Heroes
15. There are fewer Holy and Ice heroes amongst the classic Season 1 heroes than the rest. Are there plans in the works to remedy this imbalance?
We probably should balance up the 4* Classics. Not against it, just low on the list. We have Season 3 and the skins, and other new development.
16. The design of new heroes seems to either be more niche or more powerful than those that preceded them. This path is not sustainable without making classic 5* heroes irrelevant. Do you have other ideas on how new heroes can be introduced that are both interesting to a broad base of players or increasing the distance between these heroes and the older heroes (TC20 heroes for example).
Sometimes we do design heroes that are more niche, and sometimes we add those that are more powerful, but we are very careful with the power creep.
True, if we keep introducing new heroes that are more powerful than the Classic heroes, all older 5* heroes would become irrelevant. So that’s the reason for another new feature we can give you a bit of a sneak peek about: “skins” (remember the picture of “Chef Boldtusk” we shared?).
We haven’t locked down the name yet, could be “skins” or “personas” but it’s more than just changing the looks of a hero. There was a comment on the forums about how lazy SGG is; how hard could it be just to swap the art. Swapping the art would not be that hard, but the new “skins” feature (not final name) it’s also supposed to do something new with the Classic heroes — maybe, for example, changing the skin makes the hero more powerful, or having both original and new skins makes both versions more powerful or changes something in the heroes.
This is a thing we want to do with the Classic heroes to keep them up [to the newer heroes] and not artificial, not just boosting or buffing them. This is specifically a goal for the skin feature. Hopeful to go to beta summer-ish (next six months). So some way to change and possibly upgrade heroes, focused on the Classics (4*, 5*) — something that makes them “strike back”.
Is there an internal commitment that these upgrades won’t creep to HotM or event heroes and widen the power gap even more?
This feature is focused on Classics to start; not off the table that they won’t see something in the future for HotM or event heroes. Skins actually started only as a way to change the look, but now it’s a bigger feature. It might be fun to have sensible alternative looks for all heroes. But definitely not this year except for Classic heroes. The goal is not to make powerful heroes even more powerful.
Because we wanted to address a lot of things with this feature, including making sure that Classic heroes have a fighting chance against the new ones, it also makes the feature very complex to develop. The goal is to have this year a way to give Classic heroes different looks that also makes them more powerful.
Was that also the thinking with emblems?
Emblems are a bit different and may still evolve. That was intended for all heroes of all rarities, something for everyone. We keep looking at feedback on emblems. Emblems are now given very slowly to see how they change the game. We are being very careful with them.