Heroes of the Storm's Shop is shutting down today as Blizzard's new multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) prepares to enter the final phase of Technical Alpha. Once the Store shuts down, you'll be unable to make any purchases using Gold or real money; however, all 29 Heroes will be available for free in the Hero rotation.
Next week, the Technical alpha service will be taken offline for more than a week of extended maintenance. During this time, you'll be unable to play Heroes of the Storm and Blizzard will reset everyone's Heroes accounts.
"Once the Nexus is brought back online, it will be as though you’re starting fresh with a brand new account. This means that any leveling progression you’ve made, rewards you’ve unlocked, in-game Gold you’ve earned, and any purchases you’ve made with real-money or Gold prior to the wipe will be reset," Blizzard explained.
"However, kindly keep in mind that following the account wipe, any real money you spent thus far during play testing has not been lost and will be refunded to your Battle.net Balance. Even though you’ll be starting fresh at level one, you’ll still be able to use the refunded money to pick up that shiny Bundle Pack, Mount, or Skin you might have had your eye on over the last few weeks. As an added bonus, anyone who made a real-money purchase using real money during the Technical Alpha will receive an exclusive Wonder Billie Mount!"
According to Blizzard, this is the final planned Heroes of the Storm account wipe and money refund, but warned they may still need to wipe player progression in the future.
"Our goal is to avoid future player and hero progression wipes after we come back online, but we may still need to adjust or wipe player progression with future updates," Blizzard said. "Don’t worry, though, because we’ll give you ample warning if that ever becomes necessary. What we do know is that from the moment we bring Heroes back online after this wipe, purchases you make in the Shop will be permanent. So get those Heroes, Bundles, Skins, and Mounts with the confidence that you won't need to reacquire them again."
