‘Heroes of the Storm’ upgraded with new orc hero, horror garden

Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming multiplayer online battle arena, “Heroes of the Storm,” already has an impressive line up of heroes and villains, from StarCraft’s Kerrigan to Diablo, the Lord of Terror. When it comes to the Warcraft universe, however, the roster has been noticeably vacant of a certain green-skinned race of honorable and noble warrior savages.

 

The latest update for the game remedies this lack of orcish representation by introducing a new character – Rehgar Earthfury.

 

 

 

For the Horde!

 

Rehgar is the game’s very first orc character. As a shaman for the Horde, he is one of Thrall’s most important allies. Before he became a trusted advisor to the Warchief, however, Rehgar saw his fair share of combat “as a gladiator, and a master of his own team of fighters.”

 

Rehgar is an interesting choice for the first playable orc hero for “Heroes of the Storm”, as he never appeared in the original games. He serves as an important character in “World of Warcraft: The Comic”, however, and even has his own action figure.

 

As a playable hero, Rehgar is classified as a Melee Support character, with abilities designed to aid his allies in combat. These moves should be familiar to anyone who has used the orc shaman unit in the real-time strategy game “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” and its expansion, “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne”.

 

His foremost basic skills is “Chain Heal”, which sends a beam of healing energy towards a damaged minion or allied hero. The beam then bounces to two other nearby allies, for a diminished amount of hit points recovered.

 

Another starting skill is the “Lightning Shield”. Rehgar imbues himself or an allied hero with a maelstrom of electricity, hurting nearby enemies. The Lightning Shield can also be upgraded to reduce any damage incurred by the affected hero.

 

The “Earthbind Totem”, once planted into the ground, slows down the movement and attack speed of all enemies who enter its area of effect.

 

His Heroic Abilities include “Ancestral Healing”, which significantly heals a single target hero; and “Bloodlust”, which drives nearby allies and himself into a frenzy, temporarily raising their attack and movement speed.

 

Rehgar is unable to use mounts such as horses and unicorns. This is because his Trait allows him to shapeshift into an enormous ghost wolf, giving him a boost in moving speed. While in wolf mode, he can attack for an extra 100% damage, but doing so will cause Rehgar to revert to his original orc form.

 

He also comes with two skins – his default “Shaman” costume, and the “Ironclaw” costume, which has him decked out in heavy armor. Of course, the latter has to be purchased before it can be used.

 

 

 

Gardening for freaks

 

“Heroes of the Storm” has a new, 3-lane map called the “Garden of Terror”. This makes it the fifth map for the game.

 

“Garden of Terror” has a day-night cycle. When darkness descends upon the battlefield, vicious plant monsters called Night Horrors – which include the small Infested Servants and the enormous Flowering Shambler – arise. Players can kill them to collect the seeds they drop.

 

Once 100 seeds have been gathered, a hero can return to their base camp to feed the seeds to the Fertile Soil. This will then temporarily transform the hero into the Garden Terror, a hulking, botanic monstrosity capable of massive damage, not unlike the Dragon Knight of “Dragon Shire”, and the Golems of the “Haunted Mines”.

 

Aside from sheer might, the Garden Terror has two abilities: “Spore Queen’s Curse”, which turns enemy heroes in the target area into silenced, slow-moving Plant Zombies; and “Plant Horror Overgrowth”, which damages and disables target structures, as well as damages minions in the spell’s area of effect.

 

 

Hero Levels, Master Skins, Artifacts, and other updates

 

Blizzard has introduced a slew of other changes to the game.

 

Hero Quests has been modified, and is now Hero Levels. Playing matches will now not only raise the level of your account, it will also raise the level of your hero outside the arena. By raising Hero Levels, their extra abilities and Talents can be unlocked.

 

For instance, the second Heroic Ability is no longer initially available to all heroes – this must be unlocked by raising a hero’s level to 2. Level 3 awards the hero with 6 additional Talents, one per tier. All remaining Talents will be accessible to the hero once they reach level 4.

 

Higher levels will also make alternate skins available for purchase. For ultimate bragging rights, reach a hero’s maximum level of 10 to be able to buy their Master Skin.

 

 

The entirely new Artifact system allows players to alter the stats of their heroes prior to battle. They can cause a variety of effects, such as increase the hero’s maximum health, mana, or mount speed; reduce ability cooldowns; and give your heroes additional shielding.

 

There are three types of artifacts: Gems, Relics, and Trinkets. Only three Artifacts – one of each type – can be equipped at a time, so the player must choose wisely when selecting their stat boosts.

 

Bringing your account up to level 15 will unlock the option to purchase Artifacts, as well as open up the Artifact slots. Further purchases can upgrade Artifact ranks, making their effects more potent.

 

Other changes include slight visual improvements; new animations, music and sound effects; various gold and experience points bonuses; and more. Some Talents have been removed, while new generic ones have been added. And of course, an update isn’t complete without the playable heroes receiving alterations for balancing purposes.

 

“Heroes of the Storm” continues to surprise while providing the exciting gameplay we’ve all come to expect from gaming industry powerhouse, Blizzard Entertainment. With a new hero and map, and a whole bunch of interesting new updates, this work in progress is shaping up quite nicely. And as long as the fan feedback keeps coming, so will the updates. This is definitely not the last we will be hearing from “Heroes of the Storm”. — TJD, GMA News