Last Thursday, Activision Blizzard accidentally leaked two new characters for their MOBA, Heroes of the Storm: Chromie and Medivh. Blizzard then officially announced these two Warcraft staples last Friday, with accompanying character art.
HotS community member and commentator Kendricswissh uploaded two videos that give rundowns of each of these characters. You can view them below.
Chromie:
Chromie is the alias of Chronormu, a member of the powerful Bronze Dragonflight. The Bronze Dragonflight watches over the flow of time in the Warcraft universe. When someone or something tampers with the course of history, the Bronze Dragons step in to prevent time from going haywire. Or, in World of Warcraft, they get some players together to form a dungeon party to do their work for them. Chromie is one such ally of the players, as she often appears in her Gnome form to give them quests, advice, and a peppy attitude that many will remember from her role in the Caverns of Time quest lines.
Chromie’s role is that of a versatile mage. She boasts incredibly powerful nukes; though she lacks effective laning abilities, she will likely be able to pair up with a frontline teammate and force an enemy out of a lane with projectiles that bypass creeps and structures and an AoE with an invisible targeting circle, thereby forcing her opponents to rotate their teammates to try to gank her. In teamfights, she offers unconventional AoE support and a variety of quirky crowd control options that will make her opponents reconsider picking on a pint-sized Gnome. She will be joining the Heroes of the Storm lineup on the week of May 17.
Chromie possesses a very unique passive Trait: Timewalker. This Trait allows Chromie to learn talents a single level earlier than other characters in the game, meaning that her talent progression occurs at levels 1, 3, 6, 9 (ultimates), 12, 15, and 19.
Chromie’s Q ability is called Sand Blast. Its usage might be familiar to those who have played World of Warcraft, for upon casting the ability, Chromie will require a second and a half to channel the spell. She then flings a ball of sand at a target that deals heavy damage. Talents can, among other things, cause the initial cast to spawn a sand clone that also casts Sand Blast.
Her W ability is named Dragon’s Breath. Chromie once again requires a small delay to channel the ability, after which she sends a dragon afterimage of herself to the target location, which comes crashing down in a moderate circle as sand for substantial damage. The caveat to this ability is that enemy players cannot see its targeting circle, meaning that they will have to be careful of getting too clumped up during a teamfight against Chromie.
Her E ability, Time Trap, causes Chromie to place an hourglass on the ground at a target location. After a few seconds, the hourglass arms itself and creates a trap invisible to the enemy. Enemies who step on the trap are placed in Stasis for two seconds and are unable to perform any actions, similar to Zeratul’s Void Prison. Only one Time Trap can be active at a time, though a Level 19 talent allows Chromie to place up to three traps at a time.
Chromie’s first ultimate, Slowing Sands, is fairly straightforward. Chromie creates a large circle of swirling sand at a target location. Enemies who enter the circle are slowed by 30%; the slow ramps up to 50% over time. This ultimate is very flexible, and can be used to lock down escape routes, create an escape for your team, zone the enemy out, or secure kills on grouped enemies. The most important feature of Slowing Sands is that it lasts as long as Chromie has mana to spend, consuming a small amount of mana per second. She can cancel the ability at any time, which presumably places it on cooldown.
Chromie’s second ultimate is called Temporal Loop. This ultimate is very unique: after casting it on an enemy, that enemy will return to where they were three seconds ago, similar to Tracer’s Recall ability. As demonstrated in the above video, this can even rewind players back to their original position even after traveling elsewhere on the map via Abathur’s Deep Burrow, though it’s unknown if this works on enemies who have recalled to their base via Hearthstone (unlikely, since the Nexus’ safe space prevents all spells from entering. A Level 19 talent allows Chromie to cast this ability on multiple targets, which can open up avenues for some very creative plays.
This ability opens up some very interesting gameplay decisions for your team and your enemy. If an enemy is afflicted with Temporal Loop, he or she will have to decide whether to run back to their teammates and get rewound back to their original position, and hope his or her teammates will follow them and protect them as they get rewound. If nothing else, this is your answer to countering Tracer’s recall ability. Fighting time travel with time travel, if you will.
Chromie also possesses additional abilities in her talent trees, such as Time Out, which places her in Stasis for up to 7 seconds and can be canceled at any time; and Quantum Overdrive, which temporarily increases her ability damage.
Medivh:
Medivh, the last Guardian of Tirisfal, is a tragic figure in Warcraft history. He was one of the most powerful mages Azeroth had ever seen, yet was possessed from birth by the demon lord and fallen Titan, Sargeras. As such, he was fated to open the Dark Portal that would unleash the then-demonic Orcs onto Azeroth in Warcraft 1. In that game, he was ultimately killed by his own apprentice, the great mage Khadgar, who reluctantly did so to purge the demon lord from his master’s tainted body. Medivh’s spirit escaped and returned in Warcraft 3 as an ascended being. He entered the dreams of the future Warchief of the Horde, Thrall, and warned him of the impending doom that would befall Azeroth: the return of the demonic Burning Legion. At the end of the game, Medivh brought the three warring factions – the Human Alliance, the Orcish Horde, and the Night Elf Sentinels – together to drive out the Legion once and for all (kind of). Afterward, he departed to places unknown, never to be seen again.
