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Heroes of the Storm: Sale extended! Refer-a-Friend! Hero rotation increased!
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Latest Major Patch Notes
Newest Hero: Cho'gall, Twilight's Hammer Chieftain
http://youtu.be/uniDd-wngQI
Official Definition:
Heroes of the Storm™ is a raucous online team brawler starring your favorite Blizzard characters. Build and customize heroes from across every Blizzard universe to suit your play style. Team up with your friends and engage in fast-paced mayhem across varied battlegrounds that impact strategy and change the way you play the game.
Alternate Definition:
Heroes is a MOBA-lite Team Brawler game in which you play as many characters from different Blizzard universes in 5v5 objective based team combat. The emphasis is on "objective based." There are currently 7 maps with more to come. Each features a unique map objective that is typically the key to victory. The team that manages to win the objectives is usuallythe team that wins. Heroes shares many gameplay elements in the MOBA genre with popular games like DotA2 and League of Legends, but it also drops a lot of the common trappings of the genre and has simplified down to a core game of action and fun.
Resources
Official Site - Here you will find lots of basic material regarding the battlegrounds, heroes, news, and official events such as eSports events.
Heroes Nexus - A site dedicated to news, patch notes, and has a talent calculator and tons of images of hero skins and skin tints
Heroes Fire - A site with tons of good hero stats and a very good talent calculator. This is what most of us use when linking talent builds on the forum.
HotsLogs - A replay and ranking site. Uses player-uploaded replays to calculate MMR ratings. Note: Not entirely accurate, but still a decent source of info.
Future Content
BlizzCon 2015 laid out the path hots will go down for the next few months. This includes:
- Genn Greymane: a melee assassin that can switch between a ranged human form and melee worgen form. Chip away at enemies from range and finish them off with melee.
- Lunara: a ranged assassin that focuses on auto-attacks to whittle down enemies with dots. She is also very mobile and effective at weaving in and out of combat.
- Arena: a new mode that is the game's answer to ARAM. You pick one of three randomly selected heroes and fight on very small maps with one objective and few random layouts. Shorter respawns and more focus on zany action.
- New Matchmaker: they are throwing out the old system for a new one that has been giving closer matches in their simulations. Improvements include a queue system for MMR, trying to match team comps more closely, and MMR ratings for individual heroes.
- Death Recap Screen: coming next year. Looking good.
- Ranked Played: is going to happen. Eventually. Also, going to add bans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2men9QUBgGk
As you play games in Heroes, you will level up two different things: your Player Level and a Hero Level. Experience you earn from playing game is applied to both kinds of levels. There are also three kinds of XP boosts one can get: playing with people on your friends list, Holiday bonuses that occur throughout the year, and Stimpacks which are boosts you buy from the shop. Also, there's a cap on experience gained from bot matches: roughly 2.25 Million experience a day.
Player Level is just an account rank. You get various features and goodies unlocked as you play. These are as follows:- Level2: 1,000 Gold
- Level 4: 1,000 Gold
- Level 5: Unlocks an additional slot in the free hero rotation
- Level 6: Unlocks Daily Quests
- Level 7: Unlocks an additional slot in the free hero rotation
- Levels 8: 2,000 Gold
- Level 10: A Seven-Day Stim Pack (+100% XP and Gold from games); 2,000 Gold
- Level 12: Unlocks an additional slot in the free hero rotation
- Level 15: Unlocks an additional slot in the free hero rotation
- Level 20: 2,000 Gold
- Level 25: 2,000 Gold
- Level 30: Unlocked Ranked Mode; 2,000 Gold
- Level 35: 2,000 Gold
- Level 40: Unlocks Team League; 2,000 Gold
Daily Quests are small tasks the game gives you each day, and upon completion you get 200-800 gold (depending on the quest) for your effort (as an aside, you also get 30 gold for each win, and 20 for each loss). There are currently 4 categories of Daily Quests (Play 2 games with a specific franchise hero, Play 3 games as a specific role, Win 3 games, and Play 8 games in any mode).
