Hanamura is The Most Innovative Heroes of The Storm Map Yet

[Steven Bogos]

Hanamura is The Most Innovative Heroes of The Storm Map Yet

Hanamura changes up the Heroes of the Storm formula, bringing us something we've never really seen before.

What really sets Blizzard's hero brawler Heroes of the Storm [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/heroes%20of%20the%20storm?os=heroes+of+the+storm] aside from all of the other MOBAs out there is its myriad of maps. Usually MOBAs rely on having a single, competitive map that is used for every single game, but HoTS has eleven maps - each with a completely different objective that shakes up the game. The newest map, Hanamura, is set to be the most innovative of the bunch, introducing a whole new way to play.

Hanamura takes a popular Overwatch game mode, Payload, and translates it into HoTS. Fundamentally, it works the same way - you either push your own payload or stop the enemy payload by standing next to it. But its a bit more complicated than that. In Overwatch, there is only one Payload, and one team pushing while another defends. In HoTS' Hanamura, both teams will simultaneously be pushing and defending payloads.

Furthermore, simply pushing the payload to its destination wont win you the game. Just like in Towers of Doom, the cores of Hanamura are immune from conventional attacks, and can only be damaged by delivering a payload. Each core has seven health, so, you'd need to deliver seven payloads to win. Capturing enemy forts increases the damage of your payload, and a boss camp in the middle of the map will also deal a single point of damage to the enemy core.

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Speaking of the boss camp, mercenaries in Hanamura are completely different from any other map. Usually, capturing a mercenary camp will cause the said mercenaries to charge down the closest lane, fighting for your team until death. In Hanamura, capturing a mercanary camp instead gives you a special item, depending on the camp. One camp will let you plop down a Torbjorn turret, another will let you unleash a trio of dragons that track down hidden enemies, and the last will give you and nearby allies a burst of healing regeneration.

All of these things lead to a very fast-based, Overwatch style of play. Beta players are reporting that games on Hanamura usually finish up by the 15 minute mark, making them quite a bit shorter than your average HoTS game.

The new map, along with two new heroes including Overwatch's Genji, are due out on April 25.

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[Hawki]

So, my thought process can be described as thus:

-A new hero? Yay.

-A new map? Yay!

-The hero is from Overwatch? Meh.

-But because the hero isn't from Warcraft, Warcraft now has less than a 50% hero share. Yay.

-But I want a Warcraft hero now.

-But the map looks fun. Yay!

-But the map style also feels reminiscent of the Empire of the Rising Sun faction from Red Alert 3, what with shogun robots and fancy towers.

-I miss Command & Conquer.

-But Heroes of the Storm is still fun. So, yay.

(Yes, I'm a complicated guy, thanks for asking.)

 

[RJ 17]

So, my thought process can be described as thus:

-A new hero? Yay.

-A new map? Yay!

-The hero is from Overwatch? Meh.

-But because the hero isn't from Warcraft, Warcraft now has less than a 50% hero share. Yay.

-But I want a Warcraft hero now.

-But the map looks fun. Yay!

-But the map style also feels reminiscent of the Empire of the Rising Sun faction from Red Alert 3, what with shogun robots and fancy towers.

-I miss Command & Conquer.

-But Heroes of the Storm is still fun. So, yay.

(Yes, I'm a complicated guy, thanks for asking.)

Question: how can you still want a WC hero considering the number of WC heroes already? Gimme some Diablo heroes! When Mephisto? When Malthael? When Imperius? When Maghda? When Adria? When Baal? When The Wanderer? When Deckard God Damn Cain? When Broly?

OT: Since when was Hanamura a Payload map and not a Capture The Point map? :^)

Spoiler

(just being a dick-nugget with that complaint, new maps are always appreciated. )

 

[Hawki]

Question: how can you still want a WC hero considering the number of WC heroes already? Gimme some Diablo heroes! When Mephisto? When Malthael? When Imperius? When Maghda? When Adria? When Baal? When The Wanderer? When Deckard God Damn Cain? When Broly?

