We would very much like to hear about Varian's character design process.

Nathan LaMusga (Nate): Varian is already known through lore as an adaptive warrior that fights well on various battlegrounds. When it comes to Varian's weapon, people would normally think of a two-handed sword, but he actually split the sword into two and fought with twin blades, making them his iconic weapon. We wanted to emphasize his image as an flexible warrior who adapts quickly to different battles.

Blackheart's Revenge was announced as the new Brawl battleground. Are you planning to make more of this sort of original HotS content?

Nate: Blackheart's Revenge is like a sequel to Blackheart's Bay. The main plot is Blackheart taking his revenge while one team aids him and the other team defends him. It is a Brawl in which each team has its own objective, which we think will be a lot of fun. I think we can make more content that continues the storylines in the Nexus. We do not have detailed plans yet, but we can try many new things because we change Brawls every week anyway.

Please tell us briefly about Ragnaros.

Nate: Ragnaros is a melee assassin who is good at both pushing and fighting. All of his abilities have crowd control, but he lacks mobility. His trait, Molten Core, is something interesting, as it allows Ragnaros to consume an ally [fort] or destroyed enemy fort to get bigger and temporarily upgrade his abilities. He turns into something like a raid boss in WoW, which looks cool and powerful.

Each map has different objectives. Does this cause any balance problems?

Travis: It’s more of a player preference problem than a balance problem. Some people enjoy strong objectives. Others not so much. We take in the feedback and make modifications, e.g. Garden of Terror.

Favorite map?

Travis: Warhead Junction. I love firing nukes.

Nate: Dragon Shire. The map layout is intuitive and the Dragon Knight’s scaling feels really rewarding.

Have you considered a map ban system?

Travis: Not as of now. Hero League should use a monthly rotation of about 6 maps, which should mean 3 rotations per season. Quick Match will feature all maps as many people enjoy having access to all 12.

Any last words for the fans?

Nate: We’re always grateful towards our players. Keep on enjoying our game, please.

Travis: In the end, the fans are who we make games for. Heroes of the Storm itself could be said to be one big fan service to all Blizzard fans, after all. Please give us a lot of feedback. See you in the Nexus!

Reported by Inven Sawual