After announcing the long-awaited new heroes for the MOBA Heroes of the Storm at the BlizzCon 2026 conference, game producer James Yen gave an interview to the GamerBraves YouTube channel. During the conversation, the developer explained how the Blizzard team went from supporting existing versions of the game to releasing Xal’atat, and what plans are being considered for the future.
Ian has been with Blizzard for 21 years. He first joined the “Heroes of the Storm” team in 2015 and participated in operational support of the project, and later participated in the production of materials and design. The developer left the team in 2017, but returned to game development in 2022 with a small team of employees.
Initially, the team didn’t set itself the task of releasing a new hero right away. The first phase is to study the sustainability of projects, technologies and internal processes. Developers then start fixing bugs based on the large number of issues generated by the community. The next step is balance changes and adjustments to those less frequently used characters. Ian said that accumulated experience and player response ultimately convinced the team that it was time to create a new hero.
The choice fell to Zalatat in the World of Warcraft universe. The developers explained that this decision was made because her dark persona fits the Heroes of the Storm vibe well and is able to transfer the character’s abilities into the game. One inspiration was the scene where Xal’atath creates a giant sphere and destroys Dalaran.
In Heroes of the Storm, Xal’atath gains two heroic abilities. Void Convergence creates a portal on the ground from which minions emerge. They can block the opponent’s path and create pressure in the lane. Void Blast creates a giant sphere that gradually grows in size before shooting out and dealing heavy damage to enemies in its path. Once Xal’atat is released, the team will monitor statistics and player feedback and make changes to the patch as needed.
In the future, Blizzard plans to continue to redo old heroes. The team hopes to update the character based on modern design principles, but specific candidates for the next rework have yet to be determined. While the team is currently primarily considering characters from Blizzard’s rich history, new original heroes may appear.
Work on cosmetics will also continue. The developers plan to release new skins and mounts. Saratate is now available as a pre-order bundle that includes the skin and Phoenix mount.
Xal’atath will be Heroes of the Storm’s first new hero since 2020’s Breaker. The character is already available on public test servers, with a full version scheduled for release on September 28, 2026.
