Overwatch’s cybernetic ninja will be playable on Heroes of the Storm’s public test region today.
The late March leak was right: Genji is joining Tracer, Zarya, and Lúcio in Heroes, bringing along a new map, his home of Hanamura, to the Nexus. He’s being added as part of a Heroes overhaul, which includes a new progression system and more heroes.
Like in Overwatch, Genji is a high-mobility character that deals a bunch of damage in Heroes. His passive, called Cyber Agility in Heroes, allows Genji to scale walls, while Swift Strike is still his quick-moving sword attack.
Likewise, he also carries his three shuriken and can use his sword to deflect damage. Dragonblade can be unleashed for ultimate damage-dealing effectiveness. New to Genji in Heroes is X-Strike, which Genji can use to hit a target twice to deal extra damage.
In Heroes, Genji’s home, Hanamura, is a two-lane battleground that features two payloads—which makes it very different from its Overwatch counterpart, which is a capture point map. On Hanamura in Heroes, players need to escort payloads that deal damage to the enemy core.
The way it’s played is very different than in Overwatch, but it’s visually very similar—and that makes it a very unique map in the Heroes world.
Details on Blizzard’s Heroes 2.0 update will continue to be revealed until its full launch on April 25. A Reddit Q&A is ongoing, with details on an unknown “launch event” coming tomorrow.
Genji is not yet live on Heroes’ PTR, at least in North America, but should be soon.
