Bug Fixes

• Angelic Armaments will combine damage text with Heavenly Host.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Brightwing and Falstad to be at the incorrect height after Celestial Charge Stuns them and a least one other Hero.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Holy Fervor [Active]
    • Holy Fervor cleave reveals the area for 0.75 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Molten Armor dealt inconsistent damage.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Celestial Charge [Q]
  • Final damage increased from 70 to 80.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Blaze of Glory [W]
    • Damage increased from 185 to 205.
    • Changed Functionality: Blaze of Glory deals additional damage with Valorous Brand marks, but no longer consumes them.

Developer Comment: Celestial Charge needling enemies a bit more will help Imperius out, especially when taking Impaling Light. We're happy with the gameplay of the Solarian's Fire build, but we'd rather Imperius continue onward rather than go out in a Blaze of Glory.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack
  • Damage increased from 122 to 126.

Abilities

• Solarion's Fire [W]
  • Damage increased from 100 to 110.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Battle Hunger [Trait]
    • Bonus healing increased from 70% to 80%.
• Level 7
  • Blaze of Glory [W]
    • Damage increased from 150 to 185.
  • Holy Fervor [Active]
    • Additional functionality: Casting Molten Armor grants Holy Fervor for 2 Basic Attacks.
• Level 20
  • Unrelenting Descend [R2]
    • Additional functionality: Descending from the Heavens restores Imperius for 30% of his maximum Health and Mana.

Developer Comment: Flash of Anger has overshadowed Imperius' other level 7 talents for a while, as it was the premier option for both AoE damage and survivability. With buffs to both Blaze of Glory and Holy Fervor, along with a sizable increase in base power, we hope to see more Imperius action.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Impaling Light [Q]
    • Damage bonus per Valorous Brand reduced from 125% to 75%.
• Level 4
  • Sovereign Armor [E]
    • Armor amount reduced from 25 to 20.
• Level 10
  • Angelic Armaments [R1]
    • Shield amount reduced from 1000 to 850.

Developer Comment: The Angel of Valor was shrugging off enemy damage too easily while dishing out too much of his own, and the other Bruisers were getting jealous.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Health reduced from 2450 to 2375.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 5.11 to 4.95.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Blaze of Glory [W]
    • Damage increased from 135 to 150.

Developer Comment: Imperius is still a dominating pick, particularly at the higher ranks of play. We're slighting reducing his overall power while also buffing his Blaze of Glory to help it compete better on his Level 7 tier.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Flash of Anger [Q]
    • Shield amount reduced from 275 to 250.
    • Damage reduced from 165 to 150.
  • Holy Fervor [Active]
    • Cooldown from 30 to 25 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Celestial Swiftness [Q]
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 25% to 20%.

Developer Comment: Solarian is still too sharp. Dulling it a tad bit more!

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Flash of Anger [Q]
    • Damage reduced from 180 to 165.
    • Shield amount reduced from 300 to 275.

Developer Comment: While Imperius is a great addition to any team and is within our bounds of overall performance, Flash of Anger is dominating its tier and has become too much of his power pie.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 13
  • Pathetic Mortals [Q]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the Movement Speed of enemy Heroes hit by Celestial Charge by 25% for 4 seconds.

Developer Comment: To help it compete with other talents on its tier and to give it a little more identity, we're adding a Slow to Pathetic Mortals. This change will also help the talent's visual clarity since enemies will be Slowed while they have the damage reduction debuff.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Imperius could recast Angelic Armaments after the recast is meant to become unavailable Undocumented
  • Angelic Armaments recast now has a 0.125 second cast time

• Fixed an issue where Imperius would self-Stun after missing Celestial Charge Undocumented

Bug Fixes

• Pressing or queueing Molten Armor during a Celestial Charge will now immediately activate it rather than waiting for Celestial Charge to complete Undocumented

• Clarified Flash of Anger's tooltip to reflect that it deals damage to the target as well as all targets around them.

• Fixed an issue where players were unable to issue attack commands while using Celestial Charge, causing them to auto-acquire nearby targets.

