heroes In-Development Video: Stukov, New Skins & Sprays

[Stan 5,240]

In the latest in-development video, Blizzard shows off Stukov and various new Skins for existing Heroes that will go live with the patch next week.

New Skins

• Stukov
  • Dictator Stukov
  • Kaldir Stukov
  • UED Stukov
  • Zerus Stukov
  • Admiral Krakenov
  • Ghost Admiral Krakenov
  • Reef Admiral Krakenov
  • Tideswept Admiral Krakenov
  • Vice Admiral Krakenov
• Auriel
  • Glorious Archangel Auriel
  • Shadow Demonic Auriel
• Chromie
  • Leper Timewalker Chromie
• Diablo
  • Skyborne Archangel Diablo
  • Horrific Prime Evil Diablo
  • Timeless Prime Evil Diablo
• Illidan
  • Vordrassil Shan’do Illidan
• Johanna
  • Holy Spellbreaker Johanna
• Kerrigan
  • Queen of MEKA Kerrigan
  • Queen of Templar Kerrigan
• Li-Ming
  • Infernal Archon Li-Ming
• Muradin
  • Umojan Maraudin’ Muradin
• Rexxar
  • Biohazard Raider Rexxar
• Tyrael
  • Vengeful Archangel Tyrael
• Xul
  • Bone Visage Xul
  • Classic Bone Visage Xul
  • Royal Bone Visage Xul
  • Rusted Bone Visage Xul
  • Skeletal Bone Visage Xul
  • Reaper Necromaster Xul

Here's the video showcasing all new Skins & Sprays.

[Valhalen 1,484]

Horrific Prime Evil Diablo looks amazing.

Also, the sprays look very interesting, as they hint of possible upcoming skins:

0:56: upper left side. Pirate Greymane? Which transforms into a Hammershark?

0:56: upper right side. Pirate Sgt. Hammer on a deck ship with cannons?

0:56: lower left side. Pirate Probius???

1:00: upper right side. Pirate/Shark Dehaka?

If we get those skins in the future it will be awesome.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Valhalen

[InfernoRFU 125]

I'm gonna need more shards.

[BooT 0]

Let's put a new color .... so we said, new Legendary items. We've been doing this for a long time and nobody's complaining! Now shades of blue ... now shades of green ..... now shades of pink ..... now shades of red .... how long ????

[Kurosu 58]

New skins ? More like new recolors

[SteveFrost 97]

Recolors of the Storm. And "let's give Kerri even more skins/(skin variations) and 0 gameplay changes that she definitely needs." Seems legit

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 minute ago, SteveFrost said:

Recolors of the Storm. And "let's give Kerri even more skins/(skin variations) and 0 gameplay changes that she definitely needs." Seems legit

At least you don't have to spend real money on those anymore. And having more color variations of the Skins means higher chances of getting said Skins. I don't think this is entirely a bad thing. Sure, would be better if by unlocking one skin you'd get all color variations, but that would diminish the value of loot boxes.

Blizz is known for doing that. Take a look at WoW, where you have lots of mounts with slightly different colors.

[Undeath 67]

This is all given for free, just freaking play the game. I agree, adding more recolors instead of new skins is meh, but complaining about more free stuff is kinda even worse IMO.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Jonar

[SteveFrost 97]

On 4/7/2017 at 7:42 PM, Jonar said:

This is all given for free, just freaking play the game. I agree, adding more recolors instead of new skins is meh, but complaining about more free stuff is kinda even worse IMO.

I'm not complaining about the free stuff per se (the new rewards system is the best in any game I've played so far and I'm pretty much a MOBA freak) but the oversaturation of them (if you read my post) and mostly that the Heroes who get them (some of them at least) are neglected.

On 4/7/2017 at 7:26 PM, Valhalen said:

At least you don't have to spend real money on those anymore. And having more color variations of the Skins means higher chances of getting said Skins. I don't think this is entirely a bad thing. Sure, would be better if by unlocking one skin you'd get all color variations, but that would diminish the value of loot boxes.

Blizz is known for doing that. Take a look at WoW, where you have lots of mounts with slightly different colors.

