Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Hyper Shift [Z]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 1 to .5 seconds.
    • Healing reduced from 6% to 4% of maximum Health.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Magic Spit to activate its cooldown reduction against Evading Heroes.

• Fixed an issue that caused Polymorph's Slow to not classify the target as being Slowed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Unstable Anomaly to leave behind a permanent visual.
• Fixed an issue that caused Emerald Wind to not interact with map objects.
• Invisible Friends no longer displays an empty icon in the Death Recap.

Bug Fixes

• 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.

• Fixed an issue that caused Phase Shift to activate on the previous target.

• Medivh's Portal is now an invalid target for allied abilities. (Example: Brightwing's Blink Heal)

Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Hard to Easy.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Unstable Anomaly [W]
    • Unstable Anomaly area reveal duration reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds.
    • Unstable Anomaly will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Invisible Friends [R1]
    • Invisible Friends will now preview the total healing that will be provided.

Bug Fixes

• 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.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Safety Dust to not increase healing from Blink Heal and Soothing Mist. Undocumented

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Brightwing to be able to cast Phase Shift on allied Hero in Stasis. Undocumented

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Hyper Shift [Z]
    • Maximum Health healing bonus decreased from 8% to 6%.
• Level 4
  • Magic Spit [Passive]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 6 to 4 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Invisible Friends [R1]
    • Duration reduced from infinite to 9 seconds.
    • Heal increased from 20 to 25.

Developer Comment: Brightwing remains strong at all levels of play, and is also terrorizing her foes at higher levels. While this is a substantial nerf to Invisible Friends on paper, we feel Brightwing still has compelling reasons to take the talent.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Vitals
  • Health reduced from 1450 to 1425.
  • Health regeneration reduced from 3.02 to 2.97.

Abilities

• Soothing Mist [Trait]
  • Heal amount reduced from 115 to 110.
  • Activation cooldown reduced from 90 to 75 seconds.

Developer Comment: Our overly-friendly Faerie Dragon has been slowly collecting a few more wins than she should. We are bringing down a few of her base stats to bring her more in line with the rest of her peers.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Soothing Mist [D]
  • Healing increased from 105 to 115.
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 90 seconds.
• Phase Shift [Z]
  • Cooldown reduced from 50 to 40 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Hyper Shift [Z]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.5 to 1 second.
• Level 7
  • Peekaboo! [Z]
    • Shield duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
  • Critical Mist [D]
    • Heal bonus increased from 100% to 140%.
• Level 13
  • Pixie Boost [E]
    • Initial Move Speed bonus increased from 40% to 50%.
• Level 20
  • Intensive Winds [R2]
    • Changed functionality: No longer increases Emerald Winds' Mana cost.
  • Faerie Protector [Active]
    • Additional functionality: [Passive] - Pixie Dust always bounces back and applies to Brightwing.
  • Speedy Dragon [Passive]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce Phase Shift's cast time to 1 second.

Developer Comment: We'd prefer a Brightwing that isn't as dependent on Hyper Shift, so we're reducing its cooldown reduction alongside Phase Shift's base cooldown. While we're here we're sprucing up Brightwing's level 20 talents, so Brightwing is ready for some new friends!

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 13
  • Safety Dust [E]
    • Adjusted functionality: Increase Pixie Dust duration by 1 second. Soothing Mist and Blink Heal heal allies with an active Pixie Dust for 75% more.

Developer Comment: We liked how Safety Dust boosted all of Brightwing's healing tools. However, its healing was overflowing when paired with Phase Shift and Hyper Shift, and not in a way we consider exciting. We believe this change keeps the core of what makes Safety Dust fun.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Hyper Shift [Z]
    • Bonus healing reduced from 10% to 8% maximum Health.

Developer Comment: Hyper Shift is dominating Brightwing's Level 1 talent choices, and she has recently risen greatly in prominence, in part due to its power. We don't believe she is greatly overperforming at this time, so we're giving it a slight nerf and will be keeping an eye on her to see if any future adjustments are needed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Brightwing's Soothing Mist coud remain active while in cargo, dead, or in Stasis Undocumented

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Polymorph [W]
  • Slow amount increased from 25% to 30%.
• Pixie Dust [E]
  • Spell Armor amount increased from 25 to 30.
• Phase Shift [Z]
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
  • Healing increased from 20% to 25% maximum Health.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Hyper Shift [Z]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds.
• Level 4
  • Magic Spit [Passive]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 6 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Critical Mist [Trait]
    • Healing increased from 150 to 165.

