Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes — October 10, 2016

Official Patch Notes v 21.0

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just arrived to the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until October 17. During this time, we kindly request your assistance in trying out some of the new content it contains before we officially release the patch to the live version of Heroes. Just like last time, if you encounter any bugs or other issues during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.

General

Hallow’s End is Here!

  • 50% XP Bonus!
    • The Nexus is haunted by a 50% XP bonus until Hallow’s End concludes during the week of November 2!
  • Hallow’s End Event Quest
    • Quest: Play 15 games during Hallow’s End in any mode except Custom Games, Training, or Heroes Brawl.
    • Reward: Deputy Valla Portrait
    • Please note: Any progress made toward the Hallow’s End Event Quest on the Public Test Realm will not transfer to the live version of Heroes once the patch is released during the week of October 17.

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New Hero: Samuro

Samuro, the last remaining blademaster to wear the banner of the Burning Blade, is on a warrior’s pilgrimage in search of vengeance and redemption for this fallen clan. It will be a long journey, but he has sworn an oath to restore his clan’s honor.

Trait

  • Advancing Strike
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes increase your Movement Speed by 25% for 2 seconds.

Basic Abilities

  • Mirror Image (Q)
    • Create 2 Mirror Images that deal 30% of your damage and have 50% of your current Health. Images last up to 16 seconds, and only 2 can be active at once.
  • Critical Strike (W)
    • Your next Basic Attack within 8 seconds will be a Critical Strike, dealing 50% increased damage. This also applies to Mirror Images and does not break Wind Walk.
    • Passive: You and your Mirror Images deal a Critical Strike every 4th Basic Attack.
  • Wind Walk (E)
    • Enter Stealth for up to 8 seconds or until you attack, use an Ability, or take damage. While Stealthed, your Movement Speed is increased by 30% and you can pass through other units.
    • Damage taken during the first 1 second will not break Wind Walk.

Heroic Abilities

  • Bladestorm (R)
    • Become an unstoppable whirlwind, dealing moderate damage to nearby enemies every second for 4 seconds.
  • Illusion Master (R)
    • Switch places with the target Mirror Image.
    • Passive: You can control Mirror Images separately or as a group, and they deal an additional 20% of your damage.

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New Game Mode: Heroes Brawl

Heroes Brawl is an action-packed new game mode that breaks all the rules and offers a fresh take on Heroes of the Storm's gameplay each week. Learn more by visiting the Heroes Brawl website.

The Basics

  • Heroes Brawl offers three distinct match types, with endless possibilities for twisted rulesets and wild mechanics each week:
    • Arenas: Pick one of three randomly selected Heroes, and then duke it out against the enemy team to complete objectives. The first team to complete the objective twice will claim victory.
    • Mutators: Wild rulesets and unique mechanics change the way you play on Battlegrounds you’re already familiar with.
    • Single-Lanes: One-lane Battlegrounds with no objectives, Mercenaries, or Hearthstone to distract you from destroying the enemy Core.
  • Click the Brawl Info button in the lower-left corner of the screen to learn detailed information about the currently active Brawl.

How to Brawl

  • Find Heroes Brawl in-game by heading to the Play screen, click Brawl on the far left side of the navigation bar, then queue up and have a blast!
  • Anyone can dive into the action! Heroes Brawl is not restricted by account level or the number of Heroes owned, and you can queue up alone or in a party of any size.
  • The current weekly Brawl will also be available through Custom Games - though replays, observer mode, and score screens may not function as expected for some of the unique Brawl types.
    • Heroes Brawl custom games will also discard Hero drafts and pre-selections once players enter the match.

Reap the Rewards

  • Participate in three Brawls each week to receive in-game rewards!
  • Hover the cursor over the Weekly Rewards icon in the lower-left corner of the Brawl screen for a breakdown of the available rewards each week.

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Art

General

  • The following Heroes have received additional facial animation polish:
    • E.T.C.
    • Illidan
    • Valla
  • Diablo has received additional idle animation polish.

