Bug Fixes

• Applied Force now applies the increased push distance to Alarak.

• Counter-Strike now soft reveals targets hit.

• Fixed an issue that caused Last Laugh to show up twice on the Death Recap.

• Lightning Surge now soft reveals all primary target types instead of just Heroes.

• Lightning Surge updated to heal Alarak for its amount as a singular combined effect.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum [Passive]
    • Added a health threshold indicator.
• Level 10
  • Deadly Charge [R1]
    • Added cast and channel bars.
  • Counter-Strike [R2]
    • Added cast and channel bars.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Telekinesis to not interact with map objects.

Bug Fixes

• 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)

Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard.

Abilities

• Lightning Surge [E]
  • Lightning Surge now reveal the primary target for 2 seconds.
• Deadly Charge [R1]
  • Deadly Charge will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Blade of the Highlord while Blinded or if the target is Evading.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum [W]
    • Cooldown recharge bonus increased from 75% to 100%.
• Level 4
  • Negatively Charged [E]
    • Damage bonus per stack increased from 4% to 5%.
• Level 16
  • Lightning Barrage [E]
    • Free cast duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're happy with the success Alarak players are finding with Discord Strike and melee talents, but his other builds have slightly fallen behind.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Alarak could become Protected and move without proccing Counter-Strike's cooldown.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Mocking Strikes [Passive]
    • Adjusted functionality: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes reduce the cooldown of Alarak's Basic Abilities by 1.5 seconds. This bonus is doubled against enemy Heroes who are Stunned, Silenced, Slowed, or Rooted.

Developer Comment: Mocking Strikes is slightly underperforming compared to other options, so we're taking its benefit and making half of it more universally available, which should make the talent less risky to take and get value from.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Health increased from 1900 to 1950.
• Health Regeneration increased from 3.96 to 4.06.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Negatively Charged [E]
    • Initial damage bonus increased from 150% to 175%.

Developer Comment: Alarak has fallen off a bit due to a few rounds of nerfs that have happened to him over time. We're giving him back some power via his general survivability as well the initial damage bonus that Negatively Charged gives when taking the talent.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Sustaining Power [E]
    • Removed.
  • New Talent: Overwhelming Power [Q]
    • After hitting an enemy Hero with Discord Strike, Alarak gains 40% Attack Speed and his Basic Attacks heal him for 50% of the damage dealt for 4 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Hindered Motion [W]
    • Slow amount increased from 25% to 30%.

Developer Comment: Sustaining Power has been a difficult sell as a competitive option for Alarak. Players who want to improve Lightning Surge are more inclined to go for Extended Lightning, since it adds more benefits that synergize with later talents. Instead of buffing Sustaining Power in hopes that it outshines Extended Lightning, we're changing it to do its own unique effect. Overwhelming Power should synergize well with talents like Hindered Motion and Mocking Strikes, allowing Alarak players who are able to stick to their targets to do a lot of sustained damage while keeping themselves alive.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Discord Strike [Q]
  • Damage reduced from 175 to 165.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum [W]
    • Health threshold for cooldown reduction increased from 75% to 80%.
• Level 4
  • Show of Force [Trait]
    • Damage reduced from 65 to 61.

Developer Comment: Alarak has become a dominant force, particularly at higher levels of play. We're toning him down a bit to make room for other heroes to shine.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum [W]
    • Cooldown recharge rate reduced from 100% to 75%.
• Level 4
  • Show of Force [Trait]
    • Damage reduced from 68 to 65.
• Level 7
  • Hindered Motion [W]
    • Slow duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: We went a little overboard with our changes to Ruthless Momentum and Show of Force. We're toning both of these talents down a bit, while at the same time giving Hindered Motion a small buff.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Chaos Reigns [Q]
    • Damage bonus after hitting 15 Heroes increased from 50 to 60
    • Damage bonus after hitting 2 Heroes with a single Discord Strike increased from 50 to 60
    • Damage bonus for hitting 3 enemy Heroes in a single Discord Strike increased from 80 to 100
  • Negatively Charged [E]
    • Damage bonus per stack reduced from 5% to 4%
  • Show of Force [Trait]
    • Damage reduced from 80 to 68
    • Additional Functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero with 3 of Alarak's abilities within 2 seconds also grants Alarak 2% Sadism, up to 20% maximum. This bonus Sadism is lost on death

