AMA Starting, Orphea PTR Datamining, InvenGlobal Interviews

[Nerraw]

Post-BlizzCon Developer AMA Starting
This week's advertised developer AMA is about to start, and you can now submit questions on reddit. So if you have a reddit account and some burning questions, go ahead and see if you can't get an answer for them! We will be providing a full recap of developer responses once the AMA has concluded.

Greetings, Heroes!

BlizzCon 2018 has concluded and the team is back in the office and ready to talk to you about Orphea, upcoming gameplay changes, and what’s new in the Nexus! To answer any questions you might have about our announcements, we’re going to host a post-BlizzCon AMA right here on /r/heroesofthestorm Today!: Thursday, November 8! The Heroes devs will join the thread and answer your questions starting around 10:00 a.m. PDT (7:00 p.m. CET) until 12:00 p.m. PDT (9:00 p.m. CET).

Here's who will be joining us from the dev team:

• /u/KaeoMilker – Kaeo Milker (Production Director)
• /u/BlizzCooper – Matt Cooper (Lead Content Designer)
• /u/cloaken – Kevin Johnson (Creative Content Lead)
• /u/Blizz_Joe – Joe Piepiora (Lead Systems Designer)
• /u/BlizzKyle - Kyle Dates (Hero Designer)
• /u/Blizz_LanaB – Lana Bachynski (Animator)
• /u/BlizzNeyman – Alex Neyman (Live Designer)

When posting multiple AMA questions: Please make an effort to post one question per comment. This will make it easier for others to read through the thread, and will help the devs focus on one question at a time. However, please feel free comment as many times as you'd like in order to get your questions posted.

You might also see Blizzard Community Managers posting questions on behalf of players in our non-English speaking communities during the AMA. Feel free to upvote those questions if you’d like to see them answered.

Orphea PTR Datamining
While we already knew about most of the upcoming content, which can be found here, poking around the latest PTR build still uncovered some things not officially announced. We've got sprays, announcers, new bundles, and indications that shard packs are going to be a thing you can spend gems on.

Announcers

• Ka, of Sky Temple
• Kevin Johnson, of the developer team
• Neithis, of Tomb of the Spider Queen
• Orphea

Bundles

• Heroic Reinforcements
  • Abathur
  • Anub'arak
  • Artanis
  • Blaze
  • Deckard
  • Diablo
  • Falstad
  • Garrosh
  • Gazlowe
  • Hanzo
  • Kael'thas
  • Kerrigan
  • Li-Ming
  • Lt. Morales
  • Maiev
  • Malthael
  • Medivh
  • Nova
  • Rehgar
  • Rexxar
  • Sonya
  • Tassadar
  • The Butcher
  • The Lost Vikings
  • Tyrael
  • Uther
  • Valeera
  • Varian
  • Whitemane
  • Zarya
• Janitor Leoric
  • Janitor Leoric Skin Variants
  • Soap Bar Mount
• Heroic Orphea
  • Orphea
  • Slacker Orphea Skin Variants
  • Raven Runner Mount
• Raven Crest High
  • Janitor Leoric Skin
  • Striker Li-Ming Skin Variant
  • Cheerleader Kerrigan Skin Variant
  • Soap Bar Mount
• Slacker Orphea
  • Slacker Orphea Skin Variants
• Welcome to the Nexus
  • Dehaka
  • Jaina
  • Johanna
  • Lúcio
  • Muradin
  • Raynor
  • Thrall
  • Tyrande
  • Valla
  • Xul

Shard Packs

Sprays

InvenGlobal Interview with Matthew Cooper
InvenGlobal had a chance to sit down with Matthew Cooper, Lead Content Designer on Heroes of the Storm, to talk about Orphea and future releases.

• The team has not discussed any details for potential future Nexus-original heroes yet
• Map bans have been discussed internally but there are no solid plans at this point. They'd rather make every map fun so there won't be a need for map bans
• Alan Dabiri has not been game director for a while now. Kaeo Milker, as Production Director, already knows how to run things
• One of the reasons behind the slowed hero release pace is that the meta was changing too quickly for comfort
• Heroes of the Storm started out using the Starcraft 2 engine but was moved to another one
• Team is actively working on improving matchmaking and reconnection systems
• Orphea can be countered by dodging her attacks and blinding her

InvenGlobal Interview with Steve Holmes and Adam Jackson
Not content with just one interview, InvenGlobal managed to swing another one! This time, Steve Holmes, Battleground Designer, and Adam Jackson, Live Game designer, sat down to answer questions about Blackheart's Bay and Haunted Mines.

• It was easy for the team to decide to rework Hanamura and Garden of Terror
• Blackheart's Bay isn't as easy since it is surprisingly not universally disliked
• A lot of people like the unique gameplay the map offers, so any rework would have to keep aspects of that
• Haunted Mines is a complicated problem to solve
• The map used to be the Wild West of Heroes, with a lot of crazy stuff happening
• It's hard to play the map optimally and still have a good time
• The team cannot say if Haunted Mines will be reworked again any time soon

[RH92]

One of the reasons behind the slowed hero release pace is that the meta was changing too quickly for comfort

Ah, so that's why the meta has been so damn stale since Genji release?

Seriously though, Blizzard is doing nothing with the meta. It only slightly alters when a character with overloaded kit is released.

Orphea can be countered by dodging her attacks and blinding her

Well, as if entire roster wasn't countered by dodging abilities and blinding them.

[Nikkaszal]

Ah, so that's why the meta has been so damn stale since Genji release?

Seriously though, Blizzard is doing nothing with the meta. It only slightly alters when a character with overloaded kit is released.



