heroes Anduin Coming to Heroes of the Storm Next

[Stan 5,240]

More than 3 months have passed without a new Hero and Blizzard finally began teasing Anduin that was leaked in February.

Anduin is a Priest in World of Warcraft and the current King of the Alliance. The first teaser depicts Holy Nova, while in the second one we can see Shalamayne. We expect Public Test Realms to become available this or next week.

Teaser #1

Placeholder for tweet 1119646920136376321

Teaser #2

Placeholder for tweet 1120009308681461760

[Arcling 898]

Must be upcoming Chen rework teaser. He accidentally spilled some thunder brew on Shalamayne.

On a side note: now that we are going to have two characters with Shalamayne, nothing should stop them from adding another character with Gorehowl (Grom), except for budget perhaps. ?

Edited April 22, 2019 by Arcling

[Valhalen 1,484]

Oh boy, it is finally here. I'm really hyped to finally see MANDUIN in all his glory.

38 minutes ago, Arcling said:

Must be upcoming Chen rework teaser. He accidentally spilled some thunder brew on Shalamayne.

On a side note: now that we are going to have two characters with Shalamayne, nothing should stop them from adding another character with Gorehowl (Grom), except for budget perhaps. ?

The problem is that I don't think that Grom's fighting style differs much from Garrosh. In the case of Varian and Anduin, the difference is clear since it's a Warrior and a Priest. I think that adding a Grom skin for Garrosh would be better, in my opinion.

[Arcling 898]

1 hour ago, Valhalen said:

The problem is that I don't think that Grom's fighting style differs much from Garrosh. In the case of Varian and Anduin, the difference is clear since it's a Warrior and a Priest. I think that adding a Grom skin for Garrosh would be better, in my opinion.

Garrosh is a tank, so Grom would have been a bruiser, more mobile and in some ways similar to Sonya. Would need a vastly different kit though, to not make them overlap too much.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Arcling

[lChronosl 182]

I am still a bit bothered that Manduin also got Shalamayne, but otherwise am excited to see another support.

I bet his kit will be a mix, since we already have priests (Tyrande, Whitemane) and paladin (Uther, Johanna, Yrel) in the game.

[Valhalen 1,484]

22 minutes ago, lChronosl said:

I am still a bit bothered that Manduin also got Shalamayne, but otherwise am excited to see another support.

I bet his kit will be a mix, since we already have priests (Tyrande, Whitemane) and paladin (Uther, Johanna, Yrel) in the game.

Tyrande is an interesting case because she also has some tidy bits of Hunter in her kit (Hunter's Mark, Trueshot Aura).

I can definitely see Anduin borrowing some Spells, or modified ones, from the Priest's Holy tree, but also having some uniqueness. In WoW, when fought at Stormwind by the Horde, he has Greater Heal, Penance, Power Word: Aegis and Psychic Scream. Out of these spells, I imagine him having at least Penance and Power Word: Aegis, in one form or another.

[Frogspoison 63]

Overall, the issue with Grom is that there is too much overlap with TWO characters now - His WC3 kit (Really the only definitive one) is pretty much the entirety of Samuro's kit, and his profile overlaps quite a bit with Garrosh.

Granted, Garrosh's own kit came as a complete surprise (As has many other characters), and we have several other heroes with profile overlap (Rehgar and Thrall), so... who knows?

Anduin and Varian have both significant kit divergences (Anduin = Priest(Pre-BFA)/Paladin(Post-BFA), Varian = Warrior) and profile divergences (Anduin being young, naive, wanting peace, Varian being old, pragmatic, and no-fuckery). Do note that in WoD, Garrosh was actually OLDER then Grom, so rather then the old king/young prince-king Varian and Anduin gots going on, Garrosh and Grom would be middle-age orc warchief, and... middle-age orc warchief.

Really, Blizz made a mistake when they released Garrosh before Grom. Garrosh had ALL kinds of way his kit could have gone. Grom... Well, eh, Blizz has to be creative.

[Arcling 898]

21 minutes ago, Frogspoison said:

Overall, the issue with Grom is that there is too much overlap with TWO characters now - His WC3 kit (Really the only definitive one) is pretty much the entirety of Samuro's kit, and his profile overlaps quite a bit with Garrosh.

