heroes Stukov Patch Notes: July 3

[Stan 5,240]

Stukov is now live on PTR and we can expect the patch to go live next week. Xul got a rework, Hanamura has been updated with improvements and the Ranked map rotation has changed.

Stukov is the latest Support to be added to the game. You can watch his trailer and learn more about his abilities & talents in our preview.

Blizzard (Source)

New Hero: Stukov

Alexei Stukov had a hard life, and an even harder death. He has been betrayed, shot into space, resurrected and infested, almost cured, and then experimented upon as the infestation returned. Now, his infestation spreads within the Nexus...

Trait

• Bio-Kill Switch (D)
  • Activate to detonate all of Stukov's Viruses. Each Healing Pathogen heals its target, and each Weighted Pustule does damage and Slows its target by 70% for 2 seconds. Can be cast while Channeling Lurking Arm.

Basic Abilities

• Healing Pathogen (Q)
  • Infest an allied Hero with a Healing Pathogen that heals the target for 240 Health over 4.5 seconds. Healing Pathogens can spread to a nearby allied Hero every 0.75 seconds, and a single Healing Pathogen can spread to each allied Hero 1 time.
• Weighted Pustule (W)
  • Hurl a pustule that impacts all enemy Heroes in its path, dealing damage and Slowing by 5%, increasing to 50% over 3 seconds. Deals additional damage upon expiring or being removed.
• Lurking Arm (E)
  • Channel at a target location, creating an area that Silences enemies inside and deals 144 damage per second to them. Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes.Does not cost Mana while Channeling, and lasts until canceled or interrupted.

Heroic Abilities

• Flailing Swipe (R)
  • Swipe 3 times in front of Stukov over 1.75 seconds, dealing damage to enemies hit and knocking them away. Each swipe is larger than the previous.
• Massive Shove (R)
  • Extend Stukov's arm. If it hits an enemy Hero, they are rapidly shoved until they collide with terrain, taking damage. Stukov gains 50 Armor while shoving an enemy.

Art

Mounts

• Run animations for Battle Raptor and Epic Battle Raptor Mounts have been updated.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Xul has received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent updates.

User Interface

General

• If the Heroes of the Storm client is minimized, or not the current focus window, it will now retake focus in the following situations:
  • If a player who was queued for matchmaking is removed from the queue.
  • When a game is found while a player is queued for matchmaking.
  • If a draft is cancelled and the player is removed from a draft lobby.

Disable Screen Shake Setting

• A new Disable Screen Shake setting has been added to the Gameplay tab in the Options Menu.
  • If this setting is enabled, the screen will no longer visibly shake when Forts and Keeps are destroyed.

Emoji Autocompletion

• The client will now display a list of suggested Emojis as it attempts to predict the player’s intended Emoji when they begin typing shorthand into the chat window. 

Team League

• The tooltip that displays when queue times for 2-player parties are lengthy will now include estimated wait times for parties of 2, 3 and 5 players.
  • Additionally, the Ranked Play interface has been adjusted, and the tooltip’s size and layout have been revised to help prevent it from overlapping other UI elements

Battlegrounds

Map Rotation Update

• The Ranked Map Rotation has been updated to include the following:
  • Hanamura
  • Dragon Shire
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Garden of Terror
  • Warhead Junction
  • Haunted Mines
  • Towers of Doom
• PTR Note: This rotation will not be present on the Public Test Realm, but will go into effect once the patch is officially released to the live version of the game in each region.

Hanamura

• Core Life increased from 7 to 8
• Sapper Minions will no longer spawn for the enemy team after a Keep is destroyed
• Map Objective:
  • First Payload spawn time increased by 15 seconds
  • Second Payload spawn time increased by 15 seconds
  • Payloads now grant 1200 XP upon reaching their destination
• Mercenaries:
  • Fortification Camp
    • Turret power-up will now prioritize attacking Heroes
    • Turret power-up health has been increased by 10%
    • Turret power-up now deals double damage to Minions
  • Recon Camp
    • Dragon Spirits power-up no longer dismounts enemy Heroes
  • Support Camp
    • Initial Spawn time increased by 15 seconds
    • Health total decreased by 10%
    • Base attack damage decreased by 12%
    • Attack damage scaling reduced by roughly 60%
    • Self-heal ability cooldown increased by 2 seconds

 

Assassin

Ragnaros

Abilities

• Molten Core (D)
  • When Molten Core expires, the camera will now snap back to Ragnaros if he is not on screen.

