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Of the Relevance and Usefulness of Performance-Based Matchmaking

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One of the biggest changes announced at BlizzCon 2017 was the introduction of the performance-based matchmaking system for ranked game modes in Heroes of the Storm.

In a nutshell, this new system seeks to quickly adjust individual player matchmaking rating (MMR) by using data from past performance, other players, and a number of other unspecified systems. Unfortunately, players quickly found out how flawed the system was upon receiving seemingly unjustified penalties to their MMR despite perceived strong performance, and ultimately figured out how to game the system to maximise their gains by exhibiting counterintuitive in-game behaviour.

And unfortunately for Blizzard, the release of the system coincided with other “bugs” that affected placements and general matchmaking, which exacerbated the problem. Not one but two placement match history resets have now been performed. Blizzard claimed that the issues were not related to the new performance-based matchmaking system, but the system in question has been disabled for three days at the time of writing. I can’t help but to wonder why the system was disabled if it in fact wasn’t part of the issues, but I’ll offer Blizzard a highly skeptical benefit of the doubt for now. They need all the help they can get.

However, I’m not here to criticise Blizzard’s course of action, which I believed to be reasonable and timely enough, if not a bit opaque. I’d much rather look into the very existence of the performance-based matchmaking system. I’ll start by going over some of the comments made in the official system announcement linked above.

Blizzard LogoBlizzard (Source)

The team-focused nature of Heroes presents challenges when using this system to determine an individual player’s matchmaking rating, since any single player is only 1 part of the 5-man team that won or lost the match. The system works since, all things being equal, a player will win more games than they lose over the long run if their skill is higher than other players at the same rank.

I must admit I was not ready to respond to a “we know it works, but we’re changing it anyway” approach. Leaving aside the obvious flaw in basic argumentation theory, I know how frustrating it is to have a strong performance and still lose; I’ve certainly been there before. But, in general, players need to be groomed into being able to look at the larger, statistically-significant picture. If you consistently perform well and are never the cause for losses, you will rise. After all, the opposing team would have 5 chances of “messing up” whereas yours would only have 4. This means that if you can maintain an approximate 55.5% win rate, you know you’re good. (That approximate 55.5% value comes from 100 - 4 / 9 * 100; this calculation essentially compares each team’s chance at a liability if you’re never a negative factor, hence why it only take 9 players into account and giving each player an approximate 11.11…% of the responsibility for losing.). If your win rate is actually higher than that, you may even be good enough to even make up for negative factors on your team. That’s powerful, and certainly doesn’t require any fancy system to work, even in a team environment, unlike what Blizzard seems to be claiming. Even if your impact is small, you still have an impact.

However, I don’t want people to get me wrong here; in theory, I think that the idea of a performance-based matchmaking system is great, though just not for the purpose of long-term MMR adjustment. If Heroes of the Storm did have a way to accurately identify high- and low-level players, the matchmaking experience would be vastly improved for both groups: high-level players would no longer have to endure low-level players with high MMR uncertainty, whereas low-level players would no longer be thrown into victimizing and soul-crushing matches. Higher match quality promotes player retention; player retention is profitable for everyone.

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What differentiates a highly skilled player on a given Hero isn’t always obvious, though.

In a complex game such as Heroes of the storm, is it ever? The system is claimed to be “dynamic”, which means that, over time, it reevaluates how it defines skilled play for a given hero as it is fed new data. However, in practice, I just don’t think "skill" is something that can be reliably measured by in-game performance data alone. Nor should it be. Let us draw comparisons between Heroes of the Storm and chess, which has used a similar matchmaking system known as ELO for some decades now. In chess, what would you say matters most between the two following statements?

Claiming multiple pieces without trading your own?

or…

Focusing on claiming key pieces during key moments?

The answer is “it depends”. Although both tactics may lead to victory, the first style is opportunistic whereas the second is analytical. Unfortunately for the second player, their strategy would be much harder for a performance-based system to evaluate; how would it know what defines a key piece, let alone a key moment? The first approach is mathematical; one is better than zero and, generally, “free” trades correlate with winning, which is more or less why they are inexistant at a high level chess unless intentional.

In chess, you aren’t rewarded for losing less, and the reason for this is that the underlying ELO system is robust and self-correcting; rating resets don’t occur every couple months, let alone twice in a week, and rating gains and losses are small. Of course, the ELO system isn’t beyond reproach, but I think it’s fair to say that players understand that long-term results are what matter, not individual game results. And, it doesn’t run the risk of overvaluing Queen taking Rook because of insufficient or misinterpreted data.

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Queen literally takes Rook during a Tribute fight. Siege damage is important to Zagara, says data.

As you can tell probably tell by now, I’m very skeptical about how such a system is supposed to evaluate what differentiates a highly skilled player, period, regardless of what hero it is they’re playing. Here’s a concrete example of what I mean by that: Although I don’t consider myself to be a particularly strong mechanical player, I have always managed to maintain a rather high win/loss ratios, for a team game, back in my active days anyway. Why? I’d be lying if I didn’t say that many of these victories weren’t simply due to outdrafting opponents, clear non-confrontational shotcalling, encouraging teammates, defusing infighting, taking every match seriously, knowing when and why to engage, going over mistakes, and generally making powerful macro decisions. On top of being that one weird guy that says “can play anything*, prefer assassin or specialist, let’s try to ban x and pick y.” Doesn’t reading that first thing in any given lobby instill confidence in the rest of your teammates? I bet this translates into wins every once in a while, so why not do it?

I tend to thrive on waveclear tanks with strong engaging power because they let me decide exactly when a minion wave needs to push or when an enemy hero needs to die despite low mechanical ceilings.

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And now you know how to ban me out.

*…whereas I couldn’t outplay most of my opponents to save my life. I accept my fate as one of the worst Illidan players in existence, and I’m fine with it.

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I have nothing to add, your honor.

The great irony here is that none of the aforementioned elements that I feel make me, and probably many other players, reasonably strong are – nor can be – taken into account by any automated system because they’re simply too subjective. Why exactly am I being punished for not mindlessly using my abilities on-cooldown and padding my numbers? We get it; dealing damage is important. But what about useful damage? How can that ever be taken into account by a machine? This might sound like an argument from incredulity but, as I see it, we have plenty of evidence to conclude that the system isn’t quite working as intended.

