Heroes of the Storm news » Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes — January 9, 2018

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New Hero: Blaze

Cpl. Miles "Blaze" Lewis has always been drawn to the flame, but it wasn't until he joined up with Raynor's Raiders that he put his pyromania to good use. He's seen his fair share of battles since then, and has never failed to bring the heat.

Trait

• Pyromania
  • Gain 25 Armor and deal 40 damage to nearby enemies every 0.5 seconds for 4 seconds. Each Hero hit by Flame Stream reduces Pyromania's cooldown by 5 seconds.

Basic Abilities

• Flame Stream (Q)
  • Fire two streams of flame that deal 83 damage to enemies hit. Flame Stream sets fire to Oil Spills it comes in contact with.
• Oil Spill (W)
  • Vector Targeting.
  • Dispense a slick of oil that lasts for 5 seconds and Slows enemies that come in contact with it by 40%. Flame Stream can set Oil Spills on fire for 2.5 seconds, dealing 18 damage every 0.3 seconds to enemies inside. While on fire, Oil Spills no longer Slow enemies. Additionally, Blaze is Healed for 49 Health every 0.3 seconds while standing in flaming Oil Spills. Stores up to 2 charges.
• Jet Propulsion (E)
  • After 0.5 seconds, charge forward, colliding with the first enemy Hero hit, dealing 52 damage to them and nearby enemy Heroes. Enemies hit are also Stunned for 1.25 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Bunker Drop (R)
  • After 0.5 seconds, deploy and enter a Bunker with 1300 Health. Blaze and his allies can enter and exit the Bunker at will. While in the Bunker, occupants gain access to Flamethrower, dealing 179 damage to enemies in a line. Exiting the Bunker grants 25 Armor for 2 seconds. Bunkers last 10 seconds, or until destroyed.
• Combustion (R)
  • Channel up to 2.6 seconds. Once Channeling ends, nearby enemies are Slowed by 60% and take 48 damage every 0.5 seconds. Combustion's Slow and damage over time durations are extended the longer Blaze Channels, from 1 second up to 5 seconds. Blaze's Movement Speed is reduced by 50% while Channeling.

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Malfurion has received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent changes.

Battlegrounds

Regeneration Globes

• Total Health regen over 5 seconds reduced from 11.7% Maximum Health to 9%
• Total Mana regen over 5 seconds reduced from 7.8% Maximum Mana to 7%

Mercenaries

• Hellbats
  • Defender
    • Armor Shred amount reduced from 5 to 4% per stack
    • Base Health reduced from 4275 to 3420
  • Laner
    • Armor Shred amount reduced from 5 to 4% per stack
    • Base Health reduced from 4700 to 3760
      • Health Scaling (Minutes 1-5) reduced from 50 to 40
      • Health Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 75 to 110
      • Health Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 100 to 150
      • Health Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 125 to 235
• Knights
  • Defender Mage Knight
    • Spell Armor Aura amount increased from 15 to 20
  • Laner Mage Knight
    • Spell Armor Aura amount reduced from 30 to 20
• Slime Boss (Warhead Junction)
  • Laner
    • Base Health amount reduced from 20000 to 16000
      • Scaling (Minutes 1-5) reduced from 630 to 500
      • Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 945 to 1050
      • Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 1260 to 1400
      • Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 1575 to 2250
    • Base Basic Attack damage reduced from 400 to 320
      • Scaling (Minutes 1-5) reduced from 10 to 8
      • Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 15 to 17
      • Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 20 to 23
      • Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 25 to 38
    • Base Spit impact damage reduced from 250 to 200
      • Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 5 to 6.25%
      • Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 6 to 7.25%
      • Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 6 to 8.25%
    • Base Spit ‘Damage over Time’ damage reduced from 150 to 120
      • Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 5 to 6.25%
      • Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 6 to 7.25%
      • Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 6 to 8.25%
    • Acid Trail Base damage reduced from 80 to 64
      • Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 5 to 6.25%
      • Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 6 to 7.25%
      • Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 6 to 8.25%

Forts

• Gate Tower Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33%.
• Fort Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33%

Keeps

• Gate Tower Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33%
• Keep Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33%
• Keep Health increased from 16,000 to 17,000

Towers of Doom

• Altar respawn time increased from 90 to 110 seconds.