Specialist

Xul

Abilities

• Spectral Scythe (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 55
• Cursed Strikes (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60
• Bone Prison (E)
  • Now causes all active Skeletons to fixate on the target.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Shackler (Active)
    • Added functionality:
      • Basic Attacking a Hero that is slowed, rooted, or stunned reduces the cooldown of Bone Armor by 2 seconds.
• Level 4
  • Reaper’s Toll (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • !Quest: Hit enemy Heroes with Spectral Scythe.
      • !Reward: After hitting 20 Heroes, reduce the cooldown by 3 seconds.
  • Jailors (Trait)
    • New functionality:
      • Cause 2 Skeletons to spawn when you cast Bone Prison. These do not count toward the maximum limit of Skeletons you can own.
      • !Quest: Spawn Skeletal Warriors.
      • !Reward: After spawning 80 Skeletons, when Skeletal Warriors fixate on an enemy from Bone Prison they gain 50% Movement and Attack Speed.
  • (New) Grim Scythe (W)
    • Every time Cursed Strikes damages enemies, reduce its cooldown by .5 seconds, up to 10 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait)
    • Moved from level 4 to level 7
    • Redesigned:
      • Skeleton Basic Attacks restore 1% Health and .4% Mana.
  • Harvest Vitality (W)
    • Redesigned:
    • Cursed Strikes heals Xul for 60% of the damage it deals to Heroes.
  • Weaken (W)
    • Now also increases the duration of Cursed Strikes Attack Speed slow from 2 to 3 seconds.
  • Rathma’s Blessing (Trait)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • Decrepify (Q)
    • Removed
  • Giant’s Curse (W)
    • Removed
  • (New) Echoes of Death (Q)
    • After an additional 1.5 seconds, 2 more Spectral Scythes appear next to the first and travel back to Xul dealing 75% damage.
  • (New) Rapid Harvest (W)
    • When Xul damages an enemy with Cursed Scythe, he gains 5% Attack Speed for 3 seconds, up to 75%.
  • Executioner (Passive)
    • Moved from 16 to 13.
• Level 16
  • Skeleton Mastery (Trait)
    • Removed
  • Corpse Exposion (Trait)
    • Moved from level 13 to level 16
  • Bone Spear (Active)
    • Moved from level 20 to level 16
    • Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Call of the Grave (R)
    • Removed
  • (New) Andariel’s Visage (R)
    • Xul is healed for 50% of the damage done by Poison Nova. Skeleton Warriors become Poison Skeletons, dealing 50% increased damage.
  • Raised Mage (R)
    • Renamed to Cold Hand of Death
    • New functionality:
      • No longer causes Skeletal Mages to spawn from dead Heroes.
      • Now causes Skeletal Warriors to become Frost Skeletons, causing their Basic Attacks to slow enemies by 30%.
  • (New) Kalan’s Edict (Trait)
    • Every time a Skeleton deals Basic Attack damage, reduce Xul’s Heroic cooldown by 1%.

LEVEL (TIER)	XUL TALENTS
1 (1)	Backlash (1)	Shackler (1)	Shade (1)
4 (2)	(!) Reaper's Toll (Q)	Grim Scythe (W)	(!) Jailors (D)
7 (3)	Harvest Vitality (W)	Weaken (W)	Trag'Oul's Essence (Trait)
10 (4)	Poison Nova	Skeletal Mages	—	—
13 (5)	Echoes of Death (Q)	Rapid Harvest (W)	Executioner (Passive)
16 (6)	Amplify Damage (E)	Corpse Explosion (Trait)	Bone Spear (Active)
20 (7)	Andariel's Visage (R)	Cold Hand of Death (R)	Mortal Wound (Q)	Kalan's Edict (Trait)

