Sort of caught in two minds about this. Looks like it could be pretty fun, plus Blizzard's IP stretches back ages with so many cool characters.

As someone who has been a Blizzard customer since Diablo 1 though it feels like it's been quite a while since a game really had that wow factor/sheer polish that used to be taken as a given with any Blizzard title. Even though I hated the grind of WoW I could still see that it was extremely well executed for its genre. SC2 despite flaws is still clearly a 'triple A' title, will HoTS be so?

From you alpha players am I off base on this or what? Obviously much will likely change over time.

OopsOopsBaby

Singapore3425 Posts

July 22 2014 04:00 GMT

#1902

u think it couldnt get worse with the leveling rework?
hots have runes now. http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/14833869/

Yoav

United States1874 Posts

July 22 2014 04:39 GMT

#1903

@Wombat:
Heroes has immense potential, particularly if Blizzard listens to the playerbase about leveling and runes. The actual gameplay is really enjoyable, and the variety in how the different heroes play, particularly specialists, is awesome. The philosophy of the game (striping the bullshit away from the MOBA model to get at the core) is really compelling.

Plus, it's hilarious to see Kerrigan fucking up Diablo.

Lokian

United States699 Posts

July 22 2014 05:26 GMT

#1904

So what is the difference form runes and artifacts? It seems to be mostly passives and not something like burst heals and dash.

The thing is... I see these "artifacts" as something that is part of the talent system that is available to all characters. I'm guessing you can choose between your artifacts in-game? If it was before playing the game then it might sort of suck for the player because talent builds and even artifact builds can be dependent on maps.

It's like getting staple items like boots with whatever stats in a game.

in theory it should be fair in a large player base but even in league which is one of the biggest player base, you see new players against players that have better runes and stuff. Maybe it might depend on how they do matchmaking... but I'm pretty sure they're going to change whatever that needs to be changed because of the feedback.

Valiver

Caldeum1977 Posts

July 22 2014 07:31 GMT

#1905

I'm pretty sure the artifacts are chosen pre-game.

Torte de Lini

Germany38463 Posts

July 22 2014 07:59 GMT

#1906

Runes?

Uninstalled.

Deleted User 26513

2376 Posts

July 22 2014 08:11 GMT

#1907

From what I'm reading you can have only 3 artifacts... And it is nothing like the runes in LoL. In LoL you have to buy a page, then buy the runes and that gets really costly. One page is the same price as the most expensive champions(all for ingame currency of course). The best runes - CD reduction for example - are extremely overpriced and you need 9 of them to fill a single page. Then you can't rearrange your pages before the game to suit your champion... So it's basically something that forces you to use IP boosts.
Having 3 artifacts is not nearly as terrible as the runes... Unless they price them ridiculously like 20k gold or something.

ahswtini

Northern Ireland22212 Posts

July 22 2014 08:11 GMT

#1908

I hate shit like cdr runes. When an enemy casts a spell I want to be able to know exactly how long that spell is on cooldown for. These hidden modifiers are the worst of the so called "burden of knowledge".

NukeD

Croatia1612 Posts

July 22 2014 08:14 GMT

#1909

I wish this game crashes and burns.

Torte de Lini

Germany38463 Posts

July 22 2014 08:22 GMT

#1910

On July 22 2014 17:11 Pr0wler wrote:
From what I'm reading you can have only 3 artifacts... And it is nothing like the runes in LoL. In LoL you have to buy a page, then buy the runes and that gets really costly. One page is the same price as the most expensive champions(all for ingame currency of course). The best runes - CD reduction for example - are extremely overpriced and you need 9 of them to fill a single page. Then you can't rearrange your pages before the game to suit your champion... So it's basically something that forces you to use IP boosts.
Having 3 artifacts is not nearly as terrible as the runes... Unless they price them ridiculously like 20k gold or something.

still runes
still extra monetization
still slight advantages at a cost.

'not as bad' still contains the word 'bad'

OopsOopsBaby

Singapore3425 Posts

July 22 2014 08:35 GMT

#1911

each artifact slot cost 2k gold
each level 10 artifact cost 5.5 gold
altogether you need 6k + 16.5k gold.
if you want all artifacts, you need another 60.5k gold.

y0su

Finland7871 Posts

July 22 2014 08:42 GMT

#1912

exactly what I dislike about LoL... and here I was (still am) hoping for something I could play with friends without having the amount of ~~money~~ time I can ~~pay~~ play affect my stats.

