heroes Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes: December 3rd

[Stan 5,240]

The latest patch with Deathwing and the first Nexus Anomaly is now live. The Toy 2 event teased at BlizzCon starts the week of December 16 and players will be able to obtain the toy train mount!

Full patch notes for the update can be found below.

Blizzard (Source)

The next Heroes of the Storm patch has arrived! The update brings a new Hero, Deathwing the Destroyer, new Experience Globes, new bundles, new skins, and much more! Dive on in for more information.

NOTE: Orange text indicates a change between PTR and Live notes.

Nexus Anomaly – Experience Globes

Nexus Anomalies are seasonal gameplay changes that directly affect all game modes in Heroes of the Storm. These events will last the entire season, allowing us time to receive feedback on them. Depending on this evaluation, some of them may become permanent additions to the game, while others may just be a limited time event.

The first Nexus Anomaly has arrived! In order to make collecting experience more satisfying and intuitive, we're changing how experience is collected from Minions in the Heroes of the Storm. Players will no longer get experience from simply being nearby, but instead need to gather an Experience Globe dropped by dying Minions.

Experience Globes

• Minions no longer give Experience by killing them, but instead drop an Experience Globe that must be collected.
  • Footman and Archer Minions (and their equivalent on different Battlegrounds) drop an Experience Globe that lasts for 6 seconds and awards 80 experience (plus 2 every minute).
  • Wizard Minions no longer give Experience, but Experience Globe values have been increased to compensate.
  • Experience Globes slowly move toward the closest allied Hero within 6 range, and are collected when an allied Hero comes within 1.5 range.
  • Experience Globes will not move toward Heroes that are hidden in bushes or Stealthed, but they can be still collected by these Heroes if they move within 1.5 range.
• A few Heroes have special interactions with Experience Globes.
  • Ragnaros Lava Wave will now instantly collect Experience Globes as it passes by.
  • Abathur's Symbiote is treated as a Hero for the purposes of collecting Experience Globes.
  • Hallucinations like Samuro's Mirror Images or Nova's Holo Clones are treated as a Hero for the purposes of collecting Experience Globes.

General

Storm League

• Team Leaders will now be chosen based solely on highest Rank.
• Players who are Master or above may only queue for Storm League in a party with a maximum of one other player. The second player must also be Master or above. Both players in the party must be within 5000 Rank Points of each other.
• Players who have completed their placement games may no longer play Storm League in a party with players who have not completed their placement games.

Toys 2 Event Quests

• Toys 2 is the winter event for Heroes of the Storm running from the week of December 16 to week of February 3, PST. Roll dice, complete quests, and join Tickle Mephisto on a board game adventure in the Nexus for awesome rewards... and sweet revenge!

Loot Chests

• During the Toys 2 event, all Loot Chests you earn through progression, Heroes Brawl, or by spending gold will be New Toy Loot Chests. (Except Hero-specific Chests, which will remain unchanged.) Most limited-time items shown above have a chance to drop from New Toy Loot Chests only. You can also score Items from previous years’ winter events limited-time loot chests!

User Interface

• User Interface improvements for heroes with multiple forms have been added to the Hero Collection and Hero Select Ability screens for Deathwing and to the Hero Select Ability screen for Greymane.

AI

• AI will now pay more attention to lanes that need to be defended or attacked.
• AI will no longer be aware of the status of mercenary camps they cannot see.
• AI will path through enemy towns less often.
• AI will more highly value preventing a mercenary camp from leashing.
• Mercenary camp goal base scores have been standardized on all maps. This will make it easier to observe and tweak AI agent mercenary capture behavior.
• Many map goal objective scores have been standardized on all maps. This will make it easier to observe and tweak AI agent objective behavior.
• Volskaya Foundry
  • AI will no longer wait 8 seconds before using the Triglav Protector unless there is a human player on their team.
  • Agents will be much more consistent and willing to pick up and use Turrets and Bio Emitters on Volskaya Foundry.

New Hero: Deathwing, The Destroyer

Now prepare for the unmaking of your world as Deathwing descends upon the Nexus. The Worldbreaker has set his sights on the realms of the Nexus to spread his reign of death and destruction.

Trait

• The Aspect of Death
  • Deathwing is covered by Adamantium Armor Plates, granting him Armor.
  • He deals double damage to Heroes and is permanently Unstoppable but is unable to be affected by allied abilities.

Mount

• Dragonflight [Z]
  • After 3 seconds, fly into the air becoming immune to all effects and heal for 2.5% of your maximum Health per second. Once cast, this ability cannot be interrupted. Cannot be cast 4 seconds after taking damage, Basic Attacking or casting an Ability.
  • After remaining in the air for at least 8 seconds, Deathwing can channel for 1.75 seconds and land anywhere that his team has vision of in either Destroyer or Worldbreaker forms, dealing 75 damage to enemies. His abilities are put on a 3 second cooldown upon landing.
    • Energy: No Energy cost.
    • Cooldown: 45 seconds.

