Heroes of the Storm: Is Blizzard’s MOBA the Nexus big thing?

This take on the not-so-humble MOBA genre has reached the final stages of its long-running beta phase. As the full game preps for launch, complete with a suitably filling roster of 30 characters to play as from the Warcraft maker’s repertoire, 130 skins to decorate them in and seven battlegrounds to bash minions across, we settle in for a look at the newest combat arena, the Tomb Of The Spider Queen.

This small yet deceptively labyrinthine map consists of the tried and tested three lanes to push, but rocks a unique mechanic whereby players have to work together to collect gems. By sucking up these enemy drops and then handing them in to a vendor, teams will be able to call upon the map’s titular royal arachnid to lend a hand. Do so and web weavers will spawn to rush up your lanes, summoning melee minions of their own to your push for victory.

Weave it out
The tactical implications are immediately obvious, as felled player foes also drop any gems they happen to be holding, which will only be recoverable by their fellow team members.

This provides ample opportunities to distract enemy groups with tempting gem hordes and, on the flip side, you’ll have to determine whether or not to risk abandoning lanes in order to help recover some precious stones for your pals. It all feels very different from what other genre bastions have attempted, and thus makes Heroes a touch more likely to do for the MOBA what Hearthstone has so successfully done for the card game.