Hero Level is a series of unlocks for specific heroes. Each hero has their own level, and playing games with them will increase their level (alongside your player level). Here are hero unlocks:- Level 2: Unlocks your second Heroic Ability
- Level 3: Unlocks Advanced Talents
- Level 4: Unlocks Expert Talents
- Level 5: 500 Gold
- Level 6: Hero Portrait; Mount Tint #1
- Level 7: Hero Tint #1
- Level 8: Hero Tint #2
- Level 9: Hero Master Portrait; Mount Tint #2; 750 Gold
- Level 10: Allows purchase of Master Skin (10,000 gold)
- Level 15: 1,000 Gold
- Level 20: 2,000 Gold
What are some good newbie heroes?
Assassin: Raynor, Warrior: Muradin, Support: Li Li, and Specialist: Nazeebo. Avoid Abathur, Cho'gall, Rexxar, Murky, and the Lost Vikings as they have very atypical designs that are best played when you have more experience with the game.
What's the best way to get experience?
Quick Match. Practice has an experience penalty, and cooperative games are (on average) shorter than Quick Match games. This means you spend more time in queues when doing co-op whereas QM you are in the game earning XP (it's time-based for xp earned per game). There's also the 50,000 xp win bonus you get from QM that you can't from co-op. Hero and Team League are probably worse xp because you have to spend time picking heroes. The only reason to play co-op is because you just can't win in QM for a daily.
What is the fastest way to get gold?
There is none. First, do the tutorials. They don't net you a ton of gold, but it's a decent amount and worth spending ~30-45 minutes to get. From there, the least slow way is to do your daily quest (the game saves up to three quests so you can miss a day or two) and then play with friends on heroes you have not gotten to level five or nine with yet. Start with heroes you don't own yet, and then switch to owned heroes if you manage to get all seven free rotation heroes to level 5 or 9 within a week. That right there is about 5000 gold a week for the next month or so, not counting gold from account levels and games played. Once you hit 40 and have all heroes to level nine you can then do dailies (about 250 gold a day) and grind heroes to 15 and 20 for more gold, but the latter is a significantly longer process than getting a hero to level five or nine.
Do not buy stimpacks. They are not worth the money unless you can play around 10+ games a day for a month straight. The seven-day stimpacks are even worse.
Also, each week a hero is on sale for 25%-50% off real-world money prices, so that's another option if you're willing to lay down hard cash on the game.
When is the next patch?
Patches have been on a fairly consistent seven-week cycle since launch. Basically a patch will go up on PTR for a week, then it goes live with a new hero. Three weeks later, the second hero in that patch is released but there are no changes barring minor bugfixes or something. Then three weeks after that the next patch goes up on PTR, and the cycle begins anews.
How does the new hero pricing model work?
All new heroes are released at a starting cost of 15k. This price will be in place for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, the price drops to 10k. Beyond that, there is no set rule or guideline for when a hero will further drop in price. Blizzard has occasionally gone through and updated hero pricing on multiple heroes at once, (i.e. when they made Li Li a 2k hero and Arthas a 7k hero), but there's no hard rule for when older heroes get price drops.
Cross Promotional stuff?
World of Warcraft
WoW Character Level 100: Wolf Mounts (HotS)
HotS Account Level 20: Grave Golem Pet (WoW)
Preorder Legion: Felstalker Mount (HotS)
Diablo 3
Seasonal Character 70: Malthael's Phantom Mount (HotS)
HotS Account Level 12: Pennant and Player Border (D3)
Starcraft 2
Buy Legacy of the Void (any version): Unlock Artanis (HotS)
Buy Legacy of the Void Collector's Edition: Void Seeker Mount (HotS)
Hearthstone
Win 100 Games: Hearthstone Card Mount (HotS)
HotS Account Level 12: HotS Themed Card Back (HS)
Overwatch
Buy Overwatch Origins Edition OR Collector's Edition: Unlock Tracer (HotS)
How do I play with all of you fine people?
