This is one of the biggest patches Heroes of the Storm has ever received. It's great to see that Blizzard is still giving this game much deserved love. Here's all the stuff you need to know.
General
New Special Event: Xel’naga Artifact Hunt
Xel'naga artifacts have begun to appear
all across the Nexus, and SCVs are being deployed to collect them.
Terminate these interlopers with extreme prejudice and collect artifact
pieces to earn some sweet new rewards!
- Daily Quest:
- Collect 12 Artifact Pieces during a single game.
- Reward: 1 Day Stimpack
- Event Quest:
- Collect 150 Artifact Pieces before the Machines of War liftoff from the Nexus on October 18, 2016.
- Reward: Xel’naga Artifact Portrait
- SCVs and Artifact Pieces will have a
50% chance to spawn at the start of a game if any players on the team
have not yet completed their Artifact Hunt Daily Quest. This task will
be difficult to accomplish alone! Teammates must work together to
eliminate the SCVs and reclaim the Artifact Pieces before the game
begins.
Free Hero for All!
After downloading today’s patch and
logging into Heroes of the Storm, all players will be able to add a new
Hero to their collections for free!
- On login, players will be able to pick one of the following three Heroes: Anub’arak, Thrall, or Tyrande.
- If any of those Heroes are already owned, they will be replaced by Nazeebo, Sonya, or Uther on the selection screen.
- Players who already own all six of these Heroes will automatically receive 4,000 Gold instead.
- Learn more by reading our recent blog post.
New Battleground, More Often
We are
currently working to resolve an issue affecting the reduced Battleground
pool, and New Player Battleground Progression rules mentioned below.
During this time all players can be matched for games on any of the Battlegrounds that were available in matchmaking queues prior to today's patch. Click here for more information.
- Starting
today, the pool of Battlegrounds available in all modes, except Custom
Games, will be temporarily limited to the following:
- Braxis Holdout
- Towers of Doom
- Cursed Hollow
- Sky Temple
- Infernal Shrines
- Tomb of the Spider Queen
- This has been done to increase the frequency with which players encounter the new Battleground, Braxis Holdout.
- During this time, players can still select and play on any Battleground they wish using Custom Games.
- A second
group of 6 Battlegrounds will replace those listed above during the
week of September 26, and the reduced Battleground pool will remain in
effect until the Machines of War event concludes during the week of
October 17.
New Player Battleground Progression
- New
Heroes of the Storm players who enter matchmaking modes will initially
only be matched for games on certain Battlegrounds. As they complete
more games, new players will unlock additional Battlegrounds as follows:
- 0 games played: Players will only receive matches on Cursed Hollow.
- 5 games played: Players can now be matched on any of the Battlegrounds listed in the reduced pool mentioned above.
New Hero: Alarak
Not all heroes are born of altruism. . .
some, like Alarak, simply desire vengeance. As the new Highlord of the
Tal’darim, Alarak leads his people to a destiny free of the corrupt
influence of the fallen Xel’naga, Amon.
Trait
Sadism
You deal 100% bonus Ability damage versus enemy Heroes.
Basic Abilities
Discord Strike (Q)
After a 0.5 second delay, deals damage to enemies in front of you and silences them for 1.5 seconds.
Telekinesis (W)
Push yourself and any enemies hit
from the targeted point toward the targeted direction. Enemies pushed by
Telekinesis also take light damage.
Lightning Surge (E)
Deals damage to an enemy and all enemies between you and the target. You are also Healed for 75% of the damage dealt to Heroes.
Heroic Abilities
Counter Strike (R)
Become Protected and channel for 1
second. If you are attacked during this time, you will send a shockwave
forward that damages enemies in its path.
Deadly Charge (R)
Channel and then charge in the
targeted direction, dealing damage to all enemies in your path. Charge
distance increases based on the amount of time spent channeling, up to
1.6 seconds.
While channeling, movement commands will cancel Deadly Charge at no cost. Taking damage will interrupt channeling.
