[Dev Update] Heroes' Ascent Changes Coming

Hi, there,

Thank you very much for your feedback in response to the recent "Share your thoughts" thread on the matter of changes to Heroes' Ascent. At this time, we'd like to announce that the designers have worked up several potential changes for HA, and we're ready to move them into testing mode. But wait, this isn't your standard "We'll let you know more later" thread. This is a "You can let us know more later" thread, instead.

You see, the first wave of changes will involve swapping out and refreshing the mechanics of Heroes' Ascent. From map revisions to victory conditions, there are a lot of proposed changes to the whole HA system that we think will enliven the whole place, will increase the fun factor, and will encourage the creation and use of more and different builds. We're also looking at testing a significant number of skill changes, after which they'll be rolled back out and then honed for final implementation

We will be holding a weekend of testing, and we invite you to participate. Join us the weekend of January 19 through 21 and test out the changes for yourself. Then, post your thoughts in the fan forums and let us know what you think! You can count on us reading your feedback and considering your input as we move forward.

One note on HA: In order to focus on the changes to mechanics, and in order to avoid shifting too many elements at once (which would make it difficult to assess the success of the individual changes) we are looking at altering game mechanics only during this weekend of testing. While we know that many players feel that HA would be improved through a change in party size, we will not be altering party size for this test. Naturally, we will consider numeric changes at a later date, after the first round involving the change to game mechanics has been tested and appraised.

And now for something completely different! Players have asked about how to acquire their weapon prizes in the Xunlai Tournament House Winterfest Winners Contest. Successful predictors will be happy to know that the Xunlai Tournament Agent will make his return on Thursday, January 11th. You must be sure that your profile is up to date, so check this link and update as needed. In that way, the XTA can give you your hard-earned prizes when you check in with him anytime from Thursday on!

So long as more unranked people get a shot in HA, I'll be happy =)

Huh.

Interesting.

I can't wait to see what you guys have in store =)

Thanks for listenin to the community

WOW

this is exactly the type of thing i was hoping for. For anet to give us an idea of the changes they want to make to the game before they actually make them permanent and to be able to give feedback on what we think about the proposed changes.

Now they go and do one thing better... making us all beta testers in a in-game test of potential changes! WOOOOHOOO

AND OMG... ''encourage the creation and use of more and different builds'' Are my eyes deceiving me or did my HA dreams come closer to reality. Goodbye players who depend on gimmicks and stale metagames for fame... hello innovation... hello balanced builds... helloooooo my tombs friendlist back online.

19th-21st january is going to be a no study zone for me. I cant wait. Someone invent a time machine and bring us all forward to that weekend!

gosh i wonder wtf kind of changes are going to be seen... its such a mystery!

Looking very forward to this!

I hope that involves enviroment effects that are like in RoT.

I hope it involves having a newbie area where R3- degladiate.

Great idea, getting feedback as you go along. This will take some quick work from players and devs.

Sounds like a good plan.

Thank you Gaile, Anet. Although this still doesn't reach my hopes of the return of 8v8, it is nice to see that you guys have made some effort to improve the game play in Heroes Ascent.

I hope to see further changes and look forward to the weekend.

Snype

DOes This Mean 8 man ha? cuz thats all i care about and hopefully they dont remove a good map like they did to burial mounds.

Rank discrimination is just stupid. I agree with Sarevok Thordin on this.

Also, what ever happened to the evil Lord Elvis in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings?...

Did you read the whole thing?

Reading comprehension ftw.

Of course I don't expect you to understand that phrase.

So the simple answer is NO. Not yet anyway.

She is pretty clear in saying THEY AREN'T MAKING IT 8 MAN in this test >_>

This is basically an open testing of future changes (which seem to be Skill Balances, and a Re-working of how HA works in order to try to improve it) , which people have been suggesting to Anet since the game came out.

There was no reason to be so "Cloak and Dagger" about their Alpha program and testing for so long anyway...

Sounds Fantastic for pvp people......


Are pve players ever going to get something like this??

not likely...

What "changes" do PvEers need.

Apart from Razah needing to be made reasonable to get.

But that's about it.

What does "changes to game mechanics" mean?

The changes are still a week away, but could this explain the EXTREME lag that HA has been getting recently???