Patch Notes
Alarak
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Talents
Level 13
Blade of the Highlord (Trait)
Adjusted functionality:
Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes grant 2% Sadism, up to 30%. Sadism gained from Blade of the Highlord is lost on death
Developer Comment: Since its inception, Blade of the Highlord has not performed well compared to the other talents on its tier. With this change, we’re hoping to bring it to a more competitive space by making its bonuses more permanent instead of only lasting for a small window of time.
Gall
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Talents
Level 1
Keep Moving! (Z)
Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 1 to 2 seconds. Basic Attacks against Heroes no longer increase the movement speed duration of an active Shove.
We See You! (Passive)
Cooldown reduction increased from 15 to 25 seconds
Level 4
Double Back (W)
Additional functionality:
The third bounce of Dread Orb now deals 50% bonus damage to Heroes
Level 7
Edge of Madness (Q)
Window before damage bonuses are lost increased from 4 to 7 seconds
Ogre Rampage (Trait)
Additional Functionality:
Increase the damage bonus of Ogre Rage by 5%
Level 16
Shadowsnare (Q)
Slow amount increased from 10% to 15%, stacking up to 2 times instead of 3
Leaden Orb (W)
Stun duration increased from .5 seconds to .75 seconds
Developer Comment: While looking at Cho, we saw an opportunity to make some of Gall’s lesser picked talents more powerful or interesting so that they are more competitive against other options.
Li-Ming
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Talents
Level 1
Aether Walker (E)
Additional Functionality:
Casting Teleport causes Li-Ming's next cast of Magic Missiles to deal 10% increased damage
Level 4
Triumvirate (W)
Cooldown reduction increased from 50% to 5 seconds
Level 7
Zei's Vengeance (W)
Arcane Orb cooldown reduction reduced from 2 to 1 second
This should increase the total cooldown reduction of an Arcane Orb hitting with the Triumvirate proc from 5 seconds to 6 seconds when Trimvirate and Zei's Vengeance are both taken
Developer Comment: We’re going to get you to want to pick Aether Walker. Just you wait…
Lunara
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Talents
Level 4
Blossom Swell (Q)
Additional functionality:
Hitting an enemy Hero with Noxious Blossom increases Lunara's Movement Speed by 15% for 3 seconds
Developer Comment: Blossom Swell has been underperforming compared to other talents on its tier since Lunara’s last rework. While her talent diversity is fairly good compared to other heroes in the game, we want to give her Q build some love, and saw this as an opportunity to do so.
Orphea
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Talents
Level 7
Mind Devourer (E)
Damage bonus reduced from 5 to 4 per stack
Developer Comment: Orphea has been performing very well as of late, with Mind Devourer in particular overshadowing other talents on its tier. We’re slightly reducing its power to reduce her overall effectiveness while hopefully motivating players to try out her other Level 7 talents more often.
Raynor
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Abilities
Raynor's Raider (R)
Leash range increased from 12.5 to 14
Developer Comment: There are many cases where due to the leash range of Raynor’r Raider, it doesn’t quite do what Raynor wants it to. To make it more consistently do what the player wants and expects, we’re slightly increasing its leash range.
Samuro
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Talents
Level 1
Way of the Blade (W)
Additional Functionality:
Now also reduces the Physical Armor of enemy Heroes hit by Critical Strike by 10 for 2 seconds
Way of the Wind (E)
Additional functionality:
Samuro’s Critical Strikes reduce the cooldown of Windwalk by 1.5 seconds
Developer Comment: It’s not too surprising that Way of Illusion has dominated Samuro’s Level 1 tier since it adds the most direct teamfight power due to buffing his Basic Attack damage. Rather than nerf it further, we’re looking to instead buff up its competing options, which should also add some synergies to his later talent tiers, and hopefully create more diversity on other tiers.
Tychus
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Talents
Level 20
Bob and Weave (E)
Additional Functionality:
Now also grants Tychus 1.5 Basic Attack range
Developer Comment: To make Bob and Weave feel more fun and powerful, we’re adding to the kiting theme of the talent by also providing Tychus with a Basic Attack range increase.
Azmodan
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Abilities
Globe of Annihilation (Q)
Damage scaling reduced from 3% to 2.5%
Talents
Level 1
Greed (Q)
New functionality:
Globe of Annihilation deals 20% bonus damage to non-Heroic targets. Quest: After gaining 200 Annihilation, increase the range of All Shall Burn by 25%, and Demon Warriors gain 20% Movement Speed and Attack Speed
Level 16
Sin’s Grasp (E)
New functionality:
All Shall Burn Slows enemies by 15% during its channel. If the channel finishes, increase this slow to 45% for 2 seconds, and reduce the cooldown of All Shall Burn by 50%
Level 20
Trample (Active)
Cooldown reduced from 60 to 20 seconds
Developer Comment: Azmodan is raining a bit too much destruction on the Nexus, so we’re bringing his late-game power down a notch by reducing Globe of Annihilation’s scaling damage. In addition, we saw an opportunity to help his talent pick rates by adjusting a couple existing talents, which will hopefully motivate more players to pursue builds that don’t involve powering up Globe of Annihilation.
