New Battlegrounds - Towers Of Doom & Arena

Hey everyone. As you all know our Heroes of the Storm boost team was at Blizzcon 2015, bringing us hot news from the HotS Battlegrounds panel. We already told you about the 2016 gameplay changes and the next HotS heroes, and today we will talk about the new upcoming maps: Arena and Towers of Doom.

How Battlegrounds are Designed

Blizzard always focuses on creating a satisfying new experience for each map, and every battleground feels different from the others: that’s why we have different placements of heroes in HotS tier list for every map. However there is a common pattern: you get a reward for completing a task, eg. you get to use cannonballs for collecting a certain amount of coins.

Objectives, lanes and aesthetic elements change, so the game feels always fresh: even map with similar layout like Sky Temple and Tomb of the Spider Queen are really different to play!

Towers of Doom

Designing this new map, the Blizzard devs tried to make a map without a nexus, revolving around capturing towns to accumulate points. The first team that gets a certain amount of points wins. Despite their best efforts, their original project failed for two reasons. First of all, mercenaries have nowhere to go, and they just wander around being almost useless; second, there are a lot of fights and action early on, but as the game progresses it feels monotonous as there are no changes in the game pattern.

In the final version, there is still a core, but the playstyle is totally different! Let’s start the overview analyzing the changes. Blizzard added a new boss that damages the enemy’s core when killed; there are also special mercs. According to our Heroes of the Storm Boost team, here team comps that can secure the boss easily will have a great advantage, and we can’t wait to see how this reflects on the Heroes of the Storm tier list.

For the aesthetic, the Towers of Doom is built around the “dark, gothic town” theme, with dark colors, peculiar architecture and a general sense of decadence. We saw the preview and oh boy, it really looks immersive! Blizzard designers really stepped up their game with this new map, addressing problems before the release: since the original version was almost too immersive and depressive, they modified some elements to make it more enjoyable. Different colors, more buildings and this cool Jack-o’-lantern tree lighten the mood while maintaining the map’s identity.

Arena

Arena feels like a totally new game mode! It is designed to host fast, quick Best of Three matches between two teams that play random heroes. There is a single objective and usually matches are pretty short, so we will see early game heroes dominate the HotS tier list in this map.

During the champion selection, players choose one out of three heroes, so the choice isn’t totally random. Every pool is composed of heroes of the same role (assassins/tanks/supports/specialists), and to keep the game balanced both teams will have the same team composition, for example two assassins and one tank. This map will have a totally new meta and we can expect to see crazy games, especially during the rare 10x hero mode!

If you are lucky enough to get the chance, you may see ten Kael’thas placing Living Bomb all around the map. The fun is guaranteed: Blizzard removed from this selection low damage heroes (mainly warriors) in line with the philosophy of this game mode, that should feature quick, short and high action matches. Playing as 5 Johanna versus 5 Johanna isn’t really exciting, am I right?

There is constant action during the whole game: heroes start at lv10 without talents, only with one heroic. You just pick your hero, your heroic and try to kill as much stuff as possible: the absence of talents really changes the HotS tier list for this game mode, that emphasizes on fast thinking and constant fights. Remember to play with a friend to increase the fun thanks to the HotS Duo Queue feature.

As we already said, the matches are played in a Best of Three Format, and for every match the map changes slightly: we already see a day mode, a night mode and an “underground garden”: we can’t wait to see the final version of the Arena.



These were all the news from the underground panel: be sure to check our site for more content from the Blizzcon, including the preview of the next HotS heroes announced at Blizzcon, and more guides from our HotS Boost team and our exclusive Heroes of the Storm tier lists.