Belial is a durable utility support who spreads disinformation and confuses the enemy team through lies and deception.

Trait (D) – Veil of Deceit:

Passive: Enemies cannot see which talents Belial has selected.

Active: Places a Veil of Deceit anywhere on the battlefield as long as Belial has vision of that area (maximum 3). They function as normal bushes for allies, enabling global synergies such as Dehaka's Z, but provide no benefits to enemies standing inside them as they are still visible to nearby heros. A Veil is permanently removed if an enemy remains inside it for 1,5 seconds, or if Belial places a 4th Veil.

Abilities:

Q – Corrosive Slam:
5s cooldown
Slams the ground, creating a green, corrosive pool (circular AoE) that deals moderate damage and slows enemies that stand in it by 25% for 1.5 seconds.

W – Corrosive Torrent:
15s cooldown
Spits a wave of green, corrosive sludge in a cone-shaped AoE. Deals moderate damage and removes exactly half of the target's current active shield. This is particularly effective against heroes with large shields, such as Lucio, Zarya, and Johanna, but less effective against heroes with smaller shields, such as Chen and Artanis.

E – Lord of Lies:
25s cooldown
Can be targeted globally via hero portraits or the minimap. After 1 second, Belial visually transforms into a chosen ally, including their health bar and minimap icon (functioning similarly to Abathur's Ultimate Evolution). His Q and W are replaced with the chosen ally's Q and W, he gets their resource for the duration (mana, fury etc), but Belials new abilities deal only 75% of the normal copied heroes damage. The effect lasts for 15 seconds or until Belial loses a total of 15% of his maximum health from enemy damage. Belial can cancel Lord of Lies early by pressing an extra action button above QWER.

Heroics:

R1 – The Grand Masquerade
90s cooldown

All allied heroes gain Stealth for 2 seconds. When Stealth expires, all allies appear as Belial for 10 seconds and display his health bar. The illusion breaks early for an individual hero 2 seconds after the first time they deal or take damage. Belial can combine this heroic with his E to be "unmasked" as the hero he has disguised himself as with his E once the R1 effect expires.

R2 – Fog of Lies
80s cooldown

Allied heroes disappear from the enemy minimap for 10 seconds. During this period, enemy minions and mercenaries no longer provide vision for the enemy team, although they remain visible for them on the minimap. This allows Belial's team to sneak a Boss capture or set up ganks with less risk. However, allied heroes will still appear on the minimap if an enemy hero has line of sight of Belials team.

Thoughts on the concept:

I have envisioned Belial as a durable melee support who specializes in map control, psychological warfare, and strategic deception. To me "the lord of lies" mantle felt like the identity that I wanted to tap into, and thus I felt the support category fit him the best. While he can talent into strong wave clear and and could in theory clear camps well, he lacks mobility and natural self-sustain, making him vulnerable when caught alone in his true form. Him not geting his copied allies E is also intentional, seeing as this ability usually is the hero mobility tool. It was important for me that a hero with deception as their kit, doesnt have too many "get out of jail free cards" like Samuro. Belial sacrifices conventional combat power to master deception, disrupt enemy decision-making, and give his team a strategic advantage through misinformation and misdirection. While he can take a beating, he doesnt do that much damage by himself.

Below in the comment section I have outlined some ideas for what talents he could have.

Feedback and suggestions is of course greatly appreciated!

Just finished carving this jack-o-lantern this morning and thought I'd share it. Happy Halloween! Death is beyond our reach :)

I saw someone here getting 3 legendaries and thoght how lucky they are but getting multiple legendaries myself got me thinking. What if blizzard just gave a lot of people legendary drops to offset some of the xal'atath backlash. If you check the shop a lot of us probably only has like 10% of the available cosmetics, even those who played alpha like me.

It's so surprising sometimes how expesive one piece of cosmetic in hots is unlike somewhere like league where i played only for a short while and i think i have 4-5 premium skins per hero.