Medivh
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Talents
Level 16
Temporal Flux (Q)
Adjusted functionality:
Cooldown reduction changed from 1 second per Basic Attack and 3 seconds for Arcane Rift hits to 3% per Basic Attack and 9% per Arcane Rift hit
Developer Comment: We like talents that lower Heroic cooldowns, but unfortunately many of the heroes who have these talents also have Heroics with wildly different cooldowns, which makes these talents hard to tune and pick in many cases. Because of this, we’re standardizing these talents to reduce a percentage of each Heroic’s cooldown so that players feel free to pick the talent regardless of which Heroic they chose earlier in the game.
Probius
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Abilities
Null Gate (R)
Range increased from 8.5 to 9.5
Developer Comment: While Null Gate is performing well in regards to win-rate compared to Pylon Overcharge, the Heroic is still not picked as much as we would like, and is much harder to use properly. Because of this, we’re buffing its range to make it a little more usable, so that Probius players can more consistently get value out of it.
Zagara
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Talents
Level 7
Baneling Massacre (Q)
Additional Functionality:
Increase the damage of Banelings by 20%
Viscous Acid (Q)
Slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds
Slow amount increased from 20% to 25%
Bile Drop (E)
Quest completion requirement reduced from 15 to 12
Developer Comment: Zagara’s Level 7 talents have traditionally been very weak, and these changes are meant to make the tier feel more fun overall. If they blow her win-rate out of the water, we’ll look at base kit nerfs to compensate.
Ana
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Abilities
Eye of Horus (R)
Cooldown increased from 45 seconds to 60 seconds
Talents
Level 1
Slumber Shells (E)
Adjusted functionality:
Hitting an enemy Hero with Sleep dart grants Ana 25% Movement Speed for 3 seconds
Level 4
Debilitating Dart (Active)
Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
Level 7
Night Terrors (E)
Cooldown of Sleep Dart when a Hero is not woken up early changed from 6 seconds to 5 seconds
Developer Comment: We’re buffing up some of Ana’s underperforming talents to make them more competitive with their counterparts. In addition, since we greatly increased its reliability, we’re slightly increasing the cooldown of Eye of Horus to get ahead of potential frustration issues with a globally damaging Heroic being on such a low cooldown.
Li Li
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Stats
Health reduced from 1534 to 1500
Health Regeneration reduced from to 3.2 to 3.1
Abilities
Healing Brew (Q)
Healing reduced from 181 to 175
Talents
Level 1
Eager Adventurer (Trait)
Mana regeneration increased from 100% to 125%
Level 16
Blessings of Yu'lon (W)
Healing reduced from 1.25% max Health to 1% max Health
Developer Comment: For how easy Lili is to play, she is simply too powerful and popular, particularly at the lower and mid-levels of play. These changes are meant to reduce her dominance at those levels, which should free up more options for players wanting to pick other healers that they would like to master.
Whitemane
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Stats
Basic Attack period reduced from .75 to .85
Basic Attack damage increased from 45 to 60
Abilities
Searing Lash (W)
Damage increased from 78 to 82
Talents
Level 13
Self-Righteous (Q)
Healing increased from 125 to 135
Developer Comment: We’ve begun to take a look at some of Whitemane’s underlying issues with Mana management, particularly in regards to how her talents interact with her base mechanics. We don’t know how long this will take, and wanted to push out some small buffs to her to help her play and win rate in the meantime. When looking at her kit, we noticed that she had an abnormally high Basic Attack speed, combined with very low damage. We’re reducing her Attack Speed, as she is not the kind of character that can turret on enemy Heroes like Tychus can, and we’re buffing her damage to be much greater so that those attacks more meaningfully interact with Zeal. We’re hoping that these small buffs better reward aggressive Whitemane players with both increased damage and healing output.
