Youtube gamer personality Lowko had an interview with HOTS game designer Erik Hagman. The interview covered upcoming Lost Vikings Hero, potential changes in Hero League, and, of course, a discussion on hero nerfs.

The interview started with the biggest question in the community, the launch of the beloved Lost Vikings heroes. We say heroes since, as Erik went on to talk about, the Lost Vikings will function as three individual heroes. With such a dynamic, the development team is “completely terrified of what Lost Vikings will do to the game.” For example, if you’re in Dragonshire, each “Viking” can capture the shrine and the Dragon Knight at once. When can we expect a release date? “Very soon” according to Erik, but with any Blizzard update, soon has little relative value.

Erik didn’t release any details on other heroes, Vulshan, Butcher, Sylvannas were mentioned, but he remained top secret. Lowko similarly could not get more details on the new map types but there is Diablo-themed map and “Tomb of the Spider Queen” map in the pipeline. “We will continue adding maps until we got too many,” but no confirmation if they will follow a Starcraft II map rotation.

The interview continued towards the timeline of closed Beta. While Erik hinted at new patches coming up, he didn’t reveal any definitive update or timeline on the closed beta. Similarly, in the eSport scene, they “want the community to build [the eSports community] up” by “supporting the teams, supporting the tournaments.” And do not worry aspiring gamers, they are “definitely cognizant of the eSports community out there”

Finally, they touched on the Hero league and general hero balance. On the ranking system, there is a “miscommunication we have out there” as it “bears such a strong resemblance to the hearthstone system.” But there’s “totally an MMR behind this thing” and “each rank represents 2.5% of the population (ie Rank 10 means top 25% of the population).”

They are actively “exploring various options” in the draft and hero balance. In the draft they are looking at allowing bans, but Erik stressed they want to control the draft experience, especially the length. For hero balance, it seems some major changes are on the horizon. Most notably the “first thing we want to do is fix Stitches and Tychus … and Brightwing of course.” He went on to mention Illidan as another potential balance change. As with all things Blizzard, they remained secretive on what changes and when.

Regardless of when, there are going to be some exciting new maps, heroes, and balance changes upcoming for the HOTS community.

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