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Heroes of the Storm: New Recruit a Friend & 2 New Heroes Announced


Posted on November 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard’s competitive Massive Online Battle Arena Heroes of the Storm has a ton of new content coming in the remainder of 2016 and throughout 2017. During the opening ceremonies for Blizzcon 2016 developers announced two new characters that will be coming in the following months – Varian & Ragnaros as well as a brand new arcade mode map Blackheart’s Revenge and all new recruit a friend campaign that has the potential to unlock 5 free heroes and a 30 day stim-pack.

Varian 

The former High King of the Alliance Varian will be the game’s first dual class hero – allowing players to customize their game play experience depending on which style of play they prefer – either tanking or becoming a nimble assassin. Varian will either wield his sword in one hand if playing a tank or split it into two for the assassin role.

Ragnaros

Hailing from the classic World of Warcraft Molton Core raid Ragnaros comes into the nexus in a future update. One of his unique abilities allows Ragnaros to take over a keep or fort and become a giant version of himself for a limited amount of time with a second set of abilities. It looks like this former raid boss will be a force to reckoned with once he hits the lanes.

New Recruit a Friend Event

overwatch_genji_skin

Running on November 15th until January 4th invite your friends to play with you in the nexus and unlock rewards in both Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch for both of you.

Completed 15 Games (Ranked, Unranked Draft, Quick Match or Co-op) and unlock the Oni Genji skin in Overwatch, a spray + player icon in Overwatch as well. For Heroes of the Storm playing 15 games will unlock Zarya as a hero and a Genji portrait for use in-game.

Complete 30 Games (Ranked, Unranked Draft, Quick Match or Co-op) and unlock Greymane, Karagin and Li-Ming in HOTS as well as the Orochi Hovercycle mount and a 30-day stim pack granting double experience and gold.

More information on this new Recruit a Friend campaign is available on the Heroes of the Storm Developer Blog.

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Meet Overwatch’s Sombra In The ‘Infiltrator’ Short


Posted on November 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Overwatch’s stealthy hacker has been teased, hinted at and hidden in the shadows since her first mention several months ago. After a lengthy Alternate Reality game involving fictional corporations, hidden voice lines and out of game mysteries – Sombra is now in plain sight for all to see,

In true Blizzard style she interrupted a documentary outlining the global launch of Blizzard’s competitive online shooter. The brand new animated short showcases Sombra, Reaper and Widowmaker taking on an assignment to assassinate the head of a Russian weapon development corporation.

In terms of personality it seems that Sombra is a fun loving and not so serious hero. She ends her interaction with the head of the Russian weapons corporation by “booping” her nose. Sombra’s personality certainly matches her colourful aesthetic, it is a shame her design was leaked so early but this new short certainly makes up for it.

According the official Overwatch site here are all of her abilities:

Machine Pistol Sombra’s fully-automatic machine pistol fires in a short-range spread.

Hack – Sombra hacks enemies to temporarily stop them from using their abilities, or hacks first aid kits to make them useless to her opponents.

Theromoptic Camo – Sombra becomes invisible for a short period of time, during which her speed is boosted considerably. Attacking, using offensive abilities, or taking damage disables her camouflage.

Translocator Sombra tosses out a translocator beacon. She can instantly return to the beacon’s location while it is active (including when it’s in mid-flight).

EMP – Sombra discharges electromagnetic energy in a wide radius, destroying enemy barriers and shields and hacking all opponents caught in the blast.

Watch the new short below. Sombra is playable on the Blizzcon show-floor and will be on the Public Test Realm next week.


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Long Time Blizzard Developer Chris Metzen Retires


Posted on September 12, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Long time Blizzard Entertainment developer & current Senior Vice President in charge of Story and Franchise Development, Chris Metzen has retired from the world renowned developer. Originally reported by the Business Journal and later confirmed via a lengthy good-bye message posted to the Blizzard official forums on Chris’ behalf by Community Manager Lylirra.