​Battlefield of Eternity

• The initial stage of the first event will always be South vs North (Heaven South, Hell North)
• The second stage of the first event will always be East vs West (Heaven East, Hell West)
  • All subsequent event stages will be randomized
• The Minimap will now indicate upcoming Immortal spawn locations 30 seconds after the game begins.
  • Subsequent Immortal indicators will appear on the Minimap shortly after a previously summoned Immortal has been defeated.
  • Swap locations will not appear on the Minimap when an Immortal has been reduced to 50% Health.

Developer Comment: As expected, our gameplay update for 2018 resulted in large changes to many of our game systems. While we’re overall happy with the direction of the update, there have been some unintended side effects that we’re hoping to remedy. We overestimated how much more powerful unlimited ammo would be for Structures, and as a result pushing mechanics have become too strong, resulting in lower game times on nearly all maps. We’re giving our towers some of their teeth back with this update, which should help teams hold pushes from Mercenary Camps and map events. We’re also making some tuning changes to some of our Mercenary Camps now that we have had some time to see how they have been performing. Hellbats and Knights in particular are pushing harder than we would like, so we’re reducing their power. We’re also taking a look at the Warhead Junction boss and reducing its early and mid-game pushing power, as right now it is too strong when combined with Nukes from the map event. Lastly, we are reducing the power of Regeneration Globes. While we like the new mini-game that Neutral Regen globes provide in the laning phase, we are not comfortable with how much they are currently benefitting the team that is ahead while they are pushing into a defending team. We’re also seeing players picking up more Regeneration Globes in general, so this will help to keep the game’s overall sustain in check. These are some hefty changes, and it’s likely that there will be more needed to be done over time as things continue to settle. We’ll be keeping an eye on things, and are prepared to make more updates as they’re needed.

​Heroes Brawl

• Dodge Brawl
  • Chromie’s Health has been increased from 3 to 5
  • Ghost Chromies now display player names overhead
  • The in-game camera will now lock to Ghost Chromie until a new round begins

Ranked Battleground Rotation

• Removed
  • ​Warhead Junction
• ​Added
  • ​Volskaya Foundry

Heroes

Assassin

Hanzo

Abilities

• Scatter Arrow (W)
  • Spread of Scatter Arrows narrowed by 20%
  • Damage reduced from 93 to 90

• Natural Agility (D)
  • Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds
  • Range increased from 8 to 10

Talents

• Level 7
  • Shieldbreaker (Q)
    • Removed
  • Sharpened Arrowheads (W)
    • Moved from level 20
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting a Hero with Storm Bow or Basic Attacks reduces their Armor by 5 for 4 seconds, stacking up to 25.
• Level 13
  • Mounted Archery (Z)
    • Bonus Movement Speed reduced from 30 to 20%
• Level 16
  • Giant Slayer (W)
    • Damage increased from 1.25 to 1.5% of enemy Hero’s Health
• Level 20
  • (New) Perfect Agility (D)
    • Gain a second charge of Natural Agility, and reduce the cooldown by 5 seconds

Developer Comment: We’re reducing the spread of Scatter Arrows so that they’re more effective when opponents aren’t directly next to a wall, while also reducing the damage slightly to compensate. We’ve increased the range of Natural Agility so that it will jump over a wider variety of terrain. We’ve also removed Shieldbreaker because we found that it required a very specific set of circumstances to be effective, but it was extremely powerful in those rare situations. We’ve moved Sharpened Arrowheads to replace it while changing its functionality to be more consistent in all situations.

Nova

Abilities

• Snipe (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 245 to 230
• Pinning Shot (W)
  • Damage reduced from 105 to 100
• Precision Strike (R)
  • Damage reduced from 456 to 435
• Precision Sniper (Trait)
  • Damage per stack increased from 5 to 6%

Abilities

• Level 7
  • Perfect Shot (Q)
    • Cooldown refund for hitting Heroes increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • One in the Chamber (Passive)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 70 to 60%
• Level 16
  • Lethal Decoy (E)
    • Clone damage reduced from 40 to 35%

Developer Comment: It’s nice to see that the recent changes to Nova have been so widely embraced by players. However, with the addition of some new escape tools and her ability to have multiple clones out at once, we feel like her damage potential against single targets is still a bit too high. Our data is showing that her talent tree is in a very good spot balance wise (besides a couple outliers, which you see here) so we are also lowering her base output and compensating by increasing Precision Sniper’s damage.

