Starting with the launch of Heroes 2.0 in each region, and lasting until May 22, 2017, players may permanently unlock 1 of 4 Mega Bundles. Each Mega Bundle contains 20 Heroes and has its own theme: Assassin, Flex, Support & Specialist, and Tanks & Bruisers. All players who log in between April 25 and May 22 will receive 100 Gems, which can be used to permanently unlock 1 Mega Bundle of their choice. Choose wisely! Once a Mega Bundle has been unlocked, the other three will become unavailable. Explore each Mega Bundle and take our quiz to find out which one is right for you.
Starting with the launch of Heroes 2.0, and lasting until May 22, all players will receive the Nexus Challenge 2.0 quest chain. Each quest will offer epic in-game rewards in both Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch to players who complete Heroes of the Storm games while partied with a friend! A new quest will begin each week during the Nexus Challenge 2.0 event. Only one Nexus Challenge 2.0 quest will activate in players’ Quest Logs at any given time. Subsequent quests will not appear until their start dates have passed, and all of the player’s previous Nexus Challenge 2.0 quests have been completed. For example: Players who wait until the final day of the event to begin their Nexus Challenge 2.0 quests (not recommended!) can still complete all four quests, but must do so one at a time. Learn about each quest below, check out our Nexus Challenge 2.0 page for more details, and be sure to complete your quests before May 22, 2017. Quest 1: Starts after April 25 Complete 5 games with a friend in Versus A.I., Quick Match, Unranked, or Ranked. Overwatch Rewards: Oni Genji Skin, Portrait, and Spray. Heroes Rewards: Orochi Hovercycle Mount, Oni Genji Banner, Portrait, and Spray. Quest 2: Starts after May 2 Complete 5 more games with a friend in Quick Match, Unranked, or Ranked. Overwatch Rewards: Officer D.Va Skin. Heroes Rewards: Busan Police Hovercycle Mount. Quest 3: Starts after May 9 Complete 5 more games with a friend in Quick Match, Unranked, or Ranked. Overwatch Rewards: Officer D.Va Portrait and Spray. Heroes Rewards: Overwatch Nexagon Mount, Officer D.Va Banner, Portrait, and Spray. Quest 4: Starts after May 16 Complete 5 more games with a friend in Quick Match, Unranked, or Ranked. Overwatch Rewards: 10 Loot Boxes. Heroes Rewards: 10 Loot Chests (one of which is Rare).
All players who completed at least one Heroes of the Storm match prior to the release of Heroes 2.0 will receive a number of Loot Chests based on their converted Player Levels in the new progression system. The most dedicated players will receive a few "Veteran" Loot Chests, which are a unique reward created for the launch of Heroes 2.0. Each Veteran Chest guarantees at least one Legendary item, and contains 5 Nexus Coins, rather than 4. Additionally, all players who reached Player Level 40 prior to the release of Heroes 2.0 will receive a 7 Day Stimpack, which will activate as soon as Heroes of the Storm 2.0 goes live in each region.
PLAYER LEVEL REWARDS Completed at least 1 Heroes match 5 Loot Chests Every 10 Player Levels +1 Epic Loot Chest (55 maximum) Every 100 Player Levels +1 Veteran Loot Chest (10 maximum)
The minimum system specifications required to play Heroes of the Storm have been updated: Minimum CPU Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 AMD® Phenom™ X4 Minimum GPU NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600 GT ATI® Radeon™ HD 4650 Intel® HD Graphics 3000 (no change)
Please Note: Minimum specifications on Mac have not changed.
Once the carefree youngest scion of the Shimada clan, Genji was cut down by his own brother for refusing to take part in their illegal ventures. Grafted into a cyborg body by Overwatch, Genji walks his own path as one who fights for what’s right.
Trait
Cyber Agility (D) Activate to jump to the target area.
Basic Abilities
Shuriken (Q) Throw 3 Shuriken in a spread pattern, each damaging the first enemy it hits. Stores up to 3 charges. Shuriken’s cooldown replenishes all charges at the same time. Deflect (W) Become Protected for 1.25 seconds. Any damage blocked during this period causes Genji to throw a Kunai toward the nearest enemy, prioritizing Heroes and dealing damage. Swift Strike (E) Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. Enemy Heroes who die within 2 seconds after being hit by Swift Strike cause the cooldown and Mana cost to be refunded.
Heroic Abilities
Dragonblade (R) Unleash the Dragonblade for 8 seconds. While active, Dragonblade can be reactivated to lunge forward and slash in a huge arc. If any enemy Heroes are killed within 2 seconds after being hit by Dragonblade, Swift Strike’s cooldown is reset. X-Strike (R) Perform 2 perpendicular slashes that deal damage and ignite after 1.25 seconds, dealing additional damage to enemies in their area of effect.
Protected Cores Both Cores are protected by a barrier that cannot be attacked by Heroes. Payloads must be escorted across the Battleground in order to deal damage to the enemy Core. Escort Payloads The first set of Payloads spawn for each team after 2:30 into the match, and additional waves will periodically spawn throughout the rest of the game. Stand near an allied payload to escort it. The more allies who are present to escort a payload, the faster it will move. This effect caps at 3 nearby allies. Payloads that haven’t been escorted for a period of time will begin to slowly move backward. Empowered Payloads Destroying enemy Forts will cause the next allied Payload to deal additional damage when it arrives at its destination. Destroying enemy Keeps will cause Sappers to spawn with allied Minion waves, which will fire on the Core upon reaching the end of their lanes. Deal a total of 7 damage the opposing Core to claim victory!
Mercenary Camps
Three types of Mercenary Camps exist on Hanamura, and captured Mercenaries will not travel down a lane to attack enemies. Instead, captured Mercenary Camps will each award one of three consumable power-ups. Right-click a power-up to collect it, and then use the “Map Mechanic Ability” hotkey (Default: F) to activate it. Recon Camp Reward: Dragon Spirits Release 3 Dragon Spirits that seek out enemy Heroes, who are then revealed for 5 seconds. Dragon Spirits are destroyed after finding enemy Heroes or after 10 seconds. Fortification Camp Reward: Turret Place a Turret on the ground or on your team’s payload. Support Camp Reward: Healing Pulse Restore 35% Health and 23% Mana to you and your allies over 15 seconds. Mega Enforcer Defeat the Mega Enforcer found at the center of Hanamura to fire 1 shot on the opposing Core.
Player level progression is no longer capped at 40. Existing Hero levels have been converted to match new XP requirements without loss of Hero level. Player level is now the sum of all Hero levels earned beyond 1. Example: If you have 5 heroes at level 5, your player level will be 20. Player progression badges in the Profile, Score Screen, and Quest Log will display the player’s current level up to 99. Player progression badge art will receive more decoration every 25 player levels. Every 100 player levels, the level displayed in the progression badge will reset, and the badge will upgrade with even more ornate artwork. The Basic Portrait Border no longer displays the player’s current level. Instead, the Basic Portrait Border will update every 100 levels with new art that matches the player’s progression badge. Players can still view their total player level by checking their profiles, or by hovering the cursor over their portraits in the game’s menus.
XP requirements have been slightly increased during the first few Hero levels. This should make early levels feel more meaningful by limiting cases where a Hero could gain multiple levels after a single game. Low level Heroes will not lose any levels after transitioning to these new XP requirements. Example: A Hero who had progressed 50% into level 3 prior to release will not be adjusted down to level 2 in the new system. Instead, that Hero will remain at level 3 with 50% of the XP needed to get to level 4. XP requirements have been significantly reduced during later Hero levels. This will decrease the amount of play time needed to progress through higher Hero levels by approximately 75 – 80% for the average player. As a result, Heroes who were above level 5 in the previous system will gain one or more Hero levels. Example: Heroes who were level 10 should adjust to approximately Level 15 in the new progression system. A former level 20 Hero will convert to about level 54.
Loot Chests are a new way to unlock cosmetic items and other rewards in Heroes of the Storm, and players will now receive a Loot Chest every time they level-up! Open Loot Chests, or purchase new ones, by heading to the new Loot screen added to the top navigation bar in the game’s menus. Each Loot Chest will award 4 randomized items of varying rarity: Common, Rare, Epic, or Legendary. Click on an available Loot Chest to open it, revealing 4 Nexus Coins, which will shimmer and glow with a color that matches the rarity of their items. Click each coin to unveil the treasures they hide. There are currently 4 different types of Loot Chests: basic Loot Chests, Rare, Epic, and Hero-specific. While all Loot Chests may drop items of any rarity, Rare and Epic Loot Chests are guaranteed to contain at least one item that matches that chest’s rarity level, or higher. Hero-specific Loot Chests are guaranteed to contain at least one item associated with that Hero. Re-Roll Loot Chest Rewards The items awarded by a Loot Chest can be re-rolled using Gold. Each Loot Chest can be re-rolled up to 3 times. The first re-roll costs 250 Gold, and the price increases by 250 per additional re-roll on the same Chest. Upon confirming a re-roll, that Loot Chest’s original contents will be permanently discarded, and replaced by a new set of 4 randomized Nexus Coins. Re-roll carefully!
Loot Chest rewards may include Heroes, Mounts, Skins, Stimpacks, and many new items being introduced with Heroes of the Storm 2.0:
New Legendary Skin: Prime Evil Diablo Prime Evil Diablo has joined the Nexus as a new Legendary Skin. Announcers Replace many in-game announcements with voiceover from one of a variety of Heroes. Hero Announcers will call out takedowns, kill streaks, destroyed structures, and much more. Voice Lines Equip a line of dialogue from the selected Hero and play it in-game for all nearby players in a match to hear. Voice lines can be played at any time while alive. Default hotkey: I All Heroes will start with one “Nexus” Voice Line unlocked and automatically selected for use in-game. Banners Automatically plant a stylized flag upon destroying Keeps and Forts, capturing Merc Camps, or completing Battleground Objectives. All Heroes will start with one “Nexus” Banner unlocked and automatically selected for use in-game. Sprays Tag the terrain with unique icons and artwork that are visible to all players in a match. One Spray per Hero can exist on the terrain at any given time, and will last approximately 8 seconds. Default hotkey: T All Heroes will start with one “Nexus” Spray unlocked and automatically selected for use in-game. Emoji Packs A massive collection of stylized and Hero-specific chat icons have been added, and can be used during in and out-of-game messages. Each Emoji Pack contains 5 Emojis. View all available Emojis by clicking the new Emoji button added to the out-of-game Chat bar. Up to 10 Emojis can be set as Favorites. Right-click Emojis to add or remove them from Favorites. Use Favorites during a match by clicking the heart button added to the right side of the in-game Chat bar. Players’ Emojis will automatically convert to match the Heroes they are currently using, so long as they own that Hero’s Emoji Packs. This will occur in-game, as well as after choosing a Hero during Hero Select or in Draft Lobbies. Portraits Many new Portraits, featuring unique artwork and a variety of art styles, have been added to the game. Shards Shards are a new crafting material that can be used to Forge unowned cosmetic items. All cosmetic items that can be found in Loot Chests can be Forged, and all Forgeable items can be found in your Collection. Varying amounts of Shards can appear as Loot Chest drops. Any duplicate items received in a Loot Chest will automatically fragment into Shards.
Player Level Progression Rewards Certain progression milestones will award Loot Chests of different rarities: Loot Chest: Every player level that does not award a Rare or Epic Loot Chest. Rare Loot Chest: Every 5 player levels. Epic Loot Chest: Every 25 player levels. The level requirements to unlock Free Hero Rotation slots have been adjusted: Slots 1 – 10: Are still immediately available at player level 1. Slots 11 – 14: Now unlock at player levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, respectively. Players will earn additional rewards upon reaching the following levels: Player level 5: 1,000 Gems This Gem reward will be granted retroactively to existing players who reached level 5 in the previous progression system. Player level 10: 7 Day Stimpack Every 25 player levels: 150 Gems Gems are a new currency introduced with the arrival of Heroes of the Storm 2.0. Learn more about them by clicking here. Hero Level Progression Rewards Hero progression rewards have also received significant changes, and can be earned at the following milestones: Hero level 5: Hero Portrait Hero level 15: Master Hero Portrait Every 5 Hero levels: 500 Gold Every 10 Hero levels: Hero-specific Loot Chest Hero-specific Loot Chests are guaranteed to drop at least one item that’s usable by the Hero who earned it.
The Heroes of the Storm in-game Shop has been transformed into your Collection, which is the central location where players can browse through the Heroes and cosmetic items they own, and unlock the ones they don’t. Switch among item categories using the row of tabs found along the top of your Collection screen. Hover the cursor over an item to use the purchasing options available for that item, or to Forge it using Shards. Click Heroes, Skins, Mounts, and Banners to view them in more detail. Use the dropdown menus found on each category page to filter items by owned, unowned, release date, and more. Enter keywords in the Search bar to find specific items. The Bundles tab has been removed, and all available Bundles will now appear on your Collection’s Featured tab. Upon receiving previously unowned items in a Loot Chest, the total number of new items added to your Collection will be displayed on the Collection button in the top navigation bar. Additional new item notifications will appear on each category tab in your Collection where a new item can be found, as well as on the sub-category buttons found on the left side of each category page. Clear new item notifications by right-clicking the associated category and sub-category buttons in your Collection, and then selecting “Mark items as seen.” Alternatively, navigate to each new item manually and hover the cursor over them to clear the notification for that item.
Gems have replaced real money as the primary currency in Heroes of the Storm. Gems can be used to purchase Heroes, Bundles, Loot Chests, Stimpacks, and Featured Items. Additional Gems can be purchased using real money in the Gem Shop. Enter the Gem Shop by clicking the “+” button found next to the Gem counter added to the top navigation bar in the game’s menus.
Gold can be used to purchase Heroes and Loot Chest re-rolls. Gold will still be awarded through Hero progression, as well as upon completing matches, Daily Quests, and Heroes Brawls.
As mentioned previously, Shards are a new crafting material that can be collected and used to Forge cosmetic items, including: Skins, Mounts, Announcers, Banners, Emoji packs, Sprays, Portraits, and Voice Lines. Varying amounts of Shards can appear as Loot Chest drops. Any duplicate items received in a Loot Chest will automatically fragment into Shards.
The items listed below have been added to the Collection, and will be available for Gem purchase for a limited time. New Skins Genji Oni Genji, Vengeful Oni Genji, Moss Oni Genji Auriel Sakura Auriel, Spring Sakura Auriel, Scarlet Sakura Auriel Zarya Cyberdemon Zarya, Indigo Cyberdemon Zarya, Cyborgdemon Zarya New Bundles and Skin Packs Genji Heroic Bundle Sakura Auriel Skin Pack Cyberdemon Zarya Skin Pack
Skin Variations, Mount Variations, and Master Skins have been reclassified as individual items. Players can receive these items as Loot Chest drops, or Forge them using Shards, but they are no longer unlocked via Hero progression. Players who owned any Skins, Master Skins, and Mounts prior to Heroes of the Storm 2.0 will still be able to use them after release. In addition to the base version of those Skins and Mounts, players will also permanently receive both of those items’ variations —whether or not they had previously unlocked them through progression. Featured and New Items In addition to Forging Skins and Mounts using Shards, or finding them in Loot Chests, a number of Featured Skins and Mounts will be available for Gem purchase in the Collection. To keep things fresh, the list of Featured Skins and Mounts will rotate on a regular basis. Many newly released Skins and Mounts will also be purchasable using Gems for several weeks following their arrival to the Nexus. Much like new Heroes receive a Gold price reduction once they’ve been in the Nexus for a few weeks, new Skins and Mounts that are unlockable using Gems start at a higher than normal Shard price. These items will receive a Shard price reduction a few weeks after they are added to the game. New items that are only unlockable via Loot Chests and Forging (such as a new version of an existing Skin) will not start at a higher Shard price, or receive a Shard price reduction. Seasonal Items Some existing holiday-themed Skins and Mounts, including Winter Veil, Hallow’s End, Lunar Festival, and other seasonal items, will only be unlockable during in-game events for those holidays. Unlock seasonal and holiday-themed items during their associated in-game events via Loot Chest drops, or by forging them with Shards.
Keep track of Gem, Gold, and Shard totals using the counters that have been added next to the Party Panel at the top of the screen. The Stimpack, First Win of the Day, and XP Bonus indicators have been moved beneath the Player Portrait in the upper-right corner of the screen. Attack Move Target Point Attack Move Target Point has been added to the Gameplay Options menu. If enabled, attack move (default: A + Left-Click) concentrates on the closest enemy to the target point. If disabled, attack move concentrates on the closest enemy to your Hero. Quest Log A Progression section has been added to the bottom of the Quest Log, which will display upcoming progression system rewards. Clicking the Progression section of the Quest Log will open the Progression tab or Hero Detail page in the Player Profile, depending on which type of reward was displayed.
Loadouts offer the ability to customize which Skins, Mounts, Banners, Sprays, Voice Lines, and Announcers each Hero will use in-game. A new “Loadout” button has replaced the “Skins” and “Mounts” buttons in the lower left corner of the Hero Select screen and Draft Lobbies. Click the Loadout button to bring up the customization window, and then use the row of item category buttons at the top to choose which gear to equip in the selected loadout. Use the dropdown menu beneath the row of category buttons to filter by owned and unowned items, or enter keywords in the Search bar to find specific items. Items that have not yet been unlocked can be Forged directly from the Loadout window using Shards. The items that are currently equipped in the selected Loadout will be displayed at the center of the screen above the Ready button. Up to 3 Loadouts can be set per Hero, and they are automatically saved whenever a change is made. Switch among a Hero’s Loadouts using the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner of the customization window. Enter a name for each loadout using the text bar at the top of the customization window.
