Jump to content
FORUMS
Sign in to follow this  
Stan

Art and Animation AMA Recap: Jul 11

Recommended Posts

38157-upcoming-ama-schedule.jpg

Heroes developers answered your questions on reddit earlier today and we're looking at highlights of the latest Art & Animation AMA.

Heroes of the Storm Art Team

AMA Highlights

  • The team will add more D3 banners to the game and is open to suggestions for missing banners, portraits, and sprays that you'd like to see.
  • Kael'thas' FlamestrikeFlamestrike is hard to see on Sky Temple for players who play with low graphics and the FX team will come up with a fix.
  • Probius' pylons, cannons, and gate colors will be updated to match his skins. It's still on the radar for a rainy day.
  • Animated homescreens are gone, because they were too resource-intensive. Having the 2D homescreens allowed them to show off the beautiful art without taking 15 people offline for a few weeks to do it.
  • If you begin walking by clicking far enough away, Chromie will start her walk cycle with a little jump instead of just running (similar to how the bikes do a wheelie).
  • Cho'gall was such a large Hero to develop that they added extra joints to his skeleton to add realism to how his massive body moves.
  • Portraits will be eventually added to loadouts, but there's no timeline for that.
  • Janitor Leoric is such a great concept that it would be a shame to sweep it off the table.
  • The biggest hurdle for new Ragnaros skins is the heavy load of FX work associated with him.
  • Better organization of the in-game art collection is something they'd like to do.
  • More banner content will be released in future patches.
  • Stukov was the most challenging Hero to animate. Massive ShoveMassive Shove was exceedingly challenging to get working. Ragnaros' custom mount was also tricky.
  • With future reworks, they'd like to add new skins to the game, but it's not a priority to always align them with reworks.
  • New skins for The Lost Vikings are resource-intensive, because the team needs to create three standalone skins for a single Hero. Recolors will happen in the future though.
  • The game has a RTS-style isometric view and Heroes are often chunkier so that the asset is easily readable and identifiable from the game camera.
  • Coming up with a new Legendary skin takes about the same amount of work as a brand new Hero.

Upcoming AMAs

  • Ranked Play Changes and Matchmaking: Week of August 6.
  • Hero Balance and Design: Week of September 10

Blizzard LogoBlizzard (Source)

There are only 5 sprays in the Diablo category -- the D3 icons for the first 5 classes. Can we at least get the icons for the D3 Crusader and Necromancer that are missing as sprays?

I'll talk to the bringers of sprays and get these in the pipe for future addition. And from this and other threads it sounds like there are a lot of suggestions for missing sprays/banners/portraits that you all would like to see - we love hearing those ideas, so please keep them coming and we'll get them on the list for eventual inclusion!

Kael'thas' flamestrike is still really hard to see on Sky Temple with low graphics settings. Are there any plans to update spell effects like flamestrike for people who play on low graphics?

I'll bring this up with our FX team - thanks for calling it out!

Might as well get this out of the way now because you know you are gonna get alot of these

Will we ever see new models for BW and Arthas?

BTW you guys do fantastic work and I'm going to college this year to start working towards a job in your industry! It's my dream to be able to do what you guys do keep it up!

Given the community's intense desire for an answer on this topic, I'll do my best to answer as directly as I can.

The Heroes team as a whole is aware of this request and we have had many discussions on how best to approach the rework. Unfortunately a rework like this would affect many departments (design, modeling, animation, fx, tech art, engineering, etc.) and given our development bandwidth, we have to weigh the work it would take vs. what else we could be making in that time (other new heroes, skins, feature support, etc.). That said, we don't currently have any timelines for these reworks since we want to weigh the cost of doing them with all of the exciting new content we currently have in the works.

We absolutely appreciate the passionate feedback that we get on the topic and we hope you'll continue to let us know what you think could be improved as well as what you love about the current version.

In the past, folks at Blizzard have said they will update Probius's Pylons, Cannons, and Gate colors to match his skin tint. Is this still happening? Should we hold out hope for other ability updates to be recolored to match their skin tints too? Some examples:

  • Void Illidan uses purple blades but they become green when he uses Metamorphosis
  • Dreambreaker Thrall is green but uses red lava-themed abilities
  • Crimson Special Ordinance Raynor is red but his Banshee is blue

Hi Vambage, thanks for bringing this up. It's great to know updating Probius' ability models is still wanted. This is something that is still on the backlog for a rainy day. We also try to keep this in mind with all new skins we create. With regards to the other examples you give, in some cases a hero’s abilities can’t be adjusted to perfectly match an alternate appearance (i.e. a skin that’s a different color) due to the importance color has on communicating whether an ability is damaging or healing. Green and red are particularly tricky—if something that is red is turned to green, it can be mistaken as something that is safe and non-damaging. It can have an impact on gameplay that Design likes to keep an eye on, but every case is different, and we always like to review.

Most of the skins don't have abilities matching with the tint used, like any Probius skin where the pylon will always be yellow/blue, even when using another color. Some skins have abilities matching with the tint like Queen of Ghost Kerrigan. Why is that the case and do you have any plan on changing it to make it more consistant?

Hi! We avoided creating a hard and fast rule to always match abilities with their tint as the overhead from such a commitment could constrain us to the point that it meant less new things like heroes or skins in the long run. It’s a fine line that we try to balance skin-to-skin, but we’ve always wanted to go back specifically to Probius’ ability models as we agree that consistency there would be great. It’s just a matter of when we can prioritize this work, so please continue giving input on which heroes would benefit most from these efforts and we'll take that into consideration. Thanks!

What is your creative and development process for selecting which heroes get what skins?

Greetings! Our process for selecting skins involves a combination of creative passions, production bandwidth, and timing. Above all, concept and theme are king. Our top priority is always to create skins that our team is excited about, and that we think our players would be excited about. Sometimes we start with a theme and think of what heroes would be a great fit. Other times the heroes themselves are the inspiration for an idea.

From there, we try our best to balance all the ideas against our ability to create them. Some heroes are MUCH more time consuming to create skins for and we have hard choices to make when one skin may take considerably more time across many more people to get in game. Along the way, we look at everything from hero popularity to skin implementation complexity to how often players are equipping existing skins for heroes. At the end of the day, we try to bring as many unique, compelling, and varied skins to the game as we can, for as many players as possible.

Like everything we do, this process is constantly evolving, and I've been thrilled with the themes, variety, and quality of the skins so far this year. And there are sooooo many awesome new skins in the pipe that I can't wait to get in the game, too!

We didn't see an animated home screen for Yrel when she was released. Do they take too many resources to make and are from now on dropped, or was this a rare exception?

I really liked the home screens in the past. I wish there was a way to let me choose a specific one from the past when I log in.

I also really liked those home screens, but they were seriously an incredible undertaking that took a lot of people offline for a long time. Plus, we have these incredible artists creating beautiful concept pieces that really deserve a chance to shine.

Furthermore, there is so much more we want to show you, and that stuff is equally deserving of space on the home screen -- stuff like upcoming events, and all the other content that we're always working on. Oftentimes, we'll be making cool things for you guys and have no obvious way of telling you where to check it out aside from patch notes.

In the end, having the 2D homescreen allowed us to show off our beautiful art and surface to you the things you might be looking for without taking 15 people offline for a few weeks to do it.

And that's more time for those people to make even newer, even cooler content. ?

Circle of life.

What are some touches you've put on a model, or character that you were REALLY proud of that we might have missed? Something where after you were finished you called over your boss, showed him/her, yelled 'Nailed it', made some pseudo-obscene gesture, and walked out for the day.

You help make the game come to LIFE. You made Leoric lumber, you made playing him FEEL lumbering. To be able to make ME feel that way when I am playing him (or any character) is truly a feat. I want to know more about something you've done to a character so I can more truly appreciate your hard work.

"Something where after you were finished you called over your boss, showed him/her, yelled 'Nailed it', made some pseudo-obscene gesture, and walked out for the day." HAHAHAHA - I would neeeeeever. ?

As for your question – Chromie is probably one of the heroes that I am most proud of. When I started working on her, I'd never animated something seriously 'cartoony' before -- pushed timing, held poses, crazy mid-air jumps and things. She came hot on the heels of Dehaka -- realistic monster bro. It was tough to switch gears, but I feel like in the end I squeezed cute-gnome-personality into every piece of her kit.

