The “official” reveal of Alexstrasza and Hanzo.
Look, we knew they were coming a few months ago thanks to a slip up. But the Dragons of the Nexus update for Heroes of the Storm is a bit bigger than just 2 new heroes.
But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Alexstrasza is the first up, adding to the woefully under-represented Ranged Support category.
[D] (Trait) Dragonqueen (150-second cooldown): After 1.25 seconds, transform into a dragon and gain 500 Health. While Dragonqueen is active, Alexstrasza’s Abilities are empowered, and her Basic Attacks deal 143 damage and heal allied Heroes for 43 in an arc in front of her. Additionally, the duration of incoming Stuns, Roots, Slows, and Blinds is reduced by 50%. Lasts 15 seconds.
[Q] Gift of Life (8-second cooldown): Sacrifice 15% of Alexstrasza’s current Health, healing an ally for 150% of that amount. Dragonqueen: Breath of Life Cooldown greatly reduced and does not cost Health.
[W] Abundance (16-second cooldown): Plant a seed of healing that blooms after 3 seconds, healing nearby allied Heroes for 20% of their maximum Health. Dragonqueen: Preservation Heal area and amount greatly increased.
[E] Flame Buffet (2-second cooldown): Launch a fireball, Burning enemies hit for 75 damage over 5.5 seconds. Hitting enemies that are already Burning deals 125 bonus damage upon impact, Slows them by 40% decaying over 2 seconds, and refunds the Mana cost. Dragonqueen: Wing Buffet Damage and Knockback enemies in an arc.
[R1] Life-Binder (80-second cooldown): Bind Alexstrasa’s life force with an allied Hero. After 2 seconds, the Hero with a lower percentage of Health is set to the same Health percentage as the other Hero.
[R2] Cleansing Flame (80-second cooldown): After 1.25 seconds, take to the sky and drop 5 fireballs over 6 seconds at the position of the mouse cursor. Fireballs deal 150 damage to enemies and heal allied Heroes for 300 Health. 2 seconds after dropping all fireballs, Alexstrasza lands at the position of the mouse cursor.
Talents
Level 1
- Live and Let Live: While Alexstrasza is above 75% health, Gift of Life’s cooldown recharges 100% faster.
- Circle of Life (Quest): Collect Regeneration Globes. Reward: After collecting 15 Regeneration Globes, Abudance heals for an additonal 5% maximum health. Reward: After collecting 25, Abudence’s healing burst creates a Regeneration Globe.
- Flames of Fury (Quest): Hit 20 burning heroes with Flame Buffet. Reward: Hitting a burning hero with Flame Buffet reduces Dragonqueen’s cooldown by 5 seconds.
Level 4
- Surge of Vitality: Abundance also grants allied Heroes 30% movement speed for 3 seconds. Increase Flame Buffet’s initial slow from 40% to 60%.
- Exuberance: While Alexstrasza is above 75% health, gain 15% movement speed.
- Life Blossom: While Alexstrasza is above 75% health, Gift of Life creates a Life Blossom at target’s location. She can collect the Life Blossom to make her next Gift of Life cost no health.
Level 7
- Burdened Flourish: Alexstrasza received 30% more healing from Abundance and 100% more healing from Regeneration Globes. Hitting a burning hero with Flame Buffet heals Alexstrasza for 10% of maximum health.
- [Name Unknown] (60-second cooldown): Activate to reduce an enemy hero’s damage by 50% for 3 seconds. Healing a stunned, rooted or silenced allied hero reduces the cooldown of this ability by 30 seconds.
- Life Unbound (Active, 90-second cooldown): Activate to heal an allied hero for 15% of their maximum health and deal X damage to nearby enemies. Healing a stunned, rooted or silenced ally reduces the cooldown of this ability by 30 seconds. Cannot be used on self.
Level 10
- [R1] Life-Binder (80-second cooldown): Bind Alexstrasza’s life force with an allied Hero. After 2 seconds, the Hero with a lower percentage of Health is set to the same Health percentage as the other Hero.
- [R2] Cleansing Flame (80-second cooldown): After 1.25 seconds, take to the sky and drop 5 fireballs over 6 seconds at the position of the mouse cursor. Fireballs deal 150 damage to enemies and heal allied Heroes for 300 Health. 2 seconds after dropping all fireballs, Alexstrasza lands at the position of the mouse cursor.
Level 13
- Dragon Scales: Gain 30 armor while stunned, silenced or rooted, and for 2 seconds afterwards.
- Tough Love: While Alexstrasza is above 75% health, Gift of Life grants its target 20 armor for 2 seconds.
