Our latest update for the Heroes of the Storm brings a new Hero alongside some Battleground and Hero balance changes! 

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Jump to Section:

• New Hero
• Art
• User Interface
• Battlegrounds
• Heroes
• Collection
• Bug Fixes

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New Hero: Stukov

Trait

• Bio-Kill Switch (D)
  • Activate to detonate all of Stukov's Viruses. Each Healing Pathogen heals its target, and each Weighted Pustule does damage and Slows its target by 70% for 2 seconds. Can be cast while Channeling Lurking Arm.

Basic Abilities

• Healing Pathogen (Q)
  • Infest an allied Hero with a Healing Pathogen that heals the target for 240 Health over 4.5 seconds. Healing Pathogens can spread to a nearby allied Hero every 0.75 seconds, and a single Healing Pathogen can spread to each allied Hero 1 time.
• Weighted Pustule (W)
  • Hurl a pustule that impacts all enemy Heroes in its path, dealing damage and Slowing by 5%, increasing to 50% over 3 seconds. Deals additional damage upon expiring or being removed.
• Lurking Arm (E)
  • Channel at a target location, creating an area that Silences enemies inside and deals 144 damage per second to them. Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes.Does not cost Mana while Channeling, and lasts until canceled or interrupted.

Heroic Abilities

• Flailing Swipe (R)
  • Swipe 3 times in front of Stukov over 1.75 seconds, dealing damage to enemies hit and knocking them away. Each swipe is larger than the previous.
• Massive Shove (R)
  • Extend Stukov's arm. If it hits an enemy Hero, they are rapidly shoved until they collide with terrain, taking damage. Stukov gains 50 Armor while shoving an enemy.

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Art

Mounts

• Run animations for Battle Raptor and Epic Battle Raptor Mounts have been updated.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Xul has received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent updates.

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User Interface

General

• If the Heroes of the Storm client is minimized, or not the current focus window, it will now retake focus in the following situations:
  • If a player who was queued for matchmaking is removed from the queue.
  • When a game is found while a player is queued for matchmaking.
  • If a draft is cancelled and the player is removed from a draft lobby.

Disable Screen Shake Setting

• A new Disable Screen Shake setting has been added to the Gameplay tab in the Options Menu.
  • If this setting is enabled, the screen will no longer visibly shake when Forts and Keeps are destroyed.

Emoji Autocompletion

• The client will now display a list of suggested Emojis as it attempts to predict the player’s intended Emoji when they begin typing shorthand into the chat window. 

Team League

• The tooltip that displays when queue times for 2-player parties are lengthy will now include estimated wait times for parties of 2, 3 and 5 players.
  • Additionally, the Ranked Play interface has been adjusted, and the tooltip’s size and layout have been revised to help prevent it from overlapping other UI elements.

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Battlegrounds

Map Rotation Update

• The Ranked Map Rotation has been updated to include the following:
  • Hanamura
  • Dragon Shire
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Garden of Terror
  • Warhead Junction
  • Haunted Mines
  • Towers of Doom

Hanamura

• Core Life increased from 7 to 8
• Sapper Minions will no longer spawn for the enemy team after a Keep is destroyed
• Map Objective:
  • First Payload spawn time increased by 15 seconds
  • Second Payload spawn time increased by 15 seconds
  • Payloads now grant 1200 XP upon reaching their destination
• Mercenaries:
  • Fortification Camp
    • Turret power-up will now prioritize attacking Heroes
    • Turret power-up health has been increased by 10%
    • Turret power-up now deals double damage to Minions
  • Recon Camp
    • Dragon Spirits power-up no longer dismounts enemy Heroes
  • Support Camp
    • Initial Spawn time increased by 15 seconds
    • Health total decreased by 10%
    • Base attack damage decreased by 12%
    • Attack damage scaling reduced by roughly 60%
    • Self-heal ability cooldown increased by 2 seconds

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Heroes

Assassin	Specialist	Support	Warrior
Malthael	Xul	Tyrande	Anub'arak
Ragnaros

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Assassin

Malthael

Abilities

• Reaper’s Mark (Trait)
  • Damage reduced from 2.5% to 2.25%
• Tormented Souls (R)
  • Armor reduced from 20 to 10

Talents

• ​Level 13
  • Ethereal Existence (Trait)
    • Maximum Physical Armor reduced from 50 to 40

Ragnaros

Abilities

• Molten Core (D)
  • When Molten Core expires, the camera will now snap back to Ragnaros if he is not on screen.