Developer Comment: Brightwing is slightly underperforming compared to other Healers, so we're buffing up the aspects of her kit that make her a unique choice to put onto a team.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Greater Polymorph [W]
    • Adjusted functionality: Increase Polymorph's range by 30%. If Brightwing hits an enemy Hero with Arcane Flare's center within 2 seconds of being Polymorphed, then reduce Polymorph's cooldown by 7 seconds and gain 50 Mana.

Developer Comment: Our last changes to Brightwing have better rounded out her talents, however Greater Polymorph was a little too hard to consistently proc. Instead of requiring her to hit a Polymorphed target, she now has a slightly larger window of time to get the cooldown reduction proc. We're also increasing the cooldown reduction bonus from 6 to 7 seconds.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Greater Polymorph [W]
    • No longer resets the cooldown of Polymorph on Takedowns.
    • Additional functionality: If Brightwing hits an enemy Hero with Arcane Flare's center damage while they are Polymorphed, then reduce Polymorph's cooldown by 6 seconds and gain 50 Mana.
• Level 7
  • Critical Mist [Trait]
    • Adjusted functionality: Soothing Mist heals allied Heroes for 150. Double this healing if a disabling effect is removed.
• Level 13
  • Safety Dust [E]
    • Bonus allied healing increased from 25% to 75%.
    • Now has a Crit kicker to show when the bonus healing is applied.

Developer Comment: We're changing Greater Polymorph to have a more reliable bonus provided she can combo her Arcane Flare with Polymorph. We also saw an opportunity to give Critical Mist some more reliable Healing output, so now it will Heal her teammates regardless if she removes a status effect or not.

Bug Fixes

• Interrupting Brightwing's Intensive Winds cast will now set the cooldown to 5 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Fixed an issue preventing the Unstable Anomaly talent from increasing Polymorph's slow.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Fixed an issue preventing Brightwing from applying the Hush! talent effect if it hit more than one target.

• Brightwing: Fixed an issue preventing Brightwing from applying the Sticky Flare talent effect if it hit more than one target.

Hero Updates

Support Heroes

• We've unified certain Support abilities to only work on Heroes (not Minions or Mercenaries):
  • Pixie Dust (E)

Developer Comment: We're unifying the vast majority of our heals for their intended purpose: healing allied Heroes. We're maintaining the ability for a few heals to affected Minions still where we think it's an important part of their gameplay: Lt. Morales Healing Beam (so that she can heal herself), Rehgar's Chain Heal (to allow bounces travel across Minions), Tyrael's Righteousness (because shielding Minion waves is part of the lane interaction with the ability), and Uther's Holy Radiance (to unify expectations, since it can damage Minions).

Bug Fixes

• Stasis/Time Stop: Fixed an issue where player created terrain could move Heroes affected by Stasis or Time Stop.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Healing amount increased from 100 to 105
  • Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds

Talents

• Level 7
  • Critical Mist (Trait)
    • Healing amount increased from 200 to 250

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Fixed an issue where Phase Shift (Z) could be cast on vehicles (such as the Dragon Knight).

