With the most recent patch comes the first asymmetrical battleground, the first multi-class hero, stealth changes, two character reworks, and a host of other changes.

If you haven't seen already, the PTR is packed with changes surely to bring even more excitement to Heroes.  You can check out the full details here.

New brawl: Blackhearts Revenge

For the first time, we will be receiving an asymmetrical battleground, pitting offensive tasks versus defensive tasks.  This stands for a completely new way to experience Heroes of the storm, bringing with it new meta possibilities, new team compositions catered to offense or defense, and fresh strategies.

Is Blackheart’s Revenge the testing ground for entirely new ways of playing Heroes?  Does Blackheart’s Revenge represent the early stages of testing escort objectives like those found in Overwatch?

Regardless of how successful Blackheart’s Revenge performs as a brawl, make no mistake, the Dev team is working to push the envelope, and we reap the rewards!

Revamped Tutorial

With the announcement of 2017’s HGC Open Division Blizzard is on it, bringing some much-needed polish to the tutorial, helping new players understand how to get started fast.  As we all know, the sooner everyone cooperates the better the in-game experience.

Along with learning the chops, you can play three different classes using either Jaina, Muradin, or Tyrande. Not only that, but you will be able to add one of these heroes to your collection for free!  Back in my day, you had to pay 10,000 gold for a Jaina, uphill both ways in the snow!  ...Jaina created the snow.

The first Multi-class hero: Varian

Test out the new Multi-class hero.  No doubt this introduction will alleviate design pressure for new hero ideas in the future. Every new patch we see more ingenuity in game design.  With the possibility of more multi-class heroes in the future, there is the possibility that drafting will become less punishing, and in-game talent paths more impactful. Let’s hope multi-class talents don’t prove to be too much difficulty for Blizzard to balance.

Big Zeratul changes

Zeratul gets some extra health and regen, going from 1545 to 1622 base health and Regen increased from 3.22 to 3.38, but more importantly, his kit gets an unexpected overhaul in hopes of bringing more diversity to his playstyle.  In the words of the developers “There were two main goals behind this rework: Upgrade Zeratul’s talent tree and introduce some interesting new choices, and better sell the fantasy of being a Dark Templar. As always is the goal with our Hero reworks, we didn’t want to change the way he is played, but rather amplify and improve upon it.”

Big Kharazim changes

Developer Comments: “Kharazim’s Talents have been updated to create more compelling choices at every tier.”


Odds and ends.

  • Abilities that reveal Stealthed/Cloaked Heroes will no longer remove the Stealth/Cloak effect, but will instead temporarily reveal the cloaked Hero.
  • Alarak gains 10% extra range on his Lightning. So more healing, more reach.
  • Get even more prepared as Illidan receives a number of changes.  You might even call this a half-rework. Dev Comments: "We’re aiming to make a few of the earlier talent choices for Illidan more competitive options, and open up a greater variety of play-styles for Illidan players”
  • Thrall gets some interesting changes to Earthquake and Sundering. Dev Comments: “Sunder has consistently been the go-to pick since Thrall’s inception. We hope this change will help shake up the pick rates of Thrall’s Heroic abilities”.
  • Leoric changes on the Horizon, just not this patch!
  • Visual polish, Sound polish, bug fixes, interface tweaks and a host of other small changes will also be introduced.

Wrapping up

Plenty of changes on the horizon, If you get a chance, try out these changes on the PTR as it’s well worth the effort.  Take note, these changes are not final so we will keep you informed of any adjustments to these numbers.  Now’s your chance to tell the devs how you feel about these changes as well.

These upcoming changes convey not only Blizzard’s hard work but also their commitment to making Heroes the best MOBA out there.

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