Bug Fixes

• Drag target's movement speed now matches Dehaka's movement speed.

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

• Fixed an issue that caused Dark Swam to not deal damage for the last .5 seconds.

Hero Updates

Base

• Quickcast Settings
  • Removed Cancel Burrow.

Bug Fixes

• Updated visuals of Spell Armor.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Lurker Strain knockback to cause animation cancels. Undocumented

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Lurker Strain [E]
    • Lurker Strain will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
    • Lurker Strain no longer reveals around targets while they are being knocked back.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Dehaka to be immune to allied effects while Burrow is active.
• Fixed an issue that caused Burrow to not reveal negative effects when activated.
• Fixed an issue that caused Lurker Strain's knockback to be treated as a Stun.
• Fixed an issue that caused Lurker Strain's knockback to reveal the Dehaka while active.
• Fixed an issue that caused Lurker Strain's slow to reveal the target while active.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Vitals
  • Health reduced from 2434 to 2385.
  • Health regeneration reduced from 5.07 to 4.97.
• Basic Attack
  • Damage reduced from 100 to 95.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Lurker Strain [E]
    • Burrow cooldown reduction reduced from 6 to 3 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Feeding Frenzy [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Dehaka has been collecting essence very successfully after his last update increased his attack speed, so we're reining him in a smidge.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack
  • Attacks per second increased from 1.11 to 1.25.

Abilities

• Burrow [E]
  • Additional functionality: Dehaka can move at 50% Movement Speed during Burrow.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Lurker Strain [E]
    • Additional functionality: Deal 125 damage to enemies hit by Burrow.
  • One-Who-Collects [Trait]
    • Additional functionality: Dark Swarm deals 40% more damage to Mercenaries.
• Level 7
  • Feeding Frenzy [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 2 to 1.75 seconds.
    • Additional functionality: Increases the duration of Drag by .5 seconds.
  • Paralyzing Enzymes [Q]
    • New functionality: Passive: Drag Slows enemies by 40% for 2 seconds after it ends.
    • Gambit: When Drag ends deal an additional 280 damage to the target over 2 seconds. Each death reduces this damage by 40, up to 5 times.
• Level 13
  • Ferocious Stalker [W]
    • Damage bonus increased from 50% to 60%.
• Level 16
  • Tunneling Claws [E]
    • New functionality: Increase Movement Speed during Burrow to 125%
  • Pack Leader [Z]
    • Additional functionality: Gain 15% increased Attack Speed while in a bush and for 5 seconds after.

Developer Comment: Much essence left to collect. Must collect faster.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Dark Swarm [W]
  • Damage increased from 49 to 52.

Talents

• Level 13 and 20 talents have been reordered to follow our normal conventions (Q, W, E, etc.)
• Level 4
  • Lurker Strain [E]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Paralyzing Enzymes [Q]
    • Slow amount increased from 30% to 35%.
• Level 13
  • Primal Rage [Trait]
    • Damage bonus increased from 1% to 1.25% per Essence stored.
• Level 20
  • Change is Survival [R2]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 30 to 40 seconds.
  • Apex Predator [Z]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 35 to 50 seconds.

Developer Comment: Over the years we've nerfed heroes like Dehaka quite a bit due to how effective players became at utilizing the power of their global presence on large maps. Dehaka has had a lower win-rate for quite some time due to this, so we're looking to give him back some of the power he previously had.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Dark Swarm [W]
  • Damage increased from 47 to 49.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Constriction [Q]
    • Removed.
  • Paralyzing Enzymes [Q]
    • Moved from Level 16.
    • Adjusted functionality: Increase Drag duration by .5 seconds. After it ends, enemies hit are Slowed by 30% for 2.5 seconds.
• Level 16
  • New talent: Pack Leader [Z]
    • While Dehaka is in a bush and for 5 seconds after leaving, he gains 20 Armor.