Well, there's basically a few reasons:

-As of this point, Warcraft, while still having the lion's share of heroes, still holds under 50% of them, and for me, that's a good cutoff. It's a given that Warcraft will always have more heroes than the other franchises.

-The last Warcraft hero we had was Valeera. After her, we've had (in order) Lucio-Probius-Cassia-Genji. So of all the medias, Warcraft's gone the longest without a hero. And that's kind of poetic, since Valeera was the fifth straight Warcraft hero in a row at the time of her release, but speaking objectively, Warcraft's gone without a new hero for awhile.

-Far as Blizzard's "big four" franchises go, for me, it's a case of StarCraft>Warcraft>Diablo>Overwatch. Now, I do like Overwatch, if only because I like its world (don't have the specs to play it), it is of a lower tier of interest to me than the others. So, Diablo got a pretty good hero with Cassia, StarCraft got a "bleh" hero with Probius (seriously, why not Karax?), and Overwatch had Lucio. So, yeah - I'm kinda in the mood for another Warcraft hero, as strange as that sounds.

-But on the subject of Diablo heroes, I can't really argue with any of those suggestions, even if some will be harder to implement than others.

-And yes, I like bitching about HotS's hero ratios as well, so there is that.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Meanwhile, Blizzard's weakest game is getting all of the cool Overwatch stuff.

You know, instead of Overwatch.

I mean, Zarya's skins still suck, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around why HotS Zarya has cooler skins than the game she was freakin' made for. I understand that it's two different development teams, but you mean to tell me that they don't share assets between them?

 

[Hawki]

Meanwhile, Blizzard's weakest game is getting all of the cool Overwatch stuff.

You know, instead of Overwatch.

I mean, Zarya's skins still suck, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around why HotS Zarya has cooler skins than the game she was freakin' made for. I understand that it's two different development teams, but you mean to tell me that they don't share assets between them?

It isn't a given that assets are shared. Oh sure, the teams of Blizzard are generally (key word on "generally," it's not unheard of for them to sequester developers on yet to be announced projects), but HotS is worked on by Team 1, while Overwatch is worked on by Team 4.

Also, I'd have thought Blizzard's weakest game in terms of playerbase or revenue stream would be SC2 or D3. "Weakest" in terms of quality is subjective, but I'd imagine HotS still has a good revenue stream, even if it's not on WoW/Hearthstone/Overwatch level.

 

[sagitel]

Meanwhile, Blizzard's weakest game is getting all of the cool Overwatch stuff.

You know, instead of Overwatch.

I mean, Zarya's skins still suck, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around why HotS Zarya has cooler skins than the game she was freakin' made for. I understand that it's two different development teams, but you mean to tell me that they don't share assets between them?

It isn't a given that assets are shared. Oh sure, the teams of Blizzard are generally (key word on "generally," it's not unheard of for them to sequester developers on yet to be announced projects), but HotS is worked on by Team 1, while Overwatch is worked on by Team 4.

Also, I'd have thought Blizzard's weakest game in terms of playerbase or revenue stream would be SC2 or D3. "Weakest" in terms of quality is subjective, but I'd imagine HotS still has a good revenue 9stream, even if it's not on WoW/Hearthstone/Overwatch level.

I don't buy it. Hots maybe (I dont belive it though) more popular than D3 now but that's because of D3s age more than anything. Hots is definitely doing poorly

 

[Hawki]

I don't buy it. Hots maybe (I dont belive it though) more popular than D3 now but that's because of D3s age more than anything. Hots is definitely doing poorly

Source badly needed on that. I mean, compare the amount of content that HotS gets when compared to Diablo III or StarCraft II. It's also the more popular game in regards to YouTube followers (check the subscriber count), and in regards to Twitter followers, it's more popular than SC2, if not D3.

