Hey Heroes of the Storm community!
I wanted to open a dialogue on a topic that has been a point of discussion among me and my friends: the idea that certain skins might offer some sort of in-game advantage. My friend MimicTear is particularly convinced that Valla’s all-white skin kit gives her a subtle but noticeable advantage when played.
MimicTear’s Argument: The All-White Valla Kit
According to MimicTear, the all-white Valla skin makes it slightly more difficult for enemies to quickly identify and target her, especially in the heat of battle or on snow-themed maps. The light color palette may blend well with the environment or simply cause a moment’s hesitation for the enemy—time that could be crucial in high-level play.
My Questions for the Community
- Do you think certain skins provide an in-game advantage, even if it’s minor?
- Have you ever felt that an opponent had an edge due to their skin choice?
- Should the game designers take this into consideration when creating new skins?
Additional Points to Consider
- Visibility: Certain skins may have color schemes that blend into the map, making the hero less visible.
- Skillshot Clarity: Some skins may alter the visual cues of abilities, potentially making them harder to dodge or anticipate.
- Psychological Factors: Sometimes, the mere aesthetics of a skin can be intimidating or distracting.
Conclusion
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Whether you think it’s a legitimate point or a reach, it’s an interesting topic to delve into. I’m particularly keen to hear if you’ve had similar experiences to MimicTear’s perception of the all-white Valla skin.
Let’s get a lively discussion going!
Cheers,
Sire Denathrius
For the glory of the Nexus! 
Yes this is a thing. But typically, pros demand that the default skins or more visible skins are used to increase fairness. Usually, when there is something at stake, ie. tournaments.
A lot of times, the skins don’t matter when a stage is used where visibility is uniform for all skins. This is what pro players look for first before character skins.
Some instances of skins did have a “physical” advantage/disadvantage, in the way that the hitbox was smaller or more difficult to click on. Blizz did address this very quickly when players brought it up.
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This was a thing in HGC where some skins are banned from used, including a huge majority of Kael’thas cosmetics that would cause an advantage on Sky Temple.
Generally the impact is minimal and almost all these problems were fixed by changing the UX of the effects and even to a point of changing the map’s lighting too.
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Invisible horse is banned in ngs because it messes with your hit box slightly.
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I’m late to the party, but:
“Yes but actually no”
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Some skins did give you an advantage by reducing your hitbox or making it harder to see some abilities on certain maps, so they got banned from use in tournaments.
Some skins also gave disadvantages, like one of Azmodans (the basketball one), would make his Q fly slower. This was fixed already though.
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Rather than giving the user an advantage, I’ve had times where it feels it gives me a disadvantage.
For example, Malfurion and Illidan have skins themed around each other, and I have had many a game where I see Illidan, but because he’s using the skin with the green beard, I think it’s malf for a few moments (so I don’t worry too much about him charging me 
).
A similar thing happened a few times with a Chromie skin that I mistake for Li Li (for some reason).
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4.4.8 The following skins are banned (all tints included):
- Archangel Diablo
- Cyberhawk Kael’thas
- Maraudin’ Muradin
- Striker Li-Ming
- Mecha Tyrael
- Cuddle Bear Stitches
4.4.9 The following mounts are banned:
- Countess Kerrigan Mount (Bat)
- Crimson Arthas Mount (Gargoyle)
- Invisible Horse
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I personally avoid using red or orange or even very bright coloured skins when I play carries. Reds actually draw your focus more because of the length of time it takes your brain to process them (an actual known phenomenon) so I’d rather not give the enemy any extra reasons to pay attention to me xD I’m not certain that it makes a notable difference, but I’ll take any advantage, however perceivable it may or may not be 
Really? The Countess Kerrigan Mount, Crimson Arthas Mount, and Invisible Horse are banned? Do these mounts give some sort of advantage or create issues during the gameplay that I’m unaware of?
The Kerrigan mount and Invisible Horse obscure the character models, which is a very slight advantage. The Kerrigan one in particular is extremely tiny, even compared to unmounted heroes.
I don’t know why the Arthas one is banned though. Maybe it makes it harder to tell when he’s mounted, but in that case why isn’t Azmodan’s default mount banned?
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I think it’s rather because it makes it difficult to tell it’s Arthas.
Those skins’ special mounts change the silhouette of the hero a lot, so they make it more difficult to recognize them in the middle of combat and all that.
…Then again, Mecha Tassadar’s special mount also does that, and it isn’t banned(?), so I might be wrong 
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They change the size of the hero’s model.
this isnt an issue as there is settings to highlight the enemy heroes with a red aura
Yes, I feel that way when I play valla, bigger skin certainly makes it easier for them to hit or click on. That’s why I use the default one, which looks a bit more slim and harder to hit. (And boring too at times)
I’d rather have to deal with some more difficult to see skins, than have a huge mastery ring that I can’t turn off, which just screams “aim here.”
I kinda regret equipping my level 60 D.Va with a mastery ring, I took it precisely because D.Va (in mech) has a large hit box. I had assumed that you would be able to toggle mastery rings on or off.
Okay, I’ve probably overstated any “issues” with mastery rings, but it still would be nice if we could toggle them.
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I would like something more developed for the mastery ring. I don’t care really since I’m already hard to catch 
Yes that is a great idea too, on heroes fandom there is an image that shows that for a hero mastery beyond the lvl 100, the number would show on the side of the border. I would love that! Could not be happier to let them know I’m dangerous, here my hero lvl 999.
Also worth mentioning is that for me personally, the vanilla Valla skin does auto attack faster than the others. The attack animation looks faster and also distract less which helps me to do it better. I always believed it does auto attack faster and it still feels the same way.
lewd skins provide a sort of advantage 
You are not alone in wishing I could turn them off. For whatever reason, I managed to convince myself that the level 75 and 100 rings were in game but were “hidden” and needed to reach those levels to be unlocked. I was disappointed both times reaching those levels as Sylvanas.
Being that I am a bit of a skin matching guy, the rings tend to rub me the wrong way due to how they do not match with the color of many skins. Also, it completely kills using the basic starter load out for undercover lulz.
This all reminds me of a f2p mmo game which relied heavily on a player’s physical representation to give someone an idea–levels were only visible to the player and no one else–of what level they are, and it was not uncommon for ultra high levels to protect lower level players on PvP servers by wearing matching gear and just loitering around (I used to do this when I was a in a guild or just to protect low levels) so when someone tried to gank a low level, or them, the wolf in sheep’s skin would just fast tab to their main weapon to then thump the ganker.
Or just proceed to pummel the ganker with their equiped weapon, and then have that person question themselves for getting beaten by what they thought was a low level player.
And that’s it for the “back in my day” rant that no one gives a hoot about.
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