• Imperius' Flash of Anger will now properly trigger if it kills a target.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Impaling Light [Q]
    • Damage bonus increased from 100% to 125%.
• Level 4
  • Battle Hunger [Trait]
    • Healing bonus increased from 60% to 70%.
  • Press Forward [Passive]
    • Additional functionality: While Imperius is being healed by a Regeneration Globe, he gains 10 Armor.
• Level 7
  • Blaze of Glory [W]
    • Damage increased from 125 to 135.
• Level 13
  • Pathetic Mortals [Q]
    • Damage reduction increased from 40% to 50%.
• Level 20
  • Unrelenting Descent [R2]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 10 seconds.
  • Brand of Solarion [Trait]
    • Duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're giving Imperius a slew of buffs to underperforming talents, which we believe will push him into being a more stable pick on most maps.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Valorous Brand [Trait]
  • Healing amount increased from 70 to 75.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Impaling Light [Q]
    • Damage increased from 50% to 100%.
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 second to 1.25 seconds.
  • Consuming Flame [W]
    • Center damage bonus increased from 100% to 125%.
• Level 4
  • Battle Hunger [Trait]
    • Healing increased from 50% to 60%.
• Level 13
  • Pathetic Mortals [Q]
    • Damage reduction increased from 35% to 40%.
• Level 16
  • Celestial Swiftness [Q]
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 20% to 25%.

Developer Comment: Imperius has lost a bit of his teeth since our talent revamp, and these changes should bring him back to his former glory.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Molten Armor [E]
  • Healing reduced from 100% to 50% of the damage dealt
  • Bonus healing against Heroes reworded to say it is increased to 100% (baseline functionality is the same)
• Valorous Brand [Trait]
  • Consuming a mark heals Imperius for 70
  • Damage bonus reduced from 30% to 20%

Talents

• Level 1
  • Impaling Light [Q]
    • Redesigned: Celestial Charge's final damage is increased by 50% and cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each Valorous Brand on the target when the Stun completes
  • Consuming Flame [W]
    • The first enemy Hero hit with Solarion's Fire also restores 30 Mana
• Level 4
  • Bulwark of Flame [W]
    • Removed
  • Unshakeable Faith [E]
    • Removed
  • Battle Hunger [Trait]
    • Redesigned: Increased the healing of Valorous Brand by 50%
  • ​​Sovereign Armor [E]
    • Moved from 16
    • Armor reduced from 50 to 25
    • Duration reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds
    • Damaging an enemy Hero with Molten Armor increased the duration by 0.5 seconds
  • ​​[NEW] Press Forward [Passive]
    • ​Damaging an enemy Hero sets the duration of a Regeneration Globe on Imperius to 5 seconds (unless it was already higher)
• Level 7
  • Blaze of Glory [W]
    • The secondary explosion from Blaze of Glory now consumes and benefits from Valorous Brand
  • ​​Holy Fervor [Active]
    • Now has a maximum duration of 10 seconds
    • The cooldown for the Ability begins after the first attack, instead of the last
    • Cooldown increased from 25 to 30 seconds
    • Tooltip updated to reflect that the damage is a percentage bonus and stacks additively with other percentage bonuses
• Level 13
  • Divine Rage [E]
    • Redesigned: Consuming a Valorous Brand reduces the cooldown of Molten Armor by 1 second
  • Heat of Battle [E]
    • Redesigned: Increase Molten Armor's healing against Heroes by 2% for every 1% Health Imperius is missing
• Level 16
  • Celestial Swiftness [Q]
    • Redesigned: Gain 20% Movement Speed for 5 seconds after casting Celestial Charge; Gain 40% Attack Speed for 5 seconds for each Hero Stunned with Celestial Charge
  • Valorous Pursuit [Active]
    • Moved from level 20
    • Cooldown increased from 12 to 20 seconds
• Level 20
  • [NEW] Brand of Solarion [Trait]
    • Reduce the duration of Valorous Brand to 3 seconds, but it is no longer consumed when triggered
  • ​​Impervious [Active]
    • Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Developer Comment: Most of these changes are designed to make a few more of Imperius' Talents viable and interesting, as well as provide more opportunity for Imperius' players to show their skill with the Hero while also allowing for mechanics that opponents have more counterplay with. We shouldn't see a large shift in Imperius' role or playstyle, but rather more interesting interactions between him and his opponents.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Consuming Flame [W]
    • Damage bonus changed from 125% to 100%
    • This slightly reduces the bonus damage at Level 1 from 281 to 260, but at Level 20 will change from 454 to 548
• Level 7
  • Flash of Anger [Q]
    • Adjusted functionality: Consuming a mark from Celestial Charge deals damage around the target and gives Imperius a Shield for 300 over 4 seconds
    • Damage reduced from 198 to 180

