heroes PTR Patch Notes: June 5

Stan · June 5, 2017

A new patch hit PTR with Malthael, a Diablo in-game event and several Hero changes. It's available for testing until June 12.

Based on community feedback, Blizzard will be enabling all 13 maps in Quick Match, vs. AI and Unranked Draft game modes! Thrall's getting a rework and Team League matchmaking will allow players to wait indefinitely until the system finds a reasonable match for their skill level. Full patch notes can be found below.

Blizzard (Source)

Heroes of the Storm PTR Notes — June 5, 2017

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just arrived to the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until June 12. During this time, we kindly request your assistance in trying out some of the new content it contains before we officially release the patch to the live version of Heroes. Just like last time, if you encounter any bugs or other issues during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.

General

Malthael’s Bargain Event

Earn epic in-game rewards in both Diablo III and Heroes just by playing Heroes of the Storm with a friend!
- Quest: Play 15 Games with friend in VS AI, QM, Ranked, and Unranked as Diablo Heroes
- Heroes of the Storm Rewards: Leoric’s Phantom Charger, 1x Epic Loot Chest
- Diablo III Rewards: Ghost Kerrigan Wings
The event begins during the week of June 12, and lasts until June 26. Click here to learn more about Malthael's Bargain.

New Hero: Malthael

Once the Aspect of Wisdom, Malthael abandoned heaven after the Worldstone’s destruction. In secret, he had resolved to end the Eternal Conflict by becoming a Reaper of Souls and eliminating everything affected by demonic corruption, including humanity.

Trait

Reaper’s Mark
- Basic Attacks afflict non-Structure targets with Reaper’s Mark for 4 seconds. Marked enemies are revealed and take damage equal to 2.5% of their maximum Health every second.

Basic Abilities

Soul Rip (Q)
- Extract the souls of nearby enemies afflicted with Reaper’s Mark, dealing damage and Healing Malthael for a portion of the damage dealt to each target hit.
- Heroic targets heal Malthael for an additional 3% of the Hero’s maximum Health.
Wraith Strike (W)
- Instantly teleport through an enemy afflicted by Reaper’s Mark, dealing damage and refreshing Reaper’s Mark.
Death Shroud (E)
- After 0.25 seconds, unleash a wave of dark mist that applies Reaper’s Mark to the enemies it hits.

Heroic Abilities

Tormented Strike (R)
- Gain 20 Armor and unleash a torrent of souls, continually applying Reaper’s Mark to enemies for 4 seconds.
Last Rites (R)
- Apply a death sentence to an enemy Hero that, after 2 seconds, deals damage equal to 50% of their missing Health.
- (!) Repeatable Quest: Enemies killed while under the effect of Last Rites permanently reduce its cooldown by 5 seconds, to a minimum of 15 seconds.

Art

General

New loading screen art, created by artist Alex Horley, has been added in celebration of Malthael’s arrival to the Nexus.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

A generic marker has been added to indicate when enemies can be killed by an ability.
- This marker will appear above low-health enemies for Greymane and Malthael when Go for the Throat or Last Rites will deal fatal damage to the target.
Tracer's Basic Attacks have received performance improvements.
Genji's Dragon Claw button art has been updated to make progress easier to read at a glance.
The following Heroes have received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent updates:
- Kerrigan
- Malfurion
- Thrall

User Interface

General

Holding SHIFT + left-clicking an Announcer, Banner, Emoji, Portrait, Spray, or Voice Line in your Collection will now create a chat link that directs other players to that item.
- If an item does not have its own page, the link will open to the relevant category in the Collection with that item's title in the search bar.

Hero Select

A “Close to Leveling” sorting option has been added to non-draft Hero Select and the Profile’s Roster tab.
- Use this sorting feature to quickly locate Heroes who require the least amount of XP in order to level-up.
- When two or more Heroes are tied, those Heroes will be further sorted by release date.

Hotkeys

Force Move
- A Force Move command has been added to the Basic Hotkeys menu.
  - When a Hero receives a Force Move command, they will move to the target point without attacking any units on the way or anything that was clicked when the command was issued.
Modifier Hotkeys
- ALT, CTRL, and SHIFT can now be set as Modifiers for Basic Hotkeys (Q, W, E, R, Attack, Move, etc.).

Mastery Taunts

New Mastery Taunts have been added, and can be unlocked on a per-Hero basis by reaching Hero Levels 30, 50, 75, and 100 with that Hero.
Click here to learn more about Mastery Taunts.

Quest Log

Hero Levels that grant multiple progression rewards will no longer take up two or more slots in the Quest Log.
Instead, hovering the cursor over that slot will now display a tooltip that communicates all rewards granted upon reaching that level.
- For example: Hovering the cursor over an upcoming Hero Level 10 reward will indicate that the player will receive 500 Gold and a Hero-Specific Loot Chest.

Ranked Play

General
- Lessened personal rank adjustments in both Hero and Team Leagues, which will allow players’ ranks to move more quickly during win or loss streaks.
Team League
- Team League matchmaking will now allow players to wait indefinitely until the system finds a reasonable match for their skill level.
- When average queue times for 2-player parties in Team League become lengthy, the leaders from additional 2-player parties attempting to enter the queue will see a warning message that they may be in for a long wait.
  - When this occurs, the party leader can choose to enter the lengthy queue if they are willing to wait, or cancel the queue to find additional party members and get a match more quickly.

