Heroes Technical Alpha Patch Notes -- April 15, 2014

Official Patch Notes v 2.5.0a

We've brought the Heroes of the Storm service down for a period of extended maintenance today in order to release a brand new patch for the Technical Alpha, and perform our first account wipe. Maintenance is ongoing, but don't worry; we'll let you know as soon as the Nexus is back online! In the meantime, read on to check out the complete patch notes.

All Technical Alpha accounts have been reset with today’s patch.

Real-money purchases made prior to today’s account wipe have not been reset or refunded. However, please keep in mind that real-money purchases are still planned to be reset and refunded to your Battle.net balance in future scheduled account wipes.

  • All accounts will restart from Level 1, and all experience points, as well as leveling system and Quest progress have been reset.

  • All in-game Gold earned, as well as purchases made using Gold, have been wiped clean. Several rewards will be given to players once today’s maintenance concludes:

  • All 25 heroes have been made free-to-play for all players until Thursday, April 17 at 3:00 p.m. PDT.

  • Based on leveling system progress prior to the wipe, players will also receive in-game Gold in order to try out a few new heroes!
    • Levels 1 – 19: 10,000 Gold
    • Levels 20 – 39: 30,000 Gold
    • Level 40: 30,000 Gold and an exclusive Heroes of the Storm lanyard.

More details on today’s Account Wipe can be found here.

General

  • Custom Games have been added to Heroes of the Storm!
    • Custom Games can be accessed from the Play Screen.
    • Up to 10 Custom Game Lobby slots can be filled by human or A.I. players.
    • As the Lobby Host, click the wrench icon below an allied player’s hero model, or right click an enemy player’s portrait on the right, to access various options for that player such as Swap Team, Kick from Lobby, Set A.I. difficulty, and Promote to Host.
    • Please note that Observers have been disabled during this portion of the Tech Alpha.
  • The vast majority of Daily and Hero Quest requirements have been reworked.
  • Several general performance improvements have been implemented.

User Interface

  • Experience gains are now capped at 1.2 million combined XP per day for the Custom Games, Practice, and Coop game modes.
    • There is no daily XP cap for Versus mode.
    • Additionally, Quests can now only be completed in Versus mode.
  • The Quest Log button has been removed from the Home screen.
    • Daily and Hero Quests have been moved to the Profile Screen, which can be accessed by clicking the Profile button (next to the Menu button) in the top right corner of the Home screen.
    • The Hero Quest Log has been reworked to better display available Quests and rewards.
  • The Hero Select screen has received several UI updates.
    • The Profile button is now accessible in the top right corner of the Hero Select screen.
    • Buttons have been added to the lower left portion of the Hero Select screen which allow players to view hero information and abilities, as well as swap skin and mounts.
    • The Quit button has been removed and replaced with a Back button in the top left corner of the Hero Select screen.
    • Uther now guides new players through the UI and initial game mode unlocks following the Tutorial.

Shop

  • Bundles
    • A new “Bundles” tab has been added to the Shop’s menu navigation bar.
    • Several hero and skin Bundles are now available for purchase in the Shop and can be accessed using the new “Bundles” tab in the Shop’s navigation bar at the top of the screen.
  • Several new hero skins have been added to the Shop:
    • Monarch Brightwing
    • Pajamathur Abathur
    • Succubus Kerrigan has been reworked.
  • Hero skins can now be purchased directly from the Heroes tab in the Shop.
    • To do this, enter the shop and select the Heroes tab, click a Hero, select Skins from the navigation bar at the top, and then select a skin to view and purchase it.
    • Skins can still be purchased from the Shop’s primary Skins tab, as well.

Battlegrounds

  • Haunted Mines
    • Scaling Health for the underground Grave Golem increased from 625 to 750 per minute.

Heroes

  • New Heroes

    • Brightwing and Lili have been added and are now available for play!

  • General

    • Hero movement speed increased from 4.0 to 4.4.
    • Several measures have been implemented to help prevent snowballing.
    • It is now easier to click on both friendly and enemy Heroes when they are near Structures (especially Gates) and Minions.
    • Calldown: M.U.L.E. duration reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.

Arthas

  • Basic Attack damage increased from 55 (+5 per level) to 59 (+6 per level).
  • Frost Strike damage increased from 60 (+11 per level) to 80 (+15 per level).
  • Frostmourne Hungers
    • Basic Attack damage bonus from 20% to 40%.
    • Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
  • Rune Tap now requires 3 stacks for an 8% heal, rather than 5 stacks for a 10% heal.

Return

Sonya

  • 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.

