Jump to content
FORUMS
Sign in to follow this  
Stan

Heroes of the Storm Post-BlizzCon 2018 Developer AMA Recap

Recommended Posts

OAToKby.jpg

The Heroes of the Storm dev team answered your questions on Reddit today and here's a recap of the most interesting highlights.

Blizzard LogoBlizzard (Source)

Greetings, Heroes!

BlizzCon 2018 has concluded and the team is back in the office and ready to talk to you about Orphea, upcoming gameplay changes, and what’s new in the Nexus! To answer any questions you might have about our announcements, we’re going to host a post-BlizzCon AMA right here on /r/heroesofthestorm Today!: Thursday, November 8! The Heroes devs will join the thread and answer your questions starting around 10:00 a.m. PDT (7:00 p.m. CEST) until 12:00 p.m. PDT (9:00 p.m. CEST).

Here's who will be joining us from the dev team:

When posting multiple AMA questions: Please make an effort to post one question per comment. This will make it easier for others to read through the thread, and will help the devs focus on one question at a time. However, please feel free comment as many times as you'd like in order to get your questions posted.

You might also see Blizzard Community Managers posting questions on behalf of players in our non-English speaking communities during the AMA. Feel free to upvote those questions if you’d like to see them answered.

Highlights

  • They plan to introduce something similar to Mega Bundles and other new player promotions.
  • Bruiser is a fairly tanky front-line character who can also solo lane effectively. This usually means these characters need good self-sustain, decent wave clear, and can be a threat when they engage the enemy team, especially if they can get onto the healer or squishier ranged assassins.
  • They enjoy creating PvE brawls, but there are currently no plans to add more.
  • Replacing an experience gain from destroying enemy structures with a Catapult for destroying Forts is a win. This creates a new unique mechanic that encourages strategic decision making instead of just propelling a team that’s already ahead to have an even larger stat lead.
  • No plans to add Hero swaps with the Hero/Team League merging.
  • Draft order will work on a First Come First Serve basis.
  • Rank points are going away, so placement and progress in the new ladder will depend entirely upon your MMR.
  • The Lost Vikings are on their radar, but they won't receive a major rework in the near future. They could give them some balance updates in a more timely manner though.
  • D.Va will receive some talent changes and they've started preliminary work on her kit to reinforce her role as a Bruiser. Implementing something like Micro Missiles is likely.
  • Party restrictions as well as hero ownership/level restrictions will return with the release of the new ranked mode, perhaps even sooner than that.
  • For the day/night cycle specifically on Garden of Terror, they had received a lot of feedback that the extended periods of darkness could be straining on player’s eyes and overall made the map not as pleasurable to play on.
  • You can get Boosts from Loot Chests.
  • They're currently looking at doing a small update to Abathur to address some pro player feedback surrounding Regenerative Microbes and Sustained Carapace.
  • Upcoming Orphea changes: They're looking to increase the base cooldown of Shadow Waltz and reduce the power of the Ravenous Hunger and Eldritch Conduit talents. The cooldown of Shadow Waltz will be increased by 1 second only if you miss.
  • There are no plans to let players know which battleground they're going to play in Quick Match.
  • They want to make Mal'thael's Tormented SoulsTormented Souls better.
  • They'll continue to evaluate the need of a fourth ban leading into 2020.
  • After the new ranked mode is in place they'll be making some adjustments to allow for decay to occur regardless of placement status.
  • Kevin announcer will not be available in other languages than English.

Blizzard LogoBlizzard (Source)

With the shutdown of Paragon, there was a huge call for reenabling the Mega Bundles in order to get a few of those players trying this game. With the release of new heroes it can be quite frustrating for new players to try to get a decent hero pool. 

Are there any new player promotions planed?

The Mega bundles have been gone for quite some time and there wasn't a new player promotion since then.]

Thanks for the question, /u/Simsala91! We’ve definitely heard this feedback on the hero Mega Bundles and are actively discussing revisiting the New Player Experience (along with new player promotions) again. We’re still early in those talks, so I can’t commit to anything there yet…but it’s important for us to continue improving the ways new players discover and access our heroes. Mega Bundles were one of several ways we’ll be exploring to help this moving forward. Please keep your ideas coming on this front!

Ana's level 1 quests seem to have a lot of issues with encouraging bad gameplay, any plans to change Ana's level 1 tier up?

Shhhhh - I'm not actually in this AMA ?

Yes, it is on the to-do list!

In the most recent patch, you adjusted the spell inconsistencies listed in this post, but spell power is only one inconsistent multiplier.

So my question is - will multipliers get a general consistency pass? And will healing remain multiplicative with spell power as it is right now? Because right now, abilities like Ana's W and Gul'dan's W have multiplicative healing, and additive damage, simultaneously.

Just to give another example of the general inconsistency, I checked out AA multipliers today and found that on heroes with 2+ multipliers, most are additive, except for these;

Hero Multiplicative Interactions
Valla Trait(+100% with talent) with E(+140% with talent)
Orphea Trait(+150%) with Determination(+15%)
Greymane Trait(+40%) with any other multiplier
Fenix W(+25%) with any other multiplier

And I didn't check the interactions of heroes with no spellpower talent, who can still interact with stuff like Debilitating Dart, Aggressive Matrix, etc..

I can't give a timetable, but we'll likely expand the pass that we did on Spell Power to include all of these multiplicative modifiers in the future.

So you can expect anything that should be multiplicative to have its tooltip changed, and anything that should be additive to be fixed on the data side.

With the upcoming XP changes, particularly for camps, is there going to be a consistency pass so that the same camps function the same way on each map? Currently Volskaya and Hanamura Turret camp award XP differently and this is very unintuitive for players.

Hey CavalierGuest, great question. We will definitely take a look – that sounds like a bug and I’ll bring it up to our map team. I know that design group was revisiting how much experience mercenaries award and discussing where we wanted each camp to land with the gameplay update. I’ll double check that this didn’t get overlooked.

Thanks!

Do you still have in mind other Blizzard Franchises such as “Blackthorne” when designing upcoming heroes?

We still maintain a very exhaustive list of our favorite potential heroes from 25+ years of Blizzard games, and Kyle Vlaros is definitely on it!

What is the criteria you check to decide when a hero is a bruiser?

Over time, we’ve shifted our philosophy as we learn more about the game and making content for Heroes of the Storm. We currently view a Bruiser as a character who is a fairly tanky front-line character who can also solo lane effectively. This usually means these characters need good self-sustain, decent wave clear, and can be a threat when they engage the enemy team, especially if they can get onto the healer or squishier ranged assassins. At BlizzCon, during the What’s Next panel, we showed the role update which visualized all the current Bruisers. We definitely view characters like Thrall, Sonya, Artanis and Malthael in this bruiser space.

The PvE brawls were amazing! have you considered having these as a permanent feature?

You could even use them to tell the nexus story and expand the lore. a series of the brawls can tell stories that happen in the nexus - and they could even be used as tutorials to educate the playerbase.

We had so much fun making Escape from Braxis and Deadman’s Stand – those brawls took the team back to our StarCraft II and Warcraft III campaign roots and let us combine our favorite things from Heroes with those games that we all loved making and playing so much. All of your excitement and feedback on those brawls was super helpful to us, and while I don’t have any info on future PvE content to talk about now, those brawls will return at times – so please keep the feedback coming and we’ll see what the future holds for them.

About the xp changes, I am concerned about maps who are known to have weak objectives in the early game. The prime example is Infernal Shrines where it isn’t rare that people just ignore the first objective (at least in proplay) and soak instead.

With the upcoming xp changes it seems to me that on similar maps it becomes the standard strat to just ignore objectives and go to soak because even if you lose the fort and towers the enemy won’t gain a big advantage from it. The objective simply isn’t strong enough to be worth it.

How did the xp changes play out during your tests in that regard or do you even have plans to tweak some objectives to counteract that issue?

Our internal testing has been very positive with these changes. We’ve been testing with the experience and catapult updates for months and have iterated on the exact numbers for quite some time. As far as updating specific maps, this is something we will absolutely do where necessary. A couple major goals we have on our Battlegrounds are:

  • Keep match lengths right around 18-20 minutes. We have historical data for all of our Battlegrounds and if we see match length increase on any specific map such as Infernal Shrines, we can easily react to this.
  • Map objectives should always feel impactful to contest, and teams should want to strategize around how to best win these events. While we think it’s okay to have some one-off or specific strategies where a team may focus on other objectives on the battleground such as pushing lanes, this is not the norm. If this became the common way to play a specific Battleground, we’d take a second look. Basically, teams shouldn’t feel like it’s the wrong decision to focus on map objectives.

Overall we feel like replacing an experience gain from destroying enemy structures with a Catapult for destroying Forts is a win. This creates a new unique mechanic that encourages strategic decision making instead of just propelling a team that’s already ahead to have an even larger stat lead. We’re excited to see how the community and pro teams will play around this update and are of course looking to your feedback once you’ve had a chance to play with it!

The Janitor Leoric skin looks awesome, is there any plan to collect the skin design from community next year?

Janitor Leoric has been on the radar for so long and we were SO excited to have the chance to bring him to the Nexus. While we presently have no plans for sourcing skins from the community, the collaboration was so much fun that I think it's definitely possible in the future.

How will draft order work for 2019? Would the combined HL/TL be in order or First Come First Serve? Will we get hero swaps?

Hey ChaosOS, with the updates to ranked play in 2019 we will be using the First Come First Serve pick option. We’ve seen really positive feedback and results with this in Team League and think it’s the right direction forward for all ranked play. FCFS addresses much of the feedback we’ve seen including letting a team pick top meta heroes early on in the draft, or allowing a player with a smaller hero roster to pick earlier on in the draft. We won’t be adding hero swaps with this.

Will the combined TL/HL use our HL or TL ranks to start?

Another solid question! Rank points are going away, so placement and progress in the new ranked ladder will depend entirely upon your MMR. Let’s talk about reseeding. We’re still discussing some of the specifics for the process, but we’re considering taking the most recent average that we have for the player across both queues and to use that as the base MMR. Once we have this information we’ll perform a soft-reset of the ladder, which will normalize players into reasonable starting positions for the new ranked mode. We’ll be sure to have a blog post go out alongside these changes explaining the process in detail.

/u/Blizz_Joe how will this affect players who have very high mmr in Hero League but their Team League mmr is vastly lower? In an extreme case, you could have someone who is a Grandmaster in HL but gold in TL since they don't play it often. This means they could be seeded in diamond or platinum despite being a high performing player. It seems unfair to penalize players for exclusively playing one mode.

I think it’s fair to say that there will be some special cases and extra logic necessary to arrive at the final MMR that we will use for the soft reset into the new ranked mode. Number of games played, and recency of those games will play a role in the MMR we arrive at. A blog post will explain the entirety of the process at a later date.

TLV hasn't seen any love in a long time for a lot of reasons. Now that the team has been working through so many reworks when can we expect some changes to them?

The Lost Vikings are on our radar, but they won’t be receiving a major rework in the near future. We could easily look to give them some balance updates in a more timely manner though. TLV remains a hero that a small but very passionate group of players plays, and we definitely want to make sure that any major rework we do embraces what players love about this character while providing new ways to think about them.

Can Mecha Tassadar get an updated mounting animation?

Right now he just uses the generic "rub my hands together till I mount up" animations, but he's got this really cool unique mount that'd be awesome to have an accompanying longer animation switching to.

"rub my hands together till I mount up" THAT'S THE MAGIC OF THE NEXUS.

For real, though, this is definitely his general 'Channel' animation. We have a list of heroes and animations that need some animlove that we try to go back to and update whenever we have a spare minute. Valla recently got a new hearth animation. Jimmy finally stabby-stabs with that giant bayonet. The balancing act between creating new content and revisiting the old is a tough one, but it's definitely on our radar.

Are consistency passes and formats for tooltips planned?

i.e List the AA damage, duration and health of any summoned unit.
Any ability that can target all units except for structures should specify "Non-Structure target", like the new Hunter's Mark does
Change tooltips with wording like "recently" (like ETC's Pinball Wizard) to specify numbers
Standardize 'X damage every Y seconds up to Z seconds' instead of 'X damage over Z seconds'
Come up with a format for quests with incremental rewards / infinite rewards / passive benefits and apply it globally
Stick to saying "increase from X% to Y%" instead of "Z% more" when the original ability is described with percentages (i.e Alexstrasza's Verdant Flourish, D.va's Bring It On)

I guess another part to this question is - where should I post tooltip suggestions for specific instances?
Like how Lunara's Leaping Strike mentions the brief 80% slow but Illidan's Dive doesn't,
Orphea's Determination doesn't mention that it's against the next received spell,
D.va's Pro Moves doesn't mention the decaying stacks unlike Baelog the Fierce, etc etc etc

Thanks for the question, Zanzure. If you ever have feedback or suggestions, the Blizzard forums are the best place to post them, but we also read Reddit to pick up on community topics too.

The short answer is: We're always trying to update our tooltips, and work as a team to try and keep them consistent. We take note of irregularities that make a significant impact on player understanding when we see them, and typically fix the bugs in a batch.

In terms of specific responses, I'll do my best to tackle our perspective on them. Broadly, I know that players like knowing a ton of information (I'm one of them), but too much can feel overwhelming for people learning, and make the game feel cluttered.

