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The Patch notes for the impending Heroes of the Storm update can be found below.
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/19RBT3IUQUYB1403137112368.png)
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New Battleground
Towers of Doom
The Grave Keeper and Raven Lord have risen over a dark and mysterious city, each seeking to add it to the territories under their control. Now, these Realm Lords call upon the aid of Heroes in their battle for dominance over the Towers of Doom.
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/5u/5U5OAAWY48EI1446664881297.png)
- 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.
Towers of Doom Available Now on PTR
- Towers of Doom is the only Battleground available for play in PTR matchmaking queues.
- Battleground pools on the PTR have been reduced so that more thorough Towers of Doom playtesting can be done] and any bugs discovered during this time can be fixed before the Battleground is officially released.
- Please note: Towers of Doom will not be available in the live version of Heroes immediately on patch day, but will remain playable on the PTR until playtesting concludes on November 24.
Art
General
•Tower targeting ring size reduced by 50%
Heroes
•Artanis has received improvements for his walk animations
•Stitches has received additional facial animation polish.
Hero Abilities
- 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
General
- Party and game invitation pop-ups will now display the inviting player’s portrait frame.
In-Game UI
- In-Game Score Screen
- The XP column on the in-game Score Screen has been removed.
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.
Design & Gameplay
Scaling Changes
- 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
- Attack speed slows now apply only to Heroes and Summons.
Tooltips
- Several tooltips that lacked specific details regarding delays, charges gained, etc., have been updated with exact details.
Talents
Gathering Power
- Hero takedowns now increase Ability Power by 2% per kill, up to a maximum of 30%. All stacks are now also lost upon death.
Heroes
Assassin:
Falstad
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/XZ4PPH8K5IF51417483334088.png)
- 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
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/LTMUKLG8D4FC1417483334394.png)
- Frostbite (Trait)
- Deep Chill (Talent)
- Bonus to the Movement Speed slow applied by Chill decreased from 35% to 30%
Zeratul
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/3NXNLQWMI4YQ1417483335830.png)
- Focused Attack (Talent) removed
- New Talent (Level 4): Master Warp-Blade
- Every 3rd consecutive Basic Attack against the same Hero deals 100% bonus damage
Support
Kharazim
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/ZNF0FO7V6W8J1439221492354.png)
- 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
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/5W8VDU5725O81417483335719.png)
- Eternal Devotion (Trait)
- Spirit form duration decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
- Divine Shield (R)
- Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds
Warrior
Leoric
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/10VUJ6C6M9DG1439221492653.png)
- 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 now increase over time as a flat value
Rexxar
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/vi/VIQFO0SSQW1W1442362642092.png)
- 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!
Bug Fixes
General
- 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.
- Fixed an issue that could cause French AZERTY keyboards to revert to using QWERTY keyboard hotkeys.
Battlegrounds
- The tooltip for the Plant Terror’s Overgrowth Ability no longer states that it does not disable the enemy Core.
- Fixed an issue that prevented Hero vision radiuses from displaying on Infernal Shrines and Battlefield of Eternity minimaps.
Heroes and Talents
- Abathur can no longer capture objectives at his body’s location while using Ultimate Evolution.
- Abathur’s Adrenal Overload Talent now properly increases Monstrosity’s attack speed while it is under the effects of Symbiote.
- Ultimate Evolution Clones and Monstrosities will now properly receive the benefits of Abathur’s Volatile Mutation Talent if it is selected after a Summon is already active.
- Heroes with the Relentless Talent that become Polymorphed will now properly receive damage from Brightwing’s Unstable Anomaly Talent when Polymorph expires.
- The visual effects for Butcher’s Brand will no longer persist on a target that is protected from death by Kharazim’s Divine Palm.
- Chen’s Spirit forms will now properly leave Stealth after casting an Ability during Storm, Earth, Fire.
- Heroes that are simultaneously struck by Diablo’s Overpower and Stitches’ Hook will no longer be thrown outside the playable area.
- A Hero that activates Ice Block while simultaneously coming under the effects of Stitches’ Gorge will now properly retain Ice Block’s visual effects for the duration of the Talent’s effects.
- Fixed a bug that could cause Stealthed Heroes to fire a Basic Attack at a nearby enemy immediately after Mounting.
- Fixed an issue that could allow Leoric to change direction while using March of the Black King.
- Fixed an issue that could cause a Medivac to persist on the battlefield if Lt. Morales was killed while casting Medivac Dropship.
- Damage prevented by Lt. Morales' Safeguard will now always be displayed in whole numbers.
- The cooldown for Kerrigan’s Ravage will now be properly reset when it is used to destroy an enemy Structure.
- Misha can now properly return to Rexxar if she is on the opposite side of an enemy Gate and an open path exists where a Wall was destroyed.
- Sonya’s next Basic Attack after casting Ancient Spear will now properly benefit from the Follow Through Talent.
