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Oxygen

Six Aspects of HotS That Need Improvement (The Aftermath)

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BlizzCon 2017 has been Heroes of the Storm's 4th showing at our favourite yearly event. Those who, like me, were poised for sweeping changes and improvements to the game were left quite surprised by some of the announced changes.

About two months ago, I produced a lengthy article about what I perceived Heroes of the Storm's main weaknesses to be. The article – named Six Aspects of HotS That Need Improvement – was generally met with positive reviews and generated much, much discussion, racking up some 400 reddit comments over a 48-hour period. If you haven't read the piece yet, I suggest you do, as I'll be referring to it quite a bit. Here's a quick recap:

Quote

1 – Heroes of the Storm’s class system puts an inordinate amount of importance on drafting a basic, functional team composition, as individual matches come apart at the seams by design when tanks or healers are not present. The importance of such roles puts a huge amount of pressure on players playing these roles, making them less popular and generally more punishing to experiment with. Quick Match ill-prepares its players for mid- and high-level drafting experiences.

2 – Heroes of the Storm lacks the basic level of transparency other similar games have accustomed players to having. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess the quality of the matchmaking system and of balance and design changes. The reliance upon third-party websites for such basic data creates a number of ethical issues.

3 – The reconnection process simply needs to become faster; the dreaded “Reconnection Successful” screen has to go. Players need a way to force the system to put them back into matches if the Rejoin screen fails. AI-controlled heroes need to stop picking talents for you.

4 – Heroes of the Storm’s replay system shares its biggest issue with the reconnection system: Skipping through replays is an awfully slow process. This lengthy initial loading time turns off content producers on top disincentivizes players from reviewing their matches to go over specific events or study certain strategies.

5 – The game’s population is split across six different game modes, which increases queue times significantly. “A player you were matched with has disconnected or left the service” message followed by the need to go through the entire queue again is unacceptable.

6 – Although Heroes of the Storm heavily touts itself as a team-oriented game, I find it rather strange that we still do not have access to a draft hero trading system. Giving AFK players a random hero instead of outright removing them from the game at hand is frustrating.

7 – Bonus issues:

  • I’d like to be able to check out mounts in Try Mode.
  • I wish I could use my Stimpacks whenever I please. As it stands, I don’t open Loot Chests unless I know I’ll be playing for a while, and if I do open a Stimpack by accident, I just ALT+F4 my way out of the game to preserve it.
  • I would love to have an item gifting feature for my teammate’s birthday.
  • I don’t particularly care for the forced MVP cut scene after every single match. I rarely see more than 2 people vote anyway; let’s at least have the option to opt out of it.
  • I’d like to be able to check out anyone’s profile, at any time, if I happen to know their BattleTag.
  • I wish my heroes were available across other regions.
  • Players who opt out of receiving messages from non-friends probably shouldn’t be able to whisper other players.

Although it would be rather pompous for me to assume that my vision of the game lines up perfectly with Blizzard's, I was left rather shocked to see that none of the aforementioned issues were actually publicly announced. I specifically say publicly here because some more upcoming changes were in fact discussed during interviews, but were either judged unimportant or not quite ready in time for BlizzCon. The changes that were instead officially announced are as follows: 

  • Structure ammunition removal.
  • Regeneration globes rework.
  • Map objectives reorganization and standardization.
  • Stealth mechanic and related heroes rework.
  • Performance-based matchmaking.
  • Camera distance improvements.

These changes – most of which seem to be aimed at improving new player gameplay experience – are good for the most part, if not a bit unexpected.

My BlizzCon 2017 experience would then become one of hunting down developers and engineers alike to try and figure out what exactly was going on behind the scenes to ultimately see whether or not something was going to be done about the issues I discussed (or if something could be done at all). 

Without further ado, here's what I learned.

I) The Class System

The class system will be expanded to include 7 roles instead of 4. Specifically, warriors will be split into bruisers and tanks, and supports will be split into healers   and "true" supports (Tassadar, Tyrande...). The 7th category was not discussed, but I expect it to split assassins into two more categories which would include ability-based damage dealers and those who tend to rely on basic attacks.

I think the goal of these changes is to give players a better sense of what their role is going to be. However, this information is not going to be particularly useful to anyone if no information about how to play said roles is available. Right now, they're just a label. This just adds more labels.

For Quick Match, the introductory PvP game mode, I'd argue that whether or not players have a better name for their role is irrelevant. Match quality and learning how to play Heroes of the Storm depends on key playmaking pieces such as initiation and healing. These playmaking pieces are often missing from team compositions because tanks and healers being less popular than assassins, and the matchmaker has to deal with whatever it has available or have players wait longer for games. For Draft and Ranked modes, players don't really care about role information because team compositions aren't generally built around the game's class system anyway; they're simply a coincidence because, for the most part, resilient initiators happen to be tanks, and healers are often support heroes.

