Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Hard to Medium.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Burned Flesh [Q]
    • Burned Flesh will now display as a critical effect.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Gravity Lapse to hit Invulnerable enemies.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Vitals
  • Health increased from 1520 to 1595.
  • Health regeneration increased from 3.17 to 3.32.

Abilities

• Gravity Lapse [E]
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Energy Roil [E]
    • Cooldown reduction for hitting an enemy Hero reduced from 9 to 8 seconds.
  • Mana Tap [Trait]
    • Mana restore from activating Verdant Spheres increased from 4% to 5%.
• Level 10
  • Phoenix [R1]
    • Damage increased from 78 to 84.
    • Splash damage increased from 39 to 42.

Developer Comment: It's been a hot-minute since we showed our resident fire mage some love, so we are making a few baseline changes to increase his survivability, as well as tweak a couple of underperforming talents.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Twin Spheres [Trait]
    • Additional functionality: Gain all level 7 talents.

Developer Comment: Empowering abilities is fun, but we feel Twin Spheres struggled to pack the punch it needed to compete as a Level 16 talent. We hope this provides the power it needs while retaining its flexibility in choosing which ability to empower.

Bug Fixes

• Both Fel Infusion and Sunfire Enchantment now properly increase Kael'thas' healing from Fel Infusion.

Design & Gameplay

Spell Power Modifiers

• The following abilities have had their tooltips updated to reflect that percentage-based spell power modifiers will stack multiplicatively when calculating damage:
  • Kael'thas' Phoenix (R) ability

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Flamestrike (Q)
  • Damage increased from 320 to 345
• Living Bomb (W)
  • Explosion damage increased from 200 to 215

Hero Updates

Stats

• Unit radius reduced from 1.15 to 1.0. Kael'thas' radius now matches Heroes like E.T.C. and Zagara.

Abilities

• Living Bomb (W)
  • Periodic damage increased from 40 to 42.

Developer Comment: After years of battling in the Nexus, Kael'thas finally learned the reason why puny interlopers could foil his clearly superior plans and went to the tailor to get his cape trimmed.

Bug Fixes

• Basic Attacks: The following Basic Attacks that deal Spell Damage now correctly miss when the attacking Hero is Blinded or the target is Evading:
  • Kael'thas: Sunfire Enchantment
  • Kel'Thuzad: Chilling Touch
  • Li-Ming: Cannoneer

Bug Fixes

• Kael'thas: Fixed an issue causing Pyroblast to receive cooldown reductions from Presence of Mind prior to learning the Talent at level 20.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Energy Roil (E)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Passively reduces the Mana cost of Gravity Lapse by 70.
• Level 7
  • Sunfire Enchantment (Trait)
    • Spell Damage reduced from 165 to 115.
    • Number of empowered Basic Attacks increased from 1 to 2.
    • If both empowered Basic Attacks hit enemy Heroes, gain 15% Spell Power for 10 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Pyromaniac (W)
    • Cooldown reduction applied per tick of Living Bomb damage decreased from 1 to 0.5 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Arcane Dynamo (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Ignite (W)
    • Flamestrikes that hit enemy Heroes also afflict them with Living Bomb.
    • Only 1 Living Bomb can be applied per Flamestrike cast.
• Level 20
  • Presence of Mind (R)
    • Hitting enemy Heroes with Pyroblast no longer reduces its cooldown.
    • New functionality:
      • Heroes who are hit by Flamestrike or have Living Bomb spread to them reduce the cooldown of Pyroblast by 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're taking passes at some older Talent trees that, while not in need of a full rework, could use some design tweaks. The changes to Kael'thas in particular went through quite a bit of iteration. We're happy to report that, unlike some of the insane Talents we tried internally, we managed to re-imagine and restore the power of Ignite!

Bug Fixes

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

Bug Fixes

• Kael'thas: Fixed an issue that could cause Pyroblast to move unpredictably when fired at a target that enters and exits the mines.

• Kael'thas: Fixed an issue that could cause Pyroblast’s targeting indicator to persist indefinitely when targeting a Hero as they become Unrevealable.

Bug Fixes

• Kael'thas: Fixed an issue in which Sun King's Fury could deal bonus damage to targets who were already affected by Living Bomb.

• Kael'thas: The Burned Flesh Talent will now correctly deal damage equal to 8% of targets’ maximum Health, rather than 5%.

