heroes Introducing Heroes of the Storm 2.0

[Stan 5,244]

A new era that will forever change the game you know.

Plenty of changes are coming to the game on all levels. There's a new progression system, better rewards, new Heroes and much more. 

Game Designer Alan Dabiri talks about unique Hero designs, such as Cho'gall and Ragnaros, Heroes esports evolving and at the same time, introducing a new era known as Heroes of the Storm 2.0. It all starts today on PTR.

Progression 2.0

• There's no cap on Hero levels and the account level will now be a summary of all your Hero levels. More details available in the progression spotlight below.

Progression Preview

A quick look at the new progression system.

Reward Changes

• Loot chests that can contain almost any item in the game, will be added to the game and you get them as you level up Heroes. They contain Legendary skins and even Heroes themselves.
• You can purchase featured items with Gems, a new currency that replaces real money. You purchase Gems with real money and you get some of them when you reach Level 5 to get you started.

New Customizations

• More customization is coming, Blizzard is adding announcers, banners, sprays, emojis and voice lines into the game. These will also be available from loot chests.

Shards

• A new forge currency for cosmetics is being added and you can get them either from loot chests or by receiving duplicate items. 
• Allow unlocking of a cosmetic item simply by playing the game.

Collection Tab

• Quick access to everything you unlocked in the game. You can set loadouts there.

[InfernoRFU 125]

I'm pretty stoked for this, there's a lot of characters that have a bunch of different skins I want.

[BrightwingMain 26]

Ability to get paid skins for free is the first thing that comes to mind with this, which for a free to play player like me is a wonderful introduction to the game. Will make the people who value vanity and pimping their heroes spend more, which gives Blizzard more money. Unless there are some subtle changes that i am not aware of, this sounds like a perfect patch for Heroes to become more appealing for everyone and gain some of that very expensive on the MOBA scene, as it has been dominated by League and DOTA for so long. Probably wont be that big spike to the appeal of the game, but large enough.

Cant wait for this to get to the live server, the beta is up already as far as I know.

By the way do you guys know if the Crates will give you skins of heroes you already don't own? They should give them, with all common sense applied, although Blizzard's logic has been questionable so many times i'm not even 100% sure anymore.

(Edit, also don't even think that ETC change did anything. Its basically just the same hp counting you get decent armor uptime and echo pedal doing same amount to minions as before and half damage to heroes as before, sounds like something but the talent was only picked for waveclear anyways. Also the show stopper nerf is nothing because ETC has 2 other OP lv16s too)

(Another edit, sorry, brain is dead today. The removal of attack speed buff actually is pretty big, makes him not super OP anymore on BoE for exemple)

Edited March 29, 2017 by BrightwingMain

[VitaminC 12]

Oh boy, oh boy. Now I can obtain that precious Demonic Helsteed, the only item I ever needed in HotS.

[Valhalen 1,484]

When I first saw this in the official HotS YouTube I thought it was an April Fools joke. I'm so surprised and hyped about all those changes. This just show how much Blizzard actually cares into making solid content instead of manipulating the fan base to fill their pockets.

I really hope we get The Lost Vikings as announcers.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Valhalen

[Laragon 269]

I'm extremely excited to get skins. I am curious though, is this replacing the traditional method to unlock heroes? 

[InfernoRFU 125]

I'll just leave this here

 

3 minutes ago, Laragon said:

I'm extremely excited to get skins. I am curious though, is this replacing the traditional method to unlock heroes? 

http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes20/progression/#gold-gems-shards

We can still buy them with gold, gems (Cash), and chance of them being in loot boxes.

[positiv2 953]

I am super excited! These changes look like they bring what we've been hoping for - a F2P way to obtain those cool-looking skins. Finally I'll be able to get all the Illidan skins (even though I suspect it will take me ages).

I am confused about Blizzard's strategy now. They make a greedy move, then they follow up with a generous move and repeat. I am more than happy to see that the generous move was a huge one. 