Other MOBAs have never embraced a hard class system to instead list what individual heroes are capable of, and ultimately simply let players build their compositions from there. If Heroes of the Storm were to ever embrace such a system, heroic abilities would probably have to be changed to no longer dramatically shuffle what individual heroes are capable of. But I digress.

I feel like I need to reiterate here: If Heroes of the Storm is hell bent on having and being designed around a class system, it needs to not throw this system away in its most popular game mode. Words like "tank" and "bruisers" are meaningless without a context.

II) Transparency

In an interview with Travis McGeathy, Lead systems designer, it was stated that Blizzard were afraid of showing player MMR because they feel like like players are going to see it as a thing to chase. I must admit that I'm not too sure how this is a problem; if a player's MMR is going up, it must mean that they're winning... and if they're winning, their MMR needs to go up to account for this. If having one's MMR displayed incentivizes players to play better, I'm all for it. Besides, third party websites already give players something to chase, with the obvious downside of running the risk of being inaccurate. What we currently have is basically the worst of both worlds; we might as well just give players the information and make it clear that it isn't related to their rank.

III) and IV) The reconnection and replay systems

These two systems are artifacts of the Starcraft 2 engine salvaged to build Heroes of the Storm. In a nutshell, this engine keeps track of every action made by players. Upon attempting to reconnect, each of these actions are checked in order to "catch you up" to where you should be. This presents several advantages such as being lightweight and making cheating extremely difficult. The main downside is the loading time experienced by players. In general, and as frustrating it is, the upsides outweigh the downsides. Changing this system would mean rebuilding an entire engine from the ground up, which would be completely unrealistic time- and money-wise. We always need remember that Heroes of the Storm was a passion project turned actual game for Blizzard to ride the MOBA wave. I assume that this came with pretty harsh constraints financially and that reusing the Starcraft 2 engine was just one of many concessions that had to be made to see the project come alive.

Everything else

Most of the other topics I discussed back in October fall under the "quality of life change" and the "on the radar" categories. Things such as shop features or interface options are always in the works but never a priority. Other topics, such as any improvements to drafting (third ban, hero trading, etc.), have their own sets of challenges; how do you clearly communicate these changes, and how do they impact overall game balance are the kind of questions that need be asked. Deeper still, anything that involves microtransactions is kept tightly under control even if it makes little sense to us laymen. Questions such as "why can't I use my Stimpacks whenever I want?" or "why can't I purchase skins directly" all find answers somewhere in the grand Loot Chest scheme which was found to be so successful through Hearthstone and Overwatch that Heroes had to get in on the action.

I wish I had a bit more information to share with everyone, but lips tend to seal up when you mention anything about writing (which, I have to because I generally try and stay out of trouble). And although I did not get to interview anyone this year, fellow Icy Veins writer Kendric did, so I recommend you check that out.

 

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I hope they do something about these most of them are true

I play on EU and QM and ranked queues take about a day :D but AI co-op starts in a sec and brawls also.. they should remove at least co-op and just let players do AI with AI teammates for learning their heroes to stop these people who just want to farm Xp or complete events in short time from coop... this coop just looks like a bug in game which makes pvp queues longer and a system for farming Xp

only thing I disagree is about what some people say..it is that having heroes on all regions... then we should have our skins and also profile levels too so maybe u mean they should remove regions haha 

And the main reason is it means many people will change their regions whenever they want and what's next? Many Chinese people on EU and US so we'll have crap QMs with people who don't understand us lol.. I'm already having problems with Russians since most of them don't understand english and then Chinese people?no thx :)

hots is hots EU US Asia are using same heroes and game so play in your region and have fun n don't ask blizzard for something crap because blizzard put them to put u guys who understand each other better in same place so they could remove regions and let people split everywhere and destroy matches and finally the game..

Edited by MZLICH

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24 minutes ago, MZLICH said:

Many Chinese people on EU and US so we'll have crap QMs with people who don't understand us lol.. I'm already having problems with Russians since most of them don't understand english and then Chinese people?no thx :)

 

I play with game chat turned off so i dont have to hear ^(*^*( from people. I wish i could turn draft chat off too. I dont need to hear your garbage suggestions. 

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Matchmaking (including MMR transparency) and reconnect system have been huge issues for 3 years now.

If they wanted or could fix those, they'd do that already.

So don't get your hopes high, most likely you'll only get another Overwatch hero nobody asked for and more random loot.

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2 hours ago, Oxygen said:

I must admit that I'm not too sure how this is a problem; if a player's MMR is going up, it must mean that they're winning... and if they're winning, their MMR needs to go up to account for this. If having one's MMR displayed incentivizes players to play better, I'm all for it.

