Orphea is Heroes of the Storm's First Original Character and 2019 Updates Announced

Published: November 2, 2018 6:05 PM /

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orphea

Heroes of the Storm borrows characters from Blizzard's different franchises, but this time the game is going to do something a little different - introduce a brand new, wholly original character to the MOBA.

During the BlizzCon opening ceremony, Blizzard unveiled the Raven Lord's daughter, Orphea. She comes to the Nexus with sinister magic and a gothic look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jguWUOA8yw

Orphea is a ranged assassin that has high damage and survivability. Courtesy of Orphea's hero page, her abilities are outlined below:

  • Hero Trait
    • Overflowing Chaos: Hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Ability grants 1 Chaos. Chaos can stack up to 3 times. While Orphea has Chaos, her Basic Attacks against Heroes consumes all Chaos, dealing 50% increased damage per stack, and healing for 100% of the damage dealt.
  • Primary Abilities
    • Shadow Waltz: After 0.5 seconds, deal 150 damage to enemies in a line. Hitting a Hero with Shadow Waltz sets its cooldown to 2 seconds, refunds 0 Mana, and causes Orphea to dash a short distance upon moving.
    • Chomp: After 0.625 seconds, deal 285 damage to nearby enemies in front of Orphea.
    • Dread: Release a wave of dread that deals 85 damage to enemies hit. Dread erupts 0.75 seconds after reaching the end of its path, dealing 175 damage and Slowing enemies in the area by 25% for 2 seconds.
  • Heroic Abilities
    • Eternal Feast: After 1.5 seconds, deal 210 damage in an area. Eternal Feast repeats every 1 second as long as it hits an enemy Hero.
    • Crushing Jaws: After 1.25 seconds, pulls enemies in an area towards the center, dealing 275 damage and Stunning them for 0.75 seconds.
You can see Orphea in action in her spotlight below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVoeUUeYehY

BlizzCon attendees and virtual ticket holders will receive Orphea for free "in the first major patch after BlizzCon 2018" which is very soon. Those without the ticket can still get her once she launches officially on November 13th. The official launch will also come with a new raven mount, portraits, sprays, and emojis.

In 2019, Heroes of the Storm will also receive updates to the experience system. They have removed character experience gain from destroying a Fort or Keep. Towers received a 50 percent decrease in experience. To make up for these changes, passive experience gain is up by 15 percent and there will be an increased gain for defeating mercenaries.

Games might get a little more tight with an adjustment to catapults, according to the blog post:

When a team destroys a Fort, they’ll now gain a Catapult in every 3rd Minion wave. This allows consistent (but not constant) pressure in a lane that enemies will have a hard time ignoring.
Another change is to armor, which will now no longer stack on player characters. Armor will also have an improved UI that should be easier for players to understand how much armor they have, and what type it is.

Several more updates coming in 2019 include changes to Quick Match. These games will try to maintain a well-balanced team that includes at least a Tank, Healer, and ranged Assassin. This will not apply to a pre-made group of five. Blizzard also introduces Call of the Nexus, which grants players extra experience if they queue for a role in "short supply."

Lastly, stimpacks are now gone. Instead, they are being replaced with Boosts, which aim to better fill the same role:

... in addition to buffing your XP and Gold gains, it’ll give all other players in that game a 5% bump in experience for each active Boost. That mean players can receive up to a 45% XP bonus if all 10 players in game have Boost active.
There's bound to be plenty more coming to Heroes of the Storm in the future, so be sure to stay tuned.

What do you think of the new hero Orphea? Do you like the new gameplay changes being implemented? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


austin
| Staff Writer

Austin cut his teeth writing various  fan-fiction stories on the RuneScape forums when he was in elementary school. Later on, he developed a deep love for… More about Austin