PTR

Published on February 4, 2019

Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes – February 4, 2019

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until February 10.

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Heroes:

General Updates

Mac
- Improved compatibility with latest Mac OS versions.
A.I.
- Made several improvements to Hero A.I. behavior.

Hero Balance Updates (4)

Ana

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Developer Comment

**Ana came to the Nexus during the ‘Quest Revolution’ where we were adding them in as many places as we could. We have learned a lot since that time, so we spent some time re-designing and re-organizing Ana’s talent tree. Bringing Aim Down Sights into her base Shrike functionality gives us a design solve for the powerful yet flawed Piercing Darts quest. The rest of the talent changes and shuffles were directed at opening up some new builds while keeping all of her current beloved capabilities! Return

Base Abilities & Stats

Healing Dart (Q)

Heal reduced from 205 to 195

Shrike (Trait/D)

New Active - Aim Down Sights
No longer grants Sight or Attack Range
Cooldown from 3 to 4 seconds
Self-slow increased from 20 to 25%
New functionality:
While active, Sleep and Healing Dart ranges are increased by 25% and pierce one target

Eye of Horus (R)

Heal reduced from 285 to 225
Damage reduced from 166 to 135
Added functionality:
Shots now pierce all targets (but still impact and cease on structures)

Talent Changes

Level 1

General

Piercing Darts (E)
Removed
Grenade Calibration (W)
Removed
Contact Healing (W)

Level 16

New Talent – Slumber Shells (E)

If an enemy is affected by Sleep Dart, Ana gains 25% movement speed

New Talent – Vampiric Rounds (Trait)

Quest: Each time you stack max Doses on a target Hero, increase Shrikes self-heal by 1.5%
Air Strike (Active)
Removed
Aim Down Sights (D/Trait)
Removed (New Trait Addition)
Debilitating Darts (Active)

New Talent - Active Reload (Active)

Activate to gain 3 charges of Healing Dart (60 second CD)
Ballistic Advantage (R)
Removed
Dynamic Shooting (Passive)
Removed
Somnolent Doses (Trait)
Removed
Custom Optics (Trait)
Removed

Level 7

New Talent – Biotic Enhancements (W)

Increase the bonus healing duration of Biotic Grenade by 50% and reduce its cooldown by 4 seconds
Temporary Blindness (E)
Removed

New Talent – Anti-Healer (W)

Biotic Grenades area is increased by 100% and the duration of the Healing debuff is increased by 25%

New Talent – Night Terrors (E)

Upon waking, enemy Heroes take 8% of their Maximum Health in damage. If a Hero is not woken up early, set the cooldown of Sleep Dart to 6 seconds.

Level 20

New Talent – Dead-Eye (R)

The healing and damage of Eye of Horus is increased by 4% for every Hero hit. This resets after all shots have been fired.

New Talent - Armored Stance (D/Trait)

Increase Shrike’s damage by 50%. Gain 25 Armor while Aim Down Sights is active.

New Talent – Dynamic Optics (D/Trait)

While Aim Down Sights is active, increase the range of your Basic Attacks by 4. Each attack increases your Attack Speed by 10% for 3 seconds (up to 50%)

Rehgar

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Base Abilities & Stats

Ancestral Healing (R)

Rehgar can now self-cast Ancestral Healing

Abathur

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Developer Comment

**For a long time Abathur has had a unique place in Heroes, being a powerful force at high level play while having a relatively low win-rate across the board. These changes are meant to spruce up his talents while streamlining his gameplay and introducing more counter-play to the hero. Carapace, particularly with the Sustained Carapace talent, created some awkward gameplay where it was much more efficient to use Symbiote on cooldown, even when the desire was to stay on one target, due to the cooldown refresh that it gave Carapace. In order to clean this up, Sustained Carapace is baseline and the cooldown of Carapace has been reduced, so Abathur no longer has to continuously remove Carapace to be efficient. In addition, Abathur’s Locusts are now more potent, but they last for a shorter duration, meaning Abathur players will be more rewarded for positioning themselves aggressively and punished when they overextend too much. Return ### Support

Base Abilities & Stats

Carapace (E)

Cooldown reduced from 12 to 6 seconds
Duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
Additional functionality:
Shield now persists after Symbiote ends
Additional functionality:
Shield now Heals allied Heroes for 22 Health per second while Carapace is active

Locust Strain (Trait)

Duration reduced from 25 to 16 seconds
Damage increased from 34 to 40

Evolve Monstrosity (R)

No longer takes 50% reduced damage from non-Heroic enemies
Now shows a warning indicator showing where it is going to burrow to
Additional Functionality:
Now has the ability to Deep Tunnel to a visible location every 80 seconds

