Heroes of the Storm Hero Preview

Heroes of the Storm is a team brawler of heroic proportions as described by Blizzard. It is better known by the community as a moba or multiplayer online battle arena similar to Dota 2 and League of Legends and originating from a Warcraft 3 mod called Defense of the Ancients.

Heroes of the Storm, once known as Blizzard All Stars, is Blizzard's foray into the moba scene already dominated by games such as Dota 2, League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth.

I am here to give you a preview of some of the heroes I managed to play over at Blizzcon!

Here is a list of all the heroes that were playable at the demo area of the con:

Falstad - Ranged Assasin - Warcraft

Illidan - Melee Assasin - Warcraft

Kerrigan - Melee Assasin - Starcraft

Nova - Ranged Assasin - Starcraft

Valla - Ranged Assasin - Diablo

Naziba - Ranged Specialist - Diablo

Raynor - Ranged Assasin - Starcraft

Gazlowe - Melee Specialist - Warcraft

Uther - Melee Support - Warcraft

Abathur - Melee Support - Starcraft

Malfurion - Ranged Support - Warcraft

Tassadar - Ranged Support - Starcraft

Arthas - Melee Warrior - Warcraft

Sonya - Melee Warrior - Diablo

Diablo - Melee Warrior - Diablo

Elite Tauren Chieftain - Melee Warrior - Warcraft

Tyrael - Melee Warrior - Diablo

Stiches - Melee Warrior - Warcraft

For those not familiar with the classifications:

Assassin class - the assassin class is very squishy but deals high damage.

Specialist class - the specialist class focus their abilities in one area. Ex. Gazlowe’s abilities allow him to be lane or area control.

Support class - the support class uses their abilities to support his or her teammates. They usually have weak physical damage capabilities.

Warrior class - the warrior class characters are very beefy and disruptive in nature. They also tend to have good crowd control abilities.

Abathur - Melee Support

Abilities:

Q - Infests an ally hero anywhere on the map. While infesting an ally, his body remains where it is and loses all control of himself and the camera is now locked onto his ally. He gains new abilities. He can cancel this by pressing R and it goes on a 4 second cooldown. It lasts for ~30-45 seconds.

Dota 2 - Similar to Lifestealer ult except global and doesn’t move.

LoL - There is no simliar mechanic in League.

W - Places a creep tumor that explodes like a land mine on enemies that walk over it. Has a fairly long range and can be made global through talents. Can hold up to 3 charges.

Dota 2 - Similar to Goblin Techie Land Mines except not as strong.

LoL - Teemo Mushrooms except ranged.

E - Allows him to burrow into the ground and reappear on an area he targets. The area must be visible.

Dota 2 - Similar to Nature’s Prophet’s teleport except requires vision.

LoL - Similar to Twisted Fate ultimate except doesn’t grant vision

Heroic Ability- He clones an ally within range, fairly short. He takes control of the clone and can use it’s abilities.

Heroic Trait - Every 20 seconds he spawns a locust that goes into a lane and fights.

Abilities while possessed

Q - Short range skillshot poke

Dota 2 - Fairly simple ability. Not much similar to it.

LoL - Similar to Ezreal Mystic Shot except much shorter range.

W - AoE spikes that deal damage. Can increase range and add slow through talents.

Dota 2 - Similar to Bristleback’s Quill Spray except without the passive spray.

LoL - Similar in function to Amumu’s Tantrum.

E - Shield.

R - Cancel possess.

Impressions:

I played Abathur two times while at Blizzcon. He’s can be an extremely satisfying champion when used well. He is labeled as a high difficulty champion as he requires good map awareness, positioning and knowledge of the map he’s being played on. Good use of his Q can turn the tide of any skirmish or lane. Positioning is important too. While infesting an ally, he loses control of his character and becomes very vulnerable. His locusts spawn from him and walk into the nearest lane to assist it. Sometimes Abathurs like to hide in the forest and these locusts can be used by the enemy to determine his position. He can also hide behind the safety of his fortifications of whichever lane he wants the locusts to spawn into. His Q has a time limit so you will have to recast it every so while. Abathur is a really fun champion and definitely one of the more unique champions I’ve seen between Dota 2 and League of Legends. The closest character in terms of potential is Rubick as his ult will allow him to play as another allied champion.

Nova - Ranged Assassin

Abilities:

Q - Skill shot poke

Dota 2 - Fairly simple ability.

LoL - Similar to Ezreal Mystic Shot.

W - Targeted Nuke. Slows.

Dota 2 - Fairly simple ability.

LoL - Similar visually to Jinx's Zap! Mechanically works more like Veigar's Q. Just a simple target and shoot ability.

E - Summons a clone that deals damage on target location. Short range.

Dota 2 - Similar to Morphling clone except only on self.

LoL - Similar to LeBlanc passive except it’s an active ability and you don’t control it.

Heroic Ability - Choice of:

1) Global AoE nuke.

Dota 2 - Sunstrike without having to spread the damage. Wider Aoe as well.

LoL - Ziggs bomb except it’s a laser from the sky instead of a bomb. Also global.

2) Targeted nuke, deals 3 auto attacks to that one target at once. (Not 100% clear on this one. Only read briefly and did not use).

Dota 2 - Similar to Weaver except no projectile delay.

LoL - Similar to Jayce Ranged form Hyper Charge except instant.

Heroic Trait - After being out of combat for 3 seconds she stealths. I apologize as I do not remember the rest of the effects. She gains an effect of either extra damage or movement speed.

Impressions:

Nova is a fairly simple ranged damage champion. Her talents provide her either a lot of auto attack damage or a lot of ability damage. I played her as the auto attack playstyle and it played just like any other AD carry from LoL. I would imagine her talent build that focuses on ability power and mana regen would work similarly to burst mage or assassin combining that high damage power with her stealth passive to sneak up on heroes and burst them down.

