Heroes of the Storm not only receives a thoroughly revamped progression and loot system. The Amazon Cassia from Diablo 2 enriches the hero selection with an assassin with tank qualities.
Anyone who played Diablo 2 back then should still remember the so-called “Javazons.” These were Amazon heroes who specialized in lightning magic and javelin throwing spears. Javazons could deal extremely high damage while still being quite robust for damage dealer builds.
The Javazon is now coming to Heroes of the Storm.
Heroes of the Storm – Skills – Tanky Damage Dealer
Cassia appears as a new heroine in Heroes of the Storm in early April. True to her gameplay from Diablo 2, she is a ranged fighter who operates with throwing spears and lightning magic. Thanks to her shield, Cassia is also tough and takes less damage from attacks.
We had the chance to try out the tough Amazon live at Blizzard in Paris and tested all her skills. These are:
- Trait – Avoidance: Due to her shield, Cassia takes reduced damage from direct basic attacks as long as she is not mounted.
- Q – Lightning Fury: A direct skill shot lightning attack. When the skill hits, the lightning spreads out and can damage additional targets.
- W – Blinding Light: A circular area attack that blinds all enemies. Blinded enemies take additional damage from Cassia.
- E – Fend: The famous multi-attack from Diablo 2 is also a very powerful attack in HotS. Cassia channels a lot of damage in a cone in front of her.
- R1 – Ball Lightning: A truly nasty attack that creates a ball lightning and causes it to bounce back and forth between targets, dealing damage each time. Via talent at maximum level, the ball lightning can even bounce indefinitely!
- R2 – Valkyrie: Cassia summons a Valkyrie that comes from the opposite direction of the skill shot and damages all enemies in the way, pushing them towards Cassia. Ideal for preventing enemies from escaping.
HotS – Cassia – This is how she plays!
In Paris, we also had the opportunity to play Cassia at the announcement of the HotS 2.0 system. The best thing up front: Cassia is really easy to play and a lot of fun! She is not very mobile for an assassin and lacks control abilities, but she can deal a lot of damage. Lightning Fury and especially Fend quickly turn most enemies into minced meat.
Thanks to her passive ability, Cassia is surprisingly robust. More than once, a daring assassin wanted to take us down, only to realize that they could hardly deal any damage to us. Various Tracers, who rely on basic attacks, were mercilessly countered by Cassia. Since Cassia deals more damage to blinded enemies, she harmonizes well with heroes who also inflict blindness, especially Diablo’s colleague Johanna!
If you want to play Cassia yourself, you still have to wait a little; the Amazon will only join the game in early April!
Also interesting: Heroes of the Storm – This is how loot and player progression changes in HotS 2.0
