Auriel arrived to the Nexus August 9 but all the Overwatch hype had my attention so I'm giving Heroes some love right now. Let's go over her abilities and ultimates. I won't go over the talents because I want to keep this post short and straight to the point. Take note that Auriel doesn't use mana whatsoever and instead uses energy gained from bestow hope (passive) and allies damage.
Bestow Hope (D)
Cooldown: 1.5 seconds
Passive: 40% of the damage you deal to
Heroes and 8% dealt to non-Heroes is stored as energy. Bestow an allied
Hero with Hope. While they remain near you, damage they deal causes you
to gain energy. You can only have Bestow Hope to 1 ally at time. You can
store up to 1107 (526 + 4% per level) energy.
This is her passive. You put this onto a hero near you and the damage they deal gives you energy that you can use to heal people with your W ability-Ray of Heaven. I find that putting this onto dps heroes is the best. But sometimes dps aren't near you so you have to put it onto tanks or other supports. This ability makes Auriel unique from all the other healers because basically the more damage she and her allies do the more healing will be done. No mana needed for this hero.
Sacred Sweep (Q)
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Sweep the area with sacred power, dealing
176 (84 + 4% per level) damage to enemies and an additional 351 (167 +
4% per level) damage to enemies caught in the center.
This is her bread and butter attack. Although I'm level 6 with her now I still have a hard time getting each sacred sweep cast to hit enemies in the center for that bonus damage. You're going to be using this ability a lot to finish off enemies after you've used detainment strike to stun them into terrain or a wall. It's a great killing move as well as poking ability.
Ray of Heaven (W)
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Consume your stored energy and heal allied Heroes in the area for the amount of energy consumed.
This is her only healing ability. The thing is that it has a 4 second cooldown so you have to choose and use it at the right moments. Its an aoe (area of effect) heal so you can heal multiple allies at once. Really great ability!
Detainment Strike (E)
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Deal 220 (104 + 4% per level) damage to
the first enemy Hero hit and knock them back. If they collide with
terrain, they are also stunned for 1.25 seconds and take an additional
220 (104 + 4% per level) damage.
This is part of her best combo. You use detainment strike on someone as they're running away and stun them into a wall or terrain, then you use sacred sweep, and your teammates pile on them to kill them. I've gotten countless kills doing this simple combo and it never fails as long as you're team is targeting what you're targeting. Not only is it good for getting frags (kills) but its also useful when you're trying to make a run for it. Just slap them away and run to safety. Always works unless they have a projectile with Chromie or something.
Crystal Aegis (R)
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Place an allied Hero into Stasis for 2
seconds. Upon expiration, Crystal Aegis deals 592 (281 + 4% per level)
damage to all nearby enemies.
Out of these two ultimates I see crystal aegis being used more so than resurrect from other players. It's a more offensive ultimate, gives your ally a chance to live, and it deals a bit of aoe damage to all nearby enemies. My only problem with it is that the aoe damage is very weak and usually when you use it on an ally they often die when they come out of it because the enemy team crowds around the crystal waiting in anticipation. I've used it a lot and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like it. Most of the time I go for resurrect. However, I will go crystal if there's another support and the team isn't dying often.
Resurrect (R)
Cooldown: 90 seconds
Channel on the spirit of a dead ally for 3
seconds, bringing them back to life with 50% of their maximum health at
the location where they died.
This is my favorite ability of her and the main reason I bought her for the 16,000 gold. It only brings them back to life with half health and you have to be near their dead body to cast it. This ability will save your team a lot of time and get you a lot more pushes and chances to take objectives. Its basically saving time, one of the most important tools in a moba. I would say this is one of my favorite abilities in the game and a game changer. I do think that the cast range could be better so you didn't have to be so close to your teammates to cast it but other than that its a fantastic tool for your team.
To conclude, what we have here is basically a dps healer than can rez allies and doesn't use mana. Her kit is simple and straight to the point-unlike Heroes' last two heroes Gul'Dan and Medivh who are much more complicated characters. Anyone can pick up Auriel and play her right out of the box. But only great support players will learn the intricacies of her kit (like always hitting people in the center) and maximizing their energy usage to get the most out of ray of heaven. I usually like the more complex characters in Heroes of the Storm but Auriel is just so damn fun. Although her abilities seem simple I think it takes a good player to use her well. A lot of Auriels I've seen in pubs play her more as a support character but I feel she's more of a dps support character-akin to Tyrande and Rehgar.
Its good to see that Blizzard is still caring a lot about Heroes. They announced at Gamescom that they're going to be adding two new Starcraft themed maps as well as Alarak (from Starcraft 2) and Zarya (from Overwatch). This is just a sample of more fun to come.
"Evil will triumph over those who give into despair. But despair cannot
defeat the power of hope. Hope is the voice that will never be silent.
Hope is the stream that fills the wells of courage. Hope is the light in
the darkness. And in the darkness, I will be that light."
-Auriel
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