  • "Recently" versus specific numbers
    • We've decided to be vague for any delay or cast time less than .5 seconds. The idea is that often times these cast times aren't a huge part of the ability, and most humans won't make a distinction between .1875 seconds and .3125 seconds. Even then, you'll typically use that ability once or twice and figure out the timing (and giving that information rarely speeds up the process from the get go).
    • We've heard the community feedback that they'd like some way to toggle more or less information in these tootlips, and it's something that we've been discussing internally. There are pros and cons to maintaining a system like this, but it's something that we think is worth considering.
  • Standardization of format
    • Overall, you're right that formats should be standardized between like-minded Talents. When we're making new Talents or Abilities, we try and maintain a similar format, though occasionally we decide that it reads better in a different format (or we make a mistake . . . it happens).

D.Va's talent tree feels like it comes from another era, and she's seen a rework in Overwatch since her release in heroes. If D.Va were to get a rework, would she get Micro Missiles?

D.Va is due for a few updates to her Talent tree. We've started preliminary work on her kit to reinforce her role as a Bruiser. We're off to an exciting start, but it's likely that she won't be ready for release until maybe the middle of the next year.

She's not planned for a full fledged "rework" at this point, but incorporating something like Micro Missiles into her kit alongside some Talent updates is likely.

When Overwatch updates their Heroes, we're exciting to see what they've done and we draw inspiration from it if they've made changes to a Hero that already exists in Heroes of the Storm. But once a Hero has been released in Heroes we never feel required to mirror any changes the Overwatch team makes, as they've taken on a life of their own in the Nexus.

I think your solutions is a very elegant decision that will make ranked mode experience more straightforward while actually still keeping it the way it is being used: solo queue against solo players or normal queue without restrictions. With that in mind, I'd like to ask a few things related to this merging:

At the moment we’re considering using a single, unified MMR that works for the new ranked mode. Players who have reached the leaderboard will be able to view their performance in solo-only queues separate from the standard queue. We understand the concern over smurfs in team league and how that might impact the integrity of the ladder.

[PARTY RESTRICTIONS?] With the previous issue in mind, have you considered adding restrictions between ranks/MMR-ranges that can team up together for ranked play? For example, a GM MMR player being unable to team up with a fabricated bronze account due to the huge MMR discrepancy.

Party restrictions as well as hero ownership/level restrictions will return with the release of the new ranked mode, perhaps even sooner than that. The one big change we’re planning on making here is that if you queue as a group of five we will remove these party restrictions, but set the party MMR to match the most skilled player in the party. In this way a GM can play with their bronze friends… but they’re going to get matched up against other GM teams.

[SWAPS / DRAFT ORDER?] In the past you guys mentioned being hesitant of adding swaps into HL draft as it could lead to toxicity and implementing it in an elegant way as a challenge. After the success in the new Team League draft mode where pick order is not pre-established, have you considered adding it to Solo League as well as a subtle way of letting people "swap"? I know that many "heavy" HL players and pros have been sad this feature is still not implemented or talked about.

First Come First Serve pick type has been quite successful so far. We’ve discussed adding it into Hero League in the interim before the new ranked mode is released.

In What's Next panel this year, the battleground updates are less mentioned. Any plans for new battlegrounds next year? In additional, We really like the map features and variety, by any chance the day/night change of Garden of Terror will return?

Continuing to update Battlegrounds remains a focus for our team. In 2018 we had the pleasure of finally bringing a WarCraft battleground to the Nexus through Alterac Pass and this was a really great moment for the game and community. It’s also important for us to continue to revisit existing Battlegrounds and our team was passionate to rework both Hanamura Temple and Garden of Terror. We learn so much more about content after it’s been live, and we want to use that player feedback and new knowledge to make our existing Battlegrounds even better.

For the day/night cycle specifically on Garden of Terror: We had received a lot of feedback that the extended periods of darkness could be straining on player’s eyes and overall made the map not as pleasurable to play on. Alongside the gameplay updates, this was a major focus for us when reworking this Battleground. We wanted to keep the theme and thematic feel of a darkened period while softening how bleak the Battleground could feel. Overall, we’re pretty happy with where Garden of Terror ended up but will continue to look at player feedback and we can absolutely make changes in the future ?

How did the team decide whether or not to include heroes in multiple roles, eg Zarya in Support and Bruiser, or Greymane in Ranged and Melee Assassin?

We’ve gone through some iteration on the design side for the role update. Early on we had discussed placing specific characters into multiple categories, so Zarya could be considered both a Support and a Bruiser, or Varian could be a Bruiser, Melee Assassin, and Tank. As we got further into development on the role system, we made the decision to place characters into a single category that would best represent their role on a team. Part of this decision is because we’re still planning to add a “Tag” system in the future. Basically, tags would coexist alongside the role system and provide further, more granular information about a character and their strengths.

Will we be able to obtain boosts from loot chests?

Yes indeed!

Abathur's talent tree has consistently led new eras of design, but he hasn't received a rework since he gained Monstrosity as a second heroic. Does the team believe Abathur needs a rework?

We’re currently looking at doing a small update to Abathur to address some pro player feedback surrounding Regenerative Microbes and Sustained Carapace. Basically, Abathur is probably providing too much healing so early in the match and this is incredibly powerful at higher levels of play. This will most likely take place in a smaller balance patch but as we dive into Abathur we may look for other ways that we can improve his talent tree and overall gameplay in the future. We don’t currently have a rework planned for Abathur though.

Hey guys, so much loveeeee this game, thanks for all hard work and your passion. When I heard latest gameplay changes at Blizzcon, it HYPEd me a lot, so excited keep it up good work.

also Janitor Leoric and Kevin Johnson announcer is amazing this little things that you guys create request from community things showing how you guys listening and care us. Thanks

My Question is when we get Khaldor and Carbot Announcer plus Carbot stick horse mount?

Kaeo hope we can see you as a Game Director you deserved, love your passion for this game.

Matt our content progress awsome thank you

Kevin you are doing amazing job and your announcer will be one of my best

Kyle one of your latest baby orphea is so awsome nice work

Lana love your animations they are soooooo great

and I didn't see Kent Erik Hagman at Blizzcon hope he is doin well.

Aww, /u/malkijan, thanks so much for your support!!

I'm a game producer and team leader though-and-through, so while my responsibilities overlap and intersect with those of a Game Director at times, I'm staying focused on my current role as Production Director and will continue to rely on our talented, experienced Lead Designers like Matt Cooper and Joe Piepiora to drive the design vision for Heroes' content and systems while we search for the perfect Game Director to join our leadership team.

As for announcers…we've been having more and more fun with these - from in-game characters to out-of-game personas - and I'd love to see us get more of our community and esports personalities in the mix!

And Jon from Carbot has been providing us with so many awesome portraits and sprays. We would LOVE to get the stick horse mount in time…stay tuned!!

Will you change the hero release schedule this year? In one of the interviews I read that with new director(Kaeo Milker) you are going to release multiple heroes in one update. There was also said that the time between these releases will be increased.

Hi, /u/matrix123mko! I’m not sure which interview you’re referring to, but there may have been a misunderstanding as I don’t recall speaking to any planned changes to our hero cadence. I do keep talking about how much we’re enjoying our current cadence of alternating between a new hero and a pair of meaningfully-reworked heroes (all with awesome themed events popping up along the way!)…perhaps that was where the confusion came from? That cadence is feeling really good to me as both a developer and a player, so my current desire is to stick with that for the foreseeable future. Thanks!!

Orphea is live in PTR, it seems that her sustain and burst are very powerful. Her abilities cooldown are short and even can be reduced by talents. Will she be nerf when the live servers updated? We don't want she always be banned in rank mode.

We have a couple of balance changes lined up for Orphea when she hits live servers that didn't quite make it into the PTR build. Specifically, we're looking to increase the base cooldown of Shadow Waltz and reduce the power of the Ravenous Hunger and Eldritch Conduit talents. While it was fun to see how much damage players were able to build Chomp up to, we felt those talents were overperforming, and we're excited to see what other builds and playstyles players will come up with when she is finally released in the Nexus. ?

Nooo please don't nerf her cooldowns I love to spam abilites ! T.T
I would argue to make her more vulnerable, this way the opposing team can do something about her but she still can do tons of damage if left unchecked and if her abilites land.

To be more specific, we're only increasing the cooldown by 1 second, and it will only affect Shadow Waltz if you miss. So, if you continue to hit heroes with Shadow Waltz, the cooldown will still set it to 2 seconds. ?

How does the team feel about enemy player names during draft? There's been a lot of discussion about the "proliferation of 1tricks in GM", and the reality of size of the GM ladder is that it's still incredibly easy to stream snipe drafts if someone wanted to.

So this is a great question. Originally this change was made alongside another one that prevented players from inspecting the profile of members of the opposing team. This was done, in part, to prevent lower-ranked players from having their one or two characters banned out from beneath them while they’re still improving. With that change in place we definitely have seen a slow rise in one trick players reaching high diamond and even masters. We agree that it’s a problem and plan to once again allow you to see the names of the players on the opposing team, but we still won’t allow profile inspection. We think this protects the lower-ranked players, who have far larger pools of competitors to play with, while allowing high ranked players to ability to eventually identify that one guy who picks Artanis in every single draft.

The upcoming QM changes will help with learning the standard game with always having a tank/support/ranged, but HotS as a game has one defining element over other MOBAs: Maps. Not knowing the map you are going to be on in advance is still a huge detriment, particularly for non-generalist heroes. Are there any plans to let people know which map they'll be queuing onto in some way? 

Hey CavalierGuest, that’s a good question. It’s something we’ve discussed internally but we don’t have any plans to make changes as of yet. We love that Quick Match is a casually competitive experience where players can select a hero they want to play and quickly hop into a match. At the same time, we understand that more specialized characters may have a harder time on specific Battlegrounds, for example, Abathur plays very different on Battlefield of Eternity then he does on Cursed Hollow. 

We’re not sure this needs to be addressed but I am curious how you would expect this to function? We’ve discussed allowing players to queue as a specific role in QM and then view the map before locking in their hero. We’ve also discussed things like having a single map available for a small window of time and you queue knowing which Battleground it is ahead of time. Both of these require a significant amount of work though, so we’re cautious of spending a large amount of development time on this.

It’s important to remember that there are a variety game modes available that each offer a different experience. Players who are looking for a more competitive experience already have multiple draft modes to choose from. I 100% agree that having multiple Battlegrounds is a key part of the Heroes experience which is awesome. We do want to make sure that this is not adding an additional barrier for new users to approach though, so it’s something we’re always discussing and exploring across the entire experience.

Can you explain some of the decision making that went into making Orphea float rather than walk?

It lends a better effect to her animations as it almost always prevents accidental animation cancellation by moving, and I was wondering why this decision was specifically made for her. 

Bonus question: what's the best hue of red?

A few reasons:

Most notably, the first concept I ever saw of Orphea she was floating, much as she is in game. 

I can't explain to you how excited I was to work on this hero. Seeing her for the first time -- the posing, the attitude, the crazy monster... everything about it felt RIGHT to me! It was such a special moment for me, and it was a feeling I wanted to share with all of you.

While I went to put her in motion, it also allowed me to be very graceful with her movement. Early concepts for the RavenLord's daughter depicted her as a dancer, and while we didn't keep that motif visually, we were very drawn to elegant movement. Running/walking is naturally a higher-impact motion. That means there has to be a lot more jangling and jostling of the relic, which I think could be very distracting -- especially because it is so large.

Giving her the capacity to float allowed us to have her motion to be smoother and more vibrant than if she were walking around.

That said -- she definitely CAN walk around! She just chooses to float (because if you were that powerful, who WOULDN'T choose to float) If you leave combat for a while/float on the spot for a bit, she will actually descend back to her feet and then take a running start to get back up in the air again. ?

Bonus: Crimson.

Will you buff Malthaels ultimate "Tormented Souls"? Right now it's a 80 sec cd AOE applier. Maybe give him physical armor during the ultimate to excel vs. physical attackers? He could become "ethereal" like during the ultimate with +30 physical armor? Or maybe a Passive that does more dmg to his Reaper's Mark?

We're still discussing ways to make Tormented Souls better. Both of your ideas are things that have been thrown around, and align with the way that we're thinking about the Heroic. The team has been busy preparing for BlizzCon, but I'd expect to see some changes in the coming months to reduce the Heroic effectiveness disparity.

Can we get a proper age for Orphea? And will the next comic explain what her magic is besides 'ancestral/dead'? I'm wanting to write things involving her and would like to know as much as possible!

Orphea is a teenager; with the main value there being the acknowledgement of this being a time in her life where she's defining her beliefs as she steps into adulthood (and now, hero-hood!)

When we talk about her magic as being ancestral or familial . . . we're describing the magic of her heritage -- the practices of her people. When the Raven Lord refers to it as "dead magic," he's actually being judgmental about a practice of power he believes is inferior, antiquated, and presently beneath him. In his mind, he has moved far beyond the familiar magic of his lineage and deeper into power uniquely accessible to him as a Realm Lord.

Orphea's ability to use this magic was not something the Raven Lord fostered in her, but something she stumbled/emerged into naturally. If anything, Orphea's open embrace of this magic is something she knows her father will disapprove of; she's had a trial/error approach to the growth of her power (and likely some under-the-table help from family fixtures like Neeve, who we introduced in the Orphea comic). Interestingly enough, we had to cut a line in the trailer where Oberon mocked Orphea for carrying the relic on her back, going so far as to say she was being "ridiculous." This is not how one would typically draw power from a relic under traditional family rules. However, this is how Orphea makes it work for herself, and it's the best way she knows. I just love that! It feels right to her, so she's willing to make a "fool" of herself and carries herself -- and her relic -- in the best way she knows how. ❤️

Could you tell us a bit some of the major steps in making Orphea and the big changes you made of her design?

