Through the years, many Heroes from Sanctuary have arrived at the Nexus. Some of them fight for the High Heavens, others for the Burning Hells. And among angels and demons, the Nephalem, descendants of them both, fight for humanity. All the Nephalem classes from Diablo III are represented in Heroes of the Storm through Kharazim, Valla, Johanna, Nazeebo, Sonya, Li-Ming, and Xul. However, adapting these characters from their original game isn’t an easy task. Characters from the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Overwatch franchises usually have limited skillsets, so it’s easier to restrict them by the MOBA rules, but that’s not the case of Diablo where each class has over 20 customizable active abilities. How could we portray some of them differently?

The Wizard: Delsere

Disintegrate, one of Li-Ming heroic abilities, is one of the most emblematic Wizard skills from Diablo III, but it’s not the only one. We’ll base this reimagined archetype in Slow Time, another famous wizard tool. It creates a bubble that manipulates time in different ways: slows proyectiles, reduces enemy movement speed, increases ally attack speed, and even stuns enemies coming into or out of the bubble. Those many functionalities could be customized through talents, so it would be a perfect match for Heroes of the Storm.

With Slow Time as the core ability, Wizard could be turned into a support character instead of being another ranged assassin. Assuming this role for our new spellcaster, other basic skills the hero could use are Familiar and Diamond Skin. The first one summons a companion, similar to Li Li’s cloud serpent. In this case, the Familiar would increase wearer damage, regenerate their mana, or slow enemies. Diamond Skin would shield the target, absorbing a percentage of their life. Both these skills are limited to self-casting in Diablo III, but would be usable on allies in their MOBA version.

The heroic abilities would be Frost Nova and Hydra. The first one would create an area in which enemies are rooted, increasing the damage they take for a short time. Hydra summons an intargetable magic version of the mythological creature which attacks the closest enemies.

In Diablo, the item set that empowers Slow Time is Delsere’s Magnum Opus, so it would be a great appearance for the new Hero. It would identify the character as the set maker himself, a fellow student of Li-Ming at the Sanctum.

The Monk: Uliana

Kharazim portrays the concept behind the monk class very well: a high mobility character being able to heal and protect their allies. However, all classes in Diablo need to be able to fight for themselves too. So, even if the monks can heal, they’re not healers as we understand them in Heroes of the Storm.

My proposal for the monk is a character who deals sustained area of effect damage. The core ability would be Sweeping Wind, a skill that creates an area surrounding the monk that deals damage and even creates little tornados. If our monk can’t get close enough to activate their Wind, they can use Wave of Light—or more specifically, Pillar of the Ancients—to hit enemies from a wider range.

If the monk is intended to get to the enemy team, they’ll need some defensive tools, and that’s where Mantra comes into play. There are four mantras in Diablo III, so we could turn them into talents, as Kharazim’s passive at level 1. The mantras are: Salvation, Retribution, Healing, and Conviction. With them, the new monk would absorb (and thus, heal) damage, avoid damage, increase damage dealt or increase damage received by enemies (so teammates can also hit them harder).

Everybody deserves a second chance, so if the monk is dying as much as your average QM Butcher, Epiphany would be the right heroic ability choice. The received damage gets reduced by a 50% for a few seconds, letting the monk live longer to defeat her enemies or flee. The second heroic would be much more offensive: Tempest Rush. It increases the monk’s movement speed and deals damage to the enemies in a melee range.

There’s an item set in Diablo that empowers Wave of Light: the Monkey King's Garb. A monk that could embody our design is Uliana, whose name takes another monk set, the Uliana’s Stratagem.

The Barbarian: Worusk

As we did with the monk and wizard, our new barbarian will have a different role than the one we currently have, Sonya. The barbarians are tough people, but the best defense is a good offense, so we’ll make them squishier but more dangerous.

The first tool in the kit would be Weapon Throw because you can do more than just wield weapons. This ability would allow the barbarian to poke and keep the distance while he tries to find the best timing to go in. When the distance is ready to be closed, Furious Charge is the correct option. However, once the barbarian uses this ability, the only way out is through a pile of corpses, as there won’t be any defensive tools.

To take down their enemies, the barbarian has Cleave, a stronger version of their basic attacks to have a sweet damage burst. If this damage output isn’t enough, the barbarian can use one of his heroic abilities: Avalanche or Call of the Ancients. The first one would have a low cooldown to deal area damage and zone the target’s allies so they can’t approach their teammate. The second would summon three ancient barbarians to help our Nephalem and multiply the damage received by the target.

Worusk, the Immortal King, could be our chosen barbarian. As the Diablo lore says, “Worusk struck his enemies so hard his hands would have broken had they not been protected.” The set named after him empowers Call of the Ancients, so it would be a perfect match.