Heroes Of The Storm Bonus XP Event Coming With Next Week's Massive Patch

Heroes of the Storm will be receiving a new character and battleground along with several cosmetic items next week. To celebrate the patch's launch, Blizzard is cranking up experience point gains for the PC and Mac MOBA starting today.

"Players who log in to the Americas region between the hours of 12:01 AM PST on March 21 and 11:59 PM PST on March 29 will receive a 25% XP boost," Blizzard announced yesterday. "The boost is only available while logged in to the game, but it will apply to all Heroes."

The XP boost also stacks with the Stimpacks sold through the in-game store to allow for even faster progression.

There's new incentive to level up, too. The patch implements new Gold rewards at higher Hero and Account levels. The rewards will be provided retroactively if you've already hit these milestones:

• 2,000 Gold at Account Levels 20, 25, 30, 35, 40
• 1,250 Gold at Hero Level 15
• 2,500 Gold at Hero Level 20

Next week's patch will also introduce Sylvanas Windrunner, first announced at BlizzCon, to the game's roster. She's a Specialist who hits enemies from afar with a stream of arrows. Her two Ultimates are an explosive arrow that silences enemies in an area and a possession ability that lets them convert enemy minions or mercenaries to their team.

The new Battleground, Tomb of the Spider Queen, is the smallest one the game has seen yet. Players must gather gems from slain enemy minions and turn them in to summon spiders that will assist in battle. Enemy heroes drop their gems when killed but, unlike the coins in Blackheart's Bay, you can't steal them for yourself.

On top of these additions, the patch introduces these cosmetic items:

Skins

• Ranger-General Sylvanas
• Master Sylvanas
• Funny Bunny Murky
• Mecha Tassadar (rework)

Mounts

• Mechanospider Mount
• Ironside Dire Wolf Mount

You can get a glimpse at all of these items in this trailer:

A new mode, Team League, lets players form teams for ranked 5v5 battles. Players can join up to three teams of up to nine players each for Team League. Each team has a separate ranking, with the best teams being able to compete in a Grandmaster League.

Heroes of the Storm is currently in closed beta. Blizzard hasn't announced the launch date for open testing yet.