We’ve just released a new Heroes of the Storm patch to apply a number of balance changes and bug fixes.

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Quick Navigation:

• User Interface
• Design
• Heroes
• Bug Fixes

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User Interface

• The region selector dropdown has been removed from the Main Menu (ESC) in order to help prevent edge-case issues that could affect other game features and result in a poor experience for the player.

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Design

• Baseline Armor has been removed from a number of Heroes. Please see the specific changes to individual Heroes below.

Developer Comment: We have experimented with baseline Armor on some of our Heroes for some time, but we’ve decided to remove this functionality for now. The problem with it that we’ve found over time is that baseline Armor was difficult to communicate visually. It therefore ended up being a largely hidden power that didn’t have any major changes on gameplay. Going forward, we’ll prefer to make Armor—and other mechanics that are effective against Heroes and damage types—more interesting when they are tied to game mechanics. To clarify, while we are removing baseline Armor from Heroes, we still like Armor that is tied to a window of time or has an obvious display on the Hero when it is active. Some examples include Greymane in Worgen form and Cho’gall’s Ogre hide.

• Fort Tower experience reduced from 500 to 250.
• Fort experience increased from 1,000 to 1,200
• Keep experience increased from 1,650 to 2,050
• Towers of Doom
  • Fort Tower experience reduced from 500 to 250.
  • Fort experience increased from 1,100 to 1,200.
  • Keep experience increased from 1,900 to 2,050.
    • Note: Towers of Doom Forts upgrade to Keeps when the Tunnels open, approximately 12 minutes into a match.

Developer Comment: We’re taking some of the experience offered by outer Towers and distributing it amongst other Structures in an effort to keep teams closer in levels for a little while longer. We still want to reward skillful play, but a team that completes the first objective is frequently able take out a lot of the opposing team’s outer Structures. Not only did this open up a strategic advantage (Healing Fountains get destroyed, Fortifications provide less safety), but it also pushes the winning team further ahead. Usually, this results in one team reaching level 10 before their opponents, allowing them to snowball to an even greater lead. We’d like to instead slow down early game leads, so that winning teams have to play well for a longer period of time.

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Heroes

Assassin	Multiclass	Specialist	Support	Warrior
Cassia	Varian	Zagara	Auriel	Anub'arak
Fenix			Brightwing	Arthas
Genji			Stukov	Diablo
Kael'thas				Garrosh
Maiev				Johanna
Lunara

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Assassin

Cassia

• Health increased from 1,660 to 1,840
• Health Regeneration decreased from 4.0 to 3.828.

• Avoidance (Trait)
  • Physical Armor while moving unmounted decreased from 65 to 40.

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Fenix

• Unit radius reduced from 1.25 to 1.125. Fenix’s radius now matches Heroes like Stitches and Ragnaros.

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Genji

• Cyber Agility (Trait)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds.

• Level 1
  • Agile Dismount (Trait)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 7 to 10 seconds.

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Kael'thas

• Unit radius reduced from 1.15 to 1.0. Kael’thas’ radius now matches Heroes like E.T.C. and Zagara.

• Living Bomb (W)
  • Periodic damage increased from 40 to 42.

Developer Comment: After years of battling in the Nexus, Kael’thas finally learned the reason why puny interlopers could foil his clearly superior plans and went to the tailor to get his cape trimmed.

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Maiev

• Umbral Bind (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds.
• Spirit of Vengeance (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 13 seconds.
  • Damage increased from 100 to 180.
  • Adjusted functionality:
    • No longer deals bonus damage to Heroes.
    • Instead, if Spirit of Vengeance hits an enemy Hero, its cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds.

• Level 4
  • Blade Dance (Q)
    • Area of effect reduced from 4 to 3.5.

Developer Comment: The cooldown increase for Umbral Bind will grant the Warden’s enemies a bit more of a reprieve between cases of being chained. We are also shifting some of the complexity of Spirit of Vengeance into cooldown reduction upon hitting a Hero, rather than providing bonus Hero damage. This increases Maiev’s capability for wave-clear, rewards players that use the ability to engage, and reduces its usefulness as an escape. Overall, Maiev’s kit is still slightly over-performing, and we’re hoping these changes will get her into a sweet spot.

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Lunara

• Level 4
  • Nature’s Culling (Trait)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 150% to 125%.
• Level 7
  • Choking Pollen (Q)
    • Bonus damage against enemies who have 1 stack of Nature’s Toxin increased from 50% to 75%.
    • Bonus damage against enemies who have 3 stacks of Nature’s Toxin increased from 100% to 125%.

Developer Comment: Lunara’s rework has put her pick rate, win rate, and Talent pick rates in a pretty good spot. These changes are to address Talent outliers, which we’ll continue to keep an eye on going forward.

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Multiclass

Varian

• Health increased from 1,924 to 2,116.
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.001 to 4.406.

• Taunt (R)
  • Passive Armor bonus removed
  • Passive maximum Health bonus increased from 25% to 30%.

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Specialist

Zagara

• Creep Tumor (Trait)
  • Health reduced from 150 to 125.
  • Health scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
• Hunter Killer (W)
  • Health decreased from 471 to 420.
  • Health scaling increased from 3.5% to 4.5% per level.
  • Damage scaling increased from 4% to 5% per level.
  • Movement Speed increased by 4%.
• Infested Drop (E)
  • Impact damage scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
  • Roachling Health reduced from 346 to 328.
  • Roachling Health scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
  • Roachling Damage scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
• Devouring Maw (R)
  • Damage increased from 80 to 88.
• Nydus Network (R)
  • Health reduced from 664 to 550.
  • Health scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.