Early in Orphea's design, we had some concept art that portrayed her as a dancer, so her initial base kit design had elements of dancing in it. We loved the idea of dancing in and out of combat, so initially, her Q ability (Shadow Waltz) forced her to dash forward, and her W ability (Chomp) caused Orphea to be knocked back baseline (similar to her level 4 talent Backbiter). We really loved this gameplay style, but one of our goals for Orphea was for her to be approachable by players of all skill levels. Having an ability that forced you to dash forward was causing some players to constantly overextend or miss their Shadow Waltz entirely, since there was a deadzone between the dash and damage areas.

So we took a step back and decided to let the player control the dash direction by moving it to the end of the ability instead of the front. We added a delay before the damage to match the timing the ability had when the dash was at the beginning. This felt great and the team really loved it, but now that she could control her dash direction it felt like she had a bit too much mobility with the knockback on Chomp being baseline. There were also situations where you would be chasing down a low health enemy but your highest damage ability (Chomp) would force you backwards, causing you to miss out on the kill. So we decided to remove the knockback from the ability, but we had so much fun with it that we wanted to keep it in the form of a talent, which is what you see today!

What was the hardest part about animating a brand new hero with no backstory like other Heroes from Warcraft,SC,Diablo? Making brand new abilities and animations must be tough when this is the very first time anybody has seen her. Chomp is my favorite looking animation from Orphea and I think you all did a very great job!

Thank you so much for your kind words. Chomp is my favourite, too. 

The hardest part of animating the hero with no backstory was understanding the connection between her, her own magic, and the relic magic. 

I think magic in a lot of fantasy genres is taken for granted -- or rather, folks are more keen to suspend their disbelief -- simply because it's been seen so many times. i.e. "Of course he can control lightning, he's a lighting mage." Or, in the case of Blizzard History: "Of course he controls lightning, he's Thrall."

For Orphea, these questions aren't answered yet. We see a concept of a young woman with some sort of armoire on her back and a giant purple monster. With teeth. What does this mean? Is it going to eat her? Is she controlling it? Is it controlling her? HOW does she control it? WHAT is it?

At the beginning, the list of questions was daunting and seemingly endless. Even when we started answering some of them, the team was, for a time, stuck in a little bit of choice paralysis. The excitement of working on an entirely new hero had the team wanting to make not just something, but the best thing. In the end, piecing together the lore helped to inform us of what the best thing was for Orphea. We answered all our questions and could finally get to making badass artwork. When you know a character inside an out, the animation comes easy.

If you want to see a little bit more about this process, you should scope out the Heroes Deep Dive panel on the virtual ticket! Thank you for your question!

What would you say is the biggest misstep? Or, what was your biggest learning experience? What are you most proud of?

I don't really have any big missteps (insert sunglasses emoji, here), but my personal biggest learning experience as a dev has been two things: 

1 - If you think you are communicating enough, you aren't 

2 - Kindness is integral to success 

'Work,' (as in the standard definition of a full-time job) is kind of nuts, when you think about it. No matter what your gig is, seeing the same folks every day, for 40 hours a week -- that's insane! Humans are naturally selfish creatures. It's easy to assume that everyone is on the same page as you (somehow), and that could easily result in not properly communicating your ideas, wants, or needs. This makes more work for other people, or things slip through the cracks, or just generally puts unnecessary stress onto your team as a whole, which sucks. Tension like that can lead to a team forgetting that we're making games - and you gotta have fun to make fun. Being transparent and kind to those around you makes life easier for everyone, and happier people create better, more beautiful work.

Fortunately, this has not been my experience on the Heroes team!

As such, I think my greatest success (aside from working on Orphea, herself) is the privilege of working with and getting to know the folks on the Orphea team (and the Heroes development team as a whole). I know it sounds real sappy, but I've wanted to work at Blizzard since I was 12 years old! I've been here just about 5 years now, and I still can't possibly express the honor I feel in being able to stand up in front of the BlizzCon audience as a representative of such a loving and passionate team of people.

GETTIN' MISTY EYED JUST TYPING ABOUT IT. 

I love this game.

Will we see a fourth ban come in 2019? Does the team think it should be in the initial or middle phase?

We're not investigating adding a fourth ban in 2019. We'll continue to evaluate the need for a fourth ban leading into 2020.

In the Fall of King's Crest event, the Raven Lord killed the gosh-dang Dragon Knight.

Are we going to a new battle ground, maybe a variant of Dragon Shire, to reflect the current state of the place?

There are no plans to change how Dragon Shire plays or to present a new version of the Battleground, but you may have seen that we're pushing forward some visual updates and an announcer update on DS that will tie together some of these story elements. Fun stuff!

Whose idea was it to put such a classic stylized S on Orphea's locker in her RCHS skin ? (By the way, RCHS stands for Raven Court High School, right ?)

Raven *Crest, actually.

While the whole team had a lot of fun with our favourite absurdities from highschool, I think it must have been Oscar was the one who put the classic 's' on there.

The Raven Crest High theme is possibly my favourite thing in the game. I drew probably the ugliest piece of concept art to pitch the skin to one of our concept artists, Oscar Vega, on a whim. Oscar - angel on earth and a superstar talent - saw the potential in the skin and fleshed it out into what it is today. Our amazing character artist Vadim tolerated our various adolescent whims as we relived highschool developing the skin, and now many of the silly inside jokes and shoutouts to our teenage years appear in the various decals on her different lockers.

This year every game except Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm had a game director/member of the leadership team on stage at the Opening Ceremony to make announcements about their game. In past years Kaeo (and Dustin Browder in the years before him) had done a great job of being enthusiastic and informative about new content and changes coming to the game, and really trying to “sell” the game to general Blizzard fans in the audience. That felt lacking this year as the 2 videos were introduced and then the HotS section was quickly done. In short, why didn’t HotS have anyone from the team representing it on stage this year?

Hi, /u/Ryzor99! This was largely an effort to help with the timing of the show, but we were also honored to have JAB speak to the game. He’s a huge fan of Heroes and has been a constant presence at our esports events since the early days. While I would have loved to be up there again sharing my own passion for the game with everyone, Overwatch did something similar with Mike announcing Sombra two years ago and the team and I were still very excited to have J introduce Orphea and our two videos in front of that amazing BlizzCon audience. The reaction to our content in the halls was still fantastic, so ultimately, the content needs to speak for itself. Thanks for the question!

What are the plans regarding ranked decay? Will it be enabled for possibly both MMRs? Will there be MMR decay for players in placements?

So the MMR Decay system has been doing its work quietly and well for some time. We understand the community’s desire to see us get far more aggressive with the application of decay. After the new ranked mode is in place we’ll be making some adjustments to allow for decay to occur regardless of placement status.

I'm excited that HotS gets its first hero to bring to the Blizzard universe, but I feel like there was a bit of a missed opportunity to introduce her through a mini PvE chapter in-game. Is this something that you guys considered, or something we might see in the future?

We actually did consider this and look into implementation - anything to get the story (however small...) more directly into the game. Unfortunately, we just couldn't get it done alongside everything else we were committed to.

Any plan to bring other Blizzard Classic (Blackthorne, R&R Racing,...) heroes? The Lost Vikings were released years ago.

There is an astoundingly long list of heroes that we want to bring to life in Heroes, and in the end there are a few determining factors:

1 - Gameplay needs. What roles do we have that we want to fill at the time and what heroes would successfully fit into that fantasy.

2 - What the community is excited about! (duh) Everyone seems to have their favorite hero that has yet to arrive. The idea is that eventually, everyone is going to have their most favorite thing to play accessible to them in the Nexus.

3 - What we, as developers, are excited about, which is really just driven by the two points above! In the end, when we're hype about what we're working on, it ultimately creates better content for you to enjoy!

What do you think about giving incentives for player to do Unranked draft instead of QM? The current state of game modes is that Unranked draft gives players less benefits compared to any other mode, you get more XP in ranked modes and you can get more games for the time played in QM as it doesn't have draft phase. I think a thing that looks fair is to give a flat XP bonus for players of all draft modes (e.g. 25k xp, half a win bonus).

Hey, great question. At the moment we’re fairly satisfied with the state of Unranked Draft and don’t believe we need to be adding incentives to get players into URD matches. URD has the benefit of advancing daily quests, without the added anxiety of ranked play. We’ll continue to look at URD after Call of the Nexus goes live later this month and consider changes based upon the reaction.

Do you consider to create some PVE brawl like game modes to introduce more of HOTS lore ? So far the lore of HOTS seem to be quite dull. More adventures and interactions between the current roster of Heroes would be more appealing to some of us.

We'd love to tackle more brawls for sure, but as with everything it just comes down to priorities.

Totally understand the critique of the story elements put forward this year. As game-makers, it was a unique challenge telling stories outside of the gameplay experience. That being said, we're gluttons for punishment...and we knew we wanted to do whatever we could on two fronts this year (one actually in service to the other):

  • Publicly reaffirm and solidify a narrative framework for the Nexus
  • Give Orphea a narrative foundation to stand on

The team was so excited to dive into the lore of the Nexus, but to make it more feasible, the scope of the story this year had to be pretty tightly focused.

First I want to say that I can feel lots of effort have been made to animate Orphea's abilities. They're really unique. That said, while I have yet to actually test Orphea (or even face her), judging from the spotlight video I am slightly concerned whether her animations being that spectacular and thick black might hinder the fight readibility in cluttered space (or simply when there are more than a couple of heroes and they actually fight back - unlike the hero spotlight video).

So, my question will be : did you have reports about Orphea's animations bringing particular issues either in PTR or internal testing ? What are the complications/limitations there might be working on VFX/ability design with a color scheme and thematic such as hers ?

While designing new heroes, visual clarity and team fight readability is always super important to us. When we add new abilities to the game, it's important to ensure that enemies and allies can understand what is happening around them. It's always tricky to balance FX and animations between looking amazing and reading well. 

Each of Orphea's abilities have delays which allow them to have a moment to draw attention and stand out from the other FX going on. Since we do have a lot of purple/black FX in the game (Zagara Creep, Cho'Gall, Sylvanas, Gul'dan), it was important for us to distinguish Orphea's FX from them, and we felt like Orphea's "magenta-heat" magic that controls the "purple-black chaos" helps her abilities stand out from those even more. 

As of now, we feel like Orphea is in a good place but we're always listening to feedback and keeping our eye on overall readability of the game!

Is Orphea's toothy appearance to her magic simply how she chooses to portray it? If she was of the mind could it be something simple like arcane appearing? Or is the eldritch aesthetic simply part of her bloodline's magic?

It's a subconscious manifestation of her deepest feelings. Perhaps if Orphea were to feel less internally conflicted the magic might appear differently, but as it is it's not necessarily a choice!

Orphea looks like a great deal of fun, and I've enjoyed trying her on PTR, but I’m curious about the decision to make her the sole Blizzcon hero this year. Among the general Blizzard community in the main stage audience the reaction was very muted compared to years past with announcements of heroes they knew like Alexstraza or Ragnaros (a lot of “who is that?”). I have no objection to Nexus original heroes in general, but what went into the decision to make Orphea the Blizzcon hero? Was it felt she needed a "bigger stage" to legitimize her to people who don't want Nexus originals in the game?

To me it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to not announce an iconic Blizzard hero to that specific audience of general Blizzard fans who may not play HotS and need to be “sold” on it. Last year I felt Hanzo and Alex struck a great balance between appealing to newer Blizzard fans who were brought onboard by Overwatch and older fans who have been immersed in Warcraft lore for decades. Even with the slower hero release schedule meaning there would be a long wait between them, was there any consideration of announcing or teasing a 2nd hero along with Orphea this year to achieve that balance in exciting all parts of the Blizzard/HotS fandom?

Hey Ryzor99ETC! Glad you had a good time playing Orphea!

The decision to make her the sole BlizzCon hero was based on several factors. This year, we knew we would be bringing our final Blizzard universe (Warcraft) into the Nexus with the Alterac Pass Battleground and we had a huge lineup of highly requested heroes that were being added to the game as well, so it felt like this was the best time for us to go back to our roots and introduce a Nexus-born hero. This gave us the opportunity to really dig into Orphea's character at our Deep Dive panel and explain our thought processes and reasoning for why we chose to make her, where normally that focus is split between two heroes. This year was a celebration of Heroes, so we thought it'd be cool to introduce the first ever Nexus-born Hero at Blizzcon to cap off such a cool year!

Another factor is that a large portion of our playerbase isn't necessarily familiar with all of Blizzard's universes. Some players, for example, only play World of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm. They may get really excited when we release a hero like Mal'Ganis or Whitemane, but aren't really sure who Mephisto is or why he's special. With Orphea, we all finally have a hero that, collectively, we can call "ours" -- as she is born from the Nexus. This is a hero that Heroes of the Storm players can put their passion behind and be excited about, similar to when a hero from your favorite Blizzard game comes to the Nexus!

Finally, we will continue to bring iconic Blizzard heroes to the Nexus throughout 2019 and beyond. Heroes of the Storm is a game where Blizzard universes clash and we will continue to embrace that as we move forward!

How will the cloaken/Kevin announcer be treated for other languages, whose Spotlights are not dubbed? Will the announcer be dubbed, or will it stay in English?

Hey there! Our current plan is to just keep this announcer as the single English version at the moment. We did spend some time trying to figure out how localization should be approached here, but in the end we felt that it made the most sense to follow the trail forged by El Guapo.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Vikings are fine...