Basic Abilities

• Molten Flame [Q]
  • Breathe a stream of molten flame, dealing 192 damage per second.
    • Molten Flame has an initial cost of 10 Energy, then drains 30 Energy per second.
    • Cooldown: 3 seconds.
• Incinerate [W - Destroyer]
  • Flap your wings in a downward blast, dealing 85 damage to nearby enemies.
    • Energy: 15 Energy.
    • Cooldown: 4 seconds.
• Lava Burst [W - Worldbreaker]
  • After a 1 second delay, create a pool of magma that deals 16 damage per second and slows enemies by 35%. Lasts 6 seconds.
    • Energy: 20 Energy.
    • Cooldown: 6 seconds.
• Onslaught [E - Destroyer]
  • Lunge in a targeted direction, dealing 42 damage and slowing enemies by 35% for 2 seconds.
  • At the end of the lunge, Deathwing bites enemies for an additional 80 damage.
    • Energy: 20 Energy.
    • Cooldown: 5 seconds.
• Earth Shatter [E - Worldbreaker]
  • Create a fissure in the earth that deals 80 damage to enemies and stuns them for .75 seconds.
    • Energy: 25 Energy.
    • Cooldown: 12 seconds.

Heroic Ability

• Cataclysm [R]
  • After 2 seconds, fly in the targeted direction, dealing 90 damage on impact and leave scorched ground that deals an additional 48 damage per second for 6 seconds.
    • Energy: No Energy cost.
    • Cooldown: 90 seconds.

Collection

Many seasonal items will be returning to the Collection the week of December 16, PST, and will be available for crafting and in Loot Chests for a limited time!

New Bundles

• The following new bundles are only available for a limited time!
  • Destroyer Brightwing Bundle
  • Lil' Destroyers Bundle
• The following bundles will be available starting the week of December 16, PST:
  • Toys 2019 Bundle
  • Toys 2018 Bundle
  • Cosmonaut Qhira Bundle
  • Tickle Mephisto Bundle
  • Green Army Bundle
  • Train Bundle

New Skins

• Deathwing
  • Tyrannical Deathwing
  • Iron Deathwing
  • Glorious Deathwing
• Destroyer Brightwing
  • Savage Destroyer Brightwing
  • Ancient Destroyer Brightwing
  • Tyrannical Destroyer Brightwing
  • Iron Destroyer Brightwing
  • Glorious Destroyer Brightwing

The following skins will be available for a limited time starting the week of December 16, PST:

• Tickle Mephisto
  • Grumpy Tickle Mephisto
  • Crazed Tickle Mephisto
  • Shocking Tickle Mephisto
  • Cuddly Tickle Mephisto
  • Unlucky Tickle Mephisto
• Cosmonaut Qhira
  • Commander Cosmonaut Qhira
  • Blazing Cosmonaut Qhira
  • Explorer Cosmonaut Qhira
  • Eternal Cosmonaut Qhira
  • Super Cosmonaut Qhira
• Green Army Deckard Pain
• Green Army Commandant Varian
• Green Army Raynor
• Bitter Bear Stitches
• Shabby Bear Stitches
• Fuzzy Bear Stitches
• Galactic Force Valeera
• Proto Force Valeera
• Ferocious Dehakasaurus Rex
• X-Treme Dehakasaurus Rex

New Mount

The following mounts will be available for a limited time starting the week of December 16, PST:

• Toy Train
  • Speedy Toy Train
  • Blazing Toy Train
  • Cosmic Toy Train
  • Royal Toy Train
  • Grimrail Toy Train
• Galactic Lion
• Proto Lion
• Gloomy Plush Unicorn
• Shabby Plush Unicorn
• Mellow Snowflake
• Periwinkle Snowflake

New Announcer

• Deathwing Announcer

New Content

• Several new portraits, sprays and other items have been added to the collection!

Heroes

The Lost Vikings

Base

• Baleog
  • Health increased from 1095 to 1180.
  • Health Regeneration increased from 2.22 to 2.46.
  • Basic Attack damage increased from 73 to 78.
• Erik
  • Health increased from 767 to 840.
  • Health Regeneration increased from 1.6 to 1.75.
  • Basic Attack damage increased from 60 to 65.
• Olaf
  • Health increased from 1424 to 1540.
  • Health Regeneration increased from 2.97 to 3.21.
  • Basic Attack damage increased from 52 to 57.

Talent

• Level 10
  • Longboat Raid! [R1]
    • Mortar damage increased from 205 to 228.
    • Viking Stun duration when the Longboat is destroyed reduced from 1.5 to 1 second.