He was talking about something everyone could have seen if they played World of Tanks. Community made metric  (game itself didn't have perfomance based MM, don't know about now) was obviously open to everyone to see and what could everyone see is that damage dealt was the biggest component by far. 
So while system itself was fairly correct, system was open to cheesing, don't know other word to express it. Basically, some players would go out of their way to win and stayed as far as they can and farmed free damage that was meaningless in the end (came too late, they didn't share their HP, etc), by the system they were great, while in the reality they were not. 

They just want to prevent people from fooling the system by not letting them know what even precisely makes the system. Is it right move, I don't know.

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I think the bigger problem with transparency is that people would too heavily rely on it to justify their stats or actions. If other people would see that I'm (for example) a gold 1 with a win rate of 1:11 (purely in theory, people), they would justifiably be furious that someone that bad could get to the same rank as them. These are problems that a 10 placement match and a performance based system would entail. If you give people the option to see who is statically the best, there is bound to be some dick measuring.

Edited by Fliits
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Almost 3 years and people still dont understand the main issue are people who deliberatly join games and go afk or rush in to die 1vs5 so that the match gets over sooner.And right after that is the reconnect bug ( stuck in reconecting and needing to close client and wait for aaaaaall the catch up since then). 

Nah who cares about that stuff,the important thing is to split warrior and support classes to sub classes,thats way higher prio.

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46 minutes ago, Kurosu said:

Almost 3 years and people still dont understand the main issue are people who deliberatly join games and go afk or rush in to die 1vs5 so that the match gets over sooner.And right after that is the reconnect bug ( stuck in reconecting and needing to close client and wait for aaaaaall the catch up since then). 

Nah who cares about that stuff,the important thing is to split warrior and support classes to sub classes,thats way higher prio.

I don't actually see that happen very often.

Transparency is good as Oxygen says though because who cares if some try to cheese and pad stats, it only works if you WIN. An extra kill at the end isn't a big deal and probably wouldn't be too huge of a problem.

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I personally don't care that much about the disconnect system.  Yes, it is painful, but I have only been disconnected a few times in the couple years I have played.

My main things I am desiring right now are:

Trolls in ranked. 

They need to get rid of them.  It is hard to define "troll", which is why they probably do nothing about it.  But when I see a teammate that just puts down a hero, everyone else says "is there something else you can play, we need 'X' for our team" or someone puts nothing down and just picks something in 2 seconds that we certainly don't need...that is trolling.  I have had triple spec teams in HL because people refuse to team draft.  As you said, QM does not prepare you for this, so everyone in HL suffers.

Additionally, I think at a bare minimum they need to UP the ranked requirements.  People should not be allowed to play level 6 heroes in ranked.  There needs to be a higher baseline on experience with a hero to use it.  If they want to play it in Unranked, sure.

I am sick of trolls in general.  People that pick solo tank and then solo lane the entire game without helping on objectives.  I don't know how to fix this, but it is very toxic and new people won't invest money in a game that fosters toxic behavior.  If someone is just not as good as me (still talking about ranked), then I can live with that.  I can't live with people who troll games on a ladder system.

 

Global skill usage

I wish they would allow you to target the players Icon on the top bar.  So if I am brightwing, I want to be able to Z to the person without trying to get them on mini map (which sometimes works and sometimes not), and also I really don't like scrolling the map there and not seeing what is around ME for a few seconds.  Same goes for Illidan hunt, ETC stage dive, and probably some others.  I would also like to be able to cast Azmodon trait without scrolling to the lane. I don't care about the precise unit I cast it on, I'd like to be able to cast it on the mini map and it just pick the closest unit to my pick coordinates.

 

Team compositions

I agree %100, the labels don't really translate into drafting system.  They need to show the role as an icon next to your team, so you can see what roles you have and don't have and what the other team has.  I would also love to see some sort of team stats shown, based on the heroes selected.  I don't know how that would work, but like an aggregation of DPS, health, attack dps, spell dps (of course at level 1 with no talents selected).  That way you can sort of see a team's dps vs soaking potential so far, spell vs auto attack dps, etc.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

I am sick of trolls in general.  People that pick solo tank and then solo lane the entire game without helping on objectives.

I wouldn't really say that is trolling. I have been "forced" to solo lane as a Main Tank many times because the rest of the team simply gives no fucks to waveclear. When the Tank is forced to waveclear because the Specialists are not paying attention, we have a serious problem.

I also have a few suggestions of what I wanna see:

Mouse-over glow in low resolution settings: that green/red highlight is something I've always found very handy, as it makes targetting a lot easier. The problem is, it is disabled if you run on low settings, which is my case (I play on a shitty 7 year old Macbook).

Show health percentage on the character's healthbar: another thing that would be very handy.