 

i also see no need of a rework, i still rock a 100% winrate in ranked with them, they are just situationl...

 

but blizz need to take action againat toxic players even more...

 

i love to play tassadar now in hero league and i get insulted all the time before the game even started ...

  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
32 minutes ago, Sombra said:

Vikings are fine...

 

i also see no need of a rework, i still rock a 100% winrate in ranked with them, they are just situationl...

 

but blizz need to take action againat toxic players even more...

 

i love to play tassadar now in hero league and i get insulted all the time before the game even started ...

It doesn't matter that you have a perfect winrate on Vikings, it doesn't change the fact they only work on 2 maps. If pickrate is low, blizz wants to change that and vikings are the apotheosis of low pickrates. And the Tass argument is simply because Tass is a bit of everything and people would rather take more of one thing. Need shields? pick Zarya. Need healing? pick an actual healer. Need Tassadar but already have damage? Pick Medivh. It's just he's an awkward character because he's a jack of trades great at nothing. 

 

Finally, yeah, people in this game are constantly at each other throats. Still, Dota, Overwatch, and League are worse in that category. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

  • Similar Content

    • By Stan
      The Heroes of the Storm Collection just got a fresh update with the latest content update. Check out what's new!
      Corrupted Archangel Diablo returns along with the Hopeful Spirit Healer Auriel skin. For mounts, the Golden Lunar Skyrocket and Sleepy Cloud have made a return. You can explore the updated Collection at The Nexus Compendium.
    • By Staff
      A new Heroes of the Storm patch went live today and here are the official patch notes for the update.
      (Source)
      The next Heroes of the Storm patch has arrived! Dive on in for more information.
      NOTE: Orange text indicates a change between PTR and Live notes.
      Quick Navigation:
      General Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Added XP given to enemy display. This will show up as purple floating text for the player that had their Hero slain. Return to Top
      Balance Update
      Heroes
      Li Li Jug of 1,000 Cups healing increased from 66 to 75. Medivh Mage Armor duration increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds. Mage Armor increased from 30 to 40 Armor. Nova Advanced Cloaking bonus mana regen increased from 3 to 6. Anti-Armor Shells duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an anchor offset on Hero Select display. Fixed an issue that caused Shielding to not be displayed correctly in the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused Hellbats and Gnolls to reduce the Armor of enemies before damage was dealt. Fixed an issue that caused Heroes that use non-standard attack abilities to display the incorrect confirmation visuals. Certain Heroes would show a red confirmation arrow instead of a green arrow when moving. Fixed an issue that caused place of death to reveal into nearby shrubs. Fixed an issue that caused player-located cooldowns to continue refreshing after a Core is destroyed. Fixed an issue that caused Sapper Mercenaries' area warning indicator to persist after the attack has landed. Fixed an issue that caused the event count in the Death Recap to update for all players when a new death recap is created for any player. Maps
      Blackheart's Bay Chests now feature a warning indicator for the coin land location. The display happens once the coin has been launched and not prior to the coin launching. Lost Cavern Fixed an issue that caused minions to grant 1 XP for being in range of them dying. Heroes
      Abathur Evolve Monstrosity Stacks are now a Heroic Quest. Players will now be able to see how many stacks the Monstrosity has on the scoreboard, and when it has full stacks, it will display a quest complete indicator. Toxic Nest is no longer triggered by Invulnerable enemies. Alarak Fixed an issue that caused Alarak's Lightning Surge to display incorrectly at long range. Fixed an issue that caused Last Laugh to heal when they have been granted Spell leech. (Example: Nano Infusion from Ana) Ana Fixed an issue that caused Eye of Horus to hit Invulnerable Heroes. Anduin Divine Star Sword will no longer be destroyed when leaving the base during the game start period. Fixed an issue that caused Piercing Light to treat the first hit as the second. Anubarak Anubarak's Burning Beetle damage is now affected by all forms of damage modification. No longer able to use Locust Swarm while riding on the Toy Train. Updating cancel animations of Hardened Shields to be like similar visuals. Artanis Fixed an issue that caused Target Purified to deal double damage. Fixed an issue that caused Titan Killer being capable of damaging Invulnerable targets when activated from Twin Blades. Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Arthas Legion of Northrend's bonus healing is now additive. Rime now has a Block visual. Auriel Fixed an issue that caused Searing Light to not grant energy when hitting a Protected enemy. Azmodan Bombardment will no longer attack inactive Mercenaries unless the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Fixed an issue that caused Azmodan's Demon Warriors to leave permanent burning visuals if killed at the same moment they spawn. Fixed an issue that caused Tide of Sin to leave visual markers at place of death. Fixed Globe of Annihilation no longer stacking off of Possessed minions. No longer possible to cast Tide of Sin when it is already active. Blaze Fixed an issue that caused Blaze to deal bonus damage to enemies hit by another Blaze's Flame Streams. Brightwing Fixed an issue that caused Phase Shift to activate on the previous target. Butcher Fixed an issue that caused Butcher's Fresh Meat spawning meat off of Possessed minions. Cassia Updating cancel animations of Hardened Shields to be like similar visuals. Chen Fixed an issue that caused Stagger to heal when they have been granted Spell leech. (Example: Nano Infusion from Ana) ChoGall Fixed an issue that caused Enraged Regeneration to display incorrectly in the Death Recap. Deathwing Added Bellowing Roar Camera Lock. Deckard Fixed an issue that caused Ancient Blessings damage to not scale on targets if they level up while it is active. Included Potion to search text for Deckard. Dehaka Updated visuals of Spell Armor. D.Va Fixed an issue that caused Liquid Cooling to reset the fountain in ARAM incorrectly. Fixed an issue that caused Nuclear Option to trigger on an already exploded Mech. Micro Missiles no longer hits Invulnerable targets. Pilot Mode can now see the Self-Destruct charge. E.T.C. Crowd Surfer now displays floating text for mana refund. Falstad Fixed an issue that caused Falstad's Flight warning indicator to no longer display after selecting Epic Mount. Fixed an issue that caused Sustained Winds to damage invulnerable targets. Garrosh Unrivaled Strength bonus is now additive. Gazlowe Fixed an issue that caused Xplodium Bomb to not be affected by allied cooldown reduction. Genji Fixed an issue that caused Strike at the Heart to not display a damage preview. Swift Strike now displays floating text for mana refund. Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Hanzo Ignore All Distractions will now display MISSED! text in the case of Blinds. Hogger Fixed an issue that caused Hogger's Hogg Wild visual to be visible when Hogger is visible. Imperius Fixed an issue that caused Brightwing and Falstad to be at the incorrect height after Celestial Charge Stuns them and a least one other Hero. Jaina Water Elemental Frostbolts will now behave consistently with Jaina's Frostbolts. Junkrat Chattering Teeth will now chase (but not trap) Invulnerable targets. Fixed an issued that caused Chattering Teeth to apply to Arming Steel Traps when selected. Kerrigan Fixed an issue that caused Sharpened Blades to stack off of Possessed minions. Included Infested to search text for Kerrigan. Leoric Skeletal Swing mana refund now displays as a crit. Li-Ming Fixed an issue if Seeker is slected while Magic Missiles are in flight while Force Armor was selected. Fixed an issue that caused Force Armor to grant multiple stacks from the same Magic Missiles cast. Lucio Fixed an issue that caused Sound Barrier shields to not decay if Bossa Nova was slected while the target was shielded. Lunara Fixed an issue that caused Splintered Spear to not display correctly while Blinded or against an Evading enemy. Splintered Spear will no longer attack inactive Mercenaries unless the triggering attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Maiev Naisha's Memento first bounce can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the triggering attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Mal'Ganis Included Vampire to search text for Mal'Ganis. Medivh Medivh's Portal is now an invalid target for allied abilities. (Example: Brightwing's Blink Heal) Mei Fixed an issue where The Big One was not gaining the full benefit of Slushball. Mephisto Fixed an issue that caused Unspeakable Horror being temporarily disabled when the target is knocked back. Murky Egg Hunt Egg is no longer killed in one hit by Structures. Fixed an issue that caused Fishy Deal to stack off of Possessed minions. Nazeebo Fixed an issue that caused Voodoo Ritual to stack off of Possessed minions. Nova Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoy's health bars to display incorrectly after losing Protected. Orphea Fixed an issue that caused Ravenous Hunger to stack off of Possessed minions. Fixed an issue that caused Shadow Waltz to refund mana multiple times per cast. Probius Fixed an issue that caused Spawning Minerals off of Possessed minions. Included Builder to search text for Probius. Qhira Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Ragnaros Fixed an issue that caused Sulfuras Hungers to stack off of Possessed minions. Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Raynor Execute Orders now displays in the Death Recap for its Hyperion cast. Rehgar Improved Death Recap for Hunger of the Wolf. Samuro Mirage now functions like other Spell Armor Blocks. Sgt. Hammer Fixed an issue that caused Orbital BFG to not be affected by damage reduction. Pulse Detonation Core will replace Spider Mines in the recap if chosen. Spider Mines damage is now modified by Defense Matrix and Ultimate Evolution damage modifications. Spider Mines duration will continue while they are chasing. Spider Mines will no longer detonate on Invulnerable targets but will continue to chase them. Spider Mines will now display their damage when clicked in the Target Info Panel. Stitches Fixed an issue that caused Putrefaction to display floating text multiple times at once. Stukov Fixed an issue that caused Weighted Pustule to not display a damage preview. Sylvanas Fixed an issue that caused Withering Fire to display incorrectly. Tassadar Fixed an issue where Twilight Archon could use Toy Train. Khaydarin Amulet will cancel itself if the target is an inactive Mercenary. Thrall Fixed an issue that caused Echo of the Elements activating off of Possessed Minions and Hallucinations. Fixed an issue that caused Rolling Thunder to not activate from Tempest Fury's attacks. Fixed an issue that caused Wolf Pack to reset Feral Spirit on talent reset incorrectly. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that caused Nordic Attack Squad to be able to damage invulnerable targets. Fixed an issue where there health was not set to full on death. Tracer Fixed an issue that caused Get Stuffed to be capable of knocking back a target multiple times when Melee was cast in quick succession. Fixed an issue that caused Get Stuffed to knock back targets with other Heroes' Pulse Bombs placed on them. Locked and Loaded will now cause Tracer's Basic Attacks to display as Criticals when active. Ricochet can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Whitemane Included Chapeau to search text for Whitemane. Zagara Medusa Blades will no longer attack inactive Mercenaries unless the triggering attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Mutalisk first bounce can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Zarya Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks not being affected properly by attack speed modifiers. Zeratul Fixed an issue that caused Might of the Nerazim abilities to heal for more damage than intended with Shadow Mending. Zul'jin A Surprise For Ya! can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      A new Heroes patch is now available for playtesting on the PTR!
      (Source)
      Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting. We would like to take a moment to thank the community for providing insight and feedback for these changes. 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.
      Quick Navigation:
      General Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Added XP given to enemy display. Return to Top
      Balance Update
      Heroes
      Lili Jug of 1,000 Cups healing increased from 66 to 80. Medivh Mage Armor duration increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. Mage Armor increased from 30 to 50 Armor. Nova Advanced Cloaking bonus mana regen increased from 3 to 6. Anti-Armor Shells duration increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an anchor offset on Hero Select display. Fixed an issue that caused Shielding to not be displayed correctly in the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused Hellbats and Gnolls to reduce the Armor of enemies before damage was dealt. Fixed an issue that caused Heroes that use non-standard attack abilities to display the incorrect confirmation visuals. Fixed an issue that caused place of death to reveal into nearby shrubs. Fixed an issue that caused player-located cooldowns to continue refreshing after a Core is destroyed. Fixed an issue that caused Sapper Mercenaries' area warning indicator to persist after the attack has landed. Fixed an issue that caused the event count in the Death Recap to update for all players when a new death recap is created for any player. Maps
      Blackheart's Bay Chests now feature a warning indicator for the coin land location. Heroes
