heroes Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta Patch Notes - March 24

[Odinn 95]

 

Heroes of the Storm received a significant patch to its Closed Beta client today, adding the Tomb of the Spider Queen battleground, Sylvanas Windrunner as a new Hero, Team League, interface changes, art updates, balance improvements, and more!

 

Here are the complete patch notes:

 

 

We’ve brought Heroes of the Storm offline for a period of extended maintenance today in order to bring you a brand new Closed Beta patch! Maintenance is ongoing, but don't worry; we'll let you know just as soon as the Nexus is back online. In the meantime, you can check out the complete patch notes below.

GENERAL

 

Performance

• All players’ default Graphic Settings will be re-detected and reset following today’s patch, which may help to address a few performance issues that some players have been experiencing.
• Smaller physical memory caps have been introduced for both the 32-bit and 64-bit clients with today’s update, which should mitigate some memory-related issues and make the 64-bit client a more trusted option, even for PCs with less physical RAM.
• The “Network Spikes” indicator has been removed from the performance overlay (Ctrl + Alt + F).
  • Network Spikes tracked a number of different metrics at once. While it could indicate performance issues, the number of spikes displayed could also be affected by issues with the local player’s computer, among other things.
  • In order to avoid further confusion, the Network Spikes indicator has been removed, and will be replaced by additional performance metrics in a future update, which should help players better identify more common performance issues.
• For more information on some of these changes, please read the Performance section of our recent blog on Community Conversations.

NEW BATTLEGROUND

 

 

Tomb of the Spider Queen, a brand new 3-lane Battleground, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play in all game modes!

• Spider Minions and enemy Heroes will drop magical Gems of Power upon death.
  • Collect these Gems and turn them in to the Spider Queen’s Altars, which can be found in-between lanes at the center of the Battleground.
• Once either team has relinquished enough Gems to the Spider Queen, her Webweavers will descend and travel down each lane to siege the opposing team on three fronts.
  • Each team can summon Webweavers by turning in 50 Gems. The number of required Gems will increase by 5 for each subsequent wave.
  • Be sure to turn in Gems promptly! Gems collected by a player will be dropped upon death, but can be picked up by allied Heroes.

NEW HERO

 

Sylvanas Windrunner has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of her Abilities, and then check her out in Try Me Mode using the in-game Shop.

• Basic Abilities
  • Withering Fire (Q)
    • Shoot the closest enemy for 25 damage, preferring Heroes. Stores 5 charges.
  • Shadow Dagger (W)
    • Deals 10 damage, and an additional 40 damage over 2 seconds, to target unit. This effect spreads to nearby units.
  • Haunting Wave (E)
    • Send forth a wave of banshees, dealing 30 damage to all targets. Reactivate to teleport to the banshees’ location.
• Trait
  • Black Arrows
    • Basic Attacks and Abilities stun Minions, Mercenaries, and Towers.
• Heroic Abilities
  • Wailing Arrow ®
    • Shoot an arrow that explodes for 200 damage and silences enemies for 2.5 seconds. Can be reactivated to detonate the arrow early.
  • Possession ®
    • Force an enemy Minion to fight for you. It gains 20% Attack Damage and Health.

USER INTERFACE

 

General

• Significantly reduced the likelihood that players will receive the same Battleground multiple times in a row when playing in matchmaking game modes.
• Requesting to join a party through a party member who is not the leader will now send a notification to that player. Additionally, the party leader will see which party member a join request was made through.

 

Progression System

• Hero Progression
  • The maximum Hero Level has been increased from 10 to 20.
  • New rewards have been added:
    • 1250 Gold at Hero Level 15
    • 2500 Gold at Hero Level 20
• Player Progression
  • New rewards have been added:
    • 7 Day Stimpack at Player Level 10
    • 2,000 Gold at Player Levels 20, 25, 30, 35, 40
    • Team League unlocked at Player Level 40
    • Players who had already reached or surpassed the level requirement for these rewards prior to today’s patch will also receive them upon logging in to Heroes of the Storm.