Developer Comment: These changes are meant to create better competition between Alarak's Level 4 talents. We are buffing Chaos Reigns and giving Show of Force an exciting new scaling bonus, while also reducing the power of Negatively Charged. While we realize that Negatively Charged is an extremely attractive talent that can sometimes get out of control when Alarak gets a lot of stacks, and an obvious way to nerf it would be to cap its stacks, a large part of the enjoyment of playing Alarak and of taking talents like Negatively Charged is about living the dream when playing well. We are instead going to try simply reducing the bonus and making the other talents on the tier more attractive, which should hopefully help talent picks on other tiers as well.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Discord Strike (Q)
  • Mana cost increased from 45 to 55

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum (W)
    • Adjusted Functionality: Reduce the Mana cost of Telekinesis from 30 to 20. Telekinesis' cooldown recharges 100% faster while above 75% health
    • Telekinesis' button will now glow when this cooldown bonus is active
• Level 13
  • Blade of the Highlord (Trait)
    • Maximum Sadism bonus increased from 30% to 40%

Developer Comment: We've gotten feedback from players that they missed the old Quick Mind talent that existed before Alarak's rework, as it allowed them to use Telekinesis in more creative ways since they felt more free to cast the ability when it was on a shorter cooldown. We agree, and we're using the Ruthless Momentum talent to allow this to happen. Instead of reducing all of Alarak's cooldowns, we're instead specializing the talent to greatly reduce the cooldown of Telekinesis. This should allow players who pick this talent to reposition themselves, peel for their allies, or fish for initiations on the enemy more often.

Developer Comment: As we promised in the past, we took a look at the overall Mana tension of all the Heroes in the game. We also have some philosophies about Mana that we want to keep going forward. They are:

1. Mana should be a meaningful part of the game, particularly in the early stages when wave clear is at a higher premium. We believe that as the game progresses, Mana tension should become less important as Heroes gain more base Mana and the game's focus shifts to team fighting.
2. Mana tension doesn't have to be the same for every Hero, but every Hero should feel it to some degree, otherwise it serves no purpose.
3. We like that some talents heavily mitigate Mana tension.

When we took a look at Mana tension in the game, we saw that, overall, things are in a fairly healthy spot, but could be fine-tuned and improved upon. We like the tension that the heroes who are closer to the middle of the spectrum have, with some examples being Malfurion, Tychus, and E.T.C. Our goal with these changes is to bring the outliers closer to the center. We are open to your feedback going forward if you think that the game needs to be stricter or more lenient in this area, or if you believe there are any outliers that we missed.

Bug Fixes

• Casting Last Laugh will now correctly dismount Alarak.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 13
  • Blade of the Highlord (Trait)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes grant 2% Sadism, up to 30%. Sadism gained from Blade of the Highlord is lost on death

Developer Comment: Since its inception, Blade of the Highlord has not performed well compared to the other talents on its tier. With this change, we're hoping to bring it to a more competitive space by making its bonuses more permanent instead of only lasting for a small window of time.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum (Passive)
    • Health threshold for cooldown reduction reduced from 80% to 75%
• Level 4
  • Show of Force (Trait)
    • Damage Increased from 77 to 80
• Level 16
  • Mocking Strikes (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2.5 to 3 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Alarak & Gazlowe: Fixed an issue that allowed Gazlowe and Alarak to cast charged abilities while time stopped.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Alarak's Deadly Charge now has an icon in the death recap screen.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 140 to 150

Bug Fixes

• Alarak - Fixed an issue preventing the targeting indicator for Deadly Charge from appearing.

• Alarak – Fixed an issue that allowed Alarak to move while channeling Deadly Charge.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Deadly Charge will now always fire in the direction the player clicked, instead of the direction Alarak was facing when the Ability was cast.