      Abathur Evolve Monstrosity Stacks are now a Heroic Quest. Toxic Nest is no longer triggered by Invulnerable enemies. Alarak Fixed an issue that caused Last Laugh to heal when they have been granted Spell leech. (Example: Nano Infusion from Ana) Anduin Fixed an issue that caused Piercing Light to treat the first hit as the second. Anubarak Anubarak's Burning Beetle damage is now affected by all forms of damage modification. No longer able to use Locust Swarm while riding on the Toy Train. Updating cancel animations of Hardened Shields to be like similar visuals. Artanis Fixed an issue that caused Target Purified to deal double damage. Fixed an issue that caused Titan Killer being capable of damaging Invulnerable targets when activated from Twin Blades. Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Arthas Legion of Northrend's bonus healing is now additive. Rime now has a Block visual. Azmodan Bombardment will no longer attack inactive Mercenaries unless the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Fixed Globe of Annihilation no longer stacking off of Possessed minions. Brightwing Fixed an issue that caused Phase Shift to activate on the previous target. Butcher Fixed an issue that caused Butcher's Fresh Meat spawning meat off of Possessed minions. Cassia Updating cancel animations of Hardened Shields to be like similar visuals. Chen Fixed an issue that caused Stagger to heal when they have been granted Spell leech. (Example: Nano Infusion from Ana) ChoGall Fixed an issue that caused Enraged Regeneration to display incorrectly in the Death Recap. Deathwing Added Bellowing Roar Camera Lock. Deckard Fixed an issue that caused Ancient Blessings damage to not scale on targets if they level up while it is active. Included Potion to search text for Deckard. Dehaka Updated visuals of Spell Armor. D.Va Fixed an issue that caused Liquid Cooling to reset the fountain in ARAM incorrectly. Pilot Mode can now see the Self-Destruct charge. E.T.C. Crowd Surfer now displays floating text for mana refund. Falstad Fixed an issue that caused Falstad's Flight warning indicator to no longer display after selecting Epic Mount. Fixed an issue that caused Sustained Winds to damage invulnerable targets. Gazlowe Fixed an issue that caused Xplodium Bomb to not be affected by allied cooldown reduction. Genji Fixed an issue that caused Strike at the Heart to not display a damage preview. Swift Strike now displays floating text for mana refund. Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Hanzo Ignore All Distractions will now display MISSED! text in the case of Blinds. Hogger Fixed an issue that caused Hogger's Hogg Wild visual to be visible when Hogger is visible. Imperius Fixed an issue that caused Brightwing and Falstad to be at the incorrect height after Celestial Charge Stuns them and a least one other Hero. Junkrat Fixed an issued that caused Chattering Teeth to apply to Arming Steel Traps when selected. Kerrigan Fixed an issue that caused Sharpened Blades to stack off of Possessed minions. Included Infested to search text for Kerrigan. Leoric Skeletal Swing mana refund now displays as a crit. Li-Ming Fixed an issue if Seeker is slected while Magic Missiles are in flight while Force Armor was selected. Fixed an issue that caused Force Armor to grant multiple stacks from the same Magic Missiles cast. Lucio Fixed an issue that caused Sound Barrier shields to not decay if Bossa Nova was slected while the target was shielded. Lunara Splintered Spear will no longer attack inactive Mercenaries unless the triggering attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Maiev Naisha's Memento first bounce can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the triggering attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Mal'Ganis Included Vampire to search text for Mal'Ganis. Medivh Medivh's Portal is now an invalid target for allied abilities. (Example: Brightwing's Blink Heal) Mei Fixed an issue where The Big One was not gaining the full benefit of Slushball. Mephisto Fixed an issue that caused Unspeakable Horror being temporarily disabled when the target is knocked back. Murky Egg Hunt Egg is no longer killed in one hit by Structures. Fixed an issue that caused Fishy Deal to stack off of Possessed minions. Nazeebo Fixed an issue that caused Voodoo Ritual to stack off of Possessed minions. Nova Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoy's health bars to display incorrectly after losing Protected. Orphea Fixed an issue that caused Ravenous Hunger to stack off of Possessed minions. Fixed an issue that caused Shadow Waltz to refund mana multiple times per cast. Probius Fixed an issue that caused Spawning Minerals off of Possessed minions. Included Builder to search text for Probius. Qhira Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Ragnaros Fixed an issue that caused Sulfuras Hungers to stack off of Possessed minions. Updated visuals of Spell Armor. Rehgar Improved Death Recap for Hunger of the Wolf. Samuro Mirage now functions like other Spell Armor Blocks. Stitches Fixed an issue that caused Putrefaction to display floating text multiple times at once. Stukov Fixed an issue that caused Weighted Pustule to not display a damage preview. Sylvanas Fixed an issue that caused Withering Fire to display incorrectly. Tassadar Fixed an issue where Twilight Archon could use Toy Train. Khaydarin Amulet will cancel itself if the target is an inactive Mercenary. Thrall Fixed an issue that caused Echo of the Elements activating off of Possessed Minions and Hallucinations. Fixed an issue that caused Rolling Thunder to not activate from Tempest Fury's attacks. Fixed an issue that caused Wolf Pack to reset Feral Spirit on talent reset incorrectly. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that caused Nordic Attack Squad to be able to damage invulnerable targets. Fixed an issue where there health was not set to full on death. Tracer Ricochet can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Whitemane Included Chapeau to search text for Whitemane. Zagara Medusa Blades will no longer attack inactive Mercenaries unless the triggering attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Mutalisk first bounce can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Zarya Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks not being affected properly by attack speed modifiers. Zeratul Fixed an issue that caused Might of the Nerazim abilities to heal for more damage than intended with Shadow Mending. Zul'jin A Surprise For Ya! can now bounce to inactive Mercenaries if the attack is against an inactive Mercenary. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      A new Heroes of the Storm patch has hit live servers. Check out the official patch notes for more details!
      (Source)
      Heroes of the Storm has just been updated with the patch! We would like to take a moment to thank the community for providing insight and feedback for these changes.
      Quick Navigation:
      General Maps Heroes General
      Game Camera
      Camera Follow releash timer increased from 6 seconds to 12 seconds. You can now pan the camera further away from your Hero with Camera Lock enabled before it will prevent further panning. User Interface
      Floating text display for last hits updated to golden display. Fixed an issue that allowed the Active Ability Hotkey Buttons to be dragged in the Hotkey Menu. Holding down Shift or Control will now also register as having the announcement modifier held for clicking on in the Top Bar. ARAM
      Base experience value of Experience Globes increased from 80 to 160. Experience value of Melee Minions reduced from 84 to 0. Experience value of Wizard Minions reduced from 75 to 0. Experience value of Ranged Minions reduced from 72 to 0. Observer
      Experience Globes will now be displayed as Blue for the team on the left and Grey for the team on the right. The Interface has been updated to display Misha, Olaf, Baleog, and Erik's health bars. Fixed an issue that caused D.Va's health bar in the Interface to only display the Pilot's health. Recap
      Combat Healing will no longer register Mana or Shields restored to allied Heroes as Healing. Clutch Healer will now only register healing done to Health. Protector will now register damage prevented by Protected as Protection. Return to Top
      Maps
      Alterac Pass
      Fixed an issue that caused Gnolls to reduce the armor of Evading targets. Braxis Holdout
      Fixed an issue that caused Hellbats to reduce the armor of Evading targets. Hanamura Temple
      Fixed an issue that caused the Recon Camp to have the scaling value reset when captured. Warhead Junction
      Fixed an issue that caused Hellbats to reduce the armor of Evading targets. Return to Top
      Heroes
      Abathur
      Fixed an issue that caused Envenomed Nest's Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Adrenal Overload to not apply to channeled Basic Attacks. Fixed an issue that caused Bombard Strain Locusts to not deal bonus damage to enemy Structures. Fixed an issue that caused Monstrosity to gain more than intended damage from Minion kills. Toxic Nest will no longer reveal attackers to Abathur during the Arming phase. Locust damage will no longer display as a critical against Structures. The damage bonus remains unaltered. Stab no longer reveals the area around the target and will now only reveal the target itself for 2 seconds. Spike Burst will now reveal the effected area for 0.75 seconds. Bombard Strain icon updated. Alarak
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Blade of the Highlord while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Lightning Surge now reveal the primary target for 2 seconds. Deadly Charge will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Alexstrasza
      Fixed an issue that caused Cleansing Flame to grant Alexstrasza healing equal to the bonus health provided by Dragonqueen if Dragonqueen is active when activated. Fixed an issue that caused Abundance to display the healing preview after the heal has activated. Fixed an issue that caused Preservation to display the healing preview after the heal has activated. Fixed an issue that caused Pacify and Life Unbound to activate their on-heal from Dragonqueen Basic Attacks while Alexstrasza is Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Dragonqueen Basic Attacks to not heal Invulnerable allies if they are in Alexstrasza's space. Fixed an issue that caused Cleansing Flame's cooldown to not be displayed on the talents tab of the scoreboard while Dragonqueen is active. Ancient Flame icon updated. Ana
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to grant stacks of Dynamic Optics while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Contact Healing will now only cause Biotic Grenade's Healing and Damage to display as a critical if at least 2 Heroes are hit, instead of only requiring the talent to be taken. Anduin
      Fixed an issue that caused Moral Compass to hit Invulnerable enemies. Anub'arak
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that allowed select abilities to be activated while disabled if selected during the effects of Cocoon. Chitinous Plating icon updated. Artanis
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Shield Overload to be reduced in cooldown from Basic Attacks while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Blade of a Templar to slow targets while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Reactive Parry to grant stacks of Block from Twin Blades while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Reactive Parry to not grant a stack of Block from the third strike of Twin Blades. Fixed an issue that caused Plasma Burn's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Auriel
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Reservoir of Hope to not display on the talents tab of the scoreboard as a quest talent. Sacred Sweep will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Detainment Strike will now reveal targets knocked back for 2 seconds. Crystal Aegis will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Azmodan
      Fixed an issue that caused All Shall Burn to detonate twice if Cydaea's Kiss is selected while active. Fixed an issue that caused Globe of Annihilation's warning indicator to be removed if another Azmodan's Globe of Annihilation lands nearby. Globe of Annihilation will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Blaze
      Fixed an issue that allowed select abilities to be activated while disabled if selected while inside the Bunker. Fixed an issue that caused Heat Treatment to not heal for a portion of the damage dealt by Pyromania. Basic Attack will now reveal the area for 0.75 seconds. Flame Stream will now reveal target hit for 2 seconds. Combustion will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Oil Spills created by Fuel Leak sight reduced from 7 to 1.5. Incinerator Gauntlets icon updated. Brightwing
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Easy. Fixed an issue that caused Phase Shift to heal the target briefly after arrival, instead of on arrival. Fixed an issue that caused Blink Heal to heal Vehicles when cast on them. Invisible Friends will now preview the total healing that will be provided. Unstable Anomaly area reveal duration reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds. Unstable Anomaly will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Cassia
      Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Martial Law while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Static Electricity Lightning Bolts to heal for less than intended from Ring of the Leech. Fixed an issue that caused Static Electricity Lightning Bolts to not play impact sounds. Fixed an issue that caused Static Electricty Lightning Bolts to not display as criticals against Blinded targets. Fixed an issue that caused Lightning Fury Lightning Bolts to be considered as Static Electricity Lightning Bolts. Fend will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Surge of Light will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Surge of Light will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Martial Law icon updated. Imprisoning Light icon updated. Infinite Lightning icon updated. Chen
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Medium. Fixed an issue that caused Accumulating Flame's duration increase to proc while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused the Earth Spirit's Basic Attacks to be incapable of killing Sgt. Hammer's Spider Mines. Earth Spirit's Basic Attacks will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Cho'Gall
      Fixed an issue that caused Fuel for the Flame to deal damage to targets Evading near the primary Basic Attack target. Fixed an issue that caused Fuel for the Flame to deal damage to the primary target while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Cthun's Gift to slow targets while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Consuming Blaze to not interrupt Mounts, Objective Channels, Sleeping on application. Fixed an issue that caused Molten Block's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Will of Gall is now considered a Quest talent. Fuel for the Flame will no longer always display as a critical. Consuming Blaze will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Shadowflame will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Dread Orb will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Runic Blast will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Twisting Nether will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Shadowbolt Volley will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Dread Orb will no longer grant sight into nearby Shrubs. Shadowbolt Volley will no longer grant sight into nearby Shrubs. Chromie
      Fixed an issue that caused Sand Echo Basic Attacks to activate A Proper Greeting while Chromie is Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Unravelling Sands's Spell Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Time Trouble's Armor increase to be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Shifting Sands active bonuses to be lost when slain. Fixed an issue that caused Shifting Sands to be granted before Sand Blast deals damage. Time Trap will no longer cause allies to be incapable of collecting Experience Globes while inside a Shrub for 2 seconds. Deathwing
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Death Drop's Spell Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Molten Flame's button to be highlight while Deathwing is inside a Vehicle and the bonuses from Infernus would be active. Deckard
      Fixed an issue that caused Potion of Shielding to increase Deckard's Self Healing when damage is prevented to allied Heroes. Fixed an issue that caused Horadric Staff to not be placed on cooldown while Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Rejuvenation Potion to heal Leoric while Undying is active. Fixed an issue that caused Scroll of Identify to detect targets before the first quest milestone. Ancient Blessings will now reveal the area for 0.75 seconds. Dehaka
      Fixed an issue that caused Dehaka to be immune to allied effects while Burrow is active. Fixed an issue that caused Burrow to not reveal negative effects when activated. Fixed an issue that caused Lurker Strain's knockback to be treated as a Stun. Fixed an issue that caused Lurker Strain's knockback to reveal the Dehaka while active. Fixed an issue that caused Lurker Strain's slow to reveal the target while active. Lurker Strain will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Lurker Strain no longer reveals around targets while they are being knocked back. Elongated Tongue icon updated. Diablo
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Black Soulstone's health bonuses to stack multiplicatively with other health bonuses. Fixed an issue that caused Hell Fire's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Fixed an issue that caused Dying Breath Apocalypse to display incorrectly in the Death Recap. Soul Shield icon updated. D.Va
      Fixed an issue that caused D.Va's AI to not activate Self-Destruct. Fixed an issue that caused D.Va to be ejected early if the Mech takes select types of damage after being slain. Fixed an issue that caused D.Va's Mech Basic Attacks to be capable of hitting multiple Sgt. Hammer Spider Mines at once. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks against Heroes in the bonus attack area to activate Nuclear Option while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused D.Va's scoreboard entry on the talents tab to display incorrectly when she first spawns into the battleground. Fixed an issue that caused D.Va's entry in the killfeed to display incorrectly if she is slain by a unit that has since been removed from the battleground (Example: Minions after they have been killed). Fixed an issue that caused D.Va's Hero unit reference to not be updated correctly when D.Va respawns. Ejecting from the Mech will no longer cause Pilot D.Va to be capable of collecting Experience Globes while inside a Shrub for 2 seconds. Self-Destruct will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Self-Destruct will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Big Shot will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Boosters will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Mech Basic Attacks will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Concussive Pulse will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Boosters damage will no longer display as a critical if the target is a valid bonus damage target for Rush-down. Aggression Matrix will now display floating text for the healing prevented. D.Va is now capable of pinging her Self-Destruct charge to her team. D.Va's Mech will now fill out the Death Recap when slain. E.T.C.
