Heroes of the Storm: Xul – What the Necromancer from Diablo 2 can do in HotS [Update: Release next week]

Xul, the Necromancer from the Diablo universe, will be the next hero in Heroes of the Storm. We take a first look at his abilities.

Xul the Necromancer – A Classic from Diablo 2

After Li-Ming had a strong start in Heroes of the Storm, it is slowly time to talk about the next hero arriving in the Nexus. The Necromancer Xul originates from Diablo 2, and as befits a proper summoner, he brings numerous skeletons and other unholy deeds to the Nexus. Let’s take a look at his abilities:

• The passive ability Raise Skeleton creates skeletons from fallen enemy minions that fight for Xul for 15 seconds. A maximum of 4 skeletons can be active at the same time.
• With Bone Armor, he receives a shield for 3 seconds equal to 25% of his maximum health.
• Spectral Scythe is summoned at a target location and moves toward the hero after a short delay, damaging all enemies in its path. This is essentially a “reverse” skill shot.
• The Cursed Strikes grant Xul’s basic attacks an area-of-effect “Cleave” that also reduces enemy heroes’ attack speed by 50% for 2 seconds.
• The Bone Prison roots the targeted hero in place for 2 seconds after a 2-second delay.
• The first heroic ability Poison Nova fires toxic projectiles after a short delay, inflicting massive poison damage to all affected enemies over 10 seconds.
• The second heroic ability Skeletal Mages summons 4 undead mages in a straight line that attack nearby enemies and slow them by 30% for 2 seconds. The mages last for up to 15 seconds.

There has been extensive discussion about the Necromancer’s talents as well. At least at first glance, there seem to be several talent distributions for Xul that appear quite reasonable. He can either focus entirely on his skeleton army and relentlessly push lanes, or he can become a feared assassin who is always in close combat. Finally, he can also massively increase his own survivability and thus simply “outlive” enemy heroes, while they have to retreat battered.

There is no exact release date for Xul yet. We will keep you updated as soon as his spotlight video is released.

Update: Blizzard has now confirmed his release date. He will arrive in the Nexus next week, at the beginning of March.

Prepare yourselves, heroes – Xul and his minions arrive next week! pic.twitter.com/SBBksJYZ5c

— Heroes of the Storm (@BlizzHeroes) February 23, 2016

For more information about the game, you can find it on our Heroes of the Storm theme page.