Despite no real major announcement at BlizzCon 2019, Heroes of the Storm is still represented as one of the key franchises for the company. Sure the esport aspect has diminished, but the community is still running strong, backed by the rabid fanbase. The company at the very least recognized this as they announced last month that the newest hero to join the Nexus would be none other than Deathwing himself, the World Eater.
Confusion set in as many people asked, how is a giant dragon going to work in a MOBA title? Blizzard themselves showed off Deathwing the same day they made the announcement, but with us being HotS fans ourselves, we had to give him a try. We played him at the HotS demo at BlizzCon and found out just how powerful this dragon of destruction really was.
First thing to know about Deathwing is that he is easily the biggest hero to ever join the Nexus. He may have been dwarfed from his original form from Cataclysm, but when he enters the area, all eyes immediately pop over to him. With that in mind, he is also pretty slow compared to other heroes, as his size can be a bit of a hindrance.
But none of that matters once he starts fighting. His trait, Aspect of Death, is his clutch ability as it grants him an addition bar of armor with his health. While this can be whittled down by opponents, it’s the second part of the trait that really makes him a danger to everyone. He is ALWAYS unstoppable, and does an additional 100% attack damage to other heroes. That mean his attacks can’t be interrupted, and he dishes out more percentage damage to everyone in the game. Talk about overpowered from the start.
Deathwing can also use his fast movement ability to fly into the air, in which after a short time he can land anywhere on the map dealing damage. This also repairs his armor around hid health, giving him more tanking prowess. When we first used this power, we landed on top of numerous minions who were instantly obliterated. We’ve never felt so powerful before in HotS, and honestly, it felt awesome.
Deathwing’s main abilities, Molten Flame, Incinerate, and Onslaught are all easy crowd removers, especially since you can channel each one with his massive energy bar underneath his health. However, Deathwing has yet another unique talent that gives him more variety. He can switch his main abilities, and in turn change his play style from melee, to range. We were floored by how much went into this hero, but also concerned that this much power in the hands of one person might be a bit too much.
This is most evident with this Heroic ability, Cataclysm. Named after the expansion itself, Deathwing flies across a short distance and leaves behind chaos and destruction, as anyone standing in his flight path will immediately lose almost all of their health. As if this wasn’t enough, we also picked his Level 10 Fear talent which only Guldan could do with his own Heroic before. Fear makes any hero hit by this run in random directions, sometimes right into the maw of Deathwing himself.
Deathwing could be looked at in a couple of ways. His arrival could potentially be a game breaker for Heroes of the Storm. He definitely beings more possibilities the fold, as we’ve never seen anything like him before. However, this might be a little much in terms of a her having so much sustain as well as damage dealing. Either way, we enjoyed the heck out of Deathwing, and look forward to playing him soon.
Heroes of the Storm is free-to-play on PC and is available now. No official date was given for his release, but we expect him to be in the PTR (Public Testing Region) soon. Stay tuned for more coverage from BlizzCon 2019!