Heroes of the Storm news » Heroes of the Storm PTR Notes — June 5, 2017

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General

Malthael’s Bargain Event

New Hero: Malthael

Once the Aspect of Wisdom, Malthael abandoned heaven after the Worldstone’s destruction. In secret, he had resolved to end the Eternal Conflict by becoming a Reaper of Souls and eliminating everything affected by demonic corruption, including humanity.

Trait

• Reaper’s Mark
  • Basic Attacks afflict non-Structure targets with Reaper’s Mark for 4 seconds. Marked enemies are revealed and take damage equal to 2.5% of their maximum Health every second.

Basic Abilities

• Soul Rip (Q)
  • Extract the souls of nearby enemies afflicted with Reaper’s Mark, dealing damage and Healing Malthael for a portion of the damage dealt to each target hit.
  • Heroic targets heal Malthael for an additional 3% of the Hero’s maximum Health.
• Wraith Strike (W)
  • Instantly teleport through an enemy afflicted by Reaper’s Mark, dealing damage and refreshing Reaper’s Mark.
• Death Shroud (E)
  • After 0.25 seconds, unleash a wave of dark mist that applies Reaper’s Mark to the enemies it hits.

Heroic Abilities

• Tormented Strike (R)
  • Gain 20 Armor and unleash a torrent of souls, continually applying Reaper’s Mark to enemies for 4 seconds.
• Last Rites (R)
  • Apply a death sentence to an enemy Hero that, after 2 seconds, deals damage equal to 50% of their missing Health.
  • (!) Repeatable Quest: Enemies killed while under the effect of Last Rites permanently reduce its cooldown by 5 seconds, to a minimum of 15 seconds.

Art

General

• New loading screen art, created by artist Alex Horley, has been added in celebration of Malthael’s arrival to the Nexus.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• A generic marker has been added to indicate when enemies can be killed by an ability.
  • This marker will appear above low-health enemies for Greymane and Malthael when Go for the Throat or Last Rites will deal fatal damage to the target.
• Tracer's Basic Attacks have received performance improvements.
• Genji's Dragon Claw button art has been updated to make progress easier to read at a glance.
• The following Heroes have received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent updates:
  • Kerrigan
  • Malfurion
  • Thrall

User Interface

General

• Holding SHIFT + left-clicking an Announcer, Banner, Emoji, Portrait, Spray, or Voice Line in your Collection will now create a chat link that directs other players to that item.
  • If an item does not have its own page, the link will open to the relevant category in the Collection with that item's title in the search bar.

Hero Select

• A “Close to Leveling” sorting option has been added to non-draft Hero Select and the Profile’s Roster tab.
  • Use this sorting feature to quickly locate Heroes who require the least amount of XP in order to level-up.
  • When two or more Heroes are tied, those Heroes will be further sorted by release date.

Hotkeys

• Force Move
  • A Force Move command has been added to the Basic Hotkeys menu.
    • When a Hero receives a Force Move command, they will move to the target point without attacking any units on the way or anything that was clicked when the command was issued.
• Modifier Hotkeys
  • ALT, CTRL, and SHIFT can now be set as Modifiers for Basic Hotkeys (Q, W, E, R, Attack, Move, etc.).

Mastery Taunts

Design and Gameplay

General

• Cooldowns for Abilities and Talents that can be toggled on and off have been unified to 0.5 seconds across the board. While most of these Abilities and Talents already had a 0.5 second delay, there were a few outliers, which have now been updated:
  • Anub'arak - Legion of Beetles (Active)
  • Thrall - Spell Shield (Active)
  • Murky - Never-Ending Murlocs (R)

Talents

• Bolt of the Storm
  • Range reduced by 20%
  • New Bolt of the Storm alternatives have been added to several Heroes

Developer Comment: While we love Bolt of the Storm and the playmaking potential that it provides, we believe that the talent is too often used as an extra escape. We have also received feedback that Bolt of the Storm could have more awesome moments if its playmaking potential were more tied to offensive use cases. Our goals with these changes are twofold: to consolidate Bolt of the Storm to heroes where we think it makes for awesome gameplay moments, and second to create use cases where it is more optimal to use Bolt of the Storm to make offensive plays. We hope that these changes create more interesting moments in the late-game where heroes can shine by making risky plays to ensure victory for their team.