The one thing you might have missed, as we didn't want it to happen to often, is that if you begin walking by clicking far enough away -- Chromie will actually start her walk cycle with a little jump instead of just running. (Similar functionality to how the bikes do a wheelie)

Speaking of Dehaka, he also has several walk variations. He looks side-to side while walking around (the little sneak is always prowlin') and every once in a while he gives a solid hobble onto his good arm to help him along.

I see you play Tyrande... one of the first things I did on the team was fix a deformation issue on Tyrande's gluteus maximus, which was quite visible in the hero selection screens and was the butt of many jokes. Without any patch notes mentioning the change, Reddit somehow noticed! That made my day and is still one of my most memorable moments working on Heroes of the Storm.

As for something that you may have missed... Cho'gall was such a large hero that we added extra joints to his skeleton to add realism to how his massive body moves. I'll leave it up to you to find those extra joints ?

There are so many portraits in HotS but we can only use one at a time. What do you think about adding a portrait loadout slot so we could use different portraits with different loadouts, to be used on loading screen?

This is something we've discussed and we like the idea a lot. No timeline for getting it in game yet, but it's definitely on our radar.

When are we getting Janitor Leoric?

The team as a whole loves seeing the bucket of ideas that the community is always creating! And Janitor Leoric is such a clean concept, it would be a shame to sweep it off the table…

Alexstrasza's face looks a little stretched out horizontally in the hero bar at the top of the screen and in the observer/replay UI. Is it a trick of perspective or is it actually messed up somehow? Link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/8v2wk5/its_been_nearly_8_months_blizzard_isnt_it_time/

This is unintentional! I watch too much HGC to not be aware of it -- We're definitely on it!

Can we expect Ragnaros to get skins (or recolors) that are not red, orange or yellow? Something purple or green will be great. But he's the 2-nd oldest hero with only 3 skins.

It's something the team would love to do, but the biggest hurdle for Ragnaros is the heavy load of FX work associated with him. The model recolor would be easy to handle but FX would not only have to touch a myriad of FX, they would also be on the hook for maintenance of those skins should any issues arise. At the end of the day we have to consider whether or not the resources spent for a single Raganaros skin/recolor is more meaningful to our players when the time could have been used for multiple new skins or recolors instead. It's a balancing act, but one that we would eventually love to make the time for.

I know this isn't exactly "art and animation", but more likely "organisation of the art in the collection", but I don't think I can ask this in the other coming AMAs either, so I'll go ahead and post this here: Can we get better organisation on the sprays and portraits in our collection? Getting filters for the different unverses and filters for "sketches", "herostorm", "stylized", "indigo", "classic", "nexus", "achievement", "event", etc, would greatly help with finding what you are looking for, and it will make the collection seem less messy.

I'll bring this up as part of our ongoing discussions on evolving the collection. Thanks for the feedback!!

I liked and missed master skins, not the exclusivity of them (okay maybe a little bit), but it was fun to have over the top versions of the base skins. Did you enjoy re-imagining decked out versions of each hero?

Absolutely ? One of the joys of early HotS skin development was giving a Heroes twist to the established heroes coming into our game from other universes. We will still drop “Master level” skins from time to time, but we hope you’re also enjoying the themed skin bundles as well!

What hero was the most fun to design/animate?

For me it was Dehaka!

I was a hardcore Zerg player in BW and SC2, so it was exciting to be able to help bring Dehaka to the Nexus. One of the reasons I love the Zerg is their obsession with evolving. Our Art Director had a cool idea to help sell this fantasy: Dehaka's arm would regenerate once the player accomplished something, in this case, when they picked a heroic ability. This was both challenging and very fun to execute on. The fully grown arm had to line up perfectly to the severed one. This was also the first time a hero's model changed significantly after picking a heroic in our game.

Thanks for the question YugoBetrugo17! It's very hard to pick just one, as one of the great things about Heroes is the variety of characters we get to animate and design. Animating Alarak was a lot of fun because of his weapon design. But Lili was also fun because it's not every day you get to animate a character skipping. Not sure when that will happen again!

For me it was ALSO Dehaka!

I started my life at Blizzard as an intern on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, where we first met Dehaka, and I fell in love. By the time I got there, Dehaka was already animated, but I thought the concept of his character - this badass primal zerg - was SO awesome I jumped at the chance to give my own take on him.

Plus I got work with a pretty cool Tech Artist. (PS: Happy Birthday, Billy!)

Why aren't we getting banners as often as we should? There are plenty of banners that could/should be added, but we are only getting banners for events, and not regular ones ?

We think banners are a fun way to customize your character and we'll continue to invest in them even more moving forward! Banners were originally difficult to distinguish or associate with a given player, but in the past year, we've added the ability to see the owner of the banner (in text form) in-game, along with adding it to the MVP screen. As part of this expanding support, we'll be releasing more banner content in future patches that not only celebrates our events, but also our Heroes, skins, and the game as a whole. We hope you like them, and please keep those requests coming!

When animating a character that has seen a previous iteration in the Blizzard universe (as is almost always the case) how much inspiration do you draw from the original iteration, and how much do you create fresh?
In the case of a game like OW, are you able to directly port over animations, or do you end up creating everything from scratch anyways?

Bonus (and more important) question: Waffles or pancakes?

In general, when setting out to create an existing Blizzard hero, we collect reference materials from across the company with the goal of making the hero fit in the Nexus while still staying true to their other incarnations. We often will get in touch with other game teams to get their feedback as well as their buy-in on what we are doing. In the case of Overwatch heroes, we do not port over animations directly. We do heavily reference them though!

Waffles FTW.

How much of the artwork that finds it's way into the games is just one of you, doodling and brainstorming by yourself, it gets traction w/the others in the team. Or is all the artwork made by commité?

I think the team does an exceptional job of being mindful of the collaborative mentality. However, every good idea's gotta come from somewhere!

D.Haka, for example, came about because my buddy and I were making jokes while queing for QM during a lunch break. Chromie's sand-clone dance was something I begged FX for and we were able to make happen, and her Taunt, when the dragon appears, is something I mocked up a working protoype for and pitched to the team.

One of the most fantastic and most surprising things I've found working as a game developer at Blizzard is the seriously incredible sense of ownership over the work I'm creating. We have teams, there is an approval process, and yes, direction often comes down from on high -- but every voice really does matter. My opinions are valued, and good ideas are acted upon no matter what the source.

Lana: What was your favorite animation to work on and why is it Enforcer Morales' hairflick?

Hahahahah -- That was a fun one! I begged to work on even just a tiny piece of Enforcer Morales, and was very lucky that I finished up Enforcer Jo quick enough to sneak in a hearth for Morales between other tasks.

Favourite animation to work on, however? Gotta be my boy Dehaka.

What heroes/effects were particularly hard to animate?

Stukov! This boy was challenging from a number of angles:

Technically -- Making sure that his various FX were correctly connecting to his base model. Massive shove, in particular was exceedingly challenging to get working 'just so' and it took an incredible effort from all disciplines to get it where you see today.

Artistically -- Stukov is a stoic military bro who is ashamed of the monster he's become. I went to school to animate monsters -- all I wanted to see was Stukov go full Rage Mode with that Zerg limb, but he's supposed to be restrained. Calm. (Compelling character -- but what an obnoxious justaposition!) Keeping a half-man half-alien looking upright and put together on the battlefield.. but also threatening and tough. Not exactly the simplest task.

Emotionally -- Now, this is getting real deep into animation nerddom, but I really struggled with getting his acting choices just right! In the end, I'm pretty satisfied with the balance I found. It's probably best seen in his Quick Match hero select screen:

When Stukov is out of combat, he stands with his arm tucked behind him - as he wants to present his best most human self to you.

Upon hitting ready, Stukov looks at his arm, resigned, and says 'Victory above all' - because winning battles is more important to him than his cosmetic flaws, and he will use every advantage he has in order to do so.

When he's readied up, he has forgotten any insecurities and is ready to fight.

And when Stukov unreadies, it's almost as if he's coming to his senses. As if, perhaps the animalistic, zerg mentality has affected more than just his arm, and he's back to his militant, disciplined self.

Thanks for the question, kid-karma:

We are constantly pushing ourselves to do innovative and challenging things for new heroes. Some of these challenges will be invisible to our players by the time they ship, so this is a good opportunity for us to shed some light on what we went through.

