Heroes of the Storm reveals new melee assassin, Qhira

Heroes of the Storm
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Heroes of the Storm has revealed its newest original Hero (of the Storm), Qhira. Described as both a melee assassin and an Iresian bounty hunter, Qhira fights with a sword in one hand and a deadly Iresian chainblade (grappling hook) in the other. Her hook can be used to latch onto both terrain and enemies, making her a mobile double-threat.

"A former knight of her now shattered homeland, Qhira’s battle prowess is unmatched on the battlefield," reads the announcement from Blizzard. "With Iresia destroyed, Qhira has become a Bounty Hunter with an array of abilities adept at both beginning fights, and more importantly, ending them. Her distinctive playstyle is great for lightning-fast engages and dealing high amounts of damage before help can arrive."

You can check out Qhira for yourself, as she's live on the HotS Public Test Realm right now. You can also watch a video about Qhira's origins, motivations, and skills below, and further down, see a list of her abilities and traits.

Carnage (Q)
Unleash your sword in a targeted direction, continuously dealing 31 damage to enemies caught in its path.
Cost: 40 Mana
Cooldown: 6 seconds

Blood Rage (W)
Passive: Basic Attack and Ability damage cause enemies to bleed for 46 damage over 4 seconds. Stacks 5 times.
Active: Qhira deals 33 damage and heals for 88 health per enemy Hero affected. Damage and healing is increased by 50% per each additional stack on that Hero.
Cost: 35 Mana
Cooldown: 8 seconds

Revolving Sweep (E)
Attach your sword to the first enemy Hero hit, Stunning them for .25 seconds. Once attached, Qhira avoids Basic Attacks and becomes immune to all effects, rotating around the target for 2.75 seconds, and dealing 109 damage to any enemies between you and the target. Reactivate to send you to the target’s location, knocking them back, dealing 112 damage and Stunning them for .75 seconds.
Cost: 70 Mana
Cooldown: 16 Seconds

Grappling Hook (D)
Qhira fires a Grappling Hook that pulls her to any terrain it contacts. If an enemy Hero is hit, they take 36 damage and Qhira launches at them, dealing an additional 112 damage on impact. Can be used while Revolving Sweep is active.
Cooldown: 25 Seconds

Unrelenting Strikes (R1)
Deal 46 damage to all nearby enemies every .5 seconds for 2.5 seconds as your sword grows outward. Upon expiring, deal 86 damage to all nearby enemy Heroes and Stun them for .75 seconds.
Cost: 60 Mana
Cooldown: 75 Seconds

Final Strike (R2)
After 1 second, strike your sword in a line to deal 432 damage to all enemies in its path. This damage is increased by 25% to any enemy below 50% Health.
Cost: 45 Mana
Cooldown: 40 Seconds

You can find out more about Qhira here on Blizzard's site. There have also been some changes to ranked play on the PTR: "This update brings much requested features such as Ranked Points being directly mapped to a player’s Storm League MMR, a reduction in the number of Placement Matches, and a new Ranked Seasonal Questline."

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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