What items are you going to save up your shards for?

[MurkyFelix 51]

This looks cool. Finally I'll be able to actually level up heroes again, they're stuck on 8-9 for the ones I play consistently. It's a bit strange that they're adding gems though, but I don't pay money so I don't mind. The shards will be really good. I wonder if people who are level 40 will get the new rewards when this is implemented or are they gonna move the level back down

[Valhalen 1,484]

3 hours ago, positiv2 said:

I am confused about Blizzard's strategy now. They make a greedy move, then they follow up with a generous move and repeat. I am more than happy to see that the generous move was a huge one. 

What items are you going to save up your shards for?

Maybe it is because they realized it works very well for Overwatch.

I think I'll save Shards for the Lil Ragnaros, Storm Mantle Malfurion, Bucaneer Falstad and Vrykul Leoric. But we seriously need The Lost Vikings announcers.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Valhalen

[CyberDVonaven 82]

Why do I feel like this might well be one big April Fool's joke from Blizzard? o_O? I hope it's not, cause it does look really cool for the most part.

BUT here's my worry...

From watching Nubkeks video about it he says that the loot chest cap for all your current level progress at the change over will be 70 loot chest. Which is pretty damn sh*tty considering you would get 1 chest per character level and your character level is equal to your total in hero levels.

So if you have all 65 heroes leveled to, let's say, at LEAST lvl 6 (since they all start at lvl 1 that lvl doesn't count) then you would be lvl 325.  You chest at the rate of an Epic every 25 lvls. Rare every 5 lvls. And a regular loot chest every lvl. So now let's assume that chest cap of 70 is for each type of chest. Then you'll get 13 Epic chest, 65 Rare chest, and ONLY 70 regular loot chest cause of the cap. So you'd be completely screwed out of an additional 255 regular loot chest because you've played the game so much and got all the heroes to at least lvl 6 for the gold and their portrait.

THAT seems pretty damn sh*tty for all of us that put in all that time playing and loving their game and they say 'Oh sorry you're just gonna have to eat those extra 250 or so loot chest you would have got. I guess you shouldn't have played and enjoyed our game so much.' In-fact with 65 heroes in the game now you would have had to basically just started even playing the game and only lvled every character to lvl 2 or 3 to get below or just have meet that low of a chest cap. Hell let's say you only started playing the game like 2 or 3 weeks ago for the WoW mount quest that just ended. You really liked HOTS and have kept playing it too. Then you're still almost sure to have gotten up enough hero lvls to already have met and exceeded that 70 loot chest cap for lvls by then too. Even if you only played against AI for a hour or two a day to finish the 'For Azeroth!' event and do daily quest too.

And IF that 70 chest cap is right then I would really just prefer they let us keep playable the heroes we already unlocked BUT start all our heroes back at lvl 1 when this goes live so we don't get screwed on all those free loot chest we would have got with all that stuff in them. Especially since it looks like so many other things are changing skins and such wise too.

So yeah... Honestly, other then the possibility of it being an April Fool's Day joke on us all, that's my biggest issue/worry with this whole HOTS 2.0 thing. Well that and constant shitty emote and spray crap in almost every damn loot box you open like in Overwatch. And of course the usual 'gems' microtransaction sh*t like in every cell phone game these days too doesn't sound fun, but at least it looks like you get a fair bit of gems and stuff from just playing all the time even without spending real money.

And it is nice (if this is real) that you can FINALLY get all the other mounts for gold/shards rather then paying F**KING $10 for just one single mount. Mounts that they only had up for sale for like 2 weeks before they pull it down for 3 months or just never let you get it again unless it's in some $30-$75 bundle bullsh*t. But I digress. I've talked too much... someone else talk now :p

Edited March 30, 2017 by CyberDVonaven
Wanted to add a few things

[CyberDVonaven 82]

4 hours ago, positiv2 said:

What items are you going to save up your shards for?

