Heroes of the Storm

By +Mirumir
in PC Gaming

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 4 months later...
  • 3 months later...
Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

So anyone else in the Heroes of the Storm Tech alpha ? Not sure why I got an invite but I did.

 

I don't play a lot(any) MOBA's but have been given it a try and I guess it's fun enough, and I can pretend to be a proper(Warhammer) Space Marine ;)

 

hit level 5, got some gold and was told to check out the store, even though there's nothing to buy with 2000 gold. and damn, when I saw some cool skins costing 6.5? I was pretty disgusted with the pricing, then I saw one for 8.99? and thought, that's just stupidly ridiculous... then I saw the one for 12,99? ...

 

Seriously... people are buying skins that cost as much as what we would pay for these multiplayer shareware games in the past... granted they're just skins and you don't need them, but...

Grand Master

Stokkolm

Posted
Posted

I've applied for the beta but yet to get in.

 

I've watched some games on Twitch though and it looks kinda fun. Doesn't have a chance in hell at dethroning something like LoL or Dota 2, but I'm sure they already know that.

How do you figure? They're doing some things with HotS that address the issues people have with those other games. As an example in Dota 2 or LoL if one team gains a level advantage there is absolutely no way for the other team to come back, none, never, not gonna happen. In HotS one team can only ever be 2 levels ahead (I believe), so it is always possible for the other team to come back if they just made a stupid mistake in the beginning of the game and they have the skill to do it. This will not only allow for more exciting matches, but it will be more fun for normal people actually playing because they won't want to rage quit as much when some stupid LFG player tries to take on a whole team by himself over and over. That just one example of course, they are doing even more.

 

The other thing is this is a Blizzard game and it's based off of StarCraft II, it's going to be wildly popular because of that alone. I think it most definitely has a chance to dethrone the other two heavyweights, at the very least it will be as popular. Especially once they put in all the maps and characters, it's pretty limited right now in those areas.

  • shastasheen
  • Like 1
Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

How do you figure? They're doing some things with HotS that address the issues people have with those other games. As an example in Dota 2 or LoL if one team gains a level advantage there is absolutely no way for the other team to come back, none, never, not gonna happen. In HotS one team can only ever be 2 levels ahead (I believe), so it is always possible for the other team to come back if they just made a stupid mistake in the beginning of the game and they have the skill to do it. This will not only allow for more exciting matches, but it will be more fun for normal people actually playing because they won't want to rage quit as much when some stupid LFG player tries to take on a whole team by himself over and over. That just one example of course, they are doing even more.

 

The other thing is this is a Blizzard game and it's based off of StarCraft II, it's going to be wildly popular because of that alone. I think it most definitely has a chance to dethrone the other two heavyweights, at the very least it will be as popular. Especially once they put in all the maps and characters, it's pretty limited right now in those areas.

 

I have no doubts it'll be popular, I mean it's a Blizzard game afterall, but I just don't see it dethroning LoL/Dota 2. The issues with those games are long standing issues and it has yet to stop anyone playing it (not individuals, I'm talking about masses).

 

It's refreshing to see another spin on MOBAs though. They could have so easily gone down the lazy route of recreating DoTA after the lawsuit was settled to get back the playbase they lost. Not to mention how swamped we are in clones as it is.

Grand Master

Stokkolm

Posted
Posted

I have no doubts it'll be popular, I mean it's a Blizzard game afterall, but I just don't see it dethroning LoL/Dota 2. The issues with those games are long standing issues and it has yet to stop anyone playing it (not individuals, I'm talking about masses).

 

It's refreshing to see another spin on MOBAs though. They could have so easily gone down the lazy route of recreating DoTA after the lawsuit was settled to get back the playbase they lost. Not to mention how swamped we are in clones as it is.

We will see I guess. I wonder if people said the same thing about WoW dethroning EverQuest back in 2004?

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

HotS may not take many hard core players away from DoTA and LoL. But it may very well take  large bite of the casuals and bring in a huge chunk of new players to the MoBA genre, like me. 

 

in this way like with EQ, HoTS may very well become bigger without shrinking the others. or equally big as the other two, especially if Blizzards starts shoving etournament cash down everyones throats. 