Type "/join heroes of the wang" in game to join our PA chat channel. Great for finding games! Also, check out the [url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VPz6ZKRDFS91WP_f5fzWmnnlhN0B7kRYGtJRSbqNzFw/edit[/url]Battletag List[/url]
New Player Laning Tips!Here are some general tips for early game.- In Heroes, "laning" just means soaking XP. Laning also includes gathering the green Health Orbs for certain specs that take Regen Master or Conjurer's Pursuit. Laning also means trying to get the enemy towers to drain their ammo as fast as possible. Some heroes actually have a talent called "Demolitionist" which actively drains ammo. Other heroes can spawn extra units, which absorb extra shots, and contribute to draining towers faster.
- The most important thing while "laning" is just to remain close enough to the minion kills to soak XP. You do not need to last hit, and in fact you do not need to do any damage at all. All you need is proximity.
- During the opening minutes of the game (usually leading up till the first objective) is the laning phase. The laning phase in Heroes is quite short, and depending on the map, sometimes players never go back to full laning after the first objective spawn. This point is very map dependent. I'll cover general map laning guidelines lower in my post.
- In the early stages of the game, the XP gained through minion kills outweighs the XP gained from player kills. It is a waste of time and effort to "first blood" an enemey just for an XP payout. That's not to say there isn't benefit to killing them. Making them respawn and run back certainly is helpful since it reduces their own XP gains and puts them at a disadvantage for defending gates and towers. But don't over extend, and don't make level 1 hero murder a priority, because it's better to just chill and soak XP from minions.
- One last comment on laning before I dive into map specific details. Do not blow your entire mana-bar or get super beat up during the early-game laning phase. You will need that health and mana for the first objective on every map. If you show up to an objective with 2/3 health and 1/3 mana, you are hurting your team before the fight even starts. And there will be a fight.
- Don't chase enemies. This is the easiest way for players to die, and it's better to give up killing that 5% HP Valla than die trying. This is especially in early game, where the risk-reward for killing a hero is poor, as the XP you get from a kill is not worth the lane XP you lose should you die and have to respawn.
Tutorial Videos - EXTREMELY Useful for new players
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PyO78ry89s&index=1&list=PLlWC1VLv7fbCLexoZvW6aK2Yp37T-RswQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz0VtOQyWGM&index=2&list=PLlWC1VLv7fbCLexoZvW6aK2Yp37T-RswQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxqpwEM1G5Q&index=3&list=PLlWC1VLv7fbCLexoZvW6aK2Yp37T-RswQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0oU0c5YaSA&index=4&list=PLlWC1VLv7fbCLexoZvW6aK2Yp37T-RswQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBm_05Es55Q&index=5&list=PLlWC1VLv7fbCLexoZvW6aK2Yp37T-RswQ
Sterica on
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This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Have Cho'gall, but want that fat gold reward for spreading ogre madness?
Then check out the Cho'gall Train sheet so you can hook up with other players and help Cho'gall take over the Nexus! If you went to BlizzCon or bought a Virtual Ticket, then he'll be yours next week!
well ask me in a week
I think it's safe to say Sanctification is getting nerfed.
which is funny, because after they redid it, a lot of people were complaining it was useless.
oops.
I will spread my virus to all of y'alls. And you'll LIKE IT, gosh dang it.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
This is so exciting...
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
I remember people thinking it would be worse for PUGs but better for highly coordinated play. Which seems to be how it's worked out.
Though back then the thinking was more it would be used to negate wombos mostly.
EDIT: Which is to say, some people just can't play with a hat.
That is not a question. Mrgl.
They didn't want players having to memorize a bunch of stuff before playing, but now you have ten maps with their own little intricacies like not capping siege camps before the golem crosses a certain point on Mines. Worse, with the Diablo maps we now have different mercs camps that work a bit differently from every other map. Now they're taking it up to ten with Tower of Doom, which works quite differently with the objective being the ONLY way to win. I just feel like it may be a bit much for a new player to take in, and maybe it's time to consider map rotations.
I liked Tassadar, haven't had a chance to try out Valla much yet though.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
They've said before they were looking into map rotations but they didn't think they had enough yet. Sorta like how we are soon getting 10 free hero rotations now that the roster is big enough.
For the larger point though I don't think most of that actually matters for alot of players. At a low level the intricacies you are talking about don't matter. Bruiser and Siege camps are different on a few maps, but so what. They are still, as the casters put it, easy camp and hard camp. Specific timing to grab the camps? A higher level strategy. The specifics aren't important at the level of play where memorizing those details would be an issue.
