Maintenance-moded Heroes of the Storm celebrates its tenth anniversary with an all-new skin

Tyler F.M. Edwards 2025-06-03 00:00:00

Heroes of the Storm is currently celebrating ten years of operation, and despite spending most of the last three of those years in maintenance mode, Blizzard is treating loyal players of its MOBA to (a little bit) of genuinely new content.

The anniversary patch brings with it the first entirely new skin since maintenance mode, Gear Head Thrall, which is now available for purchase via the in-game shop. Fans speculate this may have been a partially finished skin from before development ended, which would explain its low rez unique cell shaded style. The announcement post also states that Blizzard’s Classic Games team will be looking through the archives for other unfinished skins that might be able to be pushed live.

Alongside this skin, all players will freely be granted some portraits, there has been a small bug fix patch, and all heroes will be free to play until June 15th. This would be a great time to try out rarely free heroes like Qhira and Hogger – or even Mei, who has never been part of a regular free rotation.

Source: Announcement, patch notes
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