heroes Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: August 27th

[Stan 5,240]

A new patch with Mephisto, updated Hanamura, and Tyrande rework is available for playtesting on PTR until September 3rd.

Blizzard (Source)

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until September 3. 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.

General

• Certain game visuals now appear smoother, such as Channel/Duration progress bars and Fog of War.
• Dynamic Spell Power Updating
  • Ability Damage is now calculated while abilities are in flight instead of only at the time of cast.

Battlegrounds

• Hanamura Temple
  • Hanamura has been renamed to Hanamura Temple and has received a significant gameplay update.
  • Hanamura Temple has been added to the Battleground Rotation.

• Battleground Rotation
  • The Unranked Battleground Rotation has been updated to the following (For PTR, only Hanamura Temple will be available in queues):
    • Cursed Hollow
    • Dragon Shire
    • Alterac Pass
    • Hanamura Temple
    • Towers of Doom
    • Infernal Shrines

New Hero: Mephisto

Dul’Mephistos, the Lord of Hatred, is said to the be most cunning among his brethren. Even while imprisoned in a soulstone, his vile influence corrupted the Zakarum and manipulated them into breaking the seal, giving him free reign to reunite the Prime Evils and enslave humanity.

Trait

• Lord of Hatred
  • Hitting enemy Heroes with Basic Abilities reduces Mephisto's Basic Ability cooldowns.
  • Skull Missile and Shade of Mephisto grant 1.5 seconds of cooldown reduction per Hero hit, and Lightning Nova grants 0.3 seconds per Hero hit.

Basic Abilities

• Skull Missile (Q)
  • Conjure a skull that travels in the target direction after 0.75 seconds, dealing 127 damage to enemies hit and Slowing Heroes hit by 25% for 2 seconds.
• Lightning Nova (W)
  • A ring of lightning appears around Mephisto for 2.5 seconds. Enemies within the ring take 48 damage every 0.25 seconds.
  • Each time a cast of Lightning Nova hits a Hero, its damage is increased by 4%, up to 40%.
• Shade of Mephisto (E)
  • Teleport to a location, dealing 78 damage to nearby enemies and leaving behind a Shade of Mephisto at Mephisto's original location. After 2.5 seconds, Mephisto is teleported back to the Shade's location.

Heroic Abilities

• Consume Souls (R)
  • Channel for 2.5 seconds, revealing all enemy Heroes. After the Channel completes, all enemy Heroes take 357 damage and are Slowed by 40% for 2.5 seconds.
• Durance of Hate (R)
  • After 1 second, unleash a wave of evil spirits that Root the first enemy Hero hit for 2 seconds and deal 160 damage to them over the same duration.
  • Durance of Hate spreads outwards from its initial target, Rooting and damaging additional nearby enemy Heroes.

User Interface

Jaina

• Jaina has received updated UI elements for her baseline Frostbite quest

Heroes

Support

Tyrande

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 82 to 55
• Basic Attack range increased from 5.5 to 6

