heroes Alexstrasza Patch Notes: Nov 14

[Stan 5,242]

The latest update for the Heroes of the Storm brings the newest Support Hero, Alexstrasza, and the Dragons of the Nexus event quest to the Nexus, as well as a rework for Li Li, new cosmetic items, and more!

Don't forget to check out our Alexstrasza build guide.

Blizzard (Source)

General

Dragons of the Nexus Event Quest

A host of new portrait rewards are ready to swoop into your collection as our Dragons of the Nexus event takes flight! The event kicks off Tuesday, November 14, and lasts until December 12, so be sure to login and complete the quests below to start claiming your rewards.

• Login Reward
  • Quest: Log in to Heroes of the Storm during the Dragons of the Nexus event.
    • Reward: Stained Glass Alexstrasza and Hanzo Portrait
• 3 Part Quest Chain
  • Play Heroes of the Storm in Versus AI, Quick Match, Ranked, or Unranked to advance quest progress. Only one part will be active at any time, and each quest must be completed in order.
  • Part 1: Play 5 games
    • Reward: Dragonqueen Alexstrasza Portrait
  • Part 2: Play 5 games
    • Reward: Dragonstrike Portrait
  • Part 3: Achieve 90 takedowns in winning games
    • Reward: Stained Glass Dragon Knight Portrait

New Hero: Alexstrasza

Alexstrasza, the queen of dragons, was empowered by the titans to be the guardian of all life on Azeroth. She has aided mortals time and again, even at great personal cost. Now, she soars across the Nexus, protecting life wherever she finds it.

Trait 

• Dragonqueen
  • After 1.25 seconds, transform into a dragon and gain 500 Health. While Dragonqueen is active, Alexstrasza's Basic Abilities are empowered, her Basic Attacks deal 143 damage and heal allied Heroes for 43 in an arc in front of her, and the duration of incoming Slows, Roots, Blinds, and Stuns is reduced by 50%. Lasts 15 seconds.

Basic Abilities

• Gift of Life (Q)
  • Sacrifice 15% of Alexstrasza's current Health, healing an ally for 150% of that amount.
  • Dragonqueen: Breath of Life cooldown greatly reduced and does not cost Health.
• Abundance (W)
  • Plant a seed of healing that blooms after 3 seconds, healing nearby allied Heroes for 20% of their maximum Health.
  • Dragonqueen: Preservation heal area and amount greatly increased.
• Flame Buffet (E)
  • Launch a fireball, Burning enemies hit for 75 damage over 5.5 seconds.Hitting enemies that are already Burning deals 125 bonus damage upon impact, Slows them by 40% decaying over 2 seconds, and refunds the Mana cost.
  • Dragonqueen: Wing Buffet damage and Knockback enemies in an arc.

Heroic Abilities

• Life-Binder (R)
  • Bind Alexstrasa's life force with an allied Hero. After 2 seconds, the Hero with a lower percentage of Health is set to the same Health percentage as the other Hero..
• Cleansing Flame (R)
  • After 1.25 seconds, take to the sky and drop fireballs at the position of your mouse cursor every 1.2 seconds for 6 seconds. Each fireball restores 300 Health to nearby allied Heroes, and deals 150 damage to nearby enemies.2 seconds after dropping all fireballs, Alexstrasza lands at the position of your mouse cursor.

AI

General

• Made improvements to Battleground strategies used by Elite AI Heroes.
• Several additional Heroes have received tactical AI improvements, including:
  • Greymane
  • Johanna
  • Ragnaros
  • Rehgar
  • Rexxar
  • Valeera
  • Zarya

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Li Li has received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent changes.
• Sgt. Hammer's Basic Attacks during Siege Mode now better convey area of effect damage.

Battlegrounds

Bloodlust Brawl

• All Minions, Mercs, and the Dragon Knight now have permanent Bloodlust.

Developer Comment: When looking at this Brawl, we really love the Bloodlust buff. By powering up the Players and the Dragon Knight so much, the poor Minions really struggled to provide much value during the Brawl. In order to bring them up to speed with their Mercenary buddies, we’ve decided that all Minions could use permanent Bloodlust as well.