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Specialist

Xul

Abilities

• Spectral Scythe (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 55
• Cursed Strikes (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60
• Bone Prison (E)
  • Now causes all active Skeletons to fixate on the target.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Shackler (Active)
    • Added functionality:
      • Basic Attacking a Hero that is slowed, rooted, or stunned reduces the cooldown of Bone Armor by 2 seconds.
• Level 4
  • Reaper’s Toll (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • !Quest: Hit enemy Heroes with Spectral Scythe.
      • !Reward: After hitting 20 Heroes, reduce the cooldown by 3 seconds.
  • Jailors (Trait)
    • New functionality:
      • Cause 2 Skeletons to spawn when you cast Bone Prison. These do not count toward the maximum limit of Skeletons you can own.
      • !Quest: Spawn Skeletal Warriors.
      • !Reward: After spawning 80 Skeletons, when Skeletal Warriors fixate on an enemy from Bone Prison they gain 50% Movement and Attack Speed.
  • (New) Grim Scythe (W)
    • Every time Cursed Strikes damages enemies, reduce its cooldown by .5 seconds, up to 10 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait)
    • Moved from level 4 to level 7
    • Redesigned:
      • Skeleton Basic Attacks restore 1% Health and .4% Mana.
  • Harvest Vitality (W)
    • Redesigned:
    • Cursed Strikes heals Xul for 60% of the damage it deals to Heroes.
  • Weaken (W)
    • Now also increases the duration of Cursed Strikes Attack Speed slow from 2 to 3 seconds.
  • Rathma’s Blessing (Trait)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • Decrepify (Q)
    • Removed
  • Giant’s Curse (W)
    • Removed
  • (New) Echoes of Death (Q)
    • After an additional 1.5 seconds, 2 more Spectral Scythes appear next to the first and travel back to Xul dealing 75% damage.
  • (New) Rapid Harvest (W)
    • When Xul damages an enemy with Cursed Strikes, he gains 5% Attack Speed for 3 seconds, up to 75%.
  • Executioner (Passive)
    • Moved from 16 to 13.
• Level 16
  • Skeleton Mastery (Trait)
    • Removed
  • Corpse Exposion (Trait)
    • Moved from level 13 to level 16
  • Bone Spear (Active)
    • Moved from level 20 to level 16
    • Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Call of the Grave (R)
    • Removed
  • (New) Andariel’s Visage (R)
    • Xul is healed for 50% of the damage done by Poison Nova. Skeleton Warriors become Poison Skeletons, dealing 50% increased damage.
  • Raised Mage (R)
    • Renamed to Cold Hand of Death
    • New functionality:
      • No longer causes Skeletal Mages to spawn from dead Heroes.
      • Now causes Skeletal Warriors to become Frost Skeletons, causing their Basic Attacks to slow enemies by 30%.
  • (New) Kalan’s Edict (Trait)
    • Every time a Skeleton deals Basic Attack damage, reduce Xul’s Heroic cooldown by 1%.