Hmm... well assuming this is real, then from the looks of it I'll be saving up to get some of this Announcer packs. The Brightwing one sounds adorable. 'You have died :( ... I will give you a hug!' Would make me feel a bit better when I die all the time :p. Yaaayyy Brightwing hugs! :D <3 Adorable. I imagine her also saying something at the 20 kills 'HERO OF THE STORM!!!!' would be more like 'You're the bestest hero ever! I love you!' <3<3<3 :D Super cuteness

[Alkasar991 12]

1 hour ago, CyberDVonaven said:

From watching Nubkeks video about it he says that the loot chest cap for all your current level progress at the change over will be 70 loot chest. Which is pretty damn sh*tty considering you would get 1 chest per character level and your character level is equal to your total in hero levels.

I would get over 500 loot chests. But honestly, getting so many chests instantly takes the fun out of the new system. I would most likely get everything I don't have yet and then the whole system becomes pointless. However the level scaling has been optimized so we can still get tons of chests from our heroes.

The riot about the amount of chests is a bit too much. 70 chests are still a lot. I guess players are as greedy as Blizzard.

[MvPKosT 0]

will our progresion carry over when the patch is live?

[Caldyrvan 377]

I assume they figure out a good way to be (or seem) generous to their customers as well as still making enough money out of the game. The cap for chests is indeed no fun, not because I am greedy, because players love progression and a stop in progression takes out some of the fun but this is the point where Blizzard tries to make you(us) pay real money again, I guess :D

/Edit: I guess I misunderstood it a bit. The 70 chests cap is just for start for those who already have leveled a lot so far, but since there is no longer a limit to leveling and a consistent and lower xp requirement for higher hero levels you will keep getting chests, so nothing wrong with that ^^

Edited March 30, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[MurkyFelix 51]

7 hours ago, CyberDVonaven said:

Why do I feel like this might well be one big April Fool's joke from Blizzard? o_O? I hope it's not, cause it does look really cool for the most part.

It's usually bad form to do an Aprils fools' joke before the 1st. Also, Blizz have just been too quiet lately. Like yeah, there's new heroes, but they were probably made months ago. I feel like this has been in the works for a while and there was a deadline rush after Machines of War because that was the last major thing (kinda neglecting Brawls since they would be simple enough to implement)

[Valhalen 1,484]

7 hours ago, Alkasar991 said:

I would get over 500 loot chests. But honestly, getting so many chests instantly takes the fun out of the new system. I would most likely get everything I don't have yet and then the whole system becomes pointless. However the level scaling has been optimized so we can still get tons of chests from our heroes.

The riot about the amount of chests is a bit too much. 70 chests are still a lot. I guess players are as greedy as Blizzard.

You're right. Considering they removed the level cap, it makes sense we'll continue earning more chests.

[Undeath 67]

I personally don't believe it's an april fool's joke. They usually do minor funnies for that case, just like this Loganzim skin from the comment above.

 

So looking forward to seeing this HotS 2.0.

[Caldyrvan 377]

11 hours ago, Alkasar991 said:

I would get over 500 loot chests.

With your current total hero level or your total hero level after 2.0 goes live (which will be a lot more)? :D or will all levels remain the same, I think I was only reading you will not lose levels.  But if high level heroes remain the same it will be a lot of hard grinded XP lost.

Edited March 30, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[Valhalen 1,484]

5 hours ago, Jonar said:

I personally don't believe it's an april fool's joke. They usually do minor funnies for that case, just like this Loganzim skin from the comment above.

 

So looking forward to seeing this HotS 2.0.

Except that this skin will be in the game. It will be called Berserker Kharazim. I wish he was using a different costume though. 

[MurkyFelix 51]

21 hours ago, CyberDVonaven said:

From watching Nubkeks video about it he says that the loot chest cap for all your current level progress at the change over will be 70 loot chest. Which is pretty damn sh*tty considering you would get 1 chest per character level and your character level is equal to your total in hero levels.