The Player Profile has been reworked and received additional visual polish. Profile navigation has moved to the top of the window, and each Profile tab has changed in the following ways: Summary The number of Most Played Heroes displayed has increased from 3 to 4. A number of new statistics, as well as award and reward information, will now be displayed in the bottom half of the window. Current player level, and Ranked play badges have moved to the right side of the window. The chart detailing the number of games played per Hero role can be found in the lower-right corner. Progression Current player level, and the 3 Heroes who are closest to leveling-up, will now be displayed at the center of the Progression tab. Upcoming progression rewards will populate along the left-side of the window. Roster (Formerly: “Hero Collection”) All available Heroes, and their current Hero level progress, are visible on this tab. Click a Hero to view additional statistics and upcoming Hero progression rewards. Buttons have also been added for the Collection and Try Mode. Favorite Heroes and a number of new statistics can now be found on the right side of the window. Match History Has received additional visual polish. Statistics Use this tab to view a number of new Hero statistics, Battleground win-rates, and a variety of other performance data. Portrait This tab has been removed from the Profile. Players can now select their Portraits and Portrait Borders using the Portraits category in the Collection.
Issuing an in-game Taunt using a Hero who has reached level 15 or higher will now display unique “mastery” visual effects. The Hero will also play its taunt animation and voiceover. Issue an in-game Taunt using the radial emote menu (default: X), by pressing the Taunt hotkey (default: J), or by typing “/Taunt” into chat. Additional Hero Mastery Taunts will be added to the game in future patches, unlocking at levels 25, 50, 75, and 100. Read our recent blog on Mastery Taunts for more information.
Completing matches in Heroes Brawl will now award Hero XP. In cases where multiple Heroes are used during the same Heroes Brawl, the total XP earned will be divided evenly among them. Completing the weekly Heroes Brawl quest will now award a Loot Chest, rather than a Portrait and Gold.
The in-game Chat box has been slightly lowered to provide more visibility in the center of the screen. Expression Wheel An Expression Wheel has been added, which can be used to quickly drop a Spray, play a Voice Line, as well as issue Dance and Taunt commands, in-game. Press “X” to bring up the Expression Wheel, and then drag the cursor in the direction of the desired expression. The Voice Line and Spray that are available in-game can be set using the Loadout button during Hero Select, as detailed above.
The Loading Screen displayed upon launching the game client has received new art! Visual effects that indicate Movement Speed bonuses have received updates. Sprays have received additional polish that should help them feel more integrated with battleground environments.
The following Battlegrounds have each received a number of minor layout improvements in order to alleviate certain areas that could create awkward gameplay moments. Sky Temple Cursed Hollow Dragon Shire Garden of Terror These changes generally consist of small adjustments to the terrain, and some areas of brush have been pruned or removed. Battleground art has been updated to match the areas where these changes were made.
Eviscerate (E) Damage reduced from 100 to 85 per combo point
Talents
Level 13 Death from Above (Q) Teleport range reduced from 7 to 6 Level 20 Coldblood (E) Removed
Developer Comment: In an effort to reduce the frustration of playing against Valeera, we're reducing her burst damage potential. Especially in Quick Match when counter picking isn't an option, the ability for a stealth assassin with disabling effects and high burst damage isn't fun or healthy for the game, so we're toning it down some.
Resurrect (R) New Functionality Increased cooldown from 70 to 120 seconds Reduced channel time from 3 to 0.5 seconds Added a 5 second delay between finishing the cast and the Hero coming back to life
Talents
Level 20 Light Speed (R) New Functionality Removed the increased Health upon reviving Now causes the cooldown of Resurrect to recharge 100% faster while previous target is alive
Removed passive Armor Base maximum Health increased from 2054 to 2156 Health Regeneration increased from 4.28 to 4.49
Abilities
Holy Light (Q) Healing amount reduced from 427 to 380 Now also heals Uther for 190 if cast on an ally Holy Radiance (W) Healing amount reduced from 219 to 160 (now matches damage) Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60 Eternal Devotion (Trait) Added Functionality: When Uther heals anyone with a Basic Ability, they gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds. This effect does not stack with itself.
Talents
Level 1 Conjurer’s Pursuit (Passive) Removed Wave of Light (W) No longer has a cap on the Mana return and Cooldown Reduction amounts Now grants the benefits when enemy Heroes are damaged Increased the amount of Mana returned from 8 to 10 Added a quest component: !Quest: Heal or damage 60 Heroes with Holy Radiance !Reward: Increase the duration of Eternal Devotion’s Armor effect to 3 seconds Hammer of the Lightbringer (E) New functionality: Uther’s Basic Attacks restore 1.5% of his maximum Mana !Quest: Hit 75 enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks !Reward: Basic Attacks also reduce the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 1 second Fist of Justice (E) Removed (New) Silver Touch (Q) !Quest: Reduce damage taken from Heroes using Eternal Devotion's Armor effect !Reward: After reducing 40 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by 20 !Reward: After reducing 80 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by an additional 20 and increase the cast range by 50% Level 4 Beacon of Light (Q) Moved to level 16 New functionality: While below 50% Health, Uther receives 200% more self-healing when healing others with Holy Light Boundless Conviction (W) Removed Protective Shield (Active) Removed (New) Pursuit of Justice (E) Casting Hammer of Justice increases Uther's Movement Speed by 20% for 3 seconds Level 7 Burden of Guilt (E) Removed Holy Fire (Passive) Moved to level 4 Damage reduced from 18 to 16 per second Cleanse (Active) Removed (New) Armor of Faith (Trait) Holy Light recharges 100% faster for 6 seconds when Uther is Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced (New) Guardian of Ancient Kings (Trait) Healing a Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced Hero with a Basic Ability increases the Armor bonus of Eternal Devotion from 25 to 75 (New) Hand of Protection (Active) Activate to make target ally Unstoppable for 1 second. Cannot be cast on yourself. 90 second cooldown. Basic Attack reduce this cooldown by 5 seconds. Level 13 Blessed Champion (Q) Healing from Basic Attacks reduced from 20% to 15% of Holy Light, but is calculated from the combined total of Holy Light’s Ally and self heal Holy Shock (Q) Moved to level 4 No longer increases the value of Uther’s next Holy Light, but instead refunds 45 Mana when cast on an enemy Holy Shock still heals Uther for 200 if cast on an enemy Shrink Ray (Active) Removed (New) Well Met (E) Hammer of Justice also reduces enemy Hero Movement Speed by 25% and damage by 25% for 3 seconds Level 16 Hardened Focus (Passive) Removed Righteous Defense (Q) Removed Gathering Radiance (W) Removed (New) Tyr's Deliverance (W) Hitting an allied Hero with Holy Radiance increases their healing received by 40% for 6 seconds Level 20 (New) Divine Protection (Trait) Eternal Devotion's Armor can now stack twice. Each new application will refresh the duration of both armor effects
Developer Comment: With Uther’s rework, we want to play up his ability to be a disruptive frontline presence, keep his role as an anti-burst Healer, but maintain the weakness of not having great sustained healing. By making Holy Light always heal Uther, he doesn’t mind as much when he takes damage from being up there. Having his abilities apply Armor is a great way to make him an effective support against teams with predictable damage, while having lower healing per second compared to the other supports. Ideally, you’ll pick Uther when your team could use a stronger frontline, when your opponents are very reliant on disabling effects, or when the enemy team has predictable incoming damage.
Burrow Charge (E) Hovering over this ability will now show the range indicator for distance traveled, as well as the area affected when he emerges from burrow Locust Swarm (R) A range indicator will now appear to Anub’arak while Locust Swarm is active
Talents
Level 13 Urticating Spines (W) Hovering over the ability button after selecting this talent will now show a range indicator
Battlefield of Eternity: Fixed a rare issue in which an Immortal could be awarded to the wrong team if both Immortals were killed at nearly the same time. Haunted Mines: The terrain surrounding Sapper Merc Camps will now correctly block vision of the camp. Haunted Mines: Leoric will no longer fail to respawn properly after being killed via damage dealt by a nearby spawning Grave Golem. Tomb of the Spider Queen: Webweavers will no longer become distracted by Summoned units. Try Mode: The Complete Quests button will now correctly set Zul’jin’s You Want Axe quest to 120 attacks, rather than 500. Try Mode: The Reset Talents button will now correctly remove bonus Hungering Arrow strikes earned by previously completing the Puncturing Arrow quest. Try Mode: Tassadar’s Oracle cooldown will now be correctly reduced by 15 seconds when completing the Mental Acuity quest via the Complete Quests button.
Cyber Ram: Fixed an issue in which the Cyber Ram’s hind legs appeared slanted. Gazlowe: Restored missing visual effects during Gazlowe’s transformation into Robo-Goblin form. Greymane: Restored missing visual effects during Go for the Throat. Rexxar: Misha, Focus! now uses the same Ability icon in-game as it does on Rexxar’s detail page in the Collection. Valla: Strafe visual effects will no longer continue to play after the Ability expires. Varian: Will no longer appear scaled-down on the Ranked Play screen. Xul: Will no longer appear offset on the Ranked Play screen.
Quest Talents: Fixed a bug that caused quest talents that track every second to ping continuously. They will now only ping every 5 seconds as intended. Regeneration Globes: Will now play an animation upon expiration rather than suddenly disappearing. Spell Shield: Toggling Spell Shield will no longer cancel an active Hearthstone channel. Abathur: Heroes can no longer push a player-controlled Monstrosity by walking into it. Auriel: Detainment Strike will now correctly stun enemies who collide with corners of terrain. Auriel: Fixed an issue that could cause Resurrect’s revive message to appear on the MVP screen. Chen: Freshest Ingredients will no longer grant 3 Health Regeneration stacks for Regeneration Globes collected during Storm, Earth Fire. Diablo: Fixed an issue preventing Diablo from using Basic Attacks against his Overpower target if Overpower was interrupted by Zeratul’s Void Prison. Cho: Twilight Hammer will now deal damage to Murky’s Pufferfish. Gall: Fixed an issue that could cause Gall to use his base skin on the MVP screen despite using an alternate skin during the match. Gazlowe: Can now correctly issue commands to active Rock-It! Turrets while dead. Illidan: Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to respawn at his death location if he cast Sweeping Strikes in the same moment that he was killed. Murky: Can no longer call down a Nuke during Safety Bubble on Warhead Junction. Nazeebo: Corpse Spiders will no longer prioritize Kharazim’s Air Ally or Lúcio’s Boombox over enemy Heroes. Probius: Pylons and Photon Cannons will no longer be affected by Power Overflowing when Probius is not inside a Pylon’s Power Field. Samuro: Way of Illusion will no longer continue to generate quest progress icons after its quest is complete. Tassadar: Prismatic Link will no longer cause Basic Attacks to continue to hit the tertiary target if the primary and secondary targets move out of range of one another. The Butcher: Victuals will no longer stop functioning after completing Fresh Meat’s quest. The Butcher: Butcher’s Brand visual effects will no longer persist on a Punisher until it is killed. The Butcher: Will now properly receive Healing for Basic Attack damage dealt to a Punisher affected by Butcher’s Brand. The Lost Vikings: Fixed an issue causing Olaf to begin attacking the nearest enemy after using Charge, rather than the intended target. Tracer: After using Blink, Tracer will now correctly continue to walk in the direction she was originally moving prior to the cast. Tyrael: Fixed an issue that could cause Archangel’s Wrath to immediately explode on death, and prevent Tyrael from respawning. Varian: After learning Second Wind, Varian will now correctly earn bonus Healing for bonus damage dealt by Shattering Throw against a Shielded target. Zagara: Damage dealt by Hunter Killer and Roach summons will no longer be reduced by Armor. Zeratul: A revealed icon will no longer appear above enemies hit by Rending Cleave. Zul’jin: Taz'dingo! Will now correctly prevent Zul’jin from dying when cast at the same moment that he would have taken fatal damage.
Hotkeys: Control group hotkeys in the default Standard for Lefties profile now correctly mirror the Standard profile, with the first slot bound to the 7 key. Heroes Brawl: Brawls that only require completion of 2 matches will no longer state that 3 matches are needed in order to earn rewards. Kill Feed: The Kill Feed will no longer display blank portraits for Heroes who are killed by an Immortal while the Immortals are dueling on Battlefield of Eternity.
As someone who's still pretty new to the grind, the only thing I want to figure out with all of the new currencies and level progressions is whether I will be able to buy heroes more quickly or more slowly in 2.0.
Open Beta is scheduled to hit the PTR some time today. Unconfirmed "leak" says Genji and Overwatch are the next hero and battleground. Max level progression at the start caps at 70 crates, but new players don't get the same gold, and will need to acquire each skin and mount tint separately.
The minimum system specifications required to play Heroes of the Storm have been updated: Minimum CPU Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 AMD® Phenom™ X4 Minimum GPU NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600 GT ATI® Radeon™ HD 4650 Intel® HD Graphics 3000 (no change)
These new minimum requirements are already in effect during the Open Beta, and will come to the live version of Heroes of the Storm at the end of next month. Note that our minimum specifications on Mac have not changed.
After shattering the Worldstone, the young Amazon Cassia had changed. She had seen hatred, terror, and destruction firsthand. If the Askari were to survive the coming darkness, they needed an army. She would begin their training immediately.
Trait
Avoidance When moving unmounted, Cassia gains 65 Physical Armor against Heroic Basic Attacks, reducing the damage taken by 65%.
Basic Abilities
Lightning Fury (Q) Hurl a javelin that damages the first enemy hit, and splits into two lightning bolts that deal damage to enemies in their paths. Blinding Light (W) After 0.5 seconds, Blind enemies in the target area for 2 seconds. Passive: Cassia deals 15% increased damage to Blinded targets. Fend (E) Charge at an enemy and on arrival channel for 1.5 seconds, damaging enemies in front of Cassia every 0.25 seconds. Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes.
Heroic Abilities
Ball Lightning (R) Throw a ball of lightning at an enemy Hero that bounces up to 6 times between nearby enemy Heroes and Cassia, damaging enemies hit. Valkyrie (R) Summon a Valkyrie that rushes to Cassia after 0.75 seconds, pulling and damaging the first enemy Hero hit and stunning them for 0.5 seconds at the end of her rush. The Valkyrie knocks back all other enemy Heroes in her way.
Player level progression is no longer capped at 40. Existing Hero levels have been converted to match new XP requirements without loss of Hero level. Player level is now the sum of all Hero levels earned beyond 1. Example: If you have 5 heroes at level 5, your player level will be 20. Player progression badges in the Profile, Score Screen, and Quest Log will display the player’s current level up to 99. Player progression badge art will receive more decoration every 25 player levels. Every 100 player levels, the level displayed in the progression badge will reset, and the badge will upgrade with even more ornate artwork. The Basic Portrait Border no longer displays the player’s current level. Instead, the Basic Portrait Border will update every 100 levels with new art that matches the player’s progression badge. Players can still view their total player level by checking their profiles, or by hovering the cursor over their portraits in the game’s menus.
XP requirements have been slightly increased during the first few Hero levels. This should make early levels feel more meaningful by limiting cases where a Hero could gain multiple levels after a single game. Low level Heroes will not lose any levels after transitioning to these new XP requirements. Example: A Hero who had progressed 50% into level 3 prior to release will not be adjusted down to level 2 in the new system. Instead, that Hero will remain at level 3 with 50% of the XP needed to get to level 4. XP requirements have been significantly reduced during later Hero levels. This will decrease the amount of play time needed to progress through higher Hero levels by approximately 75 – 80% for the average player. As a result, Heroes who were above level 5 in the previous system will gain one or more Hero levels. Example: Heroes who were level 10 should adjust to approximately Level 15 in the new progression system. A former level 20 Hero will convert to about level 55.
Loot Chests are a new way to unlock cosmetic items and other rewards in Heroes of the Storm, and players will now receive a Loot Chest every time they level-up! Open Loot Chests, or purchase new ones, by heading to the new Loot screen added to the top navigation bar in the game’s menus. Each Loot Chest will award 4 randomized items of varying rarity: Common, Rare, Epic, or Legendary. Click on an available Loot Chest to open it, revealing 4 Nexus Coins, which will shimmer and glow with a color that matches the rarity of their items. Click each coin to unveil the treasures they hide. There are currently 4 different types of Loot Chests: basic Loot Chests, Rare, Epic, and Hero-specific. While all Loot Chests may drop items of any rarity, Rare and Epic Loot Chests are guaranteed to contain at least one item that matches that chest’s rarity level, or higher. Hero-specific Loot Chests are guaranteed to contain at least one item associated with that Hero. Re-Roll Loot Chest Rewards The items awarded by a Loot Chest can be re-rolled using Gold. Each Loot Chest can be re-rolled up to 3 times. The first re-roll costs 250 Gold, and the price increases by 250 per additional re-roll on the same Chest. Upon confirming a re-roll, that Loot Chest’s original contents will be permanently discarded, and replaced by a new set of 4 randomized Nexus Coins. Re-roll carefully!