 

Team League

• Initial implementation for Team League, the second mode of Ranked play in Heroes of the Storm, has been added to the game! Read on for an overview of the most competitive game mode in Heroes of the Storm, and then check out our recent Team League blog post for a much more in-depth look at the feature.
  • With Team League, players can create named teams with dedicated rosters in order to participate in ranked, competitive Heroes of the Storm matches as a group against other teams of similar skill.
  • In order to participate in Team League, players must meet the following requirements:
    • Reach Level 40.
    • Own 10 or more Heroes (weekly free rotation Heroes do not count toward this requirement.)
    • Create or join a team that has at least five members logged in and ready to play in Team League.
• Team Creation and Management
  • Navigate to the Team League Play Screen, click an empty team slot, enter a team name, and pay 1,000 Gold to create a new team.
    • Players may participate in up to 3 teams at any given time.
  • The Team League Screen will display all teams that a player is currently participating in, as well as each team’s current Rank, team name, and Win/Loss record.
    • Using the “Roster” button, a team owner may invite up to 8 other players to join the team’s roster.
    • In order to play Team League matches, five members from the same team must enter the queue together.
      • Use the “Invite” dropdown to invite other players from the roster to queue for Team League matches.
  • A “Ranked Teams” section has been added to the Player Profile.
    • Click on any team to view additional stats for each player on the roster, such as wins, losses, highest rank achieved, and favorite hero.
    • The team owner can also use this screen to add or remove members, as well as disband the team.
• Draft Mode
  • Team League matches will use the “First Come, First Served” version of Draft Mode, rather than Hero League’s “Predetermined” Draft Mode.
    • With First Come, First Served Draft Mode, players on each team are free to select Heroes in any order when it is their team’s turn to pick.
    • A coin toss will still precede the draft phase, and teams will still alternate picking Heroes in 1-2-2-2-2-1 format.

 

Menu Navigation

• General
  • The menu navigation bar has been moved to the top of the screen.
  • The Party Panel has been reworked and once again displays Player Portraits for all party members.
  • Icons have been added next to the Party Panel, which more clearly indicate the current status of Stimpack and XP Bonuses.
  • Players who receive penalties for leaving Hero League and Quick Match games will now see their flagged status indicated to them in the menu navigation bar at the top of the screen.
    • Additionally, party members will now be better notified when they are partied with someone who has been flagged to receive penalties for leaving games early.
• Home Screen
  • “Go to Shop” and “Try Hero” buttons have been added, which can be used to view information about the newest Hero or quickly start a game in Try Me Mode with that Hero directly from the Home Screen.
• Shop Screen
  • Shop navigation tabs have been moved to the top of the screen.
  • A “Featured” tab has been added, which will display items that are new to the Shop, or are currently on sale.
• Play Screen
  • The “Change Mode” button has been removed.
  • Game Mode buttons can now be found along the top edge of the Play Screen, and can be clicked to quickly switch among Game Modes.
  • Hero League
    • Heroes are now displayed on the Hero League Screen based on most wins, rather than most games played with those Heroes.
      • Click any Hero listed on the Hero League Screen to view it in the Player Profile.
  • Custom Games
    • The “Choose Map” button has been removed and Battlegrounds can now be selected directly from the Custom Games Screen.
    • A “Game Privacy” dropdown has been added to custom game lobbies. When a custom game is set to private, that game will not be recorded in players’ match histories.
• End of Game Score Screens
  • The Rank, Quests, and Rewards tabs have been removed and incorporated into the Summary tab.
  • Summary
    • Player Level, Hero Level, and Rank progress bars have been visually reworked and reorganized on the Summary tab.
    • Daily Quest and progression rewards earned from the previous match are now displayed along the right edge of the Summary tab.
    • Hover the mouse over Daily Quest and progression rewards, as well as XP, Ranked Points, and Gold totals to display tooltips that indicate how each was earned during the previous match.
  • Stats
    • The Stats tab now mirrors the in-game TAB Screen, and includes details for Siege Damage, Hero Damage, Healing, and overall XP contribution during the previous match.

