Over the last month or so, Blizzard, a company you may be marginally familiar with, began sending out invites for the "technical alpha" of their new MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), Heroes of the Storm (Heroes). Some of us in TL staff were fortunate enough to get access to this alpha, and have decided to bring you a little coverage. This is the first article of what we hope will be many, and should serve as a primer to the game, as well as a rundown of our first impressions.



Heroes follows the basic design of all modern MOBAs, it pits ten players in two teams of five against each other, where they compete for resources and attempt to kill each other. The main object of the game is to destroy the opposing teams "palace", which I will no doubt mistakenly call "throne" often. Waves of creeps spawn from each side and attempt to push down the lane, trying to get at the opposing palace. To destroy the opposing palace players must destroy forts and towers, and, critically, compete for map objectives, that vary from map to map. Unlike most modern MOBAs however, Heroes has a variety of different maps, four at the moment, which radically change how each game is played, depending on the specific objectives of that map, and the way it is set up.

Hero selection is also handled differently in Heroes than in most MOBAs, at least at the moment. Instead of having a selection phase where the team will discuss what heroes to pick and make their selection, players select what hero they wish to play before hitting find game, and the matchmaking service attempts to make fairly balanced teams. Furthermore at the moment it is possible to have the same hero on opposing teams, possibly a decision made right now due to the rather small hero pool.

Heroes also has no mechanic for buying items, there are no shops, and no way of obtaining gold or currency, with experience being the only visible resource the players compete for (with invisible resources like positioning and map presence being rather important). Experience is gained in a couple of ways, by being within range of dying creeps in lane, by knocking down forts, killing mercenaries and killing opposing heroes. Experience is a team resource, meaning that everyone levels at the same time. This is very unlike other MOBAs and makes for some interesting dynamics, as lanes are important only insofar as you need to place a single hero per lane to gain experience. There is no such thing as last hitting or denying in Heroes.

Also unlike other MOBAs, you do not "skill abilities", putting points into specific skills to unlock them and make them more powerful as the game goes on. You begin play with your hero abilities already unlocked, and gain talents at specific level points (levels 1,4,7,10, 13, 16, 20), where you can choose which improvement you take, Improvements range from upgrades to your existing abilities, to entirely new abilities. Talent selection is very important in Heroes, as your talent selection will define the strengths of the hero, and the value of certain skills is very dependent on the opposing team's lineup and the map. At level 10, "heroic abilities" are unlocked which are usually an extremely powerful spell or ability, akin to "ultimates" in DotA.

Mercenaries are a defining and vital feature of Heroes. To anyone familiar with other MOBAs, the idea of a "jungle" and neutral creeps is very familiar, however Heroes' unique twist on a traditional mechanic makes the mercenaries ever more vital. Mercenaries are neutral enemies scattered across the map, which don't appear until the forty five second mark. These Mercenaries provide experience when slain, and scale in difficulty, from the rather easy siege ogres, which a lone hero can reliably kill at level 1 so long as they dodge their attacks (though it does take a while), to the imposing grave golems, which require a three or more heroes at level 15 to kill. What makes mercenaries vital however, isn't just the experience they provide, but that after defeating them, they will respawn and dutifully march off to the nearest lane to help you push. This means that controlling the mercenaries allows you to reliably push the enemy lane, and the timing of capturing mercenaries in order to force your opponents to choose between defending their forts and map objectives, is a vital part of the game.

There are a few types of mercenaries, which I will briefly cover here. Its important to note that if mercs are deaggroed they heal fully, almost instantly, and any defeated mercs in that camp respawn over time. Take note that for the mercenaries to fight for you you must stand in the circle that appears when you defeat them, and that if an enemy is standing there you will not be able to capture them until the enemy is defeated (and that if you let them just stand there and don't contest, they'll get the mercenaries) . Any given mercenary's difficulty varies depending on the map.

• Siege Ogres - The weakest mercenaries, often categorized as level 6-9 solos, they give a moderate amount of experience, and are very powerful pushers. Equipped with cannons or a satchel of boulders, they out range all buildings, which means that if not brought down quickly they will decimate forts and towers. Each camp consists of two ogres, when killing them its best to walk out of their ranged attacks, which are denoted with a red circle appearing where they are targeted.
  
