heroes Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: Mar 19

[Stan 5,252]

The next Heroes of the Storm content patch is now available for testing on PTR until March 26. 

Patch Highlights

• Blizzard's celebrating StarCraft's 20th anniversary with Fenix and StarCraft-themed portraits that can be earned by logging into the game from March 27 through April 23.
• Tracer received tweaks and the general philosophy for the changes is to reduce her overall mobility, burst damage, and increase the amount of time that she needs to stay in range of opponents in order to be effective. To compensate for the nerfs, Blizzard buffed her Health and Basic Attack damage.
• Varian's early-game power has been increased by moving his Heroic abilities to Level 4.
• New Bundles, Announcers and Skins have been added to the game in this update. More details can be found in this post.

Blizzard (Source)

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until March 26. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.

StarCraft 20th Anniversary

Join us in celebrating StarCraft’s 20th anniversary with new StarCraft-themed portraits you can earn just by logging into Heroes of the Storm from March 27 through April 23.

StarCraft 20th Anniversary Portrait Rewards

New Hero: Fenix

As one of the greatest heroes in protoss history, Fenix’s deeds on the battlefield are legendary. After falling to the zerg during the invasion of Aiur, his body was recovered and implanted into a dragoon so he could continue to fight. Not even death can stop Fenix from achieving glory and valor.

Trait

• Shield Capacitor
  • Fenix has a permanent 800 Shield, which regenerates at 80 per second after not taking damage for 5 seconds.

Basic Abilities

• Plasma Cutter (Q)
  • Create a laser beam at the target point that circles around Fenix twice, dealing 150 damage to enemies hit and Slowing them by 25% for 4 seconds.
• Switch Weapon Mode (W)
  • Activate to switch between Weapon Mode: Repeater Cannon and Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb.
  • Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb
    • Basic Attacks have 1.5 increased range, deal 25% more damage, and splash to nearby enemies.
  • Weapon Mode: Repeater Cannon
    • Basic Attack speed increased by 150%.
• Warp (E)
  • Warp to targeted location, phasing out after 0.5 seconds, and arriving 0.75 seconds later.

Heroic Abilities

• Purification Salvo (R)
  • Channel for 1.5 seconds, sweeping a laser in front of Fenix that locks onto enemy Heroes. Once Channeling finishes, fire 5 missiles at each locked Hero, dealing 86 damage each. Deals 50% increased damage to Slowed targets.
• Planet Cracker (R)
  • After 0.5 seconds, Channel a powerful beam that spans across the battleground for 4 seconds, dealing 105 damage every 0.25 seconds to non-Structure enemies hit.

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Heroes will no longer leave a behind a “ghost” that fades away after casting Hearthstone.

User Inteface

In-Game UI

• Party Frames
  • Muting another player’s pings will now also mute any death timer pings that player issues by ALT + clicking the party frames UI at the top of the screen.
  • While in Undying form, Leoric’s party frame Health bar will display how much time remains before he respawns.
• Score Screen (TAB)
  • Icons have replaced the column headers on the in-game score screen. Hover the mouse cursor over the icons for a brief description of each column.

Draft Mode

• Hero and player nameplates that appear beneath Hero portraits have swapped positions.
  • Hero names will now appear in the upper nameplate, and player names will appear in the lower nameplate.
• Allied Hero names are now visible to teammates before they lock in their picks.
  • The opposing team’s Hero names will not appear until those players lock in their picks.
  • Spectators cannot see Hero names for either team until each player locks in their pick.
• The opposing team’s player names are no longer visible during a draft.
  • Spectators cannot see player names for either team until all players in the draft lobby have locked in their Hero picks.

Battlegrounds

Try Mode

• Two additional target dummies have been added to Try Mode to assist in testing Abilities and Talents that can hit multiple targets.

Heroes Brawl

• AzmoDUNK!
  • Each Gem turned in now grants 3 Taste for Blood stacks.
  • Killing a Hero with Globe of Annihilation now resets its cooldown and refunds its Mana cost.

Developer Comment: With AzmoDUNK, we want to really reward successful dunks. To do so, we’ve added a free throw after a successful kill with a Globe. This should allow for some really exciting hot streaks. We’ve also updated the Tomb mechanic to give stacks of Taste for Blood, allowing a team who plays the mechanic to build stacks quite a bit quicker.

Design

Shields

• Armor will now mitigate bonus damage dealt to Shields by effects like Varian's Shattering Throw and Kel'Thuzad's Strip Shields.

Heroes

Assassin

Tracer

Stats

• Health increased from 1206 to 1350.
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.0234 to 5.6250.
• Basic Attack damage increased from 27 to 29.