For myself, Ragnaros was particularly hard. He went through various iterations in art and design, so his character rig had to change multiple times to accommodate. One thing to call out specifically is Ragnaros' "flame base." To prevent the spinning texture from flipping around when a player moved him, we needed a way to lock it down to always face the camera. To do this, we separated the flame base from the rest of him and re-attached it back in game. This made it hard for the animator to know what he was doing inside our animation program because a significant part of Ragnaros was not moving as it would in the game. The animator had to use a lot of his imagination when doing his work. ?

Ragnaros' custom mount was also tricky. It was our first time introducing a mount with a dynamic trail. This introduced new technology to our Heroes and required a lot of interaction and iteration between Tech Art, Engineering, Animation, and FX. We now use this technique on the various water mounts in the game.

It seems like Standalone hero reworks are coming with new skins. Is this something we can expect in the future?

Hello! Our recent reworks from Sonya & Medivh through Raynor & Azmodan have been paired with everything from new takes on existing skins to entirely new skins. With future reworks, we'll continue to have similar skin support across that range, though note that it's much more important to us to get the right rework at the right time for gameplay purposes rather than aligning a rework with a skin.

Overwatch has victory poses and taunts available in lootboxes, will we ever see anything like that in HotS?

Hi Imephraim! That's a really fun question, it's an idea that gets brought up every now and then internally too. I can tell you there are currently no plans to do this but it's still an idea I'd like to hang onto. It requires a lot of technical hookups in the game before it would be possible that aren't currently at a high priority, but beyond victory poses and taunt animations, I think a Hearth animation you can choose in your Loadout would be fun too.

Hey /u/Blizz_LanaB, great job on Yrel, she looks amazing though I have a question. Did you get to animate her wings too or was that somebody else or the FX guys?

Thanks!

I animated them, as well! The motions at least -- our amazing FX artist was responsible for making them look so beautiful, otherwise.

They were a little tricky, because the wing rig lives in a separate file and then is attached to the model once they are in the game together -- so it's a little funny animating them as separate pieces -- but I think they turned out great!

The Lost Vikings haven't gotten new skins (or even recolors) ever. Any plans to change that?

Eventually, yes. The primary hurdle for The Lost Vikings is that it is a "three models for one Hero" situation. Building three new models is quite a commitment, so a new skin for them is something we have to clear time for. But I'll go ahead promise that recolors WILL happen! ?

The extension of certain skin-themes in events like Herostorm or Raiders of Warchrome have been a delight. Can we expect similar events to expand on other skin-themes in the future?

As long as the community is engaged and passionate for a skin theme, we would love to continue exploring those themes! ?

Something me and many of my friends have noticed, is that a lot of the Heroes character models are muscular and chunkier than their other video game counter parts, Is there a particular reason for this?

Yes! We try our best to maintain the key elements that make those heroes who they are, however, when a new hero or skin comes into our game we have to take into account how those models are seen by the player. Because our game has a RTS-style isometric view, we often need to exaggerate proportions so that the asset is easily readable and identifiable from our game camera. Having said that, our game has evolved over time and with new features like Heroes 2.0 loot chest and collection views, we've been adjusting our modeling process to account for close up views as well.

What were some of the difficulties the team ran into when making/animating Alexstrazsa's dragon form? And can we be hopeful to see more like that in the future?

The biggest issue we ran into was the size of the dragon - we knew we wanted to have her in dragon-form out on the battle field, but to do so effectively proved a challenge. How do we ensure we're adding to the gameplay experience rather than obscuring it?

There was a lot of back and forth on the scale of her dragon form between art and design, but ultimately, it was our incredible engineering team who helped us cultivate a powerful and performant experience using turning tech.

Most heroes can turn on a dime and it's no problem, but a massive dragon pulling a 180 in a single frame is visually abysmal and breaks the immersion of the dragon fantasy. The tech enables us to have 'turning' animations for the dragon that we blend in/out of, so we can actually have the model bend and face the direction she wants to go as she turns, rather than popping in the opposite direction.

This is a question for each artist/animator: If you could redo one hero from scratch, who would you choose? Could be one of yours or someone else’s work.

Kerrigan! One of my favourite characters from lore (and I play her all the dang time). I was lucky enough that I got to animate a skin for her -- had a chance to animate a legendary homescreen and a few custom animations -- but I'd love the chance to do my take on her kit in full!

How much work goes into making a legendary skin with unique animations and/or sound effects? If you decided today to make a new legendary skin for a hero, when would you guess it would be ready for release?

Artistically, it's typically the same amount of work for a brand new hero! New model often means new rig, often means new animation set. With all that work and TLC from so many different teams, it could typically take months and months!

Alright I got several question so lets start with the big one, which I have been curious about for quite a while

Why was Nova's original taunt animation changed to the current one?

I believe you changed it after the game went "live", Im just curious as to why because its not like there has been a lot of animation changes, at least not after heroes are open to the public.

Thank you for doing and for probably being the best art direction in all of Blizzard right now, you guys rock!

First of all, thank you so much for the kind words!

Nova's original taunt fluctuated a bit too far out of character for her. So the dev team decided to change it to something that actually fit her personality!

Taunts are a funny thing to animate because it's hard not to let our own personal attitudes seep into the characters. The way that I would taunt someone is dramatically different than the way Yrel would taunt someone, or Dehaka, or Artanis... In this case, I think Nova's old taunt dipped a little too far into the voice of the dev vs. the voice of the character.

What was the biggest animation error or glitch that has occurred during the entirety of HoTS? I wanna see how screwed up this can get.

Hi NumberOneBepsi! I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're after, but when animating Nazeebo's Gargantuan there was a bug in the game during development where a Minion would randomly attach to his hand. It was incredibly funny and the Designer agreed to make it a part of his kit. We created some animations to have him actually pickup the minions and then attack with the minion still in his hand. I think a lot of people don't realize this happens. ?

I've always been curious as to the process of getting a design from initial concept art to in-game, would you be able to give a general sketch (lul) of the steps leading to your art appearing before us in game?

I've always been a huge fan of how Blizzard games look and feel and HOTS is no different! You guys are awesome thanks for the passion you put into this game

It's truly a collaborative effort! Generally it looks like this.

Design comes up with a 'paper design' -- an idea of what the hero's abilities will look like and we can already start feedback before they begin implementing the hero into the engine.

In tandem, Concept art starts concepting how we want the hero to look.

The designer, once approved on paper, starts creating the asset in-game using temporary assets for testing.

The art team then goes on to create the model, textures, and tech artists make the rig -- and if possible, we support the designer by prototyping assets they may need. (i.e. Chromie's Q was so distinct, we had to do a custom animation with temp geo for the designers to work with) Writing also starts putting together the script and recording VO!

Once the design is somewhat locked in -- final Animation and FX begin, and then we hand off into our incredible sound, and video teams.

We consistently meet as a team the whole way through to make sure we're all on board with the direction, and eventually it makes it's way to you!

If you want a more in-depth view into the process, I'd advise scoping out the 'Ressurrecting Kel'thuzad' video series we created. ?

Oh, oh hello, When you animate a hero how do you know what movements do? do you sketch them first or have some one to act them for reference?

hehe, thanks for doing this AMA, Im in my last year of animation school and Blizzard was always a big part of why I decide to study this, I love all the Blizz work but here in Heroes I think is were the artist put more heart in their work.

It varies animator to animator.

Depending on the character, sometimes I can just feel it, but I do a lot of sketching, and a lot of video-recording! Sketching, often,for when the action is physically impossible. Video reference, when I'm looking for smaller moments -- how did I shift my weight just then? What is the way I'd look around in this instance. What are some unique ticks I could put into an idle animation? etc.

You can see me working out Yrel's bubblehearth here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BkEOmH7A7m-/?taken-by=lifeatblizzard

And Enforcer Johanna's ready up here: https://twitter.com/Latienie/status/968674147889905664

Most importantly I'd suggest talking to your peers! To this day I have a post-it on my monitor that says 'Feedback Early and Feedback Often'. Game development is collaborative, and learning how to give and receive feedback, and communicate effectively goes a long way!

What are your preferred art programs (Maya, Cinema4D, Blender, Photoshop, etc.)? Any hidden gem programs you think more people should use?

With 3D digital content creation programs, once you know one, it isn't too hard to learn another. A lot of the tech artists on our team had to learn one of these programs on the job. Just become familiar with one and you'll be fine! They each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Hi Devs! Altough i am aware most won't comment on this since it's the most asked question (i.e "is hero X coming") i must do my part and ask if Mei from Overwatch is in consideration to appear in the game since we already have Jaina that can function as a similar hero? Thanks for the hard-work and we'll see you in the Nexus!

