Who is Valeera Sanguinar, our Delving companion for Midnight?

After unearthing treasures in Delves throughout The War Within, Brann Bronzebeard will be hanging up his remaining hats to make way for our new Midnight companion: the Blood Elf Rogue Valeera Sanguinar. You may know her from Legion’s Rogue Order Hall or as one of the main heroes of Hearthstone. We only have a smattering of information on Midnight’s new Delves, let’s do some homework and review the story of our stealthy new ally.

Much of Valeera’s backstory is found in World of Warcraft: The Comic. Orphaned at a young age, she survived on the streets by stealing until the day she was caught. Her combat prowess showed through during her capture, and she was sold to Rehgar Earthfury in order to compete in various Arenas. Her teammates were Broll Bearmantle, a Night Elf Druid, and a human suffering from amnesia who turns out to be Stormwind’s lost king, Varian Wrynn.

The unlikely Arena team experiences series of adventures in the comics featuring crazed Naga, demon possession, and quite a few major characters from World of Warcraft’s lore. By the end, Valeera has been established as a Blood Elf with such fierce loyalty to Varian that she pledges allegiance to neither Alliance nor Horde.

Valeera’s next major role in Azeroth’s story came during Legion, when she was revealed to be a member of the Uncrowned. This secret organization of stealthy people invites Rogue players to join them in their Order Hall hangout in Dalaran’s Underbelly. Valeera assists players in obtaining one of the Rogue Artifact weapon sets, the Fangs of the Devourer. She was then seen wielding another set of Rogue Artifacts, the Kingslayers, when those weapons were sacrificed to negate the power of Sargeras’ sword in Silithus.

Our new Delve companion has mostly laid low since the end of Legion, delivering messages between prominent members of the Alliance and Horde. We do know that Valeera survived the destruction of Dalaran and her organization’s headquarters, as she can be found in a tucked-away spot in Dornogal along with some of her fellow Uncrowned compatriots.

In addition to her long presence in World of Warcraft, she is also the default Rogue hero in Hearthstone — making it fitting that in Dornogal she has played the game so masterfully that she was able to take Millhouse Manastorm for everything he was worth, including his clothes. She is also a playable character in Heroes of the Storm, adding to her reputation as cross-media representation of the Rogue class.

Valeera will indeed take on any of the three main roles that you ask of her — Damage, Healer, or Tank. Her Vampiric Reaping ability will allow her to heal players by gouging out the life force of enemies and distributing that life force as convenient orbs that can be touched to recover hit points. She’ll use Killing Spree to attack multiple baddies as a damage dealer, and her Tanking ability, Your First Mistake, sounds like a taunt-damage-over-time combo.

We’ll also be able to take advantage of Valeera’s mastery of poisons. Depending on the role you select for her, she will douse you with concoctions that will give you a boost to damage, avoidance, speed, or other useful stats.

I’ll end with some light speculation. Given how thoroughly the concept of Delves and a whole team working together was built up for The War Within, I would really like to see a new hub with Valeera’s crew driven to Delving by their own motivations.

The Delver’s Headquarters in Dornogal was filled with Brann’s associates such as Reno Jackson and Sir Finley Mrrgglton. Let’s not forget Elise Starseeker, who would have made the perfect Season 2 or 3 Delve companion had the initial plan for seasonal rotation panned out. I could see a non-descript alley door in Silvermoon leading to a shady courtyard where Garona Halforcen, Taoshi, Lord Jorach Ravenholdt, and several other characters known for their stealthy ways have gathered to seek out new poison ingredients or sharper daggers.

Perhaps Valeera’s reasons for exploring the not-quite-dungeons of the new Midnight zones could be something besides archaeological interest or Rogue stuff. It would be fascinating to see her return to her gladiatorial origins and recruit players onto a 2v2 team, then seek out powerful enemies to spar with. On the list of Midnight Delves is the Grudge Pit in Harandar — that could be an all-out brawling gauntlet.

It would also be quite interesting to see Valeera’s base of Delve operations filled with NPCs who are working together on Horde-Alliance relations. It could be a great opportunity to have some of our favorite neutral characters like Khadgar and Chen Stormstout gather in order to bring the two factions together in the face of impending shadowy doom. Perhaps Parhelion Plaza will see us attempt some sort of parley, or even an Argent Tournament-style face off between Horde and Alliance to see who can fare best against Valeera and her new sidekick.