Abilities

• Blink (Q)
  • Charge cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds.
• Melee (W)
  • Damage reduced from 254 to 220.
• Recall (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 26 to 30 seconds.
• Pulse Bomb (R)
  • Damage reduced from 420 to 360.
  • Secondary damage reduced from 210 to 180.
  • Scaling damage increased from 5.5% to 6%.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Bullet Time (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 0.1 to 0.15 seconds.
  • Jumper (Q)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Now also increases the Blink’s cooldown by 2 seconds.
• Level 10
  • Quantum Spike (R)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 10% to 8% maximum Health.

Developer Comment: As part of our ongoing effort to trim the frustration of playing against certain Heroes, we are making some tuning changes to Tracer. The general philosophy for these changes is threefold: reduce her overall mobility over time, reduce her burst damage, and increase the amount of time that she needs to stay in range of opponents in order to be effective. While we understand that reducing her burst damage via Melee and Pulse Bomb are significant nerfs to her power, we are compensating her by increasing her Health and Basic Attack damage. This should reward Tracer players who are able to bob and weave through opposing skillshots while staying on their target.

Multiclass

Varian

Stats

• Health reduced from 2322 to 1850.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 4.8375 to 3.8542.
• Health scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
• Basic Attack damage reduced from 91 to 74.
• Basic Attack damage scaling increased from 3.5% to 4%.

Abilities

• Heroic Strike (Trait)
  • Damage reduced from 140 to 125.
  • Damage scaling increased from 3.5% to 4% per level.
• Lion’s Fang (Q)
  • Added functionality:
    • Hitting an enemy heals Varian for 35 (+4% per level), increased to 140 against Heroes.
• Parry (W)
  • Cooldown increased 8 to 10 seconds.
  • Mana cost increased from 15 to 20.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Overpower (W)
    • Damage bonus increased from 20% to 30%.
• Level 4
  • Taunt (R)
    • Moved from level 10.
  • Colossus Smash (R)
    • Moved from level 10.
    • Armor reduction decreased from 25 to 20.
  • Twin Blades of Fury (R)
    • Moved from level 10.
• Level 7
  • Lionheart (Q)
    • Increases Lion’s Fang healing for damage dealt to Heroes by 50%.
  • Victory Rush (Passive)
    • Healing reduced from 400 to 350.
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
    • Cooldown reduction granted per nearby Minion or Monster death reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.
  • Live by the Sword (W)
    • Removed.
• Level 10
  • Shield Wall (W)
    • Moved from level 4.
    • Now also reduces Parry’s cooldown 5 seconds, but removes 1 charge.
  • Warbringer (E)
    • Moved from level 4
    • Now also allows Varian to charge to allied Heroes.
• Level 20
  • Demoralizing Shout (Active)
    • Damage reduction increased from 25% to 40%.

Developer Comment: We're making a simple change to Varian by moving his Heroic Abilities to Level 4, but this will have large impact on the way he feels during a game. By allowing Varian to get his Heroic Ability earlier, he can fulfill the role his team needs before one team develops a significant lead over the other. This increase in Varian’s early-game power justifies reducing some of the overwhelming power he gains after level 10, and creates a more even experience for Varian and his opponents throughout a game.

Support

Li Li

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wind Serpent (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Reduces Cloud Serpent’s cooldown by 2 seconds.
      • Casting Cloud Serpent also launches Blinding Wind at an enemy near the target.
• Level 4
  • Hindering Winds (W)
    • Slow amount reduced from 30% to 25%.

Collection

New Bundles

• The following new bundles are available for a limited time! Be sure to check out the latest In-Development blog for more details.
  • Fenix Heroic Bundle
  • StarCraft 20th Anniveresary Bundle
  • Protoss 20th Anniversary Bundle
  • Terran 20th Anniversary Bundle
  • Zerg 20th Anniversary Bundle
  • Zergling Bundle

New Announcers

• Fenix
• Adjutant
• Mira Han

New Skins

• Fenix
  • Rusted Fenix
  • Experimental Fenix
• Ruinwalker Fenix
  • Colossal Ruinwalker Fenix
  • Withered Ruinwalker Fenix
• Artanis
  • Zer’atai Artanis
• Azmodan
  • Infested Azmodan
• Brightwing
  • Primal Brightwing
• Dehaka
  • Feral Dehaka
• Gul’dan
  • Brooding Gul’dan
• Johanna
  • Shakuras Johanna
• Tassadar
  • Chosen Crypt King Tassadar
  • Exiled Crypt King Tassadar

New Mounts

• Celestial Ursa
  • This mount will replace the Celestial Raptor as a first-time gem purchase reward. Unlock it by purchasing gems for the first time after this patch has been released.
• Umojan Cyber Ram
• Zergling
  • Char Zergling
  • Kaldir Zergling

New Portraits and Sprays

• We teamed up with Carbot Animations to create a ton of new HeroStorm-themed portraits and sprays in their signature art style! Catch a preview in the latest In-Development blog.

