Hero Updates

Base

• Quickcast Settings
  • Removed Seeker in the Dark.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Psionic Strength [Passive]
    • Added the stack count to the Buff Bar.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Might of the Nerazim abilities to heal for more damage than intended with Shadow Mending.

Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard.

Abilities

• Cleave [Q]
  • Cleave will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Singularity Spike when cast from Might of the Nerazim to act as a non-Might of the Nerazim Singularity Spike.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved issues when the attacker is Blinded or the enemy is Evading with:
  • Uther's Hammer of the Lightbringer
  • Valeera's Slice and Dice and Rupture
  • Varian's Heroic Strike
  • Whitemane's Saintly Greatstaff and Scarlet Wrath
  • Zeratul's Master Warp-Blade, Psionic Strength, Shadow Hunter, and Unwavering Pressure
  • Zul'jin's Grievous Throw , Eye of Zul'jin, and Let the Killing Begin

• Shadow Stride now contributes to Zeratul's Self-Healing scoreboard stat.

• Shroud of Adun now contributes to Zeratul's Self-Healing scoreboard stat.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 20
  • Unwavering Pressure [W]
    • Adjusted functionality: Remove the Mana cost of Singularity Spike. Basic Attacks against non-Heroic targets reduce the cooldown of Singularity Spike by 1.25 second, and by 2.5 seconds against enemy Heroes.
  • Shadow Stride [Passive]
    • Additional functionality: Casting Vorpal Blade grants Zeratul a Shield that absorbs 260 damage over 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: We missed the mark on our initial changes to Zeratul's Level 20 talents. We're beefing them up to be more competitive.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 20
  • Gift of the Xel'Naga [R2]
    • Removed.
  • Nexus Blades [Passive]
    • Removed.
  • New talent: Unwavering Pressure [W]
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes who are marked or Slowed by Singularity Spike reduce the cooldown of Singularity Spike by 1.25 seconds.
  • New talent: Shadow Stride [Passive]
    • Reduce the cooldown of Vorpal Blade by 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: Zeratul's Level 20 talents have been dominated for a long time by Twilight Falls and Shadow Mending. We're removing the two options that have seen very little play and are instead adding talents that should be more viable.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 13
  • Shroud of Adun [Trait]
    • Shield amount increased from 15% to 20%.
    • Shield gain reduced from being over 5 seconds to over 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: Shroud of Adun is slightly underperforming compared to its alternatives. It now has synergy with Move Unseen due to our last round of changes to Zeratul, and hopefully with this buff Shroud of Adun gets pushed into the limelight.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul no longer auto-acquires targets that walk within range while Cloaked.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Shadow Hunter [E]
    • Cooldown reduction from Basic Attacks increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
  • ​​Move Unseen [Trait]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Permanent Cloak by 1 second
• Level 7
  • Wormhole [E]
    • Adjusted Functionality: Wormhole cannot be cast for 1.25 seconds after Blink is used
    • Duration that Zeratul can use Wormhole increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  • Warp Skirmisher [Passive]
    • Bonus damage increased from 40% to 50%
    • No longer requires Zeratul to attack a target within 6 seconds of teleporting with Vorpal Blade
    • Additional Functionality: Bonus damage also activates on Zeratul's first Basic Attack after entering Stealth
• Level 16
  • Sentenced to Death [W]
    • Adjusted Functionality: Bonus damage also applies to enemies who are Slowed by Singularity Spike
    • Damage bonus reduced from 30% to 25%

Developer Comment: For a long time, Zeratul's talent picks have been dominated by the combination of Wormhole and Cleave-related talents. We've tried to nerf various Cleave talents in the past to promote other playstyles, but it has not yielded effective-enough results. We believe that the main culprit is the power of Wormhole giving Zeratul too much control over dealing damage incredibly quickly with Cleave before enemies can respond. With this change, Zeratul will have to commit for a little over 1 second to where he teleports to before being able to return to his starting location, which should give opponents who are paying attention to him time to punish him for mistakes. In addition to this change, we're buffing some of Zeratul's alternative talents to promote his other playstyles.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Cleave [Q]
  • Damage reduced from 212 to 200

