Heroes of the Storm

"In a tiny, trans-dimensional pocket universe sit two dark and terrible gods. One red. One blue. To amuse themselves, they kidnap great heroes from across time and space! And those heroes come from one company: BLIZZARD! These heroes are forced to fight to the death in an endless battle with no purpose... other than ladder points. This is Blizzard DOTA! Coming soon(ish)™. Seriously!"

- Original mod summary

Blizzard All-Stars (formerly titled Blizzard DotA) is an upcoming free to play Action-RTS (or "MOBA") game. It will be free-to-play and is expected that the game will be released digitally. Formerly a mod for StarCraft II, it has since become an independent product. Blizzard is apparently intent on pushing the game as an e-sport.

Overview
All-Stars takes place on a cyber gaming planet, with heroes plucked from across time and space to provide entertainment. Other settings from Blizzard universes may be depicted in later builds, such as Sanctuary. Various races from Blizzard universes have been thrown into it, and taken to future technology (e.g. cyborg ogres).

Blizzard intends that All-Stars will have multiple maps.

The game will feature an automated matchmaker, based on player skill. It will have its own ladder.

A beta test will be carried out before release.

Gameplay
The average All-Stars game is designed to last approximately 20 minutes. The layout of the game encourages early team-based aggression. If all five members of a team go for the neutral boss early enough, or capture their jungle camps, there is no way that the enemy will be able to counter-push their lanes. Each player is assigned a hero. During the match, waves of computer-controlled minions spawn from towers and advance along each lane. Heroes fight alongside their minions to destroy enemy towers and advance toward the enemy base while protecting their own. During their battles, the heroes gain experience and gold, enabling them to become stronger.

In addition to lane fighting, heroes can traverse the jungle and take advantageous objectives such as power nodes for different kinds of bonuses. These bonuses are guarded by mercenary camps.

The gameplay will provoke aggression more than in DotA, where camping by a tower and last hitting the creeps was the best, but not intuitive or heroic-feeling strategy.

When heroes cooperate to kill an opponent, all of them get a "takedown" and share the gold. The game no longer punishes unselfish play. In accordance with this approach, instead of showing each team’s kills on the scoreboard, it will show everyone in game how much gold each team has. This is intended to re-enforce the team-oriented feel of the game.

Towers
Towers regenerate ammo, but not as quickly as they consume it by attacking, so they cannot be used as a "defense crutch". Enemy players can easily destroy towers unsupported by heroes, promoting a more aggressive hero vs hero style rather than a more passive hero vs tower style. The towers have fewer hit points than in previous MOBA games. Once a tower is destroyed, it will not return.

The Jungle
There will be mercenary camps in the jungle that, when defeated, will provide mercs rather than lane minions to the winning player's side. The mercs will be more powerful.

One example are ogres. Defeating them around their merc camp replaces a minion on the capturer's side with an ogre melee unit and another with an ogre ranged unit. The camps can be "stolen" by another player, however.

Defeating a yeti camp rewards a hero with runestones, which can be used to summon yetis when needed.

Jungle groups have difficulty tags and recommended number of players above them; examples might include Level 8 Solo vs Level 12 Group.

Bosses
The stone zealot is a powerful boss monster. It takes three heroes time to defeat it, and they must spend time away from the lanes to do so. A global announcement lets the other players know it has been defeated.

The stone zealot will fight on the player's side and pushes a lane after it has been defeated. It outranges towers, forcing the other side to fight them.

The Goblin Store
When a hero dies, they revive at a goblin store. Here they can buy items such as healing potions and other consumables, stat bonuses, and artifacts.

Heroes
Each hero will have three stats - Damage, Health, and Mastery - and fit one of four roles:


 * Tanks: Heavily armored, designed to soak up damage as they initiate battle and try to control fights


 * DPS: Damage-dealers, and the hardest-hitting heroes, but tend to be more fragile. Teams will need to keep them protected.
 * Support: Support heroes have abilities that can do a wide range of different functions in team fights such as healing, stuns, and other methods of crowd control.


 * Siege: Siege heroes can attack from long range, making them ideal for destroying enemy towers. They also tend to have abilities that affect a wide area, making them useful for controlling space in team fights.

Heroes will be able to use a simple array of items - Stat Boosts, Consumables, Items, and Artifacts. The heroes will engage in context-sensitive banter.

Heroes will be able to ride into battle on a mount, allowing quick returns to a fight and great mobility from one lane to another. Mounts replace boots. They have a two second channel time and allows heroes to move around faster on their respective summoned mounts. Each hero has their own mount. For instance, Kerrigan has a zergling.

