Heroes Technical Alpha Patch Notes -- June 25, 2014

Official Patch Notes v 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. Maintenance is ongoing, but don't worry; we'll let you know as soon as the Nexus is back online! In the meantime, you can check out complete patch notes below.

General

International Invites Coming Soon!

We’re nearly ready to expand Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha testing to players in regions outside of the United States, and Tech Alpha invite waves will soon include many more international players. Additionally, purchases will soon be enabled for many additional countries, and the Heroes Shop will accept purchases from the following regions using the currencies listed below:

  • Europe:
    • British Pounds (GBP)
    • Euros (EURO)
    • Rubles (RUB)
  • Latin America:
    • Brazilian Real (BRL)
    • Mexican Peso (MXN / MXP)
    • Chilean Peso (CLP)
    • Argentine Peso (ARS)
  • Australia:
    • Australian Dollars (AUD)
  • Southeast Asia, North America, New Zealand, and other Latin America:
    • US Dollars (USD)

Experience and Snowballing

  • Experience earned by killing Minions in-lane has been increased by 20%.
  • Bonus trickle experience granted to a team that is behind by 3 or more levels during a game has been removed.
  • Early implementation for the “Underdog Bonus” has been added.
    • A team that is behind in levels – the “underdog” – now earns bonus XP whenever an enemy hero is killed, while a team that is ahead in levels receives reduced XP for killing enemy heroes.
    • The amount of bonus takedown XP granted to the underdog team, as well as reduced takedown XP for the team that’s ahead, scale significantly up based on the level difference between teams.
    • The Underdog Bonus starts at a 1 level difference, and caps off at a 4 level gap.
    • The Underdog Bonus continues until team levels become even.
  • Head here to check out additional details on the Underdog Bonus, as well as reasoning behind why we’re trying out this new system.

New Hero

Zagara has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play!

  • Abilities:

    • Baneling Barrage (Q)
      • Launch a stream of Banelings that explode on contact with enemies.
    • Hunter Killer (W)
      • Unleash a Hunter Killer Hydralisk to attack and chase an enemy.
    • Infested Drop (E)
      • Bombard an area with a Zerg Drop Pod that spawns Roachlings.

  • Trait

    • Creep Tumor (D)
      • Spawn a Creep Tumor, which generates Creep and allows Zagara and her minions to move faster.
  • Heroic Abilities
    • Nydus Network (R1)
      • Zagara can place Nydus Worms and use them to quickly traverse the Battleground.
    • Devouring Maw (R2)
      • Summon a giant Maw to engulf enemies in an area, disabling and damaging them.

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User Interface

Character Portrait

  • A Zagara portrait has been added to Character Portrait Select.

Score Screen

  • Right clicking a player’s Hero image on the end-of-game Score Screen displays options for communicating with, or reporting that player.
    • Teammates will display the following options: Whisper, Invite to Party, Add Friend, Block Communication, and Report Player.
    • Enemies will display: Block Communication, and Report Player.

In-Game UI

  • General

    • Many aspects of the in-game UI have received size reductions and layout changes in order to provide more vision of the game world and reduce the possibility of accidental clicks on UI elements.

  • The in-game Tab Screen has been reworked.

    • The Tab screen will now remain on screen after pressing the Tab key.
      • Dismiss the Tab screen by pressing Tab again, or clicking the X in the top right corner.
    • Clicking the speech bubble next to a player’s name on the Tab screen now blocks communication with them.
      • A player can be unblocked by clicking the speech bubble again or from the Social tab in the Options menu.
    • In addition to takedowns, deaths, and Battleground objectives, the Tab Screen now also includes tracking for siege damage, Hero damage, and healing done, as well as team levels, and hero kill totals for each team.
    • Click the “Show Talents” button at the bottom center of the Tab Screen to view all Talents and Heroic Abilities selected by each player during a match.

  • Talent Selection

    • The detailed Talent Select and Quick Select panes have been combined into one compact interface.
    • The new Talent Select pane includes detailed descriptions for each Talent, and tier selection has been moved from the left to the bottom of the pane.
    • Talents can still be quickly selected via hotkeys by pressing “Ctrl” and the corresponding number key.

  • Kill Streaks

    • A kill streak meter has been added next to the in-game Hero portrait.
      • Notifications are displayed at the top of the screen when a player achieves kill streaks of 5, 10, 15, and 20.
      • Players’ nameplates now light up or catch fire to show off when they’ve achieved lengthy kill streaks.
      • Kill streaks are reset upon death.

