Bug Fixes

• Water Elemental Frostbolts will now behave consistently with Jaina's Frostbolts.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Frost Shards to not allow Frost Bolt to hit targets close to each other. Undocumented

Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Easy to Medium.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Frost Armor [Passive]
    • Frostbite Armor will now display Block visuals.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Frost Bolt to deal damage on enemies behind the projectile.
• Fixed an issue that caused Frost Bolt to continue to deal damage after it has hit the maximum number of targets with Frost Shards selected.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Improved Ice Block [1]
  • Damage to unlock reduced from 15,000 to 12,000.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Winter's Reach [Q]
    • Additional Functionality: Increase the missile speed of Frostbolt by 30%.

Developer Comment: In games where Jaina's team falls behind, we think it's harder than it should be to unlock Improved Ice Block, especially when Jaina is focused on clearing enemy Minion waves. This should even that out, as well as provide a boon for Jaina players that blast away their opponents. Blizzard and Cone of Cold talents are competing nicely, so we thought we'd provide some quality of life to a Frostbolt talent.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Frost Shards [Q]
    • Frost Bolt pierce increased from one to two additional targets.
• Level 7
  • Ice Lance [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.25 to 1.5 seconds.
  • Ice Floes [E]
    • Changed functionality: Cone of Cold hitting an enemy Hero reduces its cooldown by 2 seconds, doubled if they are chilled, up to a maximum of 8 seconds per cast.
• Level 10
  • Ring of Frost [R1]
    • Cooldown reduced from 80 seconds to 70 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Northern Exposure [W]
    • Armor reduction increased from 20 to 25.
• Level 20
  • Cold Snap [R1]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 15 seconds.

Developer Comment: Jaina's talents have started to freeze in place, so we're hoping this gets them moving around.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Icefury Wand [Passive]
    • Adjusted functionality: Basic Attacks against Chilled targets deal 50% bonus damage and reduce the cooldown of Blizzard by 1.25 seconds, doubled against enemy Heroes.

Developer Comment: We've heard fairly consistent feedback that players would like Icefury Wand to give a benefit to non-Heroic targets. We like the idea, so we are giving some of its power as a bonus against all targets.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Arcane Intellect [Trait]
    • Additional functionality: While above 75% Mana, gain 10% Spell Power.
  • ​Frost Armor [Passive]
    • Physical Armor amount increased from 50 to 75.
• Level 7
  • ​​Icefury Wand [Passive]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: While Jaina's talent diversity is in a relatively decent place, it has room to be better, particularly in the early game. Arcane Intellect should now be a fairly viable Mana-restoring talent for players who don't want to pick Fingers of Frost at Level 1, which should open more possible build opportunities.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Snowstorm [W]
    • Damage bonuses increased from 30%/70% to 50%/100%.

Developer Comment: Snowstorm isn't adding enough damage to compensate for the opportunity cost of the other talents at 16, so we're buffing it.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Ice Lance [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds.
  • Ice Floes [E]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds per Hero hit.
• Level 16
  • Snowstorm [W]
    • Damage bonuses increased from 20%/60% to 30%/70%.

Developer Comment: These are minor tuning changes intended to help Jaina's build diversity. Ice Floes in particular is in a potentially powerful spot in the right situations, as when combined with Icy Veins and Northern Exposure or Numbing Blast, can do a lot of AoE damage to the enemy team in a short amount of time.

Bug Fixes

• Taking the Snowstorm talent on Jaina in the middle of a Blizzard cast no longer changes the damage value for the rest of the game.

Bug Fixes

• Jaina: Jaina's Water Elemental mimic damage from Wintermute now correctly reflects the tooltip and Balance Update. 50% of Jaina's Basic Frostbolt and Cone of Cold damage is mimicked by the Water Elemental.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Ice Lance [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
  • Icefury Wand [Passive]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Level 13
  • Storm Front [W]
    • Cast range increase reduced from 100% to 75%
    • Additional functionality: Now also increases the radius of Blizzard by 30%
• Level 16
  • Snowstorm [W]
    • New functionality: The second wave of Blizzard deals 20% bonus damage. The third wave of Blizzard deals 60% bonus damage.​

Developer Comment: Ice Lance has been outperforming the other talents on its tier for a long time. While we enjoy the playstyle that it enables, it is slightly too powerful compared to the other options. We are reducing its cooldown reduction while also giving Jaina other build paths to consider.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Frostbolt (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 190 to 184
• Cone of Cold (E)
  • Damage reduced from 230 to 220

Talents

• Level 7
  • Ice Floes (E)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • Icefury Wand (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 75 to 100%
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
• Level 16
  • Northern Exposure (E)
    • Armor reduction decreased from 25 to 20

Bug Fixes

• Spell Power: Fixed an issue where Spell Power would no longer affect a Hero's abilities after they died. (For example: Jaina's Blizzard will now continue to deal bonus damage if she received increased Spell Power but died before the second and third waves.)