New Battleground: Braxis Holdout
The Dominion used the remote and
hostile planet Braxis to conduct experiments on ways to turn the Zerg
swarm into a weapon they could unleash on their enemies. Though the
Dominion's main psi disrupter was destroyed, this space platform's
beacons remain fully operational and ready to be used. Capture the
beacons and watch what happens when a flood of weaponized Zerg ravages
the battlefield.
Capture the Beacons
- Two Beacons will periodically spawn
near the center of the Battleground. Capture both to fill your team’s
Holding Cell with Zerg over time.
Fill Holding Cells
- The longer a team holds both Beacons,
the stronger and more numerous their Zerg army will become. Once either
team has completely filled their Holding Cell, both will open,
unleashing Zerg forces into each lane.
Unleash the Swarm
-
Each team must decide whether to
defend against the opposing Zerg rush, or push with their own to lay
siege to all who stand in the way of the Swarm.
Art
Battlegrounds
- Several Battlegrounds have received additional optimization to help improve performance.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
- The following Heroes have received
new Talent icon tints to help players more easily differentiate between
talents that modify the same Ability and exist on the same Talent tier:
- The Butcher has received updated visual effects to coincide with his Talent rework.
- Medivh’s Portals have received additional visual polish to make their presence on the battlefield more apparent to allies.
- The Imposing Presence Talent has received updated visual effects to coincide with its new functionality.
Bundles
- New Bundles
- Machines of War Bundle – Available starting September 13 until October 18, 2016.
- Herald of N’zoth Alarak Bundle – Available until September 27, 2016.
New Hero
- Alarak has been added to the in-game Shop.
Mounts
- New Mounts
- Ghost Speeder*
- Obsidian Cyberwolf**
- Returning Mounts
- Demonic Hellsteed
- Blackheart’s Doubloon
- Removed Mounts
Skins
- Herald of N’zoth Alarak
- Master Alarak
- Queen of Ghosts Kerrigan*
- Raider Rexxar*
- The Butcherlisk*
* This item is exclusive to the Machines of War Bundle until it is officially released at a later date. Click here to view a full release schedule for Machines of War items.
** The Obsidian Cyberwolf Mount is exclusive to the Machines of War Bundle, but may return to the Nexus at a later date.
Sound
General
- Even the music of Heroes of the Storm has been invaded by the Machines of War!
- Enable music in the Sound Options
menu (or press CTRL+M) to listen as the sounds of the Koprulu Sector
clash with those of the Nexus.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
- All Heroes should now properly play voiceover lines when clicked repeatedly.
- Medivh’s Portals have received some additional sound effect polish to make their presence on the battlefield more apparent to allies.
- The Lost Vikings have received unique death notification sounds which should be a little less jarring for allies.
- The Spell Shield and Imposing Presence talents have received updated sound effects to coincide with their new functionality.
User Interface
General
- The Breaking News icon will no longer display in the menus when there is no breaking news to read.
Color Blind Mode
- The Health bar color for the player’s own hero has been changed from dark blue to yellow.
- Neutral Mercenaries will now appear
dark purple on portions of their models that use team colors. This
should help players and observers better differentiate them from
captured mercenaries.
Daily Quests
- Any Hero selected during Ranked or
Unranked drafts will now count toward progression of any role or
universe-specific Daily Quest.
- This has been done so that players
can still complete their Daily Quests while picking the best Heroes for
their team composition, rather than Heroes who satisfy a quest
requirement.
- Daily Quests are now available to all players, beginning at account level 1.
- New Daily Quest: Play 3 games
- Reward: 300 Gold
- This is
the only Daily Quest that level 1 players can receive and will only be
available until account level 11. After reaching level 11, it will be
replaced by the Play 8 Games quest.
MVP System and Commendations
- Players can now show off their individual prowess on the field of battle via the MVP System and end of match commendations.
