During the Americas championship for Heroes of the Storm, designers Matt Cooper and Hugh Shelton were doing a round table interview with the press. Shacknews managed to get the scoop on what the heck is going on with Stitches?
Shacknews brought up that Rexxar is extremely weak with Misha passes away, and asked if Blizzard would be incorporating any buffs to the newest hero in the Nexus, to improve his survivability when Mishas gone, perhaps even giving him some traps. They had this to say,
“As far as Rexxar having less to do when Misha’s out, it’s definitely intended. It’s something we’re happy with right now. We don’t have any immediate plans to adjust that gameplay. You should care if Misha dies. She’s important for Rexxar.”
They also talked about how they want to leave traps open for another hunter. As Shacknews points out, Rexxar hasn’t had a very warm welcome in the Heroes of the Storm community. We saw a small amount of play at the championships, but not the amount that most people expected.
Designers Shelton and Cooper were quick to address that Warrior doesn’t necessarily mean Tank in Heroes of the Storm, and as we move forward the meta will change with them. Many Warriors won’t be able to play the way that Johanna does, adding variety to team compositions and the game in general.
They did go on to discuss the meta in Heroes of the Storm, and how Blizzard is generally unhappy when they see a character being picked continuously with almost no negative side effects. They brought up Kael’thats and Leoric, although it is important to note that Uther and Zeratul are also two characters that are banned so frequently they don’t always get to be picked in the competitive field.
Cooper and Shelton brought up how the meta’s for different regions vary, and they are happy with that. “Like in Korea, two or three warriors is pretty common and you don’t see that as much in North America.” Recently North America has been picking up on the two warrior meta, but seeing three isn’t as common. Tempo Storm was playing around with the idea at this past weekend, and are known for being a very adaptive team to different metas.
They refused to leak much information about Artanis, the character releasing after Lt. Morales, but they were willing to say that for him to survive, its almost necessary that he remains in the center of a fight.
For the upcoming patches we should finally be getting some more balance changes, changes that probably should of happened with Rexxar’s release. And included in that? a hopeful buff to Stitches.
“It was a couple of patches we nerfed him and we probably took it too far. We kind of wanted to bring him down a little bit. We weren’t happy that Stitches was first pick every game. I’ve talked to some of the pro players a little bit. Our next patch has quite a few different warrior changes going in, so Stitches is getting some buffs.”
HALLEULJAH, Stitches will possibly be a viable character again!