Heroes of the Storm Content Update - December 21

[Nerraw]

Heroes of the Storm Content Update - December 21

Greetings, Heroes!

I wanted to check in and give everyone an update following our latest announcements.

First, the next few months will unfold much like we’d originally planned. In fact, our 85th hero will be announced soon before hitting the PTR the first week of January, and that hero will be followed by a string of cool events and hero reworks en route to our next hero release.

What we want to do beyond those releases is currently under discussion across the Heroes of the Storm team. The plans moving forward are going to be focused on the things that the Heroes team and all of you in our community are excited for. Our team has always thrived when we’re working on things we’re passionate about. While our team is smaller, we’re a fully functional group of developers who can create the features and content we all want, in time. I know everyone is eager to hear more, but we’re still in the early stages of these conversations, so we’ll share updates once the team has made some decisions.

And while I can’t give you all the details just yet, I will also say that we’re actively discussing not only the right cadence for our patches and content – we’re also reconsidering some very core areas of the game to identify more ways we can make Heroes even better for players.

Just a few of the many things we’re currently discussing include:

• Finalizing the Hero Role overhaul
• Timing for rolling out the Ranked Play consolidation and improvements we discussed at BlizzCon
• Bringing back the ability to directly purchase individual skins with Gems
• Adding the ability to get more content like skins and mounts with Gold

More immediately, we just had a balance patch on Wednesday which will be followed closely by additional matchmaking changes to both Quick Match’s queue times and to the division spread used for matching high-level players in Ranked modes. Please check out the patch notes for all the details on the balance changes and be on the lookout for our matchmaking forum post as those improvements roll out.

So, in summary: meaningful changes are here now, and more content and updates are on the way shortly. As we move into the new year, please be valiant with us as we take some time to evaluate our new approach to all the exciting things we want to do. And as always, please share your thoughts on what you would like to see in 2019 while letting us know how we can continue improving this game that we all love.

Lastly, the team has been having a ton of fun with the Most Amazingest Board Game Ever and we’ve decided to extend our Winter Toy Event into February to give everyone more chances to play. The game can be completed 50 times during the event for up to 50 free Rare Toy Chests, so have fun, and we hope you enjoy the event as much as we do!

Thanks,

Kaéo

[arandomuser]

not having tournaments will ruin the game, im not a hots player but the only time im interested in hots is during the hgc and i watch it, i dont think they actually plan to support it.

[Nerraw]

not having tournaments will ruin the game, im not a hots player but the only time im interested in hots is during the hgc and i watch it, i dont think they actually plan to support it.

There are several community tournaments in the works at the moment. And Khaldor has decided to spend a lot of time casting Heroes Lounge games too for the time being. He's actually casting a Division 4 game right now: https://www.twitch.tv/khaldor

[arandomuser]

There are several community tournaments in the works at the moment. And Khaldor has decided to spend a lot of time casting Heroes Lounge games too for the time being. He's actually casting a Division 4 game right now: https://www.twitch.tv/khaldor

oh i didnt know, thanks for letting me know ill look into that

[Remus88Romulus]

"please be valiant with us as we take some time to evaluate our new approach to all the exciting things we want to do."

Valiant???? Valiant = Valor. Valor = Imperius! IMPERIUS CONFIRMED!! ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN BOYS!!


CHOOOO CHOOOOOOOOO!!!

Edit: First time I have seen that word in ANY game related news/discussion. Really interesting.

[Tenjen]

not having tournaments will ruin the game, im not a hots player but the only time im interested in hots is during the hgc and i watch it, i dont think they actually plan to support it.

If they handle it right, not having the official pro scene might actually help the game. Unless activision plans to go out of their way to kill it. Without the remaining dev's having them breathing down their necks anymore to create a super-profitable cash cow system or keep balancing for tourny's, they might actually have the freedom to change a good number of things and have greater control over future cotnent.

A big maybe though, We shall see how its handled.

[Hollycakes]

" I don't play Hots but pros not playing ruins it." Not sure I follow that logic. Gameplay ruins games. There are plenty of fun and successful games without a pro scene. And plenty of games with a pro scene that can suck. Being a viewer really means f#ckall sorry. Unless we are talking twitch metrics or the like.

If you mean how much development money gets funneled into it based on that criteria alone and that alone can make or break a game then I disagree. Currently, actual players know it's things like MM or placements that ruin it, not if there was HGC or not. You could even go so far as to say OW heroes as well if you go by things the general playerbase says and all the mobility they brought.

And yusss, what Tenjen says.

[sikhjatt]

I dont want HoTS to go the way of the dodo it seems like a very solid game now

[PaladinBash]

"please be valiant with us as we take some time to evaluate our new approach to all the exciting things we want to do."

Valiant???? Valiant = Valor. Valor = Imperius! IMPERIUS CONFIRMED!! ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN BOYS!!

Don't hurt me again Blizzard.

[Remus88Romulus]

Don't hurt me again Blizzard.

That word really stood out for me. It's a really big word. Feels like something Donald Trump would say and tweet during the next finance crisis. "People of the United States. I command you to be valiant during these dark times".

Imperius is absolutely 1 of the next 2 heroes. He is top 3 most requested hero in the 3 latest polls (taking nr.1 spot last poll before Blizzcon with over 6000 participants in the poll).

They have only 2 announcers left. And I am not so sure about they gonna add the scientist from Braxis Holdout? The last one is Ilarian the Angel announcer on Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines. Beleth the Demon announcer was added along with Mephisto, Lord of Hatred.

So Ilarian along with Imperius makes 100% sense.

The only question now is if they gonna slow down hero releases even more? Kaeo Milker said we will get a tease next week and a new hero for January. Maybe next hero is going to come in late March 2019?