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Guitar Hero to increase Guitar Solo duration while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Falstad
      Fixed an issue that caused BOOMerang's Spell Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Hammerang Reactivation will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Hammerang's Returning projectile will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Selecting BOOMerang will no longer cause Hammerang's Reactivation to permanently display as a critical. Frequent Flyer icon updated. Sustained Winds icon updated. Fenix
      Phase Bomb Splash now triggers Physical Attack-limited on-hit effects(meaning Block charges being consumed, Medivh's Raven Familiar firing if the target is a Hero). Fixed an issue that caused Mobile Offensive to not activate if Fenix only moves very briefly. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to refresh Divert Power: Weapons duration while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Phase Bomb Splash will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Mobile Offensive icon updated. Singularity Charge icon updated. Offensive Cadence icon updated. Divert Power: Weapons icon updated. Garrosh
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Wrecking Ball, Into the Fray will now reveal targets hit by the landing for 2 seconds. Decimate will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Gazlowe
      Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Mecha-Lord's Armor increase while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Ark Reaktor turrets to deal increased damage. Fixed an isssue causing Gazlowe to be incapable to pinging the cooldown of EZ-PZ Dimensional Ripper to his team. Genji
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Genji's Self Healing to not increase for the full damage prevented by Deflect. Deflect will no longer reveal the area it searches for targets when Genji takes damage with Deflect active. Zanshin icon updated. Greymane
      Fixed an issue that caused Running Wild to not grant the cooldown reduction when casting Go For the Throat. Fixed an issue that caused Alpha Killer to be capable of activating on-death effects multiple times on enemies. Fixed an issue that caused Thick Skin to display duplicate Block visuals. Gul'dan
      Fixed an issue that caused Fel Flame to be visible outside of the intended area after Pursuit of Flame is completed. Fixed an issue that caused Hunger for Power's healing modifications to be disabled while under the effects of Xul's Mortal Wound. Fixed an issue that caused Hunger for Power's healing increase to not be the correct value. Hanzo
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Storm Bow to not activate Sharpened Arrowheads while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Storm Bow to activate Sharpened Arrowheads before the damage is dealt. Fixed an issue that caused Storm Bow's range bonus from charging to not be reset correctly. Hogger
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Aggro Range to grant Rage if a Structure is within the search radius of Hogg Wild. Fixed an issue that allowed targeted abilities against the Ez-Thro Dynamite unit. Fixed an issue that allowed targeted abilities against the Loot Hoard unit. Fixed an issue that allowed targeted abilities against the chunk of Meat unit. Illidan
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Unending Hatred to stop displaying bonus damage on the talents tab of the scoreboard after reaching the quest milestone. Fiery Brand icon updated. Imperius
      Holy Fervor cleave reveals the area for 0.75 seconds. Jaina
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Medium. Fixed an issue that caused Frost Bolt to deal damage on enemies behind the projectile. Fixed an issue that caused Frost Bolt to continue to deal damage after it has hit the maximum number of targets with Frost Shards selected. Frostbite Armor will now display Block visuals. Icefury Wand icon updated. Advanced Ice Block icon updated. Johanna
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Easy. Fixed an issue that caused Blessed Momentum's Attack Speed bonuses to stack multiplicatively with other Attack Speed bonuses and maluses. Fixed an issue that caused Holy Fury's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Fixed an issue that caused Blessed Shield to hit and target Invulnerable enemies. Heaven's Fury will no longer cause allies to be incapable of collecting Experience Globes while inside a Shrub for 2 seconds. Blessed Hammer will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Junkrat
      Difficulty increased from Medium to Hard. Basic Attack Splash now triggers Physical Attack-limited on-hit effects (Example: Block charges will be consumed). Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attack splash to hit Invulnerable enemies. Fixed an issue that caused Frag Launcher to hit Invulnerable enemies. Fixed an issue that caused Frag Launcher to gain more than intended damage from Hero hits. Kael'thas
      Difficulting updated from Hard to Medium. Fixed an issue that caused Gravity Lapse to hit Invulnerable enemies. Burned Flesh will now display as a critical effect. Kel'Thuzad
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Deathchill's marker to remain on the target if they gain Unstoppable. Fixed an issue that caused Power of Icecrown's active bonuses to be lost when slain. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Icy Grasp while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Hungering Cold while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused the Chilling Touch Basic Attacks to be incapable of killing Sgt. Hammer's Spider Mines. Kel'Thuzad can now attempt to cast Frost Nova over unpathable terrain. Kel'Thuzad's abilities in the command bar will no longer flash when Kel'Thuzad gains 15 stacks of Master of the Cold Dark. Kerrigan
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Assimilation to increase Kerrigan's Self Healing when Shields granted. Fixed an issue that caused Sharpened Blades to gain quest progress from Hallucination Heroes (Nova Holo Decoys, Samuro Mirror Images, Abathur Ultimate Evolutions). Ultralisk Basic Attacks will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Fury of the Swarm empowered Basic Attacks will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Fury of the Swarm will no longer reveal targets hit by the splash area. Impaling Blades will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Primal Grasp's secondary explosion will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Psionic Shift will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Kharazim
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Deadly Reach's Attack Speed bonuses to stack multiplicatively with other Attack Speed bonuses. Fixed an issue that caused Insight to grant quest progress while Blinded or if the triggering enemy is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused non-Heroes to not be revealed by Spirit Ally. Leoric
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Medium. Fixed an issue that caused Buried Alive's silence to be reduced in duration by Abolish Magic's duration reduction. Fixed an issue that caused Burning Despair's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Fixed an issue that caused Drain Hope and Drain Essence to remain active on targets after they enter a Vehicle. Leoric's Self Healing is no longer increased by Drain Essence's Undying death timer reduction. Leoric is no longer capable of activating Ossein Renewal while Undying is active. Wrath of the Bone King effect reveal duration reduced from 1 second to 0.75 seconds. Li Li
      Lightning Serpent's Bounces will now bounce to targets immune to area damage (Example: Sgt. Hammer Spider Mines). Lightning Serpent's Bounces will now target Passive targets (Example: Kharazim's Earth Ally and Spirit Ally). Li-Ming
      Fixed an issue that caused Magic Missiles to not grant stacks of Force Armor when Tal Rasha's has been selected and Magic Missiles has not granted Spell Power. Fixed an issue that caused Teleport to not be completely refunded by Critical Mass and Illusionist while Aether Walker is active. Fixed an issue that caused Magic Missiles to hit Invulnerable enemies. Lunara
      Fixed an issue that caused Invigorating Spores to be capable of activating on-death effects multiple times on enemies. Fixed an issue that caused Invigorating Spores to deal damage while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Invigorating Spores to deal damage on an attack that brings the target to full stacks of Nature's Toxin. Splintered Spear will no longer target Hidden or Neutral targets. Lt. Morales
      Fixed an issue that caused Medidrone to be capable of healing Leoric while Undying is active. Fixed an issue that caused Healing Beam to remain active on a Minion after Sylvanas has cast Possession on the Minion. Maiev
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Vengeful Knives to gain bonus damage from Physical damage while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks empowered by Umbral Bind to not grant Vengeful Knives stacks against the primary target. Fixed an issue that caused Containment Disc's Silence to be bypassable by casting an ability making the target immune to Silence as soon as the Time Stop expires. Fixed an issue that caused Bonds of Justice to stop displaying bonus damage on the talents tab of the scoreboard after reaching the quest milestone. Naisha's Memento's Bounces will now bounce to targets immune to area damage. Naisha's Memento will no longer bounce to Mercenaries that are not currently active. Mal'Ganis
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Vanquish the Weak to apply the slow before the damage is dealt. Winged Guard will now display a Block visual. Blind as a Bat will now remove any nearby reveals placed by Mal'Ganis when cast. Fel Claws will now reveal targets for 2 seconds if Blind as a Bat is not active. Necrotic Embrace will now reveal targets for 2 seconds if Blind as a Bat is not active. Echo of Doom will now reveal targets for 2 seconds if Blind as a Bat is not active. Plague Bats will now reveal targets for 2 seconds if Blind as a Bat is not active. Seeker Swarm Bats will now only reveal targets for 2 seconds if Blind as a Bat is not active. The Night Beckons icon updated. Malfurion
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Ysera's Gift to grant bonus healing while Malfurion is dead. Fixed an issue that caused Malfurion to be incapable to pinging the cooldown of Astral Communinion to his team. Malthael
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Touch of Death to display floating text for healing prevented twice. Ethereal Existence will now display a Block visual at maximum stacks. Soul Rip no longer reveals the area. Medivh
      Fixed an issue that caused the Hall of Storms to increase Raven Form's Movement Speed by more than intended. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Temporal Flux while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Using a Portal will no longer move the user's Camera. Mei
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Polar Vortex's Attack Speed malus to stack multiplicatively with other Attack Speed bonuses and maluses. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Cooling Servos while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Induce Hibernation to apply to non-Heroes. Skating Away now displays a Block visual. Mephisto
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Lightning Reaction to not be affected by damage reduction if caused by a Shade of Mephisto's Lightning Nova. Muradin
      Fixed an issue that caused Bronzebeard Rage's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to grant Perfect Storm progress while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Give Em' The Ax while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Grand Slam to grant a charge of Haymaker for each Hero that took part in the takedown. Storm Bolt will no reveal the target for 2 seconds. Muradin is no longer revealed to the enemy if unseen when Thunder Burn empowered by Thunderstrike damages an enemy. Perfect Storm quest tracker icon updated. Murky
      Fixed an issue that caused Big Tuna Kahuna's health bonuses to stack multiplicatively with other health bonuses. Fixed an issue that caused Time To Krill to heal the target Murky if they have selected Fish Tank. Fixed an issue that caused Time To Krill to not heal the applying Murky if they have selected Fish Tank. Murky no longer reveals in area around him after his Egg is slain. Octo-Grab will now reveal the target while active, instead of for a fixed 4 seconds in a 0.75 radius. Octo-Grab will now reveal the target for 2 seconds when first cast. Slime will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Pufferfish will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Nazebo
      Fixed an issue that caused Plague of Toads to hit Invulnerable enemies. Fixed an issue that allowed targeted abilities against the Plague of Toads unit. Nova
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoys to be revealed to the enemy when their border becomes visible. Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoys to reveal the area around them when slain for 1 second. Fixed an issue that caused Anti Armor Shell's Physical Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoy's damage readout in the Target Info Panel to display incorrectly with Anti-Armor Shells selected while their Basic Attack is on cooldown. Fixed an issue that caused Anti-Armor Shells to reduce the Physical Armor of the target before the damage is dealt. Triple Tap will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Precision Strike will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Explosive Snipe will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Snipe no longer reveals in an area around the target. Rapid Reprojection icon updated. Orphea
      Difficulty increased from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Eldritch Conduit to not be empowered when gaining the 10th stack. Fixed an issue that caused Eldritch Conduit's empowered to be lost when slain. Fixed an issue that caused Eternal Feast to search for dead units. Fixed an issue that caused Dead Magic to deal damage if the splashed to target is Evading. Dead Magic now reveals the area for 0.75 seconds. Probius
      Fixed an issue that caused Construct Additional Pylons to increase the damage of Pylon Overcharge by more than intended. Qhira
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Blood Rage to track units after they have been slain. Fixed an issue that caused Upstage to not be granted if the number of tracked targets is not reached due to targets dying from Blood Rage. Fixed an issue that caused Blood Rage's activation to grant a stack of Fatal Wounds. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Your Pain, My Gain while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Finishing Touch while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Finishing Touch to grant attack speed if the target is brought to below 50% of their Maximum Health. Basic Attacks no longer reveal targets hit. Swing Life Away now display Spell Armor visuals. Ragnaros
      Lava Wave will no longer collect Experience Globes (NOTE: Last hits will still function). Fixed an issue that caused Tempered Flame to increase Ragnaros's Self Healing when Shields granted. Fixed an issue that caused Cauterize Wounds to not display correctly in the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused non-Heroes to not reduce the cooldown of Blistering Attacks with Empower Sulfuras. Raynor
