Is HOTS really dead?

[Varodoc]

Yes, it is dead.

When a MOBA literally hasn't received any new patch in 6 months (the latest patch dates back to May 18, 2021), the MOBA is dead/in maintenance mode. Which is the same thing.

[Nerraw]

Yes, it is dead.

When a MOBA literally hasn't received any new patch in 6 months (the latest patch dates back to May 18, 2021), the MOBA is dead/in maintenance mode. Which is the same thing.

Last update was on September 27th. It's literally the thread below this one.

[Varodoc]

Last update was on September 27th. It's literally the thread below this one.

What you listed below was a "balance update", not "a patch".

On the OFFICIAL Hots website, the last content patch dates back to May.

https://news.blizzard.com/en-gb/heroes-of-the-storm

[caervek]

Last update was on September 27th. It's literally the thread below this one.

There have been undocumented patches since then but just minor hotfixes. Super important stuff like changing the colour of Tracers underwear lol.

[Nerraw]

There have been undocumented patches since then but just minor hotfixes. Super important stuff like changing the colour of Tracers underwear lol.

Wait, what? How is this the first I'm hearing of this?

[caervek]

Wait, what? How is this the first I'm hearing of this?

They occasionally push out tiny change patches that are only a few meg, usually they load when you launch the game. About three weeks ago they released one that changed the colour of the underwear tracer wears on one of her Herald skins. Her ready for action animation involves her spinning around and flicking her skirt up, and her previous undershorts were either the same colour as her skin or not rendering a texture (No idea which as there's no patch note), the result being it looked like you could see her butt, lol.

[Nerraw]

They occasionally push out tiny change patches that are only a few meg, usually they load when you launch the game. About three weeks ago they released one that changed the colour of the underwear tracer wears on one of her Herald skins. Her ready for action animation involves her spinning around and flicking her skirt up, and her previous undershorts were either the same colour as her skin or not rendering a texture (No idea which as there's no patch note), the result being it looked like you could see her butt, lol.

That's amazing.

Then again, Nazeebo did have testicles for a while.

[hulkgor]

They may have pulled the life support plug but it's still the best Blizzard game you can play at the moment. Unironically the most innovative and fun Moba you can play.

Yikes, hard disagree. I'd even argue it's the worst game Blizzard ever released, and also the worst active MOBA.

[sam86]

They may have pulled the life support plug but it's still the best Blizzard game you can play at the moment. Unironically the most innovative and fun Moba you can play.

i'd give that credit to hearthstone but i do agree it is best moba
i played dota for 7 years since day 1 and then lol for 3+ seasons (4 years?) until HotS became real, and i instantly loved it
then blizz fucking ruined it with total ignorance that blizz own employees didn't know it has an e-scene and even mocked the teams

[Jan135]

I personally think that if you don't take the game seriously, you can absolutely enjoy it. It's a good time-killer and easy to pick up due to low skill ceiling. I sometimes play it after I get home from my gardener job.

[Jotaux]

No new patches? HoTS seems to have to update every 10m

[Ersula]

Last update was on September 27th. It's literally the thread below this one.

Right but how many years has it been since we got a new champion?

It seemed like the Skylanders team at VV would be perfect for revitalizing HoTS development, but apparently they're working on Diablo 4

[Jotaux]

Right but how many years has it been since we got a new champion?

It seemed like the Skylanders team at VV would be perfect for revitalizing HoTS development, but apparently they're working on Diablo 4

It's been a year and 5ish months.

[loras]

Honestly i think it was dead in the water ever since they started adding random anime girls (Orphea, extendo-blade lady) and weird ass unrelatedly themed things.

They should have limited themselves to existing franchise stuff, there is plenty to work with. Hell even just giving all their characters skins appropriate for the other franchises. (i.e. diablo skins for warcraft chars, warcraft skins for starcraft chars, starcraft skins for diablo chars, and all other combinations of course)

Frankly i think their random thematic bullshittery alienated more players than most of the rest of their decisions did.

Though the limited amount of functional character agnostic, consistent in-game character customisation does not help either, nor does the limited control over which maps you play on (what's up with not allowing people to select their preferred maps anyway? Picking your choice should be the default, "random" should be for variety only).

[oplawlz]

It was dead at launch, the corpse was just animated through copious amounts of capital. Blizzard created a moba around concepts for people who don't like mobas.

[caervek]

It's a shame that Blizzard have finally confirmed what we all new was coming, I guess HOTS will live forever though as an example of how even a multi-billion studio can mismanage a popular/lucrative game into nothingness /sigh

I remember when I first started playing HOTS back in 2014 and it seemed like such a breath of fresh air at the time, DOTA2 had launched a few months earlier but I hadn't really taken too it and a MOBA featuring champions of Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo all together sounded awesome, and it was. But the game now is almost unrecognisable. Bad decision followed bad decision, after a short time Blizzard had lost interest and people only got made to work on the game if they weren't good enough to work on WoW/D3/SC2, later anyone who did well on the HOTS team was promoted to work on WoW/Hearthstone/Overwatch/etc, every new lead dev had their own vison for the game and it just turned into a game that was redesigned/altered drastically on an almost regular basis, and never for the better.

It's hard to put a finger on when exactly it turned to ****, there were so many points where things changed notably for the worse. When they removed master skins and added loot boxes, when they started spamming lore-less Overwatch hero's nobody wanted into the game instead of the Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo heroes people were begging for, when they removed the specialist role and essentially made the games tactics just a basic deathmatch affair, when they started adding "HOTS universe" characters (I mean like Orphelia/Qhira, not HOTS original characters like Johanna/Brightwing/Lunara they were good). So many bad decisions...

Right but how many years has it been since we got a new champion?

Hogger back in 2020.

[McNeil]

I wonder if Microsoft is willing to breathe some life back into the game. As it stands it’s up to the community to keep the game afloat.

[Nerraw]

I wonder if Microsoft is willing to breathe some life back into the game. As it stands it’s up to the community to keep the game afloat.

The community is doing what it can.

For those interested in playing in a structured tournament, Nexus Gaming Series (NA only) sign-ups for their next season is currently open for another 4 days: https://www.nexusgamingseries.org/

For the EU peeps, Heroes Lounge sign-ups for EU Season 19 open up in a week and a half: https://heroeslounge.gg/ (For the sake of disclosure, I am part of the League Manager team in Lounge)

[Hawkknight97]

It's still around but I wish it was back again atleast in terms of new content like heroes and stuff.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm debating about playing this song well atleast this video because well it's a adult show and I'm not sure if superjail is even allowed on here. But here's the sad opening to Superjail. Just what I'm thinking about favorite games ether being forgotten or cancelled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJjYaOLIZM

[Nerraw]

Heroes Lounge just started its 21st EU season with 127 teams reporting for duty. Game will be good for a while longer. Not great, but good.