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
• Loot Chests: Fixed a rare issue that could prevent players from receiving a Loot Chest on Hero level-up.

A.I.

• Chromie: Fixed an issue preventing A.I. Chromie from casting Sand Blast.
• Gazlowe: A.I. Gazlowe will no longer interrupt its own Doubloon turn-ins on Blackhearts Bay in order to place Rock-It! Turrets.
• Leoric: A.I. Leoric will no longer remain stationary after activating Wraith Walk.
• Malfurion: A.I. Malfurion will no longer attempt to cast Entangling Roots on non-Heroic enemies.
• Medivh: A.I. Medivh wil no longer become stuck after attempting to use a Mine Entrance on Haunted Mines while in Raven Form.
• Murky: Fixed an issue that could cause A.I. Murky to repeatedly place Egg in the same location, even if its existing Egg was undamaged.

Art

• Gazlowe: Dying and respawning after learning Robo-Goblin will no longer remove the player’s selected skin from the Robo-Goblin model.
• Malthael: Reaper's Mark visual effects will no longer persist if the target is killed just before Reaper’s Mark is applied.
• Nazeebo: Choosing the Superstition Talent while Nazeebo is dead will no longer cause Spell Shield visual effects to persist on the terrain after subsequent deaths.
• Loot Chests: The D.Haka portrait will no longer display placeholder art on the Loot Chest rewards screen.
• Mecha Tassadar: Attacking while using the Mecha Morph Mount will no longer cause Distortion Beam to visually originate above Mecha Tassadar’s head.

Battlegrounds

• Battlefield of Eternity: Destroying a Healing Fountain in the middle lane will no longer cause Minimap icons for Healing Fountains in other lanes to disappear.
• Braxis Holdout: Destroying a Healing Fountain will no longer cause Minimap icons for Healing Fountains in the top lane to disappear.
• Haunted Mines: Queueing movement commands during Hearthstone Channeling while in the Mines will no longer cancel Hearthstone.
• Volskaya Foundry: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes who were piloting a Triglav Protector to become unresponsive after the Protector is destroyed by a Damage over Time effect.
• Warhead Junction: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to teleport back to the Hall of Storms after moving to a specific area of terrain before the game begins.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Abathur: Monstrosities will no longer deal area of effect damage on death if Abathur hasn’t learned the Volatile Mutation Talent.
• Alarak: Rite of Rak’shir can no longer be removed when Samuro casts Mirror Image or Chen casts Storm, Earth, Fire.
• Anub’arak: Cocoon will no longer trap Pilot-form D.Va if she has already successfully cast Call Mech.
• Blaze: After learning Oil Dispersal, Oil Spill’s targeting indicator now correctly increases in size to reflect the Ability’s new area of effect.
• Blaze: Casting Flame Stream on a target who is standing in an unignited Oil Spill will now correctly register as two Flame Stream hits, rather than one.
• Blaze: Unignited Oil Spills will no longer reduce enemy Structures’ Attack Speeds after learning the Nanomachine Coating Talent.
• Blaze: Flame Stream is no longer visible through the Fog of War when cast near the edge of the enemy team’s vision.
• Dehaka: Fixed an issue that could cause Drag visual effects to persist indefinitely if the Ability connected across unpathable terrain.
• D.Va: Self-Destruct’s charge percentage will now correctly reset to 0% between rounds during Heroes Brawls.
• Gall: Shove can no longer be cast while Cho is being pulled by Stitches’ Hook.
• Genji: Fixed an issue that could cause enemy targeted Abilities to hit Genji rather than the intended target during Dragonblade.
• Greymane: Fixed an issue that could cause Razor Swipe’s area of effect and damage to become disjointed from Greymane’s location.
• Hanzo: Reactivating Dragon’s Arrow via the Play of the Game Talent after the Arrow has traveled beyond Warhead Junction’s playable area will no longer teleport Hanzo to an unreachable location.
• Illidan: Hitting two Heroes with Sweeping Strike at maximum range will now correctly apply the bonus damage granted by the Battered Assault Talent.
• Kel’Thuzad: Chilling Touch can now correctly deal damage to Gall’s Eye of Kilrogg.
• Kharazim: Seven-Sided Strike will now correctly target Stealth enemy Heroes who have been revealed.
• Leoric: Will no longer become permanently Unstoppable if he is affected by Stasis during Wraith Walk.
• Li Li: Casting Cloud Serpent on Pilot-form D.Va just before she casts Call Mech will no longer prevent the Serpent from following Mech-form D.Va.
• Lunara: Queued Leaping Strikes will no longer continue to target an enemy Hero who enters Stealth before the Heroic Ability actually fires.
• Malfurion: Entangling Roots will no longer affect non-Heroic targets.
• Ragnaros: Blind and Evasion effects will no cause Empower Sulfuras’ Ability Damage to miss.
• Rexxar: Completing the Hunter-Gatherer Talent’s quest now correctly grants bonus Armor to Misha.
• Rexxar: Misha, Focus! will now correctly grant Misha its passive 15% Movement Speed bonus.
• Samuro: Casting Mirror Image now correctly clears any Move commands that had been queued for the real Samuro.
• Stitches: Hook visual effects will no longer persist indefinitely if the target is thrown by Garrosh’s Wrecking Ball while being pulled toward Stitches.
• Stukov: Will no longer become unresponsive after attempting to cast Lurking Arm behind the allied Hall of Storms.
• The Lost Vikings: Spin to Win! visual effects are no longer visible through the Fog of War near the edge of the enemy team’s vision.
• Tracer: Can no longer cast Pulse Bomb while Channeling to launch a Nuke on Warhead Junction.
• Tyrande: Fixed an issue that could cause Sentinel’s visual effects to become slightly disjointed from the Ability’s path of travel.
• Uther: Devotion’s tooltip now more clearly communicates that allied Heroes affected by Uther’s Basic Abilities will gain Armor, rather than Heroes Healed by Uther’s Basic Abilities. This is a tooltip correction only; the Trait’s functionality has not been changed.
• Valeera: Activating Crippling Poison, Wound Poison, or Thistle Tea will no longer clear queued orders or Abilities.
• Valla: Fixed an issue that could prevent Hungering Arrow from seeking, or dealing damage to, targets after the first when cast at maximum range.