Replace many in-game announcements with voiceover from one of a variety of Heroes. Hero Announcers will call out takedowns, kill streaks, destroyed structures, and much more.
Equip a line of dialogue from the selected Hero and play it in-game for all nearby players in a match to hear. Voice lines can be played at any time while alive. Default hotkey: I All Heroes will start with one “Nexus” Voice Line unlocked and automatically selected for use in-game.
Automatically plant a stylized flag upon destroying Keeps and Forts, capturing Merc Camps, or completing Battleground Objectives. All Heroes will start with one “Nexus” Banner unlocked and automatically selected for use in-game. Sprays Tag the terrain with unique icons and artwork that are visible to all players in a match. One Spray per Hero can exist on the terrain at any given time, and will last approximately 8 seconds. Default hotkey: T All Heroes will start with one “Nexus” Spray unlocked and automatically selected for use in-game.
A massive collection of stylized and Hero-specific chat icons have been added, and can be used during in and out-of-game messages. Each Emoji Pack contains 5 Emojis. View all available Emojis by clicking the new Emoji button added to the out-of-game Chat bar. Up to 10 Emojis can be set as Favorites. Right-click Emojis to add or remove them from Favorites. Use Favorites during a match by clicking the heart button added to the right side of the in-game Chat bar. Players’ Emojis will automatically convert to match the Heroes they are currently using, so long as they own that Hero’s Emoji Packs. This will occur in-game, as well as after choosing a Hero during Hero Select or in Draft Lobbies.
Shards are a new crafting material that can be used to Forge unowned cosmetic items. All cosmetic items that can be found in Loot Chests can be Forged, and all Forgeable items can be found in your Collection. Varying amounts of Shards can appear as Loot Chest drops. Any duplicate items received in a Loot Chest will automatically fragment into Shards.
Player Level Progression Rewards Certain progression milestones will award Loot Chests of different rarities: Loot Chest: Every player level that does not award a Rare or Epic Loot Chest. Rare Loot Chest: Every 5 player levels. Epic Loot Chest: Every 25 player levels. The level requirements to unlock Free Hero Rotation slots have been adjusted: Slots 1 – 10: Are still immediately available at player level 1. Slots 11 – 14: Now unlock at player levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, respectively. Players will earn additional rewards upon reaching the following levels: Player level 5: 1,000 Gems This Gem reward will be granted retroactively to existing players who reached level 5 in the previous progression system. Player level 10: 7 Day Stimpack Every 25 player levels: 150 Gems Gems are a new currency introduced with the arrival of Heroes of the Storm 2.0. Learn more about them by clicking here.
Hero progression rewards have also received significant changes, and can be earned at the following milestones: Hero level 5: Hero Portrait Hero level 15: Master Hero Portrait Every 5 Hero levels: 500 Gold Every 10 Hero levels: Hero-specific Loot Chest Hero-specific Loot Chests are guaranteed to drop at least one item that’s usable by the Hero who earned it. Skin Variations, Mount Variations, and Master Skins have been reclassified as individual items. Players can receive these items as Loot Chest drops, or Forge them using Shards, but they are no longer unlocked via Hero progression. Please Note: Players who owned any Skins, Master Skins, and Mounts prior to Heroes of the Storm 2.0 will still be able to use them after release. In addition to the base version of those Skins and Mounts, players will also permanently receive both of those items’ variations —whether or not they had previously unlocked them through progression.
The Heroes of the Storm in-game Shop has been transformed into your Collection, which is the central location where players can browse through the Heroes and cosmetic items they own, and unlock the ones they don’t. Switch among item categories using the row of tabs found along the top of your Collection screen. Hover the cursor over an item to use the purchasing options available for that item, or to Forge it using Shards. Click Heroes, Skins, Mounts, and Banners to view them in more detail. Use the dropdown menus found on each category page to filter items by owned, unowned, release date, and more. Enter keywords in the Search bar to find specific items. The Bundles tab has been removed, and all available Bundles will now appear on your Collection’s Featured tab. Upon receiving previously unowned items in a Loot Chest, the total number of new items added to your Collection will be displayed on the Collection button in the top navigation bar. Additional new item notifications will appear on each category tab in your Collection where a new item can be found, as well as on the sub-category buttons found on the left side of each category page. Clear new item notifications by right-clicking the associated category and sub-category buttons in your Collection, and then selecting “Mark items as seen.” Alternatively, navigate to each new item manually and hover the cursor over them to clear the notification for that item.
Gems have replaced real money as the primary currency in Heroes of the Storm. Gems can be used to purchase Heroes, Bundles, Loot Chests, Stimpacks, and Featured Items. Additional Gems can be purchased using real money in the Gem Shop. Enter the Gem Shop by clicking the “+” button found next to the Gem counter added to the top navigation bar in the game’s menus. Open Beta Note: Real money purchases have been disabled during Open Beta testing. Real money cannot be used to make any purchases during the Heroes of the Storm 2.0 Open Beta, including Gems. Instead, players can earn Gems by completing a weekly quest that is only available during the Open Beta. Items unlocked or purchased in the Open Beta will not transfer to the live version of Heroes of the Storm when the Open Beta concludes.
Gold can be used to purchase Heroes and Loot Chest re-rolls. Gold will still be awarded through Hero progression, as well as upon completing matches, Daily Quests, and Heroes Brawls.
As mentioned previously, Shards are a new crafting material that can be collected and used to Forge cosmetic items, including: Skins, Mounts, Announcers, Banners, Emoji packs, Sprays, Portraits, and Voice Lines. Varying amounts of Shards can appear as Loot Chest drops. Any duplicate items received in a Loot Chest will automatically fragment into Shards.
In addition to Forging Skins and Mounts using Shards, or finding them in Loot Chests, a number of Featured Skins and Mounts will be available for Gem purchase in the Collection. To keep things fresh, the list of Featured Skins and Mounts will rotate on a regular basis. Many newly released Skins and Mounts will also be purchasable using Gems for several weeks following their arrival to the Nexus. Some existing holiday-themed Skins and Mounts, including Winter Veil, Hallow’s End, and Lunar Festival items, will only be unlockable during in-game events for those holidays. Unlock holiday-themed items during their associated in-game events via Loot Chest drops, or by forging them with Shards.
Keep track of Gem, Gold, and Shard totals using the counters that have been added next to the Party Panel at the top of the screen. The Stimpack, First Win of the Day, and XP Bonus indicators have been moved beneath the Player Portrait in the upper-right corner of the screen. Quest Log A Progression section has been added to the bottom of the Quest Log, which will display upcoming progression system rewards. Clicking the Progression section of the Quest Log will open the Progression tab or Hero Detail page in the Player Profile, depending on which type of reward was displayed.
Loadouts offer the ability to customize which Skins, Mounts, Banners, Sprays, Voice Lines, and Announcers each Hero will use in-game. A new “Loadout” button has replaced the “Skins” and “Mounts” buttons in the lower left corner of the Hero Select screen and Draft Lobbies. Click the Loadout button to bring up the customization window, and then use the row of item category buttons at the top to choose which gear to equip in the selected loadout. Use the dropdown menu beneath the row of category buttons to filter by owned and unowned items, or enter keywords in the Search bar to find specific items. Items that have not yet been unlocked can be Forged directly from the Loadout window using Shards. The items that are currently equipped in the selected Loadout will be displayed at the center of the screen above the Ready button. Up to 3 Loadouts can be set per Hero, and they are automatically saved whenever a change is made. Switch among a Hero’s Loadouts using the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner of the customization window. Enter a name for each loadout using the text bar at the top of the customization window.
The Player Profile has been reworked and received additional visual polish. Profile navigation has moved to the top of the window, and each Profile tab has changed in the following ways: Summary The number of Most Played Heroes displayed has increased from 3 to 4. A number of new statistics, as well as award and reward information, will now be displayed in the bottom half of the window. Current player level, and Ranked play badges have moved to the right side of the window. The chart detailing the number of games played per Hero role can be found in the lower-right corner. Progression Current player level, and the 3 Heroes who are closest to leveling-up, will now be displayed at the center of the Progression tab. Upcoming progression rewards will populate along the left-side of the window. Roster (Formerly: “Hero Collection”) All available Heroes, and their current Hero level progress, are visible on this tab. Click a Hero to view additional statistics and upcoming Hero progression rewards. Buttons have also been added for the Collection and Try Mode. Favorite Heroes and a number of new statistics can now be found on the right side of the window. Match History Has received additional visual polish. Statistics Use this tab to view a number of new Hero statistics, Battleground win-rates, and a variety of other performance data. Portrait This tab has been removed from the Profile. Players can now select their Portraits and Portrait Borders using the Portraits category in the Collection.
Expression Wheel An Expression Wheel has been added, which can be used to quickly drop a Spray, play a Voice Line, as well as issue Dance and Taunt commands, in-game. Press “X” to bring up the Expression Wheel, and then drag the cursor in the direction of the desired expression. The Voice Line and Spray that are available in-game can be set using the Loadout button during Hero Select, as detailed above.
The following Battlegrounds have each received a number of minor layout improvements in order to alleviate certain areas that could create awkward gameplay moments. Sky Temple Cursed Hollow Dragon Shire Garden of Terror These changes generally consist of small adjustments to the terrain, and some areas of brush have been pruned or removed. Battleground art has been updated to match the areas where these changes were made.
Health reduced from 2428 to 2100 Health Regeneration reduced from 5.06 to 4.37
Abilities
Rockstar (Trait) Redesigned: Instead of increasing nearby allies' Basic Attack speeds, Rockstar now grants E.T.C. 20 Armor for 2 seconds when he uses a Basic or Heroic Ability. This effect does not stack with itself.
Talents
Level 1 Guitar Hero (E) Healing gained from Basic Attacks increased from 35% to 40%. No longer increases Attack Speed. Level 7 Echo Pedal (Passive) Damage reduced from 29 to 15. Damage bonus against Minions and Mercenaries increased from 75% to 250%. Level 16 Show Stopper (Q) Armor reduced from 25 to 15.
Developer Comment: These changes to E.T.C. are a continuation of our attempt to align Warriors with a “big picture” role, so that we can continue to see a variety of them regardless of who’s really strong at the moment. Alongside a lot of specialization, we need a couple generalist Warriors, and we think E.T.C. (as well as Muradin) should fill that role. They should always be a safe pick for your team because they fit into every team composition or battleground, but may be outperformed by the specialized Warriors in their ideal situations. We found that having Attack Speed on his Trait pointed him toward Basic Attack teams and maps like Battlefield of Eternity, where sustained damage was important. Instead, we’ve decided to add general Armor, but wanted to make sure that it still had that fun “bard” style gameplay where playing optimally includes spreading out abilities. We’ve updated Show Stopper to provide less Armor, because stacking Armor makes every point more and more valuable. Lastly, we’ve reduced Echo Pedal’s damage against non-Minions and Mercenaries so that it’s the obvious pick when you need wave clear, but Hammer-On and Pinball Wizard are better during a team fight.
This is pretty awesome. I hope that heroes are overall cheaper. If the "cinematic" is a CGI cinematic (as opposed to an in-engine cinematic) that would be unbelievably hype.
Also glad of the new hero (not a fan of her weird hair color, but whatever skins will fix it). D2 has been CRIMINALLY underrepresented in Heroes considering its influence on Blizzard games.
Edit: Oh and for the love of god, I wanna click on something to find out how much health it has....
oh didnt expected that the reroll feature would be coming to blizzard lootboxes that fast. The valkyrie looks tanky for 10% of the playerbase. The non face tank part of the playerbase that is.
This leveling system sounds fun. Maybe i will play my new account actually when this arrives. Likes the trait on valkyrie aswell, makes your playstytle different.
So wait, is ETC being buffed, nerfed, or just kinda changed? Personally I like him how he is, I'm not sure I hate the idea of being able to Powerslide in and have some sweet armor but thats quite a chunk o' health to be missing. Its like, what 15%ish health lost, 20% armor buff (probably almost always up when it actually matters) so is that a buff? Having a hard time really placing a finger on this one, except I think its an okay buff-adjustment?
On March 30 2017 06:41 Zambrah wrote: So wait, is ETC being buffed, nerfed, or just kinda changed? Personally I like him how he is, I'm not sure I hate the idea of being able to Powerslide in and have some sweet armor but thats quite a chunk o' health to be missing. Its like, what 15%ish health lost, 20% armor buff (probably almost always up when it actually matters) so is that a buff? Having a hard time really placing a finger on this one, except I think its an okay buff-adjustment?
It's a tricky buff since you can't stand in front of a fight waiting for a moment to powerslide. Though it is nice that the armor will be there when you do powerslide.
And as I mentioned, heals on etc became more powerful with this change.
got 8 loot boxes on ptr, in them I got 3 pretty sweet skins: the lost vikings sequel skin, a kerrigan one that makes her look kind of like samus, and chef stitches. I didn't expect it to be so freaking easy to unlock new skins using these things.
On March 30 2017 03:10 FeyFey wrote: oh didnt expected that the reroll feature would be coming to blizzard lootboxes that fast. The valkyrie looks tanky for 10% of the playerbase. The non face tank part of the playerbase that is.
She is an AMAZON, not a Valkyrie. Get your diablo lore straight! More specifically, she is a Javazon, she could also use spears, bows or even melee.
Valkyrie is her summoned "pet" if you like, which shows up in her ultimate in HotS. There was a legendary thread where a player had the goal of completing the entire campaign with an amazon, all the way from scratch to hell difficulty on Hardcore using no rare or better items. He built for evade and Valkyrie talents, and made of the most exciting forum tales I have ever seen about his journey.
On March 30 2017 10:46 Essbee wrote: Hmmm I already spent a lot of money on the game and I really am not sure how to feel about all of this. Not a huge fan for now, I'll wait and see...
my feeling is that it doesn't really change the investment I already put into the game, as these things don't affect gameplay at all. if anything, I get to see more skins in game, so many games will look better overall.
On March 30 2017 10:46 Essbee wrote: Hmmm I already spent a lot of money on the game and I really am not sure how to feel about all of this. Not a huge fan for now, I'll wait and see...
my feeling is that it doesn't really change the investment I already put into the game, as these things don't affect gameplay at all. if anything, I get to see more skins in game, so many games will look better overall.
Heroes 2.0 looks awesome overall, although it looks like most of the stuff I spent real money on can now be won as loot in game... oh well. I look forward to the new changes!
Is there any word as to whether or not we already get granted the loot chests/ level reward items for levels already achieved with older heroes? If I already have a total level of 300 or so, I'd hate to get robbed of all the potential loot I would have gotten if I started from scratch at level 1 and went through the leveling process again. In other words, are we going to be rewarded for all the work/ experience/ leveling we already put in before 2.0 came out?
On March 30 2017 11:34 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Heroes 2.0 looks awesome overall, although it looks like most of the stuff I spent real money on can now be won as loot in game... oh well. I look forward to the new changes!
Is there any word as to whether or not we already get granted the loot chests/ level reward items for levels already achieved with older heroes? If I already have a total level of 300 or so, I'd hate to get robbed of all the potential loot I would have gotten if I started from scratch at level 1 and went through the leveling process again. In other words, are we going to be rewarded for all the work/ experience/ leveling we already put in before 2.0 came out?
Yes, but there's a catch. There's a cap of 70 chests from previous efforts.
The settings have a push to talk hotkey now but it doesn't work yet, and there is an option in gameplay settings to target closest to your cursor instead of closest to your hero with auto attacks.
On March 30 2017 11:34 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Heroes 2.0 looks awesome overall, although it looks like most of the stuff I spent real money on can now be won as loot in game... oh well. I look forward to the new changes!
Is there any word as to whether or not we already get granted the loot chests/ level reward items for levels already achieved with older heroes? If I already have a total level of 300 or so, I'd hate to get robbed of all the potential loot I would have gotten if I started from scratch at level 1 and went through the leveling process again. In other words, are we going to be rewarded for all the work/ experience/ leveling we already put in before 2.0 came out?
Yes, but there's a catch. There's a cap of 70 chests from previous efforts.
On March 30 2017 11:48 karazax wrote: The settings have a push to talk hotkey now, and there is an option in gameplay settings to target closest to your cursor instead of closest to your hero with auto attacks.
I forgot to write that on my first post. This game would be genuinely so much fun if I could talk to people. :-\
On March 30 2017 11:34 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Heroes 2.0 looks awesome overall, although it looks like most of the stuff I spent real money on can now be won as loot in game... oh well. I look forward to the new changes!
Is there any word as to whether or not we already get granted the loot chests/ level reward items for levels already achieved with older heroes? If I already have a total level of 300 or so, I'd hate to get robbed of all the potential loot I would have gotten if I started from scratch at level 1 and went through the leveling process again. In other words, are we going to be rewarded for all the work/ experience/ leveling we already put in before 2.0 came out?
Yes, but there's a catch. There's a cap of 70 chests from previous efforts.
Is it a 1 chest to 1 level ratio? x.x
Something like that. But there also special chests "Additionally, for every 10 levels you earn with the same Hero, you’ll receive a Hero-Specific Loot Chest, guaranteed to contain at least one item for that Hero. We’re also planning to regularly add new items to Loot Chests, so you’ll always have exciting new drops to look out for when you open your chests."