Bug Fixes

• Zul'jin: Kael'thas’ Living Bomb will no longer repeatedly explode after being cast on Zul’jin while Taz’dingo is active.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Pyroblast (R)
  • Cast time reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
  • Cast range increased by roughly 30%

Developer Comments: Pyroblast has been underperforming compared to Phoenix. We like where its damage is at, and that a lot of Heroes have ways to negate or mitigate it. Instead, we’re buffing the consistency of the Heroic to make it more competitive.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Sun King's Fury (W)
    • Increased damage bonus from 30 to 35%

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Gravity Crush (E)
    • Removed
• Level 16
  • Sun King’s Fury (W)
    • Moved to level 7
    • New Functionality: Now increases the damage of Living Bombs that spread to enemy Heroes by 30%
  • NEW TALENT: Arcane Dynamo (Passive)
    • Casting a Basic Ability causes you to gain 3% Ability Power for 5 seconds, stacking up to a total of 15% Ability Power
• Level 20
  • Arcane Power (Active)
    • Removed
  • NEW TALENT: Flamethrower (Q)
    • Increases the range of Flamestrike by 40%. When you hit two or more enemy Heroes, reduce the cooldown of Flamestrike by 4 seconds

Developer Comments: As we had mentioned in previous patches, we wanted to make a niche for Kael’thas as an area-of-effect mage who punishes teams that clump together. Our earlier changes to him succeeded in helping his talent diversity, but we failed in pointing him enough in the direction of an AoE mage. We’ve decided to cut Gravity Crush and change Sun King’s Fury to be a mechanic more fitting of our intended design for Kael’thas.

To replace Sun King’s Fury at Level 16 we’ve created Arcane Dynamo, which rewards Kael’thas players for spacing out their abilities and properly balancing their Mana consumption. We also removed the generic talent Arcane Power, and replaced it with Flamethrower, a finisher talent for Flamestrike oriented builds.

Bug Fixes

• Kael'thas: The visual effects displayed upon completing the Mana Addict Talent Quest will now correctly appear after gathering 20 Regeneration Globes, rather than 25.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Living Bomb (W)
  • Damage over time reduced from 50 to 40

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Gravity Lapse (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 80 to 90

Talents

• Level 1
  • Convection (Q)
    • Damage bonus on Quest completion increased from 75 to 100
• Level 4
  • Energy Roil (E)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 7 to 9 seconds
• Level 7
  • Sunfire Enchantment (Trait)
    • Damage reduced from 183 to 165
  • Gravity Crush (E)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 30% to 25%
• Level 20
  • Rebirth (R)
    • The Rebirth casting range will now center on the Phoenix itself instead of on Kael'thas
    • This can now be re-positioned globally

Developer Comments: As part of our ongoing process to improve our talent system, we are doing a pass on all heroes in the game to increase the health of their talent trees. We know that there are a fair number of talents that feel like they are either mandatory or insignificant, and this is our first pass on putting in fixes. These fixes take many forms, and can range from simply buffing or nerfing numbers to changing functionality. We’re excited to keep our heroes feeling fresh, and you can look forward to additional changes to more of our heroes in upcoming patches.

Bug Fixes

• Kael'thas: AI Kael'thas will now properly receive a reduced cooldown timer after cancelling Pyroblast.

• Kael'thas: Fixed an issue which prevented Phoenix from being self-cast using ALT + R.

Hero Updates

Basic Abilities

• Living Bomb (W)
  • Damage over time reduced from 84 to 50.
  • Explosion damage increased from 138 to 200.

Developer Comments: Kael’thas’ damage is a bit too high, so we’re nerfing his single-target Living Bomb damage. While we were successful at giving him some weaknesses by reducing his survivability and removing Bolt of the Storm, he is still able to put out more single-target damage than we’re comfortable with. We want to point him towards being more of an AoE mage, and this is the beginning of that process. Expect to see some tweaks in the future to continue pointing him in that direction.

Bug Fixes

• Kael'thas: You are now able to cast the free Empowered Living Bombs when you have less than 50 mana.

Hero Updates

• Living Bomb (W)
  • Sun King’s Fury (Talent)
    • Bonus Basic Attack damage reduced by 20%, from 171 (+4% per level) to 137 (+4% per level).

Bug Fixes

• Bonus damage from the Sun King’s Fury Talent will no longer be applied when Kael'thas’ Basic Attacks miss due to Blind or Evasion effects.

Hero Updates

• Verdant Spheres (Trait) (D)
  • Mana Addict (Talent)
    • Regeneration Globes required to complete the Quest have been reduced from 25 to 20.
  • Fel Infusion (Talent)
    • Bonus Ability Power decreased from 5% to 4%.
• Flamestrike (Q)
  • Convection (Talent)
    • Bonus damage on Quest completion increased from 150 to 175.
• Living Bomb (W)
  • Sun King’s Fury (Talent)
    • Bonus damage decreased from 190 (+4% per level) to 171 (+4% per level).

Developer Comments: Fel Infusion is doing a little bit too much, too well compared to other Talents on its tier for how low-risk it is, so we’re giving it a slight nerf and buffing the others. Mana Addict should feel more consistently achievable in an average game, and Convection’s reward is now more worth the risk of taking the talent.

We’re a little uncomfortable with how much single-target burst damage Kael’thas is able to put out with Sun King’s Fury, so we’re toning it down. He threw a fit about it, but we’re sure he’ll manage to find some other way to be a little too powerful. He always does.

Hero Updates

• Health increased from 1465 to 1520.
• Health Regeneration increased from approximately 3.05 to 3.17 Health per second.
• Flamestrike (Q)
  • Range increased by 10%.
  • Damage increased from 213 (+4% per level) to 320 (+4% per level).
  • Flamestrike damage is no longer increased when empowered by Verdant Spheres.
• Living Bomb (W)
  • Damage dealt over time increased from 228 (+4% per level) to 252 (+4% per level).
  • Explosion damage increased from 114 (+4% per level) to 138 (+4% per level).
• Gravity Lapse (E)
  • Cooldown decreased from 13 to 12 seconds.
  • Mana cost decreased from 85 to 80.
  • Nether Wind (Talent)
    • Mana restored after hitting an enemy Hero decreased from 85 to 80.
  • Gravity Crush (Talent)
    • Bonus damage taken by enemies hit increased from 25% to 30%.

Developer Comments: We’re happy to see that there is now more counter- play to how Kael’thas delivers his damage, and his Talent pick rates have dramatically improved. However, he has a lower win rate than we would like. We intended Kael’thas to be weak against enemy Heroes who dive on him but feel that we may have gone too far.

The changes to Flamestrike’s range should help him poke enemies from a safer distance (and build those Convection stacks!), and Living Bomb’s changes should help him be more threatening to enemies who want to stand toe to toe with him.

The change to Flamestrike’s base damage should help motivate players to use empowered Gravity Lapses more often, as they won’t lose potential Flamestrike damage when hitting stunned enemies.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue which allowed Kael'thas to repeatedly cast Living Bomb for free under certain circumstances.

