Blizzard unveiled a ton of juicy previews at its annual BlizzCon event in Anaheim, California, this past week. Diablo will have a new mainline installment in Diablo 5, Overwatch is adding a new hero (a vampire-coded support named Doctrine) and reworking an existing DPS hero into a support (a public nuisance called Sombra), and Starcraft is… an open-world shooter now? Okay, why not?
However, there is one announcement that, if you told me you saw this coming, I would have called you a filthy liar, thrown you out of my house, blocked your number, and written a heated AITA post on Reddit about the whole experience (from a burner account, of course).
Remember Heroes of the Storm? HotS debuted in 2015 as Blizzard’s answer to the then-raging MOBA craze, putting players in strategic, isometric command of some of the developer’s most iconic characters. The roster included Sylvanas Windrunner from World of Warcraft, Tracer from Overwatch, and Diablo from, well, Diablo.
Unfortunately for HotS heads, Blizzard added its last character, Hogger, to the game in December 2020 before fully ending support for new content in 2022.
That is, until now.
After a six year drought, Blizzard has announced that Xal'atath, the Herald of the Void and villain of the latest WoW expansion, Midnight, will hit the Heroes of the Storm Public Test Realm on Sept. 14th and officially release on Sept. 28th
In terms of playstyle, Xal’atath will be a ranged assassin whose abilities are as follows (per Blizzard):
- Trait — Void Volley. Basic attacks build Soul Essence; at full Essence, unleash a barrage of void bolts at a target area while moving freely. Tied to the Void Whispers quest, which rewards range, faster charge, and piercing, empowered void damage as it progresses.
- Q — Dark Heart Ritual. Summon the Dark Heart talisman to pulse void energy at nearby enemies, then follow and detonate on any Shadow-Marked hero.
- W — Void Step. Blink between three points in a triangular pattern, gaining attack damage at each stop; can be cancelled early to reposition or escape.
- E — Shadow Mark. Cast a large Void Orb that marks heroes hit by its inner radius; the Dark Heart moves to the impact point and detonates on marked heroes.
- Heroic — Void Eruption. Channel a growing void orb, launch it to blind enemies and dominate space, then detonate in a large area — cast on the Dark Heart for an instant, fully empowered eruption.
- Heroic — Void Convergence. Summon a portal that spawns relentless void minions to overwhelm nearby enemies, replacing fallen minions until the portal ends or is destroyed.
Whoah, a new HotS hero? That’s crazy! Will there be more?
Blizzard has teased that there “…may be even more to come for Heroes in the future!” Kinda sounds like a yes to me.
So, if you were a HotS player back in the day, is this getting you to reinstall the game?
Or perhaps you’ve been carrying the torch even through the “hiatus.” Are you not the happiest little camper now?
Either way, now’s a good time to make sure your gear is up to snuff for a hardcore MOBA sesh. I’m talking mappable quick-press keys. I’m talking textured WASD so that you don’t R when you should have E’d. I’m talking the Command Series KB7 Keyboard with Hall Effect switches and a 4.3” touchscreen. Or maybe a new mouse is just what you need? All this and more at Turtle Beach.