Go down to "Cashing In" (Note: Account levels are measured post-Progression 2.0 recalibration of hero levels. This means your total account level will be notably higher, especially if you have many heroes in the 10+ range)
Played at least 1 game - 5 common Per 10 account levels - +1 Common (Max 35) Per 25 account levels - +1 Rare (Max 20) Per 100 account levels - +1 Epic (Max 10)
Let's take a level 700 account as an example (Each hero level after 1 counts towards your account level). This account will earn 40 common boxes, 20 rare boxes, and 7 epic boxes. However, this level 700 account most likely has every hero in the game. Notably, to earn every tint as a skin in 2.0 you only need to own the relevant hero/skin, not have them to level 8. Post-2.0, you will earn each coloration individually.
Just from my meager PTR openings (I've played some but not a ton, which earned me an account level of 47) of 9 common boxes and 1 rare, I saw some decent value (Got one of the Pajamathur tints, which was tragically a duplicate for 400 shards).
What this conversion really does is pay off for people who already own a bunch of skins rather than just a bunch of levels, because you get what amount to 3 skins in the new system. If you're someone who was F2P, you aren't going to get a whole lot from the conversion the new system since you're only getting 2 skins per hero you own, plus 3 per master skin you own. If you're like me and have skins for about half the roster, you're getting a lot more in the conversion.
Despite this, the above paragraph does not account for that a strictly F2P player can now grind out regular skins that were previously behind a paywall.
TL;DR Stop bitching even for someone who's been playing since tech alpha you're gonna do great.
On March 30 2017 11:34 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Heroes 2.0 looks awesome overall, although it looks like most of the stuff I spent real money on can now be won as loot in game... oh well. I look forward to the new changes!
Is there any word as to whether or not we already get granted the loot chests/ level reward items for levels already achieved with older heroes? If I already have a total level of 300 or so, I'd hate to get robbed of all the potential loot I would have gotten if I started from scratch at level 1 and went through the leveling process again. In other words, are we going to be rewarded for all the work/ experience/ leveling we already put in before 2.0 came out?
Yes, but there's a catch. There's a cap of 70 chests from previous efforts.
Is it a 1 chest to 1 level ratio? x.x
it looks like you get a normal chest every level, a rarer chest every 5 levels, and the rarest chest every 25 levels.
Speculation is that you are capped at 70 chests, but the quality of those chests will be the highest possible. But, that's speculation-- I haven't seen anything concrete yet.
The max you can earn going in is 70, which breaks down to 40 common, 20 Rare, 10 Epic.
Keep in mind that new accounts have to buy/earn from loot chests/craft each color tint for each base skin and each mount that on live you get for "free" if you already unlocked them on a hero, and don't get nearly as much gold from leveling heroes or the account with the new system. Gold still used to buy heroes or to re-roll loot crates. I think it is fair enough. 70 loot crates is a ton of stuff, especially with re-rolls, and you can get any previously pay only mount or skin in the game from the loot crates. You get a loot crate of some type every time you level a hero under 2.0
Loot Chest Type and Reward Frequency
Common Every Player Level that does not award a Rare or Epic Loot Chest
On March 30 2017 12:39 karazax wrote: The max you can earn going in is 70, which breaks down to 40 common, 20 Rare, 10 Epic.
Did anything bliz post say that you would definitely get that allocation? I was thinking if you were owed 140 chests, for instance, that the breakdown might end up being 10 common / 40 rare/ 20 epic. (where you just don't get the extra commons)
You aren't getting what you would get if you leveled a brand new account in crates as ChaosOS said in his post. But you got more gold from leveling your account initially, got each color tint for base mounts and heroes unlocked which they will have to get from crates, ect. You need an account hero level of at least 1,000 to get all 70 crates, and you will still get a crate every time you level a hero once it goes live. Keep in mind that you get 4 items of some type from each crate, you can re-roll multiple times, and you can unlock epic and legendary items, including multiples in even common crates. You are going to get a ton of free stuff if you have been playing for a long time and you can get stuff that previously you could only get by spending real money.
You also should get at least 1000 gems which you can use to buy more chests or new heroes/skins whatever.
Pretty hype for 2.0, hoping they'll lift the 70 loot chests although in the end not sure it will matter much; from what I've seen epics/legendaries are nowhere close to as rare as in Hearthstone for example, so I feel like veterans who play a lot will collect everything rather quickly.
ETC changes are weird, I always used Pinball Wizard if I wanted fast wave clear and Echo Pedal for slower but more efficient clear, now they made Echo Pedal superior and since ETC has always struggled with wave clear it's going to get picked on most maps. The trait change feels mostly like a nerf, since the attack speed buff was one of the reasons he's been a top contender on BoE for example, and also for bursting down bosses/forts.
EDIT: Nevermind, I read wrong. Echo Pedal's minion damage is like 3% better than before but hero damage is halved. His wave clear actually got worse with the trait change.
On March 30 2017 13:28 karazax wrote: got each color tint for base mounts and heroes unlocked which they will have to get from crates
So is it worth buying heroes now to get their skin tints for free in 2.0? Or should I save it for rerolling. I mean, they're probably common right, so can just buy them later I guess.
On March 30 2017 21:32 Freezard wrote: So is it worth buying heroes now to get their skin tints for free in 2.0? Or should I save it for rerolling. I mean, they're probably common right, so can just buy them later I guess.
It looks like the trade off is buying a hero now and leveling to unlock tints, or waiting and getting a crate every time you level with them. Of course that ignores that you might have already leveled the hero when it was on free rotation in which case I guess it's better to buy now if you want the hero. In the end I don't know that there will be that big an advantage either way on buying or waiting. I think it will be slightly advantageous to hold off on leveling heroes significantly between now and 2.0 if you want to maximize your future loot crates since you will get 1 crate every time a hero levels after 2.0, and you get a max of 70 crates now and to even get that you need at least 1,000 hero levels.
I think some kind of twitch <--> hots emote exchange program (like a reward for watching) would be hugely beneficial for hots. Hope they got something like that planned.
You aren't getting what you would get if you leveled a brand new account in crates as ChaosOS said in his post. But you got more gold from leveling your account initially, got each color tint for base mounts and heroes unlocked which they will have to get from crates, ect. You need an account hero level of at least 1,000 to get all 70 crates, and you will still get a crate every time you level a hero once it goes live. Keep in mind that you get 4 items of some type from each crate, you can re-roll multiple times, and you can unlock epic and legendary items, including multiples in even common crates. You are going to get a ton of free stuff if you have been playing for a long time and you can get stuff that previously you could only get by spending real money.
You also should get at least 1000 gems which you can use to buy more chests or new heroes/skins whatever.
I don't see anything in that blog post which specifies exactly what the ratio of the 70 chests would be. Like, they don't say "If you have earned more than 70 chests, you'll get X basic chests, Y rare chests, and Z legendary chests"
They just have the 70 cap and then the rate at which you earn chests, so it isn't clear what someone with player level 1500 would receive exactly. (other than no more than 70 total chests)
You aren't getting what you would get if you leveled a brand new account in crates as ChaosOS said in his post. But you got more gold from leveling your account initially, got each color tint for base mounts and heroes unlocked which they will have to get from crates, ect. You need an account hero level of at least 1,000 to get all 70 crates, and you will still get a crate every time you level a hero once it goes live. Keep in mind that you get 4 items of some type from each crate, you can re-roll multiple times, and you can unlock epic and legendary items, including multiples in even common crates. You are going to get a ton of free stuff if you have been playing for a long time and you can get stuff that previously you could only get by spending real money.
You also should get at least 1000 gems which you can use to buy more chests or new heroes/skins whatever.
I don't see anything in that blog post which specifies exactly what the ratio of the 70 chests would be. Like, they don't say "If you have earned more than 70 chests, you'll get X basic chests, Y rare chests, and Z legendary chests"
They just have the 70 cap and then the rate at which you earn chests, so it isn't clear what someone with player level 1500 would receive exactly. (other than no more than 70 total chests)
You aren't getting what you would get if you leveled a brand new account in crates as ChaosOS said in his post. But you got more gold from leveling your account initially, got each color tint for base mounts and heroes unlocked which they will have to get from crates, ect. You need an account hero level of at least 1,000 to get all 70 crates, and you will still get a crate every time you level a hero once it goes live. Keep in mind that you get 4 items of some type from each crate, you can re-roll multiple times, and you can unlock epic and legendary items, including multiples in even common crates. You are going to get a ton of free stuff if you have been playing for a long time and you can get stuff that previously you could only get by spending real money.
You also should get at least 1000 gems which you can use to buy more chests or new heroes/skins whatever.
I don't see anything in that blog post which specifies exactly what the ratio of the 70 chests would be. Like, they don't say "If you have earned more than 70 chests, you'll get X basic chests, Y rare chests, and Z legendary chests"
They just have the 70 cap and then the rate at which you earn chests, so it isn't clear what someone with player level 1500 would receive exactly. (other than no more than 70 total chests)
Played at least 1 game - 5 common
Per 10 account levels - +1 Common (Max 35)
Per 25 account levels - +1 Rare (Max 20)
Per 100 account levels - +1 Epic (Max 10)
Add up the max of each type and you get 70.
Danke, the max's on the end of each line is what tripped me up
edit->
So, a reddit user took the xp charts bliz provided and put together an excel sheet that estimates approximately what your new player level will be:
I've been playing since the beta and my estimated player level will be 1006. That means...
* I'm receiving about 65 fewer basic loot boxes * I'm receiving about 20 fewer rare loot boxes * I'm receiving exactly the number of epic boxes I deserve
This seems pretty fair to me. Obviously more stuff would be welcome, but it doesn't seem like 85 loot boxes is anything to cry about.
Keep in mind that every level after 10 is now the same xp and there is no hero cap. So I don't think veterans are going to be worse off than new players in earning rewards on any hero post-10 and 10 is going to be much easier to reach.
Some of the new skins look interesting. Nightmare Diablo whilst mounted looks like a Xenomorph crawling around. Sulfuron Uther is also eye candy. Infiltrator Dehaka looks sick as well.
I did notice (but this is probably PTR) that two skins I got via a code are locked on PTR, though the skins I've actually directly bought are available. I barely have any hero levels on PTR as the PTR is laggy for me playing from Europe.
My total hero level right now is a bit over 300 so I'm assuming I'll get a lot of chests when this hits live?
Most likely your new hero level will be even higher than 300 after they scale each hero up, especially if you have multiple heroes who are level 10 or higher. It looks like every level 10 or higher on live is going to convert to ~ 3 levels in 2.0. But if it was 300 then you would get 35 common, 12 rare, and 3 epic.
I'm interested to see when the Amazon is going to go live. I'm guessing next week. I know 2.0 doesn't come until April 25th, but it seems unlikely to have zero new heroes for over a month in live. If she does go live in the next two weeks, I am curious what other changes that aren't on the PTR might be coming with her. Also new mouse targeting option in 2.0:
k i'll be the guy to say it. attack move target point is the MBS/automining of moba
"you have no dexterity? no quickness, no accuracy? you can still get the same result as someone who has worked harder than you to improve those attributes!"
in SC2 it turned out ok because in RTS it's easy to fill a player's plate, giving them more things to do than they can possibly do. so they'll never successfully do everything they need to be doing. MBS/automining shifted attention away from doing those tasks and put it onto different kinds of tasks. overall difficulty didn't reduce, but rather the kinds of things you do changed. produce units faster/easier, get workers mining easier, then go spend more time harassing/defending. but for your basic moba hero, you've only got one task at a time. in this case, you are spending your time stutter stepping no matter what. and you're either doing it well or you're doing it poorly based on your skill. the easier the task is to perform, the less players can differentiate themselves, and therefore the less personal progress a person can make over months and years of playing the game.
Here is a 2.0 level converter and lootbox calculator someone made. Also the datamined 2.0 future bundle files revealed that Cassia is scheduled for release next week.
On April 01 2017 02:27 NonY wrote: k i'll be the guy to say it. attack move target point is the MBS/automining of moba
"you have no dexterity? no quickness, no accuracy? you can still get the same result as someone who has worked harder than you to improve those attributes!"
in SC2 it turned out ok because in RTS it's easy to fill a player's plate, giving them more things to do than they can possibly do. so they'll never successfully do everything they need to be doing. MBS/automining shifted attention away from doing those tasks and put it onto different kinds of tasks. overall difficulty didn't reduce, but rather the kinds of things you do changed. produce units faster/easier, get workers mining easier, then go spend more time harassing/defending. but for your basic moba hero, you've only got one task at a time. in this case, you are spending your time stutter stepping no matter what. and you're either doing it well or you're doing it poorly based on your skill. the easier the task is to perform, the less players can differentiate themselves, and therefore the less personal progress a person can make over months and years of playing the game.
I was thinking this more solves the problem of things overlapping visually on my screen causing confusion on what my targets are. (so targeting murky's egg is possible even if murky is causing his avatar to block sight of the egg), or targeting chromie can't be blocked just because diablo's body is slightly infringing on her hitbox.
Seems like a usability issue more than an accuracy one. If the game was truly 2d I don't think this change would be as needed, but the isometric view really screws with accurate clicks since battles are frequently very congested and things end up overlapping (esp on small monitors like mine)
On April 01 2017 02:27 NonY wrote: k i'll be the guy to say it. attack move target point is the MBS/automining of moba
"you have no dexterity? no quickness, no accuracy? you can still get the same result as someone who has worked harder than you to improve those attributes!"
in SC2 it turned out ok because in RTS it's easy to fill a player's plate, giving them more things to do than they can possibly do. so they'll never successfully do everything they need to be doing. MBS/automining shifted attention away from doing those tasks and put it onto different kinds of tasks. overall difficulty didn't reduce, but rather the kinds of things you do changed. produce units faster/easier, get workers mining easier, then go spend more time harassing/defending. but for your basic moba hero, you've only got one task at a time. in this case, you are spending your time stutter stepping no matter what. and you're either doing it well or you're doing it poorly based on your skill. the easier the task is to perform, the less players can differentiate themselves, and therefore the less personal progress a person can make over months and years of playing the game.
Uh, I'm not sure exactly what you're going for here. The previous system was horrible because it didn't matter where you a-clicked on the screen, you would always attack the closest character. The newest system greatly improves it by attacking whatever is closest to your cursor.
As far as attack move goes as a command in general, I don't even think of it as anything related to move or right-click focus. Of all people, I feel that you should be able to relate to the differences in attack move and normal movement in a pioneer game like Brood War. There are tons of examples where each command has it's own function (you do not a-move BW mutalisks, banelings need to be micro'd, etc.), though a-move does tend to be the default when moving large grounds of units.
In terms of MOBAs, I think a-move has a particular function in that it allows a unit to attack without the risk of moving. Even if you're the most god tier super gosu awesome mouse god king, right-click only stutter stepping sucks and is a lot slower than accurate a-move stutter stepping. The fact that a single misclick is so punishing in terms of losing DPS and putting yourself out of position is really the reason why right-click only is a nightmare and would be disastrous for a game.
Perhaps the issue is that heroes/champions autos specifically target models and can shoot over each other in the common MOBAs. If you implement something like a ARTS system where you can fire while standing still by holding Shift or something like Battlerite or Smite, there's definitely a lot more to stutter stepping and mouse accuracy. But trying to apply that to a game like LoL or Heroes of the Storm is so far out there, I'm not sure the current game would even be compatible.
Either way, I'd still take the improved a-move targeting over the shitty one that was in place before.
On April 01 2017 02:27 NonY wrote: k i'll be the guy to say it. attack move target point is the MBS/automining of moba
"you have no dexterity? no quickness, no accuracy? you can still get the same result as someone who has worked harder than you to improve those attributes!"
in SC2 it turned out ok because in RTS it's easy to fill a player's plate, giving them more things to do than they can possibly do. so they'll never successfully do everything they need to be doing. MBS/automining shifted attention away from doing those tasks and put it onto different kinds of tasks. overall difficulty didn't reduce, but rather the kinds of things you do changed. produce units faster/easier, get workers mining easier, then go spend more time harassing/defending. but for your basic moba hero, you've only got one task at a time. in this case, you are spending your time stutter stepping no matter what. and you're either doing it well or you're doing it poorly based on your skill. the easier the task is to perform, the less players can differentiate themselves, and therefore the less personal progress a person can make over months and years of playing the game.
idk, I feel you could argue that against anything HOTS has/doesnt have compared to other games in the genre.
Is Dota 2 really less skillful because it has quickcast compared to Dota 1? Is League of legends more skillful than Dota/HOTS because League of legends doesn't have shift queue casting ?
new Mastery Taunts explained. Not sure what to think because taunts in general are rarely ever used. Maybe if you could move while taunting they would have more of a place.
More Uther news:
On March 30 2017 08:25 karazax wrote: Uther details they remembered from summit (they didn't remember exact details on all of this):
new additional trait function that gives armor when ever you heal, (2 seconds of 25% armor after heal, does not stack)
Q casts heal uther too
Level 1 talents
W quest at 1 gives mana efficiency
Q quest to reduce Q mana cost
stun quest
level 4
all damage/offensive talents
level 7
Q talent that when you get stunned you can reset holy shock which can be buffed at level 4 for dmg
cleanse variant with cool down reduction when you auto attack but longer base cool down
Armor bonus from trait boosted to 60 as viable alternative to cleanse
10
basically the same
13
dmg amp and slow talent was the one they remembered
didn't remember 16 and 20 talents or didn't get that far in their games.
