Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Inner Beasts' on-hit bonuses to apply on-fire instead of on-hit.

• Worgen form's Basic Attack damage increase is now additive.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Alpha Killer to damage non-Heroes. Undocumented

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Running Wild to not grant the cooldown reduction when casting Go For the Throat.
• Fixed an issue that caused Alpha Killer to be capable of activating on-death effects multiple times on enemies.
• Fixed an issue that caused Thick Skin to display duplicate Block visuals.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wolfheart [W]
    • Bonus cooldown reduction increased from .5 to .7 seconds.
• Level 4
  • Insatiable [W]
    • Additional functionality: Basic Attacks during Inner Beast reduce Healing Fountain's cooldown by .5 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Incendiary Elixir [Q]
    • Damage bonus per stack increased from 20 to 25.
    • Quest reward cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Running Wild [E]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce Darkflight's and Disengage's cooldowns by 1 second.
• Level 20
  • Gilnean Roulette [R2]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 20 to 24 seconds.

Developer Comment: Historically we've been happy with Greymane's talent spread, but lately he has been taking the same paths too frequently. We're not looking to teach this old dog any new tricks, just encouraging him to keep his enemies guessing.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 10
  • Cursed Bullet [R2]
    • Damage reduced from 40% to 35% maximum Health.

Developer Comment: We're toning down Cursed Bullet's damage due to it being tuned so high to the point that it is shutting down many Warriors from being able to do their job of being the front-line members of their team, particularly at higher levels of play.

Bug Fixes

• Worgen Greymane, Metamorphosis Illidan, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, Odin Tychus, and Archon Tassadar can no longer mount as a caboose on the Toy Train.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Incendiary Elixir [Q]
    • Adjusted functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Gilnean Cocktail by 2 seconds. Upon quest completion, reduce the cooldown of Gilnean Cocktail by an additional 2 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Unleashed [R1]
    • New functionality: Increase the damage of Go for the Throat by 25%. If Go for the Throat kills an enemy Hero, reset the cooldown of all of Greymane's abilities.
  • Gilnean Roulette [R2]
    • New functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Cursed Bullet by 20 seconds and its damage to 30% of the enemy Hero's current Health.
  • Tooth and Claw [Trait]
    • Additional functionality: Increase the damage of Razor Swipe by 100%.

Developer Comment: For Greymane, we're giving part of Incendiary Elixir's cooldown reduction bonus baseline so that the talent gives him some baseline power, as well as making it easier for him to complete the quest. In addition to this change, we're addressing his Level 20 talent diversity, which has not been the best. We're giving 3 of his talents significant buffs so that they can compete with Hunter's Blunderbuss, which has traditionally been the go-to option. Unleashed now makes it easier to proc Go for the Throat, as well as causing those procs to give him significantly more mobility and damage due to resetting his cooldowns. For Gilnean Roulette, we're trying the idea of the talent changing Cursed Bullet to be more like a 4th Basic Ability that can be used multiple times in a teamfight or as a potent poke tool. Finally, Tooth and Claw is now also turning Razor Swipe into a significant source of damage.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 140 to 148

Talents

• Level 7
  • Incendiary Elixir [Q]
    • Damage bonus per stack increased from 15 to 20
• Level 10
  • Cursed Bullet [R2]
    • Damage increased from 35% to 40%

Developer Comment: Greymane has a storied history of being an incredibly powerful, consistent hero in the hands of experienced players. While we had to nerf him several times over the years, we believe it's been long enough, and so we're giving him some small buffs to be brought back into the meta.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Swipe (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25

