Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Reveals Varian and Ragnaros Skills and Talents

by JR Cook - 7 years ago     show comments

The panel started off by talking about the development process of heroes and how they go from concept to a rendering of the in-game hero. The discussion quickly pivoted to Varian and how the first multi class character will operate in the nexus. Varian will complete both Warrior and Assassin daily quest for all of you daily quest lovers out there. Varian will have three choices for heroics at 10 that will define if he plays as a Tank, Burst, or Sustain type hero. He can also spec into different talents that will allow him to hybrid those in a more defensive or more aggressive play style. Varian will in essence have 6 varying play styles due to these choices and was compared to Jo, Chen, Sonya, Zeratul, Illidan, and Artanis.

We got a look at Varian’s base kit and it’s exciting to say the least

• Q Lions Fang  Varian fires a shock wave skill shot that deals damage and applies slow.
• W Parry  Varian deflects all incoming basic attacks for a short period of time. This looks highly reactive and skill dependent.
• E Charge Varian dashes to an opponent to deal damage and apply a slow.

Next we got a look at some of Varian’s talent choices that he will have to define the play style path he takes.

Level 4 talent choices.

• Shield Wall This will cause Varian to become immune to damage for a short period of time when parry is active
• Warbringer The cooldown on the Charge skill goes from 16 seconds to 6 seconds and the slow becomes stun.

Level 10 choices.

• Taunt Varian picks up his shield and passively increases health by 50%. He also gets a low cooldown activation ability that forces enemies heroes to attack him.
• Colossus Smash Varian makes a two handed grip on sword that passively doubles attack damage but at a loss some overall health. This also allows him to leap to enemy heroes for damage and apply a vulnerability de-buff.
• Twin Blades of Fury Varian splits his swords into two which will passively double his attack speed. With every attack Varian gains movement speed that decays and every third attack will be increased damage.

Level 13 you get to pick one 3 different banners based on city capitals in World of Warcraft. The capitals in-game Warcraft music will play when the banner is thrown.

• Banner of Ironforge Varian throws down banner and you and surrounding allies gain armor in its radius.
• Banner of Dalaran Varian throws down a banner that gives you and surrounding allies ability power boost.
• Banner of Stormwind Varian throws down a banner that gives you and surrounding allies movement speed boost.

Heroic Strike shown as passive but it’s effect was not discussed. Also shown was his level 20 talent tree but it was not discussed in detail.

The focus of the panel then switched to Ragnaros who has both hero form and Raid Boss Form. The hero form is a standard play style that will allow Ragnaros to move around the map as any other hero would. Raid Boss Form can take over an allied or destroyed fort to allow him to have a big lane presence.

Raid boss abilities were shown when you use his trait Molten Core to channel ally or destroyed forts. This looks to last about 7-10 seconds.

• Q Molten Swing. A huge arcing sweep with Sulfuras weapon.
• W Meteor Shower Ragnaros summons a volley of meteors from the sky that damages and slows enemies hit.
• E Rune Explosion Ragnaros summons a rune on the ground that explodes for damage after a short delay.

Hero form abilities were also shown.

• Q Empower Sulfuras This will cause Ragnaros’s next basic attack to instantly hit along with applying aoe damage that leeches life.
• W Living Meteor Ragnaros calls down meteor at targeted location rolls forward dealing damage along the way.
• E Blast Wave Ragnaros can cast this on himself or an ally. Blast Wave provides short burst of movement speed before exploding and dealing damage to enemies around the hero buffed by Blast Wave.
• R1 Sulfuras Smash Ragnaros hurls his weapon in the sky and and then it comes down at the targeted location to deal damage. Sulfuras Smash has a smaller inner circle inside its radius that deals triple damage and stuns the enemies caught in its smaller circle in the center.
• R2 Lava Wave Ragnaros summons a lava wave is from his allied core that goes down the targeted lane all the way to enemies core. This instantly kills enemy minions and does massive damage to enemy heroes.

None of Ragnaros’s talents were discussed in detail but we were provided a few screen shots.

Along with the new hero reveals some current character revamps were discussed as well.

Kharazim will be getting a talent update in the near future. At level 4 he will be able to pick between 3 different mystic allies. They get placed on the battlefield for a short duration to provide various effects. The Spirit ally heals nearby teammates, the Earth ally blocks basic attacks, and the Air ally provides vision to areas that you will be able to have up in multiple locations.  There will also be buffs to iron fist build. In Iron First mode every third attack will also apply movement speed allowing Kharazim an easier time sticking to heroes.

Dehaka will see some changes to make him a more viable solo warrior. When the changes hit, Dehaka will be able to cancel burrow early and his Adaptation heroic will now heal all damage taken.

Artanis will also get a talent update and base kit changes to make him a better bruiser. Phase Prism will be able to be cast during blade dash which will allow Artanis to make some pretty crazy positional switches on the battlefield.

The Q&A portion wrapped up the deep dive panel and we got some great answers from the Heroes team.

They confirmed that Samuro nerfs will come next week and quick match players can rejoice. They also said Diablo 3 female skin is close to completion. When asked about Zul’jin they smiled and asked if we saw that Amani Bear in the video. The team also confirmed they are working on a Clans system but no details were available at the time as things could change. MMR decay for inactive players and a Live spectator mode discussed but nothing could be confirmed at the time.