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Published on September 5, 2017

Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes — September 5, 2017

Our latest update for the Heroes of the Storm brings a new Hero, balance changes, and more to the Nexus!

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Heroes:

General Updates

New Special Event: Obey the Call

Slay heroes in Kel’Thuzad’s name to earn in-game rewards before the event concludes on September 25, 2017!
- Each quest in this four-part chain must be completed in order, and only one quest will be active at any given time.
- Games played in Versus A.I., Quick Match, Unranked, and Ranked modes all count toward quest progress.
- Games played during the Acolyte, Necromancer, and Lich Lord quests must be won in order to earn takedown credit.
Quests and Rewards
- Ghoul: Play a game with Kel’Thuzad present on either team.
  - Reward: Ghoul Portrait
- Acolyte: Achieve 30 takedowns in winning games.
  - Reward: Acolyte Portrait
- Necromancer: Achieve 60 takedowns in winning games.
  - Rewards: Necromancer Portrait and Necromancer’s Blight Spray
- The Lich Lord: Achieve 90 takedowns in winning games.
  - Rewards: Kel’Thuzad Portrait and Naxxramas Warcrest Banner

Ranked Play

2017 Ranked Season 3
- Once today’s patch arrives to the live version of Heroes of the Storm, 2017 Ranked Season 2 will officially come to a close, and Season 3 will begin!
- League standings will be reset and all players will need to play through 10 Placement Matches in order to receive their new starting ranks in Hero and Team Leagues for 2017 Season 3.
- The matchmaking system’s certainty level in all players’ matchmaking ratings will once again be loosened in order to make it a little easier to move up and down the rankings during initial matches this season.
Placement Matches
- Players with high matchmaking ratings (MMR) can now place as high as 1,000 points into Master League.
Grandmaster League
- Promotions into Grandmaster League will now occur 2 weeks after a new Ranked Season begins.

Battlegrounds & Map Updates

Ranked Battleground Rotation Update

Added to Rotation
- Infernal Shrines
- Tomb of the Spider Queen
Removed from Rotation
- Towers of Doom
- Warhead Junction
- Garden of Terror
The full Ranked Battleground Rotation is now as follows:
- Battlefield of Eternity
- Blackheart's Bay
- Braxis Holdout
- Cursed Hollow
- Dragon Shire
- Infernal Shrines
- Sky Temple
- Tomb of the Spider Queen
As a reminder, Hanamura has been temporarily removed from all play modes except Custom Games in order to undergo changes. As a result, the new rotation will feature 8 Battlegrounds, rather than 9.

Hero Balance Updates (4)

Jaina

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Developer Comment

 ***Our main goal for Jaina's changes was to spruce up her talent tree while disrupting as few of her existing builds as possible. Her new baseline quest to unlock Improved Ice Block should allow for more play making potential, which we are adding as a response to players who were disappointed when we moved the talent to Level 20. We also heard feedback from many players that the removal of Bolt of the Storm off of heroes like Jaina has hurt their play making ability and overall fun, so we're going back a bit on our decision to take it away on her. While we want to be more careful where we add these Blink-type abilities, we believe there is a place for it on Jaina, and have added an offensive use case which should hopefully allow her to make more aggressive plays in the late game. LEVEL (TIER) Jaina Talents 1 (1) Winter's Reach (Q) Lingering Chill (Trait) (!) Fingers of Frost (Passive) 4 (2) Frost Shards (Q) Arcane Intellect (Trait) Frost Armor (Passive) 7 (3) Ice Floes (E) Ice Lance (Q) Icefury Wand (Passive) 10 (4) Summon Water Elemental Ring of Frost — — 13 (5) Storm Front (W) Ice Barrier (Trait) Ice Veins (Active) 16 (6) Snowstorm (W) Northern Exposure (E) Numbing Blast (E) 20 (7) Cold Snap (R) Wintermute (R) Ice Blink (Active) Deep Chill (Trait)

Base Abilities & Stats

Frostbite (Trait)