Enthusiast

shastasheen

Posted
Posted

I have no doubts it'll be popular, I mean it's a Blizzard game afterall, but I just don't see it dethroning LoL/Dota 2. The issues with those games are long standing issues and it has yet to stop anyone playing it (not individuals, I'm talking about masses).

 

It's refreshing to see another spin on MOBAs though. They could have so easily gone down the lazy route of recreating DoTA after the lawsuit was settled to get back the playbase they lost. Not to mention how swamped we are in clones as it is.

Everyone I know, knows Blizzard - most have no idea what DoTA is. Everyone I ever played WoW with is waiting for HotS.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

I'm usually not a huge Blizzard fanboi or anything.

 

but after hitting level 11 in HoTS now and wondering how much of all this gameplay I will lose after it hits beta and final (takes forever to scrounge up what little gold I have, still gonna be a long time I have the 10k to get the hero I want. 

 

So I decided to try DoTA2, seems the best option since the others have the same stupid rolling heroes setup as HoTS. 

 

Well when I first played HoTS, what I needed to do was obvious. Easy to play and learn, hard to master and all that. 

 

My first game of DoTA2... not a ######ing clue. some guy insisted my useless warrior take the bottom lane, buy drawing like a madman on the map, ok, so for the rest of the game I kept to my bottom lane with little or not support, got a tower to. then I randomly had to buy stuff which seemed a stupidly complicated and slow mechanic. untill I got disconnected after that I could no longer buy or sell anything after reconnecting...

 

Not saying HoTS is perfect. But so far in my experience, it's a lot more fun to play and the gameplay makes a lot more sense. 

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

Man the second game of DoTA2 I play, now I have a big ass icon from the store either stuck on my screen or on my cursor, and there's a bounty hunter from a disconnected guy on the other team that's permanently invulnerable and just hangs around at random spots on the map only sometimes does he attack....

 

this ###### is real buggy.

 

And then the whole game crashed... seriously, this buggy POS is run as a major esport...

Grand Master

LittleNeutrino Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I hope this is better than that Hearthstone thing they put out a while back.

 

Is WoW finally on the decline? I thought they would have a new (real) game out by now.

Wow has declined rather a bit since cataclysm came out. also Project Titan which was their new game to come out was scrapped and they started over so it will be rather sometime before we get a new IP from them.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

I hope this is better than that Hearthstone thing they put out a while back.

 

Is WoW finally on the decline? I thought they would have a new (real) game out by now.

Doesn't really compare to hearthstone. Which in itself is a pretty awesome card game, but ... Not my thing really.

This is fun though. If you're the type who needs a game to rotate levels so you never play the same level twice in 6ours of gaming though.. It's not for you. Though it has some variety but they're all the same basic formula but with different level mechanics, some of them require more teamwork than others, so some levels a few good players on an average team can pull through, others three good players teamed with 2 crap ones will be rolled by a team of mediocre players who work together.

Problem is a lot of people ignore the merc camps, and getting the merc camps is probably the most important key to success, they are more powerful than people think, especially if they are followed afterwards by a support player. And then you have all the idiots who chase the other players instead of going for the objectives.

Veteran

TDT

Posted
Posted

I tried all these MOBA games, except this one from Blizzard, but I can say one thing: I still favor the original DotA. I hate DotA 2, too cartoon-ish, too many effects that distract you from the battle, and the others, like LoL, I don't even want to remember. This type of game is best played when it's simple, without eye-candy & stuff, that's why the original DotA had so much success. Blizzard, look at Counter Strike and learn. After all these years, CS 1.6 is still played a LOT, if not most.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

Some range heroes have more range than others, and the range seems fine as it is, I have no problem sniping brawlers and kiting them, any more range and I'd be invincible. The warriors need to be able to resist or grab. As it is they get me either because I'm careless or they're backed up. By ranged. Or the rather deadly Diablo and stitch combo, slap in a ranged or aoe sword spinner in that group and they'll take down anyone.