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Summon Water Elemental (R)
  • Damage reduced from 78 to 62
  • Damage now benefits from Frostbite
  • Damage now counts towards Frostbite's quest

Bug Fixes

• Jaina: Fixed an issue that allowed the Water Elemental's attacks to progress the Frostbite quest progress against unchilled targets.

Bug Fixes

• Ice Block: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities remained castable during Ice Block.

Bug Fixes

• Ice Block: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities remained castable during Ice Block.

Bug Fixes

• Heroes can no longer cast Area-of-Effect abilities globally before the gates open.

Bug Fixes

• Ice Block: Fixed an issue allowing certain Abilities to be cast during Ice Block, including Jaina’s Ice Blink, Brightwing’s Storm Shield, and Malfurion’s Astral Communion.

• Jaina: The Wintermute Talent now correctly causes Jaina’s Water Elemental to mimic her Basic Abilities.

Bug Fixes

• Abathur: Casting Ultimate Evolution on Jaina will no longer cause Abathur’s Calldown: MULE Talent icon to permanently switch to the icon for Improved Ice Block.

Bug Fixes

• Jaina: Fixed an issue that prevented Summon Water Elemental from being cast on the opposite side of unpathable terrain in areas that are within range and visible to the player.

Bug Fixes

• Jaina: Fixed a typo in the Icy Veins tooltip which incorrectly stated that the Talent provided a 300% cooldown recharge rate , rather than 200%. This only affected the tooltip, and the Talent's functionality has not changed.

• Jaina: Fixed an issue that prevented Jaina from casting Water Elemental if unpathable terrain existed between Jaina and the desired casting location.

Bug Fixes

• Jaina: The Frost Armor talent will no longer cause Jaina’s damage to ignore armor.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Frostbite (Trait)
  • !Quest added:
    • Deal 15,000 damage to Chilled enemy Heroes
  • !Reward: Gain the Improved Ice Block ability
    • Improved Ice Block: Activate to place Jaina in Stasis and gain Invulnerability for 2.5 seconds. When this effect expires, nearby enemies are Chilled. 40 second cooldown
• Summon Water Elemental (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 60

Talents

• Level 1
  • Conjurer’s Pursuit (Passive)
    • Removed
  • (New) Fingers of Frost (Passive)
    • Gathering Regen Globes increases your Mana Regeneration by .1 per second, up to 2 per second. Reward: After gathering 20 Regeneration Globes, the damage bonus of Frostbite is increased by 10%.
• Level 7
  • Frostbitten (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Ice Floes (E)
    • New Functionality:
      • Doubles the width of Cone of Cold. Hitting Chilled enemy Heroes with Cone of Cold reduces its cooldown by 2.5 seconds, up to a 5 second maximum reduction.
  • (New) Icefury Wand (Passive)
    • Your basic attacks against Chilled targets deal 75% bonus damage and reduce the cooldown of Blizzard by 1 second.
• Level 20
  • Improved Ice Block (Active)
    • Removed
  • Arcane Power (Active)
    • Removed
  • (New) Ice Blink (Active)
    • Activate to teleport a short distance and Chill nearby enemies. 60 second cooldown.
  • Cold Snap (R)
    • Now also reduces the cooldown of Ring of Frost by 10 seconds per enemy Hero hit.
  • Deep Chill (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 1
      • New Functionality:
        • Frostbite’s slow amount now stacks a second time, slowing enemy Heroes by up to 40%.

Developer Comment: Our main goal for Jaina's changes was to spruce up her talent tree while disrupting as few of her existing builds as possible. Her new baseline quest to unlock Improved Ice Block should allow for more play making potential, which we are adding as a response to players who were disappointed when we moved the talent to Level 20. We also heard feedback from many players that the removal of Bolt of the Storm off of heroes like Jaina has hurt their play making ability and overall fun, so we're going back a bit on our decision to take it away on her. While we want to be more careful where we add these Blink-type abilities, we believe there is a place for it on Jaina, and have added an offensive use case which should hopefully allow her to make more aggressive plays in the late game.

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

Bug Fixes

• Stasis: Fixed an issue in which cooldowns for self-cast Stasis effects, such as Ice Block, or Chromie’s Time Out, would not count down until respawn if the Hero was killed immediately after that Stasis effect concluded.

