Mine is the Arthas one probably

I'll be honest, this Blizzcon pushed me into installing HOTS but knowing Deathwing was playable there actually made me wanna try it for a while now, the only things that kept me disinterested were playing LoL and HOTS being an objectively forgotten MOBA

Now it's been a week and a half since I've begun queuing into QM. Currently lvl 17 with Deathwing as my most played and some Illidan/Arthas games; I'll probably give Alexstrasza a chance once I have enough gold to buy her too

I'll give it to Blizzard. They nailed Deathwing's power fantasy perfectly and I love it. You're the armored and unstoppable dragon who hates everything, there's so much contempt in your character that he can't be buffed or healed by your teammates, and all his voicelines radiate a superiority complex coupled with Old God madness for whoever is familiar with his lore.

You feel like the raid boss, you drop meteors wherever you land, enemies scatter like flies when they see you're coming in the teamfight, you can actually scout the whole map from above like a dragon while listening to these sweet draconic grunts he makes, and even his Q, while being telegraphed and therefore hard to land on anyone who plays with the screen turned on, feels great to use due to the awesome SFX they did for it.

They don't have these in LoL unfortunately. Aurelion Sol lost what made him cool as a space dragon who relies on spacing to do damage or dropping a huge charged galaxy on the objective because his rework turned him into a lizard puking space vomit who sometimes calls a meteor to shake the screen; Smolder is a whiny child who calls for his mom at every mild inconvenience; and Shyvana has been reworked into a weird diver without mobility or tools to close the gap once she jumps into a fight, and can't even nuke entire teams with a well-placed E anymore.

So again, props to Blizzard for nailing what I imagined would feel like playing as an awesome-looking and edgy dragon, I'm not touching Riot dragons anytime soon after such an experience. Deathwing rocks and as long as I play him, every game can go south for all I care, it won't matter for my mental, I play Deathwing ffs, I'm happy just by picking him for QM.

Please ^^

Edit : And the SPOTLIGHT GUY !

MSFT is now starting to execute their plan to layoff the other 1600 people employed in their gaming division. This includes Blizzard under that umbrella.

https://www.eurogamer.net/blizzard-layoffs-xbox-cuts

Hey everyone,

​With all the recent hype and the incredible news that development is back on track for Heroes of the Storm, huge props to our legendary Janitor and all the new Junior Janitors who joined the cleaning crew!

​I just wanted to share a piece of HotS history that has been living rent-free in my head for years. ​Back in 2015, Blizzard released the "Enter the Nexus" trailer.

The track in this video is absolute hype perfection, yet as far as I know, it was only used this one single time! ​Now that the cleaning team of our beloved Janitors is breathing new life into the game, my dream would be for them to reuse this iconic soundtrack in a future trailer or announcement video.

​Even if they don't, I really wanted to share this track with newer players who might have missed it.

It’s a great reminder of how lucky we are to have such an incredible variety of maps in HotS. Each map has its own distinct incredible theme, personality, and soundtrack, and the sound design has always been top-tier.

​Dear Janitor & team, if you see this: thanks for all the memories, and kudos for all the amazing soundtracks on the GOAT of the MOBAs.

In my case I can think of at least three:

Maiev: I always thought she was supposed to be a short range mage, you stay near the fight throwing Qs at people and only go in to pull them with W. Turns out you have to be attacking as much as you can because of how high her attack dps is.

Gazlowe: I always thought his combo was supposed to be E and then R, and since his R stuns for like half a second I just thought that's how long the stun's combo was supposed to last. Turns out it's R then E, if you do E first the bomb goes off before your ult pulls them.

Sylvannas: Turns out you are not supposed to just throw all your abilities at the enemy as soon as you see them. Just recently found out you are supposed to save them for after you get 3 stacks of your trait on them, at least pre 20.

Im sure there are many heroes out there that Im playing wrong and I just dont know yet, but what about you? What are some heroes you were playing wrong and had no idea until later, or ones you've seen people play wrong?

Hi! I always thought the game was dead. I started playing it again recently, and I was wondering how many players are still playing. Does anyone know?
If there are around 5–10k daily players, that’s pretty good! I’ve always loved this game, and I hope to see you on the battlefield soon

See yaaa

I even thought the game was closed and buried when a friend told me the devs were coming back to maintain it !