Sound

• Hanzo: Will no longer play an incorrect voiceover line to allies upon casting Hearthstone.
• Illidan: The volume for Illidan’s voiceover during The Hunt has been reduced to better match other game sounds.

[Dejo93 1,023]

Jesus Christ, those Varian changes

[SidonisAntares 290]

Quote

• Illidan: The volume for Illidan’s voiceover during The Hunt has been reduced to better match other game sounds.

It's about damn time.

[Orshova 31]

54 minutes ago, Stan said:

Illidan: The volume for Illidan’s voiceover during The Hunt has been reduced to better match other game sounds.

Note i won't alt F4 in fear when my headset explodes in my ears

[MrPumpson 4]

 

4 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

Jesus Christ, those Varian changes

Yeah, I'm trying to wrap my head around them.

I think no more double parry with +40% duration is going to be VERY healthy for the game as a whole. But I'm wondering how Varian himself will come out of it.

Edited March 19, 2018 by MrPumpson

[ATM 0]

That varin change is a little much for me to cope with.

[MZLICH 43]

New hero: Varian

[ShadowerDerek 69]

This Varian change definitely feels like a big dps Varian buff, especially Twin Blade, while Taunt receive a big nerf with the removal of Live by the Sword and the Shield Wall change. Twin Blade with Second Wind and new Warbringer is going to be disgusting.

[CyberDVonaven 82]

3 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

Twin Blade with Second Wind and new Warbringer is going to be disgusting.

o_O? How so? Warbringer just allows you to have an escape of sorts now. But still no one's ever gonna take Warbringer over Shield Wall. Shield Wall really is his Ult talent. It's just too damn good. I mean he's not NEAR as survivable without it. 

[CyberDVonaven 82]

10 hours ago, Stan said:

New Mounts

 Zergling

 

YES! And now that they've added Carbot Animations portraits we eventually need an adorable Carbot Zergling mount :P and the Carbot inspired Stick Horse mount too :D <3

Edited March 20, 2018 by CyberDVonaven

[ShadowerDerek 69]

6 hours ago, CyberDVonaven said:

o_O? How so? Warbringer just allows you to have an escape of sorts now. But still no one's ever gonna take Warbringer over Shield Wall. Shield Wall really is his Ult talent. It's just too damn good. I mean he's not NEAR as survivable without it. 

