Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes — September 13, 2016

We just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm, which brings a new Event, Battleground, and Hero to the Nexus, as well as UI improvements, balance changes, and more! Check out today’s patch notes below.

General

New Special Event: Xel’naga Artifact Hunt

Xel'naga artifacts have begun to appear all across the Nexus, and SCVs are being deployed to collect them. Terminate these interlopers with extreme prejudice and collect artifact pieces to earn some sweet new rewards!

• Daily Quest:
  • Collect 12 Artifact Pieces during a single game.
  • Reward: 1 Day Stimpack
• Event Quest:
  • Collect 150 Artifact Pieces before the Machines of War liftoff from the Nexus on October 18, 2016.
  • Reward: Xel’naga Artifact Portrait
• SCVs and Artifact Pieces will have a 50% chance to spawn at the start of a game if any players on the team have not yet completed their Artifact Hunt Daily Quest. This task will be difficult to accomplish alone! Teammates must work together to eliminate the SCVs and reclaim the Artifact Pieces before the game begins.

Free Hero for All!

After downloading today’s patch and logging into Heroes of the Storm, all players will be able to add a new Hero to their collections for free!

• On login, players will be able to pick one of the following three Heroes: Anub’arak, Thrall, or Tyrande.
  • If any of those Heroes are already owned, they will be replaced by Nazeebo, Sonya, or Uther on the selection screen.
  • Players who already own all six of these Heroes will automatically receive 4,000 Gold instead.
• Learn more by reading our recent blog post.

New Battleground, More Often

• Starting today, the pool of Battlegrounds available in all modes, except Custom Games, will be temporarily limited to the following:
  • Braxis Holdout
  • Towers of Doom
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Sky Temple
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
• This has been done to increase the frequency with which players encounter the new Battleground, Braxis Holdout.
• During this time, players can still select and play on any Battleground they wish using Custom Games.
• A second group of 6 Battlegrounds will replace those listed above during the week of September 26, and the reduced Battleground pool will remain in effect until the Machines of War event concludes during the week of October 17.

New Player Battleground Progression

• New Heroes of the Storm players who enter matchmaking modes will initially only be matched for games on certain Battlegrounds. As they complete more games, new players will unlock additional Battlegrounds as follows:
  • 0 games played: Players will only receive matches on Cursed Hollow.
  • 5 games played: Players can now be matched on any of the Battlegrounds listed in the reduced pool mentioned above.

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New Hero: Alarak

Not all heroes are born of altruism. . . some, like Alarak, simply desire vengeance. As the new Highlord of the Tal’darim, Alarak leads his people to a destiny free of the corrupt influence of the fallen Xel’naga, Amon.

Trait

• Sadism
  • You deal 100% bonus Ability damage versus enemy Heroes.​

Basic Abilities

• Discord Strike (Q)
  • After a 0.5 second delay, deals damage to enemies in front of you and silences them for 1.5 seconds.
• Telekinesis (W)
  • Push yourself and any enemies hit from the targeted point toward the targeted direction. Enemies pushed by Telekinesis also take light damage.
• Lightning Surge (E)
  • Deals damage to an enemy and all enemies between you and the target. You are also Healed for 75% of the damage dealt to Heroes.

Heroic Abilities

• Counter Strike (R)
  • Become Protected and channel for 1 second. If you are attacked during this time, you will send a shockwave forward that damages enemies in its path.
• Deadly Charge (R)
  • Channel and then charge in the targeted direction, dealing damage to all enemies in your path. Charge distance increases based on the amount of time spent channeling, up to 1.6 seconds.
  • While channeling, movement commands will cancel Deadly Charge at no cost. Taking damage will interrupt channeling.

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New Battleground: Braxis Holdout

The Dominion used the remote and hostile planet Braxis to conduct experiments on ways to turn the Zerg swarm into a weapon they could unleash on their enemies. Though the Dominion's main psi disrupter was destroyed, this space platform's beacons remain fully operational and ready to be used. Capture the beacons and watch what happens when a flood of weaponized Zerg ravages the battlefield.

Capture the Beacons

• Two Beacons will periodically spawn near the center of the Battleground. Capture both to fill your team’s Holding Cell with Zerg over time.

Fill Holding Cells

• The longer a team holds both Beacons, the stronger and more numerous their Zerg army will become. Once either team has completely filled their Holding Cell, both will open, unleashing Zerg forces into each lane.

Unleash the Swarm

• Each team must decide whether to defend against the opposing Zerg rush, or push with their own to lay siege to all who stand in the way of the Swarm.

