GAF User List:
(quote to reveal)
Basic Overview:
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Team 1 (The RTS Team)
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Genre: MOBA/ARTS
Release Date: June 2nd, 2015
Platforms: PC/Mac
Price: Free 2 Play
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaxjC8V5j6M
Screenshots: http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/media/
Update Schedule:
-Heroes: One every 3-4 weeks. (New statement as of launch.)
-Battlegrounds: One every ~3 months.
-Balance Patches: One every ~2 months, though some might take longer. (New statement as of launch.)
Gameplay Modes:
-Play Against AI: Play against five enemy AIs, with a choice of either playing with four AI teammates or four actual players. You play on a randomly picked, unknown Battleground.
-Quick Match: Five players vs five players. You select your hero before searching for a match. Heroes are unique per team. You play on a randomly picked, unknown Battleground.
-Hero League: Five players vs five players. You find out what map you're playing on, and then select heroes in a draft format. All ten heroes must be unique. Unlocked at Level 30.
-Team League: Pre-made five vs five teams only. Otherwise works like Hero League. Unlocked at Level 40.
Gameplay Basics:
-While similar to a MOBA, containing multiple lanes, infinitely spawning units, and an objective to destroy the enemy base, there are several key differences.
-One of the biggest differences is that each map has an objective that does something like spawning a super unit for your side or making the enemy units/towers not attack for a limited period of time.
-Another is that the four archetypes (Warrior, Assassin, Support, Specialist) are balanced like an MMO (Tank, Damage Dealer, Healer, Utility) instead of regular MOBA archetypes. There is no concepts such as a carry, so don't try to fight three people at once and expect to win.
-Your entire team gains levels at the same rate, so who gets kills or a destroys a building doesn't matter. Denying also doesn't exist.
-There is no gold or items. Instead, every three levels you can select from between two to five talents that can majorly modify your abilities, character, or give you new abilities.
-The matches are built to last approximately 15-25 minutes, which is a fair bit shorter than most MOBAs.
-If you're confused about anything, play through the tutorials, which go into everything in depth and give you gold for completing them. This is especially true for players new to the genre who read what I wrote and it made no sense.
-Blizzard rates the following heroes as easy to use for newcomers: Azmodan, Kael'thas, Li Li, Malfurion, Raynor, Sylvanas, Uther, Valla
-Specific hero guides can be found here: http://www.heroesfire.com/
-If you want to track your stats in more detail, go here: https://www.hotslogs.com/Default
Business Model:
-There is a selection of seven free heroes per week. When you first start, there are only five, though you will quickly unlock the other two slots.
-You earn gold by leveling up and completing daily quests, which can be used to buy heroes and make them continually available. Gold also must be used to unlock master skins, which are a cosmetic effect.
-You can also buy heroes, skins, and stimpacks (account - not game - experience/gold rate increasers) from the shop with real money.
-There is no system akin to LoL runes. You also can't buy anything that helps you during the actual game.
-There are weekly sales where one hero and two skin (or one skin and one mount) are sold for half off the cash price, but the gold price remains the same.
Released Heroes:
Click the image to see details about each character.
Released Battlegrounds:
Blizzard has really nice interactive webpages that explain each of the maps, so just click the image to go to the Battlegrounds page on their website.
Officially Teased/Shown Upcoming Content:
Heroes:
-Artanis
-Rexxar
-Medic
-Cho'gall
-Zul'jin
-Za'Muro (Blademaster)
-Kel'Thuzad
-Gelbin Mekkatorque
-Deckard Cain (Note: He's the only one we haven't seen a recent character model of, but was separately confirmed to be in development.)
Battlegrounds:
-Heaven and Hell map themed after the Diablo universe.
Datamined Upcoming Content:
To be clear, be somewhat skeptical of anything in here, since plans are far more likely to change before they've officially been announced than afterwards.
Heroes:
-Click here. Each hero page cites where the developer statement and/or datamine came from.
Battlegrounds:
-Ashenvale/Horn of Cenarius: This map was put on hold according to the developers.
-Transylvania: It seems likely they're doing holiday maps.
-Winter Docks: This is a wintery version of Blackheart's Bay, also presumably a holiday/seasonal map.
Modes:
-There's a mode called Arena that has recently shown up in the gameplay files. No further details are known.
Previous Threads:
Heroes of the Storm Open Beta Thread of Sneakiness and Evil