- Heal over time and damage over time previews for Tyrande’s Shadowstalk and Kael’thas’ Living Bomb will now more accurately reflect the burst Healing and burst damage amounts at the end of each Ability’s effects.
User Interface
- Legendary and Epic Hero Skins are now appropriately labeled as such on the Hero Select screen.
- Fixed an issue that prevented mouse-wheel scrolling through the Friends List while browsing the Shop.
- Players in Hero League draft lobbies can no longer be invited to join a Real-ID friend’s party.
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I like the GP change. I think it exposes a new skill ceiling for heroes that have the ability to take it.
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It will be interesting to see the scaling stats impact on talents like Seasoned Marksman and Globe talents. Some heroes have well over double the health on the PTR at start, so the impact of 5 bonus attack damage in early game is pretty weak. Likewise 3 bonus regen isn't much value if you start with twice as much health and opponents are hitting harder. Late game things are the same, but it's a noticeable nerf to these talents in the early game. Granted they are mainly taken for mid to late game effect. With the increased death timer, what happens in the early game is going to matter more. It will be interesting to see if they are valued the same way.
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I also like Zeratul's change. It makes it so he can't just truck you completely frontloaded then get away for free with blink. Granted if you do a typical rotation you'll still receive the critical bonus.
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Hey, i just realized that you can play GP zeatul now, so no need to rely on 3 consecutive auto attacks.
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I think playing as a GP Zeratul would still be tough. As a squishy melee assassin dying is almost built into your kit.
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United States4883 Posts
Just played some of the PTR. I know we tend to scroll straight down to Hero changes, but the biggest parts about the upcoming patch are the scaling/death timer changes, which will affect the way all Heroes are played. Based on just a couple of games and a few other's opinions, the power of auto-attackers has gone through the roof, and kills feel WAY easier to secure early on. In particular, these Heroes got very scary:
Falstad
Thrall
Chen
Kerrigan
Valla
Butcher
Nova
I expect we'll see quite a few changes made after the initial patch to try and smooth the early game out, but as of right now, it feels like you have to play VERY safe or very aggressive, depending on your composition.
The second big part of this patch is the introduction of Towers of Doom. Last night on THH, the hosts were shitting all over it as just a terrible map with no comeback potential, and at the time, I was incredulous (especially because they were also hating on my boyz on Dig). After playing a few games on Towers of Doom, I know exactly what they mean. Nothing feels rewarding. Killing a fort doesn't do much other than take the possession away from your opponent for about a minute, and if you don't get an altar within that next minute, it doesn't do much at all. Kills don't really seem to matter unless it happens during an altar phase. You can get a team wipe, but unlike a normal map, you cannot use that advantage to push core or even a keep and get a strong, permanent advantage; if there's no altar up, there's advantage to be had.
Maybe there's a lot more to the map, but, along with the changes to scaling, it feels like the best strategy is to either cower in fear next to your towers until the altars activate or roam around as 3-4 and get constant ganks all game long and hope it's right before an altar phase. Either way, it begins to feel a bit more like an FPS with constant action rather than a game of Heroes with a nice early/mid/late game arc :/. We'll see how it evolves, but for now, I'm not a big fan of the map.
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On November 13 2015 04:06 SC2John wrote:
Just played some of the PTR. I know we tend to scroll straight down to Hero changes, but the biggest parts about the upcoming patch are the scaling/death timer changes, which will affect the way all Heroes are played.
See, I was thinking this would be the case---- except Browder said testers didn't see a large difference on the test map. Maybe the test map was tried by too few people :\
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Playing Thrall, I immediately noticed how much harder he hit (relatively speaking) in the early game. His full skill rotation easily chunks 30-50% of a hero's HP in the early game (depending upon which hero).
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On November 13 2015 04:15 MotherFox wrote:Show nested quote +On November 13 2015 04:06 SC2John wrote:
Just played some of the PTR. I know we tend to scroll straight down to Hero changes, but the biggest parts about the upcoming patch are the scaling/death timer changes, which will affect the way all Heroes are played. See, I was thinking this would be the case---- except Browder said testers didn't see a large difference on the test map. Maybe the test map was tried by too few people :\
Its much easier to give feedback about individual abilities, maybe people couldn't spot the differences, data shows they exist so chances are that big buffs could be confused with big plays since its subtle.
Also, scaling affects every single hero so the sample of feedbacks might be very small.
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Does anyone have a graph/stat thing of how health and damage are changed too?
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The falstad talent Gathering Storm seems really bad. Is it bad?
I suspect you can proc it 3 times per hero with boomerang but even then how many stack can you expect?
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On November 13 2015 07:44 Garbels wrote:
The falstad talent Gathering Storm seems really bad. Is it bad?
I suspect you can proc it 3 times per hero with boomerang but even then how many stack can you expect?
To get a 20% damage increase by level 20, you have to hit heroes 3 times per level with it. Sounds pretty good to me since that should be the low end.
I suspect the bonus damage will also apply to boomerang?
