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!"

- Mod summary

Blizzard All-Stars (formerly titled Blizzard DotA) is a StarCraft II multiplayer map. It is an -type map, which includes the Defense of the Ancients maps from WarCraft III. It is expected to launch concurrently with Heart of the Swarm.

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).

Each player is assigned a hero. During the match, waves of computer-controlled minions for each side, produced by towers, advance along different lanes. Heroes fight alongside minions of their side to destroy enemy towers and eventually reach the enemy base while protecting their own. During their battles, the heroes gain experience and gold, which enables them to become stronger.

In addition to lane fighting, heroes can move into the jungle and move to interesting objectives such as power nodes guarded by mercenary camps for different kinds of bonuses.

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

Blizzard intends that All-Stars will have multiple maps.

When heroes cooperate to kill an opponent, all of them get a "takedown" and share in the gold. The game no longer punishes unselfish play.

The game will feature an automated matchmaker, based on player skill.

A beta test will be carried out before release.

Towers
Mana 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 take them down if their heroes do not defend them, promoting a more aggressive hero vs hero style rather than a more passive hero vs tower style.

The Jungle
There will be merc 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.

Jungle groups have difficulty tags and recommended number of players above them; Level 8 Solo vs Level 12 Group. Killing jungle units drop soul tokens that can be used to summon yeti minions at allied towers.

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.

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.

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.

DPS

 * Kerrigan
 * Nova Terra
 * Zeratul

Siege

 * Horace Warfield (in a siege tank)
 * Witch Doctor
 * Za'gara

Support

 * Tassadar
 * Thrall
 * Uther

Tank

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

Other/Unknown

 * Goblin Tinker (goblin)
 * Grunty (murloc)
 * Illidan (demon hunter)
 * L80ETC (tauren marine)
 * Leon (ghost)
 * Raynor (marine)
 * Sylvanas (living and undead version)
 * Ultimaton (ultralisk)
 * Vaevictis (Hunter Killer)
 * 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

Creeps
Creeps 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.

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.

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 tradmarking 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."

Development Videos
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