Bug Fixes

• Dire Beast damage increase is now additive.

• Spirit Bond now displays in the Death Recap.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Rexxar and Misha to not share their Healing Fountain healing with each other.

Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard.

Talents

• Level 13
  • Wildfire Bear [Passive]
    • Wildfire Bear now reveals the target for 2 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Aspect of The Hawk's Attack Speed bonuses to stack multiplicatively with other Attack Speed bonuses and maluses.
• Fixed an issue that caused Misha to gain more Movement Speed than intended while Rexxar is Mounted.
• Fixed an issue that caused Unleash the Boars damage to not be modified by most forms of damage modification.
• Fixed an issue that caused Kill Command's damage bonus to be multiplicative.
• Fixed an issue that caused Wildfire's damage aura to display as a critical when damage was not increased.
• Fixed an issue that caused Misha to lose the benefits of Primal Intimidation once slain.

Bug Fixes

• Casting Misha, Charge! and Misha Focus! at the same time will no longer occasionally cancel the ability.

Bug Fixes

• The following damage effects no longer activate tower aggro: Undocumented
  • Rexxar Wildfire Bear

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 125 to 134.
• Misha Health reduced from 1620 to 1520.
• Misha Health Regeneration reduced from 3.38 to 3.17.

Abilities

• Mend Pet [E]
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 70.

Developer Comment: Rexxar's ability to win the laning phase on point control maps is a little too powerful, so we're nerfing his ability to keep Misha alive. To compensate him for this nerf, we're increasing his Basic Attack damage, which will both help him in latter parts of the game and make the early game more about how well he can work with Misha to outtrade the enemy Hero. We're hoping that this leads to more interaction in the laning phase, with fewer instances of Misha being able to stand on a point for prolonged periods of time while the opposing hero is unable to push her off. We know there is a fine line between keeping his unique role on these maps and feeling too oppressed when playing against him, so we'll be keeping an eye on these changes and will tune as necessary going forward.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Mend Pet [E]
  • Mana cost increased from 55 to 60.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Easy Prey [Passive]
    • Damage bonus against Mercenaries and Minions reduced from 200% to 150%.
  • Flare [Active]
    • Cast range increased from 15 to 25.
• Level 4
  • Hunter-Gatherer [Passive]
    • Bonus Healing Regeneration reduced from 1.25 to 1 per second per Regeneration Globe.
    • Maximum stacks increased from 20 to 25.

Developer Comment: Rexxar, while a niche Hero, is overperforming compared to his competitors. We don't think we need to nerf him too much (in spite of his 57%+ win rate), but he has room for another small nudge in the downward direction. We're targeting a few of his Talents that are much more powerful than the other choices on the tier so encourage a variety of Talent selections too (though this is secondary to trying to provide an overall nerf to the Hero).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed various Movement Speed bugs that had occurred with the increased Movement Speed patch.

Hero Updates

Base Stats

• Misha's Health reduced from 1762 to 1620
• Misha's Health Regeneration reduced from 3.671 to 3.375
• Misha's Health scaling increased from 4% to 4.75%
• Misha's Health Regeneration scaling increased from 4% to 4.75%

Developer Comment: These changes are to make Rexxar's laning phase a little less overwhelming for the majority of opponents, particularly on maps with control points. We're slightly lowering Misha's power in the early game, but increasing her scaling so that she is less powerful in early-game trades, but is still a threat in the mid to late portions of the game.

Hero Updates

Talents

• We've adjusted Rexxar's talents to be positioned in the same order as other heroes (ex. Q talents on top, then W, then E)
• Level 1
  • Easy Prey (Passive)
    • Bonus damage no longer applies to Misha, Charge!
    • Bonus damage to Minions and Mercenaries increased from 150% to 200%

Developer Comment: An unintended side-effect of buffing the damage of Misha, Charge! to be much more meaningful was its interaction with Easy Prey. We intend Easy Prey to be the better talent when taking Mercenary Camps, while having a smaller effect of buffing Rexxar's general wave clear. When this talent also becomes the best Wave Clear option, it encroaches too much on Bird of Prey's design space, so we're removing that functionality.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Health increased from 1725 to 1810
• Health Regen increased from 3.6 to 3.8
• Rexxar Basic Attack damage increased from 99 to 125
• Misha Basic Attack damage reduced from 62 to 50

Abilities

• Misha, Charge! (W)
  • Damage increased from 59 to 150
• Bestial Wrath (R)
  • Bonus damage increased from 150% to 200%

Talents

• Level 7
  • Aspect of the Beast (W)
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.25 to 1 second
• Level 13
  • Dire Beast (W)
    • Damage reduced from 40% per stack to 15%