Cho
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Stats
Health increased from 2750 to 2850
Health Regeneration increased from 5.7 to 5.9
Talents
Level 7
Power Surge (Q)
Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds
Level 13
Surging Dash (Q)
Moved from Level 16
Twilight Veil (Active)
Moved from Level 16
Duration increased from 2 to 4 seconds
Molten Block (Active)
Moved from Level 16
Level 16
Frenzied Fists (Q)
Moved from Level 13
Runic Feedback (E)
Moved from Level 13
Runed Gauntlet (Passive)
Moved from Level 13
Adjusted functionality:
Cooldown reduction changed from .75 seconds to 5% of Cho and Gall’s Heroic abilities
Developer Comment: Since our last round of nerfs, Cho’gall has fallen off a little more than we would like. In Cho’s particular case, we feel that his survivability takes a particularly hard hit once the enemy team has access to Heroic abilities which are reliably able to shut him down. To help with this, we’re moving his defensive talent tier from Level 16 to 13 in order to shorten the window of time that the enemy team has to take advantage of this particular weakness.
Diablo
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Abilities
Shadow Charge (Q)
Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds
Overpower (E)
Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds
Developer Comment: Diablo, while not winning outside of our normally acceptable bounds, is banned a disproportionate amount compared to other heroes in the game. We’re slightly reducing how available his combo is so that enemy players have a larger window of time to take advantage of his threatening abilities being on cooldown.
Leoric
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Talents
Level 13
Spectral Leech (Passive)
Moved from Level 20
Level 20
Hardened Bones (W)
Moved from Level 13
Developer Comment: Since his rework, Ominous Wraith at Level 13 has largely defined Leoric’s place on a team at more competitive levels of play. Rather than nerf something that we consider to be a fairly cool and unique playstyle, we’re instead looking to buff up the other ways that players can build Leoric. Now all of his key build-around talents will be at Level 13, which should make his Basic Attack playstyle come online much sooner, and give him more options if he wants to build into Drain Hope, as he can now combine Unyielding Despair with Hardened Bones.
Mal'Ganis
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Stats
Health reduced from 2700 to 2600
Health Regeneration reduced from 5.625 to 5.414
Abilities
Necrotic Embrace (W)
Mana cost increased from 30 to 35
Developer Comment: Like Diablo, Mal’ganis has a huge ban rate, and players have had a tough time dealing with his high survivability. We’re bringing it down a bit, which should force Mal’ganis players to be a bit more mindful of how much they can get away with when diving into the enemy team.
Rexxar
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Stats
Health increased from 1725 to 1810
Health Regen increased from 3.6 to 3.8
Rexxar Basic Attack damage increased from 99 to 125
Misha Basic Attack damage reduced from 62 to 50
Abilities
Misha, Charge! (W)
Damage increased from 59 to 150
Bestial Wrath (R)
Bonus damage increased from 150% to 200%
Talents
Level 7
Aspect of the Beast (W)
Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.25 to 1 second
Level 13
Dire Beast (W)
Damage reduced from 40% per stack to 15%
Developer Comment: Since his inception, Rexxar has been one of the highest win-rate heroes in our game, never going below 50% at high levels of play. Despite this, we’ve heard consistent feedback that he doesn’t feel as impactful as players would like. While we love that Rexxar depends heavily on his relationship with Misha to be effective, it also limits what we can do with him to make him feel powerful and fun to play. To help in this regard, we’re moving a lot of his power out of the more automatic things that Misha does (mostly Basic attacking enemies), and into things that Rexxar himself is actively doing, such as using his Basic Attacks and commanding Misha to Stun enemies. Since we’re buffing Misha, Charge so much, we’re nerfing some of its associated talents as they are already highly picked by Rexxar players, and this change would otherwise be a dramatic buff to them.
Sonya
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Talents
Level 16
Giant Slammer (W)
Additional Functionality:
Now also Heals Sonya for the damage dealt
Developer Comment: It’s hard to create a competing talent to Nerves of Steel due to the incredible on-demand survivability that it gives her in a team fight. To help its viability, we’re adding survivability to Giant Slammer in hopes that it competes more directly with Nerves of Steel while being unique in that it also gives Sonya more damage in a teamfight.
Tyrael
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Talents
Level 1
Ardent Restoration (Passive)
Healing amount increased from 15 to 17.5
Level 4
Divine Vigor (E)
Healing increased from 50% to 60%
Level 7
Purge Evil (E)
Bonus Damage increased from 45% to 55%
Developer Comment: We’re just making some simple buffs to Tyrael’s underperforming talents. Nothing to see here, move along.
Bug Fixes
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General
Fixed an issue allowing Boss mercenaries to be slowed.
Heroes
Ana: Eye of Horus can no longer hit and heal allied vehicles.
Ana: Fixed an issue with the Anti-Healer talent increasing the duration of the healing reduction by an incorrect amount.
Kerrigan: Sharpened Blades now grants the correct amount of stacks on Minion kills.
User Interface
Added an icon that indicates Limited-Time Offers in the collection menu.