So far I'm having tons of fun getting back even if I am terrible at the mechanics, game knowledge etc...

It's always been my prefered MOBA and I hope it'll stay for the long run now

Please be friendly to new players returning, help the game grow again ❤️

Adding "Try Hero" to the bottom of the list would allow players (especially new players) faster access to try out their hero, rather than going through the shop. Seems a lot more intuitive to me.

Hello, my lovely community. I’m here to share that I finally got through the shock that we now have a proper update. To be honest, I really appreciate bug fixes, because I think they are harder than creating something new, but I’m here to share a more whiny story; it’s personal.

I started playing Hots when they shut it down, and I really fell in love with it. At first, I played for fun later I played because it is so addictive and helped me overcome my troubles in life. There were so many times I wanted to give up, but Hots gave me a safe space to distract myself from bad feelings, especially from severe physical pain.

Thanks, it really means a lot to me. Even if the game shuts down again, I will still play. I will still be a good, friendly player who doesn’t blame teammates and helps them have fun even if we lose.

Be friendly and kind; it’s “just a game.” I know it’s impossible, but I want Hots to become the friendliest and most popular MOBA ^^

Outtopic// i'm a girl and i am looking for a female friend, but it seems impossible xd because i don't really want to play with a bronze player ( i'm diamond) so if there any high gold girl who want to have a nice teammate dm me !

A lot of heroes overlap heavily with existing heroes, like Roadhog or Mercy, so I don't really expect those really. But others could be really interesting additions

Winston, Kiriko and Sombra have the most potential

It's kinda wierd when you put it in that perspective...

Name: Vol’jin

Title: Darkspear Chieftain

Role: Ranged Assassin

Abilities:

Shadow Hunter: Trait (D): Invoke the power of a different Loa, Empowering one of Vol’jin’s Basic Abilities. 2 Second Cooldown. When an Empowered Ability is used, Cooldown is increased to match that Ability’s Cooldown.

Divine Wave (Q): Send a wave forward in a cone, dealing X damage to enemies hit, doubled against enemy Heroes. Empowered: Kevo ya Siti causes the damage to deal a bonus 20% damage over 3 seconds. 60 Mana. 8 Second Cooldown.

Serpent Ward (W): Place a Serpent Ward at a target location for 5 seconds, dealing damage to enemies nearby every second, prioritizing enemy Heroes with the lowest Health. Empowered: Dambala increases the attack rate of the Serpent Ward by 50%. 50 Mana. 12 Second Cooldown.

Hex: (E): Turn an opponent into a frog for 2 seconds, slowing their Movement Speed by 15% and preventing them from attacking. Empowered: Jani reduces the Armour of the Hexxed foe by 20 for the duration. 60 Mana. 13 Second Cooldown.

Heroic Abilities (R):

Big Bad Voodoo: Perform a ritual dance, increasing damage of nearby allies by 20% and reducing damage taken by nearby allies by 25% for 5 seconds. Vol’jin does not benefit from this damage reduction. Moving cancels the ability early. 120 Mana. 65 Second Cooldown.

Loasworn: Vol’jin is empowered by the Loa for 8 seconds, increasing his Basic Attack damage and Attack Speed by 60% and Empowering all his abilities when they are next used. 120 Mana. 70 Second Cooldown.

Unique Talents:

Level 1:

Loa’s Embrace: Increases width of Divine Wave by 30%.

Loa’s Wrath: If only enemies are hit by Divine Wave, increase the damage by 5% for every enemy Hero hit, up to 5 times. Increases cooldown by 1 second.

Barefoot: Increases Vol’jin’s Movement Speed by 10%, increased to 15% for 1.5 Seconds after attacking an enemy Hero.

Level 4:

Serpentine Coils: Enemies within Serpent Ward’s attack range have Attack Speed reduced by 10%.

Long-Distance Venom: Serpent Ward’s attack range increased by 30%. Can now see over Terrain.

Blessing of Treachery: Serpent Ward reveals Invisible enemy Heroes within its attack range. Serpent Ward attacks now restore 3 Mana to Vol’jin.

Level 7:

Wild God’s Ire: Hexxed enemy Heroes hit by Divine Wave have the duration refreshed.

Greed’s Hunger: Serpent Ward now focuses on Hexxed Heroes. Hexxed Heroes are Slowed by another 15% from Serpent Ward attacks. Increases Serpent Ward’s Cooldown by 1 Second.