Developer Comment: Since his inception, Rexxar has been one of the highest win-rate heroes in our game, never going below 50% at high levels of play. Despite this, we've heard consistent feedback that he doesn't feel as impactful as players would like. While we love that Rexxar depends heavily on his relationship with Misha to be effective, it also limits what we can do with him to make him feel powerful and fun to play. To help in this regard, we're moving a lot of his power out of the more automatic things that Misha does (mostly Basic attacking enemies), and into things that Rexxar himself is actively doing, such as using his Basic Attacks and commanding Misha to Stun enemies. Since we're buffing Misha, Charge so much, we're nerfing some of its associated talents as they are already highly picked by Rexxar players, and this change would otherwise be a dramatic buff to them.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Fixed an issue preventing Rexxar from controlling Misha while silenced.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 13
  • Aspect of the Hawk Attack (Q)
    • Attack Speed bonus duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds

Design & Gameplay

Armor

• Now, just like Movement Speed modifiers, the game will apply only the highest (or lowest) amount of Armor to a Hero at any given time. We've adjusted ability/talent Armor values on a per Hero basis to account for this change:
  • Rexxar
    • Hunter-Gatherer (Passive)
      • Armor increased from 10 to 15

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Grizzled Fortitude (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
• Level 7
  • Crippling Talons (Q)
    • ​Slow duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Switching seats in a Triglav Protector no longer causes Rexxar to become unresponsive.

• Rexxar: The tooltip for Misha, Focus! no longer lists a cooldown.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Completing the Hunter-Gatherer Talent’s quest now correctly grants bonus Armor to Misha.

• Rexxar: Misha, Focus! will now correctly grant Misha its passive 15% Movement Speed bonus.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Entering a Garden Terror while Misha is dead will no longer prevent Rexxar from issuing commands to Misha after she respawns.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Fixed an issue that could cause Misha to become briefly unresponsive after respawning if she was killed while Rexxar was affected by time stop effect.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Flare (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Auriel: After learning Resurrect, Misha and Rexxar will no longer generate separate Spirits when Rexxar is killed.

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

• Rexxar - Misha will now have a reduced death timer in Arena mode Heroes Brawls.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Fixed an issue causing Spirit Swoop to deal bonus damage to Mercenaries after learning Bird of Prey.

• Rexxar: Misha will no longer ignore orders to use a Healing Fountain when Rexxar is only missing Mana.

Hero Updates

• Now has a visual indicator for Misha’s leash range.
• Can now issue Misha commands outside of her leash range. Misha will run to the edge of her range and leash if she attempts to go beyond.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Flare (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds
• Level 4
  • Hungry Bear (Passive)
    • Heal amount increased from 4 to 4.5% of Misha’s Maximum Health
• Level 7
  • ​Aspect of the Beast (W)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds
• Level 13
  • ​Aspect of the Hawk (Q)
    • Duration is now refreshed if Rexxar hits an enemy Hero with Spirit Swoop while the Aspect of the Hawk effect is active
    • Rexxar attack speed bonus increased from 100 to 125%
    • Misha Bonus attack duration increased from .5 to .75 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Spirit Swoop will now correctly deal damage to Monsters.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: After learning Thrill of the Hunt, Misha’s Basic Attacks will no longer provide Rexxar with a Movement Speed bonus.

Hero Updates

General

• Misha
  • Movement Speed has been increased from 100% to 115% when Misha has been issued an order to attack targets or when she is by Rexxar’s side.

