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.
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.
Originally Posted by MMO-ChampionAnnouncers
- 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