Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes — November 7, 2016

New Brawl: Blackheart’s Revenge

Captain Blackheart has shoved off in his ghost ship, Blackheart’s Revenge, to blow the docks to smithereens! Attack Blackheart’s ship to stop his assault and send him to a watery grave, or clear the path of enemies to defend him as he carries out his mission.

• Blackheart’s Revenge is a new Arena Battleground that introduces attack/defend-style mechanics and asymmetric gameplay to Heroes of the Storm. Only the attacking team has a Core, and they must stop Blackheart before sails across the battleground to destroy it.
  • Shuffle Pick: Pick one of three randomly selected Heroes, and then duke it out against the enemy team to attack or defend Blackheart.
  • Attack: The attacking team must gather cannonballs, load them into cannons that line the docks, and fire on Blackheart’s Revenge to sink the ship before it reaches their Core.
  • Defend: Kill attacking Heroes to prevent them from firing the cannons and see to it that Blackheart’s ship reaches the Core in-tact.
• Click the Brawl Info button in the lower-left corner of the screen to learn detailed information about the currently active Brawl.

Revamped Tutorial

• The Heroes of the Storm Tutorial has been reworked and split into two categories: Tutorial and Battleground Training.
  • The Tutorial covers the basics of how to play Heroes of the Storm, including combat, team leveling, Talents, and Mercenary Camps.
  • Battleground Training acquaints players with the importance of Battleground Objectives.
• Players can now play through the Tutorial and Battleground Training using three different Heroes: Jaina, Muradin, and Tyrande.
  • New players will be able add one of these 3 Heroes to their Hero Collections for free!
• Revisit the Tutorials or Challenges at any time by opening the Main Menu (ESC) and clicking the Tutorials or Challenges buttons.

     

Dragon Shire

• Dragon Knight
  • Rubble Maker (Passive) now also reduces the duration of Blinds by 50%

Garden of Terror

• Garden Terror
  • Terror of the Garden (Passive) now also reduces the duration of Blinds by 50%

     

Talents

Scouting Drone

• Now also reveals Stealthed/Cloaked Heroes

Seasoned Marksman

• Basic Attack damage can now be gained past the previous cap of 40 bonus damage
• Activated Attack Speed bonus increased from 30 to 40%

     

General

• Corrected a number of typos and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
• Brawl: Slightly reduced the likelihood that players will receive Specialist choices during Shuffle Pick when playing an Arena Brawl.

Art

• Alarak: The targeting reticle for Lightning Surge will now correctly match the Ability’s casting range after learning Extended Lightning.
• Valla: Visual effects for the Movement Speed bonus gained via the Hot Pursuit Talent will no longer persist after Hatred stacks expire.

Battlegrounds

• Blackheart's Bay: Area of effect indicators and Hero rings will now display properly on bridges.
• Braxis Holdout/Warhead Junction: XP earned by capturing Mercenary Camps will now properly scale throughout the match.
• Mercenaries: Siege Giants will no longer deal damage if they are killed while in the middle of their attack animations.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Spell Shield: A cooldown timer will now properly appear when Spell Shield’s effects are triggered in the same moment that the Talent was activated.
• Alarak: Deadly Charge no longer be cancelled and be placed on full cooldown if Alarak’s destination would place him in terrain.
• Alarak: Fixed an issue that could prevent Counter Strike from dealing damage if Alarak was killed as the Ability’s effects were triggered.
• Alarak: Unstoppable and Invulnerable effects will no longer prevent Alarak from pushing himself via Telekinesis.
• Alarak: Changing Heroes of the Storm’s text language settings will no longer prevent Lightning Surge visual effects from displaying.
• Brightwing: The game camera will no longer become stuck if Stitches uses Gorge on Brightwing while she is casting Phase Shift.
• Chen: 50% of Shields gained by channeling Fortifying Brew will now properly persist after learning Freshest Ingredients.
• Chen: The Buff Bar tooltip for the Freshest Ingredients Talent will now display the correct amount of Health Regeneration gained.
• Chen: Regeneration Globes gathered by Storm, Earth, Fire Spirits now properly contribute to the Freshest Ingredient Talent’s quest progress.
• Gall: The tooltip for Eye of Kilrogg now properly indicates the maximum number of charges it can store.
• Illidan: Fixed an issue that could cause odd movement behavior after learning Unbound and then casting Sweeping Strike.
• Malfurion: The Hardened Focus Talent will no longer reduce Innervate’s cooldown.
• Malfurion: The casting range for Entangling Roots is now correctly increased by 30% after learning Elune's Grace.
• Medivh: Fixed an issue which could allow Medivh to path into the terrain after launching a Nuke on Warhead Junction while in Raven form.
• Nova: After learning Cover Ops, Pinning Shot will now correctly Slow the target’s Movement Speed by 60%.
• Nova/Zeratul: Danger Pings will no longer remain visible over a Hero who enters Stealth.
• Samuro: Way of Illusion Talent stacks now properly grant bonus attack damage to Mirror Images.
• Samuro: Mirror Image Health bars will now reflect the number of Doubloons that Samuro is carrying on Blackheart’s Bay.
• Tracer: Visual and Sound effects will now properly play upon completing the Untouchable Talent quest.
• Uther: Uther’s Health bar will no longer disappear if he is revived via the Redemption Talent after being killed by Devouring Maw.
• Zarya: Fixed an issue that could cause Graviton Surge’s effect to persist indefinitely under certain circumstances.
• Zarya: The Gain Train Talent can no longer apply a Shield to an ally-controlled Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.

Sound

• Voiceover: Fixed an issue that could prevent Heroes’ voiceover lines from playing properly after being clicked on.

User Interface

• In-Game: The Talents tab on the in-game Score Screen will now properly indicate when Valla’s Puncturing Arrow Talent quest is complete.
• Quick Cast: Abilities with global range can now be properly cast using the minimap with Quick Cast set to “On Release”.
• Observer Mode: Beacon progress bars will now update appropriately for Observers on Braxis Holdout.