Following this year’s PAX East in Boston, Blizzard Entertainment looks back on the event with its MOBA Heroes of the Storm and has published a recap on what the studio and the game offered while at PAX East, going into detail on what players can look forward to with the title.
On Friday morning, April 11, Heroes of the Storm’s game director Dustin Browder, senior producer Kaeo Milker, and senior Artist Phill took to the stage in the Albatross Theatre to go over various details on the game’s development progress, its heroes, its maps, cosmetics and so on.
While Blizzard still doesn’t have a release date for the game, they assure us that the studio is working hard to test and work on the technology behind Heroes of the Storm to be sure it can continue to expand the game’s playerbase without running into major issues.
Because Heroes of the Storm’s gimmick is that characters from across Blizzard’s games come together to duke it out, the game presents the studio with an opportunity to introduce characters from any of its games, past, present and future as heroes in Heroes of the Storm . Blizzard is also trying to be creative with the types of heroes it brings to the game; the studio wants them to be able to interact with the game’s various maps in unique ways, using Abathur as an example.
Each of the game’s maps is designed to be different from each other, each with their own individual objectives and points of focus that can change players’ strategies as well as turn the tables of the match. Though there are currently four maps available in the Alpha, Blizzard has plans to add many more in the future. Browder offered up Blackheart’s Bay as an example:
“ On Blackheart’s Bay, you and your allies are tasked with collecting Doubloons and turning them in to the evil ghost pirate, Blackheart, in order to buy his favor.
Players accumulate Doubloons by destroying Treasure Chests or defeating Mercenary Camps, which are scattered around the Battleground.
If your team manages to turn in enough coins, Blackheart will set Blackheart’s Revenge, his ghostly pirate ship, on enemy forts and bombard them with cannon fire!
Be careful, though, because if you die while carrying coins, they’ll spill out onto the ground and your enemies can reclaim them. On Blackheart’s Bay, players become Treasure Goblins. ”
The development for Heroes of the Storm has started to ramp up, too. Blizzard initially focused on standing up art and models for as many of the heroes as it could, but it is now continuing to iterate on said models until each one reflects the character they are modelled after. The studio has put a lot of effort into improving the appearances of the heroes and their cosmetics since the MOBA was first announced at last year’s BlizzCon, too, and in the recent months it has worked to add more details in the faces and models of each hero.
What’s more, new skins will be added into the game in the future, two skins of which will be Sitches in a bikini and Abathur in pajamas. In addition to the skins, Blizzard has a lot more skin variations available that can be unlocked for free, simply by playing with a certain hero as frequently as possible. Variations of skins not only work for the base skin of a hero, but will also work for all future skins for said hero once unlocked. Similar to League of Legends with its legendary skins, Blizzard will also be working on “Ultimate Skins” for Heroes of the Storm’s heroes, which are touted as “ the complete realization of the fantasy for each hero in the Nexus. ” These skins will also be available to unlock for free.
Finally, Blizzard has revealed four new characters that will be added to Heroes of the Storm’s roster: LiLi, Brightwing, Zagara and Murky. The details of which have been listed below.
LiLi
Lili is a new support hero with an ability set that helps her to very effectively aid her teammates throughout the game.
She has lots of ways to protect herself and allies, and she doesn’t need to be babysat.
You’ll see a lot more from her in the showmatch commentary at the end of the panel.
Brightwing
Brightwing has the ability to passively heal any allies nearby.
She can also transform enemies into animals.
Brightwing is a versatile support hero capable of teleporting from ally to ally, healing them and providing them with the help they need to succeed in battle
Zagara
Zagara has map-wide components to her design.
She can drop Creep Tumors to spread Zerg Creep, which helps speed up her movement speed, as well as the speed of her summons.
What’s more, Zagara can use her Nydus Worms to hop back and forth around the map, giving her plenty of opportunity to Creep up and siege multiple lanes at once.
Murky
When we talked about putting Murky in the game, we initially struggled with what to do with him. Making him a really powerful hero just didn’t seem to fit quite right (he is a Murloc, you know.) Instead, we chose to make him very, very weak, but incredibly persistent.
Murky can lay an egg which he can use to respawn near instantly upon being killed. If his egg is destroyed, Murky will face the same respawn timers as other heroes do, so be sure to hide it well!
Murky is going to die A LOT, but he’s a hero who eventually overwhelms enemies across multiple battles. He doesn’t need to win every fight; he just needs to win once.
Heroes of the Storm entered its live Technical Alpha back in early March, which is currently only available to US-based players who are press, community members and friends and family of Blizzard Entertainment employees.
An extensive preview on the studio’s current plans for Hero of the Storm’s gameplay, cosmetics, mounts and player progression was also revealed a few weeks ago, detailing how you level up your profile and how you can progress in the game’s current state.
On Wednesday, April 9, Heroes of the Storm’s game director Dustin Browder published a post about how to effectively use your heroes both in and out of team fights, employing ambush tactics and hero focuses alike across the early, mid and late game.
Tychus, a character from the StarCraft series, had his hero spotlight for Heroes of the Storm revealed early last month. A hero spotlight video has also been revealed for Diablo’s Tyrael, the Archangel of Justice. A Heroes of the Storm trailer for Kerrigan has also been revealed, too.