LEVEL (TIER)	Xul Talents
1 (1)	Backlash (1)	Shackler (1)	Shade (1)
4 (2)	(!) Reaper's Toll (Q)	Grim Scythe (W)	(!) Jailors (D)
7 (3)	Harvest Vitality (W)	Weaken (W)	Trag'Oul's Essence (Trait)
10 (4)	Poison Nova	Skeletal Mages	—	—
13 (5)	Echoes of Death (Q)	Rapid Harvest (W)	Executioner (Passive)
16 (6)	Amplify Damage (E)	Corpse Explosion (Trait)	Bone Spear (Active)
20 (7)	Andariel's Visage (R)	Cold Hand of Death (R)	Mortal Wound (Q)	Kalan's Edict (Trait)

• (!) indicates a Questing Talent.
• Italic text indicates a NEW Talent.
• Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.

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Support

Tyrande

Stats

• Basic Attacks per second increased from 1.25 to 1.33

Talents

• Level 4
  • Celestial Attunement (Q)
    • Free cast window increased from 3 to 4 seconds
• Level 13
  • Quickening Blessing (Q)
    • Movement Speed increased from 25 to 30%
• Level 16
  • Mark of Mending (D)
    • Heal amount while a target is Marked reduced from 3 to 2% of attacker’s maximum health
  • Elune’s Chosen (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds
• Level 20
  • Eyes of the Huntress (R)
    • Reveal time increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Developer Comment:  We have been reading a lot of feedback on Tyrande and have heard overwhelming requests to give her substantial buffs. While we would love to do so, our internal data shows her rework win rate is sitting within 1% of her pre-rework values (.8% higher at high-level play and .1% lower at medium/low levels). The rework was focused on lowering the power of her healing while greatly strengthening her utility and damage output. Our data is showing that we are meeting those goals but realize that a lot of players are still attempting to solo-support with her. We are actively aware of the Support role-perception issue, especially since it transcends just Tyrande, and are exploring a lot of different options to help alleviate the frustrations.

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Warrior

Anub'arak

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 95 to 91
• Base Maximum Health reduced from 2003 to 1925

Abilities

• Locust Swarm (R)
  • Damage increased from 50 to 62
  • Heal increased from 17 to 21
  • Duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
• Cocoon (R)
  • Range reduced from 9 to 6
  • Missile Speed reduced by 33%

Talents

• Level 16
  • Epicenter (E)
    • Bonus area reduced from 85 to 60%

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Collection

New Bundles – The following new Bundles and Skin Packs are available for a limited time!

• Stukov Heroic Bundle
• Admiral Krakenov Skin Pack
• Terran It Up Bundle

New Skins

• Stukov
  • Dictator Stukov
  • Kaldir Stukov
  • UED Stukov
  • Zerus Stukov
  • Admiral Krakenov
  • Ghost Admiral Krakenov
  • Reef Admiral Krakenov
  • Tideswept Admiral Krakenov
  • Vice Admiral Krakenov
• Auriel
  • Glorious Archangel Auriel
  • Shadow Demonic Auriel
• Chromie
  • Leper Timewalker Chromie
• Diablo
  • Skyborne Archangel Diablo
  • Horrific Prime Evil Diablo
  • Timeless Prime Evil Diablo
• Illidan
  • Vordrassil Shan’do Illidan
• Johanna
  • Holy Spellbreaker Johanna
• Kerrigan
  • Queen of MEKA Kerrigan
  • Queen of Templar Kerrigan
• Li-Ming
  • Infernal Archon Li-Ming
• Muradin
  • Umojan Maraudin’ Muradin
• Rexxar
  • Biohazard Raider Rexxar
• Tyrael
  • Vengeful Archangel Tyrael
• Xul
  • Bone Visage Xul
  • Classic Bone Visage Xul
  • Royal Bone Visage Xul
  • Rusted Bone Visage Xul
  • Skeletal Bone Visage Xul
  • Reaper Necromaster Xul

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Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

A.I.

• Hanamura – Fixed an issue with AI players pacing near Payloads if a stealthed enemy was contesting.

Art

• Alarak – Lightning Surge will now display its effect when cast on Forts and Keeps.
• Auriel – Fixed a visual issue with Auriel’s Bestow Hope crown when placed on a Tassadar in Archon form.
• Uther – Fixed an issue with the Beacon of Light talent causing it to display the wrong icon.

