Heroes of the StormFollow

Blizzard's latest f2p title.

Got into the Technical Alpha, anyone else around in it want to exchange battletags?

So this is Blizzards Moba, right?

Initial impression: the game has serious potential, but I don't think it's my cup of tea. My background is that of a Dota player, so I'm coming from that.

They are taking the traditional Blizzard approach here: good but not perfect game play, with an absolutely insane level of polish, streamlining, and quality of life changes.

They're very clearly going for "constant action" with this title. It's almost to the level of Super Smash Bros. Mana regenerates quickly, and creeps drop health orbs that heal you (similar to Diablo 3). The end result is, although you have a hearthstone that sends you back to base for healing like in LoL, you never really need to use it. All my games I've ran around outside of our base the entire time.

The talent system is a cool option. Every other level or so, you are offered a choice between two ways to modify your character. When you earn your ultimate (or "heroic ability") you actually choose from between two different ones as that level' choice. The end result is that you play every game a little different. It helps keep things fresh.

I'm not a fan of the f2p system they're going with here. I hate hate hate hate LoL's system, and that they are using it for Heroes is a massive turnoff for me. I'm currently limited to the weekly free hero rotation, and I can't try out a hero I thought looked really cool. This is opposed to Dota, where I can try out any and every hero as soon as I install the game. It feels limiting and like a cash grab.

Heroes have mounts, and I think it is terrible. If you want to, you can use your mount ability to give you hero a +20% movespeed bonus that is canceled upon dealing or receiving damage. Mounting up has a cast time, and no max duration. However, the difference it provides feels negligible, and watching Arthas or Diablo riding around on a ******* basic horse mount (as in, the level 40 human racial mount from WoW in all its basicness) is a horrible wrong that needs be righted.

The game is still very early on in development, obviously. The tutorial has Uther guiding you through, and it's really awkward to see characters speaking and their mouth not moving, since the animation isn't there yet. The female Demon Hunter is also ugly as sin. Certain UI elements have an obvious placeholder look to them.

All in all it seems a lot like hearthstone: a good way to spend a casual thirty minutes, not a super in depth competitive title.

I don't the moba.

I like the calculus.

I miss the glory days, back when the WoW class forums were populated and we could talk TC in the DK/Mage forums...

/sigh /nostalgia

the ****? that is trigono/geometry.

I'm necroing this thread.

I just encountered Arthas, the Lich King, Lord of the Undead, Master of Icecrown Citadel, wielder of Frostmourne, and one of the most powerful and badass characters to ever appear in Warcraft go riding into battle on this ******* thing.

A unicorn mount. A unicorn mount.

I like to think I've got a pretty good tolerance for this kind of thing. Heroes isn't serious at all. It's not meant to be. They joke about this whole thing making no sense in the tutorial, even. One of the heroes is the Tauren guy from Elite Tauren Chieftan! One of the skins for Abathur, a Zerg mastermind tactition, is him in pajamas.

Ok, whatever.

But you don't, don't, make the god ******* damn Lich King ride into battle on a unicorn that trails rainbows after it.

To top it all off, this piece of **** is the most expensive mount in the store, at $20.

You know you're replying to yourself, right?

MOBA math goes like this: do whatever your subconscious tells you is a good idea. If you survive with 3 hp, /all CALCULATED. If you die, /all omfg who fed <guy who killed you>, or /all I thought I had flash/<item active>, lol.

Speaking of across the map hail mary attacks. Spoiler

Edit: Also, Easter egg: Spoiler

Edited, Feb 4th 2015 1:58pm by Poldaran

We can all get Beta keys now from Blizz, for the low low price of $40....

Fools and their money, and all that.