14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard focusing on Heroes of the Storm says that it is generally happy with the improvements to matchmaking that were delivered starting with late 2015 and that it wants to continue working on the system in order to make sure that gamers get into fair matches that result in fun engagements and close final results.
In a lengthy blog post, the studio explains that its tweaks so far have been well received by the community and have improved the battles based on data the company is gathering from the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena experience.
For the coming weeks, Blizzard is aiming to introduce a new rule for Quick Match that will make sure that only one of the following heroes is given to one team, to limit cases where cooperation is impossible: Abathur, Cho’gall, Lt. Morales, Murky, Nova and The Lost Vikings.
The company also says that it is happy with the slight increase in the time gamers spend in the matchmaking queue of Heroes of the Storm since the changes have been introduced, with the value going up from 80 to 130 seconds on average.
This is a direct result of the focus on fairness rather than on fast pairing, and it seems that Blizzard has no clear way to reduce the waiting time at the moment.
The studio adds, "we’d like to emphasize once more that we aren’t finished making improvements for matchmaking in Heroes of the Storm. While we aren’t ready to share details about what those changes are just yet, we would like to thank everyone who continues to provide us with their thoughts on the current state of matchmaking."
Both data gathered from matches and feedback offered by gamers will be taken into account when it comes to future changes to the system.
Heroes of the Storm will continue to get new heroes and balance patches
A new small update for the MOBA is now live and makes changes to the abilities of Li Ming, which the developers consider to be a little too strong at the moment, as well as Stitches, Rehgar and Anub'arak.
The effort to improve the balance of Heroes of the Storm will continue in the coming weeks and months, and Blizzard says it will also explore its major franchises for other interesting characters that can open up new tactical options in its title.
The company is at the moment offering Zeratul for a lower price on the official store, as well as some skins associated with him.
The changes that have been recently made to matchmaking mean that solo gamers are no longer matched up against five-player parties and that the Quick Match experience has been improved through a range of rules.
Blizzard is not saying what its plans for eSports events featuring Heroes of the Storm for the coming year are, but the company will need to finance a major event to keep up with rivals like League of Legends from Riot Games and DOTA 2 from Valve.