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I wish they'd add some kind of signal option for quickplay so it'd stop giving you teams without tanks and healers when you are facing such because the varians never go tank and the kharazims never go healer

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12 hours ago, Banard said:

I play with game chat turned off so i dont have to hear ^(*^*( from people. I wish i could turn draft chat off too. I dont need to hear your garbage suggestions. 

go play other mobas then.. hots is just about teamwork and teammates should be in harmony and hear each other ... if it wasn't necessary blizzard wouldn't add chatbox to game... but these days people even use voice chat on a just simple QM... your text just looks like a joke mate:)

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2 hours ago, Kurosu said:

Almost 3 years and people still dont understand the main issue are people who deliberatly join games and go afk or rush in to die 1vs5 so that the match gets over sooner.And right after that is the reconnect bug ( stuck in reconecting and needing to close client and wait for aaaaaall the catch up since then). 

Nah who cares about that stuff,the important thing is to split warrior and support classes to sub classes,thats way higher prio.

One of the reasons newer (and less knowledgeable) players continue to make mistakes when trying to fight in a team environment is not knowing the role of characters they're not familiar with. 

"AFK Abathur reported."   "D.Va why you not tanking?"  "Brightwing, mount and get to us!"

 

One of the things the labels help to do is let others know what a character is capable of doing and what they're not. A warrior isn't necessarily a tank. Assassins don't all have burst damage. Supports don't mainly heal. Specialists likely don't do what they think they do.  New and less knowledgeable players think that because they get outplayed that a character has better damage. Or that all characters should or DO have equal damage/surviability/lanin/seige potential.

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1 hour ago, Tarvesh said:

One of the reasons newer (and less knowledgeable) players continue to make mistakes when trying to fight in a team environment is not knowing the role of characters they're not familiar with. 

"AFK Abathur reported."   "D.Va why you not tanking?"  "Brightwing, mount and get to us!"

 

 

That is not what i descibed.What I did mean are the kind of people that literally run and engage to die.Oh and I forgot to mention the people that join to play pve and never engage in any pvp situations ( no i do not mean exp soaking )

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The reconnection and replay issues and system are still by far the most hindering things this game experiences, especially when Blizzard wants to be taken seriously on the esport circuit. You can't have outdated engines or playing on newest patches with known issues (?????) and then expect sponsors and professional teams to devote time and money to your game when there isn't even an outline or a timeframe to at least make attempts at improving the infrastructure. 

On top of the other little things, most recently I would like to see 'bundle only' things either a) offer far more for your money or b) be scrapped and let us choose which skins we want to buy that are gem only rather than have to buy a bundle to gain one specific variant. 

More loudout slots as well might be nice. 

Edit: More options to find groups. I'd love to be able to log on and not rely on broadcast to 40+ people, 10 of which are on HotS, that I am a tank/support up for QM stacks or TL and what bracket of general skill level rather than what it is currently where it's literally just quite random... it might even help QM games be better overall and rounded experiences as well. 

Edited by Plergoth

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I agree with every thing from the list and bonus list except for getting rid of the mvp screen. They should give like 10 or 20 gold for every vote you give. Also ranked bots need to be better.

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6 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

Additionally, I think at a bare minimum they need to UP the ranked requirements.  People should not be allowed to play level 6 heroes in ranked.  There needs to be a higher baseline on experience with a hero to use it.  If they want to play it in Unranked, sure.

Man, most of what you said I wouldn't care too much, but this I wholeheartedly disagree! Like, it takes already WAY too long to be able to play Ranked, especially since QM as almost nothing to do with ranked. I play some really mean Johanna, Li Li, Alex, Abathur and Leoric in Ranked, none of those I'm even close to being as good with in QM because of all the random elements like Team comp being usually garbage for the map, the map being the worst map for the character or just not having anything that synergizes well enough with the character you picked... I played Alex and Hanzo right out the door(as soon as I could) and found great success(I still do but need to be more careful since they've been figured out by fairly everyone now, see all the Hanzo bans).

I just think that if you suck, you should be filtered with others that suck, then again I wonder how that doesn't just doom the person to forever be someone that sucks because they get used to poor tactics, little to no coordination and just overall terrible teammates...

The only thing I think we can agree is that the system needs A LOT of improvement.

Edited by EDL666
Just cleaning the post.

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The biggest cancer right now is the performance-based matchmaking in QM. I have no idea if its turned off right now as in HL/TL but before this i never got people who just completly dont have a clue on whats going on. QM is unplayable right now because, these noobs never lane/soak. They never take camps. On top of that they just go teamfight someone and suicide. Im not the best player in the world but i know when im supposed to be laning,when is a good time to take mercenarries and when is a good time to initiate a teamfight. Right now it probably put me in complete bottom with people that have no map awareness what so ever. Im thinking im gonna play HL/TL because of this.

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That Imperius pic lol.

Sums it up my feelings perfectly. This game needs more Imperiusness in it. Brazenly!

"SILENCE!!!!"

