5punk

We've mentioned it a few times, but with the closed alpha doing the rounds among industry types I think we'll start hearing more of it, so it's worth a thread of its own.

HotS is Blizzard's entry into the MOBA market, which has been in the pipeline for years in various forms, but is solidifying now. Last night I was watching Chris Thursden (of PC Gamer) stream it to get an idea of what it's like and whether it's worth my time, and I think it's going to be different enough to dig out a niche. Most notable is that it's quite a bit simpler and more forgiving than its peers. Lanes have gates which enemies can't follow you through, there's no item system, and each time you level you get a choice of skill or upgrade to pick next. It's taken out a lot of the theorycraft which is there in the other big-hitters. Also, and of most strategic significance, XP (and gold, although I don't know what gold is for) is shared. This means no carries and no last hitting, everyone's on an even footing. Lane pushing is reduced in significance by the presence of other objectives around the map. The one I saw (possibly the only one live at the moment) had mercenary camps which, if you defeated, added to your creep spawns for a while. It also had an entire subterranean level full of undead which would open up every now and then. Undead kills were tallied (as skulls) and used to build a huge undead golem, with more skulls making a more powerful golem. The joint XP thing combined with some fairly handy skills from the off meant the teams I was were team-fighting from the start of the game, and those fights were quick and brutal.

The free-to-play model seems to be pretty close to League of Legends - you unlock new heroes by levelling up outside the game (or presumably buying them) and there's a rotation of trial ones. A couple of variations I noticed was that there's no cross team exclusivity, as in you can have the same hero on both teams, and you pick your hero before matchmaking so it can drop you into a game where you'll fit in. I can see the latter being trouble. If they did that in Dota I expect you'd have to wait ages to get a game as Sniper or Riki, and you'd see the bastard in every game. Speaking of Riki, it was noted that there are a couple of permanently invisible heroes, and a couple which could counter them, but if you didn't take one of those counter heroes and the matchmaking system didn't set you up with one you're pretty stuffed.

Chris noted that HotS was to Dota 2 what Hearthstone is to Magic: The Gathering. That's a good thing, it gives people an option of a team action game without the hardcore community. On the other hand I (and Joose) thought Hearthstone was a bit weak and lacking in depth. Still, it's looking pretty good so far.

Dog Pants wrote:Chris noted that HotS was to Dota 2 what Hearthstone is to Magic: The Gathering. That's a good thing, it gives people an option of a team action game without the hardcore community. On the other hand I (and Joose) thought Hearthstone was a bit weak and lacking in depth. Still, it's looking pretty good so far.

The HotS/Dota being like Hearthstone/Magic is something that occurred to me before. I do agree with the comparison, but I think (hope) that there is a bit of a difference here. The main selling points of Magic either are or are a result of it being complex, so taking away the complexity takes away the best bits of it. Dota on the other hand could be argued to be good *despite* its complexity. Certainly streamlining it wont be cutting away its major advantages. I think this could work as a kind of Dota light, for when you cant be arsed with full Dota. I'm hopeful.

I wish they'd picked a different name for it, because I keep mistaking it for Heart of the Swarm.

Grimmie wrote:I wish they'd picked a different name for it, because I keep mistaking it for Heart of the Swarm.

Me too. Or Hearts of the Storm. I'd have gone for League of Murlocs personally. Which reminds me, you can get variants of all the heroes. The one I saw was a murloc Diablo. Don't know if that's just cosmetic, but I'd love a Grunty (murloc marine).

Gameplay trailer:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_fAkO3WOSY[/media]

Blizzard graphics always look like they're from 10 years ago I think.

Roman Totale wrote:Gameplay trailer:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_fAkO3WOSY[/media]

Blizzard graphics always look like they're from 10 years ago I think.

I suspect they continue in their quest to ensure that all of their games can, in fact run on a dead badger with a geforce fx5200 rammed up its arse.

So yeah, apparently I has alpha/beta/something or other access.

Just did the first tutorial and took some screenshots (this is like, ultramegasuperhigh graphics setting), seems to be pretty accessible and HOLY SHIT IT HAS HORSES.

Oh, and it seems to be going with the free characters of the week thing, like LoL.

http://imgur.com/a/915J5

Annoyingly our lass has got in but I haven't so I've been playing on her account.
Thoughts so far?
I'm loving the simplicity, no need to worry about gold or farming or what items to buy - just your talent augmentations (talent points for levelling)
Map diversity is refreshing, objectives provide a pleasant change of pace to each map.
Gameplay is quick, teamfights can occur within minutes of the gates going down due to the fact you get, all bar your heroic, abilities at level one. Games only last about 20 minutes, so painful games are over with quickly.
One downside I've noticed so far is that you feel rushed to make your talent choices because the gameplay is so fast paced, making it easy to make a mistake.