Bug Fixes

• Ragnaros: When cast on Ragnaros in his normal form, Alarak's Rite of Rak'shir and Alexstrasza's Blessing of the Red will not persist after casting Molten Core. However, Ragnaros will regain those marks once Molten Core expires.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Free Lightning Surge casts granted by the Lightning Barrage Talent now correctly display its cast range indicator.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Rite of Rak’shir can no longer be removed when Samuro casts Mirror Image or Chen casts Storm, Earth, Fire.

Design & Gameplay

Trait Quests

• The following Hero Traits are now categorized as Repeatable Quests:
  • Alarak: Sadism
    • Quest progress visual and sound effects will now play when earning Takedown credit.
    • Alarak’s Sadism Quest will now appear on the in-game Score Screen (TAB)

Bug Fixes

• General: Fixed an issue that allowed certain Abilities to affect enemy Heroes in their own Hall of Storms:
  • Alarak – Telekinesis (W)
  • Brightwing – Emerald Wind (R)
  • Dehaka – Drag (Q)
  • Medivh – Ley Line Seal (R)
  • Stitches – Hook (Q)

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Learning Counter-Strike or Deadly Charge at level 20 will now correctly append that Ability’s description to the Sadism Trait tooltip.

Bug Fixes

• Stukov: Abilities that move Heroes, like Alarak’s Telekinesis and Stiches’ Hook, no longer remove Weighted Pustule from the affected Hero.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Rite of Rak’shir will no longer be placed on a dead target if it was cast just as that target took fatal damage.

• Stukov: Abilities that move Heroes, like Alarak’s Telekinesis and Stiches’ Hook, no longer remove Weighted Pustule from the affected Hero.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Casting Counter-Strike will now display a silver healthbar to indicate Protected status.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Negatively Charged (E)
    • Damage bonus increased from 3 to 5%
• Level 13
  • Blade of the Highlord (Passive)
    • Bonus Sadism increased from 6 to 7%. Cap increased from 30 to 35%

Bug Fixes

• Alarak & Artanis: Fixed an issue causing Deadly Charge to go on a full cooldown if Alarak is hit by Phase Prism while channeling.

• Alarak: Marking The Lost Vikings with Rite of Rak'Shir during their Longboat Raid Ability and then killing the Longboat will now correctly grant bonus Sadism and Rite of Rak’shir cooldown reduction.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak – Fixed an issue that prevented Rite of Rak’Shir from going on a reduced cooldown if used on a Nova Holo Decoy that expired.

• Alarak – Lightning Surge will now display its effect when cast on Forts and Keeps.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Chaos Reigns (Q)
    • Damage bonus for hitting 15 enemy Heroes reduced from 60 to 50
    • Damage bonus for hitting 2 enemy Heroes with a single cast of Discord Strike reduced from 60 to 50
    • Damage bonus for hitting 3 enemy Heroes with a single cast of Discord Strike increased from 60 to 80
  • Show of Force (Passive)
    • Damage increased from 70 to 77
• Level 13
  • Pure Malice (Passive)
    • Sadism gained per Ally death increased from 6 to 10%
    • Maximum Sadism bonus increased from 30 to 40%
  • Rite of Rak’shir (Active)
    • Sadism bonus for killing the targeted Hero reduced from 6 to 5%

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Discord Strike’s visual effects now properly match its crossbar area of effect.

• Alarak: Extended Lightning’s tooltip now correctly states that quest rewards will be granted after hitting 3 Heroes with the center of Lightning Surge.

• Alarak: Fixed an issue in which Lightning Surge dealt less damage than intended to enemy Heroes hit between Alarak and his primary target.