 

On topic though, I believe Quick Match mode should not be put so much attention upon. It's like both the player community AND the developers are using it as a source of statistics for hero balance/tuning purposes. Frankly, they should remove it from the game; it makes other modes, namely Unranked Mode completely unused, almost redundant. (I don't wanna say "fully redundant" because they're completely different since one of them has a drafting phase and the other doesn't, but it's a fact that QM displaces Unranked as the most played mode other than the Leagues). QM fails to teach players basic aspects of the game such as the importance of ALL roles (there are other roles besides assassin & warrior) and how to draft.

Edited by Leadblast

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3 hours ago, Leadblast said:

That Imperius pic lol.

Sums it up my feelings perfectly. This game needs more Imperiusness in it. Brazenly!

"SILENCE!!!!"

That's exactly why I picked it. You'll notice that my article about performance-based matchmaking uses Tyrael, who represents justice...

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18 hours ago, MZLICH said:

go play other mobas then.. hots is just about teamwork and teammates should be in harmony and hear each other ... if it wasn't necessary blizzard wouldn't add chatbox to game... but these days people even use voice chat on a just simple QM... your text just looks like a joke mate:)

There is no communication in chat. There is attempted communication. All you need in this game is pings. Simple as that. Anything else is some moron thinking he knows better then the rest of the team. 

And did I say anything about not using voice chat? 

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7 hours ago, Oxygen said:

That's exactly why I picked it. You'll notice that my article about performance-based matchmaking uses Tyrael, who represents justice...

lmao, I didn't get it at first... Tyrael embodies justice, which you may see fitting in that article as in "the matchmaking system needs to have justice in it" but Imperius embodies valor? Maybe "the valor to go ahead and make changes to this game you are afraid of, in order to improve it"? rofl

 

Oh, and thinking further about the hero classes (or roles, whatever). There are a lot of assassins that feel like specialists in one way or another (Ragnaros, Junkrat, etc). There are specialists that feel like supports (Abathur, Medivh) and one that feels like an assassin (Sylvanas). I think just "expanding the classes and make existing heroes with a dubious classification fit better into it" is not gonna do in the long run.

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8 hours ago, Oxygen said:

That's exactly why I picked it. You'll notice that my article about performance-based matchmaking uses Tyrael, who represents justice...

So if things work out you'll put a picture of Auriel? Because "There is always hope"?

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4 hours ago, Valhalen said:

So if things work out you'll put a picture of Auriel? Because "There is always hope"?

Or if things turn out bad and this game dies... there will be a Malthael picture lol. "In the end, only death remains".

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16 hours ago, Leadblast said:

That Imperius pic lol.

Sums it up my feelings perfectly. This game needs more Imperiusness in it. Brazenly!

"SILENCE!!!!"

 

On topic though, I believe Quick Match mode should not be put so much attention upon. It's like both the player community AND the developers are using it as a source of statistics for hero balance/tuning purposes. Frankly, they should remove it from the game; it makes other modes, namely Unranked Mode completely unused, almost redundant. (I don't wanna say "fully redundant" because they're completely different since one of them has a drafting phase and the other doesn't, but it's a fact that QM displaces Unranked as the most played mode other than the Leagues). QM fails to teach players basic aspects of the game such as the importance of ALL roles (there are other roles besides assassin & warrior) and how to draft.

I disagree with how you feel about QM. As someone who plays almost exclusively QM (and maybe half a dozen unranked and 0 ranked despite playing for over a year) I think it is absolutely a mode worth keeping and should at least partially be factored into balance changes. 

The types of quests the game gives is a major reason for keeping QM around. If I have quests to play let's say 3 games as a support and 2 games as a starcraft hero I would be best served playing as either Stukov, Morales, or Tassadar but then if one of them gets banned, another picked by someone else that could leave me either playing a character I am not good with or a character that does nothing to help me progress my quests but does help the team comp so I have to try my luck in another game to see if I can get a character that helps me complete my quests efficiently. Quick Match lets a player hop into a match with whatever hero they want and get the quests done quickly. There is matches against the AI but that does even less to prepare for the modes with drafts. The quests would need to be more play X games or win Y games and less forcing specific franchises or roles and/or the AI matches would need to give the same experience as playing with humans for this game to work without quick match 