Samuro

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1650 to 1725
• Health Regen increased from 3.4 to 3.6

Abilities

• Mirror Image (Q)
  • Image Health increased from 825 to 862.5
  • Image Health Regen increased from 1.7 to 1.8

Talents

• Level 4
  • Deflection (Trait)
    • Armor increased from 25 to 30
• Level 7
  • Burning Blade (W)
    • Damage bonus decreased from 65 to 50%
  • Phantom Pain (W)
    • Damage bonus increased from 40 to 45%
  • Crushing Blows (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds

Developer Comment: Samuro’s rework has put him in a good position regarding his talent pick and win rates, as well as his overall performance. In addition to some talent tuning changes, we decided to slightly increase his Health to compensate for the fact that he now has to put himself into dangerous positions much more often to deal damage.

Valeera

Abilities

• Garrote (E)
  • Silence duration reduced from 2.75 to 2.5 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Crippling Poison (Active)
    • Slow reduced from 25 to 20%
• Level 4
  • Hemorrhage (E)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 50 to 30%

Developer Comment: We’re reducing the duration of Garrote’s Silence slightly so that all openers feel viable, and reducing the damage of Hemorrhage so that Valeera doesn’t have as much damage while also being able to shut down her target.

Zeratul

Talents

• Level 1
  • Move Unseen (Trait)
    • Movement Speed increased from 25 to 30%
• Level 4
  • Darkness Descends (Active)
    • Passive Attack Speed bonus increased from 10 to 20%
• Level 7
  • Warp Skirmisher (1)
    • Bonus Attack Damage increased from 30 to 40%

Developer Comment: Zeratul currently has the lowest win rate out of all of our Stealth characters, so we’re tuning up some of his underperforming talents. He traditionally has been a high performer as players learn to master him, so we will be keeping an eye on him over time to see if he needs any more changes.

Support

Malfurion

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage reduced from 64 to 60

Abilities

• Regrowth (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 45 to 35
  • No longer has an initial heal effect
  • Heal amount per tick decreased from 27 to 20
  • Duration increased from 15 to 20 seconds
• Moonfire (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 15 to 10
  • Damage reduced from 100 to 90
  • Added functionality:
    • For every enemy Hero hit with Moonfire, instantly heal all targets with an active Regrowth for 140
• Entangling Roots (E)
  • No longer affects non-Heroic targets
• Tranquility (R)
  • Duration reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80
  • Added functionality:
    • All Heroes with an active Regrowth effect gain 10 Armor while in range of Tranquility

Talents

• Level 1
  • Shan’do’s Clarity (D)
    • Functionality changed:
      • The cooldown of Innervate regenerates 25% faster for each active Regrowth
  • Scouting Drone (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent – Nature’s Swiftness (Q)
    • Malfurion passively gains 5% Movement Speed for each active Regrowth
• Level 4
  • Full Moonfire (W)
    • Removed
  • Strangling Vines (E)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • New functionality:
      • Enemy Heroes rooted by Entangling Roots receive 25% less healing for 2 seconds
  • New Talent – Deep Roots (E)
    • Entangling Roots grow 25% larger and last 25% longer
• Level 7
  • Tenacious Roots (E)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • New functionality:
      • Root duration is increased by 25%. If Malfurion becomes stunned, refresh the cooldown of Entangling Roots
  • New Talent – Nature’s Cure (Active)
    • Activate: Remove all stuns, roots and slows from allies with an active Regrowth. 45 second cooldown.
  • New Talent – Wild Growth (W)
    • Every time your Moonfire hits an enemy Hero, increase the duration of all active Regrowths by 1 second
• Level 13
  • Shrink Ray (Active)
    • Removed
  • Life Seed (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Revitalize (Q)
    • Moved from Level 16
  • Hindering Moonfire (W)
    • Moved from Level 7
• Level 16
  • Ysera’s Gift (Q)
    • Bonus heal amount increased from 40 to 60%
  • New Talent – Moonlit Harmony (W)
    • Increase the heal of your Moonfire by 15% for every active Regrowth
  • New Talent – Nature's Balance (W)
    • Increase the area of Moonfire by 25% and the duration of Regrowth by 5 seconds
• Level 20
  • Serenity (R)
    • New functionality:
      • Every Hero hit with Moonfire lowers the cooldown of Tranquility by 3 seconds. While active, Tranquility's healing is increased by 10% for each active Regrowth
  • Storm Shield (Active)
    • Removed
  • Rewind (Active)
    • Removed
  • Lunar Shower (W)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting an enemy Hero reduces the cooldown of Moonfire by 1 second and ramps the damage of the next Moonfire by 20%, stacking up to 3 times
  • New Talent – Lifebloom (Q)
    • Casting Regrowth on a player instantly heals them for 10% of their missing Health