Battlegrounds

Map Rotation Update

• Thanks for sharing your Map Rotation feedback with us! As a result of community-driven discussions, we’re making all 13 Battlegrounds available for play in Versus A.I., Quick Match, and Unranked modes.
• Hero and Team League are now the only game modes that will feature a Map Rotation.
• The Ranked Map Rotation has been updated to include the following:
  • Hanamura
  • Dragon Shire
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Sky Temple
  • Braxis Holdout
  • Blackheart’s Bay
  • Battlefield of Eternity
• A new Map Rotation icon has been added to the Ranked Play screen.
  • Hover the cursor over the Map Rotation icon to display a list of all Battlegrounds currently available in Ranked matchmaking.
  • Find the Map Rotation icon next to the Grand Master Leaderboard and Ranked Guide buttons.

Minions

• Catapults
  • Can now slightly overlap with one another to help prevent them from becoming stuck against one another when multiple Catapults bunch up around a Core.

Heroes

Assassin

Kerrigan

Talents

• Level 20
  • Bolt of the Storm (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent – Psionic Shift (Active)
    • Activate to teleport a short distance and deal 50 damage to enemies in the area. Enemy Heroes hit give Kerrigan 300% of the damage dealt as Assimilation Shields. 70-second cooldown.

Raynor

Talents

• Level 20
  • Bolt of the Storm (Active)
    • Removed

Thrall

Abilities

• Chain Lightning (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds
  • Number of bounces increased from 2 to 3
  • Range of bounces decreased from 7 to 5
  • Mana cost increased from 40 to 45
• Feral Spirit (W)
  • No longer stops upon the first enemy hero hit
  • Feral Spirit travels 25% further with each enemy hero hit
• Frostwolf Resilience (Trait)
  • Heal amount decreased from 314 to 210

Talents

• Level 1
  • Block (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Rabid Wolves (W)
    • Removed
  • Seasoned Marksman (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Echo of the Elements (Q)
    • !Quest: Kill 10 minions or heroes within 1.5 seconds of them being hit by Chain Lightning
      • Reward: Decreases the mana cost of Chain Lightning by 20
    • !Quest: Kill 20 minions or heroes within 1.5 seconds of them being hit by Chain Lightning
      • Reward: Gain an additional charge of Chain Lightning
  • New Talent: Crash Lightning (Q)
    • !Quest: Hit at least 2 enemy heroes with a single cast of Chain Lightning
      • Reward: Increases bounce damage by 10 up to a maximum of 400
    • !Quest: Hit at least 2 enemy heroes, 20 times, with a single cast of Chain Lightning
      • Reward: Bounces of Chain Lightning now prioritize enemy heroes
  • Rolling Thunder (Q)
    • Added functionality:
      • Increases Chain Lightning’s maximum bounces by 1
• Level 4
  • Ride the Lightning (Q)
    • Removed
  • Spirit Journey (W)
    • Removed
  • Envenom (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Feral Resilience (W)
    • Each enemy hero hit by Feral Spirit grants 2 charges of Block, granting 50 physical armor. Lasts until consumed or Feral Spirit is cast again.
  • New Talent: Frostwolf Pack (W)
    • !Quest: Hit 7 heroes with Feral Spirit. Progress is reset upon dying or if Feral Spirit doesn’t hit at least one enemy hero.
      • Reward: Decreases the cooldown from 12 to 6 seconds, and decreases the mana cost from 60 to 30
  • Mana Tide (Trait)
    • Mana gained increased from 15 to 20
    • Added functionality:
      • When Mana Tide procs, now also reduces basic ability cooldowns by 0.5 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Wind Shear (E)
    • Removed
  • Stone Wolves (W)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Maelstrom Weapon (E)
    • !Quest: Attack enemy heroes while Windfury’s movement speed bonus is active.
      • Reward: Increases attack damage by 1
    • !Quest: Attack 20 enemy heroes while Windfury’s movement speed bonus is active.
      • Reward: Increases the movement speed bonus of Windfury from 30% to 40%
    • !Quest: Attack 40 enemy heroes while Windfury’s movement speed bonus is active.
      • Reward: Permanently gain 15% increased movement speed.
  • New Talent: Ancestral Wrath (Active)
    • Each time Frostwolf Resilience activates, Thrall gains a stack of Ancestral Wrath, up to a maximum of 8.
    • Activate to consume 8 stacks of Ancestral Wrath, stealing 15% of target hero’s maximum health over 3 seconds. Thrall heals for 150% of this amount over 3 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Restless Wolves (W)
    • Removed
  • Giant Killer (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Spell Shield (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Frostwolf’s Grace (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • Healing amount increased from 100 to 150% of Feral Resilience
    • Cooldown decreased from 30 to 15 seconds
  • New Talent: Spirit Shield (Passive)
    • Every 45 seconds, gain 50 Spell Armor against the next enemy ability and subsequent abilities for 1.5 seconds. Triggering Frostwolf Resilience reduces this Cooldown by 5 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Forked Lightning (Q)
    • Removed
  • Ride the Wind (E)
    • Removed
  • Blood for Blood (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Thunderstorm (Q)
    • !Quest: Cast Chain Lightning on a hero. Dying or casting it on the same hero twice in a row resets progress.
      • Reward: Chain Lightning slows targets by 8%, stacking up to 40%.
    • !Quest: Reach a 40% bonus slow.
      • Reward: Chain Lightning deals 25% more damage to the primary target.
    • This quest never completes and will reset even at maximum stacks.
  • New Talent: Alpha Wolf (W)
    • Increases root duration from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
    • For 3 seconds after being hit by a Feral spirit, Thrall’s basic attacks deal 3% of the targets maximum health.
• Level 20
  • Bolt of the Storm (Active)
    • Removed
  • Worldbreaker (R)
    • Decreases Cooldown from 70 to 50 seconds
    • New Functionality:
      • No Longer travels indefinitely
      • Creates a pathing blocker for 3 seconds
  • New Talent: Wind Rush (Active)
    • Activate to teleport to a target location and gain Windfury
    • 70 second CD