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      Level 4 Repeated Offense Knockback strength increased from 28% to 30%. Brightwing
      Talents
      Level 10 Emerald Wind Targets will now be knocked back over the entire duration of the expanding nova. Deckard
      Talents
      Level 10 Lorenado Being hit by Lorenado while already knocked back will now refresh the duration of the knockback. Damage can only occur once every 0.1875 seconds per Lorenado per target. Knockback duration reduced by 33%. Distance pushed back from Lorenado is unchanged. Level 20 Morenados! Each Lorenado now has its own cooldown reduction. Dehaka
      Talents
      Level 7 Paralyzing Enzymes Basic Attacks now also sets the remaining duration to 2 seconds. Healing reduction increased from 40% to 50%. Falstad
      Talents
      Level 10 Mighty Gust Knockback duration is now dynamic, with targets closer to Falstad being knocked back for longer. Knockback will now expire when targets are outside of Might Gust's search path. Imperius
      Base
      Molten Armor [E] Now restores 1 Mana for each target hit by Molten Armor on expiration. Talents
      Level 7 Blaze of Glory Damage increased from 205 to 212. Holy Fervor Now resets Imperius' attack cooldown. Level 20 Molten Wrath Now also increases Molten Armor radius by 25%. Li Li
      Base
      Healing Brew [Q] Healing amount increased from 175 to 230. Lucio
      Base
      Soundwave [Q] Knockback point is now centered on a point 2 radius behind where Soundwave was cast. Talents
      Level 16 Up to Eleven Duration increase granted by Push Off increased from .5 to 1 second. Duration increase granted by Soundwave increased from 0.25 to .5 seconds. Muradin
      Talents
      Level 10 Haymaker Secondary knockback duration reduced, but the speed of the knockback has been increased. Murky
      Base
      Spawn Egg [Trait D] Health is reduced by 80% of its current value. Now has a Shield equal to the amount of Health removed. Shield starts regenerating after 5 seconds. Shield takes 8 seconds to re-fill from empty to full. Orphea
      Talents
      Level 4 Backbiter Duration reduced, but speed increased. Knockback is now instant. Sgt. Hammer
      Base
      Concussive Blast [W] Base duration reduced by 20%. Distance pushed back from blast is not reduced. Stukov
      Talents
      Level 10 Flailing Swipe Each iteration of Flailing Swipe now has its own knockback point. The first swipe knocks targets away from a point 3 radius behind Stukov, the second swipe will be a point 2 radius behind, and the third swipe will be a point 1 radius behind. Thrall
      Talents
      Level 10 Sundering Secondary knockback duration and speed reduced. Tracer
      Base
      Recall [E] Teleport delay increased from .0625 seconds to .1875 seconds. Tychus
      Base
      Frag Grenade [W] Knockback duration reduced by 33%. Distance pushed back from blast is not reduced. Tyrael
      Base
      Basic Attack damage increased from 78 to 82. Smite [E] Tooltip updated to include duration of the area granting Movement Speed. El'Druin's Might [Q] Slow increased from 25% to 30%. Righteousness [W] Shield increased from 336 to 350. Talents
      Level 1 Salvation Healing increased from 140 to 150. Shield bonus reduced from 40% to 35%. Level 4 Bound By Law Is now a Level 16 Talent. REWORK: El'Druin's Might now Slows targets by 80% for the first second, and then reduces to 30% over the remaining 1.5 seconds. Level 7 Reciprocate Explosion damage now only hits enemy Heroes and Summons. Is now a Level 4 Talent. Tyrael is now healed for 3% of his maximum Health for each Hero hit by Reciprocate or El'Druin's Might. Level 10 Judgement Cast range is no longer increased by Tyrael's radius. Level 16 Burning Halo Damage bonus for teleporting with El'Druin's Might reduced from 150% to 125%. Damage reduced from 18 to 15. Is now a Level 7 Talent. Level 20 Aspect of Justice NEW: After channeling for 1.5 seconds, enter Archangel's Wrath. Cooldown is reduced by 10% for each enemy Hero it hits. 90 second cooldown. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Catapults no longer give 1 experience. Fixed an issue that caused Vehicle Attacks to not consume Evasion charges. Map
      Dragon Shire Fixed an issued that caused the on-death knockback from Dragon Knight to move the target in the direction the target is moving when first applied. Fixed an issued that caused the on-death knockback from Dragon Knight to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Volskaya Foundry Fixed an issued that caused the on-death knockback from Triglav Protector to move the target in the direction the target is moving when first applied. Fixed an issued that caused the on-death knockback from Triglav Protector to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Heroes
      Alarak Base Telekinesis [W] Fixed an issue that caused Telekinesis to not interrupt targets hit. Alexstrasza Base Wing Buffet [W] Targets are now knocked away a point 2 range behind where Wing Buffet was cast, instead of Alexstrasza's position. Targets will now move in the direction where Wing Buffet was cast. Level 20 Blessing of the Red Fixed an issue that caused Blessing of the Red's transfer effect to not maintain Alexstrasza as the caster. Anduin Base Flash Heal [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Flash Heal's channel effects to persist when interrupted. Auriel Base Detainment Strike [E] Targets are now knocked away from a point 5 range behind Auriel's position, instead of from Auriel's position. Targets will now be move in the direction the Detainment Strike was cast. Terrain detection is now based off of the target's radius. Sacred Sweep [Q] Critical hits will now display for Auriel's Sacred Sweep center hits. Level 13 Converging Force Will now more consistently interrupt channeled abilities. Will now more consistently move the target towards the center point relative to the target's distance from Auriel. Cassia Level 10 Valkyrie Targets hit by Valkyrie after it has already impaled a target will now be moved to the side relative to the angle of direction the Valkyrie is traveling. The impaled target is now moved towards the Valkyrie's position. Chen Level 10 Wandering Keg Fixed an issue that caused Wandering Keg to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Hitting an enemy while already affected by its self-applied Slow will no longer cause the Slow to be removed faster than intended. Targets are now knocked away from a point .75 range behind Chen at the point of impact. Wandering Keg's self-applied Slow from hitting enemies will now reduce Chen's movement Speed to 100%, instead of 90%. Wandering Keg's self-applied Slow will now be also increased in strength to match the increased movement speed gained from Untapped Potential. Cho'gall Level 10 Hammer of Twilight Targets are now knocked away from a point 2 range behind where Hammer of Twilight was cast. Targets closer to Cho will move in the direction the