Nothing is off the table in the Nexus. ?

Do you prefer capes or wings?

Wings.

Is there any chance we can see more concept art or in-progress work on the game? Not like future stuff, but I would love to get some insight into the process of making my favorite skins/characters/maps that are already in the game.

I think that the @BlizzHeroes twitter account has been posting concept art fairly frequently -- that's a good place to start. Also: we hosted some art drops on Art Station you should check out -- like this one! https://magazine.artstation.com/2017/05/blizzard-entertainment-heroes-storm-art-blast/

Sometimes various skin tints have many colors, sometimes they have a similar amount of colors as the base tint but are different, and sometimes they have much fewer colors or are all shades of the same color.

What is the reasoning for this limited pallet with some skins in particular?

Here is an example of the former (many colors)

https://heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com/File:Sonya_Death_Knight_Naxxramas.jpg

and the latter (very limited color palette)https://heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com/File:Sonya_Death_Knight_Blighted.jpg

So color variations are meant to give the players an outlet to see their favorite heroes and skins in new and colorful ways, but occasionally, we have to take gameplay implications into account. Sometimes we have to consider content that's coming in the future -- like all of the marine suit based heroes, including Raynor, Tychus, Lt. Morales, Blaze -- and therefore limit the base version of a hero into a uniquely identifiable palette. Other times we have to take hero silhouettes into account (like Stitches and Butcher) and make sure their palettes don't overlap. In other instances, we have to take into account the FX built for that hero or skin as it affects people on the team beyond those who are modeling them.

That said, we do appreciate the feedback on any and all color variants and we hope the community continues to let us know what they love and what they feel could use more love ?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Stan said:

Bonus (and more important) question: Waffles or pancakes?

What about French Toast?

Thats the third part of the trio...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As a Stukov main I really loved the explanation they gave behind his animation process. I've always loved his animations but now I like even more.

Quote

but beyond victory poses and taunt animations, I think a Hearth animation you can choose in your Loadout would be fun too.

Would be nice to get new Dance animations.

Edited by Valhalen
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
35 minutes ago, lChronosl said:

Cool AMA, a bit disappointed no one asked about more loadout slots. 3 is too little for many heroes.

Would be nice to also get new Voice Lines. They could even use portions of the jokes the characters tell when clicked.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 7/12/2018 at 1:11 AM, Stan said:
  • Janitor Leoric is such a great concept that it would be a shame to sweep it off the table. 

YEEEEEEESSS!!!!!!

 

 

but what about other concepts? Are we allowed to submit any if they are producible? I asked the same question on Twitter and sadly got no reply. I understand that skins are more time-consuming for some heroes than for others (also thanks for clarifying that this is a point why TLV and Ragnaros still haven't got any visual updates!) but it would be fun to think of a few concepts for some Heroes and submit them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

  • Similar Content

    • By Staff
      Find out what's new in Heroes of the Storm during Warcraft's 30th anniversary!
      Anniversary Background
      A new background is available in the game when you log in.

      All 43 Warcraft Heroes Available for Play
      All Warcraft Heroes are available for play completely free this week. If you'd like to earn some gold, this is a really good opportunity to bring them all to Level 5!

      Faction-Themed Bundles
      You can purchase faction-themed bundles in Heroes of the Storm.
      For the Alliance bundle includes Muradin and Varian, 6 skins and 3 mounts.

      For the Horde bundle contains Rehgar, Garrosh, 6 skins, and 3 mounts.

      Warcraft Remastered Battle Chest
      When you buy the recently-announced battle chest, you will receive Jaina, Thrall, Anub'arak, and Tyrande in Heroes of the Storm!
       
