Brightwing & Kerrigan Gameplay Updates, HGC Catch-up

[Nerraw]

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.

[Romanticide]

Hmmmm this means skin event with skins for both of them. My credit card is ready!

[Deleted]

Very curious how Kerrigan rework will look. I play her a lot and she is kinda my ace in terms "can carry the game". I think the following points make her strong:
All-in hard engages but has a lot of killing potential when she does (you have to move out if the engage didn't do enough)
No poke
great wave-clear/camp clear thanks to the lvl4 splash talent which I think is mandatory for her kit

- They took out range for added charge for Q, meaning your engage will be more predictable and likely have less impact but you might get an easier escape (need talents/skill description for that)
- Still no poke which is kinda the necessary ability for melees, Maiev, Alarak, Greymane and Thrall who are seen often rely a lot on their poke. And since last year's GM domination it has become kinda normal to skill them around their poke abilities instead of hard engage ones. Kerrigan and Butcher engages have in common that they either succeed by killing something or fail which leads for you praying that your moving out will succeed. Hope they somehow calculated that in.
- They added aoe pulse to E which feels like a replacement for the AA-splash talent to me. That would be quite some nerf in her sustain, I wonder if there are talents that will fill the void here

Really eager to see full talents and try her out on PTR. But since the last hero reworks were all successful I have high hopes that she will get even better now. 8)

On BW: Maybe I don't have to be tilted when BW is picked as first or second pick any more, without her countering any hard engage hero

[wulfslayer]

Hate to be 'that guy' but you have a pretty egregious spelling error on Phase Shift line 3.

[Nerraw]

Hate to be 'that guy' but you have a pretty egregious spelling error on Phase Shift line 3.

-.-

Now to wait for someone from the US to wake up so the front page can get fixed as well!