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Heroes of the Storm Patch 40.0 makes Orphea available to all players

Orphea has officially made her Heroes of the Storm debut and if you went to BlizzCon or had the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, she's already yours for free.

Ozzie Mejia

November 14, 2018 2:45 PM

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The Nexus just got a taste of its first original playable character. On Tuesday, Blizzard officially brought Orphea into Heroes of the Storm, bringing her into the lore-filled battle against her father, the evil Raven Lord.

Patch 40.0 officially takes Orphea out of the PTR and into the full Heroes of the Storm game proper. For those who need a reminder of what she can do, here are her abilities:

• (Q) Shadow Waltz: Orphea sets up for 0.5 seconds before delivering 133 damage to all enemies in a straight line in front of her. If she connects with an enemy Hero, this move's cooldown reduces to 2 seconds and returns 25 mana, while also granting Orphea a dash move.
• (W) Chomp: It doesn't get as much range as Shadow Waltz, but after a 0.6 second setup, this move will take a bite out of an enemy in front of Orphea for 285 damage.
• (E) Dread: Orphea unleashes a wave of Dread in front of her, which hits for 85 damage. The Dread will erupt after reaching the end of its path and deal 175 damage, while also inflicting Slow on any enemies for 2 seconds.
• (R1) Eternal Feast: For Orphea's first Heroic ability, multiple Chomps will engulf an area, hitting for 210 damage each. If this hits an enemy Hero, the ability will repeat.
• (R2) Crushing Jaws: This Heroic takes effect in an area in front of Orphea. If any enemies are in that area, a pair of jaws will bite them into its center and deal 275 damage, while also inflicting Stun for 0.75 seconds.

This goes with her Overflowing Chaos trait, which grants 1 Chaos for any enemy Hero hit. If Orphea has Chaos (stackable up to three times), her Basic Attacks on enemy Heroes will consume that Chaos and up her damage by 50 percent per stack. She will also be healed for 100 percent of the damage dealt.

Orphea's arrival also means that anyone who attended BlizzCon or purchased the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket should have her waiting in their accounts. To celebrate, Twitch drops are currently available for folks who watch any Heroes of the Storm stream on Twitch. More details can be found on the Heroes of the Storm website. Blizzard is also celebrating by releasing the last part of the Orphea comic, which fleshes out the remainder of her backstory.

There's still more set to come to Heroes of the Storm in the coming days. The long-awaited Janitor Leoric skin is set to debut on November 27, alongside the Kevin M. Johnson Announcer Pack. If the name doesn't sound familiar, perhaps his voice will. In addition to acting as the Creative Content Lead for Heroes of the Storm, he's also the voice behind all of the character spotlight videos.

| Cloaken Announcer |
The smooth tones of @kmicj will be joining the Nexus soon to announce YOUR games!

Arriving Nov 27 w/ Janitor Leorichttps://t.co/bETCCVAZIK pic.twitter.com/zxDGEAysww

— Heroes of the Storm (@BlizzHeroes) November 14, 2018

Shacknews had a lot of questions about what's coming to Heroes of the Storm, to catch up with everything set to come to the game, be sure to check out full developer interview from BlizzCon.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?