  • Notifications

    • Notifications that appear at the top of the screen now focus on Hero takedowns.
      • Top notifications now also indicate team kills, and feature a counter near the top left corner of the screen which displays the time remaining to continue a multi-kill streak.
      • Towns destroyed and Mercenary Camps captured are no longer announced via top notifications.
      • Battleground-specific notifications have been moved above the minimap.

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Shop

General

  • Many items in the Heroes of the Storm Shop have received price changes with today’s patch.

Heroes

  • Zagara has been added to the Shop.

Skins

  • Insectoid Zagara has been added to the Shop.

Bundles

  • The Insectoid Zagara Bundle has been made available in the Shop for a limited time.
  • Head here for complete details on all of the Bundles that are currently available for purchase.

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Art

  • Several Hero models and skins have received visual improvements, including:
    • Arthas and all of his Skins
    • Raynor and all of his Skins
    • All Stitches skins have been updated with the visual improvements previously added to his base hero model.

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Sound

  • New Music has been added to Battle.net menus
  • Updated Battle.net UI sounds
  • New voiceover has been added for all Mercenaries
  • New voiceover effects have been added which play on Hero death

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Battlegrounds

Blackheart’s Bay

  • Treasure Chest Health has been increased to account for changes to Hero Basic Attack Speeds.
  • Skeleton Camp respawn time increased from 120 to 150 seconds

Dragon Shire

  • Player controlled Dragon Knight duration now increases by 2 seconds for each minute of elapsed game time.​

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Mercenaries

General

  • Mercenary Camps now scale up to 30 minutes of elapsed game time.
  • Captured Mercenaries now scale up to 60 minutes of elapsed game time.

Grave Golem

  • Captured Mercenary Grave Golems are now roughly equivalent in strength to a 30 Skull Grave Golem on the Haunted Mines.
  • Mercenary Grave Golems now seek out structures and ignore Heroes, Minions, and Mercenaries in their path.
  • Mercenary Grave Golems no longer only stomp Minions.
    • Increased the number of Heroic targets required for a Mercenary Grave Golem to issue a stomp from 1 to 2.

Knights

  • Sorcerer
    • No longer shields other Knights
    • Damage aura has been removed
    • Now heals other Knights and surrounding minions.

Siege Giants

  • Defending Siege Giant attacks can no longer be dodged.
    • Siege Giant Attack Damage has been reduced from 100 to 80 in order to compensate for this change.

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Talents

Berserk

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

Demolitionist

  • Ammo destruction reduced from 2 to 1 per Basic Attack to compensate for Attack Speed changes.

First Aid

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

Minion Killer

  • Now also deals 25% additional damage to Summons.

Regeneration Master

  • Health regeneration increased from 3 to 4 per stack

Searing Attacks

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

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Heroes

General

  • All Heroes now have flat Attack Speeds that no longer scale with level.
    • Basic Attack damage has been adjusted for all Heroes so that their damage output will remain the same as they were in previous versions of the game.
    • Many Talents, Abilities, and mechanics that were affected by faster Attack Speeds have been updated in order to account for the absence of scaling.
  • All Heroes and Talents have received substantial tooltip updates for increased clarity.

​Hero Changes

Assassin Specialist Support Warrior
Falstad Abathur Brightwing E.T.C.
Illidan Murky Li Li Muradin
Kerrigan Nazeebo Malfurion Sonya
Raynor Sgt. Hammer Tassadar Tyrael
Tychus
Valla

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Abathur

  • Toxic Nest
    • Swarm Nest (Talent)
      • Has been renamed to Locust Swarm
  • Ultimate Evolution
    • Abathur is now vulnerable during Ultimate Evolution’s casting time
    • A graphic has been added which indicates where Abathur will reappear when Ultimate Evolution expires.

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Brightwing

  • Phase Shift (Z)
    • Cooldown increased from 20 to 30 seconds
  • Blink Heal
    • Blink Heal no longer restores Health over time, and its 3 second duration has been removed.
    • Now functions based on charges
      • A new charge is generated once every 8 seconds
      • Up to 2 charges can be stored at once
    • Activate to teleport to a nearby allied unit and instantly restore 250 (+15 per level) Health to the target.
      • There is a 1 second cooldown between activations
    • Ysera’s Blessing (Talent)
      • Now increases Blink Heal charge capacity to 3

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E.T.C.