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Art

Battlegrounds

• Several Battlegrounds have received additional optimization to help improve performance.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• The following Heroes have received new Talent icon tints to help players more easily differentiate between talents that modify the same Ability and exist on the same Talent tier:
  • Muradin
  • Tyrael
  • Zagara
• The Butcher has received updated visual effects to coincide with his Talent rework.
• Medivh’s Portals have received additional visual polish to make their presence on the battlefield more apparent to allies.
• The Imposing Presence Talent has received updated visual effects to coincide with its new functionality.

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Shop

Bundles

• New Bundles
  • Machines of War Bundle – Available starting September 13 until October 18, 2016.
    • Gain early access to all of the StarCraft-themed items from the Machines of War event by purchasing the Machines of War Bundle.
    • Click here for complete Machines of War Bundle details!
  • Herald of N’zoth Alarak Bundle – Available until September 27, 2016.

New Hero

• Alarak has been added to the in-game Shop.

Mounts

• New Mounts
  • Ghost Speeder
  • Obsidian Cyberwolf*
• Returning Mounts
  • Demonic Hellsteed
  • Blackheart’s Doubloon
• Removed Mounts
  • Cloud Serpent
  • Cyberwolf

Skins

• Herald of N’zoth Alarak
• Master Alarak
• Queen of Ghosts Kerrigan*
• Raider Rexxar*
• The Butcherlisk*

This item is exclusive to the Machines of War Bundle until it is officially released at a later date. Click here to view a full release schedule for Machines of War items.

The Obsidian Cyberwolf Mount is exclusive to the Machines of War Bundle, but may return to the Nexus at a later date.

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Sound

General

• Even the music of Heroes of the Storm has been invaded by the Machines of War!
  • Enable music in the Sound Options menu (or press CTRL+M) to listen as the sounds of the Koprulu Sector clash with those of the Nexus.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• All Heroes should now properly play voiceover lines when clicked repeatedly.
• Medivh’s Portals have received some additional sound effect polish to make their presence on the battlefield more apparent to allies.
• The Lost Vikings have received unique death notification sounds which should be a little less jarring for allies.
• The Spell Shield and Imposing Presence talents have received updated sound effects to coincide with their new functionality.

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User Interface

General

• The Breaking News icon will no longer display in the menus when there is no breaking news to read.

Color Blind Mode

• The Health bar color for the player’s own hero has been changed from dark blue to yellow.
• Neutral Mercenaries will now appear dark purple on portions of their models that use team colors. This should help players and observers better differentiate them from captured mercenaries.

Daily Quests

• Any Hero selected during Ranked or Unranked drafts will now count toward progression of any role or universe-specific Daily Quest.
  • This has been done so that players can still complete their Daily Quests while picking the best Heroes for their team composition, rather than Heroes who satisfy a quest requirement.
• ​Daily Quests are now available to all players, beginning at account level 1.
• New Daily Quest: Play 3 games
  • Reward: 300 Gold
  • This is the only Daily Quest that level 1 players can receive and will only be available until account level 11. After reaching level 11, it will be replaced by the Play 8 Games quest.

MVP System and Commendations

• Players can now show off their individual prowess on the field of battle via the MVP System and end of match commendations.
• Five players will receive awards for their in-game performance and individual achievements at the end of every game played in any mode except Custom Games.
• MVP and End of Match Awards
  • Each match will feature one MVP, or Most Valuable Player, and four other players will receive awards for specific in-game feats.
    • The MVP award is granted to the player who had the greatest overall impact on the match, which is determined by their performance across all in-game stats.
    • The remaining four match awards will be granted for a wide variety of achievements, such as top healing, longest killstreak, most Doubloons turned in on Blackheart’s Bay, and so on.
    • End of match awards, including MVP, can be granted to players on either team, regardless of victory or defeat.
• Commendations
  • Once the awards have been given out, all ten players can then commend the award recipients to show appreciation for their in-game accomplishments.
    • Players who receive many commendations at the end of a match will also be rewarded with a little extra fanfare.
  • Award-specific icons will also appear on the end of game stats screen next to the name of each player who received an end of match award.
• Click here to read our recent blog post on the End of Match Awards System.

