BlizzCon 2018 Virtual Ticket Rewards
This year's Virtual Ticket rewards are currently available for ticket holders on the PTR, and we expect them to go live when the update hits live servers this week. The rewards for this BlizzCon are as follows:

  • Nexus Razorgrin Mount
  • Nexus Razorgrin Banner
  • Nexus Razorgrin Portrait
  • Nexus Razorgrin Spray

You can read more about and acquire the Virtual Ticket right here.





Matchmaking Update & AMA Follow-ups
An update was quietly pushed live last week to reduce queue times for people with wildly differing rank and hidden matchmaking rating.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
We made a tweak to the system to improve overall wait time. It has decreased the upper limit on queue times for players in the Silver to Diamond brackets back down to much more acceptable levels without degrading match quality.

This will be more obvious to players whose rank had diverged significantly from their MMR and could experience queue times upwards of 15 minutes.

In addtion, Production Director Kaeo Milker provided a couple of additional answers after last week's developer AMA had concluded.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Why do we have to get rid of specialists? That's what made this game unique above all the rest is the interesting, non-conventional hero designs. I think we still should have something grouping these together
We still value having heroes with unique gameplay and even situational viability, but Specialist as originally presented was more of a random bucket than an actual hero role. So it ended up that we just put heroes who didn't fit other roles into the Specialist bucket.

Moving forward, we're looking to continue to support those unique playstyles, where appropriate - including new heroes at times, as Matt Villers commented on - while bucketing heroes into roles that do a better job at encapsulating the core gameplay style/strengths of a given hero. (/u/KaeoMilker)


Hi, reddituser25987! We continue to improve the rejoin functionality and while doing so are touching areas of the game that could, eventually, make spectating a possibility...

HOWEVER, while we'd love to watch HGC games live in client or check out our friends playing while waiting to party up, we have no plans to prioritize a spectate feature above the myriad of core game systems and features that we want to keep improving at this time.
hey Kaeo, so from your answer I see its possible, just not even close to the top in the priority list. I can agree with that, but my question is, this system would simply work like any reconnect from crashed computer or lost power, right? just with all the add-ons the spectator feature has
Rejoin and Spectate would use the same underlying tech in terms of the mechanism for a game client to sync up to an in-progress game, but there is a LOT more to do beyond that for a fully-featured Spectate mode. This isn't something we've designed or costed, so it's well behind many of the other improvements that our players and our team would love to get into the game. (/u/KaeoMilker)


Hi there Kaeo! You mentioned you are looking ways to bring Deathwing to the Nexus on the last Gamescon. Is there any update on this topic?
No news here, but we do hear your pleas for the big guy. (/u/KaeoMilker)

Weekly Hero Rotation
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Free-to-Play Hero Rotation: September 25, 2018
  • Malfurion
  • Valla
  • Gazlowe
  • Johanna
  • Thrall
  • Dehaka
  • Malthael
  • Kharazim
  • Zul'jin
  • Fenix
  • Illidan (Slot unlocked at Player Level 5)
  • Rexxar (Slot unlocked at Player Level 10)
  • Garrosh (Slot unlocked at Player Level 15)
  • Sgt. Hammer (Slot unlocked at Player Level 20)

Weekly Heroic Sales
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Every Tuesday, we place a number of Heroes on sale, and swap a fresh set of cosmetics into the featured item rotation. Check out this week’s items and then head in-game to pick up anything that catches your eye.

Heroic Deals: September 25 – October 2, 2018
Our next set of Heroic Deals will begin on Tuesday, September 25! Check out the list of upcoming featured items and Hero discounts below.

Upcoming Hero Sales
  • Sylvanas— Sale Price: 312 gems
  • Abathur — Sale Price: 375 Gems

The following skins and mounts will be added to the featured item rotation and will become purchasable with gems until this round of Heroic Deals comes to an end:

Upcoming Featured Skins
  • Skeletal Raven Sylvanas
  • Ironclaw Rehgar
  • Eternal Star Lich Kel’Thuzad
  • Hellish Fallen Junkrat

Upcoming Featured Mounts
  • Horde Road Boar
  • Penance Judgment Charger

HGC 2018 - Top 5 Plays - Phase 2 Week 9
The Heroes team is back with yet another highlight video from the previous week's pro games. Be sure to check it out for some epic plays!