Bug Fixes

• Adjusted the color display for remaining duration of Fury on the button.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Leap's Unstoppable to not last the full duration of no-distance Leap casts. Undocumented

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Leap to not grant Unstoppable while active.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Furious Blow [W]
    • Damage bonus reduced from 50% to 40%.
• Level 4
  • Shattered Ground [W]
    • Changed Functionality: Increase Seismic Slam's splash damage by 250%. Targeting a Hero with Seismic Slam further increases its splash damage by 250%, while targeting other enemies instead increases the length of Seismic Slam's splash by 66%.
• Level 16
  • Giant Slammer [W]
    • Healing from damage dealt reduced from 100% to 60%.

Developer Comment: Sonya has been overperforming, so she is getting a sizable decrease in strength. We're trying something a little different with Shattered Ground by separating its existing benefits based on its target, and we hope this change is more interesting than simply numerically reducing its bonus.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Shattered Ground [W]
    • Damage increased from 100% to 125% of Seismic Slam's base damage.
• Level 13
  • Ruthless [E]
    • Now shows Crit kickers when bonus damage is dealt.
    • Health threshold for bonus damage increased from 33% to 50%.
• Level 16
  • Giant Slammer [W]
    • Damage increased from 1.25% to 1.5% maximum Health.

Developer Comment: We're buffing some of Sonya's under-used talents to help them compete with her more standard builds. Many of her [W] talents in particular, have been slightly underperforming for some time, so we're hoping these buffs cause players to give the build another look.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Whirlwind [E]
  • Damage increased from 63 to 69.

Talents

• Level 10
  • Leap [R1]
    • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Rampage [Passive]
    • Ancient Spear cooldown reduction increased from .5 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Sonya's fallen off a bit, so we're giving her a few small buffs which should make her feel better to play.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Health increased from 2341 to 2450
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.879 to 5.105

Developer Comment: Sonya has been a bit out of the meta in recent months. She has a good talent tree and no outstanding issues, so we're giving her a small buff to help her compete with other heroes in her role.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Giant Slammer (W)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Now also Heals Sonya for the damage dealt

Developer Comment: It's hard to create a competing talent to Nerves of Steel due to the incredible on-demand survivability that it gives her in a team fight. To help its viability, we're adding survivability to Giant Slammer in hopes that it competes more directly with Nerves of Steel while being unique in that it also gives Sonya more damage in a teamfight.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Shattered Ground (W)
    • Splash damage bonus increased from 75 to 100%
• Level 16
  • Giant Slammer (W)
    • New Functionality:
      • Seismic Slam and Basic Attacks deal 1.25% of the target's Maximum Health as bonus damage

Bug Fixes

• Sonya: Battle Rage no longer grants bonus damage versus Monsters.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Hurricane (E)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 2 seconds.
  • Shot of Fury (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 7.
• Level 7
  • Battle Rage (Active)
    • Moved from Level 4.
• Level 13
  • Mystical Spear (Q):
    • New functionality:
      • Ancient Spear always pulls Sonya to the target location even if it doesn't hit an enemy. When used this way, its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Battle Rage is proving to be the dominant pick on its Talent tier and provides a lot of generic power to Sonya's kit. Rather than nerf it, we're placing it against stronger Talents at Level 7 to lessen the amount of generic power she can get overall. Similarly, Mystical Spear at 13 is giving a bit too much raw power in addition to its utility. It should now be more in-line with the more situational Talents at that tier.

Bug Fixes

• Deckard: Rejuvenation Potion no longer restores resources other than Mana, such as Zarya's Energy and Sonya's Fury.

