What Heroes of the Storm Gets Right

Img: Heroes

I'm one of those jerks who was granted access to Heroes of the Storm early on in the technical alpha. Now that Heroes is officially live, and having played hundreds of games solo and with friends throughout the alpha and beta, I thought I might explore why Heroes of the Storm is the perfect MOBA for me. If you can identify with some of my reasoning, it may be the perfect MOBA for you---even if you've not played one before.

Prior to Heroes, my MOBA experience was with League of Legends. There I reached summoner level 23 (aka still noob) before I decided I wasn't enjoying the game enough to continue playing. With Heroes, Blizzard offers their own approach to gameplay elements which up til this point have become signatures of MOBAs. It may be too much of a departure for purists, and this may be partly behind the reason Blizzard would like us to refer to the game as a "hero brawler" instead of a MOBA.

Still, as with what we saw with World of Warcraft over ten years ago, and Hearthstone more recently, this is what Blizzard does best. I feel their iteration of a MOBA gets it right.

Match Length

The shortest match I've played in Heroes of the Storm ran about ten minutes, while the longest match ran about thirty-five minutes. Quite a variance, I know! In contrast, the shortest League of Legends match I've played lasted around twenty minutes, while the longest dragged on for over an hour---an even larger variance! But it's not the difference between the longest and the shortest matches that attracts me, but rather the average length of each match. Generally, one can complete two matches in Heroes of the Storm in the time it'd take to complete one game in League of Legends. And this is important to me as it relates to the perception of risk vs. reward.

Risk in this case signals time-invested. Reward signals any number of things: a win, XP gain, fun had, etc. Being able to play two games in a forty-minute period vs. one increases the overall sense of reward. Even if you aren't winning, you're gaining experience, both in the virtual and literal sense. Matches in Heroes rarely feel like they're dragging along, even if your team is clearly behind, because they tend to be over so quickly. You generally have a decent idea where the teams stand in relation to one another by the twelve minute mark of the match, though, just because one team is far ahead doesn't mean the match is over.

Opportunities for Redemption

Heroes of the Storm requires teams to make intelligent choices throughout the game. Even the team who's three levels ahead of their opponent late into the game isn't guaranteed a win. Some might not see this as fair, but I think it facilitates exciting gameplay---or at least the potential for it---from match start until one of the team's cores is finally destroyed. One of the reasons League of Legends ceased appealing to me was the feeling of utter futility and uselessness when you and your teammates fell too far behind to win, yet the match carried on for another twenty-five minutes.

In Heroes of the Storm, the game's truly not over til it's over.

I've been on both sides of matches where one team has an 18 vs. 15 level differential only to have the leading team get cocky and blow the match. There's a built-in catch-up mechanism to help a team lagging far behind: they will gain experience at a slightly faster rate based on the level differential to prevent them from getting too far behind---which is nice, if not too dramatic. I've also been on both sides of matches where the winning team finished five levels ahead of their opponents, so the catch-up mechanism only goes so far.

With the increased length of resurrection timers after late-game deaths and the increased power of Heroes at high levels, a well-coordinated wipe (killing all players on the opposing squad) by the trailing team is enough to steal away a victory. Granted, it's something easier said than done.  

Emphasis on Teamwork

In League of Legends, there's a lot of emphasis on laning, which essentially means a player adheres to a single lane on the map to clear out minions in order to gain experience. The concept of last hitting---delivering the killing blow on a minion or champion--- is a big deal as that's how players gain experience and level up throughout the match.

While the concept of laning still exists in Heroes of the Storm, less emphasis is placed upon it. Experience is still gained from killing minions and champions, but the experience is shared across the team. In a sense, early game laning can be even more important in Heroes, as that's where teams can achieve an early level jump on their opponents if they're covering the map well. With players not gaining an individual bonus from kills (save for a few champions that can choose a talent to benefit from this), they're encouraged to be more map-aware and respond to the actions of the opposing team and their teammates alike.