It has been confirmed long time ago that Grom had never been a blademaster, just a normal orc warrior, so that's not an issue. He only had blademaster's kit in WC3, because they didn't make unique one for campaign. I agree that being creative to make a unique warrior kit for him is the most challenging part, since we've already had similar heroes (and not just Warcraft ones), counting bruisers as well. Plenty of orcs too, so another one might feel like too much, especially him being similar age to Garrosh like you have mentioned or perhaps even a little younger (when considering WC3 Grom).

[benOwar 20]

his basic kit was posted a few minutes ago, along with some fixes.

https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/22933140/heroes-of-the-storm-ptr-patch-notes-april-22-2019-2019-4-22/?linkId=100000005953524

Edited April 22, 2019 by benOwar

[lChronosl 182]

50 minutes ago, benOwar said:

his basic kit was posted a few minutes ago, along with some fixes.

https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/22933140/heroes-of-the-storm-ptr-patch-notes-april-22-2019-2019-4-22/?linkId=100000005953524

Thanks. Will get my hands on as soon as I get home.

From what I can see his kit looks solid and interesting, possible another dive-enabler, maybe. Shame they didn't post the talents yet. Also, "Lightbomb" is an awesome ultimate name.

Edited April 22, 2019 by lChronosl

[Evincare 39]

16 hours ago, lChronosl said:

I am still a bit bothered that Manduin also got Shalamayne, but otherwise am excited to see another support.

Lorewise this does not add up indeed. I mean Shalamayne was in fact two blades merged into one, Shalla'tor and Ellemayne.

Before he was killed Varian split Shalamayne into those two blades to go ham on the Legion. While fighting on the broken shore, he drops his right hand blade when he is struck and keeps defending himself with his left hand blade only, parries a blow, switches the blade into his right hand and drops another felguard before he is impaled from behind, when he drops his other blade. All of this can be seen in the Alliance Broken Shore cinematic - one I love and hate at the same time, for being damn well done. Varians last words will always send a shiver down my spine...

But the point is I have no idea what happened to Shalamayne afterwards. We know Anduin claimed "a" Sword, but which one. Did he claim Shalamayne, which would mean it somehow remerged after Varians death or did he pick up only one of the blades, which would mean, the other one is still somewhere. Canon seems to dictate, Anduin got Shalamayne, as in the whole thing, because everywhere I looked, it states Anduin has/got Shalamayne. Doesn't make completely sense to me...

Now in the announcement for the Anduin, Blizzard opens: "With Fearbreaker by his side..." which is does once again not add up, since Fearbreaker was his Mace. I don't see him wielding Shalamayne - or whatever part of it - and Fearbreaker at the same time. Lorewise he does still have the Mace though, so he could use it.

As for the Hero itself - he seems interesting and fun to play. Lightbomb should allow for some interesting Leeeroy Jenkins moments when paired with charge- or leap-esque abilities

?

[Istinon 17]

18 hours ago, Frogspoison said:

Anduin and Varian have both significant kit divergences (Anduin = Priest(Pre-BFA)/Paladin(Post-BFA), Varian = Warrior)

Just because I want that cleared up, Anduin is still "just" a priest and only wore armour on the battlefield as to protect himself. He will not join the fray as Paladin or cast any Paladin spells (as we can see in his clearly full-priest spell kit) ☺️

[Valhalen 1,484]

6 hours ago, Evincare said:

But the point is I have no idea what happened to Shalamayne afterwards. We know Anduin claimed "a" Sword, but which one. Did he claim Shalamayne, which would mean it somehow remerged after Varians death or did he pick up only one of the blades, which would mean, the other one is still somewhere. Canon seems to dictate, Anduin got Shalamayne, as in the whole thing, because everywhere I looked, it states Anduin has/got Shalamayne. Doesn't make completely sense to me...

It is implied that the two blades fused again once Varian died, because. While it is never stated, it is clear that is the case given how the sword looks different when fused and when unfused.

6 hours ago, Evincare said:

Now in the announcement for the Anduin, Blizzard opens: "With Fearbreaker by his side..." which is does once again not add up, since Fearbreaker was his Mace. I don't see him wielding Shalamayne - or whatever part of it - and Fearbreaker at the same time. Lorewise he does still have the Mace though, so he could use it.

That was an error from Blizzard's part. They fixed to announcement and replaced "Fearbreaker" with "Shalamayne".

