Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes — December 12, 2017

Winter Veil 2017 Event Quest

• 4 Part Quest Chain
  • Part 1: Play 2 Games
    • Reward: Nostalgic Reign-Deer Spray
  • Part 2: Play 5 Games
    • Reward: Winter Veil Warbanner
  • Part 3: Play 8 Games
    • Reward: Red Nosed Reign-Deer Portrait
  • Part 4: Win 5 Games
    • Reward: Arctic Reign-Deer Mount

2018 Ranked Season 1 Begins

Performance-Based Matchmaking

• The matchmaking system has been updated to include a performance-based data-driven system, which takes individual player performance into account when determining MMR gains and losses.
• Under this new system, players will now reach their intended Matchmaking Rating quicker and more accurately.
• Read our recent blog about Performance-Based Matchmaking to learn more.

Game Camera Height

• In-game Camera height has been significantly increased in order to provide more visibility of the battlefield.

Terrain Outlines

• Outlines will now display on terrain when playing Junkrat or Lúcio. This should allow for a more accurate view of what can be used for Frag Launcher bounces and Wall Rides.

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Sandbox Custom Game Improvements

• The following new cheats have been added to Sandbox Custom Games:
• Spawn Camps
  • Respawn all Mercenary Camps.
• Spawn Dummy
  • Creates a dialog allowing players to choose a type of dummy to spawn.
    • Player can then click in the game world to create a dummy of the selected dummy type at mouse cursor position.
    • One player cannot spawn more than 20 dummies.
  • When a player deals damage or heals a target dummy the Target Dummy Panel will pop up displaying the damage or healing dealt.
    • If player deals damage to multiple dummies with an AOE ability, the number will be the combination of damage done to all dummies.
    • If the team hasn't dealt damage or healing to any of the dummies for 8 seconds, the Target Dummy Panel will disappear for that team.
    • If a player hasn't dealt damage or healing to any of the dummies for 8 seconds, their damage and DPS will be reset to 0.
• Clear Dummies
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, remove all the dummies created by all players.
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, remove all the dummies created by that player.
• Toggle Fog of War
  • Disabling Fog of War for a team will remove Fog of War, revealing the whole map for that team.
• Reset HP/MP
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, reset all players' Health and Mana to full.
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, reset the player's Health and Mana to full.
• Complete Quests
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, complete all talent quests for all player.
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, complete all talent quests for that player.
• Instant Respawn
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, instantly respawn all dead Heroes.
  • If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, instantly respawn the player's Hero.

Haunted Mines

• Issuing a Move command within the Mines while on the Battleground’s upper level, or vice versa, will now cause the Hero to use the Mine Entrance or Exit that is the shortest distance from the issued order.
• Summoned Grave Golem
  • Fort and Keep attacks no longer reduce attack speed
  • Will no longer interrupt its attacks mid-swing to use an Ability
  • Now passes through player-created walls rather than stopping to destroy them

Ranked Battleground Rotation Update

• Added to Rotation
  • Warhead Junction
• Removed from Rotation
  • Volskaya Foundry
  • Garden of Terror
• The full Ranked Battleground Rotation is now as follows:
  • Battlefield of Eternity
  • Braxis Holdout
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Dragon Shire
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Sky Temple
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
  • Towers of Doom
  • Warhead Junction

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Design

Stealth

• Stealth players will now become “Invisible” after remaining still for 1.5 seconds.
  • Invisible Heroes will not display the Stealth visual effect and can still be removed from Stealth by taking damage. This includes Heroes under the effects of temporary Stealth effects such as Samuro’s Windwalk or Tyrande’s Shadowstalk.
  • Additionally, Heroes cannot become Invisible while occupying a capture point, such as Braxis Holdout or Mercenary Camp Beacons. Instead, they will retain normal Stealth visual effects.