• D.Va: Players will now correctly earn takedown credit toward certain Hero Talents and Abilities, like Seasoned Marksman or Li-Ming’s Critical Mass, after destroying D.Va’s Mech.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Sadism (Trait)
  • New Functionality:
    • Alarak now gains 3% Sadism per enemy Takedown, up to 30%. This bonus is lost on Death.
    • Now also affects self-healing vs. enemy Heroes.
• ​Discord Strike (Q)
  • Now has Double Cross functionality baseline.
  • Mana cost reduced from 55 to 45
• Lightning Surge (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25
  • Damage reduced from 100 to 62
  • Adjusted Functionality:
    • Enemies hit by the center of the beam now take 100% bonus damage
    • Healing is no longer based on the amount of damage done to enemy Heroes
      • Enemy Heroes hit now heal Alarak for 70 Health

Talents

• Level 1
  • Power Conduit (E)
    • Removed
  • Without Effort (W)
    • Removed
  • Sustaining Power (E) Undocumented
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Bonus Healing increased from 30 25 to 40%
  • Extended Lightning (E)
    • Moved from Level 4
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Reduce the damage bonus of Sadism by 10%.
      • !Quest: Hit 5 enemy Heroes with the center portion of Lightning Surge.
        • Reward: Increase the range of Lightning Surge by 20%.
      • !Quest: Hit 15 Heroes with the center portion of Lightning Surge.
        • Reward: Enemy Heroes hit with the center portion of Lightning Surge are slowed by 40% for 2 seconds.
      • !Quest: Hit 3 enemy Heroes with the center portion of Lightning Surge in a single cast.
        • Reward: Gain 10 Sadism and complete all quests on this talent.
  • New Talent: Ruthless Momentum (Passive)
    • While above 80% Health, your Basic Abilities cooldown 20% faster.
• Level 4
  • Double Cross (Q)
    • Removed
  • Reckless Strike (Q)
    • Removed
  • Cycle of Discord (Q)
    • Removed
  • Negatively Charged (E)
    • Moved from level 16
    • New functionality:
      • Increases the bonus damage from hitting the center portion of Lightning Surge to 150%
      • Quest: Each time you hit an enemy Hero with the center portion of Lightning Surge, increase the center damage bonus by an additional 3%
  • Chaos Reigns (Q)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • New Functionality:
      • !Quest: Hit 15 enemy Heroes with Discord Strike.
        • Reward: Increase Discord Strike's damage by 60.
      • !Quest: Hit 2 enemy Heroes with Discord Strike in a single cast.
        • Reward: Increase Discord Strike's damage by 60.
      • !Quest: Hit 3 enemy Heroes with Discord Strike in a single cast.
        • Reward: Increase Discord Strike's damage by 60 and complete all quests on this talent.
  • New Talent: Show of Force (Passive)
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with 3 abilities within 2 seconds causes them to take an additional 70 damage.
• Level 7
  • Endless Energy (E)
    • Removed
  • Thunderstruck (E)
    • Removed
  • Dissonance (Q)
    • Moved from Level 13
    • No longer reduces Sadism by 10%.
  • Hindered Motion (W)
    • Moved from Level 13
    • No longer reduces Sadism by 10%
    • Slow amount reduced from 40% to 25%
  • Applied Force (W)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • Added functionality:
      • Reduce the damage of Sadism by 10% but Telekinesis’s range is increased by 20% and it pushes 20% further.
• ​Level 13
  • Psychokinesis (W)
    • Removed
  • Pure Malice (Passive)
    • Sadism bonus reduced from 8% stacking up to 40% max to 6% stacking up to 30% max.
    • Hasty Bargain can now reduce this Sadism bonus
  • New Talent: Blade of the Highlord (Passive)
    • Your Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes grant you 6% Sadism for 4 seconds, stacking up to 30%.
  • New Talent: Rite of Rak’Shir (Active)
    • Activate to mark an enemy Hero.
      • Using Discord Strike on your marked target increases your Sadism by 3%
      • Killing the enemy Hero gives you 6% bonus Sadism and sets the cooldown of Rite of Rak’Shir to 10 seconds
      • Dying removes all bonuses from this talent
      • 300-second cooldown and duration
• Level 16
  • Projected Force (W)
    • Removed
  • Quick Mind (W)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Lethal Onslaught (Q)
    • For 4 seconds after hitting an enemy hero with Discord Strike, your Basic Attacks gain 50% of Sadism’s benefit. Attacking enemy Heroes refreshes the duration of this buff.
  • New Talent: Lightning Barrage (E)
    • If Lightning Surge hits an enemy Hero with its center portion, then it can be cast again with no Mana cost or cooldown within 2 seconds of being cast. This second cast cannot target the same enemy.
  • New Talent: Mocking Strikes (Passive)
    • Your Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes who are Stunned, Slowed, Rooted, or Silenced reduces your Basic Ability cooldowns by 2.5 seconds
• Level 20
  • Last Laugh (Active)
    • Cooldown increased from 20 to 30 seconds
    • Range decreased by 15%
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Activate to remove all roots, slows, and damage over time effects and teleport to the chosen location
      • After 4 seconds, reduce Alarak’s Health to 1
      • If Alarak damages 3 enemy Heroes with Basic Abilities within 4 seconds after teleporting, his Health is not reduced