Developer Comment: Zeratul has been a considerable threat, particularly at the higher levels of play. This change is meant to simply reduce his power. We chose to nerf Cleave because it is his least interactive way of dealing damage, particularly when combined with Wormhole.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Singularity Spike (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 80 to 70

Developer Comment: As we promised in the past, we took a look at the overall Mana tension of all the Heroes in the game. We also have some philosophies about Mana that we want to keep going forward. They are:

1. Mana should be a meaningful part of the game, particularly in the early stages when wave clear is at a higher premium. We believe that as the game progresses, Mana tension should become less important as Heroes gain more base Mana and the game's focus shifts to team fighting.
2. Mana tension doesn't have to be the same for every Hero, but every Hero should feel it to some degree, otherwise it serves no purpose.
3. We like that some talents heavily mitigate Mana tension.

When we took a look at Mana tension in the game, we saw that, overall, things are in a fairly healthy spot, but could be fine-tuned and improved upon. We like the tension that the heroes who are closer to the middle of the spectrum have, with some examples being Malfurion, Tychus, and E.T.C. Our goal with these changes is to bring the outliers closer to the center. We are open to your feedback going forward if you think that the game needs to be stricter or more lenient in this area, or if you believe there are any outliers that we missed.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Void Slash (Q)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 50 to 40%
• Level 20
  • Shadow Mending (Passive)
    • Healing reduced from 75 to 60%

Bug Fixes

• Stasis/Time Stop: Fixed an issue where player created terrain could move Heroes affected by Stasis or Time Stop.

Bug Fixes

• Dragon Shire: When attempting to capture a Dragon Knight, Channeling is now correctly paused when hit by a Time Stop effect, like Zeratul's Void Prison.

Bug Fixes

• Objectives: Channeling is now correctly paused if a Hero is hit by a Time Stop effect, like Zeratul's Void Prison, while attempting to capture the following Battleground Objectives:
  • Dragon Shire: Dragon Knight
  • Towers of Doom: Altars
  • Warhead Junction: Warhead collection

Bug Fixes

• Cho: Entering a Stasis effect, like Zeratul’s Void Prison, while Surging Fist is charging no longer places Surging Fist on full cooldown.

• Zeratul: After death, Zeratul’s body will no longer teleport to the location of his last Vorpal Blade target.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: Casting Void Prison on Blaze’s Bunker while players are inside no longer halts their Ability cooldowns indefinitely after Void Prison expires.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Cleave (Q)
  • Damage increased from 200 to 212
• Singularity Spike (W)
  • Damage increased from 228 to 240
• Void Prison (R)
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80
• Might of the Nerazim (R)
  • Basic Attack damage bonus reduced from 40% to 30%

Developer Comment: These tuning changes are meant to redistribute Zeratul’s damage while also giving him a slight buff. Zeratul should now be a bit stronger during the earlier portions of the game if he takes Might of the Nerazim, but should have less opportunity cost if he chooses to take Void Prison, instead.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: Blink will now correctly break invisibility.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Move Unseen (Trait)
    • Movement Speed increased from 25 to 30%
• Level 4
  • Darkness Descends (Active)
    • Passive Attack Speed bonus increased from 10 to 20%
• Level 7
  • Warp Skirmisher (1)
    • Bonus Attack Damage increased from 30 to 40%

Developer Comment: Zeratul currently has the lowest win rate out of all of our Stealth characters, so we’re tuning up some of his underperforming talents. He traditionally has been a high performer as players learn to master him, so we will be keeping an eye on him over time to see if he needs any more changes.

Design & Gameplay

Stealth

• Stealth players will now become “Invisible” after remaining still for 1.5 seconds.
  • Invisible Heroes will not display the Stealth visual effect and can still be removed from Stealth by taking damage. This includes Heroes under the effects of temporary Stealth effects such as Samuro’s Windwalk or Tyrande’s Shadowstalk.
  • Additionally, Heroes cannot become Invisible while occupying a capture point, such as Braxis Holdout or Mercenary Camp Beacons. Instead, they will retain normal Stealth visual effects.

