Heroes of the Storm (Closed Beta Begins 13 Jan)

[Olinser]

So I know Blizzard sent out quite a few Alpha invitations over the holidays, and I was lucky enough to get one.

UPDATE: Closed Beta has since begun, but I will leave the rest of the post unchanged. Blizzard does NOT send out Keys, you simply check your Battle.net profile and see if you have been granted a license to the game.

I don't see another one, so I figured I would start a thread and see exactly how many people are currently able to play and what their thoughts are (or to answer questions from people who did not get an invite).

Current list of GITP players and friend code:

Spoiler: NA Server

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GITP name - Friend Code

Antonok - Antonok#1704
Aragehaor - Osarahal#1155
Brance-a-Lot - Knucks#1880
Buckethead - Venompool#1452
Careless - IGotCareless#1137
Dragonus45 - Dragonus45#1811
Dgrin - Dgrin#2162 (Normally EU server, relatively high ping NA)
Draken - Draken#1736
Gaelbert - SamHouston#1563
Gandariel - JakeBoyman#1859
GolemsVoice - CrazyCat#29897
Gray Mage - GrayMage#1723
Grytorm - Grytorm#1777
Happy Gravity - Erebus#1456
Ivellius - Ivellius#1795
Malistrae - Malistrae#2344
Manticoran - Manticoran#1771
Mutant Sheept - Fourhand#1640
Nadevoc - XenonAtom#1788
Neon Knight - VultureCrook#1434
Olinser - Olinser#1393
Shishnarfne - Gruschenka#1375
TechnOkami - TechnOkami#1805
Xefas - Xefas#1830

Spoiler: EU Server

Show

GITP Name - Friend Code

Dgrin - Dgrin#2162
Gandariel - Ciabatta#2958
Maryring - Pollux#2450

I have deleted my initial thoughts on the Alpha, Blizzard has addressed pretty much every glaring issue with the game, there is still work to be done, but I feel like the game is in a reasonably strong place right now.

[Antonok]

I also got an invite a bit ago. Played a few matches and so far its not bad. Does have some issues I agree. Btag is Antonok#1704

Maps are far too small, games too short,

This is intentional. They want games to go quick. It's also why towers/minions are rather weak.

[Olinser]

I also got an invite a bit ago. Played a few matches and so far its not bad. Does have some issues I agree. Btag is Antonok#1704



This is intentional. They want games to go quick. It's also why towers/minions are rather weak.

Added you in.

Their stated intent (fast games) coupled with how weak minions are doesn't really follow I guess is my point.

If you want games to be faster then minions need to be MORE powerful. Minions being weak right now is a big part of why some games take longer than they should. Non-mercenary minions can be basically ignored at all stages of the game unless a hero is pushing with them.

[Olinser]

So that's it? Just the two of us? That's pretty disappointing.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I've played around with it a bit, but I accidentally Linuxed my computer and erased the Windows partition a while back. And playing via Wine on my computer is no bueno in combination with HotS. I can't play multiplayer; all I can manage is bot matches which sometimes freeze up and crash.

But the dynamic in the game has been really fun. I enjoy feeling super-powerful, and the different objectives are totally fun.

[ChaosOS]

Minions may be relatively fragile, but they actually are a significant thing and their pushes can do serious damage. The key point is that you need to capitalize on their ebb and flow, timing objectives to force the choice between significant stuctural damage and conceding an objective/losing a 4v5 fight.

[Seerow]

I got an invite. Played for a few hours.

Honestly I have never played a moba before, so I expected something closer to an Action RPG or a Fighting game than what I got. If I give it another shot down the road with adjusted expectations I may decide I like it. But as it was I started play expecting something totally different, and so barely got through the tutorial before getting bored and trying something else.

It didn't help that the NPC AI was generally really bad, with no difficulty slider that I saw. Like I said I am not a MOBA player, and have very little experience, so I know I am not good and will not do well in any sort of a competitive environment... but that is what you are forced into if you want to play at all. I dunno. Maybe some day.