Hello. Figured I'd tell you guys what I remembered. I played a decent amount of uther there but I was pretty hammered not gonna lie so here's the talents/build I went. Also his Q is like Tyrandes now, self heals self always. His trait gives 25 armor for 2 seconds. Still has death passive on it too.
I went the holy shock damage uther. It really makes you feel like a retribution paladin because you had hammering people, drenching them in light, self healing, and gaining armor. You are tanky with self sustain heals, sustained damage, and damage mitigation.
Also, I was told we were playing an old build of the uther rework. I'll just say he will be one of the most broken heroes this game has ever seen if he is released with the numbers he had there. While the shock build is REALLY good, his healing build will be retarded.
Talents
1.
Varian quest but for Q. Each one you complete reduces mana cost of Q by 10 (the mana cost is still 90). Once you complete all 3 the range of your Q is increased by 40 percent. The mana portion of this quest was bugged and wasn't reducing the cost so I did not take this.
W quest. Every hero you hit refunds 8 mana. I believe the quest was just to heal/damage people like 80 times. The reward was increasing the 25 armor on healing people from 2 seconds to 4.5.
E quest. Hit people, get 1.5 percent mana back. Hit enough people and the reward is every auto reduces E CD by 1 second.
4.
HOLY SHOCK. Removed the thing that made it so your next Q healed allies more. Still does 50 of the healing as damage, but it also now refunds 40 mana. Had the Q quest worked each shock would have cost 20 mana.
FIRE. I believe the numbers were about the same.
MS increase when you Ed someone.
7.
When you get stun/rooted your Q CDR is 100 percent faster for 6 seconds. Means 3 second CD holy shocks.
The thing that makes him broken is this: if you heal a stun/rooted (maybe slowed?) ally you increase the armor bonus from 25 to 60 or 65. This means uther essentially gives Rag's 13 to all heroes. There is no cooldown. It will last for 4.5 seconds with W quest. This does not work on uther himself. Pray we don't get this on live. This is better than cleanse.
Cleanse that goes on faster CD when you auto. 90 second CD.
10.
Same
13.
There was an important talent for the shock build but I forgot it. Bless open bar.
WELL MET! Hammer stun slows MS by 25 percent, reduces damage they deal by same amount for 3 seconds
lol alcohol
16.
Benediction
When below 50 percent health, the self heal on Q heals you for 100 percent more. This basically means you do a full heal of Q on yourself whenever you holyshock/heal someone when youre below 50 percent HP. So now you get stunned, have CDR, and holy shock. You can do full Q burst heals on yourself every 3 seconds while doing good damage. Again 13 had a talent that played into this build but I can't remember
That Valkyrie drink was LIT 100 100 100
20.
Believe everything here was the same. One new talent: The 25 armor bonus is doubled on uther. Autoing refreshes the duration. Basically you'll have a permanent 50 percent armor with the retribution dream.
Overall if you like Uther get VERY hyped. His healing build feels more paladin like with the armor and damage reduction, his mana issues aren't anywhere near as bad since they tied mana correction issues into all of his level 1 talents (this is good because atm you HAVE to get mana reduction at 1, can't go for like auto CD reduction on E).
His healing build is retarded simply because you can give your allies 4.5 seconds of 60 armor any time they are CCed. It's way too much.
And my personal favorite, holy shock build, totally makes you feel like a retribution paladin. You can play super aggressive like a warrior through self healing, sustained damage, and armor. Then you can bring off heals to your teammates as needed. I was always at least 2nd-3rd damage in my games, while first damage was never more than about 10-15k more than me (was hitting like 40-55k damage in games with very good healing). Basically we get the paladin fantasy now.
On April 01 2017 02:27 NonY wrote: k i'll be the guy to say it. attack move target point is the MBS/automining of moba
"you have no dexterity? no quickness, no accuracy? you can still get the same result as someone who has worked harder than you to improve those attributes!"
in SC2 it turned out ok because in RTS it's easy to fill a player's plate, giving them more things to do than they can possibly do. so they'll never successfully do everything they need to be doing. MBS/automining shifted attention away from doing those tasks and put it onto different kinds of tasks. overall difficulty didn't reduce, but rather the kinds of things you do changed. produce units faster/easier, get workers mining easier, then go spend more time harassing/defending. but for your basic moba hero, you've only got one task at a time. in this case, you are spending your time stutter stepping no matter what. and you're either doing it well or you're doing it poorly based on your skill. the easier the task is to perform, the less players can differentiate themselves, and therefore the less personal progress a person can make over months and years of playing the game.
Uh, I'm not sure exactly what you're going for here.
I contrast it with A-clicking, not right clicking. So if you're A-clicking, then either you hit the target you want, you hit the target you didn't want, or your hero moves (target is out of range). The new system makes it so that is gonna be a lot easier to hit the target you want anytime your target isn't totally surrounded by other targets. The total area on the screen that you can A-click to attack the target you want will be much bigger. So now there'll be cases of players with worse dexterity and accuracy getting the same results as players with better dexterity and accuracy.
So i've been trying to gain some reroll gold as i've been rather low on gold. I've raised several seldom played heroes to 9, and a couple to level 5 in so doing. I take it, its possible that may have been a mistake.
Also question, say you get a legendary skin in a pack for a hero you'll never play. However it being legendary is probably worth the most shards. Is there away to convert it to shards? Even, if it isn't a duplicate of something you own?
Said another way, Can you sacrifice rare items received into their respective shard price?
Im not against it. But nowdays i don't play heroes enough to keep up with the changes. Maybe they should be a little bit more considerate with the casuals
In 2.0 you will get 500 gold every 5 levels and a chest every level. Because 1-10 are faster to level, you get more chests faster waiting for 2.0 on your low level heroes. That being said many people have complained that this "punishes" people who already have all their heroes at 10 or higher and there is a chance Blizzard changes some of these details before they go live. Overall "optimizing" your rewards isn't worth it to me if it means not playing at all.
Right now there is no way to turn unwanted items into shards. It's something that has been suggested by other users. I expect a significant number of 2.0 features are going to be added before it goes live at the end of the month.
Over the past few days, we’ve seen many conversations in the community surrounding the Loot Chests we’re awarding to our veteran players when Heroes of the Storm 2.0 goes live on April 25. After reading through the feedback that many of you have shared, we’ve decided to improve upon the plan we posted in our initial Heroes 2.0 announcement.
Progression and Loot Chests
Whenever we roll out a new system, we strive to ensure it will help the game continue to evolve in a positive direction. We also do our best to strike a balance between creating features that are fun and rewarding for all players, and recognizing those of you who have been doing battle in the Nexus since the beginning. We’re very excited to bring the new progression and rewards systems to Heroes of the Storm and feel that they will accomplish all of these goals quite well.
With the changes we’ve made to Hero Level XP requirements, new players and veterans alike will be getting more meaningful rewards more often. Some of these include new mechanics and reward types that didn’t exist in Heroes when we first launched the game, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll do with them. Since we’ve also uncapped progression, you’ll be able to continue playing the Heroes you love, and receiving meaningful rewards, indefinitely.
One aspect of the Heroes 2.0 launch that we’d like to “level-up” is how we’re thanking the most dedicated Heroes players among you. We are incredibly grateful for your support, your enthusiasm, and all the fun matches we’ve played together since launch.
Updated Loot Chests for Current Players
Here are the updated rewards you will receive as a celebration of Heroes 2.0 and a gift to recognize your dedication to Heroes thus far:
Loot Chest Adjustments
If you’ve finished at least one Heroes of the Storm match before 2.0 is released, you’re going to receive five Common Loot Chests—but that’s just the beginning. Additionally, we’ve replaced all of the Common and Rare Loot Chests awarded at every 10 and 25 Player Levels (as outlined in our previous announcement) with Epic Loot Chests. Each Epic Loot Chest guarantees at least one item of Epic rarity, or higher, and you’ll receive up to 55 of them based on your converted Player Level after the Heroes 2.0 release. Player Level Rewards
Completed at least 1 Heroes match 5 Loot Chests
Every 10 Player Levels +1 Epic Loot Chest (55 maximum)
Every 100 Player Levels +1 Veteran Loot Chest (10 maximum)
Veteran Loot Chests
Our most dedicated players will receive special “Veteran Chests” that contain five coins, rather than four, and guarantee at least one Legendary item per chest. Veteran Chests are a unique type of Loot Chest we’ve created specifically for our most dedicated players as part of the Heroes 2.0 launch, and cannot be earned through progression in the new system. Like the Epic Loot Chest rewards above, the number of Veteran Chests you will receive is based on your total, converted Player Level in the new progression system.
30 Day Stimpack
In order to give you a boost heading into our newly revamped progression system, players who reached level 40 prior to Heroes of the Storm 2.0 will also receive a 30-Day Stimpack! The 100% XP bonus it offers means you’ll level up and unlock Loot Chests even faster!
Whether you’re entering the Nexus for the first time in Heroes 2.0, or you’ve been with us for years, we believe you’re going to love the future of Heroes of the Storm we have in store. Thank you to everyone who has been with us on this epic journey; we hope you’ll continue sharing your constructive feedback about Heroes 2.0 over the coming weeks. See you in the Nexus!
It's funny how powerful names are. This isn't a huge upgrade in terms of the items people will receive, but reddit seems to overwhelmingly accept this as a solution. It seems the main issue was that blizzard was giving away "common" chests (which still drop epic items a fair amount of the time).
The new rewards seem silly-big, but whatever. I'll be maxing out on them, so I'll be receiving 55 epic items and 10 legendary items. I'm assuming skins are the only epic/legendary items since skins are the only things with rarities listed on the beta.
Guaranteed epics and legendary items is a pretty nice upgrade. Blizzard said the loot system has a randomization bias to reduce the chances of getting something you already have and most veterans who are getting a bunch of chests can afford to re-roll up to 4 times on each one. A guaranteed epic or legendary on every re-roll gives players a much higher chance to get items they want from each chest than before, and the veteran chests give 5 items instead of 4 is a nice bonus.
On April 05 2017 04:17 karazax wrote: Guaranteed epics and legendary items is a pretty nice upgrade. Blizzard said the loot system has a randomization bias to reduce the chances of getting something you already have and most veterans who are getting a bunch of chests can afford to re-roll up to 4 times on each one. A guaranteed epic or legendary on every re-roll gives players a much higher chance to get items they want from each chest than before, and the veteran chests give 5 items instead of 4 is a nice bonus.
I am not saying it isn't nice of bliz to upgrade these--- I just think it's remarkable how such a small upgrade can appease so many people. I opened 10 common chests on beta and got 3 epic+ skins. So, they feel pretty common already.
On April 05 2017 04:17 karazax wrote: Guaranteed epics and legendary items is a pretty nice upgrade. Blizzard said the loot system has a randomization bias to reduce the chances of getting something you already have and most veterans who are getting a bunch of chests can afford to re-roll up to 4 times on each one. A guaranteed epic or legendary on every re-roll gives players a much higher chance to get items they want from each chest than before, and the veteran chests give 5 items instead of 4 is a nice bonus.
I am not saying it isn't nice of bliz to upgrade these--- I just think it's remarkable how such a small upgrade can appease so many people. I opened 10 common chests on beta and got 3 epic+ skins. So, they feel pretty common already.
I think there are two reasons, why this update is actually quite big:
-> Your example proves the opposite of what you'd like to prove, imo. 3 epic skins+ in 10 boxes isn't that much. After the update you'd get an epic+ Item in 13 out of 14 chests. That's quite a bit more.
-> You'll get up to 10 legendary items (without any RNG factor, because you are guaranteed 1 legendary per 100 levels). Especially with all the reroll opportunities, the veteran chests are a big deal.
I was disappointed initially and am more than happy. Kw. And I think there's good reason for this.
Blizz Q&A paraphrased summary of major talking points: Heroes:
ETC
ETC was doing too many things. He could be drafted as a general warrior, he could split push/have a global with Stage Dive, he could set up strong Wombos with Mosh Pit, and he could pair well with Basic Attackers with his trait. For someone who we thought did well in a more generalist role, we needed to pare down all the things he brought. We felt the Attack Speed was the most vestigial component, as it was moderately hidden, and wasn't so strong as to be an obvious draft implication.
Uther
Why no auras like paladins in WC3 and WoW? passive auras have no play/counterplay; not interesting mechanically. Devotion Aura (dmg mitigation to allies) is something they hope to address.
Status on Uther rework? Is he delayed because he was too strong at the 2.0 summit? It's coming along, and will be ready for you guys soon(tm)! The version we had at the event wasn't the final version, and there's still some iteration going on!
Medivh
Any talent update plans? No. He can be a dominant hero at high skill levels. They track win rates by level and Medivh has one of the steepest curves with one of the highest win rates at really high levels.
Alarak
Why no love for Alarak? And make double cross baseline.
We are working on Alarak. A certain "Mildly Popular" level 4 talent is making it in baseline... <WINK WINK>
Other heroes that have no plans for reworks any time soon:
Raynor
The Lost Vikings
Mechanics:
Any plans for more anti-shield mechanics?
Anti-shielding mechanics is definitely something we're discussing. We like Varian's, but want to be careful who gets them and how they're used.
One thing we are trying to do with reworks with healers is to move more of their "power pie" (what things they are strong at) out of healing and into utility, to give them more ways to make plays and otherwise influence battles.
we are definitely looking at ways to increase visibility into Armor, both permanent Armors and temporary Armor adjustments. We think we can do better, and are actively discussing how and when we can get it into the game!
Thoughts on what makes a warrior a viable solo tank?
Game is always evolving so this could change, but our current line of thought, we view Tanks as needing 3 main qualities:
Initiate
Peel
Self-Survivability
Loot chest details:
There’s no biasing against duplicates. The shard/crafting system is there to handle the duplicates and is sort of self-regulating since the more items you have, the more duplicates you’d get, which opens the door to more shards allowing you to more easily craft the items you don’t have. Contents for Loot Chests are rolled at the time they are first opened. We debated this for a while, but in the end figured that allowed more flexibility for players. You’ve earned the chests and if you want to hold onto it to open in the future rather than dive into it immediately, that’s your choice.
Info about API release schedule?
We don't have any details to talk about right now, but it's being worked on internally. We'll get info out once it's closer to launch.
Add a Clan System?
We've very interested in implementing a Clan system and agree that it would add a lot to the social aspect of the game. No time frame to share on when it may happen as it's a pretty big undertaking, but it's on our list.
What happens if I have a level 20 hero on live who has hundreds of games played after 20? Will I get credit for the extra xp that would have been earned after 20?
No. A Hero at the current level cap of 20 converts to level 55 with the experience curve we’re using in the beta. We may tweak things a bit over the course of our beta test, but it should end up in that range. The existing hero level cap is 20 and you don't earn XP above the cap (so it is not tracked). These changes allow new opportunities to gain levels by removing that cap.
Voice Chat Coming?
Voice chat is something we're actively working on and a major priority for us. No details yet on when it will be completed.
Better reconnect system? We're currently working on improvements to the reconnect system. While I don’t have any specifics to share, we're aware that it is a major pain point and are committed to make it a smoother player experience.
When will we be able to gift items?
Gifting is a great idea and we've heard many players ask for it. There are a few technical hurdles we have to tackle before implementing it, but it's a feature we're really interested in working on in the near future.
Can we have the option to go back to lobby after a custom game ends?
Great suggestion. That's actually something we're not happy with as well. We've had discussions about rematch functionality internally, but we don't have any concrete plans to share at this time.
XP in Brawls?
XP will be rewarded in Brawls in 2.0. In the case of Arenas with multiple rounds, the XP earned will be split between the Heroes you played. The score screen should be updated for launch
Add option to set Announcer voice packs as default for all heroes in 2.0?
This is something they plan on doing.
Do you have any plans to bring Overwatch’s Victory Poses for MVP screen, Emotes, and Taunt Animations to the Nexus as new cosmetic items?
That's a great idea! We’re definitely interested in adding victory poses and animations in many areas, but we need to do some investigation, look into technical issues, etc. but we want to introduce these features in the near future.
Is (insert your favorite hero not in the game) coming soon?
Sorry, I can't really discuss anything that's in development.
Can we disable emojis, sprays and banners if we want in game?
No, we are limiting one spray at a time and they last 8 seconds; banners only happen in areas that should not intrude with game play and if you mute a player it will remove all their messages including emojis from your chat log to prevent abusive spamming being a problem.
Targeting abilities by clicking on Party Frames is a controversial topic in the community with some people saying that it's needed to get maximum value from some heroes (especially supports) and others saying that it the game would require less mechanical skill. What is your opinion on that and is it a feature that we might see in the future?
It is definitely on our radar to get to soon(tm). We're currently looking at allowing players to use target unit abilities on allies only (as we feel it's the most beneficial for Healers).
Sounds like 2.0 is all interface and out of game focused. Any new battlegrounds, heroes, or exciting gameplay changes coming?
There's still more exciting things about Heroes 2.0 that we'll be sharing later! In fact, you can check out this nifty page to get a sneak peek at when we'll showing those things off! http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes20/
Our latest update for the Heroes of the Storm 2.0 Open Beta brings a new Hero and Battleground, as well as a host of balance changes and bug fixes, to the Nexus!
Once the carefree youngest scion of the Shimada clan, Genji was cut down by his own brother for refusing to take part in their illegal ventures. Grafted into a cyborg body by Overwatch, Genji walks his own path as one who fights for what’s right.