Of course, within this system, winning is still what matters most, and by far. Fortunately for me, my skillset does tend to translate into wins. But obfuscating one’s point gains and losses behind questionable variables is going to, at best, confuse players, and at worst, breed harmful behaviour. These two consequences have already been observed.

TL;DR:

A solid performance-based matchmaking system can have positive effects on matchmaking by allowing players to find their appropriate MMR faster. However, what defines a good player in a complex, team-oriented game goes well beyond what any data collection system can collect, interpret, and use. In its current state, the performance-based matchmaking system is at best unnecessary and at worst obfuscating, and ultimately risks breeding harmful player behaviour.

I’ll allow myself to end on a bit of wisdom: If you play to improve, you’ll never lose a game in your life. And the sooner you quit worrying about your rank, the sooner you’ll be able to focus on what really matters.

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The primary problem with this individual performance is that HotS is so team-oriented that sometimes you have to do what seems like the wrong thing to give your team the advantage.

 

Sometimes you NEED to overextend and push a lane, threatening it to pull opponents away from an objective to deal with you. Sometimes you need to soak and not fight over the objective to give your team a quick level/heroic bonus over the opponents. Heck, sometimes you need to overextend in a team fight just enough to pull an enemy into range of a Garrosh toss or some other ability that will then punish them for taking the bait.

 

Computers don't recognize plays like this for what they are. They see it as performing badly and punishing you for it. Computers don't recognize sacrificing the body for the ball. They only see mistakes or successes as they have been programmed to recognize.

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@Tarvesh

You are absolutely right. Games that are as team oriented like HotS do require those plays that seem like just being stupid and suicidal if you want to perform at the highest level. You see it all the time and they yield incredible results when communicated well, not on a personal level, but on a team level.

 

Furthermore, it becomes even harder to measure with this individual performance system when you have specific team compositions where you play a support as a sacrificial pawn instead of actually playing support. The individual performance system will check your performance compared with other people playing the same champion and go "lol this dude died 4x more often than the average" while those plays actually gave you great success for your team.

 

Team-based games are best played in a pre-made team and simply measuring the teams win rate vs other teams. It requires the least variables of performance (How often do you win?) and it is always very consistent (Because you play in the same team all the time).

 

I get the individual performance system, people like to solo queue or test out new champions without dragging down their pre-made team or experiment with different styles etc. There's tonnes of reasons to play solo, but an individual performance system will only work if you have a mastermind team that's capable of making a formula that's "all-compassing" for all the variables involved. And that's just incredibly hard to do without a neural network self-learning AI like Deepmind Alpha Zero that gets data from millions of matches played.

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I know it sounds tempting to say that, if you're always good it doesn't matter if you lose games because of your team being worse than you are, but that's simply not true, no matter how much you and I wish it was. MOBAs by nature are team-based games, you MUST team up and work in conjunction with your teammates in order to succeed. This is why it's so difficult to succeed, and why it's so frustrating for players. Not only you have to be individually good - by yourself -, you ALSO must be good at working with others towards a common goal. If players are already challenged at and are bad enough playing by themselves, you can imagine how bad they get when they try to work with other players as bad as themselves.

Also, you're always making an impact, but if you're playing bad, or even if you're playing good but NOT in conjunction with your teammates, you're not making a POSITIVE impact in favor of your team anyway. You may be an assassin with a wonderful KDA ratio, but if you're not neutralizing that enemy hero who is positively "making the game" for the opposing team, you're not going to tip the scales and change the course of the game anyway. If you're a pusher specialist, and you're not capitalizing on the other team's mistakes to push and create an advantage for your team, doesn't matter you have a decent or even great KDA, you're failing. You're not doing your thing.

This is just like soccer. If you're the best midfielder of the world, like Messi, or Maradona, or whatever, if you simply cannot play together with the rest of your team (or conversely, if they cannot play together with you), you will fail and you will lose the match anyway. Ever wondered why Messi is so good while playing for his team, FC Barcelona, but when playing for the Argentinian national team, he loses in the end, no matter what? Players who are "exceptionally good" on their own can carry their team only to a certain point.

Being "individually good" at MOBAs (not taking the teamwork factor of the equation into account) is already hard enough as it stands. It seems (I say this from personal experience) that most players simply won't take MOBAs seriously. They won't take their sweet time doing their research on their heroes of choice, they maybe know 1 or 2 good builds, but they won't know when to use each. They won't know how to ADAPT, how to draft and outdraft other players. (On a side note, this is a big deal of why I hate the so-revered QM mode in this game, because there's no drafting whatsoever involved in it). A proper drafting phase, where you successfully outpicked and counterpicked the other team, has already decided like 50% of the match's outcome in your favor, even before the actual match starts. But for whatever reason, most players don't know how to draft properly. Even if they are genuinely interested and willing to learn (and I'm not saying that of most), it simply takes a good time of learning and acquiring such experience.

Now there's the big question. Are we players being rated by our individual performance, or by our performance as a team? Or maybe a mix of both? Any form of player ranking system should consider BOTH. If players are individually good but they can't coordinate and work together, they will always get dragged down by poor players. On the other hand, if players in a given team can somehow consistently win games, even if with some internal struggling, it will mean they only have to focus on winning at all costs, which is nice and all, but won't properly measure how good each of them are, and their common rank will not reflect their individualities at all.

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The only fact that is known about the performance based mm is that nothing is known about the performance based mm.

 

All conversations and forum posts like this are only assumptions, suggestions, even far from being called an attempt of a thorough analysis. To be sure and certain what the system is capable and incapable of, one must know exactly it's mechanism. At this point, unless you are a pbmm developer, this is not the case. 

MMRsystem is a number of interacting components, not a whole and inseparable thing. Problems in one of the components can disable or cause malfunction in others, this is why blizz might not be lying about new MMR being not the culprit.

And new MMR is a new  very complex self-learning component in an interconnected system, so rough starts should not surprise you. If they do, you must be not realizing entirely the complexity of this introduction.

All in all, I'm not arguing or proving Oxygen wrong, he might turn 100% correct in the end. All I'm trying to say is that it's probably a bit too early for such statements and such posts.