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

Collection

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

• Stukov Heroic Bundle
• Admiral Krakenov Skin Pack
• Terran It Up Bundle

New Skins

• Stukov
  • Dictator Stukov
  • Kaldir Stukov
  • UED Stukov
  • Zerus Stukov
  • Admiral Krakenov
  • Ghost Admiral Krakenov
  • Reef Admiral Krakenov
  • Tideswept Admiral Krakenov
  • Vice Admiral Krakenov
• Auriel
  • Glorious Archangel Auriel
  • Shadow Demonic Auriel
• Chromie
  • Leper Timewalker Chromie
• Diablo
  • Skyborne Archangel Diablo
  • Horrific Prime Evil Diablo
  • Timeless Prime Evil Diablo
• Illidan
  • Vordrassil Shan’do Illidan
• Johanna
  • Holy Spellbreaker Johanna
• Kerrigan
  • Queen of MEKA Kerrigan
  • Queen of Templar Kerrigan
• Li-Ming
  • Infernal Archon Li-Ming
• Muradin
  • Umojan Maraudin’ Muradin
• Rexxar
  • Biohazard Raider Rexxar
• Tyrael
  • Vengeful Archangel Tyrael
• Xul
  • Bone Visage Xul
  • Classic Bone Visage Xul
  • Royal Bone Visage Xul
  • Rusted Bone Visage Xul
  • Skeletal Bone Visage Xul
  • Reaper Necromaster Xul

Bug Fixes

General

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

A.I.

• Hanamura – Fixed an issue with AI players pacing near Payloads if a stealthed enemy was contesting.

Art

• Alarak – Lightning Surge will now display its effect when cast on Forts and Keeps.
• Auriel – Fixed a visual issue with Auriel’s Bestow Hope crown when placed on a Tassadar in Archon form.
• Uther – Fixed an issue with the Beacon of Light talent causing it to display the wrong icon.

Battlegrounds

• Hanamura – Fixed an issue preventing Turret power-ups from being damaged by the Boss’s Energy Ring ability.
• Hanamura – Fixed an issue preventing Mercenaries from attacking Turret power-ups.
• Haunted Mines – Fixed an issue that prevented skulls from being collected if a Haunted Miner was killed while over unpathable terrain.
• Haunted Mines – Fixed a rare issue that could cause Grave Golems to push the same lane twice.
• Mercenaries – Fixed an issue causing the Raven Mercenary’s Seeker Missile reveal effect to occasionally persist after the Seeker Missile detonated.
• Sandbox Mode – Fixed an issue that caused duplicate D.Va Mechs to appear when using the ‘Move Here’ command with D.Va.
• Warhead Junction – Fixed an issue preventing the damage-over-time effect applied by the Boss’s Podling spawns from being cleansed by abilities intended to cleanse these effects.
• Warhead Junction – Fixed an issue causing players to be incorrectly flagged as AFK when standing near or collecting Warheads.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Alarak – Fixed an issue that prevented Rite of Rak’Shir from going on a reduced cooldown if used on a Nova Holo Decoy that expired.
• Arthas – The attack speed slow applied by Frozen Tempest is now consistent with what is stated in the ability’s tooltip.
• Chen – Fixed an issue preventing the stun duration of Anub’arak’s Burrow Charge from being reduced by Purifying Brew.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue causing D.Va’s Mech to ignore ‘Hold Position’ commands.
• D.Va – Fixed a rare issue that caused D.Va to become unresponsive if Big Shot was fired into the enemy Hall of Storms immediately before calling down a Mech.
• D.Va – Fixed that issue that allowed D.Va’s Boosters to push enemies that were affected by Time Stop.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue causing D.Va to destroy map mechanic pickups (such as Doubloons) when using Call Mech near them.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue causing Defense Matrix to unintentionally reduce the effects of percentage damage abilities.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue preventing pilot D.Va from immediately exiting her Mech after casting Self Destruct if there was not ample space available nearby.
• Genji – Fixed an issue causing Genji to take partial damage from abilities that ended Deflect early, such as stuns and silences.
• Greymane – Fixed an issue that could occasionally grant additional Go for the Throat procs after casting the free charge.
• Kharazim – Fixed an issue that Stitches’ Vile Gas to deal damage to Kharazim while casting Seven-Sided Strike.
• Murky – The Fish Eye talent will now properly reveal stealthed targets at the edge of its sight radius.
• Murky – Fixed an issue causing Murky’s Fish Eye talent to permanently reduce his mounted movement speed. 
• Nova – Fixed an issue preventing Holo Decoy from being cast in several locations on Garden of Terror and Infernal Shrines.
• Probius – Fixed an issue preventing Probius from gathering minerals while inside the Garden Terror on Garden of Terror
• Tassadar – Fixed an issue causing Tassadar to gain healing from the damage dealt by his Focused Beam talent.
• Tychus – The primary target damage amount displayed in Overkill’s tooltip is now consistent with the damage dealt by the Ability.

