The last thing this game needs (right now) is another hero release.
With less resources, there’s plenty of problems (AI, Matchmaking, TL/HL, Hero balance/reworks, etc) that will get put on the back burner in order to release a new hero. The current issues in the game are far more important than releasing a new hero.
We have 85 heroes and many of the older heroes are still in desperate need of a rework to bring them up to par.
I told you guys this game was doomed unless we add Blackthorne but noooo, Fuzzi’s a dingus who doesn’t know what he’s on about.
And look. No Blackthorne, no game. Wake up, Sheeple!
But in all seriousness, I’m with you but not surprised. I was shocked we got one after Orphea; I was sure that by admitting, “we’re too desperate to make this a thing so we’re shoving OCs in,” they had already put the towel in the ring. They reneged on their good word to fill HotS with characters it needed, who needed showing (see: Zul’jin, the Starcraft unit line [Blaze, Morales], D2/1 picks), and they instead decided we needed more poorly-conceived little girls. And it had to be a little girl, didn’t it? It couldn’t have been someone toe-to-toe with the big humans like Sonya, Jimmy and Varian, or some inhuman character, it had to be a little girl. Right? There’s absolutely no other demographic that would have espoused an original character except for the one thing Blizzard lacked in every way except maybe Leah and Li Li: a little human girl. Ugh friggin’ City, man. An anti-blessing from planet crap.
I hate to be part of the “HotS is dead!” crew but really; bugs are up, queues are slow, we’re on a slower release schedule than League of Legends (whose roster is nearly double HotS by now?) and our idea of ‘new features’ is ‘please use your shards on skins.’ Let’s not forget our three-month Christmas event.
The problem is that Blizzavision is probably a smattering of goals and ideals and right now, they’re struggling with the fact that HotS won’t ever be a corporate cogwheel, but if they start unplugging stuff because it doesn’t make money, they won’t be making ANY money soon.
It’s like Battle for Azeroth was metaphorical the whole time: even Titans can die.
Rest in Please, Blizzard. We were not worthy, and yet you gave to us of the water of your fount of life.