    • By Staff
      The next Heroes of the Storm patch is now available for playtesting for one week 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:
      Map Update Hero Updates Balance Update Bug Fixes Map Update
      Volskaya
      The Pilot and Gunner Abilities will both recharge 25% faster while both slots are occupied. The Protector will now gain 25% increased energy regeneration. Return to Top
      Hero Updates
      Chen
      Talents
      Level 10 Wandering Keg Wandering Keg updated to feature quick-cast targeting. Samuro
      General
      Order of buffs in the Buff bar has been updated to match the order in which talents are gained. Samuro can no longer target a Mirror Image that is affected by launch effects (Example: Phase Prism). Samuro will no longer mirror Hearthstone and Mount commands on his Mirror Images if the command is sent while selecting a Mirror Image and not Samuro. Tooltips have been updated to reduce confusion. Base
      Wind Walk [E] Wind Walk will no longer cancel move and attack commands in the command queue when activated. Critical Strike [W] Activating Critical Strike while Samuro's Basic Attack is being swung will now apply to that attack, rather than the next attack, and will carry the attack reset over to the next Basic Attack. Samuro can now see his Critical Strike progress below his Healthplate. Samuro can now see the remaining duration of Critical Strike's activation around the ability button. Talents
      Level 1 Way of Illusion Way of Illusion quest progress is now correctly mirrored between different Mirror Images and Samuro. Level 7 Burning Blade Burning Blade is now an additive modifier for both Samuro and his Mirror Images instead of just his Mirror Images. Level 13 Kawarimi Kawarimi Mirror Images will now clear their command queue of Hearthstone commands when created. Level 16 Harsh Winds Harsh Winds is now an additive modifier. Balance Update
      Heroes
      Arthas
      Talents
      Level 13 Frost Strike Rework: Frostmourne Hungers now Silences the enemy for .25 seconds. Level 16 Frostmourne Feeds Now also reduces the cooldown of Frostmourne Hungers by 2 seconds. Greymane
      Talents
      Level 16 Lord Of His Pack New: Replaces Executioner. Basic Attacks against Slowed, Rooted or Stunned enemy Heroes deal 25% additional damage for 3 seconds, increased to 50% while in Worgen Form. Imperius
      Talents
      Level 10 Wrath of the Angiris Rework: Damage reduced from 375 to 210. Rework: Now deals 20% additional damage for each Valorous Brand marker on the target when landing. Rework: Valorous Brand markers placed by Imperius will no longer be removed when launching the target into the air. These can still expire while in the air. Li Li
      Talents
      Level 1 Free Drinks Can now reduce the cooldown multiple times per cast (Example: Combined with Two For One). Level 20 Shake It Off Armor now persists for 2 seconds after Stun, Silence, or Root expires. Medivh
      Talents
      Level 20 Glyph of Poly Bomb Rework: Target an area to apply Poly Bomb to all enemy Heroes in the area. Poly Bomb activates a second time 1 second after. Murky
      Talents
      Level 13 Egg Shell The Shield now regains an amount equal to 35% of Murky's current Health when Murky places a new Egg. Varian
      Talents
      Level 20 Demoralizing Shout Cooldown is now reduced by 2.5% whenever an enemy Hero affected by Demoralizing Shout deals damage to a Hero. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed issues with Block and Basic Attacks that Ignore Armor. Map
      Cursed Hollow Fixed an issue that caused Cursed Hollow's Call for Help's Armor reduction to not be cleared by Stasis or Invulnerable. Heroes
      Anubarak Level 20 Cryptweave Fixed an issue that caused Cryptweave's duration increase to be granted while Anub'arak is dead. Artanis Level 10 Purifier Beam Fixed an issue that caused Purifier Beam to last up to an additional 0.5 seconds. Azmodan Level 10 Demonic Invasion Fixed an issue that caused Demonic Invasion grunts to attack Stealthed enemies. Cassia Level 20 Titan's Revenge Fixed an issue that caused Titan's Revenge empowered Basic Attacks to consume Block charges. Fixed an issue that caused Titan's Revenge to not apply to Charged Strikes bounce attacks. Cho'Gall General Fixed an issue that caused Cho and Gall to become separated if Cho enters a Vehicle the moment the Vehicle expires. Deathwing Level 10 Bellowing Roar Fixed an issue to allow Deathwing to cast Bellowing Roar while Dragonflight is active. Diablo Base Black Soulstone [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Diablo's health gained from Black Soulstone to not be accurate. Gul'dan Base Drain Life [W] Added a range indicator for Drain Life. Hanzo Level 16 Piercing Arrows Fixed an issue that caused Storm Bow to hit targets in close proximity to the first target hit with Piercing Arrows. Leoric Level 1 Fealty Unto Death Fixed an issue that Fealty Unto Death's heal. Li Li Base Cloud Serpent [W] Fixed an issue that caused crit floating modifiers to not apply to Cloud Serpent damage. Fixed an issue that caused Defense Matrix to not apply to any Cloud Serpent damage. Fixed an issue that caused Spell Power to not apply to Cloud Serpent healing. Level 7 The Good Stuff Fixed an issue that caused The Good Stuff's Fast Feet healing increase to be multiplicative. Level 13 Lightning Serpent Fixed an issue that caused Spell Power and other damage mods to not apply to Lightning Serpent damage. Level 16 Pick Me Up Fixed an issue that caused Pick Me Up's healing increase to be multiplicative. Maiev Level 4 Sudden Vengeance Fixed an issue that caused Sudden Vengeance to not activate Ruthless Spirit. Mal'Ganis Level 1 Winged Guard Fixed an issue that caused Winged Guard to lose Block charges to all effects that ignore Armor. Nazeebo Level 10 Gargantuan Fixed an issue that caused Gargantuan Stomp damage to not display the correct values in the tooltip. Orphea Level 16 Dead Magic Fixed an issue that caused Chaos-empowered Basic Attacks from Dead Magic to consume Block charges. Rehgar Level 7 Purification When selecting Purification, Purge will now be able to target Unstoppable enemy Heroes. Rexxar Level 10 Unleash the Boars Unleash the Boars damage updated to have Rexxar deal the damage instead of each Boar dealing its own damage. Samuro Base Image Transmission [Trait] Fixed an issue that allowed Samuro to cast Image Transmission on a destroyed Mirror Image if it was queued to happen directly after Mirror Image was cast. If Samuro activates Image Transmission or if a new Mirror Image is created, any Mirror Images that are updated will copy Blessing of the Red if it is present on Samuro instead of increasing their maximum Health as if Blessing of the Red were cast on them. Level 7 Crushing Blows Fixed an issue that caused Crushing Blows to apply to the triggering Critical Strike. Level 20 Three Blade Style Fixed an issue that caused Three Blade Style to increase Mirror Image maximum health if Samuro gained Blessing of the Red between the Images being created and the talent being selected. Fixed an issue that caused Three Blade Style to reset the duration on an active Mirror Image when selected. Sgt. Hammer General Sgt. Hammer's level 1 talent icon changes have been reverted. Stitches Level 13 Meat Hook Fixed an issue that caused the refresh duration to not match the full duration of Meat Hook. The Butcher General Talent sorting for the Butcher has been updated to be the same as other Heroes. Base Fresh Meat [Trait] Fresh Meat is not referred to as stacks instead of charges. Tyrande Level 1 Ranger Fixed an issue that caused Ranger to allow Sentinel to hit up to 3 targets. Whitemane Base Inquisition [W] Added a range indicator for Inquisition. Fixed an issue that caused Inquisition to not be cancelled if the target leaves the radius while Stealthed. Zul'jin Level 16 No Mercy! Fixed an issue that caused empowered Grievous Throw Basic Attacks from No Mercy! To not activate Medivh's Raven Familiar. 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 patch for Heroes of the Storm with additional balance changes and updated shop bundles and items! 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 Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Updated Homescreen and Startup Music. Updated Shop Bundles and Items. Return to Top
      Balance Updates
      ARAM
      Same Hero Mode Same Hero mode now enables Health & Mana regeneration at base, reduced from 8% per second to 3.2% per second. Same Hero mode now enables the Hearthstone ability without the burst heal after completion. Reduced the chance of encountering Same Hero Mode from 2% to .5%. Sgt. Hammer has been added to Same Hero mode. The following Heroes have been removed from Same Hero Mode: Alarak, Artanis, Butcher, Cassia, Falstad, Genji, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hogger, Illidan, Imperius, Junkrat, Kael'thas, Kel'Thuzad, Kerrigan, Li-Ming, Lunara, Maiev, Mephisto, Orphea, Raynor, Thrall, Tracer, Tychus, Whitemane, Zarya, Zeratul, Zul'jin. Heroes
      Blaze
      Base
      Basic Attack damage increased from 55 to 60. Flame Stream [Q] No longer able to deal additional damage to Structures. Talents
      Level 1 Adrenaline Stimpack Passive attack speed bonus reduced from 25% to 20%. Level 4 Incinerator Gauntlets Bonus damage reduced from 50% to 40%. Level 7 Nanomachine Coating Attack Speed reduction reduced from 50% to 35%. Duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. Suppressive Fire Reduced Spell Power reduction from 25% to 20% and from 50% to 40%. Level 10 Bunker Drop Cooldown increased from 70 to 80. Flamethrower damage reduced from 170 to 150. Mana cost increased from 70 to 80. Level 13 Collision Course Damage reduced from 275 to 260. Cassia
      Base
      Basic Attack damage increased from 122 to 125. Talents
      Level 1 Impale Bonus Damage increased from 50% to 70%. Thunderstroke Bonus Damage increased from 15 to 20. Level 20 Infinite Lightning Cooldown reduction reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds. Chen
      Talents
      Level 1 Eye of the Tiger Bonus Damage increased from 40% to 50%. Leech amount increased from 40% to 60%. Level 4 Accumulating Flame Bonus Damage increased from 20% to 30%. Level 7 Gift of the Ox Bonus duration increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds. Level 13 A Touch of Honey Slow bonus increased from 20% to 30%. Ring of Fire Damage increased from 55 to 60. Duration increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds. Level 20 Untapped Potential Bonus Armor duration increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. Hanzo
      Talents
      Level 16 Giant Slayer Damage reduced from 2% of maximum Health to 1.6% of maximum Health. Mephisto
      Talents
      Level 4 Spite Bonus duration reduced from 150% to 100%. Level 16 Lightning Reaction Damage reduced from 138 to 120. Thrall
      Base
      Health increased from 1896 to 1946. Health Regeneration increased from 3.9492 to 4.0546. Frostwolf Resilience [Trait] Healing increased from 223 to 240. Chain Lightning [Q] Bounce damage increased from 81 to 85. Damage increased from 162 to 170. Feral Spirit [W] Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds. Talents
      Level 13 Spirit Shield Increased Spell Armor from 50 to 70. Valla
      Base
      Hatred [Trait] Duration reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. Talents
      Level 10 Strafe Damage per bolt increased from 60 to 70. Mana cost reduced from 80 to 60. Level 16 Manticore Reduced bonus damage from 5% of maximum Health to 4% of maximum Health. Punishment Reduced the Mana cost of Multishot by 20. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      Heroes