Bug Fixes

• Ana: Nano Boost’s duration bar now appears next to, rather than replaces, any existing Ability duration bars for the targeted Ally, like Sonya’s Whirlwind.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Furious Blow (W)
    • Damage bonus increased from 40 to 50%
• Level 4
  • Battle Rage (Active)
    • Max charges reduced from 3 to 2
    • Charge use cooldown increased from 5 to 8 seconds
• Level 13
  • Mystical Spear (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
• Level 16
  • Rampage (Passive)
    • Ancient Spear cooldown reduction decreased from .75 to .5 seconds

Developer Comment: Sonya is getting a bit too much value out of the combination of all the Ancient Spear talents, so we’re reducing the amount of cooldown reduction she gets to keep these from being the default choices. We’re also reducing the healing potential of Battle Rage at level 4 as it was providing a bit too much generic survivability for an early game talent. Finally, we’re increasing the damage bonus provided by Furious Blows to make it a more attractive damage option against the other two survivability talents.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Tough as Nails (Passive)
    • No longer immediately grants 3 Physical Armor stacks upon learning the Talent.
    • Physical Armor granted per stack reduced from 75 to 60.
    • Charge cooldown increased from 12 to 16 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya: Being hit by beam Basic Attacks, such as Tassadar’s Distortion Beam, after learning the Tough as Nails Talent will no longer grant Sonya permanent Physical Armor.

Hero Updates

Sonya has received significant updates with today’s patch. Find her detailed changes below, and then head to the Sonya and Medivh Gameplay Updates blog for more insight behind these changes.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Block (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Furious Blow (W)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • New functionality
      • Every fourth Seismic Slam deals 40% more damage and costs no Fury
  • New Talent: Tough as Nails (Passive)
    • Every 12 seconds gain a stack of Block that grants 75 Physical Armor against the next Hero Basic Attack. Stores up to 3 charges. Cooldown refreshes 200% faster while Fury is active
• Level 4
  • Focused Attack (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Shattered Ground (W)
    • New Functionality:
      • Seismic Slam deals 75% damage to all targets hit and its splash damage travels 66% farther
  • Mercenary Lord (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Battle Rage (Active)
    • Passively increases damage dealt to Mercenaries by 25%
    • Activate to Heal for 10% of Sonya’s maximum Health. 30 second charge cooldown. Stores up to 3 charges
• Level 7
  • Follow Through (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Ferocious Healing (Active)
    • Removed
  • Shot of Fury (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New Functionality:
      • Activate to instantly gain 50 Fury. 40 Second cooldown
      • After casting Seismic Slam, your next Basic Attack deals 40% more damage
  • Life Funnel (E) Undocumented
    • Moved from Level 13
• Level 13
  • Aftershock (W)
    • Removed
  • Spell Shield (Passive)
    • Removed
  • No Escape (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 25% to 20%
  • New Talent: Ruthless (E)
    • Whirlwind deals an additional 50 damage to Heroes below 33% Health. This damage does not generate additional Healing
• Level 16
  • Imposing Presence (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Giant Slammer (W)
    • Seismic Slam deals an additional 2% of Heroes’ maximum Health as damage
  • New Talent: Rampage (Passive)
    • Increases Basic Attack damage by 25%
    • Basic Attacks decrease the Ancient Spear’s cooldown 0.75 seconds
• Level 20
  • Anger Management (R)
    • Removed
  • Nexus Blades (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Ignore Pain (Active)
    • Armor reduced from 75 to 60
  • Composite Spear (Q)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • New functionality:
      • Increases Ancient Spear’s range by 50%.
      • Hitting an enemy Hero with Ancient Spear grants 25 armor for 4 seconds
  • New Talent: Striding Giant (R)
    • Wrath of The Berserker increases maximum Health by 10% and grants the Striding Giant Ability while it is active
    • Striding Giant can be activated to become Unstoppable for 2 seconds. 30 second cooldown

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

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 88 to 84

Talents

• Level 7
  • Poisoned Spear (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 125% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage.
• Level 16
  • Nerves of Steel (Active)
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds
    • Shield amount reduced from 30% to 25% of Maximum Health
    • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds

Developer Comment: We originally applied these adjustments in a patch on January 24, but Sonya was so eager to get back into battle that she forgot to take them with her. We're giving these changes back to the Barbarian, and have (politely) asked her to remember to bring them along the next time she leaps into the fray.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 84 to 88 Undocumented