If you’ve even dabbled in a Blizzard Entertainment title since the company’s formative years in the 1990s then you’ve experienced some of Metzen’s work. He got his start at the developer at the young age of 20, working on the D.C licensed fighter Justice League Task Force. Over the next 20+ years Chris would help shape the very worlds that would make Blizzard a household name and one of the industry titans of the past fifteen years.

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His notable credits include Lead Designer on StarCraft (1998), he contributed to Diablo II’s (2000) script and concept art as well.  He is perhaps best known for his contributions to the world of Azeroth through his work on the Warcraft franchise. He served as creative director for 2002’s Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos before contributing to the formative years of Blizzard’s MMORPG smash hit World of Warcraft.

Fans of Blizzard’s work probably need no introduction to the vast number of character voices that Metzen has contributed over the years. He portrayed the original Space Marine units in Starcraft (1998), his most well known voice role is probably that of former Horde Warchief Thrall throughout multiple titles including Warcraft III, vanilla World of Warcraft and several subsequent expansions. He also served as the creative director for this year’s Overwatch and created the character of Soldier 76.

Overwatch progression1

Thanks for everything Chris! Some of my favorite games wouldn’t be the same without you.

Here are some quotes from Chris Metzen’s goodbye message.

Speaking about how he got his start at Blizzard Entertainment Metzen wrote:

“I had just turned twenty years old when I started working at Blizzard. Seems like a lifetime ago. Guess it was. Those first few years were the start of a very grand adventure for me, one that would take me around the world, introduce me to thousands of wonderful geeks just like me—and ultimately shape the course of my adult life.”

Regarding the “give and take” that can occur during the creative process Chris had this to say in reflection about his time at Blizzard:

“Coming to consensus about certain design decisions, story motifs, or courses of art direction takes a lot of communication, patience, and “give and take.” It stretches you. Sometimes it wasn’t all that pretty. But engaging with your teammates and collaborating through the potential quagmire of all that creative tension is where the real magic happens.”

Talking directly to Blizzard’s hard-core & dedicated fan-base Chris Metzen had a special message for fans who have enjoyed his creations throughout the years:

“Thank you all for letting me be a special part of your community. For letting me belong with you. We’ve shared countless adventures together and I’ve always been overwhelmed and humbled by your passion for our games as well your commitment to each other.”

Top Image Taken From BlizzCon 2014 Keynote


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World of Warcraft: Legion Pre-Launch Patch Impressions Part II


Posted on August 26, 2016 by Tamsin Heineman

So a couple weeks ago I published a story outlining all to be had at the time for the Legion Pre-Launch content. Since then I’ve found a few things I’ve missed, a few things I’ve learned, and what to do with it.

Previously I talked about the scenarios involved. Well, after doing some research I’ve found there are quite a few easter eggs in game items you can pick up before doing the fist quest. So if you have an alt that hasn’t done the scenario for broken shore yet, hold off until you find a hidden vendor sitting in Stormwind Harbor. All you have to do is have the quest for the broken shore, but don’t actually do it yet. Before boarding the boat for the quest outside the dock there is an NPC named Lenny “Fingers” McCoy(Horde side is Fo’Rum the Postmaker by the Draonsh’ar Blockade and Ravika by Bladefury’s docks). This NPC is a vendor that sells a few items including a Lucky Shirt which is the only in game way to obtain the “Fine Cloth Shirt” transmog appearance. (The Horde vendor has hard to get items from patch 5.3 that were since removed from the game, so if you play Horde be sure to grab them).

Taken from screenshots @wowhead.com

Taken from screenshots @wowhead.com

The final hidden item to be found is during the 6th stage of the Broken Shore quest line for the alliance(but can also be picked up during stage 7). There is a coffin looking thing where you can find a “Charred Locket” during the scenario. If you don’t grab it now, it’s gone forever on that toon. When you’re done take the locket to Eastvale Logging Camp in Elwynn forest. There will be an NPC named Alaina Heartsong that will want the locket(at 85,67). Leave and return to the house immediately and you can find the reward item upstairs named “Alaina’s Bonnet”. The Horde cannot loot this, but if you unlock it on alliance side you can transmog it as a Hordie.

