heroes Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes: September 4th

[Stan 5,243]

The latest Heroes of the Storm content patch is now live and includes a new Hero Mephisto, balance adjustments, various bug fixes, the Tyrande rework, and the long-awaited return of Hanamura!

• The only change between PTR and Live patch notes is that Alexstrasza's HoT base heal amount of Life-Binder has been reduced.
• Earlier today, we updated our guides section with the Mephisto build guide and we also updated Tyrande's guide to reflect her recent rework. Click here to learn more.
• Hanamura has been renamed to Hanamura Temple and the battleground has returned with a bunch of improvements.
  • The objective has shifted from two competing payloads to a single contested one.
  • If a payload is unattended by your team, it will not longer drift backwards, removing forward progress, but will instead remain in its current position, until either escorted again by your team, or picked up by your enemy.
  • Winning the objective no longer deals straight damage to the Core without attacking forts and keeps first.
  • The Core has been opened up for direct attacks.

Blizzard (Source)

We’ve just released a new patch to Heroes of the Storm to introduce Mephisto, some balance adjustments, bug fixes, and a number of other changes.

NOTE: Orange text indicates a change between PTR and the Live patch.

General

• Certain game visuals now appear smoother, such as Channel/Duration progress bars and Fog of War.
• Dynamic Spell Power Updating
  • Ability Damage is now calculated while abilities are in flight instead of only at the time of cast.

Battlegrounds

• Hanamura Temple
  • Hanamura has been renamed to Hanamura Temple and has received a significant gameplay update.
  • Hanamura Temple has been added to the Battleground Rotation.

• Battleground Rotation
  • The Unranked Battleground Rotation has been updated to the following:
    • Cursed Hollow
    • Dragon Shire
    • Alterac Pass
    • Hanamura Temple
    • Towers of Doom
    • Infernal Shrines

New Hero: Mephisto

Dul’Mephistos, the Lord of Hatred, is said to the be most cunning among his brethren. Even while imprisoned in a soulstone, his vile influence corrupted the Zakarum and manipulated them into breaking the seal, giving him free reign to reunite the Prime Evils and enslave humanity.

Trait

• Lord Of Hatred
  • Hitting enemy Heroes with Basic Abilities reduces Mephisto's Basic Ability cooldowns.
  • Skull Missile and Shade of Mephisto grant 1.5 seconds of cooldown reduction per Hero hit, and Lightning Nova grants 0.3 seconds per Hero hit.

Basic Abilities

• Skull Missile (Q)
  • Conjure a skull that travels in the target direction after 0.75 seconds, dealing 127 damage to enemies hit and Slowing Heroes hit by 25% for 2 seconds.
• Lightning Nova (W)
  • A ring of lightning appears around Mephisto for 2.5 seconds. Enemies within the ring take 48 damage every 0.25 seconds.
  • Each time a cast of Lightning Nova hits a Hero, its damage is increased by 4%, up to 40%.
• Shade of Mephisto (E)
  • Teleport to a location, dealing 78 damage to nearby enemies and leaving behind a Shade of Mephisto at Mephisto's original location. After 2.5 seconds, Mephisto is teleported back to the Shade's location.

Heroic Abilities

• Consume Souls (R)
  • Channel for 2.5 seconds, revealing all enemy Heroes. After the Channel completes, all enemy Heroes take 357 damage and are Slowed by 40% for 2.5 seconds.
• Durance of Hate (R)
  • After 1 second, unleash a wave of evil spirits that Root the first enemy Hero hit for 2 seconds and deal 160 damage to them over the same duration.
  • Durance of Hate spreads outwards from its initial target, Rooting and damaging additional nearby enemy Heroes.

User Interface

Jaina

• Jaina has received updated UI elements for her baseline Frostbite quest

Heroes

Support

Alexstrasza

Abilities

• Life-Binder (R)
  • Heal over Time base Heal amount reduced from 75 to 60

Tyrande

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 82 to 55
• Basic Attack range increased from 5.5 to 6

