After over four years, Blizzard’s MOBA has returned from dormancy. Heroes of the Storm, a team-focused MOBA where every map has a new objective and is all about Blizzard’s massive repertoire of characters across Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch, and beyond, is finally adding a brand new hero to the roster. Xal’atath, the big bad of World of Warcraft: Midnight, is entering the Nexus to bring some void influence. After going hands-on with her, it’s just so great to be able to play my favorite MOBA once again with all new content. And Xal’atath is a menace to boot.
Xal’atath is a mid-range assassin who, with the right builds, can dominate lanes and jungle targets. She even begins with a quest to empower one of her abilities to deal massive wave-clearing and poke damage. Plus, her auto attack is good for continuing to deal damage to foes or minions while on the move. Like floating away to get back to base while leaving no stragglers.
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As for her abilities, she is a little tricky to get the hang of. Her abilities are all about control. She controls where she is and can force enemies away at the same time. First off is her Q, Shadow Orb. Xal’atath lobs a big ball of shadow at a set location, and where it lands does splash damage in a small radius around it.
Think of a smaller version of Azmodan’s slam dunk. If you hit an enemy hero, you also mark them for increased damage. Marking also serves another purpose: to control the Dark Heart.
Xal’atath brings more flavor to Heroes of the Storm.
The Dark Heart is her E ability and spawns where targeted. Once out, it does pulsing AOE damage for a set amount of time before returning to Xal’atath. Pair that with Q, and the Dark Heart will move to where it lands. Or even chase marked enemies who were marked by a recent Q hit.
For her W, she is able to teleport between 3 spots in quick succession with Void Step. After each teleport, she throws out an auto attack while also getting an attack speed buff. You can stop this at any of the 3 points to stay where she appears. Great for escaping threats or chasing down weaker enemies.
Her piece de resistance is her D, Void Volley. You target this on the ground, and she will fire a massive wave of auto-attack hits at that precise location. Whoever or whatever gets caught in it will take massive damage, and it is great for wave clearing.
Most impactfully, you need to land auto attacks to recharge D before being able to use it again. But with the quest she gets at the start, her D ability gains 0.1% more damage for every hit that’s landed on an enemy hero. So using it for poke will lead to Xal’atath becoming a monster who can tear through foes that are stuck somewhere.
Xal’atath fits right into the Nexus.
Finally, there are her two Ults, Void Eruption and Void Convergence. The former is a giant shadow orb that moves for a set distance and grows in size. The latter is what I went with and really liked, for the implications.
Void Convergence summons a giant void portal on the ground and summons 3 tanky minions to fight for her while also slowing down any enemy caught in the summoning. With a talent that summons a minion with her W, you can summon a massive wave of void monsters to swarm a lane or the enemy base to finish off structures.
For a hero that’s come out four years after shutting down development on a game, Xal’atath fits right into the Nexus. She has stellar color customization from the jump, so you can make her appear like any other Elven race. Her abilities and kit are going to be dangerous overall. Most importantly, it will hopefully revive interest in the fanbase beyond the hyper-dedicated fans and get more people to play Blizzard’s excellent, low-stress MOBA.
Xal’atath comes to Heroes of the Storm on September 28th, with the PTR starting September 14th. Heroes of the Storm is available now on PC.