• Knights - Knights are extremely powerful, backed up by a wizard with a powerful buffing aura and the ability to cast a shield on a fellow knight, making him even tankier. The Knights have a ton of HP and are an awesome addition to any push. Its highly suggested that when taking out this camp players focus on taking out the wizard first, as it makes the camp easier. It is also recommended you bring a buddy or two until you are level 12-16 depending on what hero you are.
  
• Golem - The most powerful camp, a single Grave Golem, possess a rooting attack, an area of effect stunning stomp, boatloads of hp, and deals a ton of damage to buildings. A pushing golem requires a concentrated effort to bring down, or it will easily take one or two forts. The golem is very hard to solo without specific heroes, and shouldn't be tried before level 16 or so if you wish to solo it.
  

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The variety of maps in Heroes is one of the most appealing features, as it gives greater variety in games and allows for more depth of strategy. Lineups that work well in some maps are not nearly as effective in others, and some heroes are extremely well suited to specific scenarios. All maps have some common features however, forts are of course present in every map, and grant exp to the team that brings them down. Towers and gates are also common which also add to the defense of both team's palaces. Interestingly, Towers and Forts have ammunition, which regenerates slowly over time, this means that it is possible to force a tower or fort to run out of ammunition firing on creeps, and then bring it down without worrying about being attacked by the defensive structure. Towers and forts will always fire on creeps and mercenaries before they target Heroes, which means that attacking with the creepwave is prudent. There are also "health fountains" next to the forts, which can be used by players to restore some mana and hp (gradually), they are pretty fragile and usually the first thing to go when the fort is pushed, but they are a good remedy for not having to return to the main fountain to heal, and have only a 100 second cooldown (for each player, so if Diablo uses it before Kerrigan, Diablo has to wait 100 seconds before using it again, but Kerrigan can still use it) In some maps there are watchtowers, which can be claimed by standing within their claiming radius and which grant vision surrounding them.






Blackheart's Bay, a map where wealth is everything. This map is made up of three lanes, two almost joint top lanes and one very distant bottom lane. Between the top two lanes is a crucial watchtower, which is often hotly contested. Its not unheard of for both teams to rush the tower at level 1 in an attempt to catch out a hero, often resulting in interesting teamfights.

The map's principal objective is to give doubloons to the pirate captain. There are two ways to get doubloons (coins), the first, and the one newer players often think is the only, is from treasure chests, which spawn every so often, right below the top two lanes and right above the bottom lane. Each chest contains five coins and must be broken through attacking it to get to the coins inside. Needless to say, chests often result in huge fights with teams attempting to snipe them and run away with the coins. The second method of obtaining coins is clearing pirate camps (which are like mercenaries but who don't attack once defeated) and standard mercenary camps, each of which drops two coins. The Pirate camps are nestled against the wall of each side, and are not very challenging to take out after level 3 or so and are in view of the central watchtower. Coins must be turned in to the pirate captain, an action which requires channeling and which can be interrupted by damage. Furthermore, any coins a hero is carrying drop on death. The astute reader will already have surmised that teamfights can get a bit hectic with the added incentive of capturing the coins of fallen enemies, and that turning them in is never a trivial task, as a clever enemy will be on the look out to ambush any solitary heroes trying to turn in coins.

When a team turns in enough coins (ten for the first turn in, with an additional two coins for each subsequent turn in), the pirate captain unleashes hell on the opposing side, pelting them with a cannonade of twelve cannonballs, aimed at their defensive structures that are furthest from the palace moving inward. A single cannonade will usually take out a tower and a fort, and it takes about five to six cannonades to ensure you win a game - assuming you don't do any pushing yourself. Mercenary camps on this map are interesting, with a grave golem in the north of the map, hidden behind a smoke wall, which means that any attempt to secure it must be super cautious to avoid being ambushed. To the south of the map is a knight camp, also hidden behind smoke, but its comparative weakness makes it a safer bet. Getting these mercs however means being out of position for chests and far away from the pirate captain in the center of the map. Two siege ogre camps, one per side are pretty much adjacent to the pirate camps, making it a fairly good choice to take both at once, for a tidy sum of four coins.

The map is also littered with smoke and other line of sight blockers, allowing for interesting escapes and ambushes taking advantage of unwary enemies. The most often heard criticism about this map is that "the pirate captain's voice gets annoying" to which I say "ARRRR, TALKING LIKE A PIRATE IS FUN!"