Design and Gameplay

General

Cooldowns for Abilities and Talents that can be toggled on and off have been unified to 0.5 seconds across the board. While most of these Abilities and Talents already had a 0.5 second delay, there were a few outliers, which have now been updated:
- Anub'arak - Legion of Beetles (Active)
- Thrall - Spell Shield (Active)
- Murky - Never-Ending Murlocs (R)

Talents

Bolt of the Storm
- Range reduced by 20%
- New Bolt of the Storm alternatives have been added to several Heroes

Developer Comment: While we love Bolt of the Storm and the playmaking potential that it provides, we believe that the talent is too often used as an extra escape. We have also received feedback that Bolt of the Storm could have more awesome moments if its playmaking potential were more tied to offensive use cases. Our goals with these changes are twofold: to consolidate Bolt of the Storm to heroes where we think it makes for awesome gameplay moments, and second to create use cases where it is more optimal to use Bolt of the Storm to make offensive plays. We hope that these changes create more interesting moments in the late-game where heroes can shine by making risky plays to ensure victory for their team.

Battlegrounds

Map Rotation Update

Thanks for sharing your Map Rotation feedback with us! As a result of community-driven discussions, we’re making all 13 Battlegrounds available for play in Versus A.I., Quick Match, and Unranked modes.
Hero and Team League are now the only game modes that will feature a Map Rotation.
The Ranked Map Rotation has been updated to include the following:
- Hanamura
- Dragon Shire
- Tomb of the Spider Queen
- Cursed Hollow
- Infernal Shrines
- Sky Temple
- Braxis Holdout
- Blackheart’s Bay
- Battlefield of Eternity
A new Map Rotation icon has been added to the Ranked Play screen.
- Hover the cursor over the Map Rotation icon to display a list of all Battlegrounds currently available in Ranked matchmaking.
- Find the Map Rotation icon next to the Grand Master Leaderboard and Ranked Guide buttons.

Minions

Catapults
- Can now slightly overlap with one another to help prevent them from becoming stuck against one another when multiple Catapults bunch up around a Core.

Heroes

Assassin

Kerrigan

Talents

Level 20
- Bolt of the Storm (Active)
  - Removed
- New Talent – Psionic Shift (Active)
  - Activate to teleport a short distance and deal 50 damage to enemies in the area. Enemy Heroes hit give Kerrigan 300% of the damage dealt as Assimilation Shields. 70-second cooldown.

Raynor

Talents

Level 20
- Bolt of the Storm (Active)
  - Removed

Thrall

Abilities

Chain Lightning (Q)
- Cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds
- Number of bounces increased from 2 to 3
- Range of bounces decreased from 7 to 5
- Mana cost increased from 40 to 45
Feral Spirit (W)
- No longer stops upon the first enemy hero hit
- Feral Spirit travels 25% further with each enemy hero hit
Frostwolf Resilience (Trait)
- Heal amount decreased from 314 to 210

Talents

Level 1
- Block (Passive)
  - Removed
- Rabid Wolves (W)
  - Removed
- Seasoned Marksman (Active)
  - Removed
- New Talent: Echo of the Elements (Q)
  - !Quest: Kill 10 minions or heroes within 1.5 seconds of them being hit by Chain Lightning
    - Reward: Decreases the mana cost of Chain Lightning by 20
  - !Quest: Kill 20 minions or heroes within 1.5 seconds of them being hit by Chain Lightning
    - Reward: Gain an additional charge of Chain Lightning
- New Talent: Crash Lightning (Q)
  - !Quest: Hit at least 2 enemy heroes with a single cast of Chain Lightning
    - Reward: Increases bounce damage by 10 up to a maximum of 400
  - !Quest: Hit at least 2 enemy heroes, 20 times, with a single cast of Chain Lightning
    - Reward: Bounces of Chain Lightning now prioritize enemy heroes
- Rolling Thunder (Q)
  - Added functionality:
    - Increases Chain Lightning’s maximum bounces by 1
Level 4
- Ride the Lightning (Q)
  - Removed
- Spirit Journey (W)
  - Removed
- Envenom (Active)
  - Removed
- New Talent: Feral Resilience (W)
  - Each enemy hero hit by Feral Spirit grants 2 charges of Block, granting 50 physical armor. Lasts until consumed or Feral Spirit is cast again.
- New Talent: Frostwolf Pack (W)
  - !Quest: Hit 7 heroes with Feral Spirit. Progress is reset upon dying or if Feral Spirit doesn’t hit at least one enemy hero.
    - Reward: Decreases the cooldown from 12 to 6 seconds, and decreases the mana cost from 60 to 30
- Mana Tide (Trait)
  - Mana gained increased from 15 to 20
  - Added functionality:
    - When Mana Tide procs, now also reduces basic ability cooldowns by 0.5 seconds.
Level 7
- Wind Shear (E)
  - Removed
- Stone Wolves (W)
  - Removed
- New Talent: Maelstrom Weapon (E)
  - !Quest: Attack enemy heroes while Windfury’s movement speed bonus is active.
    - Reward: Increases attack damage by 1
  - !Quest: Attack 20 enemy heroes while Windfury’s movement speed bonus is active.
    - Reward: Increases the movement speed bonus of Windfury from 30% to 40%
  - !Quest: Attack 40 enemy heroes while Windfury’s movement speed bonus is active.
    - Reward: Permanently gain 15% increased movement speed.
- New Talent: Ancestral Wrath (Active)
  - Each time Frostwolf Resilience activates, Thrall gains a stack of Ancestral Wrath, up to a maximum of 8.
  - Activate to consume 8 stacks of Ancestral Wrath, stealing 15% of target hero’s maximum health over 3 seconds. Thrall heals for 150% of this amount over 3 seconds.
Level 13
- Restless Wolves (W)
  - Removed
- Giant Killer (Passive)
  - Removed
- Spell Shield (Passive)
  - Removed
- Frostwolf’s Grace (Trait)
  - Moved from Level 7
  - Healing amount increased from 100 to 150% of Feral Resilience
  - Cooldown decreased from 30 to 15 seconds
- New Talent: Spirit Shield (Passive)
  - Every 45 seconds, gain 50 Spell Armor against the next enemy ability and subsequent abilities for 1.5 seconds. Triggering Frostwolf Resilience reduces this Cooldown by 5 seconds.
Level 16
- Forked Lightning (Q)
  - Removed
- Ride the Wind (E)
  - Removed
- Blood for Blood (Active)
  - Removed
- New Talent: Thunderstorm (Q)
  - !Quest: Cast Chain Lightning on a hero. Dying or casting it on the same hero twice in a row resets progress.
    - Reward: Chain Lightning slows targets by 8%, stacking up to 40%.
  - !Quest: Reach a 40% bonus slow.
    - Reward: Chain Lightning deals 25% more damage to the primary target.
  - This quest never completes and will reset even at maximum stacks.
- New Talent: Alpha Wolf (W)
  - Increases root duration from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
  - For 3 seconds after being hit by a Feral spirit, Thrall’s basic attacks deal 3% of the targets maximum health.
Level 20
- Bolt of the Storm (Active)
  - Removed
- Worldbreaker (R)
  - Decreases Cooldown from 70 to 50 seconds
  - New Functionality:
    - No Longer travels indefinitely
    - Creates a pathing blocker for 3 seconds
- New Talent: Wind Rush (Active)
  - Activate to teleport to a target location and gain Windfury
  - 70 second CD