Developer Comment: We started looking at Thrall for a talent update as many of his talents were older generic talents, and Thrall ended up having a clear build path. Our pillar for this update was creating more talent diversity and unique ways to play. The changes to Feral Spirit add new opportunities for Thrall to make big plays, while allowing him to continue his role as a lane bully, or play with the team, depending on your playstyle. Overall, Thrall is now flush with Quest talents, and this is something we wanted to explore and are excited for your feedback.

Support

Li Li

Talents

• Level 20
  • Bolt of the Storm (Active)
    • Removed

Malfurion

Abilities

• Moonfire (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 20 to 15
• Regrowth (Q)
  • Mana cost increased from 40 to 45
  • Heal over time ticks reduced from 31 to 28
• Twilight Dream (R)
  • Passive Mana Regen functionality removed

Talents

• Level 1
  • Moonburn (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Your Moonfire deals 75% bonus damage to Minions
        • !Quest: Kill nearby Minions
        • Reward: For every 5 nearby lane Minions killed, increase this damage bonus by 1%. After hitting 25% additional bonus damage, the bonus damage is also applied to Mercenaries and Monsters
• Level 4
  • Vengeful Roots (E)
    • Entangling Roots also spawns a Treant that lasts for 10 seconds.
      • Damage increased from 64 to 70
      • Treant damage no longer gains level scaling
    • !Quest: Hit Heroes with Entangling Roots
    • Reward: Every enemy Hero hit increases the damage of the Treant by 8
  • Full Moonfire (W)
    • Moved from Level 13.
    • Mana cost reduction decreased from 10 to 5
    • Radius bonus decreased from 60 to 50%
  • Versatile (D)
    • Removed
• Level 7
  • Strangling Vines (E)
    • New functionality:
      • Heroes hit by Entangling Roots have all healing received reduced by 30% for the duration of the Root effect
  • Lunar Shower (W)
    • Moved from Level 16
  • Hindering Moonfire (W)
    • Moved from Level 16
  • MULE (Active)
    • Removed
  • Cleanse (Active)
    • Removed
• Level 16
  • Hardened Focus (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent – Ysera’s Gift (Q)
    • The heal-over-time portion of Regrowth is increased by 40% while you are above 75% Health
    • New Talent – Revitalize (D)
      • Upon casting Innervate, Malfurion gains 50 Mana and his cooldowns refresh 50% faster for 5 seconds
• Level 20
  • Bolt of the Storm (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Nightmare has been renamed to Astral Communion (R)
    • New functionality:
      • Slow effect has been removed.
      • When activated, channel for 1 second and then instantly teleport to the target location and cast Twilight Dream. This shares a cooldown with Twilight Dream.

