When is hots coming

Since then, things have been unusually quiet for Heroes, and the game hasn't got even its regular winter event this year, an ominous sign many fans saw as "proof" that Blizzard is giving up on Heroes of the Storm. This foreboding was additionally fueled by the omission of HotS from February's BlizzConline event and rumours of Blizzard's Classic team dissolution.

Nonetheless, the relatively big player base is still passionately playing the game and developers did promise that future content is on its way, and now it seems that we are finally getting the first clues of what that future content might be.

Blizzard's classic BlackThorne was released in , and recently reintroduced as a part of Blizzard Arcade Collection Picture: Blizzard. It looks like Heroes of the Storm might get another Blizzard Classic hero! Several teasers have surfaced today, all pointing towards Kyle "BlackThorne" Vlaros as a new hero in Heroes of the Storm. If these leaks and teases turn out to be true, BlackThorne will be the second Blizzard character coming from "classic" Blizzard games, after The Lost Vikings.

The first leak is a loading screen from the PTR serves, which got updated briefly before reverted again. The leaked loading screen and this BlackThorne level are almost a perfect match Picture: Blizzard. The second tease is coming from the live server. But the other advantage is that simplifying the item system makes the game much easier to understand for newcomers to MOBAs as a whole.

Goals galore. Aside from pushing lanes, taking out towers and destroying the final base, Heroes of the Storm spices up the standard MOBA doctrine with a few twists. First, towers or outposts have limited ammo and must re-arm periodically. Pushing a lane during this reloading time results in faster progress. There are also map-specific events, similar in match significance to Baron Nashor or Roshan.

Dragon Shire spawns two shrines that, once captured by one team, turns a single hero into the Dragon Knight. The Haunted Mines offers a series of tunnels full of skeletons to vanquish.

All of these special events, level alterations and tower changes combine to make games considerably shorter than the average Dota or League game, which has the added effect of making them feel quite frantic.

The impromptu battles that formed around those environmental events kept tension high, but teamfights felt lacking in synergy of hero skills. Comment Comment. Daniel Tack. Daniel has been at Game Informer for seven years, specializing in multiplayer titles and PC games. When he's not speculating on the future of the industry, you can find him exploring vast online worlds — and probably streaming the experience.

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