The System as it Stands

Blizzard's attempt at a fix

The Proposal

Multiclass Mayhem

The Specialist Conundrum

A Frontline Special

Masters of Magic

Quest Consideration

Improved Searchability: Tags

Closing Thoughts

Hi there, ChaosOS again. This week's article, in anticipation of a balance patch, will be a little more exploratory and less of a number crunch. Assuming we get our usual Wednesday balance patch two weeks after a hero release, expect another article Thursday going over those changes. Instead, today I want to talk about Hero Roles. Specifically, the issues with the current Assassin/Support/Warrior/Specialist and what we can do about it. Furthermore, this analysis will be useful in future articles when I go through each hero role and do intra-role comparisons.As a side note, this article was written before the current reddit post talking about this exact issue ( https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/6jqh72/just_played_three_solo_support_tyrande_games_in/ ), but I felt it would be best to post this blog as a long-form response to the issues cited in the thread.As a basis of this article I created the following spreadsheet to compare base stats, a helpful tool when trying to decide how to categorize certain heroes: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kSOjJnScIQMB81XtqYvoQdpKj-5Tf1OgHb5LO1VATQs/edit?usp=sharing TyposHeroes of the Storm currently has 68 heroes. Of those heroes, 27 are assassins, 11 are supports, 17 are warriors, 12 are specialists, and 1 is Varian (Multiclass). (A hero is defined as an option to select in the hero selection screen, so The Lost Vikings are 1 hero and Cho'Gall is 2) This system has clear flaws, as evidenced by the odd nuances of the Quick Match matchmaking system (For those not in the know, there are many rules to QM matchmaking, such as no 1 vs 0 healer matchups, 1 vs 0 tank matchups, or 1 vs 0 "sustain" matchups. This is not a comprehensive listing of the QM rules. Each of these rules can be broken if necessary to minimize wait times, and any 5-stack is automatically treated as having all roles filled).Assassins are an overly broad category, as noted by the Blizzard response to our string of "Warcraft Assassins" at the start of the year. All assassins do damage, but the variability with which they do it is astonishing. While Malthael sustains in the frontlines and does his damage over time, Chromie is a long range beam sniper. The original launch of technical alpha only included 7 assassins, none of them mages, so it can be understood that originally it made sense to group all damage dealing heroes. Now, due to the huge diversity in the role, it makes more sense to break it up. So ourSupports have a similar issue, with the distinction between solo supports and not-solo supports. Tassadar and Tyrande are not "real healers", which is represented by the QM "Sustain" category that also contains Abathur, Zarya, and Medivh. Thus, theWarriors have a similar issue as Supports with some heroes being "Main Tanks" and others "Bruisers". Heroes like Sonya simply lack the survivability necessary to be the primary initiator until they pick up late game talents. This is again reinforced by QM rules, which only attempts to match tanks to other tanks, but makes no such attempts regarding bruisers. TheSpecialists suffer misconceptions about their function. The original Tech Alpha had Abathur, Gazlowe, Sgt Hammer, and Nazeebo in the category. Gazlowe and Nazeebo were defined as specialists in part by a level 1 talent they had called "Demolitionist", which increased their basic attack damage against buildings by 10% and made their attacks drain ammo. (A modified version of this talent still exists on The Lost Vikings with Erik's "It's a Sabotage!"). As the game has evolved the specialist category has become a catch-all for heroes that don't quite fit the game's usual categorizations. Since beta we've had a total of 3 specialists: Xul, Medivh, and Probius. Xul and Probius fit the model of Summon-heavy heroes a la Zagara or Azmodan, while Medivh was Blizzard admitting that heroes that cannot solo heal should not be in the support category. The current specialist pool consists of a few categories of heroes: Summoners (Azmodan, Gazlowe, Nazeebo, Probius, Xul, Zagara), Siege heroes (Sgt. Hammer, Sylvanas), Oddities (Abathur, Murky, The Lost