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HotS: Matchmaking Improvements, Datamined Changes, Free Hero Rotation Dec 15-22

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Spyrian made an official blog post about the first phase of the matchmaking improvements implemented into the game with this week's patch. Meanwhile, along with the current updates, we got to see some of the future changes that were datamined yesterday. Lastly, we now know the 10 Heroes on the Free-to-Play Rotation for this week.

 

We knew from Blizzcon and various blue tweets that matchmaking improvements were going to go live by the end of the year - turns out it's this week! Phase one of the matchmaking changes has made it into live servers. What to expect? More informative loading screens, slightly longer queues, but more evenly matched games. The team is still working on perfecting the matchmaking system. Click below to show the whole official blog post.

 

Blizzard Icon Spyrian

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When Heroes of the Storm matchmaking was originally implemented, it was based on the system we used for StarCraft II. This works great for a game that’s primarily centered on 1v1 play, and StarCraft II matchmaking has historically been pretty solid. However, Heroes is team-based, and we had to create several rules, such as team composition and party size restrictions, to help tailor this system to a 5v5 game. The more rules that we added, the more difficult it became for the matchmaker to put together high-quality games. While the majority of games that the previous matchmaker put together were reasonably fair, the system still wasn’t quite hitting the mark as often as we had hoped.

 

At BlizzCon, we spoke about our plan to refactor the Heroes of the Storm matchmaker by the end of the year, and discussed many of the changes this would include. Over the past couple of months, we’ve worked to completely rework the matchmaker in order to bring you a brand new system built specifically for Heroes of the Storm. We’ve seen very positive results after running extensive internal simulations on the new system, and we’re thrilled to let you know that we’ve already brought the initial version of the new match builder to the live version of Heroes of the Storm! Now that the new system is in place, we’d like to walk you through some of the major changes we’ve implemented so far.

 

CREATING HIGH QUALITY MATCHES

During our investigation, we dove deep into the heart of the Heroes matchmaker to study extensive live data gathered from all possible matchmaking scenarios. We emerged with a much better understanding about why the system was underperforming in some areas, and what improvements we needed to make. We then set about making changes, with our primary focus set squarely on creating a new system that will consistently provide you with evenly matched games, in which both teams have an equal chance to win.

 

As a result of these changes, the Heroes matchmaker will now much more effectively group you with allies and opponents that have very similar matchmaking ratings (MMR) to your own, creating games that are fair for both sides. This will also affect Ranked play, and you may notice that all players in your Hero and Team League games are much closer in terms of Ranking. While initial data from live games indicates that we’re well on our way to accomplishing these goals, we’re going to continue monitoring the new system and make additional improvements as necessary.

 

QUEUES AND WAIT TIMES

The previous matchmaking system would work to immediately put a game together once a player’s wait time in queue reached the ten-minute mark —whether or not the players it selected for that game were equally skilled.

 

Rather than trying to get you into a match as soon as possible after a certain time has elapsed, the new matchmaking system’s primary focus is to give you the most evenly matched games that it can. If a close game cannot be created, you may be held in the queue a little longer until other players with similar MMRs are found, and a quality game can be formed. What’s more, the matchmaker will now give higher priority to those who have been waiting the longest in queue. This means that you may end up waiting a little longer for a game from time to time, but you’ll have a better match as a result.

 

Additionally, if the matchmaker believes your wait time will be excessive, it may expand its search to include players who are slightly above, or slightly below, your matchmaking rating. This will help the system find you a match more quickly, while still working to create a relatively even game for everyone it brings together.

 

It is important to note that these situations are unlikely to affect most players, but may occur for those at the extreme ends of the MMR spectrum when searching for a match during off-peak queue times.

