Kerrigan

Sarah Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, is a Melee Assassin Hero from the StarCraft universe. Once a Terran Ghost with formidable psionic abilities, Sarah Kerrigan was betrayed by her allies and transformed by the zerg into the Queen of Blades. Now freed of the dark one's corruption, Kerrigan faces a threat that could destroy the galaxy itself.

Kerrigan is a combo Assassin who goes all in, diving into the enemy team.

Background
discovered the strength of her latent psionic gift as a young girl. An innocent flash of childish anger at her parents resulted in massive cerebral hemorrhaging and a horrific death for her mother. Her father would only repeat one thing over and over again in the ensuing years: “I saw her head come apart.” This gruesome event alerted the to her powers, and she quickly became the focus of the fledgling  program. Because she had reached unheard-of scores on psi-evaluation tests, her abilities elicited a complete readjustment of the scoring system so that she could be properly measured. The remnants of her humanity were stripped from her, and Kerrigan was designated Ghost Number 24601.

Following her emergence from the ghost program, she became an unstoppable assassin for the corrupt Confederate government. It was her assassination of the independent senator that brought her to the attention of his ambitious son,. At first wishing to extract revenge from Kerrigan for his father’s murder, Arcturus soon realized that she was much more useful as a weapon against the Confederacy. After rescuing her from a clandestine experimental facility, he removed her neural inhibitor and used her restored memories to build righteous anger against the government that had abused her. Kerrigan became Mengsk's second-in-command.

She was running a mission on when she first came across one-time Confederate marshal Jim Raynor, a new recruit to the Sons of Korhal. He disapproved of her lethal dealings with the Confederacy, but the conflict between the two soon grew into mutual respect, admiration, and even attraction. Kerrigan and Raynor ran several secret missions together before Mengsk’s revolutionary movement brought them to Tarsonis. Even Kerrigan’s jaded sensibilities were shocked when she learned what Arcturus had planned for the Confederate capital world: the placement of psi emitters to lure the zerg to one of the most densely populated planets in the sector. It would result in the death of almost every living thing on Tarsonis. Voicing her opposition, she nonetheless set about loyally fulfilling her mission to protect the hive clusters from a mysterious new alien enemy, the protoss. Mengsk would take advantage of that loyalty, abandoning her to die on Tarsonis when the mission was complete. He couldn’t run the risk of having a powerful weapon like Kerrigan running loose in the shadow of his new government, the, and put her down like an unruly animal.

Little did Arcturus Mengsk suspect that he had just succeeded in arming the zerg against him. The zerg sensed Kerrigan’s formidable psionic powers and desired to adapt this new weapon for the Swarm. Bringing all of the evolutionary strength of its genetic skill to bear upon the one-time ghost, the Overmind transformed Sarah Kerrigan into an unstoppable combination of psychic ability and biological deadliness: the Queen of Blades was born.

Not wanting to hamper Kerrigan’s intellectual and strategic brilliance, the Overmind left her a degree of individual will that differed from its cerebrates. It was this freedom that allowed her ambitions to rise, and before long, the Queen of Blades conquered her cerebrate kin and took charge of the Swarm when the Overmind was slain. However, she was forced to fight a civil war with the Overmind's remaining cerebrates who sought to make a new Overmind, which was further complicated by the arrival of the, who were able to seize control of the second Overmind and the renegade Swarm. Kerrigan rallied the factions of the sector together against the UED while using her consort to manipulate events, including figures such as Raynor, Mengsk, Zeratul, and Fenix, but when the time was right she betrayed them, killing her former allies. After the UED was repelled from and the Overmind killed, the forces of the sector attempted a final push to destroy Kerrigan. It failed. Yet after destroying the remnants of the UED, Kerrigan held her broods back, sensing a greater evil on the horizon, and a shadowing presence lingered on the edges of her thoughts, connected to the mysterious disappearance of Duran...

Four years later, Kerrigan unleashed her Swarms on the Terran Dominion, seeing a relic named the made by the ancient. However Raynor, who still thought that his old lover was within the mindless monster, assembled the Keystone himself and launched a joint assault on Char with Arcturus's son. They used that same Keystone on her, purifying her of most of her zerg mutagen, and reverting her back to her human form, without the influence of the zerg. Raynor fled with Kerrigan, but was soon captured by Dominion forces, and Mengsk reported him executed. Wanting revenge and knowing there could be no peace without Mengsk, Kerrigan returned to the Swarm, reforming it from its shattered state with her deinfestation, and reinfesting herself as a. She then found and slew Duran, who was breeding in service of a xel'naga named, and slew his physical form, knowing Amon had returned and she would need to face him, but would face Mengsk first. She discovered and rescued Raynor, and after some convincing that she was not the same murderess, the two assaulted Mengsk's capital of Korhal, killing him and ending his schemes.