 

Ranked Play and Draft Mode

• Draft Mode Notification
  • While tabbed out of Heroes of the Storm during a ranked queue, the player will be tabbed back into the client and a notification sound will play when a match is found.
  • Additionally, players who tab out of the client after a draft begins will be notified and tabbed back in when it is their turn to pick a Hero.
• Rank and Point Changes
  • The number of points earned from a ranked match will now vary more broadly based on skill difference between teams.
  • As mentioned in the Menu Navigation section above, ranks, rank changes, and ranked points earned during the previous match are now listed on the end of game Summary screen.

 

Hero Select

• Click the currently selected Hero’s 3D model to bring up Hero Select.
  • Filter buttons have been added which can be used to display Heroes by role and game universe.
  • A search box has been added which can be used to filter Heroes by name, difficulty, and game universe.
  • Icons have been added to indicate which game universe a Hero is from when mousing over that Hero’s portrait.
• The Skins, Mounts, and Hero Info panes have been reworked.
  • The Hero Info pane has been replaced by two new buttons: Abilities and Talents.
    • The Abilities pane now lists Basic Abilities, Trait, and Heroic Abilities on a single tab.
      • Tooltips have been added which will display more detailed information about a Hero’s Abilities on mouseover.
    • The Talents pane lists all of a Hero’s Talents, much as it did previously.
  • The Skins and Mounts panes have received UI updates.
    • Each of these panes can now display many additional items.
    • Skin and Mount Variation buttons have been moved to the bottom of each pane.
  • The Skins, Mounts, Abilities, and Talents buttons have received updated art.

ART

 

General

• Many Hero Models have received minor animation and pose updates on Hero Select.

Battlegrounds

• Various Battleground assets have received additional optimization to help improve performance.
• The final Tutorial Battleground has received visual polish.

Heroes, Mounts, and Skins

• Legendary Skins
  • Mecha Tassadar has received massive updates and has been re-released as a Legendary Skin!
    • Mecha Tassadar will now, quite literally, transform into a fighter jet and fly across the battlefield while mounted.
    • What’s more, all of Mecha Tassadar’s Basic and Heroic Abilities have received brand new art, updated models, and visual effects which much more closely match the Skin’s theme.
• Skins
  • Commander Raynor has received a significant model update. Among many other things, holster logic has been addressed.
  • Wrath Sonya has donned the Helm of Wrath, and now also wields Quel'serrar and Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood.
  • Several Hero Skins have received new art for certain Abilities and Talents, which more closely match that Skin’s theme:
    • Betrayer Malfurion -- Vengeful Roots (Talent)
    • Crown Prince Arthas -- Death Coil (Q), Army of the Dead ®
    • Crypt King Tassadar -- Plasma Shield (Q)
    • Festival Li Li -- Blinding Wind (E)
    • Grunty Murky -- Slime (Q), Pufferfish (W), Spawn Egg (D), March of the Murlocs ®
    • Master Lost Vikings --  Basic Attack projectiles
• Heroes
  • Sonya’s Hero Select portrait has been updated.
  • Tychus’ head model has received visual updates.
  • Several Heroes and Skins have received improvements for their facial animations:
    • Diablo
    • Infested Tychus
    • Raynor
    • Tychus
• Hero Abilities
  • A portrait has been added that will display while The Lost Viking’s Longboat Raid ® is active.
  • Victory and taunt animations have been added to a number of summoned units.
  • The following Heroes have received new Ability icon art:
    • Raynor
    • Tassadar
    • Valla
  • The following Heroic Abilities will now apply an overlay to the affected player’s screen.
    • Anub’arak -- Web Blast ®
    • Stitches -- Gorge ®
  • Several Hero Abilities have received updated art to make them more visually interesting, and more clearly indicate their area of effect radiuses:
    • Illidan – Metamorphosis ®
    • Li Li -- Jug of 1,000 Cups ®, Water Dragon ®
    • Raynor -- Hyperion ®
  • The following Hero Abilities and Talents have received updated visual effects:
    • Arthas – Summon Sindragosa ®
    • Tassadar -- Dimensional Shift (E)
    • Rehgar -- Earthgrasp Totem (Talent)
    • Uther -- Boundless Conviction (Talent), Blessed Champion (Talent), Holy Shock (Talent), Redemption (Talent)
• Mounts
  • The Battle Beast has received additional animation polish.

