Heroes of the Storm reveals original character Qhira

For years, Heroes of the Storm has brought together Blizzard's greatest franchise all under one massive MOBA umbrella. But in the last year, the development team has taken a different approach. In addition to the most memorable characters from World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and Overwatch, Blizzard has begun to add new characters totally original to the Heroes of the Storm mythos. On Monday, the publisher revealed the latest one.

Meet Qhira. She comes from the realm of Iresia, a technological haven located in the middle of the Nexus. So why hasn't anyone heard of it until now? It's because Iresia is no more. Iresia was detroyed during a massive civil war after its singularity was shattered, leading to the realm's total annihilation. Qhira is the only known survivor and has sought to put her tragedy behind her by becoming a fearsome bounty hunter. As she uses her skills to fight for those paying for her services, Qhira keeps the memory of Iresia fresh and continues her search for any possible survivors.

Qhira is a Melee Assassin who brings along a trait called Grappling Hook. Operated with the (D) key, Grappling Hook might sound similar to something used by other characters like Stitches. However, Qhira's stands out in that she can pull herself from place to place, attaching it to pieces of terrain and opposing players. If she attaches it to another player, she will pull herself to them and not vice-versa, which is normally the case with similar hooks. Grappling Hook will inflict 36 damage on contact, with Qhira dealing an additional 112 damage upon impact, and have a 25 second cooldown.

Here are Qhira's other abilities:

(Q) Carnage: Qhira strikes with her sword in a targeted direction, continuously dealing 31 damage to enemies. (Cost: 40 Mana; Cooldown: 6 seconds)
(W) Blood Rage: As a passive, Basic Attack and Ability damage will cause enemies to bleed for 46 damage over four seconds. This can stack up to five times. As an active, Qhira herself will deal 33 damage and heal for 88 health for each enemy Hero affected. (Cost: 35 Mana; Cooldown: 8 seconds)
(E) Revolving Sweep: Qhira attaches her sword to the first enemy Hero hit and stuns them for 0.25 seconds. Qhira will then avoid Basic Attacks and become immune to all effects. She'll rotate around her target for 2.75 seconds and deal 109 damage to any enemies between her and the target. Reactivating this ability sends Qhira to her target, knocking them back and dealing 112 damage. The target will also be stunned for 0.75 seconds. Revolving Sweep can be used in conjunction with Qhira's Grappling Hook. (Cost: 70 Mana; Cooldown 16 seconds)
(R1) Unrelenting Strikes: Qhira will deal 46 damage to all nearby enemies every 0.5 seconds for 2.5 seconds, while your sword extends outward. When that time expires, she'll deal 86 damage to all nearby enemy Heroes and inflict Stun for 0.75 seconds. (Cost: 60 Mana; Cooldown: 75 seconds)
(R2) Final Strike: Focus on a single area here. Qhira will focus for one second, then she'll strike her sword in a line and deal 432 damage to all enemies in its path. This total will increased by 25 percent if an enemy is below 50 percent Health. (Cost: 45 Mana; Cooldown: 40 Seconds)

While it looks like Blizzard is going further with original characters, the development team did note that this would be the last of the original characters for a while. For the next couple of characters, the team is going back to focusing on staples from Blizzard's vast library of games, so start the speculation on who's next.

Qhira is available now on the Heroes of the Storm PTR. Look for her to hit the standard PC servers in the near future.