Contents
The PTR has launched!
Map overview
Talent changes
Special events are introduced to Heroes of the Storm!
New UI features
Developer Insights – Patch Preview
New Sale!
Nexus Weekly#8 by GosuGamers
First week of the Blizzard GamesCom contest has started!
Monk abilities predictions by GosuGamers
First impressions of the upcoming patch by GosuGamers
The PTR has launched!
First ever Heroes of the Storm Public Test Realm is live, and brings a lot of new content, and changes to HOTS! Among the most noticeable ones are heroes and talents reworks, new map, new UI features, updated ART, and some quality of life changes for abilities.
Detailed patch notes review will require another article, so I’ll briefly describe changes that i consider to be most impactful and valuable.
Map overview
First of all it’s a new map – Battlefields of Eternity. Map variety is one the strongest features of Heroes compared to other MOBAs. Different maps promote different style of play and allow different heroes to shine. The new map is looking like Haunted Mines variation. It also has two lanes, and also has powerful objective that you want to fight for. Right now, it’s hard to say will the map be enjoyable or not. It may end up being the least anticipated map, or become new interesting map that everyone wanna play.
Check the community discussion and preview of the map by the links below.
http://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/3auogy/heroes_of_the_storm_battlefield_of_eternity/
GosuGamers map related article.
http://www.gosugamers.net/heroesofthestorm/news/31520-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-battleground-eternal-conflict
Map overview from the developers.
Gameplay preview from TGN Squadron
Battlefield of Eternity | New Map in Heroes of the Storm | First Impressions w/MFPallytime & Hengest
Talent changes
Coming up next is the talent changes. Many talents received massive overhaul. Envenom and Promote got nerfed. Envenom now does same amount of damage, but for the doubled period of time, rendering it useless for quick bursty setups and ganks. Promoted minions are no longer invincible and are as easy to kill, as they were few patches before. Promote buff now only works versus non-Heroic units.
Other than that, Brightwing, Malfurion, Rehgar, Illidan, Sylvanas and Lost Vikings received significant talent changes and overhauls. Overall changes to supports seem like nice buffs and improvements. On the other hand, changes made to Illidan and Sylvanas are clearly being a nerf to their previous styles of play. As for the Vikings their power and damage output is now shifted even more towards the late game. Also, previous build is not viable now, as both North Force and Spin to Win are on the same talent tier.
What also caught my attention is the introduction of Daze mechanic and removal of the Unstoppable mechanic on some abilities. Number of abilities that had stun mechanic, while displacing target, such as Sundering, Face Melt, Primal Grasp and the others, are now converted to Dazes, and don’t have Stun effect. What that means is you no longer can interrupt channeling abilities, but still have displacement left. For example, you can’t interrupt Strafe with Sundering now, but you can move Valla in some direction! Lastly, abilities like Dive (Illidan’s “Q”), or Ravage (Kerrigan’s “Q”) no longer grant Unstoppable!
Full list of patch notes, and discussion can be found below, on the community sites:
http://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/3av1tx/heroes_of_the_storm_ptr_patch_notes_june_23_2015/http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/19803324/heroes-of-the-storm-ptr-patch-notes-june-24-2015-23-06-2015
http://www.heroesevo.com/ptr-open-patch-notes-23-june-2015/http://heroesofthestorm.blizzpro.com/2015/06/23/june-23rd-ptr-patch-notes-eternal-conflict/
Special events are introduced to Heroes of the Storm!
Now, the Quest Log contains not only Quests, but also Special Events. In this patch Special Event is to kill the Treasure Goblin. The event is daily based, and can be completed once per day! Upon completion the event grants 100 gold. Right now, Special Events seem like other Quests, but themed for the Expansion. Watch the videos of the event completion below.
Treasure Goblin Hunt on Sky Temple
Treasure Goblin Hunt by HeroesNexus.
New UI features
The TAB screen now has new column called Role. This column displays the amount of healing done for Supports, and the amount of damage taken for Warriors. Also, you now see hero pricing in the preview window of the shop, and fountain cooldown under the in-game portrait.
Developer Insights – Patch Preview
Developer Insights are the series of articles aimed to explain the reasoning and philosophy behind the upcoming changes, and tell the players what developers are planning to do next. They often arrive one\two days before patch hits, this edition is no exclusion.
You can find the actual article and community discussion by the links below.
http://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/3aucj5/developer_insights_patch_preview_june_23_2015/
http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/19802336/developer-insights-patch-preview-6232015-23-06-2015
http://heroesofthestorm.blizzpro.com/2015/06/23/dev-insights-preview-talents-shifts-upcoming-patch/
New Sale!
Sale of this week is not so awesome compared to previous sales. The launch hype is over, and the sale is coming back to ordinary rate with 3 items per sale. This week features Crown Prince Arthas, High Templar Zeratul and Arthas for half of the price.
Crown Prince Arthas is epic quality skin that offers different appearance, voice-over and themed abilities. Arthas will look and speak as if he is human. I’ve noticed difference in his “Q”, Trait and Ultimates, compared to the original animations.
High Templar Zeratul is rare quality skin that changes appearance. Makes Zeratul look like he is High Templar and never cut his connection to Khala.
Lastly, Arthas is Arthas, The Lich King and a dude to kill in a Try Mode!
http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/19802334/weekly-sale-june-23-30-2015-23-06-2015
http://heroesofthestorm.blizzpro.com/2015/06/22/weekly-sale-free-hero-rotation-june-23rd-30th/
Nexus Weekly#8 by GosuGamers
Latest edition of Nexus Weekly is out! Read jokes about Free Hero Rotation, and info about HotsLogs statistics regarding Assassins win rates. Check out what author thinks about Team Complexity and skins. Lastly, read small interview with streamer of this week.
http://www.gosugamers.net/heroesofthestorm/features/4291-nexus-weekly-8
First week of the Blizzard GamesCom contest has started!
Doesn’t matter if you are Arthas, or Brightwing friends are always important! Blizzard is no Brightwing, but they think the same! Because of that, and also the GamesCom event, they’ve created awesome, weekly based contest that allows participants to win cool prizes and spread the word about Heroes of the Storm. Recently, the first week of this contest has started, and the theme of first week is #Friends! Check out the official press release to know more about how to win the prizes!
Monk abilities predictions by GosuGamers
Dorazion from GosuGamers did interesting article that tries to predict Monk abilities based on the action revealed in the Eternal Conflict trailer. As Diablo 3 player, author will analyze the abilities shown in the trailer, and will throw some predictions regarding abilities and their mechanic, which Monk can be granted by the developers in the upcoming patches.
First impressions of the upcoming patch by GosuGamers
In this article author tries to theorize how the meta-game will change after the patch hits live servers. I think i can agree with Dorazion on points displayed in the article. Now, after having exact patch notes, we can clearly see that the talent changes towards Promote, Envenom and Illidan are aimed to make them less powerful. With recent changes it will be much harder for Illidan to be complete!