Battlegrounds

  • Core attacks have received update visual effects in order to better visually indicate that they deal splash damage.
  • Cannonballs that fire on the minimap for Blackheart’s Bay have received visual effects polish.
  • Sky Temple has received additional optimization polish.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

  • The following Heroes have received custom Hearthstone animations:
    • Diablo
    • E.T.C.
  • The following Heroes, Abilities, and Talents have received updated visual effects:
    • Cleanse (Talent)
    • Gul’dan: Fel Flame (Q), Corruption (E)
    • Illidan: Evasion (E)
    • Lunar Illidan: The Hunt (R)

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Shop

Bundles

  • New Bundles
    • Hellblade Samuro Bundle – Available until November 1, 2016
    • The following Bundles will be added to the in-game Shop on October 18:
      • Nexus Challenger Bundle
      • Nexus Conqueror Bundle
  • Removed Bundles
    • The following bundles will be removed from the in-game Shop on October 18:
      • Starter Bundle
      • Triumph Bundle

New Hero

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

Mounts

  • New Mounts
    • Hellboar
  • Returning Mounts
    • Marshal’s Outrider
  • Removed Mounts
    • Crimson Hare

Skins

  • Hellblade Samuro
  • Master Samuro

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Sound

Ranked

  • New voiceover lines have been added that will play when a player is promoted into a new League Tier.

Draft Mode

  • Sound effects and voiceover will now play when entering Lost Cavern Draft Mode via Custom Games.

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User Interface

General

  • A “New Player Chat” channel has been added.
    • New players will automatically join this channel upon logging into Heroes of the Storm until they reach account level 20.

Daily Win Bonus

  • The first game that players win each day will now award 50% bonus XP and Gold for that match.
    • This bonus applies to all game modes except Brawl, Custom Games, and Training.
    • A First Win of the Day icon has been added to the top navigation bar, which will activate whenever a First Win of the Day bonus is available.

XP Bonuses

  • Friend Bonus
    • Playing Heroes with a friend will now award 25% bonus XP.
  • Party Bonus
    • The XP bonus earned by playing in a party now scales based on the number of party members:
      • 2 Players: +25%
      • 3 Players: +33%
      • 4 Players: +42%
      • 5 Players: +50%
  • Game Mode Bonus
    • Playing ranked games will now award an XP bonus:
      • Hero League: +25% XP
      • Team League: +50% XP
  • XP Bonuses Stack Additively
    • Playing in a party with one friend will still award a total of 50% bonus XP, just as it did before, but playing with additional party members will now award even more XP.
    • Playing Team League in a full party with at least one friend and an active Stimpack will now award a total of 225% bonus XP.
  • The “Available XP Bonuses” icon in the top navigation bar will activate when players are receiving any of the bonuses mentioned above.
    • Hover the cursor over this icon to display a tooltip that offers a full breakdown of all active and inactive XP bonuses.

Play Screen

  • Hovering the cursor over each game mode on the Play Screen navigation bar will now display a tooltip that briefly describes that mode.
  • Versus A.I.
    • Training mode has been moved into Versus AI on the Play screen.
    • A “Versus A.I. Options” interface has been added to the left side of the Versus A.I. screen.
      • Use the buttons to switch between Training, A.I. Teammates, or Co-op modes.
      • Use the Difficulty Slider to select the desired skill level of A.I. allies and opponents in A.I. Teammates and Co-op modes.
        • Training mode A.I. difficulty is set to beginner, and cannot be changed.
  • Suggested Play Mode
    • The Play Screen navigation bar will now suggest a game mode to new players.
      • Level 1 – 10: Versus A.I.
      • Level 11 – 20: Quick Match
      • Level 20+: Heroes Brawl (If the weekly rewards have not yet been earned.)
    • Hover the cursor over the suggested mode icon to display a tooltip that explains why a mode is suggested.

Profile

  • Match History
    • The Match History tab can now be filtered by Heroes Brawl matches using the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner.
  • Profile Summary
    • Heroes Brawl stats have been added to the Profile Summary screen that will track the number of Brawls won and weekly rewards earned.
  • Statistics
    • The Statistics tab can now be filtered by Heroes Brawl stats using the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner.

