Jason Love

Perhaps the biggest change to the game is the revamped character/player progression system. All level caps have been removed and each time you level a hero, now, you also gain a player level. Each time you gain a player level, you get a loot chest (sound familiar?) Those chests can contain a variety of cosmetic items, such as hero skins, emotes, sprays, and announcer packs, and you can use the in-game currency earned by playing (gold) to re-roll the contents if you didn't get that sweet Kerrigan skin you wanted. If you do get a duplicate item, it will automatically be converted into the new currency type, Shards. Shards are used exclusively for buying cosmetic items.

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]]> https://www.co-optimus.com/article/14963/heroes-of-the-storm-relaunches-under-2-0-get-free-heroes.html https://www.co-optimus.com/article/14963/heroes-of-the-storm-relaunches-under-2-0-get-free-heroes.html

Jason Love

These may not be the last characters from the Diablo universe we'll see either. The Heroes of the Storm MetaBomb site recently spoke with Game Director Dustin Browder about these additions and a few of the game's mechanics, though the latter is more of a focus for competitive play than the games against enemy A.I. bots. One other piece of interest from that interview, however, is when Dustin discusses the idea of adding more/new social features to the game, like clans/guild.

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]]> https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13851/diablo-s-wizard-and-necromancer-join-heroes-of-the-storm.html https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13851/diablo-s-wizard-and-necromancer-join-heroes-of-the-storm.html Jason Love

Fans of the original RTS Warcraft games on the PC may recall that the two-headed ogres on the Horde side could be upgraded to ogre magi that utilized battle magic to buff allies or create traps for foes. Among these units, Cho'Gall was debuted as a sort of hero unit that has gone on to be featured in the World of Warcraft universe. He now makes his way to Heroes of the Storm and brings with him a new way for controlling heroes. One player will control the "Cho" head, which is largely melee focused and actually moves the ogre around the map, while another player controls the "Gall" head, which utilizes magic.

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]]> https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13740/new-heroes-of-the-storm-character-is-designed-around-co-op-play.html https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13740/new-heroes-of-the-storm-character-is-designed-around-co-op-play.html Enoch Starnes

In their upcoming patch, Blizzard announced that they'll be reworking both how reporting works, and what it affects.  Of the six new categories, two (Abusive Chat and Spam) will result in a "Silence Penalty", which initially doles out a 24 hour ban from a large portion of the chat features.  Blizzard was quick to point out, though, that each subsequent infringement increases the length of the ban in 24-hour increments, of which there is no cap.  

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]]> https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13507/heroes-of-the-storm-is-getting-some-new-reporting-tools.html https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13507/heroes-of-the-storm-is-getting-some-new-reporting-tools.html Jason Love

The new map is called Infernal Shrines and appears to be taking its visual cues from Diablo, with many of the same aesthetics that marked the hellish portions of the game and a suitably demonic summoned character called "The Punisher." In order to get this hellion on your side, your team will need to be the first to defeat 30 of the skeletons that get summoned around the map. Once you've sated his appetite for calcium, he'll gladly go about stomping enemy heroes and towers.

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]]> https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13442/new-map-and-characters-coming-to-heroes-of-the-storm.html https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13442/new-map-and-characters-coming-to-heroes-of-the-storm.html Christopher Metz

What was once Closed Beta has now changed to Open Beta, allowing anyone to go and play Heroes of the Storm right now over on Battle.net. Though the game is slated for an official release this coming June 2nd, why wait that long when you could be playing it now! All that is needed is for you to set up a Battle.net account (or by simply logging into an existing account), download the Open Beta version, and begin testing!

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]]> https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13172/heroes-of-the-storm-open-beta-now-live.html https://www.co-optimus.com/article/13172/heroes-of-the-storm-open-beta-now-live.html Taylor Killian

Blizzard even put out a fancy new trailer in celebration of their release/open beta/event which demands a trailer, so go ahead and feast your eyes.

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