Sound

• Diablo Announcer – Fixed an issue causing the Diablo announcer pack game start countdown to become out of sync.
• Draft Mode – Fixed an issue causing Hero selection voiceover lines to occasionally echo.
• Muradin – Fixed an issue causing a pop in Muradin’s Avatar voice lines when playing in certain locales.

User Interface

• Collection - Fixed an issue preventing the “Unseen Items” flag from clearing after viewing all highlighted items in the Collection.
• Nova, Samuro – Fixed an issue preventing debuff timers from showing below clone’s health bars.
• UI – Fixed an issue that could occasionally fail to display one team’s current experience total.

[Valhalen 1,484]

This Xul rework looks very interesting. Making the Raise Skeleton build will be way more viable now.

I was honestly expecting a Li Li rework, but Xul's kit was feeling very old too.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Valhalen

[Plaguestorm 43]

6 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

This Xul rework looks very interesting. Making the Raise Skeleton build will be way more viable now.

well the build before was much more "mass push" as you healed and got mana back for getting skeletons, so you pushed hard core, but now it is much more attack player focused instead of mass push

[Valhalen 1,484]

2 minutes ago, Plaguestorm said:

well the build before was much more "mass push" as you healed and got mana back for getting skeletons, so you pushed hard core, but now it is much more attack player focused instead of mass push

Yes, but with the reworked Trag'Oul essence I think Xul will be getting more health/mana from it, in theory.

[positiv2 952]

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Xul's kit was feeling very old too.

Yeah, Xul went without a change for almost a year (last change was on 27-7-2016), which is quite sad. There are more heroes that are left unchanged for way too long, but I hope Blizzard will do something about it, even though, as Oxy said, they are "not known for working from the bottom up". One day, even my beloved Illidan will see a proper change.

Anyway, the changes seem good, so I just hope that it's not like the Cho'gall rework - seemed like a buff, but was a nerf instead.

[Plergoth 277]

The Xul rework has caught me as a surprise, but it definitely seems interesting. 

The Hanamura changes seem alright at first glance, but it seems like they're indirectly buffing Bribe with the merc camp buffs? 

[Nicolas 0]

Oh, good to see a Xul rework! Good ideas in there, will inject much-needed variety.

Otherwise... I guess they think Malthael's balanced? When I read his nerfs, I said "he's staying on top, and I'll keep having fun with him while it lasts", and it has absolutely held true.

[Valhalen 1,484]

5 hours ago, Nicolas said:

Otherwise... I guess they think Malthael's balanced? When I read his nerfs, I said "he's staying on top, and I'll keep having fun with him while it lasts", and it has absolutely held true.

Honestly, I don't think he is overpowered. He is very strong, but not broken:

- Has no burst damage nor sieging potential.

- Easy to focus and intercept.

- Easy to kite; Death Shroud is very easy to avoid, which is his only way to apply Reaper's Mark to opponents in long range.

I was expecting D.Va to be nerfed after her launch but those nerfs never came to be (only some few tweaks).

[SteveFrost 97]

Out of everyone, Xul? Really?

Not hating but he is one of the (relatively) new Heroes still, and there are others who need a reworked Talent Tree much more than him imho. Balance wise he came out pretty strong, got nerfed and ended up in a reasonable spot imho (deja vu intensifies). The rework itself seems very well done.

[Valhalen 1,484]

13 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

Out of everyone, Xul? Really?

Not hating but he is one of the (relatively) new Heroes still, and there are others who need a reworked Talent Tree much more than him imho. Balance wise he came out pretty strong, got nerfed and ended up in a reasonable spot imho (deja vu intensifies). The rework itself seems very well done.

Yeah, I was expecting them to tamper with other Heroes that need reworks more, such as Li Li, TLV and Stitches.

[Laragon 269]

8 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Yeah, I was expecting them to tamper with other Heroes that need reworks more, such as Li Li, TLV and Stitches.

Those three are all right at home in their niche though. Lili works great against AA teams and is amazing in any double support comp, TLV is always about split soak and playing the map, and stitches single handedly won Mid-Season Brawl. Could they use tweeks, yes, but so could almost every hero. It's hard to edit anything about those heroes without them reaching slightly OP status across the board and CRAZY op at top rank play (especially for TLV and stitches).

