Heroes 2.0 Launch Guide

[Nerraw]

Heroes 2.0 - A Guide For Newcomers and Veterans Alike

The day is finally here! The single-largest update for Heroes of the Storm ever is deploying in the next few hours. We have been discussing this update vigorously in the discussion thread for almost a month now. But since it's nearly impossible for any one individual to keep track of everything happening with this update, I have made this guide to give an overview of everything coming our way. My intent with this write-up is to provide as smooth a transition as possible for any player frequenting this forum. So without further ado, here we go!

Table of Contents

• Launch Day - Events Timeline
• Progression 2.0
  • Levels
  • Collection
  • Loot Boxes
  • Veteran Compensation
  • Currencies
  • Master Skins
• Mega-Bundles
• Hanamura
• Genji
• Hanamura and Genji Q&A Recap
• Tryhard - For Good! Charity Streams
• What Is Yet To Be Announced
• FAQ

Launch Day - Events Timeline

• Launch Event Stream - https://www.twitch.tv/blizzheroes
  • Pacific Time: 11am, April 25th
  • Eastern Time: 2pm, April 25th
  • Central European: 20:00, April 25th
• Update Release in the US Region
  • Pacific Time: 12pm (noon), April 25th
  • Eastern Time: 3pm, April 25th
  • Central European: 21:00, April 25th
• Update Release in the EU Region
  • Pacific Time: 11pm, April 25th
  • Eastern Time: 2am, April 26th
  • Central European: 08:00, April 26th

This thread will serve as our launch event thread for today.


Progression 2.0
The biggest feature of this update is the completely overhauled progression system. In this section you can find an overview of everything changing in regards to leveling and the new rewards system! Blizzard released a video giving a short overview of the new system. I have included a text version below.

Levels
Player levels as we know them? Gone!
Hero level caps? Gone!

These two changes lay the entire foundation for the new progression structure. Player level is no longer a separate progression measurement from hero levels. Instead of being capped at level 40, player level will now be the combined total of all your heroes' levels. Along with uncapping levels, the experience point requirements for heroes to level up has been revamped. Earlier levels take a bit more XP to make them feel more meaningful, but the overall requirement for higher levels has been reduced drastically. The XP increments now max out at level 12, at only a quarter of the XP currently required for level 10+. Level 10 heroes will find themselves around level 15 after the update, while level 20 heroes will be boosted to around level 55!

If you've got nothing against a bit of manual work, you can use this spreadsheet to fill out your hero levels and XP to get an accurate picture of where you'll end up after the update is released.

PLAYER LEVEL	REWARDS
Level 1	First 10 Hero Rotation Slots
Level 5	1,000 Gems + Hero Rotation Slot 11
Level 10	7 Day Stimpack + Hero Rotation Slot 12
Level 15	Hero Rotation Slot 13
Level 20	Hero Rotation Slot 14
Every Level-Up	1 Common Loot Chest
Every 5 Levels	1 Rare Loot Chest
Every 25 Levels	150 Gems + 1 Epic Loot Chest

HERO LEVEL	REWARD
Level 5	Hero Portrait
Level 15	Master Hero Portrait
Every 5 Hero levels	500 Gold
Every 10 Hero levels	1 Hero-Specific Loot Chest

Collection
Heroes of the Storm is introducing the Collection system known from Overwatch and Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void. There will be a LOT of different content, including some of the existing stuff. A complete list of the things added/moved to the Collection is as follows:

• Skins/Tints
• Mounts
• Banners
• Sprays
• Announcers
• Voice Lines/Taunts
• Emojis
• Portraits

Now, where do you get all these things? You get them from...

Loot Boxes
That's right! The booty coffers from Overwatch are making their way to Heroes of the Storm. There are several types of loot boxes, with several types and rarities of rewards. Want that Infested Tychus skin without paying a dime? Well, you might just be lucky enough to win a game, get a loot box, and open it to find that sweet legendary! Loot boxes are rewarded every time you level up. The basic loot boxes are rewarded at each level, with the higher quality boxes being rewarded at more infrequent intervals. You can of course also buy them in the in-game store, should you wish to test your faith with the RNG gods.