Trait
Cyber Agility (D) Activate to jump to the target area.
Basic Abilities
Shuriken (Q) Throw 3 Shuriken in a spread pattern, each damaging the first enemy it hits. Stores up to 3 charges. Shuriken’s cooldown replenishes all charges at the same time. Deflect (W) Become Protected for 1.25 seconds. Any damage blocked during this period causes Genji to throw a Kunai toward the nearest enemy, prioritizing Heroes and dealing damage. Swift Strike (E) Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. Enemy Heroes who die within 2 seconds after being hit by Swift Strike cause the cooldown and Mana cost to be refunded.
Heroic Abilities
Dragonblade (R) Unleash the Dragonblade for 8 seconds. While active, Dragonblade can be reactivated to lunge forward and slash in a huge arc. If any enemy Heroes are killed within 2 seconds after being hit by Dragonblade, Swift Strike’s cooldown is reset. X-Strike (R) Perform 2 perpendicular slashes that deal damage and ignite after 1.25 seconds, dealing additional damage to enemies in their area of effect.
Protected Cores Both Cores are protected by a barrier that cannot be attacked by Heroes. Payloads must be escorted across the Battleground in order to deal damage to the enemy Core. Escort Payloads The first set of Payloads spawn for each team after 2:30 into the match, and additional waves will periodically spawn throughout the rest of the game. Stand near an allied payload to escort it. The more allies who are present to escort a payload, the faster it will move. This effect caps at 3 nearby allies. Payloads that haven’t been escorted for a period of time will begin to slowly move backward. Empowered Payloads Destroying enemy Forts will cause the next allied Payload to deal additional damage when it arrives at its destination. Destroying enemy Keeps will cause Sappers to spawn with allied Minion waves, which will fire on the Core upon reaching the end of their lanes. Deal a total of 7 damage the opposing Core to claim victory!
Mercenary Camps
Three types of Mercenary Camps exist on Hanamura, and captured Mercenaries will not travel down a lane to attack enemies. Instead, captured Mercenary Camps will each award one of three consumable power-ups. Right-click a power-up to collect it, and then use the “Map Mechanic Ability” hotkey (Default: F) to activate it. Recon Camp Reward: Dragon Spirits Release 3 Dragon Spirits that seek out enemy Heroes, who are then revealed for 5 seconds. Dragon Spirits are destroyed after finding enemy Heroes or after 10 seconds. Fortification Camp Reward: Turret Place a Turret on the ground or on your team’s payload. Support Camp Reward: Healing Pulse Restore 35% Health and 23% Mana to you and your allies over 15 seconds. Mega Enforcer Defeat the Mega Enforcer found at the center of Hanamura to fire 1 shot on the opposing Core.
Visual effects that indicate Movement Speed bonuses have received updates. Sprays have received additional polish that should help them feel more integrated with battleground environments.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Tassadar: Nullification (Talent) has received updated visual effects.
As a reminder, real-money purchases have been disabled in the Open Beta, and any items unlocked via Gold, Shards, Gems, or Loot Chests will not transfer to the live version of the game when Heroes of the Storm 2.0 is released.
The items listed below have been added to the Collection, and will be available for Gem purchase for a limited time. New Skins Genji Oni Genji, Vengeful Oni Genji, Moss Oni Genji Auriel Sakura Auriel, Spring Sakura Auriel, Scarlet Sakura Auriel Zarya Cyberdemon Zarya, Indigo Cyberdemon Zarya, Cyborgdemon Zarya New Bundles and Skin Packs Genji Heroic Bundle Sakura Auriel Skin Pack Cyberdemon Zarya Skin Pack Much like new Heroes receive a Gold price reduction once they’ve been in the Nexus for a few weeks, new skins and mounts that are unlockable using Gems start at a higher than normal Shard price. These items will receive a Shard price reduction a few weeks after they are added to the game. New items that are only unlockable via Loot Chests and Forging (such as a new version of an existing Skin) will not start at a higher Shard price, or receive a Shard price reduction.
Attack Move Target Point Attack Move Target Point has been added to the Gameplay Options menu. If enabled, attack move (default: A + Left-Click) concentrates on the closest enemy to the target point. If disabled, attack move concentrates on the closest enemy to your Hero.
Item borders have received updated art to make it easier to differentiate between owned and unowned items in your Collection. Heroes An “All Heroes” tab has been added to the Heroes page in your Collection. Portraits Selecting the Basic Portrait Border in your Collection will now display your current Player Level on loading screens, in the party panel, and the player’s profile. All Player Level Progression Badge and Portrait Borders have received updated art.
Completing matches in Heroes Brawl will now award Hero XP. In cases where multiple Heroes are used during the same Heroes Brawl, the total XP earned will be divided evenly among them. Completing the weekly Heroes Brawl quest will now award a Loot Chest, rather than a Portrait and Gold.
Issuing an in-game Taunt using a Hero who has reached level 15 or higher will now display unique “mastery” visual effects. The Hero will also play its taunt animation and voiceover. Issue an in-game Taunt using the radial emote menu (default: X), by pressing the Taunt hotkey (default: J), or by typing “/Taunt” into chat. Additional Hero Mastery Taunts will be added to the game in future patches, unlocking at levels 25, 50, 75, and 100. Read our recent blog on Mastery Taunts for more information.
Upon re-rolling a Loot Chest that contains a Rare, Epic, or Legendary item, a warning dialog will now appear that asks the player to confirm whether or not they’d like to re-roll the chest. Previously, this warning would only appear when re-rolling chests that contained Legendary Items. This will not occur for chests that only contain common items.
Sacred Sweep (Q) Damage increased from 75 to 80 Center damage increased from 150 to 160
Detainment Strike (E) Damage increased from 100 to 115 Terrain collision damage increased from 100 to 115
Resurrect (R) New Functionality Increased cooldown from 70 to 120 seconds Reduced channel time from 3 to 0.5 seconds Added a 5 second delay between finishing the cast and the Hero coming back to life
Talents
Level 1
Increase Clarity (Q) Damage bonus for completing the quest increased from 120 to 150
Righteous Assault (Q) Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds per Hero hit No longer has a cap
Level 4
Repeated Offense (E) Quest reward damage bonus increased from 200 to 250
Level 7
Glimmer of Hope (Trait) Energy cost reduction increased from 50% to 75%
Empathic Link (Trait) Energy stored for damage taken by Bestow Hope’s target increased from 20% to 25%
Level 13
Blinding Flash (Q) Blind duration reduced from 3 to 2.25 seconds
Piercing Lash (E) Now also reduces the cooldown by 2 seconds for each enemy Hero hit
Level 20
Shield of Hope (Active) Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds
Light Speed (R) New Functionality Removed the increased Health upon reviving Now causes the cooldown of Resurrect to recharge 100% faster while previous target is alive
Plasma Shield (Q) Duration decreased from 5 to 4 seconds Shield amount decreased from 550 to 475
Force Wall (R) Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25
Talents
Level 1
Khaydarin Resonance (Passive) New functionality: Quest: Regeneration Globes grant 50% more Mana to Tassadar Reward: After collecting 15 Globes, increase the Shield amount of Plasma Shield by 15% Reward: After collecting 30 Globes, increase the Shield amount by an additional 15%
Level 4
Khala’s Celerity (Q) Movement Speed bonus reduced from 25 to 20% Movement Speed bonus duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
Khala’s Embrace (Q) Life steal increased from 50% to 60%
Level 20
Twilight Archon (R) Updated functionality: Basic Attacks while in Archon form increase Archon’s duration by 2 seconds
Holy Light (Q) Healing amount reduced from 427 to 380 Now also heals Uther for 190 if cast on an ally
Holy Radiance (W) Healing amount reduced from 219 to 160 (now matches damage) Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60
Eternal Devotion (Trait) Added Functionality: When Uther heals anyone with a Basic Ability, they gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds. This effect does not stack with itself.
Talents
Level 1
Conjurer’s Pursuit (Passive) Removed
Wave of Light (W) No longer has a cap on the Mana return and Cooldown Reduction amounts Now grants the benefits when enemy Heroes are damaged Increased the amount of Mana returned from 8 to 10 Added a quest component: !Quest: Heal or damage 60 Heroes with Holy Radiance !Reward: Increase the duration of Eternal Devotion’s Armor effect to 3 seconds
Hammer of the Lightbringer (E) New functionality: Uther’s Basic Attacks restore 1.5% of his maximum Mana !Quest: Hit 75 enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks !Reward: Basic Attacks also reduce the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 1 second
Fist of Justice (E) Removed
(New) Silver Touch (Q) !Quest: Reduce damage taken from Heroes using Eternal Devotion's Armor effect !Reward: After reducing 40 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by 20 !Reward: After reducing 80 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by an additional 20 and increase the cast range by 50%
Level 4
Beacon of Light (Q) Moved to level 16 New functionality: While below 50% Health, Uther receives 200% more self-healing when healing others with Holy Light
Boundless Conviction (W) Removed
Protective Shield (Active) Removed
(New) Pursuit of Justice (E) Casting Hammer of Justice increases Uther's Movement Speed by 20% for 3 seconds
Level 7
Burden of Guilt (E) Removed
Holy Fire (Passive) Moved to level 4 Damage reduced from 18 to 16 per second
Cleanse (Active) Removed
(New) Armor of Faith (Trait) Holy Light recharges 100% faster for 6 seconds when Uther is Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced
(New) Guardian of Ancient Kings (Trait) Healing a Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced Hero with a Basic Ability increases the Armor bonus of Eternal Devotion from 25 to 75
(New) Hand of Protection (Active) Activate to make target ally Unstoppable for 1 second. Cannot be cast on yourself. 90 second cooldown. Basic Attack reduce this cooldown by 5 seconds.
Level 13
Blessed Champion (Q) Healing from Basic Attacks reduced from 20% to 15% of Holy Light, but is calculated from the combined total of Holy Light’s Ally and self heal
Holy Shock (Q) Moved to level 4 No longer increases the value of Uther’s next Holy Light, but instead refunds 45 Mana when cast on an enemy Holy Shock still heals Uther for 200 if cast on an enemy
Shrink Ray (Active) Removed
(New) Well Met (E) Hammer of Justice also reduces enemy Hero Movement Speed by 25% and damage by 25% for 3 seconds
Level 16
Hardened Focus (Passive) Removed
Righteous Defense (Q) Removed
Gathering Radiance (W) Removed
(New) Tyr's Deliverance (W) Hitting an allied Hero with Holy Radiance increases their healing received by 40% for 6 seconds
Level 20
(New) Divine Protection (Trait) Eternal Devotion's Armor can now stack twice. Each new application will refresh the duration of both armor effects
Burrow Charge (E) Hovering over this ability will now show the range indicator for distance traveled, as well as the area affected when he emerges from burrow
Locust Swarm (R) Damage per second reduced from 60 to 55 A range indicator will now appear to Anub’arak while Locust Swarm is active
Talents
Level 7
Subterranean Shield (E) Shield amount reduced from 365 to 345
Level 13
Urticating Spines (W) Hovering over the ability button after selecting this talent will now show a range indicator
Level 16
Epicenter (E) Cooldown reduction decreased from 2 to 1.5 seconds per Hero hit
Battlefield of Eternity: Fixed a rare issue in which an Immortal could be awarded to the wrong team if both Immortals were killed at nearly the same time. Haunted Mines: The terrain surrounding Sapper Merc Camps will now correctly block vision of the camp. Haunted Mines: Leoric will no longer fail to respawn properly after being killed via damage dealt by a nearby spawning Grave Golem. Tomb of the Spider Queen: Webweavers will no longer become distracted by Summoned units. Try Mode: The Complete Quests button will now correctly set Zul’jin’s You Want Axe quest to 120 attacks, rather than 500. Try Mode: The Reset Talents button will now correctly remove bonus Hungering Arrow strikes earned by previously completing the Puncturing Arrow quest. Try Mode: Tassadar’s Oracle cooldown will now be correctly reduced by 15 seconds when completing the Mental Acuity quest via the Complete Quests button.
Cyber Ram: Fixed an issue in which the Cyber Ram’s hind legs appeared slanted. Gazlowe: Restored missing visual effects during Gazlowe’s transformation into Robo-Goblin form. Greymane: Restored missing visual effects during Go for the Throat. Rexxar: Misha, Focus! now uses the same Ability icon in-game as it does on Rexxar’s detail page in the Collection. Valla: Strafe visual effects will no longer continue to play after the Ability expires. Varian: Will no longer appear scaled-down on the Ranked Play screen. Xul: Will no longer appear offset on the Ranked Play screen.
Quest Talents: Fixed a bug that caused quest talents that track every second to ping continuously. They will now only ping every 5 seconds as intended. Regeneration Globes: Will now play an animation upon expiration rather than suddenly disappearing. Spell Shield: Toggling Spell Shield will no longer cancel an active Hearthstone channel. Abathur: Heroes can no longer push a player-controlled Monstrosity by walking into it. Auriel: Detainment Strike will now correctly stun enemies who collide with corners of terrain. Auriel: Fixed an issue that could cause Resurrect’s revive message to appear on the MVP screen. Chen: Freshest Ingredients will no longer grant 3 Health Regeneration stacks for Regeneration Globes collected during Storm, Earth Fire. Diablo: Fixed an issue preventing Diablo from using Basic Attacks against his Overpower target if Overpower was interrupted by Zeratul’s Void Prison. Cho: Twilight Hammer will now deal damage to Murky’s Pufferfish. Gall: Fixed an issue that could cause Gall to use his base skin on the MVP screen despite using an alternate skin during the match. Gazlowe: Can now correctly issue commands to active Rock-It! Turrets while dead. Illidan: Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to respawn at his death location if he cast Sweeping Strikes in the same moment that he was killed. Murky: Can no longer call down a Nuke during Safety Bubble on Warhead Junction. Nazeebo: Corpse Spiders will no longer prioritize Kharazim’s Air Ally or Lúcio’s Boombox over enemy Heroes. Probius: Pylons and Photon Cannons will no longer be affected by Power Overflowing when Probius is not inside a Pylon’s Power Field. Samuro: Way of Illusion will no longer continue to generate quest progress icons after its quest is complete. Tassadar: Prismatic Link will no longer cause Basic Attacks to continue to hit the tertiary target if the primary and secondary targets move out of range of one another. The Butcher: Victuals will no longer stop functioning after completing Fresh Meat’s quest. The Butcher: Butcher’s Brand visual effects will no longer persist on a Punisher until it is killed. The Butcher: Will now properly receive Healing for Basic Attack damage dealt to a Punisher affected by Butcher’s Brand. The Lost Vikings: Fixed an issue causing Olaf to begin attacking the nearest enemy after using Charge, rather than the intended target. Tracer: After using Blink, Tracer will now correctly continue to walk in the direction she was originally moving prior to the cast. Tyrael: Fixed an issue that could cause Archangel’s Wrath to immediately explode on death, and prevent Tyrael from respawning. Varian: After learning Second Wind, Varian will now correctly earn bonus Healing for bonus damage dealt by Shattering Throw against a Shielded target. Zagara: Damage dealt by Hunter Killer and Roach summons will no longer be reduced by Armor. Zeratul: A revealed icon will no longer appear above enemies hit by Rending Cleave. Zul’jin: Taz'dingo! Will now correctly prevent Zul’jin from dying when cast at the same moment that he would have taken fatal damage.
Hotkeys: Control group hotkeys in the default Standard for Lefties profile now correctly mirror the Standard profile, with the first slot bound to the 7 key. Heroes Brawl: Brawls that only require completion of 2 matches will no longer state that 3 matches are needed in order to earn rewards. Kill Feed: The Kill Feed will no longer display blank portraits for Heroes who are killed by an Immortal while the Immortals are dueling on Battlefield of Eternity.
On April 18 2017 00:27 h41fgod wrote: Exactly what was expected. Why did they stop using the tracer variant on gaining ultimates for overwatch heroes?
To hard to balance probably, especially with Zarya. Clip mechanic is also Tracer only, and Mana added with Lucio T.T. Missed opportunity Imo, but I wouldn't see a way past minion ult farming either. Which can cause alot of issues.
Should have done a duo release of Hanzo/Genji . And given one for free, while locking the other for 3 weeks for each player. That probably just sounds good in my head.
Uther looks broken. Whether going with a traditional healer build with 75% armor when your target is stunned, silenced or rooted, or going DPS Shockadin like Horsepants does in this VOD
Nothing like 1k healing every time you shock an enemy along with armor
On April 18 2017 19:27 karazax wrote: Next week (25th in NA, 26th in EU).
Uther looks broken. Whether going with a traditional healer build with 75% armor when your target is stunned, silenced or rooted, or going DPS Shockadin like Horsepants does in this VOD
Nothing like 1k healing every time you shock an enemy along with armor
I expect more of this from the supports, they are so few in number it makes sense that Blizzard is really trying to make every support really good. They already buffed Malfurion to OP then kind of dialed him back a bit, now it's Uther's turn.
Li Li, she was already capable of big DPS numbers before the buff to blind. With no skill shots at all, hopefully she is never the top tier 1 support though.
Free HOTS hero Megabundles at the launch of 2.0 will give players 20 free heroes in Assassin, Flex, Support and specialist or tank & bruiser packs which is especially great for new players, but nice bonus for everyone missing some heroes.
