In the absence of anyone, developers included, having big ideas for what to do with the game to give it a fighting chance of coming back I’ve been giving it a go on my own.
One idea is particularly problematic but also particularly important. I believe that the ordinary and rather shallow gameplay of HotS is holding back its potential. I think the core gameplay needs to be expanded, and at this point cost-effectively too. Several years ago, maybe all the way back in the so-called Alpha or before you could buy into the so-called closed Beta, the developers had a good basic idea but an ill-considered execution. That idea went by the name Artifacts. These were I think passive hero modifiers that players would select. Unfortunately the details may have been lost for a concrete reading of exactly what went wrong but contrary to what the average player is convinced of the idea itself is not without promise.
I have combined hero modifiers with ability-targeted modifiers and generic abilities into a set of options to pick from. Four powers can be equipped for a match and they are activatable and temporary as opposed to passive and constant (shared 8-second cooldown for power activation, individual 60-second cooldowns). The goal is to challenge players in both choice and execution, increasing the performance margin. I believe that more challenging and varied games that enable and reward better play and keep players more engaged tend to be more successful.
The time has come to think a little bit more concretely, especially as I’m more or less writing for an audience of one and need to keep things moving. 
Let’s consider a hero as an example.
Jaina
h ttps://heroesofthestorm.fandom.com/wiki/Jaina
h ttps://www.heroesprofile.com/Global/Talents/?hero=Jaina
The quickened ability power benefits Frostbite (Q) and Blizzard (W). Faster missile speed increases the likelihood of her Q hitting whereas her W shaves time off the initial delay and the waves impact quicker which increases the likelihood Jaina hits opponents with more waves of Blizzard. I would say this is a clearly useful power for Jaina.
The effect over time aspects being lengthened only affects her trait as I’m not including talents in being directly affected by powers. The power adds another second to her trait, which takes it over the cooldown duration of her Q. There should be an appreciable positive effect overall as the duration of her trait has multiple consequences especially once some of her talents are factored in but overall this power probably won’t be competitive. It adds one second to her trait for application during the power window.
The increased basic abilities range power includes both casting range and the length of skillshots. Jaina gains reach both on Q and W, enabling safer positioning or better targeting. Clearly useful. With the added reach of Q and its talents at level 1-7, even 13, Rail Gun Jaina or even Machine Gun Jaina could become a thing. The first power also contributes to this playstyle.
The expanded area of effect power benefits her W and her E (Cone of Cold). Clearly useful.
Three out of four powers in this speed, duration, range, and size of basic abilities group are clearly useful to Jaina.
Next are the pair of cooldown reduction powers. One is intended to provide a second cast of a basic ability with a medium to long cooldown relatively quickly. While Jaina has a couple of competing talents at 7 and one talent at 13 this power would be clearly useful for her W and E. The other power is a general cooldown reduction. I actually don’t know exactly how these percentage cooldown reductions translate into actual numbers given they often exceed 100% but the point is to reduce cooldowns at a rate of 30% of their base totals in the power’s window. We could call this one useful too. Two out of two here?
This might be the most exciting group of powers. I wouldn’t mind it being the most popular or common too. Movement is a big aspect of a game like this and dynamic movement has the potential to do a lot for it. Outright you can argue the first four powers are in general clearly useful. The last invisibility power I thought of as primarily a protection power, especially if it has a brief window of total unrevealibility. How about five out of five?
Protective powers pertaining to hit points. The shield is meant to be substantial to be of greatest benefit to low HP heroes like Jaina. The regeneration power is meant to benefit high HP heroes most, not terribly useful to Jaina. The third power is an on-the-spot half-hearthstone. Initially I conceived it as a mid-fight power, and it could still be used while fights are ongoing but it’s basically a stick-around power if you can get it off. This is another useful one. The life leech on damage is clearly useful to Jaina. Augmenting healing is too, although it may require greater teamwork. Absorbing damage for an ally isn’t useful to Jaina. The armor one is an interesting one, most effective if damage sustained is recovered. The way it’s worded it includes shields, so it has high utility too. Jaina doesn’t heal others so the last power is useless to her.
Five out of eight.
Finally the more bread and butter damage powers, focused on basic attacking that had been neglected. Jaina is literally a mage and relies on her ability damage so the clearly useful power to her is the first one. However, she has a level 7 basic attacking talent that reduces the cooldown of her W by a lot. It’s conceivable that in a W-focused build it would be valuable for her to pick up either the increased attack speed or the increased range. Indeed, basic attacking while moving could be a good choice too, although I’m a little concerned about that one in general.
One out of five for sure, three more are possibly useful.
3/4 in the speed, duration, range, and size of basic abilities group
2/2 in the cooldown reduction group
5/5 in the movement and movement related protection group
5/8 in the hit points protection group
1/5 for sure in the damage group that is predominantly basic attack focused
16/24 powers are clearly useful to Jaina. She can only have four available, and has to decide when to use each. This is choice, food for thought, and a layer for execution. A player can decide to go with more or less offensive choices, some of which can be both offensive and defensive. Different choices could be more suitable for different talent builds, and certainly team compositions will be factors too.
In my opinion there is significant enriching potential here for a game that has a very solid, large, and outfitted ground floor but is missing a level or two above. There is a lot to be considered but this is the sort of direction this game should have been taken in long ago. Instead its developers kept busy on the ground floor, which is what eventually cost them their jobs along with a few other decisions pushing players away that I discussed in the thread mentioned at the top of this post. Obligatory in my honest opinion.