Hero Select

• Hero Search
  • Searching for a Hero during Draft Mode or Hero Select will now sort the results first by the Hero whose name most closely matches the player’s search terms.
    • For example: Searching for “Diablo” will now show Diablo as the first result, followed by all other Heroes from the Diablo Universe.
• Hero Sorting
  • New sorting buttons have been added to Hero Select and Draft Mode, and can be found next to the search field:
    • Toggle Favorites: Heroes who have been marked as favorites in the player profile will be sorted to the top of the Hero list.
    • A-Z: Sort Heroes alphabetically
    • XP: Sort Heroes by level

Ranked Play

• Grand Master League
  • The maximum number of Hero League Grandmaster players has been reduced from 500 to 200. The Team League maximum remains at 100 players.
• Promotion and Demotion Matches
  • Players will no longer receive a flat 250 ranked point adjustment after winning a promotion match or losing a demotion match. Instead, these matches will now award or remove the same amount of points as a normal ranked game.
  • Upon earning enough ranked points to reach a promotion match, any points earned beyond the 1,000 point division cap will now be stored and applied at the end of the promotion match.
    • Winning a promotion match will now award any excess points that were stored prior to that match in addition to the normal ranked points earned for the win.
    • Losing a promotion match will subtract the normal ranked points for a loss minus the number of excess ranked points that had been stored prior to the promotion match.
    • Demotion matches do not store lost ranked points, and losing a demotion match will only cause the player to lose the normal amount of ranked points.

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Design and Gameplay

Mounts

• Movement Speed reduced from 40 to 30%

Regeneration Globes

• Time before Globes despawn reduced from 8 to 6 seconds

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Battlegrounds

Mercenaries

• Timing Changes
  • Previously all Mercenary camps spawned at 120 seconds. The following adjustments have been made to spawn times:
    • 90 seconds: Sappers, Doubloon Pirates
    • 120 seconds: Siege Giants (unchanged), Impalers (unchanged)
    • 150 seconds: Knights, Fallen Shaman
    • 180 seconds: Grave Golem (unchanged)
    • 300 seconds: Headless Horseman (unchanged)
• Captured Mercenaries will no longer grant Experience when killed.

Developer Comments: We started playtesting with staggered Mercenary Camp spawn times, and quickly began to realize that it added more strategic depth to the game, and coincided with some of our Battleground events. We have been happy with the changes overall, and are listening to any feedback you may have!

Try Mode

• The following features have been added to Try-Me Mode:
  • Boss Camp
  • Ability to change the enemy hero
  • Ability to change the game speed​

Towers of Doom

• Headless Horseman
  • Attack damage increased from 145 to 158

Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines

• Khazra Impaler
  • Captured Impaler attack damage increased from 40 to 46

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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

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Heroes

Assassin	Specialist	Support	Warrior
Falstad	Azmodan	Brightwing	Anub'arak
Greymane	Murky	Kharazim	Cho
Nova	Nazeebo	Li Li	Diablo
Raynor	Sgt. Hammer	Lt. Morales	E.T.C.
The Butcher	Zagara	Malfurion	Johanna
Tychus		Rehgar	Muradin
Valla			Stitches

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Assassin

Falstad

Abilities

• Tailwind (Trait)
  • Movement Speed reduced from 20 to 15%
• ​​Hammerang (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 132 to 121

Talents

• Level 1
  • New Talent: Wingman (Active)
    • Enemy Minions killed near you grant a stack of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them and permanently increasing the damage of Lightning Rod by 5%. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 80 stacks.
  • Bribe (Active)
    • Replaced by Wingman
• Level 4
  • Updraft (E)
    • Now also increases Shield duration by 40% (1.2 seconds)
• Level 7
  • BOOMerang (Q)
    • Detonation damage reduced from 175 to 165
  • Charged Up (W)
    • Range bonus increased from 15 to 25%
• Level 16
  • Aerie Gusts (Passive)
    • Movement speed bonus reduced from 30 to 25%
    • Cooldown reduction for Tailwind activation decreased from 4 to 3 seconds

Developer Comments: In our ongoing pursuit to create meaningful and Hero-specific generic Talent choices, Bribe was a Talent that got caught in our crosshairs this patch. We have removed it from a few Heroes and have added new flavorful versions to a few others. We have always liked the design and gameplay behind the Talent, but also realize how much players had to give up in order to pick them. Wingman, Pixie Charm, and Covert Mission are being reintroduced to Falstad, Brightwing, and Nova, respectively, with design mechanics more suited to each Hero’s unique style of play.

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Greymane

Talents

• Level 16
  • Relentless Predator (Trait)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: We’re removing the majority of our old Relentless- like Talents from the game, because we found that it wasn’t clear to the enemy team what was happening. Reducing the duration on very short disabling effects to begin with was hard to notice, and typically felt like a bug when it did happen. In some cases, we’re replacing these Talents with Hero specific ones that more clearly convey what’s happening, while fitting the gameplay of the Hero.