The new Shield Wall is significantly weaker, thus making Warbringer much more viable. The long-existing problem of Twin Blade, is that it has no escape after he engages with Charge. The new Warbringer allows him to engage with Charge, disengage after 4s, and re-engage after 4s. This makes him a much more scarier Illidan, because 1) he's less reliant on basic attacks; 2) he can constantly apply Mortal Strike as long as he's attacking. 

[Nerdkartoffl 0]

Awww those tracer Nerfs werde needed!!! 

She was already in no good spot, but now she's ubershit. Thx 4 that blizz 

[Evincare 39]

Basically what I thought about Tracer nerfs. I picked her up only recently and she's quite fun IMO, in no way overpowered though... one targeted stun out of posistion and it's gg. Maybe if the enemy Tracer plays really well and you have no way of locking her down it can get a bit frustrating. But that should only really happen in QM anyways... Is she even played in ranked? I somehow doubt that.

Those nerfs numbers ways (Melee and Pulse Bomb) seem pretty big. I don't think the Health increase will make up for it, as she will still be squishy as hell...

Judging by Blizz's comment basically all OW heroes will get nerfed, Genji next I'd assume... But what's the point of a high mobility assassin when you take mobility away? As I see it, those squishy highly mobile assassins were always high skill cap Heroes and if played well, which is actually quite hard against at least semi competent folks, should be rewarding to play. I mean, are they going to gut Illidans mobility next? What will he retain if they do that -.-

And then they add Fenix, a ranged assassins and give them what? a teleport... oh and spare me the "you can lock him down before cast" the same can be said for any of those heroes. Genjis mobility skills don't make him unstoppable – and, yes, they should not. But time a swift strike badly and find yourself in roots and get blown up…

But as always, that's just a first impression. Time will tell is it's really that big of a deal. I personally am not sure I like, the direction they are moving with mobility..

Edit: Concerning Varian, I do think moving heroics to level 4 is interesting to say the least. Sometimes you really do feel pretty useless playing Varian before Heroics. Execution-wise it remains to be seen, if it works out.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Evincare
Added Thoughts on Varian changes

[PumpkinRow 18]

Finally, they admit that Varian's true ultimate is Shield Wall.

[CyberDVonaven 82]

On 3/20/2018 at 8:32 AM, Nerdkartoffl said:

Awww those tracer Nerfs werde needed!!! 

She was already in no good spot, but now she's ubershit. Thx 4 that blizz 

I think A LOT of people will STRONGLY disagree with you on that. Do you know who Grubby is? (If you don't, he's a HOTS Master/Grandmaster player and a former WC3 World Champion and also sometimes does commentary for HGC matches) In his YouTube video reading over these patch notes he made the comment 'Oh good, I won't have to perma ban Tracer anymore. I can't have any fun if I'm up against her.' I don't think he was being sarcastic. If he was he did it with a super straight face. And made no further comment about it that would lead me to think he was either. (Which he usually does if he is being a smartass).

I for one I'm sure Tracer will still be super annoying, just not as much as she was before with zip in, melee bomb, zip out and leave you to blow up a couple seconds later. Leaving you extra annoyed more then her just chasing you around till you're dead. At least the staying on you till you're dead is how she's suppose to work.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

13 hours ago, CyberDVonaven said:

I think A LOT of people will STRONGLY disagree with you on that. Do you know who Grubby is? (If you don't, he's a HOTS Master/Grandmaster player and a former WC3 World Champion and also sometimes does commentary for HGC matches) In his YouTube video reading over these patch notes he made the comment 'Oh good, I won't have to perma ban Tracer anymore. I can't have any fun if I'm up against her.' I don't think he was being sarcastic. If he was he did it with a super straight face. And made no further comment about it that would lead me to think he was either. (Which he usually does if he is being a smartass).

I for one I'm sure Tracer will still be super annoying, just not as much as she was before with zip in, melee bomb, zip out and leave you to blow up a couple seconds later. Leaving you extra annoyed more then her just chasing you around till you're dead. At least the staying on you till you're dead is how she's suppose to work.

Grubby is ALWAYS a smartass. Kappa

The main reason why Tracer is annoying af is that whenever you get Pulse Bomb -> Melee -> Parting Gift and blown to pieces as a backline squishy, you can do absolutely nothing except feeling unfair when someone can use her heroic on you before Lv 10 while you don't have any heroic or defensive talents (usually at Lv 13) to be able to do anything against it. Not to mention she can have her Pulse Bomb up again like after 20s. Genji at least can't one-shot you from full health. But Tracer, ughhh.