 

Menu Screens

• The Home Screen has received a facelift, and is now 3D animated.
• The Hero Select screen has received completely new 3D art and visual effects!
• Additionally, the Hero League Play Screen is now 3D animated!

SHOP

 

Bundle Packs

• The Ranger-General Sylvanas Bundle Pack has been added to the in-game Shop for a limited time.

Heroes

• Sylvanas has been added to the in-game Shop!

Mounts

• The Cyber Wolf and Dire Wolf Mounts have been temporarily removed, but will return to the Shop with a future update.
• The Lunar Tiger and Magic Carpet Mounts have been added as individually purchasable items.

Price Changes

• Anub’arak’s Real-money and Gold prices have been reduced to $6.49 USD and 4,000 Gold.

Skins

• A Master Skin has been added for Sylvanas.
• The Ranger-General Sylvanas Skin has been added to the in-game Shop.
• Legendary Skins
  • Mecha Tassadar has received massive Art and Sound updates and has been re-released as the second Legendary Skin in Heroes of the Storm!
  • Head to the in-game Shop and start a Try Me Mode game with Mecha Tassadar to check out all of the changes he has received with today’s update.

SOUND

 

Heroes and Skins

• The Mecha Tassadar Skin has received entirely new voiceover and sound effects to match its transformation into a Legendary Skin!
• The Flying Monkey Brightwing Skin has received an entirely new monkey-themed voiceover set.

DESIGN AND GAMEPLAY

 

General

• Several changes have been implemented which will prevent the cancellation of Ability casts when issuing Move commands, as well as when attempting to cast several Abilities in rapid succession.
  • Additionally, these changes will result in heightened input responsiveness for most Ability casts.
• In-game XP Changes
  • The in-game leveling curve has been adjusted slightly to slow down the first 10 team levels, though the amount of XP required to reach level 20 remains the same. 

BATTLEGROUNDS

 

Blackheart’s Bay

• Doubloon Chest status bars are now segmented, and each segment represents when a Doubloon will spawn.

Dragon Shire

• Player-controlled Dragon Knights are now more resistant to disable effects.

Haunted Mines

• Grave Golem Health and damage will no longer scale after either of the following conditions have been met:
  • The Haunted Mines have been open for at least 4 minutes
  • 60 Skulls have been collected
  • This change has been made in order to prevent situations in which a team would leave a single skull in the Haunted Mines in order to gain more Golem power. 
• The power difference between Lane Golems has been reduced in situations where there is a large skull-count disparity.
• High skull-count Lane Golem Health has been slightly reduced.
• The first round of Lane Golems have had their Health reduced.

Garden of Terror

• Player-controlled Garden Terrors are now more resistant to disable effects. 
• Movement Speed reduced to equal Hero Movement Speed
• Overgrowth (W)
  • Overgrowth Health increased by 25%
  • Now receives additional Health bonuses past the 15 minute mark
  • Now deals 70 (+7 per minute) damage each tick to Minions and Mercenaries instead of 20% of their Maximum Health.  This is the same as the Structure damage.

Sky Temple

• Temple damage reduced by 10%

Mercenaries

• Mercenary initial and scaling XP has been reworked.
• Mercenary Camp tooltips now indicate which Camps can be Bribed.

Structures

• Gate, Tower, Town Hall, and Wall Health reduced by approximately 10%.

TALENTS

 

New Generic Talent: Arcane Power (Level 20)

• Activate to gain 400 mana and 15% Ability Power for 5 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
• Currently found only on Jaina

 

Blood for Blood

• This Talent has received a visual update. It should now be much easier to identify both the target and caster of Blood for Blood.

Healing Ward

• Duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds
• Heal amount reduced from 3% to 2% of max Health per second

Ice Block

• Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
• Now dims out affected Heroes’ status bars

Scouting Drone

• Now has 2 charges
• Duration reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
• Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
• Placement range increased from 3 to 4
• The number of hits required to destroy a Scouting Drone have been increased from 1 to 2.

