Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Heroes Of The Storm New Heroes And Maps
Thrall, Jaina, and The Lost Vikings lead the way with Heroes of the Storm BlizzCon reveals, along with two new maps that will shake up gameplay.
Thrall is a melee brawler that uses a windfury empowered Doomhammer to crush opponents at close range, but also has the ability to dish out damage at range with chain lightning, fire wolves, and a massive earthquake ultimate.
Jaina is an archetypal glass-cannon style mage, able to push out immense burst damage by combining her cold spells. With a limited mana pool and low defenses, Jaina will have to pick her moments, but is able to absolutely decimate an opposing hero by using chilling spells in sequence.
The Lost Vikings play different than any other hero in the game, as each Viking is controlled individually. Each Viking has a separate death timer, and because they can split up, one Viking could be capturing a mercenary camp, another laning, and yet another jumping inside the Dragon Knight. It’s going to take a lot of skill to play them separately, but the rewards are enticing for doing so.
Both new maps are Egyptian themed. The Sky Temple encourages players to leave the lanes to gain control of Obelisks around the map that will rain down destruction upon the enemy base when controlled. Control won’t be easy – monsters will spawn to defend the Obelisk, and this also gives incentive for the other team to jump into the fray while you’re beating back the NPC creatures.
Tomb of the Spider Queen takes the opposite approach. Players will be encouraged to stay in lane to acquire souls from fallen minions. These souls can be turned in to create lane-pushing monster spawns that will join you as you assault the opposing base.
In addition to these reveals, Ranked Play will be coming to the game, which will include both solo queue and team-based modes. Draft mode will be available for competitive play, where each character can only be picked once during the hero selection phase.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
