Heroes of the Storm 2.0 launched today. They have completely revamped progression and rewards. Every hero and cosmetic item can be unlocked for free through the newly introduced loot chest and crafting system.
For those that don't know, Heroes of the Storm is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). It's an online 5 vs 5 top down arena brawler. Each player controls a unique hero (character) from the Blizzard universe (Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo and Overwatch) in different roles (warrior, assassin, support and specialist). Simple game to learn, tough to master. It's completely free to play and with the new release it's a great time to try the game or get back into it.
This outlines the new progression and loot system. It's a fantastic upgrade over the previous one.
Genji vs Diablo Cinematic
The newest hero in the game is Genji from Overwatch. Here is the newest cinematic of him battling Diablo. This video also introduces the next warrior hero coming soon D.Va.
Another reason this is a great time to get into the game is the Mega Bundles. This will allow everyone who logs into the game to choose between one of four hero bundles. Each bundle contains 20 heroes and is legitimately the most heroes they have ever given away by a huge margin. There are currently 65 heroes in the game. There is even a quiz to help you decide.
Here is my recuit a friend link that will unlock 2 additional heroes for you. Raynor is a great hero to start with and the learn the game. https://battle.net/recruit/68T8RG5MQM
Or you can add me as a friend Stone#13851
If you haven't noticed already I am a big fan of this game. It's basically the only game I have been playing over the past year and a bit. The development team has been doing a great job updating, tweaking and improving it. They are constantly adding new heroes, battlegrounds, bug fixes, character reworks and cosmetics. If you played this game when it came out and enjoyed it I would encourage you to jump back in, I think you'll find it's improved quite a bit.
Anyways, sorry for the long winded post, I figured I would keep this thread updated with HoTS news if there are more people on this forum interested in the game.
Last edited by Burninator; 03-16-2018 at 03:21 PM.
Played since the Alpha. Don't like the loot box system, think its a crooked way to increase micro transactions. Managed to snag the only new skin I coveted yesterday with the free boxes they gave for all my levels.
Hm, played this a few times, and the glacial character progression chased me off. While I understood it was a free game, the "pay for any and every cool thing!" system didn't catch with me.
Then came back and played a bit more for the WoW mount reward. Glacial progression system hadn't changed.
Looks like this may be interesting. I may give it a shot again. I like this for wasting a couple hours here and there.
Played since the Alpha. Don't like the loot box system, think its a crooked way to increase micro transactions. Managed to snag the only new skin I coveted yesterday with the free boxes they gave for all my levels.
I can understand not wanting micro transactions, but before real money was the only way to get most of the cosmetic items in the game. Now you can get everything (in theory) just from playing.
Hm, played this a few times, and the glacial character progression chased me off. While I understood it was a free game, the "pay for any and every cool thing!" system didn't catch with me.
Then came back and played a bit more for the WoW mount reward. Glacial progression system hadn't changed.
Looks like this may be interesting. I may give it a shot again. I like this for wasting a couple hours here and there.
Yeah I agree. The lack of progression was getting annoying for me. Basically the only thing you could grind for was a master skin. Which were poor value for gold imo and most of the time they were the worst skin.
I'd rather pay money for the item I want rather than loot system, which is basically a slot machine filled with junk filler. My regular loot boxes yesterday yielded very little of value, which will be the normal purchasable boxes. Prime Evil Diablo skin.
It's not quite true that you can get every cosmetic - there's the real money exclusive mounts, the premium gold mounts, the ranked rewards, some event exclusives, and the seasonal skins/mounts just off the top of my head.
Having said that, there's lots of stuff available that was paid-only previously and I'm a huge fan of the game.
Burninator, I don't want to step on your toes but I'd love to get myself referrals, so if you finish the mount can I post mine after?
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Is it as good as dota yet? I've been playing dota since 2003/4 (old warcraft mod version), and have just never found that either of the two main competitors have the balance, depth, or difficulty.
Is it as good as dota yet? I've been playing dota since 2003/4 (old warcraft mod version), and have just never found that either of the two main competitors have the balance, depth, or difficulty.
I've got about 500 hours in on DOTA and had to delete it. So toxic.
Is it as good as dota yet? I've been playing dota since 2003/4 (old warcraft mod version), and have just never found that either of the two main competitors have the balance, depth, or difficulty.
Haven't played Dota at anywhere near the level that I play HotS, but ... it's different.
Balance: from what I've heard, every character in Dota is competitively viable, and HotS has not been able to achieve that. Balance patches are frequent but tend to be over-reactions.
Depth: no last hitting, no denial, no items. But there's talent choices, team synergies, and map mechanics to contend with.
Difficulty: laning is much simpler, being de-emphasized. Instead the emphasis is on teamwork, co-ordination, and map control.
But for me, there's another factor...
Fun: for me, DotA was a bit of a chore. I found it tough to learn the game and play the game at the same time. Having already put in the time, you might find it great. But I find HotS more fun. Laning is shorter, and that shifts emphasis to finding picks, teamfights, and contesting objectives.
If you enjoy Dota, and you're getting into HotS, you'll get a more similar experience if you focus on solo lane characters: most maps have a lane that is too far from the others to rotate to without losing minion soak, and it's usually a 1v1 between two characters who have good poke and self-sustain. Or you could try to experience what's different in HotS, and pick characters who shine in the 3 or 4-man group.
It's not quite true that you can get every cosmetic - there's the real money exclusive mounts, the premium gold mounts, the ranked rewards, some event exclusives, and the seasonal skins/mounts just off the top of my head.
Having said that, there's lots of stuff available that was paid-only previously and I'm a huge fan of the game.
Burninator, I don't want to step on your toes but I'd love to get myself referrals, so if you finish the mount can I post mine after?
True, I had forgotten about that stuff. Well they probably unlocked atleast 80% of the previously paid items for free. Sure, although I don't think anyone has used my link yet.
True, I had forgotten about that stuff. Well they probably unlocked atleast 80% of the previously paid items for free. Sure, although I don't think anyone has used my link yet.
I think I might've re-rolled my loot as much as I did trying to get stuff that I didn't know wasn't there.
(Lunar Jaina is gorgeous.)
Kind of weird too that all the withdrawn skins are all from October - February. That's a lot of waiting!
She kinda sucks, played against her a couple times now. The mobility is good, but her damage is pretty weak, and her mech explosion is super easy to avoid. After she bails out and is on foot its almost a free kill. No cc and not the tankiest makes her a low damage bruiser.
I played a little bit of DOTA and a lot of HoN back in the day, both were so toxic it was border line un enjoyable. I really enjoy HOTS though, I play it off and on but it's just such a well designed game (no surprise there being a Blizzard product). I enjoy the different map structures and objectives over the same thing over and over again as we got with DOTA and games like it.
I also enjoy how fast the games are and having played all the Warcrafts and some of the other titles I like recognizing the characters they bring into the game. I played to rank 1 in the old season, which I don't think is a huge feat or anything but I was at one point pretty decent at the game. More importantly I played Rexxar to rank 1 For some reason I just clicked with him, but now he has been nerfed and I don't like his new format at all. I play Gul'Dan mostly now, he's a lot of fun.
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