Hero Updates

​Abilities

• Shadow Assault (R)
  • Removed
• (New Talent) Might of the Nerazim (R)
  • Passive: After using an Ability, Zeratul’s next Basic Attack within 6 seconds deals 40% more damage
  • Activate to duplicate the last ability cast. Damaging abilities deal 50% less damage. This ability does not benefit from talents. 20-Second Cooldown

Talents

• Level 1
  • Vorpal Blade (1)
    • Added as a baseline ability. Default Hotkey: 1
  • (New Talent) Move Unseen (Passive)
    • Gain 25% bonus Movement Speed while Stealthed
  • Shadow Hunter (E)
    • Regen Globe required for quest completion reduced from 20 to 15
    • Mana cost reduction of Blink increased from 2 to 3
• Level 4
  • Combo Slash (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Grim Task (Passive)
    • Removed
  • (New Talent) Psionic Strength (Passive)
    • Damaging an enemy Hero with Basic Attacks or Abilities increases Zeratul's damage by 6% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.
  • (New Talent) Darkness Descends (Active)
    • Passive: Increase Zeratul’s attack speed by 10%.
    • Activated ability – Zeratul gains 40% bonus attack speed for 5 seconds. 30-second cooldown
• Level 7
  • Wormhole (E)
    • Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • Slip into Shadow (E)
    • Removed
  • (New Talent) Warp Skirmisher (1)
    • Vorpal Blade now has 2 charges. Casting Vorpal Blade also causes Zeratul's next Basic Attack within 6 seconds to deal 30% bonus damage
• Level 16
  • Sentenced to Death (W)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 40 to 30%
• Level 20
  • Rewind (Active)
    • Removed
  • Nerazim Fury (R)
    • Removed
  • (New Talent) Twilight Falls (R)
    • Activating Might of the Nerazim resets the cooldown of all of Zeratul’s Basic Abilities
  • (New Talent) Shadow Mending (Passive)
    • Zeratul heals himself for 75% of Ability Damage Dealt to enemy Heroes

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: Fixed an issue causing the Void Slash talent to display an incorrect value for the damage increase.

Design & Gameplay

Stealth

• Bouncing or chaining abilities (Chain Lightning, Shadow Dagger, etc.) will now bounce to targets that are outside allied vision.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: The Seeker in the Dark talent's tooltip text will now display correctly in localized game clients.

Bug Fixes

• Probius: Pylons that are affected by a time stop, such as Zeratul’s Void Prison, will no longer cause Warp Rift’s cooldown to be paused for the duration of the effect.

Bug Fixes

• D.Va – Fixed that issue that allowed D.Va’s Boosters to push enemies that were affected by Time Stop.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Sentenced to Death (W)
    • Bonus damage decreased from 50% to 40%

Bug Fixes

• D.Va: Players will now correctly earn takedown credit toward certain Hero Talents and Abilities, like Seasoned Marksman or Li-Ming’s Critical Mass, after destroying D.Va’s Mech.

Bug Fixes

• Diablo: Fixed an issue preventing Diablo from using Basic Attacks against his Overpower target if Overpower was interrupted by Zeratul’s Void Prison.

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

• Zeratul: A revealed icon will no longer appear above enemies hit by Rending Cleave.

Design & Gameplay

Cloaked Attack Move Commands

• Nova and Zeratul will no longer attempt to automatically acquire attack targets after issuing and canceling an attack order while cloaked.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: Fixed an issue that removed all Mana Cost and Cooldown details from Zeratul’s Ability tooltips.

Bug Fixes

• Ragnaros: Lava Wave's cooldown will now be paused during Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: Bonus Ability Power granted by Grim Task is now properly removed on death.

• Zeratul: Fixed an issue in which Vorpal Blade could fail to teleport Zeratul the full distance to his target.

Bug Fixes

• Mounts: When ridden by a Hero in Stealth, mechanical Mounts will no longer play sound effects that are audible to nearby enemy Heroes.

• Structures: Fixed an issue in which the Core could continue to reveal enemy Stealth Heroes in a small radius outside its intended reveal range.

• Zeratul: Fixed an issue preventing Zeratul from using Wormhole after casting a Blink gained from the Rewind talent.