  • Rockstar (Trait)
    • Attack Speed bonus reduced from 25% to 20%

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Falstad

  • Flight (Z)
    • Fly Away (Talent)
      • Flight cooldown reduction reduced from 20 to 15 seconds
  • Thunderstorm
    • Active and passive damage gained per level reduced from 12 to 10
  • Barrel Roll
    • Afterburner (Talent)
      • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 100% to 75%
  • Aerial Blitzkrieg
    • Cooldown reduced from 110 to 100 seconds

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Illidan

  • Basic Attack damage gain per level increased from 6 to 7
  • Betrayer’s Thirst (Trait)
    • Spar For Blood (Talent) renamed to Thirsting Blade
    • Ultimate Duelist (Talent) renamed to Thrill of Battle
    • Betrayer’s Attrition (Talent) renamed to Hunter’s Onslaught
  • Dive
    • Betrayer’s Ally (Talent) renamed to Friend or Foe
  • Sweeping Strike
    • Additional Reach (Talent) renamed to Fel Reach
    • Endless Bounds (Talent) renamed to Unbound
  • Evasion
    • Demonic Life-Force (Talent) has been renamed to Shadow Shield
    • Lingering Evasion (Talent) renamed to Reflexive Block
    • Spell Evasion (Talent) renamed to Sixth Sense
  • The Hunt
    • Nowhere Is Safe (Talent) renamed to Nowhere to Hide

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Kerrigan

  • Assimilation (Trait)
    • Shield percentage reduced from 20% to 10% on Abilities
  • Impaling Blades
    • Impaling Swarm (Talent)
      • Zergling count reduced from 3 to 2
      • Zergling speed increased from 3 to 5
  • Maelstrom
    • Duration reduced from 12 to 9 seconds

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Li Li

  • Fast Feet (Trait)
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 20% to 15%
  • Healing Brew
    • Mana cost increased from 25 to 30
    • Mana restoration scaling removed
  • Cloud Serpent
    • Base damage decreased from 20 to 15
    • Damage gained per level increased from 3 to 4
    • Lightning Serpent (Talent)
      • Damage decreased from 7 to 5
      • Damage gained per level increased from 1 to 1.33
  • Blinding Wind
    • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Jug of 1,000 Cups
    • Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds
    • Healing gained per level reduced from 96 to 72
    • Mana restoration scaling has been removed

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Malfurion

  • Regrowth
    • Harmony (Talent)
      • Casting Regrowth on Minions or Mercenaries now instantly returns 100% of the Mana cost.
    • New Talent (Level 13): Life Seed
      • Nearby damaged Heroes now automatically gain Regrowth’s Heal over time effect
      • This effect has a 15 second cooldown
  • Moonfire
    • Lunar Shower (Talent)
      • Lunar Shower stacks now decay at a rate of 1 per second after the 8 second countdown has expired, rather than all at once.
  • Entangling Roots
    • New Talent (Level 7): Strangling Vines
      • Doubles the damage dealt by Entangling Roots
    • New Talent (Level 16): Tenacious Roots
      • Increases Entangling Roots area of effect and duration by 25%
      • Enemies caught in the area of effect are rooted for an additional 0.5 seconds

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Muradin

  • Storm Bolt
    • Projectile speed increased from 17 to 20
  • Haymaker
    • Grand Slam (Talent) has been removed.
    • Range increased by 40%
    • New Talent (Level 20): One-Two Punch
      • Haymaker can now store up to two charges
      • Increases Haymaker damage by 25%

