- See also New Player Guide
Heroes of the Storm[2] (formerly titled Blizzard DotA, and Blizzard All-Stars)[3] is a hero brawler.[4] It is free-to-play[5] and is released digitally.[6] Formerly a mod for StarCraft II, it has since become an independent product.[7] Blizzard is intent on pushing the game as an e-sport, and has a team dedicated to building e-sports and making deals with third-party sponsors.
The technical alpha began in March, 2014, and ended temporarily on September 22, 2014.[8] A closed beta began on January 13, 2015.[9] The game entered open beta on May 19, and received final release on June 2,[1] with physical release through its starter pack.[10] As of July 2017, the game has two million monthly users.[11]
Overview[]
- Also see the FAQ.
Premise[]
The Heroes of the Storm
Heroes from Azeroth, Sanctuary, and the Koprulu sector have been sucked into the Nexus, a transdimensional storm. Stranded in a strange limbo of clashing universes, these combatants are joined by the same fate—to engage in pulse-pounding combat, to team up in a deadly struggle for survival, and to answer the age-old question...who would win?[12]
Monetization[]
Heroes of the Storm is free-to-play. Players can unlock heroes and other content just by playing the game. Cosmetic upgrades like skins, equipment, and mounts will be available. New heroes will also be released over time, along with new battlegrounds, though battlegrounds will probably be freely available to all players. It’s also possible that additional talent options for existing heroes could be available as unlockable content.[13]
Gameplay and Features[]
- See also: Voice Communication
The heroes do battle
Heroes of the Storm has multiple maps. Many of these battlegrounds share environmental features, like forts, which are sprinkled along the pathways between each team’s base. Each fort includes structures such as gates to prevent enemy movement and healing fountains for health and mana regeneration, in addition to a protective guard tower. Capturable watchtowers also mark important positions on many battlegrounds, offering vision on key areas.[12]
The game features an automated matchmaker, based on player skill.[14] It has its own ladder.[15] Friends can be added which is useful for the party function, which can start a shared match based on those on the list.[16]
Who has the advantage?
The average Heroes of the Storm game is designed to last approximately 20 minutes. The layout of the game encourages early team-based aggression.
Each player is assigned a hero. During the match, waves of computer-controlled minions spawn from towers and advance along each lane. Heroes fight alongside their minions to destroy enemy towers and advance toward the enemy base while protecting their own. During battles, heroes gain experience, enabling them to become stronger.[17] A rejoin function exists for players who leave matches.[18]
Thanksgiving, Nexus style
In addition to lane fighting, heroes can traverse the jungle and take advantageous objectives such as power nodes for different kinds of bonuses. These bonuses are guarded by mercenary camps.[17]
Gameplay provokes aggression more than in DotA, where camping by a tower and last hitting the creeps was the best, but not intuitive or heroic-feeling strategy.[19] Heroes share experience, and last hitting is absent.[20] The game displays how much experience each team has. This is intended to reinforce the team-oriented feel of the game.[21]
Camps[]
There are mercenary camps in the jungle that, when defeated, will provide mercs in addition to lane minions to the winning player's side. The mercs will be more powerful.[22]
Mods[]
Blizzard hopes to provide support for mods. However, there are potential issues with this due to Heroes being a free-to-play game.[23]
Mounts[]
Heroes are able to ride into battle on a mount, allowing quick returns to a fight and great mobility from one lane to another.[19] Mounts replace boots. They have a two second channel time and allow heroes to move around faster on their respective summoned mounts.[22] Each hero had their own mount in earlier builds. For instance, Kerrigan had a zergling.[24]
Structures[]
Friendly and enemy towns dot the pathways between each base, and each town includes structures such as gates to prevent enemy movement and healing fountains for health and mana regeneration, in addition to a protective guard tower. Capturable watchtowers also mark important positions on many battlegrounds, offering vision on key areas.
Development[]
Main article: Heroes of the Storm/Development
Media[]
Images[]
Videos[]
- Announcements
- Development
- Defense of the Ancients
Reception[]
As of May, 2015, the game has had 11 million beta sign-ups.[25]
Ratings[]
- Destructoid: 9.5/10[26]
- Escapist: 4/5[27]
- Gameinformer: 9.25/10[28]
- IGN: 6.5/10[29]
- PC Gamer: 84%[30]
- Polygon: 7.5/10[31]
Trivia[]
- Heroes of the Storm is referred to by Blizzard as a "hero brawler," rather than the usual label of "MOBA" (multiplayer online battle arena). According to Dustin Browder, "one of the things we wanted to emphasise in the game was a lot of action. We felt like it captured the essence of what we're trying to create, a game where you jump in with your friends and battle it out with enemy heroes." Blizzard previously considered labeling the game as an "action real-time strategy" (ARTS, similar to DotA 2), or to modify the term to "fast-action real time strategy."[23]
- Mike Morhaime refers to the game as "Blizzard: The Game," due to its use of Blizzard's franchises.[32]
- The majority of the alternate skins are conceptualized and created by Luke Mancini, also know as Mr. Jack, who is a concept artist at Blizzard and currently working on StarCraft 2.
- He displays most of his art and sketches at Facebook, DeviantArt, Twitter and Artstation.
Patch changes[]
(Patch May 1, 2018) Note: A “Preparing Game Data” window will no longer briefly appear when launching Heroes of the Storm after downloading the latest patch.- (Patch March 27, 2018) Note: Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
- (Patch March 6, 2018) Note: Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
- (Patch February 6, 2018) Note: Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
- (Patch January 24, 2018) Note: Fixed a number of inaccuracies and grammatical issues in tooltips across the game.; Korean Client: Updated the loading screen to the Korean localized version.
- (Patch December 12, 2017) Note: In-game Camera height has been significantly increased in order to provide more visibility of the battlefield.; Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
- (Patch November 29, 2017) Note: Fixed an issue that caused game crashes on Mac clients.
- (Patch September 5, 2017) Note: Heroes of the Storm has received new loading screen art to celebrate Kel’Thuzad’s arrival to the Nexus.
- (Patch July 11, 2017) Note: If the Heroes of the Storm client is minimized, or not the current focus window, it will now retake focus.
- (Patch June 28, 2017) Note: Fixed several issues that could cause the game client to crash.
- (Patch March 14, 2017) Note: If a matchmaking queue is interrupted while the Heroes of the Storm client is minimized, or not the focus window, the player will now be notified in the task bar.
- (Patch February 14, 2017) Note: Mac: Launching the Heroes of the Storm client on a Mac will no longer automatically increase mouse acceleration.
- (Patch September 27, 2016) Note: Additional improvements have been made to Heroes of the Storm’s overall framerate, affecting all game modes and Battlegrounds.
- (Patch August 9, 2016) Note: Significant improvements have been made to Heroes of the Storm’s overall framerate, affecting all game modes and Battlegrounds.
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