It's been over a year since Blizzard gave Heroes of the Storm the ol' yeller, and in the eyes of weekend editor Jody Macgregor, "the only good MOBA."

This patch is a strong one, but a complete fix-up patch: a pile of UI changes, balance tweaks, and bug fixes; Blizzard thanks players who "provided insight and feedback on these changes" and encountered bugs during PTR testing people were asked to report them in the appropriate forums.

The new updates are in line with what Blizzard promised when it officially ended development of Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard said at the time, "It is in line with what we promised when we officially ended development of Heroes of the Storm." In the future, the game will continue to offer seasonal rolls and hero rotations, and the in-game store will remain operational, but there are no plans to add new content for purchase. Future patches will focus primarily on client maintenance and bug fixes, with balance updates as needed."

Despite this, there is renewed hope among enthusiasts, not only with the surprise arrival of new patches, but also with Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft's gaming division, has previously expressed his enthusiasm for reviving some of the company's older classics, and hopes that "Heroes of the Storm" will be one of them.

"I hope they take a peek at [StarCraft 2] and realize that Blizz geeks are a hardy bunch and can weather a content drought and flourish with a drop of content," redditor fourtyonexx wrote.

"HotS is running on the SC2 engine, so getting an arcade mode out of it should be a piece of cake.

"League of Legends, Dota2...... We have our own MOBAs, so let's get back to that,'" GrumpyKitten514 added. 'HOTS used to be one of my favorite games. I think I'll reinstall it." [Similar opinions are shared on Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm forum. Ephemiel added: "Lots of fixes for a maintenance mode game." Perhaps Steam has already added 'Overwatch 2' and 'Diablo 4.'

And of course there are the memes:

Now, I don't want to be the guy to shatter your dreams; Heroes of the Storm fans are obviously dedicated, but with all due respect, they are few in number, and as GrumpyKitten514 indirectly pointed out, the MOBA genre is already dominated by LoL and Dota. Even if active development were to resume, there is little room for Heroes of the Storm to break in. So could Heroes of the Storm suddenly make a full and vigorous comeback? Of course. But will it?

The full patch notes for Heroes of the Storm can be found on blizzard.com.