ABATHUR

• Toxic Nest (W)
  • Envenomed Nest (Talent)
    • Damage increased from 30% to 50%
  • Prolific Dispersal (Talent)
    • Now also reduces the cooldown of Toxic Nest by 2 seconds
  • Vile Nest (Talent)
    • Slow increased from 40% to 50%
• Evolve Monstrosity ®
  • The Monstrosity now persists until it is killed.
• Ultimate Evolution ®
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 70 seconds
  • Duration reduced from 30 to 20 seconds
  • Clones now gain 20% Ability Power, 20% Basic Attack Damage, and 10% Movement Speed.

 

AZMODAN

• Globe of Annihilation (Q)
  • Taste for Blood (Talent)
    • Now has a maximum damage cap of 500

 

DIABLO

• Apocalypse ®
  • Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds
• Lightning Breath ®
  • Diablo will now cast Lightning Breath in the direction of the cursor, rather than the direction he is facing at the time of the cast.

 

E.T.C.

• Fury of the Storm (Talent) replaced with Hardened Shield (Talent)

 

FALSTAD

• Basic Attack
  • Damage increased from 34 (+10 per level) to 38 (+10 per level)
• Barrel Roll (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 14 seconds
  • Barrel Roll speed increased by approximately 50%
  • Flow Rider (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 35% to 40%
• Mighty Gust ®
  • Cost reduced from 100 to 70 Mana
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds

 

JAINA

• Arcane Power (Talent) added at Level 20
• Nexus Fury (Talent) removed
• Improved Ice Block (Talent)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
• New Talent (Level 20): Arcane Power
  • Activate to increase spell damage by 15% and restore 400 Mana for 5 seconds
• Frostbite (Trait)
  • The Chilled effect will now apply to Unstoppable units (such as the Grave Golem), as well as Structures.
• Frostbolt (Q)
  • Damage increased from 45 (+14 per level) to 50 (+15 per level)
• Blizzard (W)
  • Damage per wave increased from 40 (+15 per level) to 45 (+16 per level)
• Cone of Cold (E)
  • Damage increased from 50 (+17 per level) to 55 (+18 per level)

 

KERRIGAN

• Ultralisk ®
  • Ultralisk controls now mirror Jaina's Water Elemental.
    • Press R and click the terrain to issue a Move command.
    • Press R and click a unit to issue an Attack command on that target.

 

LI LI

• Healing Brew (Q)
  • Will no longer heal Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution Clones or Nova’s Holo Decoys
• Jug of 1,000 Cups ®
  • Will no longer heal Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution Clones or Nova’s Holo Decoys

 

MURKY

• Health Regeneration increased from 5 (+0.125 per level) to 10 (+2.4 per level)
• New Talent (Level 4): Living the Dream!
  • Grants 10% Ability Power, and an additional 1% Ability Power for every 5 seconds that Murky is alive, up to a total of 25% Ability Power. Resets upon death.
• Spawn Egg (D)
  • Murky’s Egg no longer grants experience to the enemy team or counts as half of a normal Hero Death.
  • Cooldown reduced from 20 to 15 seconds
  • Egg Health increased from 105 (+15 per level) to 110 (+30 per level)
  • Assault Egg (Talent)
    • Bonus to Egg Health reduced from 200% to 150%
• Slime (Q)
  • Slime's stacking damage now applies to Unstoppable units (such as the Grave Golem).
• Pufferfish (W)
  • Casting time reduced by 75%

 

NAZEEBO

• Gidbinn (Talent) no longer increases the duration of Voodoo Ritual
• Voodoo Ritual (Trait)
  • Specialized Toxin (Talent)
    • Damage bonus from 200% to 100%
• Plague of Toads (E)
  • Toads of Hugeness (Talent)
    • Bonus damage per hop increased from 10% to 20%
• Gargantuan ®
  • Initial damage increased from 35 (+15 per level) to 100 (+20 per level)
  • Initial health reduced from 1400 (+140 per level) to 600 (+220 per level)
  • The Gargantuan A.I. has been improved.
  • The Gargantuan no longer uses Stomp Ability automatically. Instead, Stomp can now be cast manually by pressing “R”, and has a 4.5 second cooldown.
• Ravenous Spirit ®
  • The Spirit’s area of effect  radius has been reduced by 25%.
  • Damage changed from 25 (+9 per level) to 30 (+8 per level)

