Updates

General

• Watch Towers
  • Watch Towers will now reset to neutral after 45 seconds of not being occupied.

Updates

Structures

• Forts
  • The middle-left Fort has been slightly moved towards the top-left of the battlefield.

Updates

Structures

• Fallback Towers
  • Fallback Tower added behind the top Fort.
  • Fallback Tower added behind the bottom Fort.
• Keep's Gates
  • The middle Keep's Gates have been slightly moved towards the center of the battlefield.

Updates

Mercenaries

• Siege Camp
  • Initial spawn delay reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
• Bruiser Camp
  • Initial spawn delay reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.

Updates

Climate Phenomena

• Weather events will occur periodically every 4 minutes, with the first event starting at the beginning of the match. Each weather event lasts for a few 2 minutes at a time before clearing up. While these weather events are active, Heroes can gain a unique buff based on the type of active weather.
• Rain Storms
  • Periodically Every 25-40 seconds strike all Heroes with lightning, increasing Movement Speed by 25% 15% and granting a Lightning Shield that hits nearby enemies for 64 46 damage per second for 8 seconds.

Updates

A Call For Help

• Cores (Sky Temple)
  • Every 23 seconds, the Core will spawn 2 sets of 6 tornadoes which swirl around it, dealing 25 damage to enemy Heroes and knocking them back.

Developer Comment: We've heard feedback over the years that a lot of you would like to feel more protected by nearby friendly Structures. Currently, Minions, Summons, and non-Heroic units can hold a Structure's attention for so long that defending players feel that they're offered no additional protection when taking refuge under their Towers, Forts, Keeps and Cores. Furthermore, we want fights around the Core to feel like exciting ends to cap off great games, and we feel like we can do more to deliver on that front. To that end, this Nexus Anomaly will introduce themed abilities to non-ARAM Battleground Cores.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some parts of Sky Temple would be invisible when using Low graphics settings.
• Fixed an issue where some parts of Sky Temple would render with a strobing/flickering effect when using Low graphics settings on Mac systems.

Updates

Mercenaries

• Siege Camp
  • Experience increased by 100%.
• Bruiser Camp
  • Experience increased by 100%.
• Boss Camp
  • Experience increased by 100%.
  • Now flagged as Elite, making it Unstoppable and Unbribable.

Updates

Mercenaries

• Bruiser Camp
  • Knights
    • Defender
      • Spell Armor amount increased from 15 to 20.
    • Laner
      • Spell Armor amount reduced from 30 to 20.

Developer Comment: As expected, our Gameplay Update for 2018 resulted in large changes to many of our game systems. While we're overall happy with the direction of the update, there have been some unintended side effects that we're hoping to remedy. We overestimated how much more powerful unlimited ammo would be for Structures, and as a result pushing mechanics have become too strong, resulting in lower game times on nearly all Battlegrounds. We're giving Structures some of their teeth back with this update, which should help teams hold pushes from Mercenary Camps and Objectives. We're also making some tuning changes to some of our Mercenary Camps now that we have had some time to see how they have been performing. Hellbats and Knights in particular are pushing harder than we would like, so we're reducing their power. We're also taking a look at the Slime Boss on Warhead Junction and reducing its early and mid-game pushing power, as right now it is too strong when combined with Warheads. Lastly, we are reducing the power of Regeneration Globes. While we like the new mini-game that neutral ones provide in the laning phase, we are not comfortable with how much they are currently benefitting the team that is ahead while they are pushing into a defending team. We're also seeing players picking up more Regeneration Globes in general, so this will help to keep the game's overall sustain in check. These are some hefty changes, and it's likely that there will be more needed to be done over time as things continue to settle. We'll be keeping an eye on things, and are prepared to make more updates as they're needed.