There are also hero-specific loot boxes that are rewarded when you reach significant level milestones. These boxes are guaranteed to have at least one item for the hero that earned the box. Skins, sprays, emojis? Who knows! But there will be at least one item belonging to that hero.

LOOT CHEST TYPE	REWARD FREQUENCY
Common	Every Player Level that does not award a Rare or Epic Loot Chest
Rare	Every 5 Player Levels
Epic	Every 25 Player Levels
Hero-Specific	Every 10 Hero Levels

Veteran Compensation
As a thank you to existing players, Blizzard is rewarding us with a bunch of loot boxes depending on our total hero level! The more you've played the game, the more loot boxes you'll get. The spreadsheet linked above contains a total count for loot boxes you'll be rewarded with, in addition to its level-converting capabilities. For ease of view however, I will also list the rewards here:

REQUIREMENT	REWARD
Play at least 1 game of Heroes	5 Common Boxes
Every 10 Total Hero Levels, Up To Level 550	1 Epic Box
Every 100 Total Hero Levels, Up To Level 1000	1 Veteran Box

The Veteran Loot Box is unique to this compensation and has AT LEAST ONE GUARANTEED LEGENDARY ITEM! That means you can get up to 10(!) legendaries on day 1. The veteran boxes will not be obtainable any other way.

In additional to the loot boxes, all players who reached player level 40 before the update will also get a free 30-day stimpack to further enhance their XP and gold gains!


Currencies
Along with the revamped progression and rewards system, we're also getting a couple of new currencies. When the update rolls around we will have:

• Gold
• Gems
• Shards

Gold
Gold will function mostly as it currently does. You use it to buy heroes, and that's it! It'll no longer be used for master skins, and I will explain why further down.

Gems
Gems are a new currency replacing real money. Relative prices remain the same as they are now, or occasionally be slightly cheaper due to bulk purchasing of gems gives bonus gems. Gems are also occasionally rewarded for significant level milestones. 1000 gems will equal 10 dollars/euros.

Shards
The second new currency is shards. Shards are rewarded directly from loot boxes, or from disenchanting duplicates of items from loot boxes. The shards are used for all cosmetic items.

Master Skins
With this update, master skins will be reduced to Common quality and will no longer be unlocked through progression. They'll instead act as regular skins for their respective heroes. All currently-owned master skins will remain unlocked, but no compensation will be offered.


Mega-Bundles
For a limited time, ALL players will be able to choose a so-called Mega-Bundle. Four bundles, each containing 20 heroes related to a specific theme or role, will be available for four weeks following the release of 2.0. Each bundle will cost 100 gems, which will be supplied for FREE. Choose wisely, for the other three bundles will be unavailable once you choose one. You can see an overview of the four bundles right here: http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes20/megabundles/

I highly recommend every player take advantage of this offer. While long-time veterans might not get as much out of the bundles, a new player will be given a total third of the entire hero pool for free. If you want to min-max which bundle you should choose, a reddit user made a calculator to help you with this. It's very simple to use. You simply select the heroes you don't own, and the site will automatically show stats for each bundle so you can decide which has the most value for you. Direct link to the tool: https://new.shuzzle.net/heroes20/bundles.html


Hanamura

The newest map to be added to the map pool is a Heroes-variant of the Overwatch map of the same name. Unlike the Overwatch map however, this one revolves around pushing payloads, the first map of its kind for Heroes. We have a dedicated thread for details and discussions.


Genji

Also coming in from OVerwatch, our latest hero will be Genji! A cyborg ninja, Genji is a ranged assassin with aspirations for being a melee character. Armed with shurikens and a reaction time impressive enough to reflect damage back to enemies, Genji is a slippery hit-and-run hero who gets shut down very easily by hard crowd-control. If you want more information about the hero, please see our dedicated hero thread.