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Arcane Flare (Q)
  • Outer damage from 87 to 75
  • Inner damage from 260 to 180
  • Missile speed increased ~30%
  • Added functionality:
    • If an enemy Hero is hit by the center of Arcane Flare, instantly pulse a free Soothing Mist
• Polymorph (W)
  • Duration from 1.25 to 1.5 seconds
  • Cooldown from 10 to 12 seconds
• Pixie Dust (E)
  • Range from 8 to 7
• Phase Shift (Z)
  • Cooldown from 55 to 60 seconds
  • Added functionality:
    • Heals the target for 20% of their maximum health
• Soothing Mist (D)
  • Heal amount reduced from 115 to 105
  • Added functionality:
    • Activate to instantly pulse a calming wave, clearing all Stun, Root, Slow, and Silence effects from nearby allies
    • 120 second cooldown
• Emerald Wind (R)
  • No longer grants passive healing to Soothing Mist
  • Damage reduced from 303 to 225
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Greater Polymorph (W)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the cast range of Polymorph by 30%. Anytime a nearby enemy Hero is killed, reset the Cooldown of Polymorph
  • Hyper Shift (Z)
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the heal amount of Phase Shift to 30% of targets max Health
      • Every Minion killed near you lowers the cooldown of Phase Shift by 2 seconds
  • Pixie Charm (1)
    • New functionality:
      • Every Minion killed near you grants you a Bribe Stack. Hitting an enemy with the center portion of Arcane Flare grants you 5 Bribe Stacks
• Level 4
  • Manic Pixie (E)
    • Removed
  • Unstable Anomaly (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the slow amount of Polymorph to 40%. When it expires, it explodes dealing 2% of all nearby enemy Heroes max Health in damage
  • Dream Shot (Q)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the range of Arcane Flare by 50%. If it hits an enemy Hero, lower the cooldown to 2 seconds.
  • New Talent – Magic Spit (D)
    • Increase your Basic Attack range by 20%. Attacks against Heroes reduce the cooldown of Soothing Mist's active by 5 seconds
• Level 7
  • Mistified (D)
    • Removed
  • Cleanse (Active)
    • Removed
  • Phase Shield (Z)
    • Removed
  • Sticky Flare (Q)
    • Moved from Level 13
    • New functionality:
      • Arcane Flare slows Heroes by 20% for 3 seconds, or 40% if hit by the center of Arcane Flare
  • Peekaboo! (Z)
    • Moved from Level 4
    • Added functionality:
      • Also grants the you and your target a temporary health Shield
  • New Talent – Critical Mist (D)
    • If Calming Mist removes a status effect from an ally, instantly heal them for 200
• Level 13
  • Ice Block (Active)
    • Removed
  • Shield Dust (E)
    • Removed
  • Pixie Boost (E)
    • Movement Speed decay duration increased from 1.5 to 3 seconds
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced to 40%
  • New Talent – Safety Dust (E)
    • Increase the duration of Pixie Dust by 1 second. Healing dealt by Brightwing is increased by 25% on targets with Pixie Dust
  • New Talent – Pixie Power (E)
    • Lower the cooldown of Pixie Dust by 3 seconds and increase the Spell Armor it grants to 50
• Level 16
  • Bouncy Dust (E)
    • Removed
  • Hardened Focus (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent – Phase Out (Active)
    • Activate to phase out and become invulnerable for .5 seconds
      • 20 second cooldown
  • New Talent – Hush (Q)
    • Enemy Heroes hit with the center of Arcane Flare are Silenced for 1 second and deal 25% less damage for 3 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Double Wyrmhole (R)
    • Removed
  • Continuous Winds (R)
    • Removed
  • Revitalizing Mist (D)
    • Removed
  • Storm Shield (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent – Invisible Friends (R)
    • Blink Heal grants you and the target stealth. They are unrevealable for .5 seconds. While under this effect, they regenerate 20 Health Per Second
  • New Talent – Intensive Winds (R)
    • Lower the cooldown of Emerald Wind to 3 seconds. It now costs 200 Mana
  • New Talent – Faerie Protector (Active)
    • Activate to instantly cast Pixie Dust on all nearby allied Heroes
    • 60 second cooldown
  • New Talent – Speedy Dragon (Passive)
    • Gain 20% permanent movement speed

Developer Comment: Late last year we decided that we wanted to add a fun mini-game to Brightwing utilizing her Arcane Flare as the focal point. As it often happens, while making the initial changes we started diving in deeper and deeper. Nearly a year later, we are excited to showcase a fully updated talent tree alongside some fundamental game-play changes to our resident Faerie Dragon. With a baseline AoE cleanse-type effect and added healing potential to her Arcane Flare, Brightwing should bring some new major play- making abilities to her team.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Heal amount increased from 109 to 112.
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Heal amount increased from 192 to 200.

Bug Fixes

• Ice Block: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities remained castable during Ice Block.

Bug Fixes

• Ice Block: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities remained castable during Ice Block.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Can now correctly cast Blink Heal on Turrets and Biotic Emitters that were placed by Brightwing herself.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Phase Shift can no longer be cast on Allies who are in Stasis.

• Brightwing: Soothing Mist will no longer Heal allies who are standing nearby while Brightwing is inside Anub'arak’s Cocoon, Lt. Morales’ Medivac, Stitches’ Gorge, or Zagara’s Devouring Maw.

• 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

• Ice Block: Fixed an issue allowing certain Abilities to be cast during Ice Block, including Jaina’s Ice Blink, Brightwing’s Storm Shield, and Malfurion’s Astral Communion.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1395 to 1450
• Health Regen increased from 2.91 to 3.02

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Polymorph (W)
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Phase Shift can now be correctly cast on the entirety of an allied Hero’s Minimap portrait.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Fixed an issue that could allow Brightwing to cast Phase Shift on enemy Heroes.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Base Maximum Health reduced from 1470 to 1395
• Health Regen reduced from 3.06 to 2.91
• Basic Attack Damage reduced from 85 to 81

Abilities

• Arcane Flare (Q)
  • Outer damage reduced from 91 to 87
  • Inner damage reduced from 274 to 260
• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Heal amount reduced from 115 to 109
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Heal amount reduced from 204 to 194
• Emerald Wind (R)
  • Damage reduced from 318 to 303

Talents

• Level 4
  • Unstable Anomaly (W)
    • Damage reduced from 114 to 108
• Level 7
  • Phase Shield (Z)
    • Shield amount reduced from 350 to 335

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Soothing Mist will no longer passively Heal nearby allies while Brightwing is piloting a Vehicle.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Arcane Flare’s targeting indicator will no longer visually persist on the terrain if cast outside the Gate during the pre-game countdown.

