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Heroes of the Storm adds Xul, new Observer slots, and more today

Xul has arrived in Heroes of the Storm, but Blizzard is adding more than Diablo's necromancer today.

Ozzie Mejia

March 1, 2016 11:08 AM

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As promised yesterday, Xul is now a part of Heroes of the Storm. This is the part of the story where it's time to dance!

Gather your minions and grab your bone spear, Xul is now playable in the Americas! pic.twitter.com/jE3exFmoCu

— Blizzard Ent. (@Blizzard_Ent) March 1, 2016

But the Diablo necromancer isn't the only thing new about today's Heroes of the Storm update. A few new quality-of-life improvements have been added to the game, as well.

The most notable improvement comes in-game, with cooldown timers now noticeably visible over an Ability icon. Meanwhile, buffs that use charges will now display charge cooldown timers in the Buff bar, right next to the Hero portrait. Continuing the theme of cooldowns, pressing ALT and left-clicking any Ability or Talent icon will send remaining cooldown times to teammates via the chat window, to help on the teamwork front. If an ability is not on cooldown, but a player does not have the Mana to cast it, that will also be communicated to teammates. On that note, hitting ALT and left-clicking Health or Mana when either is low will communicate that to teammates, so teams can react accordingly.

An additional four Observer Slots have been added to Custom Game lobbies, meaning up to six Observers can sit on the sidelines and check out an ongoing Heroes of the Storm custom match. Replay lobbies are also undergoing a slight change, with up to 16 players now able to select Watch with Others so that they can view Replays together.

For more on today's update, be sure to check out today's post on Battle.net. As for Xul, learn more about him here and in the video below.

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?