Yet Kerrigan's true enemy, Amon, had awoken and a year later released his forces on the universe. Kerrigan attempted to reach the central xel'naga temple of, but her broods were ravaged by Amon's forces. She recieved aid from Artanis, who despite his hatred for her, the two made it into the center of the temple, only to find the xel'naga dead and a trap sprung for them. The two escaped, but Kerrigan's swarms were ravaged. Nonetheless Artanis was successful at banishing Amon to the

Two years later, Kerrigan received a benevolent call coming from the Void portal in Ulnar, and rallied Raynor and Artanis to help her finish Amon once and for all. They plunged into the Void, slaying Duran permanently and releasing the xel'naga, who gave his essence to allow Kerrigan to become a xel'naga. Kerrigan gifted Zagara leadership of the Swarm, as well as knowledge of how to recover the sector from its devastated state. She then faced down and destroyed Amon, ending a timeless scheme of manipulation and destruction.

Kerrigan vanished upon the defeat of Amon, but a silhouette of her was seen by Raynor in a bar, before he vanished with her as he walked into a bright light, never to be seen again.

Gameplay
Kerrigan is a Melee Assassin that utilizes a devestating combo of Primal Grasp and Impaling Blades to Stun and damage groups of enemies. Assimilation allows Kerrigan to dive deep into team fights and quickly regenerate Health in the form of shields through her own damage output.

One of Kerrigan's greatest strenghts is her ability to roam the map in search of ganks. Impaling Blades does not only stun all enemies it strikes, but also deals a significant amount of AoE damage to them. There is a noticeable delay between when the ability is cast and when it will actually trigger, making Impaling Blades relatively difficult to land. This is why Impaling Blades should always (for the most part) be used in conjunction with Primal Grasp, as Primal Grasp will pull enemies into Impaling Blades, making it almost impossible to avoid. Newer Kerrigan players are strongly encouraged to spend time practicing her Primal Grasp/Impaling Blades combo in Training; as without it, Kerrigan loses almost everything that makes her such a valuable asset to her team.

Strengths

 * Excellent burst damage and crowd control
 * Strong inititaition by means of Ravage
 * Excels at ganking
 * Deceptively tanky due to Assimilation

Weaknesses

 * Incredibly vulnerable to crowd control
 * Very reliant on ability cooldowns
 * Low sustained damage
 * High skill cap/learning curve
 * No means of escape

Abilities

 * See Data page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Development
According to Kent-Erik Hagman: "With Kerrigan, we really wanted to capture the powerful force she projects. She's a character who isn't afraid to do her own dirty work. That’s something we felt Heart of the Swarm portrayed quite well. We wanted to capture that "in your face" mentality. So you see abilities like Ravage, which can really get her in the middle of a teamfight, and Sweeping Grasp, which pulls her enemies in close. The art team also really wanted to stress her wings and spiky nature, so Crushing Grip from Heart of the Swarm became Impaling Blades in Heroes to really play up her spikes. Finally, her whole kit is topped off with Maelstrom, which really synergizes with her entire playstyle."

Trivia

 * Kerrigan first appeared in StarCraft (March 1998).
 * Kerrigan is voiced by Glynnis Talken Campbell in StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War, and Tricia Helfer in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void, and Vanessa Marshall in Heroes of the Storm.
 * Kerrigan was one of the 18 heroes revealed at BlizzCon 2013.
 * Kerrigan's form was under consideration to be a separate hero in the game. It has since been made an optional tint for Nova.
 * Ravage is taken from Kerrigan's "Leaping Strike" ability in Heart of the Swarm.
 * Summon Ultralisk spawns an, heavily armored living melee tanks used by the Swarm.
 * Malestorm is likely a reference to Kerrigan's "Apocalypse" ability from Heart of the Swarm.
 * Kerrigan's level 1 talent "Fury of the Swarm" is likely a reference to her "Fury" ability from Heart of the Swarm and Co-op Missions. "" was also the name of a mission in StarCraft: Brood War.
 * The Level 7 talent "Queen of Blades" is a reference to Kerrigan's title of the "Queen of Blades."
 * The level 13 talent "Chrysalis" is a reference to the that Kerrigan was put within as she was infested by the zerg.
 * Formerly the cut talent "Impaling Blades" at Level 7 allowed Kerrigan to spawn two . This was later removed.
 * The level 20 talent Torrasque is a reference to the strain of ultralisk named the . After being slain, this advanced strain could be reincarnated to be thrown back at its enemies.