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I reckon it may be completely impossible to accurately assess how good a player is in a MOBA game. I will talk a bit about Dota 2 here because you don't have something as complex as "wards" here in HotS. But, as you may know, in Dota 2, you have wards, which are used to give vision of the map to your team (in HotS, you have Gall's wards and scouting drones from certain heroes like Raynor, Malfurion, etc, but those are all easily seen and destroyed). There are also sentries, which are similar to wards, but don't give much vision, instead they give DETECTION, to detect invisible heroes or units (including enemy wards) in the surrounding area, so they are often used to deward. Thus, in a typical Dota 2 match, along with the war between the heroes, the ganks, teamfights, and pushes, you also have a "warding war" (at least when both teams are decent) played along. It's a war within a war, so to speak. 

The supports are supposed to buy wards; the carry heroes are supposed to get more powerful (and expensive) items to do their job and kill the other team efficiently and/or survive teamfights, so they are not expected to spend their gold in wards. Thus its a part of the supports' job not only to heal their allies and save them from danger, but also to give valuable map vision to their team. It is expected of a good support to spend a considerable portion of their gold in wards. But does that mean that the support who buys 50 wards in a match was better than another support in that same match who bought only 10 wards? No. Why? Because the one who bought only 10 wards may have provided more USEFUL mapvision to his team; maybe the other guy who bought his 50 wards was just a troll who wasted his wards by planting them around his fountain where no map vision was required. But the game itself has no way to know WHO provided more vision for his team, only the one who bought the most wards. Thus, if the game uses this information to assess players as "good/bad supports" (which is not confirmed, but maybe rumored) it would be surprisingly deceptive.

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  On 12/21/2017 at 3:50 PM, Leadblast said:

... But does that mean that the support who buys 50 wards in a match was better than another support in that same match who bought only 10 wards? No...

Expand  

Likely not, but you can create approximation if in given timeframe hero that was spotted was involved in takedown (be it theirs or yours) or maybe even something else important, of course it's not 100% correct, neither is current MMR.

Edited by SleepySheepy

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  On 12/21/2017 at 4:04 PM, SleepySheepy said:

Likely not, but you can create approximation if in given timeframe hero that was spotted was involved in takedown (be it theirs or yours) or maybe even something else important, of course it's not 100% correct, neither is current MMR.

Expand  

It's really hard to translate that kind of info (how well are you warding) into hard numbers. You maybe are warding correctly, but maybe the other team is aware of your efforts and simply aren't willing to commit into teamfights in the area they suspect is being warded by your team. Maybe you're warding correctly but you're also being dewarded by the enemy support as well. Or maybe you're warding well and all and not being dewarded yourself, but the enemy has simply better ability to survive and/or escape from teamfights (like let's say you're providing good vision, but not detection, so they can just stay invisible in the warded area without you knowing it) so they can and will commit into teamfights, regardless of you having better vision of the field over them. However, you can see that "how well are you warding" has a BIG impact in the game (in most cases anyway) and it can be indirectly measured, in a way, by seeing how well your team performs in teamfights, which in turn contributes to winning the match.

Edited by Leadblast

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  On 12/21/2017 at 3:31 PM, Jonar said:

The only fact that is known about the performance based mm is that nothing is known about the performance based mm.

 

All conversations and forum posts like this are only assumptions, suggestions, even far from being called an attempt of a thorough analysis. To be sure and certain what the system is capable and incapable of, one must know exactly it's mechanism. At this point, unless you are a pbmm developer, this is not the case. 

MMRsystem is a number of interacting components, not a whole and inseparable thing. Problems in one of the components can disable or cause malfunction in others, this is why blizz might not be lying about new MMR being not the culprit.

And new MMR is a new  very complex self-learning component in an interconnected system, so rough starts should not surprise you. If they do, you must be not realizing entirely the complexity of this introduction.

All in all, I'm not arguing or proving Oxygen wrong, he might turn 100% correct in the end. All I'm trying to say is that it's probably a bit too early for such statements and such posts.

Expand  

Agreed! Only time will tell how well this goes and regardless of the outcome it will give Blizzard information/ data to work with in the future. HoTs can only improve (I hope)! 

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First of all, sorry for my English, but I want to explain my opinion. Even Hots is a team-based game, many players play it as alone player in a random group, and the mmr is an individual measure. In low ranks the diferrence can be high and many times, that players of bronze, silver and gold... ranks are casual and semi-casual players than not play too much in a seasson. For that players is a reality to loose many games in a row becouse of a single bad player in a team. That players can't play hundred of games to feed a good ELO kind system, in that case the Performance-Matchmaking is a great tool. Ok maybe that players are not so impresive as the higher ranks but are the most great pool of players of that game.

Now, if you are a cassual player and are spotted in a bronze/silver rank but with time you learn and become a gold-level player, surely you never go out of bronze league as you can play enough games in a season to level up the rank with the actual system that fails in low diferences of level between ranks.

Surely Oxigen opinion is good in higher ranks or for more competitive players, but them, even be the most important reference to balance the game, are the 20% of actual players and I think that tool is more for the other 80%.

Thx for read.

 

Performance-Based Matchmaking

Edited by TDworD

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  On 12/21/2017 at 9:53 PM, TDworD said:

Now, if you are a cassual player and are spotted in a bronze/silver rank but with time you learn and become a gold-level player, surely you never go out of bronze league as you can play enough games in a season to level up the rank with the actual system that fails in low diferences of level between ranks.

Expand  

That's unfortunate, but systems based on statistics actually need statistics to function at all. If you don't play enough games, what's the system supposed to do for you? Hold your hand and say, "hey buddy, those three games you played over the last month and a half were great, here's your gold medal?" At some point, you have to realize that if you can't put time into the game, you're probably better off not expecting a spot in the Pantheon.

Performance-based matchmaking adjustment, you say? Sure, but then, we go back to the problem I underlined in the article: if a player is improving through untrackable means, such as better leadership or drafting, how is the system supposed to account for that and "help" them reach whatever rating they should be at? Performance-based matchmaking only helps performance-based stats.

  On 12/21/2017 at 9:53 PM, TDworD said:

Hots is a team-based game, many players play it as alone player in a random group, and the mmr is an individual measure.

Expand  

Yeah, and that happens to be how it currently is. Great! If you're better than player X, you'll probably win more often, and your MMR will rise accordingly.