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Nova

Talents

• Level 1
  • Advanced Cloaking (Talent)
    • Movement Speed while Cloaked reduced from 30 to 25%
• Level 4
  • New Talent: Covert Mission (Active)
    • Enemy Minions killed near you grant a stack of Bribe. Hero Takedowns grant 10 stacks of Bribe. Use 25 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 100 stacks. If a camp is defeated entirely with Bribe, the camp respawns 50% faster.

Developer Comments: See Falstad’s comment for Bribe changes.

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Raynor

Talents

• Level 1
  • Raynor’s Recruitment (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • Relentless Leader (Passive)
    • Moved to Level 4
    • No longer reduces the duration of Stuns, Slows or Roots
    • New Functionality:
      • If you are Stunned or Rooted, all nearby enemies are knocked back and the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush is reduced by 15 seconds. Can only occur every 8 seconds

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes, and Falstad’s comment for Bribe changes.

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The Butcher

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 169 to 140

Abilities

• Fresh Meat (Trait)
  • New functionality:
    • Quest: Nearby Minions drop 1 Fresh Meat and Heroes drop 5 Fresh Meat when they die. You can pick up Fresh Meat to gain 1 Basic Attack damage per Meat. Can hold up to 125 Meat. You drop up to 10 Fresh Meat upon dying.
    • Reward: After acquiring 125 pieces of Fresh Meat, gain and additional 100 Basic Attack damage and 25% increased Attack Speed. You also no longer lose Fresh Meat on death.
• Hamstring (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 40
• Butcher’s Brand (W)
  • Base duration decreased from 5 to 4 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 65
  • Added functionality:
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes affected by Butcher’s Brand will increase the duration by .5 seconds
• Ruthless Onslaught (E)
  • Slightly reduced the time between The Butcher hitting his target and his first Basic Attack

Talents

• Level 1
  • Victuals
    • New functionality:
      • Every time a nearby Minion dies, regain 4% of maximum Health.
    • Moved to level 7
• Level 4
  • Envenom (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 7
  • Final Assault (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Abattoir (Trait)
    • Decreased the reduced amount of Meat lost on death from 10 to 5. Once you complete the Fresh Meat quest, Heroes will continue to drop Meat. This bonus Meat is not lost on death.
    • Moved to Level 1
  • Insatiable Blade (W)
    • Reduced the amount of bonus healing gained from 125 to 100%
    • New functionality:
      • While an enemy is affected by Butcher’s Brand, you move 20% faster towards them
  • New Talent: Meat Shield (E)
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with Ruthless Onslaught grants Spell Shield, reducing damage from enemy spells by 50% for 2.5 seconds
• Level 13
  • Burning Rage (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Crave Flesh (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Spell Shield (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Cleaver (Passive)
    • Basic Attacks deal 35% of your Basic Attack damage to nearby enemies.
  • Brutal Strikes (Q)
    • New Functionality:
      • After using Hamstring, your next 3 Basic Attacks within 5 seconds deal an additional 15% bonus damage.
• Level 16
  • Blood Frenzy (Passive)
    • New Functionality:
      • Basic Attacks against enemy heroes increase your Basic Attack and Movement Speed by 5% for 3 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
  • Enraged (Passive)
    • No longer reduces the duration of disabling effects by 75%
    • Added functionality:
      • Now provides Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25% for the duration of Enraged.

Developer Comments: We’ve redefined The Butcher to have a more unique role as a powerful late-game hero who feeds on the flesh of his victims via his Fresh Meat Trait. His early game is weaker than before, but if he can complete his quest he will become an incredibly potent force that the enemy team must answer. We had a ton of fun testing him, and hope you all enjoy the new Butcher!

The Butcher Talents

Level (Tier)
1 (1)	Invigoration (Q)	Block (Passive)	Chop Meat (Q)	Abattoir (Trait)
4 (2)	Flail Axe (Q)	Unrelenting Pursuit (E)	Cheap Shot (Q)	—
7 (3)	Insatiable Blade (W)	Victuals (Passive)	NEW: Meat Shield (E)	—
10 (4)	Furnace Blast (R)	Lamb to the Slaughter (R)	—	—
13 (5)	NEW: Cleaver (Passive)	Savage Charge (E)	Brutal Strike (Q)	—
16 (6)	Crippling Slam (Q)	Enraged (Passive)	Blood Frenzy (Passive)	—
20 (7)	Fires of Hell (R)	Slaughterhouse (R)	Nexus Blades (Passive)	Bolt of the Storm (Active)

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

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Tychus

Talents

• Level 7
  • Relentless Soldier (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Stuns and Roots grant Resistant, reducing damage taken by 25% for 3 seconds.