[Nicolas 0]

13 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Honestly, I don't think [Malthael] is overpowered. He is very strong, but not broken

Well his winrate's around 60%, which is much less broken then some other heroes have been in the past, sometimes for weeks. His kit isn't fundamentally broken, but anything can be overpowered if the numbers are high enough.

But this 60% dominance holds throughout game modes and leagues, including Master Hero League (where he's almost always banned or played), so I'm surprised Blizzard doesn't nerf him further.

[MurkyFelix 51]

11 hours ago, Laragon said:

Could they use tweeks, yes, but so could almost every hero. It's hard to edit anything about those heroes without them reaching slightly OP status across the board and CRAZY op at top rank play (especially for TLV and stitches).

I would second this and also indicate that tampering with a hero could make another one inherently much more strong/weak without anything changing on that hero. Balance is always a toughy. I am sick though of them bringing out a rework and being like "This kit is old/outdated". I feel like reworks/tweaks should address balance and playablility but not "Oh this hero hasn't been touched in a while"

[Valhalen 1,484]

13 hours ago, Nicolas said:

Well his winrate's around 60%, which is much less broken then some other heroes have been in the past, sometimes for weeks. His kit isn't fundamentally broken, but anything can be overpowered if the numbers are high enough.

But this 60% dominance holds throughout game modes and leagues, including Master Hero League (where he's almost always banned or played), so I'm surprised Blizzard doesn't nerf him further.

Given the two tank meta dominance, it makes sense that he has a high winrate.

2 hours ago, MurkyFelix said:

I would second this and also indicate that tampering with a hero could make another one inherently much more strong/weak without anything changing on that hero. Balance is always a toughy. I am sick though of them bringing out a rework and being like "This kit is old/outdated". I feel like reworks/tweaks should address balance and playablility but not "Oh this hero hasn't been touched in a while"

Sometimes the validity of tweaking an old kit makes sense, since Blizzard has been wanting to get rid of all generic talents (Bolt of the Storm, Envenom, Giant Killer, Shrink Ray, etc.), as well to give every Hero at least one Quest Talent, which adds an extra layer of depth to the game.

I feel that Li Li is one of those Heroes that need a rework for all reasons listed above. Not to mention she is a poor spot compared to the other Supports. Same for The Lost Vikings.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Valhalen

[MurkyFelix 51]

4 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Sometimes the validity of tweaking an old kit makes sense, since Blizzard has been wanting to get rid of all generic talents (Bolt of the Storm, Envenom, Giant Killer, Shrink Ray, etc.), as well to give every Hero at least one Quest Talent, which adds an extra layer of depth to the game.

I feel that Li Li is one of those Heroes that need a rework for all reasons listed above. Not to mention she is a poor spot compared to the other Supports. Same for The Lost Vikings.

This is true.

I would like a Li Li rework but I hope they don't change her passive or Kung Fu Hustle as these are the 2 things that I enjoy most about playing her.

Frankly I tried playing TLV once and my brain broke...I cannot have a valid opinion on them xp

[Valhalen 1,484]

22 minutes ago, MurkyFelix said:

This is true.

I would like a Li Li rework but I hope they don't change her passive or Kung Fu Hustle as these are the 2 things that I enjoy most about playing her.

Frankly I tried playing TLV once and my brain broke...I cannot have a valid opinion on them xp

I doubt they'd remove Kung Fu Hustle, since it's her main powerspike; and they'd probably add even more to her trait, if they were to rework Li Li. If anything, I feel that a rework would probably improve her damage and utility a bit more, like the Tyrande rework. In my humble opinion, Serpent Sidekick should become baseline. Cloud Serpent itself doesn't deal enough damage to be useful.

As for TLV, I keep repeating this whenever I talk about them, but Blizzard once said they wanted to tamper with them in the future and add talents that made them stronger when they're together, to incentivize other talent builds other than split-pushing. I really wanna see that happen, because I suck at split-pushing with them, haha.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Valhalen

[Lovestud500 2]

I really dont like the xul changes. I felt like he was a strong anti melee or double tank. Now poison damage is the only % based damage skill. Also you cant be low health and find a creep wave and pop your self up to full heals.  I think this is going to be a big nerf to him overall.

Edited July 10, 2017 by Lovestud500
spelling error

[KingMe 289]

@Lovestud500 I'm digging the profile pic. Nice. lol

[Lovestud500 2]

16 hours ago, KingMe said:

@Lovestud500 I'm digging the profile pic. Nice. lol

Thank you. :p