      Abathur Level 20 Hivemind Fixed an issue that caused Hivemind to grant more Shielding than intended when combined with Networked Carapace. Alarak Base Sadism [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Sadism's bonus to not apply to Lightning Surge's healing when the primary target is not a Hero. Butcher Level 1 Invigoration Fixed an issue that caused Invigoration to not activate if Hamstring killed its only Hero target. Cassia Level 13 War Matron Added floating text for the amount of damage prevented by War Matron. Cho'Gall Level 1 Keep Moving! Now also modifies Cho's run animation while Shove's movement speed bonus is active. Level 20 The Will of Gall Fixed an issue that caused The Will of Gall to not increase Gall's damage. Chromie Level 10 Temporal Loop No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Diablo Base Fixed an issue that prevented Diablo's attacks from consuming charges of Dodge and Upstage. Shadow Charge [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Shadow Charge to attach the target to Diablo if another Diablo is affecting them with Overpower. Overpower [E] Fixed an issue that caused Overpower to activate Stukov's Superstrain twice. E.T.C. Level 1 Prog Rock Fixed an issue that could prevent allies from being affected by Prog Rock's area heal. Garrosh Base Into the Fray [1] No longer displays the duration of its Unstoppable. Bloodthirst [W] No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Level 1 Body Check No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Guldan Base Drain Life [W] No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Imperius Base Celestial Charge [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Celestial Charge to activate Stukov's Superstrain twice. Junkrat Level 10 RIP-Tire Fixed an issue that caused RIP-Tire to not display correctly when cast. Kel'Thuzad Base Death and Decay [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Death and Decay's cast effect to be visible in Fog of War and animate while Kel'Thuzad is Stopped. Level 10 Frost Blast No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Kharazim Level 4 Earth Ally Updated Earth Ally to have the remaining Physical Armor duration match the remaining duration of Earth Ally. Level 20 Peaceful Repose Fixed an issue that caused Peaceful Repose to activate even when Divine Palm heals the target. Li Li Level 1 Free Drinks Floating text updated to show as a crit. Medivh Base Portal [E] Fixed an issue that allowed Medivh to instantly mount after using a Portal to leave the Hall of Storms. Fixed an issue that caused Medivh's Portal to not feature a channel bar or apply visual effects while being channeled. Portal teleportation now happens instantly after completing the channel instead of briefly after completing the channel. Using Medivh's Portal no longer clears the command queue. Level 4 Raven Familiar Damage is now dealt by the Portal user instead of Medivh. Nazeebo Level 10 Ravenous Spirit Fixed an issue that caused Ravenous Spirit to be cancelled if another Nazeebo cancelled their Ravenous Spirit. Probius Level 16 Quantum Entanglement Fixed an issue that caused Quantum Entanglement to not apply if the Warp Rift is detonated as soon as it activates. Raynor Base Inspire [W] Added a duration indicator to the Abilities button. Level 10 Raynor's Raider Fixed an issue that caused Raynor's Raider Banshee to receive healing when activating the Tunnel on Towers of Doom and the Sewer Waygate on Warhead Junction. Fixed an issue that caused Raynor's Banshee to not be launched by Stitches Hook. Level 20 Execute Orders Fixed an issue that caused Execute Orders Yamato Cannon to fire at targets outside its radius. Rehgar Base Lightning Shield [W] Fixed an issue that caused Rehgar to not be healed by the damage dealt by Lightning Shield when he gains spell leech. Ghost Wolf [Z] Fixed an issue that caused Rehgar's Ghost Wolf Lunge visuals to be visible in Fog of War. Level 4 Electric Charge Fixed an issue that caused Electric Charge to increase the bearer's Self Healing score. Updated to heal the bearer for its amount as a singular combined effect. Rexxar Fixed an issue that caused Misha to receive healing when activating the Tunnel on Towers of Doom and the Sewer Waygate on Warhead Junction. Fixed an issue that prevented Rexxar's melee attacks from consuming charges of Dodge and Upstage. Stukov Level 16 Superstrain Fixed an issue that caused Superstrain to not display FX when activating. Tassadar Level 7 Arc Discharge Fixed an issue that caused Arc Discharge cooldown to not progress while resonance beam is fully charged. Fixed an issue that caused Arc Discharge to trigger during cooldown. Fixed an issue that caused Arc Discharge to not activate correctly. Tracer Level 4 Is That a Health Pack?! Fixed an issue that caused Is That a Health Pack?! to increase Tracer's Healing Score when activating. Tyrael Level 13 Law and Order Fixed an issue that caused Law and Order's damage bonus to not be applied. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      A new Heroes of the Storm patch is now available for testing on the PTR and here are the development notes for the update!
      (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 Hero Updates Balance Update Bug Fixes General
      Updated Homescreen and Startup Music. Return to Top
      Hero Updates
      Chromie
      Talents
      Level 10 Temporal Loop No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Garrosh
      Base
      Bloodthirst [W] No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Talents
      Level 1 Body Check No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Guldan
      Base
      Drain Life [W] No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Kel'Thuzad
      Talents
      Level 10 Frost Blast No longer ignores vision limitations when queued. Return to Top
      Balance Updates
      ARAM
      Same Hero mode now enables Health & Mana regeneration at base, reduced from 8% per second to 3.2% per second. Same Hero mode now enables the Hearthstone ability without the burst heal after completion. Heroes
      Blaze
      Base
      Basic Attack damage increased from 55 to 60. Flame Stream [Q] No longer able to deal additional damage to Structures. Talents
      Level 1 Adrenaline Stimpack Passive attack speed bonus reduced from 25% to 20%. Level 4 Incinerator Gauntlets Bonus damage reduced from 50% to 40%. Level 7 Nanomachine Coating Attack Speed reduction reduced from 50% to 35%. Duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. Suppressive Fire Reduced Spell Power reduction from 25% to 20% and from 50% to 40%. Level 10 Bunker Drop Cooldown increased from 70 to 80. Flamethrower damage reduced from 170 to 150. Mana cost increased from 70 to 80. Level 13 Collision Course Damage reduced from 275 to 260. Cassia
      Base
      Basic Attack damage increased from 122 to 125. Talents
      Level 1 Impale Bonus Damage increased from 50% to 70%. Thunderstroke Bonus Damage increased from 15 to 20. Level 20 Infinite Lightning Cooldown reduction reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds. Chen
      Talents
      Level 1 Eye of the Tiger Bonus Damage increased from 40% to 50%. Leech amount increased from 40% to 60%. Level 4 Accumulating Flame Bonus Damage increased from 20% to 30%. Level 7 Gift of the Ox Bonus duration increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds. Level 13 A Touch of Honey Slow bonus increased from 20% to 30%. Ring of Fire Damage increased from 55 to 60. Duration increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds. Level 20 Untapped Potential Bonus Armor duration increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. Hanzo
      Talents
      Level 16 Giant Slayer Damage reduced from 2% of maximum Health to 1.6% of maximum Health. Mephisto
      Talents
      Level 4 Spite Bonus duration reduced from 150% to 100%. Level 16 Lightning Reaction Damage reduced from 138 to 120. Thrall
      Base
      Health increased from 1896 to 1946. Health Regeneration increased from 3.9492 to 4.0546. Frostwolf Resilience [Trait] Healing increased from 223 to 240. Chain Lightning [Q] Bounce damage increased from 81 to 85. Damage increased from 162 to 170. Feral Spirit [W] Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds. Talents
      Level 13 Spirit Shield Increased Spell Armor from 50 to 70. Valla
      Base
      Hatred [Trait] Duration reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. Talents
      Level 10 Strafe Damage per bolt increased from 60 to 70. Mana cost reduced from 80 to 60. Level 16 Manticore Reduced bonus damage from 5% of maximum Health to 4% of maximum Health. Punishment Reduced the Mana cost of Multishot by 20. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      Heroes
      Alarak Base Sadism [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Sadism's bonus to not apply to Lightning Surge's healing when the primary target is not a Hero. Cassia Level 13 War Matron Added floating text for the amount of damage prevented by War Matron. Cho'Gall Level 1 Keep Moving! Now also modifies Cho's run animation while Shove's movement speed bonus is active. Diablo Base Overpower [E] Fixed an issue that caused Overpower to activate Stukov's Superstrain twice. E.T.C. Level 1 Prog Rock Fixed an issue that could prevent allies from being affected by Prog Rock's area heal. Garrosh Base Into the Fray [1] No longer displays the duration of its Unstoppable. Imperius Base Celestial Charge [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Celestial Charge to activate Stukov's Superstrain twice. Junkrat Level 10 RIP-Tire Fixed an issue that caused RIP-Tire to not display correctly when cast. Kharazim Level 4 Earth Ally Updated Earth Ally to have the remaining Physical Armor duration match the remaining duration of Earth Ally. Li Li Level 1 Free Drinks Floating text updated to show as a crit. Medivh Base Portal [E] Fixed an issue that allowed Medivh to instantly mount after using a Portal to leave the Hall of Storms. Fixed an issue that caused Medivh's Portal to not feature a channel bar or apply visual effects while being channeled. Portal teleportation now happens instantly after completing the channel instead of briefly after completing the channel. Using Medivh's Portal no longer clears the command queue. Level 4 Raven Familiar Damage is now dealt by the Portal user instead of Medivh. Nazeebo Level 10 Ravenous Spirit Fixed an issue that caused Ravenous Spirit to be cancelled if another Nazeebo cancelled their Ravenous Spirit. Probius Level 16 Quantum Entanglement Fixed an issue that caused Quantum Entanglement to not apply if the Warp Rift is detonated as soon as it activates. Raynor Level 10 Raynor's Raider Fixed an issue that caused Raynor's Raider Banshee to receive healing when activating the Tunnel on Towers of Doom and the Sewer Waygate on Warhead Junction. Level 20 Execute Orders Fixed an issue that caused Execute Orders Yamato Cannon to fire at targets outside its radius. Rehgar Base Lightning Shield [W] Fixed an issue that caused Rehgar to not be healed by the damage dealt by Lightning Shield when he gains spell leech. Level 4 Electric Charge Fixed an issue that caused Electric Charge to increase the bearer's Self Healing score. Updated to heal the bearer for its amount as a singular combined effect. Rexxar Fixed an issue that caused Misha to receive healing when activating the Tunnel on Towers of Doom and the Sewer Waygate on Warhead Junction. Stukov Level 16 Superstrain Fixed an issue that caused Superstrain to not display FX when activating. Tracer Level 4 Is That a Health Pack?! Fixed an issue that caused Is That a Health Pack?! to increase Tracer's Healing Score when activating. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