Abilities

• Misha, Attack! (D) / Misha, Follow! (D)
  • Removed
• Misha, Focus! (1)
  • Moved to the Trait button (Default Hotkey: D)
  • Self-casting Misha, Focus! now calls Misha to Rexxar. Once she reaches Rexxar, she will go to her neutral state.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Survivalist Training (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Grizzled Bear (Passive)
    • Moved to Level 4
    • Renamed to Grizzled Fortitude
    • Added functionality:
      • Block charge gain rate increased from 5 to 7 seconds
      • Added functionality:
        • Rexxar now gains the Block charges in addition to Misha
  • Hunter-Gatherer (Passive)
    • Moved to Level 4
    • Regeneration Globes required to complete the quest decreased from 30 to 20
    • Rexxar's Health Regeneration amount increased from 1 to 1.25 per second
    • New Functionality:
      • Upon Quest completion, Rexxar and Misha now gain 10 Armor
  • Flare (Active)
    • Cooldown increased from 20 to 30 seconds
    • Reveal duration increased from 5 seconds to 20 seconds
• Level 4
  • Easy Prey (Passive)
    • Moved to Level 1
  • Crippling Talons (Q) Undocumented
    • Moved to Level 7
    • Slow amount increased from 40 to 50%
  • Taking Flight (Q) Undocumented
    • Moved to Level 7
    • Added functionality:
      • If Spirit Swoop hits an enemy Hero, the cooldown is also reduced by 2 seconds
  • New Talent: Animal Husbandry (Passive)
    • Rexxar and Misha gain 2 Maximum Health every second Rexxar remains alive. These bonuses are lost on Rexxar's death.
• Level 7
  • Blood of the Rhino (E)
    • Removed
  • Bird of Prey (Q) Undocumented
    • Moved to Level 1
    • Bonus damage reduced from 200% to 150%
    • Now only does bonus damage to enemy Minions
• Level 13
  • Bear Necessities (W)
    • Removed
  • Barkskin (W)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Dire Beast (W)
    • Rexxar and Misha's Basic Attacks increase the damage of the next Misha, Charge! by 40%, stacking up to 400% bonus.
  • Thrill of the Hunt (Passive) Undocumented
    • Moved to Level 16
• Level 16
  • Critical Care (E)
    • Removed
  • Aspect of the Hawk (Q) Undocumented
    • Moved to Level 13
    • Added functionality:
      • Misha Basic Attacks now increase the duration of the Attack Speed buff by 0.5 seconds

Developer Comments: Our goals for Misha Rexxar were twofold: to streamline his control scheme as much as we could and to give his talents some love. All of Misha’s controls should now be centralized on the D button, which should make it easier overall to play the hero. While this does result in a tiny loss of control (Rexxar no longer has the ability to recall Misha to his side and to keep her in a passive state), we felt that overall this functionality was not that huge of a loss for Rexxar and was worth the gain of making his controls centered around one button instead of two. We also made Misha’s Movement Speeds during her various states more consistent so that she feels better when being commanded by Rexxar, and we’ve added some talents that should help better sell the fantasy of Rexxar and Misha working together to take down their prey. We’ve had a blast playing with the new and improved Rexxar, and hope that you enjoy it as much as we have!

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

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Fixed an issue with using the Hold Position (Hotkey: H) command causing Misha to move in an unintended way.

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.

• Rexxar: A delay will no longer occur between repeated Misha, Focus! casts.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Misha can now push Minions and allied Mercenaries, but will not push enemy or uncaptured Mercenaries.

• Rexxar: Misha’s Basic Attack target can now correctly be switched by right-clicking as long as she did not already have an order to Focus on a particular target.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar: Misha, Focus! Can now be cast when Rexxar, Misha, or both are Polymorphed. This should prevent situations in which Medivh’s Polybomb could cause Rexxar and Misha to become polymorphed indefinitely.

Hero Updates

• Hunter-Gatherer (Talent) has been changed to match Regeneration Master’s new functionality.
  • Both Rexxar and Misha gain Health Regeneration bonuses up to 30 Health per second, but only Rexxar will gain the 600 Health bonus on Quest completion.
• Misha, Follow! (Trait) (D)
  • Misha will now follow enemies to their last known location, even into bushes or vents, much like Zagara’s Hunter Killer.

Bug Fixes

• Casting Dehaka’s Isolation on a summoned unit or Heroic pet, such as Misha, Gargantuan, or a Holo Decoy, will no longer also cause the Hero who owns that unit to lose allied vision.
  • Additionally, if one of The Lost Vikings or Chen’s Storm, Earth, Fire Spirits are hit by Isolation, only the affected unit will have reduced personal vision, but the player should retain allied vision.
  • Alternatively, if the only living Viking or Spirit is hit by Isolation, the player will have reduced personal vision and lose allied vision for Isolation’s full duration.

Hero Updates

• Basic Attack range increased by 22%.
• Health increased from 1643 (+4% per level) to 1725 (+4% per level).
• Health regeneration increased from 3.42 (+4% per level) to 3.59 (+4% per level) per second.
• Throwing Axes (Talent) removed.
• Misha, Follow! (Trait)
  • Leash range increased by approximately 12.5%.
• Misha, Charge! (W)
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds.
  • Aspect of the Beast (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction earned from Misha’s Basic Attacks reduced from 2 to 1.5 second.

Developer Comments: We’re currently looking at doing a larger pass on Rexxar in the future, but wanted to give him some love in the meantime to help make him more rewarding to play. It should now be easier to stick Misha to targets with her increased Leash range, and Rexxar should be able to both zone and survive against enemies better with increases to his Health and to his Basic Attack range. We’re listening to your feedback on him, and are looking forward to bringing out something more substantial in the future.