Developer Comment: We started looking at Thrall for a talent update as many of his talents were older generic talents, and Thrall ended up having a clear build path. Our pillar for this update was creating more talent diversity and unique ways to play. The changes to Feral Spirit add new opportunities for Thrall to make big plays, while allowing him to continue his role as a lane bully, or play with the team, depending on your playstyle. Overall, Thrall is now flush with Quest talents, and this is something we wanted to explore and are excited for your feedback.

Support

Li Li

Talents

Level 20
- Bolt of the Storm (Active)
  - Removed

Malfurion

Abilities

Moonfire (W)
- Mana cost reduced from 20 to 15
Regrowth (Q)
- Mana cost increased from 40 to 45
- Heal over time ticks reduced from 31 to 28
Twilight Dream (R)
- Passive Mana Regen functionality removed

Talents

Level 1
- Moonburn (W)
  - New functionality:
    - Your Moonfire deals 75% bonus damage to Minions
      - !Quest: Kill nearby Minions
      - Reward: For every 5 nearby lane Minions killed, increase this damage bonus by 1%. After hitting 25% additional bonus damage, the bonus damage is also applied to Mercenaries and Monsters
Level 4
- Vengeful Roots (E)
  - Entangling Roots also spawns a Treant that lasts for 10 seconds.
    - Damage increased from 64 to 70
    - Treant damage no longer gains level scaling
  - !Quest: Hit Heroes with Entangling Roots
  - Reward: Every enemy Hero hit increases the damage of the Treant by 8
- Full Moonfire (W)
  - Moved from Level 13.
  - Mana cost reduction decreased from 10 to 5
  - Radius bonus decreased from 60 to 50%
- Versatile (D)
  - Removed
Level 7
- Strangling Vines (E)
  - New functionality:
    - Heroes hit by Entangling Roots have all healing received reduced by 30% for the duration of the Root effect
- Lunar Shower (W)
  - Moved from Level 16
- Hindering Moonfire (W)
  - Moved from Level 16
- MULE (Active)
  - Removed
- Cleanse (Active)
  - Removed
Level 16
- Hardened Focus (Passive)
  - Removed
- New Talent – Ysera’s Gift (Q)
  - The heal-over-time portion of Regrowth is increased by 40% while you are above 75% Health
  - New Talent – Revitalize (D)
    - Upon casting Innervate, Malfurion gains 50 Mana and his cooldowns refresh 50% faster for 5 seconds
Level 20
- Bolt of the Storm (Passive)
  - Removed
- Nightmare has been renamed to Astral Communion (R)
  - New functionality:
    - Slow effect has been removed.
    - When activated, channel for 1 second and then instantly teleport to the target location and cast Twilight Dream. This shares a cooldown with Twilight Dream.

Warrior

Stitches

Talents

Level 20
- Bolt of the Storm (Active)
  - Removed
- Regenerative Bile (R)
  - Renamed to Potent Bile
    - New functionality:
      - Healing and Movement Speed bonuses have been removed
      - Putrid Bile duration bonus increased from 2 to 6 seconds
      - Now increases the slow effect from 35 to 45%
- Hungry Hungry Stitches (R)
  - Damage bonus has been removed.
  - Added Functionality:
    - While active, Gorge has increased range and can be repeatedly recast until the first target is expelled. Gorging a target outside of melee range will teleport Stitches to the target.
- New Talent: Cannibalize (Passive)
  - Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes heal Stitches for 5% of his maximum Health.

Collection

New Bundles – The following new Bundles and Skin Packs are available for a limited time!