Though Medivh is classified as a Specialist, his toolkit is geared more toward a support role. In DOTA parlance, he would likely be classified as such, as he can provide ample scouting, shielding, setup and sustained damage options for a coordinated team. He will be joining the Nexus on the week of June 14.
Please keep in mind that the current names of Medivh’s abilities are placeholders. These names, and the abilities themselves, are subject to change.
For Jonathan Franzen, birds were the “third major revelation” of his life. Medivh likely realized the same thing, because his passive Trait, Raven Form, replaces his mount and allows him to transform into a mystical raven. While in Raven form, Medivh can fly over all terrain. He’s also immune to all damage (which, personally, seems like something that will change upon release). These functions make Medivh an excellent scout.
Medivh’s Q ability, Arcane Rift, sends out a wave of energy in a line. This wave pierces enemies and deals damage, but features a special feature: Arcane Rift’s cooldown and mana cost will be drastically reduced if it hits an enemy. Skilled Medivh players will thus be able to apply constant AoE pressure in a teamfight, provided they have good aim.
Medivh’s W ability, Force of Will, encases either a targeted ally or himself in an arcane barrier that protects the target from all damage, or until it expires after a few seconds. This allows Medivh to act like a pocket Divine Shield if need be, but keep in mind that shielded targets are still susceptible to crowd control effects, such as stuns and silences.
His E ability, Portal, creates two nether gateways between two different locations after a short delay. Players can click on a gate to instantly travel to the other portal. This ability has a wide variety of tactical applications in the laning stage (escaping from ganks) and during objective fights (juking an opponent on and off a control point).
Medivh’s first ultimate is currently known as Poly Bomb. Polymorph is a Dungeons and Dragon staple; Warcraft 2 took it to the next level by allowing mages to turn their foes into docile sheep. Upon casting the ability, Medivh turns his target into a flying sheep with a targeting radius around it. The polymorph lasts three seconds, but after expiring, it will turn any other enemies in the circle into flying sheep! This spell works much like Kael’thas’ Living Bomb in that respect, except that the polymorph can chain indefinitely. Grouped enemies will think twice before mounting an offense on Medivh’s team, and greedy divers will think twice before running straight back to their team upon being sheeped.
Medivh’s second ultimate is called Ley line Seal. Ley Line Seal sends out a wave of nether energy in a long line, which places any enemies hit by it in Stasis for x seconds. This ultimate can be used in a similar fashion to Void Prison, meaning it can stall objectives, provide an escape, or allow your team to set up a nasty combo on your enemies.
Blizzard has also revealed the regular and Master skin variations for Chromie and Medivh, in addition to their Legendary skins: Fel Queen Chromie and Night Owl Medivh.
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Blizzard has also officially announced much-anticipated reworks for HotS‘ ranked play. In the first official season of Heroes of the Storm, players interested in Ranked play will participate in 10 Placement Matches. The outcomes of their Placement Matches will determine the league into which they will be placed; like a certain other world-famous MOBA, Leagues include Bronze, Silver, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster.
All leagues below Master will be grouped into 5 sub-ranks. Players in Masters League will instead display the number of ranked points they currently possess in that season, with Grand Master players being the Top 500 best players in a specific region.
Players will have the opportunity to rank up out of a league through a promotion match. Players who are about to rank down, meanwhile, are given one last chance to defend their status with a Demotion match.
Each season is projected to last 8-12 weeks, though this length is subject to change from player feedback. Players will receive rewards at the end of each season according to the highest rank they had achieved during that season, with the rewards including prizes like portraits and mounts. Players will only be able to group up with other players one league within their own. Silenced players, meanwhile, cannot play in Ranked mode until their penalty has been lifted.
With all these changes to Ranked play on their way, it seems as if Heroes of the Storm is finally coming into its own. For now, players in rank 20 and above will receive the Elemental Wolf mounts leaked last Thursday, with additional rewards for players in higher echelons.
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Other features coming soon include reworks for Arthas, who will gain new builds for Death Coil as well as some signature Death Knight abilities, like Anti Magic Shield. Anub’arak will become more tanky, and Falstad will be receiving several talent tree reworks as well.
A full list of planned changes to Heroes on the Private Test Realm (PTR) can be found here.
And, to the relief of many, a draft mode for unranked play is “almost a certainty at this point,” according to Game Director Dustin Browder. Arena mode, which has been teased in the past, is also still under development. No release date has been announced for Arena mode, though.
Stay tuned for more information on Heroes of the Storm as we enter the Summer season.