Talents

• Level 7
  • Poisoned Spear (Q) Undocumented
    • Damage increased from 100% to 125% of Ancient Spear’s damage.
• Level 16
  • Nerves of Steel (Active) Undocumented
    • Duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds
    • Shield amount increased from 25% to 30% of Maximum Health
    • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds

Hero Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 88 to 84

Talents

• Level 7
  • Poisoned Spear (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 125% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage.
• Level 16
  • Nerves of Steel (Active)
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds
    • Shield amount reduced from 30% to 25% of Maximum Health
    • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Poisoned Spear (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 150% to 125%

Bug Fixes

• Johanna: Abilities that block pathing, such as Sonya’s Arreat Crater and Tassadar’s Force Wall, will no longer block Johanna’s movement during Falling Sword.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Whirlwind (E)
  • The time required after activation before the ability can be canceled has been increased from .5 to 1 seconds. This should help prevent accidental cancellations.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya: The Ancient Spear model will no longer visually persist when cast on an allied Gate prior to game start.

Bug Fixes

• Li-Ming: Wave of Force will no longer cancel Sonya’s Whirlwind animation.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Whirlwind (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 4 to 5 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Spell Shield: Toggling Spell Shield will no longer cancel an active Hearthstone channel.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Whirlwind (E) Undocumented
  • Damage increased from 339 399 to 441 over 3 seconds
    • Previously dealt 399 damage over 3 seconds, not 339
  • Healing increased from 20 to 25% of damage done (tripled versus Heroes)

Talents

• Level 7
  • Poisoned Spear (Q)
    • Damage increased from 100 to 150% of Ancient Spear
    • Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds
• Level 13
  • Life Funnel (E)
    • Healing increased from 30 to 35% to correspond with base Whirlwind changes

Developer Comments: Sonya has steadily been dropping to the bottom of our Hero winrates, primarily because a lot of Heroes fulfill her role slightly better. The focus of these buffs is to improve her winrate, but also to solidify the reason to take Sonya: when you can get a lot of value out of Whirlwind because of the map mechanic, an abundance of Mercenaries, or an enemy team that consistently groups up.

Bug Fixes

• Spell Shield: A cooldown timer will now properly appear when Spell Shield’s effects are triggered in the same moment that the Talent was activated.

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.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya: Fixed an issue that prevented Ancient Spear from stunning and dealing damage if used while rooted.

Talents

Imposing Presence (Active)

• New functionality:
  • Heroes that attack you have their Attack Speed slowed by 20% for 2.5 seconds
  • Activate to Slow the Attack Speed of nearby Heroes and Summons by 50% and Slow their Movement Speed by 20% for 2.5 seconds

Developer Comments: We did not like the power of the Attack Speed slow for Imposing Presence given how little counter-play there is. We’ve decided to move some power out of the passive portion of the Talent and give it a new activated effect in order to create some bigger moments for players who choose to take it.

Spell Shield (Passive)

• Added functionality:
  • Spell Shield can now be toggled on or off to allow for better control of which Abilities you want to mitigate

Talents

Relentless

• Relentless and similar Hero-specific Talents will now only reduce the duration of Slows, Stuns and Roots. Silence effects will no longer be reduced by this talent.

Developer Comments: With an increasing number of CC effects entering the Nexus we found ourselves constantly asking ourselves “Should Relentless work against this?” which quickly turned into a rabbit hole of ‘what-ifs’ and ‘how comes’. We agreed that the talent was going to continue to become stronger as we moved forward and decided to limit the number of effects that it can reduce.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Endless Fury (Passive)
    • Removed.
  • Shot of Fury (Trait)
    • Now also passively increases maximum Fury from 100 to 150 in addition to its current functionality
• Level 4
  • Hurricane (E)
    • Now also reduces the cooldown of Whirlwind by 1 seconds in addition to its current functionality
• Level 7
  • Composite Spear (Q)
    • Now also increases the Fury gained from Ancient Spear from 40 to 60 in addition to its current functionality
  • Poisoned Spear (Q)
    • Damage increased from 75% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage
• Level 13
  • Mystical Spear (Q)
    • Reduced the cooldown reduction from 4 to 3 seconds
  • Life Funnel (E)
    • Whirlwind Healing bonus increased from 5% to 10%
    • The tooltip has been clarified to state that this bonus is also tripled against Heroes
• Level 16
  • Nerves of Steel (Active)
    • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds
  • Furious Blow (W)
    • Seismic Slam damage bonus increased from 40% to 50%
    • Fury cost increased from 35 to 40
• Level 20
  • Arreat Crater (R)
    • Now also reduces the cooldown of Leap by 20 seconds in addition to its current functionality
  • Anger Management (R)
    • The increase to Stun, Slow, Root, and Polymorph duration reduction has been removed
    • Increased Fury gain bonus from 50% to 100%

