Bug Fixes

• Dragon's Arrow now soft reveals targets hit.

• Explosive Arrows now soft reveals targets hit.

• Fixed an issue that caused The Dragon Hungers to apply the Spell Power bonus to the triggering damage effect.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 13
  • Fleet of Foot [Q]
    • Added to the Buff Bar.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused weapons to fire multiple times when used in conjunction with select abilities.
• Scatter Arrow now combines damage text.
• Giant Slayer's bonus damage from Scatter Arrow will now combine damage text.

Bug Fixes

• Ignore All Distractions will now display MISSED! text in the case of Blinds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Storm Bow to not activate Sharpened Arrowheads while Blinded or if the target is Evading.
• Fixed an issue that caused Storm Bow to activate Sharpened Arrowheads before the damage is dealt.
• Fixed an issue that caused Storm Bow's range bonus from charging to not be reset correctly.

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo's Scatter Shot now ricochets as intended from all sides in Alterac Pass.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Health increased from 1323 to 1375.
• Health regeneration increased from 2.75 to 2.86.

Abilities

• Natural Agility [D]
  • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds.

Talents

• Level 7
  • The Dragon Hungers [Q]
    • Duration increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
  • Sharpened Arrowheads [Passive]
    • Armor reduction per stack increased from 2 to 3.
    • Maximum Armor reduction remains 20.
• Level 10
  • Dragonstrike [R1]
    • Center damage bonus increased from 50% to 75%.

Developer Comment: Hanzo has slowly become a less reliable choice for most players, so we're increasing his health and adding some quality of life changes.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 10
  • Dragonstrike [R1]
    • Damage increased from 78 to 84.
• Level 13
  • Mounted Archery [Passive]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Summon Mount by 2 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Flawless Technique [Passive]
    • Storm Bow and Basic Attack damage bonuses increased from 30% to 40%.

Developer Comment: We're buffing up some of Hanzo's underperforming talents. Overall he is in a fairly good place at higher levels of play, so we're being a little conservative with where to increase his power.

Bug Fixes

• Sharpened Arrowheads now applies the armor reduction for Storm Bow before the Storm Bow damage is dealt Undocumented

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Explosive Arrows [Q]
    • Bonus damage reduced from 75% to 60%.
• Level 10
  • Dragonstrike [R1]
    • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 60 seconds.
    • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 60.
    • Damage increased from 70 to 78.
• Level 13
  • Mounted Archery [Passive]
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
• Level 20
  • The Dragon Awakens [R1]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're nerfing the dominance of Explosive Arrows while also giving Dragonstrike a much needed buff. Yep.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Storm Bow (Q)
  • Mana cost increased from 15 to 20
• Scatter Arrow (W)
  • Mana cost increased from 40 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.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 188 to 198

Talents

• Level 7
  • Never Outmatched (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2.5 to 3 second per Basic Attack
    • Cooldown reduction only applies when hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Attack
• Level 16
  • Flawless Technique (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 25% to 30%
  • Giant Slayer (Passive)
    • Damage increased from 1.5% to 2% of an enemy Hero's maximum Health

Developer Comment: We think that Hanzo is able to burst down bosses and map events too quickly, so we're removing the synergy between Never Outmatched and Serrated Arrows. We're making a few other tuning adjustments to make other Talents more attractive picks, as well as compensating some of the lost PvE power with some more PvP power.

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)
  • Hanzo's Dragonstrike (R) center damage effect

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo: The Target Practice quest tracker will now differentiate between targets that have been hit 3 times and those who haven't been hit at all.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 173 to 188

Abilities

• Sonic Arrow (E)
  • Reveal radius reduced from 10 to 7
  • Reveal duration reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
• Natural Agility (D)
  • Cooldown increased from 25 to 30 seconds

Talents

• Level 20
  • Perfect Agility (D)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 10 seconds

Developer Comment: Hanzo, while extremely desired and powerful in professional play, doesn't have the same success across all levels of Hero League. We think that by reducing the power of Sonic Arrow and shifting that into Basic Attacks, not only will Redemption be a more attractive option, but Hanzo's success should rise in Hero League without making him any more powerful in organized team play.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack range decreased from 7.5 to 6.5.

Abilities

• Natural Agility (Trait)
  • Range decreased from 10 to 9.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Explosive Arrows (Q)
    • Area of effect damage reduced from 100% to 75%.

Developer Comment: These changes require Hanzo to put himself at greater risk to deal the considerable amount of damage that he can dish out over the course of a game. While we believe Hanzo has a unique place as an Assassin who specializes in using his superior range to kite enemies, he was able to do so too safely, which was crowding out other ranged Assassins.

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo: Fixed an issue that could cause A.I. Hanzo to repeatedly Channel and cancel Storm Bow.

• Hanzo: Natural Agility now activates correctly after being hit by Phase Prism near a tower.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Natural Agility (Trait)
  • Cooldown increased from 20 to 25 seconds.
• Dragon Strike (R)
  • Damage increased from 64 to 70.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Serrated Arrows (W)
    • Bonus damage granted versus Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters reduced from 150% to 100%.

