Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Announced at BlizzCon 2010, it was released on June 2, 2015 for the OS X and Windows.The game features various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch universes.

Players form into five-player teams and fight against another team in 5-versus-5 matches, with an average game duration of roughly 20 minutes. The first team to destroy opponents' main structure, known as the "King's Core", wins the match. Each themed battleground has a different metagame and secondary objectives to secure, whose completion gives your team massive advantages, typically through pushing power. Every player controls a single character, known as a "hero", with a set of distinctive abilities and differing styles of play. Heroes become more powerful over the course of a match by collecting experience points and unlocking "talents" that offer new abilities or augment existing ones, contributing to the team's overall strategy.

Heroes of the Storm is inspired by Defense of the Ancients, a community-created mod based on Warcraft III, another video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The game is free-to-play and is supported by microtransactions which can be used to purchase heroes, visual alterations for the heroes in the game, mounts, and other cosmetic elements.Blizzard used to call the game as a "hero brawler", but later started using the more common term for the genre — "multiplayer online battle arena" (MOBA).

As of July 2022, Blizzard had stopped all major development of the game and entered it into maintenance mode.

Gameplay

Heroes of the Storm revolves around online 5-versus-5 matches, operated through online gaming service Battle.net, with an average game duration of roughly 20 minutes.In every match, players work together as a team to achieve the ultimate victory condition of destroying the opposing team's main structure, the "Core", before enemy team does the same. To reach the Core, at least one line of defensive structures, known as "forts" and "keeps", needs to be destroyed. Players can use the assistance of mercenary camps, battleground bosses, and a small group of computer-controlled units, called "minions", to assault the enemy more efficiently. Minions periodically spawn throughout the game in groups, marching along the lanes toward the enemy base. There are currently 15 battlegrounds available to play, each of which has different metagame and secondary objectives to secure.Completing these secondary objectives can give your team massive advantages, typically through pushing power.

In all game modes, each player controls one of the 90 playable characters (as of November 2020),called "heroes", with each having a unique design, strengths, and weaknesses. Heroes are divided into six separate roles: tank, bruiser, ranged assassin, melee assassin, healer, and support.Initially, no heroes are permanently available for use; however, players may choose from a list of heroes that are free to use from a weekly rotation. By using the in-game currency, called "Gold", or through microtransactions, they can gain permanent access to a hero.

Each individual hero comes with a set of distinctive abilities. Ability kit is generally composed of three basic abilities usable right from level 1, a passive or active trait, and a powerful "heroic ability". Upon reaching level 10, players can choose between two "heroics"which often have a devastating effect and a long cooldown. Heroics are usually the strongest tools in an arsenal that define a hero's strengths and playstyle. A hero can only gain one type of heroic per match. If a hero runs out of health points and dies, they are removed from active play until a respawn timer counts down to zero, after which they subsequently respawn at the rear of their team's base, known as the "Hall of Storms". Furthermore, the Hall of Storms allows heroes to quickly restore their health and mana over time as long as they are within the Hall. The Hall also offers protection from enemy damage and effects, and enemy players are repelled outward a slight distance in a sudden fashion upon entering an opposing team's Hall.

Experience points, which players can gain by gathering experience globes from fallen minions, are shared across the entire team. This is uncommon for the MOBA genre, in which most games employ a system of separate, per-player experience and leveling. In addition, certain enemy structures, such as towers, forts and keeps, will provide experience to the team who destroys them, as well as captured mercenary camps. When a team during the course of the match reaches a certain experience point threshold, every hero on that team levels up, acquiring slightly amplified powers, up to a maximum level of 30. Every few levels, players may select a "talent" which offers a new ability or augments an existing one. Two significant power spikes are at level 10 and level 20, where heroes gain access to some of the most powerful talents in the game, referred to as "heroic" and "storm talents", respectively. This leveling system emphasizes the importance of teamwork and planning since a player's action can affect the whole team.

In addition to the talent system, each player is able to use a "Hearthstone", an ability that allows heroes to teleport back to their base from anywhere on the battleground after a few seconds of channeling without receiving damage, using abilities, or attacking. Players can also utilize various mounts, such as animals, bikes, and clouds, to increase their movement speed, automatically dismounting when attacking, receiving damage or using most abilities.

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