Taken from screenshots @wowhead.com

Taken from screenshots @wowhead.com

Another cool item that you can obtain is dropped from the Doomsayers around your main cities that once outed with either a Demon Hunter’s Spectral Sight or an item called “Cursed Vision of Sargeras” that drops in Black Temple, turn into a “Dread Infiltrator”.

553441-pocket-fel-spreader

Taken from screenshots @wowhead.com

There are usually LFG groups looking for it that are active right now, so get playing to find it. The item it drops is a neat “Toy” for your collection called a “Pocket Fel Spreader”, but it actually doesn’t do any damage. It applies a fel texture to the ground and objects in its radius and just plain looks really cool instead.

The other half of this is players that end up hearing “Dark Whispers” will eventually gain an action bar which can transform them into a dreadlord to cause all kinds of trouble for other surrounding players by turning them hostile ala mind control. If the players don’t want to do it at the time can just click off the buff. As a Dreadlord you have the abilities to CC a group with a “Hysteria” debuff, vanish to avoid combat, and disguise yourself as a normal player as you’re spreading chaos.

One last note on items which relates to the previous article, is on the Fel Bat Pup. Once bought with Nethershards and learned you can re-crate for later sale, so I suggest buying a few and saving them to sell later for a profit. Just learn the pet, open your log and right click and select “Put in Cage”. Note that you only need to do this if you’ve already right clicked and “learned” that pet and you want to get rid of the extras.

Screenshot taken by Kaylan Heineman, Broken Joysticks

Screenshot taken by Kaylan Heineman, Broken Joysticks

The final thing I want to revisit and discuss is invasions. With a little clever use of  the LFG interface, you can level a character from 1 to 100 in well under a day of constant playing. Once you are in Stage 1 of the invasion at Dun Morogh specifically in Kharanos(though it works elsewhere if people join), make or join an LFG group under custom with Dun in the title (either your own, or a hosted one) including killing the commander. Once it rolls over to stage 3, leave the group and join another by just typing “Dun” in the search bar (or if you’re reset back to stage 1, host your own with Dun in the title for others to find). These stages offer the maximum XP with minimal deaths, as the third stage bosses can be kind of brutal and can easily ruin your nice streak of XP gain. Just keep redoing stages 1 and 2 of the invasion until you are at the desired level. You can do this on toons of any level to boot so if you want to switch mains and level a toon quickly before the expansion this is the time to do it.

Screenshot taken by Kaylan Heineman, Broken Joysticks

Screenshot taken by Kaylan Heineman, Broken Joysticks

I won’t go into the last quests and scenarios until my third part as there’s been little content thus far (but good content nonetheless), which is coming up hopefully right before or right at the date of the launch of Legion. Don’t quote me on that.

I hope you can take what I shared and maximise your fun before the expansion officially launches on August 30th.


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Broken Overwatch Auto-Aim On Consoles To Be Fixed In Next Patch


Posted on August 19, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Console players of Overwatch have brought up an issue regarding the game’s auto-aim feature on consoles. According to several forum posts submitted by players the game’s aim system will actually move away from enemies such as Genji during the middle of a jump.

Here is how the original poster described the issue:

“‘I’m moving the control stick horizontally the whole time. All Vertical movement is due to Blizzard’s built in Aim Assist. Every time Genji jumps, the Aim Assist moves away from him. To hit Genji, you have to fight against the Aim Assist. 
Any other character spamming the jump button will show similar results.” 

They even included video evidence of this glitch occurring:

Members of Blizzard’s development team where quick to respond, including the game’s director Jeff Kaplan.

Here is what technical lead Tim Ford had to say about the auto-aim snafu, apparently Blizzard has found the issue and a fix will be included in the next console patch:

“Thank you all for gathering data on this issue. We’ve identified the defect and a fix will be available with the next console patch.” 

Are you playing Overwatch on consoles? Let us know about your experience in the comment section!


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First Content Patch for Legion Revealed at Gamescom


Posted on August 17, 2016 by Tamsin Heineman

During Gamescom earlier today Blizzard launched their Legion Cafe which is styled after the Demon Hunter class hall, the Fel Hammer. You can check out tons of photos on the Official World of Warcraft Facebook page. During the events they announced their first content patch for Legion as captured by user Slootbag on Twitch during his live stream. Just click the link for the replay.