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User Interface

In-Game UI

• General
  • Hero portraits will now be displayed when heroes are inside the following Vehicles, Battleground objectives, or Hero Abilities:
    • Dragon Knight
    • Garden Terror
    • Triglav Protector
    • Anub'arak - Cocoon
    • Lt. Morales – Medivac Dropship
    • Stitches - Gorge
    • Zagara - Devouring Maw
• Manual Talent Tier and Hero Status Callouts
  • Players can now press ALT + left-click Hero portraits and the Team Level UI at the top of the screen to generate notifications for the following situations:
    • Press ALT + left-click an ally’s Hero portrait to inform teammates when that ally needs assistance.
    • ALT + left-clicking a dead Hero’s portrait will generate a chat message indicating that Hero’s remaining respawn time.
    • ALT + left-clicking an enemy Hero portrait will ping that Hero’s location on the Minimap if they are within allied vision. If that enemy is outside of allied vision, a chat message will inform allies that the Hero is missing.
    • Press ALT + right-click the Team Level UI to indicate when both teams are on even Talent tiers, or when one team has a Talent tier advantage over the other.

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General

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

Art

• Kharazim: Kharazim's arms and upper body now animated correctly during his dizzy animation.
• Leoric: The Shroud of the Dead King Talent will now correctly play an animation and a sound when activated.
• Samuro: Monkey King Samuro’s model will no longer exhibit flickering during Hero Select while running Medium or High graphic settings.
• The Lost Vikings: Fixed an issue causing Baelog to cast superfluous shadows on the terrain.

Battlegrounds

• Sky Temple: Fixed an issue that could prevent Temple lasers from appearing correctly on the Minimap.
• Structures: Auriel's Blinding Flash and Artanis' Suppression Pulse can no longer Blind Structures.
• Towers of Doom: The Headless Horseman Boss is no longer incorrectly categorized as a Monster.
• Volskaya Foundry: Fixed an issue in which Heroes on the outer edge of the Hall of Storms would not receive Healing or protection.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Alexstrasza: Life-Binder is no longer interrupted when entering or exiting Dragonqueen.
• Diablo: Fixed an issue that could cause Shadow Charge to deal its collision damage multiple times under certain circumstances.
• Garrosh: Casting Wrecking Ball on Mercenaries will no longer cause them to leash while in combat.
• Gul'dan: Movement caused by a conveyor belt will no longer cancel Rain of Destruction channeling.
• Kel'thuzad: The Power of Icecrown Talent will now correctly grant bonus Spell Power for enemy Heroes Slowed by Chains of Kel’Thuzad with the Chains of Ice Talent.
• Li-Ming: Zei's Vengeance and Arcane Orb tooltips have been updated to clarify bonus damage functionality. Damage amounts have not been changed.
• Lt. Morales: The Second Opinion Talent will now correctly grant cooldown reduction when one of the Heroes struck by Displacement Grenade is piloting a Vehicle, like the Garden Terror.
• Lunara: Fixed an inconsistency that allowed Lunara to cast Leaping Strike over some, but not all, allied units after learning Boundless Stride.
• Medivh: Creating a Portal entrance after learning Portal Mastery and then entering the Triglav Protector will no longer prevent him from using the Protector’s abilities.
• Muradin: Learning Reverberation no longer incorrectly updates the Attack Speed Slow amount in Thunder Clap’s tooltip.
• Murky: Spawn Egg with the Egg Hunt Talent can now be cast correctly on Volskaya Foundry’s conveyor belts.
• Nazeebo: Fixed an issue preventing the Superstition talent effect from being removed by Hero basic attacks after Nazeebo died with this talent.
• Sgt. Hammer: The Hyper-Cooling Engines talent will no longer grant cooldown reduction from basic attacks against non-Heroic targets while in Siege Mode.
• Tychus & Stitches: Tychus can now be affected by Stitches’ Gorge while in Commandeer Odin.
• Zeratul: Fixed an issue causing the Void Slash talent to display an incorrect value for the damage increase.

User Interface

• Death Recap: Fortification Camp Turret attacks now display a Turret icon in the Death Recap screen.