Vikings), and Medivh. A better role system would break up these heroes into categories that better described how the hero functioned rather than simply mashing together all these heroes. OurFinally, Varian is his own problem child as the sole existing Multiclass hero, and all the Quickmatch trouble that has brought along with it. Varian as the only tank in a game is a frustrating experience, while having a Varian that needs to go tank instead go Fury or Arms is frustrating in its own unique way. Oh, and randomly having an entire category in the statistics to himself is rather odd. There isn't as concrete a goal here except to try and handle multiclass better than exists.The current system sucks and needs to change.For those that didn't know, if you mouse over a hero during hero select it will provide a short description that labels the hero and explains what they do in a short sentence. These descriptions are a few months fresh and most players are completely unaware of them, but they are some attempt at new and better descriptors of heroes and their roles. The capitalized roles provided in the descriptors are as follows:Assassin (Includes heroes from Alarak to Valla)Bruiser (Thrall, Ragnaros, plus non-tank warriors)MageHealerSupport (Tyrande, Medivh, Tassadar)Tank (Anub'arak, Arthas, Diablo, ETC, Johanna, Muradin, Stitches, Tyrael, Varian)Summoner"Physical Damage dealer" - Odd category that is the only role descriptor for Sgt. Hammer, while prepended to Raynor and Zul'jin who are "Physical Damage Assassins". I will not officially count this as a role due to the dissimilarity in usage, but it is odd that it is capitalized like all of the other roles.As a side note, it would be really nice if these were searchable terms in the hero search bar. But more searchability later. Oh, and the hover text should also include a hero's title, as otherwise the only place to see a hero's title is in the collection.As it stands, I still see some issues with this categorization. Assassin is still too broad and includes both burst mages, for example Alarak, and sustained physical damage dealers, for example Raynor. Multiple heroes are oddly categorized, such as Sylvanas who has the Assassin descriptor, while Sgt. Hammer has no descriptor. Malthael has higher base HP, more self-healing, and more damage mitigation (through armor talents) than Thrall. However, Malthael is listed as an Assassin, while Thrall is a Bruiser. Nazeebo has walls and Gargantuan but is not a summoner. Nova is a Mage rather than an Assassin like Alarak and Kerrigan. These roles are not only inconsistently applied, as demonstrated, but also do not address the above goals. Summoners are still clustered together even though they use their summons very differently, while Assassins are too broad of a category. However, this did address goals two and three, which was to break up main healers from off healers and main tanks from off tanks.I suggest we put heroes into the following categories(Alarak, Genji, Kerrigan, Nova, Valeera, Varian [Colossus Smash], Zeratul) - Heroes with high burst and usually CC potential, Assassins excel at deleting squishy enemy heroes.(Azmodan, Chromie, Gall, Gul'dan, Jaina, Kael'thas, Li Ming, Nazeebo, Probius) - Heroes that rely on their abilities to do damage, whether it's to wave clear, poke, burst, or do sustained damage.(D.Va [Pilot], Falstad, Greymane [Human], Lunara, Raynor, Sgt. Hammer, Sylvanas, Tracer, Tychus, Valla, Zagara, Zul'jin) - Heroes that use basic attacks to do sustained ranged damage. AKA Ranged Carries, ADC, Ranged DPS.(Illidan, Samuro, The Butcher, Greymane [Worgen], Varian [Twin Blades of Fury]) - Heroes that use basic attacks to do sustained melee damage. AKA Melee Carries, Melee DPS.(Cho, Gazlowe, Malthael, Ragnaros, Thrall, Xul) - Heroes that are both durable and damaging but lean towards being damaging.(Artanis, Chen, D.Va [Mech], Dehaka, Leoric, Rexxar, Sonya, Varian [Base], Zarya) - Heroes that are both durable and damage but lean towards being tanky(Anub'arak, Arthas, Diablo, ETC, Johanna, Muradin, Stitches, Tyrael, Varian [Taunt]) - Heroes that can serve as primary initiators and withstand a significant amount of damage.(Auriel, Brightwing, Kharazim, Li Li, Lt. Morales, Lucio, Malfurion, Rehgar, Uther) - Heroes that can serve as the primary healer for their team, sustaining them during and between fights.