[Gaming] Heroes of the Storm hype thread - Now Fully Released

Bowielee

Bowielee

This thread is a preemptive placeholder for Blizzard's MOBA type game.

You can register for the alpha/beta here: http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/

I've been in the alpha for a few months now and I'm having an absolute blast with it. They have recently moved into the final alpha phase, which means that the closed beta shouldn't be very far behind.

They've recently added Chen Stormstout, Anub'Aruk, and Azmodan to the roster.

Abathur and Murky for life yo!
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Necronic said:
idgi. Isn't DOTA the Blizzard MOBA? Seems like they are competing against themselves
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Blizzard lost the court case against the DOTA creators and no longer have any rights to DOTA, which was then purchased by Valve who created DOTA2. So yeah, Blizzard has nothing to do with DOTA anymore, other than that it was born out of a fan-made custom starcraft map, and then the eponymous Warcraft 3 map.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Huh. Huge mistake on Blizzards part not to snatch that IP up full and clear when they could have. Anyways, went and looked the lawsuit up. It might be a bit strong to say that Blizzard lost. Looks like Blizzard and Valve settled out of court. In other words Valve bought whatever part of the DOTA IP may have belonged to Blizzard and DOTA-Allstars.[DOUBLEPOST=1412787685,1412787365][/DOUBLEPOST]
Bowielee said:
I'm fairly certain that Blizzard doesn't get paid for a free mod.
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Also, this is not a straightforward issue. It was (originally) a free mod of Blizzard's software. Determination of ownership of mods is an incredibly grey area that really hasn't been sorted out. For instance I can't sell 3rd party add-ons to many popular MMOs. If I can't sell it, could I argue sole ownership? I doubt it. In some cases I can if I pay a licensing fee, but how the licensing arrangement is set up may give carte-blanche to the mod-developer or may not. I'm not a lawyer by any means, but I don't think a mod developer actually fully owns his mod.

The complexity of this issue (I couldn't find a definitive answer with google) may be the reason Valve chose to settle.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I think Blizzard was really at a disadvantage there, at least when up against Valve. Valve has a long history of recruiting popular modmakers into the fold and making full fledged games out of them, whereas this was the first blizzard game mod that ever gained really big popularity.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Necronic said:
Wasn't there a sort of single-player RPG style thing in Warcraft 3?
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I'm not sure, there were tons of custom maps like that, but none of them got the kind of popularity that DOTA got. In its heyday, DOTA games made up more than 50% of the WC3 games being played on bnet.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Huh, reading up on MOBA history is cool. Apparently the inspiration for AOS came from a certain playmode of Future COP: LAPD.

I remember that game, and that playmode. I played a ton of it.[DOUBLEPOST=1412788663,1412788394][/DOUBLEPOST]
Ravenpoe said:
I'm not sure, there were tons of custom maps like that, but none of them got the kind of popularity that DOTA got. In its heyday, DOTA games made up more than 50% of the WC3 games being played on bnet.
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This wasn't a custom map, it was included in the game itself. Maybe it was in the Frozen Throne one. The reason I ask is that the version I remembered had some stuff that was very Dota-esque. Actually, reading up on it, the whole concept of Heroes that came into being in WC3 seems like a very obvious predescessor for Dota. From the wiki (bolded for emphasis):

In addition, Warcraft III adds powerful new units called heroes. For each enemy unit killed, a hero will gain experience points, which allow the hero to level-up to a maximum level of 10. Progressing up a level increases the heroes attributes and also allows the hero to gain new spell options (bringing role-playing video game elements to the series).[10] Certain hero abilities can apply beneficial auras to allied units. All heroes can equip items to increase skills, defense, and other abilities. At level six, the hero can obtain an "ultimate" skill that is more powerful than the three other spells that the hero possesses. Heroes can also utilize the various natural resources found throughout the map, such as controllable non-player characters, and markets in which the hero can purchase usable items.[11] Often, hero units become the deciding factor in determining a winner.
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X
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Necronic said:
Huh, reading up on MOBA history is cool. Apparently the inspiration for AOS came from a certain playmode of Future COP: LAPD.

I remember that game, and that playmode. I played a ton of it.[DOUBLEPOST=1412788663,1412788394][/DOUBLEPOST]

This wasn't a custom map, it was included in the game itself. Maybe it was in the Frozen Throne one. The reason I ask is that the version I remembered had some stuff that was very Dota-esque. Actually, reading up on it, the whole concept of Heroes that came into being in WC3 seems like a very obvious predescessor for Dota. From the wiki (bolded for emphasis):




X
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Oh, I know what you're talking about then, it was a side story that starred Rexxar.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Regardless of the whole DOTA thing, Heroes of the Storm is by far my favorite MOBA style game. Basically take how they streamlined the CCG genre for Hearthstone and apply it to traditional MOBAs and you have HotS.

