▲ The 2019 gameplay changes will soon go live.

Over the course of the next month, the Heroes of the Storm team will be putting into motion their initial round of gameplay changes that were announced at BlizzCon to, in their eyes, improve the overall state of the game.

While many changes will not go live until 2019, such as showing a player’s visible Match-Making Rating (MMR) and tweaks to the Ranked player experience, what is being released in the near future may be more impactful long-term.

How team experience is received via destroying enemy fortifications will be completely re-worked to prevent one team from “snowballing” another based off early game pressure, according to Blizzard.

One of our major goals with the 2019 updates is to implement gameplay changes that encourage closer matches and avoid the dreaded “snowball” effect. After careful design, implementation, and iteration, we felt that this best way to accomplish this goal was to slow down the “snowball effect” just as it starts to come into play. In short, we’re changing the way we reward players who prioritize push strategies to gain experience and power advantages. While we still want to reward players for pushing, we’re focused on removing the direct power advantage we give to these teams and will instead reward them with a strategic advantage. To accomplish this, we’re making the following changes:

Structure Adjustments:

Previously, we granted a great deal of experience to players for destroying structures. In order to help us accomplish the goals we described above, we’ve redistributed how Experience is earned across a few parts of a match, as detailed here:

-Removed all Experience earned from destroying a Fort or Keep

-Decreased Experience earned from destroying Towers by 50%

-Passive Experience gain increased by 15%

-Increased Experience gained by defeating defending Mercenaries by 100%

-Defeating Laning Mercenaries will now grant 100% of Defending Mercenaries Experience

To ensure that teams were still rewarded and encouraged to take down key structures, we are also changing how catapults (and their Battleground-specific equivalents) are awarded. Here’s how:

When a team destroys a Fort, they’ll now gain a Catapult in every 3rd Minion wave. This allows consistent (but not constant) pressure in a lane that enemies will have a hard time ignoring. This change also introduces a secondary form of snowball prevention that is not as obvious—a team that’s ahead will have more pressure in lanes, pushing Minions (and Experience) towards their opponents, allowing them easier and safer ways to regain a foothold in the match. As a note, killing a Keep will result in Catapults with every wave, which is identical to the current live functionality.

A change as drastic as that to the way the game functions as a whole is bound to be polarizing as attempting to please everyone is nearly impossible.

It turns out that even the individuals who play the game as a full-time job don’t even see eye-to-eye when it comes to if this alteration is for the best.

Soon after the announcement was made during the opening ceremony and Blizzard shared specifics, professional players took to social media to give their two-cents.

To get a better understanding of what those in the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) scene think of the proposed changes, InvenGlobal caught up with a few players in-between games at the tournament. The following are replies to thequestion: What are your initial thoughts on the proposed gameplay changes?

Khalif “Khroen” Hashim--HeroesHearth Esports: It’s going to put a lot more of an emphasis on solo lanes. If you’re able to take an early fort then having a solo laner that can pressure hard with that, I think it will equal out to a bit more split pressure. I know they recently nerfed heroes with global abilities so this is something that could be related to that. It might make games less snowball-y because you don’t get experience from forts. So, if you get an early one, it might not put you at a big advantage but it’s how you go about playing with the catapult that could make things interesting. It will change the game a lot. I’m excited to see it because it’s better than leaving the game the same as it could get stale over time. It will make it fun and fresh to learn again, in a way. People who are good at adapting to change and are open to trying new things may have success.

Liam “Arcaner” Simpson--Team Liquid: Honestly, I was very shocked that they made a big change gameplay wise. I think it's admirable to make such a ballsy change for the game and I really like it, personally. I like the idea of preventing snowballs through structures. It’s really oppressive right now and it has been in the past with teams like Fnatic that would run Falstad/Dehaka and teams at this event are running Anub’arak/Greymane to pressure structures. I think if you eliminate the snowball, it is going to be a much healthier meta and tournament gameplay to watch. It will be about which team can win a teamfight, soak waves and manipulate catapult pressure.

▲ The way catapults can push lanes will fundamentally change in the near future.

Ben “cattlepillar” Bunk--Tempo Storm: I see them as not really positive or negative, just kind of neutral. I think of it like ‘Okay, we’re going to be playing a new game next year.’ I think it has the potential to change the macro-heavy playstyles that have been flourishing lately.

Joshua “Snitch” Bennett--Dignitas: I think it’s tough to call out how I feel without playing it out. It’s definitely an interesting idea and it will change the way the game is played entirely. I wonder if it will push the meta a different way entirely as it seems like a drastic thing but maybe that's the kind of thing they need to do to keep it fresh over time.

Few individuals have actually been able to get their hands on the playable demo at BlizzCon where the fortification changes were available so only time will tell whether the community as a whole enjoys playing the game a new way.