Developer Comment: To make it more consistent with other damage modifiers, we are changing Consuming Flame's bonus from a flat amount to a percent bonus, which will make it scale with Imperius's level. This is a slight nerf to his Level 1 damage, but overall a fairly significant buff to the talent during the middle and later portions of the game. To make Flash of Anger more reliable, we are changing its functionality to be about consuming marks of Celestial Charge instead of trying to hit enemy Heroes first with Solarion's Fire. To compensate for the power and reliability bonuses we're giving, we are reverting the damage bonus that we gave to the talent last patch. This functionality change should make the use case for the talent much more clear: Impale enemies, gain benefits.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Solarian's Fire (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50
• Molten Armor (E)
  • Mana cost increased from 50 to 75

Talents

• Level 1
  • Consuming Flame (W)
    • Adjusted Functionality: No longer has a quest component; Imperius gains bonus damage and slow to Solarion's Fire when picking the talent
    • Bonus damage reduced from 150 to 125
• Level 4
  • Bulwark of Flame (W)
    • Physical Armor amount increased from 70 to 75
    • Maximum Charges increased from 4 to 6
  • Unshakable Faith (E)
    • Adjusted Functionality: No longer requires removing a disabling effect in order for Imperius to be healed
    • Healing reduced from 250 to 200
• Level 7
  • Flash of Anger (Q)
    • Damage increased from 180 to 198
    • Now shows Crit kickers when this damage procs
  • Holy Fervor (Active)
    • Cooldown increased from 18 to 25 seconds

Developer Comment: Imperius is performing exactly where we would like him to, with a win rate of exactly 50.0% at high level play. While we love basking in this balance nirvana, Imperius does suffer from some pick rate issues, particularly in his earlier tiers. Rather than only nerfing the talents that are often picked, we are instead looking to buff up the alternatives in hope that they see more play.

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.

Bug Fixes

• The stun from Imperius' Celestial Charge will no longer occasionally be removed when used against Heroes.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Angelic Armaments (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 70

Talents

• Level 1
  • Burn the Impure (W)
    • Now works with all Valorous Brand marks
    • Damage bonus decreased from 3 to 2.5%
• Level 4
  • Bulwark of Flame (W)
    • Physical Armor increased from 60 to 70
• Level 7
  • Flash of Anger (Q)
    • Damage increased from 160 to 180
• Level 13
  • Heat of Battle (E)
    • Healing bonus increased from 25% to 35%
• Level 20
  • Valorous Pursuit (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 15 to 12 seconds
    • Now also provides 25 Armor for 3 seconds

Developer Comment: Judging from data gained from more experienced Imperius players, our newest Hero will trend right into the sweet spot with his overall balance. We do want to make some tuning adjustments to a few of the Talents to make sure that they're all attractive choices however, which is what the majority of these balance changes aim to address.

Bug Fixes

• Imperius: Fixed an issue causing Valorous Pursuit to occasionally teleport Imperius to an incorrect location.

• Imperius: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to appear at the wrong height after being affected by Celestial Charge.

• Imperius: Fixed an issue that could cause projectiles to appear disjointed when targeting Imperius during Celestial Charge.

New Hero

Leader of the Angiris Council and Aspect of Valor, Imperius has valiantly led the armies of the High Heavens to innumerous victories over the demons of the Burning Hells. While his methods are exact and severe, there is no greater defender of righteousness in the entirety of creation.

Trait

• Valorous Brand
  • Each Basic Ability marks enemy Heroes hit for 10 seconds. Basic Attacks consume the target's marks, dealing 30% bonus damage per mark.

Basic Abilities

• Celestial Charge (Q)
  • Lunge towards a targeted direction and stab, dealing 35 damage. If an enemy Hero is hit, Channel to Stun for 1 second and deal 70 additional damage when it fully finishes.
• Solarion's Flare (W)
  • Release a fiery wave that deals 100 damage. Enemies hit by the center take 50 bonus damage and are Slowed by 40% for 3 seconds.
• Molten Armor (E)
  • Shroud Imperius in flames for 3 seconds, striking a nearby enemy for 19 damage every 0.25 seconds. Imperius heals for 100% of the damage dealt, with healing doubled versus Heroes.

Heroic Abilities

• Angelic Armaments (R)
  • Summon a ring of blazing swords that grants 1000 Shield for 3 seconds.If the Shield lasts the full duration, this ability can be reactivated within 5 seconds to launch 6 swords toward an area, each dealing 140 damage to the first enemy hit.
• Wrath of the Angiris (R)
  • After 0.75 seconds, charge in the target direction, lifting the first enemy Hero hit into the Heavens. While in the air, Imperius can steer the landing location by moving.After 2 seconds, slam the target into the ground, dealing 375 damage and Stunning them for 1 second.