General

• Cho’gall is a unique new addition to Heroes of the Storm who requires two players to team up, each queuing as either Cho or Gall, in order to play together as one hero.
  
  • Learn more about Cho’gall by reviewing the New Hero section below.
  
  
• Cho’gall Awarded to BlizzCon Attendees
  
  • All players who attended BlizzCon 2015, or purchased a Virtual Ticket, will permanently receive Cho’gall in their Hero Collections.
  
  
• Unlock Cho’gall by Playing with Friends
  
  • Cho’gall cannot be purchased using Gold or real money.
    Instead, players who don’t own the two-headed ogre can unlock him by completing a brand new Special Event Quest!
  
  
• Special Event Quest: Cho’gall Buddy Brawl
  
  • Win 2 Games as Cho or Gall while partied with a player who owns Cho’gall to permanently unlock the Hero.
    
  • Win 4 games as Cho or Gall while partied with players who have not yet unlocked the hero to earn 2,200 Gold.
    
    • Those who own Cho’gall may only earn this gold reward once. However, they can still help as many other players unlock the hero as they wish.

• The Hallow’s End celebration has come to a close, and the following items are no longer available:
  
  • The Hallow’s End Special Event Quest can no longer be completed, and the portrait reward it offered can no longer be earned.
    
  • The Hallow’s End and Ultimate Hallow’s End Bundles have been removed from the in-game Shop.

New Battleground

• Each Core on this Battleground is surrounded by an indestructible barrier, and cannot be razed by Heroes, Minions, or Mercenaries.
  
  • Instead, Heroes must capture the Altars that periodically activate within the city. Upon doing so, each of the Bell Towers controlled by the capturing team will fire a payload that damages the opposing Core.
  
  
• Bell Tower allegiance is fickle! A Bell Tower that has been destroyed will respawn after a short delay, aligning itself with the team that took it down.
  
  • Toppling a Bell Tower not only increases a team’s area of control over the Battleground, but also grants an additional payload in the volleys that fire on the enemy Core after capturing an Altar.

New Hero

• Two-Headed
  
  • Gall is permanently attached to you, going where you go.

• Surging Fist (Q)
  
  • Wind up for at least 1 second, temporarily slowing yourself, then reactivate to charge in a direction. Enemies in your path are knocked aside and take damage.
  
  Consuming Blaze (W)
  
  • Ignite nearby enemies, dealing damage over 4 seconds. If this hits an enemy, gain Health over 4 seconds.
  
  Rune Bomb (E)
  
  • Roll a bomb that damages enemies in its path. Gall can use Runic Blast (E) to detonate it, dealing damage in an area.

• Hammer of Twilight (R)
  
  • Passively increases Basic Attack damage by 25%. Activate to swing the Hammer, which deals damage, pushes enemies away, and stuns them for 0.75 seconds.
  
  Upheaval (R)
  
  • After 1 second, pull enemies toward your location, slowing them by 25% for 3 seconds and dealing a small amount of damage.

• Hurry Up, Oaf! (Z)
  
  • Increase Cho’s Movement Speed by 60%. This effect decays over 3 seconds.

• Two-Headed
  
  • Permanently attached to Cho, going where he goes. You are immune to Stun and Silence effects.

• Shadowflame (Q)
  
  • Deal damage to enemies in a line.
  
  Dread Orb (W)
  
  • Throw a bomb that will bounce three times, dealing damage to enemies on each bounce.
  
  Runic Blast (E)
  
  • Detonate Cho’s Rune Bomb, dealing damage around it.

• Twisting Nether (R)
  
  • After 1 second, enemies are slowed by 40% while you channel, up to 5 seconds. Activate to deal damage.
  
  Shadow Bolt Volley (R)
  
  • Unleash 20 Shadow Bolts over 4 seconds, each dealing damage to the first target hit. The bolts fire in the direction of your cursor.

Art

• Tower targeting ring size reduced by 50%

• Artanis has received improvements for his walk animations
  
• Stitches has received additional facial animation polish.

• The following Hero Abilities and Talents have received visual polish:
  
  • Magni Muradin – Storm Bolt (Q)
    
  • Imposing Presence (Talent) – Heroes affected by Imposing Presence’s Attack Speed Slow will now display visual effects.