Ranked Battleground Rotation Update

• Added to Rotation
  • Battlefield of Eternity
  • Infernal Shrines
• Removed from Rotation
  • Haunted Mines
  • Garden of Terror
• The full Ranked Battleground Rotation is now as follows:
  • Battlefield of Eternity
  • Braxis Holdout
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Dragon Shire
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Sky Temple
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
  • Towers of Doom
  • Volskaya Foundry

User Interface

In-Game UI

• Capture Points
  • Volskaya Foundry objective UI will now display “Contested” text when members of both teams are actively fighting over a capture point.
• Core
  • Notifications that indicate when the allied Core is under attack have been made more apparent.
• Talent Tier Advantage Callouts
  • In-game chat messages will now automatically appear for all players when a team reaches levels 10 and 20 in order to more clearly indicate when one team has a Heroic Ability or Storm Talent tier advantage over the other.
  • A follow-up message will appear when the second team reaches levels 10 and 20 to indicate that Heroic Abilities or Storm Talents are now available to both teams.

 

Heroes

Support

Li Li

Abilities

• Fast Feet (Trait)
  • Added Functionality:
    • Basic Ability Cooldowns recharge 50% faster while Fast Feet is active. 
• Healing Brew (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  • Range reduced from 7 to 6
  • Mana Cost reduced from 30 to 25
• Cloud Serpent (W)
  • Mana Cost increased from 30 to 40
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
  • Attack Speed increased from .75 to 1 attacks per second
  • Damage increased from 25 to 27 
  • Added Functionality:
    • Each time a Cloud Serpent attacks, the hero it is attached to is healed for a small amount.

• Blinding Wind (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 9 to 12 seconds
  • Duration reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
  • Mana Cost decreased from 35 to 30
• Jug of 1,000 Cups (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 70 seconds to 20 seconds
  • Jug of 1,000 Cups can now be cancelled early
  • Added Functionality:
    • Each time an ally is healed by Jug of 1,000 Cups, its cooldown is increased by 2 seconds, to a maximum of 50 additional seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Conjurer’s Pursuit (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Pro Toss (Q)
    • Removed
  • Timeless Creature (W)
    • Removed
  • Gale Force (E)
    • Moved to Level 13
    • New Functionality
      • Increases the duration of Blinding Wind from 2 to 3 seconds. Lili’s Basic Attacks against Blinded Heroes deal 50% more damage.
  • (New Talent) Free Drinks (Q)
    • If Healing Brew heals a target under 50% health, its Cooldown is reduced by 1 second and its mana cost is refunded.
  • (New Talent) Wind Serpent (W)
    • Cloud Serpent’s Cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds each time you hit a Hero with Blinding Wind.
  • (New Talent) Eager Adventurer (Trait)
    • Increases the duration of Fast Feet by 50% and Mana Regeneration is increased by 150% while Fast Feet is active. 
• Level 4
  • Healing Ward (Active)
    • Removed
  • Mending Serpent (W)
    • Removed
  • Mass Vortex (E)
    • Moved to Level 13
    • New functionality:
      • Blinding Wind hits an additional target. If all targets hit are Heroes, they take 75% increased damage from Blinding Wind.
  • Lingering Blind (E)
    • Removed 
• Level 7
  • Pitch Perfect (Q)
    • Removed
  • The Good Stuff (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • Healing Brew heals for an additional amount over 3 seconds. While Fast Feet is active, this amount is increased by 100%.
  • Lightning Serpent (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Cloud Serpent attacks bounce to 2 nearby Heroes for 50% damage.
  • Cleanse (Active)
    • Removed
  • (New Talent) Let's Go!
    • Activate to heal allied Hero for a small amount and make them unstoppable for 1 second. 40 second cooldown. The cooldown of this ability is affected by Fast Feet. 
• Level 13
  • Elusive Feet (Trait)
    • Removed
  • Hindering Winds (E)
    • Moved to Level 4
    • Slow amount increased to 30%.
  • Surging Winds (E)
    • New functionality:
      • If at least two targets of Blinding Wind are Heroes, gain 10 Spellpower for 10 seconds and reduce the cooldown of Blinding Wind by 3 seconds. 
  • Shrink Ray (Active)
    • Removed 
• Level 16
  • Shake It Off (Trait)
    • Moved to Level 20
    • New functionality:
      • While Fast Feet is active, gain 8 Armor per second, to a maximum of 30 armor.
  • Safety Sprint (Active)
    • Moved to Level 4
    • New functionality:
      • Activate to gain Fast Feet and increase its movement speed bonus to 30% for 2 seconds. 30 second cooldown.
  • Serpent Sidekick (W)
    • Moved to Level 4
    • New functionality:
      • Each time a Cloud Serpent attacks a Hero, its duration is increased by .5 seconds.
  • (New Talent) Pick Me Up (Q)
    • Healing Brew heals for 33% more if the target is under 50% life.
  • (New Talent) Blessings of Yu'lon (W)
    • Cloud Serpent attacks heal its bearer for an additional 1.5% of their maximum life. 
• Level 20
  • Kung Fu Hustle (Trait)
    • Removed
  • Storm Shield (Active)
    • Removed
  • (New Talent) Mistweaver (Active)
    • Activate to heal all nearby Allies. 30 second cooldown. The cooldown of this ability is reduced by 1 second each time you or your cloud serpent attacks.

