As expected, Blizzard yesterday revealed four new playable heroes in their upcoming MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. They are Brightwing, Zagara, Murky, and LiLi, four new heroes that feel and play differently than anything you've probably ever experienced in a MOBA before.
Brightwing, a fairy dragon, is a standard with support, but with a little edge and the ability to transform enemies into animals. What's more, Brightwing has the ability to teleport to any ally on the map about every 40 or so seconds, making map awareness extremely important.
The next champion is Zagara who boasts map-wide abilities. She drops Creep Tumors to spread Zerg Creep, which helps speed up her movement speed and the speed of her summons. She also has the ability to split push effectively because she can move to different parts of the map very quickly using her Nydus Worms.
We also have Murky, who Blizzard admits they "initially struggled with." Murky is "very, very weak, but incredibly persistent."
"He sucks," admitted Blizzard's Game Designer Dustin Browder. "He can't fight. He's got no health. He does no damage. Really, he does suck."
But what Murky does is lay an egg anywhere on the map which he can use to respawn near instantly upon being killed. Blizzard acknowedges that Murkey "is going to die A LOT," but the tradeoff is that his near instant spawning allows him to eventually overwhelm enemies. He'll die, respawn quickly, fight and weaken and enemy, die, and repeat. "He doesn't need to win every fight," Browder told us. "He just needs to win once." The good news is that Murky's egg can be killed, and when he dies he will face the same respawn timers as other heroes.
Lastly, we have Lili, a new support hero with "an ability set that helps her to very effectively aid her teammates throughout the new game." Browder didn't have time to really get in depth about Lili, but all four champions can be viewed in the photo above.
What's important to understand about these champions is that Blizzard is constantly looking at ways to innovate the MOBA experience. As Browder told us, their goal is to create some heroes that "are as wacky as we can get them." These characters may be wacky, but they also will change the way you play MOBAs. Honestly, these are some of the most innovative mechanics I've seen in a MOBA yet.
