heroes Varian Clue in Heroes of the Storm PTR

[Zadina 923]

Is Varian going to enter the Nexus, after Zarya?

It looks like the legendary warrior and King of the Alliance is probably the next hero to join the cast of Heroes of the Storm.

A few days ago, Blainie presented some clues involving Samuro, which made us think he would be the next hero in line after Zarya. It turns out, though, that Varian Wrynn may be a more likely contender. Bear in mind that both of these Warcraft heroes are in Axolotl's (the 4chan guy who has accurately predicted content releases this year) list for upcoming heroes.

What sparked all this talk about Varian? Three similar background images were datamined by two Reddit users (Timkinut and DavesenDave) from the recent PTR patch. Here is the resulting image from their combined efforts:

What makes it more interesting is that the file name is "storm_ui_homescreenbackground_varian.dds". If you are a World of Warcraft fan, you will know that Varian recently took an airship to the Broken Isles, where the Burning Legion was beginning its invasion on Azeroth. You can check some details by watching the official trailer for the Legion expansion of WoW. Now, you can find out about Varian's fate in Legion in the spoiler tag below:

 

Varian sacrifices himself so that his airship can escape. He is killed by Gul'dan.

Therefore, it would be fitting to see Varian in another Blizzard title as well and I think it's more likely that Varian will be released before Samuro, since Legion was also released recently. According to Axolotl, Varian in HotS will be like a typical WoW warrior with charge, taunt and cleanse.

Who would you like to see first: Varian or Samuro?

[greatCraft 29]

Varian should have an ultimate that allows him to increase the chances of his allies to live by sacrificing himself +D

 

 

Varian first please.

Edited September 2, 2016 by greatCraft

[mnime 17]

playing warrior heroes in hots is just boring right now imo. except maybe E.T.C. , but as soon as your team doesn't follow your 3+ man Mosh Pit it gets boring again :P

I'm interested to see if they create a warrior hero that can actually be fun. Wukong in both LoL and Smite has a very interesting mechanic. Or Lee Sin in LoL, I cannot count the amount of "fun to watch" moments you can create with these heroes (hail to the great InSec!).

I'm expecting Varian to be boring as hell :D 

[greatCraft 29]

44 minutes ago, mnime said:

playing warrior heroes in hots is just boring right now imo. except maybe E.T.C. , but as soon as your team doesn't follow your 3+ man Mosh Pit it gets boring again :P

I'm interested to see if they create a warrior hero that can actually be fun. Wukong in both LoL and Smite has a very interesting mechanic. Or Lee Sin in LoL, I cannot count the amount of "fun to watch" moments you can create with these heroes (hail to the great InSec!).

I'm expecting Varian to be boring as hell :D 

I disagree. Only Dehaka is boring. That guy needs a serious rework.

Edited September 2, 2016 by greatCraft

[Glumar 2]

1 hour ago, mnime said:

playing warrior heroes in hots is just boring right now imo. except maybe E.T.C. , but as soon as your team doesn't follow your 3+ man Mosh Pit it gets boring again :P

I'm interested to see if they create a warrior hero that can actually be fun. Wukong in both LoL and Smite has a very interesting mechanic. Or Lee Sin in LoL, I cannot count the amount of "fun to watch" moments you can create with these heroes (hail to the great InSec!).

I'm expecting Varian to be boring as hell :D 

Using LoL as a means of comparison for any game other than itself has got to be the most god awful thing I've seen done here.

[Laragon 269]

There are a bunch of fun warriors! Sonya is my personal favorite (I'm really curious to see how Varian will be different: both fury style, both bruisers, etc). But you can't tell me Sonya, ETC, Artanis, and Stitches aren't exciting (and viable) in their own way and play completely differently.

If you don't like warriors, that's fine, but they're in a great place for the meta. Unlike healers that are really dependent on the team comp (yours and theirs) making your choice for you.

[mnime 17]

4 hours ago, Glumar said:

Using LoL as a means of comparison for any game other than itself has got to be the most god awful thing I've seen done here.

