Currently in PTR
Heroes of the Stormis continuing its “Nexus Anomaly” concept, which drastically alters various bits of the game as a form of experimentation to keep the game fresh. If the community takes a liking to a particular feature, it could stick around.
This anomaly is quite drastic, as it completely alters how cannon towers, forts, keeps and cores work. It’s now more in line with a few other MOBAs, with defense-lowering beams decreasing armor of targeted heroes, with a more concise visual representation of which hero is being targeted. To boot, cores now all have unique abilities to further thwart a winning team, like cannonballs on the Blackheart’s Bay map or missiles in the StarCraft-themed Braxis Holdout. AI has also been shored up so it’s a little smarter, and you can create “favorite talent builds.” It’s a lot to process.
Here’s the other big change: Tassadar is now a ranged assassin. He is no longer a support and is now closer to his StarCraftnamesake, with a force wall as a default E ability (replacing his former E escape), along with a line skillshot shock ray, which replaces his support shield. The only piece of his standard kit that remains is psionic storm: even oracle (a vision ability) is gone by default, requiring a 13 talent choice with a new spin (it reveals anywhere on the map for four seconds). He retains his Archon ultimate, now joined by a black hole line skillshot heroic.
While the jury is still out on the Tassadar rework, at first glance, he seems way more focused in terms of playstyle. I love that he has more offensive abilities at his disposal, and that the really annoying dimensional shift escape is completely excised from his base kit. Using his standard force wall to secure kills or lock enemy heroes out of camp captures is also chock-full of full good moments.
Oh, and a new event is on the way that brings back the Dark Nexus theme, including cool new Deathwing, Tassadar and Fenix skins (along with the existing Gul’dan and Alarak ones), as well as a Dark Nexus beast mount. All of this is currently live in the PTR.
The future is actually looking pretty bright for Heroes of the Stormplayers. This event is kicking off some very big gameplay changes that should shakeup matches, and the Greek Gods event is arriving at some point this year.
Heroes of the Storm PTR [Battle.net]