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

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Valla

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 94 to 75

Abilities

• Hatred (Trait)
  • Damage increase per stack increased from 3 to 8%
  • After 6 seconds without landing a Basic Attack, lose all stacks of Hatred
• Hungering Arrow (Q)
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 10 seconds
  • Range increased by roughly 10%
  • No longer tracks to nearby units if Hungering Arrow does not directly impact a target
  • Initial damage reduced from 167 to 140
  • Bounce damage reduced from 84 to 80
  • Bounces now prefer Heroic targets
• Multishot (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 12 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 75
  • Damage increased from 148 to 165
• Vault (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 50
  • New Functionality:
    • Casting Vault causes your next Basic Attack to deal 50% additional damage
• Rain of Vengeance (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 90 to 60 seconds
  • Damage reduced from 350 to 225
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 50
  • New functionality:
    • Now has two charges. Each charge will cast one wave of Rain of Vengeance
• Strafe (R)
  • Damage reduced from 68 to 60

Talents

• Level 1
  • Cost Effective Materials (Q)
    • Renamed to Monster Hunter
    • Added functionality:
      • Now also causes Hungering Arrow to deal 100% bonus damage to Minions, Monsters, and Mercenaries
  • Siphoning Arrow (Q)
    • Moved to level 13
    • Heal amount increased from 50 to 75% of damage dealt to Heroes
  • Composite Arrows (W)
    • Removed
  • Rancor (Trait)
    • Moved to level 20
    • New functionality:
      • Gain 2% attack speed per Hatred stack. When at 10 or more Hatred stacks, gain an additional 30% attack speed
  • Punishment (Trait)
    • Moved to level 4
    • New functionality:
      • Multishot deals an additional 5% damage for every stack of Hatred you currently have
• Level 4
  • Vigorous Assault (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Manticore (Passive)
    • Moved to level 16
    • New functionality:
      • Every third Basic Attack against a Hero deals an additional 5% of that Heroes maximum Health in damage
  • Puncturing Arrow (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • Quest: Each time a Hero is directly hit with Hunger Arrow, increase the initial damage by 5
      • Reward: Upon hitting 100 damage, increase the initial damage by an additional 50 and the number of bounces by 1
  • Arsenal (W)
    • Moved to level 7
    • Grenade damage increased from 84 to 120
    • Grenade speed increased to more closely match Multishot
    • Added functionality:
      • Now also lowers the cooldown of Multishot by 3 seconds for every Hero hit by a grenade
  • New Talent: Creed of the Hunter (Trait)
    • Passively gain 10% attack speed
    • Quest: After attacking enemy Heroes 100 times, increase your Hatred Basic Attack damage bonus per stack by 2%
• Level 7
  • Caltrops (E)
    • Moved to level 1
    • Caltrop slow duration decreased from 2 to 1 seconds
    • Caltrop slow amount decreased from 30 to 20%
    • Added functionality:
      • Quest: After spending 180 seconds at 10 Hatred, reduces the cooldown of Vault by 5 seconds
  • Hot Pursuit (Trait)
    • Added functionality:
      • Now also grants 4 Mana per second when you have 10 or more stacks of Hatred
  • Searing Attacks (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Death Dealer (E)
    • Increase the bonus damage granted by Vault from 50 to 100%. If this shot kills your target, refund the mana cost and cooldown of Vault
• Level 13
  • Giant Killer (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Tempered by Discipline (Trait)
    • New functionality:
      • When at 10 or more stacks of Hatred, gain 25% life steal on Basic Attacks
  • Spell Shield (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Frost Shot (W)
    • Moved to level 16
    • Slow amount reduced from 30 to 25%
    • Added functionality:
      • Now also increases the range of Multishot by 20%
  • New Talent: Gloom (Active)
    • Passively grants 20% damage reduction from abilities
    • Activate to consume all Hatred stacks. For each stack lost, reduce all ability damage by an additional 3% for 5 seconds. This ability has a 5 second cooldown.
• Level 16
  • Tumble (E)
    • Removed
  • Executioner (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Blood for Blood (Active)
    • Removed
  • Stoneskin (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Seething Hatred (Trait)
    • Basic Attacks now grant 2 stacks of Hatred and the time before Hatred expires is increased by 2 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Vengeance (R)
    • Added functionality:
      • Heal for 25% of the damage dealt by Strafe
  • Storm of Vengeance (R)
    • New functionality:
      • Basic Attacks against Heroes reduce the cooldown of Rain of Vengeance by 5 seconds
  • Nexus Frenzy (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Bolt of the Storm (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Farflight Quiver (Passive)
    • Increase Basic Attack range by 40%

