Xul presto nel Nexus – una Preview delle sue abilità!
Ai microfoni di Jason Hidalgo, cronista del Reno Gazette-Journal, il game Designer Jade Martin ha spiegato passo passo cosa i Devs hanno intenzione di fare con il Necromante Xul, il prossimo eroe in arrivo nel Nexus (probabilmente già dalla prossima settimana!)
Scopriamo allora che sebbene nel team di HotS non figuri nessuno che aveva lavorato all’originale Necro di Diablo 2, tutti sono entusiasti di questo Eroe che è venuto alla luce in modo naturale, da fan per i fan.
Scopriamo inoltre che la scelta di Xul “Specialist” non è stata semplice ma viene alla luce dopo un’attenta analisi delle sue abilità e del suo toolkit; gli scheletri lo rendono assolutamente più adatto a questo ruolo che a quello originariamente pensato di Assassin.
Inoltre, Jade sostiene di avere a mente già una serie di Builds possibili per Xul, da eroe capace di devastanti danni da assedio fino al ruolo, forse ancora più pericoloso, di debuffer di Eroi dall’alta velocità d’attacco (grazie alla sua W ndr)
In attesa del commento ufficiale del nostro Team di Esperti vi lasciamo alla preview delle abilità di Xul, ma vi invitiamo a commentare anche a caldo le prime impressioni su questo nuovo eroe in arrivo!
TRAITS AND ABILITIES
TRAIT
Raise Skeleton: When a nearby enemy Minion dies, it becomes a Skeletal Warrior for 15 seconds. Up to 4 Skeletal Warriors can be active at once.
BASIC ABILITIES
[1] Bone Armor: Activate to gain a Shield equal to 25% of your maximum Health for 3 seconds.
[Q] Spectral Scythe: Summon a scythe at target location that travels toward you after a 1-second delay, damaging enemies in its path.
[W] Cursed Strikes: Once activated, your Basic Attacks over the next 4 seconds deal damage in a wide arc and reduce the Attack Speed of enemies hit by 50% for 2 seconds.
[E] Bone Prison: After a 2-second delay, root target enemy in place for 2 seconds.
HEROIC ABILITIES
[R] Poison Nova: After a short delay, release poisonous missiles that deal massive poison damage over 10 seconds to all enemies hit.
[R] Skeletal Mages: Summon 4 Skeletal Mages in a line that attack nearby enemies and slow them by 30% for 2 seconds. Lasts up to 15 seconds.
LEVEL 1
[Active] Backlash: When Bone Armor expires, nearby enemies take 15% of their maximum Health as damage.
[Active] Shackler: While Bone Armor is active, nearby enemies are slowed by 30% for 1 second.
[Active] Shade: While Bone Armor is active, you evade all Basic Attacks, but its cooldown is increased by 10 seconds.
LEVEL 4
[Q] Death’s Reach: Increase Spectral Scythe range by 20%.
[E] Jailors: Bone Prison summons 2 Skeletal Warriors that fixate on the target for 15 seconds. These Skeletal Warriors do not count toward your maximum Raise Skeleton count.
[Trait] Trag’Oul’s Essence: Raise Skeleton restores Mana.
LEVEL 7
[W] Harvest Vitality: Cursed Strikes Heal you for each enemy Hero hit.
[W] Weaken: Increases Cursed Strikes attack speed slow to 75%.
[Trait] Rathma’s Blessing: Gain health whenever a skeleton is summoned.
LEVEL 10
[R1] Poison Nova: Poison enemies around you.
[R2] Skeletal Mages: Summon Frost Mages to damage and slow enemies.
LEVEL 13
[Q] Decrepify: Spectral Scythe slows enemies by 40% for 3 seconds.
[W] Giant’s Curse: Cursed Strikes deal an additional 2% of an enemy hero’s maximum Health as damage.
[Trait] Corpse Explosion: Skeletal Warriors explode on death, dealing damage in a small area. Damage is doubled vs. non-heroic enemies.
LEVEL 16
Executioner: Basic attacks deal 40% more damage against slowed, rooted, or stunned targets.
[Q] Flowing Wounds: Reduces Spectral Scythe’s cooldown by 4 seconds if it hits an enemy Hero.
[E] Amplify Damage: Enemies rooted by Bone Prison become Vulnerable for 2 seconds, taking 25% increased damage.
[Trait] Skeleton Mastery: Increases maximum Skeletal Warrior count to 6 and increases their damage by 100%.
LEVEL 20
[R1] Call of the Grave: Enemies hit by Poison Nova now also take an additional 1% of their maximum Health as damage every second.
[R2] Raised Mage: When a nearby enemy Hero dies, a Frost Mage will rise from the corpse to fight for you. Also increases Frost Mage slow amount to 50%.
[Q] Mortal Wound: Enemies hit by Spectral Scythe receive 75% reduced healing for 4 seconds.
[Active] Bone Spear: Deal damage to enemies in a line.
ON SCYTHE
“We knew we wanted Xul to use a scythe which our art team was excited about. Our next goal was to work the scythe into his kit and we went through quite a few ideas but the one that stuck was the idea of a reverse skillshot.” – Jade Martin, game designer, Blizzard
ON SKELETONS
“Whenever a nearby enemy minion dies it will be raised as a skeleton that pushes the nearest lane to Xul. If, for whatever reason, a skeleton is raised outside of a lane it will prioritize attacking nearby enemies before going to the lane. We didn’t want Xul running around the battlefield with hundreds of skeletons.” – Jade Martin, game designer, Blizzard
INTERACTION BETWEEN XUL AND LEORIC
We do have a voice line taunting Leoric when he kills him in the Nexus! I don’t want to spoil the surprise but keep your ears open for it! – Jade Martin, game designer, Blizzard
ON BLOOD GOLEM
“One of the heroics we tried and ended up taking out was Blood Golem. Blood Golem was great but it strongly went against our design goal of bringing a Necromancer into the Nexus with little visual clutter.” – Jade Martin, game designer, Blizzard
ON BUILD DIVERSITY
“Xul has great build diversity. He can build himself to be great at sieging a lane, a high-sustain damage attacker, or specialize in cursing the enemy team. If he doesn’t go for a skeleton build you will want to focus on making him more about his damage output or increase his ability to debuff the enemy.” – Jade Martin, game designer, Blizzard