Talents

Arcane Power

• Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds

Hero Updates

• This Hero has received significant Talent changes
• Gathering Power (Talent) removed
• Envenom (Talent) removed
• Clairvoyance (Talent) removed
• Arcane Barrier (Talent) removed
• Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
• Mana Addict (Talent)
  • Upon gathering 25 Regeneration Globes, Kael’thas gains the Arcane Barrier Ability.
  • Activate Arcane Barrier to receive a Shield equal to 100% of Kael’thas’ maximum Mana for 4 seconds. 45 second cooldown
• Verdant Spheres (Trait) (D)
  • Fel Infusion (Talent)
    • Now also increases Ability Power by 5%
  • Mana Tap (Talent) redesigned
    • Activating Verdant Spheres restores 4% of maximum Mana
  • Sunfire Enchantment (Talent)
    • Damage reduced from 203 (+4% per level) to 183 (+4% per level)
  • New Talent (Level 16): Twin Spheres
    • Verdant Spheres gains an additional charge
• Flamestrike (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 237 (+4% per level) to 213 (+4% per level)
  • Damage (empowered by Verdant Spheres) reduced from 356 (+4% per level) to 320 (+4% per level)
  • Flamethrower (Talent) removed
  • Convection (Talent) redesigned
    • Now increases Flamestrike's damage by 5 for each enemy Hero hit by Flamestrike, up to 100 damage. Lose all bonus damage on death.
    • Once Flamestrike reaches 100 bonus damage, gain an extra 50 bonus damage and keep all damage bonuses permanently.
  • New Talent (Level 7): Burned Flesh
    • Hitting more than one Hero with Flamestrike causes each to take damage equal to 8% of their maximum Health
  • Fury of the Sunwell (Talent)
    • Delay between Flamestrike casts reduced from 1 to 0.5 seconds
• Living Bomb (W)
  • Explosion radius increased by 10%
  • Explosions now spread Living Bomb to all nearby enemy Heroes not already affected by it
  • Can no longer be cast on targets already affected by Living Bomb
  • Chain Bomb (Talent) removed
  • Pyromaniac (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 2 seconds to 1 second
  • Fission Bomb (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 13
    • No longer increases Living Bomb damage
    • Bonus to Living Bomb’s explosion radius reduced from 30% to 20%
  • Backdraft (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13
    • Movement Speed slow reduced from 50% to 30%
  • New Talent (Level 16): Sun King's Fury
    • Basic Attacks deal 190 (+4% per level) damage to targets affected by Living Bomb
  • New Talent (Level 20): Master of Flames
    • Living Bomb can now spread indefinitely between enemy Heroes
• Gravity Lapse (E)
  • Using Verdant Spheres to empower Gravity Lapse now also increases its Stun duration by 50%
  • Tri-Optimal (Talent) removed
  • Gravity Throw (Talent) removed
  • Energy Roil (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 1 to Level 4
    • Hitting an enemy Hero reduces the cooldown of Gravity Lapse by 7 seconds
  • Nether Wind (Talent) redesigned
    • Increases Gravity Lapse range by 30%. Refunds 85 mana when an enemy Hero is hit by Gravity Lapse
  • New Talent (Level 7): Gravity Crush
    • Gravity Lapse causes enemies hit to take 25% additional damage from Kael'thas for 4 seconds

Developer Comments: Kael’thas has had a lot of problems with his Talent pick rates. Chain Bomb has also evolved into a core part of the fantasy of playing the Hero, but was tied to a level 13 Talent. We decided to embrace this aspect of Kael’thas while introducing more counter-play to how he explodes Living Bomb so that it’s less frustrating to play against. Kael’thas should now be very effective at punishing enemy teams who clump together.

We also added many Talents to promote Flamestrike as his primary source of damage, as well as a few higher skill-cap Talents which allow players to better show off their mastery of the Hero.

All of this power comes at a price, however, and for Kael’thas it’s his survivability. He no longer has access to Bolt of the Storm, and Arcane Barrier’s Shield amount has been lowered and tied to a quest on Mana Addict. While Kael’thas can dish out a ton of damage in teamfights, he should be a much more viable target for enemy teams to focus down.

Kael'thas Talents

• Italics indicates a NEW Talent
• Bold indicates a MOVED Talent

Hero Updates

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 87 (+4% per level) to 65 (+4% per level)
• Arcane Barrier (Talent)
  • Shield amount decreased from 200% to 150%
  • Duration reduced from 6 to 4 seconds
• Gravity Lapse (E)
  • Stun duration reduced from 1.5 to 1.0 seconds
• Phoenix (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds
• Pyroblast (R)
  • Damage increased from 730 (+4% per level) to 810 (+5% per level)
  • Cooldown increased from 50 to 100 seconds
  • Presence of Mind (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction for Pyroblast increased from 10 to 25 seconds per enemy hero hit

Developer Comments: Kael’thas is a powerful hero with too few downsides. We’re nerfing several aspects of his kit, and are still planning a Talent overhaul coming soon™. The stun duration of Gravity Lapse is too long and guarantees kills more often than we would like. Reducing the stun duration makes it less frustrating to play against and adds a bit more counterplay for the enemy team. Phoenix is the drastically favored Heroic Ability right now, and it’s up far too often. By nerfing its cooldown, while also pushing Pyroblast to create more impactful moments, we expect there will be more situations where Pyroblast is the optimal pick.

Talents

Gathering Power

• Hero takedowns now increase Ability Power by 2% per kill, up to a maximum of 30%. All stacks are now also lost upon death.

Developer Comments: We wanted to make Gathering Power a more high risk, high reward talent that encouraged specific gameplay. Now, with a much higher cap, the reward for this talent is much higher. The counterplay becomes the burden of the opposing team, as they’ll need to focus the Hero who has Gathering Power to reset their stacks.

Bug Fixes

• Heal over time and damage over time previews for Tyrande’s Shadowstalk and Kael'thas’ Living Bomb will now more accurately reflect the burst Healing and burst damage amounts at the end of each Ability’s effects.