Developer Comment: Your Highlord has returned! Alarak has received a large update that he has deemed “acceptable”, targeted at making him more rewarding for players who take the time to master him. Baseline changes include reworking his Sadism to be increased upon getting Takedowns and putting bonus damage into his Lightning Surge baseline for hitting enemies in its center beam. We’re also experimenting with some new talent ideas with Extended Lightning and Chaos Reigns, where players can gain huge benefits for the rarely accomplished feat of hitting 3 enemy Heroes with a single ability.

• (!) indicates a Questing Talent.
• Italic text indicates a NEW Talent.
• Bold text indicates a MOVED Talent.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Telekinesis will now correctly interrupt a Hero who is channeling to launch a Nuke on Warhead Junction.

• Alarak: The targeting reticle for Deadly Charge will no longer persist on the terrain if Alarak is killed while channeling.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Telekinesis will now correctly interrupt E.T.C.’s Mosh Pit.

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Health lost due to activating Last Laugh will no longer be restored when Medivh’s Force of Will with the Reabsorption Talent expires.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Lightning Surge (E)
  • Range increased by roughly 10%

Bug Fixes

• Alarak: Changing Heroes of the Storm’s text language settings will no longer prevent Lightning Surge visual effects from displaying.

• Alarak: Deadly Charge no longer be cancelled and be placed on full cooldown if Alarak’s destination would place him in terrain.

• Alarak: Fixed an issue that could prevent Counter Strike from dealing damage if Alarak was killed as the Ability’s effects were triggered.

• Alarak: The targeting reticle for Lightning Surge will now correctly match the Ability’s casting range after learning Extended Lightning.

• Alarak: Unstoppable and Invulnerable effects will no longer prevent Alarak from pushing himself via Telekinesis.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Discord Strike (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 55
• Lightning Surge (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 40 to 30
  • Damage increased from 90 to 100
  • Width increased by 50%
• Counter-Strike (R)
  • Damage increased from 250 to 275
  • Added Functionality:
    • Now grants Alarak Unstoppable for its duration

Talents

• Level 1
  • Power Conduit (E)
    • Mana cost reduction decreased from 15 to 10
  • Wide Lightning (E)
    • ​Removed
• Level 7
  • Thunderstruck (E)
    • Slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Level 13
  • Hindered Motion (W)
    • Slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds

Developer Comments: While we expected Alarak’s win rate to be a bit on the lower side due to how difficult his kit can be to fully execute, we felt that he could use some buffs to make him feel better to play. Across the board Lightning Surge is slightly under-performing, so we’re upping the power of the base ability and its related talents. We hope that this will properly reward Alarak players who take Lightning Surge related talents, particularly those who master the gameplay of clotheslining enemies with the Lightning. When we first designed Counter-Strike, we felt that crowd control was an appropriate counter to the ability since it was so powerful on paper and on a reasonably low cooldown. Since his release, we have seen that Counter-Strike is simply not as reliable as we had predicted since Alarak has 3 potential ways to fail to get value (enemies can fail to damage him, they can dodge the returning skill shot, or they can crowd control him out of his channel). We’ve decided to grant him Unstoppable for its duration to make it more reliable, and we are increasing its damage to further separate it from Deadly Charge.

New Hero

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.