!Quest added:
Deal 15,000 damage to Chilled enemy Heroes
!Reward: Gain the Improved Ice Block ability
Improved Ice Block: Activate to place Jaina in Stasis and gain Invulnerability for 2.5 seconds.  When this effect expires, nearby enemies are Chilled.  40 second cooldown

Summon Water Elemental (R)

Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
Mana cost reduced from 75 to 60

Talent Changes

Level 1

General

Conjurer’s Pursuit (Passive)
Removed
(New) Fingers of Frost (Passive)
Gathering Regen Globes increases your Mana Regeneration by .1 per second, up to 2 per second.  Reward: After gathering 20 Regeneration Globes, the damage bonus of Frostbite is increased by 10%.
Frostbitten (Passive)
Removed
Ice Floes (E)
New Functionality:
Doubles the width of Cone of Cold.  Hitting Chilled enemy Heroes with Cone of Cold reduces its cooldown by 2.5 seconds, up to a 5 second maximum reduction.
(New) Icefury Wand (Passive)
Your basic attacks against Chilled targets deal 75% bonus damage and reduce the cooldown of Blizzard by 1 second.
Improved Ice Block (Active)
Removed
Arcane Power (Active)
Removed
(New) Ice Blink (Active)
Activate to teleport a short distance and Chill nearby enemies.  60 second cooldown.
Cold Snap (R)
Now also reduces the cooldown of Ring of Frost by 10 seconds per enemy Hero hit.
Deep Chill (Trait)
New Functionality:
Frostbite’s slow amount now stacks a second time, slowing enemy Heroes by up to 40%.
(!) indicates a Questing Talent.
*Italic text* indicates a *NEW* Talent.
Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.

Leoric

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Developer Comment

 ***The Dead King has been reanimated with a plethora of new talents and mechanics. One of our main goals with his rework was to add some depth into his wave clear routine. Early in development we noticed the cadence and deliberateness of his Basic Attacks and wanted to build around that. Between Wrath of the Bone King and the tuning changes to Skeletal Swing, we feel like we hit that goal. The other big focuses with this update were to remove the death state healing interactions of talents and update the talent tree to our newer philosophies. We know it was a long time in coming, but we appreciate your patience and look forward to your feedback! LEVEL (TIER) Leoric Talents 1 (1) Consume Vitality (Q) Fealty Unto Death (Trait) Ossein Renewal (Active) 4 (2) Ghastly Reach (Q) Paralyzing Rage (Q) Kneel, Peasants! (Q) 7 (3) Willing Vessel (W) Drain Momentum (W) Hopelessness (W) 10 (4) Entomb March of the Black King — — 13 (5) Unyielding Despair (W) Hardened Bones (W) Ominous Wraith (E) 16 (6) Crushing Hope (W) Royal Focus (E) (!) Mithril Mace (Passive) 20 (7) Buried Alive (R) Death March (R) Spectral Leech (Passive) Burning Despair (Passive) Shroud of the Dead King (Active)

Base Abilities & Stats

General Base Stats

Basic Attack Damage reduced from 150 to 105
New functionality – Wrath of the Bone King
Leoric's first two Basic Attacks cleave for 100% damage. His third Basic Attack deals 100% additional damage to his main target

Skeletal Swing (Q)

No longer deals bonus damage to non-Heroic targets
Cooldown increased from 8 to 14 seconds
Mana Cost increased from 50 to 80
Damage increased from 125 to 150
Additional Functionality:
If Skeletal Swing hits a Hero, refund 50% of the Cooldown and Mana Cost

Drain Hope (W)

Lowered damage and healing from 25% to 20% of the target’s maximum Health

Drain Essence (W)

Lowered healing from 12.5% to 10% of target’s maximum Health
Lowered cooldown from 11 to 9 seconds

Entomb (R)

Cooldown increased from 50 to 75 seconds
Mana cost increased from 75 to 90

March of the Black King (R)

Cooldown reduced from 80 to 50 seconds
Mana cost reduced from 100 to 75
Damage increased from 183 to 250
Heal increased from 7% to 12%

