Yesterday's In Development video for Heroes of the Storm promised Valeera Sanguinar as a new hero, and a new public test realm patch has delivered. But what the video didn't outline was the massive changes coming to Rexxar and Tassadar.

The dev notes for Tassadar reveal that the entire character received a makeover that was "a long time coming" as the high Templar had been suffering from an identity crisis from the beginning.

"The new 'Distortion Beam' Basic Attack should allow you to help peel for your allies as well as secure kills that would be otherwise unobtainable. Plasma Shield has gained baseline utility that will continue to empower Basic Attackers, while also offering more diverse talents in order to better react to enemy and ally compositions. Archon has been surgically buffed and given a passive reset for Dimensional Shift which should be great news for our old-school fans as we fully expect to see a resurgence of back-line infiltration play. "

As for Rexxar, the goal was to streamline his controls and to buff up his talents, including his pet Misha. "All of Misha’s controls should now be centralized on the D button, which should make it easier overall to play the hero. While this does result in a tiny loss of control (Rexxar no longer has the ability to recall Misha to his side and to keep her in a passive state), we felt that overall this functionality was not that huge of a loss for Rexxar and was worth the gain of making his controls centered around one button instead of two. We also made Misha’s Movement Speeds during her various states more consistent so that she feels better when being commanded by Rexxar, and we’ve added some talents that should help better sell the fantasy of Rexxar and Misha working together to take down their prey."

Lunara, Li Li and Varian also gets some tweaks, with Varian getting this explanation: "These simple changes should allow Varian players to 'live the dream' and get multiple Overpower triggers more often, particularly when combined with Live by the Sword or Twin Blades of Fury. We want Overpower to allow Varian to gain a lot of value when used at just the right time, and found even the best cases of the old Talent design didn't compare to the other options on the tier. By also allowing it to increase the damage of Heroic Strike baseline, we think it will an additional vector that will make it an enticing option for all 3 builds."

The patch will be in testing through Monday, so players who favor the these characters should get some play time in to become accustomed to the changes. 

As for Valeera, we knew some of her abilities, but now we get the full slate and an explanation:

Trait

• Vanish (D)
  • Valeera vanishes from sight, becoming Stealthed and increasing her Movement Speed by 10%. For the first second, she is Unrevealable and can pass through other units.
  • Using Vanish grants Valeera an alternate set of Abilities that she can use while Stealthed.

Basic Abilities

• Sinister Strike (Q)
  • Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. If Sinister Strike hits an enemy Hero, she stops dashing immediately and the cooldown is reduced to 1 second.
  • Awards 1 Combo Point.
• Blade Flurry (W)
  • Deal damage in an area around Valeera.
  • Awards 1 Combo Point per enemy Hero hit.
• Eviscerate (E)
  • Consume all stored Combo Points to Eviscerate an enemy, dealing increased damage per Combo Point spent. Valeera can store a maximum of 3 Combo Points.

Vanish Abilities

• Ambush (Q)
  • Ambush a target, instantly dealing damage to them.
  • Awards 1 Combo Point.
• Cheap Shot (W)
  • Deal a small amount of damage to an enemy and stun them for 1.5 seconds.
  • Awards 1 Combo Point.
• Garrote (E)
  • Garrote an enemy, instantly dealing a small amount of damage to the target, as well as a larger amount of bonus damage over 7 seconds, and Silencing them for 2 seconds.
  • Awards 1 Combo Point.

Heroic Abilities

• Smoke Bomb (R)
  • Create a cloud of smoke. While in the smoke, Valeera is Unrevealable, can pass through other units, and gains 25 Armor, reducing damage taken by 25%. Valeera can continue to attack and use Abilities without being revealed. Lasts 5 seconds.
  • Using this Ability does not break Vanish.
• Cloak of Shadows (R)
  • Valeera is enveloped in a Cloak of Shadows, which immediately removes all damage over time effects from her. For 1 second, she becomes Unstoppable and gains 75 Spell Armor, reducing Ability damage taken by 75%.
  • Using this Ability does not break Vanish.

There are also plenty of other changes and bug fixes, so be sure to check out the full PTR patch notes. As with all PTR changes, nothing is actually official until it hits the live server, which will likely be next Tuesday.