Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes — October 18, 2016

General

• The first game that players win each day will now award 50% bonus XP and Gold for that match.
• This bonus applies to all game modes except Brawl, Custom Games, and Training.
• A First Win of the Day icon has been added to the top navigation bar, which will activate whenever a First Win of the Day bonus is available.
• Hover the cursor over the VS icon found in the top-center of the screen to display the amount of XP earned by each team from various sources, including: Takedowns, Mercenaries, Structures, and more. 

Friend Bonus

• Playing Heroes with a friend will now award 25% bonus XP.

Party Bonus

• The XP bonus earned by playing in a party now scales based on the number of party members:

2 Players

• +25%

3 Players

• +33%

4 Players:

• +42%

5 Players

• +50%

Game Mode Bonus

• Playing ranked games will now award an XP bonus:

Hero League:

• +25% XP

Team League

• +50% XP

XP Bonuses Stack Additively

• Playing in a party with one friend will still award a total of 50% bonus XP, just as it did before, but playing with additional party members will now award even more XP.
• Playing Team League in a full party with at least one friend and an active Stimpack will now award a total of 225% bonus XP.
• The “Available XP Bonuses” icon in the top navigation bar will activate when players are receiving any of the bonuses mentioned above.
• Hover the cursor over this icon to display a tooltip that offers a full breakdown of all active and inactive XP bonuses.
• Hovering the cursor over each game mode on the Play Screen navigation bar will now display a tooltip that briefly describes that mode.

Versus A.I.

• Training mode has been moved into Versus AI on the Play screen.
• A “Versus A.I. Options” interface has been added to the left side of the Versus A.I. screen.
• Use the buttons to switch between Training, A.I. Teammates, or Co-op modes.
• Use the Difficulty Slider to select the desired skill level of A.I. allies and opponents in A.I. Teammates and Co-op modes.
• Training mode A.I. difficulty is set to beginner, and cannot be changed.

Suggested Play Mode

• The Play Screen navigation bar will now suggest a game mode to new players.
• Hover the cursor over the suggested mode icon to display a tooltip that explains why a mode is suggested.

Match History

• The Match History tab can now be filtered by Heroes Brawl matches using the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner.
• Each game in the Match History list will now display Hero names and portraits for each Hero selected during that game.

Profile Summary

• Heroes Brawl stats have been added to the Profile Summary screen that will track the number of Brawls won and weekly rewards earned.

Statistics

• The Statistics tab can now be filtered by Heroes Brawl stats using the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner.
• MVP and Commendations can now be skipped using the new Exit button added to the lower-left corner of the screen.
• The duration of the MVP and Commendations screen now lasts 50 seconds.
• A timer has been added to the lower-right corner of the screen that will count down the final 10 seconds of the MVP and Commendations screen.

Commendations

• Bulwark will now take the number of deaths into account in order to focus this Commendation on the efficiency of damage soaked, rather than total damage taken.
• The tooltip for Bulwark will now display the player’s total deaths during the match in addition to damage soaked.
• Slight adjustments have been made in order to better balance the Dominator and Painbringer Commendations.
• Abathur was previously a little too likely to receive the MVP award. Slight adjustments have been made to bring him in line with other Heroes.
• Corrected a number of typos and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

Medivh

• Enemy AI players will now avoid teammates that are under the effects of Medivh’s Polybomb.

Lt. Morales

• Can now properly detonate Displacement Grenade near enemies.

Chen

• Keg models that appear when casting Storm, Earth, Fire using any of Chen’s Skins are no longer missing certain visual effects.

Illidan

• The visual effects for The Hunt will now properly display on the Ability’s target during replays.

Greymane

• The Worgen model will no longer remain on screen while viewing end-of-game Stats and Talents pages.

Braxis Holdout

• Neutral Raven Mercenaries will no longer clip into the terrain after being knocked back.

Braxis Holdout

• Fixed an issue in which Zagara’s Mutalisk could cause a captured Archangel to exhibit pathing issues.

Braxis Holdout

• Fixed an issue in which a captured Archangel could target enemy Heroes with its Bullet Storm Ability.

Garden of Terror

• Shielding a Structure will no longer prevent a Garden Terror's bonus siege damage from being applied.

Infernal Shrines

• Fallen Shaman Mercenaries will now prioritize attacking enemy Structures over Walls.

Damage Reduction

• When two damage reduction effects, such as Resistant (25%) and Hardened Shield (75%), are simultaneously applied to a Hero, the larger effect will no longer be overridden by the lesser effect.

Anub'arak

• The Cocoon overlay will now display correctly for enemies affected by Cocoon.

Auriel

• The Piercing Lash Talent tooltip now correctly states that Detainment Strike will only pierce Heroes, rather than all enemies.

Auriel

• Enemy Heroes will no longer occasionally be Stunned by Detainment Strike when knocked away from terrain.

Auriel

• Quest progress for the Repeated Offense Talent will now be correctly tracked in the Stats panel.

Azmodan

• Globe of Annihilation’s range indicator is now visually consistent with indicators used by other long-range Abilities.

Greymane

• The Go for the Throat indicator will no longer visually persist above Heroes who have post-death forms, such as Uther or Leoric, after they are killed.

Illidan

• Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Illidan to fly back to his death location if he was killed while using Dive.

Kharazim

• Will no longer automatically resume attacking enemies after using Radiant Dash to dive to an ally. This fix also applies to Illidan’s Friend or Foe and Kerrigan’s Adaptation Talents.

Leoric

• Minions will no longer path around Leoric when he is in Undying form.

Medivh

• The damage over time effect from Xul’s Poison Nova will no longer be visually removed from Medivh’s Health bar after traveling through a Portal with the Mage Armor Talent.

Rexxar

• A delay will no longer occur between repeated Misha, Focus! casts.

Sgt. Hammer

• Re-casting Orbital BFG just as the first missile re-enters the Battleground will no longer cause the new missile to follow the previous path.

Sylvanas

• The Death Recap tooltip for Wailing Arrow now correctly displays the Ability’s description.

The Butcher

• Hamstring will now correctly deal bonus damage to non-Heroic targets after learning the Cheap Shot Talent.

Zagara

• The Stasis overlay will no longer appear on the screen when Zagara’s Mutalisk enters Zeratul's Void Prison.

Illidan

• Voiceover that plays while casting The Hunt is now only audible for Illidan and his target.

Illidan

• High pitched ambient sounds that play while casting The Hunt are no longer audible for the target’s allies. Lower-pitched ambient sounds will still play for all players and observers.

Death Recap

• Fixed an issue in which a Heal effect could occasionally appear to be the killing blow in Death Recap notifications.

Replay

• Selecting a Hero during a Replay will no longer prevent the Hero Portrait and Status Bars from switching correctly when attempting to view a different Hero’s perspective using hotkeys.

Observer

• Warhead counters will now update properly in the Observer interface on Warhead Junction.