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

If objectives are important in most maps, in Cursed Hollow they are insanely crucial. The main mechanic in Cursed Hollow is collecting tributes. Whenever a team collects three tributes, the opposing team is cursed. Being cursed sucks. While a team is cursed, the hp of all their minions is reduced to 1, forts are at half health, and the forts and towers stubbornly refuse to attack the enemy. What that means is that when you are cursed, every lane is pushing you, and the enemy is likely wrecking forts. This means that when a tribute spawns, there will almost always be a teamfight around it.

There are three lanes in this map, and it is important to place the most mobile heroes on the top lanes so that they can relocate to objectives easily, it is also essential to have a couple people roaming, and to react quickly to the "objective spawning" notification. The two watchtowers, nestled on each side of the map provide some vision, and stealthily capturing the enemies tower can grant an advantage. Tributes spawn randomly in preset locations between the top and bottom lane, usually in quite defensible positions. Claiming a tribute is a channeling action that can be interrupted by damage.

Mercenaries on this map are plentiful and are absolutely crucial for counterpushing if you get cursed, as they are immune to the effects of the curse. Being both cursed and attacked by knights is not pleasant, so it is really really important to at the very least contest these while desperately defending. It is also important to note that there are paths around your walls in this map, which means it is possible for enemies to sneak around you and lay ambushes behind the first line of forts.

The mercenaries in this map are split evenly, with no "middle" mercenaries and are placed in opposing sides with the placement being inverted, so that the right side ogres push the bottom lane, and the left side ogres push the top. The camps consist of one ogre camp, one knight camp and one golem camp. The ogres are placed in such a way that taking the opposing sides ogres will cause them to walk behind the first fort and bombard it from a location where creep waves will not attack them.

In general, this map is quite fun, although potentially frustrating if your team fails to grasp the importance of the objectives. It really encourages coordination and teamfights, with positioning and quick reactions being utterly essential.






What feels like the smallest map, dragon shire is interesting in the sense that the primary objective, that of obtaining the dragon knight, isn't as critical as it might at first seem. The map has three lanes, the middle lane passes by a giant statue of a dragon, while the top and bottom lane each have a shrine above and below them, respectively. When the shrines "activate" they behave much like watchtowers, requiring a player in their radius to capture them. When either team holds both shrines, they may activate the dragon statue, the player that activates it becomes the dragon knight for a minute. The dragon knight is pretty strong in combat, with a lot of hitpoints, a burning breath, and a charge attack that knocks the enemy being charged far away. His attacks are especially effective against buildings, and when slain, the hero inside reappears, exactly where the knight was when it died.

Mercenaries on this map are perfectly mirrored, with one middle "netural" camp, and two camps on each team's side of the map. The topmost camps are knights, the bottom ones are ogres, and the middle neutral one is also ogres. This map encourages splitting your team, since traveling as five ensures the shrines will be captured behind you before you secure the knight. However this also sets up interesting opportunities for group ganks, and offers a very clear set of decisions, as covering both objectives and the dragon knight spreads your forces super thin, and losing even a single one of the objectives requires a rapid adjustment of your strategy.

Long grass serves as the main line of sight blocker in this map, and its placement encourages ganking players rotating towards the mid dragon knight. A team on the defensive has but to send four players to guard the knight and a single player to backstab any shrine that's abandoned, although this offers the enemy a juicy opportunity to just grab their mercenaries. While the knight is indisputably strong, he doesn't add too much to teamfights, especially at higher levels, where a players ultimate would probably contribute more.

Overall, the map is very satisfying, with clever positioning and rapid adjustment being key. Its also nice to play on a lush green map when all the other maps are dreary and grey, or scorched and dead.






This is a two lane map, and at first glance might seem too small for five players. That is very deceptive, as at the beginning of the game there is a full half of the map that isn't visible, the mines. The primary objective in this map is collecting skulls, which are in the possession (and I assume being used by) zombies in the mines. When the mines open you can descend into them through the two entrances, one in the middle of each lane. The mine is infested by groups of zombies, which drop skulls when killed, and a huge golem in the center of the mine that drops a large number of skulls. There is a total of a hundred skulls, and when all 100 are collected, each team spawns a Grave Golem (in opposing lanes) which wander forward and siege your opponents base. Their power and hit points are proportional to the amount of skulls your team collected, which means that a team that ignored the mines might find themselves losing a fort, more, or potentially the game.

