Abilities and talents below

For months, Heroes of the Storm players have been clamoring for more Diablo love. After a brief event in 2015, we've only gotten a few representatives from the Diablo universe, and most of the existing cast is from the third iteration.

Well, later today you'll be able to give Cassia (the new Amazon) a test drive, in addition to the new "2.0" beta that completely overhauls the game's progression system.

I had the chance to test Cassia out at a recent event, and although I'm not blown away, I think she'll fulfill a comfortable niche. Although she's a ranged assassin, she has a crazy amount of sustain by way of her trait, Avoidance.As long as she's moving she retains 65% physical armor, which can be buffed into an extra heal over time or bonus speed with talents. If you keep moving constantly (read: you'll need to master the art of stutter stepping if you haven't already) she's a massive threat with her constant poking.

Speaking of poke, her Q (Lightning Fury) is a skillshot that splits into multiple bolts -- it's not amazing for waveclear (she has that already), but the frequent cooldown ensures that she can harass a lot of characters out of the lane. Her W, Blinding Light, makes that a lot easier against attack damage foes, as it's an area-of-effect blind that also passively buffs her damage against blinded enemies. This concept, along with a few other talents that grant blinds, are why I'm 100% confident that she'll have a spot in the meta, even if she's an occasional counterpick.

She can also use her E (Fend) to dash and chase heroes, following up with a flurry of strikes (which is great for waveclearing if you aim the cone correctly). Her two ultimates both seem viable, as one, Ball Lightining, does a ton of damage with a ball that bounces up to six times, including herself, and a level 20 that allows to bounce indefinitely. Her Valkyrie ultimate is probably going to be the go-to though, as it pulls people in a line towards her, which is really useful for grabbing the backline/support or dragging someone into your fort/keep.

Having played around 10 matches with her, I stand roughly where I was with Varian around his launch -- she's not the most interesting character, especially following up the polarizing Probius, but she seems balanced enough and will shake things up to the point where even if you aren't playing her you'll feel her impact. She's a beast when chasing down enemies, as her Avoidance heal lets her stay in fights even if you're constantly getting hit. It's a fun active playstyle that's a lot more proactive than the hit and run Tracer, and more akin to a ranged Sonya.

Also coming soon is a rework for Uther (he feels viable now, and gives armor with heals!), and an improvement for Auriel's resurrection ability (in the build I played it was set at a 0.5 second channel, down from three seconds, with a 100% cooldown reduction at 20 as long as the resurrected player is alive). ETC is also getting some updates according to Blizzard in the new PTR (beta) build.

Here's a brief look at some of Cassia's talents/skills:

Basic Abilities

⦁ Lightning Fury (Q)

⦁ Hurl a javelin that damages the first enemy hit, and splits into two lightning bolts that deal damage to enemies in their paths.



⦁ Blinding Light (W)

⦁ After 0.5 seconds, Blind enemies in the target area for 2 seconds.

⦁ Passive: Cassia deals 15% increased damage to Blinded targets.



⦁ Fend (E)

⦁ Charge at an enemy, and upon arriving channel for 1.5 seconds, damaging enemies in front of cassia every 0.25 seconds.

⦁ Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes.



Heroic Abilities

⦁ Ball Lightning (R)

⦁ Throw a ball of lightning at an enemy Hero that bounces up to 6 times between nearby enemy Heroes and Cassia, damaging enemies hit.



⦁ Valkyrie (R)

⦁ Summon a Valkyrie that rushes to Cassia after 0.75 seconds, pulling and damaging the first enemy Hero hit, and stunning them for 0.5 seconds at the end of her path.

⦁ The Valkyrie knocks back all other enemy Heroes in her way.





Talents



1 [Q] Thunderstroke Quest: Hit Heroes with Q. Reward(1): 20 Heroes hit = 60 damage. Reward(2): 40 Heroes hit = 2 Charges. 1 [W] True Sight Increases the damage dealt to Blinded enemy heroes by 10%. Quest: Deal Basic Attack damage to Blinded enemy heroes. Reward: 80 Heroes hit = Blind duration +1 second. 1 [Active] Charged Strikes Activate to cause your basic attacks to bounce to a nearby enemy for 8 seconds and increase their damage by 40%. 20s CD. 4 [Passive] Ring of the Leech Cassia heals for 35% of the damage dealt to enemies affected by Blind. 4 [W] Inner Light Increases Blinding Light radius by 25%. Upon being Rooted or Stunned, Blinding Light pulses around Cassia. This can only occur every 6s. 4 [Trait] Plate of the Whales Gain 5HPS while Avoid is active. Quest: Every 5 Attacks reduced by Avoid grants 1 additional HPS. After 15 bonus HPS, cap it and gain 10% max Health. 7 [E] Impale Increases Charged Strikes damage by 50% to enemies below 40% health 7 [Trait] War Traveler Gain 3% movement speed every 0.5 second Avoid is active. Stacks up to 5 times. The bonus is reset when Cassia stops moving. 7 [Trait] Lightning Surge Cassia stores blocked damage and upon reaching X damage her trait can be activated to deal Y damage in an area around you. 10 [R1] Ball Lightning Throw a ball of lightning at the target enemy hero that deals damage and bounces to other nearby heroes 10 [R2] Valkyrie Summon a Valkyrie that pulls an enemy hero toward your location 13 [Q] Grounding Bolt Lightning Fury slows enemy Heroes by 20% for 1.5 seconds 13 [Q] Thundergod's Vigor Hitting an enemy hero with the initial Lightning Fury missile reduces the cooldown by 1s. 13 [W] Seraph's Hymn Reduce Blinding Light's Mana cost from 70 to 40. Basic Attacks against Blinded enemies reduce the cooldown of Blinding Light by 3 seconds 13 [E] Lunging Strike Increases Fend's duration by .5 seconds and the area of effect by 20% 16 [Q] Pierce Lightning Fury's primary missile now pierces. Perpendicular bolts are now only spawned from Heroes. 16 [E] Penetrate Enemies take 3% increased damage from Fend each consecutive hit. 16 [Passive] Martial Law Basic attacks against Stunned, Rooted, and Slowed enemy heroes deal bonus damage equal to 3% of their maximum health 20 [R1] Infinite Lightning Ball Lightning can now bounce infinitely. 20 [R2] Imprisoning Light Upon initial impact, Valkyrie deals additional damage to nearby Heroes and roots them for 4 seconds. 20 [Passive] Titan's Revenge Increases Basic Attack range by 2 and your Basic Attacks now ignore armor.

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