Bug Fixes

• Punisher Arena: Casting Zeratul’s Void Prison on Punishers just before they leap will no longer prevent them from attacking when Void Prison ends.

• Zeratul: Fixed an issue that could prevent Shields granted by the Shroud of Adun Talent from fully recharging.

• Zeratul: Seeker in the Dark’s duration is now correctly paused while a target affected by Singularity Spike is caught within Void Prison.

• Zeratul: Shroud of Adun will no longer accumulate Shields while using Hearthstone.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Wormhole (E)
    • Now has a short delay before it can be re-activated to avoid accidental activation. This was always the case prior to his recent rework but was an unintended change made during the rework process.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Shadow Hunter (E)
    • Cooldown reduction upon quest completion increased from .75 to 1 second
• Level 4
  • Grim Task (Passive)
    • Ability Power stack bonus increased from 4 to 5%
    • Maximum Ability Power bonus increased from 40 to 50%
• Level 13
  • Mending Strikes (Passive)
    • Healing reduced from 40 to 35%
• Level 16
  • Void Slash (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 40 to 50%

Developer Comments: We’re happy overall with how Zeratul came out with his talent revamp, and are making some adjustments to make his talent pick and win rates more competitive.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: The Seeker in the Dark Talent will no longer allow Zeratul to Blink to unintended areas of terrain or inside of Structures.

Hero Updates

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1545 to 1622
• Base Health Regen increased from 3.22 to 3.38

Abilities

• Singularity Spike (W)
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 80
• Blink (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 50

Talents

• Level 1
  • Vorpal Blade (Active)
    • Moved from level 4
  • New Talent: Shadow Hunter (Passive)
    • Gather Regeneration Globes to lower the Mana cost of Blink by 2. After gathering 20 Regeneration Globes, your Basic Attacks reduce the cooldown of Blink by .75 seconds.
  • Block (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Regeneration Master (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Rapid Displacement (E)
    • Removed
  • Seasoned Marksman (Passive)
    • Removed
• Level 4
  • New Talent: Combo Slash (Passive)
    • After using an ability, your next auto-attack within 6 seconds deals 40% more damage.
  • New Talent: Grim Task (Passive)
    • Hero Takedowns increase Ability Power by 4%, up to a total of 40%. This bonus Ability Power is lost on death.
  • Rending Cleave (Q)
    • Moved from level 16
    • Damage is now dealt over 3 seconds from 5
    • Damage reduced from 50 to 40%
• Level 7
  • New Talent: Slip into Shadow (E)
    • Your Blink has 2 charges and its cooldown is increased by 8 seconds.
  • New Talent: Seeker in the Dark (W)
    • Your Singularity Spike takes 50% longer to explode, and can be reactivated while it is attached to an enemy to teleport to them. After reactivation, your Movement Speed is increased by 30% for 3 seconds.
  • Wormhole (E)
    • Moved from level 13
  • First Aid (Active)
    • Removed
  • Follow Through (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Shadow Spike (W)
    • Removed
  • Searing Attacks (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • New Talent: Shroud of Adun (Passive)
    • You gain a shield equal to 15% of your Maximum Health over 5 seconds while under Permanent Cloak.
  • Vigorous Strike (Passive)
    • Renamed to Mending Strikes
    • Moved from level 4
    • Healing amount increased from 25 to 40%
  • Giant Killer (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Burning Rage (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Assassin’s Blade (Trait)
    • Removed
• Level 16
  • New Talent: Sentenced to Death (W)
    • You deal 50% increased damage to enemies while they have a Singularity Spike attached to them.
  • Master Warp-Blade (Trait)
    • Moved from level 4
    • Damage increased from 100 to 125%
  • Void Slash (Q)
    • New Functionality:
      • Cleave deals 40% more damage and its cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds when it hits more than 1 enemy Hero.
    • Moved from level 7
  • Double Bombs (W)
    • Removed
  • Stoneskin (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 20
  • Protective Prison (R)
    • Renamed to Gift of the Xel'Naga
    • New functionality:
      • Enemies are slowed by 50% for 3 seconds once Void Prison Ends.