There are five mercenary camps in the middle of the map, four ogre maps, and one central knight camp. These camps are super important, as it is common for one team to only go into the mines to grab a couple skulls and capture all the mercenaries, wrecking the enemy forts while they're occupied cutting through the undead, and then defending the golem push. This map offers all kind of interesting decisions, and one of its strengths is how it rewards proper communication. Its entirely possible to contest skulls, and have a huge fight in the mines around the huge golem, its also possible to almost completely ignore them, or to split your efforts. There's also the balancing of offence vs defense, where players must decide whether its more important to push with their golem or stop the opposing golem from attacking, often resulting in awesome teamfights around defensive structures.

It is important to note that is fairly easy to tell how many enemies are down in the mines, as the zombies appear on the map, and the rate at which they die is a huge clue. Golems will also respawn where they died and only attack buildings, which means that while the first golem can be fairly easy to deflect, the following ones are not, and they tend to do quite a number on forts.

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In Heroes there are four "types" of heroes, heroes can be either ranged or melee, and are categorized as either "Assassin", "Warrior", "Support" or "Specialist". Depending on what general role they are supposed to cover. In general, a balanced game is supposed to have one of each category, but in practice, mixes seem a lot more varied, and heroes don't seem to conform exactly to their role.

Two mechanics that must be mentioned in this section are "mounts" and "hearthstones". Due to the absence of gold, there are no TP scrolls like in DotA, so instead heroes have an active channeled ability that allows them to teleport to base. This ability has next to no cooldown and is broken by any damage. Heroes also have "mounts", usually in the form of horses, that allow them to quickly travel to other parts of the map, using a mount is broken by damage, and mounting takes a few seconds. Not all heroes have mount however, as some enjoy the ability to teleport to allies (with a long cooldown) or to burrow or fly to any location in the map instead.

It is also very important to be aware that all heroes have the same movespeed, making mounting up one of the few ways to effectively chase down an escaping hero. It also makes gap-closers and teleportation abilities incredibly important, as being able to blink away often ensures your survival.

Assassin: Assassins are exactly what it says on the tin, heroes designed to deal massive amount of burst damage and bring down other heroes. Usually equipped with a gap closer or a stun, and occasionally with invisibility. It is worth mentioning in this section that invisibility in Heroes works like it does in SC2, an "invisible" unit can't be targeted, but is still visible as a shimmer on the ground, and can be hurt by area of effect abilities. Attacking breaks invisibility, but, crucially, forts do not reveal invisible units. Assassins tend to be on the squishy side, ranging from brittle to fragile, with the notable exceptions of Kerrigan, whose passive ability grants her shields proportional to how much damage she deals to non-hero units, and Illidan, whose Metamorphosis heroic ability provides additional health points for each hero his initiation hits. Assassins are generally considered a "must have" on any team, as without their damage dealing potential it becomes very hard to bring down heroes. The Assassins currently available in Heroes are: Kerrigan, Nova, Falstad, Demon Hunter, Illidan, Raynor, Zeratul and Tychus.

Warrior: Warriors are the damage sponges of the game, usually armed with really high hp totals, and generally low damage output. It can be very daunting to face a warrior as an assassin, simply because they are often equipped with self heals, helpful auras and a boatload of HP. Warriors however generally sacrifice damage in order to achieve this, preferring utility and tankiness. Warriors often have good stuns, making them invaluable when facing down squishy assassins, they rely on their team to get the damage needed done. Generally warriors are good to have, although not as essential as assassins, they work wonderfully well when paired with assassins however, as they complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. The Warriors currently available in Heroes are: Stitches, Arthas, Diablo, Tyrael, E.T.C., Barbarian and Muradin.

Support: Support heroes are heroes whose greatest strength is their ability to support their allies. Usually this involves healing or shielding their allies from damage, as well as hindering the enemy, supports often have ultimates that either deal a lot of damage or really aid their allies, making them teamfight heroes. Shields are one of the more elegant mechanics in Heroes, with shields being essentially temporary HP that are hit first, Shields can usually be applied to allies and buildings alike. Supports most often have a heal of some sort (be it shields or actual healing) and an ability which stuns or slows, but make up for it with relatively poor damage. The Supports currently available in Heroes are: Uther, Malfurion, Tassadar, Tyrande, Brightwing and Li Li.