Because of this, team fights tend to happen earlier and more often compared to League of Legends, something that makes the game feel fast-paced right out of the gates.

Random Maps with Objectives

To date, there are seven different Heroes of the Storm maps with another slated to be released soon. Unlike League of Legends, players don't choose the map they'll play on---it's randomly decided by the game. While everyone surely has their favorite and least-favorite maps, the variety staves off monotony I often felt while playing League of Legends.

Additionally, the difference between the maps goes far beyond window dressing. Each map has a unique, game-changing objective that must be responded to by both teams to secure victory; each of these objectives feels distinct compared to the others. As you can imagine with setup, overall team strategies from map to map wildly vary which keeps the games exciting and fresh, even when sitting down for a two-hour play session.

Champion Design

Easy to learn, difficult to master is something we hear Blizzard cite from time to time, and they've delivered here. Blizzard's champions are designed to fill one of four specific roles: Warrior (tank), Assassin, Support (healer), and Specialist. Blizzard clearly lists each role every champion fills on the character select screen, making it quite simple to choose a character you want to play, or better yet, assume a role your team needs.

While Blizzard very briefly played around with the idea of an in-game item shop to Heroes, they quickly decided it wasn't what they wanted. In reality, it adds a certain level of complexity to the game; a level of complexity that essentially requires some pre-game research to discern the most advantageous item builds for a given character. Another way to describe that level of complexity? A barrier to entry.

In Heroes, you don't spend talent points as the game progresses to unlock and increase the power of champion abilities as in League of Legends. Instead champions start the game with their three base abilities (sometimes a fourth, depending on the hero) and will select a Heroic Ability upon reaching team level 10. Every three levels players are given a talent choice that often results in augmenting or improving a certain ability. Generally, these are fairly simple to understand and select on the fly. Still, knowledge of the champion's overall toolkit and its options as it relates to the team's needs can provide opportunities to create an advantage---and can involve some research. While I do believe this setup runs the risk of creating cookie-cutter "best" builds, I feel the most competitive teams out there will choose their talents in a way that benefits the whole group.

Progression

It always feels like you're making progress in Heroes of the Storm. Even when you lose matches. Like League of Legends, players gain experience towards leveling up their account as well as towards leveling individual champions. There's a constant stream of unlocked rewards for the account up to max level, and there's a constant stream of unlocked rewards for leveling up individual champions as well.

On top of that, Heroes offers daily quests that reward gold. Most of these are along the lines of "Play 3 Games as a Warcraft Hero" or "Play 3 Games as a Support Character." The best part of the two examples I've offered is the word play. The game does feature one daily quest that requires players to win 3 games, but the gold reward is greater as compensation for the challenge. A new daily quest is offered each day, and players are allowed to have up to 3 quests in their log at any given time. Super cool, because if you're not playing every day, you can still reap some serious gold rewards. And I should probably mention that gold is how players can purchase new Heroes without spending real money.

Are you playing? How's it been thus far?

Heroes of the Storm 4.15.17 Alpha Build --- Hits and Misses

The environmental detail found in Heroes of the Storm is incredible...but that's for another post.

Heroes of the Storm recently saw what will probably be the first of several account wipes this past week. When servers came back up, players were greeted with some tweaks to the UI and game systems, as well as a slew of hero ability changes. I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty of the heroes changes since I haven't had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with any of them. Instead, I've identified some of the larger changes featured in this build and described what worked for me---and what didn't.

Hits

Increased Movement Speed
Patch notes indicated hero speed was increased from 4.0 to 4.4. While this doesn't really mean anything to me at the end of the day, I can report that there is a subtle difference in the speed of play. I can't say for certain if this shortens the average length of the game, but certainly it allows players to enter combat situations in less time than they could before.

While hero speed wasn't something I ever had a problem with, it seemed to be a fairly common complaint posted on the feedback forums. Surely this change is simply Blizzard testing the waters, but I wouldn't be surprised if it makes it live. Hopefully Blizzard will amass some quality feedback from players who felt the original style of play was a bit sluggish.

