Heroes of the Storm revealed the details of Deathwing’s kit over on the official Twitch channel. As Azeroth’s Aspect of Death, Deathwing’s Trait goes by the same name in the Nexus. With this Trait, he is permanently Unstoppable, which means he plays by his own rules while being unaffected by allied abilities. For instance, his allies cannot heal him, or even pull him out of trouble using Leap of Faith as Anduin. Abathur cannot target Deathwing, either.
“He’s going to be a giant dragon the whole game. So no human form,” Adam Jackson, the Heroes of the Storm live game designer, added during the livestream. “Think Alexstrasza and then a little big bigger — but all the time.”
In the livestream, it was revealed that Deathwing is a Bruiser hero in the Nexus who uses an energy bar as opposed to mana.
When it comes to mounts, HotS Deathwing cannot ride a treasure goblin from the Diablo universe or even a motorcycle from the Nexus’ own Warchrome Wastes collection. Instead, he has a custom mount called Dragon Flight. This lets him go off the map, restore health and armor, and land in one of two forms. Deathwing can land anywhere he has vision, and once he lands, he gets to choose between his Destroyer form and Worldbreaker form. Hero designer Kyle Dates said that these forms change his base kit as well.
In Destroyer form, Deathwing is melee-based. His Q is Molton Flame, which lets him rear his head back and shoot out a breath of flames. As for his W in this form, it’s Incinerate, which releases a pulse of flames that affects enemies near him after a short delay. His E is Onslaught, which allows him to move forward for a short distance. At the end of this charge, Deathwing bites with his massive jaw to deal damage to his enemies.
In Worldbreaker form, Deathwing’s Q remains Molton Flame. However, his W is Lava Burst, which releases lava on the ground that can slow enemies down. Earthshatter is his E, and he gets to stun enemies in a v-shaped skill shot after slamming his paws on the ground.
As for Deathwing’s heroic, it is called Cataclysm, which is a tribute to the World of Warcraft expansion. With R, Deathwing takes flight and burns enemies under his wings. When an enemy fort is destroyed, it can reset the cooldown of Cataclysm as well.
At level 10, the ability can be updated to do more damage. Another option revealed during the livestream is a devastating roar at level 10. With it, Deathwing can cast Fear around him, which is much like Gul’dan’s Horrify heroic.
At level 20, Deathwing can upgrade Cataclysm again, which helps reduce his cooldown for it. The other option is Arrival of a God, which allows him to stun and deal damage to enemy heroes after he lands.
As Heroes of the Storm players await for Deathwing’s arrival into the Nexus, they can catch up on more of the game’s news here at Daily Esports.