Right now, I'd say Diablo III is Blizzard's least popular game, at least of the main six that are out now (soon to be seven if you count StarCraft Remastered). My personal thoughts aside, it gets the least amount of content, and you don't have to go far to find people slamming it and singing the praises of either D2 or Path of Exile.

 

[sagitel]

I don't buy it. Hots maybe (I dont belive it though) more popular than D3 now but that's because of D3s age more than anything. Hots is definitely doing poorly

Source badly needed on that. I mean, compare the amount of content that HotS gets when compared to Diablo III or StarCraft II. It's also the more popular game in regards to YouTube followers (check the subscriber count), and in regards to Twitter followers, it's more popular than SC2, if not D3.

Right now, I'd say Diablo III is Blizzard's least popular game, at least of the main six that are out now (soon to be seven if you count StarCraft Remastered). My personal thoughts aside, it gets the least amount of content, and you don't have to go far to find people slamming it and singing the praises of either D2 or Path of Exile.

Just a guess. Sc2 is still a big name in competitive especially in Korea. But yeah d3 is probably the least popular Blizzard's game.

 

[RJ 17]

Question: how can you still want a WC hero considering the number of WC heroes already? Gimme some Diablo heroes! When Mephisto? When Malthael? When Imperius? When Maghda? When Adria? When Baal? When The Wanderer? When Deckard God Damn Cain? When Broly?

Well, there's basically a few reasons:

Just to be clear: I was only being silly with my comment. Even so, I'll break down why more WC heroes is a bit superfluous considering the amount of WC heroes already available in HotS. :^)

-As of this point, Warcraft, while still having the lion's share of heroes, still holds under 50% of them, and for me, that's a good cutoff. It's a given that Warcraft will always have more heroes than the other franchises.

This is indeed an objective point. Considering the fact that the WC universe has characters that are much more easily converted into MOBA characters (especially since WC3 was the game that started the MOBA genre), it really is obvious that there'd be more WC characters than any other franchise. That being said, however, there's plenty of characters from other franchises that can be made into HotS characters...the ones I named in my previous post just being a few.

-The last Warcraft hero we had was Valeera. After her, we've had (in order) Lucio-Probius-Cassia-Genji. So of all the medias, Warcraft's gone the longest without a hero. And that's kind of poetic, since Valeera was the fifth straight Warcraft hero in a row at the time of her release, but speaking objectively, Warcraft's gone without a new hero for awhile.

And there-in lies the point...WC already dominates The Nexus, can we not get some more variety? Again, I understand and accept that the WC universe has the most easy transition into this type of game....but here's the recent release order we've had (going backwards):

Valeera
Zul'jin
Ragnaros
Varian
Sumaro
Zarya
Alarak (John de Lancie is fucking awesome, btw :^) )
Auriel
Gul'Dan
Medivh
Chromie

Bold = WC heroes...so don't try to tell me that WC is hurting for releases.

SC is rather tricky since there aren't that many "main characters" in the franchise that aren't already in the game. But Diablo is hurting for representation. They've got the D3 classes in there, but there's much more that can be added.

-Far as Blizzard's "big four" franchises go, for me, it's a case of StarCraft>Warcraft>Diablo>Overwatch. Now, I do like Overwatch, if only because I like its world (don't have the specs to play it), it is of a lower tier of interest to me than the others. So, Diablo got a pretty good hero with Cassia, StarCraft got a "bleh" hero with Probius (seriously, why not Karax?), and Overwatch had Lucio. So, yeah - I'm kinda in the mood for another Warcraft hero, as strange as that sounds.

As indicated above - and combined with the fact that WC already completely dominates the Nexus - I (personally) can't see why you'd be itching for more WC heroes. I mean, I love WC, I've been with the franchise since WCII so I know and love all the characters. But in a game like HotS with numerous franchises to draw from, I just wish there was more diversity than WC taking up almost as much as the other franchises combined.