(Abathur, Medivh, Tassadar, Tyrande, Zarya) - Heroes that can serve up additional healing or shielding while significantly contributing to some other function.(Abathur, Cho'Gall, Murky, The Lost Vikings) - Heroes that break the normal rules of what constitutes a "Full Hero".The astute observer may see that several heroes fit into multiple categories. That is intentional, as the Heroes of the Storm are diverse and difficult to categorize.There are certainly several heroes who could fall into different categories depending on how exactly you portray the category or the hero, but hear out my reasoning first.Additionally, I would like to note that the names "Slayer" and "Marksmen" are simply the best ones I find for single word descriptors for the "Melee Carry" and "Ranged Carry" categories. I feel like every other role had an elegant title except those two, so I came up with Slayer and borrowed Marksmen from the official LoL terminology.At Blizzcon 2016 Blizzard announced two heroes, Varian and Ragnaros . This was a departure from previous blizzcons, which had three hero announcements (Jaina, Thrall, and The Lost Vikings at Blizzcon 2014, and Cho'Gall, Lunara, and Greymane at Blizzcon 2015). Furthermore, unlike the previous two Blizzcons (Three if you count Abathur at Blizzcon 2013), there was no new "Odd" hero being added to the game like Cho'Gall or The Lost Vikings. Judging from the description of the development process for Ragnaros, Blizzcon 2016 was originally going to feature our first Core Replacement hero (Multiple times Ragnaros was mentioned as being targeted as a "Blizzcon Hero"). For a variety of good reasons he did not fit their idea of a "Core Replacement" hero, and his design was changed to what it is now. I hypothesize that to compensate for this Varian was played up as our first "Multiclass hero", giving the community a new "Blizzcon Gimmick".While Varian's status as a Multiclass hero is a mess (Just ask any QM player who has dealt with a Varian playing the "wrong spec"), the concept is not inherently awful. "Multiclass" as its own designation is a gimmick, but categorizing heroes under multiple labels is certainly useful given the variety we see in Heroes of the Storm, especially compared to other MOBAs published by certain companies that are fond of 3-hit passives. Thus, the following heroes are multiclass in my system.Abathur: Specialist/Support (Breaks the rules for what counts as a full hero but primarily a support)Cho: Specialist/Bruiser (Breaks the rules for what counts as a full hero but primarily a bruiser)Gall: Specialist/Mage (Breaks the rules for what counts as a full hero but primarily a mage)D.Va: Warrior/Marksman (Pilot form is very different from Mech)Greymane: Marksman/Slayer (Transforms from Ranged to Melee DPS)Varian: Bruiser/Tank/Slayer/Assassin (Varian is Eevee)Zarya: Warrior/Support (Building into Shield Ally puts her HPS above Tassadar, but without those talents she doesn't provide all that much shielding)As for additional multiclass heroes, I could see Gazlowe being a multiclass Bruiser/Mage due to his extremely different playstyle based on ultimate choice. Kharazim I don't feel significantly diverges from the healing role to justify calling Iron Fist Kharazim not a full Healer, as we have seen Bakery solo heal as Iron Fist Kharazim taking primarily damage talents.As explained above, the current specialist role is a mess. The "summoners" can use their summoned units in very different ways, even if all have the option to use them to pull turret and fort aggro while pushing. The oddities, especially Murky and The Lost Vikings, simply don't fit anywhere. Sgt. Hammer and Sylvanas have an odd honor of being used to split push way too much when their true strength is in pushing with their team. And finally Medivh just does his bird things completely separately from everyone else, being the only specialist who is unforgiveably awful at split pushing.My suggestion breaks the specialist category up in the following way:Azmodan, Nazeebo, and Probius are sent off to join the mages, understanding that they primarily do damage from afar with spells.Gazlowe and Xul become bruisers, because although their summons and push power are different from Thrall/Ragnaros they still contribute in teamfights by drawing aggro from the enemy team. Gazlowe is a bit odd