  • 2 years later...
  • Skiver locked this topic
  • DrunknMunky unlocked this topic
Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
6 hours ago, Mirumir said:

snip

Some more info:

 

Quote

We just unveiled Machines of War at gamescom 2016! This StarCraft-themed event comes to Heroes of the Storm in September, and introduces new Battlegrounds, quests, rewards, Heroes, mounts, skins, and bundles. Catch additional event details on the Machines of War website, or read on for a sneak peek at what’s on the horizon.

http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/game/events/machines-of-war/

 

Title updated

  • 4 weeks later...
Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
Quote

 

Heroes Brawl

COMING SOON: THE NEW GAME MODE THAT BREAKS ALL THE RULES!

In a nutshell, Heroes Brawl is Heroes of the Storm, seen through the lens of delightful madness. Play on unique maps with surreal twists and with custom rulesets that turn everything you thought you knew about the game on its head. Weekly rewards await. Take a break from the conquest of the Nexus, gather your friends, and check out what this new mode has to offer.

 

Continues...

  • 5 weeks later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • AMD RX 9070 GRE AI, Blender benchmarks vs 9070 XT, 7800XT, Nvidia RTX 5070, 4070

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      AMD RX 9070 GRE AI, Blender benchmarks vs 9070 XT, 7800XT, Nvidia RTX 5070, 4070 by Sayan Sen Earlier this week, we shared the first part of our review of AMD's new RX 9070 GRE. It was about the gaming performance of the GPU, and we gave it an 8 out of 10. As a follow-up, similar to how we did with the 9070 XT and non-XT, we are doing a dedicated productivity review for the RX 9070 GRE as well, where we compare it against the 9070 XT, 9070, 7800 XT, as well as Nvidia's 5070 and 4070. This will include AI, rendering, compute, and more benchmarks. AI performance, especially, is a very important metric in today's world, and AMD also promised big improvements thanks to its underlying architectural improvements. We will be pitching it against the data we already have for the RX 9070, and RX 9070 XT, but also the Nvidia 5070 FE, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 2X 12G, and Gigabyte Radeon RX 7800 XT GAMING OC 16G as they are in a similar price class, but also because we do not have a comparable 5060 Ti card lying around here that we can compare it against. Before we get underway, this is a collaboration between Sayan Sen and Steven Parker, who lent me his test bed. Also, there was no editorial input from AMD. First up, the specs of the RX 9070, 9070 XT, and 9070 GRE, which were given to us by AMD: Radeon RX 9070 GRE Radeon RX 9070 Radeon RX 9070 XT Boost Clock: Game Clock: up to 2.79GHz up to 2.20GHz up to 2.52GHz up to 2.07GHz up to 2.97GHz up to 2.40GHz Stream Processors 3,072 (48 CU) 3,584 (56 CU) 4,096 (64 CU) Ray Accelerator 48 56 64 AI Accelerator 96 112 128 ROPs 96 128 Texture Mapping Units 192 224 256 Memory 12 GB GDDR6, 18Gbps Clock, 192-bit Bus 432 GB/s 16 GB GDDR6, 20Gbps Clock, 256-bit Bus Effective Memory Bandwidth: 640 GB/s Infinity Cache 48 MB (3rd Gen) 64 MB (3rd Gen) Card Bus PCI-E 5.0 X16 Output 2x HDMI 2.1b 2x DisplayPort 2.1a Power consumption 220W 304W Recommended PSU 650W 750W Slot width 2x 3x Price (SEP) $549 $599 As you can see from the specs above, it is less than the standard RX 9070 in every way that counts, except for slightly higher Boost and Game clock speed. Design Moving on, the RX 9070 GRE we were given is an XFX Swift triple-fan, dual-slot design with two 8-pin connectors. At 30cm (self-measured), it will fit in most systems easily. There is no RGB either. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by XFX from all angles. Test system Our test system consists of the following: Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2 Flow (Amazon|Newegg) ASUS Z890 ProArt Creator WiFi (Amazon|Newegg) Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus (Amazon|Newegg) Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet - 44x37 (Amazon|Newegg) 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB (7200 MT/s in XMP) (Amazon|Newegg) Sabrent Rocket4 Plus 2TB SSD (Amazon) Windows 11 25H2 (Build 26200.8246) AMD shared a press driver based on the recently released Adrenaline 26.5.2 that we were required to use. We now move on to our benchmarks. First up, we have Geekbench AI running on ONNX. For some reason, the 9070 GRE does exceptionally well here in both half-precision (FP16) and single-precision (FP32). It manages to beat the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 non-XT, and is only behind the 9070 XT. Since Geekbench runs in short bursts instead of continuously hammering the graphics card, it seems the GRE's faster boost clocks are helping here. Next up, we move to the UL Procyon AI test suite, starting with the image generation benchmark. We chose the Stable Diffusion XL FP16 test since it is the most intense workload available on Procyon. The Nvidia cards do very well here, as even the 4070 out-muscles AMD's best fairy easily. The positive thing about the GRE is that it gets quite close to the 9070 non-XT in this test; this indicates that the VRAM does not play a very big role here, as SD XL relies on float16 (FP16). So this is something to keep in mind again. If you wish to work with float32 AI workloads, graphics cards with larger than 12 GB buffers would likely emerge as victors. Regardless, the gains are still massive on AMD's 9000 series compared to the 7000 series. Following image generation, we move to the text generation benchmark. This is one test where the 9070 GRE struggled, quite a lot. It seems that the 12 GB VRAM and lower memory bandwidth of the new Radeon 9070 GRE are hurting it quite a bit; the split is massive, especially in a test like Llama2, which packs 13 billion parameters. As such, in all the tests, the 9070 GRE is the slowest of the lot. Next, we tried Blender, and here the AMD GPUs were beaten by Nvidia. Rendering is something the Green team has always had a lead over the Red side, and it has not changed so far. On the positive side, though, the 9070 GRE shows significantly better results than the 7800 XT, which means AMD is on the right path. Catching up to Nvidia, though, will require a lot more effort. And we hope HIP and ROCm can keep improving. Wrapping up AI testing, we measured OpenCL throughput in the Geekbench compute benchmark. The RX 9070 GRE alongside the 9070 did not fare well here at all, even falling behind the 7800 XT. Interestingly, even the RTX 5070 could not beat the 4070 on OpenCL, so perhaps this suggests that OpenCL optimization may not have been a priority for either AMD or Nvidia in the modern era. Conclusion We reached the end of our productivity performance review of the 9070 GRE, and we have to say it's a mixed bag. Unlike the 9070 and 9070 XT, the GRE excels in some areas while losing ground fairly easily in others. Similar to how it happened in gaming, any time the card's memory subsystem gets hammered, it tends to fall behind the others. This was the case with text generation, wherein we saw the VRAM sometimes hit its maximum available 12 GB of usage with larger model sizes. So what do we make of the RX 9070 as a productivity hardware? It can certainly be used, but you have to know it has its limitations. For those looking for a GPU that can deal with more, AMD recently unveiled the Radeon AI PRO R9700, which is essentially a 32 GB refresh of the 9070 XT with some additional workstation-based optimizations. On a similar note, the new Ryzen AI Halo platform is something you can consider if you want to set up a local AI processing station. Considering everything, we rate AMD's Radeon RX 9070 GRE a 7.5 out of 10 for its productivity performance. Price is less of a factor for those looking at productivity cases compared to those considering the GPU for gaming, and as such, we felt it did quite decently on many occasions and can be handy if you need a 12 GB GPU and, for some reason, don't want to get Nvidia. Purchase links: RX 9070 / XT / GRE (Amazon US) As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Microsoft released new Defender update for Windows 11, 10, Server ISO installations

      By skinnyJM · Posted

      Does anyone here know if these updates are integrated into the UUP dump isos?
    • Motrix Next 3.9.4

