Why You So Fine, New Heroes Of The Storm Skins?

Fresh off Heroes of the Storm’s Americas Championship games that went down this past weekend, Blizzard teased out some fresh MEAT content coming into the MOBA. Seems to me like the developer has really stepped up its game for alternate character skins lately.

First they gave a sneak peek at the next two upcoming champions — Artanis, a Protoss warrior, and Sgt. Morales, the official name for a support hero drawn from StarCraft’s Medic unit.

They didn’t show anything to do with either hero’s ability kit (though they have previously described the Medic’s, which you can read about here), but they did show their in-game looks, which are very snazzy. Morales, for instance, has a colour variation for her master skin that makes her look an awful lot like a certain Nintendo character who’s been sadly…underrepresented as of late:

Artanis also comes in with another instalment in the HOTS Killzone-lookalike skin line:

…or maybe a Decepticon? A Michael Bay Decepticon, at least…which would be an awesome complement to Tassadar’s Autobot-esque skin:

And that’s not even my favourite stuff. Hand and pirate hook down, the best new skin has to be this swashbuckling version of the flying Warcraft dwarf assassin Falstad:

Buccaneer Falstad shoots cannonballs instead of throwing hammers:

And throws anchors instead of…more hammers:

Then there’s the Wild Wild West version of StarCraft’s iconic Terran hero Raynor:

Marshal Raynor’s themed abilities are pretty subtle — though, really, it’s always the little details that make MOBA skins stand out. Be fires a shotgun blast that drops shells, for instance:

…plus his healing and area-wide team buff abilities show adorable little sheriff stars:

Then come the mounts — the mighty steeds that Heroes characters ride into battle in-game. There are a few rejiggered versions of the standard HOTS horse, which are fine I guess. One completes Marshal Raynor’s non-outlaw look:

But the really cool ones are the two new StarCraft mounts. There’s the “void speeder,” based off Zeratul’s ship “void seeker”:

And then the classic Terran vehicle, the Vulture, which is pretty much the perfect option for a fan-servicey HOTS mount:

It looks even better with shirtless Tychus riding on top:

(Thankfully, he’s still wearing pants.)

Blizzard didn’t give clear release dates for the new stuff, but based on the regular Heroes schedule, I’d expect to see all the rad new skins and mounts (and characters!) drip their way into the game over the next few weeks.