by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Blizzard had another Live Q&A on Twitch today with Matt Cooper (Game Designer), Kent-Erik Hagman (Game Designer), Nicholas Slough (Lead User Interface Artist), and of course Kevin Johnson (Senior Manager, Community Development) as host. They went over a lot of new features that will be in the next patch or up coming patches. I will bullet point what they went over right here for you.

New Hero Murky: He has a lot of annoying abilities that even in death he can win games. He can be built to help with team fights or to backdoor bases while the enemy team is distracted. His first Ultimate is March of the Murlocs which is an area damage spell that will slow down enemies and be great for clearing waves, his other is Octo Grab which will be great for Crowd Controlling a single Hero which gets a really awesome talent where you will beat on them with a shark.

Talent overhaul for certain Heroes: They have statistics on which talents are not being used, which ones are being most picked in losing games and etc. At least half the current Hero roster will be getting a rework in talents they can choose from including Muradin, Stitches (double hook) and Siege Tank.

Full UI redesign: Every part of the UI is getting reworked including how you pick talents with a big menu to see what exactly you are getting and a quick menu for when you know what you want. The mini map is getting a huge change, and Rings that sit under your Hero so it is easier to see where you are in a fight. I am sure there is a lot more we haven’t seen yet.

Hero complete redesigns: A few Heroes are getting a really special treatment as they didn’t fit the vision of who the Hero is. Illidan, Arthas and Tyrael are among the few who are getting completely revamped.

Map redesigns: Haunted Mines upper level is getting reworked, Cursed Hollow they feel is too snowbally so they are looking to add ways to make the games on these much more smooth.

Personal Achievements: They want to show you your own personal achievements done in game including solo kills and kill streaks.

New systems: They are planning on adding a personal killstreak meter and a bounty system, so if you are doing really really well then the enemy team can get a bonus if they kill you.

Social Systems: They will be adding Clans and new systems that make it easy for you to play with people you want to play with again.

Themed maps from other IPs: They are definitely going to be bringing well known places from all the IPs and are currently working on them.

When?!: Kevin assured us that this patch will be coming really soon.

Murky summoning murlocs with a face of a warrior

Just Murky Things

The Overall UI is completely fresh, lot more screen space.

It should be more clear what is happening with the new mini map and you will be able to see when a gank is coming from the bottom right

Starting out you can see what exactly you are picking in terms of talents

But you can also have the ability to quickly pick the ones you want without all the fuss

You can view the official VOD here