Another BlizzCon is on the books, and despite there not being any huge announcements, BlizzCon 2016 was loaded with fun reveals across all Blizzard's major franchises.
Here's a breakdown of the biggest moments of the convention, from the confirmation of Overwatch's most anticipated new character to a big throwback marking Diabo's 20th anniversary to some truly impressive cosplay.
After a months-long build up, Blizzard finally announced Sombra as the newest character to join Overwatch. The reaction during BlizzCon's opening ceremony was deafening as she hacked into the presentation, immediately bursting with personality and complexity like the rest of Overwatch's colorful cast of characters.
New gameplay showed off all of Sombra's abilities, which -- appropriately -- lean into her hacker skillset. Luckily, she lived up to our high expectations after all that hype. Check out our impressions from 15 minutes with Sombra:
Itching for that vanilla Diablo experience? Fortunately, you're going to get just that in the upcoming Darkening of Tristom Diablo 3 anniversary patch. The area features the four main bosses from the first game, the original music, and graphics filters to make Diablo III look like the original, with the dungeon being 16 levels deep, and player character movement again limited to eight directions.
It's an exciting move for Diablo 3, and one that was the talk of BlizzCon. The original Diablo experience will be playable in PTR starting this week.
Varian Wrynn and Ragnaros will soon be playable in Heroes of the Storm! Varian will be the game's first multi-class hero, able to fight as a shield-wielding tank or a deadly assassin based on the player's choices. And of course Ragnaros's addition offers a fun twist on the World of Warcraft boss, making him a playable character for the first time.
Heroes of the Storm players won't need to wait long to get their hands on these two new character, with Varian coming to PTR this week and then officially during the week of November 15, and Ragnaros being introduced to the game in December.
Hearthstone's new expansion is the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, but that's not even the most exciting news about the latest addition to the game. Instead, the talk of BlizzCon was Gadgetzan's addition of tri-class cards, which allow specific cards to work for multiple classes.
This fourth Hearthstone expansion adds 132 new cards and will debut in early December. In keeping with the theme, it features three city factions: The Grimy Goons for Hunters, Paladins, and Warriors, the Kabal for Mages, Priests, and Warlocks, and the Jade Lotus for Druids, Rogues, and Shamans.
Blizzard got a jump on the competitive side of Overwatch by announcing an Overwatch League for pro-level competitions. The developer is treating the league like a professional sports league, with players eligible for contracts, including minimum guaranteed salaries as well as benefits. The inaugural season will begin in 2017, and Blizzard will host a combine for players to join professional teams. The general consensus was it's a smart move for the company, especially given the rise of esports in recent years.
Warcraft cosplay was all over BlizzCon, with a particularly impressive orc taking top prize at BlizzCon's annual cosplay contest. Check out a video roundup of all the best Warcraft cosplay we found:
And click through our photo gallery of all the best cosplay at BlizzCon 2016 below:
Despite a recent leak, the announcement of Diablo 3's addition of the Necromancer class was met with huge cheers in BlizzCon's opening ceremony. We enjoyed our hands-on time with the new character, but fans who got a chance to play the new addition during BlizzCon were a bit more divided. The Necromancers will make their debut in 2017's "Rise of the Necromancer" character pack.
While we learned that the final set of Nova missions will release for Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void on November 22nd and that Alexi Stukov is the next co-op commander, the most interesting and surprising Starcraft news out of BlizzCon is that Blizzard is partnering with Google's DeepMind project to test how AI responds to the real-time strategy game. The goal of the initiative is not only to help improve Starcraft, but also make leaps in AI research and development.
There weren't any major World of Warcraft announcements at BlizzCon, but players did get a great tease of what's coming in patches down the line. Patch 7.2 will bring a brand-new raid called the Tomb of Sargeras, as well as the addition of flying around the Broken Isles. We also learned that Patch 7.3 is going to send players to Argus, the long-awaited Draenei homeworld.
Before both of those, though, WoW players can expect Legion Patch 7.1.5., which brings back Brawler's Guild, featuring new bosses and a new currency. The patch is also adding "micro-holidays" which will provide fun diversions from the core game, as well as class updates that increase talent diversity, fine tune secondary stats, and add class-specific utilities.
Overwatch cosplay was larger than life at the first BlizzCon after the game's launch, with cosplayers coming in massive costumes that towered over convention-goers. Here's a video roundup of all the incredible huge Overwatch cosplay we found:
Check out an even closer look at this particularly impressive Reinhardt cosplay:
What was your favorite moment of BlizzCon 2016? Let us know in the comments below!
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
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