 

MATCHMAKING CHANGES FOR PARTIES

The previous matchmaker would try to always match groups of players according to party size. This could become detrimental if a party of similar size and skill could not be found, because the matchmaker would then pull in an opposing party that may have matched in size, but didn’t necessarily measure up in terms of MMR. While new matchmaker will continue to match parties of equal size against one another, we’ve placed additional emphasis on matching teams of similar skill. This means that you may occasionally encounter party size differences between your team and your opponents, but the match you receive will be much higher quality.

 

To add to this, matchmaking will now also take a party’s ability to more effectively coordinate as a team into account when creating games. This means that if you queue alone and get matched against a party, that party will likely be of lower average skill than your team of solo players, which should help to balance out your opponents’ communication advantage.

 

Finally, the new matchmaker is capable of relaxing its standard team composition rules to help parties with unusual hero makeups —such as four specialists— more easily find a good match. In some cases, the matchmaker may even attempt to match two parties with unusual team compositions against one another. However, these situations will only arise if the resulting game will be a high-quality match in terms of skill.

 

LOADING SCREEN CHANGES

Loading screens may not have anything to do with matchmaking, but they do directly communicate who you’re matched with and against before every game you play. Despite this, we found that loading screens could do a better job communicating this information and decided to make a few adjustments.

 

Our first change to loading screens focuses on players’ portrait borders, which will now always match the game mode that they are loading into. This means that in Hero League games, you will only see players’ Hero League borders and ranks on loading screens. In Quick Match games, you will only see basic portrait borders and player levels. This should help reduce situations where players could conceal their Hero League rank, for example, behind their player level or Team League rank.

 

We’ve also added new party icons to loading screens that will indicate which players are partied together, and how many parties are in a game. Despite this first phase of matchmaking improvements, it’s still possible for new or low MMR players to be mixed in with veteran or high MMR players by partying up together.  With this change to loading screens, it should now be easier to understand how a low-rated player managed to find their way into your game.

 

KNOWN CHALLENGES AND FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

In addition to keeping an eye on the changes we’ve made with this first phase of matchmaking improvements, we're looking forward to working on other areas going forward.

  • Matching Veterans and New Players
    • We’ve reduced the likelihood that new players will be matched with or against veteran players, but we’d still like to make further changes in this area with future updates.
  • Mixing High and Low MMR Players
    • We’ve reduced the likelihood that high and low rated players will be matched in the same games, though our first round of improvements isn’t perfect, we believe we’re on the right track. As mentioned above, it’s also still possible for this to occur when high and low MMR players queue together in parties.
    • Additionally, we’re planning to work on improving the accuracy of matchmaking ratings as a whole so that the matchmaker’s estimations of players’ skill levels are even more precise.
  • Quick Match Team Compositions
    • We’ve just added a new rule for Warriors in the Quick Match queue. This functions much like the Support rule that came before it, in that teams without a Warrior hero will no longer be matched against teams that do have a Warrior. Keep in mind, however, that this rule can still be broken by players in full parties.
    • We still have more work we’d like to do to limit unfavorable team compositions in Quick Match. For example, we’d like to limit the likelihood that one team will receive multiple “special” heroes, such as Cho’gall, Abathur, and Nova, in a future update.
  • Queue times
    • While queue times have increased as a result of our latest matchmaking changes, the number of quality matches we’re seeing has also increased. We’re going to work toward bringing queue times down, but our primary focus is going to stay centered on providing high-quality matches, and we don’t want to sacrifice good games for shorter wait times. We’ll keep you updated as we make progress toward this goal.
  • Matching with Blocked Players
    • We have heard your feedback that it’s not fun to be matched with players that you’ve added to your Blocked Communication list, and while we agree, we haven’t yet addressed this. However, it is on our radar, and we hope to work toward a solution in the future.

 

The matchmaking changes that we’ve implemented are still brand new, and none of the issues we’ve discussed here today are 100% resolved. This means that while match quality in general has improved quite a bit, it is still possible to receive an unfair game from time to time while we continue to work on further adjustments. It’s also possible that bugs in the new matchmaking system are yet to be discovered. If you happen to encounter any matchmaking issues, please head over to the official Heroes forums and let us know about your experience. Your reports will help us resolve bugs more quickly, as well as investigate unfair matches so that we can continue to strengthen the matchmaking system.