    • By Staff
      Blizzard just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm and made some additional changes based on PTR feedback. Here are the official patch notes with everything you need to know!
      (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 Balance Update Hero Updates Bug Fixes General
      Updated Homescreen and Startup Music. Updated Shop Bundles and Items. Return to Top
      Balance Updates
      Heroes
      Brightwing
      Talents
      Level 1 Hyper Shift Cooldown reduction reduced from 1 to .5 seconds. Healing reduced from 6% to 4% of maximum Health. Genji
      Talents
      Level 1 Agile Dismount Slow reduced from 30% to 25%. Pathfinder Movement Speed bonus increased from 25% to 30%. Level 7 Cyber Shield Armor bonus reduced from 50 to 40. Level 10 X-Strike Final damage reduced from 290 to 275. Initial damage reduced from 145 to 135. Level 13 Shingan Damage reduced from 115 to 100. Mephisto
      Talents
      Level 4 Spite Spite has been disabled in ARAM. Qhira
      Base
      Grappling Hook [Trait] Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds. Carnage [Q] Can now hit targets immune to skill shots (Example: Zagara's Creep Tumors). Blood Rage [W] Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds. Healing increased from 85 to 90. Revolving Sweep [E] Revolving Sweep's Chain Link can now hit targets immune to skill shots (Example: Zagara's Creep Tumors). Talents
      Level 7 Healmonger Healing increased from 190 to 210. Level 10 Final Strike Damage increased from 395 to 410. Level 16 Lingering Ailment Armor reduction increased from 25 to 40 35. Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds. Raynor
      Talents
      Level 20 Execute Orders Updated to only target Heroes, prioritizing ones with the lowest Health. Damage of Yamato Cannon reduced from 794 to 395 as it now targets only Heroes. Will no longer target enemy Heroes not visible or greater than 20 range away. Will now target enemy Heroes who are Invulnerable. Samuro
      Base
      Wind Walk [E] Periodic heal reduced from 3% per second to 2% per second. Talents
      Level 1 Way of the Wind Reduced Healing for casting Wind Walk from 4% to 3% of maximum Health. Level 4 One with the Wind Armor reduction decreased from 30% to 25%. Level 10 Bladestorm Cooldown increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds. Zarya
      Base
      Particle Grenade [Q] Damage increased from 75 to 80. Shield Ally [E] Search radius increased from 8 to 10. Talents
      Level 7 Deep Burn Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds. Level 13 Pain is Temporary Shielding increased from 0.48% of Max Health per Energy to 0.8% of Max Health per Energy. Return to Top
      Hero Updates
      Cassia
      Talents
      Level 7 Pain is Temporary Improved the visibility of Surge of Light being available. Gazlowe
      General
      Added indicator arrows to Gazlowe's Xplodium Bomb warning indicator. Samuro
      General
      Added an arrow indicator below Samuro facing the direction of any active Mirror Images. Uther
      Talents
      Level 20 Bulwark of Light Added a radius indicator while targeting with Divine Shield. Return to Top
      Bug Fixes
      General
      Catapults will now display properly in the Death Recap. Effects that reduce your vision radius now prevents soft reveals (Things that make your character visible). Fixed an issue that caused dance animations to persist after moving, using an ability, or attacking. Fixed an issue that caused Forts and Keeps to not activate their Call for Help mechanics when multiple enemy Heroes attack an enemy Hero at the same time. Fixed an issue that caused Heroes to not spawn at the start of the game. Fixed an issue that caused Heroes with non-standard Deaths to display their final hit incorrectly in the Death Recap. Fixed an issue that caused overhead shrub indicator to persist after leaving the shrub. Fixed an issue that caused shield-like effects to not be treated as Shields. Fixed an issue that caused some abilities to allow the caster to gather experience globes while inside a shrub. Fixed an issue that caused some passive move speed benefits to not behave consistently. Fixed an issue that caused Summons to not have their attack speed reduced when attacking Heroes with Imposing Presence or similar talents. Fixed an issue that caused targets inside shrubs to be revealed by proximity when the other unit has vision reduction. Fixed an issue that caused vignette borders on some cutscenes to render incorrectly at higher than 1080x1920 resolutions. Fixed an issue that caused text to overlap in the Death Recap. Maps
      Garden of Terror Fixed an issue that caused the Toy Train to not be dismounted by Garden of Terror's Polymorph ability. Try Me Mode Added a regen globe generator. Heroes
      Abathur Level 7 Calldown: MULE Updated to use level-based scaling. Level 10 Ultimate Evolution Fixed an issue that caused Pylons created by Ultimate Evolution clones of Probius to not be destroyed when the Ultimate Evolution expires. Fixed an issue that caused traps created by Ultimate Evolution clones of Junkrat to only be removed when Abathur dies. Level 13 Soma Transference Updated to heal the target for its amount as a singular combined effect. Alarak Base Lightning Surge [E] Updated to heal Alarak for its amount as a singular combined effect. Now soft reveals all primary target types instead of just Heroes. Level 7 Applied Force Now applies the increased push distance to Alarak. Level 20 Counter-Strike Now soft reveals targets hit. Last Laugh Fixed an issue that caused Last Laugh to show up twice on the Death Recap. Alexstrasza Level 10 Cleansing Flame Fixed an issue that caused Cleansing Flame to display incorrectly when used by an AI controlled Alexstrasza. Ana Fixed an issue where Ana's abilities caused players to highlight enemies. Anduin Base Pursued by Grace [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Pursued by Grace to activate while Blinded or against an Evading Hero. Level 4 Surge of Light Fixed an issue that caused Surge of Light to lower the cooldown of Chastise while Blinded or against Evading enemies. Level 16 Inner Focus Fixed an issue that caused Blinds to not prevent Anduin's Physical damage to lower the cooldown of Inner Focus. Arthas Base Frostmourne Hungers [Trait] Fixed an issue that caused Frostmourne Hungers to not display correctly against Blinded or Evading enemies. Auriel Level 20 Light Speed Fixed an issue that caused Light Speed's benefits to not be granted to Leoric. Azmodan Fixed an issue that caused All Shall Burn talents to not apply their on-kill effects unless Azmodan has taken Master of Destruction. Level 10 Demonic Invasion Fixed an issue that caused Demonic Invasion Grunts on-death damage to not be modified by damage modification. Blaze Base Jet Propulsion [E] Now soft reveals targets hit. Brightwing Base Polymorph [W] Fixed an issue that caused Polymorph's Slow to not classify the target as being Slowed. Level 4 Magic Spit Fixed an issue that caused Magic Spit to activate its cooldown reduction against Evading Heroes. Cassia Fixed an issue with Blinds not preventing all Physical damage. Level 7 Surge of Light Fixed an issue that caused cooldown resets to not make Surge of Light available. Updated Surge of Light to include damage taken by Cassia's Shields. Chen Level 1 Stormstout Secret Recipe Now displays in the Death Recap. Cho'Gall Fixed an issue where Cho'Gall's abilities caused players to highlight enemies. Level 4 Rollback Now displays in the Death Recap. Chromie Fixed an issue that caused Abathur's Ultimate Evolution Spell Power to not be granted to Ultimate Evolution Sand Echo Sand Blasts. Fixed an issue that caused Defense Matrix to not reduce the damage of Sand Echo Sand Blasts. Fixed an issue that caused Sand Blast Echoes to reveal Chromie. Fixed an issue that caused Sand Echo Sand Blast damage to not gain the benefits of Spell Leech. Fixed an issue that caused Sand Echo Sand Blasts to still be fired if Chromie's Sand Blast is interrupted. Base Dragon's Breath [W] No longer soft reveals Chromie when casting Dragon's Breath on enemies that have their vision reduced. Level 20 Piercing Sands Fixed an issue that caused Piercing Sands to not cause Sand Blast to hit all targets. Dehaka Base Drag [Q] Target's movement speed now matches Dehaka's movement speed. Dark Swam [W] Fixed an issue that caused Dark Swam to not deal damage for the last .5 seconds. Level 10 Adaptation Fixed an issue that caused Adaptation to show up twice