News
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News
18 months, 3 reworks, 1 Chromie: a patch notes story
Ever since Chrome, the Keeper of Time, went live in Heroes of the Storm back in May of 2016 the development team has had their hands full finding out what they want to do with her. A Ranged Assassin who can one-shot an enemy with a couple of well-timed abilities is a delicate balancing act. In theory, if a hero relies on landing long-range skill shots for the majority of their effectiveness in battle the balance team needs to consider a few design aspects: It’s important to make the damage output impactful enough to make up for that character’s low health pool while rewarding a good player who is able to land difficult skill shots. If the range on those abilities is too long and the damage is too high, they will be able to poke away at the opposition while remaining at a safe enough distance, providing very little counter-play and a frustrating experience for the opponent. If the opposite is true then players will not feel rewarded for playing that hero if they can be engaged upon very easily, blown up and lack the necessary tools to keep themselves safe while not putting out enough damage to make the risk worth the reward. In the past 18 months, Chromie has experienced three reworks to her kit, including two in the past seven. By following the clues left in the patch notes since her inception and developer comments left by the balance team, a tale can be told about what they may have intended her to be and what they learned along the way.
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Lucio full reworked talents and abilities
One of the grooviest heroes in the Nexus, Lucio, is the newest recipient of a rework in the latest Heroes of the Storm Public Test Realm as the patch went live Monday morning. Since he was introduced into the game in February of 2017, Lucio’s popularity--similar to his rhythmic jams--have had its’ ups and downs. There was a time when he was arguably the strongest Support character and helped push the Double Support meta into existence. Then, once the development team knocked Support characters down a peg as a whole at the end of 2017, his relevancy disappeared along with it. Times are changing, however. The development team ripped apart his outdated tools and reassembled it in a way that makes him more interactive to play with and against.
