Bug Fixes

• Ruthless Onslaught now soft reveals the target on impact.

Hero Updates

Base

• Quickcast Settings
  • Removed Fresh Meat.

Abilities

• Butcher's Brand [W]
  • Added a duration indicator to the button.

Talents

• Level 16
  • Enraged [Passive]
    • Added a health indicator.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Butcher's charge to be cancelled prematurely.
• Cleaver can now trigger while Blinded.
• Cleaver now heals if the cleaved-to-target has The Butcher's Brand.
• Fires of Hell no longer displays an empty icon in the Death Recap.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Butcher's Fresh Meat spawning meat off of Possessed minions.

Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard.

Abilities

• Hamstring [Q]
  • Hamstring area reveal updated from area for 0.5 seconds to area extended by 1 for 0.75 seconds. Undocumented
• Furnace Blast [R1]
  • Furnace Blast will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
  • Furnace Blast area reveal updated from area for 0.5 seconds to area extended by 1 for 0.75 seconds. Undocumented
• Lamb to the Slaughter [R2]
  • Butcher is no longer revealed to the enemy if unseen when Lamb to the Slaughter damages an enemy.

Talents

• Level 13
  • Cleaver [Passive]
    • Cleaver no longer reveals targets hit.
    • Cleaver will now reveal the search area for 0.75 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Butcher to lose more Meat than intended when slain.

Bug Fixes

• Block stacks maximum set to 4. Undocumented

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Ruthless Onslaught [E]
  • Duration before the ability can be cancelled after charging reduced from 1 to .75 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're making this change to reduce the amount of time that The Butcher has to commit to a charge before he can cancel it. Currently there is an awkward time where he charges and may want to cancel it as soon as possible, but he is forced to move a fair amount forward before he can cancel his charge. To make this feel more responsive, we're reducing this window of time.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Butcher's FX would appear outside of his model while cocooned

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Butcher's Brand (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60
• Ruthless Onslaught (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 55 to 50

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.

Design & Gameplay

Armor

• Now, just like Movement Speed modifiers, the game will apply only the highest (or lowest) amount of Armor to a Hero at any given time. We've adjusted ability/talent Armor values on a per Hero basis to account for this change:
  • The Butcher
    • Enraged (Passive)
      • Armor increased from 15 to 25

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Ruthless Onslaught's visual effects will no longer persist on the target if they interrupt the Ability by entering Stealth.

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Fixed an issue in which A.I. Butcher would repeatedly cast and then cancel Ruthless Onslaught.

• The Butcher: Fixed an issue that prevented A.I. Butcher from casting Butcher's Brand.

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Fixed an issue that prevented The Butcher from collecting Meat while piloting the Triglav Protector, Dragon Knight, or Garden Terror.

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Fixed an issue preventing The Butcher from using consumable items such as Healing Pulse or Turrets on Volskaya Foundry.

Bug Fixes

• Score Screen: Counters for Chromie’s Sand Blast and The Butcher’s Fresh Meat quests will now continue to increment on the in-game score screen after reaching their soft caps.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 125 to 130
• Health scaling per level increased from 4 to 4.5%
• Health Regeneration scaling per level increased from 4 to 4.5%

Developer Comment: While we’ll be continuing to keep an eye on it, we believe that the Butcher’s quest tuning is appropriate. He has seen a significant drop in win rate in Hero League since our last round of changes, so we felt it was appropriate to increase his late-game Health so that he can keep up with other heroes, who often get many tools to survive his initial damage in teamfights.

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Floating Combat Text will now correctly display Crit damage dealt by Basic Attacks benefitting from the Brutal Strike Talent.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 130 to 125

Abilities

• Fresh Meat (Trait)
  • Meat from Hero kills reduced from 25 to 20
  • Meat lost on death increased from 10 to 15

Talents

• Level 7
  • Insatiable Blade (W)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Removed the bonus healing
      • Increased movement speed bonus from 20 to 25%
  • Victuals (Passive)
    • Heal increased from 4 to 5% per minion death
• Level 16
  • Crippling Slam (Q)
    • Bonus duration increased from 25 to 30%
  • Enraged (Passive)
    • Armor bonus reduced from 25 to 15

Developer Comment: From inception, The Butcher has had a long healthy life amongst the top 5 win-rate Heroes in the game. Previously this was primarily isolated to Quick Match and his overall play-rate wasn’t high enough for us to have any major concerns. After the newest round of changes, he has stayed true to his name in Quick Match and is beginning to pick up steam in Ranked play. We agreed with the massive amounts of feedback that it felt odd that a Butcher could so willingly trade his life for an enemy kill to progress his quest. These changes to his Meat gain/loss should help bring these situations more in-line, while the talent changes were directed fully at bringing over and under-tuned talents closer to the power level expected at the respective tiers.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage lowered from 140 to 130