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo: The Target Practice Talent will now correctly grant 30% increased Storm Bow range upon completing its first quest requirement.

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo: Reactivating Dragon’s Arrow via the Play of the Game Talent after the Arrow has traveled beyond Warhead Junction’s playable area will no longer teleport Hanzo to an unreachable location.

• Hanzo: Will no longer play an incorrect voiceover line to allies upon casting Hearthstone.

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo: Casting Storm Bow immediately after Dragon's Arrow will no longer cause Hanzo to become stuck in Storm Bow’s primed state.

• Hanzo: Casting Storm Bow with Quick Cast turned off will no longer prevent the player from issuing movement commands by holding down right-click.

• Hanzo: Issuing a Stop or Hold command will now correctly halt Hanzo’s movement and cancel Storm Bow’s primed state.

• Hanzo: Striking an enemy Hero with Sonic Arrow just before they enter their Hall of Storms will no longer cause Sonic Arrow to display odd visual effects.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Never Outmatched (W)
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 4 to 2.5 seconds per Basic Attack
  • Sharpened Arrowheads (Passive)
    • Armor reduction reduced from 4 to 2
      • Maximum stacks increased from 5 to 10, so that the maximum negative Armor remains 20
    • Armor reduction duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage reduced from 176 to 173

Abilities

• Storm Bow (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 297 to 291
• Scatter Arrow (W)
  • Ricochet damage reduced from 90 to 88

Talents

• Level 7
  • Sharpened Arrowheads (W)
    • Decreased Armor reduction from 5 (to a maximum of 25) to 4 (to a maximum of 20)

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo & Leoric: Fixed an issue causing Towers to spawn if Leoric was directly impacted by Sonic Arrow.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Scatter Arrow (W)
  • Spread of Scatter Arrows narrowed by 20%
  • Damage reduced from 93 to 90
• Natural Agility (D)
  • Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds
  • Range increased from 8 to 10

Talents

• Level 7
  • Shieldbreaker (Q)
    • Removed
  • Sharpened Arrowheads (W)
    • Moved from level 20
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting a Hero with Storm Bow or Basic Attacks reduces their Armor by 5 for 4 seconds, stacking up to 25.
• Level 13
  • Mounted Archery (Z)
    • Bonus Movement Speed reduced from 30 to 20%
• Level 16
  • Giant Slayer (W)
    • Damage increased from 1.25 to 1.5% of enemy Hero’s Health
• Level 20
  • (New) Perfect Agility (D)
    • Gain a second charge of Natural Agility, and reduce the cooldown by 5 seconds

Developer Comment: We’re reducing the spread of Scatter Arrows so that they’re more effective when opponents aren’t directly next to a wall, while also reducing the damage slightly to compensate. We’ve increased the range of Natural Agility so that it will jump over a wider variety of terrain. We’ve also removed Shieldbreaker because we found that it required a very specific set of circumstances to be effective, but it was extremely powerful in those rare situations. We’ve moved Sharpened Arrowheads to replace it while changing its functionality to be more consistent in all situations.

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo: Enemies hit by Storm Bow with the Explosive Arrows Talent will no longer be ignored by the Piercing Arrows Talent.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Dragonstrike (R)
  • Damage increased from 58 to 64

Bug Fixes

• Hanzo: Coming under the effects of Zarya’s Graviton Surge while casting Storm Bow will no longer prevent the player from using Hanzo’s Abilities after Graviton Surge ends.

• Hanzo: Rejoining a game while AI Hanzo was casting Storm Bow will no longer prevent the player from using Hanzo’s Abilities.

New Hero

Once heir to the Shimada clan's criminal empire, Hanzo abandoned his birthright after he almost killed his younger brother. He now strives to perfect his skills as a warrior, and sees the Nexus and its endless conflict as the ideal training ground.

Trait

• Natural Agility (D)
  • Target unpathable terrain or a Structure to jump to the other side of it.

Basic Abilities

• Storm Bow (Q)
  • Activate to charge an arrow that deals 270 damage to the first enemy hit. Storm Bow's range increases the longer it is Channeled. Reactivate to fire.
• Scatter Arrow (W)
  • Fire an arrow that deals 85 to the first enemy Hero hit. Scatter Arrow can collide with terrain and Structures, splitting into 5 arrows that travel extra distance, ricochet up to 4 additional times, and deal 85 damage each to the first enemy hit.
• Sonic Arrow (E)
  • Fire an arrow that grants vision in a large area 8 seconds. Enemies inside are revealed for 1 second. If Sonic Arrow lands directly on an enemy, it deals 150 damage to them and follows them as they move.

Heroic Abilities

• Dragonstrike (R)
  • After 1.5 seconds, summon a pair of Spirit Dragons which travel forward, dealing 52 damage every 0.25 seconds to enemy Heroes in its area. Enemies in the center take 150% damage.
• Dragon’s Arrow (R)
  • Fire a missile that travels across the battleground. Explodes upon hitting an enemy Hero, dealing 100 damage to all nearby enemies and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds.
  • After traveling a medium distance, the damage is increased to 200 and the Stun duration to 1.25 seconds.
  • After traveling a long distance, the damage is increased to 350 and the Stun duration to 2 seconds.