      Fixed an issue that caused Give em' Some Pepper damage to not display in the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused Give em' Some Pepper damage to not increase Raynor's relevant score entries. Fixed an issue that caused Give em' Some Pepper to only reveal Raynor's non-updating position if unseen when dealing damage to an enemy. Fixed an issue that caused Give em' Some Pepper to not be correctly modified by damage modification from other Heroes. Fixed an issue that caused damage dealt by Hyperion created by Execute Orders to display incorrectly in the Death Recap. Give em' Some Pepper will now reveal the area for 0.75 seconds. Rehgar
      Fixed an issue that caused Elemental Conduit to increase Rehgar's Self Healing when damage is prevented to allied Heroes. Fixed an issue that caused Colossal Totem's recast to be available for less than the duration of Earthbind Totem. Fixed an issue that caused Hunger of the Wolf to activate while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Bloodlust to not apply to channeled Basic Attacks. Rexxar
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Aspect of The Hawk's Attack Speed bonuses to stack multiplicatively with other Attack Speed bonuses and maluses. Fixed an issue that caused Misha to gain more Movement Speed than intended while Rexxar is Mounted. Fixed an issue that caused Unleash the Boars damage to not be modified by most forms of damage modification. Fixed an issue that caused Kill Command's damage bonus to be multiplicative. Fixed an issue that caused Wildfire's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Fixed an issue that caused Misha to lose the benefits of Primal Intimidation once slain. Wildfire Bear now reveals the target for 2 seconds. Samuro
      Difficulty increased from Hard to Very Hard. Wind Walk healing increased from 1% to 3%. Way of the Wind healing reduced from 5% to 4%. Fixed an issue that caused Way of the Wind to increase Samuro's Healing score instead of his Self Healing score. Mirror Image reveal of nearby units on death now matches other Heroic units. Sgt. Hammer
      Tank Mode Splash now triggers Physical Attack-limited on-hit effects (Example: Block charges will now be consumed). Tank Mode Splash will now trigger if the Sgt. Hammer is Blinded. Splash damage and triggering effects will still be prevented. Tank Mode Splash will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Tank Mode Splash attacks will no longer reveal targets hit. Sonya
      Fixed an issue that caused Leap to not grant Unstoppable while active. Rampage icon updated. Stitches
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Putrid Bile's Pools to not have their damage modified by other Heroes effects placed onto Stitches. Stukov
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Reactive Ballistospores to not be reset correctly by Try Mode, Sandbox reset cooldowns. Fixed an issue that caused Reactive Ballistospores to deal more damage than intended when applying Weighted Pustule. Fetid Touch icon updated. Reactive Ballistospores icon updated. Reactive Ballistospores is now considered an active talent, instead of a Weighted Pustule talent. Sylvanas
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Might of the Banshee Queen's active bonuses to be lost when slain. Fixed an issue that caused Remorseless to apply Overwhelming Affliction's slow when fired. Fixed an issue that caused Remorseless to not apply Black Arrows stacks while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Remorseless to not apply Black Arrows activated non-Hero Stun. Fixed an issue that caused Remorseless to not apply Mercenary Queen's Mercenary Stun. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Evasive Fire's duration refresh while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Lost Soul's cooldown reduction while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused enemies hit by Deafening Blast's bonus damge area to not be revealed for 2 seconds. Fixed an issue that caused enemies hit by Deafeaning Blast's bonus damage area to not be affected by Black Arrow's activated non-Hero stun. Fixed an issue that caused Catapults to grant more Experience than intended when Possessed. Remorseless will no longer bounce to Mercenaries that are not currently active. Remorseless will now bounce to targets immune to area damage. Wailing Arrow no longer reveals in a radius around Sylvanas when cast. Wailing Arrow will now reveal the search area for 0.75 seconds. Remorseless icon updated. Tassadar
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Feedback's Physical Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Archon's Basic Attacks Spell Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Executor's Will to not increase Healing dealt. Fixed an issue that caused Oracle's passive healing to not be displayed in the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused Archon's Basic Attacks to reduce the Spell Armor of targets while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Khaydarin Amulet now requires the target to be visible to start the link. Khaydarin Amulet will now reveal the target for so long as the link remains active. Khaydarin Amulet will now bounce to targets immune to area damage. Khaydarin Amulet will no longer bounce to Invulnerable enemies. Archon Basic Attacks Splash will no longer reveal targets. Archon Basic Attacks will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. The Butcher
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Butcher to lose more Meat than intended when slain. Cleaver no longer reveals targets hit. Cleaver will now reveal the search area for 0.75 seconds. Furnace Blast will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Butcher is no longer revealed to the enemy if unseen when Lamb to the Slaughter damages an enemy. The Lost Vikings
      Viking Hoard will now display the stacks as a baseline quest in the talents tab of the scoreboard. Fixed an issue that caused It's a Sabotate to apply while Erik is Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Hunka Burning Olaf's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Fixed an issue that caused Nordic Attack Squad to not be displayed correctly in the Death Recap. Baleog's Basic Attacks when fired from a distance effect reveal duration increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds. Baleog's Basic Attacks when fired at close range will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Hunka Burning Olaf will now reveal the target for 2 seconds. Nordic Attack Squad icon updated. Thrall
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Medium. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks while Windfury is active to grant stacks of Frostwolf Resilience while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Feral Resilience will now display Block visuals. Tracer
      Fixed an issue that caused Heavy Handed's Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Telefrag while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Quantum Spike Pulse Bombs will now explode at the same time as other Pulse Bombs when a unit is Hit, instead of 0.3125 seconds later. Fixed an issue that caused Is That a Healthpack?! to heal Vehicles if selected. Fixed an issue that caused Composition B + Quantum Spike to deal percent damage to non-Heroes. Fixed an issue that caused Parting Gift to hit Invulnerable enemies. Total Recall will now increase Tracer's Self Healing when Tracer is healed. Total Recall will now display floating combat text when Tracer is healed. Total Recall will now display in the Death Recap. Completing a Reload will now display floating combat text for the amount of Ammo restored. Locked and Loaded will no longer cause Basic Attacks to display as criticals. Locked and Loaded will cause the floating combat text for ammo restored by Reload to display as a critical. While Locked and Loaded is active, Tracer's Ammo Bar will have a slight pulsing glow around it. This is only visible to Tracer and her Allies. While Locked and Loaded is active, Tracer's Reload button on the Command Bar will have a pulsing glow around it. Ricochet now requires Tracer to have selected Tracer Rounds to reveal targets. Ricochet will now only bounce to visible targets. Ricochet will now bounce to targets immune to area damage. Ricochet will no longer bounce to Mercenaries that are not currently active. Bullet Spray will now reveal targets hit. Quantum Spike Pulse Bomb will now reveal identically to other Pulse Bombs, instead of in a larger radius. Untouchable icon updated. Tychus
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Bob and Weave's Basic Attack range increase to display incorrectly in the status buff bar. Sizzlin' Attacks icon updated. Tyrael
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Swift Retribution to not apply to channeled Basic Attacks. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Bound By Law while Blinded or if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Burning Halo's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Archangel's Wrath explosion will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Burning Halo icon updated. Burning Halo is now classed as a Passive talent. Horadric Reforging icon updated. Horadric Reforging is now classed as a Passive talent. Tyrande
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Shadowstalk's healing over time to remain active on Leoric while Undying is active. Fixed an issue that caused Huntress Fury to not bounce to Deathwing. Fixed an issue that caused Sentinel's cooldown to be reset if a Hallucination is slain while revealed by Sentinel. Fixed an issue that caused Mark of Mending to not heal Evading allies. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Mark of Mending if the target is Evading. Fixed an issue that caused Elune's Chosen to heal for overkill damage. Tyrande is no longer revealed to the enemy if unseen when Empower damages an enemy. Shooting Star icon updated. Uther
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Hard. Uther's Heroics will no longer be hidden while Spirit Form is active. He will not be capable of casting them. Fixed an issue that caused Holy Fire's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased. Holy Radiance will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Holy Radiance will now reveal enemy targets hit. Divine Storm will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Divine Storm will reveal the target for 2 seconds. Holy Fire icon updated. Valeera
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Fixed an issue that caused Garrote to display incorrectly in the Death Recap after extended by Rupture. Eviscerate will now reveal the target for 2 seconds. Ambush will now reveal the target for 2 seconds. Cheap Shot will now reveal the target for 2 seconds. Garrote will now reveal the target for 2 seconds. Sinister Strike will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Blade Flurry will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Blade Flurry will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Valla
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Medium. Fixed an issue that caused Manticore's stack display to be displayed incorrectly. Manticore icon updated. Varian
      Fixed an issue that caused Second Wind to display as uncastable. Fixed an issue that caused Twin Blades of Fury's Attack Speed bonuses to stack multiplicatively with other Attack Speed bonuses and maluses. Fixed an issue that caused Juggernaut to be capable of activating on-death effects multiple times on enemies. Master at Arms will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Master at Arms will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Whitemane
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Very Hard. Inquisition will now reveal targets for 2 seconds upon removal and for 0.5625 seconds each time damage is dealt. Inquisition will no longer reveal around the target. Divine Reckoning will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Searing Lash will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Saintly Greatstaff icon updated. Xul
      Fixed an issue that caused Cursed Strikes to hit targets immune to area damage. Cursed Strikes will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Backlash will now reveal the area for 0.75 seconds. Shackler no longer reveals the area. Cursed Strikes no longer reveals targets hit. Yrel
      Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard. Holy Wrath Splash now triggers Physical Attack-limited on-hit effects(meaning Block charges being consumed, Medivh's Raven Familiar firing if the target is a Hero). Dauntless will now display Block visuals. Holy Wrath area reveal duration reduced from 1 second to 0.75 seconds. Aegis of Light no longer reveals the area. Vindication will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Righteous Hammer will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Avenging Wrath will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Zagara
      Fixed an issue that caused Banelings to not be affected by Defense Matrix. Mutalisk Basic Attacks will no longer bounce to Mercenaries that are not currently active. Mutalisk Basic Attacks will now bounce targets immune to area damage. Zarya
      Difficulty updated from Easy to Medium. Fixed an issue that caused Defensive Shielding to not apply if the target already has select forms of Block. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attack Splash to work incorrectly with Time Stop. Basic Attacks will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Basic Attacks no longer reveal targets hit. Explosive Barrier will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Explosive Barrier will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Feel the Heat icon updated. Zeratul
      Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard. Cleave will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds. Zul'jin
      A Surprise For Ya no longer reveal targets. A Surprise For Ya will now only bounce to visible targets. A Surprise For Ya will now bounce to targets immune to area damage. A Surprise For Ya will no longer bounce to Mercenaries that are not currently active. Grievous Throw will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Twin Cleave will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Guillotine will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Buzzsaw will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      A new Heroes of the Storm patch is now available for playtesting on the PTR and here are the patch notes!
      (Source)
      Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting. We would like to take a moment to thank the community for providing insight and feedback for these changes. Although we may not reply to your feedback and posts we do listen and appreciate all of it. 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.
      Quick Navigation:
      General Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Observer UI
      D.Va's Mech Healthbar is now displayed in the observer interface's top bar. Misha's Healthbar is now displayed in the observer interface's top bar. The Lost Vikings Healthbars are now displayed in the observer interface's top bar. XP Globes are now displayed as Blue for the left team and Gray for the right team. Icons
      Abathur Changed Icon color for Locust Strain. Anub'arak Changed Icon color for Chitinous Plating. Blaze Incinerator Gauntlets Icon changed to non-Heroes Damage from Basic Attacks. Cassia Martial Law Icon changed to Searing Damage from Basic Attacks. Changed Icon color for Ball Lightning. Changed Icon color for Valkrie. Dehaka Changed Icon color for Elongated Tonuge. Diablo Changed Icon for Soul Shield to be different than Spell Shields. Genji Changed Icon color for Zanshin. Jaina Changed Improved Ice Block Button to be normal Ice Block. Illidan Fiery Brand Icon changed to Searing Damage from Basic Attacks. Muradin Changed Icon color for Perfect Storm. Nova Changed Icon color for Rapid Projection. Sonya Rampage Icon changed to Cooldown Reduction from Basic Attacks. Sylvanas Remorseless Icon changed to Range Increase for Basic Attacks. The Lost Vikings Nordic Attack Squad Icon changed to Searing Damage from Basic Attacks. Tychus Sizzlin' Attacks Icon changed to Searing Damage from Basic Attacks. Tyrande Shooting Star Icon changed to Range Increase for Basic Attacks. Valla Manticore Icon changed to Searing Damage from Basic Attacks. Whitemane Changed Icon color for Saintly Greatstaff. Zarya Feel the Heat Icon changed to Damage Increase from Basic Attacks. Abilities
      Bounce Abilities that Bounce will require all targets to be visible. Cleave Abilities that Cleave will reveal the area and does not require target to be visibile. Splash Abilities that Splash will reveal the area and does not require target to be visibile. Invulnerability