Return

Murky

  • Murky is now revealed and his current location is pinged on the minimap for 10 seconds following the death of his Egg.
  • Killing Murky now awards 25% of the normal experience amount earned by killing another Hero.
  • Killing Murky’s Egg now awards 50% of the normal experience amount earned by killing a Hero.
  • Slime
    • Duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds.
    • Damage over time increased from 5 to 7 per second
    • Slimy End (Talent)
      • ​Has been moved from level 7 to level 4
    • New Talent (Level 13): Slime Advantage
      • Increases Basic Attack damage against targets affected by Slime by 50%
    • New Talent (Level 16): Master of Slime
      • Increases Slime’s duration by 2 seconds.
      • Slime now deals increased damage upon reapplication.
  • Pufferfish
    • Explosion delay reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
    • Explosion damage changed from 87 to 90
    • Damage gained per level reduced from 13 to 10
    • Out with a Bang (Talent)
      • ​Has been moved from level 4 to level 7
    • New Talent (Level 16): Compressed Air
      • Increases Pufferfish area of effect by 50%
  • Safety Bubble
    • Bubble Breeze (Talent)
      • Has been moved from level 13 to level 1.
  • Octo-Grab
    • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds.
    • If Murky is killed while using Octo-Grab, its stun effect will now persist through the ability's full duration, but will not continue to damage the target.
  • March of the Murlocs
    • Cooldown increased from 80 to 100 seconds
    • Slow amount reduced from 15% to 10% per stack
    • Maximum slow amount reduced from 90% to 70%
    • Murloc Movement Speed decreased by 25%
    • Casting width has been increased, but the number of Murlocs spawned is unchanged

Return

Nazeebo

  • Zombie Wall
    • Delay between casting and creation of the Zombie Wall reduced from 1 to 0.9 seconds

Return

Raynor

  • Inspire
    • Attack Speed and Attack Damage bonuses have each been reduced from 20% to 15%

Return

Sgt. Hammer

  • Thrusters (Z)
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 50% to 60%
  • Ambush (Talent)
    • Bonus to Basic Attack damage increased from 50% to 100%

Return

Sonya

  • 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.

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Tassadar

  • Tassadar has received significant Talent and Ability changes.
  • Oracle (D)
    • New Talent (Level 4): Mental Acuity
      • Reduces Oracle’s cooldown by 10 seconds
  • Plasma Shield
    • New Talent (Level 1): Minion Bulwark
      • Increases the Shield amount by 50% and no longer expires when cast on Minions and Mercenaries
    • New Talent (Level 4): Leeching Plasma
      • While Plasma Shield is active, the target’s Basic Attacks return 20% of damage dealt as Health
    • New Talent (Level 16): Evasive Shielding
      • Plasma Shield’s target gains 25% increased Movement Speed for 4 seconds.
  • Time Warp (W) and its supporting Talents have been removed.
  • New Ability (W): Psionic Storm
    • Long range Ability which deals damage to enemies in the targeted area
    • New Talent (Level 1): Overload
      • Increases Psionic Storm damage by 20%
    • New Talent (Level 4): Psi-Infusion
      • Returns 5 Mana for each target initially hit by Psionic Storm.
    • New Talent (Level 7): Static Charge
      • Enemies hit by Psionic Storm are marked with a Static Charge
      • Basic Attacks against a marked target consume the Static Charge and deal additional damage.
    • New Talent (Level 16): Second Strike
      • After casting Psionic Storm, the next Psionic Storm within 3 seconds is free
        • Damage does not stack when multiple Psionic Storms are cast on top of one another
    • New Talent (Level 16): Resonation
      • Enemies are now slowed when hit by Psionic Storm
  • Void Shift (E)
    • Has been renamed to Dimensional Shift
    • New Talent (Level 7): Deep Shift
      • Increases Dimensional Shift duration by 50%
  • Twilight Messiah (R)
    • Has been renamed to Archon
    • Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds.
    • Shield amount reduced from 210 to 200
    • Basic Attack splash radius increased from 1 to 2
    • Shadow Messiah (Talent)
      • Has been renamed to Twilight Archon
  • Force Wall (R)
    • Force Gate (Talent) has been removed
    • New Talent (Level 20): Force Barrier
      • Increases Force Wall range by 50%
      • Increases Force Wall duration by 1 second

Return

Tychus

  • Basic Attack damage scaling reduced from 6 to 5.5 per level

Return

Tyrael

  • Archangel’s Wrath (Trait)
    • Movement Speed is no longer slowed during the Archangel’s Wrath death effect
    • Tyrael’s Death Timer is no longer reduced for each Hero hit by Archangel’s Wrath

