Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm is an online action real-time strategy game with mechanics similar to MOBA/ARTS titles. Ten characters fight each other on maps in teams of five and each character has a unique playing style and specific abilities. Both ranked and unranked online matches are supported, as well as games playing with or against AI-controller players.

Games take place in an environment called The Nexus with eternal fights. The heroes are all taken from famous Blizzard franchises such as World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo or Lost Vikings. The heroes are grouped per franchise and role (assassin, warrior, support and specialist). Each hero has unique skills, generally three normal, active skills, one epic active skill and one passive skill. Along with the hero the team gets levels and every some levels, the hero can choose a modification (improve a skill, add an effect to attacks, get a new active skill ...)

Fights take place on small maps and the objective is to damage and eventually destroy the Core structure of the enemy team. Each team has defensive constructions, blocking the paths of AI minions that are part of the traditional lane based gameplay of the genre. The AI minions are generated automatically by the Core and make their way towards the enemy core, fighting enemies along the way. Each map has a periodic event. For example, in one the heroes can capture shrines to curse the enemy minions and structures and in others they have to kill 40 specific minions to summon a great demon for the team.

The game has both a free-to-play and a premium model, combined with microtransactions. Free heroes rotate weekly and can be acquired permanently through the in-game gold currency or purchases with real money. As part of the 2.0 update that nearly coincided with the game's 2 year anniversary the game's microtransactions have been entirely overhauled. Previously the vast majority of cosmetic items could only be purchased with real money, where as after the update all cosmetic items now come randomly packaged in loot crates. These loot crates are awarded from out-of-game character levels, overall player level, events, and weekly "brawls" with custom rule sets. Loot Crates can contain any item in the game (except seasonal items not in rotation) including permanent heroes. Receiving duplicate cosmetic items rewards Shards, a currency that can be used to purchase specific cosmetic items. Direct RMT has been removed, and instead money purchases Gems, a currency that can be used to purchase heroes, rare cosmetic items in a weekly rotation, XP boosters, and loot crates.