Abilities

• Light of Elune (Q)
  • Heal increased from 270 to 275
  • Cooldown increased from 11 to 15 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 10
  • New functionality:
    • Now has two charges that refresh simultaneously.
    • The cooldown is lowered by 1.5 seconds every time you Basic Attack.
    • The cooldown is lowered by 1.5 seconds every time you damage an enemy Hero with an ability.
    • There is a one second cooldown between charge uses.
• Sentinel (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 50
  • Cooldown reduced from 18 to 15 seconds
  • Damage reduced from 165 to 120
  • The Sentinel baseline quest has been removed.
• Lunar Flare (E)
  • Damage reduced from 195 to 150
• Hunter's Mark (D)
  • Armor reduction decreased from 25 to 15
  • Range increased from 5.5 to 6
• Shadowstalk (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 80 seconds
  • New functionality:
    • Grant Stealth to all Allied Heroes and heal them for 400 Health over 10 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Moonlit Arrows (Q)
    • Moved from Level 4
  • Celestial Attunement (Q)
    • Moved from Level 4
    • New functionality:
      • Light of Elune now removes all Stuns and Slows from its target
  • Kaldorei Resistance (Q)
    • Moved from Level 4
    • Duration of Spell Armor decreased from 6 to 3 seconds
    • Maximum stacks of Spell Armor decreased from 3 to 2
• Level 4
  • Ranger (W)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • Bonus travel damage increased from 75 to 150%
    • Added functionality:
      • Activate to have your next Sentinel pierce all targets. 30 second cooldown.
  • Lunar Blaze (E)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the range of Lunar Flare by 50%
      • Quest: Hitting a Hero increases the damage of Lunar Flare by 5% up to a maximum of 100%
  • Trueshot Aura (Active)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • New functionality:
      • Tyrande permanently gains 20% Basic Attack damage.
      • Activate - Instantly reset Hunter’s Mark and grant nearby allies 20% additional Basic Attack damage for 5 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
• Level 7
  • Mark of Mending (D)
    • Moved from Level 16
  • Elune's Chosen (Active)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds
    • Your Basic Attacks heal your target for 200% of the damage they deal. 30 second Cooldown.
  • New Talent: Everlasting Light (Q)
    • The healing granted by the second charge of Light of Elune is increased by 40% if used on a different target.
• Level 13
  • Quickening Blessing (Q)
    • Movement Speed decreased from 30 to 20%
    • Added functionality:
      • Tyrande permanently gains 10% Movement Speed
  • Ranger's Mark (D)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New functionality:
      • Basic Attacks lower the cooldown of Hunter’s Mark by 1 second. Tyrande’s Basic Attacks against marked targets extend the duration of Hunter’s Mark by .5 seconds
  • Harsh Moonlight (W)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • The first Hero hit with Sentinel is slowed by 40% and deals 40% less damage for 4 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Overflowing Light (Q)
    • Removed
  • Huntress' Fury (D)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • Basic Attacks now splash to all nearby targets
    • Range increase reduced from 50 to 25%
    • Added functionality:
      • Increases the duration of Hunter’s Mark by 1 second
  • Empower (W)
    • Moved from Level 13
    • New functionality:
      • Reduce the cooldown of Sentinel by 3 seconds. The first enemy hit takes an additional 7% of their Maximum Health in damage.
  • Darnassian Archery (Passive)
    • Moved from Level 7
    • Damage bonus per attack increased from 5 to 10%
    • Duration increased from 4 to 8 seconds
• Level 20
  • Eyes of the Huntress (R)
    • Enemy reveal duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
    • Added functionality:
      • Increase Shadowstalk’s heal by 50% for allies who are under 50% of their Maximum Health
  • Shooting Star (Passive)
    • Attacks needed reduced from 10 to 8
    • No longer requires Heroic targets to gain stacks
    • No longer only targets Heroic units (but does prefer them)

Developer Comment: While we enjoy the flexibility of Tyrande's kit, she has struggled to find a home in the current meta. As we started looking at broadening our Hero roles, we felt like we had an opportunity to make some simple yet very substantial changes to our Night Elf Priestess. This rework pulls her slightly away from her hybrid status, reducing her damage output potential while introducing a lot more healing potential. While she keeps the vast majority of her older talents, they have been updated and shuffled to better coincide with her changes. We have enjoyed playing her internally and are excited to see what our players can do with her!  

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.
  • Mephisto Heroic Bundle
  • Hellforged Heroes Bundle

New Announcers

• Mephisto
• Beleth
• Athena

New Skins

• Mephisto
  • Star Wraith Mephisto
  • Cybernetic Star Wraith Mephisto
  • Eternal Star Wraith Mephisto
  • Golden Mephisto
  • Soulburn Mephisto

New Portraits, Sprays, and Emojis

• Several new emoji packs and portraits have also been added to the game. You can get a look in our most recent In-Development blog.

Bug Fixes

General

• Loading Screen: Fixed an issue that could cause a vertical black line to appear on loading screens in certain resolutions.
• Custom Games: Fixed an issue that could cause game stalls when launching custom games with more than 8 players.

