On June 2nd, Heroes of the Storm was officially launched. This means no more beta testing, but there will still be updates etc.Also, the leveling of heroes during beta has stayed so all the work during beta is not reset like in some games when they launch. I remember several of us at GameOgre.com leveling up in RaiderZ and perhaps Rusty Hearts only to have to start over when the game official began.
Today, we livestreamed from HOTS at Ogre Media. I had been using only two heroes before: Raynor and Artha aka the Liche King. Well, I logged today to start the stream and could not select neither of the them for a match with other players. Raynor was available in training, but Arthas was not available at all. Kit, the one who operates the Livestream, chose Diablo and I was stuck trying a Tauren from WoW with a guitar called ETC. The match started fine, but I would not suggest being thrown into a full human match (you can play against the AI with a human team) with a character you know nothing about. The result was a loss after about 30 minutes of dying several times. The Tauren might can swing a mean guitar, but an ogreish hero he is not.
Thankfully, we tried it again with me as Diablo in an AI Opponent match. Suffice it to say that Diablo and ETC are on two different tiers. For example, ETC can be bought with 2,000 Gold while it will take 7000 gold to play as the lord of hell. He is able to take on mercenary camps to help join the cause single-handedly because he is like a tank. The end result was also much better as we won to close the stream for today.
Kit gave a great analysis of the game compared to LoL towards then end. You can see the Ogre Game Time Replay to see what I mean. He also asked about what the gold gets you at the end. The gold is to actually buy the heroes. Unless you buy one, you are stuck with whatever ones are on free rotation. Thus, I bought Raynor for range and am working to buy Diablo next for melee. You also have the option to pay real money for the heroes, skins, and mounts etc. Having the ability to use in-game gold as you play is nice and gives you something to constantly work towards as you have fun playing. So far the games have been very mild without anybody starting trouble or arguing. There is the occasional frowny face or somebody spouting orders about roles, but that is to be expected. All that said, look for us to play Heroes of the Storm again next week.
