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Heroes of the Storm 2.0 announced: Overwatch-style loot boxes! (Also Diablo 2 Amazon)

Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
Video explanations:

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrZCVxc-zkY

Director Commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpNkFA7gAHI

---

Both per-hero and account level caps are being removed and experience curves flattened out to offer much faster leveling overall. Every time you level up, you'll receive a loot chest which has a chance to contain any item in the game - including new heroes, although these will be rare. At specific intervals - every 10 hero levels, for example - players will also receive special chests with guaranteed rare drops for that hero.
Click to expand...

Those chests will include loads of new cosmetic items, including Dota 2-style hero emojis and Overwatch-style spray decals. More specific to Heroes of the Storm are personal banners, which appear over destroyed forts and captured objectives - a flashy way of scrawling 'I woz ere' on somebody else's stuff, essentially. There are also new voice packs to replace the default announcer.
Click to expand...

All of this stuff will be organised into a new collection interface, which lets you save three cosmetic loadouts for each hero. Duplicate items received from chests will break down into 'shards' (see also: Hearthstone's dust), which can be used to craft specific items from the collection. The game's real money pricing is also being retired, replaced with a new premium currency, gems. You'll still primarily be earning gold through matches and quests, but this is now intended to be used almost entirely for unlocking new characters. No more splitting your funds between the skin you want and the character you feel like you need.

These changes feel like a modernisation of Heroes of the Storm's business model, but strictly within the parameters of contemporary free-to-play design. A faster and more rewarding progression system benefits players bored of the current grind, but it's also fundamentally a change focused on player retention. It's certainly not as radical as that '2.0' moniker would imply - although Blizzard stresses that the number represents Heroes' progress since launch, not the importance of this specific update.
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/BlizzHeroes/status/847101644009451520

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-loot-boxes-and-a-familiar-face-from-diablo-2

Loot boxes, crafting, sprays, banners, etc being added to the game.

Beta begins today.

// Mod Edit:

Short summary:
  • There are now vastly more types of cosmetics in the game. Before you only had skins, mounts, and portraits. Now there are announces, sprays, emoticons, voice lines, and banners as well.
  • You can also get all heroes and cosmetics from loot crates that you earn as you level up, a la Overwatch.
  • You also get dust for duplicate cosmetic items or heroes you receive a la Overwatch, and can use them to craft specific cosmetic items you want.
  • You can still directly purchase heroes with gold or real world money, and cosmetics with real world money, as before.
As a side note, they also announced the Diablo 2 Amazon for the game. They put out a new hero about every 3 weeks, so this isn't a huge event, but I thought people might be curious.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZkdtQ1fOZY

amazonpga10.png
 
L

Lucifon

Junior Member
Not a fan of how snail the progression is in Overwatch but this sounds like a great addition here. Previously you haven't been able to earn cosmetic skins at all. Looks like a lot of elements levelling up and progressing constantly here which is more rewarding.
 
F

Fancolors

Member
I might go back to HotS depending on how much easier/harder getting heroes this way is. I couldn't care less about cosmetics in this game.
 
W

Werd

Member
Haven't played in 6+ months but I'll at least log on to open whatever freebies I get form past leveling, maybe it will hook me in again.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Son of a Witch said:
Well, at least they are still trying. Lack of rewards wasn't HotS' retention problem though, it's the game itself.
Click to expand...

The painfully slow rate of hero unlocking was a problem for me.

After spending hundreds of hours unlocking less than half the characters in LoL I was just not willing to do it again.
 
J

JP_

Banned
I assume they'll give out shards retroactively? Because most of the heroes are already 5+ for me
 
M

Mupod

Member
I don't play it often but sounds like a good change. Their skins are really well done, I want that mecha Tassadar but there's no way to earn it in-game. I have piles and piles of gold I'll never use because I have plenty of fun just using the free rotation heroes. The game is straightforward enough that I don't feel any need to 'main' someone forever.

Wonder if they'll bring this in along with another bribe for Overwatch/WoW stuff. I actually enjoy those events as I only play HOTS with friends and that's the only time they play it.
 
S

Strakt

Member
This is actually pretty sick; good way to get skins by just playing the game and your favorite heroes! Blizzard definitely stepping up their game for HOTS. Can only get better from here on.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
miladesn said:
so those expensive legendary skins and mounts can be unlocked via gacha now?

I'd like that.
Click to expand...

Yes. You can even earn heroes themselves that way.

You can also still buy them with gold, or use the dust currency (a la Overwatch or Hearthstone) to craft specific skins/cosmetic items.
 
Q

Quonny

Member
Was afraid that they'd ditch straight-up buying skins/heroes.

At least they didn't do that, thank goodness.
 
R

Rokal

Member
Not a fan of any of the new shop/loot box item types they are adding (banners, sprays, voice lines, announcer audio, and emojis). They felt bad to get in Overwatch and they'll feel bad to get here.

Also not a fan of the skin color variations being locked behind additional separate store unlocks rather than just character progression.