On April 21 2017 02:46 karazax wrote: Free HOTS hero Megabundles at the launch of 2.0 will give players 20 free heroes in Assassin, Flex, Support and specialist or tank & bruiser packs which is especially great for new players, but nice bonus for everyone missing some heroes.
free heroes for new players is a great thing. I think they should have named them a bit more generically--- aside from the assassin bundle, it's hard to say why all the heroes in each bundle were put together.
Wow, they are just giving away everything with the Mega bundles. Honestly though this really will make me try to get some of my friends to play.
Being able to pick up 20 new heroes for free off the bat is a crazy good deal. Then assuming you play that's (20 * 500) 10,000 for gold you can easily earn.
Can get 4 new heroes with 2 of the bundles either the Assassin or Tank bundle. Alarak with both.
Greymane vs Ragnaros Valeera Samauro Zul'Gin Varian
On April 24 2017 06:05 FeyFey wrote: Now I wonder how good Vikings will be on Hanamura. I mean after they make Vikings not count has hero for quests and kills. ;_;
It's fine as long as it doesn't last for more than a second and has a respectable cooldown. Constantly getting Protected is indeed annoying to play against as there is no effective counter other than trying to CC the target. Varian just constantly walking away Protected is frustrating to deal with. Hopefully Blizzard won't go overboard with how much Protected gets in the game.
Another cancer hero, yey... The mobility creep is real, and they keep nerfing targeted CC every patch because the reddit is crying how they can't handle Valeera in quick match. If they don't change something with their approach, this will go to shit really fast.
On April 22 2017 00:11 h41fgod wrote: I am scoring 37k gold on that tank/bruiser megabundle. Leaves me with only Vikings that I do not own. Jackpot.
Already posted it to my friends who sort of play/played, they will be getting the heroes. The plan is definitely effective on Blizzards end.
Sweet 20 heroes for free? Great time to get back to the game.
So from your post I assume that if I have some of the heroes in the bundle I chose then I'll get the gold back?
Still undecided regarding the bundles...there's one from which I own almost all...there's another one in which the ones i dont own I don't like and the other 2....assassins and tanks have a few cool heroes that I'm missing IIRC from the last time I played hots.
On April 25 2017 15:41 Holdenintherye wrote: Anyone else not a fan of the protected status? It's just not fun to play against imo. Seems like a get out of jail free card
Yes it takes away from Uthers divine shield uniqueness. Who needs Uther when all heroes have built in superior mini divine shields right? Get ready for the dreaded Genji,Varian,Lucio, Medivh and throw in a Valeera stomp comp.
On April 22 2017 00:11 h41fgod wrote: I am scoring 37k gold on that tank/bruiser megabundle. Leaves me with only Vikings that I do not own. Jackpot.
Already posted it to my friends who sort of play/played, they will be getting the heroes. The plan is definitely effective on Blizzards end.
Sweet 20 heroes for free? Great time to get back to the game.
So from your post I assume that if I have some of the heroes in the bundle I chose then I'll get the gold back?
Still undecided regarding the bundles...there's one from which I own almost all...there's another one in which the ones i dont own I don't like and the other 2....assassins and tanks have a few cool heroes that I'm missing IIRC from the last time I played hots.
You dont get gold for those heroes you have. He means that when he tallies up the gold it would have cost him to buy the heroes he is missing he saves 37k gold (so he gets 4 heroes or something like that).
DVa is extremely welcome--- if for no other reason than she's not an assassin -_-
I continue to hope for more interesting supports. I've been playing overwatch in the last few weeks, and aside from mercy every support feels really great and not like a total heal battery.
I'd love to see a rework on lucio shifting his focus from healing to speed/damage and maybe cleaning up his wall ride abilities (right now he is a bit of a healing totem, but in OW you typically don't want your healing aura on very much). If the controls were more snappy so you could modulate between healing and speed quickly that would be really cool too, but not sure if the engine can handle that kind of performance.
I'd also love to see zen and ana implemented in some way.
D.Va means no Rein anytime soon I guess. Still cool, I hope she can eat ults :3 .
Lucio in OW now has healing Aura on alot, because your speed is insane anyway. So pretty much just like heroes, just that you do a shitton of damage, Lucio is the new Genji basically. (that aoe heals and can go into close combat)
Overwatch releases make sense, they covered most popular heroes of the other franchises. And Overwatch is now the new big one, that brings people to heroes.
Dva made a lot of sense, I wasn't 100% sure because while she certainly brings hype from the OW crowd, I thought they wanted to reveal a very big hero like KT, so altough I never quite bought the rumours about Deathwing, it wasn't that far fetched to think one of the most expected héroes could come to the game. That being said I like Dva in Overwatch so I'm pretty sure I'll like her here.
I've been liking all the changes so far, and when you think about it héroes of the storm is almost becoming overwatch in the sense that most héroes are free (with the bundles) and the main revenue is through cosmetics.
My Now my computer is pretty terrible now thats its 7 years old. But could still play HOTS on 60 fps on low settings. Sure it would bottom out at like 55 but barely noticeable.
Though When things get more hectic now in Heroes 2.0 Fraps is reading 39-34 fps. And at that range it is very much noticeable.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Or if the software is just starting to pass up my computer.
On April 26 2017 10:29 Cyanocyst wrote: Anyone else's FPS less than the old game client?
My Now my computer is pretty terrible now thats its 7 years old. But could still play HOTS on 60 fps on low settings. Sure it would bottom out at like 55 but barely noticeable.
Though When things get more hectic now in Heroes 2.0 Fraps is reading 39-34 fps. And at that range it is very much noticeable.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Or if the software is just starting to pass up my computer.
According to the 2.0 changelog, they updated (aka raised) the System Minimum Requirements, so it looks like its the software passing up your pc. On a sidenote, the newest nvidia gfx driver from yesterday specifically mentioned optimizations for hots, so if you are using a nvida card that might help mitigate the frameloss abit (?).
On April 26 2017 05:30 Cyanocyst wrote: Anyone else getting lag when opening up Boxes. Can't tell if its my computer or if their server is just on overload.
No lag from me, which was fortunate considering opening ~70 chests took a frickin long time x.x
Edit: TL's imgur upload isn't working right now, so here are links to pictures I took...
How are individual hero levels recalculated, and what's the new cap? Because I had a few who used to be around level 16ish and now suddenly they're in the 40s o.O
I'm guessing that the experience threshold for each new level was drastically decreased so that after level ~15 or so it doesn't take "forever" to progress to the next level?
I got 27 epic loot boxes and I've only played Heroes seriously during the beta years ago lol. Free stuff is sick, got a muradin reaper skin that's amazing. Also gained 15 heroes with the mega bundle.
On April 26 2017 21:48 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: How are individual hero levels recalculated, and what's the new cap? Because I had a few who used to be around level 16ish and now suddenly they're in the 40s o.O
I'm guessing that the experience threshold for each new level was drastically decreased so that after level ~15 or so it doesn't take "forever" to progress to the next level?
So there no longer exponential exp needed but it's flat after lvl 10 and way lower exp/lvl in general
On April 26 2017 21:48 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: I'm guessing that the experience threshold for each new level was drastically decreased so that after level ~15 or so it doesn't take "forever" to progress to the next level?
On April 26 2017 08:26 [Phantom] wrote: Dva made a lot of sense, I wasn't 100% sure because while she certainly brings hype from the OW crowd, I thought they wanted to reveal a very big hero like KT, so altough I never quite bought the rumours about Deathwing, it wasn't that far fetched to think one of the most expected héroes could come to the game. That being said I like Dva in Overwatch so I'm pretty sure I'll like her here.
I've been liking all the changes so far, and when you think about it héroes of the storm is almost becoming overwatch in the sense that most héroes are free (with the bundles) and the main revenue is through cosmetics.
Yeah, I understand wanting to appeal to the OW crowd, but I wish they'd render something for the old crowd. The problem with D.VA is that it is very likely she would have gotten some attention in OW cinematics, whereas the opportunity for an old favorite like Kel'Thuzad is very slim.
they pretty much used Overwatch and old assets for the trailer. Everything else would have been made in the usual heroes style Imo. Looked a bit odd to me because of that, but still impressive.
The carbot animation for the heroes update is amazing too. But if you have really strong attachments to certain heroes. Don't watch it, it will make you unable to ever open lootboxes.
On April 26 2017 20:17 SC2Toastie wrote: Those valeera nerfs though 0_0
go QM!
I was advocating change in valeera, but these nerfs with nothing in return seem like they are likely going to doom valeera.
yeah, I wonder if just reducing her enormeous hp pool would have been better. She could still gank then but not so often before returning to base or escape so easily, esp when 1v2 vs 2 heroes.
Then again, she still got more hp than anubarak, so perhaps shes better fit for a brawling 1v1 style and using her insta-stealth+combo as a surprise now (?). Would have love to see a small heal somewhere though if thats the supposed direction.
But her old gank-kill style seems to be dead now, yeah - I wont miss it though, as bush+1s unreveable stealth + 7 range was too much a reminiscent of beta Nova.
Gazlowe's turret placement is all screwed up now. Test it in try mode with cooldowns off, and not only can you not place them under Gazlowe, but you can't in the nearest hexes either.
On April 26 2017 20:17 SC2Toastie wrote: Those valeera nerfs though 0_0
go QM!
I was advocating change in valeera, but these nerfs with nothing in return seem like they are likely going to doom valeera.
yeah, I wonder if just reducing her enormeous hp pool would have been better. She could still gank then but not so often before returning to base or escape so easily, esp when 1v2 vs 2 heroes.
Then again, she still got more hp than anubarak, so perhaps shes better fit for a brawling 1v1 style and using her insta-stealth+combo as a surprise now (?). Would have love to see a small heal somewhere though if thats the supposed direction.
But her old gank-kill style seems to be dead now, yeah - I wont miss it though, as bush+1s unreveable stealth + 7 range was too much a reminiscent of beta Nova.
Yup, that was exactly the problem--- that she was too similar to old nova. I do think they nerfed what they needed to(cold blood was too much, and her burst damage needed to come down), but like nova I think she needed something to compensate her for that reduction in burst.
I bet D.VA is going to be like Kled in LoL. For those that don't know who Kled is, he's a champion that has basically a huge shield that represents his mount, and then if you knock him down low enough, his mount runs off but he can get it back through doing damage re-gaining the huge hp pool.
Now that i think about it the Kled designers probably got inspired from D.VA to make that champion.
there is nothing to compensate for if you remove the ability to punish someone out of position with a stealth assasin. They just become unuseable or aren't stealth assassins anymore (Nova). Just give the easiest victims talents to survive on their power talent level (we had spell shield for that when Nova was around). To solve the QM problem. (I just want Nova to be made useful again) And stop protecting stupid people. If they go alone near a bush after the enemy Valeera is missing for a minute. Then they will go near a bush after the whole enemy team is missing as well. You can't protect them, just let them die and have them vanish into the 0 mmr region, where they can be with each other.
I also think, Valeera is still more then fine. Can't slack on your job now and get behind in exp though.
The game wants me to play Tyrande anyway. I got 13 skins for her. And Roller Derby Nova 5 times x.x
On April 27 2017 11:01 FeyFey wrote: there is nothing to compensate for if you remove the ability to punish someone out of position with a stealth assasin. They just become unuseable or aren't stealth assassins anymore (Nova). Just give the easiest victims talents to survive on their power talent level (we had spell shield for that when Nova was around). To solve the QM problem. (I just want Nova to be made useful again) And stop protecting stupid people. If they go alone near a bush after the enemy Valeera is missing for a minute. Then they will go near a bush after the whole enemy team is missing as well. You can't protect them, just let them die and have them vanish into the 0 mmr region, where they can be with each other.
I also think, Valeera is still more then fine. Can't slack on your job now and get behind in exp though.
The game wants me to play Tyrande anyway. I got 13 skins for her. And Roller Derby Nova 5 times x.x
The problem is NOT stupid people. As Valeera you have more license to punish enemies who are or are not out of position, especially if there are no tanks or support in the game--- if there aren't, you also get to do so with almost no danger to yourself at all. And when you can fully 100-0 a large number of heroes in the game, that means that post 20 those heroes have no position which is truly safe other than the hall of storms -_-
On April 27 2017 02:16 FeyFey wrote: they pretty much used Overwatch and old assets for the trailer. Everything else would have been made in the usual heroes style Imo. Looked a bit odd to me because of that, but still impressive.
The carbot animation for the heroes update is amazing too. But if you have really strong attachments to certain heroes. Don't watch it, it will make you unable to ever open lootboxes.
Yeah, that was the case for the first cinematic, too. The only thing they had to do was make Nova's model and were probably able to recycle the other characters from their game's cinematics.
So which of Genji's ults do you prefer? The invul frames from x-strike (and the damage) has so far performed better for me - but maybe I'm just not using the other correctly.
Yup, that was exactly the problem--- that she was too similar to old nova. I do think they nerfed what they needed to(cold blood was too much, and her burst damage needed to come down), but like nova I think she needed something to compensate her for that reduction in burst.
I think they should consider giving Nova an anti-shield ability like Varian's shattering throw.
On April 27 2017 20:44 Ghostcom wrote: So which of Genji's ults do you prefer? The invul frames from x-strike (and the damage) has so far performed better for me - but maybe I'm just not using the other correctly.
I've been preferring the x-strike one. It has more burst damage, and you can do more jukes with it in a pinch if that's what you need.
It's so hard to assess builds in QM, you know? I've been winning most of my games with genji regardless of build and getting MVP about half the time, so it's hard to tell whether he is good, I'm lucky, or an influx of newplayers is messing up matchmaking. I do think the hero might be an MVP magnet since he can so safely engage for kills and disengage immediately. Usually high kill-participation paired with low death means mvp.
On April 27 2017 22:57 karazax wrote: Here is today's stream of Rich learning Genji.
His current favorite build is (1.2) (4.1) (7.2) (10.1) (13.2or1) (16.3) (20.1)
Is 1.2 agile dismount? I'm a little surprised at that choice--- I don't frequently engage when mounted as genji since I poke with shurikens so much.
I just tried it out for the evenings games. The extra length (and reduced cooldown when used mounted) was really nice and allowed for some very aggressive moves. Tho, I am still not convinced it is superior to the movespeed after trait from 1.3.
On April 27 2017 22:57 karazax wrote: Here is today's stream of Rich learning Genji.
His current favorite build is (1.2) (4.1) (7.2) (10.1) (13.2or1) (16.3) (20.1)
Is 1.2 agile dismount? I'm a little surprised at that choice--- I don't frequently engage when mounted as genji since I poke with shurikens so much.
I just tried it out for the evenings games. The extra length (and reduced cooldown when used mounted) was really nice and allowed for some very aggressive moves. Tho, I am still not convinced it is superior to the movespeed after trait from 1.3.
I tried out 1.3 but I was getting a little frustrated with it being finicky. Whenever I jumped over terrain but tried to jump a corner it felt like it didn't kick in. I may need to test the tolerances of it tonight to see if ti was just my technique at issue.
In the end I've settled on 1.1 because you get speed right after you jump in, which is when you need to be the most mobile anyway. Though, I guess it isn't good for escaping.
On April 27 2017 22:57 karazax wrote: Here is today's stream of Rich learning Genji.
His current favorite build is (1.2) (4.1) (7.2) (10.1) (13.2or1) (16.3) (20.1)
Is 1.2 agile dismount? I'm a little surprised at that choice--- I don't frequently engage when mounted as genji since I poke with shurikens so much.
I just tried it out for the evenings games. The extra length (and reduced cooldown when used mounted) was really nice and allowed for some very aggressive moves. Tho, I am still not convinced it is superior to the movespeed after trait from 1.3.
I tried out 1.3 but I was getting a little frustrated with it being finicky. Whenever I jumped over terrain but tried to jump a corner it felt like it didn't kick in. I may need to test the tolerances of it tonight to see if ti was just my technique at issue.
In the end I've settled on 1.1 because you get speed right after you jump in, which is when you need to be the most mobile anyway. Though, I guess it isn't good for escaping.
You jump in with e? I mainly use e for disengage and then when people drop to 30% I'll go in with it, but something will die soon after giving me the refund to disengage with.
On April 27 2017 22:57 karazax wrote: Here is today's stream of Rich learning Genji.
His current favorite build is (1.2) (4.1) (7.2) (10.1) (13.2or1) (16.3) (20.1)
Is 1.2 agile dismount? I'm a little surprised at that choice--- I don't frequently engage when mounted as genji since I poke with shurikens so much.
I just tried it out for the evenings games. The extra length (and reduced cooldown when used mounted) was really nice and allowed for some very aggressive moves. Tho, I am still not convinced it is superior to the movespeed after trait from 1.3.
I tried out 1.3 but I was getting a little frustrated with it being finicky. Whenever I jumped over terrain but tried to jump a corner it felt like it didn't kick in. I may need to test the tolerances of it tonight to see if ti was just my technique at issue.
In the end I've settled on 1.1 because you get speed right after you jump in, which is when you need to be the most mobile anyway. Though, I guess it isn't good for escaping.
You jump in with e? I mainly use e for disengage and then when people drop to 30% I'll go in with it, but something will die soon after giving me the refund to disengage with.
yeah, generally once someone is pretty close to death I engage with e, as long as there is a terrain feature I can use as a disengagement tool with my d. The important part is to have a plan on how you'll get out if you somehow fail to kill the person.