LEVEL (TIER)	LI LI TALENTS
1 (1)	Free Drinks (Q)	Wind Serpent (W)	Eager Adventurer (Trait)
4 (2)	Serpent Sidekick (W)	Hindering Winds (E)	Safety Sprint (Trait)
7 (3)	The Good Stuff (Q)	Lightning Serpent (W)	Let's Go! (Active)
10 (4)	Jug of 1,000 Cups	Water Dragon	—	—
13 (5)	Gale Force (E)	Surging Winds (E)	Mass Vortex (E)
16 (6)	Two for One (Q)	Pick Me Up (Q)	Blessings of Yu'lon (W)
20 (7)	Jug of 1,000,000 Cups (R)	Double Dragon (R)	Mistweaver (Active)	Shake It Off (Trait)

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

 

Collection

Hero Price Reduction

• Li-Ming’s prices have been reduced to 7,000 Gold and 625 Gems.

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

• Alexstrasza Heroic Bundle
• Heroes of Luxoria Bundle
• Superheroes of the Storm Bundle
• Team Spirit Bundle

New Announcers

• Alarak
• Alexstrasza

New Skins

• Alexstrasza
  • Ascendant Alexstrasza
  • Jade Alexstrasza
  • Saronite Alexstrasza
  • Snowfall Alexstrasza
  • Dark Queen Alexstrasza
    • Divine Queen Alexstrasza
    • Ice Queen Alexstrasza
    • Iridescent Queen Alexstrasza
    • Molten Queen Alexstrasza
  • Dragon Aspect Alexstrasza
    • Death Aspect Alexstrasza
    • Kaldorei Aspect Alexstrasza
    • Timeless Aspect Alexstrasza
    • Wild Aspect Alexstrasza
• Azmodan
  • Three-peat Azmodunk
• Cho’gall
  • Fel Warlord Cho'gall
  • Highmaul Cho'gall
• Chromie
  • Elegant Dream Genie Chromie
  • Verdant Dream Genie Chromie
  • Violet Fel Queen Chromie
• Greymane
  • Blackwald Hunter Greymane
• Kael'thas
  • Spectre Cyberhawk Kael’thas
• Kharazim
  • Sanguine Tiger Kharazim
  • Wildstone Tiger Kharazim
• Medivh
  • Arcane Medivh
  • Emerald Knight Owl Medivh
• Samuro
  • Midnight Monkey King Samuro
• Varian 
  • Obsidian Lionheart Varian

Bug Fixes

General

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

AI

• Ana: AI Ana will no longer attempt to Heal allied Garden Terrors, Dragon Knights, or Triglav Protectors.
• Haunted Mines: Fixed an issue in which AI Heroes would “B-Step” after the neutral Grave Golem was killed, rather than completing their Hearthstone casts.
• Melee Lane Units: Melee Minions, Mercenaries, and Braxis Holdout’s melee Zerg units will no longer ignore an enemy Ragnaros in Molten Core form.

Art

• Malthael: Movement Speed bonus visual effects will now correctly appear if Malthael learns On a Pale Horse while mounted.
• Mounts: Visual effects that appear around the Golden Nexus Charger will now correctly animate while using Low graphic settings.
• Varian: Will once again leap toward his Colossus Smash target.