 

RAYNOR

• Basic Attack
  • Damage increased from 35 (+11 per level) to 35 (+12 per level)

 

SGT. HAMMER

• Health reduced from 770 (+170 per level) to 720 (+140 per level)

 

SONYA

• Whirlwind (E)
  • Sonya can now use the following Activated Talents while Whirlwind is channeling:
    • Shot of Fury, Ferocious Healing, Nerves of Steel (formerly Stoneskin), and Ignore Pain (formerly Hardened Shield)
    • As part of this change, Stoneskin and Hardened Shield have been renamed to Nerves of Steel and Ignore Pain in order to help reflect that they are Sonya-specific versions of their Generic Talent counterparts.

 

STITCHES

• Health reduced from 1060 (+260 per level) to 1060 (+230 per level)
• Vile Gas (Trait)
  • Radius decreased by approximately 25%
  • Damage scaling decreased from +2 per level to +1.5 per level
  • Toxic Gas (Talent)
    • Radius increased from 25% to 50%
    • Damage over time effect duration reduced from 2 to 1 seconds
• Slam (W)
  • Pulverize (Talent)
    • The stun and bonus damage components of this Talent have been removed.
    • Now reduces cooldown of Slam by 2 seconds
    • Slows enemies hit by 75% for 1 second
• Gorge ®
  • Hungry Hungry Stitches (Talent)
    • Duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
    • Now removes the Movement Speed slow from Gorge
• Putrid Bile ®
  • Regenerative Bile (Talent)
    • Now increases Movement Speed by an additional 10% while Putrid Bile is active

 

TASSADAR

• Force Wall ®
  • Cost reduced from 75 to 35 Mana
  • Force Wall now forms 50% faster

 

THE LOST VIKINGS

• A Lost Vikings-specific version of the Fury of the Storm Talent has been added at Level 20.
  • Every 5 seconds, the next Basic Attack will deal an additional 10 (+4 per level) damage to the target, and 10 (+11 per level) damage to all nearby Minions and Mercenaries.  Each Viking has a separate cooldown.
• Longboat Raid ®
  • Damage reduced from 15 (+8 per level) to 15 (+7 per level)

 

THRALL

• Frostwolf Resilience (Trait)
  • Scaling heal increased from +23 per level to +30 per level
  • Mana Tide (Talent)
    • Mana restoration reduced from 20 to 15
• Chain Lightning (Q)
  • Mana cost increased from 35 to 40
  • Scaling damage increased from +15 per level to +17 per level
• Windfury (E)
  • Cost increased from 50 to 65 Mana
  • Movement Speed bonus increased from 25% to 30%
  • Wind Shear (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 7
    • Now reduces Windfury’s cooldown by 4 seconds rather than 3

 

TYCHUS

• Several of Tychus’ Generic Talents have been renamed, but their functionality has not changed:
  • Searing Attacks (Talent) has been renamed to Sizzlin’ Attacks
  • Giant Killer (Talent) has been renamed to Problem Solver

 

TYRANDE

• A significant number of Tyrande’s Talents have been rearranged.
• Shroud (Talent) removed
• Purging Mark (Talent) removed
• Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
• Focused Attack (Talent) added at Level 4
• Nexus Frenzy (Talent) added at Level 20
• Trueshot Aura (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 16
  • Basic Attack damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%
  • Attack Speed bonus removed
• Hunter’s Mark (Trait)
  • Huntress' Fury (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13
  • Mark of Mending (Talent)
    • Heal amount increased from 2% to 2.5% of the attacker’s maximum Health
• Light of Elune (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds
  • Self-healing increased from 45 (+10 per level) to 60 (+14 per level)
  • Ally healing increased from 90 (+20 per level) to 120 (+28 per level)
  • Overflowing Light (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 13
    • Heal bonus reduced from 40% to 35%
    • Health requirement for Tyrande reduced from 90% to 50%
• Sentinel (W)
  • Pierce (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4
  • Empower (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 1
• Lunar Flare (E)
  • Radius increased by 20%
  • Lunar Blaze (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7
    • Radius increase removed

