The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Breaking down the big Heroes of the Storm update: HotS 2.0

Riot games. (Image: Riot Games)
Roar Rookie
5th May, 2017
0

Now that we’ve had some hands on time to play through the highly anticipated launch of Heroes of the Storm 2.0, we can see just how the changes were received by the community and the professional scene.

As described by Blizzard, the 2.0 update promised to bring in a more powerful progression system, reward-packed Loot Chests, an innovative new Battleground, and heaps of rule-shattering heroes. I can say with confidence that Blizzard has indeed delivered on all of these.

We have a new uncapped player level system implemented in the game, where previously it was capped at level 40.

Loot chests have now also been thrown into the mix to reward you for levelling up in this new system. It allows for both new and old players a chance to unlock a variety of cosmetics that previously would have taken a lot of time, or even money to obtain.

One new hero joining the Nexus that needs no introduction is the infamous Genji from Overwatch. True to his cybernetic ninja ways he is the latest assassin to flaunt his might in HotS.

Due to the two week competitive ruling which bans playing newly released heroes, we have not seen Genji played on the professional stage just yet.

What I have seen however is a healthy dose of the community giving this Shimada brother a whirl as he proves to be a popular pick. I’m keen to see where he fits into professional team compositions with his cheeky antics.

Speaking of the Shimada brothers, Hanamura was the new battleground map unveiled for play. This battleground is the second of its kind where you must end the game through objectives; you cannot attack the core directly.

Advertisement

The other map of this kind where Blizzard introduced this mechanic is Towers of Doom. I commend Blizzard for creating another map like this, but watching the overview for the map I was worried. Perhaps there was going to be too much going on in this map for it to work.

I gave the map a whirl on the Heroes Brawl and in some quick match games and it actually wasn’t as overwhelming as it seemed. It forces you to pick whether you want to attack or defend and I can see professional teams coming up with some great tactics and picks for this battleground.

For existing battlegrounds, Blizzard has brought through some quality of life improvements in the form of layout changes with the aim of removing awkward gameplay moments that were occurring.

Sky Temple, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire and Garden of Terror have undergone small adjustments to terrain and excessive brush being pruned or removed altogether. These adjustments from in-game play are hardly noticeable, and for maintenance purposes.

Lastly to wrap up the last few changes that HotS 2.0 has brought are balance changes to some existing heroes. One notable change includes Valeera having her burst damage potential reduced. The change hit her hard with Coldblood being completely removed instead of Blizzard opting for a re-work. This was due to her being deemed as having too much burst damage on top of the crowd control she was packing.

Uther has been completely reworked as he has fallen out of competitive play for some time now with pros finding him underpowered as a support. Blizzard has hoped for Uther to fulfil his role as an anti-burst healer and for his ability to get in the frontline and disrupt it.

Changes such as allowing Uther’s Holy Light ability to always heal Uther as well as having his abilities apply Armor in his kit will allow him to hopefully now excel in these areas.

Advertisement

Auriel’s change is an interesting one and focuses on making Resurrect, one of her heroic talent choices, a viable pick. Historically it has a very low rate of being chosen (averaging a pick rate of 10-12%).

This heroic talent has always been interesting as Resurrect can only really work if you get the opportunity to use it. Trouble is you would rarely ever be given the opportunity with a long channel time. To alleviate this Blizzard has reduced the channel time and to ensure it doesn’t flip a teamfight right away, given a five second delay once the cast is finished to bring the chosen hero back to life.

Although I like the sound of these changes on paper, it still sounds like it will be a very situational talent choice for Auriel players but it’s still early days.

These balance changes have the professional players in mind as well as the casual ones. With any game in the MOBA genre the aim is to have a healthy power balance distributed amongst all heroes available to play. This prevents the all too common cries of overpowered and underpowered terms being thrown around.

Over the past week and a half of HotS 2.0 being live we have seen spike in new players coming to see what all the fuss is about. I hope these players are enjoying their taste of the game and continue to return to the Nexus, as it’s fun having new faces around. This was a step in the right direction by Blizzard.

I can’t wait to see Hanamura and Genji unleashed on the professional stage, as we may have another slight meta shift incoming.

If you’re interested in giving Heroes of the Storm a try, you came at a great time. Login to claim your 20 free heroes from now until May 22. See you on the Nexus!

Advertisement
close