Developer Comments: There were two main goals behind this rework: Upgrade Zeratul’s talent tree and introduce some interesting new choices, and better sell the fantasy of being a Dark Templar. As always is the goal with our Hero reworks, we didn’t want to change the way he is played, but rather amplify and improve upon it. Overall, he has felt the same to play against in our internal testing, but with a couple new tricks up his sleeve. We hope that our current Zeratul fans will find some new toys to play around with, and that new users will feel more like the mobile shadow-assassin you’d expect from a Dark Templar Hero.

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

Bug Fixes

• Nova/Zeratul: Danger Pings will no longer remain visible over a Hero who enters Stealth.

• 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.

• Zagara: The Stasis overlay will no longer appear on the screen when Zagara’s Mutalisk enters Zeratul's Void Prison.

Talents

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

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: Void Prison will no longer cancel Rehgar’s Feral Lunge or Olaf's Charge as long as the target of either Ability is still in range when Void Prison ends.

Bug Fixes

• Gul'dan: Horrify’s Fear effect will now correctly be paused when enemies hit by the Ability enter Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Design & Gameplay

AFK Detection

• The in-game AFK detection system has received adjustments that will help prevent cases in which Medivh in Raven Form, as well as Nova and Zeratul in Stealth, could receive AFK notifications despite actively participating in the game.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul: Casting Blink and Rewind in rapid succession will no longer place Blink on a 2 second cooldown while Wormhole is active.

• Zeratul: Void Prison will now properly interrupt Flying Kick if the target moves too far out of range while Chen is in Stasis.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul can no longer cast Singularity Spike five times in rapid succession after learning the Double Bombs and Rewind Talents.

Talents

Regeneration Master

• A reward has been added to this Questing Talent.
  • Quest: Regeneration Globes now grant 1.0 Health per second, stacking up to 30
  • Reward: Upon gathering 30 Globes, also increases Health by 500

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.

Seasoned Marksman

• A reward has been added to this Questing Talent.
  • Quest: Increases Attack Damage by 0.2 for each enemy Minion killed nearby, and 0.5 for each Hero Takedown, up to a maximum of 40.
  • Reward: After gaining 40 bonus Attack Damage, Seasoned Marksman can be activated to increase Attack Speed by 30% for 3 seconds. 60 second cooldown.

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.

Hero Updates

• Berserk (Talent) removed.

Bug Fixes

• Zeratul’s Wormhole Talent will no longer allow him to Blink out of Root effects.

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%.

Vampiric Strike

• Has been renamed to Vigorous Strikes

Bug Fixes

• E.T.C. can no longer change the direction of Powerslide while trapped by Zeratul’s Void Prison.

• Regeneration Globes will now properly grant healing and Regeneration Master stacks when collected as a Shield expires.

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.

Hero Updates

• Cleave (Q)
  • Damage increased from 189 (+4% per level) to 200 (+4% per level)
• Shadow Assault (R)
  • Range increased by approximately 37%
  • A range indicator will now display while Shadow Assault is active, and when hovering the cursor over the Ability icon
  • Duration reduced from 6 to 4 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 50
  • Cooldown decreased from 100 to 45 seconds

Developer Comments: Being able to cast Shadow Assault more frequently and stick to his target better should help make Zeratul a lot more lethal when he chooses to give up the massive amount of utility that Void Prison brings.

Bug Fixes

• The tooltip for Zeratul’s Permanent Cloak Trait now properly indicates that using Abilities will reveal him.

Bug Fixes

• Punishers on the Infernal Shrines Battleground will no longer fly outside the playable area after leaping into Zeratul’s Void Prison.

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.

Hero Updates

• Focused Attack (Talent) removed
• New Talent (Level 4): Master Warp-Blade
  • Every 3rd consecutive Basic Attack against the same Hero deals 100% bonus damage

Developer Comments: Focused Attack was providing Zeratul with a little too much burst damage. Now with the consecutive hit requirement, Zeratul will now gain a more substantial damage boost if he is able to stick to his target for a few seconds.

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.