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  On 12/22/2017 at 5:14 AM, Oxygen said:

That's unfortunate, but systems based on statistics actually need statistics to function at all. If you don't play enough games, what's the system supposed to do for you? Hold your hand and say, "hey buddy, those three games you played over the last month and a half were great, here's your gold medal?" At some point, you have to realize that if you can't put time into the game, you're probably better off not expecting a spot in the Pantheon.

Expand  

We need to take in account that each season is over 3 months (92 days), if you have a consistent 55% win ratio that means that over 100 games you will gain 55 and loose 45 that means a 10 full victorys and a gain of 2000 rating points, thats 2 ranks, from silver 3 to silver 1, if you are a silver player and want to raise to gold you will need over 300 games with the actual system, that's a lot of hours playing for a casual player, that makes raise a rank more a how many games can you play more than how good you are.

Remember the Nostromia challenge. A Gand Master needed to play hundred of games to raise from bronze to platinum (not count To Grand Master) with a win ratio much higher than the other mortals.

The Performance-based matchmaking only speed-up the process. Yes, the system will not be perfect and may risky plays will not be correctly reflected by the system, but in a statistical point of view, that risky plays are a low percent of all gameplay so the system will anyway speed-up the player even if it can't correctly evaluate all plays. For me it's ok if the system is disabled for higher ranks, I think in premade teams and high ranks that system will make almost no diferences as the diferent level of play in all teammates is very low, so disabling it no matters, but in low ranks I think can be noticeable.

Edited by TDworD

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In my opinion. At least KDA ratio is quiet balanced statistic parameter for measuring. If we got a lot of games with statistics and player doesn't  maining Abathur or something like that. Also KDA for different heroes can make sense. I read a lot of whining comments on reddit from platinum-diamond players, who placed to gold-silver. I have checked profiles just for interest multiple times and I often see something like Jaina-mainer (300+ game) with KDA 2.5-3.0 with her. I saw Guldan-mainer(1000+ games) with same KDA. I am just curious, is it really normal for "skilled" platinum/diamond player to have such KDA on ranged DD?
KDA can't be the main skill estimation in concrete match, because maybe someone was always late on quest but got some kills. But on long distance, better KDA just means better probability to win quests and to win entire game, because, more you kill, less you die - easier to win quests.

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Using only KDA as a parameter is misleading as well. There are lots of heroes which will just die against their natural counters but maybe they can still contribute to their team by pushing, helping in teamfights or whatever. Conversely, you can contribute nothing to your team and still have an apparently wonderful KDA on the surface (maybe because you're feeding on an opponent who is deliberately feeding or otherwise putting himself in a disadvantageous position). You can be a Genji bursting down a Sylvanas 14-3-0 in a distant lane of the map and still not helping your team while the opponent's Jaina + ETC combo is wrecking your teammates every single time they try to acquire the objective. etc.

 

tl;dr it's difficult for them to make a MMR system. However, things like Quick Match mode which only serve to distort statistics simply have to go.

Or at least should not be considered for statistic purposes.

Edited by Leadblast
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I will make a case for the automatic systems, though I think they can be skewed in some cases:

 

A machine learning algorithm should not be underestimated, given enough data it can find surprising things. I heard on a TED talk an AI could be made to predict sertain kind of seizures based on the latest Facebook posts. Machine learning is a big topic...

Such algorithm does not need to play the game itself, it just needs to find out what are the player actions that almost all the time resut in a win.

As for the data itself, my personal guess is that Blizzard saves the whole games on their servers, at least for a short while.

 

Secondly, as long as the algorithm is not public we can only speculate before it's live again.

 

Personaly, I think the current system worked fine, certainly better than the matchmaching in other games, and didn't need a radical change.

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Is it now a flat 200 points you win/lose every match? Where does that mmr kick in then? I used to be ranked a lot higher then my current rank, now I'm with players picking Nova and likes as first pick, and it seems impossible to get out of the lower league swamps.

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  On 12/23/2017 at 5:19 AM, decHunger said:

Such algorithm does not need to play the game itself, it just needs to find out what are the player actions that almost all the time resut in a win.

Expand  

This is how AlphaGo works. The game being played on a turn-by-turn basis and being a lot more quantifiable probably helps quite a bit.