Hero Updates

• Grizzled Bear (Talent)
  • Damage reduction amount increased from 50% to 75%

Design & Gameplay

Battleground Monsters

• Battleground-specific creatures are now universally defined as Monsters (ex: Neutral Garden Terrors, Sky Temple Guardians, etc.)
• Several Talents and Abilities have been changed to reflect this new categorization, and the following no longer affect Monsters:
  • Mercenary Lord
  • Johanna's Knight Takes Pawn
  • Lunara's Cruel Bloom
  • Rexxar's Easy Prey and Bird of Prey
  • The Butcher's Chop Meat
• The following now affect Monsters:
  • Anub'arak's Beetle, Juiced
  • Azmodan's Demonic Smite
• Several Talents that could previously trigger against both captured Mercenaries and Minions will now only affect Minions (ex: Seasoned Marksman, Black Soulstone, etc.)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could allow additional Mishas to spawn if Rexxar was killed by immolation damage.

• Malfurion’s Innervate can no longer be cast on Misha.

Bug Fixes

• Rexxar’s Hunter-Gatherer Talent no longer grants double the intended amount of Health Regeneration.

Hero Updates

• Misha, Follow! (Trait) (D)
  • Misha's death timer portrait will now appear in the death timer bar while she is respawning
  • The frequency at which Rexxar's voiceover will play when commanding Misha has been reduced
• Misha, Fixate! (1)
  • Misha, Fixate has been renamed Misha, Focus!

Bug Fixes

• Misha can now properly return to Rexxar if she is on the opposite side of an enemy Gate and an open path exists where a Wall was destroyed.

Hero Updates

• New Ability: Misha, Fixate! (1)
  • “Misha, Fixate!” will have two functions, depending on its target:
    • If “Misha, Fixate!” is used on an enemy, Misha will move to attack the target until the target dies, a new order is issued, Misha leashes, or Misha dies
    • If “Misha, Fixate!” is used on the ground, Misha will move to that area and hold position until a new order is issued, Misha leashes, or Misha dies
      • Using "Misha, Fixate!" will automatically place Rexxar's passive into the "Misha, Follow!" state
      • Misha retains her current behavior when issuing commands using “Misha, Follow!” (D) and “Misha, Attack!” (D)
• Misha, Follow! (Trait)
  • Misha’s leash range has been significantly increased
  • Misha will now hide when Rexxar is hidden in a Bush
• Spirit Swoop (Q)
  • Bird of Prey (Talent)
    • Bonus damage to non-Heroic targets has been reduced from 300% to 200%.

Developer Comments: We’ve received a lot of both positive and negative feedback about Misha’s controls and wanted to offer a little more to our players without completely overhauling her current control scheme. We will continue to monitor this and may make future adjustments to Rexxar and Misha if necessary to balance for this increased level of control.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a rare issue that could allow Rexxar to spawn more than one Misha under specific circumstances.

• Misha will now properly pass all Spider Gems she collects on Tomb of the Spider Queen to Rexxar.

• Rexxar will no longer lose the Basic Attack range bonus granted by the Throwing Axe Talent after being killed.

• Rexxar will now properly gain Hunter-Gatherer Talent stacks when nearby allies collect Regeneration Globes.

• Rexxar’s Mend Pet will no longer cleanse him of movement impairing effects.

• The cooldown for Misha, Charge! will no longer increase after learning the Bear Necessities Talent.

New Hero

Rexxar, Champion of the Horde, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of this new Warrior Hero’s Abilities.

Trait

• Misha
  • Misha, Rexxar’s faithful bear companion, accompanies you on the battlefield at all times. She has her own Health pool, and can be ordered to attack enemies or follow you closely. If she is killed, Misha will respawn at your side once her death timer expires. If Rexxar dies, so will Misha.
  • Misha, Follow! (D)
    • Activate to command Misha to stay by your side.
  • Misha, Attack! (D)
    • Activate to command Misha to attack your enemies

Basic Abilities

• Spirit Swoop (Q)
  • Deal damage to enemies in a line, slowing them by 30% for 2 seconds.
• Misha, Charge! (W)
  • Misha charges in a line, dealing 30 damage and stunning enemies for 1.25 seconds.
• Mend Pet (E)
  • Heal Misha over 5 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Unleash the Boars (R)
  • Release a herd of boars that track down all enemy Heroes in a direction, dealing a small amount of damage, revealing, and slowing enemies by 40% for 5 seconds.
• Bestial Wrath (R)
  • Increases Misha’s Basic Attack damage by 150% for 12 seconds.