- [Name Unknown]: Heroes healed by Abundance gain a shield that is equal to 60% of the amount healed.
Level 16
- Draconic Discipline: Increase Dragonqueen’s duration by 9 seconds.
- Ritual of Life: Life Binder activates 3 times over 6 seconds.
- [Unknown]
Level 20
- Ruby Wings: Healing or damaging heroes 8 or more times with Cleansing Flame activates Dragonqueen upon landing.
- [Name Unknown]: While Dragonqueen is active, Alexstrasza’s basic attacks apply Flame Buffet, but her attack speed is reduced by 25%.
- Blessing of the Red (Active, 40-second cooldown): Grant an allied hero 500 health until they die. Cannot be used on self, or on a hero who already has Blessing of the Red.
That’s right; her (D) trait is to turn into her dragon form, rather than as an Ultimate. Alexstrasza is set to be available to players starting November 13th.
Next up is Hanzo who, despite some interesting quirks, is another Ranged Assassin. Though he’ll probably be a good one. Notably, like the last few Overwatch heroes added to the game, the more unique properties of his weapon are set to his (Q) attack.
[D] (Trait) Natural Agility (30-second cooldown): Target unpathable terrain or a Structure to jump to the other side of it.
[Q] Storm Bow (4-second cooldown): Activate to charge an arrow that deals 270 damage to the first enemy hit. Storm Bow’s range increases the longer it is Channeled. Reactivate to fire.
[W] Scatter Arrow (8-second cooldown): Fire an arrow that deals 85 to the first enemy Hero hit. Scatter Arrow can collide with terrain and Structures, splitting into 5 arrows that travel extra distance, ricochet up to 4 additional times, and deal 85 damage each to the first enemy hit.
[E] Sonic Arrow (20-second cooldown): Fire an arrow that grants vision in a large area for 8 seconds. Enemies inside are revealed for 1 second. If Sonic Arrow lands directly on an enemy, it deals 150 damage to them and follows them as they move.
[R1] Dragonstrike (100-second cooldown): After 1.5 seconds, summon a pair of Spirit Dragons which travel forward, dealing 52 damage every 0.25 seconds to enemy Heroes in its area. Enemies in the center take 150 damage.
[R2] Dragon’s Arrow (100-second cooldown): Fire a missile that travels across the battleground. Explodes upon hitting an enemy Hero, dealing 100 damage to all nearby enemies and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds. After traveling a medium distance, the damage is increased to 200 and the Stun duration to 1.25 seconds. After traveling a long distance, the damage is increased to 350 and the Stun duration to 2 seconds.
Talents
Level 1
- Target Practice (Quest): Hit every enemy hero with Hero with Storm Bow. Reward: After hitting every enemy hero once with Storm Bow, its range is increased by 30%. Reward: After hitting every enemy hero 3 times with Storm Bow, its damage is increased by 100.
- Simple Geometry: Hit a hero with multiple arrows from the same Scatter Arrow cast 20 times. Each arrow hit after the second grants additional progress. Reward: Upon hitting terrain for the first time, Scatter Arrow creates 2 additional arrows.
- Redemption: Every 2 basic attack within 10 seconds grants 1 Redemption, stacking up to 15. Dying decreases Redemption by 3, and Redemption can be lost even at maximum stacks. At 15 Redemption, gain 50% increased attack speed.
Level 4
- Explosive Arrow: Upon hitting a Minion or Monster, Storm Bow deals 100% of its damage to enemies around its target.
- Serrated Arrows: Scatter Arrow deals 250% damage to Minions, Monsters, and Mercenaries.
- Ignore All Distractions: Basic attacks instantly kills Minions and increase Hanzo’s basic attack range by 2 for 3 seconds.
Level 7
- Shieldbreaker Arrows: Basic attacks and Storm Bow deals 300% bonus damage to shields on heroic targets.
- Never Outmatched: Reduce Scatter Arrow’s mana cost by 40, down to 20. Basic Attacks lower the cooldown of Scatter Arrows by 4.
- The Dragon Hungers: Hitting heroes with Storm Bow increases spell power by 5% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 20%.
Level 10
- [R1] Dragonstrike (100-second cooldown): After 1.5 seconds, summon a pair of Spirit Dragons which travel forward, dealing 52 damage every 0.25 seconds to enemy Heroes in its area. Enemies in the center take 150 damage.