 

This is only the beginning of the changes we have in store for Heroes of the Storm matchmaking, and providing evenly matched games is still our highest priority. We’re going to keep monitoring data from live games, and will continue to make improvements with future updates. As always, thank you very much for your feedback on the matchmaking system over the past few months. We hope you’ll continue to share your thoughts with us going forward.

(source)

 

 

This week's patch didn't only bring all the changes we already knew about; it also provided a glimpse of changes to come. The guys at HeroesNexus have datamined some pretty interesting stuff. Here's a short list of them:

 

  • Greymane release date, abilities and talents. Greymane's datamined release date is January 12th 2016.
    • Suprisingly, when I logged into Heroes today, Greymane was showing off in my Home screen. I could even click on “Try now!” and “More info” and view him at the Shop. When I went back to the Home page, he was replaced by Lunara. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any screenshots. Anyone else notice that?
  • New skins. New skins have been added for Leoric and Greymane.
  • New portrait. A Leoric portrait for purchasing the skin mentioned above.
  • New bundles. Healer, Ultimate Healer and Leoric bundle with possible release dates: 12th of January 2016 for the first two, 19th of January for the third one.

You can read the full article on the datamined changes here.

 

 

Lastly, here is the Free-to-Play Hero Rotation for this week (December 15-22):

  • Azmodan
  • Diablo
  • Muradin
  • Raynor
  • Stitches
  • The Butcher
  • Lt. Morales (Slot unlocked at Player Level 5)
  • Sgt. Hammer (Slot unlocked at Player Level 7)
  • Zeratul (Slot unlocked at Player Level 12)
  • Brightwing (Slot unlocked at Player Level 15)