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Caldeum1976 Posts
On November 13 2015 07:54 MotherFox wrote:Show nested quote +On November 13 2015 07:44 Garbels wrote:
The falstad talent Gathering Storm seems really bad. Is it bad?
I suspect you can proc it 3 times per hero with boomerang but even then how many stack can you expect?
To get a 20% damage increase by level 20, you have to hit heroes 3 times per level with it. Sounds pretty good to me since that should be the low end. I suspect the bonus damage will also apply to boomerang?
I doubt the damage bonus will apply to BOOMerang because it reads "Reactivate Hammerang mid-flight to deal 25 (+12 per level) damage around the Hammer" with its own specific damage numbers.
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On November 13 2015 08:00 Valiver wrote:Show nested quote +On November 13 2015 07:54 MotherFox wrote:On November 13 2015 07:44 Garbels wrote:
The falstad talent Gathering Storm seems really bad. Is it bad?
I suspect you can proc it 3 times per hero with boomerang but even then how many stack can you expect?
To get a 20% damage increase by level 20, you have to hit heroes 3 times per level with it. Sounds pretty good to me since that should be the low end. I suspect the bonus damage will also apply to boomerang? I doubt the damage bonus will apply to BOOMerang because it reads "Reactivate Hammerang mid-flight to deal 25 (+12 per level) damage around the Hammer" with its own specific damage numbers.
Just tested it on PTR. Can confirm it doesn't apply to BOOMerang, but it does go up by 1 both on the way out and the way back if it hits both ways.
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On November 13 2015 07:54 MotherFox wrote:Show nested quote +On November 13 2015 07:44 Garbels wrote:
The falstad talent Gathering Storm seems really bad. Is it bad?
I suspect you can proc it 3 times per hero with boomerang but even then how many stack can you expect?
To get a 20% damage increase by level 20, you have to hit heroes 3 times per level with it. Sounds pretty good to me since that should be the low end. I suspect the bonus damage will also apply to boomerang?
It seems like a terrible talent if you compare it to the stacking talent on muradin which gives 5 per hit. Getting hits with that is not really harder, hammer will be avoided a lot.
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Caldeum1976 Posts
On November 13 2015 08:52 Markwerf wrote:Show nested quote +On November 13 2015 07:54 MotherFox wrote:On November 13 2015 07:44 Garbels wrote:
The falstad talent Gathering Storm seems really bad. Is it bad?
I suspect you can proc it 3 times per hero with boomerang but even then how many stack can you expect?
To get a 20% damage increase by level 20, you have to hit heroes 3 times per level with it. Sounds pretty good to me since that should be the low end. I suspect the bonus damage will also apply to boomerang? It seems like a terrible talent if you compare it to the stacking talent on muradin which gives 5 per hit. Getting hits with that is not really harder, hammer will be avoided a lot.
Vampiric Assault is also a terrible talent compared to Vampiric Strike, but you can't just compare different talents on different heroes when they aren't available to each other.
Falstad needs some more damage and this talent, especially in addition to the Gathering Power buff which will multiply this talent, might bring back the spellcaster build for him.
Edit: Well Gathering Power is being removed from Falstad, so forget that >.<
At least Power Throw will be an option at 4 now.
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So guys what about the Butcher? I was arguing with buddies literally yesterday that auto-attackers should be buffed a lot with the scaling, especially those that have abilities to increase their damage by X%.
And I know that Butcher is stronger, but how much stronger is he? 
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I'm gonna come out and say it - I really don't like the scaling changes.
The death timers I can get behind, to an extent.
But the HP and damage changes... I don't see why they were necessary. It's going to shake the meta up so much and require a crap ton of balance changes to sort out now, from what I think was a fairly stable position.
It seems like now you are going to be passive as fuck until level 10 because you can get annihilated in an instant if you're alone. It's going to be so punishing to new players and with the death timers factored in, dying becomes way more significant in the early game... which is, dare I say it, a bit too Leaguey... I personally enjoyed the relative insignificance of falling victim to an early game gank and conversely not being in a snowball position once you get a few kills and an early advantage.
I know that things are relatively the same by level 10 and by 20 are identical etc but the way melee assassins with high health pools DOMINATE in the early game atm is quite unsettling to me.
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On November 13 2015 08:52 Markwerf wrote:Show nested quote +On November 13 2015 07:54 MotherFox wrote:On November 13 2015 07:44 Garbels wrote:
The falstad talent Gathering Storm seems really bad. Is it bad?
I suspect you can proc it 3 times per hero with boomerang but even then how many stack can you expect?
To get a 20% damage increase by level 20, you have to hit heroes 3 times per level with it. Sounds pretty good to me since that should be the low end. I suspect the bonus damage will also apply to boomerang? It seems like a terrible talent if you compare it to the stacking talent on muradin which gives 5 per hit. Getting hits with that is not really harder, hammer will be avoided a lot.
I dunno, I think Falstad's is easier to hit with and Falstad has fewer mana problems since he can cycle quickly.
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EPT