because he plays like a mage with his bomb build while being a full bruiser with Robo Goblin, but I felt that being a Bruiser was better given his similar base stats.Zagara becomes a marksmen because she is primarily sustained ranged damage with her creep providing an attack range buff, and instead of the usual AD/AS steroid she can summon a Hydralisk to supplement her sutained range damage. Sgt Hammer and Sylvanas more naturally fit into the marksmen category with their playstyles.The oddities remain in the Specialist category, with Cho'gall multiclassing into it, as it's simply impossible to accurately describe Murky or The Lost Viking's playstyle, plus it showcases HOTS' most unique heroes.Abathur multiclasses into support, as whether we're talking full hat build or a more mine-focused one he is an enabling hero.Finally Medivh joins the new support role, similar to how he is currently tagged in QM as a "Sustain" hero.One of the struggles with breaking up the roles is trying to differentiate the spectrum of Durable vs. Damaging that melee heroes exhibit. On one end Illidan clearly exhibits a fragile, highly damaging and highly mobile hero, while Muradin is a thick slab of concrete that jumps into fights to stun and body-block. But in between can be a bit murky, as each hero performs their role in their own unique way. What I decided was to create four categories, progressing from primarily damaging to primarily durable: Slayer, Bruiser, Warrior, and Tank.Slayers and Bruisers both come from the current "Assassin" category, but have some clear differences. Slayers rely almost exclusively on basic attack damage, with their abilities only providing nominal base damage, instead functioning as utility or basic attack steroids. Bruisers, by contrast, are more abililty driven and more capable of taking a hit than slayers. The three most confusing heroes here were The Butcher, Thrall, and Malthael. The Butcher has unusually high base HP (2154), the highest of the slayers and bruisers. However, given his passive boosting his basic attack damage so much and how small a percentage of his damage comes from spells, I felt that Slayer was a more appropriate category than Bruiser. As for Thrall, there is certainly an argument that Thrall should be a Slayer, as his base HP is more in line with the other slayers (See the spreadsheet). Not only that, Windfury serves as a relevant AA steroid. However, Blizzard themselves labeled Thrall a Bruiser, and historically that is the role he has served. Malthael has the opposite problem of Thrall, where Blizzard labeled him an assassin but gave him more bruisery characteristics than Thrall. Given the current dominant playstyle of using Q spam to sustain in fights, how poor the "Burst" build with Last Rites is, and how truly awful his base AAs are, Malthael belongs in the Bruiser category rather than the Slayer or Assassin.The divide between Bruiser and Warrior is that there is a noticeable base HP jump from Bruisers to Warriors. Excluding Rexxar and D.Va, the lowest Warrior clocks in with Zarya at 2225 hp as opposed to Ragnaros' 2000 hp. Rexxar is a special case because he has two bodies in Misha and himself, totaling 3487 hp, while D.Va has the backup of Pilot giving her an EHP of 3169. Varian falls from Warrior to Bruiser HP levels by level 20 (due to 3% scaling rather than 4%), but this isn't as relevant because he is only in his base form from levels 1-9.Finally, Bruiser versus Tank. Simply put the Tanks are the recognized "Solo Tanks" or "Main Tanks" in Heroes of the Storm, ones you would feel comfortable as the primary frontliner, while the Warriors often lack either the durability or initiation power that Tanks all provide. Some, like Sonya, catch up in the late game through talents, but they still leave a gap until they reach that point.Another difficult distinction is that between Assassins and Mages. Both roles are cooldown reliant roles that deal most of their damage through spells. Furthermore, most heroes in these roles have talents that push them towards more sustained damage or more burst damage, further blurring the lines.The distinctions I draw are two-fold: wave clear, and target selection. Assassins have awful to meh wave clear, either due to straight up inability to do significant AOE damage or due to mana inefficiency in the case of Kerrigan. Furthermore