Heroes of the Storm's 'Machines of War' update now available with new Hero Alarak

The first wave of Machines of War is now available in Heroes of the Storm, and with it, StarCraft's Alarak has entered the Nexus.

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Nearly a month after it was announced, Blizzard Entertainment has released its highly-anticipated Machines of War update for Heroes of the Storm.

The Machines of War update rolling out today includes a new Hero, Alarak, a new Battleground, and a new special event: Xel’naga Artifact Hunt. The special event will scatter Xel’naga artifacts all across the Nexus, which rewards a 1-Day Stimpack for each 12 Artifact Pieces collected per day and a Xel’naga Artifact Portrait if you’re able to turn in 150 Artifact Pieces prior to October 18, 2016.

The Machines of War update gives players the opportunity to add a new Hero to their collections for free. Players would need to update Heroes of the Storm and log in to earn one of three heroes for free: Anub’arak, Thrall, or Tyrand. If you own any of these three Heroes, you’ll then be able to own either Nazeebo, Sonya, or Uther. If you own all six of these Heroes, you’ll be given 4,000 Gold to use as you wish.

Sorry, Overwatch fans. Zarya isn’t included in today’s update, although we’re sure she’ll be arriving fashionably late in the near future. In the meantime, head into the Nexus and go have fun with Alarak!

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 14, 2016 9:45 AM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, Heroes of the Storm's 'Machines of War' update now available with new Hero Alarak

    • reply
      September 14, 2016 12:39 PM

      I'm surprised that Braxis Holdout didn't do as much for me as I thought it would. The previews looked great, but it just feels so similar to other maps. It's still a good map. Just not as "fresh" as I was hoping for. Not sure why I feel like that.

      I miss Mines. Ya, it had the problem of steamrolling, but it had a very different feel from other maps.

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        September 14, 2016 1:28 PM

        I miss mines also. I've only played the new map once, and found it kinda confusing.

        Really like the MVP screen and voting.

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          September 14, 2016 1:41 PM

          i find the mvp screen to be kind of useless. i dont feel compelled to vote for anyone until i see their numbers, but you dont show those until after voting. still, id prefer to not see that screen at all.

          they should just go to the xp/rewards screen as usual, show the mvp/whatever icons next to the names (as they do now) abd show the reason they got the award when you hover over the icon. then, clicking the icon gives them a vote. there should be a vote button for every player though, not just some award winners. maybe you could see how other people vote there too, i dunno.

          i like the overwatch system well enough, but i dont think they ported it over well at all. i also think overwatch needs to show more stat numbers on those vote cards. sometimes i might get an eliminations card for people to vote on, but it wont also point out that i got 3 golds and a silver, which i think would be nice to see. overwatch should include medal count on every card, and maybe top 3 of the players potential potg scores.

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            September 14, 2016 1:45 PM

            also the merc camp award seems pretty dumb. usually a good team does merc camps as a coordinated effort. HotS is not about "oh this player didnt engage in a majority if the fights, but that's ok because they got 3 merc camps on their own, so they get an award". it can be good to solo a merc camp if there's time, but i dont think the game should be awarding solo efforts of that kind, and definitely not awarding someone for standing on a few merc capture spots when they didnt really help

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        September 14, 2016 1:48 PM

        ive only got to play it once. wish they had a sort of brawl mode for the new map, like overwatch.

        or just use the regular vs ai and quick match, and the add a drop down for map selection, even if its just "Any" and "(the new one)"

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        September 14, 2016 2:44 PM

        I'm kinda sad they haven't released any more crazy unique heroes like Abathur

        That was the biggest draw early on but now it's just so standard feeling.

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          September 14, 2016 2:49 PM

          Cho gal, but since we're all loners no one plays him.

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          September 14, 2016 2:57 PM

          [deleted]

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            September 14, 2016 3:02 PM

            Ah yeah Cho'gall is fun. Medivh isn't that unique. He is still just a short ranged caster/harass

            I'm really hoping they come up with a hero called "The Swarm"

            It would be pretty interesting to see if they could make something like that work.

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      September 14, 2016 2:55 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 15, 2016 2:13 AM

        Completely agree, John de Lancie KILLED it with that performance, he clearly enjoyed playing such a deliciously vicious bastard.

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      September 15, 2016 1:58 AM

      Are the heroes free to play now? No? Then it's still pay to win.

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