Jason Hidalgo

jhidalgo@rgj.com

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Do you like to have your cake? Do you like eating it, too?

Then you’re exactly who Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm development team had in mind when they concocted the design for Genn Greymane, who enters the Nexus as the latest addition to the company’s MOBA, er, hero brawler.

Right from the start, the Worgen king from Warcraft lore was designed to fulfill a schizophrenic gameplay mechanic, according to Blizzard staff who spoke about the character during Blizzcon 2015. At the time, Genn Greymane served as the last part of a new character trifecta that also included two-headed monster Cho’gall and the dryad Lunara.

While throwing around ideas for a new ranged assassin, a member of the Heroes of the Storm team floated “a pretty cool idea,” said Blizzard senior game designer Kent-Erik Hagman.

“What if we did a character that kind of started by poking you from afar, say, something like a Falstad, then … what if the same character can go in as a melee to finish you off?” the team member said according to Hagman. “Wouldn’t that be pretty cool?”

In a room filled with Warcraft fans, the proposal quickly led to a discussion involving druids and worgens, Hagman said. Once the word “worgen” was let loose in the room, however, a lot of folks quickly gravitated to one character in particular. That would be King Genn Greymane. Part of it has to do with the tragic leader’s compelling story.

“(It’s) the story of a king who’s trying to help his people but ultimately fails pretty epically, too, and is now out for honor and glory to redeem his people,” Hagman said. “And our hearts really ran away with the character before we even started.”

After going through Blizzard’s design process for Greymane, a few themes quickly stood out for the development team. The main one involved a “two sides of the same coin” mechanic, which ended up being the cornerstone of his design.

“His tagline was … the ranged assassin who wears you down from afar before going into melee form and ripping your throat out as a worgen,”Hagman said. “We wanted shapeshifting to be this epic moment that let’s you know Greymane is in for the kill.”

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After throwing around ideas such as making the transformation a heroic ability, the design team ultimately chose to make shapeshifting a triggered regular ability. This required designing good synergy between his human and worgen forms to ensure that both forms naturally flowed into each other as opposed to being two separate styles that didn’t interact with each other. The “Darkflight” transformation from human to worgen, for example, also doubles as a gap closer, placing Greymane immediately in the thick of the action as a worgen. The transformation from worgen to human via “Disengage,” meanwhile, has a built in retreat that positions Greymane for ranged attacks. At the same time you can also build him to strengthen one form or the other should you so choose as well.

“What we love about this is that the ability really directs the player with how the character should be used,” Hagman said. “Worgen form is all about being in melee range (where) you do significantly more damage with your basic attacks as a worgen than you do as a human so you wanna be up close, but human form is all about wearing your opponent down from afar with your pistol and ‘Disengage’ gives you that space.”

Of course, part of Greymane’s design involves continuity with his actual look, too. This proved to be a challenge as well, said Phil Gonzales, lead character designer. In addition to clothing element such as his trench coat, shoulder pad and epaulets, the team also added physical cues such as facial scars and hair to help unify his physical look. Ultimately, however, it’s Greymane’s transformation that anchors everything.

“The fact that he turns into a worgen is completely amazing, it drives a lot of his hero design,” said Phil Gonzales, lead character designer. “And the fact that he can shapeshift is so important to executing this character effectively and creating very, very successful immersion.”

Developer thoughts

Want to peek into the mind of Greymane’s designers? Here are Hagman’s thoughts on some of Greymane’s abilities and mechanics.

[E] Darkflight and/or Disengage: “It’s really 2 abilities. Now as a human, the ability is Darkflight. It allows human Greymane to leap toward his enemy, becoming a worgen mid flight and tearing at them with his claws. As a worgen, however, the ability changes and becomes disengage. This ability allows Greymane to tumble away, popping up into human form, pistol a-blazing, ready to continue combat from afar. What we love about this is that the ability really directs the player with how the character should be used. Worgen form is all about being in melee range, you do significantly more damage with your basic attacks as a worgen than you do as a human so you wanna be up close. But human form is all about wearing your opponent down from afar with your pistol and disengage give you that space.”

[Q] Gilnean Cocktail: “This is another button that flips based on what form you’re in. Being the king of Gilneas, Greymane has fantastic access to this vast library of weapons and here, he’s pulled out these various cocktails ready to hurl at his opponents. This glass is filled with all kinds of chemicals and you’ll watch Greymane hurl it at his opponents and it actually does very little damage to the very first target it hits. But it’s the enemies behind the opponent that really feel the brunt of this spell. They take triple the damage … from the explosive blast of this ability."

[Q] Razor Swipe: “This ability is on a very low cooldown allowing him to use it very frequently and it’s all about mobility. It allows Greymane to stick to his opponents. He’s going to dash forward at a very short distance, sweeping at his enemies around him allowing him to get more basic attacks off as that is where the majority of his damage is found.”

[R] Marked for the Kill: “Again, we went back to that basic tagline and we had the two heroics reflects the two forms of Greymane. In this ability, you’ll watch a human Greymane fire a silver bullet toward his opponents. The first enemy is marked and made vulnerable. It means they take 25 percent more damage from all sources, including your teammates. This is great at the start of a fight, exactly what human Greymane wants. But the ability gets better after that as Greymane can then leap as a worgen at an incredible distance, closing the gap on that opponent and allowing him to finish them off in case they thought they were gonna get away.”

[R] Go for the Throat: “As a worgen — that worgen finisher style — we wanted to reflect with ‘Go for the Throat.’ You’ll watch Greymane leap a short distance and just eviscerate his opponent doing three vicious strikes doing high damage. But if Greymane kills the opponent with this ability, he gets to use it again for free in the next 10 seconds. Phil was talking about how with the master skin, they’ll take the concept of a character and really crank it up to 11. We love to do the same thing with the level 20 talents that upgrade heroic abilities and 'Unleashed' is the next evolution of Go for the Throat. Unleashed let's Greymane continually recast Go for the Throat every time it lands a kill and Greymane just loves finding low-health enemy teams running away so if you’re fighting against a Greymane, watch your health bar."