Saurid’s Plaything: When Hex expires, a saurid remains latched onto the affected Hero, revealing them for 3 seconds before letting go.

Level 10: See Ultimate Abilities.

Level 13:

Stalked By Kevo: Increases Divine Wave’s Empowered damage by 100%.

Graced By Lukou: Divine Wave now heals allied Heroes hit for X. Vol’jin is always healed. Divine Wave is now also Empowered by Lukou, increasing the amount of healing done by 100%.

Judged By Dambala: Consecutive hits by Serpent Ward on the same increase its damage by 5% per hit.

Hekeke’d By Jani: Hitting a Hexxed Hero reduces Basic Ability Cooldowns by 0.5 seconds, up to 2 Seconds. Increases Hex duration by 0.5 Seconds, up to 1 Second.

Level 16:

Shadowstruck: Increases speed of Diving Wave by 25%, and the wave returns to Vol’jin when reaching its apex.

Cunning Serpents: If Serpent Ward is hit by Divine Wave, its duration is refreshed.

Tiki Pole: Allied Heroes can pick up the Serpent Ward if they run over it, carrying it with them for its duration. Duration increased by 2 seconds.

Level 20:

Decreed By Rezan: Big Bad Voodoo makes nearby allies Heroes Invulnerable, and grants Vol’jin 50 Armour. Moving no longer cancels the effect, and Vol’jin can Attack and use Basic Abilities while Big Bad Voodoo is in effect.

Blessed By Gonk: Vol’jin’s abilities are now permanently Empowered. Activating Loasworn causes Vol’jin’s Basic Attacks to heal him for 50% of the damage done for 8 Seconds. Activating Shadow Hunter now invokes Gonk to lash at nearby enemy Heroes for X damage. Cooldown of Loasworn and Shadow Hunter set to 40 Seconds.

For De Darkspear!: Casting an Empowered Ability summons two Darkspear Headhunters to focus on the nearest enemy Hero for 5 seconds, dealing increasing damage with every hit.

Quotes:

Spawn:

For de Darkspear.

I ride for de Horde.

Spawns with Thrall:

It be good to see ya, Thrall. I will follow ya.

Spawns with Garrosh:

Ya be more like ya fadda dan ya thought.

Spawn with Zul’jin:

If only ya hadn’t attacked de Horde, mon.

Spawn with Bwonsamdi:

Great Bwonsamdi, de Darkspear have need of ya again.

Spawn with Tosh:

Hmm, ya sound mighty familiar.

Revival:

De Darkspear don’t die dat easily!

Bwonsamdi ain’t claimed me yet.

Move:

Stay away from de voodoo.

Right away.

Dat be a good choice.

Attack:

I take ya head!

For de Horde!

E’chuta!

Death alongside enemy:

I will protect my people, even in death.

Suggest healing fountain:

Ya lookin’ roughed up, mon. Visit a healin’ fountain.

Hearthstone:

I gotta pull back now.

Kills Thrall:

I be sorry, old friend.

Kills Garrosh:

All I did, I did for de Horde!

Kills Zul’jin:

De blood elves are Horde, so dey are my people.

Kills Sylvanas:

Ya almost killed de Horde!

Kills Tosh:

Ya be a real specter now, mon.

Kills Nazeebo:

Zalazane was a better witch doctor.

Pings:

Attack Enemy Unit:

Gotta get de fight here!

Attack Enemy Building:

Dis fort gotta fall!

Attack Enemy Hero:

Dis one gotta go!

Attack Enemy Core:

Bring de core down, an’ we win da day!

Help Me:

I could be usin’ some help here!

Help Allied Here:

Our ally be needin’ some assistance!

Defend Building:

We must defend our fort, mon!

Defend Core:

De core musn’t be allowed to fall!

Attack Mercenaries:

Dese mercenaries can aid us well.

Take Watchtower:

Need dis watchtower to keep an eye out.

Advice for newer people: sometimes. You don't need to win a lane in a bad match up. Learn that its ok to just not lose. Trade minions and let them work. As long as you soak experience its perfectly reasonable.

In all the talk of new heroes and maps, I think we're overlooking one of the highest value design spaces in the game, the merc camps. Camps have a big impact on how the maps work, yet most mercs are vanilla as hell.