Battlegrounds

• Cursed Hollow: Sgt. Hammer’s Spider Mines will now correctly attack enemy Structures affected by the Raven Lord’s Curse.
• Dragon Shire: Removed two targeting indicators for Dehaka’s Brushstalker that appeared in locations where no Brush was present.
• Try Mode: Kel’Thuzad’s Master of the Cold Dark Trait Quest will now correctly apply its cooldown reduction bonus after using the Complete Quests button.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Abathur: Casting Ultimate Evolution on Jaina will no longer cause Abathur’s Calldown: MULE Talent icon to permanently switch to the icon for Improved Ice Block.
• Abathur: Attempting to cast Toxic Next in an area that is already densely populated by existing Nests will no longer consume a charge without placing a new Toxic Nest.
• Alarak: Learning Counter-Strike or Deadly Charge at level 20 will now correctly append that Ability’s description to the Sadism Trait tooltip.
• Azmodan: All Shall Burn’s tooltip has been updated to clarify that its bonus Structure damage is a flat amount, rather than percentage-based.
• Ana: A targeting indicator will now correctly appear when using Healing Dart charges granted by Active Reload.
• Chromie: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities, like Artanis’ Blade Dash, could prevent Temporal Loop from returning the target to its original location.
• Brightwing: Arcane Flare’s targeting indicator will no longer visually persist on the terrain if cast outside the Gate during the pre-game countdown.
• Garrosh: Stukov’s Weighted Pustule will no longer be removed from targets hit by Wrecking Ball or Into the Fray.
• Gazlowe: Fixed an issue preventing Deth Lazor from being cast with less than 60 Mana after learning Hyperfocus Coils
• Johanna: Blessed Hammer can no longer be activated during Falling Sword.
• Junkrat: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities, like Genji’s Dragonblade and Stitches’ Hook, could hit Junkrat during Rocket Ride just before he makes impact.
• Kel’Thuzad: Glacial Spike will now correctly deal bonus damage granted by Ability Power gains.
• Kel’Thuzad: The Hungering Cold Talent will now correctly deal its bonus damage to non-Heroic enemies rooted by Frost Nova.
• Lt. Morales: Fixed an issue in which Lt. Morales could become immune to certain Stasis effects like Void Prison and Devouring Maw until death.
• Lt. Morales: Casting Reinforcements in the allied Hall of Storms will no longer permanently remove Heroes inside the Medivac within from the Battleground’s playable area.
• Lúcio: Learning Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop and then walking over Junkrat’s Steel Trap will no longer cause that trap to visually persist on Lúcio’s model.
• Stukov: Nazeebo will now correctly be pushed if he is hit by Massive Shove while channeling Ravenous Spirit.
• Tassadar: The Prismatic Link Talent will no longer cause Tassadar’s Basic Attack to chain to Kharazim during Seven-Sided Strike.
• Tassadar: The Templar’s Will Talent’s second reward will no longer increase Basic Attack range in Archon form.
• Uther: After learning Divine Protection, Devotion Armor will now stack correctly when Healing an allied Hero using Flash of Light during Eternal Vanguard.
• Uther: Will no longer be teleported back to the allied Hall of Storms if Redemption’s cooldown completes while in Eternal Vanguard form.
• Valla: Manticore will no longer deal its bonus damage to Valla’s Basic Attack target while Valla is Blind or the target is Evading.
• Zagara: Nydus Network can no longer prevent Heroes from walking out of their Hall of Storms. 

User Interface

• Death Recap: The Ability icon and description for Gazlowe’s Rock-It! Turret will now correctly appear on the Death Recap screen.
• Hotkeys: The Move command’s Quick Cast hotkey is no longer customizable.

[Valhalen 1,484]

Damn, I was expecting they'd fix the Jaina art icon bug.

There is currently a bug where if you switch the positions of "Improved Ice Block" and "Icy Veins", "Icy Veins" will have the icon art of "Improved Ice Block" for the rest of the game.

[Dejo93 1,023]

Am I the only only saddened that they didn't add any new mounts or skins? I mean come on, I remember the time when In Development videos showed new mounts and skins, instead of lazy recolors and sprays

[Valhalen 1,484]

2 minutes ago, Dejo93 said:

Am I the only only saddened that they didn't add any new mounts or skins? I mean come on, I remember the time when In Development videos showed new mounts and skins, instead of lazy recolors and sprays

I am a bit too. I guess they've been on a tighter budget lately since 2.0. But now this may change since they're changing the politics of "Gems-only" launch skins. Which is worrying.