      By Copernic · Posted

      Motrix Next 3.9.4 by Razvan Serea Motrix Next is a modern, open-source cross-platform download manager built as the official next-generation successor to the original Motrix project. It has been completely rewritten using Tauri 2, Vue 3, TypeScript, and Rust, while still relying on the powerful Aria2 download engine for high-speed multi-protocol transfers. The app supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent, ED2K and magnet links, offering advanced features like multi-connection acceleration, task scheduling, bandwidth control, and batch download management. With a significantly reduced install size (around 20MB), it focuses on being lightweight, fast, and resource-efficient compared to traditional Electron-based download tools. Designed for Windows, macOS, and Linux, Motrix Next delivers a clean, modern UI inspired by Material Design 3 principles, with smooth animations and a minimal workflow. It improves usability through better download organization, system tray integration, and enhanced torrent handling including selective file downloads and tracker management. Motrix Next features: Multi-protocol downloads — HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, Magnet, .torrent, ED2K, and Metalink tasks BitTorrent — Selective file download, DHT, peer exchange, encryption controls, metadata caching, GeoIP peer flags, and tracker probing Browser extension integration — Embedded Extension API with independent authentication, download confirmation, smart auto-submit, filename hints, referer/cookie forwarding, and real-time controls (Chrome Web Store · Edge Add-ons) Safe filename handling — Content-Disposition, RFC 2047, non-UTF-8, percent-encoded, and extensionless URL resolution with path traversal sanitization Download organization — Favorite and recent folders, optional file-type categorization, stale-record cleanup, and completed history backed by SQLite Concurrent downloads — Independent controls for active tasks, HTTP connections per server, segments per file, and BT peer limits Speed control — Global and per-task upload/download limits with day-of-week and time-of-day scheduling System integration — Tray operation, optional tray speed display, macOS Dock badge/progress, protocol handlers for magnet://, thunder://, and motrixnext:// Lightweight mode — Destroys the WebView on minimize-to-tray while Rust keeps the engine, task monitor, notifications, history, and extension routing alive Notifications and power options — Native task start/complete/failure notifications, keep-awake during downloads, and optional shutdown after completion Network controls — Scoped proxy support for downloads, app updates, and tracker updates, plus system proxy detection Auto-update channels — Stable, Beta, and Latest Across Channels policies with separate download and install phases Diagnostics — Structured logs, exportable diagnostic ZIPs, database integrity checks, automatic DB rebuild, and Linux GPU rendering fallback Personalization — Light/dark/system theme, 10 color schemes, 26 languages, and first-launch system language detection Motrix Next 3.9.4 changelog: Motrix Next 3.9.4 promotes the 3.9.4 beta cycle to stable. This release refreshes bundled engine binaries, improves task detail readability and copy actions, expands link handling for magnet and ED2K workflows, polishes responsive navigation and text wrapping, updates browser extension documentation, and refines network preference controls. New Features Task Detail copy actions — Added copyable values for task metadata and reusable render functions for long text fields. Magnet and ED2K lifecycle support — Added task lifecycle handling for magnet and ED2K links. History cleanup for deleted tasks — Deleted tasks can now remove matching history records. User-Agent management — Added user-agent management and improved related network preference controls. Browser extension documentation — Added the Firefox Add-ons link for the Motrix Next extension. Improvements Engine binaries — Updated bundled binaries for supported architectures. Task Detail readability — Long task names, URLs, tracker values, and copyable metadata now render more clearly. Deletion messaging — Refined localized task deletion text for clarity and consistency. Text wrapping — Improved URI input wrapping and task name multiline display. Navigation layout — Improved sub-navigation responsiveness. Disk allocation default — Changed the default file allocation method to trunc. Proxy controls — Improved proxy button styling in network preferences. Download: Motrix Next 64-bit | ARM64 | macOS ~20.0 MB (Open Source) Links: Website | macOS / Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • AMD 9070XT

      By Steven P. · Posted

      NVIDIA officially supports Ubuntu, as linked above with the GeForce NOW Hands on I did in collaboration with Paul Hill.
    • AMD 9070XT

      By cooky560 · Posted

      TO be clear I am not running linux today, however I keep thinking about it. And I want to make sure there are minimal obstacles if I decide to make that switch in the coming months.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
    • Dedicated
      Conjor earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Dedicated
      Mark Spruce earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Collaborator
      conkir earned a badge
      Collaborator

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      479
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      250
    3. 3
      Steven P.
      72
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      69
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      67
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!