New hero Chen released, draft mode and custom games coming after alpha

Today's update introduces Chen, the Legendary Brewmaster as the 39th hero in Heroes of the Storm. Get ready to drink neer, spit fire and roll in a keg, acting the most intimidating that pandas can.

Chen was initially revealed during Gamescom as one of three new heroes together with Azmodan and Anub'arak. The Pandarian Brewmaster bring a skillset that allows him to bring lots of pain to enemies, while simultaneously providing crowd control for his team. Detailed breakdown of the skills and talents can be seen below.

(D)Fortifying Brew (Trait): Drink from your keg, gaining 30 Brew and 520 (64 + 24 per level) temporary Shields per second, up to a maximum of 1560 (192 + 72 per level) while drinking. Shields persist for 2 seconds after you stop drinking.
(Q) Flying Kick: Kick through target enemy, dealing 490 (110 + 20 per level) damage.
(W) Keg Smash: Smash your keg, dealing 110 (15 + 5 per level) damage and drenching affected enemies in Brew, slowing them by -25% for 2.5 seconds.
(E) Breath of Fire: Breathe a cone of flames, dealing 210 (39 + 9 per level) damage. Enemies soaked in Brew are set on fire, dealing 210 (39 + 9 per level) damage over 3 seconds.
(R) Wandering Keg: Jump inside the barrel, gain a 2920 (640 + 120 per level) point Shield and roll towards the cursor, dealing 30 damage to enemies in the way and knocking them back. Lasts for 5 seconds, or until the Shield is broken.
(R) Storm, Earth, Fire: Split into three elemental spirits for 15.15 seconds, each with 50% of your maximum Health, and enables two new leaping attacks for use.Storm attacks at range for 30 damage. Earth attacks slowly for 20 damage and slows enemies by 25%. Fire attacks quickly for 18 damage.
- (Q) Triple Attack: Order the Spirits to smash the targeted point, dealing 10 damage per Spirit alive and slowing enemies in the targeted area by 20% for 2 seconds.
- (W) Order the Spirits to immediately spread out, jumping a short distance away from each other.
- (E) The spirits gain a protective Shield that absorbs 200 damage and last for 4 seconds.

Level 1

Regeneration Mater: Every 3 Regeneration Globes gathered grants an extra +4 Health per second, permanently.
Consuming Flame: Breath of Fire's burn effect when used on Brew-soaked targets is increased by 2seconds.
Full Keg: Increase the duration enemies are slowed by Keg Smash by 1.5 seconds.
Deadly Strike: Increase the damage of Flying Kick by50%.

Level 4

Amplified Healing: Increases regeneration effects and all healing received by 30%.
Bottomless Mug (Trait): Increase maximum Brew by 50.
Deep Breath: Range and arc of Breath of Fire increased by 25%.
Chug (Trait): Gain Brew twice as fast while using Fortifying Brew.

Level 7

Ring of Fire: After using Breath of Fire, ignite in a fiery aura, dealing 10 damage every second to nearby enemies for 5 seconds.
Brewmaster's Balance (Trait): While at or below 50 Brew, regenerate an additional 5 Health per second. While at or above 50 Brew, gain 15% Movement Speed.
Bolder Flavor (Trait): Shield generation and maximum from Fortifying Brew increased by 40%.
Pressure Point: Flying Kick roots enemies for 1 second.
Swift Reflexes: Every 4 seconds Chen can dodge an enemy Hero's Basic Attack, preventing all of its damage.

Level 10

Storm, Earth and Fire: Split into three elemental spirits for 15.15seconds, each with 50% of your maximum Health, and enables two new leaping attacks for use.Storm attacks at range for30 damage. Earth attacks slowly for 20damage and slows enemies by 25%. Fire attacks quickly for 18 damage.
Wandering Keg: Jump inside the barrel, gain a 520 point Shield and roll towards the cursor, dealing30 damage to enemies in the way and knocking them back. Lasts for 5 seconds, or until the Shield is broken.

Level 13

Relentless: Reduces the duration of silences, stuns, slows, roots, and polymorphs against your Hero by 50%.
A Touch of Honey: Increase the slow from Keg Smash to 40%.
Enough to Share (Trait): Fortifying Brew also Shields nearby allied Heroes for 5 per second.
Last Drop (Trait): If you drink for the full duration, your abilities cost no Brew for 5 seconds.
Brew Strike: Hitting a Brew-soaked target with Flying Kick reduces the cooldown by 1 second, and restores 10 Brew.

Level 16

Combustion: Breath of Fire deals 60 bonus damage immediately to Brew-soaked enemies instead of lighting them on fire.
Combat Stance (Trait): Shields from Fortifying Brew last for an additional 2 seconds after drinking stops.
Keg Toss: Increase Keg Smash range by 200%.
Combination Attack: The next Basic Attack after using Flying Kick deals 200% bonus damage.

Level 20

Resurgence of the Storm: Upon dying, revive back at your Altar after 5seconds. This can occur once every 120seconds.

Bolt of the Storm: Activate to teleport to a nearby location.

Elemental Conduit: Using an ability will cause one of the elemental spirits to fight with you for 5seconds. 9 second cooldown.

Untapped Potential: Increases duration by 2 seconds. Additionally, gain an extra 5% Movement Speed whenever an enemy is hit, up to100%.

One of the routes Chen can take Talent-wise is the role of the AoE disabler/damage dealer. There's a natural synergy between Keg Smah and Breath of Fire, which makes for a very in-the-face playstyle where Chen gets in the middle of the enemy team and starts causing trouble. Talents like Full Keg (adds slow to Keg Smash) and Keg Toss (increases range of Keg Smash) can cripple multiple enemies, soaking them in Brew and getting them ready for Breath of Fire. The latter, on the other hand, can be amplified by whole four talents, which add increased burn duration, larger AoE, damage aura to the hero and flat damage increase.

The second route is that of the kung-fu assassin, focused around Flying Kick. Flying Kick talents not only increase it's damage, but can add a root effect, increase the damage of basic attacks, reduce the cooldown of the kick and restore bew to the hero. Add to that get-in-get-out talents like Bolt of the Storm and the Storm, Earth, Fire heroic and you have a deadly killer panda.

Apart from the visual overhaul of the lobby, a trip to the mode selection window shows that Competitive Draft feature as well as Custom Games are planned for release. Though the text says "Not available for Alpha" it's almost certain that these features will be coming as soon as the beta is live, to accommodate the growing competitive scene.

There's still no information when the other two Gamescom-announced heroes - Azmodan and Anub'arak - will be brought to the alpha. Details are still missing on Sylvanas and Kael'Thas, who were teased at PAX East this year.

Author

Radoslav "Nydra" Kolev