heroes Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: April 22nd

[Stan 5,240]

The latest patch brings Anduin, Collection updates, and various bug fixes. It will be available for testing through April 29. Here are the official patch notes with all his abilities and talents.

Blizzard (Source)

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until the week of April 29. 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

• The Log Out button has been disabled after being matched for matchmade games
  • Developer Comment: This is to prevent players from dodging quick matches after checking hero composition

New Hero: Anduin, King of Stormwind

With Fearbreaker by his side, Anduin, King of Stormwind, has entered the Nexus to take his place by his warrior father's side. Anduin is a Ranged Healer who comes with an arsenal of abilities aimed at keeping his teammates alive, but also has the potential to unleash the Light's swift justice to enemies on the battlefield.

Trait

• Leap of Faith (D)
  • Faith instantly pulls an allied Hero to Anduin's location, granting them Unstoppable while they travel 
    • Cooldown: 80 seconds

Basic Abilities

• Flash Heal (Q)
  • Cast for 0.75 seconds to heal an allied Hero for 260
    • Cost: 30 mana
    • Cooldown: 4 seconds
• Divine Star (W)
  • Send light that deals 140 damage to enemies and then returns to Anduin, healing allied Heroes for 130 in a wider path. Healing increases by 25% per enemy Hero hit. 
    • Cost: 45 mana
    • Cooldown: 9 seconds
• Chastise (E)
  • Shove a swell of light forward, dealing 145 damage to the first enemy Hero hit and Rooting them for 1.25 seconds 
    • Cost: 40 mana
    • Cooldown: 10 seconds

Heroic Abilities

• Holy Word: Salvation (R1)
  • After 0.5 seconds, Channel to invoke the Light for 3 seconds. While nearby, allied Heroes heal for up to 25% of their max Health and are Protected. 
    • Cost: 70 mana
    • Cooldown: 80 seconds
• Lightbomb (R2)
  • Imbue an allied Hero with the Light. After 1.5 seconds, it explodes, dealing 150 damage to enemies and Stunning them for 1.25 seconds. The target gains a Shield that absorbs 140 damage per enemy Hero hit. Lasts for 5 seconds. 
    • Cost: 70 mana
    • Cooldown: 60 seconds

Collection

New Bundles

• The following new bundles are only available for a limited time!
  • Anduin Heroic Bundle
  • Footman Varian Skin Pack

New Announcer

• Anduin Announcer

New Mount

• Reverence
• Redridge Reverence
• Darkshire Reverence

New Skins

• Anduin
  • Elwynn Anduin
  • Westfall Anduin
  • Neo-President Anduin
  • Neo-Steel Anduin
  • Neo-Vigilante Anduin
• Varian
  • Stormwind Footman Varian
  • Stromgarde Footman Varian
  • Kul Tiras Footman Varian

New Portraits, Sprays, and Emojis

• Several new emoji packs, sprays, and portraits have also been added to the game

Bug Fixes

Cosmetics

• Fixed an issue where Genie Chromie's hourglass would not animate during the draft cutscene
• Fixed an issue where Watergun Tychus would call on unavailable SFX
• Fixed an issue where the Horns of the Cyber Oni Warboard would clip into its mane when coming to a stop
• Fixed an issue where Cyber Oni Warboar's front left leg would pop during its run animation
• Fixed an issue where Cyber Oni Warboar's shoulder would slide when coming to a stop

Heroes, Abilities, & Talents

• Adjusted the intensity of Tyrael's Holy Ground ability on low settings to be more visible
• Fixed an issue where Leoric's Basic Attack and Wrath of the Bone King animations would desync with his attack cycle
• Fixed an issue where Orphea's Eternal Feast would continue bouncing if an Abathur Ultimate Evolution clone expired in the area
• Fixed an issue where Orphea's Eternal Feast tooltip data reference for repeat duration was not functioning
• Fixed an issue where the Butcher's FX would appear outside of his model while cocooned

User Interface

• Fixed an issue where the Target Info Panel was using an old version of the Dragon Knight portrait

[Dejo93 1,023]

So wait, did they say that the biggest patch in the game's history would come with Anduin or after? I'm really interested in what could happen

[Stan 5,240]

1 hour ago, Dejo93 said:

So wait, did they say that the biggest patch in the game's history would come with Anduin or after? I'm really interested in what could happen

They meant last week’s balance patch. 