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      Level 1 Pathfinder ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Heroic Ability now heals Genji for 10% of the damage dealt to enemy Heroes, increased by up to 30% based on how low Genji's Health is. Level 10 X-Strike Cooldown increased from 60 seconds to 75 seconds. Detonation damage increased from 275 to 290. Slash damage increased from 135 to 145. Level 13 Shingan Now does 40% less damage to Structures. Level 20 Living Weapon Cooldown reduction increased from 10 seconds to 12.5 seconds. Imperius
      Base
      Molten Armor [E] Now hits two extra targets if no Heroes are in range. Talents
      Level 1 Impaling Light REWORK: Impaling Light cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. REWORK: Impaling Light does 180% more damage to Heroes, reduced by 20% for each additional Hero hit. REWORK: Impaling Light mana cost is reduced from 40 to 30. REWORK: When a Valorous Branded target's Stun ends, Impaling Light's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each Valorous Brand on the target. Level 7 Blaze of Glory Blaze of Glory delay reduced from 2 seconds to 1.75 seconds. Holy Fervor Molten Armor no longer grants Holy Fervor. Level 20 Heavenly Host ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: All Shields created by Angelic Armaments no longer expire. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Swords fired by Heavenly Host Shields can target non-Heroes, but Heroes are prioritized. Molten Wrath NEW TALENT: Molten Armor will now hit two extra targets even if enemy Heroes are in range. Lunara
      Talents
      Level 7 Splintered Spear ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Now grants 3 stacks of Splintered Spear. A stack is consumed when an extra target is attacked. Can have a maximum of 3 stacks and all stacks can be consumed in a single attack. Level 13 Endless Spores Now also refunds 50 Mana. Level 20 For The Wildlands! NEW TALENT: Thornwood Vine now shoots out 4 additional Vines in an arc. Forest's Wrath Can now be selected with either Heroic. Malthael
      Base
      Wraith Strike [W] Range is increased from 6 to 7. Talents
      Level 4 Black Harvest Quest goal reduced from 180 seconds to 150 seconds. Level 10 Tormented Souls No longer resets the cooldown of Wraith Strike when Tormented Souls ends. Now reduces the cooldown of Wraith Strike to 2 seconds and removes its Mana cost while Tormented Souls is active. Level 20 Reaper of Souls While 2 or more enemy Heroes are in Tormented Souls' radius, its duration does not decay. Zagara
      Talents
      Level 16 Corrosive Saliva Damage reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% of maximum Health. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Taunt effects. Map
      Battlefield of Eternity Fixed an issue where areas of the map were not covered under Fog of War. Blackheart's Bay Fixed an issue where some Heroes would not be able to path around Healing Fountains. Cursed Hollow Fixed an issue where Hogger could go through unpathable sections of the map. Warhead Junction Fixed an issue where healing fountains were not symmetrical on the map. Heroes
      Alarak Level 16 Lethal Onslaught Fixed an issue that caused Lethal Onslaught to not increase Alarak's Basic Attack damage correctly. Artanis Base Shield Overload [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Shield Overload to not display correctly if empowered by Shield Surge. Arthas Level 10 Summon Sindragosa Can now be cast over the Minimap. Azmodan Level 20 Sin's Grasp Tooltip Updated. Brightwing Base Arcane Flare [Q] Now has a minimum cast range of .05. Level 10 Blink Heal Fixed an issue that caused Blink Heal's trailing images to be visible while Brightwing has no remaining Blink Heal charges. Chen Base Fortifying Brew [Trait D] Fixed an issue that caused Fortifying Brew being instantly destroyed not granting Attack Speed. Fortifying Brew has been added to the Buff Bar. Dehaka Base Burrow [E] Fixed an issue that caused Burrow's visuals to be displaced if Dehaka is launched shortly after Burrow ends. Level 7 Paralyzing Enzymes Fixed an issue that caused Paralyzing Enzymes' duration to not be reduced if Drag ends early. Gazlowe Base Xplodium Charge [E] Now has a minimum cast range of .2. Level 10 Grav-O-Bomb 3000 Now has a minimum cast range of .2. Hanzo Base Sonic Arrow [E] Now has a minimum cast range of .2. Jaina Base Frostbite [Trait] Ice Block's before first use attention indicator is now also removed when Jaina is killed. Johanna Level 4 Eternal Retaliation Updated Eternal Retaliation's visual effect to only be visible to Johanna. Level 10 Blessed Shield Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Blessed Shield. Kel'Thuzad Level 13 Chains of Ice Chains of Ice no longer Slows if the Stun is removed. Li-Ming Level 10 Disintegrate Fixed an issue that allowed Disintegrate to be cast while moving. Lt. Morales Base Healing Beam [Q] Fixed an issue that allowed Healing Beam to be cast on multiple targets at once. Level 10 Medivac Dropships Fixed an issue that caused Medivac Reinforcement's indicator beam to point to Lt. Morales' active position instead of where Reinforcements was cast. Malfurion Level 1 Emerald Dreams Emerald Dreams no longer puts Heroes to Sleep if the Root gets removed. Medivh Level 20 Glyph Of Poly Bomb Fixed an issue that allowed Medivh to cast abilities during Raven Form. Mephisto Base Shade of Mephisto [E] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Shade of Mephisto. Level 20 Unspeakable Horror Fixed an issue that caused Unspeakable Horror to Silence twice. Muradin Base Thunder Clap [W] Fixed an issue that caused Thunder Clap's splat to not match the area Thunder Clap hits. Level 4 Thunder Burn Fixed an issue that caused Thunder Burn's damaging area to be smaller than Thunder Clap's area. Fixed an issue that caused Thunder Burn's warning indicator to be inconsistently sized for the area affected. Murky Base Pufferfish [W] Now has a minimum cast range of .05. Orphea Base Shadow Waltz [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Orphea to not dash when moving after hitting an enemy Hero with Shadow Waltz. Ragnaros Level 13 Cauterize Wounds Cauterize Wounds healing is now a singular combined effect each time it heals, instead of a heal effect for each Hero hit. Fixed an issue that caused Cauterize Wounds healing amount to be determined by the damage dealt to the target furthest from the primary Empower Sulfuras target. If Cauterize Wounds is reapplied while already active, any remaining healing will apply over the refreshed duration. Rexxar Base Misha, Charge! [W] Can now be self-cast. Samuro Base Critical Strike [W] Fixed an issue that caused Samuro's Critical Strike stacks to be visible to an enemy Samuro. Sonya Level 10 Wrath of the Berserker Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Wrath of the Berserker. Remaining duration indicator is now standalone from Whirlwind's duration indicator. Stukov Base Healing Pathogen [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Healing Pathogen to persist for a brief period after activating Bio-Kill Switch. Sylvanas Base Black Arrows [Trait D] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Black Arrows. Remaining duration indicator is now standalone from Haunting Wave's duration indicator. Level 10 Mind Control Fixed an issue with the display duration for the duration bar of Mind Control. Level 20 Deafening Blast Fixed an issue that caused Deafening Blast to activate off of the center of units instead of their edge. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that prevented Olaf from charging while Silenced. Tracer Level 16 Ricochet Now appears as its own entry in the Death Recap. Tychus Base Frag Grenade [W] Fixed an issue that caused Frag Grenade to not apply physics to physics objects when no targets are hit. Valeera Level 16 Assassinate Damage bonus is now additive. Fixed an issue with duration extension. Whitemane Base Searing Lash [E] Can now be self-cast. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      Blizzard is currently testing a new Heroes of the Storm patch on the PTR. Here's what's new!
      Reddit user Spazzo965 has datamined some additional changes deployed by Blizzard on April 26.
       