Hero Updates

Miscellaneous

• Phase Shift (Z) will now also call out the targeted ally in an allied chat announcement upon activation. Undocumented

Abilities

• Pixie Dust (E)
  • Spell Armor reduced from 30 to 25
• Emerald Wind (R)
  • Soothing Mist bonus healing amount reduced from 8 to 5%

Talents

• Level 7
  • Phase Shield (Z)
    • Shield amount reduced from 400 to 350

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: The channel for Phase Shift will now properly cancel if Brightwing is Rooted.

• Brightwing: The channel for Phase Shift will now properly cancel if the allied target dies.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Phase Shift will no longer be placed on full cooldown when interrupted by Root, Silence, or Polymorph effects.

Hero Updates

Miscellaneous

• Phase Shift (Z) will now go on a 10 second cooldown when interrupted by enemy or allied abilities.
• Phase Shift (Z) now has an allied chat announcement upon activation.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Healing aura range increased from 6 to 7
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 9 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Dream Shot (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • Increases the range of Arcane Flare by 50%
      • Hitting an enemy Hero in the center portion of Arcane Flare reduces the cooldown of Arcane Flare to 1 second
  • Hyper Shift (Z)
    • Cooldown reduction per Hero healed increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • Unfurling Spray (Trait)
    • Removed
• Level 4
  • Arcane Barrage (Q)
    • Removed
  • Peekaboo (Z)
    • Revealed area radius reduced from 20 to 15
    • Added functionality:
      • Pixie Dust is now applied to the target of Phase Shift
• Level 7
  • Phase Shield (Z)
    • Added functionality:
      • Now applies Shield to Brightwing and her target

Developer Comment: While Brightwing has been seeing a bit more play recently, her talent tree had some low-hanging fruit that we wanted to trim. Granting her a slightly larger range of Soothing Mist baseline will free up a more impactful choice at level 1. The addition of Arcane Barrage’s functionality into Dream Shot should also make that talent a bit more exciting to pick up. Overall, we were looking at giving the Faerie Dragon a few minor buffs and adjusting some talents in order to increase parity amongst her talent tiers.

Bug Fixes

• Stasis: Fixed an issue in which cooldowns for self-cast Stasis effects, such as Ice Block, or Chromie’s Time Out, would not count down until respawn if the Hero was killed immediately after that Stasis effect concluded.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Pixie Dust (E)
  • Movement Speed duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
  • No longer grants Block charges
  • New functionality:
    • Grants 30 Spell Armor for 3 seconds

Talents

• Level 13
  • Shield Dust (E)
    • Added functionality:
      • Pixie Dust also grants 50 Physical Armor for the duration

Bug Fixes

• Polymorphs: Fixed several issues in which Polymorph effects could incorrectly knock Heroes out of Stealth.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Now displays a range ring around Brightwing that conveys the radius of her heal. This is only visible to Brightwing.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Fixed an issue causing Emerald Wind to push enemies away from Brightwing’s current location rather than the original casting location.

Bug Fixes

• Ice Block: Fixed an issue which allowed Brightwing and Malfurion to use certain active Talents while in Stasis.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Polymorph will now properly interrupt an enemy Hero who is channeling on the Dragon Knight.

• Brightwing: The Critterize Talent’s negative effects will now be correctly removed if the target is Cleansed.

• Brightwing: The negative effects of Critterize will no longer persist beyond Polymorph’s duration.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Phase Shift (Z)
  • Cooldown from 45 to 55 seconds

Developer Comments: We are looking at bringing down the power of global talents. We like what they bring to the game and their draft implications per map but feel that they are currently available a bit too often.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: The game camera will no longer become stuck if Stitches uses Gorge on Brightwing while she is casting Phase Shift.

Bug Fixes

• Damage Reduction: When two damage reduction effects, such as Resistant (25%) and Hardened Shield (75%), are simultaneously applied to a Hero, the larger effect will no longer be overridden by the lesser effect.

