Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes – April 24, 2018

Deckard Cain has joined the Nexus with our latest Heroes of the Storm patch! Read on to learn more about the new Support Hero, as well as a number of new balance changes, skins, mounts, and more.

NOTE: Orange text indicates a difference between the PTR and Live patch notes.


Quick Navigation:

• General
• New Hero
• Art
• User Interface
• Design
• Battlegrounds
• Heroes
• Collection
• Bug Fixes

General


Home Screen Rework

• Heroes of the Storm’s Home Screen has received significant improvements.
  • A secondary navigation bar has been added near the top of the Home Screen, beneath the existing Play, Collection, Loot, and Watch buttons.
    • Click each tab on the Home Screen navigation bar to switch among different categories of Heroes-related news.
    • Home Screen tabs will be updated regularly, and will commonly include information about the latest Hero, the current in-game event, Heroes Esports, and more.
  • Each Home Screen tab features additional news items near the bottom of the screen, which can be clicked to find out more details about that topic.
    • For example: Home Screen buttons may link to Heroes and other items in the Collection, the latest Hero Spotlight Video, the Heroes Global Championship Schedule, and more.

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Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Gul’dan: Has received updated visual effects to make his Abilities easier to spot during battle.

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New Hero: Deckard


An avid scholar, Deckard Cain has dedicated his life to the pursuit of knowledge. He has been an advisor, storyteller, and friend to Sanctuary’s greatest heroes, guiding them through peril time and again. When Deckard speaks, it’s wise to stay awhile and listen.



Trait

• Fortitude of the Faithful
  • When at least 1 other allied Hero is nearby, Deckard gains 10 Armor and his Basic Abilities recharge 50% faster.

Basic Abilities

• Healing Potion (Q)
  • Toss a Healing Potion on the ground that heals the first allied Hero that comes in contact with it for 230.
  • Limit 5 active Potions.
• Horadric Cube (W)
  • Throw the Horadric Cube, dealing 80 damage to all enemies in the area and Slowing them by 40% for 1.75 seconds.
• Scroll of Sealing (E)
  • Unfurl an enchanted scroll, forming a triangle that deals 150 damage to enemies inside and Roots them for 1.5 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Stay Awhile and Listen (R)
  • After 1 second, Channel for 3 seconds, putting enemy Heroes in front of Deckard to Sleep while Channeling, and for 2 seconds after.
  • Enemies can only be put to Sleep once per cast, and Sleep’s effects end instantly if they take damage.
• Lorenado (R)
  • Vector Targeting.
  • Create a swirling lorenado that travels in the targeted direction, continually knocking away any enemies that come into contact with it.

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Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Gul’dan: Has received updated visual effects to make his Abilities easier to spot during battle.

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User Interface

Draft Mode

• Hero portraits in Draft Lobbies will now use 2D Base Hero art rather than animated 3D Hero Skin models in order to help make Hero picks easier to differentiate from one another at a glance.
  • For example: It should now be easier to tell whether a teammate has selected Falstad or Muradin during a draft.

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Design

Quests

• Skillshots, as well as other Abilities and Talents that search for targets, will now pass through Invulnerable targets without granting quest progress.

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Battlegrounds

Warhead Junction

• Neutral Swarm Host Boss
  • Will no longer burrow while defending its camp.
  • Slime Pods
    • Pod impact locations will now display warning indicators on the terrain.
    • Pods now explode immediately on impact, and no longer spawn Podlings.
    • Increased the number of Pods launched per cast.
• Captured Swarm Host Boss
  • All of the above changes also apply to captured Swarm Hosts.
  • Slime Trail
    • Removed.
  • Slime Pods
    • Pods can now target Structures.