Hammer of Twilight was cast. Deathwing Level 1 Molten Blood Fixed an issue that caused Molton Blood to cause duration displays to appear incorrectly. Dehaka Level 4 Lurker Strain Knockback is now centered on where Dehaka unburrowed. Diablo Base Shadow Charge [Q] Diablo will now move alongside the target relative to their position. Fixed an issue that caused Shadow Charge to deal damage to structures twice. Terrain detection for Shadow Charge is now based off of the target's radius. D.Va Base Boosters [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Boosters to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Targets are now knocked away from a point .75 range behind D.Va at the point of impact. Concussive Pulse [W] Targets are now knocked away from a point 2 range behind where Concussive Pulse was cast, instead of D.Va's position. Targets closer to D.Va will move in the direction the Concussive Pulse was cast. Falstad Level 10 Mighty Gust Fixed an issue that caused Might Gust to send targets in an unintended direction. Targets are now knocked away from a point 50 range behind Falstad's position where Mighty Gust was cast. Level 20 Wind Tunnel Targets are now knocked away from a point 50 range behind Falstad's position where Mighty Gust was cast. Fenix Level 1 Arsenal Synergy Progress is now displayed in the Buff Bar. Garrosh Level 1 Warbreaker Fixed an issue that caused damage over time to not be treated as such. Gazlowe Level 10 Grav-O-Bomb 3000 Now Stuns when the target is pulled into the center. Genji Base Deflect [W] Fixed an issue that caused Genji's Reflect impact visuals to not display after Genji selects Deflect. Fixed an issue that caused Genji's Reflect to not deal damage instantly on impact. Hanzo Level 4 Ignore All Distractions Fixed an issue that caused Hanzo's Basic Attacks to not feature impact visuals when Ignore All Distractions kill the target. Hogger Base Staggering Blow [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Staggering Blow to not Stun from created pathing blockers (Example: Tassadar's Force Wall). Fixed an issue that caused the knockback of Staggering Blow to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Knockback point is now 2 radius behind where Staggering Blow was cast. Loot Hoard [Trait D] Fixed an issue that caused Loot Hoard's knockback to not interrupt stationary channels. Imperius Level 4 Sovereign Armor Tooltip text updated. Johanna Base Condemn [W] Fixed an issue that caused the knockback to move the target in the direction they are moving when first applied. Fixed an issue that caused the knockback to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Level 13 Blessed Hammer Fixed tooltip not listing the correct cooldown reduction amount. Kel'Thuzad Base Chains of Kel'Thuzad [E] Fixed an issue that caused Barbed Chain's Armor reduction to apply to the Chains Link cast that granted the final stack of Blight. Knockback will now happen as soon as the chains make a connection between two targets. Li Li Level 4 Surging Winds Tooltip text updated. Level 7 Mass Vortex Tooltip text updated. Lt. Morales Base Displacement Grenade [E] Fixed an issue that caused Displacement Grenade to not knock back some targets the full distance. Mei Base Icing [E] Fixed an issue that caused Icing to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Muradin Level 10 Haymaker Targets hit by the Haymaker target will now be moved to the side relative to the angle of the direction the initial target is traveling. Murky Level 10 Octo-Grab Fixed an issue that caused Octo Grab's cooldown to reset when not interrupted. Raynor Base Penetrating Rounds [Q] Knockback distances have been updated. Maximum distance increased by 10%, medium distance increased by 5%, short distance reduced by 5%. Targets are now knocked away from a point 5 range behind Raynor's position, instead of from Raynor's position. Targets will now move in the direction of the casted Penetrating Round. Rehgar Level 10 Ancestral Healing Can now be cast on Heroes with full Health. Samuro Base Mirror images [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Mirror Images to have the incorrect health after activating Image Transmission while affected by Blessing of the Red. Level 13 Kawarimi Fixed an issue that caused Mirror Images created by Kawarimi to not have the correct starting health while affected by Blessing of the Red. Level 16 Harsh Winds Fixed an issue that caused Harsh Winds to not apply to Burning Blade damage dealt by Samuro. Sgt. Hammer Base Concussive Blast [W] Targets are now knocked away a point 2 range behind where Concussive Blast was fired, instead of Sgt. Hammer's position. Targets will now move in the direction where Concussive Blast was fired. Stitches Base Hook [Q] Now shows progress to Extended Hook as Stitches levels up. Stukov Level 10 Flailing Swipe Fixed an issue that caused Flailing Swipe to not knock all targets back an equal distance. The Butcher Base Ruthless Onslaught [E] Fixed an issue that caused Ruthless Onslaught to not interrupt in certain situations. Thrall Level 10 Sundering Targets hit by Sundering will now be moved to the side relative to the angle of Sundering. Tracer Level 20 Get Stuffed! Knockback point is now 5 radius behind where Tracer is located at the point of impact. Tyrael Fixed an issue that caused some cast range indicators to not match their affected areas. Base Archangel's Wrath [Trait D] Fixed an issue that caused the Archangel's Wrath damage reduction to be applied twice for a brief period when Archangel's Wrath damages an enemy. Level 16 Burning Halo Fixed an issue that caused Burning Halo's bonus damage to be granted to the El'Druins left behind by Sword of Justic. Fixed an issue that caused the Burning Halo on El'Druins to no longer cancel when Tyrael is Mounted or in Stasis. Varian Level 7 Second Wind Fixed an issue that caused Second Wind to not heal for a portion of the damage dealt if brought about 50% Health by the 1% Heal. Yrel Base Righteous Hammer [W] Fixed an issue that caused fully charged Righteous Hammer casts to apply the incorrect amount of knockback. Fixed an issue that caused Righteous Hammer to not knock all targets back an equal distance. Zagara Level 20 Broodmother Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks empowered by Envenomed Spines to not trigger Broodmother. Now displays as Broodmother in the Death Recap. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      Blizzard is celebrating ten years of Heroes of the Storm by making all Heroes free-to-play until June 15 and releasing a special Gear Head Thrall skin!
      On top of that, players who log in between now and June 15 will receive two brand-new portraits, as shown below.
      (Source)
      Ten years ago, the Nexus opened a realm between realms…where anything is possible. Over the years, you have braved this tumultuous universe, commanding some of the most legendary Heroes from across Azeroth, Sanctuary, the Koprulu sector, and future Earth. 