Hero Updates

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)
    • Replaced by Pixie Charm

Developer Comments: In our ongoing pursuit to create meaningful and Hero-specific generic Talent choices, Bribe was a Talent that got caught in our crosshairs this patch. We have removed it from a few Heroes and have added new flavorful versions to a few others. We have always liked the design and gameplay behind the Talent, but also realize how much players had to give up in order to pick them. Wingman, Pixie Charm, and Covert Mission are being reintroduced to Falstad, Brightwing, and Nova, respectively, with design mechanics more suited to each Hero’s unique style of play.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Phase Shield now properly applies a Shield to targets under the effect of Abathur’s Symbiote.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Heal amount decreased from 120 to 115

Talents

• Level 1
  • Unfurling Spray (Trait)
    • Range increase on Soothing Mist reduced from 33 to 20%
• Level 7
  • Mistified (Trait)
    • Cooldown Reduction when casting abilities reduced from .75 to .5
• Level 13
  • Shield Dust (E)
    • Ability damage reduction decreased from 50 to 40%

Developer Comments: We had a feeling that Brightwing was going to get a bit stronger with our last round of buffs, but with the changes to her most popular build, we also wanted to make sure we adequately compensated her. These changes should lower her overall output slightly and keep her Soothing Mist talents competitive with others.

Talents

Bribe

• New Functionality:
  • Nearby Minion kills grant 1 stack of Bribe. Spend 20 charges to instantly defeat a non-Boss Mercenary. 100 Charges maximum.
    • Raynor’s Raiders' Recruitment Talent also increased to 100 maximum charges.
    • Viking Bribery Talent increased to 200 charges maximum, but each use costs 40 charges.
  • If a Mercenary Camp is completely captured using Bribe, the camp respawns 50% faster.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Heal amount increased from 96 to 120
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Range reduced by approximately 15%

Talents

• Level 1
  • Hyper Shift (Trait)
    • Will no longer reduce the cooldown of Phase Shift when Brightwing heals herself
• Level 7
  • Dream Shot (Q)
    • Moved to Level 1
  • Phase Shield (Z)
    • Reduced Shield duration from 20 to 10 seconds
    • Reduced Shield amount from 548 to 400
  • Mistified (Passive)
    • Cooldown Reduction reduced from 1 to .75 seconds
• Level 20
  • Continuous Winds (R)
    • Also increases the bonus healing of Soothing Mist (granted by Emerald Wind) from 8 to 15%
  • Rewind (Active)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: Phase Shift builds have been a lot of fun and we enjoy the gameplay behind them but we really want to open up other potential playstyles for Brightwing. Her burst healing output is locked behind Blink Heal and although we realize that having a two-charge Blink is an incredible asset, we want to continue incentivize using disengage tools like Emerald Wind.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: Fixed an issue that allowed Brightwing to heal allies with Soothing Mist while dead.

• Brightwing: The additional pulses created from the Continuous Winds talents will now properly push back enemy Heroes.

Talents

Hardened Focus

• The Health bar next to the Hero Portrait will now display a marker that indicates whether the Hero is above or below 80% Health.
• Will now display an icon in the Buff bar next to the Hero Portrait while its effects are active.

Hero Updates

• Polymorph (W)
  • Duration reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds.
  • Slow amount increased from 20% to 25%.
  • Cooldown reduced from 15 to 12 seconds.
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 60.
  • Greater Polymorph (Talent)
    • Duration bonus reduced from 1 to 0.75 seconds.

Developer Comments: We’ve received a lot of feedback from players regarding the popular strategy of chaining movement impairing effects, like Stuns and Roots, on an enemy Hero. While we want this to be a viable way to play, we feel it’s currently too prominent and powerful at higher levels of play. As a result, we are reducing the duration of many of these effects in the game. In scenarios where this change nerfs a character we don’t otherwise want to nerf, we’re coupling it with a buff to help offset the difference. While this change hasn’t reduced all effects that might make you lose control of your Hero, we feel these are some of the more egregious ones. As always, we will make further changes if necessary.

Hero Updates

• Emerald Wind (R)
  • Now passively increases Soothing Mist healing by 8%.

Developer Comments: We want to make some basic improvements to a lot of the lesser-picked/lower win-rate Heroic Abilities. Most of these are pretty simple changes to make them more enticing, like adding more damage, reducing cooldowns, or lowering Mana costs. We realize that the primary use case for Abilities like Li Li’s Water Dragon or E.T.C.’s Stage Dive is not damage, but having more of it might help them feel more effective. We’re trying to do something a little bit different with Brightwing’s Emerald Wind and Malfurion’s Twilight Dream by compensating for some of the Support capability you miss out on by picking these Heroics. We’re excited to see how these go! In Thrall’s case, Sundering was a little too strong, so we’re reducing its stun duration.

Hero Updates

• Pixie Dust (E)
  • Damage reduction amount changed from 50% to 75%

Bug Fixes

• Block stacks granted by Brightwing’s Pixie Dust will now last the full 4 second duration listed in the Ability’s description.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing’s Phase Shift cooldown will no longer be reset after activating the Rewind Talent.