Talent Changes

Level 1

General

Mana Thirst (Q)
Removed
Block (Passive)
Removed
Reanimation (Trait)
Removed
Fealty Unto Death (Passive)
Consume Vitality (Q)
New Functionality:
Lowers the Cooldown of Skeletal Swing by 2 seconds
Heroes hit by Skeletal Swing heal Leoric for 4% of his maximum health
No longer adds any additional effect while in Undying form
Ossein Renewal (Active)
New Functionality:
Activate to heal Leoric for 30% of his maximum Health over 5 seconds. Regeneration Globes lower the Cooldown of this ability by 20 seconds. 120 second cooldown.
Ghastly Reach (Q)
Paralyzing Rage (Q)
(New) Kneel, Peasants! (Q)
Increase the damage of Skeletal Swing to Minions and Mercenaries by 75%
Drain Momentum (W)
No longer grants a movement speed bonus (removes the self-slow)
Added Functionality:
If Drain Hope lasts the full duration, gain 30% movement speed for 4 seconds
Lingering Apparition (E)
Removed
Willing Vessel (W)
Drain Hope’s healing is increased from 20% to 25% of the target’s maximum Health
Added Functionality:
If Drain Hope lasts the full duration, immediately heal for an additional 5% of your max health
Burning Rage (Passive)
Removed
Spell Shield (Active)
Removed
Unyielding Despair (W)
Cooldown reduction per second Drain Hope is active decreased from 1 to .5 seconds
Added Functionality:
If you complete a full duration Drain Hope, lower its Cooldown by an additional 3 seconds
Hardened Bones (W)
New Functionality:
Leoric gains 20 Armor while Drain Hope is active. If Drain Hope lasts the full duration, the Armor remains for 3 seconds
(New) Ominous Wraith (E)
Wraith Walk lasts 100% longer and lowers the damage of all enemy Heroes passed through by 50% for 4 seconds
Renewed Swing (Q)
Removed
Imposing Presence (Active)
Removed
Royal Focus (E)
New Functionality:
Increase the damage of your next Skeletal Swing by 50% after using Wraith Walk. Every enemy Hero hit with Skeletal Swing lowers the Cooldown of Wraith Walk by 7 seconds
Crushing Hope (W)
Bonus damage dealt by a full duration Drain Hope increased from 10 to 15% of target’s maximum Health
(New) Mithril Mace (Passive)
Gain 20% Attack Speed
!Quest – Kill Minions and Heroes
For every 10 Minions or 1 Hero kill, increase your Attack Speed by an additional 3%, up to a maximum bonus of 30%
Hardened Shield (Active)
Removed
Buried Alive (R)
Added Functionality:
Enemies inside the Entomb are silenced. The duration of Entomb is lowered from 4 to 3 seconds
Death March (R)
New Functionality:
The attached Drain Hopes are now gain all talent bonuses
Spectral Leech (Passive)
Leoric’s Basic Attacks deal an additional 2.5% of the targets max HP and heals Leoric for twice that amount
(New) Burning Despair (Passive)
Deal 40 damage in an area around yourself. Double the damage and area of effect while Drain Hope is active.
(New) Shroud of the Dead King (Active)
Activate to become Protected for 3 seconds. 75 second cooldown.
(!) indicates a Questing Talent.
*Italic text* indicates a *NEW* Talent.
Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.
Court of the Archlich Bundle
Kel’Thuzad Heroic Bundle
Star Lich Kel’Thuzad Skin Pack
Purple Rage Bundle

Level 20

Kel’Thuzad

Archlich Kel’Thuzad
Blightlord Kel’Thuzad
Northrend Kel’Thuzad
Scourge Kel’Thuzad

Star Lich Kel’Thuzad

Eternal Star Lich Kel’Thuzad
Frost Star Lich Kel’Thuzad
Hunter Star Lich Kel’Thuzad
Neutron Star Lich Kel’Thuzad

Jaina

Dreadlord Jaina

Abyssal Dreadlord Jaina
Blighted Dreadlord Jaina
Saronite Dreadlord Jaina
Unholy Dreadlord Jaina

Theramore Jaina

Citrine Theramore Jaina
Emerald Theramore Jaina
Midnight Theramore Jaina
Ruby Theramore Jaina
Theramore Sorceress Jaina