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

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 47 (+13 per level) to 47 (+12 per level)
• Blink (E)
  • Wormhole (Talent)
    • Blink reactivation time reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
• Void Prison (R)
  • Casting range reduced by 50%

Developer Comments: Zeratul is a little bit too strong, especially at competitive and tournament level play. Wormhole remains extremely powerful, but decreasing this timer from 3 to 2 seconds will give increased counter play options to the enemy team, primarily if they can disable Zeratul during this shorter time window. Void Prison remains one of the most powerful Heroics in the game, but with the decreased range, Zeratul will now likely have to use Blink or aggressive positioning to get into place for the perfect Void Prison.

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.

Design & Gameplay

Bonus Effects from Kills

Developer Comments: This change will not have a major impact on today’s gameplay and was mostly done for consistency on how these type of talents worked. In the future, it may allow us to develop Battlegrounds with many small minions (think Haunted Mines) and not have to worry about special casing Seasoned Marksman so it doesn’t get out of control.

• Talents and Abilities that gain bonus effects from kills will now only trigger from Minions and Mercenaries, and will no longer gain benefit from killing neutral Mercenaries, map event creatures, summoned units, etc.

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

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)

Seasoned Marksman

Developer Comments: Overall, we like the way Seasoned Marksman is playing but wanted to tune up its effectiveness to reward those able to secure a healthy number of takedowns, while simultaneously tuning the talent up due to prior changes. Ideally, this will become a great talent pick when facing The Lost Vikings or Murky players.

• Stacks earned by killing enemy Heroes increased from 2 to 3
• Only Minions, captured enemy Mercenaries, and Heroes will grant stacks upon death

Bug Fixes

• Casting Zeratul's Void Prison on Forts or Keeps should no longer cause targeting issues for Blackheart’s cannons.

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

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could allow Zeratul to travel much farther than intended while using Shadow Assault.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a rare issue that could cause Muradin to become unresponsive after coming under the effects of Zeratul's Void Prison.

Talents

New Talent: Vampiric Strike

• This is a new version of Vampiric Assault
  • Basic Attacks heal for 25% of the damage dealt to the primary target
  • Vampiric Assault has not been changed

Regeneration Master

• Initial +4.0 Health Regeneration removed
• Each Health Globe now grants +1.5 Health Regeneration

Spell Shield

• Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Hero Updates

• Vampiric Strike (Talent) added at Level 4
• Vampiric Assault (Talent) removed

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in which certain ranged attacks were not dealing damage to Heroes that entered Stealth after the projectile was already in flight. In these cases, damage will now be properly dealt, and the Hero will be revealed, thus resetting the time needed to re-enter Stealth.

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

• Singularity Spike (W)
  • Double Bombs (Talent)
    • The second bomb now deals 50% damage.
• Void Prison (R)
  • Now dims out affected Heroes’ status bars

Bug Fixes

• Stitches’ Putrid Bile Ability is now appropriately paused, and will no longer be cut short, upon entering Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing’s Soothing Mist Trait will no longer stop functioning after coming under the effects of Zeratul’s Void Prison.

• Fixed an issue which could allow Zeratul’s Singularity Spike to deal more damage than intended when cast multiple times using the Double Bombs Talents.

• Spirits created by Chen’s Storm, Earth, Fire Heroic Ability will no longer fly across the Battleground after using their Triple Attack or Split Up Abilities to cross an enemy Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Talents

Gathering Power

• Initial Ability Power amount reduced from 8% to 5%
• Maximum Ability Power bonus reduced from 20% to 15%

General

• All Heroes (including Murky and The Lost Vikings) now count as full credit toward Talents which require Hero kills (such as Gathering Power).

Regeneration Master

• Now grants 4 Health regeneration upon learning the Talent

Rewind

• Has been moved from Level 13 to Level 20
• Has been removed from many Heroes
• Found on the following Heroes:
  • Anub'arak, Arthas, Brightwing, Nova, Malfurion, Muradin, Murky, Tassadar, Tyrande, Rehgar, Zeratul

New Level 20 Talents

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

• Executioner (Talent) removed
• Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
• Rewind (Talent) added at Level 20
• Rending Cleave (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 16
• Void Slash (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 7
• Void Prison (R)
  • Now pauses Capture Points (Mercenary Camps, Watch Towers, Dragon Shrines). While paused, these points cannot be captured.

