Learning from Heros (of the Storm)

So I got my closed Beta invite and started playing some Heros of the storm. No, this isn't some doom and gloom prediction for LoL, in fact there are many MANY things LoL does way better (not having a graphics engine that has inverse performance where the more expensive card you use the slower the game goes .... yeah that's a real known bug). That said there are some things Blizzard did right, and I think it would benefit Riot a lot to admit where competitors have improved things and roadmap that into their next season (many of these changes would be too big to squeeze in now). For example, does anyone remember Warhammer Age of Reckoning? That game basically flopped, but that didn't stop Blizzard from copying the achievement system out of it. I hope that Riot is looking to some of the ideas pushed in this new game and is willing to adapt accordingly.

So what are those big ideas?

It's a team game, so stop focusing on individual players

There are some very fundamental changes in HOTS that Riot could learn from. There are still killing sprees, legendary statuses, pentakills, etc. But none of them are bound to a single player. Let that sink in for a moment. When you get a pentakill/ace it doesn't matter if it was started by a bruiser. It doesn't matter if your support "KSed" it. It doesn't matter how it happens at all. 5 kills in (very) short succession gets your team the pentakill. This alone is HUGE for supports and tanks who were likely just as responsible for the kill but have to watch the game give the ADC full credit (as well as good dose of rage if someone secured a kill because he totally had that).

But Blizzard took it a step further and as I think about it ... it really needs to be done in League as well: they made XP/levels team based. One of the prime balancing nightmares Riot has been having is how to give support/jungle players gold/xp at a rate they feel like they are contributing. It's impacting everything from creating role specific gear that has to be balanced against other roles abusing it, champions who have to scale in different ways to fit their intended lane (and get nerfed out hard if they drift out of it), and in general shackles this game in a ton of ways. IN HOTS ... your team levels as a unit. All kills, cs, objective control ... all of it goes into a level pool. Imagine how different farming jungling vs ganking jungling would be if a farmer power-leveled all the lanes .... suddenly that ganker better be ganking the jungle and stealing camps or the lanes could find themselves overwhelmed. That farmer be be efficient enough to offset the sheer number of kills the lanes are getting because he's not helping them hold towers. At the end of the day ... simplifying leveling adds diversity rather than removing it.

It's pretty genius really. And Riot should consider it.

Champions/Heros can gain levels based on how much time you spend playing them... which eventually unlocks skin a and portrait

This is another really fun idea. Right now, LoL releases every champion with at least two skins. Used to be more ... but right now 2 is the limit. Want a skin, pay money. period. HOTS took a different approach. You grab a new hero and you get that hero. Thats it. As you play that hero he gains experience, and can eventually hit level 10. What happens at 10? He gets what's called a "master skin" which is a variation of said hero with a bit more spikes, shoulderplates, and general Blizzard style. He gets a portrait too, much like Riot hands out for special events. Basically players can earn their first skin just by playing their favorite champion a ton. If they want more complex skins they still have to buy... but I thought this ... again ... was awesome. Why not give players something else to work for? "guys this guy player Muradin all the time ... look at his skin" is just plain .... fun.

Anyway ... as I play around in HOTS I thought I'd drop in and say Riot should really give these two features a look. I really think LoL could benefit from both of these concepts.