The skins that come out are pretty high quality, no doubt about that. It's nice of them to deliver such content on a regular basis and making it more accessible. It's just that that they feel like a 'trap' imho (money or otherwise, though with the new system not much of the former; still however) since the Hero who gets them isn't in a good spot/hard to learn/not very rewarding or a combination of those. Like, aside from Kerri (who definitely falls under 1 and 2 imho and even 3) there's also Nova, who has gotten a lot of skins (and will keep getting) but balance wise, she's probably one of the worst Heroes right now, if not THE worst. She had a Talent Tree rework but that did little to nothing to help her if not making things worse. She's one of my most faves but I was really dissatisfied when she got the Widowmaker skin (she had plenty already + that pretty much rules out the possibility of Widowmaker coming as her own character- which she totally could imho since aside from being (hawt) female snipers, they have nothing else in common. Like, Raynor and Tychus are both in a Marine suit but play entirely differently). Right now, she's only good at pubstomping QMs and the like.

I know, the team that makes the skins is separate from the balance team but that...'lack of sync' (sort to speak) is kinda unnerving.

Ok, rant over :3

[Valhalen 1,484]

8 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

The skins that come out are pretty high quality, no doubt about that. It's nice of them to deliver such content on a regular basis and making it more accessible. It's just that that they feel like a 'trap' imho (money or otherwise, though with the new system not much of the former; still however) since the Hero who gets them isn't in a good spot/hard to learn/not very rewarding or a combination of those. Like, aside from Kerri (who definitely falls under 1 and 2 imho and even 3) there's also Nova, who has gotten a lot of skins (and will keep getting) but balance wise, she's probably one of the worst Heroes right now, if not THE worst. She had a Talent Tree rework but that did little to nothing to help her if not making things worse. She's one of my most faves but I was really dissatisfied when she got the Widowmaker skin (she had plenty already + that pretty much rules out the possibility of Widowmaker coming as her own character- which she totally could imho since aside from being (hawt) female snipers, they have nothing else in common. Like, Raynor and Tychus are both in a Marine suit but play entirely differently). Right now, she's only good at pubstomping QMs and the like.

I know, the team that makes the skins is separate from the balance team but that...'lack of sync' (sort to speak) is kinda unnerving.

Ok, rant over :3

I don't think there is any correlation between the Heroes that get new skins and their placement in meta. Tracer keeps getting new skins and she is really good (annoyingly good). I think the devs just try to come with new skin ideas for the most popular Heroes. Nova might be in a poor state in the meta, but as a character she is really popular. That is why The Lost Vikings never got a new skin, because as characters they are not popular, regardless of their high winrate.

But I agree that the "skin distribution" is really poor at the moment. There are characters who haven't got a new skin in years, while other characters have way too many skins. I think the devs are trying to counter balance this a bit by adding more recolors.

Also, Nova getting the Widowmaker skin doesn't mean much. She got the Amazon skin but we still got the Cassia the Amazon as a playable character. Azmodan got the Azgul'dan skin and Gul'dan still became a playable character. I think Widowmaker surely could be included in the future, but not yet (personally I'd rather not since I hate Nova and having another sniper would be annoying, hahaha).

[SteveFrost 97]

4 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I don't think there is any correlation between the Heroes that get new skins and their placement in meta. Tracer keeps getting new skins and she is really good (annoyingly good). I think the devs just try to come with new skin ideas for the most popular Heroes. Nova might be in a poor state in the meta, but as a character she is really popular. That is why The Lost Vikings never got a new skin, because as characters they are not popular, regardless of their high winrate.

But I agree that the "skin distribution" is really poor at the moment. There are characters who haven't got a new skin in years, while other characters have way too many skins. I think the devs are trying to counter balance this a bit by adding more recolors.

Also, Nova getting the Widowmaker skin doesn't mean much. She got the Amazon skin but we still got the Cassia the Amazon as a playable character. Azmodan got the Azgul'dan skin and Gul'dan still became a playable character. I think Widowmaker surely could be included in the future, but not yet (personally I'd rather not since I hate Nova and having another sniper would be annoying, hahaha).

Believe me, I know of that dreaded popularity factor all too well in many vidya games. Makes sense from the devs side and as a company policy but at the same time, many players will probably be really unhappy.

There's this conspiracy theory that someone gets a cool new skin/avatar/whatever and then gets nerfed (intentionally) or he/she is bad to begin with (especially in LoL of Legends). I'm not 100% with this (tho some cases seem to be on point) just that, having a cool new skin doesn't help much when you struggle in-game and have a negative experience most often than not.

The biggest point against Widowmaker coming is that, since there's that skin now (that looks EXACTLY like Widowmaker or close to that) there would be some very significant clarity issues (2 characters, skins involved or not should never look alike that much). Haven't played Diablo at all so I don't know if some characters were pre-existing or were just 'made up' to represent the class but imho, the other 2 cases weren't as big offenders. I really hope Widowmaker does come, it would be really unfair for her to be just a skin (which goes for every character- like I'm really afraid the only way Mercy can come is as a skin for Auriel) and Overwatch isn't that rich in characters (not yet at least) as the other franchises.

