Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes — October 18, 2016

We just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm, which brings a new game mode, a new hero, UI improvements, and more to the Nexus! Check out today’s patch notes below.

NOTE: Orange text indicates an addition that was made between the Public Test Realm and final versions of the patch notes.

General

Hallow’s End Arrives October 25!

• 50% XP Bonus!
  • The Nexus will be haunted by a 50% XP bonus from October 25 until Hallow’s End concludes during the week of November 8!
• Hallow’s End Event Quest
  • Quest: Play 15 games during Hallow’s End in any mode except Custom Games, Training, or Heroes Brawl.
  • Reward: Deputy Valla Portrait

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New Hero: Samuro

Samuro, the last remaining blademaster to wear the banner of the Burning Blade, is on a warrior’s pilgrimage in search of vengeance and redemption for this fallen clan. It will be a long journey, but he has sworn an oath to restore his clan’s honor.

Trait

• Advancing Strike
  • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes increase your Movement Speed by 25% for 2 seconds.

Basic Abilities

• Mirror Image (Q)
  • Create 2 Mirror Images that deal 30% of your damage and have 50% of your current Health. Images last up to 16 seconds, and only 2 can be active at once.
• Critical Strike (W)
  • Your next Basic Attack within 8 seconds will be a Critical Strike, dealing 50% increased damage. This also applies to Mirror Images and does not break Wind Walk.
  • Passive: You and your Mirror Images deal a Critical Strike every 4th Basic Attack.
• Wind Walk (E)
  • Enter Stealth for up to 8 seconds or until you attack, use an Ability, or take damage. While Stealthed, your Movement Speed is increased by 30% and you can pass through other units.
  • Damage taken during the first 1 second will not break Wind Walk.

Heroic Abilities

• Bladestorm (R)
  • Become an unstoppable whirlwind, dealing moderate damage to nearby enemies every second for 4 seconds.
• Illusion Master (R)
  • Switch places with the target Mirror Image.
  • Passive: You can control Mirror Images separately or as a group, and they deal an additional 20% of your damage.

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New Game Mode: Heroes Brawl

Heroes Brawl is an action-packed new game mode that breaks all the rules and offers a fresh take on Heroes of the Storm's gameplay each week. Learn more by visiting the Heroes Brawl website.

The Basics

• Heroes Brawl offers three distinct match types, with endless possibilities for twisted rulesets and wild mechanics each week:
  • Arenas: Pick one of three randomly selected Heroes, and then duke it out against the enemy team to complete objectives. The first team to complete the objective twice will claim victory.
  • Mutators: Wild rulesets and unique mechanics change the way you play on Battlegrounds you’re already familiar with.
  • Single-Lanes: One-lane Battlegrounds with no objectives, Mercenaries, or Hearthstone to distract you from destroying the enemy Core.
• Click the Brawl Info button in the lower-left corner of the screen to learn detailed information about the currently active Brawl.

How to Brawl

• Find Heroes Brawl in-game by heading to the Play screen, click Brawl on the navigation bar, then queue up and have a blast!
• Anyone can dive into the action! Heroes Brawl is not restricted by account level or the number of Heroes owned, and you can queue up alone or in a party of any size.
• The current weekly Brawl will also be available through Custom Games - though replays, observer mode, and score screens may not function as expected for some of the unique Brawl types.
  • Heroes Brawl custom games will also discard Hero drafts and pre-selections once players enter the match.

Reap the Rewards

• Participate in three Brawls each week to receive in-game rewards!
• Hover the cursor over the Weekly Rewards icon in the lower-left corner of the Brawl screen for a breakdown of the available rewards each week.

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Art

General

• The following Heroes have received additional facial animation polish:
  • E.T.C.
  • Illidan
  • Valla
• Diablo has received additional idle animation polish.

Battlegrounds

• Core attacks have received update visual effects in order to better visually indicate that they deal splash damage.
• Cannonballs that fire on the minimap for Blackheart’s Bay have received visual effects polish.
• Sky Temple has received additional optimization polish.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• The following Heroes have received custom Hearthstone animations:
  • Diablo
  • E.T.C.
• The following Heroes, Abilities, and Talents have received updated visual effects:
  • Cleanse (Talent)
  • Gul’dan: Fel Flame (Q), Corruption (E)
  • Illidan: Evasion (E)
  • Lunar Illidan: The Hunt (R)

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Shop

Bundles

• New Bundles
  • Hellblade Samuro Bundle – Available until November 1, 2016
  • Hallow’s End 2016 Bundle – Available from October 25 until November 8, 2016
  • Hallow’s End 2016 Ultimate Bundle – Available from October 25 until November 8, 2016
  • The following Bundles will be added to the in-game Shop on October 18 and have no planned end-date:
    • Nexus Challenger Bundle
    • Nexus Conqueror Bundle
• Removed Bundles
  • The following bundles will be removed from the in-game Shop on October 18:
    • Starter Bundle
    • Triumph Bundle

New Hero

• Samuro has been added to the in-game Shop.