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

Warrior

Blaze

Abilities

• Fortified Bunker (R)
  • Health increased from 1300 to 1305

Garrosh

Abilities

• Groundbreaker (Q)
  • Slow amount increased from 30 to 35%
  • Cooldown decreased from 8 to 7 seconds
  • Mana cost decreased from 35 to 30
• Wrecking Ball (E)
  • Cooldown decreased from 14 to 12 seconds
  • Mana cost decreased from 65 to 60

Talents

• Level 1
  • Warbreaker (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 3 to 2 seconds
    • Damage increased from 50 to 55
  • Unrivaled Strength (E)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 125 to 75%
• Level 7
  • Into the Fray (1)
    • Cooldown increased from 40 to 45 seconds
• Level 16
  • Earthshaker (E)
    • Stun duration reduced from .6 to .5 seconds
  • Mortal Combo (E)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 8 to 7 seconds
  • Rough Landing (Q)
    • Slow bonus amount decreased from 20 to 15%

Developer Comment: While the changes to Groundbreaker have helped Garrosh feel better to play against, we believe he can use some help with his ability to peel for his team and control the battlefield. We’re also making some tuning changes to his talents to help their pick and win rates.

Johanna

Abilities

• Falling Sword (R)
  • Johanna can no longer take damage or be targeted while initially casting Falling Sword​

Collection

General

• Items in the Collection have received updated UI colors to improve readability

New Bundle

• Blaze Heroic Bundle – Available until January 22, 2017

New Announcer

• Blaze
• Tyrael

New Skins

• Blaze
  • Hazardous Blaze
  • Veteran Blaze
  • Fel Reaver Blaze
    • Abominable Fel Reaver Blaze
    • Coldfire Fel Reaver Blaze
    • Infernal Fel Reaver Blaze
    • Smoldering Fel Reaver Blaze
• Probius
  • Ara Tribe Probius
  • Nerazim Probius

Bug Fixes

General

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

Art

• Abathur: Casting Ultimate Evolution will no longer cause visual effects to persist on the terrain at Abathur’s previous location.
• Valla: The color of Lavendar Deputy Valla’s scarf has been updated to match the rest of the skin.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Abathur: Locusts will now correctly retain their selected skins during Ultimate Evolution.
• Chen: Fixed an issue that could cause Chen to become unresponsive if Wandering Keg’s duration expired while the barrel was too close to unpathable terrain.
• Garrosh: Talent descriptions for Inner Rage and Brute Force will no longer swap when selecting either Talent.
• Junkrat: Total Mayhem will no longer trigger twice if Junkrat is killed by the secondary Basic Attack damaged granted by the Giant Killer Talent.
• Junkrat: Casting Rocket Ride will no longer cause an empty Health Bar to appear.
• Junkrat: Fixed an issue in which Ripper Air could grant cooldown reduction to Concussion Mine if a Summon, such as a Creep Tumor, Healing Ward, etc., was also hit when the Mine was detonated.
• Nazeebo: Gargantuan Stomp can no longer be cast while the Gargantuan is stunned or polymorphed.
• Nazeebo: Fixed an issue causing Vile Infection to deal bonus damage after choosing certain talents.
• Samuro: Illusion Master can no longer be cast while Samuro is airborne after being hit by an effects like Junkrat’s Concussion Mine detonation.
• Samuro: Issuing a Hold Position command to Samuro’s Mirror Images and then selecting one of them will no longer cause the others to cancel the Hold Position command.
• Zul’jin: Lacerate’s Talent icon is now correctly colored blue, rather than purple.