Patch 7.1 is titled “Return to Karazhan”. It will feature a 5 man epic dungeon and a mini-raid that will be central to the story of Legion and will contain at LEAST 9 different instances. Additionally there will be new Suramar content in the mix as well as some world content, and there is a new small raid between Nightmare and Nighthold which finishes the Stormheim quest chain. It will be in the PTR by the time Legion hits the public. You can check out the trailer from Wowhead below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHvzriHAP5E)


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World of Warcraft: Legion Pre-Launch Patch Impressions


Posted on August 15, 2016 by Tamsin Heineman

Earlier this week Blizzard Entertainment released a Pre-Launch patch to prepare its players for the imminent launch of their newest expansion World of Warcraft: Legion. Since then I’ve had a bit of time to check out the content they’ve rolled out.

The first bit I’d love to talk about are invasions. Since the theme of the expansion is The Burning Legion invading Azeroth, they’ve gone full force and brought some of the Legion’s toughest demons to familiar zones back in the main lands; Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The Kirin Tor have even brought Dalaran from the icy peaks of Northrend to float above Kharazan as they prepare for the coming invasion (though there’s nothing but inconsequential NPCs to be found there).  The only zones that are being invaded at this time (and are the ones included in the Defender of Azeroth: Legion Invasions Achievement) are Westfall, The Northern Barrens, Hillsbrad Foothills, Tanaris, Azshara and Dun Morogh.

WoWScrnShot_081416_231056

While the invasions themselves boil down to “gather up and ‘Zerg Rush’ their bases in those zones”, it does offer a bit of a challenge in that the mechanics are unforgiving and if you’re not paying a good amount of attention you’ll wind up crispy and dead. If any of you have played games like Rift or Elder Scrolls Online in the past the invasions are almost identical to Rifts and Dark Anchors respectively.

The biggest difference between this and others games is that tons of them spawn all at once. It’s up to the players of the Alliance and the Horde to help defend each other side by side to take them down and repel the invaders. Siege engines are also available for whichever faction the zone belongs. Completing the first two stages rewards you with a uncommon chest of items and Nethershards.  The fourth and final stage of these invasions is a Burning Legion commander in the largest settlement of the zone which awards a rare quality chest of items and Nethershards.

WoWScrnShot_081416_085047The benefit to hitting these invasions would the current event currency, Nethershards, as well as the iLevel 700 gear that drops from completing stages of the invasions. The weapons are upgradable with Coalesced Fel which you can buy for 150 Nethershards. It is of note that there are a few rings, cloaks and other items available from the same vendor. For those that love pets be sure to grab the Felbat Pup available for another 150 Nethershards. One last thing to mention before moving on is that lower level toons may struggle to attend these so bringing your level 100 is highly recommended.

WoWScrnShot_081516_024250

Moving onto the Demon Hunters about which I won’t go into a ton of detail. The starting zone that I got to experience for the Demon Hunters was a lot of fun and steadily paced. The storyline was engaging and even hooked to some of the previous content back in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion that some of us remember fondly. I won’t spoil it for you here but it was super satisfying to see history from another angle.

You first start in Mardum as one of your factions’ elves and later progress to the inside of the Vault of the Wardens in one of the expansion zone Azsuna. The new mobility options introduced with the Demon Hunters, namely the double jump and glide were a much welcomed addition which brought a fresh and fun way to traverse the zones.

LegionMardunThe last thing worth mentioning is the scenario of your first trip to the Broken Shore. For spoiler reasons I won’t go into detail but before it’s over you’ll be hitting a heavy dose of feels. What follows sets the tone for the expansion and gives you a good idea just why you should be very afraid of the Burning Legion. Once again as it seems to be the theme this expansion, you will team up with the opposite faction to take down a common enemy and no one ends up coming out on top.

The Pre-Launch patch has me at the edge of my seat and absolutely excited about the upcoming playable content from Legion. Seeing the kind of care and quality that has gone into keeping and bringing this game up to date with modern standards, in both terms of gameplay and visuals has me extremely optimistic for the future of this game. At this point only time will tell of its success or failure as the fans sink their teeth into the meat of the game.