Design & Gameplay

Vehicles and Regeneration Globe Interaction

• Regeneration Globes will no longer heal Dragon Knights and Garden Terrors.
  • Instead, Regeneration Globe effects will now be applied directly to the Hero inside the Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.
• Players within a Dragon Knight or Garden Terror can now also accumulate stacks for Talents such as Seasoned Marksman, Gathering Power, Regeneration Master, etc.

Hero Updates

• Living Bomb (W)
  • Chain Bomb (Talent)
    • Living Bomb’s explosion now applies Living Bomb to the three closest enemies that are not already under its effects, preferring Heroes.

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

Gathering Power

Developer Comments: Gathering Power was simply too good and was considered, by many, a mandatory pick on certain characters, which often lead to snowballing. We liked the ‘quest’ aspect of this talent, but it was far too easy to reach the cap and the quest didn’t feel meaningful to complete. Now, choosing this talent should no longer be mandatory, and the quest is much longer. Player’s will keep half of their stacks upon dying, which will help act as a ‘check point’.

• The 5% starting Ability Power has been removed
• Percentage gain from killing a Hero reduced from 2% to 1%
• Instead of losing all stacks on death, players will now only lose half their stacks (rounding up)

Hero Updates

Developer Comments: Prior to these changes, Kael’Thas had a high win rate, but his win rate wasn’t alarming. Instead, we’re focusing on Kael’thas’ current gameplay, as it feels very set in stone and we’d like players to have the option to be creative. We’re smoothing out his power curve and making Pyroblast a more enticing choice.

• Spell Shield (Talent) removed
• Arcane Barrier (Talent)
  • Shield duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds
• Verdant Spheres (Trait) (D)
  • Sunfire Enchantment (Talent)
    • Damage increased from 78 (+16 per level) to 85 (+18 per level)
• Flamestrike (Q)
  • Damage increased from 74 (+20 per level) to 80 (+22 per level)
  • Mana Tap (Talent)
    • Now restores 5% Mana per target killed, rather than a flat amount
  • Ignite (Talent) removed
  • New Talent (Level 16): Fury of the Sunwell
    • Casting Flamestrike will cause a second Flamestrike to be cast 1 second after the first explodes
• Living Bomb (W)
  • Damage over time increased from 60 (+18 per level) to 60 (+22 per level)
  • Explosion damage increased from 30 (+9 per level) to 30 (+11 per level)
  • Fission Bomb (Talent)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 75% to 30%
    • Now also increases the explosion radius by 30%
  • Pyromaniac (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 2 seconds per tick
  • Backdraft (Talent)
    • Slow amount increased from 40% to 50%
    • Slow duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
• Gravity Lapse (E)
  • Range increased by 25%
  • Gravity Throw (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13
• Pyroblast (R)
  • Range increased by 20%

Talents

Envenom

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

Spell Shield

• Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Kael'thas' Chain Bomb and Ignite Talents will no longer apply Living Bomb to enemies that are already affected by another Living Bomb. The tooltips for these Talents will be clarified in a future patch.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could allow Kael'thas Living Bomb to kill both Murky and his Egg.

New Hero

Kael’thas Sunstrider has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of this fiery new Assassin's Abilities.

Trait

• Verdant Spheres (D)
  • Activate to make your next Basic Ability more powerful.

Basic Abilities

• Flamestrike (Q)
  • After a short delay, deal damage in an area.
  • Verdant Spheres (Trait) -- Increases Flamestrike’s radius and damage.
• Living Bomb (W)
  • Damages an enemy over a short time, after which the target will explode, damaging all nearby enemies. Casting a second Living Bomb on an enemy causes the first to explode immediately.
  • Verdant Spheres (Trait) -- Removes Living Bomb’s Mana cost and cooldown.
• Gravity Lapse (E)
  • Stuns the first enemy hit.
  • Verdant Spheres (Trait) -- Causes Gravity Lapse to stun the first 3 enemies in its path.

Heroic Abilities

• Phoenix (R)
  • Launch a Phoenix to target area, dealing damage to enemies along the way. The Phoenix persists, attacking enemies, and dealing splash damage to those near its primary attack target.
• Pyroblast (R)
  • After a short delay, cast a slow-moving fireball that deals massive damage to an enemy, and medium damage to enemies near the target.

Talents

Clairvoyance

• Now breaks units within its radius out of Stealth, rather than revealing them