Again, I get the reason as to why they're struggling for SC heroes...that game only has so many "main" characters in the franchise. That said, however...why can't they just make up a Firebat hero, like they did with Morales and Hammer? Where's Dragoon Fenix? Where's the Zerg Defiler? All of that on top of the Diablo characters I mentioned.

-But on the subject of Diablo heroes, I can't really argue with any of those suggestions, even if some will be harder to implement than others.

That's what gets to me...I love me some Diablo (and I love the fact that they're FINALLY giving us FemDiablo......the Diablo that was depicted in the frickin' launch trailer for the game ). That's why, specifically, I want more Diablo over more WC.

-And yes, I like bitching about HotS's hero ratios as well, so there is that.

And just to reiterate: I fully understand and accept why there's more heroes from WC than any other franchise. My "problem" with the releases is really inevitable. They could "easily" blow their load by pumping out a bunch of Diablo characters and making up some "heroes" for standard SC units. But even if they did that....there's not that much of a pool to draw from, and afterwards it would just be nothing but WC till the end of time.

Even so, I just wish they could pump out some Diablo characters a bit faster...particularly Imperius and Malthael, I've been itchin' for those two for a while now.

In conclusion: Cho'Gall OP, Blehzurd plz nurf. :^)

 

[Gali]

Just a guess. Sc2 is still a big name in competitive especially in Korea.

It is in a strong decline, for many reasons. One being that BroodWar is back on the rise since the most famous progamers are playing it again, a Remaster was announced and most Koreans players still consider it the better game. Last time I heard there are even more ppl playing it in Internet cafes/PC bangs than the sequel.

Id also say that Diablo is the least popular franchise, but I think it depends heavily on the region if its slightly ahead or on par with Starcrafts popularity. However, I feel that Diablo III got much more bad press/repuation than Starcraft II in the general, non-competitive gaming community.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Kind of ironic considering how terrible the map is in Overwatch.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

This reads so much like an advertisement it actually hurts. Like, just put on one of those gushing preview E3 presenter voices and read through it in that tone. You'll thank me later. In my basement.

 

[Janaschi]

I know that I'm being "That guy," but this is actually an homage to Warcraft III, in which this mechanic was first introduced through Blizzard games. I'm sure that the success around Overwatch motivated this, but that was not their original iteration.

Not like it matters, mind you. I just can't sleep, and I am mindlessly staring at my computer in boredom. :3

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

To quote someone on youtube "Oh joy, now I can watch my team not push the payload in overwatch AND heroes of the storm!" XD

I like the look of this map. It's creative and nutty. THIS is why I prefer HOTS to League. None of this "Same exact map over and over until it gets boring", there's a variety of maps that have a variety of objectives to help stave off the point where things become a big samey mush.

I mean, Zarya's skins still suck, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around why HotS Zarya has cooler skins than the game she was freakin' made for.

Just so you know, apparently some really cool new skins are in the works for her. I am currently holding onto my currency in preparation. She's one of the few heroes I really enjoy that I don't have a cool skin for yet.

(I do with the loot boxes stopped giving me LEgendary Widowmaker skins. I never play her, and I prefer the preorder skin over literally anything else she has when I DO roll her in Mystery Heroes)

 

[Hawki]

As indicated above - and combined with the fact that WC already completely dominates the Nexus - I (personally) can't see why you'd be itching for more WC heroes.

I'm not disputing any of what you said, and I do agree with it. Warcraft has the lion's share of heroes, and while I can certainly appreciate it being hard to incorporate StarCraft heroes, Diablo is similar to Warcraft in that it's a setting where success is linked closely with personal power, whereas StarCraft is a setting where battles are won or lost with tactics. So, in the long run, of course Warcraft has had a lot of heroes. I'm just commenting that at this point in time (this time of writing), I feel like a Warcraft hero again. Only taking the short-term view here.