Developer Comment: We believe the Warhead Junction boss is a cool variant of the standard golem boss found on most maps, but it had some inconsistencies that needed addressing. These changes essentially make the boss a better version of itself—its neutral and captured versions are closer in power, and its Slime Pods create a cooler moment than its Podlings did previously.​

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Heroes

Assassin​

Specialist​

Warrior​

Cassia​

Sylvanas​

Blaze​

Fenix​

Zagara​

Genji​

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Assassin



Cassia


Talents

• Level 7
  • Surge of Light (Active)
    • Now has a 0.25 second cooldown between uses.

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Fenix


Talents

• Level 1
  • Mobile Offensive (Passive)
    • Now grants its Basic Attack damage bonus after any movement, rather than only after unmounted movement.

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Genji


Stats

• Health increased from 1550 to 1620.
• Health Regen increased from 3.2304 to 3.3750.
• Basic Attack damage increased from 42 to 44.

Abilities

• Cyber Agility (Trait) (D)
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
• Swift Strike (E)
  • Range reduced from 14 to 12.
• Dragonblade (R)
  • Damage increased from 220 to 240.
  • Removed functionality:
    • Killing an enemy Hero who was recently hit by Dragonblade no longer resets Swift Strike’s cooldown.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Agile Dismount (Trait)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 7 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Double Jump (Trait)
    • No longer increases Cyber Agility’s cooldown.
• Level 20
  • The Dragon Becomes Me (R)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Now also resets Swift Strike’s cooldown if an enemy Hero dies within 2 seconds after being hit by Dragonblade.

Developer Comment: We’re making some changes to Genji to try and make him less frustrating to play against and give opponents more options with which to counter him. While we think resetting Swift Strike’s cooldown after killing enemy Heroes with Dragonblade made for cool, flashy plays, it shut down too many other Heroes too often. It also caused too many games to become about how much value Genji was able to get out of Dragonblade and little else. We like the flashiness that Dragonblade resets can provide, so we’re keeping that functionality, but we’re now adding it to his Level 20 Storm Talent version of the Heroic. We’re also increasing his Health and Basic Attack damage, reducing the range of Swift Strike, and increasing the cooldown of Cyber Agility to reduce his mobility while boosting his base stats to compensate.​

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Specialist



Sylvanas


Abilities

• Shadow Dagger (W)
  • Shadow Dagger now briefly reveals enemies upon spreading to them.

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Zagara


Abilities

• Nydus Network (R)
  • The player can now exit Nydus Worms in a direction of their choosing by right-clicking.

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Warrior



Blaze


Abilities

• Bunker Drop (R)
  • Players can now exit Blaze's Bunker in the direction of their choosing by right-clicking.
  • The Bunker’s hitbox has been adjusted to more closely match its model. This should reduce situations in which players could unintentionally enter Blaze’s bunker when clicking nearby.

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Collection

New Bundles

• The following new bundles are available for a limited time! Be sure to check out the latest In-Development blog for more details.
  • Deckard Heroic Bundle
  • Nephalem Bundle

New Announcers

• Deckard
• Raven Lord
• Grave Keeper

New Skins

• Deckard
  • Afflicted Deckard
  • Angelic Deckard
• Wastewalker Deckard
  • Diesel Wastewalker Deckard
  • Scourged Wastewalker Deckard
• Cassia
  • Soaring Cassia
• Johanna
  • Nephalem Johanna
• Kharazim
  • Nephalem Kharazim
  • Northern Kharazim
• Li-Ming
  • Nephalem Li-Ming
• Malthael
  • Sinuous Grave Warden Malthael
• Nazeebo
  • Nephalem Nazeebo
  • Ceremonial Nazeebo
  • Rain Nazeebo
  • Sunrise Nazeebo
• Sonya
  • Nephalem Sonya
• The Butcher
  • Petrified Butcher
• Valla
  • Nephalem Valla

New Mounts

• Road Chariot
  • Exalted Road Chariot
  • Hoarfrost Road Chariot

Mount Removal

• Lucky Piggy Bank

New Portraits and Sprays

• We've once again teamed up with Carbot Animations to add even more HeroStorm-themed portraits and sprays in their signature art style! Catch a preview in the latest In-Development blog.