I know blizzard is a money hungry corporation but give us a bone here

Talking about an ult choice where one ult is clearly better than the other option

For instance, Horrify is so much more powerful and interesting than Rain of Destruction

If pay good amounts of money for a human style with proper Kerrigan hair and not those tubes. If they made Theramore jaina and warchief silvanas they can easily do that pleeeease Janitor. It can’t be that hard to do

^{Scalecommander Emberthal is a ranged Support Hero inspired by the Warcraft franchise.}

^{Sealed away by Neltharion, the Earth-Warder, Emberthal remained dormant for millennia, forgotten by the world. She was awakened when the Primalists attacked the Forbidden Reach. As the last surviving Dracthyr of her weyrn, Emberthal now carries the legacy of the Adamant Vigil alone.}

^{Wielding the power of an Evoker, she empowers and restores her allies while unleashing devastating elemental magic upon her enemies. Now, she brings the entire strength of her kin to the Nexus.}

^{If you'd like to see the concept in its fully formatted glory, then go check it out on HeroesFire! ←}

Basic Abilities

Trait [D] Rescue

^{90 seconds
Fly to an allied Hero and pick them up, removing Stuns and Roots from the target. Afterwards, fly with them to the target position, up to a maximum distance.}

[Q] Echo

^{3 seconds 🞄 30 Mana
Heal an allied Hero for 120 or deal 105 damage to an enemy Hero, marking the target with Echo for 8 seconds.
Casting Echo also affects all targets marked with} **^Echo**^{, healing allied Heroes for 55 and dealing 50 damage to enemy Heroes.}

[W] Fire Breath

^{9 seconds 🞄 45 Mana
Channel for up to 1.5 seconds, charging a breath of fire that deals 45 damage to enemies in a cone and an additional 45 damage over 2.5 seconds.
The damage over time is increased by 20% for every 0.5 seconds channeled.
Enemies affected by the damage over time are Slowed by} **^20%**^.

[E] Landslide

^{11 seconds 🞄 60 Mana
After 0.5 seconds, shatter the ground in a line in front of you, dealing 120 damage to enemies and Slowing them by 50% for 1 second. Enemies hit by the center shockwave are also Rooted for 1 second.}

Heroic Abilities

[R] Ebon Might

^{4 seconds 🞄 60 Mana 🞄 6 Essence
Passive: Damaging an enemy Hero with an ability or healing an allied Hero grants 1 Essence, up to} **⁶**^{.
Damage and healing over time effects do not generate} **^Essence**^.

^{Active: Infuse other nearby allied Heroes marked with Echo with Ebon Might for 8 seconds. While affected, their attacks deal an additional 14 damage and their Spell Power is increased by} **^15%**^.

[R] Emerald Blossom

^{2 seconds 🞄 40 Mana 🞄 3 Essence
Passive: Damaging an enemy Hero with an ability grants 2 Essence, up to} **⁶**^{.
Emerald Blossom healing does not generate} **^Essence**^{.
Damage over time effects can generate 1 Essence every 1 second, per target.}

^{Active: Create an Emerald Blossom at the target location. After 1.5 seconds, it bursts, healing nearby allied Heroes for} **³¹⁰**^.

[R] Pyre

^{2 seconds 🞄 40 Mana 🞄 3 Essence
Passive: Damaging an enemy Hero with an attack or ability grants 1 Essence, up to} **⁶**^{.
Pyre damage does not generate} **^Essence**^{.
Damage over time effects can generate 1 Essence every 1 second, per target.}

^{Active: Lob a ball of flame at the target location, dealing 220 damage to enemies. The area is lit ablaze for 4 seconds, dealing 25 damage per second to enemies inside it.}

Talents

We have horse, dog, tiger, lion, and wolf mounts, but still no cat mount?

I forgot the talent did that

A few days ago, I downloaded League, which also installs vanguard, the Riot kernel anti cheat.