So, typically it might be e in/ deflect/ attack and q/ d over wall to escape. Of course, you also have to be very sure their cc is used up before doing this--- so for example wait for diablo shadow charge to be down.
I've also had a lot of luck of doing so once the game is level 10+. I can use the invulnerability frame on cross strike to dodge cc pretty reliably.
On April 27 2017 03:32 Ansinjunger wrote: Gazlowe's turret placement is all screwed up now. Test it in try mode with cooldowns off, and not only can you not place them under Gazlowe, but you can't in the nearest hexes either.
Yep, it sucks. They've made shadow changes to Gaz in several patches since beta.
On April 27 2017 20:44 Ghostcom wrote: So which of Genji's ults do you prefer? The invul frames from x-strike (and the damage) has so far performed better for me - but maybe I'm just not using the other correctly.
I've been preferring the x-strike one. It has more burst damage, and you can do more jukes with it in a pinch if that's what you need.
It's so hard to assess builds in QM, you know? I've been winning most of my games with genji regardless of build and getting MVP about half the time, so it's hard to tell whether he is good, I'm lucky, or an influx of newplayers is messing up matchmaking. I do think the hero might be an MVP magnet since he can so safely engage for kills and disengage immediately. Usually high kill-participation paired with low death means mvp.
People still haven't figured out that they can just switch focus to Genji and blow him up yet. Even with Deflect, he's really squishy and susceptible to CC, but most of the time he's free to dance around and do tons of damage in QM.
At his current power level, I don't think he'll be a staple in competitive play while Zeratul still exists. Dragonblade probably needs a buff to make his dash in, dash out style work more effectively.
On April 27 2017 20:44 Ghostcom wrote: So which of Genji's ults do you prefer? The invul frames from x-strike (and the damage) has so far performed better for me - but maybe I'm just not using the other correctly.
I've been preferring the x-strike one. It has more burst damage, and you can do more jukes with it in a pinch if that's what you need.
It's so hard to assess builds in QM, you know? I've been winning most of my games with genji regardless of build and getting MVP about half the time, so it's hard to tell whether he is good, I'm lucky, or an influx of newplayers is messing up matchmaking. I do think the hero might be an MVP magnet since he can so safely engage for kills and disengage immediately. Usually high kill-participation paired with low death means mvp.
People still haven't figured out that they can just switch focus to Genji and blow him up yet. Even with Deflect, he's really squishy and susceptible to CC, but most of the time he's free to dance around and do tons of damage in QM.
At his current power level, I don't think he'll be a staple in competitive play while Zeratul still exists. Dragonblade probably needs a buff to make his dash in, dash out style work more effectively.
No melee assassin besides Zera will be good in competitive as long as QM exists :p
On April 27 2017 20:44 Ghostcom wrote: So which of Genji's ults do you prefer? The invul frames from x-strike (and the damage) has so far performed better for me - but maybe I'm just not using the other correctly.
I've been preferring the x-strike one. It has more burst damage, and you can do more jukes with it in a pinch if that's what you need.
It's so hard to assess builds in QM, you know? I've been winning most of my games with genji regardless of build and getting MVP about half the time, so it's hard to tell whether he is good, I'm lucky, or an influx of newplayers is messing up matchmaking. I do think the hero might be an MVP magnet since he can so safely engage for kills and disengage immediately. Usually high kill-participation paired with low death means mvp.
People still haven't figured out that they can just switch focus to Genji and blow him up yet. Even with Deflect, he's really squishy and susceptible to CC, but most of the time he's free to dance around and do tons of damage in QM.
At his current power level, I don't think he'll be a staple in competitive play while Zeratul still exists. Dragonblade probably needs a buff to make his dash in, dash out style work more effectively.
Yeah, you definitely need to wait for cc to be used before going super ham with him. And deflect can be a little inconsistent--- if you hit the button a smidge after you are cc'd obviously it won't even go off. And I swear the other day I used it, heard the sound effect for it going off, and then got discord striked to death. I need to go back and look at that replay to see if i'm crazy or if silence cancels it.
On April 29 2017 00:34 MotherFox wrote: Yeah, you definitely need to wait for cc to be used before going super ham with him. And deflect can be a little inconsistent--- if you hit the button a smidge after you are cc'd obviously it won't even go off. And I swear the other day I used it, heard the sound effect for it going off, and then got discord striked to death. I need to go back and look at that replay to see if i'm crazy or if silence cancels it.
I think CC can cancel it after activation. I remember someone getting stunned after activating it in the PTR (Grubby I think?) and getting superconfused, so I'd assume silence works the same way.
On April 29 2017 00:34 MotherFox wrote: Yeah, you definitely need to wait for cc to be used before going super ham with him. And deflect can be a little inconsistent--- if you hit the button a smidge after you are cc'd obviously it won't even go off. And I swear the other day I used it, heard the sound effect for it going off, and then got discord striked to death. I need to go back and look at that replay to see if i'm crazy or if silence cancels it.
I think CC can cancel it after activation. I remember someone getting stunned after activating it in the PTR (Grubby I think?) and getting superconfused, so I'd assume silence works the same way.
now that you say that, I remember now that the tooltip says it is channeled. So I guess I should have expected any hard stuns or silences to cancel it.
I leave the game last year. Now i played some games. Cosmetics are new but nothing other. matchamking still the same like befor you play with no brain people who fight 4vs5 insted of take objectivs or soaking xp. This is happen in master rank.
On April 27 2017 20:44 Ghostcom wrote: So which of Genji's ults do you prefer? The invul frames from x-strike (and the damage) has so far performed better for me - but maybe I'm just not using the other correctly.
I've been preferring the x-strike one. It has more burst damage, and you can do more jukes with it in a pinch if that's what you need.
It's so hard to assess builds in QM, you know? I've been winning most of my games with genji regardless of build and getting MVP about half the time, so it's hard to tell whether he is good, I'm lucky, or an influx of newplayers is messing up matchmaking. I do think the hero might be an MVP magnet since he can so safely engage for kills and disengage immediately. Usually high kill-participation paired with low death means mvp.
People still haven't figured out that they can just switch focus to Genji and blow him up yet. Even with Deflect, he's really squishy and susceptible to CC, but most of the time he's free to dance around and do tons of damage in QM.
At his current power level, I don't think he'll be a staple in competitive play while Zeratul still exists. Dragonblade probably needs a buff to make his dash in, dash out style work more effectively.
No melee assassin besides Zera will be good in competitive as long as QM exists :p
On May 05 2017 01:19 farvacola wrote: I've felt the same way, the past few games have been some of my most frustrating and I'm logging in less frequently.
Yeah same with the logging in. I had the entire afternoon off and decided to clean the house instead (so I guess I should thank Blizzard in some obscure way )
Just won 5 QMs in a row, felt pretty good, figured I'd try ranked again... I'm first pick on my team. Found out far too late that everyone else was going to refuse to play a healer. Okay no healer on our team. And someone drops the whole game. Sigh. Why do I bother?
Heroes 2.0 doesn't feel much different from Heroes 1.whatever, but then again, I'm just a casual silver. I like that I don't have to pay one million dollars for a Jaina skin though.
On April 27 2017 20:44 Ghostcom wrote: So which of Genji's ults do you prefer? The invul frames from x-strike (and the damage) has so far performed better for me - but maybe I'm just not using the other correctly.
I've been preferring the x-strike one. It has more burst damage, and you can do more jukes with it in a pinch if that's what you need.
It's so hard to assess builds in QM, you know? I've been winning most of my games with genji regardless of build and getting MVP about half the time, so it's hard to tell whether he is good, I'm lucky, or an influx of newplayers is messing up matchmaking. I do think the hero might be an MVP magnet since he can so safely engage for kills and disengage immediately. Usually high kill-participation paired with low death means mvp.
People still haven't figured out that they can just switch focus to Genji and blow him up yet. Even with Deflect, he's really squishy and susceptible to CC, but most of the time he's free to dance around and do tons of damage in QM.
At his current power level, I don't think he'll be a staple in competitive play while Zeratul still exists. Dragonblade probably needs a buff to make his dash in, dash out style work more effectively.
No melee assassin besides Zera will be good in competitive as long as QM exists :p
I agree that Genji does not intimidate me at this point.
On May 05 2017 17:47 beentheredonethat wrote: Heroes 2.0 doesn't feel much different from Heroes 1.whatever, but then again, I'm just a casual silver. I like that I don't have to pay one million dollars for a Jaina skin though.
I recommend leveling up your least leveled characters and you'll get loot boxes almost every game. Or keep going all in with Jaina since you're guaranteed a Jaina-specific look box ever 10 lvls. And it's much faster now to get to level 10, level 20, etc.
Plus by free means you get shards with which you can probably the craft the Jaina skin you want.
On May 05 2017 17:47 beentheredonethat wrote: Heroes 2.0 doesn't feel much different from Heroes 1.whatever, but then again, I'm just a casual silver. I like that I don't have to pay one million dollars for a Jaina skin though.
I recommend leveling up your least leveled characters and you'll get loot boxes almost every game. Or keep going all in with Jaina since you're guaranteed a Jaina-specific look box ever 10 lvls. And it's much faster now to get to level 10, level 20, etc.
Plus by free means you get shards with which you can probably the craft the Jaina skin you want.
I'm at player level 375 or so. Got awarded with a lots of chests and I can craft w/e I want.
absolut nothing different in heros. anthign is the same after 4 days i stop again playing. toxic player overall 99% of all people dont know how to draft and play ther hero.
On May 05 2017 17:47 beentheredonethat wrote: Heroes 2.0 doesn't feel much different from Heroes 1.whatever, but then again, I'm just a casual silver. I like that I don't have to pay one million dollars for a Jaina skin though.
its still the same game. the rewards system is all thats different
What I like about the game in order of importance to me: #1short games compared to the rest of the genre #2Blizzard Heroes #3The different maps and mechanics #4no last hit: if you kill a hero it's good for your team, no matter if your support or carry gave the last hit. This makes much more sense. You are a team and play for the team, not play for one player. #QM. I know a lot of people don't like QM but just the fact that you can always play with the hero you want makes it all worth it.
On May 07 2017 14:16 [Phantom] wrote: #4no last hit: if you kill a hero it's good for your team, no matter if your support or carry gave the last hit. This makes much more sense. You are a team and play for the team, not play for one player.
But that's the opposite of "playing for the team". It's just a band aid that allows you not to be behind if someone steals your kill. It's not more about playing for the team, it just makes it harder to mess up lol
There is no kill stealing. I always find that such a stupid concept. What, am I supposed to hold fire and risk you not finishing off your target and letting it escape? Fuck that. It's an enemy Hero and if I see a chance to ensure it dies I take it. Last hitting is just an unneeded and boring mechanic. The only thing I can agree on is that if you did most of the damage to a target or you tackled it from the start then that person should get the kill statistic.
Sharing a hero kill IS more of team support mechanic because it doesn't matter who get the kill. You get the kill and the entire team benefits. Someone else gets the kill and the entire team benefits. The only difference is that you can't help carry a single hero to a higher level and I prefer that. It feels more like a team effort and less like carrying one person and the rest wobbling behind them.
Last hitting makes a bit more sense in DOTA because XP is not shared but I strongly prefer how Heroes does it because it is less micro management on creeps and focusing on one hero and more fighting in lane, clearing the waves (without having to worry about who gets the XP) and fighting as a team.
Again, supports letting carries get the kills requires more co operation than everyone mashing buttons after a stunlock. HotS actually has plenty of mechanics that are simply dumbed down solutions disguised as "team play".' And of course there's no kill stealing in this game, I was specifically refering to Dota/LoL where it does matter and letting your carries finish off IS actual team play, contrary to spamming spells at the person with their healthbar in another color.
Sharing XP and "farm" between heroes is no way more team based than indivual hero stats. In other MOBAs, every hero contributes to the win. All HotS does is splitting the role of carry between damage dealers and PvE heroes. I don't see how having people fill different roles and contribute to the same goal (get fatter than enemies) makes the games more teambased. (except for the fact that in HotS it's very very very hard to win a game alone while a single cretin can easily lose it for the other 4 people, but that's matter for another discussion)
I have tried playing this game both with friends and solo. Quite frankly, I am embarrassed for the designers. This is easily the most pathetically basic game I have every played. It could be played on a mobile phone as easily as HearthStone. I understand Blizzard wants to bring the MOBA genre to a wider audience and be inclusive. However, this design philosophy needs to come to an end because all they are doing is losing their core players with each new iteration of "appealing to a broader audience."
For example, see this video with Rob Pardo talking about the "values" of Blizzard game design here. Sooner or later, after they have dumbed down the genres so much their core market is going to fall out and they will lose all support.
Sorry for the rant, but anyone silly enough to call Heroes of the Storm a good game is appealing to the nostalgia of Blizzard franchise characters. There are no interesting or complex game mechanics that are going to keep anyone around playing that game for any period of time. Even Blizzard themselves attempted to "sponsor" big name streamers to convince people to play it.
On May 08 2017 05:22 FarmI3oy wrote: I have tried playing this game both with friends and solo. Quite frankly, I am embarrassed for the designers. This is easily the most pathetically basic game I have every played. It could be played on a mobile phone as easily as HearthStone. I understand Blizzard wants to bring the MOBA genre to a wider audience and be inclusive. However, this design philosophy needs to come to an end because all they are doing is losing their core players with each new iteration of "appealing to a broader audience."
For example, see this video with Rob Pardo talking about the "values" of Blizzard game design here. Sooner or later, after they have dumbed down the genres so much their core market is going to fall out and they will lose all support.
Sorry for the rant, but anyone silly enough to call Heroes of the Storm a good game is appealing to the nostalgia of Blizzard franchise characters. There are no interesting or complex game mechanics that are going to keep anyone around playing that game for any period of time. Even Blizzard themselves attempted to "sponsor" big name streamers to convince people to play it.
So you would easily be Masters in this game right?
Go and play Medivh / Abathur / The Lost Vikings and tell me how dumb down the mechanics are. Tell me how and when you draft X vs Y, cus dumbed down mechanics are all that is.
If you praise last hitting, denying creeps, it's cute micro mechanics, nothing else. Those micro wars are meant for 1v1 games, this is a team game, and as such, they scrapped everything that goes against that philosophy.
This philosophy design also brought us Legion ("dumbed down WoW mechanics") and it's been a blast for all WoW fans. This philosophy also brought Overwatch, the best MMO of 2016.
So, again, what makes you praise LoL / Dota over Heroes?
Yea kill stealing is fun. What I like to do is wait around like a vulture around a good ally adc/ranged carry, wait to see him start a winnable fight and get an enemy down to 10% with autoattacks, then I come in and blow all the skill cooldowns I've been saving up (sometimes with flash) to ks him.
I mean how hard is autoattacking anyway? You just right-click the enemy a bunch of times right? If he complains I'll just tell him "stfu kill secured" even though it was clear the enemy wasn't getting away and I only "contributed" at the last second. I could put the extra gold to better use than the adc. This repeats over and over and if we lose and my team blames me for not doing anything with those kills, I'll just blame somebody else instead.
Sure, but the point being more that most people who think the game is too easy really haven't ever played it at a high level. It's fine not to like the game, but anybody who thinks the game could be played on a phone is just trolling.
All the LoL pros playing the Tryhard for good challenge have appreciated the challenges of the game and had struggles at times even in mid-tier ranks.
On May 08 2017 05:22 FarmI3oy wrote: I have tried playing this game both with friends and solo. Quite frankly, I am embarrassed for the designers. This is easily the most pathetically basic game I have every played. It could be played on a mobile phone as easily as HearthStone. I understand Blizzard wants to bring the MOBA genre to a wider audience and be inclusive. However, this design philosophy needs to come to an end because all they are doing is losing their core players with each new iteration of "appealing to a broader audience."
For example, see this video with Rob Pardo talking about the "values" of Blizzard game design here. Sooner or later, after they have dumbed down the genres so much their core market is going to fall out and they will lose all support.
Sorry for the rant, but anyone silly enough to call Heroes of the Storm a good game is appealing to the nostalgia of Blizzard franchise characters. There are no interesting or complex game mechanics that are going to keep anyone around playing that game for any period of time. Even Blizzard themselves attempted to "sponsor" big name streamers to convince people to play it.
Sounds like someone had some real nasty losses both with friends and solo.
Despite the "or" in "There are no interesting or complex game mechanics," I'm pretty sure in your mind "complex = interesting."
HotS is absolutely a simplified MOBA, and thats the reason I play it. I dont want to dick around for 2 hours farming creeps and worrying about who on the team is getting XP and why captain douche-a-bago keeps kill stealing from our carry, or is buying nonsensical bullshit.
If I wanted all of that I'd play DotA or LoL, I play HotS because I pick a hero, queue up for a 20 minute game and get my fill of hot hero-on-hero action.
On May 08 2017 22:51 Fanatic-Templar wrote: Comparing the difficulty of MOBAs feels ridiculous to me. If I wanted something challenging I'd be playing an actual RTS.
I've always thought comparing the difficulty of any competitive game with minimal complexity to be pointless in itself. So long as players ability leads to victory, it doesn't matter how initially complex the mechanics are.
I like to play HotS ocassionaly because it has many interesting hero concepts and because I feel more confortable with not playing it seriously (compared to when I play DotA).