The latest patch for Heroes of the Storm‘s closed beta hits three major beats — a new game mode, the debut of the Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner and Team League play for players that have reached level 40. I can show you two of those.
First off we have a new addition to one of my favourite aspects of Heroes of the Storm, battlegrounds. Rather than relying on a single three-lane map as many multiplayer online battle arena games, Heroes of the Storm features a lovely assortment, each with special mechanics to enhance team play.
For example, in the new Tomb of the Spider Queen battleground, spider minions and enemy heroes drop gems when killed. Players pick up these gems and turn them in at Spider Queen altars — the number of gems being carried appears next to player names, so if you see an enemy with a big number, take them out. Once a set number of gems have been turned in by a team, powerful Webweaver minions are summoned to lay waste to the enemy’s defences.
Of course players could ignore this mechanic and just go about pushing down the lane in order to destroy the enemy base as per usual, but that’s not any fun at all.
Speaking of fun…
Sylvanas is an absolute blast to play, and by that I mean players are expecting a power-reducing nerf within the next week.
Her basic attacks stun mercenaries, minions and towers. Talent upgrades can double the duration of the stun, and then make enemies killed by basic attacks explode. Her basic abilities include a powerful volley of arrows with charges refreshed by kills, a dagger strike that does damage over time and spreads to nearby enemies and a cone-based area-of-affect damage spell that also allows her to teleport.
I love her, at least for now. She’s a monster in my hands. I can only imagine what she’s like in the hands of a more skilled player.
Check out the video below to see Sylvanas in all her pre-tweaked glory, taking on AI enemies in the Tomb of the Spider Queen battlefield.
She’s so dreamy.
Check out the official patch notes for more on the Banshee Queen, the Spider Queen, Team League and more.
Comments
16 responses to “The Banshee Queen Brings Such Wonderful Pain To Heroes Of The Storm”
Sylvanas is a legend, no doubt about it. If Blizzard don’t nerf, its an OP, to rival League of Legends
Is this free to play yet ?
It’s always free to play.
It’s just in closed beta still. If you ask nicely I can send you a beta key
Can I have a beta key please? 😛
Add me to steam “Inquisitor_Warden” and I’ll send you one tonight
Hey there, just wondered if you would have any extra keys spare? I’m interested in giving this game a look. Tried adding you on Steam, but nothing found under that name for some reason.
I’m pretty sure that’s my steam name. Aussiecreeper added me successfully.
maybe try without the capitial letters?
I do usually ignore random requests though. I’ll keep an eye out for yours. What’s your steam name?
Thanks! I love the internet 😀
I friended you, my name is ‘TheAussieCreeper’
That’s awfully nice, but I don’t think a beta key would be best for me. My time is limited. Best to give it to someone like Aussiecreeper 🙂
So I had a few games with sylvanas last night.
Initially I thought she was completely broken and over-powered. After a few more games I found her weakness…. range.
She’s super squishy, more so than nova, jaina or valla and has much shorter range on her abilities than each of those 3. Which means, she get’s out ranged by them and can be countered fairly well.
That being said, she’s still a pretty good damage dealer with some fun and interesting abilities. I’ve found only a few talents that are “must takes” but most are quite flexible, which is great character design.
She’s an amazing lane pusher (probably the best at the moment), and being able to stun lock towers and keeps is borderline broken.
Her second heroic ability is a bit lack luster and she needs some minor tweaking but overall I really like the design. She’s interesting to play, and seems like she’s quite powerful for skilled players while still being usable by new/inexperienced players.
I had a feeling this might be the case.
I haven’t had a chance to play her properly yet but just from running around in the shop test she seemed insanely powerful – until Arthas managed to get in close and I just about died instantly.
I do like that (in my unskilled opinion) she has great talent options for running siege or pure DPS.
I’m enjoying the hell out of her. She lanes and pushes really well, but in team fights she’s fragile.
She can have a small self heal, which is nice but i’m not convinced it’s a must take.
Her escape is fairly weak compared to most others, but you can choose blink at lvl 20 which is probably better than other options.
Honestly though, her only real problem is that the heroic abilities are pretty crap. The silence arrow is cool but does very little damage and as I said above, the possession skill is useless.
My thought on this is that okay we have lots of Warcraft characters, now give us more Diablo and StafCraft characters. Need a StarCraft warrior (Fenix please though no doubt this will be coincided with Legacy of the Voids release).
From Blizzcon it looked like they’re holding some Diablo heroes back (and working on them) for a big Diablo update, with the Heaven/Hell map. At least that’s what I’m hoping…
Also agree completely on a SC warrior, would’ve sped up my daily quests (SC hero + Warrior quests) last night 😛
Buy her quick! By next tuesday she’s going to be nerfed to hell!
She’s a blast to play and can absolutely wreck towers and everything.