The Lady of Thorns stands in defiance against the Raven Lord, will you join her?
The current Heroes of the Storm event, Fall of King’s rest, started September 25 and runs until October 15. So there’s still over a week to get your hands-on with haunting new skins for Whitemane, Alexstraza, Maiev and Zarya as well as a questline to unlock bonus in-game loot including a spooky scary tombstone mount.
The narrative of Heroes of the Storm, although strange in a warped kind of parallel universe wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey kind of way, is getting a major look into as well.
Heroes of the Storm Fall of King’s Rest
The comics are now depicting the rise of the Raven Lord and his crusade for power across the Nexus. Did the players ask for this? Not really but are we enjoying it?
Hell yeah, well at least I am anyway.
The comics begin to explain what the Nexus is and why all these Blizzard characters are here. It’s kind of silly fun and not to be taken too seriously but the art and idea behind it are pretty amazing.
The Fall of King’s Crest adds an array of banners, portraits, mounts and skins and more to an already massive catalogue of collectables for players. What’s better is that any of the rewards from previous ‘fall’ events will be available in King’s Crest loot crates.
In addition to the event stuff, this update should see the Brightwing and Kerrigan changes go live as well as an updated Garden of Terrors put back into the map rotation.
Garden of Terrors Revamp
The revamped Garden of Terrors looks to incorporate existing and successful map mechanics from other battlegrounds to freshen up what was considered by some a frustrating map design.
The core concept borrows from Cursed Hollow and Alterac Pass. The previous day and night cycle is gone and now seeds will spawn in one of six locations along with a collection of Shambler Guards.
Before the seed can be collected players will need to kill the guards, which unlocks the seed to be collected by channelling it uninterrupted. Once a team collects three seeds, much like Cursed Hollow, a Terror spawns on the frontline of each lane and pushes until victory or death. Much like Alterac Pass. Are you seeing any particular theme here?
The Terrors use the overgrowth ability that players will recognise from the previous version of Garden of Terrors, as well as a large AoE stomp that most bosses employ.
This overhaul of Garden of Terrors is a welcome one, for many of the same reasons Hanamura was a welcome update. There are a couple of maps that don’t fit the feel and style of Heroes of the Storm in its modern format. Instead of focusing on farming up critters and avoiding the enemy it throws the two teams against each other to duke it out over one objective point.
I think this change is perhaps the biggest one needed if Heroes of the Storm is going to continue to grow as a game and as an esport. The most excitement comes from one team crashing into the other and players frantically using their abilities.
I think the developers at Blizzard realise this and are looking to maximise its impact. I would hazard a guess and say that Dragon Shire and Haunted Mines aren’t far behind for a rework in the developer’s plans either.
All in all, the recent map reworks keep in the theme and pacing of modern Heroes of the Storm and I look forward to more progress to bring this high paced MOBA onto the esports main page. I’m also certain there’s some exciting new stuff coming up at Blizzcon 2018 for Heroes of the Storm as well as the HGC finals.