Sonya

Death Knight Sonya

Blighted Death Knight Sonya
Unholy Death Knight Sonya
Black Knight Sonya
Naxxramas Knight Sonya

Deathbringer Sonya

Abyssal Deathbringer Sonya
Plagued Deathbringer Sonya
Sanguine Deathbringer Sonya
Ymirjar Deathbringer Sonya

Zagara

Crypt Queen Zagara

Abyssal Crypt Queen Zagara
Blighted Crypt Queen Zagara
Saronite Crypt Queen Zagara
Sillithus Crypt Queen Zagara
Unholy Crypt Queen Zagara

Alarak

Amethyst Highlord Alarak

Gul’dan

Wretched Shadow Council Gul'dan

Kerrigan

Fighting Cheerleader Kerrigan
Heartbreaker Cheerleader Kerrigan

Li-Ming

Sapphire Volleyball Li-Ming

Malfurion

Exiled Druid of the Flame Malfurion

Medivh

Magus Medivh the Green

Raynor

Amphibious Commander Raynor

Probius

Terran Probius Red One
Terran Probius X1

Samuro

Genius Monkey King Samuro

Tyrande

Virtuous Blood Elf Tyrande

Valla

Lavender Deputy Valla

Zul’jin

Coral Warbringer Zul'jin
Desert Warbringer Zul'jin
The following Mounts have been awarded to players who reached Platinum in Hero League or Bronze in Team League during 2017 Ranked Season 2:
Earthbreaker Grizzly
Dreambreaker Grizzly
Netherbreaker Grizzly
The following Mounts have been awarded to players who reached Master or higher in Hero League or Team League during 2017 Ranked Season 2:
Epic Earthbreaker Grizzly
Epic Dreambreaker Grizzly
Epic Netherbreaker Grizzly

Chromie

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Developer Comment

 ***Chromie's baseline Quest on Sand Blast is designed to balance hitting a lot of Heroes with precision. We've reduced the damage of Sand Blast to move more of that into the Quest, so that there can be a greater variance between the performance of an okay Chromie player and a great Chromie player. We removed Piercing Sands because we felt that the longer Chromie's range gets, the less interactive Chromie can be for enemies, and replaced it with a Talent with a little more interesting gameplay. Return to Top

Base Abilities & Stats

Sand Blast (Q)

Scaling reduced from 4% to 2% per level.
Damage reduced from 400 to 300.
!Quest added:  
Hit 80 Heroes with Sand Blast. Hitting with consecutive casts counts as 2 hits.
!Rewards:  
Increase Sand Blast damage by 5 for each Hero hit.
After hitting 80 Heroes, Sand Blast leaves an Echo behind.  The next time Sand Blast is cast, the Echo also casts an untalented Sand Blast that deals 40% damage.

Talent Changes

Level 1

General

(New) Mounting Sand (Q)
If Chromie hits with a third consecutive Sand Blast, it counts as hitting 3 Heroes.
Compounding Aether (Q)
Removed
(New) Timely Surprise (E)
Sand Blast and Dragon's Breath's cooldowns are reset when Time Trap is triggered.
(New) Here and There (Active)
Activate to have Chromie swap places with her Sand Blast Echo.  30 second cooldown.
Reaching Through Time (Q + W)
Removed
Past and Future Me (Q)
Removed.
Piercing Sands (Q)
Adjusted Functionality:
Sand Blast now pierces targets, dealing damage to any additional Heroes hit.
Loophole (R)
Removed.
(New) Stuck in a Loop (R)
Temporal Loop teleports the target a second time after the first completes.