Developer Comment: It's been quite awhile since we last changed Dehaka, and the game has changed significantly since that time. We're giving him a small buff to Dark Swarm and combining Constriction and Paralyzing Enzymes to create a more powerful, single talent. We're also adding a strong defensive option at Level 16 that plays into his desire to fight near bushes.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed various Movement Speed bugs that had occurred with the increased Movement Speed patch.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Enduring Swarm (W)
    • Additional Functionality: Increase the duration of Dark Swarm by .5 seconds
• Level 4
  • Lurker Strain (E)
    • Additional Functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Burrow by 4 seconds
• Level 10
  • Isolation (R1)
    • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 70
  • Adaptation (R2)
    • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
    • Mana cost reduced from 85 to 70
• Level 13
  • Ferocious Stalker (W)
    • Additional Functionality: Now also causes Dark Swarm to Slow enemy heroes by 15% for .75 seconds while Brushstalker's movement Speed bonus is active
    • Now shows Crit kickers when dealing increased damage

Developer Comment: We took a look at some of Dehaka's less popular talents and are making some changes that should open up new build paths for everyone's favorite Primal Zerg.

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.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Brushstalker (Z)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 75 seconds

Talents

• Level 20
  • Apex Predator (Z)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 25 to 35 seconds

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Adaptation (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 90 to 80 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Enduring Swarm (W)
    • Spell Armor increased from 40 to 50.
• Level 4
  • Lurker Strain (E)
    • Slow duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
  • Hero Stalker (Trait)
    • Added functionality
      • Enemy Heroes hit by Dark Swarm grant 1 Essence.
• Level 13
  • Ferocious Stalker (W)
    • Bonus damage increased from 40% to 50%.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Fixed an issue that could cause Drag visual effects to persist indefinitely if the Ability connected across unpathable terrain.

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

• Dragon Shire: Removed two targeting indicators for Dehaka’s Brushstalker that appeared in locations where no Brush was present.

Hero Updates

Miscellaneous

• Brushstalker (Z) will now go on a 10 second cooldown when interrupted by enemy or allied abilities.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 105 to 100

Abilities

• Dark Swarm (W)
  • Damage per tick reduced from 50 to 47

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 110 to 105

Abilities

• Brushstalker (Z)
  • Cooldown increased from 50 to 60 seconds

Talents

• Level 13
  • Ferocious Stalker (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the damage of Dark Swarm by 40% while the Brushstalker buff is active

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Completing Tissue Regeneration’s Quest will no longer prevent Essence earned via Hero takedowns from Healing Dehaka.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Dark Swarm (W)
  • Duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds
• Brushstalker (Z)
  • Movement Speed buff duration increased from 1 to 2 seconds, and amount increased from 15 to 20%

Talents

• Level 1
  • Enhanced Agility (Trait)
    • Movement Speed buff duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Dark Swarm (W)
  • Damage increased from 30 to 50
  • Damage is now universal to all units (no bonus damage to Heroes)
  • Cooldown increased from 9 to 10 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Primal Aggression (W)
    • Removed
  • Enhanced Agility (Trait)
    • Movement Speed bonus per 50 Essence increased from 1.5 to 2%
    • Added functionality:
      • The duration of Brushstalker’s Movement Speed bonus after leaving brush increased from 1 to 3 seconds
  • Tissue Regeneration (Trait) Undocumented
    • Health Regeneration bonus reduced from 5 to 4 per 50 Essence collected
    • Added functionality:
      • Regeneration Globes grant 10 Essence
• Level 7
  • Feeding Frenzy (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction per attack increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
  • Essence Devourer (W)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • Swift Pursuit (Trait)
    • Removed
  • Ferocious Stalker (Trait)
    • New functionality:
      • Your abilities deal 25% more damage while you have the Brushstalker Movement Speed buff
  • New Talent: Primal Rage (Passive)
    • Gain 1% Basic Attack damage for every Essence you currently have

Developer Comment: These changes are based primarily on win and pick rates of some of Dehaka's talent tiers. We removed some unpopular talents and combined a few others to make them more attractive. Dehaka's talent tree should now be a little bit sharper and hopefully open a few new build paths for players.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Basic Attacks will now correctly reduce Drag’s cooldown after learning Feeding Frenzy.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Becoming targeted by Kharazim’s Divine Palm while affected by Dehaka's Contagion Talent will no longer cause Isolation’s model to persist indefinitely above the target.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Bonus Essence granted by Regeneration Globes after completing the Essence Devourer quest will now properly grant credit toward Enhanced Agility and Tissue Regeneration quests.

