heroes 3 Months Without a New Hero

[Stan 5,242]

Imperius was the last new Hero to enter the Nexus on January 8, so almost three months have passed since we last saw a new Hero introduced to the game.

UPDATE: Balance patches will now be released three weeks after a major patch.

Anduin Leaks

On February 6, we posted a leak related to Anduin Wrynn. The image depicts a skin pack called Neo President Anduin.

Two days after the Anduin leak, Production Director Kaeo Milker said that despite of some theories floating around, we'd still have to wait for Anduin to see the light of the day, possibly referring to the Chromie/Lucio rework patch of March 26.

Blizzard (Source)

We can’t talk about Heroes without talking about our awesome content. As you’ve seen so far this year, we released Imperius along with a flurry of impactful hero balance changes across the game. We also announced our Resistance themed event before bringing it to PTR this week, and we’re excited to deliver those fun skins for Hanzo, Deckard, and my BFF, Blaze, next week! While we have more balance changes coming at regular intervals, our next new hero is also right around the corner. There are some theories floating around as to who’s next, but we have a few more releases before they’ll be ready to see the light of day.
Speaking of our next few releases, you probably noticed that our Lunar New Year seasonal event hasn’t hit yet, but fear not – that’s just because we’ve reimagined it as our Spring Event. Last year we had a ton of fun with our unique seasonal events like Nexomania in Summer, The Fall of King’s Crest in Fall, and Toys in Winter, and we’d like to continue exploring fun new universes and themes to coincide with each season moving forward. Stay tuned for all the details on our Spring Event next month, and know that we’ll not only be bringing back our previous limited-time Lunar New Year content, but we’ll also unveil an exciting, all-new skin theme to round out this year’s event.

Now that the patch is live for a week, it's possible we'll see Anduin as part of the next content patch. But when? Here's a list of all patches (with the exception of hotfixes) released this year:

• March 26 // Live Patch
• March 18 // PTR Patch
• February 27 // Balance Update
• February 12 // Live Patch
• February 4 // PTR Patch
• January 23 // Balance Update
• January 8 // Live Patch
• January 2 // PTR Patch

Balance Updates always go live in 15 days after a new content patch, so we can expect another Balance Update on April 10. The time gap between Balance Updates and PTR Patches is anywhere between 12-19 days, without the changes to cadence taken into consideration. Now it's time for some wild guesses and possible dates for the Anduin Patch PTR!

• If we get a Balance Update on April 10, we should see a new PTR Patch between April 22 and April 29, going live a week afterward, so either April 29 or May 6 are the dates when Anduin should go lhit live servers.

When Brack announced the HGC cancellation, it was clear that it's not going to have an immediate effect on the pacing of updates for the game in the coming months, since patches are usually developed and planned months ahead.

Blizzard (Source)

Yesterday, we announced a difficult decision—the HGC will not be returning in 2019 and we’ll be transitioning some Heroes of the Storm developers to our other game teams. While our extended Blizzard family working on World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and our unannounced projects will be getting an influx of much-needed, extremely talented Heroes devs to help them achieve their goals, it also means that we’ll need to change the cadence of support for Heroes going forward.

Right now, it's April and we're likely going to hit that mark when the slowdown becomes noticeable in the coming months, possibly, resulting in less content updates for the game, eventually rendering the release dates above useless.

Anyway!  3 months have passed without a new Hero release, but should you really care? So long as there are Balance Updates and rework patches that keep the game & meta fresh, I don't personally mind the lack of new Heroes, do you? Let us know what you think down in the comments!

[ShadowerDerek 69]

Well, Chromie and Lucio are two entirely new heroes now, so I don't see a problem about 'new' heroes.

[MZLICH 43]

1 hour ago, ShadowerDerek said:

Well, Chromie and Lucio are two entirely new heroes now, so I don't see a problem about 'new' heroes.

so with keeping  your opinion in mind, its actually removing 2 heroes and adding 2 new heroes.. so I still dont see a new spot in my select screen..so we have no new hero added for 3 months

[Valhalen 1,484]

6 hours ago, Stan said:

Anyway! 3 months have passed without a new Hero release, but should you really care? So long as there are Balance Updates and rework patches that keep the game & meta fresh, I don't personally mind the lack of new Heroes, do you? Let us know what you think down in the comments!

Anduin is a character I have been waiting for a quite a long time, and the game still lacks more Supports/Healers. Sure, the devs have been quite busy with a lot of balance patches, but we all know that the real flavor of the game is the cast, specially given how huge the roster can be potentially. Three months without any new Hero is quite a big deal, personally.

And people won't shut their trap until we get Deathwing, much like they did before Imperius was released.

Edited April 4, 2019 by Valhalen

[lChronosl 182]

Well, since the HCG news we kinda of already expected only 3~4 new heroes per year, so it's still within expectations.

I personally would feel very bad if all development went silent between hero releases, but we all saw that is not the case. All reworks and balance changes since November 2018 have been great and very healthy for the game, so I am willing to wait.

