Blizzard released this video today which they usually do the week before content hits the PTR which, itself, is usually a week before it hits live servers. I'm pretty stoked. Lieutenant Morales is the official name of the Starcraft Medic and will be the next hero. Following her around 3 weeks later will be Artanis who will be free to those who buy Legacy of the Void.

There's also some really cool skins. Namely the Buccaneer skin on Falstad because, yo yo yo, I fucking called it. I think that's the first skin I HAVE TO BUY. Also it's for Falstad who I like to play so that works out really well. Only reason I wouldn't buy it if Falstad got nerfed really hard in the patch and what are the odds of THAT happening? Hahahaha, cough cough, probably non zero.

They better nerf Void Prison. Void Prison so good people would pick Zeratul even if his only move was Void Prison.

You know, I find it fucking hilarious that the skill that is essentially Chronosphere is just as dumb in a different game. Also Medic looks pretty rad.

Fuuuuuuck the Samus Master Lt. Morales and EVA-01 Purifier Artanis are sick!

I've never even thought to check the various skins' alternate colors. Do a lot of them have "homage" color schemes?

Artanis looks really cool. Have they hinted at what kind of Warrior he'll be? I can't find any info on him at all. Might start saving my gold for him now.

Will be nice to have another primary healer option in the game. Watching the Americas Championship I noticed that Uther was almost always a top pick or ban and then Malfurion and Rehgar were the scraps.

I'm tempted to get that vulture, I play a lot of Jimmy boy with the commander skin.

Yeah, for example Blood Elf Tyrande can be made to look like a High Elf with her blue color, and Ranger Sylvanas has a Blood Elf color scheme. Hell, Karazim the Monk's 3rd skin color makes him look like Aang of Avatar: The Last Airbender (head arrow and all).

Fuck yeah they are.

That Raynor skin is the sort of thing that would get me to start playing more Raynor. Some cool mounts too. Really cool to see the StarCraft Medic is the next hero.

The Raynor skin is great.

@hansolol: If you're buying Legacy of the Void put your gold away, he's free! They've said he's sort of a traditional tank. Not a lot of escapes. That's it.

I looked through some of the older skin alternate colors and didn't see too many referential/homage/inspired color schemes that jumped out at me. It could be that I simply didn't recognize what some of the schemes were going for, but the only big ones I recognized (out of the selection that I looked at) were Super Saiyan Goku Kharazim and Cable Sonya. Apparently the other alternate color for Purifier Artanis is ALSO an Evangelion nod (EVA-02's colors)

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Am I crazy or is that pink Lt. Morales skin a Virtual On homage?

I'm tempted to get the Headless Horseman's charger but I've little doubt Invincible will eventually be added, and I only need one undead horse.

According to whoever wrote that page on the HotS Gamepedia (the place I got those images from), the pink and white skin is supposedly a nod to some Transformer named Arcee. I looked up "transformers arcee" on Google image search to compare and it looks like that might be it. Also, there's a WHOLE lot of weird Arcee fan-art out there... :-\

@bbalpert: I wouldn't trust some random wiki writer. Who knows where the info comes from?

Oh, damn. I just read that there are a bunch of Warrior changes coming in the patch? Specifically, Stitches is getting buffed? Awesome!

Hope Leoric doesn't get hit too hard with the nerf bat. :( He is one of my favorite characters.

I have full intentions of getting back into this game once I finish Metal Gear. With School and Metal Gear I've had no time for HOTS lol.

@bbalpert: Mm... yeah, that actually makes a lot more sense.

Hope Diablo is more viable too. I loved his displacement in previous patches.

Also Gamespot has the scoop on Lt Morales' abilities! They say she'll be available in the PTR starting tonight. Big news if true! That'd mean patch notes will be available super soon.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/heroes-of-the-storms-new-starcraft-medic-sounds-li/1100-6430851/

Word is from Blizzard they wanted to have PTR out today but it's been delayed. Look for it upcoming days!

Really strange. They've always done PTRs one week before patch. Was the patch next week? Will it drop Tuesday? Or were they just looking to put up the PTR early?

The new patch messed up the quick match team composition. Saw someone mention it on Twitter and Dustin Browder acknowledged it. I've had a few bad qm comps in my time playing this game but look at this:

So bad.

@hansolol: Yeah, I've had some unplayably awful team comps in Quick Match in the past couple days, but just chalked it up to bad luck. It's hilarious how the damage output on Gaz and Zag alone beats like, the entire enemy team combined.

@hansolol: It being free Nova week certainly does not help either.