[lChronosl 182]

First things first, the visual effects of Anduin's abilities are amazing, and surprisingly distinct from the other light healers in the game.

On a quick hands on experience on PTR, he seems like a fun hero to play, and his talent tree have some interesting options, such as a lvl 1 talent called Bold Strategy that gives him his other 2 talents on that tier but increases his healing CD. Also, he has one YOLO Leroy ultimate, while the other is for tryhards and organized play. And he gets many talents that buff or interact with his AA, that is ranged BTW. He only uses the sword to some of his abilities.

And thank the light they finally fixed Leoric's AA animation. It was driving me crazy.

Edited April 23, 2019 by lChronosl

[Arcling 898]

Someone also datamined this: https://imgur.com/5kift1U

Looks like Reaver is going to be a new mount at some point. Too bad it's not a hero.

[Valhalen 1,484]

I've played a bit with Anduin in the PTR. He is pretty spot-on with his kit, very "Priestly". I'm actually surprised he is a Ranged Hero, throwing Holy Bolts instead of striking with the Shalamayne; which actually makes sense as it was stated in the lore that he was never good at swordsmanship. Much like @lChronosl said, he only uses the blade for a couple of abilities, namely Divine Star.

His kit is quite powerful. I have a strong feeling that his Basic Attack build will be the best one, altough he has some strong talents related to Flash Heal and Divine Star. Holy Word: Salvation is amazing, but probably risky, as characters inside are "Protected" and not "Unstoppable", which means a knockback like Junkrat's Concussion Mine can ruin the Heroic. His trait, Leap of Faith, is quite powerful, specially at level 20 where you get a talent which grants it another charge. Sure, it is a Cleanse on a 80 second cooldown, but still ridiculously useful; I can see the classic Stitches + Gorge + Medivh getting even better with Leap of Faith to pull Stitches even farther from the enemy team while he has eaten someone.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Valhalen

[VegaPl 88]

11 hours ago, Arcling said:

Someone also datamined this: https://imgur.com/5kift1U

Looks like Reaver is going to be a new mount at some point. Too bad it's not a hero.

I'd love to see it as a catapult unit with closest target splash dmg on a Starcraft themed map. With Zealots , Dragoons and a High Templar as globe minions. I actually think that HOTS is severely underusing the minion potential Blizzard has. Look at Alterac - why can't we have more of that? Minions are boring man...

[Arcling 898]

6 minutes ago, VegaPl said:

I'd love to see it as a catapult unit with closest target splash dmg on a Starcraft themed map. With Zealots , Dragoons and a High Templar as globe minions. I actually think that HOTS is severely underusing the minion potential Blizzard has. Look at Alterac - why can't we have more of that? Minions are boring man...

Starcraft Protoss map would have been great, maybe split between two factions with different looking minions like in Warcraft and Diablo maps, for example Daelaam Protoss vs Tal'darim.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Arcling

[Valhalen 1,484]

 

[VegaPl 88]

6 hours ago, Valhalen said:

 

Yeah, I saw that today already. Btw, I also saw your comment on YouTube, to the previous vid regarding the teaser :P What I find particularly interesting is that at level 1 you can choose to nerf a basic ability, but get two other talents. Also, only one of the ults has an upgrade at 20, I don't think we've had that before. There were only a handful of experiments with ults at 10/20 - Alarak, Maiev or Varian. Although I admit I'm not against it if it makes sense.

[Valhalen 1,484]

38 minutes ago, VegaPl said:

Yeah, I saw that today already. Btw, I also saw your comment on YouTube, to the previous vid regarding the teaser ? What I find particularly interesting is that at level 1 you can choose to nerf a basic ability, but get two other talents. Also, only one of the ults has an upgrade at 20, I don't think we've had that before. There were only a handful of experiments with ults at 10/20 - Alarak, Maiev or Varian. Although I admit I'm not against it if it makes sense.

I guess I'm quite easy to recognize because no one else uses this specific Rocket Raccoon avatar. ?

Yeah, I don't think it should be a rule of thumb for every Heroic to have an upgrade at level 20. Fenix doesn't have for neither of his Heroics and it is perfectly fine. Same with Maiev, Alarak and Varian, as you mentioned.