If I buy and install the Heart of the Swarm expansion, can I still play multiplayer games with people who have Wings of Liberty? or am I limited to HotS matches only?
Starcraft – If I get HotS can I still play WoL with friends
starcraft-2
Related Solutions
If I'm understanding your question properly, in order to have two Heart of the Swarm licenses you need two Wings of Liberty licenses.
Since Heart of the Swarm is not a stand alone expansion, you need to have all the prerequisite games in order to play it (each copy).
You can see for example, on this Cataclysm box art for World of Warcraft, that it requires "Wrath of the Lich King to play". Wotlk says it requires TBC, and TBC requires the base game. It is expansions all the way down. This trend stands true for all Blizzard games to date, as they don't release stand alone expansions.
Also be aware that Blizzard enabled "spawning" a while ago, which will automatically bring all players up to the highest level of anyone in their party. So if you play in a group with someone who has HoTS, you will have access to the HoTS ladder and units.
Related Topic
- Starcraft – Do I need the Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty disk for Heart of the Swarm
- Starcraft – ny way to get back the WoL command card in HotS
- Starcraft – Does Wings of Liberty have global play on its own
- Starcraft – Will I be able to play legacy of the void ladder if I buy wings of liberty or heart of the swarm
- Diablo – ny way to buy the Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm digital deluxe edition
Best Answer
Under Gameplay in StarCraft II's options menu, you can set the expansion level between Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and the upcoming Legacy of the Void expansion. If you set it to Wings of Liberty, ranked ladder and unranked matchmaking as well as bot matches and anything else will be with the Wings of Liberty features and Wings of Liberty players only. For example, Void Rays in matches played with Wings of Liberty selected will still have their focused damage increase. (In Heart of the Swarm, this was removed and replaced with an ability.)
For playing with friends who only have Wings of Liberty, you can leave your expansion level on Heart of the Swarm. When you are in a party with someone who doesn't have Heart of the Swarm, it will have an icon in the party chat beside their name saying that they only have Wings of Liberty. In the matchmaking section, it will say "Playing Wings of Liberty" in the bottom right. When you begin matchmaking, you will be matched with others who are playing Wings of Liberty and with Wings of Liberty units, abilities, maps and stats.
In short, yes: when a friend with only WoL is in a party with you, you can play with them and you will be playing with the WoL content.