- Five players will receive awards for
their in-game performance and individual achievements at the end of
every game played in any mode except Custom Games.
- MVP and End of Match Awards
- Each match will feature one MVP, or Most Valuable Player, and four other players will receive awards for specific in-game feats.
- The MVP award is granted to the
player who had the greatest overall impact on the match, which is
determined by their performance across all in-game stats.
- The remaining four match awards
will be granted for a wide variety of achievements, such as top healing,
longest killstreak, most Doubloons turned in on Blackheart’s Bay, and
so on.
- End of match awards, including MVP, can be granted to players on either team, regardless of victory or defeat.
- Commendations
- Once the awards have been given out,
all ten players can then commend the award recipients to show
appreciation for their in-game accomplishments.
- Players who receive many commendations at the end of a match will also be rewarded with a little extra fanfare.
- Award-specific icons will also
appear on the end of game stats screen next to the name of each player
who received an end of match award.
- Click here to read our recent blog post on the End of Match Awards System.
Hero Select
- Hero Search
- Searching for a Hero during Draft
Mode or Hero Select will now sort the results first by the Hero whose
name most closely matches the player’s search terms.
- For example: Searching for “Diablo”
will now show Diablo as the first result, followed by all other Heroes
from the Diablo Universe.
- Hero Sorting
- New sorting buttons have been added to Hero Select and Draft Mode, and can be found next to the search field:
- Toggle Favorites: Heroes who have been marked as favorites in the player profile will be sorted to the top of the Hero list.
- A-Z: Sort Heroes alphabetically
- XP: Sort Heroes by level
Ranked Play
- Grand Master League
- The maximum number of Hero League
Grandmaster players has been reduced from 500 to 200. The Team League
maximum remains at 100 players.
- Promotion and Demotion Matches
- Players will no longer receive a
flat 250 ranked point adjustment after winning a promotion match or
losing a demotion match. Instead, these matches will now award or remove
the same amount of points as a normal ranked game.
- Upon earning enough ranked points to
reach a promotion match, any points earned beyond the 1,000 point
division cap will now be stored and applied at the end of the promotion
match.
- Winning a promotion match will now
award any excess points that were stored prior to that match in addition
to the normal ranked points earned for the win.
- Losing a promotion match will
subtract the normal ranked points for a loss minus the number of excess
ranked points that had been stored prior to the promotion match.
- Demotion matches do not store lost
ranked points, and losing a demotion match will only cause the player to
lose the normal amount of ranked points.
Design and Gameplay
Mounts
- Movement Speed reduced from 40 to 30%
Regeneration Globes
- Time before Globes despawn reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
Battlegrounds
Mercenaries
- Timing Changes
- Previously all Mercenary camps spawned at 120 seconds. The following adjustments have been made to spawn times:
- 90 seconds: Sappers, Doubloon Pirates
- 120 seconds: Siege Giants (unchanged), Impalers (unchanged)
- 150 seconds: Knights, Fallen Shaman
- 180 seconds: Grave Golem (unchanged)
- 300 seconds: Headless Horseman (unchanged)
- Captured Mercenaries will no longer grant Experience when killed.
Developer Comments: We
started playtesting with staggered Mercenary Camp spawn times, and
quickly began to realize that it added more strategic depth to the game,
and coincided with some of our Battleground events. We have been happy
with the changes overall, and are listening to any feedback you may
have!
Try Mode
- The following features have been added to Try-Me Mode:
- Boss Camp
- Ability to change the enemy hero
- Ability to change the game speed
Towers of Doom
- Headless Horseman
- Attack damage increased from 145 to 158
Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines
- Khazra Impaler
- Captured Impaler attack damage increased from 40 to 46
Return to Top
Talents
Imposing Presence (Active)
- New functionality:
- Heroes that attack you have their Attack Speed slowed by 20% for 2.5 seconds
- Activate to Slow the Attack Speed of nearby Heroes and Summons by 50% and Slow their Movement Speed by 20% for 2.5 seconds
Developer Comments: We
did not like the power of the Attack Speed slow for Imposing Presence
given how little counter-play there is. We’ve decided to move some power
out of the passive portion of the Talent and give it a new activated
effect in order to create some bigger moments for players who choose to
take it.