Talents

Cleanse

• Tooltip updated to reflect that Cleanse cannot be self-cast

Talents

Cleanse

• This Talent’s functionality has changed significantly
• Target ally now becomes Unstoppable for 1 second. Cannot be self-cast. 60 second cooldown

Developer Comments: We want to give players more options to deal with the chain-stuns that have resurged after the scaling changes went into effect. We believe this increase in power to Cleanse should allow teams some counter- play against stun-heavy compositions.

Hero Updates

• Arcane Flare (Q)
  • Inner area damage increased from 137 to 274
  • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 35
  • Cooldown decreased from 8 to 6 seconds
  • Arcane Precision (Talent) removed

Developer Comments: Arcane Flare has been in a bit of a tough spot for a while now. We were worried about giving Brightwing reliable damage and wave clear without having to talent into it, but realize we may have been a bit too restrictive. Since the ability does have a decently high skill-cap, we decided to really ramp up the inner-damage component and reward ‘bullseyes’ with a higher payoff. The changes should allow Brightwing to be a bit more active in lane, and enemies caught in the center of an Arcane Flare should definitely feel it.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Brightwing’s Phase Shield to be applied to Cho'Gall inconsistently.

Bug Fixes

• A Hero that activates Ice Block while simultaneously coming under the effects of Stitches’ Gorge will now properly retain Ice Block’s visual effects for the duration of the Talent’s effects.

• Heroes with the Relentless Talent that become Polymorphed will now properly receive damage from Brightwing’s Unstable Anomaly Talent when Polymorph expires.

Talents

Cleanse

Developer Comments: We didn’t like the gameplay of casting Cleanse preemptively on a target that is about to be CC’ed. For example, you see Butcher charging your Valla, and right before impact you use Cleanse on Valla, allowing her to immediately Vault away. The change also prevents healers from cleansing themselves preemptively, providing a guaranteed target if the opposing team has only secured one Cleanse. As a side note, the original reason the Unstoppable functionality was available in the first place, was to help alleviate some persistent CC effects like Putrid Bile. We didn’t want you to cleanse a Putrid Bile only to have the slow immediately reapply.

• No longer makes the target Unstoppable for 1 second
• Now adds Relentless to the target for 2 seconds (50% shorter CC duration)

Hero Updates

Developer Comments: We like a lot of what the rework did for Brightwing, but overall her healing output went down more than intended. This change will give her back a big portion of the lost healing and should increase her total healing output (tab screen wise) by about 15-20%.

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Healing increased from 25 (+7.5 per level) to 30 (+9 per level)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in which the following Abilities and Talents were not damaging or destroying Zagara's Creep Tumors:
  • Brightwing's Peekaboo, Diablo's Firestorm (returning fireballs), Johanna's Blessed Hammer, Leoric's Buried Alive, Nova's Railgun, Sgt. Hammer's Napalm Strike (impact damage) and Tychus' Big Red Button (the nuke portion)

• Fixed an issue that could prevent Abilities like Brightwing's Soothing Mist or Malfurion's Life Seed from auto-casting during Iceblock, or periods during which players are stunned or silenced.

Design & Gameplay

• A number of Hero Abilities were not intended to completely Stun enemy targets. In these cases, Stuns have been converted to Dazes, which act similarly, but will no longer interrupt Abilities that can be channeled while the Hero is moving.
  • For example: Dazing Valla will not stop her from channeling Strafe.
  • The following abilities will now Daze, rather than Stun, enemy Heroes:
    • Brightwing -- Emerald Wind (R)
    • Chen -- Wandering Keg (R)
    • E.T.C. -- Face Melt (W)
    • Falstad -- Mighty Gust (R)
    • Kerrigan -- Primal Grasp (E)
    • Raynor -- Penetrating Round (Q)
    • Sgt. Hammer -- Concussive Blast (W)
    • Tychus -- Frag Grenade (W)