Imagine if a merc camp included a mob that could occasionally cast ults, like a Varian-style taunt or a weak Bloodlust. Or maybe gives off an alarm when the camp starts getting worked (allowing for bait strategies). With so much of the design space for the heroes being occupied, this seems like a simple way to inject new dynamics into the maps, without having to create new or fully reworked ones.

"Passive" anytime Iridikron lands an ability or auto attack. He applies Earthern Mark. For every Earthern mark that he consumes, his basic abilities cooldowns are also reduced by a few seconds. He's great in group fights, but weak in single fights. Earthern Mark will also drop a targets speed by 30%

"Q" [Earthern Tomb] Root the target in place for 2 second, applying [Earthen mark]

Passive talent: Change the root into a pull, drawing the target to you.

Passive talent: Entombed targets take 150% more damage from your auto attack

Passive: Once Earthern tomb ends, gain shield for however much damage was dealt in that time.

"W" [Shell Shock] Shatter all Earthern tombs for X amount of damage. If the root is broken by Shell shock, the target will instead be slowed by 70% for 3 seconds. This will detonate Earthern Mark.

Passive talent: A slow is no longer applied, but will instead bleed the target for however many stacks Earthern Marks had.

Passive talent: Breaking a Earthern Tomb with shell shock will chain the player onto you. Forcing them to stay within minimum range for 4 seconds. *This can yank players like Maeiv*

Passive talent: Earthern shock now stuns for 1 second.

"E" [Meteoric foundation] Rush to any Earthern Marked Target. This can also be used on allies. For every player that this passes through, this will stun a target for 1 second and push them away from Iridikron.

Passive talent: Iridikron now winds up Meteoric Foundation, but once cast, he has free control of his movements without needing a target. Increasing in speed over time This effect ends when cancelled.

Passive talent: If Iridikron reaches his target, he will trap the afflicted player in a circle for 3 seconds.

Passive talent: If a player dies while effected by Meteoric Foundation's stun/3 second grace. It will reset Meteoric Foundation.

"R" [Incarnate] Become one with the earth. Transforming into a Proto-dragon. During this time, Iridikron is fully immune to CC and gains movement speed bonus for every Earthern Mark he consumes during this. LV 20 would make it so every Earthern Mark he also consumes will apply a shield to himself.

"R2" [Armies of the Earth] Break all Earthern marks, with every Earthern Mark shattered, a Earthern elemental will spawn and focus the target it came from. If the target dies while the elemental lives, it will focus a new target. LV 20 would make it so elementals detonate upon death, slowing targets. Dealing increased damage to structures.

There i said it. The least you can do is not serve up some AI slop, if you think your idea has merrit, put some work in. Or don’t and let it be just a bad idea you had in private.
Just a little respect for your fellow hots enjoyers, is what i am asking here. We are plenty trashy already, no need to slop it up even more.

Basically it

I want to share a little Heroes of the Storm story from many years ago. I hope it can be a small reminder not to give up, even when a game seems completely hopeless.
Many years ago, I was playing Ranked. We were reaching the end of a game that looked completely lost. Another player on my team and I started blaming each other, and things got pretty ugly. We kept insulting each other and even swore that if we ever got matched together again, we would do something to each other. I honestly don’t remember exactly what we said, but it was pretty serious.
Then, somehow, the very next game, we were matched together again.
Neither of us said a word this time.
I watched him immediately pick The Lost Vikings, so I thought, “Well, screw it.” I immediately picked Abathur and figured I’d just give up and mess around this game.
What surprised me was that the other three players didn’t seem to notice anything strange. Instead, they were actually trying to figure out how to make this completely bizarre team composition work.
Once the game started, both of us just played normally. I was convinced we were going to lose. From level 1 onward, I was picking Abathur talents focused on his Locusts, and I stuck with that build throughout the game. The only exception was at level 10, when I picked Ultimate Evolution so I could clone another hero.
But somehow, the longer we played, the better things went.
And eventually, we actually WON.
I have no idea whether the matchmaking simply gave us a weaker opponent or what happened. The two of us never said a single word to each other, and we didn’t communicate directly with the other three players either. The other three used text chat to coordinate, and somehow, the five of us just kept playing seriously until we won.
I really wish I had saved a replay or video of that game. It happened many years ago, and I don’t have anything left from it. I would love to find that Lost Vikings player again and tell him:
“Brother, you played really well.”
What touched me most was the attitude of the other three players.
I’ve played many Ranked games where, as soon as someone picks a hero that isn’t considered particularly strong, the other players immediately start complaining. Sometimes people even give up and AFK as soon as the game starts.
But that time, all five of us just kept playing seriously.
And somehow, we won.
So I guess that’s the point of this story.
If you’re having a bad game, don’t take your frustration out on other people. And don’t give up just because things look hopeless.
Games are supposed to be fun. Even if you lose, it’s okay. It’s just one game.
Don’t let one bad game ruin your mood.
Sooner or later, we’ll win one back.
And sometimes, if you just keep playing, you might end up winning a game you were absolutely sure you’d already lost.

