Cursed Hollow

"Cursed Hollow" is a three-lane haunted forest battleground set in the realm of Raven Court. The Raven Lord of the forest demands Tributes, which appear in various locations within the forest. If a team collects 3 Tributes, their enemies become cursed, causing their Forts not to attack and reducing their minions to 1 health.

The first battleground objective will activate 3 minutes into the match, following a 30-second warning.

Background

 * As one of the first and most ancient realms pulled into the Nexus, the realm of Raven Court has grown large and prosperous over the millennia. The province of Cursed Hollow, a gothic landscape of twisting villages and farmlands, serves as an ideal trial grounds for the Heroes of the Storm.

Map layout
The "Cursed Hollow" battleground has three lanes with all of the objectives located in a forest in between them and mirrored about the main diagonal of the map on the opposite north and south sides.



Mercenary Camps
There are six Mercenary camps to be recruited in this battleground. Mercenaries are enabled during the Primary Objectives.

Primary Objectives
The unique objective revolves around paying Tribute to the Raven Lord in order to curse the enemy team.

Core Ability: Curse

 * Every 3 seconds, the Core will spawn a Curse under a nearby enemy Hero. If they are Cursed, they take 5% maximum Health as damage and their Armor is reduced by 75 for 4 seconds.

Tribute

 * The first Tribute spawns 3 minutes into the match, following a 30-second warning. The location of the first Tribute will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, and subsequent indicators will appear 15 seconds after the previous Tribute has been captured.
 * Tributes spawn in the forest periodically at one of 6 spawn points and can be captured by either team.
 * To capture a Tribute, a hero must channel on it for 6 seconds, during which they can be interrupted by taking damage or moving.
 * The next Tributes spawn again every 0:50-1:30 minutes, or 2:00-2:40 after the end of a curse.

Spawn Rules

 * The Tribute locations are random, with some restrictions, and spread across 2 rows (top, bot) and 3 columns (left, mid, right). All Tributes are partitioned into sets of threes. That is, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Tributes of the game are a single set, as are the 4th, 5th, and 6th Tributes. However, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Tributes don't make a set.
 * The first Tribute of the game always spawns in one of the mid columns.
 * A Tribute cannot spawn in the same spot as the previous tribute.
 * 3 consecutive Tributes cannot spawn in the same row, even if part of a different set.
 * Tributes in a set cannot spawn in the same column.
 * Finally, the Tribute spawns randomly in one of the remaining possible locations.
 * Example: Tribute #2 spawns top left. Tribute #3 spawns top right. Because of rule 2, Tribute #4 will spawn in the bottom row, but since Tribute #4 is the first Tribute of a new set, rule 3 does not apply, and so the column will be random.

Curse

 * Once a team collects 3 Tributes, the Raven Lord curses the enemy team for 70 seconds.
 * While cursed, enemy minions have 1 Health and enemy Towers, Keeps and Forts cease firing, allowing a push against cursed enemy Structures with ease.
 * A team does not lose collected Tributes if the other team succeeds in bringing about the curse. They reset to 0 only upon cursing the enemy team.

Trivia

 * "Cursed Hollow" was the first battleground designed with a unique objective, which is why it is the most "standard" of all the current battlegrounds.
 * Snow Brawl was a Brawl set on a modified version of Cursed Hollow.