Developer Comments: We realize this rework may come as a bit of a surprise to our community, especially since Valla’s Talent diversity has always been pretty good. The roots of the redesign have been floating around the design bullpen for 6+ months, and after some initial testing we felt like we had to pull the trigger and get it out to you.

Similar to Zagara and our other large reworks, we didn’t want to change the ‘feel’ of the Hero —Valla users should still feel completely at home while playing her. Our main goal was to increase the potential for amazing Valla players to differentiate themselves from the mediocre ones and aimed the majority of these changes toward lifting her skill-ceiling. We believe that players will still be able to build Valla very similarly to the ways they have in the past, but with more interesting and potentially powerful payoffs. We are excited to bring the new Valla to our community and look forward to hearing what you all think!

Valla Talents

Level (Tier)
1 (1)	Monster Hunter (Q)	(!) Caltrops (E)	Hot Pursuit (Trait)	—
4 (2)	(!) Puncturing Arrow (Q)	Punishment (W)	NEW: (!) Creed of the Hunter (Trait)	—
7 (3)	Arsenal (W)	NEW: Death Dealer (E)	Repeating Arrow (E)	—
10 (4)	Strafe (R)	Rain of Vengeance (R)	—	—
13 (5)	Siphoning Arrow (Q)	Tempered by Discipline (Trait)	NEW: Gloom (Active)	—
16 (6)	Frost Shot (W)	NEW: Seething Hatred (Trait)	Manticore (Passive)	—
20 (7)	Vengeance (R)	Storm of Vengeance (R)	Rancor (Trait)	NEW: Farflight Quiver (Passive)

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

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Specialist

Azmodan

Talents

• Level 1
  • Taste for Blood (Q)
    • Duration in which enemy deaths will permanently add to Globe of Annihilation damage increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
  • Bribe (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • Relentless (Passive)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes, and Falstad’s comment for Bribe changes.

Return

Murky

Abilities

• Octo-Grab (R)
  • Murky is now Unstoppable while casting Octo-Grab
  • Killing Murky now immediately cancels the Octo-Grab effect

Return

Nazeebo

Talents

• Level 1
  • Bribe (Active)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: See Falstad’s comment for Bribe changes.

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Sgt. Hammer

Abilities

• Siege Mode (E)
  • Sgt. Hammer can no longer enter Medivh's Portals while in Siege Mode (without the Hover Siege talent)

Talents

• Level 1
  • Resistant (E)
    • New functionality:
      • If you are Stunned or Rooted while in Siege Mode, gain 50% damage resistance for 3 seconds
• ​​​Level 7
  • Slowing Mines (Q)
    • Removed
• Level 16
  • Mine Field (Q)
    • Moved to Level 7

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

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Zagara

Stats

• Attack Damage reduced from 86 to 82

Abilities

• Creep Tumor (Trait)
  • Movement Speed on Creep bonus reduced from 20 to 15%
• ​Baneling Barrage (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 91 to 86
• Hunter Killer (W)
  • Damage reduced from 68 to 62
• Infested Drop (E)
  • Damage reduced from 155 to 147

Talents

• Level 16
  • Mutalisk (W)
    • Duration reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
• Level 20
  • Endless Creep (Passive)
    • Movement Speed reduced from 40 to 30%

Return

Support

Brightwing

Talents

• Level 1
  • New Talent: Pixie Charm (Active)
    • Each time Soothing Mist heals an allied Hero, excluding yourself, gain a stack of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 80 stacks.
  • Bribe (Active)
    • Replaced by Pixie Charm

Developer Comments: See Falstad’s comment for Bribe changes.

Return

Kharazim

Talents

• Level 13
  • Relentless (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Sixth Sense (Passive)
    • Stuns and Roots against Kharazim grant 50% damage reduction from Basic Attacks for 4 seconds.