Improved Minimap Visibility
This was a relatively minor change as well, but a nice quality-of-life improvement. Blizzard seems to have lightened up the minimap shading so that the entire map is visible by all players. Of course, you cannot see where your opponents are unless you have teammates or minions near them. However, other MOBAs tend to add an annoying level of shading/shadows to cloak the sections of the map you and your teammates haven't yet "discovered."

This is a good move on Blizzard's part. Giving the minimap greater visibility doesn't offer an advantage to one team over the other. The map simply becomes easier to read for all players. I'd bet this change is here to stay.

Misses

Haunted Mines
This map's objective seems to be the most inconsequential compared to the objectives found on other maps. Essentially, there is a mine that both teams can enter at predetermined times in the game where they kill minions and collect their skulls. There are 100 skulls in all, and however many your team acquires will be used to fuel the health of a large golem that will barrel toward your enemy's base.

In Heroes' previous build, players discovered that oftentimes entering the mine to collect skulls could actually put your team at a disadvantage. Ignoring the mechanic and playing the map as if it held no objectives was the way to go. From the looks of it, Blizzard tried to make the destructive nature of the golem more attractive to teams by increasing its health over the course of the match, but based on several matches played this week in the mines, I'm not sure they've gone far enough. Sick three or four members of your team onto the golem and it can usually be felled before it wreaks too much havoc---maybe that's OK with Blizzard. Either way, it makes me wonder if it still might be better for teams to ignore the mines and continue to push enemy towers unaided.

Lack of Robust Teamwork/Chat Functionality
I was hoping we'd see more communication functionality in this build. It'd be nice to see a League of Legends-style lobby at least in the pre-game, and possibly before the team selects Heroes. Blizzard's matchmaking system may be set up to create balanced groups, yet it'd still be nice if players were given some control over their team makeup.

Quest Rewards Restricted to Vs. Mode
The final "miss," and the most contentious of them all. Prior to Tuesday's build, players were able to complete daily quests for extra experience and gold in any game mode. This meant players could satisfy quest objectives like "Use X ability to do 20,000 damage against enemy heroes" while playing against the AI. Not anymore. As I write this, there's still quite a discussion taking place on the forums over this particular change.

Is the lure of daily quests enough to convince a more casual player to make a foray into Vs. mode? For a lot of people, the answer is clearly no. Another thing we aren't sure of is just why Blizzard has made this change. It could be something as simple as they need a greater pool of testers selecting Vs. mode and this is their attempt at enticement.

I don't care if you're for it or against it, but there needs to be intelligent reward systems for each of the play modes: Practice (you + AI vs. AI), Co-Op (you + players vs. AI) and Vs. (you + players vs. players). They don't have to be equal---in fact I'd argue the rewards should be the most attractive at the Vs. level---but they must be present for each mode. I'll be eagerly watching for Blizzard's reaction to the feedback on this topic. They've been doing a pretty good job about addressing players thus far.

Whether or not you're currently playing Heroes, do you have any thoughts on the recent round of changes?

Heroes of the Storm: First Impressions

Img: Blizzard

It's not often that I get to use the cliche "love-hate relationship," but when it comes to MOBAs and me, there's no better term to describe my feelings. Introduced to the genre but a few years ago via League of Legends, I find the style to be both fun and frustrating---mostly the latter. The learning curve can be quite daunting, random matchmaking can become a disadvantage in and of itself, and the player environment seems less forgiving and quick to judge compared to what I've witnessed in other online multiplayers. Thus, I was eager to see how Blizzard might add to their legacy in the genre.

Quite honestly, I expected Heroes of the Storm to be "Blizzard does League Of Legends." After receiving an alpha invite earlier in the week, I'm pleased to say that's not the case. While LoL and Heroes are competitors on the surface, and many comparisons can and will be drawn, Heroes offers a fresh perspective that will appeal to veteran MOBA players as well as those new to the genre. In other words, Heroes could do for MOBAs what Hearthstone did for TCGs.