- [R2] Dragon’s Arrow (100-second cooldown): Fire a missile that travels across the battleground. Explodes upon hitting an enemy Hero, dealing 100 damage to all nearby enemies and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds. After traveling a medium distance, the damage is increased to 200 and the Stun duration to 1.25 seconds. After traveling a long distance, the damage is increased to 350 and the Stun duration to 2 seconds.
Level 13
- Fleet of Foot: Hitting heroes with Storm Bow grants 10% movement speed for 6 seconds up to 30%.
- Ninja Assassin: Hitting heroes with Storm Bow reduces Natural Agility’s cooldown by 10 seconds. Additionally, hero takedowns reduce Natural Agility’s cooldown.
- Mounted Archery: Upon mounting, gain 30% additional movement speed for 5 seconds. Using Natural Agility instantly mounts.
Level 16
- Flawless Technique: Hitting heroes with Storm Bow increases the damage of Hanzo’s next basic attack within 5 seconds by 25%. Basic Attacks against heroes increase Storm Bow’s damage within 5 seconds by 25%.
- Piercing Arrows: Storm Bow and Scatter Arrow pierce, hitting an additional enemy. Additionally, Scatter Arrow can pierce through one additional enemy each time it ricochets.
- Giantslayer: Enemy heroes hit by Scatter Arrow and basic attacks take 1.25% of their maximum health as damage.
Level 20
- The Dragon Awakens: Hitting a hero with Storm Bow, Scatter Arrow or basic attack reduces the cooldown of Dragonstrike by 5 seconds.
- Play of the Game: While in flight of up to 2 seconds after impacting a target, Dragon Arrow can be reactivated to teleport to its location and jump backwards. If used after impact, Hanzo shoots an arrow that deals X damage to each target.
- Sharpened Arrowheads: Scatter Arrow limits the amount of armor heroes hit to 0 for 5 seconds.
- Bullseye: Increase Sonic Arrow’s speed and center radius by 100%. Additionally, heroes hit by Sonic Arrow’s center are stunned for 1 second.
Hanzo is slated to be available December 4th.
Their event will also have quests, but thankfully they don’t seem to require playing with a friend. I get the feeling I won’t be earning that Dragon Knight Portrait.
But they’re not all the event is about, after all. There are some gameplay changes coming in. First off, they’re increasing the field of view of the camera, a welcome change.
Also, Stealth is getting a rework.
In order to properly balance Stealth for both casual and high-end play, we’re making it easier to spot stealthed Heroes. This is accompanied by buffs to the Stealth Heroes.
Changes
- Stealthed Heroes are much easier to spot
- Keeps and Forts will reveal stealthed Heroes
- To offset these changes to Stealth, we will be buffing Samuro, Nova, Valeera and Zeratul:
- Samuro: Improving Samuro’s ability to fake out opponents; Image Transmission available at baseline on a 25s cooldown
- Nova: Increasing mobility during Stealth and overall damage with Snipe Master added at baseline
- Valeera: Openers will teleport Valeera a medium distance after being stealthed for 3 seconds; longer silence and blind duration
- Zeratul: Adding a new Heroic that rewards high mechanical skill; increasing mobility with Vorpal Blade at baseline
They’re also changing the early game, which includes changes to how regeneration globes work (now they’re up for grabs for both teams), as well as giving structures unlimited ammo and true sight.
To better showcase individual skill in lane matchups, we’re exploring ways to make the laning phase more meaningful without increasing overall game length.
Changes
- Removing Ammunition to encourage aggressive play and require more player agency for winning a lane
- Removing standalone towers and adding True Sight to Forts
- Regen Globes can be collected by either side for a brief period before expiring, allowing players to win lanes harder
- Standardizing first objective timers to 1:30 or 3:00, both with a 30-second warning, depending on Battleground
Changes are also being made to Mercenary camps:
To create more impactful choices about how, when, and which Mercenary Camps to capture, we are making changes to various Mercenaries.
Changes
- Siege Giant Camps – Heroes can now dodge Neutral Siege Giant attacks at all times
- Knight Camps – The Caster Mercenary in a Knight Camp will now generate an aura that offers increased Armor for units inside its area of effect
- Hellbats – Hellbats will debuff armor when they attack a Hero
- All Other Mercenaries – Will receive balance tuning to ensure they are always meaningful.
They’re also adding Voice Chat and performance-based matchmaking. The former’s nice, because stopping completely to type something out is not a great thing in this game. The latter, on the other hand, helps you break out of a spiral of losses due to bad teams. And I’m sure this isn’t even everything, merely what I can trace and source.
So this is going to be a good few months for Heroes of the Storm.
Source(s): Icy Veins, Icy Veins, Icy Veins, Heroes of the Storm Official Site
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