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

Return

Li Li

Talents

• Level 16
  • Shake it Off (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Stuns and Roots against Li Li grant Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25% for 3 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

Return

Lt. Morales

Abilities

• Displacement Grenade (E)
  • Displacement Grenade no longer explodes on contact and passes through everything. After a 0.0625 second delay, players can now re-activate the Grenade causing it to explode on command, damaging and displacing enemies. Displacement Grenade automatically explodes if it reaches max range.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Upgraded Ballistics (Passive)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: We have been looking for ways to add gameplay to our Supports, and believe that Lt. Morales’s Displacement Grenade is a place where we could give her more control. We’re hoping that this gives players an opportunity to make bigger plays by having more control of where they want the enemy hero to move with the Grenade’s knockback

Return

Malfurion

Talents

• Level 16
  • Hindering Moonfire (Passive)
    • Now only slows Heroic units

Return

Rehgar

Abilities

• Ghost Wolf (Trait)
  • Movement Speed reduced from 30% to 20%

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wolf Run (Talent)
    • Movement Speed reduced from 40 to 30% while in Ghost Wolf

Developer Comments: Alongside the adjustments to Mount speed, we’re also reducing the Movement Speed bonus offered by Rehgar’s Ghost Wolf Trait.

Return

Warrior

Anub'arak

Abilities

• Burrow Charge (E)
  • Anub'arak is no longer Invulnerable when Burrow Charging, and is now only Unstoppable

Developer Comments: When looking at Burrow Charge, we liked that this Ability provided an immense amount of mobility and allowed Anub’arak to dive the back line, but we didn’t like that he had an Invulnerability on a 16 second CD. Essentially, Anub’arak could hold this to completely nullify a Pyroblast or any huge damage source, which is not intended. By changing this to Unstoppable, we still allow Anub’arak to be very slippery and get out of bad situations quickly.

Return

Cho

Talents

• Level 13
  • Surge of Stamina (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • Using Surging Fist grants Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25% for 3 seconds. Reduces the cooldown of Surging Fist by 4 seconds if it hits an enemy Hero.

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

Return

Diablo

Talents

• Level 7
  • Devastating Charge (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • Shadow Charge grants Resistant, reducing all damage taken by 25% for 4 seconds.

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

Return

E.T.C.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Just Keep Rockin’ (E)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

Return

Johanna

Abilities

• Condemn (W)
  • Added functionality:
    • Now deals 200% increased damage to Minions and Mercenaries

Talents

• Level 1
  • Knight Takes Pawn (W)
    • Removed

Developer Comments: As our heroes develop over time, we often find niches for their roles that are only available via Talents. While we love that our Talents augment our Heroes in interesting ways, we are wary when a Hero is picked specifically for a role that they are given via a Talent. We did a pass on our current roster and found a couple of these cases in Johanna and Muradin. We like how Johanna is seen as a warrior with good wave clear, and how Muradin is seen as an anti- auto-attacker. We’ve decided to make these features part of their base kits, and will be keeping an eye on others in the future.

Return

Muradin

Abilities

• Thunder Clap (W)
  • Added functionality:
    • Now also slows enemy Attack Speed by 25% for 2.5 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Reverberation (W)
    • Moved to Level 4
    • New functionality:
      • Increase Thunder Clap’s Attack Speed slow to 50% and increase the duration of Thunder Clap from 2.5 to 3 seconds
• Level 4
  • Third Wind (Trait)
    • Moved to Level 1
  • Thunder Burn (W)
    • Now also applies the 25% Attack Speed slow with the second activation of Thunder Clap.

Developer Comments: See Johanna’s comment.

Return

Stitches

Talents

• Level 7
  • Relentless (Passive)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • New Talent: Flea Bag (Passive)
    • Whenever Stitches is Stunned or Rooted, reduce basic ability cooldowns by 3 seconds.

Developer Comments: See Greymane’s comment for Relentless changes.

Return

Bug Fixes

General

• Corrected a number of typos and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
• Repeatedly changing Region and Language settings to and from Chinese will no longer limit region selection to China on the login screen.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing a small number of players from rejoining games.

Art

• Core: Fixed a bug in which Shield impact effects on the Core were not displaying when struck by some Abilities.
• Keep: Flags will no longer appear detached from a Keep’s model when it is heavily damaged.
• Artanis: Activating Twin Blades just as Hearthstone completes channeling will no longer cause Artanis to stand while Mounted.
• Rehgar: The Totemic Projection Talent now uses the correct icon tint.