3 hours ago, Istinon said:

Just because I want that cleared up, Anduin is still "just" a priest and only wore armour on the battlefield as to protect himself. He will not join the fray as Paladin or cast any Paladin spells (as we can see in his clearly full-priest spell kit)

Exactly. In HotS, despite carrying the Shalamayne, he only uses it in Divine Star. Even his basic attacks do not use the sword, they are actually ranged (he throws Holy Bolts).

Edited April 23, 2019 by Valhalen

[Misuteri 26]

They’ve done almost every spec of every class in WoW.  They’ve done two priest blending types with Whitemane and now Anduin.

Fire, arcane and frost mages.  Warrior, hunter, rogue, druid, shaman, dual paladins, death knight, 2 monks but the warlock they have has no demon.  I’d love to have a controllable fel guard or voidwalker but if they ever did Guldan reworks I’d be happy with a smart alek imp like Raynors banshee level 10.

[Valhalen 1,484]

16 minutes ago, Misuteri said:

They’ve done almost every spec of every class in WoW.  They’ve done two priest blending types with Whitemane and now Anduin.

Fire, arcane and frost mages.  Warrior, hunter, rogue, druid, shaman, dual paladins, death knight, 2 monks but the warlock they have has no demon.  I’d love to have a controllable fel guard or voidwalker but if they ever did Guldan reworks I’d be happy with a smart alek imp like Raynors banshee level 10.

We don't really have a Arcane Mage from WoW. Some argue that it is represented by Li-Ming, since the D3 Wizard has some tidy bits of WoW's Mage, but still...

We also don't have a Shadow Priest, as both Whitemane and Anduin use the Light (even though the former employs it in a twisted manner).

I completely agree that we lack a Demonology Warlock, kinda like in the vein of Rexxar and Misha. Maybe they could, at least, like you said, give Gul'dan a Fel Guard Heroic (and remove that horrible Rain of Destruction).

Edited April 23, 2019 by Valhalen

[Misuteri 26]

I was going Medivh for the arcane mage. Though for strict comparison his spells and build are not truly representative of the arcane build.  Can’t deny he is a mage.

I wouldn’t cross games and make D3’s Li Ming arcane just like I can’t do Johanna for paladin or Sonya for warrior.

The easiest fix for warlock IMHO would be replace Rain of Fire with Imp Swarm and boom, demonology theme spell.  Truly I can’t think of another warlock worthy of a HOTS hero that isn’t some kind of hybrid or already in the game (Cho’gall, Kel’Thuzad, Mal’Ganis).  I would say Kanrethed Ebonlocke from the green fire quest line would be a ton of fun but he’s so niche to lore and only people who played WoW and did the event would have a clue who he is.

Lore wise there is not one shadow priest worthy of the game.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Misuteri

[Valhalen 1,484]

10 minutes ago, Misuteri said:

I was going Medivh for the arcane mage. Though for strict comparison his spells and build are not truly representative of the arcane build.  Can’t deny he is a mage.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Medivh. You can say he does have some nods to WoW's Mage, specially in talents, but he doesn't really play like an Arcane Mage.

11 minutes ago, Misuteri said:

I wouldn’t cross games and make D3’s Li Ming arcane just like I can’t do Johanna for paladin or Sonya for warrior.

Interestingly, WoW's current design of Warriors borrowed a lot from Diablo's Barbarians.

1 hour ago, Misuteri said:

The easiest fix for warlock IMHO would be replace Rain of Fire with Imp Swarm and boom, demonology theme spell.

That would be pretty nice. Sadly there aren't many other iconic Warlocks in the lore other than Gul'dan and Cho'gall, so I guess that replacing the (very useless) Rain of Destruction is the way to go.

[Evincare 39]

7 hours ago, Valhalen said:

That would be pretty nice. Sadly there aren't many other iconic Warlocks in the lore other than Gul'dan and Cho'gall, so I guess that replacing the (very useless) Rain of Destruction is the way to go.

How about "Grand Warlock" and "Master Summoner" Wilfred Fizzlebang? Could even summon Lord Jaraxxus as one of his ults. Maybe even make Jaraxxus controllable during ult, because he kills Wilfred anyways once summoned. Wilfred would somehow have to be able to get back to the fight quickly though, else the ult would be pretty useless. ?

On a serious note though, there are indeed not many real warlocks in lore; Gul'dan overshadows them all by far. Although both Archimonde as well as Kil'Jaeden are labelled Warlocks, they are something completely different imo, at least when compared to the playable Warlock class.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Evincare