Today, we’d like to give you a sneak peek at some of the changes in store for you on patch day. Now, we’ve seen a lot of discussion about ranked within the Heroes community, and we’re working hard to create and release features and changes that you’ve requested as soon as we’re able.
Along with this revamp, we’ll also be implementing what might be the most commonly requested feature in the game’s brief history: Hero Bans. We’re about to give draft lobbies a serious face-lift with our next Heroes of the Storm patch. Its introduction to Heroes of the Storm is outlined in the post below.
Players who enjoy ranked play, though, have long been asking for it - ranked play is still a competitive game mode, and there was no reason why that part of gameplay should be absent. While bans are a constant in tournament play, they’ve never been supported within the game itself. For example, if your team excels at using The Lost Vikings on Garden of Terror to accrue XP in lanes while everyone is busy dealing with gathering seeds, your opposing team might ban out The Lost Vikings on that map to put a stop to that particular scenario. On the flipside, they can also choose to ban a hero, and will use their ban to throw a wrench in your plans, too.Īlternatively, these bans might be used because certain heroes might be perceived as just plain too powerful on a particular map. Your team chooses to ban Tyrande, blocking the opposing team from using that strategy and forcing them into a fallback plan. While each team is choosing their heroes for a match, you might know the opposing team has a powerful strategy involving, for example, Tyrande and Jaina. In tournament play, this is often part of a team’s strategy - tactical choices made before a match even begins. Bans have never been part of the base game in Heroes of the Storm, but have been an integral part of tournament play - not just for Heroes, but for the MOBA genre in general.įor the uninitiated, Hero Bans are precisely how they sound: you (or your team) chooses to ban a hero or heroes in a given match. However, the larger feature included in this draft overhaul is Hero Bans. In some cases, the overhaul comes down to quality-of-life UI changes: clarity in which battleground you’ll be playing, easier methods of finding your favorite heroes, or sorting your hero list in general. In the next Heroes of the Storm patch - likely coming out next week, on March 29 - draft lobbies will be receiving a serious overhaul.