“Heroes of The Storm” Announces New Characters

Ryan Smythe ’15 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games are among the most popular in the gaming world. League of Legends and DOTA 2 are the undisputed kings, with LoL in front boasting over 7.5 million active players at peak times, much better than DOTA 2’s numbers falling around .75 million at peak. Despite the discrepancy between the two games, both numbers are staggeringly impressive. LoL’s numbers even put the online titan World of Warcraft to shame, making Blizzard’s entry into this field unsurprising. In fact, the only question is why it took them this long.

Heroes of the Storm is their upcoming entry, and it already has a huge leg up on the competition by sporting already existing characters from their previous games. Just in this past week, they’ve increased the already amazing lineup by announcing four new characters:

Li Li – A support-class hero from the Warcraft franchise. This ranged panda aids her allies by throwing healing items and blinding enemies.

Brightwing – A support-class hero from the Warcraft franchise. This Faerie Dragon aids its allies by teleporting around the battlefield providing healing, stat buffs, and offense.

Zagara – A specialist-class hero from the StarCraft franchise. This Zerg Broodmother commands her brood on the field of battle, sending them rushing in to overwhelm enemy defenses.

Murky – An assassin-class hero from the Warcraft franchise. This Baby Murloc will die constantly, but only needs one victory to overwhelm his enemies.

These new characters will have their work cut out for them as they join a cast that includes Blizzard superstars like the Queen of Blades, Diablo, Malfurion, and Tyrael.

A cast like this exactly what Blizzard needs if it hopes to make a dent in its MOBA competition. Drawing from the successful formula of the Smash Bros. series, watching the titular characters from various franchises fight to the death is going to be wildly entertaining to watch, and even more so to play. And given Blizzard’s fantastic track record, the highest of expectations are being placed on this game.

No official release date has been announced yet, but Heroes of the Storm will be available on both PC and Mac.