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Heroes of the Storm
At BlizzCon 2016, I had a chance to check out the two upcoming characters for Heroes of the Storm: Varian and Ragnaros. While Varian is probably the more interesting character from a competitive standpoint (because he can be built as two different archetypes over the course of the game and is incredibly versatile), the real show-stealer is Molten Core's kingpin, Ragnaros.
Capturing the feel of a raid boss in a game like Heroes of the Storm is a real challenge, but after Blizzard tackled the two-player controlled Cho'gall I suppose I'm not really that surprised Ragnaros looks, feels, and sounds just like the iconic World of Warcraft raid monstrosity. The towering lava titan can actually take control of allied forts (or destroyed forts) and become an immobile living fortress complete with powerful new abilities and a massive amount of health. You crush the little insects around you in true raid boss fashion!
Ragnaros is no slouch in the lane either, shooting off meteors, blast waves, and swinging the legendary hammer Sulfuras around. Perhaps the most flavorful of Ragnaros's suite of skills is one of his ultimate choices, the lava wave. This attack actually travels the full distance of the map down a lane, wiping out every enemy minion and roasting heroes for absurd damage. There's some time to get away, but if you're caught in the blast, you're going to burn (It doesn't hurt structures, so don't plan on exploiting that to kill forts unchecked).
I'm generally more interested in heroes that break the established "rules: of the MOBA-like, such as Cho'gall or Abathur, and Ragnaros may be my favorite addition to the Heroes of the Storm roster yet. I love to see Blizzard's classic characters break out of their home games and be implemented here while retaining their signature flavor and style. Now, if we could just get Deckard Cain added to the roster, we'd be all set.
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