Developer Comment: Due to the changes to how experience is gathered, we expect the Lost Vikings to have a harder time filling their role on a team. To help them out a bit, we’re giving them a bit of a baseline buff, as well as buffing Longboat Raid!.

Mephisto

Talent

• Level 1
  • Furious Spark [W]
    • Bonus damage is now dealt every 3rd hit.
    • Damage reduced from 95 to 72.
    • Additional functionality: Now also grants Mephisto 2 Mana when dealing damage with Furious Spark.
  • Malicious Intent [E]
    • Additional functionality: If Mephisto hits enemy Heroes at least 20 times with Basic Abilities while Shade of Mephisto is active, then increase the duration of the Spell Power bonus to 10 seconds after it ends.
• Level 4
  • Spite [Passive]
    • Regeneration Globe duration increased from 125% to 150%.
    • Cooldown reduction increased from .75 seconds to 1 second.
• Level 7
  • Frost Storm [E]
    • No longer Slows enemy Heroes near the Shade of Mephisto.
    • Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes who are hit by Lightning Nova while Shade of Mephisto is active are Slowed by 15% for 1 second.
  • Trickery [E]
    • No longer removes Slows and Roots from Mephisto.
    • Additional functionality: If Mephisto hits enemy Heroes at least 20 times with Basic Abilities while Shade of Mephisto is active, then reset its cooldown.
• Level 13
  • Hysteria [Trait]
    • Additional functionality: Mephisto gains 15% of his maximum Health and Mana when he casts his Heroic Ability.
• Level 16
  • Animosity [W]
    • New functionality: Increase the duration of Lightning Nova by .5 seconds Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes while Lightning Nova is active increase the duration of Lightning Nova by an additional .25 seconds.

Developer Comment: Mephisto’s talents have been largely unchanged since his release.  While many of them seem to be in a good spot, some talents and talent tiers had some systemic issues that we felt could be improved with some changed functionality.  We’re not looking to overhaul the Mephisto that you know and love, but we felt that he could use some new builds to play with.

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed an issue where some parts of Sky Temple and Blackheart’s Bay would be invisible when using Low graphics settings.

Heroes

• Genji
  • Fixed an issue where Swift Strike's reset UI appeared when Genji hit an enemy Hero with Dragonblade but did not have The Dragon Becomes Me talent.
• Nova
  • Nova Holo Decoy Snipe no longer deals full damage if the Decoy dies while Snipe is in flight.
• Samuro
  • Samuro's Press the Attack Talent will now correctly grant Attack Speed on his first Basic Attack.

Mac

• Fixed an issue that could cause Blackheart’s Bay to crash on load.
• Fixed an issue where some parts of Sky Temple and Blackheart’s Bay would render with a strobing/flickering effect when using Low graphics settings.

Deathwing is now live and the Toys 2 winter event begins December 16.

[Arcling 898]

So there is no mount reward for this season? Only some gold and portrait, that's disappointing. I guess there is no reason to bother with league that much, if rewards for seasonal quest are much worse (they could at least give a chance to get one from earlier seasons or those from defunct e-sports). Anyway, can't wait to get on that train! Skins for this event seem decent, also gonna get a new color for my boy Jimmy.

Edited December 4, 2019 by Arcling

[Valhalen 1,484]

I am so glad they actually added that Destroyer Brightwing skin shown in Deathwing's reveal.

[Morcalivan 86]

3 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I am so glad they actually added that Destroyer Brightwing skin shown in Deathwing's reveal.

Got it. Along with the Deathwing Barney skin of course. :)

Just a warning to Abathur players testing xp globes. When I first tested it, I could only ever get xp the entire first few matches when my hat was on my locust. This is because there is some kind of xp limit of how many players can collect xp now. I don't see it in the patch notes though but someone in chat said they announced it? Odd.

So yeah, the symbiote works as it says, but the ability to collect xp is not always there. There is also no shared xp stat as far as I can tell. So your contributions will seem much smaller now. Not like we wren't accused of that before but now they have statistics to prove it. :/ Yay.

[lChronosl 182]

About the exp globes, I agree that it might need some more exceptions, like Azmodan and TLV, but overall I like those changes. Not only they will make the laning more interesting, but they also create an decent advantage to melee heroes over ranged, something the game needed (during laning). Not to mention that I like the idea of slowing the game down a bit by creating conditions to gather the exp.
I hope the exp orbs stay, after some more tweaking. Since the game has no official pro scene anymore, they should focus on the lowers leagues (aka Gold) and QM, where most of the playerbase is located.

[Morcalivan 86]

Mephisto is pretty strong now. I personally kinda suck with him but if I see those good players I've seen use him do so now he's going to dominate a bit I think. That Lightning Nova slow is scary. Throw in a Lucio or a Brightwing and it's pretty hard to get away from that bonus 30% damage cap.