• Dehaka: Essence Devourer will now grant the intended amount of Essence per Regeneration Globe collected before and after completing its quest.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Primal Aggression (W)
    • Bonus damage to Minions and Mercenaries reduced from 100 to 90%
• ​​Level 7
  • Symbiosis (W)
    • Cooldown reduction per Hero hit decreased from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds
• ​​Level 13
  • Primal Swarm (W)
    • Armor reduction after being hit by Dark Swarm decreased from -15 to -10

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Fixed an issue that caused Dark Swarm to deal bonus damage to Monsters after learning Primal Aggression.

• Dehaka: Fixed an issue that caused Dark Swarm to deal more damage than intended to Minions, and Mercenaries after learning Primal Aggression.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Enhanced Agility (Trait)
    • Increased Quest reward per 50 Essence Stacks from 1 to 1.5% Movement Speed

Developer Comments: We couldn't be happier with the state that Dehaka is in, but we have heard the feedback on Enhanced Agility. While we feel it is still a bit too early to make any large changes to the talent, we are happy to bring the numbers up in order to give him Mounted Move Speed when this is fully unlocked.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: The Essence Collection Ability tooltip now correctly lists a 5 second cooldown.

• Dehaka: The Talent tooltip for Lurker Strain now correctly states that Stealth is granted upon emerging from Burrow.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Brushstalker (Trait)
  • Cooldown increased from 40 to 50 seconds
  • Functionality added:
    • Dehaka gains 15% Movement Speed while in a Bush and for 1 second after exiting a Bush
• Essence Collection (Trait) (D)
  • Essence Collection will now be placed on a 5 second cooldown after activation
• Burrow (E)
  • Functionality added:
    • Burrow can now be cancelled early by pressing the hotkey again
• Adaptation (R)
  • Heal amount increased from 60 to 100% of incoming damage

Talents

• Level 1
  • Enduring Swarm (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Dehaka takes 40% less damage from Abilities while Dark Swarm is active
  • Enhanced Agility (Trait)
    • New functionality:
      • Quest: For every 50 Essence you collect, increase your Brushstalker Movement Speed bonus by 1%. This can stack 10 times.
• Level 4
  • Lurker Strain (E)
    • Functionality added:
      • Emerging from Burrow knocks away enemies and slows their Movement Speed by 30% for 2 seconds
  • Numbing Eruption (E)
    • Removed
  • Hero Stalker (Trait)
    • ​Bonus Essence gained from takedowns reduced from 150 to 100%
• Level 13
  • Swift Pursuit (Z)
    • New Functionality:
      • Brushstalker’s Movement Speed duration after leaving a Bush is increased from 1 to 3 seconds
  • Ferocious Stalker (Z)
    • New Functionality:
      • After using Brushstalker, increase all damage Dehaka deals by 25% for 10 seconds
  • Whirling Dervish (W)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Primal Swarm (W)
    • Enemies affected by Dark Swarm take 15% increased damage from all sources
• Level 16
  • Rapid Regeneration (E)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Tunneling Claws (E)
    • Dehaka can now move while Burrowed
• Level 20
  • Change is Survival (R)
    • Heal amount increased from 125 to 200% of incoming damage
  • Hardened Shield (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Essence Claws (Passive)
    • Basic Attacks slow enemies by 20% for 1 second
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes grant Dehaka 5 Essence

Developer Comments: We started doing some small changes to Dehaka’s talent tree in order to increase diversity and fix some talent pick issues. As is par for the course, this opened a rabbit-hole of design opportunities that we ended up falling into. While Dehaka’s changes were mostly complete before the BlizzCon Finals, his resurgence as a dark horse of competitive play helped us narrow down and finalize the rework. Base movement speed on Brushstalker helps meld his design while some brand new talents should open up some fun new ways to hunt your prey.

