Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until June 11. 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.

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Quick Navigation:

• Echoes of Alterac
• New Battleground
• New Hero
• Art
• User Interface
• Design
• Heroes
• Collection
• Bug Fixes

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Echoes of Alterac

Catch additional details about the Echoes of Alterac event on the Heroes of the Storm website!

PTR Note: While elements of this event may be visible on the Public Test Realm, any progress or rewards earned during PTR testing will not transfer to the live version of the game when this patch is officially released next week.

An age-old rivalry has flared up as the Horde and Alliance battle for dominance over a strategic pass through the Alterac Mountains. Generals from each faction are rallying Heroes to their banners in an effort to gain the upper hand in the struggle to control Alterac Pass. You must decide whether to side with Vanndar Stormpike and the Alliance, or Drek’thar and the Horde. Choose wisely! Your decision is permanent, and these battle-hardened Generals will not tolerate traitors among their ranks.

• Reconnaissance: Play 4 games as a Warcraft Hero.
  • Reward: Warcraft Reinforcements Loot Chest.
• Raiding Camp: Achieve 50 Takedowns in winning games.
  • Reward: Alliance Portrait.
• Carry the Banner: Play 6 games with a friend.
  • Reward: Alliance Banner.
• For the Alliance: Win 8 games as a Warcraft Hero.
  • Rewards: Swift Ram Mount.

• Scout: Play 4 games as a Warcraft Hero.
  • Reward: Warcraft Reinforcements Loot Chest.
• Strike Back: Achieve 50 Takedowns in winning games.
  • Reward: Horde Portrait.
• Gaining Drek’thar’s Favor: Play 6 games with a friend.
  • Reward: Horde Banner.
• For the Horde: Win 8 games as a Warcraft Hero.
  • Rewards: Raging Wolf Mount.

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New Battleground: Alterac Pass

Learn even more about Alterac Pass by visiting the Heroes of the Storm website!

• Each team’s Core has been replaced by a General who will aid them in fending off attackers.
  • Vanndar Stormpike leads the Alliance (left team) in driving back the Horde forces at Alterac Pass.
  • Drek'Thar has rallied the Horde (right team) to aid in defending the Pass against Alliance invaders.
• Each General receives bonus Armor and damage based on the number of allied Keeps remaining. Destroy enemy Keeps to weaken their General.
• When attacking a General directly, be prepared to finish the job! Vanndar and Drek’thar will regenerate Health once they are out of combat.
• In addition to their Basic Attacks, they can also use two Abilities:
  • Whirlwind: Deals damage in an area around the General.
  • Charge: The General dashes to the target enemy, dealing damage.

• Three minutes after a match begins, a Prison Camp will spawn for each team. Invade enemy territory to reach the opposing Prison Camp, take out the Guards, and free the allied prisoners to call in a Cavalry Charge!
  • Channel an opposing Prison Camp to begin a breakout, and then free the prisoner by preventing the enemy team from regaining control of the Camp for 30 seconds.
    • Watch out for enemy Heroes and Guards! They will attempt to stop any attackers and Channel on their Prison Camp to retake control.
    • Each subsequent breakout will require the capturing team to maintain control for an additional 10 seconds, up to a maximum of 50 seconds.

• Once a team frees the prisoners at an enemy camp, allied Cavalry will charge down all three lanes, attacking any enemies and Structures in their paths.
  • Cavalry units generate an aura that increases nearby Minion and Hero Movement Speeds, and grants a damage bonus to nearby allied Heroes.
    • The aura’s damage bonus will increase based on the number of Prison Camp events completed so far, up to a maximum of 3 events.
      • Cavalry on both teams will benefit from these increases independent of which team won each Prison Camp event.
• Subsequent Prison Camps will spawn at random within a range of time after all Cavalry from the previous event have been eliminated. This range of time is determined as follows:
  • From 110 – (# of game minutes elapsed * 2) seconds to 150 – (# of game minutes elapsed * 2) seconds.
  • For example: If all Cavalry from the most recent event are defeated at the 10-minute mark, the next set of Prison Camps will spawn at random between 90 and 130 seconds later.

• Armored Gnolls – Siege Camp
  • Watch out for the Gnolls who inhabit the Pass! They’re formidable creatures who wield a cleaving attack that can shred a Hero’s Armor in no time.
• Ice Giants – Boss Camp
  • The Ice Giants at the northern and southernmost points of the Pass tend to mind their own business, but once provoked, they’ve been known to hurl deadly balls of ice—and even stomp the ground in an effort to Slow or Stun their foes.

• Combatants who don’t mind where they step can fall victim to one of several mud pits that have sprung up within Alterac Pass.
  • Any Hero who enters a mud pit will find their Movement Speed reduced by 16% per second, to a maximum of 60%, for as long as they remain there.
  • Upon finding solid ground, the Hero will regain Movement Speed at 50% per second.

• Public Test Realm: Alterac Pass is available for play in the PTR from today until June 11.
• Non-Ranked Modes: During the week of June 19, Alterac Pass will enter Quick Match, Unranked, and Versus A.I. matchmaking queues, as well as Custom Games.
• Ranked Play: During the week of July 10, Alterac Pass will enter the Ranked Battleground Rotation.

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New Hero: Yrel

Learn even more about Yrel by visiting her Hero page on the Heroes of the Storm website!

• Divine Purpose (D)
  • Activate to instantly charge Yrel's next Basic Ability at no mana cost.
  • Passive: Yrel's Basic Abilities charge up over 1.5 seconds, increasing in effectiveness, but reducing Yrel's Movement Speed by 25%.