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.

Hero Updates

• Leap (R)
  • Stun duration reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds.
  • Damage increased by 10%, from 123 (+4% per level) to 135.3 (+4% per level).

Developer Comments: We’ve received a lot of feedback from players regarding the popular strategy of chaining movement impairing effects, like Stuns and Roots, on an enemy Hero. While we want this to be a viable way to play, we feel it’s currently too prominent and powerful at higher levels of play. As a result, we are reducing the duration of many of these effects in the game. In scenarios where this change nerfs a character we don’t otherwise want to nerf, we’re coupling it with a buff to help offset the difference. While this change hasn’t reduced all effects that might make you lose control of your Hero, we feel these are some of the more egregious ones. As always, we will make further changes if necessary.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Sonya to stutter and fail to issue a Basic Attack.

Design & Gameplay

Hero Movement Interaction Unification

• Several Abilities have been changed in an effort to unify their usage.
  • The following Abilities can now be used to move to invulnerable units:
    • Kerrigan — Ravage (Q)
    • Illidan — Dive (Q)
  • The following Abilities can now be used to travel to objects created by an enemy, such as Sgt. Hammer’s Spider Mines:
    • Kerrigan — Ravage (Q)
    • Lunara — Leaping Strike (R)
    • Illidan — Dive (Q)
    • Kharazim — Radiant Dash (Q)
    • Chen — Flying Kick (Q)

Talents

Block

• Damage reduction increased from 50% to 75%

Developer Comments: We want to improve counter-pick talents like Block that are meant to be strong against certain hero types. We’re hoping that these kinds of Talents will have a more meaningful impact in games in which they are picked, and that there are more situations where the enemy team’s composition drives intelligent Talent choices.

Other effects similar to Block have been evaluated on a case-by-case basis for all Heroes, with some gaining increased Block damage reduction, while others stayed at 50%.

Hero Updates

• Wrath of the Berserker (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds

Developer Comments: Much of the skill involved in using Wrath of the Berserker is keeping the buff up as long as possible. Right now, it’s available too frequently, which devalues the skill required to use it effectively. This nerf should calm Sonya’s nerves a tad while also helping to differentiate players who can manage their Wrath generation from those who can’t.

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.)

General

• Damage dealt by splash and cleave attacks will no longer trigger effects that would otherwise require a direct attack to trigger (ex: Block, Spell Shield, Imposing Presence, etc.)

Talents

Block

• Block charges are now tracked in the buff bar next to the Hero portrait, and a timer has been added to show the time remaining until a new charge is generated.

Focused Attack

• Basic Attack damage bonus reduced from 75% to 60%

Developer Comments: The talent is doing a bit too much damage over the course of the game. We like that it is a highly contested pick on Basic Attack Heroes, but want to bring its overall power down a bit.

Hero Updates

• Seismic Slam (W)
  • Primary target damage reduced from 192 (+4% per level) to 176 (+4% per level)
  • Splash damage decreased from 48 (+4% per level) to 44 (+4% per level)

Developer Comments: Overall, we are really happy with Sonya, but her burst potential was a bit higher than we were comfortable with.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya’s next Basic Attack after casting Ancient Spear will now properly benefit from the Follow Through Talent.

