Overwatch’s Zarya comes to Heroes of the Storm

Blizzard’s online battle arena game, Heroes of the Storm, is getting another Overwatch character, Zarya. She’ll join fellow Overwatch member Tracer as part of the Machines of War event for Heroes of the Storm, which is primarily a StarCraft-themed content update.

Announced at Gamescom today, Zarya will be a ranged warrior class character in Heroes of the Storm, and Blizzard’s "bringing her over almost entirely intact" from Overwatch in terms of how she plays in the shooter.

Heroes of the Storm’s Machines of War update will also introduce another playable character, Protoss Tal'darim highlord Alarak, a melee assassin class character. You can see Zarya and Alarak in action in the video below.

Machines of War will also introduce two new StarCraft-themed Battlegrounds to Heroes of the Storm: Braxis Holdout and Warhead Junction. Braxis Holdout is set on a Dominion-controlled planet that served as a weaponized Zerg testing facility. The map will feature beacons that, once controlled, will unleash a swarm of Zerg at the enemy’s base. Warhead Junction will feature nuclear warheads throughout the map. When collected and safely transported to your nuke, teams can launch nuclear strikes against their foes.

Blizzard will also release a batch new skins with Machines of War. These include the legendary Queen of Ghosts skin for Kerrigan, a Mutalisk-themed skin for The Butcher, Raider Rexxar and Thunder Guard Zarya.

Machines of War is playable at Gamescom this week. For another look at Heroes of the Storm’s next big update, check out the video below.