Since you don't like snipers I guess Chromie and Li Ming aren't exactly your favorites eh? :>

[Valhalen 1,484]

5 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

I really hope Widowmaker does come, it would be really unfair for her to be just a skin (which goes for every character- like I'm really afraid the only way Mercy can come is as a skin for Auriel) and Overwatch isn't that rich in characters (not yet at least) as the other franchises.

Since you don't like snipers I guess Chromie and Li Ming aren't exactly your favorites eh? :>

The problem with Mercy is that she would be too similar to Lt. Morales in terms of gameplay. Mercy's abilities can be dissected into Auriel (ressurrecting) and Morales (healing beam), so there isn't really a point into adding her to the game; she'd be better as a skin.

Now Widowmaker, on the other hand, has a unique kit, with the grappling hook and venom mine.

Yeah, as someone who mains Support, snipers and stealthies are the bane of my existence, haha.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Valhalen

[SteveFrost 97]

2 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

The problem with Mercy is that she would be too similar to Lt. Morales in terms of gameplay. Mercy's abilities can be dissected into Auriel (ressurrecting) and Morales (healing beam), so there isn't really a point into adding her to the game; she'd be better as a skin.

Now Widowmaker, on the other hand, has a unique kit, with the grappling hook and venom mine.

Yeah, as someone who mains Support, snipers and stealthies are the bane of my existence, haha.

I know and that makes me really sad cause I love Mercy and I'm unable to play Overwatch atm because of toaster for a laptop...:/ (funny story, Blizz did throw me an invite for a beta weekend, "error no compatible hardware found" despite them collecting info on players systems beforehand- I got for HotS too and could play without (many) problems, and so I went to an internet cafe, couldn't really pass the chance to play).

Support main eh? Your kind is really rare these days lol kudos to you (I don't mind playing supp personally and in HotS pretty much everyone's viable with his own way to heal where you almost never see healer comps in other mobas cause either they need a ton of AP to scale or they're plain weak)

[Valhalen 1,484]

5 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

Support main eh? Your kind is really rare these days lol kudos to you (I don't mind playing supp personally and in HotS pretty much everyone's viable with his own way to heal where you almost never see healer comps in other mobas cause either they need a ton of AP to scale or they're plain weak)

I was a main healer in WoW, so old habits die hard, hahaha. I started healing in WoW because there was no one else in my Guild up to it, and I started liking it more than DPS'ing or tanking. And healing in HotS is really fun because Support classes have their share of damage and utility other than just healing.

As a matter of fact, me and my buddies stomped a Quick Match yesterday using a comp of 5 healers: Auriel (me), Uther, Tyrande, Brightwing and Malfurion. Man, it was one of the best matches ever.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Valhalen

[SteveFrost 97]

Just now, Valhalen said:

I was a main healer in WoW, so old habits die hard, hahaha. I started healing in WoW because there was no one else in my Guild up to it, so I started liking it more than DPS'ing or tanking. And healing in HotS is really fun because Support classes have their share of damage and utility.

As a matter of fact, me and my buddies stomped a Quick Match yesterday using a comp of 5 healers: Auriel (me), Uther, Tyrande, Brightwing and Malfurion. Man, it was one of the best matches ever.

Naisuuuu, haha. I guess Tyrande went full damage  (even then there's overflowing light level 16 which I get pretty much every time)

[Valhalen 1,484]

36 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

Naisuuuu, haha. I guess Tyrande went full damage  (even then there's overflowing light level 16 which I get pretty much every time)

Yeah, our Tyrande went with this build, if I'm not wrong. The opposing team was a premade as well, and I can tell by the results of the match that we've ruined some friendships. They started all cocky at the early match, often using dances and spray to taunt us, but then we squashed them so hard. It was on Battlefield of Eternity.

I never had so much fun in this game.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Valhalen
Fixed Talent Build link

[SteveFrost 97]

11 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

Yeah, our Tyrande went with this build, if I'm not wrong. The opposing team was a premade as well, and I can tell by the results of the match that we've ruined some friendships. They started all cocky at the early match, often using dances and spray to taunt us, but then we squashed them so hard. It was on Battlefield of Eternity.

I never had so much fun in this game.

I think the link is broken, I don't see any talents selected but I don't mind, no worries