For the return of the toy event
During the Heroes of the Storm deep dive panel at BlizzCon this week, the Heroes team took the opportunity to focus mostly on Deathwing, the “most requested hero ever,” but there’s a few tidbits near the end that will probably resonate with players who have no interest in the destroyer.
Blizzard confirmed that the toys event (“the most successful of all the events”) is coming back, and will center around “Tickle Mephisto,” a warped Muppet version of the Lord of Hatred. To wit, it’s also getting a team-based train mount that other players can channel and connect into: leading to a literal “pain train” (a MOBA phrase when the whole team goes to wipe out an objective or group) for all five players.
The team is also experimenting with “anomalies” that will occasionally sashay into the game, the first of which shows literal XP globes pop out of minions and vacuum into players to help explain just how close you need to be to earn XP. They also confirm that “mastery rings” (which are literal aesthetic rings around your character to denote high level hero levels) are well received, but they’re adding the ability to toggle them on or off, as well as more levels that go all the way up to “700” (and assumingly, beyond).
Heroes is also getting a full re-queue system that puts you back into the queue after a failed connection attempt, and as a reminder every hero in the game is free until November. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight as of November 2019 when it comes to a return of the Haunted Mines map, but it and Blackheart’s Bay are being retooled.
Lead designer Brett Crawford closes out the panel by stating: “the Heroes team is still here.” Indeed! I’m excited to see what Deathwing brings to the table. Not many MOBAs have a boss-like character.