Abilities

• Fresh Meat (Trait)
  • Meat required to complete his quest increased from 125 to 200
  • Damage bonus per Meat stack decreased from 1 to .5
  • Meat dropped by enemy Heroes increased from 5 to 25
  • Bonus damage on quest completion increased from 100 to 125
  • Once the quest is completed, enemy Heroes continue to drop Meat, giving The Butcher 5 permanent Basic Attack damage per Meat collected

Talents

• Level 1
  • Abattoir (Trait)
    • Removed

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Fixed an issue preventing Ruthless Onslaught from activating when targeting an enemy that moves into fog of war.

• Tyrael & The Butcher: Fixed an issue that allowed Sanctification to go off despite Tyrael being stunned by Ruthless Onslaught.

Design & Gameplay

Talents

• Bolt of the Storm
  • Range reduced by 20%
  • New Bolt of the Storm alternatives have been added to several Heroes

Developer Comment: While we love Bolt of the Storm and the playmaking potential that it provides, we believe that the talent is too often used as an extra escape. We have also received feedback that Bolt of the Storm could have more awesome moments if its playmaking potential were more tied to offensive use cases. Our goals with these changes are twofold: to consolidate Bolt of the Storm to heroes where we think it makes for awesome gameplay moments, and second to create use cases where it is more optimal to use Bolt of the Storm to make offensive plays. We hope that these changes create more interesting moments in the late-game where heroes can shine by making risky plays to ensure victory for their team.

Bug Fixes

• Basic Attacks: Splash and Cleave damage will now correctly reveal targets who are hit while inside Bushes and Vents.

• Mercenaries: Captured enemy Mercenaries will no longer drop Fresh Meat stacks for The Butcher or Mineral stacks for Probius.

• The Butcher: Fresh Meat earned via Hero Takedowns, and collected while piloting the Garden Terror or Dragon Knight, will now correctly increment The Butcher’s Fresh Meat stacks.

• The Butcher: Insatiable Blade’s Movement Speed bonus is now properly granted when Butcher’s Brand is applied to non-Heroic targets.

• The Butcher: Minions that die near The Butcher will now always drop Fresh Meat stacks.

Bug Fixes

• 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.

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Butcher’s Brand visual effects will no longer persist on a Punisher until it is killed.

• The Butcher: Victuals will no longer stop functioning after completing Fresh Meat’s quest.

• The Butcher: Will now properly receive Healing for Basic Attack damage dealt to a Punisher affected by Butcher’s Brand.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Fresh Meat (Trait)
  • Hold ALT and click the Fresh Meat Ability icon to notify allies of The Butcher's current number of Meat stacks.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Butcher's Brand (W)
  • Casting animation has been sped up by roughly 33%. This should reduce instances of canceling this ability by rapidly issuing other commands.

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.

• The Butcher: Hamstring will now correctly deal bonus damage to non-Heroic targets after learning the Cheap Shot Talent.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Furnace Blast (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 169 to 140

Abilities

• Fresh Meat (Trait)
  • New functionality:
    • Quest: Nearby Minions drop 1 Fresh Meat and Heroes drop 5 Fresh Meat when they die. You can pick up Fresh Meat to gain 1 Basic Attack damage per Meat. Can hold up to 125 Meat. You drop up to 10 Fresh Meat upon dying.
    • Reward: After acquiring 125 pieces of Fresh Meat, gain and additional 100 Basic Attack damage and 25% increased Attack Speed. You also no longer lose Fresh Meat on death.
• Hamstring (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 40
• Butcher’s Brand (W)
  • Base duration decreased from 5 to 4 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 65
  • Added functionality:
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes affected by Butcher’s Brand will increase the duration by .5 seconds
• Ruthless Onslaught (E)
  • Slightly reduced the time between The Butcher hitting his target and his first Basic Attack