      Here are the official PTR patch notes posted by Blizzard on April 21.
      (Source)
      Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.
      Quick Navigation:
      General Storm League Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Anduin has replaced Malfurion as the Ally hero in Try Me Mode. Numerous game strings have been updated to reflect current gameplay. Updated Homescreen and Startup Music. Return to Top
      Storm League
      Rank Decay will now only apply to players in Master and Grand Master Leagues. Reduced maximum party size for Master and Grand Master players to 2. Return to Top
      Balance Update
      Heroes
      Ana
      Base
      Biotic Grenade [W] ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: If Biotic Grenade does not hit any enemies, its cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: If Biotic Grenade only hits Ana, its cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. Talents
      Level 1 Vampiric Rounds Shrike now gives a 15% passive healing bonus. Level 20 Deadeye ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Eye of Horus can now be toggled On and Off. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Eye of Horus cooldown is now 0.5 seconds. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Eye of Horus rounds are regained once every 10 seconds. Bonuses acquired from Deadeye now lasts 7 seconds. Azmodan
      Talents
      Level 16 Trample ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Now reduces Heroic cooldown by 25% if Trample hits a Hero. Genji
      Talents
      Level 1 Pathfinder ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Heroic Ability now heals Genji for up to 30% of the damage dealt to enemy Heroes. Healing amount is increased based on how low Genji's Health is. Level 10 X-Strike Cooldown increased from 60 seconds to 75 seconds. Detonation damage increased from 275 to 290. Slash damage increased from 135 to 145. Level 13 Shingan Now does 40% less damage to Structures. Level 20 Living Weapon Cooldown reduction increased from 10 seconds to 12.5 seconds. Imperius
      Base
      Molten Armor [E] Now hits an extra target if no Heroes are in range. Talents
      Level 1 Impaling Light REWORK: Impaling Light cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. REWORK: Impaling Light does 180% more damage to Heroes, reduced by 20% for each additional Hero hit. REWORK: Impaling Light mana cost is reduced from 40 to 30. REWORK: When a Valorous Branded target's Stun ends, Impaling Light's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each Valorous Brand on the target. Level 7 Blaze of Glory Blaze of Glory delay reduced from 2 seconds to 1.75 seconds. Holy Fervor Molten Armor no longer grants Holy Fervor. Level 20 Heavenly Host ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: All Shields created by Angelic Armaments no longer expire. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Swords fired by Heavenly Host Shields can target non-Heroes, but Heroes are prioritized. Molten Wrath NEW TALENT: Molten Armor will now hit an extra target even if enemy Heroes are in range. Lunara
      Talents
      Level 7 Splintered Spear ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Now grants 3 stacks of Splintered Spear. A stack is consumed when an extra target is attacked. Can have a maximum of 3 stacks and all stacks can be consumed in a single attack. Level 13 Endless Spores Now also refunds 50 Mana. Level 20 For The Wildlands! NEW TALENT: Thornwood Vine now shoots out 4 additional Vines in an arc. Forest's Wrath Can now be selected with either Heroic. Malthael
      Base
      Wraith Strike [W] Range is increased from 6 to 7. Talents
      Level 4 Black Harvest Quest goal reduced from 180 seconds to 150 seconds. Level 10 Tormented Souls No longer resets the cooldown of Wraith Strike when Tormented Souls ends. Now reduces the cooldown of Wraith Strike to 2 seconds and removes its Mana cost while Tormented Souls is active. Level 20 Reaper of Souls While 2 or more enemy Heroes are in Tormented Souls' radius, its duration does not decay. Zagara
      Talents
      Level 16 Corrosive Saliva Damage reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% of maximum Health. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Taunt effects. Map
      Battlefield of Eternity Fixed an issue where areas of the map were not covered under Fog of War. Blackheart's Bay Fixed an issue where some Heroes would not be able to path around Healing Fountains. Cursed Hollow Fixed an issue where Hogger could go through unpathable sections of the map. Warhead Junction Fixed an issue where healing fountains were not symmetrical on the map. Heroes
      Artanis Base Shield Overload [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Shield Overload to not display correctly if empowered by Shield Surge. Brightwing Level 10 Blink Heal Fixed an issue that caused Blink Heal's trailing images to be visible while Brightwing has no remaining Blink Heal charges. Chen Base Fortifying Brew [Trait D] Fixed an issue that caused Fortifying Brew being instantly destroyed not granting Attack Speed. Fortifying Brew has been added to the Buff Bar. Dehaka Base Burrow [E] Fixed an issue that caused Burrow's visuals to be displaced if Dehaka is launched shortly after Burrow ends. Jaina Base Frostbite [Trait] Ice Block's before first use attention indicator is now also removed when Jaina is killed. Johanna Level 4 Eternal Retaliation Updated Eternal Retaliation's visual effect to only be visible to Johanna. Level 10 Blessed Shield Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Blessed Shield. Lt. Morales Level 10 Medivac Dropships Fixed an issue that caused Medivac Reinforcement's indicator beam to point to Lt. Morales' active position instead of where Reinforcements was cast. Mephisto Base Shade of Mephisto [E] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Shade of Mephisto. Ragnaros Level 13 Cauterize Wounds Cauterize Wounds healing is now a singular combined effect each time it heals, instead of a heal effect for each Hero hit. Fixed an issue that caused Cauterize Wounds healing amount to be determined by the damage dealt to the target furthest from the primary Empower Sulfuras target. If Cauterize Wounds is reapplied while already active, any remaining healing will apply over the refreshed duration. Samuro Base Critical Strike [W] Fixed an issue that caused Samuro's Critical Strike stacks to be visible to an enemy Samuro. Sonya Level 10 Wrath of the Berserker Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Wrath of the Berserker. Stukov Base Healing Pathogen [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Healing Pathogen to persist for a brief period after activating Bio-Kill Switch. Sylvanas Base Black Arrows [Trait D] Fixed an issue with the display priority for the duration bar of Black Arrows. Level 10 Mind Control Fixed an issue with the display duration for the duration bar of Mind Control. Level 20 Deafening Blast Fixed an issue that caused Deafening Blast to activate off of the center of units instead of their edge. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that prevented Olaf from charging while Silenced. Valeera Level 16 Assassinate Damage bonus is now additive. Fixed an issue with duration extension. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      Game Pass members can now unlock 30 Heroes in Heroes of the Storm for free. Here’s how to claim your in-game perks.
      Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members are getting a fresh batch of in-game perks this week, and Heroes of the Storm is officially part of the lineup!
      Starting now, subscribers can unlock 30 playable Heroes in Blizzard's free-to-play MOBA just by linking their Battle.net account.
       
    • By Staff
      After extensive PTR testing, Blizzard released a new balance patch and here are the official patch notes.
        