Art

• Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to appear to walk on their mounts if certain abilities were cast immediately after mounting.

Battlegrounds

• Volskaya Foundry: Fixed an issue that caused Time Stop effects to fail to cancel channels on the Volskaya Protector.

User Interface

• The Unstoppable effect now has a status duration bar underneath nameplates.
• Alarak: Alarak's Deadly Charge now has an icon in the death recap screen.
• Ana: Ana's abilities amplified by Nano Boost's Spell Power buff now display critical effects.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Cassia: Fixed an issue that could cause the stun effect from Valkyrie to end early if the target collided with terrain.
• Diablo: Fixed an issue that prevented Diablo from being thrown by Garrosh’s Wrecking Ball if Diablo was casting Overpower.
• Johanna & Li-Ming: Fixed an issue that prevented some “marked” effects from being consumed if the target was Shielded or Protected.
• Lunara & Stitches: Fixed an issue that could cause permanent screen shaking if Lunara was hooked by Stitches under certain conditions.

Mac

• Fixed an issue that caused responsiveness degradation when using the middle-mouse button on fullscreen settings.

[lChronosl 182]

Beleth Announcer? Cool, but where is Ilarian?

After watching MFPally's stream, I am actually pumped to try the new AA Tyrande. Seems to be as good as or better than before. And she has more multiple good talents too, specially on 13 and 16: Quickening Blessing + Darnassian Archery for single target chasing meltdown, Ranger's Mark + Hunteress' Fury for 100% uptime area damage. And without compromising her "new" healing power that much, since talents that improve Light of Elune are on other tiers (1, 7 and 10). And for those that liked Lunar Flare, Shooting Star is actually useful now, since it stacks on any target you attack and benefits from Lunar Blaze range increase.

Most fun build so far:

• Level 1: Celestial Attunement or Kaldorei Resistance, depending on enemy comp.
• Level 4:  Trueshot Aura
• Level 7: Mark of Mending for dueling, Everlasting Light for team play.
• Level 10: either, depending on what your team needs. Shadowstalk healing is quite decent.
• Level 13: Ranger's Mark for (almost) 100% uptime on armor reduction on anything.
• Level 16: Huntress' Fury for (almost) 100% uptime splash AAs, with very long range.
• Level 20: Iceblade Arrows, Eyes of the Huntress if need more healing.

Edited August 27, 2018 by lChronosl

[Misuteri 26]

There are only 3-4 heroes I truly hate to play... Tyrande... I’m looking in your direction.

[Migol 433]

Doesn't this rework basically "Unrework" her last rework?

IE last time they nerfed her cloaking ult to just her and tried to make her much more "Assassin-y".     This time they take away a lot of her damage and undo the ult nerf to make her more of a healer?    Not that I mind, assassin Tyrande was bad.

[shanghaied 55]

Wow, those Tyra changes look fun.  I'm pretty excited.

I hate Tyrande in WoW, but shes always been so much fun in HoTS.  Hopefully this finally makes her viable again.

[Morcalivan 86]

Need to make supports support. If they want assassins they should be in assassin role.

[Valhalen 1,484]

18 hours ago, lChronosl said:

Beleth Announcer? Cool, but where is Ilarian?

After watching MFPally's stream, I am actually pumped to try the new AA Tyrande. Seems to be as good as or better than before. And she has more multiple good talents too, specially on 13 and 16: Quickening Blessing + Darnassian Archery for single target chasing meltdown, Ranger's Mark + Hunteress' Fury for 100% uptime area damage. And without compromising her "new" healing power that much, since talents that improve Light of Elune are on other tiers (1, 7 and 10). And for those that liked Lunar Flare, Shooting Star is actually useful now, since it stacks on any target you attack and benefits from Lunar Blaze range increase.

