heroes Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes: Apr 24

[Stan 5,242]

The latest Heroes of the Storm content patch has arrived with Deckard Cain, Home Screen improvements and tweaks to the Swarm Host Boss on Warhead Junction.

Blizzard (Source)

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

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

General

Home Screen Rework

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

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

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

New Hero: Deckard

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

Trait

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

Basic Abilities

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

Heroic Abilities

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

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

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

User Interface

Draft Mode

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

Design

Quests

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

Battlegrounds

Warhead Junction

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

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

Heroes

Assassin

Cassia

Talents

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

Fenix

Talents

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

Genji

Stats

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

Abilities

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

Talents

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

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

Specialist

Sylvanas

Abilities

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

Zagara

Abilities

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

Warrior

Blaze

Abilities

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

Collection

New Bundles

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

New Announcers

• Deckard
• Raven Lord
• Grave Keeper

New Skins

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

New Mounts

• Road Chariot
  • Exalted Road Chariot
  • Hoarfrost Road Chariot

Mount Removal

• Lucky Piggy Bank

New Portraits and Sprays

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

Bug Fixes

General

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

A.I.

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

Art

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

Battlegrounds

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

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

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

Sound

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

User Interface

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

[50m8r4 11]

Favorite part of the update is the 2.0 loading screen! Those smiling homescreens made me uncomfortable when ppl looked on :O

[Laragon 269]

So yet another broken hero that survives PTR without a nerf? Guess they will sell him, wait 2+ weeks, then nerf him. Rinse and repeat for the money.

[Xhopeon 50]

16 minutes ago, Laragon said:

So yet another broken hero that survives PTR without a nerf? Guess they will sell him, wait 2+ weeks, then nerf him. Rinse and repeat for the money.

Please respect the elderly :P 

OT

besides what everyone probably knows about me and Cain, and calling him next hero right after Fenix got out, there is one patch that actually is long awaited and I am glad it is finally done... Frickin Zagara exiting Nydus! 

 

[XeaKon 23]

They nerfed one of the most powerfull bosses so I guess the Archangel is next(or the Punisher). Really Blizz, would you mind not turning every monster into a punching bag ?

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 hour ago, Laragon said:

So yet another broken hero that survives PTR without a nerf? Guess they will sell him, wait 2+ weeks, then nerf him. Rinse and repeat for the money.

I fail to see how Cain is broken. He is really strong, but not broken.

[Plergoth 277]

5 hours ago, XeaKon said:

They nerfed one of the most powerfull bosses so I guess the Archangel is next(or the Punisher). Really Blizz, would you mind not turning every monster into a punching bag ?

The Immortal isn't really a neutral boss, it's more of a core map mechanic. The Punishers were stupidly broken when Shrines first launched and needed balancing changes so that defending teams actually stood a chance. The Swarm bosses have been a pain in the arse for far too long, easy to capture / solo, ironic considering you don't want a punching bag boss, the podlings give xp that you can exploit to farm and that ridiculous slime trail made it difficult for a defending team by hindering your frontline as well as delaying initial attempts to burn it down. The podlings will be more consistent as well. Good change. 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Plergoth

[CyberDVonaven 82]

6 hours ago, Plergoth said:

The podlings will be more consistent as well

They removed the podlings all together. It just shoots more pod/poison bomb attacks out now instead rather then ones that spawn the little podlings that then blow up to poison. Which the podlings also I think toke shoots from the towers rather then the shoots going on just the boss. So that will help it die faster too. That boss was so op against your towers and all. Those little pod things did tons of dmg if they exploded near you too. I never realized you could farm them for xp though. Oh well. 

[MasterKast 15]

they raped and murder the boss on warhead junktion. rip little swarmhost

[MurkyFelix 51]

1 hour ago, MasterKast said:

they raped and murder the boss on warhead junktion. rip little swarmhost

In fairness, we were the ones raping it usually. The moment it burrows down, it's so, so easy to do so much damage to it and take very little, if you stutter step a lil. There's just too much time to get in free damage so I guess they didn't like that. Also it always felt very tough to bring it down if it was captured by the enemy team (or that was just me).

 

16 hours ago, Stan said:

Home Screen Rework

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

 

Yay, more overhead :D:D:D:D

[XeaKon 23]

14 hours ago, Plergoth said:

The Immortal isn't really a neutral boss, it's more of a core map mechanic.

I meat the Braxis Holdout boss.

[Laragon 269]

20 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I fail to see how Cain is broken. He is really strong, but not broken.

He has a massive area denial that comes with a stun, he can slow and peel on a separate ability. His 16 provides an impossible to miss .75 stun every 5 seconds against any melee or dive. His sustain healing is equal if not better than any healer in the game on top of those tools. He can provide mana or shielding to his whole team while also giving them heals. He can burst heal with his Q, or sustain heal by setting them up on lanes or objectives when taking the point early, which only gets amplified insanely at level 20. Literally the only item his kit is missing is mobility.

Essentially, your team never dies, if you position well you never die (even 10 armor is huge), and your set up for other damage is insane.

Pretty much spam Q. Hit E in chokes or when your team has a CD to follow up. And W to peel when required. You rarely OOM due to Q since it costs like 20 mana or something insanely low.

(talent build used by Killuzion of Team Freedom: https://www.icy-veins.com/heroes/talent-calculator/deckard-cain#32.0!3122333  10 can be changed, and 4 can be changed to any on those tiers.)

Edited April 25, 2018 by Laragon

[MasterKast 15]

5 hours ago, MurkyFelix said:

Also it always felt very tough to bring it down if it was captured by the enemy team (or that was just me).

Thats what i meant. it sounds like easier to bring it down now. i guess we'll wait and see how it turns out.

[PrivateJoker 27]

17 minutes ago, Laragon said:

He has a massive area denial that comes with a stun, he can slow and peel on a separate ability. His 16 provides an impossible to miss .75 stun every 5 seconds against any melee or dive. His sustain healing is equal if not better than any healer in the game on top of those tools. He can provide mana or shielding to his whole team while also giving them heals. He can burst heal with his Q, or sustain heal by setting them up on lanes or objectives when taking the point early, which only gets amplified insanely at level 20. Literally the only item his kit is missing is mobility.

Essentially, your team never dies, if you position well you never die (even 10 armor is huge), and your set up for other damage is insane.

Pretty much spam Q. Hit E in chokes or when your team has a CD to follow up. And W to peel when required. You rarely OOM due to Q since it costs like 20 mana or something insanely low.

(talent build used by Killuzion of Team Freedom: https://www.icy-veins.com/heroes/talent-calculator/deckard-cain#32.0!3122333  10 can be changed, and 4 can be changed to any on those tiers.)

You're honestly concerned with that .75 second stun at 16 being OP? That talent is.... not good. Cain should basically never be using his basic attack, so it gets very, very little value. If someone dives on you, and you hit them to land the stun, and THAT is somehow what let's you get away? That's kind of a 1 in a million situation, that you had to spend an entire talent to make happen, which is incredibly little value. Far more often than not, even attempting to land that stun is more likely to get you killed than just running away.

His healing isn't OP, it's pretty on par with all the other healers in the game. His crowd control is pretty good, but it's basically the same as Malf (maybe slightly better), but without any of the ability to waveclear. If you position well, you're unlikely to die very often, but that's true of pretty much any support. Hell, it's true of pretty much any character, period. I think Cain is a super legit character, people just need to learn to play with and against him.

[Plergoth 277]

6 hours ago, XeaKon said:

I meat the Braxis Holdout boss.

Ah, I see. That boss is called the throw pit for a reason?