I've been playing Heroes of the Storm casually basically since I wrote those first couple articles. One of the features of the game is that there are a number of heroes who you can play for free, and they rotate each week, which allows you a fair amount of freedom to play without even spending in-game gold, much less real money. All in all I've only made one impulse purchase (Crusader Johanna and her Legionnaire skin, which in retrospect I actually like less than her classic look.)
I've played probably most of the heroes at this point, though not all in a real game (and to be honest, I really only play versus AI, which some would argue isn't "real" either.)
So what are my favorites so far?
E.T.C. - Warrior
Elite Tauren Chieftain (abbreviated in game) is all the right kinds of silly. He's a warrior who fights with the power of Rock. He's basically designed as a disruptor - your Q attack is Power Slide, which sends you forward in a straight line, stunning those you hit. W is Face Melt, which knocks enemies back (both also do damage) away from you. E is Guitar Solo, which is a self-heal (I think there's a direct and then over-time effect.) His two R attacks are Mosh Pit and Stage Dive. Mosh Pit is an area stun, but you have to channel it, meaning that while you can pull it off in a group of enemy heroes, it'll really be more effective if you have allies to take advantage of the stun. It can be pretty transformative at bottlenecks. ETC's trait is that his abilities will increase his and nearby allies attack speeds. Unfortunately the range on "Rock Star" is pretty small I think, so you'll need to be bunched up quite a lot for this to have a huge effect.
Tychus - Assassin
Tychus is the first assassin character where I really felt like a had a good sense of how to kill enemy heroes. His trait is pretty key - he has a chain gun that spins up, increasing your attack speed on each hit up to four, which fades if you're out of combat. Q - Overdrive if I remember the name correctly, will let you fixate on a target and blast away with a spun-up minigun barrage. The key here is that you can keep moving while it goes off, so if an enemy tries to run away, or if you are trying to make a fighting retreat, you can keep bringing the damage. W is Frag Grenade, which lets you toss a grenade that does damage and knocks people away from the impact. This is actually a great thing to use while channeling Overdrive (it doesn't cancel it,) as you can knock a fleeing enemy back in range. E is... I forget the name. It sends you forward a short distance very quickly. Again, this is good for both escaping and also keeping up with your quarry. The two R abilities are Summon Odin and (paraphrasing) that Mining Laser from that one mission in Wings of Liberty. The Odin gives you new, powerful attacks while it lasts, but importantly you should know that the Odin's health and your health are one and the same - you won't just pop out of it if it gets destroyed. The Mining Laser doesn't have a ton of health, but if you can plop it in an enemy fort or keep's vicinity, it can do significant damage as long as you keep it safe.
Li Li - Support
Li Li's definitely the easiest support character. A lot of her abilities are auto-targeted, which has the added bonus of letting you heal on the move. Her trait gives her a movement speed buff if she gets hit, so she's all about running out of harm's way while helping teammates stay up. Q is Healing Brew, which will toss a heal to the nearby target with the most need of a heal (preferring heroes.) W summons a little cloud serpent hatchling on a friendly target (including you) who will attack enemies nearby. E is Blinding Wind, which will deal damage and blind nearby enemy heroes (it can't be used if there are none in range) for a few seconds. Her heroic abilities are Jug of a Thousand Cups and Summon Greater Cloud Serpent. The Jug is kind of a big AoE heal, though it only heals one ally at a time (so it does the same amount of potential healing regardless of how many allies are nearby.) The Cloud Serpent does damage in an area.
Sylvanas - Specialist
Specialists in Heroes do kind of have a shared niche - they tend to focus less on enemy heroes and more on minions, mercenaries, and structures (masonry?) Sylvanas has some really strong tools for dealing with the enemy's AI defenses. Her trait is Black Arrow, which causes her attacks (basic and special) to stun any non-player target. This means that you can lock down an enemy turret with only autoattacks. Q is Withering Fire, which auto-targets the nearest hostile and does a bit of damage and has five charges that regenerate fairly quickly. If an enemy minion dies near you, you'll get another charge, so once your team levels up enough, you'll be able to wipe out squads of minions in mere moments (especially if you opt to have it hit two targets with a talent.) Cursed Blade will put a DOT on a target, but this damage-over-time spreads to nearby enemies (I can't remember if there's a target limit) just in case you weren't happy with how fast you were wiping out minion teams. E is Banshee Wail (I could totally be getting some of these names wrong.) This is a long-range cone attack (you can easily shoot into enemy bases without getting in range of their guns) that passes through targets, damaging them. As an added bonus, hitting E again while the Banshees are doing their thing will teleport you to where they are, making it a nice escape ability.
Sgt. Hammer - Specialist
One I only discovered today, but that I'm falling in love with already. Sergeant Hammer is the pilot of a Terran Siege Tank (one of my favorite SC units.) She gets a bonus to her damage if her enemies are far away from her. E is her most important ability, but let's talk about her others first. Q drops Spider Mines nearby, which will burrow into the ground and charge at approaching enemies before exploding. W is a short-range cone-attack knockback, which does send things pretty far away, but again, has a low range. E allows you to enter Siege Mode. This will make you immobile, but it will vastly increase your range and also make your basic attacks do splash damage (a late talent causes you to gain a larger range the longer you're in Siege Mode.) By setting up in Siege Mode, you can easily outrange turret defenses and devastate enemy fortifications. Given her range, Hammer's also good at dealing with enemy heroes - they'll either be too low on health by the time they get to you (through a field of spider mines) or by knocking them out with a big blast as they fail to get far enough out of range. Obviously, the immobility of Siege Mode makes you vulnerable, but the idea is that you scare off or kill enemies before they can get to you. Also of note: instead of a mount (because a tank riding a horse would be more absurd than even Blizzard can handle) you get a little speed boost on a cooldown.
Kael'thas - Assassin
While Jaina (who I also like) brings the Frost Mage toolkit, Kael'thas is all about the somewhat fel-enhanced Fire magic. First, his trait is Verdant Spheres - those three globes floating around his head. Activating them will make the glow brighter and will empower your next non-heroic ability, making it a little akin to Arthas' Frostmourne Hungers, but a little more interesting. Q is Flamestrike, which will create a circular area that will explode for fairly high damage on anyone who is still standing inside. Empowering it will increase the damage and size of the circle, and make the fire green. W is Living Bomb, which is a DoT on the target that, after it goes off, will do area damage to anyone standing near the target. There are some fun talents to really turn this one into a nasty spell. Empowering this removes the cooldown and mana cost, so you can use it twice in a row - the only downside is that I think the explosion won't happen if the enemy is killed before it can go off. E is Gravity Lapse, which is an aimed stun. Empowering it will stun the first three targets the spell reaches. Finally, heroic abilities are Phoenix, which you can summon to fly forward to a location and bombard enemies within its range and Pyroblast, which is a big blast of damage that takes a little while to cast. Kael'thas is an Assassin, so he's technically designed for taking out heroes, but he'll also chew through minion parties very effectively. I'm a particularly big fan of Living Bomb, as DoTs have a lot of value in a game where people (or at least AI) won't retreat until their health gets fairly low. And with the right talents, you can have more powerful Living Bombs that are spread by Flamestrike and spread a second iteration of themselves upon explosion - you can get massive chain reactions.
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