      Johanna Blessed Shield no longer hits Invulnerable enemies. Junkrat Frag Launcher no longer hits Invulnerable enemies. Kael'thas Gravity Lapse no longer hits Invulnerable enemies. Li-Ming Magic Missiles no longer hits Invulnerable enemies. Nazeebo Plague of Toads no longer hits Invulnerable enemies. Tracer Parting Gift no longer hits Invulnerable enemies. ARAM
      Increased experience given by Experience Globes. UI
      Floating Combat Text for Experience earned from killing blows now has a gold color. Return to Top
      Balance Update
      General
      Adjusted difficulty levels for a number of Heroes. Heroes
      Samuro Increased Windwalk healing from 1% per second to 3% per second. Decreased Way of the Wind healing from 5% on cast to 4% on cast. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an issue that caused Evading targets to still lose armor to Hellbats and Gnolls. Fixed an issue that caused ARAM maps to use different XP systems. Heroes
      Abathur Fixed an issue that caused Abathur's Monstrosity to gain an additional 0.02 damage per stack. Toxic Next no longer reveals attackers while Arming. Anduin Moral Compass is now considered Splash damage and will not hit targets Immune to AOE. Blaze Combustion now reveals area it affects. Fixed an issue that caused Heat Treatment to not match the damage dealt by Pyromania. Fixed an issue where Oil Spill granted more vision than intended. Flame Stream now reveals targets hit. Brightwing Invisible Friends now displays a healing over time preview. Phase Shift's heal now happens after teleportation instead of at the same time. Unstable Anomaly now reveals the area it affects and enemies it hits. Butcher Cleaver AOE no longer reveals targets hit. Fixed an issue that caused Butcher to lose more than intended stacks of Fresh Meat when killed. Furnace Blast now reveals targets hit. No longer revealed when Lamb of the Slaughter damages an enemy. Cassia Fend now reveals targets hit. Fixed an issue that caused Lightning Fury Bolts cast from Static Electricity and Lightning Fury to be inconsistently determined. Fixed an issue that caused Lightning Fury Bolts generated by Static Electricity to not heal for the appropriate amount with Ring of the Leech. Fixed an issue where Lightning Fury Bolts were not displaying as critical hits against Blinded enemies. Martial Law no longer damages Heroes while Blinded. Surge of Light now reveals the area it affects and enemies that it hits. ChoGall Consuming Blaze now reveals targets when applied. Consuming Blaze will now interrupt channels that are interrupted by damage when applied. Dread Orb no longer has an abnormal vision height. Dread Orb now reveals targets hit. Fixed an issue that caused Cthun's Gift to Slow while Blinded. Fuel for the Flame no longer deals damage to evading enemies near the Basic Attack target. Fuel for the Flame no longer deals damage to the target of Basic Attacks while Blinded. Fuel for the Flame no longer display as critical damage against Heroes. Runic Blast now reveals targets hit. Shadowbolt Volley no longer has an abnormal vision height. Shadowbolt Volley now reveals targets hit. Shadowflame now reveals targets hit. Twisting Nether now reveals targets hit. The Will of Gall is now treated as a Quest talent and displays the progress in the talents tab. Chromie Fixed an issue that caused Sand Echo's Basic Attacks to grant stacks while Blinded. Shifting Sands will no longer be removed upon death. Time Trap will no longer prevent Allies from being revealed temporarily. Time Troubles' Armor granted to allies will no longer be removed by Stasis. Unravelling's Armor debuff will now be removed by Stasis. Deathwing Death Drop's Armor Reduction is now removed by Stasis. Gaze Onto Destruction no longer reduces the damage of non-Heroes hit. Deckard Fixed an issue where Horadric Staff does not consume the cooldown when used on an Evading target. Fixed an issue where Potion of Shielding increased Deckard's Self Healing. Fixed an issue where Scroll of Sealing revealed targets for 4 seconds when taken. Dehaka Burrow no longer prevents allied abilities from affecting Dehaka. Burrow will now cleanse negative effects. Lurker Strain no longer reveals area around knocked back targets. Lurker Strain now reveals targets hit. Lurker Strain's Knockback will no longer function as a Stun. Diablo Dying Breath will now display as Apocalypse on the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused Black Soulstone to be multiplicative with other health bonuses. D.Va Defense Matrix now works on Zagara's Banelings. Falstad BOOMerang's Armor Reduction is now removed by Stasis. Hammerang now reveals targets hit on return. Hammerang's explosion no longer displays as a crit after selecting BOOMerang. Hammerang's reactivation explosion now reveals targets hit. Fenix Fixed an issue that caused Divert Power: Weapons to be refreshed while Blinded. Fixed an issue that could cause Mobile Offensive to not apply when moving. Phase Bomb Splash damage now consumes Block charges. Garrosh Decimate now reveals targets hit. Into the Fray now shows up on Garrosh's Try screen. Wrecking Ball and Into the Fray now reveal targets hit. Gazlowe Adjusted Ark Reaktor damage to 36. EZ-PZ Dimensional Ripper can now have the cooldown announced to your team. Mecha-Lord no longer grants Armor while Blinded. Genji Fixed an issue where Deflect did not grant full Self Healing score when preventing damage. Greymane Fixed an issue that caused Alpha Killer to be capable of activating on-hit effects on Invulnerable enemies. Fixed an issue that caused Go For the Throat to apply the incorrect cooldown to Disengage with Running Wild selected. Removed dual block visual from Thick Skin. Gul'dan Fixed self-healing bonus from Hunger for Power. Pursuit of Flame is no longer visible through fog. Hanzo Fixed an issue that allowed players to fire Storm Bow at maximum range without charging. Fixed an issue that caused Sharpened Arrowheads to not reduce Armor while Blinded when applied with Storm Bow. Fixed an issue that caused Sharpened Arrowheads to reduce Armor before damage is dealt with Storm Bow. Jaina Fixed an issue that caused Frost Bolt to hit targets behind Frost Bolt. Fixed an issue that caused Frost Shards to allow more than 2 additional targets to be hit. Frostbite Armor now has a block visual. Johanna Blessed Hammer now reveals the area it affects. Fixed an issue where Blessed Momentum stacks multiplicatively instead of additvely with other attack speed modifiers. Heaven's Fury no longer prevents allies from being revealed. Junkrat Fixed an issue that caused Junkrat's Frag Launcher to gain 0.002 damage per stack of Taste for Explosions. Splash damage now consumes Block charges. Kel'Thuzad Deathchill will no longer activate if the target loses Root or Slow by becoming Unstoppable. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks against Rooted Heroes to activate Icy Grasp. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks against Rooted targets to activate Hungering Cold. Fixed an issue that caused Kel'Thuzad's buttons to light up when getting 15 baseline quest stacks. Fixed an issue that caused Power of Icecrown's damage increase to be lost upon death. Kerrigan Fixed an issue that caused Kerrigan's Self Healing to increase when she gains Assimilation Shields. Fury of the Swarm no longer reveals targets. Impaling Blades now reveals targets hit. Primal Grasp's Pulse now reveals targets hit. Psionic Shift now reveals targets hit. Ultralisk Splash damage reveals targets. Kharazim Fixed an issue that caused Insight to progress while Blinded. Leoric Buried Alive can no longer have its duration reduced. Drain Essence no longer increases his Self Healing score. Deckard's Rejuvenation is now removed on Undying. Fixed an issue where Leoric could receive Tyrande's Shadowstalk Healing when Undying was active, thereby reducing his respawn timer. Ossein Renewal can no longer be cast while Undying is active. Drain Hope, Drain Essence, and March of the Black King are now removed if the target enters a vehicle. Li-Ming Fixed an issue that caused Tal Rasha's Elements to prevent Force Armor from granting Block charges. Fixed an issue where Aether Walker would sometime not reset correctly. Lt. Morales Medi Drone no longer heals Heroes in Undying state. Lunara Fixed an issue that caused Invigorating Spores to be capable of activating on-hit effects on Invulnerable enemies. Fixed an issue that caused Invigorating Spores to deal percent damage while Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Nature's Toxin to be applied before damage dealt. Maiev Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks while Blinded to increase Vengeful Knives damage. Fixed an issue that caused Umbral Bind to not increase Vengeful Knives damage . Mal'Ganis Winged Guard now has a block visual. Malthael Ethereal Existence now has a block visual at max stacks. Mei Fixed an issue that caused Cooling Servos to Slow while Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Mei's Induce Hibernation Talent to reduce damage of non-Heroes. Skating Away now has a block visual. Murky Fixed an issue that caused Big Tuna Kahuna to be multiplicative with other health bonuses. Octograb now reveals the target instead of the area around the target. Pufferfish now reveals targets hit. Slime now reveals targets hit. While revealed, Murky will no longer reveal the area around him when his Egg is slain. Nova Anti-Armor Shells is now removed by Stasis. Anti-Armor Shells now applies debuff after damage. Explosive Snipe now reveals targets hit. Fixed an issue that caused Anti-Armor Shells to display an incorrect damage value for Nova's Holo Decoys. Holo Decoys no longer reveals area when killed. Holo Decoys are now visible from the center of the unit instead of their border. Precision Strike now reveals targets hit. Snipe no longer reveals around target. Triple Tap no longer reveals area around the target, and the target is now revealed for 2 seconds afterwards, up from 1.3 seconds. Orphea Fixed an issue that caused Dead Magic to splash to Evading targets. Fixed an issue that caused Empowered Eldritch Conduit to be lost on death. Fixed an issue that caused Empowered Eldritch Conduit to not be granted when going from 7 or 8 stacks to 10. Fixed an issue that caused Eternal Feast to hit dead objects. Probius Fixed an issue that caused Pylon Overcharge to deal additional damage when Construct Additional Pylons is selected. Qhira Basic Attacks will no longer reveal targets hit. Blood Rage's activation no longer grants Fatal Wounds progress. Fixed an issue that caused Finishing Touch to grant attack speed on attacks that bring the target below 50% health. Fixed an issue that caused Finishing Touch to grant attack speed while Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Upstage to not apply if the targets were killed by the activation damage. Fixed an issue that caused Your Pain, My Gain to grant Armor while Blinded. Ragnaros Cauterize Wounds now displays on the Death Recap correctly. Fixed an issue that caused Empower Sulfuras to not reduce the cooldown of Blistering Attacks on non-Heroes. Tempered Flame no longer increases Self Healing on application. Lava Wave can no longer pickup or magnetize Experience Globes. Raynor Fixed an issue that caused Execute Orders to not display in the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused Give Em' Some Pepper damage to behaving incorrectly. Rehgar Fixed duration of Totemic Projection. Fixed an issue that caused Hunger of the Wolf to deal damage and heal while Blinded. Rexxar Fixed an issue that caused Kill Command's damage bonus to be multiplicative. Fixed an issue that caused Misha to not gain Primal Intimidation's Passive on respawn. Fixed an issue where Unleash the Boars was not affected by some damage modifications. Samuro Burning Blade is now Splash damage. Way of the Wind now increases Self Healing intead of Healing. Sonya Leap now also grants Unstoppable when used at minimum distance. Stukov Fixed an issue that caused Reactive Ballistospores to not work correctly with cooldown resets. Sylvanas Deafening Blast now applies Black Arrows if active. Deafening Blast now reveals targets hit. Fixed an issue that caused Evasive Fire to be refreshed while Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Lost Soul to reduce cooldowns while Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Overwhelming Affliction to apply the slow to a Remorseless target when firing at a target with 3 stacks. Fixed an issue that caused Possession to give more XP than intended for Catapults. Fixed an issue that caused Remorseless to not apply Black Arrows while Blinded. Fixed an issue that caused Remorseless to not Stun enemies while Black Arrows is active. Fixed an issue that caused Remorseless to not Stun Mercenaries with 3 stacks of Black Arrows and Merenary Queen. Might of the Banshee Queen is no longer removed on death. Wailing Arrow no longer reveals area around Sylvanas when cast. Wailing Arrow now reveals the area of detonation. Tassadar Archon no longer applies armor reduction while Blinded. Archon Splash damage no longer reveals targets hit. Archon's Armor reduction is now removed by Stasis. Feedback's Armor reduction is now removed by Stasis. Fixed an issue that caused Oracle to not show in the Death Recap. Khaydarin Amulet will now reveal while active after the attack expires. Thrall Feral Resilience now has a block visual. The Lost Vikings Hunka' Burning Olaf now reveals target instead of the area around the target. It's a Sabotage can no longer be applied while Erik is Blinded. Nordic Attack Squad now shows in recap. Viking Bribery stack count is no longer visible on the scoreboard to other players. Tracer Bullet Spray now reveals targets hit. Fixed an issue that caused Composition B and Quantum Spike to deal percent damage to non-Heroes. Heavy Handed's Armor is now removed by Stasis. If Locked and Loaded has been activated, then the floating text for completing the reload will display as a crit. Is That a Healthpack can no longer heal Vehicles. Locked and Loaded no longer causes Basic Attacks to display as a crit. Ricochet will no longer reveal targets hit (Tracer Rounds will still apply if taken). Telefrag no longer reduces the cooldown of Recall while Blinded. When Tracer completes a reload, it now displays floating text. Tyrael Archangel's Wrath now reveals targets hit by the explosion. Bound by Law no longer refreshes El'Druin's Might while Blinded. Tyrande Fixed an issue that caused Elune's Chosen to heal for overkill damage. Fixed an issue that caused Self Healing to not increase her Self Healing. Fixed an issue that caused Sentinel to be reset if a Hallucination is killed while revealed. Fxied an issue where Mark of Mending was not healing Evading targets. Uther Divine Storm now reveals targets hit instead of area around targets hit. Divine Storm now reveals the area it affects. Holy Radiance now reveals enemies hit. Holy Radiance reveal updated to match area of effect. Valeera Ambush now reveals the target for 2 seconds. Blade Flurry now reveals targets for 2 seconds. Blade Flurry now reveals the area it affects. Cheap Shot now reveals the target for 2 seconds. Eviscerate now reveals the target for 2 seconds. Fixed an issue where Garrote's damage displayed incorrectly in the Death Recap. Garrote now reveals the target for 2 seconds. Sinister Strike now reveals the target for 2 seconds. Varian Fixed an issue that caused Juggernaut to be capable of activating on-hit effects on Invulnerable enemies. Fixed an issue that caused Varian's Victory Rush button to be grayed out. Master At Arms now reveals targets hit and the area affected. Whitemane Clemency no longer reveals the area around the heal target. Divine Reckoning now reveals targets hit. Inquisition and Shared Punishment now reveal the target for 2 seconds after expiring. Inquisition now reveals the target instead of the area around the target. Searing Lash now reveals targets hit. Xul Shackler no longer reveals the area it affects. Yrel Aegis of Light no longer reveals area it affects. Avenging Wrath now reveals targets hit. Dauntless now has a block visual. Holy Wrath now consumes Block charges. Righteous Hammer now reveals targets hit. Vindication now reveals targets hit. Zarya Explosive Barrier now reveals the area and targets. Fixing an issue where Zarya's Defensive Shielding did not stack correctly with other blocks. Splash damage no longer reveals targets. Zeratul Cleave now reveals the area it affects. Zul'jin Buzzsaw now reveals targets hit for 2 seconds. Grievous Throw now reveals targets hit for 2 seconds. Guillotine now reveals targets hit. Twin Cleave now reveals targets hit. Wrong Place Wrong Time now reveals targets hit for 2 seconds. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

×
×
  • Create New...