Players of any MOBA-style game will find themselves in familiar territory with Heroes, but Blizzard's added their own spin resulting in a unique experience. I've only spent approximately five hours with the game, and I'm fairly noobish when it comes to MOBAs (my two-year-old Summoner sits at level 19), but there are a some things that I feel Blizzard really got right with their iteration in a genre that's only growing in popularity.

Team-wide Leveling

Immediately differentiating itself from League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm eschews individual hero leveling during the course of a match, featuring team-based leveling instead. Any experience earned via minion and enemy kills or structure destruction is awarded to the entire team. This is interesting because unlike LoL, this means no one on your team falls behind; in terms of relative strength throughout the duration of a match, there are no weak links---unless of course somehow your entire team manages to fall three or four levels behind your opponents.

This approach to leveling means there's less focus on grinding minions to get that "last hit," and more focus on truly working with your team, watching the map, and paying attention to enemy movements. There's less time spent claiming and remaining in a lane and more time being responsive to the map objectives and the battles your teammates are waging. It makes for a more exciting, dynamic experience.

While several players on the forums are requesting some sort of "last hit" incentive, I think they're missing the point of this particular design. Without an item shop (which I'll get to in a moment) and absent individual-based leveling, the need for a "last hit" reward in Heroes becomes moot---unless Blizzard decides to conjure up some sort of reward mechanism that fits within their current design systems. Personally, I don't see much room for a significant change here. Abandoning the "last hit" model was a conscious choice on behalf of the game's designers, and it works extremely well given the type of experience they're offering.

Diverse Maps & Objectives

There are at least four maps in the current alpha, and each map has its own unique set of features and related objectives. When I heard about this firsthand at Blizzcon, it wasn't something I got excited about. After seeing it in action, I think it's genius! Like League of Legends, there are camps of mobs in the jungle on each map that can be fought for experience. However, Blizzard calls them "mercenary camps," and for good reason. Say you defeat a camp of wraiths. Not only does your team receive experience, but a handful of wraiths from that camp will rise up to join your team, heading towards the nearest lane to destroy enemy minions and structures unfortunate enough to be in their path. 

And the maps. Oh, the maps! Each is laid out in the familiar style with lanes to push and defenses to destroy, but they also have a related objective the teams can and should take advantage of to do some serious damage to the opposing side. In most situations, it would be folly to ignore these objectives---Blizzard's made them an integral part of each map, and the team that decides to ignore the map objectives hands the opposing team a significant advantage. So not only will you be pushing lanes and trying to make progress in the traditional MOBA style, but both teams' attention will be redirected at times when these objectives become available. Brief descriptions of the four:

• There are two towers that can be controlled by either team. If a team controls both towers, a statue at the center of the map is activated. If a player from the controlling team clicks the statue while the the towers are still controlled, that player turns into a huge dragon with two massively destructive abilities: a frontal-cone fire breath and a charge that punts opponents back to their base. 
• Every so often, many dozen undead minions spawn in a mine underneath the map. The teams head into the mine to clear these minions, creating a tally. After the mine is cleared, each team gets an AI-controlled golem with strength relative to the number of minion kills the team acquired. 
• Coins are collected from killing pirate camps and treasures chests that spawn (with an alert) at specific points on the map. Once a certain number of coins are acquired, they can be used to pay a pirate captain to shoot holes through enemy defenses. If you're carrying coins and you die before you can turn them in to the pirate, you drop those coins, leaving them for the enemy team to snatch up.
• Some sort of necromancer spawns "tributes" one-at-a-time at a pre-determined point on the map. Several seconds before the tribute spawns, both teams are shown the spawn point, giving them plenty of time to arrive before it spawns. Collect three of these tributes, and the necromancer curses the enemy team for a short period, essentially rendering their minions useless and their forts defenseless.