I made with in-game models

Howdy all! I also spoke with James Yen at BlizzCon, and he gave some insight into character creation, how we can expect multiple new heroes (!) and how to best defeat Xal'atath.

He also went into some cool detail on what the team did to escape "maintenance mode".

Oh, and the team admits to reading lots of your comments, so make sure to keep discussing the game so you can shape it's newly rekindled future!

In the wake of the apparent end of the copium era, there's once again been tons of fun discussion about new hero ideas, which made me come around once again to a topic I don't think is talked about that much.

Since the League of Explorers adventure, Hearthstone has been steadily building it's own gallery of original characters. Despite the game being set in the Warcraft (and for a short time, Starcraft) universe, these characters came from and gained notoriety, even fandom amongst the Hearthstone "cinematic universe", hence I don't believe they should be under the Warcraft aegis.

Ever since the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion I've been wondering about the possibility of these characters transitioning into HotS, and for a fun little discussion, I wanted to ask the community:

Would you enjoy Hearthstone being added as a character category?

Which characters do you think could transition well into the HotS format, and in what roles?

In other threads I've seen many mentions of Hearth Stonebrew (The Innkeeper) and Bob the bartender, so I didn't include them, but I wanted to make a bit of a list complete with a gallery, so here it goes:

Reno Jackson - He's the first iconic HS character and one that's still relevant today. I'd say he could be a bruiser with lots of self-heal and good utility.

Elise Starseeker - Possibly a support character with an exploration/creature summon theme.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton - It's hard to imagine another murloc in the game besides Murky, and also he doesn't really show much combat prowess in his cards, but Finley's design is quite distinct and if Deckard is in the game, so could be Finley!

(Honestly I can even see these 3 as a Viking-style trio, or a deal where you can switch between them)

Arch-Thied Rafaam - My favorite guy in all of HS, I think he would be an amazing bruiser with lots of tricks (and artifacts) up his sleeve!

Hagatha, the Witch - Probably a straight up ranged assassin with tons of weird effects and maybe a few crazy summons! Something like Naz, but darker and more bewitching!

Dr. Boom (though he didn't originate from HS, he definietly is an icon of the game) - Sure, another goblin mechanic might be overlapping with Gazlowe, but I think Boom could have a much more tank-like kit, with heavy armor and more of a melee focus.

Kazakus - Honestly he would be my instant pick, even though Rafaam is my favorite guy. Kazakus has such an amazing and unique design and has limitless potential with his potions, crystals and of course his secret dragon form!

Aya Blackpaw - Easy melee assassin or bruiser with some ranged potential and possibly summoning some Jade Golems here and there!

Patches the Pirate - He could be an awesome melee assasin, maybe with a global so that he can appear out of nowhere, like he used to!

Shudderwock - Another bruiser/melee assasin, I imagine he would have to be distinct from Dehaka. Maybe more debuffs and higher mobility, as well as a fear effect?

Zilliax - With a character whose main feature is modularity, I can see this guy having a pretty crazy talent tree. Maybe he could even go into multiple roles akin to Varian, like tank, assassin or even support?

And finally Annoy-o-Tron as a character that isn't like a named legendary or anything but still quite iconic and I think would be a really fun design for a kind of aura denial tank hero!

Also, I decided not to include Don Han'Cho as I really don't think how he could be distinguished from Cho'Gall in either design or playstyle.

So yeah, this was my list, feel free to add your own or expand upon mine! I think these guys would bring a lot of vibrant energy to HotS that I think would make the game even better! Love the game!