I don't know why ppl insist on NOT comparing heroes of the storm to other mobas. Blizzard is trying so hard to tell us it's a new genre, well it's not! it's a moba no matter how hard they try to convince us. So why exactly shouldn't I compare them?

 

5 hours ago, greatCraft said:

I disagree. Only Dehaka is boring. That guy needs a serious rework.

I was actually going to add Dehaka to my fun list :D guess I look at the game in a very different way.

You need a lot of map awareness to play Dehaka which is something players in Heroes of the Storm usually don't care about.

One of the most exciting mechanics in any MOBA game is ganking, that's why I like the gamestyle of Lee Sin and Wukong. Ganking as Dehaka is somewhat fun.

4 hours ago, Laragon said:

There are a bunch of fun warriors! Sonya is my personal favorite (I'm really curious to see how Varian will be different: both fury style, both bruisers, etc). But you can't tell me Sonya, ETC, Artanis, and Stitches aren't exciting (and viable) in their own way and play completely differently.

If you don't like warriors, that's fine, but they're in a great place for the meta. Unlike healers that are really dependent on the team comp (yours and theirs) making your choice for you.

Bruisers and tanks in hots don't have much gap close, that's why it's hard to engage a good fight as a bruiser, so when you try to start a fight or you try to chase down someone and fail to do it because you have no kits in your hand to do so, you get frustrated, and I don't call "frustrated" a good feeling in gaming overall :p . It's exactly why the current meta is going more and more towards double, triple warrior (it used to be triple warrior for some time even in esports), because 1 tank is just not enough for closing the gap, warriors don't have much mobility.

some examples :

Spoiler

 

Muradin - one of the most viable tanks in the game since, i don't know, alpha? Dwarf Toss and that's it! you either save it for running away which puts your team in a fight without a tank, or use it to engage a fight which leaves you with no means of escape. Now if you miss your Q then you're just a fat dwarf chasing ppl with your hammer raised above your head all the time.

Johanna - best tank in the meta, been the best for a long time. Good luck crowd controlling fleeing enemies, you're done when you use your ult. Instead of a fat dwarf, you're a blonde girl this time, chasing ppl.

Diablo - don't even get me started... You can't solo tank as diablo, and lack of mobility is the reason why. How many times have you seen a diablo triy to start a fight and die instantly? 

Arthas - /facepalm, poor guy is a punching bag... even blizzard admitted. spamming R just to stay alive for 2 more seconds... 

Chen - way out of meta, all these stuns, only in bronze you can actually drink in peace... but I really like the mobility and gap close on this hero, too bad interrupts counter him way hard.

Stitches - IMO he's not even a tank, he's more like a support hero, here Pudge! pull em! then get out of the way so we can kill. They nerfed the stuns, the slows, so as soon as you pull someone you're just out of the fight, you can't keep the gap close.

 

 

Bottom line, warriors in hots do not impact on the game as they should, that's why you need atleast 2 of them. You can clearly see that all the pro players only take talents which improves mobility and gap close (like sonya's Mystical Spear talent which has more than 60% pick rate, it means if you don't take it you're screwed, because if you miss your Q then you're never going to catch anyone) 

 

Now compare this to other games in the genre. Mobility is everything...

Edited September 2, 2016 by mnime

[greatCraft 29]

eh, I felt like Dehaka had only one real competitive build in most matchups. he would be funner if he had increased walk speed from the get go...............or a lower cooldown on bushstalker.......or both...And maybe reduce the cooldown and duration of drag

 

 

yeah, ganking Alien style is fun though ^_^

Edited September 3, 2016 by greatCraft

[Darkjester79 47]

I love Varian and I am glad that they are adding him to HOTS.

[Valks 2,377]

On 9/3/2016 at 11:15 PM, Darkjester79 said:

I love Varian and I am glad that they are adding him to HOTS.

I'll definitely be picking certain ranged heroes with RNG ultimates against him.. heheheh.