Esports
Blizzard's MOBA is approaching 80 characters so it makes sense that some have lost their shine over time. These are the heroes and villains we want to see given an overhaul soon.
It's been made clear over the last few months that Blizzard have plans to make hero reworks a bigger part of their future Heroes of the Storm updates. Even recently, significant changes to both Diablo and Lunara were the centrepiece of the wrestling-themed Nexomania patch, where usually you'd expect to see a new character launched.
The Blizzard MOBA turns three this year, which means there's been a lot of time for old heroes to be pushed out of the meta, as new champions creep into their favoured spots. Some are in dire need of some revitalising so if the development team are looking for some ideas of who to look at next, we've named a few for their consideration below.
Raynor
Oh, poor Jimmy. Look how far you've fallen since the early days of HOTS. Raynor is your run-of-the-mill auto-attack hero, the one newcomers are pointed to so they can get a basic understanding of the game with a few safety nets. You've got his increased vision and attack range trait to teach positioning and awareness, his Adrenaline Rush offers a quick heal should you get caught out and the rest of his kit is rounded out with some straightforward abilities.
The problem is, in the era of high mobility heroes, such as Genji and Tracer or Chromie and Hanzo, who can easily out-poke him, Raynor is hopeless – a lumbering, plodding, glorified lane minion who feels completely inconsequential amidst the current hero pool. A drastic overhaul of his kit is needed to boost the veteran marine's survivability so that he can stand up to new heroes while still keeping simplicity at his core.
Chen
The ancient brew guzzling Pandaren is another classic hero that's needed a refresh for a while now. He can offer a different approach to the unique craft of the tank role, but his kit now looks stale and flavourless, a simple mashing of the same dry combo. Where Chen also struggles now is with his Fortifying Brew trait. Building that shield is vital for his survival, yet there are just so many ways to interrupt his chugging that he's left defenseless.
Greater than any of his potential playstyle problems, though, is just the complete death of Chen in terms of popularity. Quite simply, no one is interested in drafting him and he's dropped to one of the least played heroes in the game. If you're afraid of facing him, you may want to raise a glass in celebration of that fact, but some diversity in the tank meta would be fun. Chen's brand of being a playful and irritating dive tank could see a resurgence if his formula was spiced up a little.
The Lost Vikings
One of the strengths of Heroes of the Storm is how the development team experiments with wild and unique hero ideas. We've seen Abathur and the symbiotic bonds he can have with allies or the two-headed Cho'Gall, who asks a pair of players to work together in total unity. The Lost Vikings is another interesting change from the norm: a hero split into three individual characters that have their own strengths, weaknesses and abilities.
For a time, your best strategy when playing the Vikings was to split them across multiple lanes, in order to soak three times as much experience, and requiring your opponents to try and keep each one under control lest they give your team an early level lead that could be put to your advantage in fights.
Now, however, as the game has moved more towards teamfighting, and more heroes can easily catch out the trio of pirate heroes, their experience-soaking effectiveness has dwindled. Perhaps what's needed is a re-evaluation of their kit, especially after this year's significant laning changes and their need to be impactful in teamfights.
Ragnaros
The Firelord is a significant threat in Heroes of the Storm, even if he's been underplayed a little lately. He's a very effective solo laner, able to easily clear minion waves while winning trades with opponents thanks to the healing from Empower Sulfuras. When a big siege is heading towards a keep or fort, he stands strong too, using Molten Core to take it over and fulfill his role of raid boss.
Yet, while he's mechanically a well-designed hero, there's currently a serious lack of variety in his build options. Essentially, all the talent picks you'll want to make improve his Empower Sulfuras ability, leaving his other two skills as ones you use simply because they exist.
Living Meteor is a fine ability for finishing off fleeing opponents, but building into it is a waste of time, and if they don't subscribe to the Prometheus technique of running away, then it's easily avoided. Meanwhile, Blast Wave has a couple of useful talent options, but the investments in it don't feel massively impactful. Mixing around some of these could promote some fun new builds for the Firelord.
D.Va
Although D.Va is one of the more recent additions to Heroes of the Storm, there's already a sense that she and her killer mech suit could do with going back to the shop for an upgrade. Right now, she feels little more than an irritant for her opponents. In mech mode she can dash into to disrupt positions, throw down a Defense Matrix to reduce damage, and stand there peppering enemies with her piddly blasters. And that's about it. It's not that it's bad, it just feels a bit underwhelming when you're behind the controls of a giant death robot.
Outside of her MEKA mech, D.Va can offer some decent damage, though the main goal is to build up to another suit and become a massive pink annoyance again. What we'd like to see is her Rocket Barrage brought over from Overwatch to give her a more active role while in mech mode. It would at least encourage breaking the cycle of dashing, shooting and exploding.
Also, there could be some welcome tweaks to her heroic abilities. While it makes sense that Self-Destruct has been moved to a basic ability for HOTS, to give it a more prominent position, the replacement ultimates are dull in comparison. A weird Bunny Hop? A slightly more powerful Big Shot? Surely the esports champ deserves something more befitting.
Now the hero releases have started to slow down and big game updates are focused around hero reworks, we could see some of these very soon. Blizzard may be keen to keep things stable for now, but once this month's Mid-Season Brawl is done and dusted, a few shake ups might be making their way to the Nexus. Watch this space.
