The latest patch of Heroes of the Storm is now on the test servers and brings two major new features. The first is Aleksandra Zaryanova, better known as “Zarya” in Overwatch. She joins the fight in the Nexus, bringing all the abilities that players love about her in Overwatch. The second new feature is the fresh map “Warhead Junction”, which is part of the “Machines of War” update.
Zarya – The Defender of Russia
But let’s start from the beginning. As the newest hero, Zarya appears in the Nexus. Let’s take a quick look at her abilities – Overwatch players should be quite familiar with these:
- The passive ability Energy ensures that Zarya’s energy level increases by 1 every time one of her barriers takes 10 damage. Each point of energy increases Zarya’s damage by 2%. After 0.5 seconds, the energy begins to decrease by 3 per second.
- Particle Grenade deals damage in a small target area. Buildings only take 50% of the damage.
- The Personal Barrier protects Zarya with a shield that absorbs damage for 3 seconds.
- Shield Ally is the well-known counterpart: an ally is given a protective shield for 3 seconds.
- The first heroic ability is Graviton Surge. After a delay of one second, the projectile explodes and pulls all enemies to the center of the explosion for 2.5 seconds.
- The second heroic ability is Expulsion Zone. Zarya fires a projectile that creates a feedback zone. Enemies who enter this zone are pushed back and are slowed by 50% for one second.
New Map: Warhead Junction
The new map is also heavily inspired by StarCraft 2. In “Warhead Junction”, the goal is to collect various warheads that appear all over the map and use them to bombard the enemy fortifications. But beware: the warhead must first be brought within range of the respective fortification. If you die while carrying a warhead, it will drop to the ground and can be picked up by any other players.
Finally, the prices of some heroes are also changing. For example, Muradin, which was previously available for 2000 gold, will soon be offered for 4000 gold. Diablo, however, will decrease in price and will only cost 2000 gold coins in the future. Since Muradin is also part of the starter pack, it will be even more worthwhile to get this in the future.
Currently, all these changes are only on the PTR. There could still be changes before the release.
