This is a post I’ve meant to do since Heroes of the Storm launched back in June, but between how hectic life has been and my surplus of topics to blog on, I just haven’t had the chance.

It is often the case in the gaming community that one only hears about a game when there’s something wrong. And that’s perfectly understandable; it’s just human nature that the contended tend to stay quiet.

But today I’d like to talk about how very happy with the state of this game I am.

Coming into its own:

Now the funny thing is that in the weeks leading up to launch I was actually feeling pretty unhappy with Heroes of the Storm. After a nearly year of alpha and then beta testing, I was feeling pretty burnt out, and some of the game’s flaws had really started to get to me.

By far the biggest of these was the community, which I have complained about before. Even way back in closed alpha, the community was rampantly toxic, and it was only getting worse. Almost every game would devolve into pointless bickering, name-calling, and general ass-hattery. I could only imagine how bad things would get once the doors were opened to the public.

The other major issue was how often the game would match woefully imbalanced teams against each other. If your team has no support and the enemy team has Rehgar and Malfurion… well, you might still win, in the same sense you might win the lottery.

I exaggerate somewhat. I did win more than a few “no support versus supports” games, but the fact remains at that point you were at a major disadvantage, and it was mostly down to hoping the enemy team screws up — it was their game to lose.

And of course the two-issues feed each other. Go up against a much more powerful team, and you know your team is going to get frustrated and start slinging around blame, snark, and insults.

It got to the point where I was thinking I would probably have to give up on the game, as I always do with competitive gaming.

But then a few simple tweaks changed everything.

One was a change to the matchmaking logic. Under most circumstances, teams with no supports will no longer get matched against teams with one or more support character. You still get imbalanced match-ups, but it’s not nearly as common or as stark as it used to be.

The other, far more important change, is the option to disable in-game chat.

This has made such an enormous difference in my enjoyment of the game. It’s taken so much stress away and allowed me to focus on how fun Heroes of the Storm actually is. Nothing’s enjoyable while you’re bombarded by the spittle-flecked ravings of a maladjusted man-child.

I think it’s even making me play better. Just after I disabled in-game chat, I went on a massive win streak, and even now, I still think I’m playing more effectively. I think the lack of extra stress and distractions is helping me focus on the game. Now I’m only fighting the enemy team, not my allies as well.

It is perhaps a bit sad that an ostensibly social game is best enjoyed by shutting off all communication with your fellow players, but such is the state of the gaming community. Since map pings are all you need as far as tactical communication goes, the truth is chat was almost never used for anything but trash talk anyway. Good riddance.

Of course, you can still play with chat turned on if you want.

You know. If you’re a masochist.

It’s amazing how much of a difference these two simple changes made. It totally refreshed my interest in Heroes, and I’m loving the game again.

The Eternal Conflict:

Heroes has certainly not rested on its laurels. Shortly after launch, Blizzard embarked a huge, multi-week event with new maps, new skins, and new heroes (and treasure goblins): the Diablo-themed Eternal Conflict.

The star of this update is the new Eternal Battlegrounds map, which pits the forces of the High Heavens and the Burning Hells against each other.

I’m mostly happy with this map. It’s easily the most visually impressive map to date, and the eye for detail is impressive — even many sound-effects have been replaced with their Diablo equivalent.

It is a very intense map, and I do agree with the consensus that comebacks are very difficult, but overall I think it’s a strong addition. Certainly renews my faith after the blandness that is Tomb of the Spider Queen.

Also, it makes me glad to be a Jaina main. So many team fights in tight spaces, so many enemy teams bombed back to the Stone Age with blizzard…

There will be another Diablo-themed map before the Eternal Conflict event ends, but we don’t know anything about it yet.

As for heroes, Johanna (the Diablo III crusader) and the Butcher have already been released, Leoric the Skeleton King should be coming very soon, and the D3 monk is in production. Blizzard has said they’ll take a break from new Diablo characters after this, which is a bit disappointing because I want to see the wizard.

The Butcher hasn’t come up on the free rotation yet, so I haven’t tried him, but he seems to be in a good place where he’s very powerful, but he does have counters. I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets a small nerf or two at some point, but I don’t think he’s terribly overpowered.

I’ve just started playing Johanna this week. I was curious about her because I love playing a crusader in D3 (much as I love badass ladies in armour, I’m still a little disappointed they chose Johanna instead of the Gideon Emery version), but I didn’t think I’d enjoy her much, because she’s very much the archetypical tank. She’s very slow and clumsy, and her damage is minimal, but she has a lot of crowd control and is possibly the hardest hero in the game to kill.

However, despite my dislike for the standard tank archetype, I find I’m loving playing Johanna. I think it’s just hard to resist a character that almost never dies. So many times over the past week, I’ve found myself in a situation that would be fatal to any other character, but Johanna just walks away unscathed. It makes the game very low stress.

With so little fear of death, you can really get into the thick of things and impose your will on enemies in a way you can’t as any other hero. Johanna might not be able to blow people up like Valla or Zeratul, but she can wear them down through sheer attrition, and nobody contests map objectives better.*

*(Well, except maybe Murky, depending on egg placement and whether or not it’s one of those “Durr, I’m a specialist; I don’t need to leave lane” players.)

The other day, I managed to almost single-handedly prevent an enemy team from capturing a tribute on Cursed Hollow for nearly five minutes, which is an eternity in a game like Heroes of the Storm.

And she does look very cool.

The future looks bright:

I remember the beta for Mists of Pandaria was very discouraging. Huge swathes of player feedback were ignored, and the expansion suffered badly from problems many of us had seen coming months before release.

Playing Heroes of the Storm from alpha to release has been a starkly different experience. Almost every major complaint fans have had has been at least partially addressed, and the game has launched in a very strong state. It’s full of content, it’s easy to learn but still has depth, and it’s just plain fun.

Heroes still has problems, of course. I’m still not fond of having to unlock heroes, there are more than a few imbalanced characters, and I still loathe Dragonshire.

But right the game’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. It’s a fast-paced, exciting game where epic comebacks and stunning reversals are always possible. It has a great sense of humour and a charming attention to detail, and it oozes nostalgia for us Blizzard fans.

As disaffected as I am with the state of World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm proves Blizzard is still capable of greatness, and I have tremendous optimism for the future of this game.

And this is all coming from someone who hates PvP and thinks MOBAs are boring.