[Malistrae]

I haven't got an invite yet (mostly due to not being in the USA) but I am closely following the game's development. I have signed up for beta, so I might get an invite after it starts. Therefore, most of my experience about the game comes from watching HotS games on youtube. I will reply to OP based on that.
1, I don't know. On Youtube, several builds are presented for each class. While it's true that some talents are obviously inferior and you can't really build outside of the hero's "box" (a support is a support, etc.), I believe it still offers some versatility. For example, Abathur can be build as locust-focused pusher or as a long ranged controller. Of course, this mostly applies to specialists who have more unorthodox gameplay styles (I am definetly going to play with specialists). The unlocking mechanisms look horrible, however.
2, I can't really comment on minion strength, but I have seen games where minions managed to solo-push an unattended lane. Of course, it was usually after a failed player-push. As far as I can tell, mercenary camps are supposed to be important (unlike creeps in other mobas, most of whom you can safely ignore if neither teams have junglers), since they are apparently designed to make jungling more useful.
3, Really? While as you said, there is little direct mechanical advantage to destroying bases, you have to consider the implications for the other team. They have one less safezone. This makes ganking lanes much easier, since it takes longer for ganked players to retreat to safe areas. Of course, this mostly applies to larger maps, like Cursed Hollow, where there is a noticable distance between the first and second "base". Ofc, I agree with you that objectives are far more important.
4, I can't comment on this.
5, Yes, as far as I can tell, certain objectives like the Dragon Knight are uber-important. Most games I have seen in Dragonshire are won and lost based on who got out more DKs during the game. Though I am not sure about automatic wins, I have seen some very ineffectual DKs late-game. I am also not so sure about other maps.
6, I personally hated "snowballing", which is incredibly frequent in certain mobas. Often due to the sheer idiocy or trollishness of one team member. The game becomes completely unenjoyable for one side, since they are literally unable to do anything besides dying. Therefore, I believe that catch-up mechanisms are a good idea. Maybe they should tone it down a little, make it more balanced so that the superior team doesn't feel unloved, but the core concept behind it is solid gold.
7, Cloaking seems to be a hit-and-miss. I have seen some games where it was ultra-effective, while in others the cloaker was ridiculously ineffecitve.
8, Maybe. As an outside observer it wasn't really hard to discern spell effects, since I am familiar with the majority of heroes.
9, Again, can't comment due to not having personal experience.
I will add my own issues:
10, More and bigger maps. I can't stress this enough. Blizzard seems to have several maps under-work, so this might be resolved in the near-future.
11, More heroes. Specifically, more "evil" and "wizard" heroes. I want the rest of the 7 Evils from Diablo as well as certain Warcraft characters, like Kael'Thas, Gul'dan and Kel'thuzad in the game. Finding some way to add Arcturus Mengsk would also be appreciated (Abathur is also a non-combatant, so I wouldn't see a problem with Mengsk). Also, more specialists. I love specialists.

[Antonok]

I know when it goes into closed beta on the 13th, a lot more invites will be going out (somewhere around 15x the current amount of testers iirc), as well as a couple more maps and possibly heroes will be added.

[Olinser]

Minions may be relatively fragile, but they actually are a significant thing and their pushes can do serious damage. The key point is that you need to capitalize on their ebb and flow, timing objectives to force the choice between significant stuctural damage and conceding an objective/losing a 4v5 fight.

Minions unsupported by mercenaries or a hero MIGHT take a gate or a tower, but they are pretty much incapable of taking a fort, and are zero threat to the core.

[ChaosOS]

Sure, they might not really be capable of taking a fort, but they can do some serious damage and drain half the ammo, making whatever push you do make on the fort a lot easier. Also, if you expect to be able to push a core with completely unsupported minions that's kind of absurd and anticlimactic. Now, if you have an azmodan or abathur using global pushing skills, that's a very different story.

[Olinser]

Sure, they might not really be capable of taking a fort, but they can do some serious damage and drain half the ammo, making whatever push you do make on the fort a lot easier. Also, if you expect to be able to push a core with completely unsupported minions that's kind of absurd and anticlimactic. Now, if you have an azmodan or abathur using global pushing skills, that's a very different story.