Talents

• Level 1
  • Victuals
    • New functionality:
      • Every time a nearby Minion dies, regain 4% of maximum Health.
    • Moved to level 7
• Level 4
  • Envenom (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 7
  • Final Assault (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Abattoir (Trait)
    • Decreased the reduced amount of Meat lost on death from 10 to 5. Once you complete the Fresh Meat quest, Heroes will continue to drop Meat. This bonus Meat is not lost on death.
    • Moved to Level 1
  • Insatiable Blade (W)
    • Reduced the amount of bonus healing gained from 125 to 100%
    • New functionality:
      • While an enemy is affected by Butcher’s Brand, you move 20% faster towards them
  • New Talent: Meat Shield (E)
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with Ruthless Onslaught grants Spell Shield, reducing damage from enemy spells by 50% for 2.5 seconds
• Level 13
  • Burning Rage (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Crave Flesh (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Spell Shield (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Cleaver (Passive)
    • Basic Attacks deal 35% of your Basic Attack damage to nearby enemies.
  • Brutal Strikes (Q)
    • New Functionality:
      • After using Hamstring, your next 3 Basic Attacks within 5 seconds deal an additional 15% bonus damage.
• Level 16
  • Blood Frenzy (Passive)
    • New Functionality:
      • Basic Attacks against enemy heroes increase your Basic Attack and Movement Speed by 5% for 3 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
  • Enraged (Passive)
    • No longer reduces the duration of disabling effects by 75%
    • Added functionality:
      • Now provides Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25% for the duration of Enraged.

Developer Comments: We’ve redefined The Butcher to have a more unique role as a powerful late-game hero who feeds on the flesh of his victims via his Fresh Meat Trait. His early game is weaker than before, but if he can complete his quest he will become an incredibly potent force that the enemy team must answer. We had a ton of fun testing him, and hope you all enjoy the new Butcher!

The Butcher Talents

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

Talents

Relentless

• Relentless and similar Hero-specific Talents will now only reduce the duration of Slows, Stuns and Roots. Silence effects will no longer be reduced by this talent.

Developer Comments: With an increasing number of CC effects entering the Nexus we found ourselves constantly asking ourselves “Should Relentless work against this?” which quickly turned into a rabbit hole of ‘what-ifs’ and ‘how comes’. We agreed that the talent was going to continue to become stronger as we moved forward and decided to limit the number of effects that it can reduce.

Bug Fixes

• The Butcher: Hamstring now deals the correct amount of damage to Heroic targets when both the Cheap Shot and Chop Meat talents are selected.

• The Butcher: The cooldown of the Enraged talent now accurately matches the tooltip at 25 seconds.

Hero Updates

• Enraged (Talent)
  • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds.
• Hamstring (Q)
  • Chop Meat (Talent)
    • Bonus damage to Minions and Mercenaries increased from 50% to 100%.
• Butcher’s Brand (W)
  • Insatiable Blade (Talent)
    • Bonus Healing from Basic Attacks increased from 25% to 50%.
• Ruthless Onslaught (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 20 to 15 seconds.
  • Mana cost from 75 to 55.
  • Unrelenting Pursuit (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 40% to 33%.
• Furnace Blast (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 90 to 80 seconds.
  • Damage increased from 456 (+4% per level) to 500 (+4% per level).

Developer Comments: There are a lot of ways for enemy teams to shut down our favorite meat-cleaving demon friend. We want to give him some more opportunities to engage enemies by reducing the cooldown of Ruthless Onslaught, which we feel is appropriate since he puts himself at risk when diving opponents. While taking a look, we saw an opportunity to buff up some of his weaker Talents, which should make him feel more compelling to play.

Talents

Block

• Damage reduction increased from 50% to 75%

Developer Comments: We want to improve counter-pick talents like Block that are meant to be strong against certain hero types. We’re hoping that these kinds of Talents will have a more meaningful impact in games in which they are picked, and that there are more situations where the enemy team’s composition drives intelligent Talent choices.

Other effects similar to Block have been evaluated on a case-by-case basis for all Heroes, with some gaining increased Block damage reduction, while others stayed at 50%.

Hero Updates

• Lamb to the Slaughter (R)
  • Targets affected by Lamb to the Slaughter are now Silenced for the Ability’s duration
  • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
  • Lamb to the Slaughter’s chain and Silence effects will now be removed if the target becomes Invulnerable or Unstoppable
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 90 seconds

Developer Comments: As you might have noticed from our numerous Lamb to the Slaughter changes over the past year, we have been trying to create rule-sets that make this Heroic work the way we envisioned it. Every time we solved one problem, another one would pop up. After many long discussions about the proper use-cases and our intended design, we decided to make this ability a little bit meaner toward the intended target, while still allowing some counter-play through Talents and abilities that grant Unstoppable.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug affecting Stitches and The Butcher that could cause performance issues under certain circumstances.

Design & Gameplay

Battleground Monsters

• Battleground-specific creatures are now universally defined as Monsters (ex: Neutral Garden Terrors, Sky Temple Guardians, etc.)
• Several Talents and Abilities have been changed to reflect this new categorization, and the following no longer affect Monsters:
  • Mercenary Lord
  • Johanna's Knight Takes Pawn
  • Lunara's Cruel Bloom
  • Rexxar's Easy Prey and Bird of Prey
  • The Butcher's Chop Meat
• The following now affect Monsters:
  • Anub'arak's Beetle, Juiced
  • Azmodan's Demonic Smite
• Several Talents that could previously trigger against both captured Mercenaries and Minions will now only affect Minions (ex: Seasoned Marksman, Black Soulstone, etc.)