Gazlowe - Melee Specialist

Abilities:

Q - Summons turrets, up to 2 (increased by talents). Turrets attack enemies with limited range and duration. When they die, they drop scrap which you can pick up to restore mana and reduce cooldowns by a large amount.

Dota 2 - I don't know of any Dota 2 hero with turrets. At best it would be like Shadow Shaman's snakes.

LoL - Similar to Heimerdinger's turrets except they have limited duration.

W - Charged laser. Can spend time charging it to deal more damage and gain range. Max charge takes roughly 5-6 seconds.

Dota 2 - Similar to Windrunner's Powershot except you can aim while charging and hold the max charge temporarily.

LoL - Similar to Varus' Piercing Arrow except it gains power as well.

E - Throws ticking time bombs with a 4 second countdown. Explode at end of countdown and stuns as well.
Dota 2 - Nothing really similar yet.
LoL - Similar to Zigg's Satchel Charge except he can't detonate it himself and it stuns instead of knockback.

Heroic Ability - Choice of:

1) Increased NPC damage.

2) Throw an electro ball that explodes after a short delay and pulls in enemies caught by the explosion to the center.

Dota 2 - Similar to Dark Seer's Vacuum except with delay.

LoL - Similar to Orianna ult except with slightly longer delay.

Heroic Trait - Salvage. He salvages his creations to restore mana and reduce cooldowns by a large amount.

Impressions:

Gazlowe can be a fairly difficult hero to play. If not familiar with the game he can be easily caught out and killed. He has some natural bulk due to being a melee champion and his talents focus either on his abilities or on his auto attacks doing special effects. One of his talent choices made his auto attacks drain tower ammo allowing large pushes to be more devastating as tower support would quickly diminish. Playing around his turrets and timing his bombs are crucial. Also, being very tricky with fog of war to get your full charge laser off can be difficult but rewarding. Due to his passive reducing cooldowns whenever you pick up scrap, all your cooldowns can be fairly short, roughly in the 3-4 second range vs their usual 7-12 second range. Because of this he can be very hard pressed for mana. His talents do include a few mana regen or mana boosting talents and while that will help, he will need to make good use of the scrap he gets and conserve where possible to have enough available for the crucial timing pushes.

Stiches - Melee Warrior

Abilities:

Q - Throws a hook in a direction. Pulls in the first enemy hit.

Dota 2 - Pudge Hook.

LoL - Blitzcrank Hook.

W - Slams the ground in a direction of choice and deals damage in a small range cone.

WoW - There isn't really an ability in either Dota 2 or LoL that resembles this. Best description would be any shockwave ability from WoW. Either a warrior's shockwave or any boss's shockwave.

E - Deals damage to a target and heals himself for 20% of his total health. Has roughly 18-20 second cooldown.

Dota 2 - No real similar ability.

LoL - Similar to Vladamir's Q except melee range and this one heals for a whole lot more.

Heroic Ability - Choice of:

1) Activate to leave behind a trail of poisonous goo that slows and deals damage to enemies.

Dota 2 - Similar to Batrider's Firefly except slows in addition and smells of green goo!

LoL - Similar to Singed's Poison Gas trail.

2) Cannot remember the other choice.

Heroic Trait - Whenever he takes damage he spews poison in an AoE around him dealing damage to enemies.

Impressions:

Stiches is a very fun hero that disrupts the field and makes those squishies run in fear of your stench. His hook is his main draw and what makes him so powerful. Landing good hooks can nab your team easy kills that will allow you to push into enemy bases with less opposition. His talents offer him a lot of survivability. Throughout playing him I had the option of choosing health talents 3 times along with a shield, health regen and some mana regen to keep casting abilities. His high health combined with his E which provides him with 20% health back allows him to stay out in the field and on the front lines soaking up damage from the enemies. One unique trait in his talents are that some of them increase his size in addition to other effects. This allows him to soak up skillshots and create pathing issues for enemies trying to get around him. This makes him a great frontline tank for any team.

Diablo - Melee Warrior

Abilities:

Q - AoE fireballs. Looks exactly like his aoe in Diablo 3.

Dota 2 - Similar to Shadowfiend ult.

LoL - No real equivalent.

W - Short cast time then Charges his target and knocks them back. Stuns the enemy if they hit terrain. Works exactly like his charge in Diablo 3.

Dota 2 - Similar to Magnus' charge except targeted.

LoL - Similar to Poppy's charge.

E - After a short delay he breathes fire at his enemies. Works exactly like his Dibalo 3 form.

Dota 2 - Similar to Jakiro's fire breath except he breathes it for longer.

LoL - Similar to Rumble's Flamespitter

Heroic Ability - Choice of:

1) AoE Death Grip.

Dota 2 - Similar to Magnus' Reverse Polarity.

LoL - Nothing really similar in League. Best case would be Galio Idol of Durand, but it is still fairly far off.

2) Summons pentagrams under every enemy on the map. After a short delay any enemy still standing within the pentagram is stunned for 3 seconds.

Dota 2 - nothing really similar in Dota.

LoL - Like Zyra ult, except automatically casted under every hero with them at the center and stuns instead of knocks up.

Heroic Trait - Unknown

Impressions:

Diablo, classified as a melee warrior, enjoys being up in the front line and spewing fire everywhere. His talents allow him some beefiness to run into the fight dealing lots of aoe damage to the enemy and displacing troublesome enemies with his charge.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments.

Images courtesy of heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com Wiki, some of the information is on their wiki is also copied from my reddit post here: http://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/1qaspe/some_info_on_the_heroes_i_played_at_the_con/

I have touched up a lot of the post and fixed issues such as spelling mistakes and consistency for this article.