• Vindication (Q)
  • Unleash holy energy around Yrel, dealing 38 damage to nearby enemies and healing her for 96.
  • Charging up this Ability increases its damage up to 125, and Healing up to 320.
• Righteous Hammer (W)
  • Swing Yrel's hammer, dealing 38 damage to enemies in front of her and knocking them away.
  • Charging up this Ability increases its knockback distance, and damage up to 125. Enemies hit at maximum charge are Stunned for 0.75 seconds.
• Avenging Wrath (E)
  • Leap to a location, dealing 150 damage to enemies in an area and Slowing them by 50% for 1 second.
  • Charging up this Ability increases its range.

• Ardent Defender (R)
  • Surround Yrel in a barrier for 3 seconds, absorbing all damage taken and Healing her for 50% of the damage received.
• Sacred Ground (R)
  • Yrel sanctifies the ground around her, gaining 40 Armor until she leaves the area.

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Art

• Starting today, troops will now make their Hero selections among the snowy, picturesque peaks of Alterac.

• The following Heroes have received updated visual effects for their Abilities:
  • Auriel
  • Muradin

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User Interface

PTR Note: The menu change listed below is present on the Public Test Realm but will be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm in a separate patch within the next few days.

• 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

• Vehicle Exit hotkey has been moved to the Trait key (default: “D”), and Vehicle Trait hotkeys have been moved to the Heroic key (default: “R”). This includes:
  • Dragon Knight
  • Garden Terror
  • Triglav Protector
  • Blaze's Bunker Drop

• Ragnaros: Empower Sulfuras will now miss when Ragnaros is Blinded, and the Ability’s cooldown will be consumed.
• Abathur: Allied and enemy Symbiote hosts will now display a crown icon above their portraits on the Minimap.

PTR Note: The following changes to Armor and Structures are present on the Public Test Realm but will be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm in a separate balance patch within the next few days.

• 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

PTR Note: The Hero changes listed below are present on the Public Test Realm but will be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm in a separate balance patch within the next few days.

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.

Return

Brightwing

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

Return

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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Collection

• The following new bundle will soon become available for a limited time:
  • Yrel Heroic Bundle – Available starting the week of June 12 until June 25.
  • Heroes of Warcraft Bundle – Available starting the week of June 12 until July 9.

• Yrel Announcer
• Drek'Thar Announcer
• Vanndar Announcer

• We've once again teamed up with Carbot Animations to add even more HeroStorm-themed portraits and sprays in their signature art style!

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Bug Fixes

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

• Chromie: A.I. Chromie will no longer cast Temporal Loop on Vehicles, like the Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.

• Abathur: Removed an excess visual effect that could appear after casting Symbiote on a Monstrosity while using the Xenotech Abathur skin.
• Abathur: Ultimate Evolution clones of Lil’ Ragnaros will now use the correct death model when the Ability expires or the clone is destroyed.
• Gall: The Double Back Talent now displays the base Dread Orb icon art the Talent selection pane.
• Genji: Genji no longer occasionally uses a default pose after being affected by a Time Stop effect during Dragonblade.
• Greymane: Hunter Greymane no longer hides his face behind his shoulder pad on the post-match summary screen.
• Leoric: The Consume Vitality Talent now displays the base Skeletal Swing icon art in the Talent selection pane.
• Medivh: The Mystic Assault Talent and Arcane Rift’s quest icon now display the base Arcane Rift icon art.
• Tassadar: The Psi-Infusion Talent now displays the base Psionic Storm icon art in the Talent selection pane.

• Try Mode: A.I. Heroes will now ignore Mercenary Camps. However, an allied Hero will still engage a Mercenary Camp if the player attacks it while that ally is following them.
• Volskaya Foundry: Minions can no longer clip through the northern Wall near the Fort in the bottom lane.

• Artanis: Purifier Beam is now correctly interrupted if its target is a Hero with a post death effect, like Leoric or Uther, who is killed while the Ability is being cast.
• Deckard: Stay Awhile and Listen’s book model no longer visually persists if the Ability is interrupted by a Taunt effect.
• Deckard: Casting Horadric Cube while on a conveyor belt no longer causes the Ability’s area of effect to disjoint from its visual effects.
• Deckard: Casting Scroll of Sealing while on a conveyor belt no longer causes the Ability’s area of effect to disjoint from its visual effects.
• Deckard: Fixed an issue that could prevent a Healing Potion from being picked up if it was placed between an injured ally and Deckard when Deckard is at full Health.
• Fenix: Offensive Cadence will no longer stop functioning if Fenix is killed when his next Basic Attack would have triggered the Talent’s bonus damage.
• Li-Ming: Fixed an issue causing Disintegrate to deal one less damage tick than intended.
• Ragnaros: When cast on Ragnaros in his normal form, Alarak’s Rite of Rak’shir and Alexstrasza’s Blessing of the Red will not persist after casting Molten Core. However, Ragnaros will regain those marks once Molten Core expires.

• Abathur: Increased the volume of Xenotech Abathur's voiceover lines during Symbiote.
• Announcers: A number of Announcers’ countdown lines that play at the start of a match will no longer end earlier than intended.
• Hero Interactions: Fixed an issue that prevented unique voiceover lines from playing when a clash between two specific Heroes, such as Arthas vs. Uther, resulted in a kill.
• Leoric: Reduced the volume of Leoric’s Basic Attack sound effects.
• Tychus: Enemy A.I. Tychus was a little too chatty on the battlefield. He’s been ordered to do less talkin’ and more fightin’.

• Abathur: Symbiote now correctly creates a crown icon above an allied target’s minimap portrait.
• Artanis: Damage dealt by the Plasma Burn Talent now displays correctly in Death Recaps.
• Stukov: Healing done by the Superstrain Talent no longer displays as “Unknown” in Death Recaps.
• Tychus: The Event Log now correctly displays the yellow Run and Gun icon upon completing the Dash Talent’s quest.

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