My Favourite Piece Of Dialogue From Heroes Of The Storm

“This is too easy,” the elf says. He sounds so sure. Sure enough that I actually believe him.

There are a lot of fearsome-looking creatures in Heroes of the Storm. I mean, the game has Diablo, the lord of hell, in its roster. But the guy I find the most formidable by far is Illidan. He’s an elf from the Warcraft universe who can leap into a fight and dice your character up before you’ve even tried to respond. He has a lot of good dialogue to support his formidable presence. Whenever you trigger one of his powerful “heroic abilities,” for instance, he’ll shout something like: “Now I am complete!” (to signal he’s just transformed into his hulking super-powered Illidan mode) or, “Feel the hatred of ten thousand years.”

That latter line introduces players to his long-range charge known as the hunt. It’s a wonderfully fitting bit of dialogue, considering that “the hunt” involves Illidan charging across the entire map at some target and then almost certainly killing them:

Part of the fun of casting the hunt on some hapless victim is knowing what it feels like to be on the receiving end of such unbridled fury.

Heroes of the Storm has a lot of great character banter. But my favourite line in the game right now is whenever Illidan says, “This is too easy.” It’s such a small line, I know — one that’s efficiently blurted out in an aggressive grunt whenever you’ve killed an enemy hero (or several) as the guy. And it seems like it’s meant to mimic that ubiquitous gamer taunt “too ez” that I’ve encountered so many times since I started playing MOBAs like Heroes of the Storm and League of Legends. But the reason I think it’s great is the line gets to the essence of Illidan’s character itself.

An Illidan in Heroes of the Storm is only scary if the player behind him knows how to use the elf well. And it’s not actually that easy to do that, since the assassin has very little in the way of health or armour. Inexperienced players will often leap headfirst into a fight with Illidan only to die in a few seconds. Learning how to master Illidan and help him become a formidable assassin requires you to develop quick reflexes and the confidence to make rapid-fire, game-changing decisions — all to ensure that you can dive into a dangerous situation and leap back out at a moment’s notice. That’s what playing the character is like: always going a step further into enemy territory than you think you should, and wondering if you’re going to make it out alive.

The elf only says, “This is too easy” when you’ve managed to not fumble a well-placed strike against an enemy, then, and managed to get yourself back to safety. It’s perfect because of how it’s delivered: right after you’ve taken an immense risk that actually paid off, when you’re still left feeling exhilarated from the action before. Similar to the phrase “too ez,” it’s like the game itself is patting you on the back for a job well done. Complimenting you, because you both know that the next challenge might not be so easy.