This past weekend saw the 5th beta session for Wrath of Heroes. I have not posted about it for a while because I have just been swamped with other games to play. Star Wars: The Old republic has been chief among the time suckers. I did manage to break away and test out the new version.
In short, I was pretty impressed with the state of the game. They have made some significant changes, which can be seen in the patch notes. Here are some things that stood out to me.
Hero Masteries. Each hero in WoH will have multiple mastery 9or talent if you prefer) trees. I think the number is two at the moment. As a player levels their account, they can assign points and gain access to new tactics, alternate abilities and perks.
While they are not the most complex trees I've seen, they do add some much needed depth to the game. You can only equip a hero with a limited amount of tactics, skills and perks.
As you can see in the picture above, I have three of my new options equipped. The Steam Turret (which is awesome) replaces my standard Bombardment Turret ability. I also have a 10% Crit Chance tactic equipped and one that adds a short snare to my Gun Blast ability.
Here is where things get more interesting. L'il Helper here will trigger if I get a Kill Streak of 10. Sadly, I was unable to get that streak while I had this ability equipped. I did manage a Kill Streak of 11, without it, grrrr. I would like to see a separate slot for these perks, since it is hard to justify passing up a sweet alternate ability for something that may rarely happen.
Store. They have to pay the bills somehow, so the store is now operational (but not using real money yet). Only Heroes and Skins are for sale, and I didn't see anything to indicate other types of products yet. The most important aspect of the store is you can use in-game currency and not just real money.
Hero Synergy. Another interesting feature they added was Hero Synergies. In WAR terms, these are like the old Renown tactics, where players would get bonuses based on group composition or target race. Seems that they are really trying to encourage cooperation, which is always a good thing.