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

• Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 9 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Perfect Aim (Q)
    • Mana refund increased from 35 to 45.
• Level 13
  • Visceral Attacks (Q)
    • Removed.
  • Unfettered Assault (Q)
    • Now also causes Worgen Basic Attacks to reduce Razor Swipe's cooldown by 1.5 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Hunter Greymane no longer hides his face behind his shoulder pad on the post-match summary screen.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Partial progress earned toward the Wizened Duelist Talent’s next attack damage bonus will no longer persist after dying.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: The Wizened Duelist Talent’s Basic Attack counter no longer continues to update after achieving maximum quest progress.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Fixed an issue that could cause Razor Swipe’s area of effect and damage to become disjointed from Greymane’s location.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Razor Swipe (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 3 to 4 seconds

Talents

• Level 13
  • Visceral Attacks (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds per Basic Attack

Developer Comment: We’re increasing the cooldown of Razor Swipe in an effort to stem some of Greymane’s effectiveness when taking Mercenaries and clearing Minion waves. Currently, Greymane’s play-style is great, but he does everything a little too well, which makes him a consistently safe pick. To curb this, we’d like to remove some of the PvE-oriented power from his kit.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Gilnean Cocktail will now correctly play sound effects when it hits a target in the Fog of War.

Bug Fixes

• Movement Abilities: Certain movement-based Abilities, like Greymane’s Dark Flight or Chen’s Flying Kick, will no longer fail to move the Hero toward a target currently affected by Varian’s Taunt or Garrosh’s Warlord’s Challenge.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 55
  • Explosion area increased by ~15%
  • Initial damage reduced from 59 to 55
  • Spread damage reduced from 236 to 220
• Razor Swipe (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 135 to 126

​Talents

• Level 1
  • Perfect Aim (Q)
    • Mana refund for hitting a Hero reduced from 50 to 35
• Level 4
  • Draught Overflow (Q)
    • Removed
• Level 7
  • Wizened Duelist (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Every 6 Attacks against an enemy Hero increases Greymane’s Basic Attack damage by 1%, up to 30%. Gain triple benefit from attacking in Worgen form. Half of these bonuses are lost on death.

Developer Comment: We made these changes in an effort to increase Greymane’s build diversity. Gilnean Cocktail felt a little lackluster without its associated Talents, so made parts of them baseline. While you can still enhance Gilnean Cocktail through talents, we wanted it to feel like a valuable part of your kit if you choose a more Basic Attack-oriented build. We've also redesigned Wizened Duelist to be less of a feast or famine Quest by shifting its requirements to something that a Greymane in a losing game can still accomplish. This also has the added benefit of being a reward that can be accomplished regardless of the lethality of a game (since the average number of deaths can vary greatly between different levels of play).

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Can now correctly cast Go for the Throat a second time after using the Ability to kill D.Va’s Mech.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Can now correctly cast Go For the Throat a second time after using the Ability to kill D.Va’s Mech.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Cursed Bullet (R)
  • Damage reduced from 40 to 35% of enemy Heroes’ current Health

Bug Fixes

• Greymane – Fixed an issue that could occasionally grant additional Go for the Throat procs after casting the free charge.

Bug Fixes

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

• Greymane: After learning Viciousness, Cursed Bullet will now correctly refresh Inner Beast’s duration.

• Greymane: Insatiable will no longer cause Basic Attacks to restore Mana when Inner Beast is not active.

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.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Inner Beast (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 16 to 20 seconds
  • Every Basic Attack while Inner Beast is active now reduces its cooldown by 0.5 seconds
• Cursed Bullet (R)
  • Damage increased from 35% to 40% of the enemy’s current Health

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wolfheart (W)
    • Now increases the cooldown reduction per Basic Attack from 0.5 to 1 second while Inner Beast is active
• Level 4
  • Insatiable (W)
    • No longer has a restriction on the amount of Mana that can be restored

Developer Comment: We think that the mini-game of keeping your Inner Beast active as long as you can is enjoyable gameplay, and we want to celebrate those giant combos with gameplay rewards. To do so, we’ve baked part of the functionality of the old Wolfheart Talent into the baseline ability.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Marked for the Kill (R)
  • Renamed to Cursed Bullet
    • New Functionality:
      • Fires a bullet that hits the first Hero in its path, dealing 35% of their current Health as damage. Cannot hit Vehicles.
      • 30 second cooldown, costs 50 Mana.

Talents

• Level 20
  • Gilnean Roulette (R)
    • New Functionality:
      • Causes Cursed Bullet to hit all enemies in its path, and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds per Hero hit

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Marked for the Kill now correctly reduces the target’s armor by 25, increasing their damage taken.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: The tooltip for the Block buff granted by the Thick Skin Talent now correctly states that it reduces the next incoming Basic Attack by 50%, rather than 75%.

• Fixed an issue in which certain debuffs could still be applied to Invulnerable Heroes, including:
  • Greymane: Marked for the Kill
  • Li-Ming: Charged Blast
  • Thrall: Rolling Thunder
  • Zul'jin: Grievous Throw

Design & Gameplay

Armor & Vulnerability

Developer Comments: With today’s patch you will notice that a lot of our tooltips that used to reference the Resistant/Vulnerable system have been changed. Matthew Cooper detailed the changes on our forums last month explaining a bit about the new system. While the tooltips may have changed, the actual functionality for the system has been in since the Varian patch hit during the week of November 14, so the game itself should not feel any different than what you are currently used to. You will also notice that we have added baseline Armor to three Heroes – Arthas, Anub'arak, and Greymane’s Worgen Form. These are the first of a handful that we are planning to release and would love to hear any feedback you have. We are hoping that the Armor System will open up future design flexibility, increase the depth of strategy (both in game, and in draft), and grant us another knob to help balance the game.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Now has 10 Armor while in Worgen form

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Scented Tincture (Q) Undocumented
    • Removed

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.

• Greymane: The Go for the Throat indicator will no longer visually persist above Heroes who have post-death forms, such as Uther or Leoric, after they are killed.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Relentless Predator (Trait)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: We’re removing the majority of our old Relentless- like Talents from the game, because we found that it wasn’t clear to the enemy team what was happening. Reducing the duration on very short disabling effects to begin with was hard to notice, and typically felt like a bug when it did happen. In some cases, we’re replacing these Talents with Hero specific ones that more clearly convey what’s happening, while fitting the gameplay of the Hero.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Razor Swipe (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 159 to 135
• Go for the Throat (R)
  • Damage reduced from 420 to 355
• Marked for the Kill (R)
  • Damage increased from 68 to 190

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wolfheart (W)
    • Cooldown reduction per attack reduced from 1 to .8 seconds
• Level 4
  • Eyes in the Dark (E)
    • Stealth duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
• Level 7
  • Incendiary Elixir (Q)
    • Increased the damage bonus per quest stack from 10 to 15
    • Increased the maximum damage bonus from 150 to 225
• Level 20
  • Unleashed (R)
    • Damage bonus per kill increased from 25 to 35%, up to a maximum of 140%

Developer Comments: We’re pretty happy with the way Greymane is playing, but think that he’s doing more burst damage than we want from a Basic Attack focused Hero (at a very consistent rate). We’ve decided to address this by reducing the damage of Go for the Throat and Razor Swipe. We’re also increasing the damage of Marked for the Kill. While the focus of the Heroic is the long term Vulnerable, by increasing the damage we’re reducing the opportunity cost of giving up Marked for the Kill.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Go for the Throat damage bonuses earned via the Unleashed Talent will now stack properly.

• Greymane: Will no longer appear to slide at the end of Darkflight if the target moves out of maximum range as Greymane begins to leap.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Curse of the Worgen (Trait)
  • Worgen form Damage bonus decreased from 50 to 40%
• ​Go for the Throat (R)
  • Range reduced by roughly 20%
• Marked for the Kill (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 50 to 40 seconds​

Developer Comments: We overdid it with the Worgen form buffs last patch. They were designed to encourage people to go into Worgen form more often, but realistically all it did was make Greymane have bigger burst potential and PvE damage. He should have slightly less bite than before. We’re also reducing the range of Go for the Throat, as it provided too much stickiness to an Assassin that already has a gap closer.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Fixed an issue that could cause opposing Greymanes to become stuck after simultaneously casting Darkflight on each other.

• Greymane: Will no longer become stuck if Darkflight is interrupted by Diablo’s Shadow Charge or Stitches’ Hook.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Fixed an issue that could cause Go for the Throat’s cooldown to be permanently reduced to 60 seconds.

Talents

Executioner

• The Executioner Talent effect will now only trigger after attacking disabled Heroes. The bonus damage gained through this talent will still apply to anything attacked after the effect is triggered.

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

Stats

• Human form Basic Attack damage reduced from 145 to 140.

Abilities

• Curse of the Worgen (Trait)
  • Increased Worgen form’s damage bonus from 40% to 50%
• Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
  • Secondary explosion damage increased from 177 to 236
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
• Go for the Throat (R)
  • Increased cooldown from 60 to 80 seconds
  • Increased damage from 125 to 140
• Marked for the Kill (R)
  • New Functionality
    • When Greymane deals damage to the Marked target, the duration of the Vulnerable effect is refreshed. This can happen indefinitely
    • No longer allows you to reactivate to leap to the opponent
  • Reduced cooldown from 60 to 50 seconds
  • Range reduced by 40%

Talents

• Level 4
  • Insatiable (W)
    • Mana return increased from 5 to 10 per Basic Attack
• Level 7
  • Incendiary Elixir (Q)
    • Increased cooldown reduction from quest completion from 2 to 4 seconds
    • Removed the impact damage increase from the Talent
    • Increased the explosion damage gained per Hero hit from 6 to 10
    • Reduced the cap of Incendiary Elixir from 160 to 150
• Level 16
  • Concentrated Blast (Q)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Eager Wolf (W)
    • Increases the Attack Speed bonus of Inner Beast by an additional 40% after it has been active for 4 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Unleashed (R)
    • In addition to its current effect, killing an enemy with Go for the Throat increases the damage of Go for the Throat by 25% for 10 seconds, up to 100%.
  • Gilnean Roulette (R)
    • New Functionality:
      • All allied Hero damage done to the target will refresh the Vulnerable effect duration.

Developer Comments: Greymane is doing really well right now at all levels of play. That said, we do feel that Gilnean Cocktail should be more satisfying when used correctly. We’re increasing the cooldown in order to justify also increasing the damage of the explosion so that it is very noticeable when you chunk enemies with the Ability. We’ve also tuned up Incendiary Elixir, while simplifying its design. We’ve increased the damage bonus of Worgen form so that closing into melee range is more often worth the risk as well.

Talents

Executioner

• This Talent has been reworked.
  • Increases Basic Attack damage by 30% for 3 seconds after hitting a Stunned, Slowed, or Rooted target with a Basic Attack. Using Basic Attacks against a Slowed, Rooted, or Stunned target during this time will refresh the buff duration.

Developer Comments: We like the punishing nature of Executioner, but have found over time that its benefit to the player is too narrowly scoped. We’re changing the Talent to be more consistently useful by giving the player a temporary Attack Damage buff that procs when they first hit a crowd controlled target.

Hero Updates

• Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
  • Incendiary Elixir (Talent) has been redesigned as a Quest Talent that reads as follows:
    • Every time you damage an enemy Hero with the splash damage from Gilnean Cocktail, increase the impact damage by 2 and the splash damage by 6 (stacks up to 20 times). Once you’ve hit 20 Heroes, also reduce Gilnean Cocktail’s cooldown by 2 seconds.

Developer Comments: The idea behind Gilnean Cocktail is that it can do a lot of damage, but the downside is that the primary target takes a lot less. It’s designed to be a poking tool to kill the backline. The old version of Incendiary Elixir completely blew out that concept, and instead made the ability a simple area of effect nuke that wasn’t special anymore. We’ve replaced it with this new Incendiary Elixir that rewards players who can show mastery of this skill shot’s unique aspects, while preserving the skill cap of the ability.

Hero Updates

• Greymane's Basic Attacks in Human form have received responsiveness improvements
  • Melee Basic Attack animation speed increased by 50% to match the speed of his ranged Basic attack animation
• Marked for the Kill (R)
  • Bullet range increased by 25%
  • Bullet speed increased by 45%

Bug Fixes

• After learning the Perfect Aim Talent, Greymane’s Gilnean Cocktail will now properly refund Mana when an enemy Hero is struck by the far edge of the Ability’s explosion.

• Fixed an issue affecting Greymane’s Gilnean Cocktail, which caused a slight delay between the Ability’s damage and graphic effects after taking the Draught Overflow Talent.

Hero Updates

• Basic Attack damage increased from 138 (+4% per level) to 145 (+4% per level)
• Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
  • Primary target damage reduced from 69 (+4% per level) to 59 (+4% per level)
  • Splash damage reduced from 207 (+4% per level) to 177 (+4% per level)

Developer Comments: Greymane’s Gilnean Cocktail build has been dominant since the last round of buffs to the Ability. We’re aiming to nerf that build slightly so that it isn’t always the correct choice, and then compensate by slightly improving his Basic Attack builds. Overall, we think this is a minor nerf to the Hero.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Greymane’s Gilnean Cocktail to deal more than the intended amount of damage in certain situations.

Hero Updates

• Health increased from 1876 (+4% per level) to 1876 (+4.5% per level)
• Health Regeneration increased from 3.906 (+4% per level) to 3.906 (+4.5% per level)
• Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 80 to 70
  • Cooldown reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
  • Perfect Aim (Talent)
    • Mana restoration decreased from 60 to 50
• Razor Swipe (Worgen) (Q)
  • Unfettered Assault (Talent)
    • No longer increases Razor Swipe’s cooldown
• Inner Beast (W)
  • Insatiable (Talent)
    • Maximum Mana restoration increased from 120 to 140
• Darkflight (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
• Disengage (Worgen) (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds

Developer Comments: Overall, we have been excited to see Greymane find his niche in certain team compositions while also watching his win rate slowly climb. We have made a couple of changes to help a few of his weaker talents. At the same time, we have lowered some cooldowns in order to make him a bit more active to play, while also increasing his Health Scaling to help him survive team fights in the later stages of the game.

New Hero

Greymane, Lord of the Worgen, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.

Trait

• Curse of the Worgen
  • Use certain Abilities to shapeshift between Human and Worgen form.
    • While in Human form, your Basic Attacks are ranged.
    • While in Worgen form, your Basic Attacks are melee, but deal 40% more damage.

Basic Abilities

• Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
  • Hurl a flask that damages the first enemy hit, and explodes to deal heavy damage to enemies behind the first in a cone.
• Worgen: Razor Swipe (Q)
  • Swipe toward a direction, damaging enemies in front of you.
• Inner Beast (W)
  • Gain 50% Attack Speed for 3 seconds. Basic Attacks refresh this duration.
• Darkflight (E)
  • Shapeshift into a Worgen, and leap at and damage an enemy.
• Worgen: Disengage (E)
  • Shapeshift into a Human, and roll away in the specified direction.

Heroic Abilities

• Go for the Throat (R)
  • Shapeshift into a Worgen and leap at an enemy Hero, slashing the target 3 times and dealing heavy damage. If this kills the target, Go for the Throat can be used a second time within 10 seconds for free.
• Marked for the Kill (R)
  • Shapeshift into a Human and fire a shot that makes the first enemy Hero it strikes Vulnerable for 5 seconds. Reactivate to shapeshift into a Worgen and leap at the Hero.