Specialist: "Specialist" is the catch all term for heroes that don't fit any of the above three categories, usually because they emphasize a specific niche to a large extent. Specialist's viability in lineups really depends on both the map, and the supporting lineup, for example, Gazlowe is a fantastic jungler, being able to take on mercenaries from an early level, in maps where it is more important to be able to engage enemies defending an objective, he can find himself rather limited, although he'd be fantastic at defending the same objective. Since there are only four specialists and each is rather unique, I'll touch briefly on each.

• Witch Doctor: Witch Doctor's calling is pushing and very difficult to land damage abilities, his skills and talents all allow him to output massive damage in an area, at the cost of channeling or being rather dodeagable. He also lacks a gap closing ability or really any way to ensure his abilities land, which make it vital that he be accompanied by someone who can. This makes him useful in zoning role as well as defensively, which makes him a bit of a hybrid between an assassin and a support, which is probably why he is categorized as a specialist.
  
  
• Gazlowe: I feel like Gazlowe is extremely powerful due to his ability to solo camps at low levels. His turrets and other abilities all lend themselves to setting up at a camp and slaughtering it, and this same ability means he's perfect in a defensive role, either behind gates or setting up at an objective. He requires setup however, since he needs to plant turrets and otherwise prepare, which make him less than ideal when attacking, as teamfights will often be over before he has a chance to deploy. His relative fragility also means that jungling alone can often set him up to get destroyed by a roaming assassin.
  
  
• Sgt. Hammer: As a siege tank, Sgt. Hammers abilities are kind of predictable, she's good at area control and dealing out damage, at the price of being extremely slow to attack. At least in theory, in practice, it seems like the good Sergeant doesn't accomplish too much, her mines are effective and amusing, but her attack rate feels too slow, and the immobility of siege mode too punishing. That said, she excels at sitting in the back of a fight and pummeling the enemy, so smart players can probably get good returns out of her with proper talent selection.
  
  
• Abathur: I confess to some bias, Abathur is one of my favorite heroes in the game, and every time I pick him, everyone in TS groans in disapproval (sorry Kadaver). Abathur's skills all rely on him staying near base, as he can essentially put a hat on allied heroes that he uses as a focal point to cast abilities from. He also spawns locust that travel down the lane and provide some pushing power, as well as planting "toxic nests" that deal little damage, but grant detection in a small radius. His "Heroic Ability" is to clone an existing allied hero, gaining all their abilities and cooldowns for the duration. In practice this means that he can clone a hero and use their ultimate, which has very interesting effects. Abathur feels like a hero with a lot of potential depth, but victory with my favorite Zerg commander has so far proven elusive.
  

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For fans of StarCraft, the user experience is going to be very familiar, playing games gives you "exp" which levels up your account. Certain levels unlock certain things, like an extra free hero slot, or the ability to complete daily quests. Speaking of, there are also daily quests, and hero specific quests, which give exp and also unlock skins and the like. Leveling up gives you gold, which you can use in lieu of real money to purchase heroes. As of right now accounts also start with gold, although its not known if that will continue to be the case. The bottom line is you don't need to spend a cent to enjoy the game, and the leveling progression is pretty fast, with daily quests, and bonus exp for playing on weekends and with friends, its a breeze to get past the first 10 levels.

The free heroes rotate every week, which means even if you don't play a lot and level super fast you'll still have a variety of heroes to play, and it also gives you a chance to try most heroes before purchasing them. You can also try unpurchased heroes in single player from the store. Unlike what I expected, it doesn't feel like pay to win, and its perfectly feasible not to spend any money, (I, GMarshal, haven't spent any real money, and I've been loving it). The interfaces are intuitive to anyone who's played a blizzard game before, and there are chat channels, which is nice. The battle net friend system is the same its always been, and its really easy to party up.

One of the issues is the absence of all chat, which would make the game more enjoyable, I often find myself wishing I could ask the opposing Abathur what his build is, and the like, and its annoying not to have, along with no voice chat. The ping system however is comprehensive, allowing you to transmit a variety of commands, and pinging things like mercenaries will display a message saying "PlayerX wants to do Siege Orges" or "Tyrande wants to retreat"

The ability to suggest players and add them is well designed and intuitive, and its easy to request people for friends after a game ends. Overall the entire design seems solid, with the lessons learned in SC2 taken to heart. That's not to say there isn't room for improvement, like tabs for chat and the ability to resize the chat window, but its a marked improvement over what the SC2 user experience has been for years, and shows that thought went into the design.

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