Return

Diablo

  • Apocalypse
    • Cooldown increased from 100 to 120 seconds.
    • Damage decreased from 160 (+12 per level) to 100 (+10 per level).
  • Black Soulstone has been reworked.
    • Soulstone stacks now cap at 100 and require 100 to resurrect from the dead.
    • Diablo no longer loses all Soulstone stacks on death, but instead loses 100 on resurrection.
  • Endless Death now increases Soulstone stack maximum to 200 (previously 250).

Return

Valla

  • Hatred has been reworked.
    • Every Basic Attack grants Demon Hunter a stack of Hatred, capping at 10.
    • Each stack of Hatred gives 3% Attack Speed and 1% Movement Speed.
    • Hatred stacks fade at a rate of 1 per second, rather than all at once.
    • The Rancor talent now increases auto-attack damage when at maximum stacks.
  • Strafe
    • Damage per level increased from 4.5 to 5.
    • Search area increased from 7.5 to 10.
    • Cooldown increased from 45 to 50 seconds.
  • Rain of Vengeance
    • Cooldown decreased from 100 to 90 seconds.
  • Siphoning Arrow life leech increased from 25% to 50%.

Return

E.T.C.

  • Mosh Pit cooldown increased from 100 to 120 seconds.
  • Rock God! damage bonus increased from 40% to 50%.

Return

Falstad

  • Aerial Blitzkrieg cooldown increased from 90 to 110 seconds.
  • Flight cast time increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds.

Return

Gazlowe

  • Grav-O-Bomb 3000 cooldown increased from 90 to 110 seconds.

Return

Kerrigan

  • Summon Ultralisk Movement Speed increased from 4.5 to 5.

Return

Muradin

  • Haymaker cooldown reduced from 70 to 50 seconds.

Return

Nova

  • Holo Decoy sight radius increased from 3 to 6.
  • Wounding Shot damage amplification reduced from 30% to 25%.

Return

Raynor

  • Base Attack damage decreased from 63 (+12 per level) to 63 (+11 per level).

Return

Sgt. Hammer

  • Basic Attack starting damage increased from 50 to 55.
  • Siege Mode cast time decreased from 1 to 0.5 seconds.

Return

Stitches

  • Putrid Bile slow duration increased from 1.125 to 1.5 seconds.
  • Putrid Bile search radius increased from 2.5 to 3.

Return

Tassadar

  • Plasma Shield cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds.
  • Health reduced from 850 (+160 per level) to 800 (+145 per level).

Return

Tychus

  • Commandeer Odin
    • Annihilate starting damage increased from 20 to 70.
    • Ragnarok Missiles starting damage increased from 20 to 70.

Return

Tyrael

  • Righteousness
    • Shield amount decreased from 250 (+25 per level) to 200 (+25 per level).
    • Explosion damage increased from 75 (+9 per level) to 90 (+12 per level).
    • Righteousness explosion radius increased from 2 to 3.
  • Judgment cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds.

Return

Tyrande

  • Sentinel reveal duration reduced from 8 to 5 seconds.
  • Lunar Flare stun duration reduced from 1.25 to 1 second.
  • Shadowstalk cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds.

Return

Zeratul

  • 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).

Return

Bug Fixes

  • General

    • Corrected a number of typos across several aspects of the game.

  • User Interface

    • Fixed a number of issues in which Daily and Hero Quests were not properly granting credit.
    • Halo effects on the Hero Select screen now properly outline the Ronin Zeratul and Witch Doctor character models.
    • In-game target portraits for Muradin, Tyrande, and Zeratul now appropriately match their portraits on the post-game Score Screen.
    • The camera now correctly follows the Dragon Knight in Windowed Mode after enabling Camera Follow in while the Dragon Knight is being summoned.
    • The level indicator on the Home Screen now more accurately reflects progress toward the next level.
  • Heroes and Talents
    • Ancient Spear now properly pulls the Barbarian when cast on Grave Golems.
    • Calldown: MULE can now be cast when the casting hero is underground on the Haunted Mines.
    • Nova’s Fast Reload Talent now correctly resets her Triple Tap cooldown when an enemy with a post-death state is killed shortly after being struck by Triple Tap.
    • Nova’s Triple Tap can no longer be absorbed by Abathur’s Toxic Nests.
    • Raynor’s Lead from the Front Combat Trait now properly reduces his cooldowns when enemies with post-death states are killed.
    • The Blood for Blood Talent can no longer target summoned Grave Golems on the Haunted Mines.
    • The Grave Golem within the Haunted Mines no longer becomes distracted by Abathur’s Toxic Nests while they are burrowing.

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