MVP and Commendations

  • MVP and Commendations can now be skipped using the new Exit button added to the lower-left corner of the screen.
    • The duration of the MVP and Commendations screen now lasts 50 seconds.
    • A timer has been added to the lower-right corner of the screen that will count down the final 10 seconds of the MVP and Commendations screen.
  • Commendations
    • Bulwark will now take the number of deaths into account in order to focus this Commendation on the efficiency of damage soaked, rather than total damage taken.
      • The tooltip for Bulwark will now display the player’s total deaths during the match in addition to damage soaked.
    • Slight adjustments have been made in order to better balance the Dominator and Painbringer Commendations.
    • Abathur was previously a little too likely to receive the MVP award. Slight adjustments have been made to bring him in line with other Heroes.

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Bug Fixes

General

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

A.I.

  • Medivh: Enemy AI players will now avoid teammates that are under the effects of Medivh’s Polybomb.
  • Lt. Morales: Can now properly detonate Displacement Grenade near enemies.

Art

  • Chen: Keg models that appear when casting Storm, Earth, Fire using any of Chen’s Skins are no longer missing certain visual effects.
  • Illidan: The visual effects for The Hunt will now properly display on the Ability’s target during replays.
  • Greymane: The Worgen model will no longer remain on screen while viewing end-of-game Stats and Talents pages.

Battlegrounds

  • Braxis Holdout: Neutral Raven Mercenaries will no longer clip into the terrain after being knocked back.
  • Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue in which Zagara’s Mutalisk could cause a captured Archangel to exhibit pathing issues.
  • Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue in which a captured Archangel could target enemy Heroes with its Bullet Storm Ability.
  • Garden of Terror: Shielding a Structure will no longer prevent a Garden Terror's bonus siege damage from being applied.
  • Infernal Shrines: Fallen Shaman Mercenaries will now prioritize attacking enemy Structures over Walls.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

  • 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.
  • Anub'arak: The Cocoon overlay will now display correctly for enemies affected by Cocoon.
  • Auriel: The Piercing Lash Talent tooltip now correctly states that Detainment Strike will only pierce Heroes, rather than all enemies.
  • Auriel: Enemy Heroes will no longer occasionally be Stunned by Detainment Strike when knocked away from terrain.
  • Auriel: Quest progress for the Repeated Offense Talent will now be correctly tracked in the Stats panel.
  • Azmodan: Globe of Annihilation’s range indicator is now visually consistent with indicators used by other long-range Abilities.
  • Greymane: The Go for the Throat indicator will no longer visually persist above Heroes who have post-death forms, such as Uther or Leoric, after they are killed.
  • Illidan: Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Illidan to fly back to his death location if he was killed while using Dive.
  • Kharazim: Will no longer automatically resume attacking enemies after using Radiant Dash to dive to an ally. This fix also applies to Illidan’s Friend or Foe and Kerrigan’s Adaptation Talents.
  • Leoric: Minions will no longer path around Leoric when he is in Undying form.
  • Medivh: The damage over time effect from Xul’s Poison Nova will no longer be visually removed from Medivh’s Health bar after traveling through a Portal with the Mage Armor Talent.
  • Rexxar: A delay will no longer occur between repeated Misha, Focus! casts.
  • Sgt. Hammer: Re-casting Orbital BFG just as the first missile re-enters the Battleground will no longer cause the new missile to follow the previous path.
  • Sylvanas: The Death Recap tooltip for Wailing Arrow now correctly displays the Ability’s description.
  • The Butcher: Hamstring will now correctly deal bonus damage to non-Heroic targets after learning the Cheap Shot Talent.
  • Zagara: The Stasis overlay will no longer appear on the screen when Zagara’s Mutalisk enters Zeratul's Void Prison.

Sound

  • Illidan: Voiceover that plays while casting The Hunt is now only audible for Illidan and his target.
  • Illidan: High pitched ambient sounds that play while casting The Hunt are no longer audible for the target’s allies. Lower-pitched ambient sounds will still play for all players and observers.

User Interface

  • Death Recap: Fixed an issue in which a Heal effect could occasionally appear to be the killing blow in Death Recap notifications.
  • Replay: Selecting a Hero during a Replay will no longer prevent the Hero Portrait and Status Bars from switching correctly when attempting to view a different Hero’s perspective using hotkeys.
  • Observer: Warhead counters will now update properly in the Observer interface on Warhead Junction.

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