General

• Damage dealt by splash and cleave attacks will no longer trigger effects that would otherwise require a direct attack to trigger (ex: Block, Spell Shield, Imposing Presence, etc.)

Talents

Block

• Block charges are now tracked in the buff bar next to the Hero portrait, and a timer has been added to show the time remaining until a new charge is generated.

Hero Updates

• Lamb to the Slaughter (R)
  • Invulnerability and Unstoppable now suppress the chain effect, rather than remove it
  • Stasis effects no longer remove the chain
  • Enemy Heroes affected by Lamb to the Slaughter can no longer enter the Dragon Knight, Garden Terror, or Lt. Morales’ Medivac, and Tyrael can no longer cast Judgment

Developer Comments: We really like what Lamb to the Slaughter brings to The Butcher’s kit, but felt there were too many hard counters to it. These changes should help make The Butcher’s target feel more like they should when bound to a stake: scared and helpless.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could grant a significant cooldown reduction for The Butcher’s Ruthless Onslaught.

Bug Fixes

• The visual effects for Butcher’s Brand will no longer persist on a target that is protected from death by Kharazim’s Divine Palm.

Design & Gameplay

Summoned Unit Attacks

• Summoned unit Basic Attacks will now miss if that Summon is Blinded or the target is Evading.
• Summoned unit Basic Attacks will no longer consume Block Talent stacks.

Hero Updates

• Ruthless Onslaught (E)
  • Savage Charge (Talent)
    • Bonus damage changed from 15% of the target’s current Health to 10% of the target’s maximum Health
• Lamb to the Slaughter (R)
  • New art has been added that will better indicate which players are affected by Lamb to the Slaughter

Developer Comments: We’d like to avoid ‘current Health’ for the Savage Charge Talent, as what players get out of this can vary wildly. Using Savage Charge against a low Health target could net less than a Basic Attack, so the damage will be much more consistent with this change.

Bug Fixes

• Falstad’s Hinterland Blast will no longer be placed on reduced cooldown when it is successfully cast at the same moment that Falstad is stunned by The Butcher’s Ruthless Onslaught.

• The Butcher will no longer stop his Ruthless Onslaught charge if Abathur's Ultimate Evolution clone charges the target first.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could allow the player a limited amount of control over The Butcher’s movement while using Ruthless Onslaught.

Talents

Bolt of the Storm

Developer Comments: We love this talent and think it can create a lot of really interesting moments, but the cooldown was just too short. At 70 seconds we think this talent is still a great level 20 pick, but now players will have to be more strategic with how they use it. Forcing someone to use their Bolt to avoid a gank can now be a meaningful moment with this increased cooldown. We hope this also entices players towards choosing their Heroic upgrades instead of Bolt when the situation calls for it.

• Cooldown increased from 40 to 70 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Heroes that are struck by Tyrael’s Judgment and another knockback effect, such as The Butcher’s Ruthless Onslaught, in rapid succession will no longer be pushed farther than intended.

• Ruthless Onslaught will no longer cause The Butcher to continue searching for the target even after losing vision of that Hero.

• The Butcher’s Savage Charge Talent will now properly apply its damage bonus when using Ruthless Onslaught on an enemy Hero that has less than 50% Health remaining.

New Hero

The Butcher has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of this terrifying new Assassin’s Abilities.

Trait

• Fresh Meat
  • Nearby Minions and Heroes drop meat when they die. Pick up meat to gain a 1% bonus to Basic Attack damage, up to a maximum 25%. All meat is lost upon death.

Basic Abilities

• Hamstring (Q)
  • Deal damage and slow enemies by 50%, fading over 2 seconds. Your next Basic Attack will strike immediately.
• Butcher’s Brand (W)
  • Deal damage to an enemy, and cause your Basic Attacks against the branded target to heal you for 75% of the damage done for 5 seconds. Healing doubled versus Heroes.
• Ruthless Onslaught (E)
  • Charge at an enemy, becoming Unstoppable and gaining Movement Speed. If you reach the target, they take damage and become stunned for 1 second.

Heroic Abilities

• Lamb to the Slaughter (R)
  • Throw a hitching post that attaches to the nearest enemy Hero after a 1 second delay. This deals damage, and chains the enemy to the post for 4 seconds.
• Furnace Blast (R)
  • After a 3 second delay, fire explodes around you, dealing massive damage to enemies in the area. Furnace Blast can be cast while using Ruthless Onslaught.

Talents

Envenom

• Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds, but damage has not been changed

Spell Shield

• Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds