Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Demonic Circle's outgoing FX to only be visible if you see Gul'dan's teleported to location.

Hero Updates

Base

• Quickcast Settings
  • Removed duplicate Life Tap and Cancel Drain Life.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Chaotic Energy to not increase the healing of Regeneration Globes by the correct value in ARAM.
• Healthstone no longer dismounts or decloaks Gul'dan.
• Ruinous Affliction's third strike damage now displays as a crit.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Fel Flame to be visible outside of the intended area after Pursuit of Flame is completed.
• Fixed an issue that caused Hunger for Power's healing increase to not be the correct value.

• Fixed an issue that caused Hunger for Power's healing modifications to be disabled while under the effects of Xul's Mortal Wound.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Improved Life Tap [D]
    • Mana restored increased from 35% to 40%.
  • Consume Soul [Active]
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds.
    • Maximum charges increased from 2 to 3.
• Level 7
  • Bound by Shadow [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Fel Armor [Q]
    • Spell Armor increased from 40 to 50.
  • Dark Bargain [Passive]
    • Health bonus increased from 30% to 40%.
  • Healthstone [Active]
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Rampant Hellfire [Q]
    • Damage bonus per stack increased from 10% to 12%.
  • Ruinous Affliction [E]
    • Third hit damage increased from 233 to 268.

Developer Comment: Gul'dan's prominence is primarily tied to the strength of his Drain Life build. We don't view this build as out of bounds, so we're bringing both Fel Flame and Corruption up to par.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 10
  • Horrify [R1]
    • Horrify can no longer be interrupted and put in a 10-second cooldown if Gul'dan is Stunned while it is being cast.

Developer Comment: We're changing Horrify to no longer be able to be interrupted during its cast. It was never intended to have a long cast time, and due to its unique setup we've had a lot of bug reports over the years due to it being interrupted and being put in a 10-second cooldown, but its sound still going off. This change should fix the issue and get rid of the confusion.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Fel Flame [Q]
  • Damage increased from 200 to 210.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Curse of Exhaustion [W]
    • Slow reduced from 50% to 40%.
    • No longer requires enemies to be afflicted by Corruption for the bonuses to take effect.
• Level 13
  • Dark Bargain [Passive]
    • Additional respawn time reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're doing some small upward tweaks to Gul'dan's overall power. Curse of Exhaustion in particular is getting a substantial buff in its number of use cases, which we felt was too narrow in the past due to its requirement to combo with Corruption to gain any benefit.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 10
  • Rain of Destruction [R2]
    • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 70 seconds.
    • Mana cost reduced from 90 to 80.
• Level 16
  • Darkness Within [Trait]
    • New functionality: Dealing 600 damage to enemy Heroes causes the next cast of Life Tap to cost no Health and grant Gul'dan 25% Spell Power for 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Darkness Within has always been a bit of an outlier compared to Gul'dan's other talents at 16. We're trying something new with this iteration, which is now about keeping a rolling Spell Power buff going by continuing to deal damage to enemy Heroes and, if Gul'dan can do this, having a better engine to fuel his abilities. We're hoping that this makes Darkness Within a powerful and different feeling option compared to the other talents on the tier.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Pursuit of Flame [Q]
    • Quest requirement reduced from 40 to 30
  • Chaotic Energy [W]
    • Regen Globes required for quest reduced from 20 to 15
• Level 7
  • Bound by Shadow [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
  • Curse of Exhaustion [W]
    • Slow amount increased from 35% to 50%
• Level 10
  • Rain of Destruction [R2]
    • Adjusted functionality: Now has a 1.5 second cast time. No longer requires Gul'dan to channel for its duration
    • Cast range reduced from 15 to 10
• Level 16
  • ​Darkness Within [Trait]
    • Bonus damage increased from 25% to 30%

Developer Comment: Rain of Destruction has not been the predominant Heroic since Gul'dan's release. We believe there are two reasons for this: the first being that it has some randomness to its output in regards to where the meteors land, and the second being that it requires Gul'dan to channel for 7 seconds, which gives his opponents an incredibly long time to interrupt him while also not allowing him to use his other abilities or provide any other output during that time. We're targeting the second issue with this change, which will allow Gul'dan to gain the ability to move and use his abilities while the Rain of Destruction is happening. We may in the future look at the randomness of the Heroic's meteors, but at this time we want to try this change as it retains most of the original fantasy of Gul'dan raining Hellfire upon his enemies. We're also improving some of Gul'dan's lesser picked talents. We realize that he has some fundamental issues with Corruption focused talents dominating his talent tree, and are looking at exploring ways in the future to make alternative ways to play more meaningfully competitive.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
    • Movement Speed Slow increased from 25 to 35%
• Level 13
  • Harvest Life (W)
    • Healing increased from 50 to 75%
  • Dark Bargain (Passive)
    • Health bonus increased from 25 to 30%

Design & Gameplay

Spell Power Modifiers

• The following abilities and talents have been updated to have any percentage-based spell power modifiers stack additively when calculating damage: (This is the default behavior for all other abilities and talents unless otherwise stated in the tooltip)
  • Gul'dan's Rampant Hellfire (Q) talent

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Rampant Hellfire (Q)
    • ​Damage bonus increased from 8 to 10%

Bug Fixes

• Gul'dan: Fixed an issue where Darkness Within's bonus Spell Power would not increase the healing of Drain Life.

Bug Fixes

• Sleep: Damage over time effects that do not initially apply damage, like Gul'dan's Corruption and Blaze's Combustion, will now correctly wake Sleeping enemies.

Bug Fixes

• Gul'dan: The Curse of Exhaustion Talent now displays the base Drain Life icon art in the Talent selection pane. Undocumented

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Glyph of Drain Life (W)
    • Removed.
  • Chaotic Energy (Passive)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Increases Drain Life's range by 25%.
      • Regeneration Globes restore 50% more Health and Mana.
      • Reward: After collecting 20 Regeneration Globes, reduce all Mana costs by 20.
• Level 4
  • Health Funnel (W)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Drain Life's cooldown recharges 100% faster while it is active.
• Level 7
  • Devour the Frail (W)
    • Removed.
  • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • When Drain Life is cast on an enemy who is affected by Corruption, it deals 50% increased damage and Slows the target by 25%.
• Level 20
  • Haunt (R)
    • Armor reduction amount decreased from 25 to 20.

Developer Comment: Our resident warlock has been in and out of the meta a couple times since his epic release and his Talent tree has become a bit lopsided. We began these changes by looking at Rain of Destruction (even going as far as testing the Ability without a channel!) but quickly realized that we would need more than just a balance patch to appropriately address the Heroic. We were, however, able to make some Talent adjustments that will hopefully give players fun new ways to drain the life from their opponents!

Bug Fixes

• Fenix: Purification Salvo’s visual and sound effects will no longer continue to play if the Ability is cancelled due to its target becoming invalid, such as when Gul'dan casts Demonic Circle to teleport far beyond Purification Salvo’s range.

Bug Fixes

• Gul'dan: Movement caused by a conveyor belt will no longer cancel Rain of Destruction channeling.

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.

Design & Gameplay

Hero Radii

• The radius of many heroes in the game have been adjusted to better match their actual model size.
  • Increased Radius - Abathur, ETC, Gul'dan, Baleog, Muradin, Misha, Sgt. Hammer, Thrall, Uther, Varian, Zagara
  • Decreased Radius - Li Li, Tracer, Valeera

Bug Fixes

• Gul'dan: Drain Life can now be properly cast when Gul’dan has 0 mana.

• Gul'dan: Fixed an issue that could cause Ruinous Affliction’s damage bonus to be applied on Echoed Corruption’s fourth consecutive strike against a target, rather than the third.

• Score Screen: Echoed Corruption’s Talent Quest will now correctly appear complete on the Talents tab at 40 stacks rather than 35.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Rain of Destruction (R)
  • Cast range increased by roughly 10%

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

Abilities

• Life Tap (Trait)
  • Base self-inflicted damage decreased from 234 to 222
• Fel Flame (Q)
  • Increased base size by 5%
• Drain Life (W)
  • Base healing increased from 43 to 47
• Corruption (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 14 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 90 to 80

Talents

• Level 1
  • Echoed Corruption (E)
    • Quest completion requirement increased from 35 to 40 Heroes hit by Corruption
• Level 4
  • Health Funnel (W)
    • Cooldown reduction gained when an enemy dies under the effects of Drain Life changed from 7 seconds to a full cooldown reset

Developer Comments: Gul’dan’s slightly underperforming compared to other assassins, so we’re giving him some throughput buffs as well as buffing his Fel Flame ability. We know that the Echoed Corruption change may not be positively received as it is a slight nerf, but we believe it is better for the health of his talent tier and for him overall. The intent of this talent was for it to be a relatively large power spike but for it to come very late into the game. Currently it’s still being unlocked earlier than we would like, and it has a slightly higher win rate compared to other talents on the tier. We wanted to buff Corruption by lowering its cooldown, so we felt that it was appropriate to slightly increase its quest completion time to help balance it out.

Bug Fixes

• Gul'dan: Learning the Health Funnel Talent and using Drain Life to kill a Hero with a post-death effect, such as Uther, will now properly reduce Drain Life’s cooldown.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Echoed Corruption (E)
    • Number of hits required to complete quest increased from 30 to 35
• Level 7
  • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
    • Slow duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
• Level 13
  • Fel Armor (Q)
    • Ability damage reduction increased from 30 to 40%
• Level 16
  • Rampant Hellfire (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 6% per stack (30% max) to 8% per stack (40% max)
  • Darkness Within (Trait)
    • Damage bonus increased from 20 to 25%

Developer Comments: While he has an acceptable win rate in the hands of experienced players, we felt that Gul'dan could use a few minor buffs and talent tweaks to help make his talent tiers more competitive. His Echo of Corruption quest ended up being completed earlier than we intended for such a strong effect, so we’re increasing the amount of Hero hits required. We are also are seeing a higher win rate for his Ruinous Affliction talent compared to others on his Level 16 tier. Rather than nerf this talent, we decided to buff the other options to make the tier more competitive and to make his late- game power spike more powerful.

Bug Fixes

• Gul'dan: Bonus Ability Power granted through the Darkness Within Talent will now correctly apply to all ticks of Drain Life Healing.

• Gul'dan: Heroes affected by Horrify will now properly run directly from the center of the cast into nearby Gates and Towers, rather than attempt to path around them.

• Gul'dan: Horrify’s Fear effect will now correctly be paused when enemies hit by the Ability enter Zeratul’s Void Prison.

• Gul'dan: The tooltip for the Consume Soul Activated Talent now properly lists that it stores up to 2 charges.

• Sylvanas: Mind Control’s visual effects will no longer stretch across the Battleground, and Sylvanas will no longer attempt to chase Gul'dan if he uses Teleport to Demonic Circle during Mind Control’s casting time.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Base Health increased from 1650 to 1700
• Health Regen increased from 3.44 to 3.54

Abilities

• Fel Flame (Q)
  • Damage increased from 181 to 200

Talents

• Level 1
  • Chaotic Energy (Passive)
    • Mana refund increased from 25 to 40
• Level 4
  • Health Funnel (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 6 to 7 seconds
• Level 13
  • Healthstone (Active)
    • Heal amount reduced from 30 to 25% of maximum Health

Developer Comments: Gul'dan’s performance ended up being a bit lower than we expected, so we’re giving him some buffs to compete with other Heroes. His Fel Flame should be a little more threatening, which we’re also hoping will greater incentivize players to take talents related to the ability. As a side-effect of his Health buff, we’re slightly nerfing his Healthstone talent to keep it consistently powerful with its current version. We are also making some small tweaks to other talents help their pick and win rates.

New Hero

Gul’dan, Darkness Incarnate, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.

Trait

• Life Tap (D)
  • Gul’dan does not regenerate Mana.
  • Activate to sacrifice a portion of your Health, restoring 25% of your maximum Mana.

Basic Abilities

• Fel Flame (Q)
  • Release a wave of flame that damages each enemy it passes through.
• Drain Life (W)
  • Drain the life from an enemy over 3 seconds, dealing damage to the target and healing Gul’dan each second while channeling.
• Corruption (E)
  • Call forth three bursts of shadow energy in a line, which deal damage to each enemy they strike over 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

Heroic Abilities

• Horrify (R)
  • After a short delay, deal damage and Fear all enemy Heroes in the area for 2 seconds.
• Rain of Destruction (R)
  • Summon a rain of meteors in a large area for 7 seconds. Each meteor deals a damage in a small area.