Someone made an oopsie over at Activision Blizzard.
Over the past week, Blizzard has been teasing spells attached to a mystery hero (or two, as some players suspected) for their MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, on its official Twitter page. Waves of speculation swept the Blizzard-ified corners of the Internet thanks to an alleged leak on a Russian social media page, which identified one of the teaser gifs as “chromie_dragonflight.gif,” which bore the name of World of Warcraft’s eccentric time traveling dragon, Chronormu, better known as Chromie in her Gnome form. Another gif of a flying sheep further muddled the speculation, as did a gif of two indistinct objects clashing against a hapless Arthas (who has been bullied in each teaser gif thus far. Oh how the mighty have fallen).
All doubts were dispelled today, though, when a video showcasing two new characters for Heroes of the Storm was briefly leaked on Blizzard’s YouTube page. The video has since been taken down, but you can view a mirror in this link.
The two new characters are indeed Chromie, who will be accompanied by one of Blizzard’s most classic characters: the Archmage and Last Guardian of Tirisfal, Medivh. No details have yet been given on exactly what their abilities do, but Chromie seems to employ various forms of crowd control, like slows, in her kit.
Medivh, meanwhile, seems to have a chain Polymorph that spreads to other players, a gateway teleport, and some kind of energy wave that puts players in stasis. His appearance in Heroes of the Storm is somewhat ironic; Medivh’s Warcraft 3 model was used in the first iteration of DOTA (and DOTA 2) for Rubick the Grand Magus. Though he doesn’t seem to feature any of Rubick’s signature abilities, perhaps the infamous Spell Steal will make an appearance?
Also included in the video are new Hero skins. These include an “Eagle Eye” (read: Hawkeye) Tyrande skin and a Night Owl (Nite Owl from Watchmen?) skin for Medivh. Both of these skins complement Sonya’s Super Sonya skin as part of a collection based on existing comic book heroes. There’s also a skin for Nova themed after Widowmaker from Overwatch, though the results of this fusion leave more than a little to be desired, to this writer.
In addition, two new mounts will be making their way to the Nexus: Elemental Wolves and Hell Billie, a demonic version of the amusing Billie the Kid mount. Many players are speculating that the Elemental Wolves will be the Season 1 reward for the upcoming first competitive season of Heroes of the Storm.
We’ll report on Blizzard’s official announcement as it goes live, and delve into the specifics of Chromie and Medivh when they’re released.