 


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Battle.net Endures DDOS Attack


Posted on June 29, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net service was the target of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack this past evening. Customer service agents announced the service distribution on one of the company’s official twitter accounts.

Users reported connection problems with games like Overwatch on Reddit, with several posts being unable to even sign-in to the Battle.net launcher. Over the course of this outage our staff noticed considerable lag and matchmaking issues with Overwatch as well.

The entire attack lasted roughly seven hours – at least that the time difference between Blizzard CS announcing the attack and sounding the all clear.

[#BNet] We are currently monitoring a DDOS attack against network providers which is affecting latency/connections to our games.

— BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) June 28, 2016


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Diablo’s Wizard and Necromancer Highlighted In New Heroes Trailer


Posted on January 22, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Heroes of the storm

Blizzard Entertainment’s Heroes of the Storm development team is ready to share some of the upcoming content they’ve been working on with players. In a brand new trailer we get an up close look at the models and skins for the two newest heroes – Li Ming and Xul  as well as brand new skins for established characters like LT. Morales, Jaina, Arthas and Illidan.

Do any of these new skins appeal to you? I thought Love Dr. Morales was kind of chuckle worthy and to be honest I am probably going to buy that Arthas skin day one even if I don’t play him all that often. As for the new heroes – I’ll have to wait and see what their abilities are before I can really commit.

Here’s a full breakdown of all the newly announced content:

HEROES

  • Li-Ming
  • Xul

SKINS

  • Crimson Count Arthas
  • Love Doctor Lt. Morales
  • Lunar Jaina
  • Lunar Illidan
  • Master Li-Ming
  • Master Xul
  • Serpent King Xul
  • Star Princess Li-Ming

MOUNTS

  • Star Chariot
  • Cloud Serpent
  • Lunar Dragon

[youtube id=”_JybO9iBECA”]

[Source]


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The Overwatch Stress Test Changed My Opinion Of The Game


Posted on November 20, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

I’ve known about Blizzard’s colorful and vibrant first person shooter, Overwatch, for a while now. I remember everyone getting totally amped up about the game last November when the game was unveiled but I wasn’t as taken in my the initial gameplay trailers and character reveals as some fans where. After spending several hours with this weekends Beta Stress Test my opinion on the game has radically changed. Here’s a rundown of what I played and why I enjoyed it so much!Read More


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Blizzard Celebrates Over 1 Million Copies of Legacy of the Void Sold


Posted on November 14, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

En taro tassadar fellow Starcraft II Commanders!

Blizzard confirmed via the official Starcraft II twitter account that StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void has sold over 1 million copies since its launch this past Tuesday.  That gives the latest expansion just about the same adoption rate as the first game, Wings of Liberty, which sold over one million copies within its first 24 hours of release back in 2010.

Not only does Legacy of the Void conclude the epic story of the struggle for the Koprulu sector, which began in Wings of Liberty but it also brings a whole bunch of tweaks and changes that should excite return commanders. The brand new co-op missions allow you and a friend to each chose one of the three factions via a commander unit (there are two per side) and build a single base together. Co-op missions can be frantic, stressful but very rewarding – relying on the two of you to co-ordinate together or risk failing your objectives.

We’ll have more on Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void in the coming days including our full review. Until then keep up the fight!


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Linkin Park Revealed As BlizzCon 2015 Closing Act


Posted on October 20, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard has announced that Linkin Park will be the playing live at BlizzCon 2015 which will run from November 6th and 7th at the Anaheim Convention Centre in sunny California.

BlizzCon allows attendees to go hands on with the latest products under development at Blizzard Entertainment including the recently revealed OverWatch beta and StarCraft II: Legacy of The Void among others. The convention also plays hosts to the World Championships for HearthStone, StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm.

During their opening ceremonies Blizzard is also known for making some huge announcements so don’t be shocked if they give us all a sneak peek at what’s coming down the pipe during the show.