Also has a rideable unicorn, that shits rainbows.

Hurrah! I'm in! ("really" she said, "because I can't tell")

Nice! I'm not. I'm sure it must be related to how many hours you spend playinng Blizz games (not many in my case).

I had no notification from Blizzard, it just appeared on my launcher. If you don't play many Blizz games then it might be worth checking the launcher every now and then to see if anything appears.

Not in mine which is probably for the best - I think they have logged that the only thing I do on Battlenet is draw cocks in Starcraft pictionary.

I like how the characters look like they are from other Blizzard games, instead of looking like they are ripped off from other Blizzard games. (not that they never ripped off anyone themselves)

I thought I would do a quick rundown on the different maps in game so far and how they affect the play on each one - bear in mind they are always side objectivs the main idea is to destroy the enemies core - the ancient for dota players. Maps are smaller and lead to face to face jousting with the opposition right from the off.

Dragonshire is a three lane map with shrines that need to be controlled in the top and bottom lanes. When these shrines are both controlled by the same team then a third shrine on middle lane can be used to change a player into the dragon knight who has pumped up abilities to deal with furniture like towers and forts. Once the knight is killed the player in control of him pops back out still alive and well.
Cursed Hollow is another three lane affair, this time the map spawns tributes to the Raven Lord which need to be collected. Three tributes gives the opposition a curse which reduces all their minions health to 1 and stops their towers and forts from firing.
Blackhearts bay features a doubloon hungry ghost-pirate who will tun his cannons onto the enemy structures for a fee. The doubloons that he requires are in chests which spawn or from killing merc camps. You carry the coins with you until turned in and if you die, will drop them for the enemy to pick up.
Garden of Terror. Is the last of the three lane maps and features a day/night cycle which sees you scramble to kill neutral shamblers for seeds. Once 100 seeds are reached a powerful minion can be taken control of in your base and used to smash through the enemy defences. There are far more than 100 seeds on the map during night mode so the objective is to obtain as many as possible to deny the enemy access as much as to spawn your own monstrosity (can't remember the exact name for it)
Haunted Mines - this is the only two lane map in the game so far and features entrance to the titular mines on each lane. At certain points the mines will open and you can enter them in order to kill mobs and gain skulls to power your golem - Skulls for the Skull Throne! - the more skulls the more hit points he will have. The centre piece of the mines is a neutral golem that drops a large number of skulls when he dies and as you hit him also. This is normally heavily contested and as the skulls do not drop when a player dies it is often the scene of lots of steals as players dive in to take the skulls the opposition has worked for. Once all skulls are claimed the mines close and the golems spawn above ground and make their way to the enemy core.

Each map also has powerful mercenary camps that can be captured (beaten into submission) to horse the mercs to fight for your side - very useful for providing extra pushes down lanes and timed right (say, when your golem has spawned) can really add a lot of pressure onto a lane. However, not every hero is cut out to do this as the mercs can pack quite a punch.


Fuck, that was a long post. Wasn't supposed to be so long.

I'm undecided on the jungle objectives at the moment. They don't seem to be as effective as lane pushing for bringing players into team fights because everyone bomb bursts. That might change as the game matures. It feels more like League than Dota as well, with the fights slower and more skill-shot based. I prefer Dota at the moment but I can see HotS being more 5punky.

People buying into the founder's program can now get beta access (and a couple of heroes). If you want a shot at a free beta key go check out PCGamesN, who are giving some away tomorrow.

650 more being given away on PCGamesN if anyone fancies a chance. Last time about 6000 people registered, so it's a bit of a long shot.

So I've noticed a few folks playing the game now. Managed to fit in a quick match with Bits at the weekend - how is everyone finding it?

Im enjoying it immensely. Its a lot simpler than DOTA, but it means that I actually have enough time to learn it.

The fact that the individual games are a lot shorter means I can get through a couple of games in half an hour ish, which in turn means that if I have a game that goes horribly wrong and my team gets stomped it doesn't matter because in a few minutes we will stop and try again.

Just had a very interesting game. We kicked thier asses kill wise (I ended the game on 34 takedowns, the highest on their team got and yet they won quite handily. Our team were working well together in a traditional MOBA sense, but they massively outdid us in making use of the maps special thing. In this case it was the garden of terror, and they probably had the big plant monster out almost twice as often as us.