Blizzard has finally added Imperius, the archangel of valor from Diablo III to the large roster of MOBA Heroes of the Storm. Normally, this would be seen as a standard and exciting addition to the game. Unfortunately, this announcement feels a bit less impactful and exciting now that we know Blizzard will be slowing down development on Heroes of the Storm.

We first learned about Blizzard's plans to scale back development on the game back in December. According to Kotaku, Blizzard is aiming to cut cost and release more games; as a result, they have been shifting developers away from Heroes of the Storm, the least popular title within their current lineup, to other projects. Blizzard then made a public announcement about the matter on December 13 and tried to lighten the blow by stating that great projects like World of Warcraft and Overwatch have come out of shakeups like this:

"Over the past several years, the work of evaluating our development processes and making hard decisions has led to new games and other products that we’re proud of. We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history. We’re also at a point where we need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects.

As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we’re excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they’ll bring to those projects. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make tough choices like this. Games like Diablo II, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Overwatch, and more would not exist had we not made similar decisions in the past."

Still, support for Heroes of the Storm hasn't been completely cut off. The game will still be receiving new updates and heroes like Imperius, just at a slower rate than before. The biggest aspect of Heroes of the Storm that was impacted by this decision was its eSports scene as both the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm will not be returning in 2019.

As for Imperius himself, the Diablo III character seems like a very brutal and fun one to use. His abilities favor single target damage and allow players to buff themselves and debuff enemies before going in for the kill. That being said, he is weak to enemies who can move fast and kite him like Tracer and Orphea.

You can check out a full gameplay breakdown video for Imperius below. While development may be slowing down and the eSports scene for the game has been dismantled, Heroes of the Storm still has a hefty and passionate player base and is currently available on PC.