Heroes of the Storm

September 16th Teaser

Brightwing & Kerrigan Rework Interviews
InvenGlobal sat down for a talk with Lead Live Designer, Brett Crawford and Senior Live Game Designer, Alex Neyman about both the Brightwing and Kerrigan reworks coming to the game soon. The Brightwing interview in particular includes a few talents that were not covered in the rework video preview, so be sure to check it out!

Brightwing

• This rework, as with other recent support reworks, is part of making healers feel less like healbots and give them more fun gameplay options, with Arcane Flare being the prime target of this since it already has the bullseye mechanic
• Her new Cleanse on Soothing Mist is on a long cooldown (120 seconds), but the team expects players to make massive plays with it
• She will remain as a really strong global hero, but with options to make up for her weaknesses such as burst healing
• This is in line with the reworks and recent releases of other supports. Healers being super strong in one respect and weak in all others was part of what made the double-support meta happen. Players picked a second support to make up for that weakness
• The level 20 upgrade to Emerald Wind lowers the cooldown to 3 seconds but makes it cost 200 mana
• This rework has been in the works for almost a year

Kerrigan

• A lot of factors go into deciding when a hero is up for a rework. Outdated kits, pick-/win-rates, etc.
• Kerrigan is the last hero left with a combo of the original generic talents (Envenom and the Essence for Essence talents)
• The generic talents were a result of the talent system as we know it being added to the game very late in development, so the team had to come up with a lot of things to populate the trees with very quickly
• Chrysalis was the obvious choice for a strong defensive talent that incorporates a mix of first aid and ice block abilities. It also has strong lore connections
• The goal with reworks such as Kerrigan's is to maintain character identity, such as the iconic Q-W-E combo, while at the same time updating the character to the current hero standards of the game
• That means she now has things to think about and do after using her combo, instead of standing around waiting for it to be ready to use again
• The team also wants talent options that actually alter gameplay instead of just being stat boosts in some way
• Stun-charge added to the Ultralisk is an effort to make the ability feel like a proper heroic ability and not "just" a pet. The stun-charge also fits well with her base combo-based gameplay
• The developers also know that some people enjoy the pet control aspect of the ability, so they kept the original spirit of the ability intact

HeroStorm Episode 47 - Rogue Won
Carbot Animations returns with yet another HeroStorm animation. This one has Valeera doing Valeera things, as one would expect.

September 15th Teaser

Brightwing Gameplay Updates
Everyone's favorite murder-happy fairie dragon is one of two heroes next up for a rework! Let's see what shenanigans she will be up to now:

• Soothing Mist (D) still heals over time, but can now be activated for an area-Cleanse: Cleanses nearby allied heroes of slows, stuns, and roots
• Center hits on heroes with Arcane Flare (Q) instantly triggers Soothing Mist without inducing a cooldown
• Phase Shift (Z) heals baseline and can be upgraded through talents
• New level 20 talent: Phase Out. Quick self-Stasis effect on a short cooldown to dodge damage
• Blink Heal level 20 upgrade: Invisible Friends. Stealths target allied hero and yourself. Target receives healing over time as long as they remain stealthed

Kerrigan Gameplay Updates
The second hero in this round of reworks is Kerrigan. Many have requested an update for the Queen of Blades for a long time, and now she is finally up for one!

• Ravage (Q) has two charges but has reduced range. Kills refund the charge and mana cost
• Level 4 talent Sharpened Blades is a quest talent that increases Ravage damage per kill made with it
• Level 7 talent Queen of Blades reduces cooldown of Ravage for each enemy hit with Primal Grasp (E)
• Level 7 talent Boundless Fury refunds Ravage charges when you jump to different enemy heroes
• Primal Grasp (E) now provides a burst of area damage shortly after pulling in enemies
• Summon Ultralisk (R) is now also a skillshot. Ultralisk burrows out of the ground and stuns the first enemy hero hit. Old mechanics for the ability still remain in addition to the stun-charge
• Level 13 talent Chrysalis puts Kerrigan in protective shell with a set amount of hitpoints and heals her the longer it lasts before broken

HGC Catch-up
In case you missed last week's competitive plays, here are a couple of videos to catch you up on the action.