Blizzard Entertainment is working on some big things for Heroes of the Storm—including bans for ranked and custom matches, game director Dustin Browder announced on Twitter yesterday.
Having bans in ranked games is something players have been asking about for months, so that the in-game experience is the same as what they see when watching Heroes esports matches (which includes a two-ban system per team).
Browder also mentioned that custom games will be getting bans, so that esports can use it for drafting. Unfortunately he didn’t provide a date for when the new system will be patched into the game, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it was before the Heroes Global Circuit starts in January, to make drafting easier for the teams.
The implementation of bans wasn’t the only announcement from Browder. He took a few hours out of his day to answer questions on Twitter from Heroes players about esports, new content, patches, matchmaking, and more.
One of the most exciting things is that Lunara—a new Warcraft hero that was announced during the Blizzcon 2015 keynote—may be arriving this month.
On top of that Browder said that Blizzard is hoping to roll out phase one of the new matchmaking system this year, which is great news for players that have been complaining about matchmaking being very uneven.
Browder is not sure when details about Heroes esports for 2016 will be revealed.
Blizzard has been discussing whether or not to reset player’s matchmaking rating in-between seasons.
A Twitter user asked whether StarCraft-themed maps would be coming to Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard ran a Diablo-themed event this year that included maps and heroes from the Diablo universe.
Blizzard recently changed the way players can report other players in-game, but once a report has been submitted there is no way to find out whether it was actioned or not.
Having an unranked draft mode is something that Blizzard has been discussing, but it also brings a lot of technical problems.
Season one for Heroes of the Storm hasn’t started yet, with the game being in pre-season since its release on June 2. Many players have been wondering how long seasons will go for, whether it’s a month like Hearthstone or a few months like World of Warcraft.
One Twitter user asked whether a “spectate friend” mode would be brought to Heroes anytime soon.
Ranked play in Heroes of the Storm used to allow up to four players to queue together. This was changed a few months ago so that only two people can queue together, but many people miss being able to queue with multiple friends.
Browder named two characters that we would like to see in Heroes.
Image via Blizzard Entertainment