Hanamura and Genji Q&A Recap
As has become custom with hero releases, Blizzard held a Q&A for a few hours yesterday. While the main focus was on the new content about to be released, a few other tidbits related to heroes, maps, esports, and various other subjects were touched on. You can either comb through the entire thing yourself here, or you can read the summary listed below, compiled on reddit:

Spoiler: 

Heroes:

• Lt. Morales rework is coming soon. (It was already known from previous Q&A. Also Tyrande and Alarak were confirmed to get more significant changes)
• Fact that Genji talent tree is improving his kit rather than expanding it, is a conscious decision. They don’t want to give him too many tools (like CC or so)
• In one of implementations Genji’s Deflect worked exactly like in Overwatch, but there was a problem with „deflecting” abilities like Flamestrike, and due to some other technical difficulties they changed it to something that „better fits heroes of the storm”
• At first, Genji was able to pull out a sword with a Q ability, but because of the fact that Genji using his sword is a huge deal, they made it his heroic ability.
• They started working on Genji around mid-late August
• There are much more anti auto attack mechanics in nexus than "anti casters" and it’s something that they’re working on to balance out.
• Silence mechanics were meant to counter casters, but they’re as useful against them as against other heroes. There’s lot of room for improvements there.

Battlegrounds:

• They don’t want to make complicated or nuanced hints on battleground loading screens (mercenaries, boss, timers), because they want them to be basic and easily understandable.
• They don’t have a set formula for making mercenaries available during objectives or not. It’s a shifting decision during map development.
• Map veto system is not planned, but map rotation is coming relatively soon.
• They want to be more „aggressive” with updating battleground, maybe even in line with constant heroes changes.
• First version of healing pulse (Hanamura merc drop ability) had AoE cleanse.
• While testing 8 core HP Hanamura, game times were pushed to average 24 mins which is longer than they want. It’s on their radar tho, and they’ll adjust it accordingly if needed.
• At first they were afraid of Hanamura being too complicated with all mechanics, but as much excited with implementing them, so they sticked to that route.

Other:

• They are trying to implement some kind of lose forgiveness regarding those affected by other players toxic behaviour, and possibly while someone in a team disconnects.
• They’ll consider adding some animation variations as loot prizes (MVP screen poses for example)
• Streamer/Caster announcer packs are possible and they’re looking into „out-of-Heroes” loot items. Same story with HGC/Esport items.
• New collection content may possibly come in „theme drops”.
• Requirements for ranked play won’t change with patch 2.0
• Matchmaking still takes into account hero levels, and the formula was updated for 2.0.
• Current brawl portraits are considered as „achievement” and will be most likely impossible to obtain. New brawl portraits are not planned as of now.
• Environment team would love to make some minion spawning animations.
• HGC info, and Esport tab in game client is something that they have on „to-do” list.
• Rerolling normal chest will cost 250/500/750g. Epic – 500/1000/1500. No response about veteran chests so there’s a possibility that we won’t be able to reroll them.

Tryhard - For Good! Charity Streams
In a push to introduce traditional MOBA players to Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard has partnered up with three League of Legends players to play and stream HotS for charity! These three players will be coached by three HotS streamers/pros and then pitted against each other for getting the highest rank in Hero League within a set time. The better the players do, the more money Blizzard will give to the Make-A-Wish Foundation! The whole thing kicks off the moment 2.0 is released.

We have a thread with all the details that can be found right here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...yhard-For-Good!


What Is Yet To Be Announced
Despite everything listed so far, and there's a lot, there are still a whole four things still not revealed to us! Throughout the day, these things will be shown to the public:

• New cinematic!
• Nexus Challenge 2.0
• New hero
• And an as-of-yet unknown event

The only thing we know for sure is that the cinematic will take place in Hanamura and features at least Genji and the new hero. What will the new hero be though? We don't know! What will the event be? We don't know! We're in for an exciting day, and I look forward to shitpostingcontributing with thoughtful posts with all of you throughout the day and evening!


