News
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News
Khaldor on META Madness: "The draft alone should be great to watch from a players perspective."
Beginning this weekend, the META Madness tournament hosted by long-time Heroes of the Storm caster Thomas “Khaldor” Kilian will kick off with six teams fighting it out for a €1,000 prize pool. The event is being sponsored by RUNTIME, a nutrition company based out of Europe. Taking place over a two-day span, the bracket-style tournament will feature best-of-five matches until a winner is crowned. What separates this event from the other Heroes’ tournaments that have popped up since Blizzard stated they would no longer support the competitive Heroes of the Storm scene is the “Madness” aspect. According to the rules, heroes that are banned during the Draft phase are not eligible to be selected for the entire tournament. With numerous top-tier threats off the board, players will need to adapt over time and test their abilities to perform with unique and off-meta heroes.
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18 months, 3 reworks, 1 Chromie: a patch notes story
Ever since Chrome, the Keeper of Time, went live in Heroes of the Storm back in May of 2016 the development team has had their hands full finding out what they want to do with her. A Ranged Assassin who can one-shot an enemy with a couple of well-timed abilities is a delicate balancing act. In theory, if a hero relies on landing long-range skill shots for the majority of their effectiveness in battle the balance team needs to consider a few design aspects: It’s important to make the damage output impactful enough to make up for that character’s low health pool while rewarding a good player who is able to land difficult skill shots. If the range on those abilities is too long and the damage is too high, they will be able to poke away at the opposition while remaining at a safe enough distance, providing very little counter-play and a frustrating experience for the opponent. If the opposite is true then players will not feel rewarded for playing that hero if they can be engaged upon very easily, blown up and lack the necessary tools to keep themselves safe while not putting out enough damage to make the risk worth the reward. In the past 18 months, Chromie has experienced three reworks to her kit, including two in the past seven. By following the clues left in the patch notes since her inception and developer comments left by the balance team, a tale can be told about what they may have intended her to be and what they learned along the way.