BlizzCon’s official website describes Linkin Park thusly:

The Grammy Award–winning rock band—and the biggest band on Facebook, with 63 million fans and counting—will be taking the stage the evening of Saturday, November 7, to provide an epic send-off for everyone at this year’s convention

If you aren’t able to make it to Anaheim for the festivities Blizzard is offering the Virtual Ticket which gets you access to multiple HD streams from the show floor as well as a whole pile of in-game goodies for Blizzard’s various products.

Here’s the trailer that Blizzard released to announce LP’s set at BlizzCon:

[youtube id=”i0HeXt0v5qk”]


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Everything You Should Know About Overwatch Before Today’s Livestream


Posted on October 15, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Overwatch is a 6 vs 6 multiplayer online first person shooter being developed by Jeff Kaplan’s team at Blizzard. Originally under the development using the code name ‘titan’, Overwatch has had a very long and complicated history. The game was revealed at last year’s BlizzCon and hype for the game is starting to grow leading up to today’s beta live stream event on Twitch.TV at 10 A.M PST. If you’ve been out of the loop completely or missed some of the reveal trailers, Broken Joysticks is here to catch you up before this morning’s big announcements.

[youtube id=”FqnKB22pOC0″]Read More


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OverWatch Beta Live Stream Locked In For October 15th


Posted on October 12, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard will be announcing the first details for the beta version of their highly anticipated Team Based Shooter Overwatch live on Twitch.TV on Thursday October 15th they announced via Battle.Net. Viewers of this stream won’t only get to hear the new details first but will also enjoy over 90 minutes of gameplay footage from two different perspectives.

Here are the official details from Battle.net:

Join a duo of aspiring heroes, Haylinic and Ellohime, as they team up with our developers to fight for the future LIVE from Blizzard HQ. During these inaugural streams, you’ll have a chance to see over 90 minutes of unedited real-time gameplay from not one, but two perspectives—plus, you’ll get a first look at what you can expect from the upcoming Overwatch beta. (Wicked!)

Livestream Details:

Overwatch Beta Preview Livestream

Thursday, October 15 @ 10:00 a.m. PT

http://twitch.tv/Haylinic

http://twitch.tv/Ellohime

Overwatch was originally announced back in November 2014 and features a number of different colorful characters. Blizzards monetary model for the game is currently not known. Overwatch may be a free-to-play little with purchasable heroes like Heroes of The Storm or it could be a full retail product like Blizzard’s 2012 RPG Diablo III.

We’ll bring you a full recap of the livestream on Thursday!


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LT Morales Helps Patch Up Heroes of The Storm In New Game Update


Posted on October 8, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Lt. Morales the recognizable Terran medic from the StarCraft series joins Heroes of the Storm with the release of the latest patch. For those of you who have played StarCraft or its 2010 sequel will instantly recognize her. During development she was simply known as “The Medic” before being given a more formal name.

Her basic abilities allow Lt. Morales to heal 20% of a teammate’s health or grant them a significant damage reduction. Her Heroic abilities allow her to grant allies an absolutely unheard of attack speed bonus or call in the iconic StarCraft Medivac for transport and healing.

There are a whole swath of Hero and Gameplay adjustments. Click here for the full breakdown from Blizzard.

You can read Lt. Morales’ abilities below as well as her debut trailer.

Trait

Caduceus Reactor

  • Regenerate 3% of your maximum Health per second after not taking any damage for 4 seconds.

Basic Abilities

Healing Beam (Q)

  • Heal an ally for 20 Health per second as long as they are in range. Reactivate to switch targets, or activate your Trait to cancel channeling.

Safeguard (W)

  • Grant target ally Resistant, reducing damage taken by 25% for 3 seconds.

Displacement Grenade (E)

  • Fire a grenade that explodes on the first enemy hit, dealing damage, and knocking enemies away.

Heroic Abilities

Stim Drone (R)

  • Grant an allied Hero 75% Attack Speed and 25% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.

Medivac Dropship (R)

  • Target a location for a Medivac transport. For up to 10 seconds before takeoff, allies can right-click to enter the Medivac.

[youtube id=”KePCgX8D9Uk080″]


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