Heroes of the Storm OT Discord:
Ask in thread for an invite. Most of the discussion and activity happens there.
Basic Overview:
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Team 1 (The RTS Team)
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Genre: MOBA/ARTS
Release Date: June 2nd, 2015
Platforms: PC/Mac
Price: Free 2 Play
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaxjC8V5j6M
Screenshots: http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/media/
Update Schedule:
-Heroes: One every 4-8 weeks.
-Reworks: One or two every 4-8 weeks.
-Battlegrounds: One every ~6+ months.
-Balance Patches: Once a month at minimum.
Gameplay Modes:
-Play Against AI: Play against five enemy AIs, with a choice of either playing with four AI teammates or four actual players. You play on a randomly picked, unknown Battleground.
-Quick Match: Five players vs five players. You select your hero before searching for a match. Heroes are unique per team. You play on a randomly picked, unknown Battleground.
-Hero League: Five players vs five players. You find out what map you're playing on, and then select heroes in a draft format. All ten heroes must be unique. Unlocked at Level 30.
-Team League: Pre-made five vs five teams only. Otherwise works like Hero League. Unlocked at Level 40.
-Unranked: Five players vs five players. Any combination of team sizes is fine. Uses drafting.
-Brawl: A mode that can contain just about anything. Lasts one week.
Gameplay Basics:
-While similar to a MOBA, containing multiple lanes, infinitely spawning units, and an objective to destroy the enemy base, there are several key differences.
-One of the biggest differences is that each map has an objective that does something like spawning a super unit for your side or making the enemy units/towers not attack for a limited period of time.
-Another is that the four archetypes (Warrior, Assassin, Support, Specialist) are balanced like an MMO (Tank, Damage Dealer, Healer, Utility) instead of regular MOBA archetypes. There is no concepts such as a carry, so don't try to fight three people at once and expect to win.
-Your entire team gains levels at the same rate, so who gets kills or a destroys a building doesn't matter. Denying also doesn't exist.
-There is no gold or items. Instead, every three levels you can select from between two to five talents that can majorly modify your abilities, character, or give you new abilities.
-The matches are built to last approximately 15-25 minutes, which is a fair bit shorter than most MOBAs.
-If you're confused about anything, play through the tutorials, which go into everything in depth and give you gold for completing them. This is especially true for players new to the genre who read what I wrote and it made no sense.
-Blizzard rates the following heroes as easy to use for newcomers: Azmodan, Kael'thas, Li Li, Malfurion, Raynor, Sylvanas, Uther, Valla
-Specific hero guides can be found here: http://www.heroesfire.com/
-If you want to track your stats in more detail, go here: https://www.hotslogs.com/Default
Business Model:
-There is a selection of fourteen free heroes per week.
-You earn gold by leveling up and completing daily quests, which can be used to buy heroes and make them continually available. Gold is also used to re-roll loot boxes, which are earned by leveling.
-Loot boxes are awarded for every time you level up a hero and contain four random items ranging from common to legendary. Certain level thresholds provide higher quality loot boxes. Loot boxes may contain heroes, skins, mounts, banners, sprays, announcers, voice lines, emojis, portraits, and stimpacks.
-You can also buy heroes, skins, mounts, loot boxes, and stimpacks (account - not game - experience/gold rate increasers) from the shop with gems which are purchased with real money. Gems are also earned sporadically during the game.
-Event loot boxes are all of Rare quality and guarantee an item from that event inside the box.
-There is no system akin to LoL runes. You also can't buy anything that helps you during the actual game.
-There are weekly sales where seven skins, two heroes, and two mounts are put on sale. Their gem price is lowered, however their shard price remains the same.
Released Heroes:
Previous Threads:
They were lost in the fire, but a ded gaem never dies.
Wall of Shame |OT3|:
Useful Links:
Master League.net - Resource for replays and stats for the latest HGC professional matches.
Heroes eSports - Official site for HGC news, standings, and information
Storm Spy - Resource for HOTS stats and information such as winrates, talent pickrates, etc.
HOTSlogs - Original resource for HOTS statistics for the playerbase. Not what it used to be. Don't leave this site running in the background for long periods of time.
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