Echoes of Tristram Bundle
Malthael Heroic Bundle
Grave Warden Malthael Skin Pack

New Skins

Malthael
- Spectral Malthael
- Platinum Malthael
- Toxic Malthael
- Tarnished Malthael
- Grave Warden Malthael
- Angelic Grave Warden Malthael
- Crimson Grave Warden Malthael
- Frozen Grave Warden Malthael
- Timelost Grave Warden Malthael
Li-Ming
- Tal Rasha Li-Ming
- Cobalt Tal Rasha Li-Ming
- Crimson Tal Rasha Li-Ming
Murky
- Sir Murkalot
- Amber Sir Murkalot
- Obsidian Sir Murkalot
- Scarlet Sir Murkalot
- Steel Sir Murkalot
Sylvanas
- Blood Raven Sylvanas
- Banshee Raven Sylvanas
- Jungle Raven Sylvanas
- Skeletal Raven Sylvanas
- Wild Raven Sylvanas
Tyrael
- Infernal Demonic Tyrael
Zeratul
- Unraveler Zeratul
- Ancient Unraveler Zeratul
- Golden Unraveler Zeratul
- Hollow Unraveler Zeratul
- Noxious Unraveler Zeratul

New Mounts

Golden Treasure Goblin – Can only be unlocked using Gold. Available for a limited time.
Cloud Mounts
- Happy Cloud
- Sad Cloud
- Angry Cloud
Battle Raptor Mounts – Awarded to players who achieved Platinum in Hero League or Bronze in Team League during 2017 Ranked Season 1.
- Battle Raptor
- Crimson Battle Raptor
- Deadly Battle Raptor
Epic Battle Raptor Mounts – Awarded to players who achieved Master in Hero League or Team League during 2017 Ranked Season 1.
- Epic Battle Raptor
- Epic Crimson Battle Raptor
- Epic Deadly Battle Raptor

Bug Fixes

General

Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

A.I.

Hanamura: A.I. players will no longer pace back and forth near the payload when a Stealthed enemy Hero is nearby.

Art

Diablo: Prime Evil Diablo’s model while no longer freeze in place during its victory animation.
Murky: Octo-Grab’s model will no longer persist on the target if Murky is Stopped in the same moment that the Ability is cast.
Tyrande: Trueshot Aura will now correctly display visual effects on the terrain when graphics are set to Low.

Battlegrounds

Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue in which players could be kicked for inactivity while defending the Beacons.
Cursed Hollow: A small shadow will no longer appear at the location where a new Tribute is about to spawn when graphics are set to Low.
Dragon Shire: The Dragon Knight’s Savage Charge Ability will no longer cancel Anub’arak’s Burrow Charge.
Hanamura: The Mega Enforcer will no longer leash after consuming a Hero.
Hanamura: When the player is not holding an item, the Map Mechanic Ability button tooltip now correctly explains that Hanamura-specific Abilities can be earned by defeating Mercenaries.
Hanamura: Map Mechanic Turrets can now correctly attack the Mega Enforcer and Mercenaries.
Towers of Doom: Capturing an Altar will now properly reset that player’s AFK warning timer.
Try Mode: The Complete Quests button will now properly complete Gazlowe’s Clockwerk Steam Fists Quest Talent.
Try Mode: Complete Quests will now properly grant Ragnaros’s Catching Fire Quest Talent rewards.
Try Mode: Refresh Forts will no longer cause the cooldown timer above the Healing Fountain to disappear.
Mercenaries: Captured enemy Mercenaries will no longer drop Fresh Meat stacks for The Butcher or Mineral stacks for Probius.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Basic Attacks: Splash and Cleave damage will now correctly reveal targets who are hit while inside Bushes and Vents.
DoT Effects: Illidan’s Evasion, Chen’s Elusive Brew, and Xul’s Shade Armor will no longer prevent Damage over Time effects from displaying properly in their Health bars.
DoT Effects: Enemy Health bars will now correctly display damage over time effects after being hit by Swift Strike with the Strike at the Heart Talent.
Polymorphs: Fixed several issues in which Polymorph effects could incorrectly knock Heroes out of Stealth.
Abathur: Locusts will now assist Heroes who are attacking a Mercenary Camp rather than immediately traveling to a lane.
Abathur: Can now correctly cast Symbiote on an allied Nova’s Holo Decoys.
Anub’arak: An active Cocoon will no longer be destroyed if it is moved by Abilities that block pathing, such as Tyrael’s Holy Ground or Tassadar’s Force Wall.
Azmodan: All Shall Burn will now properly cancel any active Movement commands issued to Azmodan prior to casting.
Azmodan: General of Hell will now assist Azmodan while he is attacking a Mercenary Camp rather than immediately traveling to a lane.
Diablo: Fixed an issue that could allow Shadow Charge to Stun enemies who did not collide with the terrain.
Gazlowe: Can no longer cast Deth Lazor if he has less than the required amount of Mana.
Greymane: Insatiable will no longer cause Basic Attacks to restore Mana when Inner Beast is not active.
Greymane: After learning Viciousness, Cursed Bullet will now correctly refresh Inner Beast’s duration.
Illidan: Evasion will no longer prevent damage over time effects from displaying on Illidan’s Health bar.
Kharazim: Duration bars for Echo of Heaven and Deadly Reach will now appear simultaneously if both are active at once.
Li-Ming: Wave of Force will no longer cancel Sonya’s Whirlwind animation.
Murky: Can now properly collect Regeneration Globes during Safety Bubble.
Nazeebo: The tooltips for Nazeebo’s Voodoo Ritual Trait now properly indicate that it contains a Quest.
Nazeebo: Silencing the Zombies that were created by Zombie Wall with the Dead Rush Talent will no longer prevent them from uprooting.
Ragnaros: Empower Sulfuras’s animation will no longer play without dealing damage if the attack was cancelled by issuing Movement Commands.
Stitches: Hook can no longer pull Stealthed enemy Heroes through allied Gates.
Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing the first tick of Psionic Storm to deal slightly less damage than intended.
Tassadar: After learning Prismatic Link, Basic Attacks that bounce to a secondary target will now properly reveal that enemy.
The Butcher: Minions that die near The Butcher will now always drop Fresh Meat stacks.
The Butcher: Fresh Meat earned via Hero Takedowns, and collected while piloting the Garden Terror or Dragon Knight, will now correctly increment The Butcher’s Fresh Meat stacks.
The Butcher: Insatiable Blade’s Movement Speed bonus is now properly granted when Butcher’s Brand is applied to non-Heroic targets.
Valeera: Wound Poison’s reduced Healing debuff will now correctly display a red plus symbol next to the affected Hero’s status bar rather than a purple plus overhead.
Valeera: Will no longer be revealed when entering the Haunted Mines or using the Tunnel on Towers of Doom.
Varian: The cooldown for Victory Rush will now be properly reduced when nearby Monsters are killed.