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

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.

Bug Fixes

• 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.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Polymorph will no longer remove the effects of Dark Swarm.

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.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Adaptation (R)
  • Time before Heal activates reduced from 5 to 4 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Enduring Swarm (W)
    • Increased Spell Resistance from 25 to 50%
  • Primal Aggression (W)
    • Also increases the duration of Dark Swarm by 0.5 seconds
• Level 7
  • Essence Devourer (Trait)
    • Added Quest:
      • Quest: Every Regen Globe collected increases maximum Essence by 1
      • Reward: Upon collecting 10 Regen Globes, increase the amount of Essence gained from Regen Globes from 10 to 15
• Level 16
  • Rapid Regeneration (E)
    • Increased Heal amount from 76 to 90
• Level 20
  • Change is Survival (R)
    • Also lowers the cooldown of Adaptation by 30 seconds in addition to its current functionality
  • Apex Predator (Z)
    • Decreased cooldown reduction from 30 to 25 seconds

Developer Comments: It took a lot of pressure to get the balance team to make some adjustments to Dehaka. With absolutely no changes since launch, we finally have a few tweaks to help bring up some struggling talents.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Drag will now properly interrupt Tychus if he is struck while attempting to cast Grenade.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka: Shift queuing a command to use Essence Collection will now correctly heal Dehaka.

Bug Fixes

• Casting Dehaka’s Isolation on a summoned unit or Heroic pet, such as Misha, Gargantuan, or a Holo Decoy, will no longer also cause the Hero who owns that unit to lose allied vision.
  • Additionally, if one of The Lost Vikings or Chen’s Storm, Earth, Fire Spirits are hit by Isolation, only the affected unit will have reduced personal vision, but the player should retain allied vision.
  • Alternatively, if the only living Viking or Spirit is hit by Isolation, the player will have reduced personal vision and lose allied vision for Isolation’s full duration.

Bug Fixes

• Dehaka’s Brushstalker will no longer be placed on cooldown if the target location is blocked by other units.

• The graphic effects for Dehaka’s Isolation will no longer visually persist on the Battleground if it deals the killing blow to one of Nova’s Holo Decoys.

New Hero

Dehaka, Primal Pack Leader, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.

Mount

• Brushstalker (Z)
  • You cannot use Mounts. Instead, you may burrow to any bush or vent on the Battleground. 40 second cooldown.

Trait

• Essence Collection (D)
  • You collect 10 Essence per Hero Takedown, and 2 per enemy Minion killed nearby, storing up to a maximum of 50 Essence.
  • Activate to consume all stored Essence and regenerate Health over the next 5 seconds for each stack consumed.
  • Can be cast during Drag and Burrow.

Basic Abilities

• Drag (Q)
  • Lash out with your tongue, dealing light damage to the first enemy hit, and dragging them with you for 1.75 seconds.
• Dark Swarm (W)
  • Over the next three seconds, you gain the ability to move through units and deal damage in an area around yourself. Deals double damage to Heroes.
  • Can be cast during Drag and Burrow.
• Burrow (E)
  • Burrow into the ground, entering Stasis and becoming Invulnerable for 2 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Isolation (R)
  • Launch biomass that deals damage, silences, and slows the first enemy Hero it hits by 30% for 3 seconds. For the next 6 seconds, the affected enemy loses sight of allied Heroes, and has greatly reduced vision.
• Adaptation (R)
  • After a 5 second delay, 60% of all damage taken during this time will be returned to you as Health.