Design & Gameplay

Summoned Unit Attacks

• Summoned unit Basic Attacks will now miss if that Summon is Blinded or the target is Evading.
• Summoned unit Basic Attacks will no longer consume Block Talent stacks.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya’s Seismic Slam, Tyrande’s Light of Elune, and Zeratul’s Cleave will no longer place the Hero’s Basic Attack on cooldown.

• The Focused Attack Talent now properly uses a 10 second cooldown between bonuses to Basic Attack damage.

Talents

Focused Attacks

Developer Comments: This could be viewed as a buff or nerf depending on how players perceive it. You can still reduce the cooldown by attacking Minions, but won’t accidently waste a burst of damage on an unintended target. This talent will no longer be as effective at sieging, but it should be significantly better at harassing in lane. We will continue to monitor the talent, and tune as necessary.

• The increased damage effect will now only trigger when hitting Heroes

Imposing Presence

Developer Comments: Statistically, it was almost never wrong to choose Imposing Presence. With this nerf, it’s still a great counter in the right situation, and as a result, we’re hoping we’ll see more play from our Basic Attack assassins.

• Attack Speed slow reduced from 50% to 40%
• The Attack Speed slow will now be removed when attacking a target that has not learned the Imposing Presence Talent

Mercenary Lord

Developer Comments: We’ve combined the talent Superiority into Mercenary Lord, and removed the damage reduction from structures to prevent degenerative backdoor strategies. The combination of the damage reduction vs. Mercenaries and the ability to empower these Mercenaries felt like a logical pairing. We hope incorporating the two talents into one will make this level 4 choice an enticing one, as the two talents separated had a low pick rate.

• The functionality of the Superiority Talent has been rolled into Mercenary Lord, which is now available to the following Heroes at Level 4:
  • Anub'arak, Arthas, Azmodan, Gazlowe, Nazeebo, Sonya, Stitches, and The Lost Vikings
• New combined functionality reads: Non-Boss Mercenaries near your Hero deal 50% more damage. Reduces damage taken from Minions and Mercenaries by 50%.

Superiority

• This Talent has been removed, and its functionality has been rolled into the revamped Mercenary Lord Talent

Hero Updates

Developer Comments: Overall, we’re looking to tune Sonya up slightly. With the health increases, she’ll be a bit more tanky. Previously, Whirlwind could be very frustrating to lane against if you didn’t have a stun. With the shift of less healing from minions and more from heroes, this will make Sonya less of a lane bully and more of an effective skirmisher.

• Health increased from 930 (+210 per level) to 950 (+220 per level)
• Fury (Trait)
  • Shot of Fury (Talent)
    • No longer dismounts Sonya on activation
• Whirlwind (E)
  • Healing reduced from 25% to 20% of damage dealt
  • Healing for damage dealt to Heroes has increased from double to triple
  • Life Funnel (Talent)
    • Healing bonus decreased from +10% to +5% of damage dealt

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in which Ability effects, such as Giant Killer, Focused Attack, and Zagara’s Envenomed Spines, could be applied while Blinded.

Talents

Spell Shield

• Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Sonya's Whirlwind will no longer occasionally consume double the required Fury when spamming its Ability hotkey.