      It’s this community that has made Heroes of the Storm so special, and we’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone alongside you. From now until the next patch on June 15, all Heroes will be free! Plus, everyone who logs in during this time will receive two brand-new portraits to showcase their time battling across the Nexus. Check out the patch notes for full details!

      We’re also excited to release a never-before-seen skin into the shop! In honor of Heroes of the Storm’s 10th anniversary, as well as Warcraft’s 30th, what better Hero skin to release from the vault than the one and only Thrall? Gear Head Thrall is now available through the in-game shop for 1500 Gems. And keep your eyes peeled—the Classic Games team is combing through the archives, searching for unreleased skins that would need some finishing touches for release, possibly bringing us more in the future.

      We know Heroes of the Storm means a lot to so many of you, and we cannot thank you enough for the passion you continue to show this game after an entire decade. From the Classic Games team and all of Blizzard, thank you!
      We’ll see you in the Nexus.
    • 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
      After extensive PTR testing, the latest Heroes of the Storm patch is now live and here are the official patch notes!
      (Source)
      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 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. Master and Grand Masters can only party with players 5,000 Rank Points away from them. 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 rounds are regained once every 10 seconds. ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Eye of Horus cooldown is now 6 seconds. Bonuses acquired from Deadeye now lasts 4 seconds. Auriel
      Base
      Bestow Hope [Trait D] Reduced amount of energy stored from 40% to 35% of damage to non-Heroes. Reduced amount of energy stored from 80% to 70% of damage to Heroes. Azmodan
      Talents
      Level 16 Trample ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Now reduces Heroic cooldown by 25% if Trample hits a Hero. E.T.C.
      Base
      Face Melt [W] Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds. Rockstar [Trait D] Armor from Basic Abilities increased from 20 to 25. Armor from Heroic Abilities reduced from 60 to 50. Talents
      Level 4 Crowd Surfer Cooldown reduction reduced from 7 to 6 seconds. Level 7 Hammer-on ADDED FUNCTIONALITY: Basic Attacks deal 12% more damage, increased to 36% while Guitar Solo is active. Level 13 Encore Cooldown reduction reduced from 5% to 4%. Level 20 Power of the Horde NEW TALENT: Activate to grant nearby allied Heroes a Shield that absorbs damage equal to 30% of their maximum Health for 5 seconds, increased by 2% for each other allied Hero in the area. This new Talent replaces Storm Shield. Ride the Lightning NEW TALENT: Activate to teleport to a nearby location and deal 48 damage to nearby enemy Heroes. The cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds for every enemy Hero hit, up to 50 seconds. Genji
      Talents
      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
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    • 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.
       
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