Bug Fixes

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

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

• Blizzard (W)
  • Increased the number of waves from 2 to 3
  • Reduced damage from 167 to 142
  • Increased Mana cost from 75 to 90
• Cone of Cold (E)
  • Increased damage from 200 to 230
  • Reduced Mana cost from 50 to 40

Talents

• Level 4
  • Snowstorm (W)
    • Moved to level 16
  • Arcane Intellect (Passive)
    • Reduced the Mana returned from Abilities from 25 to 20
  • Envenom (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 7
  • Ice Lance (Q)
    • Now also restores 10 Mana when a Chilled target is hit by Frostbolt in addition to its current functionality
  • Frost Armor (Passive)
    • Moved to level 4
    • Reduced Block amount from 75% to 50%
    • Increased Block cooldown from 8 to 10 seconds
  • Ice Floes (E)
    • Increased cooldown reduction from .5 to 1 second, up to a maximum of 5 seconds per cast
• Level 13
  • Ice Barrier (Trait)
    • Shield duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
• Level 16
  • Snow Crash (W)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: A lot of these changes are designed to further emphasize what we see as Jaina’s unique role: battlefield control. We want to play up her ability to deny areas of the battlefield with Blizzard, and really punish enemies who get stuck inside it. The biggest change in that regard is that she now spawns 3 waves of Blizzard baseline. To go along with these core kit changes, we’ve also changed or moved around a few of her Talents. One of the biggest changes was Snowstorm, which increased the radius of Blizzard, as we found that it lowered the difficulty of landing consecutive Blizzard waves on enemies too much for a Talent in such an early tier.

Bug Fixes

• Jaina: Casting Blizzard while hidden within a Shrub will no longer prevent players who are outside that shrub from seeing its visual effects.

Talents

Conjurer's Pursuit

• A reward has been added to this Questing Talent.
  • Quest: Gather Regeneration Globes to permanently increase Mana Regeneration by 0.10 per second, up to a maximum of 2.5 per second.
  • Reward: After gathering 25 Regeneration Globes, also increases maximum Mana by 100.

Developer Comments: We’ve added a completion point to this Talent. Upon completing its quest, players will be provided with some additional power. This allows us to offer spikes of power in-between Talent levels, or even for a single player on a team. Now, simply picking the Talent and only partially completing it is worse, but finishing the quest will return a larger reward. Choosing the right Talents on the right Battleground or with the right team composition has always been an important goal for us, and this change pushes this Talent to closer align with that goal.

Talents

Arcane Power

• Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds

Hero Updates

• Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
• Improved Ice Block (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 20
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 20 seconds
  • Duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds
• Frostbite (Trait)
  • Ice Barrier (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13

Developer Comments: We’ve removed Bolt of the Storm from Jaina because it overcame a core weakness of hers that we think is essential to maintain: her lack of mobility. While there was always the potential for big plays with Bolt, we found that it was more often used as a “get out of jail free card” that helped make up for sloppy positioning after reaching level 20. We’re in the process of evaluating whether or not Bolt should be available to a number of Heroes, which is why it was also removed it from Kael’thas in this patch.

This doesn’t mean that no burst Assassins should have this type of mobility; it’s part of Li-Ming’s core gameplay design, for example. For the types of ranged Heroes for which Bolt is appropriate, we balance around their mobility. For Jaina and Kael’thas, however, we think removing Bolt and compensating them in other ways will result in healthier gameplay and Talent diversity.

Bug Fixes

• Jaina’s Basic Attacks will now properly refund Mana after learning the Arcane Intellect Talent.

Hero Updates

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 89 (+4% per level) to 60 (+4% per level)
• Frostbolt (Q)
  • Damage increased from 160 (+4% per level) to 190 (+4% per level)
• Cone of Cold (E)
  • Damage increased from 189 (+4% per level) to 200 (+4% per level)

Developer Comments: We’re starting to pull Basic Attack damage out of characters who don’t rely upon it, namely Jaina and Kael’thas. For Jaina, this will make less of her damage guaranteed and allow for more advanced plays. Jaina’s win rate is also a little on the low end, so we want to offset the Basic Attack nerf and add to her overall power by buffing Frostbolt and Cone of Cold.

Hero Updates

• Ring of Frost (R)
  • Ring of Frost’s inner-area radius now properly matches the Ability’s visual effects

Bug Fixes

• Jaina’s Ring of Frost now properly affects enemies that overlap the inner-edge of the Ability’s targeting ring.

Hero Updates

• Frostbite (Trait)
  • Deep Chill (Talent)
    • Bonus to the Movement Speed slow applied by Chill decreased from 35% to 30%

Developer Comments: Jaina having a 35% slow available at level 1 is very hard to play against, and resulted in a majority of Jaina players picking Deep Chill. This is a small decrease, but has had a positive impact on our playtesting.

