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This year marks the 12th BlizzCon hosted by Blizzard Entertainment. This conference is the source of major news and announcements from the company, including new games, expansions, and other important content additions and updates.
The Opening Ceremony serves as a teaser for things to come during the Con, with each game typically receiving a "what's next" as well as a "deep dive" with attached Q&A. The deep dive is a more in-depth look at particular upcoming features.
Below is the schedule for upcoming content related to Heroes of the Storm. Check back at this blog during and after the listed times to find out what was covered, and be sure to check out the remainder of the wiki for updates!
- Note: all times are PST
November 2, 2018 (Friday)[]
Opening Ceremony[]
- 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- New hero born entirely in the Nexus: Orphea, daughter of the Raven Lord
- Free for all BlizzCon attendees and Virtual Ticket holders
New skins coming, too:
- Videos
What's Next[]
- 4:30 pm - 5:15 pm
- Orphea comic book coming later in November
- More narrowly-defined roles are coming.
- Tank: Anub'arak, Arthas, Blaze, Diablo, E.T.C., Garrosh, Johanna, Mal'Ganis, Muradin, Stitches, Tyrael
- Bruiser: Alarak, Chen, Cho, D.Va, Dehaka, Leoric, Malthael, Ragnaros, Rexxar, Sonya, Thrall, Xul, Varian, Yrel
- Healer: Alexstrasza, Ana, Auriel, Brightwing, Deckard, Kharazim, Li Li, Malfurion, Lt. Morales, Lucio, Rehgar, Stukov, Tyrande, Uther, Whitemane
- Support: Abathur, Lost Vikings, Medivh, Tassadar, Zarya
- Melee Assassin: Artanis, Butcher, Gazlowe, Illidan, Kerrigan, Maiev, Murky, Samuro, Valeera, Zeratul
- Ranged Assassin: Azmodan, Cassia, Chromie, Falstad, Fenix, Gall, Genji, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hanzo, Jaina, Junkrat, Kael'thas, Kel'thuzad, Li-Ming, Lunara, Mephisto, Nazeebo, Nova, Orphea, Probius, Raynor, Sgt. Hammer, Sylvanas, Tracer, Tychus, Valla, Zagara, Zul'jin
- Quick Match composition getting looked at for quality reasons
- Tank, Healer, Ranged Assassin for each team; 50% xp bonus when queued for one of those roles
- Boosts - aka revamped Stim Packs - provide bonus for the team as well
- Ranked changes
- Combining Hero League and Team League, but soloists can be matched against each other
- Loss Forgiveness occurs when a player on a team disconnects and doesn't come back for a significant period of time; however, people who purposefully and continually disconnect will receive stacking penalties.
- Reduction of placement matches from 10 to 3, but there will be seasonal rank quests in order to earn rewards.
- Removal of promotion/demotion games
- Show MMR and remove ranked points
- Content
- Reworks coming in December: Stitches (such as making Slam more interesting) and Sylvanas (convert to epic ranged assassin by tweaking talents)
- XP changes: forts and keeps worth nothing; towers worth 50% less; doubling mercenary experience; trickle xp +15%
- With destroyed forts, catapults will spawn about 50% of the time
- Armor system: show all armor types in the UI; armor stacking will be removed
November 3, 2018 (Saturday)[]
Deep Dive[]
- 10:00 am - 11:00 am
- The Nexus is a universe of universes, a stable anomaly. The energy of the storm is stored up in realms of varying ages and stability. The realms can be lorded over by the various Realm Lords. The Realm Lords each control the heart of their realms - called the singularity.
- Orphea has a strong connection to her ancestry and its magic. She lived her whole life in the Nexus, watching her father's campaign of power and being consumed by his studies. Alene, her mother, left the family at an early age.
- Orphea ran away when her father kept pursuing the power of the singularity, taking up home in King's Crest after meeting Deckard, only to watch it fall to the Raven Lord.
- Concept art
- Orphea skins
- Heir of Raven Court (Base)
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Heir of Raven Court | Hallowed | Pristine | Regal | Verdant |
- Slacker
- Raven Crest students still gossip about the time Orphea unleashed Kerrigan's Ultralisk in the boy's locker room--because why not? Plus, I heard someone tried revenge-pranking her locker and was never seen again.
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Slacker | RCHS | Spoiled |
- New mount - Raven Runner
- New emojis
- New portraits
- New sprays
Q&A[]
- Priority is to create existing heroes across franchises, but won't say new Nexus heroes are out of the question.
- No plans for Realm Lord heroes, but may see them on the maps.