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Bug Fixes

General

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

A.I.

• Hanzo: Fixed an issue that could cause A.I. Hanzo to repeatedly Channel and cancel Storm Bow.

Art

• Blaze: Icon art has been swapped for the Adhesive Petroleum and Oil Dispersal Talents.
• Lunar Sylvanas: Fixed an issue causing Lunar Sylvanas to play an incorrect animation on the Most Played screen.

Battlegrounds

• Checkpoint: Hanamura (Brawl): The Brawl Info tooltip now correctly states that Health Packs restore 35% Health and Mana.
• Tomb of the Spider Queen: The left-side team’s bottom Fort can no longer attack enemy Heroes who are just beyond the Gate.
• Try Mode: Tychus’ Dash Talent now correctly grants its Movement Speed reward after using the Complete Quests button.
• Try Mode: Uther’s Silver Touch Talent now correctly grants its second Mana cost reduction reward to Holy Light after using the Complete Quests button.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Abathur: The number of Minions Absorbed stacks no longer appear inconsistent in the Buff bar after Abathur dies while a Monstrosity is active.
• Abathur: Fixed an issue causing Spike Burst’s visual effects to appear much larger than intended when cast while targeting a Mercenary with Symbiote.
• Alarak: Free Lightning Surge casts granted by the Lightning Barrage Talent now correctly display its cast range indicator.
• Ana: Nano Boost’s duration bar now appears next to, rather than replaces, any existing Ability duration bars for the targeted Ally, like Sonya’s Whirlwind.
• Brightwing: Can now correctly cast Blink Heal on Turrets and Biotic Emitters that were placed by Brightwing herself.
• Cho: Entering a Stasis effect, like Zeratul’s Void Prison, while Surging Fist is charging no longer places Surging Fist on full cooldown.
• Fog of War: Hitting an enemy with certain targeted, ranged Abilities, like Sylvanas’ Shadow Dagger, just before the target enters Fog of War or a Line of Sight Blocker now correctly reveal that enemy.
• Fog of War: Fixed an issue in which attempting to cast a targeted Ability through the Fog of War on a snapshot of a unit that no longer exists could cause the Hero to path into the terrain and become stuck.
• Greymane: Partial progress earned toward the Wizened Duelist Talent’s next attack damage bonus will no longer persist after dying.
• Hanzo: Natural Agility now activates correctly after being hit by Phase Prism near a tower.
• Illidan: Can now correctly cast Dive on Ragnaros in Molten Core form.
• Kel’Thuzad: Phylactery can no longer be activated before its animation completes.
• Li-Ming: Spell Armor granted by the Force Armor Talent is now correctly consumed when hit by Ability damage from non-Heroic sources.
• Rexxar: The tooltip for Misha, Focus! no longer lists a cooldown.
• Rexxar: Switching seats in a Triglav Protector no longer causes Rexxar to become unresponsive.
• The Lost Vikings: Stealth granted by the Spy Games Talent is now correctly applied for 3 seconds after Erik moves.
• Thrall: Killing Minions who were hit by Chain Lightning now correctly causes Echo of the Elements quest progress visual effects to appear near Thrall, rather than allies.
• Uther: Fixed an issue in which Uther could briefly use activated Talents after death, but prior to entering Eternal Vanguard form.
• Uther: The Silver Touch Talent’s quest rewards no longer incorrectly benefit Flash of Light.
• Zagara: The Infest Talent now correctly boosts nearby Ranged Minion damage by 100%.
• Zeratul: After death, Zeratul’s body will no longer teleport to the location of his last Vorpal Blade target.

Sound

• Gul’dan: The voiceover line that plays while idling on Gul’dan’s Hero page in the Collection no longer ends early.

User Interface

• Pings: Fixed an issue in which muting a player would not prevent icons related to that player’s pings from appearing.
• Hotkeys: Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Heroes to ignore Force Move commands.

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