on the Death Recap. Diablo Level 10 Apocalypse Will now activate even if Diablo is interrupted during the cast time. D.Va Level 10 Bunny Hop Now soft reveals targets hit. Micro Missiles Now soft reveals all targets hit, instead of only the triggering target. E.T.C. Base Powerslide [Q] Fixed issues with Powerslide when targeted into unpathable terrain with Crowdsurfer. Level 1 Prog Rock Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 10 The Hunt Fixed issues that caused Illidan to Hunt towards the enemy Hall of Storms. Fenix Base Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb [W] Fixed an issue that caused Phase Bomb's splash to not behave correctly while Blinded or against Evading enemies. Genji Fixed an issue that caused Dodge to not prevent all on-hit effects. Base Swift Strike [E] No longer soft reveals Genji to targets hit by Swift Strike that are affected by vision reduction. Level 4 Dragon Claw Now soft reveals targets hit. Level 10 X-Strike Now soft reveals targets hit. Graymane Worgen form's Basic Attack damage increase is now additive. Base Inner Beast [W] Fixed an issue that caused Inner Beasts' on-hit bonuses to apply on-fire instead of on-hit. Gul'dan Level 20 Demonic Circle Fixed an issue that caused Demonic Circle's outgoing FX to only be visible if you see Gul'dan's teleported to location. Hanzo Level 4 Explosive Arrows Now soft reveals targets hit. Level 7 The Dragon Hungers Fixed an issue that caused The Dragon Hungers to apply the Spell Power bonus to the triggering damage effect. Level 10 Dragon's Arrow Now soft reveals targets hit. Hogger Level 7 Garbage Fire Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 13 Bloodthirst Now causes Headbanger to heal Hogger for the damage dealt. Illidan Level 4 Hunter's Onslaught Now causes Immolation to heal Illidan for the damage dealt. Level 10 The Hunt Fixed issues that caused Illidan to Hunt towards the enemy Hall of Storms. Kel'Thuzad Fixed an issue that caused Defense Matrix to not reduce the damage of the Shade's Death and Decay. Fixed an issue that caused the Shade's damage to not gain the benefits of Spell Leech. Fixed an issue that caused the Shade's Death and Decay to still be fired if Kel'Thuzad's Death and Decay cast is interrupted. Level 20 Deathchill Now displays in the Death Recap. Kerrigan Level 1 Fury of the Swarm Fixed an issue that caused Fury of the Swarm's splash to not behave correctly while Blinded or against Evading enemies. Kharazim Level 16 Echo of Heaven Now displays in the Death Recap. Leoric Level 20 Buried Alive Now displays in the Death Recap. Shroud of the Dead King Shroud of the Dead King now shows floating text for the amount of damage prevented. Li-Ming Level 1 Aether Walker Fixed an issue that caused Aether Walker to apply the damage bonus to Magic Missiles incorrectly. Lt. Morales Base Healing Beam [Q] Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 16 Extended Care Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 20 Hospice Care Now displays in the Death Recap. Lucio Level 7 Reverse Amp Now displays in the Death Recap. Maiev Base Umbral Bind [W] Fixed an issue that caused Umbral Bind's cleave to grant Vengeful Knives progress while Blinded or against Evading Heroes. Level 1 Naisha's Memento Fixed an issue that caused Naisha's Memento to grant Vengeful Knives progress while Blinded or against Evading Heroes. Malfurion Base Moonfire [W] Updated to heal Regrowth targets for its amount as a singular combined effect per target. Mal'Ganis Level 7 Black Claws Fixed an issue that caused Black Claw's Armor reduction to not be removed by Invulnerable. Level 16 Blind as a Bat Blind as a Bat now instantly removes any area reveals. Fixed an issue that caused Blind as a Bat to not lose vision of enemies that are revealed by damaging Mal'Ganis. Fixed an issue that caused Blind as a Bat to see enemies when first cast. Malthael Base Soul Rip [Q] Updated to heal Malthael for its amount spread over up to 3 effects. Medivh Level 7 Arcane Explosion Fixed an issue that caused Arcane Explosion to destroy Raynor's Banshee's Basic Attack missiles. Level 20 Dust of Disappearance Updated for apply visuals to appear as soon as granted. Mei Fixed an issue where Mei's abilities caused players to highlight enemies. Level 10 Ice Wall Fixed an issue that caused abilities to be usable when Ice Wall transitions from timed to untimed. Level 20 Flash Freeze Fixed an issue that caused Flash Freeze to not properly cancel effects that launch Mei. Shatter Fixed an issue that caused Shatter's Armor reduction to not be removed by Invulnerable. Muradin Level 13 Bronzebeard Rage Now displays in the Death Recap. Healing Static Updated to heal Muradin for its amount as a singular combined effect. Murky Level 10 Octo-Grab Fixed an issue that caused Octo-Grab to be placed on full cooldown if the target moves out of reach. Level 13 Rejuvenating Bubble Now displays in the Death Recap. Nazeebo Level 7 Dead Rush Fixed an issue that caused Zombie Wall's Zombies to lose health after uprooting with Dead Rush. Nova Level 16 Explosive Round Explosive Snipe's damage modifier is now additive. Orphea Level 13 Invasive Miasma Updated to heal Orphea for its amount as a singular combined effect. Qhira Base Blood Rage [W] Blood Rage's heal no longer fills the Death Recap with empty entries. Level 4 Upstage Fixed an issue that caused Upstage to also prevent damage from Summoned attacks. Fixed an issue that caused Upstage to not prevent all on-hit effects. Level 7 Healmonger Updated to heal Qhira for its amount as a singular combined effect. Ragnaros Level 1 Shifting Meteor Fixed an issue that caused Shifting Meteor to not travel the full remaining distance of the Living Meteor. Rehgar Base Chain Heal [Q] Fixed an issue that caused Chain Heal to be visible to others while inside a shrub. Level 13 Wellspring Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 20 Farseer's Blessing Now displays in the Death Recap. Rexxar Level 13 Dire Beast Damage increase is now additive. Level 20 Spirit Bond Now displays in the Death Recap. Stitches Level 7 Putrefaction Fixed an issue with Putrefaction's healing reduction. Stukov Level 10 Massive Shove Fixed an issue that caused Massive Shove to launch from Stukov's origin point. Sylvanas Level 13 Remorseless Now displays in the Death Recap. Tassadar Level 4 Electric Fence Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 10 Black Hole Fixed an issue that caused Black Hole to hit targets a second time at its apex. The Butcher Base Ruthless Onslaught [E] Now soft reveals the target on impact. The Lost Vikings Olaf Fixed an issue that caused Olaf's Attack not showing up as a Basic Attack. Level 20 Checkpoint Reached Now displays in the Death Recap. Tracer Fixed an issue that caused the last bullet from Tracer's previous magazine to be fired when Tracer's Reload completes. Level 4 Pulse Generator Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 13 Telefrag Now displays in the Death Recap. Tyrael Level 1 Salvation Now displays in the Death Recap. Level 4 Bound by Law Updated to heal Tyrael for its amount as a singular combined effect. Level 13 Law and Order Fixed an issue that caused Law and Order to apply to Smites that are currently being cast. Level 16 Burning Halo Now displays in the Death Recap. Tyrande Level 7 Huntress' Fury Fixed an issue that caused Huntress' Fury to activate against Evading enemies. Uther Level 1 Wave of Light Fixed an issue that caused Wave of Light quest reward to revert Divine Protection's duration increase if completed after selecting Divine Protection. Fixed an issue that caused Wave of Light to not grant its full quest reward benefit to Armor granted to Uther if Divine Protection is selected. Level 16 Tyr's Deliverance Fixed an issue that caused Tyr's Deliverance to apply its bonus to the active Holy Radiance, instead of the next Holy Radiance. Level 20 Divine Protection Fixed an issue that caused Divine Protection to be inconsistent in how it is applied to an already active Devotion Armor. Valeera Level 16 Seal Fate Fixed an issue that caused Sinister Strike to deal additional damage to non-Heroes. Xul Level 7 Trag'Oul's Essence Now displays in the Death Recap. Yrel Fixed an issue where Yrel's abilities caused players to highlight enemies. Zagara Level 10 Nydus Network Now displays the correct icon in the Death Recap. Zarya Level 7 Explosive Barrier Now displays in the Death Recap. Return to Top
      Click here to discuss this post with other players in the official Heroes of the Storm forums.

×
×
  • Create New...