Having every fort down SHOULD present some measure of pressure on the core. Right now having both forts down in a lane isn't a problem at all - catapults can be completely ignored and cleaned up in a couple seconds when somebody happens to go by that way. Even having every one of your opponent's forts down doesn't present any kind of pressure on the core. Frankly catapults may as well not spawn at all for the pressure they give you.

I have been in way, WAY too many games (especially on the Mine map), where one team is massively leading the entire game, and then the team that is behind gets a lucky break, gets a high powered Golem and win the game right there - Terror is nearly as bad due to how powerful the Terror becomes. DK and Blackheart are much less prone to late game reversals simply because of how hard it is to control the objective when behind.

[ChaosOS]

Catapults in every lane guarantees that you have vision control, a solid advantage. I will concede that the core buffs make the shield a much more powerful deterrent to catapult based pushes though. I would agree that Mine and Gardens are significantly more swingy and have the distinction of having the shortest and longest average game times respectively, I would say that Blizzard does want a little bit more swinginess than say LoL due to how short the games are.

[Olinser]

Catapults in every lane guarantees that you have vision control, a solid advantage. I will concede that the core buffs make the shield a much more powerful deterrent to catapult based pushes though. I would agree that Mine and Gardens are significantly more swingy and have the distinction of having the shortest and longest average game times respectively, I would say that Blizzard does want a little bit more swinginess than say LoL due to how short the games are.

It doesn't even guarantee you have vision control. Pushed up against the core it is actually extremely common for a lane to get a double spawn and push AGAINST a lane with catapults. Once a wave begins pushing against a catapult lane, it will actually get to the OTHER core without some form of interference.

[Olinser]

OK, so the closed beta is now beginning, and with it a MAJOR patch by Blizzard.

Hopefully a few more people will get keys - if you wish to be added to the list at the front, please post your Battle Net ID (or just PM it to me).

Patch notes found here: http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/...2015-1-13-2015

Some major changes to a few heroes, Thrall added, and a new map. I feel like the map changes still fall a bit short of what is needed to avoid the deathball strategy that is so prevalent right now.

I'm feeling a bit questionable about draft mode right now. I feel like on ranked games and normals playing draft mode, you should see what map you are fighting on before picking heroes. Some heroes are significantly better on some maps and significantly worse on others.

I also feel like the penalty for dodging a ranked game is AWFULLY stiff. Now don't get me wrong, dodging a game should be penalized. But at the same time there has to be a reasonable way to avoid a blatant troll in champion select. But I feel like your only option right now when confronted with a blatant troll is playing a terribly unfun automatic loss game.

Changes to heroes are tough to evaluate, as there are some big ones. I was VERY disappointed in the fact that they put in nerfs to champions that are already not performing well (Jaina, Gazlowe) while putting in no changes to champions that are oppressively strong right now (Stitches, Brightwing), and neglecting champions that need some serious work (Diablo, Tyrande, Sonya, ETC). We'll see how it goes forward though, hopefully there will be an accelerated patch schedule now that the Beta is under way. Changes to Abathur seem to be in the right direction, as the loss of Heroic Abilities on the clones significantly cuts his teamfight power - which is a good thing. Before he could sit in a lane and perpetually push while at the same time instantly being a huge presence in teamfights (things like double Arthas are nearly impossible to deal with).

By far the biggest (and best change, IMO) was the complete removal of Resurgence of the Storm. This talent was stupidly strong, as not every champion had it, and for those that did, it literally allowed you to trade 1 for 1 deaths (or even 2 or 3 for 1 if you had multiple people with resurgence) and come out on top because your death timer was 5 seconds and theirs was 60+. I literally have been in games where 3 people with Resurgence suicided into the enemy team to kill just Valla - and that let them win the game because they immediately came back, regrouped, and won. On the whole I think its removal will significantly reduce average game time across all maps.

