Thursday, February 9, 2017

Lucio Arrives to the Nexus (on the ptr)


Overwatch's hard partying dj healer Lucio has arrived to the Nexus (in Heroes of the Storm) on the ptr. If you've ever played Overwatch then you know that Lucio provides passive healing and speed boosts and specializes in wall riding like those crazy Russian dudes that do wall stunts on the top of giant towers on YouTube. He has a few new tricks in Heroes of the Storm. Let's break it down!

His passive is wall ride. When he runs up or against a wall he wall rides it, increasing his movement speed and gaining him access to go through other units. This can be troublesome if he gets cornered and because he can wall ride he cannot ride a mount. That's a big downside because mounts are a great way of escape in Heroes. But hey it sure does look cool!

His Q ability is soundwave. Lucio knocks back enemies in a small cone in front of him and does a small amount of damage to them. You won't be able to knock people off ledges like in Overwatch and kill them. In Heroes this move is simply a way of escape and disengage.

His W ability is crossfade. With W, Lúcio swaps between his two tracks. The green one, increases his and his allies’ movement speed, while the yellow one heals allied heroes by a (very) small amount constantly. This does not cost mana.

This is what is going to make Lucio one of the best new supports in Heroes of the Storm. Honestly, we already have a great passive healer with Brightwing. However, Brightwing can't increase allies' movement speed, run around fast, and dps at the same time. This is what sets them apart and might make Lucio more popular if he makes it to competitive play.

His E is amp it up. For a brief duration, the effects of Crossfade are greatly increased: the movement speed aura gives a higher boost, while the healing aura becomes much more effective. This is basically his main ability from Overwatch. He already passively heals and speedboosts if you have them turned on but this will increase its effects greatly. Perfect to power heal a low health ally or run away super fast from a fight you're about to lose.

And now for his R or Ultimate abilities. First is his sound barrier. This is straight outta Overwatch. Lucio gives nearby allies a huge shield that decays over time. It's not as good as sound barrier from Overwatch but the shield is still pretty strong and massive.

The second ultimate is a new trick that sounds interesting-reverse amp. Lucio causes the effects of amp it up to reverse and work on enemies. When using the track to speed up allies, it will also slow enemies by 45%. When using the track to heal allies, it will also deal a large chunk of damage to enemies every second.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this kit. He's more of an offensive Lucio in Heroes than in Overwatch but the fact that he has low health and small range means battles might often go in your enemies' favor. I'm not sure if he'll make it to competitive play but where I think he will shine is when you already have a tank, healer, specialist, and dps (damage per second-assassin character), and you're looking for a last character to fill an extra slot. He will work great as that extra slot.

Look at this team, we're gonna do great!

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