Organic, non-GMO talents
In an interview with Heroes Game designer Kent-Erik Hagman (courtesy of RedBull.com), we first hear the phrase "Apples to Apples, Oranges to Oranges". Here is the full quote for proper context:
Hagman was referring to Samuro's talent tree that, despite the communities concerns of the heroes balance, shows a level of design mastery over the talent system that leaves some of the older heroes in the dust. Samuro's talent tree is so compelling and well designed that half of the fun of playing with the Hero is deciding your talents.
Samuro has no truly weak talents. Each of them has the potential to feel like the most powerful tool in his arsenal and it's up to the player to build a whatever Samuro the game demands. This is what every hero strives to be and it's all thanks to the "Apples to Apples" shift in philosophy.
The first obvious experiment.
Although Samuro is the shining example, he wasn't the first hero to flex this design philosophy. It was Lunara that had very first "apples to apples" talent decision that made no effort to blend in with the rest of the games talent trees. At level 4, Lunara players are forced to choose a talent that affects her weakest ability, Wisp.
It's not that Wisp is useless, but it investing talents into it would be a very bad idea if there was literally any other options to choose from. A Blizzard designer amusingly once told me that if Lunara had a 5th choice at level 4 that read "Increases auto attack damage by 1" a large majority of players would choose it, and likely, be right in doing so.
It was the incredible weakness of wisp that may have inspired the Apples to Apples approach to talent design. Instead of designing talent tiers that make the player choose between "Damage or Utility", Blizzard is instead asking "What type of damage" on one tier, and then "what type of utility" on the other. This creates more well-rounded heroes and more opportunities to design interesting talents that don't always have to compete with raw damage talents (that usually win).
Without Apples to Apples talent trees, Wisp talents couldn't exist.
A less obvious example
Lunara and Nova may be the most obvious examples of this type of design philosophy thanks to their level 4 talent tiers, but other heroes being redesigned are starting to feel the affects as well.
Take for example, Nazeebo's new talent tree. His tree doesn't appear to follow the new "Apples to Apples" design rule, but the majority of the tiers are filled with talents that achieve the same end goal, but differently:
1. All of these talents determine how Nazeebo players will land their spells.
4. All of these Talents determine how Nazeebo will sustain his Health and Mana
7. All of these Talents determine how Nazeebo will deal lots of damage.
13. All of these talents determine how Nazeebo will negate damage
The results are a lot more talent diversity. Nazeebo players can adapt on the fly and choose talents that help them perform crucial functions (Like sustaining health or negating damage) instead of min-maxing a particular style and choosing the same "power talents" every game.
The future of talents
The most fun thing about Samuro (Besides Windwalk that is also a blink that grants you 0 collision size at much faster than mount speed on a 6 second cool down) is the discussion about his talents. There is no "set" build and playing as Samuro feels different every game. The talent system is one of Heroes of the Storm biggest selling point, and it appears that this new philosophy is already having a positive affect on the game.
Follow us on Twitter @GosuGamersHotS and on Facebook for more competitive Heroes of the Storm news and coverage from around the world.