Talent Changes

Level 1

General

Regenerative Microbes (E)
Removed

New Talent: Reinforced Carapace (E)

Increase the Shield amount of Carapace by 40%
Survival Instincts (Trait)
No longer increases Locust duration
Additional functionality:
Increase Locust attack damage by 40%
Ballistospores (Trait)
Removed
Sustained Carapace (E)
Removed
Needlespine (Q)
Calldown: MULE (Active)
Healing per second reduced from 100 to 90
Assault Strain (Trait)
Removed
Bombard Strain (Trait)
No longer increases Locust attack damage
Additional functionality:
Increase the duration of Locusts by 50%
Volatile Mutation (R)
Additional functionality:
Damage dealt by Volatile Mutation against enemy Heroes heals the host for 50% of the damage dealt
Evolutionary Link (R)
Additional functionality:
Increase the duration of Ultimate Evolution by 50%
Evolution Complete (R)
No longer gives the Monstrosity the ability to Deep Tunnel
New functionality:
Now increases the Monstrosity’s Basic Attack damage by 100%

Whitemane

Hero Balance Adjustments

Stats Builds Impact

Talent Changes

Level 4

General

High Inquisitor (W)
Mana return per stack reduced from 75 to 50
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Join the Resistance Bundle
Viper Returns Bundle
Firestorm Blaze Skin Pack
Deckard Pain Skin Pack
Delta Hanzo Skin Pack
Firestorm Blaze
Red Hot Firestorm Blaze
Atomic Firestorm Blaze
Deckard Pain
Infiltrator Deckard Pain
Desert Ops Deckard Pain
Delta Hanzo
Blackout Delta Hanzo
Veteran Delta Hanzo
Badlands Imperator Stukov
Badlands Sidewinder Ana
Badlands Deathfang Genji
Cryo Imperator Stukov
Cryo Sidewinder Ana
Cryo Deathfang Genji
Paramour Pajamathur Abathur
D.E.R.P.A.
Commando D.E.R.P.A.
Desert D.E.R.P.A.
Badlands Viper Dominator
Flirty Cloud
Several new emoji packs and portraits have also been added to the game.

Bug Fixes

General

Fixed an issue causing Shields applied to non-Heroes to be applies towards Healing Score.
Super Cleanse effects (Abolish Magic) will no longer remove delayed damaging effects (Consume Souls, Last Rites)
Fixed an issue causing Time Stop and Stasis effects to remove Armor Vulnerability effects.
Fixed an issue that could cause a player’s ready state to become locked if Ready and Cancel were pressed in rapid succession.
Fixed an issue that could occasionally prevent players from pressing the ready button when using the Call of the Nexus Quick Match system.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Ana: Fixed an issue allowing cooldowns to tick down during Time Stop if the Hero is affected by Nano Boost.
Cassia: Fixed an issue causing Lightning Fury to be invisible if it pierced a Hero at melee range.
Cassia: Fixed an issue causing Fend to immediately cancel if cast immediately after Lightning Fury.
Chromie: Slowing Sands will no longer slow Battleground vehicles (Dragon Knight, Triglav Protector).
Deckard: Fortitude of the Faithful’s range indicator now matches the actual range of the ability.
Deckard: Fixed an issue with how Portion of Revival benefits from spell power. (should now heal for more)
Kerrigan: Fixed an issue preventing Sharpened Blades from granting kill credit against Heroes with post-death effects.
Li Li: Fixed an issue that caused healing from Cloud Serpent to temporarily fail if the Blessing of Yu’lon talent was chosen while a Cloud Serpent was active.
Maiev: Fan of Knives will now refund the correct amount of Mana.
Maiev: Fixed an issue with Blade Dance’s visual effects blocking command inputs.
Muradin: Fixed an issue preventing Thunder Burn from creating the secondary thunder clap if it lands the killing blow on the affected Hero.
Nova: Fixed an issue causing Holo Decoy’s Snipe projectile to be destroyed mid-flight if the Decoy died.
Nova: Triple Tap will now immediately cancel if the target becomes invalid immediately after starting the Triple Tap cast.
Ragnaros: Fixed an issue allowing Ragnaros to immediately complete the Catching Fire quest if it was chosen during Molten Core.
Rexxar: Fixed an issue preventing Rexxar from controlling Misha while silenced.
Stitches: Fixed a number of issues caused by using Helping Hand on an allied Hero using a Channeled ability that grants Unstoppable.
Stitches: Fixed an issue that could prevent Stitches’ Hook from landing at point blank range.
Tyrande: The Shooting Star talent will no longer attempt to target Sand Tornadoes created by the Boss.

User Interface

Fixed an issue preventing critical healing effects from showing the Crit UI indicator.
Adding and Removing favorite emojis will no longer cause the chat panel and emoji picker to close.

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