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      Base
      Wraith Strike [W] Range is increased from 6 to 7. Talents
      Level 4 Black Harvest Quest goal reduced from 180 seconds to 150 seconds. Level 10 Tormented Souls No longer resets the cooldown of Wraith Strike when Tormented Souls ends. Now reduces the cooldown of Wraith Strike to 2 seconds and removes its Mana cost while Tormented Souls is active. Level 20 Reaper of Souls While 2 or more enemy Heroes are in Tormented Souls' radius, its duration does not decay. Zagara
      Talents
      Level 16 Corrosive Saliva Damage reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% of maximum Health. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Taunt effects. Map
      Battlefield of Eternity Fixed an issue where areas of the map were not covered under Fog of War. Blackheart's Bay Fixed an issue where some Heroes would not be able to path around Healing Fountains. Cursed Hollow Fixed an issue where Hogger could go through unpathable sections of the map. Warhead Junction Fixed an issue where healing fountains were not symmetrical on the map. Heroes
      Artanis Base Shield Overload [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Shield Overload to not display correctly if empowered by Shield Surge. Brightwing Level 10 Blink Heal Fixed an issue that caused Blink Heal's trailing images to be visible while Brightwing has no remaining Blink Heal charges. Chen Base Fortifying Brew [Trait D] Fixed an issue that caused Fortifying Brew being instantly destroyed not granting Attack Speed. Fortifying Brew has been added to the Buff Bar. Dehaka Base Burrow [E] Fixed an issue that caused Burrow's visuals to be displaced if Dehaka is launched shortly after Burrow ends. Jaina Base Frostbite [Trait] Ice Block's before first use attention indicator is now also removed when Jaina is killed. Johanna Level 4 Eternal Retaliation Updated Eternal Retaliation's visual effect to only be visible to Johanna. Level 10 Blessed Shield Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Blessed Shield. Lt. Morales Level 10 Medivac Dropships Fixed an issue that caused Medivac Reinforcement's indicator beam to point to Lt. Morales' active position instead of where Reinforcements was cast. Mephisto Base Shade of Mephisto [E] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Shade of Mephisto. Ragnaros Level 13 Cauterize Wounds Cauterize Wounds healing is now a singular combined effect each time it heals, instead of a heal effect for each Hero hit. Fixed an issue that caused Cauterize Wounds healing amount to be determined by the damage dealt to the target furthest from the primary Empower Sulfuras target. If Cauterize Wounds is reapplied while already active, any remaining healing will apply over the refreshed duration. Samuro Base Critical Strike [W] Fixed an issue that caused Samuro's Critical Strike stacks to be visible to an enemy Samuro. Sonya Level 10 Wrath of the Berserker Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Wrath of the Berserker. Stukov Base Healing Pathogen [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Healing Pathogen to persist for a brief period after activating Bio-Kill Switch. Sylvanas Base Black Arrows [Trait D] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Black Arrows. Level 10 Mind Control Fixed an issue with the display duration for the duration bar of Mind Control. Level 20 Deafening Blast Fixed an issue that caused Deafening Blast to activate off of the center of units instead of their edge. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that prevented Olaf from charging while Silenced. Valeera Level 16 Assassinate Damage bonus is now additive. Fixed an issue with duration extension. Return to Top
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    • By Staff
      After extensive PTR testing, the latest Heroes of the Storm patch is now live and here are the official patch notes!
      (Source)
      Our next Heroes of the Storm patch is live! Read on for more information.
      NOTE: Orange text indicates a change between PTR and Live notes.
      Quick Navigation:
      General Storm League Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Anduin has replaced Malfurion as the Ally hero in Try Me Mode. Numerous game strings have been updated to reflect current gameplay. Updated Homescreen and Startup Music. Return to Top
      Storm League
      Rank Decay will now only apply to players in Master and Grand Master Leagues. Reduced maximum party size for Master and Grand Master players to 2. Master and Grand Masters can only party with players 5,000 Rank Points away from them. Return to Top
      Balance Update
      Heroes
      Ana
      Base
      Biotic Grenade [W] ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: If Biotic Grenade does not hit any enemies, its cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: If Biotic Grenade only hits Ana, its cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. Talents
