The hero revealed at Gamescom 2015 is now on the HotS PTR – Kharazim, the Veradani Monk, a melee support.

His abilities are:

• [Trait] Pick Your Trait
  Choose between Transcendence, Iron Fists, and Insight from the Talent panel.
• [Q] Radiant Dash
  Mana: 30, Charge Cooldown: 12 sec.
  Jump to an ally or enemy. Enemies are immediately hit with a basic attack.
• [W] Breath of Heaven
  Mana: 60, Cooldown: 8 sec.
  Heal nearby Heroes for 108 and give them 10% MoveSpeed for 3 seconds.
• [E] Deadly Reach
  Mana: 50, Cooldown: 10 sec.
  Your next Basic Attack increases your Attack Speed and Attack Range by 100% for 2 seconds.
• [R] Seven-Sided Strike
  Mana: 77, Cooldown: 50 sec.
  Become Invulnerable and strike 7 times over 2 sec. Each strike hits the highest Health nearby Hero for 7% of their max Health.
• [R] Divine Palm
  Mana: 50, Cooldown: 60 sec.
  Protect an allied Hero from death, causing them to be healed for 500 if they take fatal damage in the next 3 sec.

To put his second heroic option into perspective, Rehgar’s “OP Full-HP Heal” ability is:

• [R] Ancestral Healing
  Mana: 80, Cooldown: 70 sec.
  After a short delay, heal an allied Hero for 600 Health.

Kharazim’s traits are:

• Level 1
  • Transcendence: Every 3rd Basic Attack heals the lowest nearby allied Hero for 40.
  • Iron Fists: Every 3rd Basic Attack deals 100% bonus damage.
  • Insight: Every 3rd Basic Attack restores 12 mana.
• Level 4
  • Foresight: Radiant Dash reveals the area around the target for 3 sec. Only one area can be revealed at a time.
  • Overtake: Basic Attacks while Deadly Reach is active increase your MoveSpeed by 30% for 2 sec.
  • Healing Ward: Place a ward on the ground that heals allies in an area for 2% of their max Health every sec. for 10 sec.
  • Protective Shield: Shield an allied Hero for 15% of their max Health for 5 sec.
• Level 7
  • Echo of Heaven: Breath of Heaven heals a 2nd time 2 sec. later for 50%.
  • Way of the Hundred Fists: Radiant Dashing to an enemy causes you to launch a volley of blows dealing 180 total damage instead of a Basic Attack.
  • Clairvoyance: Reveal an area for 10 sec. Enemies in the area are revealed for 4 sec.
  • Cleanse: Remove all stuns, roots, silences, and slows from the target and reduce the duration of their reapplication by 50% for 2 sec.
• Level 10: Seven-Sided Strike or Divine Palm
• Level 13
  • Quicksilver: Radiant Dashing to an ally gives you and the target 30% bonus MoveSpeed for 3 sec.
  • Spell Shield: Upon taking Ability Damage, reduce that damage and further Ability Damage by 50% for 3 sec. Can only trigger once every 30 sec.
  • Relentless: Reduces the duration of silences, stuns, slows, and roots against your Hero by 50%.
  • Fists of Fury: Increases Deadly Reach’s duration by 50%.
• Level 16
  • Soothing Breeze: Breath of Heaven removes silences, blinds, slows, and roots.
  • Circle of Life: Increase Breath of Heaven’s healing by 10% for each other Hero in the cast range.
  • Blinding Speed: Decreases Radiant Dash’s cooldown by 2 sec. and increases the maximum number of charges by 1.
  • Blazing Fists: Every 3rd Basic Attack reduces the cooldown of Deadly Reach by 1 sec.
• Level 20
  • Transgression: Seven-Sided Strike hits 4 additional times.
  • Peaceful Repose: Divine Palm’s cooldown is set to 5 sec. if the Hero does not die.
  • Storm Shield: Shield all nearby allied Heroes for 20% of their max Health for 3 sec.
  • Epiphany: Activate to restore 33% of your max Mana and refill 2 charges of Radiant Dash.

He currently has one skin available, Jade Dragon Kharazim. This skin, as well as a standard skin color var­i­a­tion, are shown in the screenshots below:

My initial impression of this hero is that he’s another support similar to Tyrande and Tassadar, where they’re more damage-oriented rather than support-oriented, but they’re classified as support simply due to the utility they bring to the team. However, there is one distinct difference.

Tyrande and Tassadar are generally used as damage-dealer substitutes, and most teams that carry Tyrande or Tassadar have a separate dedicated healer. The only options Tyrande and Tassadar have to heal are ei­ther very weak heal/shield abilities, or cheesy talents like Healing Ward.

On the other hand, Kharazim is much more dynamic, and can be used as a flex pick. If the player wants to use him as a utility support like Tyrande and Tassadar, that’s fine; if the player wants to turn him into a dedicated healer, the Transcendence trait actually works pretty well.

In comparison, Brightwing’s trait is Soothing Mist, which heals nearby allied Heroes for 30 every 4 seconds. Kharazim can actually heal more than Brightwing as long as he is continuously engaged in combat.

And of course, the two heroic abilities contrast very much – a damage Kharazim would take Seven-Sided Strike, which is great at ripping apart tanks (49% of your opponent’s health gone in 2 seconds during a 1v1 can be shocking and devastating), while a healing Kharazim can take Divine Palm and almost have an Ancestral Healing for an ally under certain circumstances.

Now, if Kharazim is selected as a dedicated healer, all this trait and heroic healing would be on top of the healing that Tyrande and Tassadar do. That is, Kharazim’s Breath of Heaven is like Tyrande’s Light of Elune (heal herself for 60 and an ally for 120 health) and Tassadar’s Plasma Shield (shield an ally for 200 health).

Unfortunately, because I am not a support player (I play specialists and assassins exclusively), I can’t really say with much confidence how strong Kharazim will be. However, just from theorizing with the information given, he will definitely bring a lot of different options to a team, and force the opponents to regularly check his talent selections if they want a chance at forming some counterplay.