Changes to catapults are solid. If I am reading it correctly, they literally doubled their damage and added AOE. Good change, catapults will now apply significantly more pressure in lanes and give much more incentive for taking/defending the final fort in a lane. I feel like this is the only thing they've done to really break up the deathball meta, but I still feel like it's not enough, as catapults still won't really threaten the core without a huge stack of them, and even a large group of catapults will be no threat to any hero.

No changes to map objectives except to make Grave Golems actually STRONGER, if I read it correctly he now does his AOE stun instantly with no warning, which leaves the map objectives still by far the most important thing on a map.

Others thoughts on the changes, either good or bad?

[ChaosOS]

Re: Diablo The removal of Resurgence of the Storm is a major boon him, given the unique capabilitiies of his passive.

[Olinser]

Re: Diablo The removal of Resurgence of the Storm is a major boon him, given the unique capabilitiies of his passive.

Possibly, but Diablo's major problems stem from the fact that he just doesn't have a particularly big impact even when he's alive. He does very little damage without his flame breath ult (which is not that hard to get away from), and his stun ultimate is very easy to dodge. We'll give it a few more days, but right now it looks like Diablo's win rate has actually DROPPED over the past day.

Without his ults, he does ignorable damage and has 2 slow cooldown CC's.

The warriors on top right now - Arthas, Stitches, Chen, Anub'Barak - all have pretty significant skill sets without their ultimates, and with their ultimates have huge impact.

I think Diablo's resurrection passive is actually HURTING him right now, because they're too afraid to give him a better kit AND have him come back to the fight so easily.

[ChaosOS]

After some experiments I have to say I really appreciate where Abathur is right now, the clone needs some attention now that it lost the Heroic but I enjoy his second ult a lot. Also, his build diversity I feel picked up, I'm still unsure which line of build is best.

[Olinser]

After some experiments I have to say I really appreciate where Abathur is right now, the clone needs some attention now that it lost the Heroic but I enjoy his second ult a lot. Also, his build diversity I feel picked up, I'm still unsure which line of build is best.

I'm not too enthusiastic about the new Abathur, TBH. I'm not a fan of any of the charge-up talents in general, and his Monstrosity just feels like it is rather weak before you get a good amount of stacks on it - which is hard to do with its limited duration. It just feels like it is REALLY hard to use a Monstrosity effectively for a teamfight unless you are fighting directly in a lane - making it extremely poor on maps like Garden of Terror or Cursed Hollow.

Clone took a major kick in the teeth - while certain combos definitely needed to be crushed (double Uther, double Arthas), I feel like total removal of the ult was not the right thing to do. I feel like they should have done something like given them a reduced power ult - something like a 50% reduction in damage/CC duration on any ultimate rather than remove it completely.

What is your Battle.net ID btw I'll add you to the list.

[ChaosOS]

I'm not too enthusiastic about the new Abathur, TBH. I'm not a fan of any of the charge-up talents in general, and his Monstrosity just feels like it is rather weak before you get a good amount of stacks on it - which is hard to do with its limited duration. It just feels like it is REALLY hard to use a Monstrosity effectively for a teamfight unless you are fighting directly in a lane - making it extremely poor on maps like Garden of Terror or Cursed Hollow.

Clone took a major kick in the teeth - while certain combos definitely needed to be crushed (double Uther, double Arthas), I feel like total removal of the ult was not the right thing to do. I feel like they should have done something like given them a reduced power ult - something like a 50% reduction in damage/CC duration on any ultimate rather than remove it completely.

What is your Battle.net ID btw I'll add you to the list.

The point of monstrosity I feel is to drop it in a lane then symbiote into fights, ideally with the pumped up symbiote talents.

Clone did take a pretty big hit, but the level 20 clone is kinda absurd with its crazy shielding power.

[Olinser]

So now that the Beta patch has been out for a while, there is some data gathered from all of the changes:

Sadly, Diablo is still at rock bottom in win rate, as is Jaina.

Interestingly, Abathur dropped all they way down there with him. I knew the nerfs were going to affect him, but didn't think it would be that bad. I'll still say this though, an Abathur-Thrall combo is pretty ridiculous in the amount of burst they can throw out.