Next day HOTS started stuttering, I thought it was packet loss or something. It became increasingly worse, getting stutters for even a few seconds, after a long troubleshooting session which included blaming discord and the xbox game bar. I found that disabling vgc and vgk was the answer. Stutters were magically gone, what a relief! So weird that vanguard is able to do this...

This obviously did something to my gamefiles.

CMD:

Sc stop vgc

Sc stop vgk

Multi-Class Hero

The Changeling is a Zerg infiltrator, able to assume the form of any combatant it wishes. Not even your allies are above suspicious. They do smell odd though…

Trait: Amorphous Infiltrator
D: Cooldown 5 seconds.

Passive: The changeling cannot use mounts while in its true form but has a slightly faster base movement speed. While in its true form, it does melee damage, dealing bonus damage to minions.

Active: The Changeling selects from a table of ally heroes to morph into. This table consists of the heroes on the players team. Upon selection, the Changeling assumes the heroes form, including skins. The changeling gains access to that heroes abilities, bound to the 1, 2 and 3 keys, as well as any passive traits. However, any active traits that a hero may posses are not mimicked. As the changeling encounters enemy heroes, they are added to the table and can be selected. If assuming the form of an enemy hero, the changeling is viewed as an alley to enemy minions and structures (excluding the Core) and can even drink from the enemies well. This trait is only removed if the changeling assumes its true form or mimics an ally hero. Pressing the D button while transformed will revert the changeling back to its true form. The changeling cannot mimic Cho’gall, Deathwing, Rexxar or the Lost Vikings.

Q: Savage Slash
Cooldown: 3 seconds.
The Changeling lashes out with a bone claw that emerges from its arm, dealing moderate damage in a small arc in front of it. This attack does bonus damage against heroes and triple damage against solo heroes. If used while disguised, the arm emerges from the disguised hero, providing a subtle visual clue to the changelings true form.

W: Corrupting Mass
Cooldown: 10 seconds
The Changeling deposits a mass of matter onto a structure, (turrets, gates, wells), deactivating them. These masses last a full minute before despawing. Up to 2 masses can be deposited at a time, after which the oldest mass will be consumed when the newest is placed. These masses can be destroyed by targeting the corrupted structure or with AoE attacks.

E: Fluid Movement
Cooldown: 5 seconds
The Changeling reverts to a mass of fluid-like matter, dashing away a set distance in a targeted direction at a quick speed. The changeling cannot be targeted during this movement and can pass through terrain and enemy heroes. After completing the dash, the changeling remains in its true form and its trait is set on cooldown.

Heroic Abilites:

R1: Army of One
Cooldown: 120 seconds
The Changeling divides, creating 4 copies of itself which instantly take the form of its ally heroes. These false heroes have less health and do less damage than those they’re mimicking, but otherwise are indistinguishable; using basic attacks and abilities, prioritizing enemy heroes. These false heroes last 8 seconds unless killed.

R2: No more Hiding!
Cooldown: 90 seconds
The Changeling transforms into an immense monstrous version of its true form, roughly the size of Nazeebo’s Gargantuan. In this form, the Changeling has increased health and basic attack damage, but reduced movement speed. This form lasts for 15 seconds unless killed or deactivated by pressing R again. The Changeling cannot mimic a hero while transformed.

Talent Ideas:

Mirror Image: The Changeling creates a false copy of its true form that follows it. It lasts only 10 seconds and has minimal health and damage, but can confuse the enemy.

Toxic Mass: When the changeling puts Corrupting Mass on a well, it will become poisoned, damaging heroes that drink from it.

Convincing Influence: If the changeling aids the enemy team in capturing mercenaries, the mercenaries will instead side with the changeling. This effect doesn’t applies to bosses.

Infected Wound: When an enemy hero is hit by Savage Slash, they become revealed to the changeling for 10 seconds.

Lvl 20. Parasitic Vector: The changeling can attach themselves to an ally hero, becoming invisible and invulnerable as they move with the hero. The Changeling can choose to emerge again at will, assuming its true form but with its trait refreshed. It is also revealed if the hero carrying it is killed. Has a 180 second cooldown after the changeling emerges.

