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Heroes of the Storm: Stitches
At the end of our look at the Support hero Tassadar, I said we would likely look at Muradin next. I lied. Stitches came up in the Heroes of the Storm free-to-play rotation and I learned the meaning of true love. Stitches is a beefy member of the Warrior class, heroes that are typically low damage, high survivability. In many cases, the threat a Warrior poses is not in his or her ability to kill you -- but the fact that they're a nuisance, unkillable things that make a slow push into your territory and you must struggle to stop them. While Stitches does have those qualities, I also like to think of him as something of an offensive Support character. Where most Support characters help your Heroes survive a battle, Stitches helps his allies murder the other team. He picks your enemies apart and holds them still while your assassins go to work.
Heroes of the Storm: Tassadar
So far in this series we've looked at an Assassin and a Specialist, Falstad and Abathur respectively. Today we look at a member of the Support class, StarCraft's high templar Tassadar. The Support class is, effectively, Heroes of the Storm's equivalent of a healer. In Tassadar's case, you could draw a comparison to the Discipline Priest. Rather than directly healing his allies, he places protective bubbles on them to absorb damage. Other varieties of bubbles exert some control over the flow of battle. Tassadar is a character that doesn't perform well on his own. He shines when attached to an ally. When partnered up with a beefy tank character, he can make his lane partner nigh unkillable.
Heroes of the Storm: Abathur
If Falstad is one of the easier characters to master in Heroes of the Storm, Abathur is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Playing Abathur well is quite difficult and he's unlike any other hero in the game. He relies on knowledge of the maps themselves as well as every other hero in the game. Abathur's personal presence on the battlefield is minimal. He stays as far away from the fight as possible. He fights through your allies, empowering them and protecting them with his Symbiote ability and maintaining control of the map through laying Toxic Nests (landmines) from a distance. Abathur falls into the category of "Specialist." The Specialist designation is given to those characters that aren't easily categorized. They aren't nimble, deadly Assassins. They aren't beefy, tanky warriors. Support is closer to what Abathur does, but support characters tend to have a physical battlefield presence. In short, Specialists are weird.
Heroes of the Storm: Falstad
Editor's Note: Heroes of the Storm is currently in a technical alpha phase. All information contained within is subject to change. My experience playing games in Heroes of the Storm's genre is limited. I've played a few rounds of League of Legends. That's it. When I opened Heroes for the first time, I relied on my knowledge that ranged classes tend to be a safer choice for the inexperienced. In the opening week of the Heroes alpha, the ranged options available for free were Raynor, Gazlowe, and Falstad. The tutorial gave me a taste for Raynor, so I gave Falstad a shot -- a choice I do not regret. I've since tried all of the free characters and Falstad remains my favorite. Falstad is labeled a Ranged Assassin. He isn't built to tank. He's built to get his licks in and keep moving.