Spell Shield (Passive)
- Added functionality:
- Spell Shield can now be toggled on or off to allow for better control of which Abilities you want to mitigate
Support
Brightwing
Talents
- Level 1
- New Talent: Pixie Charm (Active)
- Each time Soothing Mist heals an
allied Hero, excluding yourself, gain a stack of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to
Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses.
Maximum of 80 stacks.
- Bribe (Active)
Developer Comments: See Falstad’s comment for Bribe changes.
Return
Kharazim
Talents
- Level 13
- Relentless (Passive)
- New Talent: Sixth Sense (Passive)
- Stuns and Roots against Kharazim grant 50% damage reduction from Basic Attacks for 4 seconds.
Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.
Return
Li Li
Talents
- Level 16
- Shake it Off (Passive)
- New functionality:
- Stuns and Roots against Li Li
grant Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25 for 3 seconds. Cannot
occur more than once every 10 seconds.
Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.
Return
Lt. Morales
Abilities
- Displacement Grenade (E)
- Displacement Grenade no longer explodes on contact and passes through everything. After a 0.0625 second delay, players
can now re-activate the Grenade causing it to explode on command,
damaging and displacing enemies. Displacement Grenade automatically
explodes if it reaches max range.
Talents
- Level 4
- Upgraded Ballistics (Passive)
Developer Comments: We
have been looking for ways to add gameplay to our Supports, and believe
that Lt. Morales’s Displacement Grenade is a place where we could give
her more control. We’re hoping that this gives players an opportunity to
make bigger plays by having more control of where they want the enemy
hero to move with the Grenade’s knockback
Return
Malfurion
Talents
- Level 16
- Hindering Moonfire (Passive)
- Now only slows Heroic units
Return
Rehgar
Abilities
- Ghost Wolf (Trait)
- Movement Speed reduced from 30% to 20%
Talents
- Level 1
- Wolf Run (Talent)
- Movement Speed reduced from 40 to 30% while in Ghost Wolf
Developer Comments: Alongside the adjustments to Mount speed, we’re also reducing the Movement Speed bonus offered by Rehgar’s Ghost Wolf Trait.
Return
Warrior
Anub'arak
Abilities
- Burrow Charge (E)
- Anub'arak is no longer Invulnerable when Burrow Charging, and is now only Unstoppable
Developer Comments: When
looking at Burrow Charge, we liked that this Ability provided an
immense amount of mobility and allowed Anub’arak to dive the back line,
but we didn’t like that he had an Invulnerability on a 16 second CD.
Essentially, Anub’arak could hold this to completely nullify a Pyroblast
or any huge damage source, which is not intended. By changing this to
Unstoppable, we still allow Anub’arak to be very slippery and get out of
bad situations quickly.
Return
Cho
Talents
- Level 13
- Surge of Stamina (Q)
- New functionality:
- Using Surging Fist grants
Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25% for 3 seconds. Reduces the
cooldown of Surging Fist by 4 seconds if it hits an enemy Hero.
Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.
Return
Diablo
Talents
- Level 7
- Devastating Charge (Q)
- New functionality:
- Shadow Charge grants Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25% for 4 seconds.
Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.
Return
E.T.C.
Talents
Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.
Return
Johanna
Abilities
- Condemn (W)
- Added functionality:
- Now deals 200% increased damage to Minions and Mercenaries
Talents
Developer Comments: As
our heroes develop over time, we often find niches for their roles that
are only available via Talents. While we love that our Talents augment
our Heroes in interesting ways, we are wary when a Hero is picked
specifically for a role that they are given via a Talent. We did a pass
on our current roster and found a couple of these cases in Johanna and
Muradin. We like how Johanna is seen as a warrior with good wave clear,
and how Muradin is seen as an anti- auto-attacker. We’ve decided to make
these features part of their base kits, and will be keeping an eye on
others in the future.