So if you have all 65 heroes leveled to, let's say, at LEAST lvl 6 (since they all start at lvl 1 that lvl doesn't count) then you would be lvl 325.  You chest at the rate of an Epic every 25 lvls. Rare every 5 lvls. And a regular loot chest every lvl. So now let's assume that chest cap of 70 is for each type of chest. Then you'll get 13 Epic chest, 65 Rare chest, and ONLY 70 regular loot chest cause of the cap. So you'd be completely screwed out of an additional 255 regular loot chest because you've played the game so much and got all the heroes to at least lvl 6 for the gold and their portrait.

THAT seems pretty damn sh*tty for all of us that put in all that time playing and loving their game and they say 'Oh sorry you're just gonna have to eat those extra 250 or so loot chest you would have got. I guess you shouldn't have played and enjoyed our game so much.' In-fact with 65 heroes in the game now you would have had to basically just started even playing the game and only lvled every character to lvl 2 or 3 to get below or just have meet that low of a chest cap. Hell let's say you only started playing the game like 2 or 3 weeks ago for the WoW mount quest that just ended. You really liked HOTS and have kept playing it too. Then you're still almost sure to have gotten up enough hero lvls to already have met and exceeded that 70 loot chest cap for lvls by then too. Even if you only played against AI for a hour or two a day to finish the 'For Azeroth!' event and do daily quest too.

And IF that 70 chest cap is right then I would really just prefer they let us keep playable the heroes we already unlocked BUT start all our heroes back at lvl 1 when this goes live so we don't get screwed on all those free loot chest we would have got with all that stuff in them. Especially since it looks like so many other things are changing skins and such wise too.

I see what you mean and they do seem to be favouring new players but at the same time, the chest cap isn't that bad because they're probably accounting for the fact that a lot of vets might have the stuff that's been released up until now and to avoid overloading them with shards. They may have come up this cap as a sort of average to give each current player a fair chance at getting the new stuff as well as stuff they mightn't have. So yeah, you're getting cheated out of some chests, but for long terms players, they'd have more "loot" than the new news

[Alkasar991 12]

10 hours ago, Caldyrvan said:

With your current total hero level or your total hero level after 2.0 goes live (which will be a lot more)? :D or will all levels remain the same, I think I was only reading you will not lose levels.  But if high level heroes remain the same it will be a lot of hard grinded XP lost.

We will all have more levels than before if we have some heroes above 5 :) Looking at the new XP curve, it shows that I might get 3 extra levels for each level 10 hero. But I don't want to do the maths right now haha.

[Caldyrvan 377]

But I am still curious but not sure, a) do your higher level heroes get levels (due to the lower xp curve)? and b) are the number of chest thrown out at you on patch day calculated based on your current or your new total hero level? If it is the later case, a lot of ppl will get the 70 chest, if it is the first case, you would need to have all heroes at level 12-13 to reach the chest cap.

[MurkyFelix 51]

7 hours ago, Caldyrvan said:

But I am still curious but not sure, a) do your higher level heroes get levels (due to the lower xp curve)? and b) are the number of chest thrown out at you on patch day calculated based on your current or your new total hero level? If it is the later case, a lot of ppl will get the 70 chest, if it is the first case, you would need to have all heroes at level 12-13 to reach the chest cap.

For the first part, I'm sure I read on the announcement page (the proper one) that since they're reducing the xp needed to reach higher levels, heroes at level 20 who are still played a bit could go up to level 50. So I think the way they're doing it is that if your heroes is of a certain xp, they'll put them at the level that xp would get them in the new curve. But this is increase only, if you were to lose a level (the example they use is if you're halfway to level 4) then you'd just retain the fraction you were at (so on patch day you'd still be halfway to level 4, but you would need more xp to reach level 4 than before patch). 

 

For the second part, I dunno

[Caldyrvan 377]

Thank you. I am still new (more or less) to HotS but if that's the way the 70 chests should be possible :D

Edited March 31, 2017 by Caldyrvan