Not to mention that, while the Caldeum Complex event might be "smaller" than previous ones, it's still pretty cool.

[Kurosu 58]

What did you expect, they abandoned their own game, whoever is left will probably just release a few heroes more every few months and thats it.

[Arcling 898]

2 hours ago, lChronosl said:

Well, since the HCG news we kinda of already expected only 3~4 new heroes per year, so it's still within expectations.

This doesn't sound that bad, Overwatch gets 3 heroes per year. Depends also how slowing down will affect other aspects (balancing, features, events etc.).

[greatCraft 29]

Big surprise. they lied. 

[CyberDVonaven 82]

On 4/4/2019 at 5:50 AM, Stan said:

3 months have passed without a new Hero release, but should you really care? So long as there are Balance Updates and rework patches that keep the game & meta fresh, I don't personally mind the lack of new Heroes, do you?

I completely agree with you ?

[CyberDVonaven 82]

On 4/4/2019 at 12:54 PM, Kurosu said:

What did you expect, they abandoned their own game,

*rolls eyes & shakes head at seeing another one of 'those' type comments*

Yeah, I tell you they SO abandoned the game... They haven't done ANYTHING at all release wise for anything since the HGC cancellation, right?

No skins, no reworks, no balances, no announcements. No nothing, right? Just completely abandoned... right guys and gals??!! RIGHT!?

I mean how could you say ANYTHING to the contrary people.... It's SO obvious that this game is dead and abandoned months and months ago... right?! I mean only a fool would think otherwise. Right?! I mean there isn't a new event that just started last week or new skins to go with that, right? Nope... nothing since HGC cancelled... COMPLETELY ABANDONED....

...moron....

Edited April 5, 2019 by CyberDVonaven

[Kurosu 58]

On 4/5/2019 at 10:30 PM, CyberDVonaven said:

*rolls eyes & shakes head at seeing another one of 'those' type comments*

Yeah, I tell you they SO abandoned the game... They haven't done ANYTHING at all release wise for anything since the HGC cancellation, right?

No skins, no reworks, no balances, no announcements. No nothing, right? Just completely abandoned... right guys and gals??!! RIGHT!?

I mean how could you say ANYTHING to the contrary people.... It's SO obvious that this game is dead and abandoned months and months ago... right?! I mean only a fool would think otherwise. Right?! I mean there isn't a new event that just started last week or new skins to go with that, right? Nope... nothing since HGC cancelled... COMPLETELY ABANDONED....

...moron....

no heroes  no banning system   just skins etc to try to earn some more money in the end.

Wake the hell up kid. The game is abandoned  even themselves said it.

[MasterKast 15]

On 4/5/2019 at 10:30 PM, CyberDVonaven said:

*rolls eyes & shakes head at seeing another one of 'those' type comments*

Yeah, I tell you they SO abandoned the game... They haven't done ANYTHING at all release wise for anything since the HGC cancellation, right?

No skins, no reworks, no balances, no announcements. No nothing, right? Just completely abandoned... right guys and gals??!! RIGHT!?

I mean how could you say ANYTHING to the contrary people.... It's SO obvious that this game is dead and abandoned months and months ago... right?! I mean only a fool would think otherwise. Right?! I mean there isn't a new event that just started last week or new skins to go with that, right? Nope... nothing since HGC cancelled... COMPLETELY ABANDONED....

...moron....

oupss fanboyzz are pissed.. wake up kid.

[lChronosl 182]

This discussion will take us nowhere. The devs that are left are doing their very best with whatever resources are available. If you are disappointed with the current game state, give it a break and come back when a new hero or event calls your attention.

There is no need to keep whining on the internet that "the game is abandoned". You are only making things awkward.

[Kurosu 58]

4 hours ago, lChronosl said:

This discussion will take us nowhere. The devs that are left are doing their very best with whatever resources are available. If you are disappointed with the current game state, give it a break and come back when a new hero or event calls your attention.

There is no need to keep whining on the internet that "the game is abandoned". You are only making things awkward.

There is no whining  taking place nor do things get awkward. Its just how things are. If some people are in denial well thats hardly anyone's else's fault is it?

[Morcalivan 86]

They can track population right? If you don't like the lack of heroes then stay away fro a bit and come back only when new heroes are released. If you do actually spend dollars on this game, then spend them only when new heroes are released. They can focus on reworks or new heroes, not both. Show them what you want them to prioritize now.

[Rafaelfras 0]

On 4/4/2019 at 10:39 AM, Valhalen said:

Anduin is a character I have been waiting for a quite a long time, and the game still lacks more Supports/Healers. Sure, the devs have been quite busy with a lot of balance patches, but we all know that the real flavor of the game is the cast, specially given how huge the roster can be potentially. Three months without any new Hero is quite a big deal, personally.

And people won't shut their trap until we get Deathwing, much like they did before Imperius was released.

I agree, i wanted Anduin 2 months ago. Sooner he is in the game the better and happier i will be