Return
Muradin
Abilities
- Thunder Clap (W)
- Added functionality:
- Now also slows enemy Attack Speed by 25% for 2.5 seconds
Talents
- Level 1
- Reverberation (W)
- Moved to Level 4
- New functionality:
- Increase Thunder Clap’s Attack Speed slow to 50% and increase the duration of Thunder Clap from 2.5 to 3 seconds
- Level 4
- Third Wind (Trait)
- Thunder Burn (W)
- Now also applies the 25% Attack Speed slow with the second activation of Thunder Clap.
Developer Comments: See Johanna’s comment.
Return
Stitches
Talents
- Level 7
- Level 13
- New Talent: Flea Bag (Passive)
- Whenever Stitches is Stunned or Rooted, reduce basic ability cooldowns by 3 seconds.
Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.
Return
Bug Fixes
General
- Corrected a number of typos and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
- Repeatedly changing Region and
Language settings to and from Chinese will no longer limit region
selection to China on the login screen.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing a small number of players from rejoining games.
Art
- Core: Fixed a bug in which Shield impact effects on the Core were not displaying when struck by some Abilities.
- Keep: Flags will no longer appear detached from a Keep’s model when it is heavily damaged.
- Artanis: Activating Twin Blades just as Hearthstone completes channeling will no longer cause Artanis to stand while Mounted.
- Rehgar: The Totemic Projection Talent now uses the correct icon tint.
Battlegrounds
- Tomb of the Spider Queen: Medivh will now properly fly over the Spider Queen’s Altars while in Raven form, rather than path around them.
- Towers of Doom: Sappers can sometimes stop attacking their targets and start following enemy Heroes.
- Try Mode: Brightwing can now properly Phase Shift to the Healing Dummy.
- Try Mode: Helping Hand is no longer removed from Stitches’ Ability bar after clicking Reset Talents.
- Try Mode: Repeatedly casting Stitches’ Gorge on the Target Dummy will no longer prevent it from leashing back to its spawn location.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
- Fixed several bugs in which splash
damage from Basic Attacks could still deal damage while the attacking
player was Blind or the target was Evading.
- Heroes can no longer push captured Mercenaries by walking into them.
- Fixed an
issue that could cause Tyrael, Uther, and Gall players to incorrectly
receive AFK Warnings due to the combination of their post-death effects
and lengthy death timers at later levels.
- Abathur: Monstrosity can no longer push Minions or captured Mercenaries by walking into them.
- Anub'arak: Beetle damage listed in the Scarab Host Trait tooltip will now update correctly when Anub’arak levels up.
- Auriel: Sacred
Sweep’s increased range, gained by learning the Majestic Span Talent,
will now correctly benefit from the Righteous Assault Talent.
- Chromie: Temporal Loop’s clock graphic will no longer disappear if the target becomes polymorphed.
- Dehaka: Isolation’s
parasite will no longer visually persist until death on a target that
was simultaneously hit by Isolation and Chromie’s Time Trap.
- Diablo: Overpower’s
target will no longer be stunned for the Ability’s full duration if
Diablo is interrupted by a knockback at the same time Overpower is cast.
- Diablo: Apocalypse will now correctly target enemies trapped by Anub’arak’s Cocoon.
- E.T.C.: Rockstar’s Attack Speed bonus will now be properly applied when E.T.C. casts Stage Dive.
- Gall: An icon has
been added to the buff bar for the Dark Descent Talent, and the icon’s
tooltip will track Runic Blast damage bonuses earned via Hero Takedowns.
- Gul'dan: Learning
the Health Funnel Talent and using Drain Life to kill a Hero with a
post-death effect, such as Uther, will now properly reduce Drain Life’s
cooldown.
- Johanna: Condemn will now be correctly interrupted when Johanna becomes Polymorphed.