Bug Fixes

• Grave Golems, Mercenaries, and Minions will no longer completely ignore Structures affected by Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Bug Fixes

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

• Fixed an issue in which Illidan’s The Hunt could cause unexpected behavior with Zeratul’s Cloak.

• Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to fly out of the playable area when casting the Hunt and then shift-queuing Dive into Zeratul’s Void Prison.

• The Burning Rage Talent no longer deals double damage to towers affected by the Raven Lord’s Curse on the Cursed Hollow Battleground.

Bug Fixes

• Activating the Rewind Talent will no longer refresh cooldowns for certain activated Traits.

Talents

Rewind

• Now refreshes all Basic Ability cooldowns rather than reducing them by 10 seconds
• Cooldown increased from 60 to 90 seconds

Searing Attacks

• While active, Basic Attacks will now display “Crit!” floating text on impact

Bug Fixes

• Heroes with a permanent Cloak will now properly Decloak when exiting the Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.

• Zeratul’s Void Prison now pauses, rather than cancels, channeled abilities.

Talents

Seasoned Marksman

• No longer requires last hits to gain stacks
• Now only requires the player be in proximity when enemy Minions or Heroes are killed
• One stack is earned per Minion kill, and two stacks per enemy Hero kill
• Six stacks permanently add +1 to Basic Attack damage

Bug Fixes

• Cloaked Heroes no longer become visible when standing on or passing through a Gate.

Talents

Block

• Has been moved from Level 7 to Level 1

New Talent (Level 1): Seasoned Marksman

• Grants +1 Basic Attack Damage permanently for every 5 Minions killed.
• This effect stacks.
• Only Minions damaged by Basic Attacks within moments of their death will count toward this bonus.

New Talent (Level 4): Gathering Power

• Passively grants +8% Ability Power
• Each Hero takedown grants an additional 2% Ability Power, up to a maximum of 12%. This bonus is lost on death.

Rewind

• Has been moved from Level 16 to Level 13

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

Hero Updates

• Permanent Cloak (Trait)
  • Assassin’s Blade (Talent)
    • Moved from Level 7 to Level 13
    • Movement speed increased from 15% to 20%
• Cleave (Q)
  • New Talent (Level 16): From the Shadows
    • Cleave deals 30% more damage when used while Zeratul is Cloaked.
• Singularity Spike (W)
  • Shadow Spike (Talent)
    • Moved from Level 4 to Level 7
• Blink (E)
  • Vorpal Blade (Talent)
    • Moved from Level 13 to Level 4
    • Hotkey has been changed from D to an activated Talent in Slot 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 (depending on any other activated Talents that have already been selected.)
• Shadow Assault (R)
  • The 15% Life Steal on the base Heroic Ability has been removed.
  • Nerazim Fury (Talent)
    • Life Steal increased from 15% to 30%

Bug Fixes

• Cloaked Heroes now properly emerge decloaked when released from Stitches' Gorge ability.

• Zeratul’s Cleave ability now appropriately damages nearby Skeletons in the Haunted Mines when it is used immediately after decloaking.

Talents

Berserk

• Attack Speed bonus reduced from 50% to 40% to compensate for changes to Hero Attack Speeds.

First Aid

• Healing amount increased from 20% over 4 seconds to 35% over 6 seconds.

Regeneration Master

• Health regeneration increased from 3 to 4 per stack

Searing Attacks

• Mana cost reduced from 20 to 15 per Basic Attack.

Bug Fixes

• Tyrael's Judgement Heroic Ability is now interrupted appropriately by Zeratul's Void Prison.

Talents

Executioner

• Damage bonus decreased from 50% to 40%

Focused Attack

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

Follow Through (Level 7)

• After using an ability, the next basic attack deals 25% more damage.
• Currently only available on Nova

Bug Fixes

• Searing Attacks no longer drains mana for each target hit by attacks that cleave.

Hero Updates

• Basic Attack damage scaling reduced from 15 per level to 12 per level.
• Singularity Spike damage increased from 50 (+12 per level) to 100 (+20 per level).

Talents

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