Hero Updates

• Brightwing has received significant updates.
• Scouting Drone (Talent) removed
• Envenom (Talent) removed
• Promote (Talent) removed
• Protective Shield (Talent) removed
• Calldown: Mule (Talent) removed
• Sprint (Talent) removed
• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Regenerative Rains (Talent) has been removed
  • Gust of Healing (Talent) has been removed
  • New Talent (Level 1): Unfurling Spray
    • Increases Soothing Mist's range by 33%
  • New Talent (Level 7): Mistified
    • Each Basic Ability cast reduces Soothing Mist’s cooldown by 1 second
  • New Talent (Level 20): Revitalizing Mist
    • Healing with Soothing Mist increases the Healing from the next Soothing Mist by 25% for 6 seconds; stacks up to 3 times
• Phase Shift (Z)
  • Phase Shield (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7
    • Duration increased from 3 to 20 seconds
  • New Talent (Level 1): Hyper Shift
    • Every time Soothing Mist Heals an allied Hero, Phase Shift’s cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds.
  • New Talent (Level 4): Peekaboo!
    • Teleporting to an ally using Phase Shift grants vision and reveals Stealth in a large area for 6 seconds.
• Arcane Flare (Q)
  • Range reduced from 9 to 8
  • Inner area damage changed from 70 (+16.5 per level) to 80 (+11 per level)
  • Outer area damage changed from 35 (+10.75 per level) to 40 (+8 per level)
  • Arcane Precision (Talent)
    • Inner area damage bonus increased from 33% to 50%
  • Sticky Flare (Talent)
    • Slow amount increased from 30% to 40%
  • New Talent (Level 4): Arcane Barrage
    • Increases Arcane Flare’s range by 50%
  • New Talent (Level 7): Dream Shot
    • Reduces Arcane Flare’s cooldown by 1 second for each enemy Hero hit by the outer radius, and 3 seconds for each hit by the inner radius
• Polymorph (W)
  • Duration reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
  • Damage removed from the base Ability
  • Now also slows the target’s Movement Speed by 20%
  • Sticky Powder (Talent) has been removed
  • New Talent (Level 4): Unstable Anomaly
    • When Polymorph ends, deal 60 (+10 per level) damage to the target and all nearby enemies
  • New Talent (Level 16): Greater Polymorph
    • Increases Polymorph’s duration by 1 second
• Pixie Dust (E)
  • Anti-Magic Powder (Talent) has been removed
  • Shield Dust (Talent) has been redesigned
    • Moved from Level 1 to Level 13
    • Pixie Dust now reduces incoming Ability damage by 50%
  • New Talent (Level 4): Manic Pixie
    • When Soothing Mist heals an ally that is affected by Pixie Dust, that ally is healed for an additional 30 (+10 per level) Health over 4 seconds
  • New Talent (Level 13): Pixie Boost
    • Pixie Dust now grants a 50% bonus to Movement Speed, decaying to 20% over 1.5 seconds
  • New Talent (Level 16): Bouncy Dust
    • Pixie Dust bounces to another nearby ally upon impact
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Ysera's Blessing (Talent) removed
  • New Talent (Level 20): Double Wyrmhole
    • Blink Heal can be cast a second time on a different target within 2 seconds without consuming a charge

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing Soothing Mist will no longer heal her for double the intended amount.

• Brightwing's Polymorph now properly interrupts Gazlowe's Deth Lazor.

• Using Brightwing’s Phase Shift just as a Core is destroyed will no longer cause the game camera to become stuck at Brightwing's intended destination.

Talents

Ice Block

• Ice Block can now be reactivated to cancel its effects early

Promote

• Buff duration increased from 15 to 30 seconds

Talents

Ice Block

• Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
• Now dims out affected Heroes’ status bars

Scouting Drone

• Now has 2 charges
• Duration reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
• Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
• Placement range increased from 3 to 4
• The number of hits required to destroy a Scouting Drone have been increased from 1 to 2.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing will no longer be incorrectly teleported back to base when casting her Phase Shift Ability on a Lost Viking just as the Vikings enter their Longboat.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing’s Soothing Mist Trait will no longer stop functioning after coming under the effects of Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Talents

Calldown: MULE

• Multiple M.U.L.E.s can no longer repair the same structure.
• Duration reduced from 60 to 40 seconds; Cooldown remains 60 seconds
• M.U.L.E.s now restore ammunition more quickly.
• M.U.L.E. Health is now 140 (+43 per level), rather than remaining at 500 Health for the duration of the match.

Ice Block

• Ability cooldowns will now continue to run, and persistent auras will continue to take effect, throughout Ice Block’s duration (this was added with the previous patch).

Rewind

• Has been moved from Level 13 to Level 20
• Has been removed from many Heroes
• Found on the following Heroes:
  • Anub'arak, Arthas, Brightwing, Nova, Malfurion, Muradin, Murky, Tassadar, Tyrande, Rehgar, Zeratul

Hero Updates

• Starting Health decreased from 775 to 750
• Scaling Health decreased from 140 to 130
• Rewind (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 20
• Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
• Phase Shift (Z)
  • Cooldown increased from 30 to 45 seconds
  • Phase Shield (Talent)
    • Shield scaling increased from 25 to 50 per level
• Polymorph (W)
  • Mana Cost increased from 60 to 75
• Pixie Dust (E)
  • Buff duration decreased from 4 to 3 seconds
  • Movement Speed bonus decreased from 25% to 20%
  • Block charges granted reduced from 2 to 1
  • Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Mana Cost reduced from 75 to 60

Bug Fixes

• A Sgt. Hammer in Siege Mode now properly becomes mobile while under the effects of Brightwing’s Polymorph, and will no longer be in Siege Mode when Polymorph expires.