Well, as if entire roster wasn't countered by dodging abilities and blinding them.

Blizzard doesn't set the meta. The players do. Remember when Yrel was considered unplayable garbage? She's now being picked into almost all pro games because people have moved onto the "Armor Stacking Meta", well after her post-release damage bump.

If they try and shift the game to shake things up a bit, its met with outcry that things are being "ruined" (see 2019 changes for most recent doomsaying). If they leave the game as-is, people cry "STALE META".

[Gurluas]

Am I the only one who thinks the Garden of Terriro rework took away the unique aspects of that map?

[Nikkaszal]

Am I the only one who thinks the Garden of Terriro rework took away the unique aspects of that map?

I MUCH prefer the new objective (that is, fighting over one node) as it's far more engaging than the old model. In old GoT, you'd usually end up in situations where unless one team had JUST won a fight or had a massive camp push going, the top and bottom spawns would mostly just be traded evenly in the early game. Now it's more of a big deal, promoting skirmishes over the objective, and I particularly like how the little spawns actually hurt you if you can't blow them all up immediately. It's not just a case of being there first, because the first team to engage the spawns will have to deal with that extra incoming damage while the other team is contesting.

The actual outcome though? It's basically just ToSQ/Alterac... again. With extra hassle since the building-disabling Terrors must be answered with player defenders. Not the biggest fan.

[Gurluas]

The fact you had to collect 100 seeds to ride a garden monster was awesome.


Now it's just feels like a mix of Alterac and the tribute map.

[Deleted]

Blizzard doesn't set the meta. The players do. Remember when Yrel was considered unplayable garbage? She's now being picked into almost all pro games because people have moved onto the "Armor Stacking Meta", well after her post-release damage bump.

If they try and shift the game to shake things up a bit, its met with outcry that things are being "ruined" (see 2019 changes for most recent doomsaying). If they leave the game as-is, people cry "STALE META".

Yrel wasn't even available for pro play when she was unplayable garbage. The hero couldnt even kill an entire minnion wave without wasting 3/4th of the mana and it would still take a long time. The armor stacking meta is irrelevant, the problem is the meta is all about fighting on 1 talent ahead-->get objective-->push to win game or keep the 1 talent advantage. Blizzcon highlighted this further.

The 2019 changes make it so that even if you outplay the enemy team for 20 minutes completely, if u get 1 bad teamfight(or a dc) you just lose at minute 21 because Blizzard is holding their hand all the way to the lategame.

[Mic_128]

I particularly like how the little spawns actually hurt you if you can't blow them all up immediately. It's not just a case of being there first, because the first team to engage the spawns will have to deal with that extra incoming damage while the other team is contesting.

you don't even need to kill the spawns, just have one person take the aggro for the second it takes to cap the seed.

Am I the only one who thinks the Garden of Terriro rework took away the unique aspects of that map?

It really did. It's basically Alterac Valley, only you need to cap the camp three times instead of once and hold it. No more strategy about working out the optimal camps to go for, no more daring dives to steal the seeds just as they kill one of the boss camps, no more fun controlling the golem.

[Nikkaszal]

Yrel wasn't even available for pro play when she was unplayable garbage. The hero couldnt even kill an entire minnion wave without wasting 3/4th of the mana and it would still take a long time. The armor stacking meta is irrelevant, the problem is the meta is all about fighting on 1 talent ahead-->get objective-->push to win game or keep the 1 talent advantage. Blizzcon highlighted this further.

The 2019 changes make it so that even if you outplay the enemy team for 20 minutes completely, if u get 1 bad teamfight(or a dc) you just lose at minute 21 because Blizzard is holding their hand all the way to the lategame.

That's the whole point, to lessen "snowball" wins which frankly aren't fun. You're outplaying the enemy team, sure... sometimes that stems from them having one bad fight of their own in the early game and spent 15min on the back foot. To win you need to KEEP outplaying the opposition instead of getting complacent on early success.

[DesoPL]

The thing with shards packs is probably related to lootboxes regulations in EU. Belgium and now Poland is inspecting if lootboxes is gambling.

Why Poland is inspecting it now? Someone to ministry of finanses repoted that EA Ultimate Team is breaking anti gambling laws in Poland, and now all games with lootboxes are now on radar.

[RH92]

Blizzard doesn't set the meta. The players do. Remember when Yrel was considered unplayable garbage? She's now being picked into almost all pro games because people have moved onto the "Armor Stacking Meta", well after her post-release damage bump.

Way to contradict yourself, good job.

If they try and shift the game to shake things up a bit, its met with outcry that things are being "ruined" (see 2019 changes for most recent doomsaying). If they leave the game as-is, people cry "STALE META".

The game is boring and frustrating to play because it is in the same place for over a year.

The 2018 gameplay changes ruined the shit out of this game. Removing Ammo from towers killed desire to actually win a lane and turned it to mexican standoff (That's why Yrel is strong, she wins every stalemate). Removing the one single tower in the back helped dives a ton. The only meta changes that happened is even more broken Heroes replaced the previous ones and third ban providing a form of setback to the trend.

You see very little variety, that's for sure. The only creative strategy to come out within a year is the Samuro+Abathur strategy.

[skorpio]

The fact you had to collect 100 seeds to ride a garden monster was awesome.


Now it's just feels like a mix of Alterac and the tribute map.

And before it was mix of Dragon Knight and Mines. Meh.

[Gurluas]

And before it was mix of Dragon Knight and Mines. Meh.

Not really, because the Garden monster spawned at your base and you could have one each up at multiple times.
The seeds also spawned in two places on the maps. Basically it was a unique map and now it's no more.