Personally, I love that they cut out all the things I hate about the genre. No more fifteen to twenty minute lane phase that lets one hero power level over everyone else and snowball the enemy. No more having to worry about a shop, instead you have talents that take their place. No more kill hogging. Assists with kills and kills are lumped together, so support heroes don't get bitched out for having low kill ratios while doing their intended job. It all makes for a faster, more streamlined, and more engaging experience, IMO.

It's also based largely on teamwork. Objectives are important and can sway the tide of the game, and the variety of different types of maps are great with unique objectives on each one.

My absolute favorite thing is that they have an entirely new classification of hero type in Specialist heroes. These are heroes that have unique mechanics that focus on full on lane pushing, or just plain unique mechanics. For example Gazlowe is built for jungling with a turret system, Murky has an egg that he can place on the map that becomes his spawn point that gives him a 1.5 cooldown. He's basically a suicide bomber assassin. Abathur is by far my favorite. He doesn't even directly enter combat, instead infesting friendly creeps or heroes with a parasite that allows him to attack through the infested unit and when not doing that he lays down toxic mines that can slow or poison damage enemies that walk over it.

I just straight up love this game.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

So, Blizzcon is here, and with it a few cool announcements.

Closed Beta begins January 13th.

New heroes coming up:

Jaina Proudmoore
Sylvannas Windrunner
Thrall
The Lost Vikings

The lost vikings look like they will be interesting, I think they may be playing with how you can micromanage multiple characters to tweak some of the other heroes' summons because things like Raynor's banshees and Kerigan's ultralisk are nigh useless because you can't direct them once their summoned.

Two new battlegrounds, one with an objective beacon that, if you capture it, it bombards the enemy heroes, but not only will the enemy heroes be pushing you off the objective, but it also spawns AI minions that try to clear everyone off the beacon. The other is a desert map, looks like it's going to work kind of like the golem map now.
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Bowielee said:
Additional heroes announced from the Diablo Universe

The Skeleton King
The Butcher
The Crusader
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Don't think those were "new" heroes. Crusader might be since the rig was not done and she was just in the t-pose, but the frame of Skeleton King looks a lot like Lich King, and same for Butcher with Stitches. I am pretty sure they will be alternate skins.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

So, I've unlocked all the heroes I did purchase a lot of them through the packs, but that was money that I'd already spent prior to the final alpha wipe, so I don't consider it spending new money :p . Thank god there are no more wipes. Now I have to work on leveling them all up so I can unlock the talent gates.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I have this and have yet to open it. Not a fan of LoL or things of that ilk, but I've never really given them a chance because the players are all dicks. Should I pop it open and give it a chance?
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

It's free, no point in not trying it. If you don't like it, no loss. While I enjoyed some of the other MOBA games, none has hooked me nearly as much as HoTS has.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Dave said:
I have this and have yet to open it. Not a fan of LoL or things of that ilk, but I've never really given them a chance because the players are all dicks. Should I pop it open and give it a chance?
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Dying in this game isn't as big a detriment to your team as it is in LoL, so that should get rid of a lot of toxicity. Honestly, this game is DRASTICALLY different from LoL or DOTA, to the point that comparing them is pointless.
 
Dei

Dei

I don't know if drastically is correct, and I would hazard to say that alpha community != live community.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

It's drastically different in that you can't solo your way through. It takes quite a bit of teamwork to win.

This may lead to a better or worse community.

For the record, for some reason, people playing Nova tend to be a-holes.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bowielee said:
It's drastically different in that you can't solo your way through. It takes quite a bit of teamwork to win.

This may lead to a better or worse community.

For the record, for some reason, people playing Nova tend to be a-holes.
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Well, it's Nova's job to be an a-hole.

Nova (and Valla, a little) is the hero most like LoL style carries, where their role is to get in and gank someone. However, in LoL, this becomes the entire game, whereas in HotS it's not really a huge benefit to sneak in and kill someone unless you can coordinate it to do so before a team objective spawns and limit their group to 4 for the teamfight. In LoL, killing someone gives you a big boost in gold and experience, and more importantly denies the slain enemy experience while they're dead. HotS it just removes them for a short time.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

I meant in being a-holes in chat, not playstyle. Novas are some of the most negative douchebaggy people.

Also, you do get experience for hero kills.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bowielee said:
I meant in being a-holes in chat, not playstyle. Novas are some of the most negative douchebaggy people.

Also, you do get experience for hero kills.
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You do, but you don't -deny- the enemy experience, which is the big thing in LoL and DOTA.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Well, Nova's a bit OP at the moment, so she's the most popular assassin. She can instakill half the roster right now if she's talented correctly. Now I know that she's supposed to be an assassin and do a ton of damage, but she's gotten a little unbalanced as of the last patch. But this is Alpha, it's all about readjusting. I'm fairly certain she's the first one on the nerfing block next patch.

Valla, on the other hand, well, she's just about as deadly, but with even more survivability. I think they need to nerf her hatred stacks with healing on hits. She can literally tank entire merc camps and regenerate all her health of auto attacks alone. But still, she doesn't feel as cheap as Nova.
 
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