- Kerrigan: Using the Overdrive Talent will no longer remove the Energizing Grasp Talent’s Mana cost reduction for Primal Grasp.
- MULE: Will now properly acquire a new repair target if the Structure it is actively repairing is destroyed.
- Murky: The camera will no longer automatically snap to Murky’s Egg location if he is killed with camera follow enabled.
- Nazeebo: Zombie Wall will no longer attack Murky’s Pufferfish.
- Li Li: The Shake it Off Talent will no longer reduce the duration of the Garden Terror's Queen's Curse Ability.
- Lunara: Fixed a rare
issue in which casting Leaping Strike toward terrain could cause Lunara
to run back to her original location after landing.
- Lunara: Will no longer receive the “Stuck” notification when a Wisp is stuck by Tracer’s Pulse Bomb.
- Rexxar: Misha’s
Basic Attack target can now correctly be switched by right-clicking as
long as she did not already have an order to Focus on a particular
target.
- Rexxar: Misha can now push Minions and allied Mercenaries, but will not push enemy or uncaptured Mercenaries.
- Uther: The tooltip
for the Gathering Radiance Talent will now properly indicate the amount
of bonus Healing and Damage earned after multiple nearby Allies are hit
by Holy Radiance.
- Sgt. Hammer: Basic Attack range indicators should now appear consistent while Sgt. Hammer is in both Tank and Siege Modes.
- Stitches: Vile Gas
applied by a Retchling after learning the Restorative Fumes and
Indigestion Talents will now properly Heal Stitches, rather than the
Retchling.
- Tychus: Attack commands should no longer automatically switch targets after using Run and Gun.
- Xul: Skeletal Warriors will no longer attack Murky's Pufferfish if it is in their path.
- Zagara: After learning Medusa Blades, Zagara will now deal the correct amount of damage to her secondary Basic Attack targets.
- Zeratul: Void Prison
will no longer cancel Rehgar’s Feral Lunge or Olaf's Charge as long as
the target of either Ability is still in range when Void Prison ends.
User Interface
- Color Blind Mode:
Fixed an issue which caused damage and Heal over time effects in Hero
Health bars to display in red and green while Color Blind Mode was
enabled.
- Death Recap: Zagara’s Healing received from the Hydralisk Transfusion Talent will now be correctly displayed in her Death Recap.
- Draft Mode: Fixed an
issue that could cause the draft interface to become unresponsive if
the player’s game client was minimized while entering draft mode.
- Replays: Pausing a replay prior to opening the Talent Panel (TAB) will no longer prevent Quest Talent progress from displaying.
My goodness! Quite the update. This might just change everything. I feel like it already has and I haven't even played Alarak or the new Battleground yet. The most noticeable thing is all the tweaks to the heroes. Some of their abilities are slightly different or perhaps even a lot different. The biggest thing I noticed is that you have to hit E to detonate Lt. Morales' knockback grenade. Took me a second to realize that. Before it would just hit stuff and blow up on its own. I also noticed the mount speed nerf to one of my favorite characters Rehgar. It's okay. He's still awesome. It's just he's less fast. It's very noticeable as soon as you play him.
Another thing that stands out is the new end game screen. You get to vote for players on your team or the enemy team that got awards like MVP, most killstreak, most damage, etc. It's basically just like Overwatch's system. Kind of funny how they added that. It does make the game feel more like a community I suppose so kudos to Blizzard for doing that.
I haven't gotten to play the new Battleground because when I played my matches today I just never got placed in it. However, I did get to see an enemy Alarak player in action. He wasn't that good and got rekt super hard by me and my team but I see good things from this new hero. He seems like he's going to be a very strong dps character-at least for now. One player described him as near Li-Ming launch damage level. That sounds very promising.
I'll be playing more of the game and let you know about all this stuff as I experience it. I'm at 14,000 gold so I should be able to get Alarak by tomorrow-quests and stimpacks pending.
