Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: Hero of the Storm - The Butcher (And the State of the Metagame)

Welcome to Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at one of the playable heroes from Blizzard Entertainment's Heroes of the Storm: The Butcher, from the Diablo Universe, and the State of the Metagame.


Whew~!

So how are you guys?

  I know, I know - I wasn't around last week, and for that I apologize, but here we are, with another Heroes of the Storm column! Here's what's happened in the past week and change: the Eternal Conflict has arrived, The Butcher is the first "Hero" to come from the event, and we got us a HUGE talent overhaul for most heroes (but specifically Support types). So without further ado, let's get into the meat of it all and look at: The Butcher!

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: Hero of the Storm - Kael'thas Sunstrider

Welcome to Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at one of the playable heroes from Blizzard Entertainment's Heroes of the Storm. 


  I've touched briefly on how certain characters can be self-sufficient and engage enemy players by themselves without really relying on teammates. Assassin types in Heroes of the Storm are exactly that type of character. While some can be more self-sufficient than others, especially those with stealth mechanics, one need to look no further than ranged caster types. Able to stand behind enemy lines and nuke the opposition, ranged assassins have a special role in Heroes of the Storm as damage dealing "carries." One of said carries is Kael'thas Sunstrider. And right up until the launch of Heroes of the Storm launch on June 2, 2015 - he was (and still is!) one the scariest casters in the game. 

"Bal'a dash, malanore!"

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: Hero of the Storm - Johanna

Welcome to Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at one of the playable heroes from Blizzard Entertainment's Heroes of the Storm.

Ask anyone that knows my Diablo 3 preferences and they'll tell you two things: 

"He likes Monks."

"He really really REALLY loves the Crusader class!"

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: Heroes of the Storm

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at Blizzard Entertainment's foray into the MOBA space with Heroes of the Storm!


  As far as gaming genres in the PC community go, very few, command such a strong following and communities as the mighty MOBA. I've touched up on both the genre and one of the current kings, within said genre, in the PC landscape. And while DOTA 2 exemplifies the far end of all the gameplay obstacles that the genre has difficulty easing brand new players into, League of Legends feels like the happy medium within the playing curve. But Blizzard Entertainment has had a stake in the MOBA genre since it inadvertently gave birth to it during Warcraft III, or Starcraft if you want to be technical.

HEROES. BRAWL!

A byproduct of all of its existing franchises (and one could argue their genres), Heroes of the Storm is the MOBA specifically designed for the uninitiated in mind, while also keeping enough freshness and tactical dexterity hidden deep in its overly simplistic format to satisfy even veterans of the genre. Today, I look at the final product (after my months spent in the technical Alpha and Beta stages) and give my overall feeling of the game in its current incarnation. This is Blizzard Entertainment's first official MOBA (internally dubbed a "Hero Brawler"): Heroes of the Storm.

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: League of Legends - The MOBA Phenomenon

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at Riot Games' foray into the MOBA space with the colossal monster that is League of Legends!


  PC gaming has gone through some interesting genre defining moments. In the early 90's Lucasarts pioneered the point and click adventure game that now serves as the basic DNA for most Telltale games you currently play. By the end of the 90s, the real time strategy (RTS) game, and the first person shooter (FPS) had taken a hold of the PC market, and one could argue that, save for the mighty MMO, that dominant hold has stayed for the better of two full decades. But something strange happened to the RTS genre. A little game called Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos came out during the turn of the millennium, and with it came a level editor that was promised as a modding tool for the community by Blizzard Entertainment; I'm sure you've heard of them! This modding tool gave birth to one of the most popular custom maps in the history of the RTS genre: the Defense of the Ancients, which played homage to the Starcraft custom map Aeon of Strife (AoS) . Three lanes, two teams, five players each - battling for supremacy to reach the other team's "Ancient." Whomsoever reached and destroyed the other team's ancient, was the victor. And so began the age of DOTA.

What. The. Shit. Is. This?