I'll take the wait and see approach myself, but on the surface 2.0 appears to be more greedy and exploitive.
 
T

Twookie

Member
yeah this looks pretty nice. not sure it's enough for me to return to the game though, but it looks really good for those that still play
charm_smile.gif
 
A

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Heroes definitely needed a shakeup to their progression system. I guess we'll have to wait and see if this ends up being the right fix though.
 
W

WilsonX100

Member
maybe i'll actually sit down and play this now. i've only played like 10 matches and stopped, but really want a MOBA game to play to change up what im playing.

is dota 2 better? or league? im really not sure.
 
Q

Quonny

Member
WilsonX100 said:
maybe i'll actually sit down and play this now. i've only played like 10 matches and stopped, but really want a MOBA game to play to change up what im playing.

is dota 2 better? or league? im really not sure.
Click to expand...

None are better or worse. They're just different.

Play them all and see which you like the best. If you have the time, I mean.
 
R

RoninChaos

Member
Are they still keeping in leveling to get master skins or is it overall level? I'm like level 14 with arthas and don't want to spend dozens of hours leveling Sylvanas to get her master skin
 
M

Matbtz

Member
WilsonX100 said:
maybe i'll actually sit down and play this now. i've only played like 10 matches and stopped, but really want a MOBA game to play to change up what im playing.

is dota 2 better? or league? im really not sure.
Click to expand...

There is no better moba imo, it's just different games. I played intensively lol, dota 2 and then hots and I prefer the last one. It just works better for me : the game is about the team, team fight and map objectives and not grinding/carry.
 
B

Bane

Member
sibarraz said:
Can you get duplicated heroes? or skins?
Click to expand...

Yep, and they convert to shards. It's the worst part of Overwatch and I'm not thrilled it's coming here.

Locking skins you could just buy before behind loot boxes is also a big problem for me.

I don't know, some of this sounds great but some of it really bums me out.
 
Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
RoninChaos said:
Are they still keeping in leveling to get master skins or is it overall level? I'm like level 14 with arthas and don't want to spend dozens of hours leveling Sylvanas to get her master skin
Click to expand...

You still level heroes. Your overall level is all your hero levels combined.
 
K

kirblar

Member
sibarraz said:
Can you get duplicated heroes? or skins?
Click to expand...
Yes, you get credited with "Shards" (the equivalent of Gold in OW or Dust in HS) for dupes.

They also let you reroll boxes w/ gold, which is kinda hilarious.
Locking skins you could just buy before behind loot boxes is also a big problem for me.
Click to expand...
Apparently you can still buy them outright.
 
A

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Not sure if it's been addressed yet, but are people with lots of levels already going to log in when 2.0 launches and have like dozens/hundreds of boxes to open?
 
O

Ordinaryundone

Member
WilsonX100 said:
maybe i'll actually sit down and play this now. i've only played like 10 matches and stopped, but really want a MOBA game to play to change up what im playing.

is dota 2 better? or league? im really not sure.
Click to expand...

Between the three I think DOTA is the best but it also required a fairly large time investment before I really started to "get" it. It was also the first MOBA I played seriously (only dabbled in DOTA 1 and LoL beforehand) so it had a lot of concepts I had to learn from scratch.

On the flip side I picked up HOTS extremely quickly, to the point where it almost feels too simplistic sometimes. However if I was new to MOBA it would be a good starting point; it can teach a lot of the basics in a more low stakes environment so you have some familiarity if you ever try to play something else.
 
Trickster

Trickster

Member
Anoregon said:
Not sure if it's been addressed yet, but are people with lots of levels already going to log in when 2.0 launches and have like dozens/hundreds of boxes to open?
Click to expand...

Seems so yes.

All their old levels will be recalculated according to the new level formula
 
K

kirblar

Member
Won said:
A business model requiring 3 different currencies doesn't instill confidence in me.
Click to expand...
Gold = Same as always
Gems = B.Net currency aka $. They have to use gems so that they can give you store credit through progression and loot boxes
Shards = Crafting Material, like OW Gold and HS Dust
 
A

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Won said:
A business model requiring 3 different currencies doesn't instill confidence in me.
Click to expand...

I don't really see a problem with it. All they did was separate gameplay unlocks (gold) from aesthetic unlocks (the stuff dupes become).
 
B

Bionic

Member
My opinion of this change will mostly revolve around the speed of attaining gold in the new system. I've never had a problem with dividing my gold between new heroes and master skins, so I don't see an upside to the addition of gems unless gold collection is now faster. So few of the new cosmetic items seem like things I would ever buy (possibly a banner or Abathur voice pack?).

If buying a single color of a skin is a third of the current price, I'd be into that. Most premium skins I've bought, I only use one color anyway (purple pajamathur, red apothecary Morales, purple lunara), so that would save me time/money.

And I guess it will be neat to have quicker level progression for my level 10+ heroes? But I really don't play the game to see those numbers go up, so hopefully that helps for people that like that sort of thing (I'm also the type who turns off trophies/achievements whenever possible).
 
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