Sound

Collection: Brightwing will no longer play voiceover when navigating away from her Hero page in the Polish game client.
Genji: Dragonblade voiceover now plays correctly and will no longer be interrupted by other sound effects.

User Interface

In-game: Zul’jin’s You Want Axe? Quest Talent will not appear complete on the in-game Score Screen’s Talents tab prior to reaching 120 stacks.
In-game: Zarya’s Maximum Charge Quest Talent will not appear complete on the in-game Score Screen’s Talents tab prior to reaching 150 stacks.
Mastery Taunts: Players who have Mastery Taunts will no longer receive Desync errors when loading into a game.
Quick Cast: The Quick Cast setting for Varian’s passive Heroic Strike Trait has been removed from the Quick Cast Settings menu.

Dejo93 · June 5, 2017

Glad to see Thrall getting some much needed love :D

Also, it was about time they did something about the whole Bolt of the Storm talent for older Heroes

They should add some alternatives to make them feel more unique, and yes I do mean that Nexus frenzy on Raynor or Falstad and even Nexus Blades on the Butcher should either be removed or replaced by talents that would fit the hero's theme

One more thing though, anyone else thinking that some Sonya talents should be changed i,e, the Mercenary Lord?

It seems completely out of character for her

EDIT: Poison, Cleanse, Conjurer's Pursuit, Rewind, Hardened Shield and call M.U.L.E. might as well

Edited June 5, 2017 by Dejo93
additional info

BrightwingMain · June 5, 2017

2 minutes ago, Dejo93 said:

Glad to see Thrall getting some much needed love :D

Also, it was about time they did something about the whole Bolt of the Storm talent for older Heroes

They should add some alternatives to make them feel more unique, and yes I do mean that Nexus frenzy on Raynor or Falstad and even Nexus Blades on the Butcher should either be removed or replaced by talents that would fit the hero's theme

One more thing though, anyone else thinking that some Sonya talents should be changed i,e, the Mercenary Lord?

It seems completely out of character for her

Blizzard prioritizes talent reworks on heroes who are in need of a buff (Thrall) or a nerf (Malf) or just have too one dimensional talent tree with only 1 playable talent on every tier. Sonya is in such of a sweet spot I doubt Blizzard will touch her anytime soon. Blizzard is trying to get rid of all generic talents but it takes time and effort.

Dejo93 · June 5, 2017

5 minutes ago, BrightwingMain said:

Blizzard prioritizes talent reworks on heroes who are in need of a buff (Thrall) or a nerf (Malf) or just have too one dimensional talent tree with only 1 playable talent on every tier. Sonya is in such of a sweet spot I doubt Blizzard will touch her anytime soon. Blizzard is trying to get rid of all generic talents but it takes time and effort.

Agree with ya mate ;)

Just find that one talent to be out of place for Sonya

the other are ok :D

HenrySteinway · June 5, 2017

~~Force Move -- will it work on the map? If so, I'll bind it to RMB!~~

stupid idea, checked

Edited June 5, 2017 by HenrySteinway

Valhalen · June 5, 2017

2 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

Glad to see Thrall getting some much needed love :D

One more thing though, anyone else thinking that some Sonya talents should be changed i,e, the Mercenary Lord?

It seems completely out of character for her

That Thrall rework was insane. 400 bonus damage on Chain Lightning? Whoa. He'll be one motherfucker now. Probably on par with Artanis and Zul'jin as one of the strongest duelists.

Actually, funny you say that, but Sonya is regarded as a Mercenary killer in her flavor text (when you click her in the character select screen). But I agree, I think they should get rid of Mercenary Lord and tweak her a bit more.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Valhalen
Forgot about Zul'jin. Thanks, Xaethron

Plergoth · June 5, 2017

I'm very confused about their intentions regarding Malfurion, did they just get tired of him being so popular or how well rounded he was? All it tells me is that I can't really rely on him to be a solo Support anymore, and I'm not sure what his actual strength would be, as they haven't really emphasised anything, merely removed a lot while adding the most dubious sounding talents I've seen for a long time.

