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Heroes of the Storm update officially debuts Kael'thas

After last week's tease, Kael'thas is ready to officially join the Heroes of the Storm roster.

Ozzie Mejia

May 12, 2015 10:25 AM

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Originally teased last week, Heroes of the Storm players now have the chance to play as Kael'thas Sunstrider with today's new patch. Today, Blizard revealed some new details about the latest Hero, while also discussing some of the latest tweaks to hit the closed beta.

Kael'thas brings the Verdant Spheres trait to the table, in which his next Basic Ability will become more powerful. What are those Basic Abilities? They include:

• Flamestrike (Q) - Deals Area of Effect damage in a certain area.
• Living Bomb (W) - Tosses a bomb at a foe that deals small damage before it explodes on top of the target, dealing damage to any surrounding foes. Tossing two bombs at an enemy detonates them immediately.
• Gravity Lapse (E) - Stuns the first enemy hit.

Kael'thas also has a pair of Heroic Abilities at his disposal. Phoenix (R) will launch a firebird to a targeted area and deal damage to anything in its path. The Phoenix will continue to attack enemies in its target area, dealing splash damage along the way. There's also Pyroblast (R), which sends a slow-moving fireball to a foe. The target suffers massive damage and any surrounding foes will also be harmed.

Today's patch also ushers in some performance improvements that include an improved graphics auto-detection, as well as updated notification icons that can help PC users optimize the game to their machine. More details on those changes can be seen on Battle.net. Other changes include quality of life updates, like a fully revamped Options menu that includes a new Observer and Replay Options tab. Various Heroes have also received their share of balance tweaks, all of which can also be seen on Battle.net.

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?