game. The Heroes team wants to do the same kind of thing with all the Blizzard universes in Heroes of the Storm.
  • Making Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft all fit together in the same game isn't too hard, Orcs have been standing next to demons for a long time.
  • Playing Arthas has to feel like you are in control of one of the most deadly heroes ever to exist. He can steal the souls of enemies he kills and have them follow him into battle.
  • You can choose your own Heroic Ability currently in Heroes.
  • Heroes lets the team go back and use characters from the past before they were changed, like Arthas.
  • Elite Tauren Chieftain also appears in Heroes. He can move quickly and heal himself. Stage Dive is his heroic ability, allowing him to jump on the enemy from out of nowhere. He also can force everyone to stop and dance briefly.
  • Abathur from SC2 also appears in Heroes. He can jump inside any friendly hero from far away, allowing him to shoot abilities from inside them. On his own he isn't dangerous at all.
  • Heroes have different skins that are as simple as color variations or entirely different models. (Diablo + Murloc, Starcraft Uther, Judgement Armor Uther)
  • Games last twenty minutes.
  • There are team levels rather than hero levels. This makes support heroes and specialist heroes viable options.
  • Battlegrounds provide opportunities to play with friends and a variety of gameplay settings. Maps can be taken out of the matchmade game rotation and new maps added.
  • Blackheart's Bay requires you to find chests, attack them, collect the coins. You take the coins to Blackheart. Other players are treasure goblins, carrying coins and trying to avoid you.
  • The Haunted Mines requires you to kill the undead underground and collect their skulls in a PvP/PvE dungeon. There is a boss that has a lot of skulls, so there is a big teamfight around him usually. Once all the skulls are collected, a golem appears for each team. The size of the golem depends on how many skulls you collect. They move across the map and smash things, so you have to choose to defend your or go and attack the oncoming golem. Wherever the golem dies is where it respawns next time it comes to life. Your team wants to keep it far away from your base.

Q&A
  • Two or three teamfights doesn't usually make the game unless the teams are very unbalanced.
  • Communication is important with how much of an impact strategy will have on the game outcome. Playing with friends is going to provide a better experience than playing with PuGs. The devs are going to try and make communication as easy as possible though.
  • The mounts in the game allow a team to group up quickly and move quickly out of combat.
  • Individual skill is nice, but you won't be able to make your hero much more powerful than anyone else. This game is about playing with a team, not an individual.
  • More customization beyond talents or powers will be looked at in the future.
  • Heroes will have competitive play, but becoming an e-sport will be up to the community.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Heroes of the Storm Overview started by chaud View original post
Comments 51 Comments
  1. mmocf89c8b0f36's Avatar
    I've never been a fan of Starcraft but I'll get used to heroes from it I guess.
  1. mmoc58a2a4b64e's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MrM3tod View Post
    i didnt think they said there will be 20 min time limit. they said that the average time lenght of game is 20 min or am i wrong?
    Well, I'm not sure now.
    Quote Originally Posted by Agartha View Post
    Let me clarify, this game will not have a competitive scene, nor will it seriously compete with LoL or Dota in the moba market.
    Blizzard didn't say they want the game to be a competitive one. They clearly said that is up to the community.

    I too doubt a game with a 20 minutes limit mark can have competitive play but it is possible if the community of this game wants it, along with the devs of the game of course.
    Quote Originally Posted by Uttrik View Post
    MOBAs create some of the worst gaming communities. Be prepared to be yelled at a lot if you aren't at least some what decent at MOBA games.
    Mobas?