Warrior

Stitches

Talents

• Level 20
  • Bolt of the Storm (Active)
    • Removed
  • Regenerative Bile (R)
    • ​Renamed to Potent Bile
      • New functionality:
        • Healing and Movement Speed bonuses have been removed
        • Putrid Bile duration bonus increased from 2 to 6 seconds
        • Now increases the slow effect from 35 to 45%
  • Hungry Hungry Stitches (R)
    • Damage bonus has been removed.
    • Added Functionality:
      • While active, Gorge has increased range and can be repeatedly recast until the first target is expelled. Gorging a target outside of melee range will teleport Stitches to the target.
  • New Talent: Cannibalize (Passive)
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes heal Stitches for 5% of his maximum Health.

Collection

New Bundles – The following new Bundles and Skin Packs are available for a limited time!

• Echoes of Tristram Bundle
• Malthael Heroic Bundle
• Grave Warden Malthael Skin Pack

New Skins

• Malthael
  • Spectral Malthael
  • Platinum Malthael
  • Toxic Malthael
  • Tarnished Malthael
  • Grave Warden Malthael
  • Angelic Grave Warden Malthael
  • Crimson Grave Warden Malthael
  • Frozen Grave Warden Malthael
  • Timelost Grave Warden Malthael
• Li-Ming
  • Tal Rasha Li-Ming
  • Cobalt Tal Rasha Li-Ming
  • Crimson Tal Rasha Li-Ming
• Murky
  • Sir Murkalot
  • Amber Sir Murkalot
  • Obsidian Sir Murkalot
  • Scarlet Sir Murkalot
  • Steel Sir Murkalot
• Sylvanas
  • Blood Raven Sylvanas
  • Banshee Raven Sylvanas
  • Jungle Raven Sylvanas
  • Skeletal Raven Sylvanas
  • Wild Raven Sylvanas
• Tyrael
  • Infernal Demonic Tyrael
• Zeratul
  • Unraveler Zeratul
  • Ancient Unraveler Zeratul
  • Golden Unraveler Zeratul
  • Hollow Unraveler Zeratul
  • Noxious Unraveler Zeratul

New Mounts

• Golden Treasure Goblin – Can only be unlocked using Gold. Available for a limited time.
• Cloud Mounts
  • Happy Cloud
  • Sad Cloud
  • Angry Cloud
• Battle Raptor Mounts – Awarded to players who achieved Platinum in Hero League or Bronze in Team League during 2017 Ranked Season 1.
  • Battle Raptor
  • Crimson Battle Raptor
  • Deadly Battle Raptor
• Epic Battle Raptor Mounts – Awarded to players who achieved Master in Hero League or Team League during 2017 Ranked Season 1.
  • Epic Battle Raptor
  • Epic Crimson Battle Raptor
  • Epic Deadly Battle Raptor

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

A.I.

• Hanamura: A.I. players will no longer pace back and forth near the payload when a Stealthed enemy Hero is nearby.

Art

• Diablo: Prime Evil Diablo’s model while no longer freeze in place during its victory animation.
• Murky: Octo-Grab’s model will no longer persist on the target if Murky is Stopped in the same moment that the Ability is cast.
• Tyrande: Trueshot Aura will now correctly display visual effects on the terrain when graphics are set to Low.