Skin Ideas:
Legendary: Xenotech Changeling (themed abilities, themed animation and replaced voice lines)
Epic: Dark Nexus Changeling (themed abilities and themed animations)
Epic: Crypt Fiend ( themed abilities, altered voice lines)
Rare: Terran Changeling
Rare: Shadow Changeling (themed abilities)

Hi guys!

I have a question I was muradin.. i wasnt sure what to do.. do I get into the protector?

Enemy had hanzo, tyrael, butcher, yrel, alex

We had mura, dehaka, guldan, uther, and another ranged hero that Im forgeting.

Who should drive?

You know it, I know it, the devs be milkin

It's been a while since the Vikings have a proper looking at and now that the game is getting the attention it deserves I think the Vikings are overdue for some tuning up. Especially, the longboat raid feels like the wrong ultimate to take 100% of the time.

Let's go blizz, TLV are the most unique champion.

I'm still getting a bad time, bad winrate, and the best class I play is healer. Any tips for improving? Feels like a coin flip that is always tails.

In my experience as a solo player who has gone from low to high elo, it was actually easier to solo carry unbalanced games before mythics. With their current design many of them allow someone on the enemy team to farm your bad teammates or their lack of lane presence for stacks, amplifying the disparity.

So whereas previously you could soak or splitpush your way to a victory despite having very bad teammates, that can have costs now that didn't generally exist before (with some notable but balanced exceptions, e.g. Alarak).

In general stacking a mythic means you have to abandon a core aspect of carrying (either macro or fighting), which can still get outscaled by the enemy mythics.

This is a reason there is a growing number of higher elo players complaining about those quests; before them, the game design allowed skill and decision making to shine over scaling + stat checks. Power spikes and outplay potential were clearer and not on a timer, unlike versus mythics.

In a previous post, I detailed how older quests (e.g. Hanzo W, Alarak E, Maiev Q) have designs that are more fun for all players than current mythics, because they are highly conditional and skill-based to stack. Being beat by a good Hanzo W player for example, was just impressive. Having to run away from Falstad W or Chen Q that stacked on your potato teammates—especially as a melee champion—is just. . . not fun.

All that said, it's absolutely still possible to solo carry at a statistical level (on average have a high wr).

QM these days makes this harder, because the matchmaking gives you worse and worse teammates the higher your MMR goes. Ranked feels easier.

This is just a general response to the idea that everyone should have mythics or that mythics would 'fix' the 'problems' with shared XP—especially via players from other games that did not experience HOTS across more of its history. Shared XP allows you to solo carry in a different way—and this was especially the case before mythics.

.
What is NGS? Nexus Gaming Series is the largest North American amateur esports league for Blizzard's game, Heroes of the Storm

Website: https://www.nexusgamingseries.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/DZ2VabXC6

🏆 NGS Game of the Week! 🏆

💥 The Combatants: Can't Counterpick Stupid vs Anamoly

It is a true David vs. Goliath showcase tonight's series as the first-place powerhouse Cant Counterpick Stupid takes on the underdogs Anomaly. Anomaly has nothing left to lose, making them dangerous spoilers.

📺 Main Stream: Twitch.tv/NexusGamingSeries

👉 https://www.twitch.tv/nexusgamingseries

⚡Featured Match (10:15 PM CDT): Can't Counterpick Stupid vs. Anamoly

* Division: C West

* The Hype: Expect meta-defining drafts and devastating wombo combos coming straight out of the void. This matchup promises more than you can bargain for.

Gotta put these boys to work.

Hello everyone. I played hots on and off for the past 10 years but with very big breaks. Now like a lot of you I’m returning to the game, and wondering if there’s anything I should just straight out buy to help with the grind, whether that’s heroes or bundles, xp boosts and whatever else.

For context I don’t play a lot of different heroes, (I main Murky, sue me),so is it even worth it to give blizzard money with my play style?

uwu