      Our next Heroes of the Storm patch is live! Read on for more information.
      NOTE: Orange text indicates a change between PTR and Live notes.
      Quick Navigation:
      General Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Updated Homescreen and Startup Music. Updated Shop Bundles and Items. Draft First Round pick timer has been reduced from 40 seconds to 25 seconds. Hero Ban timer has been reduced from 24 seconds to 15 seconds. Hero Pick timer has been reduced from 24 seconds to 15 seconds. Return to Top
      Balance Update
      Heroes
      Auriel
      Base
      Bestow Hope [Trait] Decreased the amount of energy stored from 50% to 40% of damage to non-Heroes. Dehaka
      Base
      Dark Swarm [W] Damage reduced from 52 to 48. Talents
      Level 4 Hero Stalker Essence gain is not increased when hitting more than 2 Heroes. Essence gain now requires Dark Swarm to hit 2 Heroes. Hitting more than 3 Heroes at once no longer grants additional Essence. Lurker Strain Cooldown reduction bonus reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. Level 7 Feeding Frenzy REWORK: Cooldown reduction is now a Gambit bonus, starting from 1.5 second cooldown reduction. Each death lowers this by 0.25, up to 3 times. Paralyzing Enzymes REWORK: Gambit removed. Now reduces Drag's target's healing received by 40% while Drag is active and for 2 seconds after. Level 13 Ferocious Stalker Damage bonus reduced from 60% to 50%. Level 16 Tunnelling Claws Movement speed reduced from 125% to 120%. Level 20 Contagion Now also reduces the damage of Isolation by 60%. Greymane
      Talents
      Level 1 Wolfheart Rework: Now also increases Armor granted by Worgen Form from 10 to 15. Kharazim
      Base
      Health increased from 2027 to 2080. Breath of Heaven [W] Healing increased from 285 to 295. Talents
      Level 4 Air Ally Health increased from 200 to 300. Spell Power increased from 15% to 20%. Level 10 Divine Palm Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds. Level 13 Sixth Sense Sixth Sense now starts expiring after the Stun expires, instead of as soon as the Stun is applied. Level 20 Epiphany Cooldown increased from 60 to 70. Mana restored increased from 33% to 70%. Lúcio
      Base
      Soundwave [Q] Cooldown increased from 7 seconds to 8 seconds. Mana cost increased from 30 to 45. Talents
      Level 1 Accelerando Time to maximum increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. Level 4 Off the Wall REWORK: Now also refunds 15 Mana when hitting an enemy with Soundwave while Wall Ride is active. Level 7 Good Vibrations Duration of Shield increased from 7 seconds to 8.5 seconds. Level 10 High Five Cooldown increased from 20 to 25 seconds. Level 13 Heavy Casters Now also prevents Push Off from hitting multiple targets. Push Off no longer Slows the first Hero hit and instead Stuns them for 0.5 seconds. Level 16 Up the Frequency Cooldown reduction reduced from 0.4 seconds to 0.3 seconds. Up To Eleven Duration bonus from Push Off increased from 0.3 seconds to 0.5 seconds. Duration bonus from Soundwave reduced from 0.3 seconds to 0.25 seconds. REWORK: Hitting Heroes while Amp It Up is not active increases the duration of the next Amp It Up by up to 1.5 seconds. This does not limit the amount able to be gained while Amp It Up is active. Whitemane
      Talents
      Level 1 Inquisitor's Prayer After Basic Attacking an enemy Hero 3 times, Whitemane also gains a stack of Inquisitor's Prayer. Level 13 Scarlet Wrath REWORK: Now also restores .5% Mana to all Zeal targets. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an issue that caused some effects to not display correctly on the Target Dummy in the Sandbox and Try Mode. Fixed an issue that caused some Movement Speed bonuses to display the incorrect value in the target info panel. Brawl
      Deathwing's Cataclysm no longer starts on Cooldown in Arena Mode. Deadman's Stand Fixed an issue that caused AI to not act. Fixed an issue that caused the Map Mechanic button to not be visible. Garden Arena Fixed an issued that caused the AI to not move. Punisher Arena Fixed an issued that caused the AI to not move. Trial Grounds Fixed an issued that caused the AI to not move. Map
      Braxis Holdout Fixed an issue that caused Archangel's visual effects to register as a pingable object. Volskaya Fixed an issue that caused the Triglav Protector's Shield Emitter Shields granted to allies to increase the Pilot's Self Healing score when absorbing damage. Heroes
      Abathur Level 10 Ultimate Evolution Clones of Kharazim that have selected Insight now treat the quest as completed. Alarak Level 10 Counter-Strike Now increases Alarak's Self Healing score for damage it absorbs. Ana Base Aim Down Sights [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Aim Down Sight's Healing Dart bonus to last after Aim Down Sights has ended. Activating Aim Down Sights will now also Dismount Ana from the Toy Train. Azmodan Base Summon Demon Warrior [W] Fixed an issue that caused Azmodan's Demon Warrior's aura damage to not behave similar to other aura damage effects. Brightwing Base Soothing Mist [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Smoothing Mist to activate around Brightwing when in Stasis. Dehaka Fixed an issue where Basic Attack's would potentially not consume evade stacks if attacking within .25 seconds of Drag ending. Jaina Level 16 Snowstorm Fixed an issue that caused Snowstorm's bonus to not apply correctly. Kael'thas Level 7 Sunfire Enchantment Fixed an issue that caused an active Sunfire Enchantment Spell Power buff to be removed when Kael'thas is killed. Kharazim Level 10 Divine Palm Fixed an issue that caused Divine Palm's Stasis to remove Damage Over Time effects from Kharazim. Fixed an issue that caused Divine Palm to not remove negative effects that were applied alongside the triggering effect. Greymane Level 4 Insatiable Fixed an issue that caused Human Form Basic Attacks to trigger Insatiable twice. Leoric Base Drain Hope [W] Fixed an issue that caused Stasis on Leoric or Drain Hope's target to not break Drain Hope. Li Li Fixed an issue that caused Water Serpent to move at a reduced speed. Level 4 Surging Winds Fixed an issue that caused an active Surging Winds buff to be removed when Li Li is killed. Li-Ming Level 1 Power Hungry Fixed an issue that caused an active Power Hungry buff to be removed when Li-Ming is killed. Lúcio Level 7 Good Vibrations Fixed an issue that caused Good Vibrations to not gain Shields from Soundwave hitting Neutral Mercenaries. Lunara Level 10 Leaping Strike Fixed an issue that caused Leaping Strike to stall game logic. Malthael Level 1 Fear The Reaper Fixed an issue that caused Fear the Reaper's duration indicator to not be tied to the ability button. Stitches Base Hook [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Hook to not reveal their caster if the Hook is visible. Tassadar Base Shock Ray [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Shock Ray to not reveal their caster if Shock Ray is visible. The Butcher Fixed an issue that allowed The Butcher to disjoint while collecting Fresh Meat. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that caused Longboat to move at a reduced speed. Tychus Level 20 Focusing Diodes Now grants an additive damage bonus. Tyrael Level 13 Law and Order Fixed an issue where maximum bonus was capped at 4 allied Heroes. The cap has been increased to 15. Whitemane Level 10 Divine Reckoning Updated Divine Reckoning's mana restoration based off of damage dealt to display only one instance of floating text. Zul'jin Level 20 Forest Medicine Selecting Forest Medicine will no longer interrupt an ongoing Regeneration channel. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      Blizzard released a new Heroes of the Storm patch for testing on the PTR and here are the official patch notes.
      (Source)
      Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.
      Quick Navigation:
      Balance Update Bug Fixes Balance Update
      Heroes
      Auriel
      Base
      Bestow Hope [Trait] Decreased the amount of energy stored from 50% to 40% of damage to non-Heroes. Dehaka
      Base
      Dark Swarm [W] Damage reduced from 52 to 48. Talents
      Level 4 Hero Stalker Essence gain is not increased when hitting more than 2 Heroes. Essence gain now requires Dark Swarm to hit 2 Heroes. Lurker Strain Cooldown reduction bonus reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. Level 7 Feeding Frenzy Rework: Cooldown reduction is now a Gambit bonus, starting from 1.5 second cooldown reduction. Each death lowers this by 0.25, up to 3 times. Paralyzing Enzymes Rework: Gambit removed. Now reduces Drag's target's healing received by 40% while Drag is active and for 2 seconds after. Level 13 Ferocious Stalker Damage bonus reduced from 60% to 50%. Level 16 Tunnelling Claws Movement speed reduced from 125% to 120%. Level 20 Contagion Now also reduces the damage of Isolation by 60%. Kharazim
      Base
      Health increased from 2027 to 2080. Breath of Heaven [W] Healing increased from 285 to 295. Talents
      Level 4 Air Ally Health increased from 200 to 300. Spell Power increased from 15% to 20%. Level 10 Divine Palm Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds. Level 13 Sixth Sense Sixth Sense now starts expiring after the Stun expires, instead of as soon as the Stun is applied. Level 20 Epiphany Cooldown increased from 60 to 70. Mana restored increased from 33% to 70%. Lúcio
      Base
      Soundwave [Q] Cooldown increased from 7 seconds to 8 seconds. Mana cost increased from 30 to 45. Talents
      Level 1 Accelerando Time to maximum increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. Level 10 High Five Cooldown increased from 20 to 25 seconds. Level 13 Heavy Casters Now also prevents Push Off from hitting multiple targets. Level 16 Up the Frequency Cooldown reduction reduced from 0.4 seconds to 0.3 seconds. Tyrael
      Talents
      Level 13 Law and Order Fixed an issue where maximum bonus was capped at 4 allied Heroes. The cap has been increased to 15. Whitemane
      Talents
      Level 1 Inquisitor's Prayer After Basic Attacking an enemy Hero 3 times, Whitemane also gains a stack of Inquisitor's Prayer. Level 13 Scarlet Wrath Rework: Now also restores .5% Mana to all Zeal targets. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed an issue that caused some effects to not display correctly on the Target Dummy in the Sandbox and Try Mode. Fixed an issue that caused some Movement Speed bonuses to display the incorrect value in the target info panel. Brawl
      Deathwing's Cataclysm no longer starts on Cooldown in Arena Mode. Map
      Braxis Holdout Fixed an issue that caused Archangel's visual effects to register as a pingable object. Volskaya Fixed an issue that caused the Triglav Protector's Shield Emitter Shields granted to allies to increase the Pilot's Self Healing score when absorbing damage. Heroes
      Abathur Level 10 Ultimate Evolution Clones of Kharazim that have selected Insight now treat the quest as completed. Alarak Level 10 Counter-Strike Now increases Alarak's Self Healing score for damage it absorbs. Ana Base Aim Down Sights [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Aim Down Sight's Healing Dart bonus to last after Aim Down Sights has ended. Activating Aim Down Sights will now also Dismount Ana from the Toy Train. Azmodan Base Summon Demon Warrior [W] Fixed an issue that caused Azmodan's Demon Warrior's aura damage to not behave similar to other aura damage effects. Brightwing Base Soothing Mist [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Smoothing Mist to activate around Brightwing when in Stasis. Dehaka Fixed an issue where Basic Attack's would potentially not consume evade stacks if attacking within .25 seconds of Drag ending. Jaina Level 16 Snowstorm Fixed an issue that caused Snowstorm's bonus to not apply correctly. Kael'thas Level 7 Sunfire Enchantment Fixed an issue that caused an active Sunfire Enchantment Spell Power buff to be removed when Kael'thas is killed. Kharazim Level 10 Divine Palm Fixed an issue that caused Divine Palm's Stasis to remove Damage Over Time effects from Kharazim. Fixed an issue that caused Divine Palm to not remove negative effects that were applied alongside the triggering effect. Leoric Base Drain Hope [W] Fixed an issue that caused Stasis on Leoric or Drain Hope's target to not break Drain Hope. Li Li Fixed an issue that caused Water Serpent to move at a reduced speed. Level 4 Surging Winds Fixed an issue that caused an active Surging Winds buff to be removed when Li Li is killed. Li-Ming Level 1 Power Hungry Fixed an issue that caused an active Power Hungry buff to be removed when Li-Ming is killed. Lunara Level 10 Leaping Strike Fixed an issue that caused Leaping Strike to stall game logic. Malthael Level 1 Fear The Reaper Fixed an issue that caused Fear the Reaper's duration indicator to not be tied to the ability button. The Butcher Fixed an issue that allowed The Butcher to disjoint while collecting Fresh Meat. The Lost Vikings Fixed an issue that caused Longboat to move at a reduced speed. Tychus Level 20 Focusing Diodes Now grants an additive damage bonus. Whitemane Level 10 Divine Reckoning Updated Divine Reckoning's mana restoration based off of damage dealt to display only one instance of floating text. Zul'jin Level 20 Forest Medicine Selecting Forest Medicine will no longer interrupt an ongoing Regeneration channel. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

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