Developer Comment: The Nexus has changed a lot since Zagara first arrived. Originally, she was the ultimate lane bully, known for pushing enemies out of lane with Hunter Killer and draining tower ammo with her summons. The arrival of new solo-laners who can challenge her power, combined with the removal of tower ammo, has made this part of her identity less special. The goals of these changes are twofold: first, to slightly reduce her early-game laning presence, largely by reducing the early-game Health of Hunter Killer. Our second goal is to buff her late-game teamfight capability, which we’re doing by improving the scaling on her abilities. Our general thinking is that she is mostly frustrating to lane against during the early game, and then she falls off in power and has less impact in teamfights, which results in allies relying on her to split-push instead of playing with her team. We’re hoping that with these changes she will be a more standard Hero in team compositions, and can be played as a solid backline damage dealer.

• Level 1
  • Corpse Feeders (E)
    • Damage reduction from non-Heroic sources increased from 40% to 50%.
• Level 16
  • Brood Expansion (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 6 to 7 seconds.
    • Now also reduces Hunter Killer’s Mana cost by 30.
  • Corrosive Saliva (W)
    • Damage increased from 2% to 2.5% of the target Hero’s maximum Health.

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Support

Auriel

• Health reduced from 1,758 to 1,700.
• Health regeneration reduced from 3.66 to 3.54.

• Sacred Sweep (Q)
  • Outer area damage reduced from 57 to 45.
  • Inner area damage increased from 171 to 180.

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Brightwing

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Heal amount increased from 109 to 112.
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Heal amount increased from 192 to 200.

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Stukov

• Bio-Kill Switch (Trait)
  • Amount Healed after detonating a Healing Pathogen increased from 435 to 450.
• Healing Pathogen (Q)
  • Healing per tick increased from 35 to 37.

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Warrior

Anub'arak

• Base Spell Armor removed.
• Health increased from 1,925 to 2,100.
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.012 to 4.375.

• Harden Carapace (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25.
  • Additional functionality:
    • Now also grants 40 Spell Armor while active.

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Arthas

• Base Physical Armor removed.
• Health increased from 2,524 to 2,650.
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.258 to 5.52.

• Level 1
  • Rime (Passive)
    • Physical Armor bonus increased from 60 to 75.

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Diablo

• Health increased from 2,567 to 2,618.
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.3515 to 5.4542.
• Basic Attack speed increased from 0.91 to 0.95.

• Fire Stomp (W)
  • Healing increased from 125% to 130% of the damage dealt.

• Level 1
  • Feast on Fear (Q/E)
    • Healing per second increased from 3.75% to 4%.
    • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.
  • Devil’s Due (Trait)
    • Regeneration Globe and Healing Fountain bonuses increased from 2% to 2.25% per Soul.
  • Soul Shield (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
• Level 4
  • Sacrificial Soul (Q)
    • Armor increased from 15 to 20.
    • Armor granted after gathering 100 Souls increased from 30 to 40.
  • Souls to the Flame (W)
    • Healing increased from 1.25% to 1.3% per Soul.
• Level 13
  • Devastating Charge (Q)
    • Initial damage bonus reduced from 100% to 80%.
    • Quest damage bonus increased from 15% to 20% per stack.
    • Maximum quest damage bonus increased from 75% to 120%.

Developer Comment: Diablo is underperforming since his recent rework, so we’ve increased his baseline survivability. We expect him to rise as players settle into new builds and playstyles, but there was still room to buff the Lord of Terror. We’ve also addressed a few of the Talents that weren’t as strong as their counterparts. Additionally, we’ve reduced the duration of Feast on Fear, but increased its healing per tick, so Diablo players can get more value out of a few healing ticks before overriding it.

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Garrosh

• Groundbreaker (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 7 to 8 seconds.
• Wrecking Ball (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds.

• Level 16
  • Mortal Combo (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 7 to 9 seconds.

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Johanna

• Base Physical Armor removed.
• Health increased from 2,350 to 2,540.
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.895 to 5.289.

• Level 1
  • Reinforce (Passive)
    • Armor bonus increased from 50 to 75.

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Bug Fixes

• Addressed an issue that could cause the game client to crash on startup.

• Basic Attacks: The following Basic Attacks that deal Spell Damage now correctly miss when the attacking Hero is Blinded or the target is Evading:
  • Kael’thas: Sunfire Enchantment
  • Kel’Thuzad: Chilling Touch
  • Li-Ming: Cannoneer
• Cassia: Fixed an issue causing Cassia’s Health Regeneration to be higher than intended.
• Diablo: Lightning Breath’s visual effects can no longer be right-clicked.
• Diablo: The visual effects that display within Diablo’s Hero ring after he has collected 100 Souls will no longer appear underneath Vehicles that Diablo is piloting, such as the Dragon Knight.
• D.Va: Fixed an issue in which Defense Matrix’s search area could become disjointed from the Ability’s visual effects.
• Lunara: Fixed an issue in which the Blossom Swell Talent granted less bonus area to Noxious Blossom than intended.
• Lunara: The Hippity Hop Talent no longer grants more Movement Speed to Dryad’s Swiftness than intended.
• Muradin: Placeholder art will no longer appear after casting Haymaker.

• Brawl Screen: Event-themed Loot Chest models now correctly appear centered within the reward panel on the Brawl screen.

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