FreeThought #1 - A Heroes of the Storm introduction from a LoL Veteran

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since my last blog post. To start off 2015 I wanted to begin my FreeThought Series which will be an extended look into my obscure ideas and reflections on games and its community either biweekly or bimonthly. I plan to keep it simple and straightforward.

This week i would like to share my new found love for MOBA's, primarily Heroes of the Storm I assumed the genre to be dormant after i realized that developers couldn't get past what was offered in Dota 1. I felt like developers like Riot, Valve (dare i say) etc have been rooted in expectations, nostalgia and lack of innovation. My excitement for the genre was gone after 3 long years of playing League of Legends.

Then on the other end of the spectrum you have DOTA 2 made by my beloved Valve. Dota 2 felt like more of the same that Dota 1 had except the complexities had no excuses. The interface was clunky w/ items being the primary addition of any active or passive modifiers. That didn't simplify things, at least LoL items were more commonly used in different situations. In Dota 2 the amount of items made it overwhelming for anyone NOT wanting the Dota 1 experience. They made characters that were difficult for no reason and many items only being viable in certain hero/situation combinations- I'm looking at you invoker. Personally doing a straight copy/paste of the Dota heroes didn't do much for me. At this point the developers were struggling with recapturing the Dota 1 experience instead of taking its strengths and pushing them further.

I had heard of Blizzard making a MOBA codenamed: Blizzard Dota, having dota in the name was a huge turn-off for me. Where was the innovation? Was anyone going to leave Dota behind and try something completely different? It took several weeks for my friends who played the closed beta to get me to try it. I finally got the beta and played it non stop for a month. Blizzard went in a whole new direction that makes you feel like this is the moba made for us, the gamers who don't live off of tournament winnings; those who play games every night to have FUN!

What's most prevalent here is Blizzards ability to make this game feel and play a lot differently than any other MOBA. I will take this time to summarize features that are different from LoL and Dota. The changes were shocking and as of yet Blizzard has not found the most productive way to inform new players of these changes and what they provide. Excuse my lack of granularity for i am summarizing.

• Leveling Up: Every several levels you are forced to select a "talent" these talents take place of what items would provide for you in other games; skill modifiers. NO Gold, NO Items NO last hitting.
• Experience: You're whole team shares experience and level, you rise or fall behind as one.
• Mercenaries: aka Jungle Camps, monsters found in the jungle do not grant individual buffs to the killer but rather come back to life and help push the closest lane, benefiting the entire team while providing pressure to the enemy.
• Objective: Each of the 6 maps have different key objective themes, all of which are important to winning and help the game end quicker with a game length median of 25 minutes (which isn't a bad thing, 25 mins is better than 45!) Example: On the Map DragonShire you are forced to capture a point on the top lane and bottom lane. Once both are held you gain access to the dragon knight which you can right click on in the center of the map to "become" the dragon knight, allowing you to control a giant dragon unit who lasts for a limited time. He does increased damage to structures and allows for aggressive pushing. This is a rough example but proves the point that you can make objectives that affect the game length, and game strategy. There is more to do here than collect gold and last hit minions. (See reference below)

• Character Concepts: A handful of base heroes do share similarities to Dota characters to an extent however some of the more recent Heroes released have shown incredible potential and bold new strategies. In short, we have a support hero that helps allies globally without the requirement to be in lane at all. 3 vikings that are one unit (ice climbers 2.0) and a siege tank capable of blowing you up from a screen lengths away. (that's just the beginning) It all sounds crazy on paper but the bravery that Blizzard shows is refreshing. you don't get the same characters from Dota 1.

To conclude my walk-through of the base differences between Heroes and the others i would like to say that after taking the jump into Heroes I have found myself happily looking forward to the future of the genre rather than backwards. I hope that the knowledge of these differences help your initial journey into this exciting game. Do give it an honest chance, after all, League used to be the odd man out when people still played Dota All Stars for Warcraft 3. Thank you Blizzard for making me fall in love with mobas all over again.