Lt. Morales

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Developer Comment

 ***Our big two goals for the Lt. Morales changes were to offer a bit more variety in the viability of her talent choices, and to increase the amount of utility she brings to the field. In the past, Lt. Morales tended towards a passive play-style, where talents that increased her survivability were usually the best options because her base kit was already very strong. This can be very frustrating for team compositions that lacked specific tools to deal with her. With how much raw healing output she offers, we found it hard to inject more power into her other abilities or talents without it affecting her overall balance or play style. We found a solution to both these problems in her new energy system. Morales players should still be able to keep their team alive for long periods of time, but, with pressure, clever enemies can exhaust her energy and eventually run her down. Although this does add an additional layer of complexity to Lt. Morales, it is offset by a new set of tools that skilled players can leverage to keep her team happy and healthy. LEVEL (TIER) Lt. Morales Talents 1 (1) Caduceus Feedback (Passive) Life Support (W) Clear! (E) 4 (2) Cellular Reactor (Active) Trauma Trigger (Passive) Blast Shield (E) 7 (3) Physical Therapy (W) Vanadium Plating (W) Prolonged Safeguard (W) 10 (4) Medivac Dropship Stim Drone — — 13 (5) EMP Grenade (Q) System Shock (E) Second Opinion (E) 16 (6) Extended Care (Q) First Responder (Q) Shield Sequencer (W) 20 (7) Hyperactivity (R) Safe Zone (R) Reinforcements (Active) Caduceus Reactor 2.0 (Trait)

Base Abilities & Stats

General Base Stats

Morales now uses Energy to fuel her Healing Beam. All other abilities are free to cast.
Morales can hold up to 100 Energy.

Caduceus Reactor (Trait)

New Functionality:
While channeling Healing Beam, Morales heals herself for 2% of her maximum life per second.

Healing Beam (Q)

Channeling Healing Beam costs 6 Energy per second
Morales generates 6 Energy per second after not channeling Healing Beam for 3 seconds.
Healing amount reduced from 96 to 90

Safeguard (W)

Cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds

Displacement Grenade (E)

A visual indicator for the detonation area is now visible to Lt. Morales.

Stim Drone (R)

Cast time reduced from 1 second to .5 seconds

Medivac Dropship (R)

Takeoff minimum delay reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
Health reduced from 1593 to 956

Talent Changes

Level 1

General

Feedback Loop (W)
Removed
Scouting Drove (Active)
Removed
Clear! (E)
New Functionality:
!Quest: Hit Heroes with Displacement Grenade.
!Reward: After hitting 15 Heroes, Displacement Grenade’s cooldown is reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds.
!Reward: After hitting 30 Heroes, Displacement Grenade’s area is increased by 25%.
(New) Caduceus Feedback (Passive)
Basic Attacks generate 1 Energy, increased to 4 against Heroes.
(New) Life Support (W)
Gain 2 Energy each time Safeguard prevents damage, to a maximum of 20 Energy per cast.
Bioshield (Q)
Removed
Automated Block (Passive)
Removed
Infused Grenade (E)
Removed
Trauma Trigger (Passive)
Cooldown Increased to 60 Seconds
New Functionality:
Gain 30 Armor for 3 seconds after taking damage while under 40% life.
(New) Cellular Reactor (Active)
Consume 30 Energy to heal 40% of maximum life over 4 seconds.
(New) Blast Shield (E)
Hitting a Hero with Displacement Grenade grants Lt Morales 2 Energy and a shield equal to 8% of her maximum health, stacking up to 5 times.
Calldown: MULE (Active)
Removed
Cleanse (Active)
Removed
(New) Physical Therapy (W)
Casting Safeguard removes all Slows from the target. When a slow is removed this way, the cooldown of Safeguard is reduced by 4 seconds.
(New) Vanadium Plating (W)
Safeguard grants an additional 25 Armor while the bearer is Stunned and its duration does not decay.
Prolonged Safeguard (W)
New Functionality:
Increase Safeguard duration by 50%.
Intensive Care (Q)
Removed
Couples Therapy (Q)
Removed
Preventative Care (Q)
Removed
Spell Shield (Active)
Removed
(New) EMP Grenade (Q)
Displacement Grenade deals increased damage to shields and additional damage over 2 seconds.
System Shock (E)
New Functionality:
Heroes hit by Displacement Grenade have their damage reduced by 30% for 4 seconds.
Second Opinion (E)
New Functionality:
If Displacement Grenade hits 2 or more Heroes, its cooldown is reduced to 1 second.
(New) Extended Care (Q)
Increases the range of Healing Beam by 40%.
(New) First Responder (Q)
If you have more than 70 energy, your Healing Beam heals for 25% more.
Shield Sequencer (W)
New Functionality:
Safeguard gains an additional charge.
Transfusion (R)
Removed
Medbay (R)
Removed
Caduceus Reactor 2.0 (Trait)
New Functionality:
Increases the healing of Caduceus Reactor from 2% to 6%.
Storm Shield
Removed
(New) Hyperactivity (R)
Reduces the cooldown of Stim Drone from 90 seconds to 45 seconds and increases the movement speed bonus from 25 to 50%.
(New) Safe Zone (R)
Heroes are Protected from damage for 2 seconds after unloading from Medivac Dropship.
(New) Reinforcements (Active)
Reduces the cooldown of Medivac Dropship from 60 to 30 seconds.
Activate to call down a Medivac at your Hall of Storms that only allies can enter. Activate again to order the Dropship to travel to the original cast location and unload its cargo. 30 second cooldown. Shares a cooldown with Medivac Dropship.
(!) indicates a Questing Talent.
*Italic text* indicates a *NEW* Talent.
Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.

