by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

If you had questions about the talent system for Heroes of the Storm, this was definitely the Q&A to attend. Senior Community Manager Kevin Johnson was joined by Senior Game Designer Richard Khoo, Game Designer Matt Cooper and Game Director Dustin Browder, and the group dropped a lot of knowledge on the theories behind the current systems in place.

The Q&A began with a discussion on the tech alpha so far, with the guys expressing their excitement. Browder admitted that watching high tier players has made plain that some heroes need some fine tuning, Uther being the specific hero mentioned. This is not terribly surprising given community reaction to the fabled Paladin and his annoying ability to interrupt objective captures for quite a while after dying.

An earlier, more simplistic talent setup for Muradin.

From there the team went on to discuss an earlier talent system, explaining that it didn’t work out because each hero has specific needs. The primary example given was Abathur, who obviously does not profit from bonus health or attack damage. The team wanted to create an intuitive system that wasn’t just based around stat increases. They want heroes to have flexible builds based on any given situation. Tanks will always be a bit tankier, and Assassins will always do more damage. The current talent setup simply gives heroes options as far as what other tools they’d like at their disposal, from increased area on spells to damage reductions and a lot in between.

Cooper spent a fair bit of time breaking down the Dwarven legend Muradin, explaining just how diverse and refined his tool kit is. Having played at least 30 games on the character and considering him my ‘main’, I totally agree. While there is one build I favor, I often deviate based on specific situations. That is definitely the mark of a complete character.

The UI was brought up and Browder explained that there is a lot of work being done, and that what players and viewers are seeing now is nowhere near the final product. Browder provided some pictures of what’s being worked on at the moment, again stressing that what we’re seeing is far from final.

The future of Heroes of the Storm’s in-game UI? Only time will!

The actual Q&A portion of the stream came next, and the team tackled a number of questions from the community. One that drew a large amount of response from the group was how they dealt with the idea of Heroes of the Storm being too simplistic. Browder explained that the team looked to Hearthstone, another game which removed traditional genre conventions in favor of easier entry. Initially, Browder was skeptical, but after playing it at length he came to understand the success of that particular model. The team strives for depth and will fight tooth and nail to get that depth, but they want Heroes of the Storm to be accessible to anyone.

Another question dealt with build flexibility. While hero classes are designed to give players guidance on what their role in the match is, the team believes the current talent system allows for sensible flexibility. Uther can be a more support oriented holy warrior or opt to do a ton of retribution damage, which makes sense given his character background. The team’s primary aim is for the flexibility to make sense within the scope of the hero. It really wouldn’t make much sense for Diablo to be dropping heals as opposed to giant fire lasers.

Social systems were briefly discussed in response to a question and Browder admitted that it’s very much an area the team has yet to address. They definitely understand the importance of it however, given the team oriented nature of the game.

If you had to miss the Q&A and want the chance to watch it firsthand, the video should be up soon and we’ll be sure to update this article with the link.