Blizzard's "Heroes of the Storm" just received a new huge update, which adds new content and significant balance changes in its gameplay.
Starting off with a new character, the Russian defender Zarya joins in the fray from another of Blizzard's hit title "Overwatch." According to IGN, the character comes in with the "Machines of War" update, and plays a lot like her counterpart in her game of origin. She functions as a support, doing the job of shielding both herself and her teammates for a limited time, and also as a hard hitter, gaining an additional damage when her shielded allies are being attacked.
Zarya also has an ability similar to her Ultimate ability in "Overwatch," where she pulls opponents over to targeted location. In contrast, she has another ability that knocks opponents away from an area, which also prevents them from entering for a few seconds.
Speaking of the update "Machines of War," Gamespot reported that a new map has been announced titled "Warhead Junction," where players are tasked to collect nuclear bombs spread across the area in order to use them to demolish the enemy's base.
The bombs can be spawned over a period of time in which players have to "channel" them to collect them. Once collected, the bomb will need time for it to be armed so players can target a location for an air strike. This will leave players also on the look-out as they arm the bomb because if their characters die, the bomb is dropped, where other players can pick it up.
In terms of balance changes from the "Machines of War" update, the map Braxis Holdout was altered a bit to prevent frequent one-sided matches. The damage from Zerg units have been scaled down during the early and middle stages of the game, but significantly bumps as the match nears its end. This will make the map "[play] faster by design," according to Blizzard Entertainment.
A huge percentage of the changes also lie with many of the characters. The character Nazeebo has had his talent tree completely revised, with a lot of replacements and improvements being made including his abilities as well. Chen also received changes, having his talent reworked. The update also made him into a better tank, having him handle damage dealers more effectively. The spirits of his Heroic ability also has more health and each possess their own unique abilities, but if each of them dies, Chen will also fall.
The update also provided a few changes for Malfurion by giving an ability to help reduce teammates' cooldowns, tweaking Alarak's stats and Lightning Surge ability, and giving ETC and Valla better practical choices in their talent trees.