The mana regen on Twilight undeniably gave Malfurion power creep, and I understand that others were fed up of seeing him in every tourney and in ranked, but the removal of Cleanse on a healer that struggles with burst damage even before these proposed changes to his healing and mana efficiency just seems overboard.

Recent changes to other heroes were bringing other Supports back into or even UP in the meta; Malfurion isn't even the top Support regarding winrates, and his popularity was dropping slightly even though he was on the free to play rotation this past week as more and more players experiment and explore the possibilities behind Uther and find out potential comps with somebody such as Tyrande, for example.

Rolling out generic talents such as MULE and Bolt also make perfect sense, but no attempt to make Scouting Drone more hero specific, and he still has Rewind at 20, which was always out of place on the hero, while removing something like Cleanse which is picked because it's so mandatory for a solo Support pick, and because the other options on the tier simply do not compare.

These other options are perhaps the biggest sources of my doubts with the proposed changes to Malfurion. Changes so that he doesn't feel like such a necessary pick or ban at all levels of play are good, but I only see myself picking him up for being a secondary support with a Mage emphasis, similar to how I used to play Tassadar, the first Support I tried and stuck with in early HotS days, but I'd avoid the Entangling Roots talents altogether, no different to how I do now.

My reasoning here is thus: Entangling has a 14 second cooldown. Unless you were going for a specific Innervate build with the talents at 1 and 16, you'd struggle to get any value out of the level 4 and 7 talents for it otherwise, while also giving up Elune's Grace, which is an overwhelmingly popular talent pick, because, like Cleanse, the other options on the tier just aren't as useful. You would need to be using Entangling Roots, your most mana costly spell, liberally as a damage spell when you see it can land on multiple heroes rather than using it more conservatively as a follow up cc ability, to help peel or to help secure a kill on a runner, using it smartly so you don't waste such a large cooldown and perhaps more importantly, your mana, especially since Regrowth will be healing for less and cost you more.

The level 7 talent, Strangling Vines, sounded alright at first, but the 30% healing debuff only lasts as long as the actual root duration, which is 1.25 seconds long. It could last longer, but to get any sort of value out of this and the other Entangling talents, you would likely have to pick up the new level 16 talent, Revitalise, instead of Tenacious Roots.

But this all goes full circle, considering many balance problems regarding Malfurion boiled down to Entangling Roots, and now I'm looking at a sort of viable ER build that would make a double Support comp with him obnoxious after level 16.

Oh well, I guess we'll see how things pan out on the PTR.

Special mention for this PTR though!

Hero and Team League are now the only game modes that will feature a Map Rotation.

Yay!

Blackheart's Bay

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

Xaethron · June 5, 2017

28 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

Probably on par with Artanis as the strongest duelist.

False. Zul jin is the strongest duelist

Valhalen · June 5, 2017

22 minutes ago, Xaethron said:

False. Zul jin is the strongest duelist

Oh yeah, forgot about him.

Niteshadow · June 5, 2017

Is there any chance you guys can add a post for Malthael's talents as in the PTR and all the new skins? I currently don't have space for the PTR but am really exited about Unraveller Zeratul. Seeing the leaked talents confirmed would also be really nice. Thanks!

Laragon · June 5, 2017

Malf just got SMASHED with a nerf bat... Removed cleanse, less healing, level 7 thrown out the window for bad level 16 talents, and clear (at least early game) mana issues with regrowth and twilight dream changes.

Everything else seems fine, but malf will fall out of competitive pretty hard with those. Cleanse was completely required to heal with since he is over time. Now Varian taunt is an auto hard counter.

gamerk2 · June 5, 2017

I hate the Thrall changes. If I wanted someone to poke with their Q, I'd play Ming. His healing reduction to me ensures he'll get blown up any time he tries to move into melee range.

What I would have done: Give him base 25 Spell Armor, and tweaking his existing kit.

Caldyrvan · June 6, 2017

I was glad to see Thrall getting a rework, but on first glance it looks like making him worse, but it's too early to assume something ^^

SteveFrost · June 6, 2017

Reading about "Talent updates" got me excited thinking they gave Kerrigan a Talent Tree rework and then...:/ Hope they give her one soon (not tm) she really needs it imho (aside from one Heroic and trait, she has nothing Psionic related and that's one of her core themes- new talent is too but lvl 20. Wanna see more). Wanna see reworks for many others as well (Jaina, Tyrael, etc).

Thrall was already the definition of great kit all around (poke, damage, cc, sustain, chase/escape with ms), this seems to have pushed him over the edge on first glance.

Malf was already on the weak side of healers (he's the only one without burst heal excluding Tranquility) this seems to make a positive feedback loop on the issue. In pro play, they just pick him for Twilight Dream (and chain cc) and pair him with another support most often than not since his healing isn't there (one game not so long ago, got all the Regrowth talents + Tranquility and a damage-trait Kharazim outhealed me by a whole lot).

Nice to see they heard the community about battlegrounds- even if somewhat at least (Hanamura staying despite receiving a lot of hate from what I see and ToSQ, the ONLY map I REALLY dislike seriously? >.<)

P.S. Did anyone watch the anniversary stream? At one point, I heard one of the devs talking about Jaina- something about "not having immediate plans for her, some kits are supposed to remain as is/don't need to change, you used to press some buttons and enemies dead/machine gun style not cool" etc which honestly, sounded like bullcr@p to me, greatly saddening and disturbing- Jaina has been hit really hard with nerfs in consecutive patches before. She's in dire need of buffs/talent tree rework imho because, her build is pretty much the same every game, only real 'challenge'/decision is what you'll get level 16. And that's the reasoning they used for Thrall's update (carved in stone build). I'm not 100% sure they said that cause between twitch derping and me having a toaster for a laptop, wasn't able to hear pretty well with the buffers/stutters and stuff but if I heard what I think I heard then yeah... I may sound a bit biased but I really love Jaina, she's waifu, got her level 10+ complete with master skin on 2 accs waaaay back

Edited June 6, 2017 by SteveFrost
fixing

Valks · June 6, 2017

17 hours ago, BrightwingMain said:

Blizzard is trying to get rid of all generic talents but it takes time and effort.