Battlegrounds

• Hanamura – Fixed an issue preventing Turret power-ups from being damaged by the Boss’s Energy Ring ability.
• Hanamura – Fixed an issue preventing Mercenaries from attacking Turret power-ups.
• Haunted Mines – Fixed an issue that prevented skulls from being collected if a Haunted Miner was killed while over unpathable terrain.
• Haunted Mines – Fixed a rare issue that could cause Grave Golems to push the same lane twice.
• Mercenaries – Fixed an issue causing the Raven Mercenary’s Seeker Missile reveal effect to occasionally persist after the Seeker Missile detonated.
• Sandbox Mode – Fixed an issue that caused duplicate D.Va Mechs to appear when using the ‘Move Here’ command with D.Va.
• Warhead Junction – Fixed an issue preventing the damage-over-time effect applied by the Boss’s Podling spawns from being cleansed by abilities intended to cleanse these effects.
• Warhead Junction – Fixed an issue causing players to be incorrectly flagged as AFK when standing near or collecting Warheads.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Alarak – Fixed an issue that prevented Rite of Rak’Shir from going on a reduced cooldown if used on a Nova Holo Decoy that expired.
• Arthas – The attack speed slow applied by Frozen Tempest is now consistent with what is stated in the ability’s tooltip.
• Chen – Fixed an issue preventing the stun duration of Anub’arak’s Burrow Charge from being reduced by Purifying Brew.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue causing D.Va’s Mech to ignore ‘Hold Position’ commands.
• D.Va – Fixed a rare issue that caused D.Va to become unresponsive if Big Shot was fired into the enemy Hall of Storms immediately before calling down a Mech.
• D.Va – Fixed that issue that allowed D.Va’s Boosters to push enemies that were affected by Time Stop.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue causing D.Va to destroy map mechanic pickups (such as Doubloons) when using Call Mech near them.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue causing Defense Matrix to unintentionally reduce the effects of percentage damage abilities.
• D.Va – Fixed an issue preventing pilot D.Va from immediately exiting her Mech after casting Self Destruct if there was not ample space available nearby.
• Genji – Fixed an issue causing Genji to take partial damage from abilities that ended Deflect early, such as stuns and silences.
• Greymane – Fixed an issue that could occasionally grant additional Go for the Throat procs after casting the free charge.
• Kharazim – Fixed an issue that Stitches’ Vile Gas to deal damage to Kharazim while casting Seven-Sided Strike.
• Murky – The Fish Eye talent will now properly reveal stealthed targets at the edge of its sight radius.
• Murky – Fixed an issue causing Murky’s Fish Eye talent to permanently reduce his mounted movement speed. 
• Murky - Fixed an issue preventing Murky from gaining stealth when spawning from his Egg after learning the Egg Hunt talent.
• Nova – Fixed an issue preventing Holo Decoy from being cast in several locations on Garden of Terror and Infernal Shrines.
• Probius – Fixed an issue preventing Probius from gathering minerals while inside the Garden Terror on Garden of Terror
• Tassadar – Fixed an issue causing Tassadar to gain healing from the damage dealt by his Focused Beam talent.
• Tychus – The primary target damage amount displayed in Overkill’s tooltip is now consistent with the damage dealt by the Ability.

Sound

• Diablo Announcer – Fixed an issue causing the Diablo announcer pack game start countdown to become out of sync.
• Draft Mode – Fixed an issue causing Hero selection voiceover lines to occasionally echo.
• Muradin – Fixed an issue causing a pop in Muradin’s Avatar voice lines when playing in certain locales.

User Interface

• Collection - Fixed an issue preventing the “Unseen Items” flag from clearing after viewing all highlighted items in the Collection.
• Nova, Samuro – Fixed an issue preventing debuff timers from showing below clone’s health bars.
• UI – Fixed an issue that could occasionally fail to display one team’s current experience total.

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