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Valla

  • Hatred (Trait)
    • Rancor (Talent) has been reworked
      • 10% Attack Damage bonus has been removed
      • Now increases Attack Speed by 2% per Hatred stack
    • Punishment (Talent)
      • Hatred stack generation per Ability cast increased from 1 to 2
    • New Talent (Level 13): Hot Pursuit
      • Increases the Movement Speed bonus granted at 10 Hatred stacks from 10% to 20%
    • New Talent (Level 13): Tempered by Discipline
      • Increases maximum Hatred stacks from 10 to 20
        • Basic Attacks return 5% of the damage dealt as Health for each Hatred stack above 10
        • Hatred stacks above 10 do not grant any Movement Speed or Attack Damage bonuses
        • Hatred stacks above 10 synergize with the Attack Speed bonus granted by Rancor
  • Hungering Arrow
    • Search radius decreased from 4 to 3
    • Siphoning Arrow (Talent)
      • Has been moved from level 4 to level 1
    • New Talent (Level 1): Cost-Effective Materials
      • Reduces Hungering Arrow’s cost from 60 to 30 Mana
  • Multishot
    • Arsenal (Talent)
      • Has been moved from level 7 to level 4
    • New Talent (Level 1): Composite Arrows
      • Increases Multishot range by 20%
  • Vault
    • Repeating Arrow (Talent)
      • ​has been moved from level 13 to level 7

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Bug Fixes

General

  • Corrected several typos and tooltip inconsistencies across many aspects of the game.
  • Knockback now behaves consistently when cast on Heroes that are channeling spells.
  • Storm Mantle Malfurion's model in the Shop no longer exhibits stretching on his left wrist.

User Interface

  • Fixed an issue which sometimes caused a Versus search to become uncancellable, and continue searching for a match if the ready process was quickly initiated, and then cancelled.

Battlegrounds

  • Fixed an issue that could cause a player to lose control of their hero if the Dragon Knight was killed while they were controlling it.
  • A number of issues with Mercenary Camp and Minion A.I. have been resolved, and behaviors have been generally improved.
  • Addressed issues which made shrubs that have units within difficult to enter. It is now easier to attack units which are inside a shrub, as well.
  • The Core’s Health bar no longer displays 0% when it has less than 100 Health remaining.
  • Heroes can no longer clip into certain doodads in Try Me mode.
  • Activated Talent cooldowns should now be appropriately reset after clicking the Clear Cooldowns button in Try Me mode.
  • Fixed an issue in Try Me mode that could cause intermittent freezes when using certain Heroes or Abilities in the enemy Hall of Storms.
  • Rapidly clicking the Reset Level and Level Up buttons will no longer cause level inconsistencies in Try Me mode.
  • Rapidly clicking the Toggle Minions will no longer spawn inconsistent Minion waves.

Heroes and Talents

  • Abathur will no longer become untargetable upon casting Symbiote on an allied Hero.
  • Abathur’s Toxic Nests no longer create Scrap for Gazlowe when they are destroyed.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to become untargetable in Metamorphosis form after being struck by Sonya’s Ancient Spear.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause a player to lose control of Illidan if The Hunt was cast on a Tychus using Overkill.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Nova’s Triple Tap Heroic Ability to reset in certain unintended situations.
  • Floating combat text will now correctly display Health returned to Sonya upon striking an enemy with Whirlwind.
  • Heroes under the effects of Gorge when Stitches is killed no longer remain stunned for the entirety of Gorge’s duration.
  • Kerrigan clones created by Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution Heroic Ability will now correctly gain Shields granted by Kerrigan’s Assimilation Trait.
  • Li Li’s Healing Brew will no longer target or heal Tyrael in his Archangel’s Wrath form.
  • Li Li's Jug of 1,000 Cups Heroic Ability will no longer target or heal Tyrael in his Archangel’s Wrath form.
  • Nazeebo’s Death Ritual Talent will no longer award permanent Health or Mana gains after destroying neutral destructibles.
  • Nova’s Follow Through Talent will no longer stop functioning upon reviving after death.
  • Nova's Holo Decoys and Drones now correctly use a decloak animation when they are spawned.
  • Sgt. Hammer clones created by Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution Heroic Ability now receive an appropriate initial cooldown timer on Blunt Force Gun.
  • Sgt. Hammer’s First Strike Talent no longer stops functioning upon reviving after death.
  • Stitches will now appropriately releases his Gorge target at the Dragon Knight’s spawn location after entering the Dragon Knight.
  • Tyrael’s El’Druin’s Might ability no longer creates Scrap for Gazlowe when it expires.
  • Tyrael's Judgement Heroic Ability is now interrupted appropriately by Zeratul's Void Prison.
  • Tyrael will no longer become visually stuck at an elevated height after using Judgement on a mid-air target that was punted by the Dragon Knight.
  • Valla’s Hatred stacks no longer begin decaying prior to three seconds after her most recent Basic Attack.

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