      Level 1 Vampiric Rounds Shrike now gives a 15% passive healing bonus. Level 20 Deadeye ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Eye of Horus can now be toggled On and Off. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Eye of Horus rounds are regained once every 10 seconds. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Eye of Horus cooldown is now 6 seconds. Bonuses acquired from Deadeye now lasts 4 seconds. Auriel
      Base
      Bestow Hope [Trait D] Reduced amount of energy stored from 40% to 35% of damage to non-Heroes. Reduced amount of energy stored from 80% to 70% of damage to Heroes. Azmodan
      Talents
      Level 16 Trample ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Now reduces Heroic cooldown by 25% if Trample hits a Hero. E.T.C.
      Base
      Face Melt [W] Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds. Rockstar [Trait D] Armor from Basic Abilities increased from 20 to 25. Armor from Heroic Abilities reduced from 60 to 50. Talents
      Level 4 Crowd Surfer Cooldown reduction reduced from 7 to 6 seconds. Level 7 Hammer-on ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Basic Attacks deal 12% more damage, increased to 36% while Guitar Solo is active. Level 13 Encore Cooldown reduction reduced from 5% to 4%. Level 20 Power of the Horde NEW TALENT: Activate to grant nearby allied Heroes a Shield that absorbs damage equal to 30% of their maximum Health for 5 seconds, increased by 2% for each other allied Hero in the area. This new Talent replaces Storm Shield. Ride the Lightning NEW TALENT: Activate to teleport to a nearby location and deal 48 damage to nearby enemy Heroes. The cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds for every enemy Hero hit, up to 50 seconds. Genji
      Talents
      Level 1 Pathfinder ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Heroic Ability now heals Genji for 10% of the damage dealt to enemy Heroes, increased by up to 30% based on how low Genji's Health is. Level 10 X-Strike Cooldown increased from 60 seconds to 75 seconds. Detonation damage increased from 275 to 290. Slash damage increased from 135 to 145. Level 13 Shingan Now does 40% less damage to Structures. Level 20 Living Weapon Cooldown reduction increased from 10 seconds to 12.5 seconds. Imperius
      Base
      Molten Armor [E] Now hits two extra targets if no Heroes are in range. Talents
      Level 1 Impaling Light REWORK: Impaling Light cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. REWORK: Impaling Light does 180% more damage to Heroes, reduced by 20% for each additional Hero hit. REWORK: Impaling Light mana cost is reduced from 40 to 30. REWORK: When a Valorous Branded target's Stun ends, Impaling Light's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each Valorous Brand on the target. Level 7 Blaze of Glory Blaze of Glory delay reduced from 2 seconds to 1.75 seconds. Holy Fervor Molten Armor no longer grants Holy Fervor. Level 20 Heavenly Host ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: All Shields created by Angelic Armaments no longer expire. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Swords fired by Heavenly Host Shields can target non-Heroes, but Heroes are prioritized. Molten Wrath NEW TALENT: Molten Armor will now hit two extra targets even if enemy Heroes are in range. Lunara
      Talents
      Level 7 Splintered Spear ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Now grants 3 stacks of Splintered Spear. A stack is consumed when an extra target is attacked. Can have a maximum of 3 stacks and all stacks can be consumed in a single attack. Level 13 Endless Spores Now also refunds 50 Mana. Level 20 For The Wildlands! NEW TALENT: Thornwood Vine now shoots out 4 additional Vines in an arc. Forest's Wrath Can now be selected with either Heroic. Malthael
      Base
      Wraith Strike [W] Range is increased from 6 to 7. Talents
      Level 4 Black Harvest Quest goal reduced from 180 seconds to 150 seconds. Level 10 Tormented Souls No longer resets the cooldown of Wraith Strike when Tormented Souls ends. Now reduces the cooldown of Wraith Strike to 2 seconds and removes its Mana cost while Tormented Souls is active. Level 20 Reaper of Souls While 2 or more enemy Heroes are in Tormented Souls' radius, its duration does not decay. Zagara
      Talents
      Level 16 Corrosive Saliva Damage reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% of maximum Health. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Taunt effects. Map
      Battlefield of Eternity Fixed an issue where areas of the map were not covered under Fog of War. Blackheart's Bay Fixed an issue where some Heroes would not be able to path around Healing Fountains. Cursed Hollow Fixed an issue where Hogger could go through unpathable sections of the map. Warhead Junction Fixed an issue where healing fountains were not symmetrical on the map. Heroes