Design & Gameplay

Ability Power Gains

Developer Comments: This change was aimed at removing odd gameplay where a Nazeebo player may actually want to sacrifice his or her Gargantuan for a more powerful one. This occurred if players kept a summon alive for a very long time and gained Ability Power via Talents, like Gathering Power, as this increase in Ability Power was not passed onto the Summon. Short term summons or persistent effects will still take a snapshot of your current Ability Power at the time they are cast, and apply the bonus for the complete duration of the effect.

• To clarify the rules for temporary Ability Power gains, the following rules have been added:
  • For permanent or very long duration pets or persistent effects, their damage and maximum Health will now update dynamically when Ability Power is modified. This includes:
    • Abathur's Monstrosity
    • Nazeebo's Gargantuan (with the Humongoid Talent)
  • For short duration pets or persistent effects, their damage and maximum Health should snapshot based upon the Ability Power of the character when they are cast. This includes:
    • Jaina's Water Elemental
    • Sgt. Hammer's Blunt Force Gun
    • Tychus' Drakken Laser Drill

Talents

Bolt of the Storm

Developer Comments: We love this talent and think it can create a lot of really interesting moments, but the cooldown was just too short. At 70 seconds we think this talent is still a great level 20 pick, but now players will have to be more strategic with how they use it. Forcing someone to use their Bolt to avoid a gank can now be a meaningful moment with this increased cooldown. We hope this also entices players towards choosing their Heroic upgrades instead of Bolt when the situation calls for it.

• Cooldown increased from 40 to 70 seconds

Hero Updates

Developer Comments: The Jaina changes are a result of her being too powerful right now, and we have a secondary goal of increasing the play of Ring of Frost. By reducing the impact of summoning a Water Elemental, Jaina loses some of her burst potential unless she chooses Ring of Frost. Water Elemental is now more focused on producing sustained damage.

• Ring of Frost (R)
  • Cooldown decreased from 100 to 80 seconds
• Summon Water Elemental (R)
  • No longer deals damage or Chills at the Water Elemental’s spawn location

Bug Fixes

• After learning the Wintermute Talent, Jaina’s Water Elemental will now properly mirror her Blizzard casts.

Talents

Envenom

• Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds, but damage has not been changed

Hero Updates

• Sprint (Talent) removed
• Summon Water Elemental (R)
  • Can now be re-targeted after Jaina is killed

Talents

New Generic Talent: Arcane Power (Level 20)

• Activate to gain 400 mana and 15% Ability Power for 5 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
• Currently found only on Jaina

Hero Updates

• Arcane Power (Talent) added at Level 20
• Nexus Fury (Talent) removed
• Improved Ice Block (Talent)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
• New Talent (Level 20): Arcane Power
  • Activate to increase spell damage by 15% and restore 400 Mana for 5 seconds
• Frostbite (Trait)
  • The Chilled effect will now apply to Unstoppable units (such as the Grave Golem), as well as Structures.
• Frostbolt (Q)
  • Damage increased from 45 (+14 per level) to 50 (+15 per level)
• Blizzard (W)
  • Damage per wave increased from 40 (+15 per level) to 45 (+16 per level)
• Cone of Cold (E)
  • Damage increased from 50 (+17 per level) to 55 (+18 per level)

Talents

Swift Storm has been removed

New Level 20 Talents

Nexus Frenzy

• Increases both Attack Speed and Basic Attack range by 20%
• Found on the following Heroes:
  • Falstad, Jaina, Raynor, Sgt. Hammer, Tychus, Valla

Hero Updates

• Frostbolt (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 50 (+16 per level) to 45 (+14 per level)
• Cone of Cold (E)
  • Damage increased from 40 (+13 per level) to 50 (+17 per level)
• Summon Water Elemental (R)
  • Initial explosion damage increased from 50 (+6 per level) to 65 (+7 per level)
  • Basic Attack damage reduced from 65 (+6 per level) to 50 (+6 per level)

Bug Fixes

• Bolt of the Storm and Zeratul’s Blink can no longer be cast while rooted.

New Hero

Jaina Proudmoore has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of her Abilities.

• Abilities:
  • Frost Bolt (Q)
    • Fires a bolt that deals damage and Chills the target.
  • Blizzard (W)
    • Creates a storm of ice at target location, damaging and Chilling enemies.
  • Cone of Cold (E)
    • Deals damage in a cone and Chills targets.
• Trait:
  • Frost Bite
    • Your Abilities Chill targets, slowing them and causing them to take increased damage.
• Heroic Abilities
  • Summon Water Elemental (R)
    • Summons a powerful Water Elemental.
  • Ring of Frost (R)
    • Creates a freezing ring that roots and damages enemies.

Talents

Conjurer's Pursuit

• Now also increases Mana regeneration by 0.5 per second in addition to its other effects