Battlegrounds

• Tomb of the Spider Queen: Medivh will now properly fly over the Spider Queen’s Altars while in Raven form, rather than path around them.
• Towers of Doom: Sappers can sometimes stop attacking their targets and start following enemy Heroes.
• Try Mode: Brightwing can now properly Phase Shift to the Healing Dummy.
• Try Mode: Helping Hand is no longer removed from Stitches’ Ability bar after clicking Reset Talents.
• Try Mode: Repeatedly casting Stitches’ Gorge on the Target Dummy will no longer prevent it from leashing back to its spawn location.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Fixed several bugs in which splash damage from Basic Attacks could still deal damage while the attacking player was Blind or the target was Evading.
• Heroes can no longer push captured Mercenaries by walking into them.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Tyrael, Uther, and Gall players to incorrectly receive AFK Warnings due to the combination of their post-death effects and lengthy death timers at later levels.
• Abathur: Monstrosity can no longer push Minions or captured Mercenaries by walking into them.
• Anub'arak: Beetle damage listed in the Scarab Host Trait tooltip will now update correctly when Anub’arak levels up.
• Auriel: Sacred Sweep’s increased range, gained by learning the Majestic Span Talent, will now correctly benefit from the Righteous Assault Talent.
• Chromie: Temporal Loop’s clock graphic will no longer disappear if the target becomes polymorphed.
• Dehaka: Isolation’s parasite will no longer visually persist until death on a target that was simultaneously hit by Isolation and Chromie’s Time Trap.
• Diablo: Overpower’s target will no longer be stunned for the Ability’s full duration if Diablo is interrupted by a knockback at the same time Overpower is cast.
• Diablo: Apocalypse will now correctly target enemies trapped by Anub’arak’s Cocoon.
• E.T.C.: Rockstar’s Attack Speed bonus will now be properly applied when E.T.C. casts Stage Dive.
• Gall: An icon has been added to the buff bar for the Dark Descent Talent, and the icon’s tooltip will track Runic Blast damage bonuses earned via Hero Takedowns.
• Gul'dan: Learning the Health Funnel Talent and using Drain Life to kill a Hero with a post-death effect, such as Uther, will now properly reduce Drain Life’s cooldown.
• Johanna: Condemn will now be correctly interrupted when Johanna becomes Polymorphed.
• Kerrigan: Using the Overdrive Talent will no longer remove the Energizing Grasp Talent’s Mana cost reduction for Primal Grasp.
• MULE: Will now properly acquire a new repair target if the Structure it is actively repairing is destroyed.
• Murky: The camera will no longer automatically snap to Murky’s Egg location if he is killed with camera follow enabled.
• Nazeebo: Zombie Wall will no longer attack Murky’s Pufferfish.
• Li Li: The Shake it Off Talent will no longer reduce the duration of the Garden Terror's Queen's Curse Ability.
• Lunara: Fixed a rare issue in which casting Leaping Strike toward terrain could cause Lunara to run back to her original location after landing.
• Lunara: Will no longer receive the “Stuck” notification when a Wisp is stuck by Tracer’s Pulse Bomb.
• Rexxar: Misha’s Basic Attack target can now correctly be switched by right-clicking as long as she did not already have an order to Focus on a particular target.
• Rexxar: Misha can now push Minions and allied Mercenaries, but will not push enemy or uncaptured Mercenaries.
• Uther: The tooltip for the Gathering Radiance Talent will now properly indicate the amount of bonus Healing and Damage earned after multiple nearby Allies are hit by Holy Radiance.
• Sgt. Hammer: Basic Attack range indicators should now appear consistent while Sgt. Hammer is in both Tank and Siege Modes.
• Stitches: Vile Gas applied by a Retchling after learning the Restorative Fumes and Indigestion Talents will now properly Heal Stitches, rather than the Retchling.
• Tychus: Attack commands should no longer automatically switch targets after using Run and Gun.
• Xul: Skeletal Warriors will no longer attack Murky's Pufferfish if it is in their path.
• Zagara: After learning Medusa Blades, Zagara will now deal the correct amount of damage to her secondary Basic Attack targets.
• 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.

User Interface

• Color Blind Mode: Fixed an issue which caused damage and Heal over time effects in Hero Health bars to display in red and green while Color Blind Mode was enabled.
• Death Recap: Zagara’s Healing received from the Hydralisk Transfusion Talent will now be correctly displayed in her Death Recap.
• Draft Mode: Fixed an issue that could cause the draft interface to become unresponsive if the player’s game client was minimized while entering draft mode.
• Replays: Pausing a replay prior to opening the Talent Panel (TAB) will no longer prevent Quest Talent progress from displaying.

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