      Alarak Level 16 Lethal Onslaught Fixed an issue that caused Lethal Onslaught to not increase Alarak's Basic Attack damage correctly. Artanis Base Shield Overload [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Shield Overload to not display correctly if empowered by Shield Surge. Arthas Level 10 Summon Sindragosa Can now be cast over the Minimap. Azmodan Level 20 Sin's Grasp Tooltip Updated. Brightwing Base Arcane Flare [Q] Now has a minimum cast range of .05. Level 10 Blink Heal Fixed an issue that caused Blink Heal's trailing images to be visible while Brightwing has no remaining Blink Heal charges. Chen Base Fortifying Brew [Trait D] Fixed an issue that caused Fortifying Brew being instantly destroyed not granting Attack Speed. Fortifying Brew has been added to the Buff Bar. Dehaka Base Burrow [E] Fixed an issue that caused Burrow's visuals to be displaced if Dehaka is launched shortly after Burrow ends. Level 7 Paralyzing Enzymes Fixed an issue that caused Paralyzing Enzymes' duration to not be reduced if Drag ends early. Gazlowe Base Xplodium Charge [E] Now has a minimum cast range of .2. Level 10 Grav-O-Bomb 3000 Now has a minimum cast range of .2. Hanzo Base Sonic Arrow [E] Now has a minimum cast range of .2. Jaina Base Frostbite [Trait] Ice Block's before first use attention indicator is now also removed when Jaina is killed. Johanna Level 4 Eternal Retaliation Updated Eternal Retaliation's visual effect to only be visible to Johanna. Level 10 Blessed Shield Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Blessed Shield. Kel'Thuzad Level 13 Chains of Ice Chains of Ice no longer Slows if the Stun is removed. Li-Ming Level 10 Disintegrate Fixed an issue that allowed Disintegrate to be cast while moving. Lt. Morales Base Healing Beam [Q] Fixed an issue that allowed Healing Beam to be cast on multiple targets at once. Level 10 Medivac Dropships Fixed an issue that caused Medivac Reinforcement's indicator beam to point to Lt. Morales' active position instead of where Reinforcements was cast. Malfurion Level 1 Emerald Dreams Emerald Dreams no longer puts Heroes to Sleep if the Root gets removed. Medivh Level 20 Glyph Of Poly Bomb Fixed an issue that allowed Medivh to cast abilities during Raven Form. Mephisto Base Shade of Mephisto [E] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Shade of Mephisto. Level 20 Unspeakable Horror Fixed an issue that caused Unspeakable Horror to Silence twice. Muradin Base Thunder Clap [W] Fixed an issue that caused Thunder Clap's splat to not match the area Thunder Clap hits. Level 4 Thunder Burn Fixed an issue that caused Thunder Burn's damaging area to be smaller than Thunder Clap's area. Fixed an issue that caused Thunder Burn's warning indicator to be inconsistently sized for the area affected. Murky Base Pufferfish [W] Now has a minimum cast range of .05. Orphea Base Shadow Waltz [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Orphea to not dash when moving after hitting an enemy Hero with Shadow Waltz. Ragnaros Level 13 Cauterize Wounds Cauterize Wounds healing is now a singular combined effect each time it heals, instead of a heal effect for each Hero hit. Fixed an issue that caused Cauterize Wounds healing amount to be determined by the damage dealt to the target furthest from the primary Empower Sulfuras target. If Cauterize Wounds is reapplied while already active, any remaining healing will apply over the refreshed duration. Rexxar Base Misha, Charge! [W] Can now be self-cast. Samuro Base Critical Strike [W] Fixed an issue that caused Samuro's Critical Strike stacks to be visible to an enemy Samuro. Sonya Level 10 Wrath of the Berserker Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Wrath of the Berserker. Remaining duration indicator is now standalone from Whirlwind's duration indicator. Stukov Base Healing Pathogen [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Healing Pathogen to persist for a brief period after activating Bio-Kill Switch. Sylvanas Base Black Arrows [Trait D] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Black Arrows. Remaining duration indicator is now standalone from Haunting Wave's duration indicator. Level 10 Mind Control Fixed an issue with the display duration for the duration bar of Mind Control. Level 20 Deafening Blast Fixed an issue that caused Deafening Blast to activate off of the center of units instead of their edge. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that prevented Olaf from charging while Silenced. Tracer Level 16 Ricochet Now appears as its own entry in the Death Recap. Tychus Base Frag Grenade [W] Fixed an issue that caused Frag Grenade to not apply physics to physics objects when no targets are hit. Valeera Level 16 Assassinate Damage bonus is now additive. Fixed an issue with duration extension. Whitemane Base Searing Lash [E] Can now be self-cast. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      Game Pass members can now unlock 30 Heroes in Heroes of the Storm for free. Here’s how to claim your in-game perks.
      Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members are getting a fresh batch of in-game perks this week, and Heroes of the Storm is officially part of the lineup!
      Starting now, subscribers can unlock 30 playable Heroes in Blizzard's free-to-play MOBA just by linking their Battle.net account.
       
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