Most fun build so far:

• Level 1: Celestial Attunement or Kaldorei Resistance, depending on enemy comp.
• Level 4:  Trueshot Aura
• Level 7: Mark of Mending for dueling, Everlasting Light for team play.
• Level 10: either, depending on what your team needs. Shadowstalk healing is quite decent.
• Level 13: Ranger's Mark for (almost) 100% uptime on armor reduction on anything.
• Level 16: Huntress' Fury for (almost) 100% uptime splash AAs, with very long range.
• Level 20: Iceblade Arrows, Eyes of the Huntress if need more healing.

It might be early to say, but I am pretty sure she can solo heal with this build. I mean, she has access to a soft cleanse at level 1, that is a huge powerspike.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Valhalen

[Laragon 269]

Hanamura will be... interesting. I think the changes will make it a much more playable and understandable map. But I do worry that the objective will be brutally hard to balance (similar to Braxis) because of it's all or nothing nature making a snowball really easily. Also, heroes that can "afk" push a lane like azmodan or even abathur might have insane value if team fights last any length around the objective.

Overall, it seems way better than the previous version, but I'm not sure if it will even be good. Similar to Haunted Mines, it might just be a rework that isn't quite enough. At least now it shouldn't be the undisputed worst, that can go back to Black Hearts Bay.

[lChronosl 182]

9 hours ago, Valhalen said:

It might be early to say, but I am pretty sure she can solo heal with this build. I mean, she has access to a soft cleanse at level 1, that is a huge powerspike.

Absolutely true. I just outhealed an Alexstraza while getting second highest hero damage on my team.

Want to try your multitasking? Try solo healing with Tyrande and keeping your Darnassian Archery stacks up while stutter stepping in the middle of a minion wave + Immortal push on BoE.

[SleepySheepy 41]

22 hours ago, Valhalen said:

It might be early to say, but I am pretty sure she can solo heal with this build. I mean, she has access to a soft cleanse at level 1, that is a huge powerspike.

Is it a powerspike if it's there from the start? :thinking:

Joking aside, I really like new Tyrande design and Owls in QM were infuriating.

[SteveFrost 97]

If Starfall doesn't get anything, at least a reduced cd, seems like Shadowstalk will be the default from now on. It is basically global AoE Ancestral with invis on top.

Edited August 30, 2018 by SteveFrost

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 hour ago, SteveFrost said:

If Starfall doesn't get anything, at least a reduced cd, seems like Shadowstalk will be the default from now on. It is basically global AoE Ancestral with invis on top.

Starfall reduces the CD of Light of Elune per Hero hit.

[lChronosl 182]

14 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

If Starfall doesn't get anything, at least a reduced cd, seems like Shadowstalk will be the default from now on. It is basically global AoE Ancestral with invis on top.

And if you go for the trait build, you can apply Hunter's Mark with all talents on multiple targets at the same time with Celestial Wrath

Edited August 31, 2018 by lChronosl

[SteveFrost 97]

18 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Starfall reduces the CD of Light of Elune per Hero hit.

That's property of any ability, not just of it and still, doesn't seem significant enough to warrant picking it over Shadowstalk, you get more value from faster attack speed tbh (which brings me to the next point).

4 hours ago, lChronosl said:

And if you go for the trait build, you can apply Hunter's Mark with all talents on multiple targets at the same time with Celestial Wrath

When going for basic attack build, while I ofc prefer Starfall (currently, I pick it all the time) this upgrade doesn't seem much- it requires people to stay in the area (they can get out rather easily without set-up or follow up) plus, it's only possible that you can focus one person at any given time. Iceblade Arrows is a much better talent to take for that build imho, I always do. 

If, for example, Starfall had global range (it used to have with the level 20 talent iirc) or its slow was more potent, then maybe it would be worth to consider. But if this ships as is, I think the value you get from new Shadowstalk will be just too good to pass up.

[Valhalen 1,484]

4 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

That's property of any ability, not just of it and still, doesn't seem significant enough to warrant picking it over Shadowstalk, you get more value from faster attack speed tbh (which brings me to the next point).

I guess it is relative. If you have something to combo with, such as Mosh Pit or Warden's Cage, where you can cluster a lot of enemies and maximize the hits, it boosts Tyrande's healing potential tremendously. But Shadowstalk is definitely a superior pick.