FAQ

Q: Do you need to buy skin tints for skins you already own, but haven't unlocked the tint of yet?
A: No. All pre-owned heroes and skins will have all their tints unlocked by default, regardless of your hero progression prior to the update.

- - - Updated - - -

Livestream Live Updates

https://www.twitch.tv/blizzheroes

• Event is now starting!
• Focus on veteran compensation
• Mega-bundles
• Hanamura cinematic and new hero reveal coming up in a bit
• Alan Dabiri (Game Director) and Kent-Erik Hagman have entered the studio
• The game has come a long way, with frequent updates for a very long time. The current state of the game is very different from when it launched
• The game has been worked on for 6 years now
• They're working on an update to the ingame quest system. "Quest 2.0". Making better quests, updating the UI to support it properly
• Currently discussing various changes coming in 2.0, such as announcers and the shards system
• They have a list of 200 heroes they want to do. It's a tough process to choose which one goes first
• People tend to get surprised at how many months it takes to create a hero
• Talk is now moving onto maps. Why did the team pick Hanamura?
• Hanamura has a clean unique aesthetic that doesn't exist in the game yet. They also wanted a new map mechanic, which resulted in payloads. The control area being on the move shakes up strategies
• The map is about rotations. Mobile heroes. Team needs to be on the same page on proper rotation timings
• Showmatch between Team FNATIC and Team Dignitas, cast by Khaldor and Dreadnought!
• Each hero body confirmed to impact the payload speed. Vikings count as three, Cho'gall counts as one
• Up to three heroes count for the payload push
• FNATIC takes the victory!
• Cinematic coming up in just a moment
• D.Va is the new hero!
• Nexus Challenge 2.0 is happening! New rewards each week
• NA region should be coming up right now!
• Looks like the informational part of the stream is over. Now returning to finish up the games between FNATIC and Dignitas

[Deleted]

Great Work!

[Succath]

Looking good

[johnnyd2]

so no heroes in loot boxes? i remember it being said that you could get heroes themselves in loot boxes
edit: nvm, i saw ingame that you can get heroes in loot boxes

[Artharior]

The loot boxes are scaled in your account lvl before update or adapted to your new lvl progression
(Im asking because im not able to play until much later :P)

[Nerraw]

The loot boxes are scaled in your account lvl before update or adapted to your new lvl progression
(Im asking because im not able to play until much later :P)

It's your new total hero level that makes the basis for the rewards you're getting.

[Sentynel]

The loot boxes are scaled in your account lvl before update or adapted to your new lvl progression
(Im asking because im not able to play until much later :P)

You will get loot chests based on your new account level.

[Aoyi]

I missed the veteran loot box by 1 level. When i logged in, I was level 99... I was surprised to see only 14 loot boxes on login, but then noticed 9 of those were epic, so it wasn't too bad. I got a few epic skins, mounts, announcer (the butcher) and surprisingly 1 hero. I didn't realize you could get heroes in a box.

[Treeskee]

Anyone lose a lot of levels? My buddy went from 300 to 243 (lost almost 60 levels)

[Nerraw]

Anyone lose a lot of levels? My buddy went from 300 to 243 (lost almost 60 levels)

We suspect it's the amount of level 1s dragging down the total seeing as level 1 doesn't count anymore.

[Stormcall]

Anyone lose a lot of levels? My buddy went from 300 to 243 (lost almost 60 levels)

Yes. Blizzard has a different definition of "total" than the rest of the world, because your "total hero level" as they put it is actually "the total level of your heroes not counting the first level", so you lost 1 level from literally every hero.

[Ryme]

Ah man, nice work!

[8bithamster]

so you can't buy the mega boxes after choosing one either? :-( that sucks. I'd totally buy em for a nice discount

[Leberman]

.... Found my answers.

[caervek]

Sucks that you can't buy skins for real money anymore, it's essentially a big kick in the dick by blizzard to the players who essentially crowdfunded a game Blizz had no interest in developing

[Schalde]

so you can't buy the mega boxes after choosing one either? :-( that sucks. I'd totally buy em for a nice discount

There is probably a very good reason for that :P