 

UTHER

• Uther has received a significant Talent update.
• Burning Rage (Talent) removed
• Sprint (Talent) removed
• Block (Talent) added at Level 1
• Amplified Healing (Talent) added at Level 4
• New Talent (Level 7): Holy Fire
  • Deals 8 (+1.6 per level) damage per second to nearby enemies
• New Talent (Level 16): Benediction
  • Activate to reduce the cost of the next Basic Ability cast by 50 Mana, and its cooldown by 10 seconds.
• Basic Attack
  • Hammer of the Lightbringer (Talent)
    • Mana restored per hit increased from 5 to 8
• Eternal Devotion (Trait)
  • Holy Devotion (Talent) removed
  • The functionality of this Trait has changed significantly.
  • Uther can no longer use his Basic Attack or his Abilities while in Eternal Devotion form.
  • Instead, Uther gains a new Ability while in Eternal Devotion form:
    • Flash of Light (Q)
      • Heal an ally for 81 (+22.5 per level) Health. 1.5 second cooldown.
  • New Talent (Level 20): Redemption
    • After Eternal Devotion ends, Uther will resurrect at the location of his spirit with 50% Health. This effect has a 180 second cooldown.
• Holy Light (Q)
  • Range has been decreased by 12.5%
  • Protect the Weak (Talent) removed
  • Reach (Talent)
    • Now increases the range of Holy Light and Flash of Light by 40%
  • Blessed Champion (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 13
    • The functionality of this Talent has changed.
    • After casting Holy Light, the next Basic Attack heals nearby allied Heroes for 30% of Holy Light's healing amount.
  • Holy Shock (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13
    • In addition to its previous effects, Holy Shock now also reduces the cooldown of Holy Light by 4 seconds when it is used to deal damage.
• Holy Radiance (W)
  • Length reduced by 16%
  • New Talent (Level 4): Boundless Conviction
    • Increases the length and width by of Holy Radiance by 40%
• Hammer of Justice (E)
  • Dense Weightstone (Talent) removed
  • Rebuke (Talent) removed
  • Fist of Justice (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 1
  • New Talent (Level 7): Burden of Guilt
    • After Hammer of Justice's stun fades, the target's Movement Speed is slowed by 30% for 2 seconds.
• Divine Shield ®
  • Bulwark of Light (Talent) functionality has changed.
    • Uther no longer gains a Divine Shield when using this Talent.
    • Now increases Divine Shield’s duration by 2 seconds and reduces its cooldown by 20 seconds
• Divine Storm ®
  • Divine Hurricane (Talent)
    • Bonus to stun radius decreased from 100% to 50%

 

 

VALLA

• Battle Momentum (Talent) removed
• Hatred (Trait)
  • Hot Pursuit (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7
• Vault (E)
  • Valla is no longer Unstoppable while using Vault.

 

ZERATUL

• Singularity Spike (W)
  • Double Bombs (Talent)
    • The second bomb now deals 50% damage.
• Void Prison ®
  • Now dims out affected Heroes’ status bars

BUG FIXES

 

General

• Fixed an issue which could cause A.I. players to become unresponsive, and sit idle in base, near the end of a Custom Game.
• Resolved a bug that could cause players to have difficulty issuing movement commands to their Heroes.

Art

• The Elder Chen Skin is no longer missing a texture on the underside of its coat.
• Corrected clipping in the Master Thrall Skin’s shoulder while riding a Mount.

Battlegrounds

• Fixed a rare issue in which a Core with less than 1 Health could suddenly be destroyed without taking additional damage.
• Visual effects for Stitches' Vile Gas are now visible on Sky Temple bridges.
• The cooldown for Zagara's Creep Tumor Trait is now appropriately reset by the Clear Cooldowns button in Try Me Mode.