When a player first plays the mod, they will only have a few heroes available to them at first. As one plays matches, more heroes will unlock. When an individual has earned all of the heroes, they can begin unlocking cosmetic “prestige” items by winning games with specific heroes. Prestige items can include alternate weapons, crowns, and other accessories. Customizable skins can be unlocked for heroes over time.

DPS

 * Kerrigan
 * Nova Terra
 * Zeratul

Siege

 * Horace Warfield (in a siege tank)
 * Vaevictis (Hunter Killer)
 * Witch Doctor
 * Zagara

Support

 * Tassadar
 * Thrall
 * Uther

Tank

 * Arthas
 * Muradin (dwarf marauder)
 * Stitches (undead abomination)

Other/Unknown

 * Goblin Tinker (goblin)
 * Grunty (murloc)
 * Illidan (demon hunter)
 * Kyle Blackthorne
 * L80ETC (tauren marine)
 * Leon (ghost)
 * Raynor (marine)
 * Sylvanas (living and undead version)
 * Ultimaton (ultralisk)
 * Za'Muro (fel orc blademaster)

Proposed Heroes
The following heroes are under consideration by Blizzard, but have not been confirmed as of yet:


 * Artanis
 * Azmodan
 * Barbarian
 * The Butcher
 * Chen Stormstout
 * Deathwing
 * Diablo
 * Fenix
 * Gabriel Tosh
 * Gallywix
 * Garrosh Hellscream
 * Gelbin Mekkatorque
 * Genn Greymane
 * Kael'thas
 * Kel'Thuzad
 * King Varian
 * Lady Vashj
 * Maiev Shadowsong
 * Mistress of Pain
 * "Ogre Ninja"
 * Sarah Kerrigan (as a ghost)
 * Selendis
 * Skeleton King
 * Thrall (shaman version)
 * Tyrael
 * Tyrande Whisperwind
 * Velen
 * Vol'jin

Minions
Minions are the cannon fodder of both sides that fight alongside heroes. They're mass produced and "pieces of junk." Artistically, they have simple designs. "Mega-minions" will also exist, but are still mass produced.

In every minion wave there will be a ranged creep carrying a banner. When that minion is killed, it will drop a sort of regeneration globe that restores health and mana. The globes effectively keep the usual zoning and denying techniques while sticking with the game’s fast-paced early aggression goals. The players will effectively be able to zone their opponents from their globe while also taking control of their own, giving the players much more lane sustain and lane pressure.

Structures

 * Mana tower
 * Pawn tower
 * Knight tower
 * Rook tower
 * Healing pad

Items

 * Auto-turret
 * Tome of damage
 * Cloak of Flames: this item cannot be upgraded. It deals damage based on the maximum health of the hero carrying it.

Development
As of BlizzCon 2010, heroes could use currency earned in battle to purchase upgrades in shops. They then fought alongside allied creeps for maximum efficiency and crush enemy towers and their bases. Two factions existed in the game&mdash;the Guardium and the Scourge. Each hero had a "good" (Guardium) and "evil" (Scourge) version. The evil incarnation usually wears some zerg armor. The aesthetics of the map were based on chess and tabletop roleplaying games.

As of July, 2011, the map had entered playtesting. By August of the same year, the game has undergone a complete reboot, the original version "flattened." According to Frank Pearce, the original version bore too much resemblance to its Warcraft III counterpart, where novice players were at a disadvantage. Blizzard seeks to redesign the game to make it "easy to learn, difficult to master. The game was originally expected to launch concurrently with Heart of the Swarm but has since been delayed, and will be released seperately.

During development, a number of employees who had worked on Blizzard's Project Titan were shifted to work on All-Stars. As of August 2013, the game's development has reached "a significant internal milestone," and has entered wider internal playtesting. Blizzard will have more information on the game later in the year.

Blizzard DotA (as it was originally called) was the subject of some controversy, in light of Valve's Dota 2. Blizzard has taken steps to prevent any trademarking of "DotA" or any other acronymn of "Defense of the Ancients," maintaining that it should remain with the Warcraft modding community, from which the concept sprung. In May of 2012, both Valve and Blizzard reached an agreement&mdash;Valve would be able to use the term "DotA" commercially while Blizzard could use it in a non-commercial sense. The name of the Blizzard version was changed to "Blizzard All-Stars," which Rob Pardo stated "ultimately better reflects the design of our game."