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Heroes of the Storm removing Artifacts

Blizzard recently experiemented with the idea of Artifacts in Heroes of the Storm. However, in the wake of player concerns, the Artifacts are now being removed.

Ozzie Mejia

August 1, 2014 2:30 PM

Part of being in a technical alpha means knowing when things are working and when they simply are not. Blizzard is well aware of this, especially in regards to their MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. That's why the developer is swiftly pulling the plug on the game's artifacts feature, only weeks after it was first introduced.

Artifacts were initially added to help move player progression forward. A new slot would be added at Level 15, allowing for gems, relics and trinkets that would customize a player's hero further. Dedicated players raised valid concerns in the wake of this announcement. In fact, Chatty's own BlackCat9 eloquently explained that this would not only lead to a drain player's gold resources that could otherwise be used to purchase heroes, but it would also unintentionally create a barrier of entry for new players.

Blizzard has heard these concerns and has reacted swiftly.

"As a result, we have decided to remove the artifact system from Heroes of the Storm with a patch scheduled for later today," reads a statement on the game's website. "We will explore different ways to give you fun and compelling options for spending gold, while avoiding the problems that the initial artifact system created. We don't have any updates on what our future systems may be, but we'll be sure to keep you informed and look forward to getting your feedback on alternate systems."

The new patch will also make it easier for heroes to reach Level 4, which should help players unlocks talents quicker and generally move the game faster.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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Shacknews

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August 1, 2014 2:30 PM

Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Heroes of the Storm removing Artifacts.

Blizzard recently experiemented with the idea of Artifacts in Heroes of the Storm. However, in the wake of player concerns, the Artifacts are now being removed.
- bob3578
  
   reply
  August 1, 2014 7:00 PM
  
  So... are they ever going to release this? Will I ever get to play this?
  - jonin
    
     reply
    August 1, 2014 7:35 PM
    
    I get to play it every day.
    - [deleted] 1784011840
      
       reply
      August 1, 2014 10:26 PM
      
      [deleted]
      - TreMetal
        
         reply
        August 1, 2014 10:33 PM
        
        I am not sure how long ago you played, but that must be quite a while ago if games are decided by lvl 6 since there's been a bunch of snowball changes.
        
        This past week was particularly awful with the introduction of Artifacts. But previous to artifacts it was pretty fun.
  - daggot
    
     reply
    August 3, 2014 5:36 PM
    
    Well, it's still in Alpha, so it'd still need to go through at least a closed beta and probably an open beta before release. Though, probably like Hearthstone it'll be a kind of soft launch.
- code-e255
  
   reply
  August 2, 2014 7:13 AM
  
  I just got into the alpha last week and I'm glad that I don't have to play with an unfair disadvantage against buffed up enemies anymore. Having a lot of fun with this game. It's a lot more newbie friendly than other DotA-style games, mainly because they got rid of stupid mechanics like last-hits, deny-hit, and steep level progression where the game's lost if one dies a few times.
  - Curike
    
     reply
    August 3, 2014 6:13 AM
    
    Uhm. You mean like, LoL?
- daggot
  
   reply
  August 3, 2014 5:39 PM
  
  Honestly, the difference in power with these artifacts was immediately apparent on the Dragon Knight map. Since they didn't up the minions or any summoned types - like the Dragon Knight, the knight was killed much faster than before. So, even if they were going to keep these in, the balance difference this made would have had to be tuned a lot before it could work. But, that's the long way to say that players were right that you were then basically gimped until you maxed out. And, that was against what they were trying to do.
  
  But, the internet needs to chill on this. Yeah, it didn't work. But, this is an Alpha. They're trying to figure out how to develop game systems that are fun. This wasn't it. But, no need to for the Bnet forums to be so hostel.