Mounts

• New Mounts
  • Hellboar
  • Eye Pad – Available exclusively with purchase of either Hallow’s End 2016 bundle. This mount may return to the game as an individual item at a later date.
• Returning Mounts
  • Marshal’s Outrider
• Removed Mounts
  • Crimson Hare

Skins

• Hellblade Samuro
• Master Samuro
• Scarecrow Xul – Available starting October 25
• Deputy Valla – Available starting October 25

​Price Reductions

• Greymane’s prices have been reduced to $8.49 USD and 7,000 Gold.
• Rexxar’s prices have been reduced to $6.49 USD and 4,000 Gold.

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Sound

Ranked

• New voiceover lines have been added that will play when a player is promoted into a new League Tier.

Draft Mode

• Sound effects and voiceover will now play when entering Lost Cavern Draft Mode via Custom Games.

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User Interface

General

• A “New Player Chat” channel has been added.
  • New players will automatically join this channel upon logging into Heroes of the Storm until they reach account level 20.

Daily Win Bonus

• The first game that players win each day will now award 50% bonus XP and Gold for that match.
  • This bonus applies to all game modes except Brawl, Custom Games, and Training.
  • A First Win of the Day icon has been added to the top navigation bar, which will activate whenever a First Win of the Day bonus is available.

In-Game UI

• Hover the cursor over the VS icon found in the top-center of the screen to display the amount of XP earned by each team from various sources, including: Takedowns, Mercenaries, Structures, and more. 

XP Bonuses

• Friend Bonus
  • Playing Heroes with a friend will now award 25% bonus XP.
• Party Bonus
  • The XP bonus earned by playing in a party now scales based on the number of party members:
    • 2 Players: +25%
    • 3 Players: +33%
    • 4 Players: +42%
    • 5 Players: +50%
• Game Mode Bonus
  • Playing ranked games will now award an XP bonus:
    • Hero League: +25% XP
    • Team League: +50% XP
• XP Bonuses Stack Additively
  • Playing in a party with one friend will still award a total of 50% bonus XP, just as it did before, but playing with additional party members will now award even more XP.
  • Playing Team League in a full party with at least one friend and an active Stimpack will now award a total of 225% bonus XP.
• The “Available XP Bonuses” icon in the top navigation bar will activate when players are receiving any of the bonuses mentioned above.
  • Hover the cursor over this icon to display a tooltip that offers a full breakdown of all active and inactive XP bonuses.

Play Screen

• Hovering the cursor over each game mode on the Play Screen navigation bar will now display a tooltip that briefly describes that mode.
• Versus A.I.
  • Training mode has been moved into Versus AI on the Play screen.
  • A “Versus A.I. Options” interface has been added to the left side of the Versus A.I. screen.
    • Use the buttons to switch between Training, A.I. Teammates, or Co-op modes.
    • Use the Difficulty Slider to select the desired skill level of A.I. allies and opponents in A.I. Teammates and Co-op modes.
      • Training mode A.I. difficulty is set to beginner, and cannot be changed.
• Suggested Play Mode
  • The Play Screen navigation bar will now suggest a game mode to new players.
    • Level 1 – 10: Versus A.I.
    • Level 11 – 20: Quick Match
    • Level 20+: Heroes Brawl (If the weekly rewards have not yet been earned.)
  • Hover the cursor over the suggested mode icon to display a tooltip that explains why a mode is suggested.

Profile

• Match History
  • The Match History tab can now be filtered by Heroes Brawl matches using the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner.
  • Each game in the Match History list will now display Hero names and portraits for each Hero selected during that game.
• Profile Summary
  • Heroes Brawl stats have been added to the Profile Summary screen that will track the number of Brawls won and weekly rewards earned.
• Statistics
  • The Statistics tab can now be filtered by Heroes Brawl stats using the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner.