    You mean online games. No online game is an exception to this. Also, a few bad apples shouldn't be able to make you quit a game if you actually like the game.
    Quote Originally Posted by Stylez View Post
    I don't understand the removal of last hitting. Being ahead in cs grants lane control and the obvious advantage of better items. Is there even items? This all sounds a bit meh tbh. I don't like the emphasis on team coordination either. Sure it's great with 4 friends on Skype but in a random groups it's horrible.
    There are no items in the game, that's why last hitting doesn't matter. All you need is XP and that is global.
  1. mmoc6eb9c8024c's Avatar
    Team experience rather than solo progression, talent trees rather than grinding for items, no "last hit on player kill" bonuses

    This is something that will prevent the pple from "OMG look what he bought" "omg noob KS" "noob lvl 4 while everyone is level 8" and all that negative shit from other MOBAS

    But as they said: "If you are bad you will be bad"

    Sooo happy
  1. j0053's Avatar
    Definitely feeling apprehensive about this. Hop into any public MOBA match today and see why basing a MOBA around team play is a bad idea. Furthermore, people like the concept of individual progression and getting super sick items and stomping the other team. It's a deeply rewarding part of the game when you go 22-0 and are decked out in the best items.

    The art design is amazing though and I like the concept of more side objectives, but the overall gameplay still raises a lot of questions.
  1. Dioxy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mkgego View Post
    Team experience rather than solo progression, talent trees rather than grinding for items, no "last hit on player kill" bonuses

    This is something that will prevent the pple from "OMG look what he bought" "omg noob KS" "noob lvl 4 while everyone is level 8" and all that negative shit from other MOBAS

    But as they said: "If you are bad you will be bad"

    Sooo happy
    And? You think being forced to work with 4 random people is the epitome of "fun"? Have you played any MOBA? The idea in theory sounds fun, but in all reality it WILL play out badly.
  1. mmoc58a2a4b64e's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dioxy View Post
    And? You think being forced to work with 4 random people is the epitome of "fun"? Have you played any MOBA? The idea in theory sounds fun, but in all reality it WILL play out badly.
    LoL and dota 2 don't revolve around teamwork as much as this game probably will, hence not that essential to win a game, at least in LoL since one person alone in there can win a game. This will not be possible in Heroes of the Storm.

    So the comparison of the teamwork required of this game to say dota 2 or LoL is not a good one because those two don't promote that much of teamwork since one person can carry the game alone without the help of others.
  1. Gwythian's Avatar
    What's amazing to me is that this game is no where near complete, not even in Beta yet (though it will be soon), and everyone's assuming it's going to stay exactly as it's been presented here. Further you haven't played it. You haven't seen matches of it yet. There's so much time in which things could change. Hearthstone from the presentation looks dumb, but it's SUPER fun. It's all about the gameplay, which is no where near it's final iteration.

    It's premature and completely absurd to make any conclusions on whether the game will be good or not. If it's not a lot of fun, I doubt Blizzard will release it.
  1. mmoc58a2a4b64e's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gwythian View Post
    What's amazing to me is that this game is no where near complete, not even in Beta yet (though it will be soon), and everyone's assuming it's going to stay exactly as it's been presented here. Further you haven't played it. You haven't seen matches of it yet. There's so much time in which things could change. Hearthstone from the presentation looks dumb, but it's SUPER fun. It's all about the gameplay, which is no where near it's final iteration.

    It's premature and completely absurd to make any conclusions on whether the game will be good or not. If it's not a lot of fun, I doubt Blizzard will release it.
    The game looks practically finished and there has been already a few matches shown in BlizzCon.
  1. Rangoo's Avatar
    I dont like MOBA but this appears to be awesome, I want to play it with my friends. =)
  1. Ryft's Avatar
    I like the 20 minute timer.....50 minute LoL games are a pain. The laning phase could easily be halved time-wise and it wouldn't detract from the experience at all imo.

    10 mins laning/buildup, 10 mins pushing/teamfights. Sounds good to me.

    I hope this game shakes the genre up.
  1. Thorim's Avatar
    Strange that once again Blizzard has gotten me interested in a genre I've never even been remotely in to. First CCG with Hearthstone and now MOBA with HoTS, canot wait to play Malfurion XD

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