User Interface

• Party and game invitation pop-ups will now display the inviting player’s portrait frame.
  
• Two-player parties in Hero League Draft Lobbies will no longer receive single pick slots, and will now always select their Heroes on the same turn.
  
  • This way, partied players who would like to select Cho’gall can pick Cho and Gall at the same time.

• In-Game Score Screen
  
  • The Takedown column on the in-game Score Screen (TAB) has been split into two new columns: Kills and Assists.
    
    • Kills can be earned by scoring the final blow on an enemy Hero.
      
    • Assists function in much the same way that Takedowns did in previous versions of the game. Any ally that is nearby when an enemy Hero is slain will receive an Assist for that kill.
  
  
• Minimap
  
  • The minimap will now visually indicate when allied Heroes are using Hearthstone to return to the Hall of Storms.
    
    • Additionally, a chat message will be displayed whenever an ally activates Hearthstone. This message will not display more than once every 10 seconds.

Design & Gameplay

• Health and damage scaling for all Heroes, Battleground Events, Minions, and Mercenaries has been changed from flat, additive values to values that are multiplicative by percentage.
  
• A large portion of Heroes’ total scaling amounts, which were previously gained over the course of a game, have been added to their base values.
  
• Respawn timers have been increased for levels 1 – 10.
  
• Please review our recent blog on scaling and respawn timer changes for more details.

• Attack speed slows now apply only to Heroes and Summons.

• Several tooltips that lacked specific details regarding delays, charges gained, etc., have been updated with exact details.

Battlegrounds

• This Battleground has been removed from all matchmaking queues for the foreseeable future, but is still playable in Custom Games.

Talents

• Hero takedowns now increase Ability Power by 2% per kill, up to a maximum of 30%. All stacks are now also lost upon death.

Falstad

• Conjurer's Pursuit (Talent) removed
  
• Gathering Power (Talent) removed
  
• Hammerang (Q)
  
  • Power Throw (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4
    
  • New Talent (Level 1): Gathering Storm
    
    • Permanently increases Hammerang's damage by 1 every time it damages an enemy Hero
  
  
• Flow Rider (Talent)
  
  • No longer decreases Barrel Roll’s cooldown
    
  • Now causes Basic Abilities to recharge 100% faster while the Tailwind trait is active

Jaina

• Frostbite (Trait)
  
  • Deep Chill (Talent)
    
    • Bonus to the Movement Speed slow applied by Chill decreased from 35% to 30%

Zeratul

• Focused Attack (Talent) removed
  
• New Talent (Level 4): Master Warp-Blade
  
  • Every 3rd consecutive Basic Attack against the same Hero deals 100% bonus damage

Kharazim

• Insight (Trait)
  
  • Mana regeneration granted on every third hit increased from 12 (+0.21 per level) to 14 (+0.36 per level)
  
  
• Iron Fists (Trait)
  
  • Damage bonus granted on every third hit increased from 100% to 125%

Uther

• Eternal Devotion (Trait)
  
  • Spirit form duration decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
  
  
• Divine Shield (R)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds

Leoric

• Drain Hope (W)
  
• Cooldown decreased from 12 to 11 seconds
  
• If Leoric is stunned while casting Drain Hope, the stun will no longer cancel the Ability and the missile will continue to travel
  
• Damage dealt and Health gained reduced from 25% to 20%
  
• Damage and Healing no longer gradually increase over the Ability’s duration, but instead does a consistent amount of damage and healing with each tick.

Rexxar

• Misha (Trait) (D)
  
  • Misha's death timer portrait will now appear in the death timer bar while she is respawning
    
  • The frequency at which Rexxar's voiceover will play when commanding Misha has been reduced
  
  
• Misha, Fixate (1)
  
  • Misha, Fixate has been renamed Misha, Focus!

• Fixed an issue which could cause a team with no Support Heroes to be matched against a team with Support Heroes in the Quick Match queue.
  
• Fixed an issue in which the Auto-Select Hero could occasionally fail to give the player a Support Hero on teams that lacked Supports.

• Heroes that are simultaneously struck by Diablo’s Overpower and Stitches’ Hook will no longer be thrown outside the playable area.

• Sonya’s next Basic Attack after casting Ancient Spear will now properly benefit from the Follow Through Talent.