Last week we (well, me) attended a small event to go over the new Heroes content, dubbed The Eternal Conflict that will begin a small series of Diablo related releases. The first two will be a map called Battlefield of Eternity and a new melee assassin, The Butcher.

Be sure to check out our interview with Dustin Browder and group developer interview as well!

Battlefield of Eternity

A battleground featuring two outside lanes surrounding a large central combat area where each team must defend their Immortal (once spawned) while simultaneously trying to attack the enemy team’s Immortal. The victorious team’s Immortal will shift into one of the battleground’s two lanes and begin to push against enemy fortifications.

Heyoka Notes

I played a few games on this and it was a lot of fun, it seemed like a good addition to the current map pool. While all the games I played were on it, as a group we were mostly focusing on messing around with Johanna and The Butcher so I didn't get an intimate feel for it.

• It's interesting in that the two sides are totally different, and it succeeds visually in creating a unique styles for each side, its all satisfying to play on. They said later that it felt like making two maps so they will reuse parts of the tileset later which seems good.
  
• The general concept of fighting against the Immortals so close to each other felt good, it forced fighting in a pretty intimate area but not in the same way as Cursed Hollow.
  
• The animation where the Immortals go from fighting across the pit to hand-to-hand combat is hilarious. The first time I saw it the dude next to me said oh shit we anime now—surprisingly on the money. You can see it in the second video above.
  
• It genuinely feels way scarier to have a giant angel/demon/winged spirit thingy coming at you as opposed to the big golem bosses the other maps have.
  
• Gazlowe almost feels useful because of the proximity and length of the fights over the Immortals.
  
• It occurred to me just now that I don't remember anything about the mercenary camps so hopefully they show the map in the showmatches to see how that is set up (which I assume will be played before this goes live).

The Butcher

• (Q) – Hamstring—Deal damage and slow enemies in the long area.
  
• (W) – Butcher’s Brand—Damage an enemy and mark them. Your Basic Attacks against the marked target heal you for 75% of the damage dealt. This amount is doubled against Heroes.
  
• (E) – Ruthless Onslaught—Slowly charge an enemy hero from far away to close the gap/start the fight
  
• (R1) – Lamb to the Slaughter—Raise a pole at the target area, and attach the nearest enemy Hero to that pole. If they walk too far away from the pole, it will pull them back to the area. (Even if they blink out of the area with Zeratul, or jump out with Muradin, they are still pulled back).
  
• (R2) Furnace Blast—After a 3 second delay, a blast of fire centered on the Butcher goes off, dealing massive damage to nearby enemies. Can be used while charging with Ruthless Onslaught.

Heyoka Notes

I played a few games with him last week (along with Johanna) and this was my takeaway in tldr form. We had two hours to play and during that time I did interviews so I didn't play him exhaustively but came away with a positive opinion.

• Melee assassin, felt unusually weak in terms of raw health pool but the Butcher's Brand talent made up for it.
  
• At least for me (and most of the people I talked to) he is way more fun than Johanna (though I realize they fill different roles). I suspect he will see some competitive play but will need specific lineups.
  
• His talent is a "mini-quest" ability where you pick up blood drops from minions and other heroes, and it increases his attack damage (up to 25 stacks which can increase up to 35 with a talent). These are lost on death.
  
• Most of the good talents were things like increasing the range or area of the Q and W, one of them increased the Butcher's Brand heal to 100% damage dealt which is pretty beefy against other heroes. I didn't take exact notes on these because I'd imagine they will shift a lot between what I played and release.
  
• The second Heroic (Furnace Blast) did so little damage that it felt terrible, but Lamb to the Slaughter is awesome. It's essentially a single target Puck ultimate, and the level 20 upgrade makes it hit all heroes in the area which turns it into a real Puck ult.