I think the last one was on me. I was the only one dead for 90% of the terrors existence but I still bypassed it when I revived.
Ugh. On to the next day I suppose.
inevitably, i got killed a jillion times as kael because our sonya refused to initiate so i had to be the first person to go in or we never did anything. and even when she did we had no battlefield control at all and got murdered instantly. shittiest game of heroes i've ever played. sonya ended with 12k damage in 18 minutes on garden of terror. lili had 20k.
plz.
edit: ah well, won my next game with an equally mediocre comp, so i guess all's fair. i wish brightwing did a little bit more damage, think she'd be really competitive because her healing, mobility and hard cc combined with super buff pixie dust shield wall makes her a really fun pick.
XBL: InvaderJims
Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
Laning will be ... interesting, since he counts as two heroes. If you end up with a Zeratul or Nova on your team (or God forbid, both), or anyone who traditionally roams and ganks early on, rather than sticking to a lane to soak, you may end up falling behind in XP pretty substantially.
Leoric will fucking eat CG alive, as will basically anyone with access to Giant Killer.
Sometimes the denseness, or stupidity, or whatever you want to call it of the people who get in line to ask questions really blows my mind. During that Battleground Design panel, not one, not two, not three, but at least 4 people got up and asked questions that were completely irrelevant to the panel and unanswerable by the devs who were on the stage.
I don't get it. If you get a turn at the mic, ask a question that can actually be answered. Don't blow a question on something that the response will be "We are battleground designers, this question should be asked of the hero designers."
There were two people in a row who asked about adding specific heroes to the game. I eye-rolled and facepalmed. Seriously. Do the people who moderate the microphone not screen the questions? And do the people who are asking the questions not have the intelligence to know what can and can't be answered?
Why would they think that if they show up to a panel about battleground design that they would get character questions answered? I just don't get it.
Just some points on the whole "giant killer/% damage will kill Cho'Gall".
You need to look at it like this. Unlike Abathur, while Cho'Gall is one less body on the field, he still has the 'soak' the lost body would bring in the additional hp. Its basically if two heroes were always in the same place at the same time. Except their health pools are sequential. Meaning, you can't kill both at the same time, you need to kill both in order, for both to die.
So while this makes him much weaker to direct, % damage, it also makes him strong vs aoe damage. Where if you had two separate HP pools, you could damage them both at the same time and kill them twice as fast, in this case you can only damage one at a time, so aoe damage is neutered. This kind of effectively turns direct % damage (As I don't think there is a single aoe % damage in the game, even Khara's heroic only does % damage to a single target at a time it just switches targets quickly) into aoe damage vs them. So Cho'Gall flip flops the concept of direct damage vs aoe. Aoe does less, direct % damage does more.
HOTS is designed for counters so its no big deal or surprise Cho'Gall has that counter. It's just in this case the counter is painfully obvious. Raynor licks his motherfuckin lips at the concept of fighting Cho'Gall. Illidan too. Get them both and throw in an ETC for a second AOE attackspeed boost and then hell, might as well put leo there too. Then again, that set up will melt anyone anyway.
That is your answer right there. Some people are just incapable of rational (or maybe even any) thought.
But damned if we didn't win it. And it was pretty damn fun too.
The way picks work on Team League is really interesting. Though I guess it makes sense when you can't swap heroes in regular draft.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Aren't the terror/dragon basically vehicles?
And arguably stuff like Odin where it completely changes your abilities.
With the new level scaling I don't think the Xp issue will be as prevalent, will it? As long as you're soaking somewhat well, falling a level behind won't be as big an issue.
What will be an issue, is that with the new death timers an early kill on Cho'Gall means you're effectively down two teammates for a substantial amount of time in the first few levels.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
I call it the balloon
It is fun to play them but well sometimes I like facing them face to face instead of being a balloon with quills
Switch: 6589-6405-3399
In the other match we had both our tanks as bots the whole match. Thankfully it ended quickly so the pain was minimized.
Switch: 6589-6405-3399