Abilities

• Light of Elune (Q)
  • Heal increased from 270 to 275
  • Cooldown increased from 11 to 15 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 10
  • New functionality:
    • Now has two charges that refresh simultaneously.
    • The cooldown is lowered by 1.5 seconds every time you Basic Attack.
    • The cooldown is lowered by 1.5 seconds every time you damage an enemy Hero with an ability.
    • There is a one second cooldown between charge uses.
• Sentinel (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 50
  • Cooldown reduced from 18 to 15 seconds
  • Damage reduced from 165 to 120
  • The Sentinel baseline quest has been removed.
• Lunar Flare (E)
  • Damage reduced from 195 to 150
• Hunter's Mark (D)
  • Armor reduction decreased from 25 to 15
  • Range increased from 5.5 to 6
• Shadowstalk (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 80 seconds
  • New functionality:
    • Grant Stealth to all Allied Heroes and heal them for 400 Health over 10 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Moonlit Arrows (Q)
    • Moved from Level 4
  • Celestial Attunement (Q)
    • Moved from Level 4
    • New functionality:
      • Light of Elune now removes all Stuns and Slows from its target
  • Kaldorei Resistance (Q)
    • Moved from Level 4
    • Duration of Spell Armor decreased from 6 to 3 seconds
    • Maximum stacks of Spell Armor decreased from 3 to 2
• Level 4
  • Ranger (W)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • Bonus travel damage increased from 75 to 150%
    • Added functionality:
      • Activate to have your next Sentinel pierce all targets. 30 second cooldown.
  • Lunar Blaze (E)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the range of Lunar Flare by 50%
      • Quest: Hitting a Hero increases the damage of Lunar Flare by 5% up to a maximum of 100%
  • Trueshot Aura (Active)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • New functionality:
      • Tyrande permanently gains 20% Basic Attack damage.
      • Activate - Instantly reset Hunter’s Mark and grant nearby allies 20% additional Basic Attack damage for 5 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
• Level 7
  • Mark of Mending (D)
    • Moved from Level 16
  • Elune's Chosen (Active)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds
    • Your Basic Attacks heal your target for 200% of the damage they deal. 30 second Cooldown.
  • New Talent: Everlasting Light (Q)
    • The healing granted by the second charge of Light of Elune is increased by 40% if used on a different target.
• Level 13
  • Quickening Blessing (Q)
    • Movement Speed decreased from 30 to 20%
    • Added functionality:
      • Tyrande permanently gains 10% Movement Speed
  • Ranger's Mark (D)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New functionality:
      • Basic Attacks lower the cooldown of Hunter’s Mark by 1 second. Tyrande’s Basic Attacks against marked targets extend the duration of Hunter’s Mark by .5 seconds
  • Harsh Moonlight (W)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • The first Hero hit with Sentinel is slowed by 40% and deals 40% less damage for 4 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Overflowing Light (Q)
    • Removed
  • Huntress' Fury (D)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • Basic Attacks now splash to all nearby targets
    • Range increase reduced from 50 to 25%
    • Added functionality:
      • Increases the duration of Hunter’s Mark by 1 second
  • Empower (W)
    • Moved from Level 13
    • New functionality:
      • Reduce the cooldown of Sentinel by 3 seconds. The first enemy hit takes an additional 7% of their Maximum Health in damage.
  • Darnassian Archery (Passive)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • Damage bonus per attack increased from 5 to 10%
    • Duration increased from 4 to 8 seconds
• Level 20
  • Eyes of the Huntress (R)
    • Enemy reveal duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
    • Added functionality:
      • Increase Shadowstalk’s heal by 50% for allies who are under 50% of their Maximum Health
  • Shooting Star (Passive)
    • Attacks needed reduced from 10 to 8
    • No longer requires Heroic targets to gain stacks
    • No longer only targets Heroic units (but does prefer them)

Developer Comment: While we enjoy the flexibility of Tyrande's kit, she has struggled to find a home in the current meta. As we started looking at broadening our Hero roles, we felt like we had an opportunity to make some simple yet very substantial changes to our Night Elf Priestess. This rework pulls her slightly away from her hybrid status, reducing her damage output potential while introducing a lot more healing potential. While she keeps the vast majority of her older talents, they have been updated and shuffled to better coincide with her changes. We have enjoyed playing her internally and are excited to see what our players can do with her!  

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.
  • Mephisto Heroic Bundle
  • Hellforged Heroes Bundle

New Announcers

• Mephisto
• Beleth
• Athena

New Skins

• Mephisto
  • Star Wraith Mephisto
  • Cybernetic Star Wraith Mephisto
  • Eternal Star Wraith Mephisto
  • Golden Mephisto
  • Soulburn Mephisto

New Portraits, Sprays, and Emojis

• Several new emoji packs and portraits have also been added to the game. You can get a look in our most recent In-Development blog.

Bug Fixes

General

• Loading Screen: Fixed an issue that could cause a vertical black line to appear on loading screens in certain resolutions.
• Custom Games: Fixed an issue that could cause game stalls when launching custom games with more than 8 players.

Art

• Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to appear to walk on their mounts if certain abilities were cast immediately after mounting.

Battlegrounds

• Volskaya Foundry: Fixed an issue that caused Time Stop effects to fail to cancel channels on the Volskaya Protector.

User Interface

• The Unstoppable effect now has a status duration bar underneath nameplates.
• Alarak: Alarak's Deadly Charge now has an icon in the death recap screen.
• Ana: Ana's abilities amplified by Nano Boost's Spell Power buff now display critical effects.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Cassia: Fixed an issue that could cause the stun effect from Valkyrie to end early if the target collided with terrain.
• Diablo: Fixed an issue that prevented Diablo from being thrown by Garrosh’s Wrecking Ball if Diablo was casting Overpower.
• Johanna & Li-Ming: Fixed an issue that prevented some “marked” effects from being consumed if the target was Shielded or Protected.
• Lunara & Stitches: Fixed an issue that could cause permanent screen shaking if Lunara was hooked by Stitches under certain conditions.

Mac

• Fixed an issue that caused responsiveness degradation when using the middle-mouse button on fullscreen settings.

[SteveFrost 97]

Small patch but has a bit of everything; new hero, map & hero rework. Really surprised there's not a rework spotlight, they said they'd do those and give them big attention. Oh well..

[Kuarinofu 78]

Gotta check if Tyrande is better now. I enjoyed playing her since alpha through all the changes she had received anyway. Latest blizz reworks were all over the place, huge Chromie nerf, huge Raynor buff, Azmodan was weak at first but after some tweaks he's even more fun to play than before, Stukov is now a mana/talent dependent healbot, Malf used to have a lot of utility and survival but after  talent shuffle and Ice Block removal he's unplayable since his healing output does not match his survivability in teamfights.

 

EDIT: Well, W build has no use any more, E build is extremely nerfed and dumbed-down. She heals pretty much the same amount but split into two heals. She has even better solo self-sustain now and a very neat lvl 1 talent to remove disables (buffed to slows). After most of the old supports were destroyed, she is an ok pick for a healer, especially now, when she got her old shadowstalk back.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Kuarinofu