Bug Fixes

Stukov: Massive Shove’s sound effects will no longer persist after the target is killed or collides with terrain.

Bug Fixes

General

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

Battlegrounds

Boss: Captured Bosses will now correctly use their area of effect Abilities when attacking down a lane.
Haunted Mines: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to become Invulnerable for a fraction of a second while entering or exiting the Mines.
Try Mode: Sentinel will now correctly gain bonus damage after completing the Ranger Talent’s quest using the Complete Quests button.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Stasis: Fixed an issue in which cooldowns for self-cast Stasis effects, such as Ice Block, or Chromie’s Time Out, would not count down until respawn if the Hero was killed immediately after that Stasis effect concluded.
Arthas: After learning the Shattered Armor Talent, Heroes rooted by Frost Presence’s quest reward will now correctly have their Armor reduced.
Azmodan: Manually clicking the All Shall Burn Ability will no longer cause a framerate drop.
Chen: Will no longer gain multiple Freshest Ingredient stacks when collecting a single Regeneration Globe if multiple allied Heroes are nearby.
Chen: Medivh’s Ley Line Seal can no longer cause Chen and his Storm, Earth, Fire Spirits to exist at the same time.
Cho: Rune Bomb’s area of effect indicator will no longer visually shrink if Cho’gall was affected by the Shrink Ray Talent while casting Rune Bomb.
D.Va: Fixed an issue that could cause D.Va to become unresponsive when entering the Dragon Knight or Garden Terror after using Lt. Morales’ Medivac.
Garrosh: Intimidation will no longer slow non-Heroic enemies’ attack speeds.
Garrosh: Fixed an issue that could cause Wrecking Ball to fail to throw a target but go on a full cooldown.
Greymane: Can now correctly cast Go for the Throat a second time after using the Ability to kill D.Va’s Mech.
Muradin: Haymaker will now properly knock back and damage secondary targets in its path.
Muradin: Fixed an issue that caused Muradin’s abilities to cast quickly and without animations if queued up during Dwarf Toss.
Li-Ming: Learning the Zei’s Vengeance and Arcane Orbit Talents will no longer cause Arcane Orb to deal reduced damage at close-range.
Lt. Morales: Medivac UI will no longer persist on-screen when entering the Medivac as it is destroyed.
Samuro: Switching places with a Mirror Image will no longer cancel queued commands.
Samuro: Clicking a control group to select a Mirror Image after learning Illusion Master will no longer cancel active Move Commands being carried out by that Image.
Stitches: Hook will now cancel abilities that can be channeled while moving, such as Azmodan’s All Shall Burn.
The Butcher: Floating Combat Text will now correctly display Crit damage dealt by Basic Attacks benefitting from the Brutal Strike Talent.

Sound

Stukov: Massive Shove’s sound effects will no longer persist after the target is killed or collides with terrain.

User Interface

Draft Mode: Fixed an issue preventing players from selecting the Lunar Rooster Mount in Draft Lobbies.