Heroes of the Storm 2.0 update revamps progression system, cosmetics no longer behind paywall
Blizzard is overhauling Heroes of the Storm, and while more details will be announced in portions, quite a few changes were outlined today.
All of the changes coming to Heroes of the Storm will go live with the next patch, which is currently in testing on the PTR.
Along with a progression system revision, the game will drop Loot Chests which will contain items previously purchased with gold or in the Shop. New sprays, banners, emojis, announcers, and other extras are also coming with the update.
The progression system will removed the Player and Hero level caps.
The former will be rolled "into the sum of all the Hero levels" gained. As a result, all XP earned completing games will now only affect Hero progression. Whenever you a new Hero level is gained, the overall Player Level will increase as well.
Significant changes are being made to Hero level XP requirements. Blizzard has "slightly increased XP requirements" during the first few Hero Levels, and reduced the amount of play needed to progress during later Hero levels by 75-80%.
Loot Chests will contain a random assortment of nearly every reward in the game, including Heroes. Some of the chests will be regular Loot boxes, others chest drops will be Rare or Epic when players climb up the progression ladder.
Each chest type is guaranteed to award at least one item of that Chest’s rarity level or higher, though even standard Loot Chests have a chance to contain Rare, Epic, or Legendary items.
The assortment of four, in addition to Heroes, can include skins and mounts - and if the contents aren't wanted, players can spend gold for a reroll up to three times.
Finally, there's a new assassin Hero: Diablo 2's Cassia. You can get a look at her above.
There's quite a bit to take in, so just head over to Battle.net for more information.
While you're there, you can also look over some chart breakdowns and some images outlining some of the big changes.