Heroes of the Storm Adding New Maps, Characters for StarCraft Event

Similar to what it did with last year's Diablo-themed Eternal Conflict event, Heroes of the Storm will soon kick off a new event dedicated to StarCraft.

Called Machines of War, this update will see the addition of new maps, characters, skins, and more. On the hero side, we're getting Legacy of the Void's Alarak, the leader of the Tal'darim. He's a melee Assassin with what appear to be some quick-hitting abilities. We don't have have full descriptions yet, but the trailer below offers a look at his kit.

Gallery

Discord Strike is a short-range silence, while Lightning Surge is a fast ranged attack. Telekinesis can be used to push enemies around--seemingly in any direction you choose. His first Heroic choice is the rather self-explanatory Deadly Charge: it causes Alarak to dash forward, dealing damage to everyone in his path. More interesting is Counter-Strike, which appears to be block incoming damage and then deal it back to nearby enemies.

The other newly revealed character is, strangely, not a StarCraft one, but an Overwatch one: Zarya. Presumably more StarCraft characters will also be on the way as part of this event, but that's not yet been confirmed. We do know Kerrigan is getting an excellent new skin called Queen of Ghosts. The Butcher gets one (The Butcherlisk) that makes him look like a Zerg, and Rexxar gets a Terran-looking one (Raider). There are also new mounts, including the awesome Ghost Speeder. You can see all of this in the following video:

As for maps, there are two new ones. Braxis Holdout is a two-lane, Terran-themed map with StarCraft-style buildings and minions--there are even mineral fields dotting the map as a nice cosmetic touch. The map-specific objective here is to capture beacons and fill cells with zerg, which then results in a zerg rush on the enemy team's base.

Warhead Junction is a three-lane map, also with a decidedly StarCraft look to it. The objective involves collecting nuclear warheads that can be called in to attack the enemy base. These spawn periodically around the map and are dropped when you die, making it important to use them before the enemy team can steal them from you. Both maps are shown in the video below.

Finally, a special in-game event will run during Machines of War. The Xel'naga Artifact Hunt asks you to track down artifacts at the beginning of matches, which sounds easy enough, except you'll have to compete with AI-controlled SCVs who are attempting to do the same. A daily quest will be available for collecting artifacts, making this sound like the Diablo event's quest that tasked you with killing a treasure goblin before the start of a match.

One other new feature on the way that isn't strictly tied to Machines of War is a post-game awards system. This will label players with titles like MVP at the conclusion of matches, not entirely unlike in Overwatch.

Blizzard didn't provide a launch date for any of this, but the event should begin fairly soon.