Heroes and Talents

• Locusts spawned by Abathur after learning the Bombard Strain Talent have had their attack speed increased so that it is consistent with normal Locusts.
• Brightwing will no longer be incorrectly teleported back to base when casting her Phase Shift Ability on a Lost Viking just as the Vikings enter their Longboat.
• Diablo will now cast Lightning Breath in the direction of the cursor, rather than the direction he is facing at the time of the cast.
• Casting E.T.C.’s Stage Dive on top of Zagara's Devouring Maw will no longer cause him to return to his original casting location.
• Casting The Hunt against a flying Hero will no longer cause Illidan to become stuck outside the playable area.
• Malfurion's Life Seed Talent will no longer allow Regrowth to benefit ally-controlled Dragon Knights or Garden Terrors.
• The cooldown for Nova's Triple Tap after learning the Fast Reload Talent will now be appropriately reset upon killing any of the Lost Vikings.
• Raynor’s feet will no longer appear to slide while using Basic Attacks after dismounting.
• Corrected an issue which caused the visual effect for Stitches’ Vile Gas Trait to persist longer than intended.
• Stitches will no longer occasionally become briefly unresponsive after casting Hook on one of Zagara's Banelings.
• Stitches’ Putrid Bile Ability is now appropriately paused, and will no longer be cut short, upon entering Zeratul’s Void Prison.
• Tassadar's Distortion Beam will now more appropriately track Chen and the Lost Vikings when they are in their Wandering Keg and Longboat Raid! forms.
• Tassadar’s Overload Talent now properly applies its range increase to subsequent Psionic Storm casts granted via the Second Strike Talent.
• The debuff effect for Tassadar's Static Charge Talent will no longer reveal cloaked unit locations.
• Thrall’s Earthquake will no longer instantly kill Zagara's Banelings.
• Tychus' Overkill Ability will no longer attempt to continue tracking targets after they enter the Haunted Mines.
• Enemies affected by Tyrande's Hunter's Mark are now properly revealed if they enter a cloaked state while marked.
• Tyrande's Trueshot Aura will no longer benefit allied Heroes that are present in their team’s Hall of Storms while she is dead.
• Zagara's Devouring Maw will no longer push Heroes through the wall created by Sonya's Arreat Crater Talent.

User Interface

• Bridges that cross over areas of water have been made more visible on the minimap.
• Corrected an issue in which the Hero Level 5 Reward could appear incomplete despite satisfying the reward’s requirements.
• Fixed an issue which could incorrectly prevent players from locking in an available Hero during Draft Mode.
• The “/who” chat command can no longer be used to message players on the opposing team during Draft Mode.
• Corrected an issue which caused Jaina’s Takedown total to appear greatly inflated on the Statistics tab in the Player Profile.

 

Tons of significant changes today! Tyrande and Uther received the most individual Hero changes, and changes to building health and objectives on some maps should help move the needle on game length slightly. What are your thoughts on today's update?

[mnime 17]

So people were complaining about Forts and Towers being weak, now they are even weaker? It's like blizzard wants the game length to be shorter than 20 minutes.

I don't like how they keep the most overpowered heroes on top of the tier all the time while weak heroes always remain weak. In the other post they mentioned that they are cautious about making major buffs to Murky, as too much could put him in a stronger state than they intend. So what they INTEND in my opinion is to buff their favorite heroes so they can see them in 99% of the games, but if they don't like a hero they INTEND to act cautious about it and avoid buffing those heroes as much as possible.

Don't worry if too much buff made Zeratul or Tassador op but be cautious about Murky and Gazlowe cause we don't like  them and we don't want them at top.

[demonardvark 556]

It comes down to a WoW patch; some changes seem really good some seem questionable. I like seeing some lower tier characters get a much needed boost (I swear abathur will be competitive one day) but there is certainly a priority on which ones they want to keep strong. The nerf to towers and forts really is questionable. It almost seems that the games will just turn into push fests. Derp around at the beginning until the lvl gimmick arrives (dragon shine, pirate booty, etc) get bonus, push a lane, profit. Already games are going a lot faster. We'll see if this is good or bad in the end but it certainly devalues many characters.

 

Also, lets talk new hero Sylvannas. I actually like her quite a bit, great ranged character. Most of her abilities can be used while running around and have great range. They also gave her a knock off of necrotic plague which is both ironic and fun to use. She is a bit lacking in raw power but her abilities short CD and dots make up for it a bit. She's really fun to play as and is pretty solid all around.