Don't forget that it takes money too. They won't spend to change something that works.

RoadtoRindokan · June 6, 2017

17 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

One more thing though, anyone else thinking that some Sonya talents should be changed i,e, the Mercenary Lord?

It seems completely out of character for her

Lets her solo most bosses easily at level 10 so i kind of like it

Laragon · June 6, 2017

6 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

Reading about "Talent updates" got me excited thinking they gave Kerrigan a Talent Tree rework and then...:/ Hope they give her one soon (not tm) she really needs it imho (aside from one Heroic and trait, she has nothing Psionic related and that's one of her core themes- new talent is too but lvl 20. Wanna see more). Wanna see reworks for many others as well (Jaina, Tyrael, etc).

Malf was already on the weak side of healers (he's the only one without burst heal excluding Tranquility) this seems to make a positive feedback loop on the issue. In pro play, they just pick him for Twilight Dream (and chain cc) and pair him with another support most often than not since his healing isn't there (one game not so long ago, got all the Regrowth talents + Tranquility and a damage-trait Kharazim outhealed me by a whole lot).

P.S. Did anyone watch the anniversary stream? At one point, I heard one of the devs talking about Jaina- something about "not having immediate plans for her, some kits are supposed to remain as is/don't need to change, you used to press some buttons and enemies dead/machine gun style not cool" etc which honestly, sounded like bullcr@p to me, greatly saddening and disturbing- Jaina has been hit really hard with nerfs in consecutive patches before. She's in dire need of buffs/talent tree rework imho because, her build is pretty much the same every game, only real 'challenge'/decision is what you'll get level 16. And that's the reasoning they used for Thrall's update (carved in stone build). I'm not 100% sure they said that cause between twitch derping and me having a toaster for a laptop, wasn't able to hear pretty well with the buffers/stutters and stuff but if I heard what I think I heard then yeah... I may sound a bit biased but I really love Jaina, she's waifu, got her level 10+ complete with master skin on 2 accs waaaay back

You picked two heroes that are in a pretty reasonable place right now. A good Kerrigan player is REALLY dangerous (just look at any Korean HGC that she is played in) and Jaina is still one of the most dangerous combo potentials in the game. Could they use a little tweaking, to add diversity/flavor, sure. They don't need a huge rework to do that. They're both still viable and map/comp dependent which has been Blizzards goal with all the tweaks. I don't feel like Jaina has been hit that hard with nerfs, people just got used to her and there have been a LOT of other really powerful mage (and anti-mage) choices to go against her.

Malf also wasn't just picked for twilight dreams. The mana regen he gained from that talent meant he could top off EVERY hero late game while still spamming roots and even moon fires. This may not have been burst, but he was able to sustain solo what most comps required 2 supports for, then you tack on top a team-fight wining heroic and I see why they changed that skill. Losing cleanse hurts him more than anything else on his kit.

positiv2 · June 6, 2017

On 5. 6. 2017 at 7:29 PM, Stan said:

Thanks for sharing your Map Rotation feedback with us! As a result of community-driven discussions, we’re making all 13 Battlegrounds available for play in Versus A.I., Quick Match, and Unranked modes.

Oh yes. The best part of the update. Who cares about new heroes or hero reworks when you can finally play all maps in Quick Match.

SteveFrost · June 6, 2017

7 hours ago, Laragon said:

You picked two heroes that are in a pretty reasonable place right now. A good Kerrigan player is REALLY dangerous (just look at any Korean HGC that she is played in) and Jaina is still one of the most dangerous combo potentials in the game. Could they use a little tweaking, to add diversity/flavor, sure. They don't need a huge rework to do that. They're both still viable and map/comp dependent which has been Blizzards goal with all the tweaks. I don't feel like Jaina has been hit that hard with nerfs, people just got used to her and there have been a LOT of other really powerful mage (and anti-mage) choices to go against her.

Malf also wasn't just picked for twilight dreams. The mana regen he gained from that talent meant he could top off EVERY hero late game while still spamming roots and even moon fires. This may not have been burst, but he was able to sustain solo what most comps required 2 supports for, then you tack on top a team-fight wining heroic and I see why they changed that skill. Losing cleanse hurts him more than anything else on his kit.

Everytime I've seen Kerrigan picked in HGC Korea, it was just for Infernal Shrines and all games she had rather poor performance (very easily picked off and many times, little to no contribution, etc). She lacks reliable ways to get in & out (something typical for assassins; optimally you wanna save q as a finisher unless you want to aggressively dive in with maelstorm, adaptation may not be the best talent choice most of the time and level 20 simply never comes in many games) and if you miss her combo (which isn't the hardest thing) she feels more like a DPS Hero if anything.