Nova was crushed by the combination of her burst changes and cloak nerfs. She really needs a complete rework - I've said before that it's her gameplay pattern that needs to be changed. When she's actually viable, her gameplay is incredibly oppressive and hard to play against. So they've slowly nerfed her down to where she just plain isn't good. She needs a kit re-design.

Thrall's win rate continues to climb, he's now very nearly at the top with Brightwing and Stitches. They really need to rework how some of the top heroes play - Brightwing's power comes from his kit, I feel like playing around with the numbers isn't going to bring him in line to where he needs to be.

Honestly I feel like for quite a few of the heroes playing with the numbers just isn't going to cut it, they need skill changes.

[ChaosOS]

A fair BW nerf probably comes in the form of the cooldown on Phase Shift, 25s realistically is REALLY short.

Thrall just needs nerfs all over the place, primarily to windfury though.

Abathur just needs a lot of numbers to go up, and for the clone to get duration up to 45s, CD down to 60s (C'mon guys it still starts from when clone dies), and then locusts to get some major buffs.

[Dragonus45]

Just wanted to pop in and give my name and code thingy Dragonus45 1811. I don't play the game a whole lot but would gladly play with people whenever.

[Malistrae]

I just bought the Founder's Pack a few minutes ago. I know that the Battle Bundle isn't exactly great (although Diablo will supposedly get a rework shortly), but playing the beta is worth it to me, since I have been following the game for a long time. My battletag is Malistrae#2334, so you can add me to the list.
Once I played a few matches, I will post some comments about my personal experiences.
P.S.: Yay, guaranteed beta access! This cheered me up greatly.

[Olinser]

Added both of you. If you are brand new, one big thing - even though heroes are free on rotation, you do not fully unlock all talents and abilities until hero level 4 - a total of 300,000 exp.

Regardless of how experienced you may be, I personally always at a minimum play 2 Co-op vs AI games with any new hero to get them to level 2 (sometimes 3 or 4 depending on what talents that unlocks). A number of heroes are borderline required to take some talents to be effective in a PvP game.

[Malistrae]

Added both of you. If you are brand new, one big thing - even though heroes are free on rotation, you do not fully unlock all talents and abilities until hero level 4 - a total of 300,000 exp.

Regardless of how experienced you may be, I personally always at a minimum play 2 Co-op vs AI games with any new hero to get them to level 2 (sometimes 3 or 4 depending on what talents that unlocks). A number of heroes are borderline required to take some talents to be effective in a PvP game.

Yep, I am aware of those limitations. I am also using co-op and practice right now to level up my three starting heroes, though Diablo really needs some kind of buff to be more effective. However, I was happily surprised by Tyrande's relative effectiveness. While I found her heal to be nigh-useless, and not worth spending talents on, her more offensive abilities are pretty good. Right now, I am building her as a lunar flare spammer, and I am having good results with that. Her global ranged owl is also pretty good and its not difficult to snipe low-health AI opponents on different lanes. Once I unlock more talents for her, I am planning to try building her with a bigger focus on basic attacks.

[Happy Gravity]

Playing Quick Match and getting matched with Founder's Pack newbies against people who know what they're doing isn't fun, I'll tell ya.

Yeah, I know, it's a beta, blah blah everyone is new, but they really should drill "GO FOR OBJECTIVES AND GROUP WITH YOUR TEAM" more.

Battle.net thingy is Erebus#1456. See you on the Fields of Justice.

Been favoring Arthas after having bought Zagara and Valla beforehand. Bought Zagara before unlocking her free rotation slot, then Valla became free this week...I bet Arthas is going to be free next week.

[ChaosOS]

You may want to mention that now that we're in closed beta, key give aways are actually a legitimate thing.

[Olinser]

You may want to mention that now that we're in closed beta, key give aways are actually a legitimate thing.

While more people are being given access, Blizzard DOES NOT give out keys. Accounts are simply flagged for access. Anybody offering to sell you a key is a scammer.

They've posted previously about this here: http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/forum/topic/12092479166

[ChaosOS]

Strange, PCGamer is offering a bunch of keys to EU players and Townhall had a "Beta Key Giveaway"