Smaller Maps & Shorter Games

When I say "smaller" and "shorter," I'm making a comparison to League of Legends---and I could totally be off in some of my observations here. Still, to me it seems like the maps aren't as large both in length and width. I found it quite a bit easier to move between lanes to assist my teammates, and with less penalty to the abandoned lane. As it relates to the randomly spawning objectives, this makes it so that each team has a fair chance at reaching them. 

I think the smaller maps, coupled with the objectives that can greatly assist a team towards victory, translate into shorter games (around 20 minutes). Personally, I feel this is the perfect length. The sweet-spot. When a League of Legends match eclipses the 35-minute mark, I start questioning whether my time has been well-spent. At that point, the only consolation for me is a win, and it's a small one at that. League of Legends is a game that you could try to squeeze in over the lunch hour, but you might not be able to finish. With Heroes, it seems you might have enough time for a match and perhaps a game of Hearthstone with some minutes to spare!

Items---Gone!

If not a brilliant approach to handling the game, it's arguably a friendlier design. Your hero is who he/she is with a handful abilities that you'll add to and/or augment over the course of a match---no need to worry about purchasing strange item combinations to counter your opponent's build. As you rack up minion and hero kills, you don't earn a currency to spend like in LoL. Instead, at every three team levels players are given a choice between "talents" that will alter certain hero abilities for the duration of that match, or with some heroes, provide a new ability altogether. You know exactly what's in your arsenal and based how the game is going, you can hopefully make an intelligent choice that will greater benefit your situation. 

I had to do some research in LoL before I found my character(s) of choice to be fully optimal in any given match. There were a handful of specific item builds that really needed to be understood to be a true threat out on the field. While there will always be room for research, it's not something I see as a requirement to be competitive in Heroes. Without items, you rarely need to return to your base, save to replenish your health and/or main resource, the management of the latter being the most important aspect for players to be concerned with during the early stages of the game.

Interesting Character Choices

There is a refreshing variety of character choices, both in complexity and role. From what I can see, most characters are hybrids and can be built up several different ways in any given match depending on a player's preference. For instance, the Barbarian can go full-on tank, full-on damage, or some combination of the two. Malfurion can go healer with minimal damage, damage-dealer with minimal healing, or settle in at a spot in between. When I played Malfurion, he ended up having five abilities by the end of the match instead of the traditional four. 

I wasn't aware of just how interesting character choices could be until I elected to be given a random character for a Vs Match (Blizzard's term for PvP games). I ended up with Sgt. Hammer, a siege tank that will be familiar to fans of the Starcraft series. I was overwhelmed by the volume and variety of talent choices I had throughout the course of the match---and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sgt. Hammer seems like a complex hero that can be played in many different ways. I chose a tankier build, and by the end of the match I had seven abilities to choose from. A quick glance at my action bar and one may have thought I was playing Warcraft!

Conclusion

I'm excited to see how Blizzard shapes this title over the coming months. As far as gameplay goes, it feels pretty polished. The response I've witnessed from other players seems to be positive overall. If you head on over to the feedback forums you can read more about what other players are saying. As a novice when it comes to MOBA experience, I'm most interested to read what players think is wrong/missing in the game. Because from this vantage, there's nothing significant I can identify.

Blizzard took World of Warcraft and created an appeal that reached far beyond even their own expectations in a genre that wasn't widely appealing up to that point. I can't help but feel they'll do the same thing with Heroes of the Storm. Don't get me wrong---League of Legends is by far (and will remain) the most widely played MOBA. However, there's absolutely no reason why this game and LoL can't coexist. I guarantee you veteran MOBA players will play Heroes, while at the same time Heroes will have the drawing power and appeal to introduce new players to the genre. What seems to be a mantra at Blizzard applies to this title as well: easy to learn but difficult to master.

Right now, if given a choice between League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm, I will choose Heroes nine-point-five out of ten times. For me, it comes down to the dynamic maps, the shorter game times, and the low barrier-to-entry when it comes to choosing and playing a hero.

And to think, this should only get better? Well played, Blizzard. Well played.