MVP and Commendations

• MVP and Commendations can now be skipped using the new Exit button added to the lower-left corner of the screen.
  • The duration of the MVP and Commendations screen now lasts 50 seconds.
  • A timer has been added to the lower-right corner of the screen that will count down the final 10 seconds of the MVP and Commendations screen.
• Commendations
  • Bulwark will now take the number of deaths into account in order to focus this Commendation on the efficiency of damage soaked, rather than total damage taken.
    • The tooltip for Bulwark will now display the player’s total deaths during the match in addition to damage soaked.
  • Slight adjustments have been made in order to better balance the Dominator and Painbringer Commendations.
  • Abathur was previously a little too likely to receive the MVP award. Slight adjustments have been made to bring him in line with other Heroes.

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Bug Fixes

General

• Corrected a number of typos and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

A.I.

• Medivh: Enemy AI players will now avoid teammates that are under the effects of Medivh’s Polybomb.
• Lt. Morales: Can now properly detonate Displacement Grenade near enemies.

Art

• Chen: Keg models that appear when casting Storm, Earth, Fire using any of Chen’s Skins are no longer missing certain visual effects.
• Illidan: The visual effects for The Hunt will now properly display on the Ability’s target during replays.
• Greymane: The Worgen model will no longer remain on screen while viewing end-of-game Stats and Talents pages.

Battlegrounds

• Braxis Holdout: Neutral Raven Mercenaries will no longer clip into the terrain after being knocked back.
• Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue in which Zagara’s Mutalisk could cause a captured Archangel to exhibit pathing issues.
• Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue in which a captured Archangel could target enemy Heroes with its Bullet Storm Ability.
• Garden of Terror: Shielding a Structure will no longer prevent a Garden Terror's bonus siege damage from being applied.
• Infernal Shrines: Fallen Shaman Mercenaries will now prioritize attacking enemy Structures over Walls.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Damage Reduction: When two damage reduction effects, such as Resistant (25%) and Hardened Shield (75%), are simultaneously applied to a Hero, the larger effect will no longer be overridden by the lesser effect.
• Anub'arak: The Cocoon overlay will now display correctly for enemies affected by Cocoon.
• Auriel: The Piercing Lash Talent tooltip now correctly states that Detainment Strike will only pierce Heroes, rather than all enemies.
• Auriel: Enemy Heroes will no longer occasionally be Stunned by Detainment Strike when knocked away from terrain.
• Auriel: Quest progress for the Repeated Offense Talent will now be correctly tracked in the Stats panel.
• Azmodan: Globe of Annihilation’s range indicator is now visually consistent with indicators used by other long-range Abilities.
• Greymane: The Go for the Throat indicator will no longer visually persist above Heroes who have post-death forms, such as Uther or Leoric, after they are killed.
• Illidan: Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Illidan to fly back to his death location if he was killed while using Dive.
• Kharazim: Will no longer automatically resume attacking enemies after using Radiant Dash to dive to an ally. This fix also applies to Illidan’s Friend or Foe and Kerrigan’s Adaptation Talents.
• Leoric: Minions will no longer path around Leoric when he is in Undying form.
• Medivh: The damage over time effect from Xul’s Poison Nova will no longer be visually removed from Medivh’s Health bar after traveling through a Portal with the Mage Armor Talent.
• Rexxar: A delay will no longer occur between repeated Misha, Focus! casts.
• Sgt. Hammer: Re-casting Orbital BFG just as the first missile re-enters the Battleground will no longer cause the new missile to follow the previous path.
• Sylvanas: The Death Recap tooltip for Wailing Arrow now correctly displays the Ability’s description.
• The Butcher: Hamstring will now correctly deal bonus damage to non-Heroic targets after learning the Cheap Shot Talent.
• Zagara: The Stasis overlay will no longer appear on the screen when Zagara’s Mutalisk enters Zeratul's Void Prison.

Sound

• Illidan: Voiceover that plays while casting The Hunt is now only audible for Illidan and his target.
• Illidan: High pitched ambient sounds that play while casting The Hunt are no longer audible for the target’s allies. Lower-pitched ambient sounds will still play for all players and observers.

User Interface

• Death Recap: Fixed an issue in which a Heal effect could occasionally appear to be the killing blow in Death Recap notifications.
• Replay: Selecting a Hero during a Replay will no longer prevent the Hero Portrait and Status Bars from switching correctly when attempting to view a different Hero’s perspective using hotkeys.
• Observer: Warhead counters will now update properly in the Observer interface on Warhead Junction.

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