14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard held a big panel at PAX East yesterday, in which it talked about Heroes of the Storm, the upcoming multiplayer online battle arena title that's currently in closed alpha for a select number of individuals, confirming that four more characters are entering its roster.
Heroes of the Storm was re-revealed last year as the new name for Blizzard's All-Stars project, its own take on the popular MOBA experience that's been catching the world by storm via games like League of Legends or Dota 2.
At PAX East, the studio decided to confirm four more heroes that would join the game, in the form of LiLi, Brightwing, Murky, and Zagara, each bringing new types of gameplay to the title, according to an overview on the official website.
First up, LiLi, the small Pandaren from World of Warcraft, will act as a support hero with an ability set that should complement the skills of her teammates. While she may be small, she has quite a few ways of protecting herself and her allies so she doesn't need to be babysat, according to the studio.
Next up is Brightwing, which also focuses on supporting other characters by passively healing any nearby allies and by casting special attacks like one that turns enemies into animals. Brightwing can teleport from ally to ally on the battlefield and provide essential help and healing in critical moments.
Zagara, the broodmother from Starcraft, is also coming to Heroes of the Storm and brings "map-wide" attacks. She can drop Creep Tumors to spread Zerg creeps, thereby boosting her movement speed. She can also use Nydus Worms to hop back and forth around the map, giving her the ability to hold multiple lanes at once.
Last but not least, there's Murky, and Blizzard confirms that he gave the team a few headaches when it came to abilities and his role on the battlefield.
"When we talked about putting Murky in the game, we initially struggled with what to do with him. Making him a really powerful hero just didn't seem to fit quite right (he is a Murloc, you know.) Instead, we chose to make him very, very weak, but incredibly persistent."
Murky can lay an egg which can be used to respawn near instantly after death. If the egg is destroyed, however, he'll have to respawn the old fashioned way, so players should carefully hide it away from enemies.
You can expect to hear more about Heroes of the Storm soon.