BlackPantherGames submitted:
This is a Heroes of the Storm updated Heroes and skin post. These screenshots are of the most current release of the game to the public.
I had an original post ready and quite a bit typed up before it was lost, and it’s six in the morning so I’ll be brief. I am fairly new here and felt as though I could contribute to the community of this blog in my own way with this post by providing slight steps forward and back with blizzards newer releases for HOTS. Instead of providing lengthy and spammy images to provide a scroll fest I’ll leave the link to my album here for the screenshots I’ll be talking about.
Screen shots link: http://imgur.com/gallery/LZohm
Thank you for providing this plethora of screenshots on HotS, particularly topical since HOTS is so hot right now. Also, they’ve finally adding someone very special:
One part I particularly want to cover a lot of people have taken the approach that Sgt. Hammer is in a tank so their outfit doesn’t matter (or that it makes sense because heat). That’s really a matter to deal with suspension of disbelief and priorities.
If you wanted to say, make Sgt. Hammer dress a certain way to showcase their personality, then have them wear the same clothes to make her recognizable and nobody is supposed to really believe it – that would work fine. It makes her easily recognizable and communicating that is more important than realism.
That has been done before and it was pretty damn awesome:
If you wanted to go with realism: She would wear BDUs and protective gear for two reasons:
- If the tank gets smashed up and she needs to get out, she’ll want to be prepared for the battlefield.
- When the tank gets damaged there will be shrapnel – hot, sharp shrapnel – flying about. While the big pieces are dangerous, there will be more of the little ones and nobody wants a hot splinter of metal lodged in flesh when they could have it bounce off their BDUs.
Tanks are hot and cramped, they’re also kind of terrible to ride in because of lack of suspension, but these are all things that crews just have to deal with… just like having people shoot at them.
– wincenworks
(The submission did come with descriptions of the screenshots which extended the length of the post a lot and which we didn’t particularly agree with – specifically on points of the male characters being sexualized. The descriptions supplied to us are below the cut.)
~Descriptions of said screenshots~
Tyrande, Images 1-2, 49-50 (Somehow got split to top and bottom, my apologies) Not much of a step forward in her newest skin (Warden Tyrande)
Stitches, Image 47 – A pun I seemed fitting for the blogs name 🙂
Sgt. Hammer, – Images 3-4 – A favorite of mine play-style wise. She does not feature much variation in any of her skins. No complaints realistically. After-all in the battlefield, the tank IS her armor, and it must be hot in there, so I think its reasonable attire.
Leoric, – Images 5-6 – The newest available hero. A new hero means a new skin for said hero, and this “skin” really lives up to its name. (It’s a pun,laugh) This mass of muscle is bound merely by leather and metal straight onto the skin. Surely this set of armor could withstand a million sword hits! Or maybe just one.
Johanna, – Images 7-9 – My personal favorite champion, obviously so because of the heavy and realistic set of armor. The first image (image 7) being her mastery skin which has more armor, the next image being her default, and the last being the skin that was released along with Johanna herself. Though with the appearance of the cloth it may SEEM that it is indeed just clothing as armor for her torso, but if you have played Diablo 3 and looked at the set variations and transmogs for her/his chest armor of the crusader, you would see that the cloth is merely a cover for the armor to represent the crusade. Much as Leoric’s cape on his skin covers his back.
Sylvanas, – Images 10-12 – My most played hero. Coming from the Warcraft realm it’s a bit expected for the humanoid/elvish female to be scantily clad and for some reason running into battle. I do favor her mastery skin as I own it and worked hard to get to it, still could use some work though.
Jaina, – Images 13-14, 17-20 (again the images got split by a random image somehow) First two images are virtually identical with the covering of the belly being the most noticeable difference. But Blizzard seemed to have brought the belly back in her newer skin “Tempest Regalia Jaina.” Must be hot in that winter robe get up on the desert map, huh?
Zagara, – Image 21 Apparently you can take a zergling queen and make them no longer armored with the new Desert Queen Zagara.
Sonya, – Images 22-25 Basically a port of the female barbarian as a lower level from Diablo 3, but as a barbarian player from Diablo 3 I am very saddened they did not add the full armor potential (very similar to how Johanna is now in Heroes of the Storm) they have from Diablo 3 into heroes of the storm with her mastery skin, or any of the other skins. But apparently everything is better if you add a neat horned hat. Super sonya looks, well, like a super hero, not sure why she’d be wearing armor everywhere except her torso and left arm though.
Kerrigan, – Images 26-30 Oh Kerrigan, not that we expected you to change from Starcraft 2, but Succubus Kerrigan? Not sure who thought that was a good idea on the Blizz team, but I can let the name and screenshot speak for itself, I’m at a loss of words for it myself.
Nova, – Images 31-39 Recently acquire the new skin “Novazon Nova.” As much as I am a huge fan of the Diablo series, having grown up on LAN playthroughs of it with my family. This is a blast to the past I didn’t want. Doesn’t look like Nova changes much with the other skins though. For comparison with the male counterpart in terms of the Spectre Nova skin, scroll down to Illidan and you will find his Spectre skin.
Valla, – Images 42-45 Valla does not change her high heels in any of the skins and also keeps the same boob window/cleavage area. Not worth 7.50 to 10 bucks in my opinion for the same thing colored differently.
Not sure how Raynor ended up down there, but hey, there he is.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed my post and I look forward to feedback and maybe I can get to posting some more! I am thinking of posting an updated League of Legends one, since I have access to their beta and I am quite an avid player of that as well (I’ve won a few local tournaments), so I can do some digging up of research if need be.
Thanks for reading!