Battlegrounds

• Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue in which players could be kicked for inactivity while defending the Beacons.
• Cursed Hollow: A small shadow will no longer appear at the location where a new Tribute is about to spawn when graphics are set to Low.
• Dragon Shire: The Dragon Knight’s Savage Charge Ability will no longer cancel Anub’arak’s Burrow Charge.
• Hanamura: The Mega Enforcer will no longer leash after consuming a Hero.
• Hanamura: When the player is not holding an item, the Map Mechanic Ability button tooltip now correctly explains that Hanamura-specific Abilities can be earned by defeating Mercenaries.
• Hanamura: Map Mechanic Turrets can now correctly attack the Mega Enforcer and Mercenaries.
• Towers of Doom: Capturing an Altar will now properly reset that player’s AFK warning timer.
• Try Mode: The Complete Quests button will now properly complete Gazlowe’s Clockwerk Steam Fists Quest Talent.
• Try Mode: Complete Quests will now properly grant Ragnaros’s Catching Fire Quest Talent rewards.
• Try Mode: Refresh Forts will no longer cause the cooldown timer above the Healing Fountain to disappear.
• Mercenaries: Captured enemy Mercenaries will no longer drop Fresh Meat stacks for The Butcher or Mineral stacks for Probius.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Basic Attacks: Splash and Cleave damage will now correctly reveal targets who are hit while inside Bushes and Vents.
• DoT Effects: Illidan’s Evasion, Chen’s Elusive Brew, and Xul’s Shade Armor will no longer prevent Damage over Time effects from displaying properly in their Health bars.
• DoT Effects: Enemy Health bars will now correctly display damage over time effects after being hit by Swift Strike with the Strike at the Heart Talent.
• Polymorphs: Fixed several issues in which Polymorph effects could incorrectly knock Heroes out of Stealth.
• Abathur: Locusts will now assist Heroes who are attacking a Mercenary Camp rather than immediately traveling to a lane.
• Abathur: Can now correctly cast Symbiote on an allied Nova’s Holo Decoys.
• Anub’arak: An active Cocoon will no longer be destroyed if it is moved by Abilities that block pathing, such as Tyrael’s Holy Ground or Tassadar’s Force Wall.
• Azmodan: All Shall Burn will now properly cancel any active Movement commands issued to Azmodan prior to casting.
• Azmodan: General of Hell will now assist Azmodan while he is attacking a Mercenary Camp rather than immediately traveling to a lane.
• Diablo: Fixed an issue that could allow Shadow Charge to Stun enemies who did not collide with the terrain.
• Gazlowe: Can no longer cast Deth Lazor if he has less than the required amount of Mana.
• Greymane: Insatiable will no longer cause Basic Attacks to restore Mana when Inner Beast is not active.
• Greymane: After learning Viciousness, Cursed Bullet will now correctly refresh Inner Beast’s duration.
• Illidan: Evasion will no longer prevent damage over time effects from displaying on Illidan’s Health bar.
• Kharazim: Duration bars for Echo of Heaven and Deadly Reach will now appear simultaneously if both are active at once.
• Li-Ming: Wave of Force will no longer cancel Sonya’s Whirlwind animation.
• Murky: Can now properly collect Regeneration Globes during Safety Bubble.
• Nazeebo: The tooltips for Nazeebo’s Voodoo Ritual Trait now properly indicate that it contains a Quest.
• Nazeebo: Silencing the Zombies that were created by Zombie Wall with the Dead Rush Talent will no longer prevent them from uprooting.
• Ragnaros: Empower Sulfuras’s animation will no longer play without dealing damage if the attack was cancelled by issuing Movement Commands.
• Stitches: Hook can no longer pull Stealthed enemy Heroes through allied Gates.
• Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing the first tick of Psionic Storm to deal slightly less damage than intended.
• Tassadar: After learning Prismatic Link, Basic Attacks that bounce to a secondary target will now properly reveal that enemy.
• The Butcher: Minions that die near The Butcher will now always drop Fresh Meat stacks.
• The Butcher: Fresh Meat earned via Hero Takedowns, and collected while piloting the Garden Terror or Dragon Knight, will now correctly increment The Butcher’s Fresh Meat stacks.
• The Butcher: Insatiable Blade’s Movement Speed bonus is now properly granted when Butcher’s Brand is applied to non-Heroic targets.
• Valeera: Wound Poison’s reduced Healing debuff will now correctly display a red plus symbol next to the affected Hero’s status bar rather than a purple plus overhead.
• Valeera: Will no longer be revealed when entering the Haunted Mines or using the Tunnel on Towers of Doom.
• Varian: The cooldown for Victory Rush will now be properly reduced when nearby Monsters are killed.

Sound

• Collection: Brightwing will no longer play voiceover when navigating away from her Hero page in the Polish game client.
• Genji: Dragonblade voiceover now plays correctly and will no longer be interrupted by other sound effects.

User Interface

• In-game: Zul’jin’s You Want Axe? Quest Talent will not appear complete on the in-game Score Screen’s Talents tab prior to reaching 120 stacks.
• In-game: Zarya’s Maximum Charge Quest Talent will not appear complete on the in-game Score Screen’s Talents tab prior to reaching 150 stacks.
• Mastery Taunts: Players who have Mastery Taunts will no longer receive Desync errors when loading into a game.
• Quick Cast: The Quick Cast setting for Varian’s passive Heroic Strike Trait has been removed from the Quick Cast Settings menu.