Jaina... from where to begin? Frost Armor pretty useless even for its purpose (protection vs auto attack heroes), moving Snowstorm to level 16 forcing it to compete with other really good talent options and whatever the end result, she comes out weaker than before the change (you could have Snowstorm + 1 of the other 2). Making Snowcrash (or whatever it was called) baseline sounds good on paper, but reducing each wave's damage made it do less damage than before- people should be either hard cc'ed, dumb or lagging af to stand there and get hit by all 3 waves. They said they wanted to up on her identity as "Battleground Control"; with 15 s cd on Blizzard, her main ability. Seems legit... Even with Icy Veins, you can use it one more time at best before reverting back to normal cds. Removing Bolt of the Storm from her and moving Improved Ice Block to level 20. The only changes I liked were the nerfs to Water Elemental/ small buffs to Ring of Frost that made the latter viable.

Jaina severely lacks compared to almost every other mage on every aspect: range, radius, cooldowns and so on. Why pick her over that imbaOP (censorship) thing called Li Ming or Gul'DansGame? Or even KT and Chromie (who's gotten so many buffs which she didn't need while Jaina got all this uncalled for nerfs it's redonkulous. Inb4 trailer "Don't worry, this is gonna get nerfed", Chromie buffs every 2nd patch, smh...)? Yes, her damage is still very high, she can kill pretty much all non-tanks with some good ability usage, but she needs to come close compared to others (the lackings above) which makes her combos and thus, her playstyle, very predictable. She is considered "meta" only for Towers of Doom apparently and with full q build (and without much success either); which tilts and triggers me to no end. Personally, I wouldn't call all of the above as being "on a good, resonable spot." On the contrary..."I'm here to help!" she says but she's the one who needs help imho.. pronto! A direction could be to make the range and/or radius increase talents baseline, make Snowstorm a quest at an earlier level (hitting heroes gradually increases the radius, maybe also reduces cooldown, reward good Jaina players)- unique questing talents like that and some talent diversity (right now, the options are really limited). I just want her to get some love as so many others before her (some of which did not need imho).

About Malf, haven't really delved too much, just from what I've seen.

Valks · June 6, 2017

5 hours ago, positiv2 said:

Oh yes. The best part of the update. Who cares about new heroes or hero reworks when you can finally play all maps in Quick Match.

But, but... Hanamura all day was fun?

Plergoth · June 7, 2017

I'm so happy to see Dragon Shire return, but they soured it by adding Blackheart's Bay on the ranked rotation. One of the first guides I ever looked up for ranked and competitive map tips was Dreadnaught's nearly hour long tl;dr video guide, and besides making his throat go dry about the Punisher on Infernal Shrines, him starting off the introduction to BB by calling it cancer has stuck with me BECAUSE IT IS SO TRUE. I've had friends I've known for years ask me why I hoard coins while we lose fort walls, and then we get a team kill, we get a boss, I go hand in and I still hate this unbalanced map.

Valks · June 7, 2017

9 hours ago, Plergoth said:

I still hate this unbalanced map.

You do better by not playing the objective until a certain point in the game. It's almost counter-intuitive. It's similar to how there used to be the "ignore mines, go base gg" on Haunted Mines. After hitting a certain level, whoever went for the objective just ended up losing the game because of how difficult it was to then stop the snowball on the base.

Valhalen · June 7, 2017

8 minutes ago, Blainie said:

You do better by not playing the objective until a certain point in the game. It's almost counter-intuitive. It's similar to how there used to be the "ignore mines, go base gg" on Haunted Mines. After hitting a certain level, whoever went for the objective just ended up losing the game because of how difficult it was to then stop the snowball on the base.

Haunted Mines is one of those maps where you have to balance objective and sieging almost perfectly. At late games, on those clutch moments where both teams have their Cores exposed, it's imperative to get one of those kill streaks and wipe the entire enemy team, so your team can safely go for the mines and not put the base at risk. It's pretty tough, and very very comp dependent.

Valks · June 7, 2017

6 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Haunted Mines is one of those maps where you have to balance objective and sieging almost perfectly. At late games, on those clutch moments where both teams have their Cores exposed, it's imperative to get one of those kill streaks and wipe the entire enemy team, so your team can safely go for the mines and not put the base at risk. It's pretty tough, and very very comp dependent.

Thing is, I feel like there comes a point, regardless of comp, when you are at a certain level and you can essentially clear a full lane faster than going for the mines, clearing the mobs and waiting for the delay of the boss spawning. I think it'd be nice to have a smaller spawn timer on the boss to actually make it more imposing immediately. You almost reach a stale mate where neither team wants to push in, siege or fight, because you know that making the choice first loses the game.

I hope I'm making a little sense?

Valhalen · June 7, 2017

5 hours ago, Blainie said:

Thing is, I feel like there comes a point, regardless of comp, when you are at a certain level and you can essentially clear a full lane faster than going for the mines, clearing the mobs and waiting for the delay of the boss spawning. I think it'd be nice to have a smaller spawn timer on the boss to actually make it more imposing immediately. You almost reach a stale mate where neither team wants to push in, siege or fight, because you know that making the choice first loses the game.

I hope I'm making a little sense?

It makes sense. But a good comp does help. Should your team wipe out the other team in a battle, and you have someone who can solo the boss, it's GG; while that Hero clears the mines the rest of sieges.

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heroes PTR Patch Notes: June 5

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Stan 5,018

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Heroes of the Storm PTR Notes — June 5, 2017

General

New Hero: Malthael

Art

User Interface

Design and Gameplay

Battlegrounds

Heroes

Assassin

Kerrigan

Raynor

Thrall

Support

Li Li

Malfurion

Warrior

Stitches

Collection

Bug Fixes

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