Talents

Calldown: MULE

• MULE intelligence has been increased!
  • MULEs now prioritize repairing Structures over replenishing ammunition (if a building has ammunition, its ammunition will still be replenished while it is being repaired.)
  • MULEs will now prioritize Town Halls and Towers, then Gates and Moonwells, and then Walls.
• If two Structures with equal priority are in range of the MULE’s placement, it will begin repairing the one it was dropped closer to.
• After all Structures in range are healed, a MULE will then prioritize based on their need for ammunition.

Bug Fixes

• Bolt of the Storm and Zeratul’s Blink can no longer be cast while rooted.

• Brightwing’s Phase Shift can no longer target the Dragon Statue while it is capturable on the Dragon Shire Battleground.

• Heroes that activate the Ice Block Talent can no longer queue Abilities until Ice Block has expired.

Bug Fixes

• Activating the Rewind Talent will no longer refresh cooldowns for certain activated Traits.

Talents

Promote

• Now heals the target to full Health
• Now has a 15 second duration
• Charge cooldowns have been reduced from 60 to 30 seconds

Rewind

• Now refreshes all Basic Ability cooldowns rather than reducing them by 10 seconds
• Cooldown increased from 60 to 90 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing can no longer use Phase Shift or Blink Heal to escape root effects.

• Fixed an issue in which Brightwing's Emerald Wind could receive a reduced cooldown despite being cast successfully.

Talents

Protective Shield

• Shield value changed from 300 (+30 per level) to 185 (+35 per level)

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing’s Polymorph no longer occasionally causes the target to become invisible while polymorphed.

Talents

Cleanse

• Cast range increased from 7 to 10

Promote

• Health gain increased from 200% to 300%

Storm Shield

• Target search radius increased from 5 to 8

Hero Updates

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Cooldown increased from 4 to 5 seconds
  • Initial heal amount increased from 32 to 36
  • Scaling per level increased from 8 to 9
  • Regenerative Rains (Talent)
    • Healing amount reduced from 100% to 50% of that offered by Soothing Mist
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
  • Scaling per level increased from 15 to 17

Bug Fixes

• Heroes are no longer automatically dismounted when attempting to cast Envenom on a target that is out of range.

• The Calldown: MULE Talent can no longer be cast at locations in which the player does not have vision.

Talents

Hardened Focus

• Has been moved from Level 13 to Level 16

New Talent (Level 1): Scouting Drone

• Places a flying drone at the target location which reveals a large area and any Cloaked Heroes around it for 60 seconds.
• The drone can be seen and destroyed by enemies.

Rewind

• Has been moved from Level 16 to Level 13

With the addition of Artifacts, the following generic Talents have been removed:

• Minion Killer
• Path of the Assassin
• Path of the Warrior
• Path of the Wizard

Hero Updates

• Phase Shift (Z)
  • Can now be cast on allies via the minimap
  • Can no longer be cancelled once initiated
• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Regenerative Rains (Talent)
    • Soothing Mist can no longer be triggered when using Heroic Abilities.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing's Polymorph ability no longer occasionally causes the target to become invisible.

Hero Updates

• Phase Shift (Z)
  • Cooldown increased from 20 to 30 seconds
• Blink Heal
  • Blink Heal no longer restores Health over time, and its 3 second duration has been removed.
  • Now functions based on charges
    • A new charge is generated once every 8 seconds
    • Up to 2 charges can be stored at once
  • Activate to teleport to a nearby allied unit and instantly restore 250 (+15 per level) Health to the target.
    • There is a 1 second cooldown between activations
  • Ysera’s Blessing (Talent)
    • Now increases Blink Heal charge capacity to 3

Talents

Calldown: MULE

• Changed from target structure to target point
• The MULE now repairs the closest structure when cast. If the structure reaches full health, the MULE will seek out another structure to repair.

Cleanse

• Cooldown decreased from 60 to 30 seconds

Hardened Focus (Level 13)

• Ability cooldowns recharge 50% faster while above 80% Health.
• Currently only available on Uther

Path of the Wizard

• Mana regeneration per level decreased from 0.2 to 0.1.

Promote

• Now stores up to 2 charges

Hero Updates

• Arcane Flare
  • Base damage (inner/outer) reduced from 90/45 to 70/35
  • Damage (inner/outer) increase per level reduced from 24/12 to 18/9
• Arcane Precision (Talent)
  • Damage bonus reduced from 50% to 33%

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue on Dragon Shire that could cause Brightwing to clip into the terrain after being punted by the Dragon Knight’s Savage Charge ability.

New Hero

• Brightwing has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play!

Talents

• General
  • Calldown: MULE duration reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Calldown: MULE can now be cast when the casting hero is underground on the Haunted Mines.