Assassins tend to be much riskier at wave clear, with many of them being melee spellcasters. However, both Chromie and Li Ming can also struggle to clear waves due to the long cooldown on Dragon's Breath for the former and the necessity of standing perpendicular to the wave for the latter. The way I differentiate these two, that also applies to the other mages, is target selection. Mages in general do significant AOE damage to whoever is available, and it is (usually) unwise to try and dive the enemy backline with them. Chromie and Li Ming both face the problem of their skillshots being blocked by enemy frontliners and put themselves at significant risk to achieve the positioning necessary to hit the backline reliably, while comparitively Nova can use stealth and decoys to achieve that ideal positioning on the enemy backline.The most significant obstacles to the primary changes listed above is the way the current hero roles tie into the quest system. Currently Heroes of the Storm has the following quests800g - Play 8 games600g - Win 3 games300g - Play 3 games as a warrior/assassin/support/specialist200g - Play 2 games as a Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo hero.My suggested changes would significantly impact the above model at the 300g level. Furthermore, the free hero rotation (An important set of heroes for new players) is currently crafted to adequately fulfill demand for both the 300 and 200 gold quests. Given my suggested change would increase the number of roles from 4 to 10, it seems unreasonable to think that each role should have its own quest. Instead, I would take a page out of Hearthstone's book and create a number of "Play X or Y" quests, such as "Play an Assassin or a Mage" or "Play a Healer or a Support". The exact numbers and combinations aren't particularly important, especially given that it is my understanding the quest system doesn't evenly weight the probabilities of each quest. This would give the free to play rotation the flexibility it needs to both offer diversity from week to week but also within a given rotation.Now that I've addressed the main considerations of how the roles should be evaluated, I would like to suggest a further improvement to how we search heroes in Hero Select. The current search function allows to search by hero name, hero subtitle (e.g. Probius "The Curious Probe"), hero role (Assassin/ Support/ Warrior/ Specialist/ Multiclass), hero universe (Warcraft/ Starcraft/ Diablo/ Overwatch/ Blizzard), and then select tags (e.g. "Protoss" for Tassadar/ Artanis/ Alarak/ Probius/ Zeratul). Not only would I revamp the hero roles as suggested above, but I would add more tags to help the search process. This improvement becomes more necessary as the roster expands, diversifying and making it less reasonable for the average player to have every hero memorized.Thus, my proposed tagsGlobalPokeSustainBurstMobileControl/CC-Slow-Blind-Silence-Root-Stun-DisplacementQualifying for a tag would be judged on a hero's base kit + ultimates. For example, Cassia's level 20 upgrade to Valkyrie would not qualify her for "Root", but Valkyrie itself would qualify her for Stun+Displacement. Even if some of these categories would be a bit inexact (What qualifies a hero as a poke hero?) they would at least provide a start for searching heroes.A real issue with changing role systems is inertia. This is a change that, on the surface, impacts very little, especially at higher levels of play that properly understand the game. However, clarifying hero roles can help the community come to an understanding of properly functioning teams, especially in the context of nonsense like "No 2 spec" I have heard about from lower level players.Even if Blizzard makes absolutely no changes to the game itself based on these changes, at the bare minimum I will use the established roles to do intra-role comparisons. Expect future articles exploring things such as DPS comparisons between different marksmen, or burst comparisons between assassins. Furthermore, I will reference these roles whenever a new hero comes out to establish benchmarks for things such as base stats and self healing.I won't pretend that all of my categorizations, naming, or placement of heroes within those categorizations are perfect. I welcome feedback and thoughts on how my proposed system could be improved.