Talents

Focused Attack

• Bonus to Basic Attack damage increased from 50% to 75%

Follow Through

• Bonus to Basic Attack damage increased from 25% to 40%

Hero Updates

• Follow Through (Talent) added at Level 7
• Fury (Trait)
  • War Paint (Talent)
    • Heal amount per Basic Attack increased from 25% to 30% of damage dealt
  • Endless Fury (Talent)
    • Maximum Fury increased from 150 to 200
  • No Escape (Talent)
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 20% to 25%
• Ancient Spear (Q)
  • Boon of the Ancients (Talent) removed
  • Composite Spear (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7
  • Poisoned Spear (Talent)
    • Bonus damage increased from 50% to 75%
  • Mystical Spear (Talent)
    • Moved from Level 16 to Level 13
    • Now permanently reduces Ancient Spear’s cooldown by 4 seconds in addition to its other effects
• Seismic Slam (W)
  • Damage increased from 90 (+13 per level) to 100 (+16 per level)
  • Furious Blow (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 16
  • Shattered Ground (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 4
    • Splash damage bonus reduced from 100% to 75% of primary target damage
• Whirlwind (E)
  • Fury cost reduced from 50 to 40
  • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 4 seconds, and now begins once Whirlwind completes
  • Heal amount reduced from 40% to 25% of damage dealt, this effect is doubled for damage dealt to enemy Heroes
  • Enduring Whirlwind (Talent) removed
  • Dust Devils (Talent) removed
  • Life Funnel (Talent)
    • No longer removes movement impairing effects
    • Bonus to Whirlwind healing reduced from +15% to +10% of damage dealt
  • New Talent (Level 4): Hurricane
    • Casting Whirlwind removes any active slows and roots affecting Sonya.
• Leap (R)
  • Leap has received responsiveness improvements.
  • Arreat Crater (Talent)
    • Crater duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
• Wrath of the Berserker (R)
  • Anger Management (Talent)
    • No longer reduces Fury needed to prolong Wrath of the Berserker
    • Now increases all Fury generated while Wrath of the Berserker is active by 50%

Hero Updates

• Whirlwind (E)
  • Sonya can now use the following Activated Talents while Whirlwind is channeling:
    • Shot of Fury, Ferocious Healing, Nerves of Steel (formerly Stoneskin), and Ignore Pain (formerly Hardened Shield)
    • As part of this change, Stoneskin and Hardened Shield have been renamed to Nerves of Steel and Ignore Pain in order to help reflect that they are Sonya-specific versions of their Generic Talent counterparts.

Bug Fixes

• Zagara's Devouring Maw will no longer push Heroes through the wall created by Sonya's Arreat Crater Talent.

New Level 20 Talents

Hardened Shield

• Activate to reduce all incoming damage by 75% for 4 seconds; 60 second cooldown
• Found on the following Heroes:
  • Anub’arak, Arthas, Chen, Gazlowe, Muradin, Sonya, Stitches, Tyrael

Nexus Blades

• Provides 20% increased Attack Damage, and Basic Attacks slow enemies by 20% for 1 second
• Found on the following Heroes:
  • Illidan, Kerrigan, Sonya, Thrall, Tyrael, Zeratul

Hero Updates

• The color of Sonya’s Fury resource bar has been changed to orange.
• Ferocious Healing (Activated Talent)
  • Fury cost upon activation increased from 10 to 20
• Basic Attack
  • Damage increased from 38 (+7 per level) to 40 (+8 per level)
• Fury (Trait)
  • Fury generated per Basic Attack increased from 4 to 6
  • Fury generated upon taking damage increased from 1 to 2
  • Shot of Fury (Talent)
    • Fury generated upon activation increased from 25 to 50
• Ancient Spear (Q)
  • Fury generation increased from 20 to 40
• Seismic Slam (W)
  • Fury cost increased from 15 to 25
  • Furious Blow (Talent)
    • Damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%
    • Increase to Seismic Slam’s Fury cost changed from 5 to 10
• Whirlwind (E)
  • Fury cost increased from 30 to 50
• Wrath of the Berserker (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 30 to 45 seconds
  • Damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%
  • Duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds
  • Fury required to extend Wrath of the Berserker’s duration increased from 4 to 10 Fury

Talents

Mercenary Lord

• New functionality
  • Siege and Bruiser Mercenaries now deal 50% increased damage.
  • A player with the Mercenary Lord Talent must be within proximity of Siege and Bruiser Mercenaries in order for them to receive the damage bonus.

Resurgence of the Storm

• This Talent has been removed from the game.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue which caused summoned units to deal half damage to Heroes with the Superiority Talent.

Talents

Imposing Presence

• Attack speed slow amount increased from 30% to 50%

Resurgence of the Storm

• Cooldown increased from 120 to 180 seconds

Hero Updates

• Whirlwind (E)
  • Lifesteal amount increased from 30% to 40%
• Leap (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds

Hero Updates

• Seismic Slam (W)
  • Furious Blow (Talent)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 50% to 30%

Hero Updates

• Whirlwind (E)
  • Damage increased from 20 (+4 per level) to 25 (+5 per level)
  • Lifesteal amount increased from 20% to 30%
  • Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  • Cooldown increased from 1 to 10 seconds
  • Fury cost increased from 20 to 30

Bug Fixes

• Kerrigan’s Ultralisk no longer ignores the barrier created by Sonya’s Arreat Crater Heroic Ability.