Accordingly to the leak, Raynor would get a Viking-themed skin. But I assume they will save it for the Firebat patch, when he is supposed to have his rework.

[Dejo93 1,023]

13 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

I am a bit too. I guess they've been on a tighter budget lately since 2.0. But now this may change since they're changing the politics of "Gems-only" launch skins. Which is worrying.

Accordingly to the leak, Raynor would get a Viking-themed skin. But I assume they will save it for the Firebat patch, when he is supposed to have his rework.

I have no regrets for posting this. Seriously, they're really testing me with their greed

Edited November 14, 2017 by Dejo93
additional info

[Valhalen 1,484]

10 minutes ago, Dejo93 said:

I have no regrets for posting this. Seriously, they're really testing me with their greed

TIME IS MONEY, FRIEND.

[Caldyrvan 377]

They should stop to call it an Event when they are just showering us with useless things. That's disappointing for the players and embarrassing for the devs.

Eager to see Alex in action though :)

Edited November 14, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[Fliits 112]

The update is so tiny! 

[Fliits 112]

2 hours ago, Stan said:

 

New Announcers

• Alarak

"Finally."

[MZLICH 43]

finally update came to eu n people are just saying ugh shes so ...in ugly .shes fat . her eyes are weird. n etc haha. they should do rework on her animation

[Fliits 112]

3 hours ago, MZLICH said:

finally update came to eu n people are just saying ugh shes so ...in ugly .shes fat . her eyes are weird. n etc haha. they should do rework on her animation

One word: 

Shit that's two words

[Vlada8 1]

17 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I am a bit too. I guess they've been on a tighter budget lately since 2.0. But now this may change since they're changing the politics of "Gems-only" launch skins. Which is worrying.

Accordingly to the leak, Raynor would get a Viking-themed skin. But I assume they will save it for the Firebat patch, when he is supposed to have his rework.

So you are trying to tell me, that finally there will be Firebat after Hanzo? That would be so cool, I really love that unit in SC, I know there were like two leaks or more and even when Malthael was leaked he was leaked to, so I hope finally we are going to get him.

[CyberDVonaven 82]

8 hours ago, MZLICH said:

finally update came to eu n people are just saying ugh shes so ...in ugly .shes fat . her eyes are weird. n etc haha. they should do rework on her animation

I don't know who 'these people' are looking at, but there's no way it's Alex. Cause she's sexy as fuck! <3<3<3

[Valhalen 1,484]

21 minutes ago, CyberDVonaven said:

I don't know who 'these people' are looking at, but there's no way it's Alex. Cause she's sexy as fuck! <3<3<3

She is a TDMILF!

[Caldyrvan 377]

She looks definitely good but with all the great design blizz showed us in the past years it's a bit disappointing. Looks good but kinda rushed.

[MZLICH 43]

Yea She 'was' one of 10 sexiest characters in "wow'' but now in in hots .. I think chromie looks much prettier and sexier haha

[Plergoth 277]

They've been sneaky and put this rework Lili out there at the same time we have this big flashy dragon healer released, but I noticed, and I am disappointed. At first glance the rework has given her a bit of extra depth, but I already find myself looking for some number tweaks. A couple of key things to note; her healing ult stops her from using Cleanse, I'm not sure about Mistweaver and Safety Sprint however. This and the fact you can still easily interrupt her channelled ult with the gazillion forms of cc in the meta has long since lost it's comedy value as well. She can hold her own against a surprising number of heroes still, but they have definitely targeted her damage potential, particularly with the previous big power spike with Surging Winds at 13 which is still there but at half the buff and duration I believe. 

Overall more squishy, less healing until much later on, power spike talents don't have the same impact as you would hope for, a lack of quests and skill cap severely limits one's ability to keep up with contemporary healers, clunky to use healing ult that's not consistent with other supports, less damage and less utility outside of Cleanse in a double support comp than her peers. 

Edit for Alexstrasza: Her Cleansing Flame ult and her trait reset or ignore negative effects such as Tracer's Pulsebomb and poison stacks from Ana. Not sure if this is intentional or not, but it is unquestionably powerful. 

Edited November 16, 2017 by Plergoth