(especially since the group of friends I usually play with are in a time zone 8 hours behind me)

paralleluniverse

4065 Posts

July 22 2014 10:01 GMT

#1913

The artifact system is utterly unfair and completely uncalled for. Together with the changes of locking out "advanced talents" until your hero level is high enough, this will completely destroy fairness and balance, and will mean that new players will be playing gimped heroes, making it harder for them. And even current players who play a new hero will be gimped too.

No longer will winning be determined simply by which team is better at the game and has better teamwork, but now it's based on arbitrary out-of-game factors like who has grinded more, or who has spent the least amount of gold on heroes so that they have the most amount of gold for artifacts. So Blizzard wants the winner to be partly determined by real money spent and time grinding, rather than in-game skill. Unless this is scrapped, their fundamental opposition to fairness is an outrage. I will quit if these changes are not retracted.

The massive nerf to daily quests means that at level cap, players will need to play exactly 7 games on average, in addition to daily quests in order to break even with the current gold acquisition rate. That's a massive nerf to gold, unless you spend around 3.5 hours to play those 7 games every day. And on top of that, gold also has to be spent on artifacts now. This is a grubby cash grab to push people into spending real money on heroes because their gold will be needed for artifacts.

All Blizzard had to do is copy Dota 2 without the snowballing. Instead, they've copied LoL without the snowballing. Again, I will quit if these changes are not retracted.

InVerno

258 Posts

July 22 2014 11:12 GMT

#1914

These are really bad news for this game .. kinda expected tbh, but now that it happens it's really disappointing.

PardonYou

United States1360 Posts

July 22 2014 12:43 GMT

#1915

So this is turning more into LoL. The reason I stopped LoL (besides that it got boring for me) was all the random monetization it had and runes.

SoleSteeler

Canada5461 Posts

July 22 2014 13:20 GMT

#1916

Considering they've had basically zero positive feedback, I'm sure it'll be changed slightly...hopefully...

Specifically this.

ComaDose

Canada10357 Posts

July 22 2014 13:40 GMT

#1917

"give us more ways to customize our characters"
"okay here"
"fuck you dead game worse than lol"

paralleluniverse

4065 Posts

July 22 2014 13:49 GMT

#1918

On July 22 2014 22:40 ComaDose wrote:
"give us more ways to customize our characters"
"okay here"
"fuck you dead game worse than lol"

No one ask for artifacts.

People asked for items. But, firstly, these people are dead wrong and Blizzard should not listen to them. The people asking for items in HotS are as wrong as the people who asked for or defended the RMAH in D3. HotS is about fixing the snowball, not about starting it up again by repeating the mistakes of other MOBAs through the addition of items. Secondly, items and artifacts are light-years apart. Items are in-game items, that do not destroy a fair and equal playing field, while artifacts are an out-of-game power-up that creates and unfair and unequal playing field by giving an undeserved and unnecessary advantage to people who have grinded more, or who have spend more real money to by heroes (and thereby have more gold to buy artifacts).

If it's so great, why don't you go ask for Blizzard to add a grind for artifacts to power-up your SC2 units?

ComaDose

Canada10357 Posts

July 22 2014 14:04 GMT

#1919

you have very good arguments against items but i'm not sure who you are talking to.
you honestly believe the other mobas fucked up by having items? no advantage for winning? sounds like a mentality oriented towards mario party mini games not so much mobas.
talkin bout unfair advantage to people who put in more work like you never played an mmo or something?
when i want to play chess i play sc2, when i want to tune a build to get a bit more out of my char i play lol, when i want to watch diablo superplex kerrigan i play HotS. I'm not gonna wana see that less if diablo gets 5% movespeed more cause he plays everyday. i just think everyone's over reacting like they are really expecting this to be the next one true moba saving esports. half the people complaining have never even played it.

Noro

Canada991 Posts

July 22 2014 14:10 GMT

#1920

I came here thinking about complaining that I needed a beta key and after reading the past 2 pages I don't think I want one anymore... o.o

+ Show Spoiler +

Edit: but seriously blizz give me a beta key