• Mercenary Camps that are captured simultaneously by one team with the Mercenary Lord Talent, and one without, no longer causes the Mercenaries from both Camps to gain the Mercenary Lord buff.

• Right-clicking an enemy while using Sonya’s Whirlwind or controlling Nazeebo’s Ravenous Spirit now causes them to move toward the target.

• Sonya’s Ancient Spear can no longer strike more than one enemy with a single use when cast within melee range.

Talents

Block

• Has been moved from Level 7 to Level 1

Spell Shield

• The functionality of this talent has changed.
• Upon taking Ability Damage, now gain a shield that reduces all Ability Damage taken by 50% for 2 seconds. This can only occur once every 30 seconds.

With the addition of Artifacts, the following generic Talents have been removed:

• Minion Killer
• Path of the Assassin
• Path of the Warrior
• Path of the Wizard

Talents

Minion Killer

• Now also deals 25% additional damage to Summons.

Hero Updates

• New Talent (Level 1): War Paint
  • Basic Attacks now heal Sonya for 25% of the damage dealt
• Ancient Spear
  • Damage gained per level increased from 9 to 14
  • New Talent (Level 4): Boon of the Ancients
    • Striking an enemy with Ancient Spear now reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds
• Seismic Slam
  • Strength from Earth (Talent) has been removed
  • New Talent (Level 13): Aftershock
    • After casting Seismic Slam, the next Seismic Slam cast within 2 seconds costs 50% less Fury.
• Whirlwind
  • Fury cost reduced from 25 to 20
  • Damage gained per level increased from 3 to 4
  • New Talent (Level 13): Dust Devils
    • Creates Tornadoes that deal an additional 25% of Whirlind’s Ability Damage.
      • Creates 1 Tornado per second throughout Whirlwind’s duration.
      • Tornado damage does not stack with other Tornadoes
      • Tornadoes do not generate Fury
  • New Talent (Level 16): Enduring Whirlwind
    • Doubles Whirlwind’s duration.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to become untargetable in Metamorphosis form after being struck by Sonya’s Ancient Spear.

• Floating combat text will now correctly display Health returned to Sonya upon striking an enemy with Whirlwind.

Talents

Focused Attack

• Base cooldown has been increased from 5 to 10 seconds.
• Each basic attack reduces this cooldown by 1 second.

Path of the Warrior

• Health gained per level increased from 25 to 35.

Hero Updates

• Fury Combat Trait
  • Fury’s life steal component has been removed.
  • Now gains a temporary 10% movement speed bonus any time an ability is cast, and additional casts refresh its duration.
• Ancient Spear cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 13 seconds.
• Hammer of the Ancients
  • Now deals baseline splash damage equal to 25% of the ability’s base damage.
  • The Seismic Slash Talent increases splash damage to 100% of base damage.
• Whirlwind
  • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.
  • Damage reduced from 320 (+16 per level) to 210 (+21 per level) dealt over the course of its duration.
  • Added 20% life steal while Whirlwind is active.
  • Fury cost increased from 20 to 25.
• Leap
  • Cooldown increased from 40 to 50 seconds.
  • Arreat Crater duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
  • Arreat Crater can now be cancelled.
• Wrath of the Berserker
  • Now generates 25 Fury on cast and costs 4 Fury per second to remain in this form.
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 20 seconds, and the timer starts once Wrath has completed.
  • Previous movement speed and life steal gains removed.
  • Now gains a 30% bonus to all damage dealt.
• Many Talents were tweaked in order to account for the above changes.

Bug Fixes

• Ancient Spear now properly pulls the Barbarian when cast on Grave Golems.

Talents

• Focused Attack talent bonus to Basic Attack damage increased from +30% to +50%