Bug Fixes

• Level 13
  • Sustained Winds
    • Bonus damage is now dealt before the primary Basic Attack damage. All other effects will still occur if this kills the target.

Updates

Talents

• Level 10
  • Mighty Gust
    • Knockback duration is now dynamic, with targets closer to Falstad being knocked back for longer.
    • Knockback will now expire when targets are outside of Might Gust's search path.

Bug Fixes

• Level 10
  • Mighty Gust
    • Fixed an issue that caused Mighty Gust to send targets in an unintended direction.
    • Targets are now knocked away from a point 50 range behind Falstad's position where Mighty Gust was cast.
• Level 20
  • Wind Tunnel
    • Targets are now knocked away from a point 50 range behind Falstad's position where Mighty Gust was cast.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Flight [Z]
    • Fixed an issue with Flight's Store Icon.
• Level 10
  • Mighty Gust
    • Fixed an issue that caused Mighty Gust's Slow to be instantly removed on targets with reduced duration on being Slowed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Falstad's Flight warning indicator to no longer display after selecting Epic Mount.
• Fixed an issue that caused Sustained Winds to damage invulnerable targets.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused BOOMerang's Spell Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability.
• Hammerang Reactivation will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
• Hammerang's Returning projectile will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
• Selecting BOOMerang will no longer cause Hammerang's Reactivation to permanently display as a critical.
• Frequent Flyer icon updated.
• Sustained Winds icon updated.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Dishonorable Discharge's cooldown reset mechanic.

Updates

Base

• Tailwind [Trait]
  • Cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Dishonorable Discharge [W]
    • Lightning Rod damage bonus per stack increased from .75% to 1%, maximum bonus remains 75%.

Developer Comment: Falstad has landed quite well after his recent tuning, and we think a mild buff to Dishonorable Discharge causes all his talent builds to pass with flying colors.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Gathering Storm [Q]
    • Damage bonus per stack increased from 0.4% to 0.5%.
    • Additional functionality: After hitting 30 Heroes with Hammerang, increase its damage by 15%.
  • Dishonorable Discharge [W]
    • Additional functionality: At 30% damage bonus, reduce Lightning Rod's cooldown by an additional 2 seconds.
  • Frequent Flyer [Active]
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Secret Weapon [Q]
    • Damage bonus reduced from 90% to 75%.
  • BOOMerang [Q]
    • Damage bonus increased from 75% to 100%.

Developer Comment: Falstad's Basic Attack talents have become a dominant playstyle, so we're rebalancing his early talents. While we're not bringing Dishonorable Discharge's cooldown reset earlier, we feel this compromise still helps the old bird without overly frustrating his foes.

Updates

Base

• Lightning Rod [W]
  • Lightning Rod verifies its targets is in range more frequently, from every second to every .25 seconds.
  • Lightning Rod now uses a custom range indicator.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Gathering Storm [Q]
    • Hammerang damage bonus per stack increased from 0.2% to 0.4%.
  • Dishonorable Discharge [W]
    • Lightning Rod cooldown reduction reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
    • Lightning Rod damage bonus per stack decreased from 1% to .75%, maximum bonus remains 75%.
    • Changed Functionality: Takedowns resetting Lightning Rod's cooldown now gained on quest completion.
• Level 13
  • Thunderstrikes [W]
    • Damage bonus per stack increased from 20% to 25%.
    • Changed Functionality: Thunderstrikes' damage bonus no longer affects other Lightning Rod bonuses.

Developer Comment: Falstad's last changes have certainly shocked the Nexus, unfortunately in part due to some regrettable bugs. With some tuning to keep him grounded, and a new coat of paint, Falstad is ready for his next flight.

Updates

Base

• Hammerang [Q]
  • Hammerang damage reduced from 121 to 80.
  • Additional functionality: Hammerang can be reactivated mid-flight to explode, dealing 95 damage around the Hammer.
• Lightning Rod [W]
  • Additional functionality: Lightning Rod deals 100% additional damage to Minions and Mercenaries.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wingman [Active]
    • Removed.
  • Seasoned Marksman [Passive]
    • Removed.
  • Gathering Storm [Q]
    • Damage bonus per quest stack changed from 2 to 0.2%.
    • Mana refund reduced from 10 to 6.
    • Additional functionality: Quest progress is gained from Hammerang's explosion.
  • New Talent: Dishonorable Discharge [W]
    • Reduce Lightning Rod's cooldown by 3 seconds, and Takedowns reset its cooldown.
    • Quest: After 3 Lightning Rod strikes, subsequent strikes on enemy Heroes increases its damage by 1%, up to 75%.
  • New Talent: Frequent Flyer [Active]
    • Activate Frequent Flyer to gain 40% Attack Speed and Tailwind for 5 seconds.
    • Quest: Minion kills grant 0.2 Basic Attack Damage, and Hero Takedowns grant 0.5 Basic Attack Damage.
• Level 7
  • BOOMerang [Q]
    • New functionality: Hammerang's explosion deals 75% additional damage, and reduces Spell Armor of enemy Heroes hit by 15 for 3 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Giant Killer [Passive]
    • Removed.
  • New Talent: Sustained Winds [D]
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the Hero's maximum Health, increased to 2% while Tailwind is active.
• Level 16
  • Crippling Hammer [Q]
    • Bonus Hammerang Slow reduced from 35% to 25%.
    • Additional functionality: Hammerang's explosion also Slows.

Developer Comment: For as long as Falstad has had the BOOMerang talent, there have been players that have wanted it to be a part of Falstad's base kit. So, we're giving it a try and seeing what happens! We've also altered early talents to be less reliant on slaying Minions to unlock their strength. While Falstad is no longer able to Bribe Mercenaries with Wingman, we hope the Lightning Rod bonus damage makes up for it.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Gathering Storm [Q]
    • Damage bonus increased from 1.5 to 2.
• Level 4
  • Updraft [E]
    • Shield bonus increased from 60% to 70%.
• Level 7
  • Secret Weapon [Q]
    • Damage bonus increased from 80% to 90%.
• Level 10
  • Hinterland Blast [R1]
    • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80.
    • Cooldown reduction when hitting enemy Heroes increased from 25 to 30 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Epic Mount [Z]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 40 to 50 seconds.

Developer Comment: It's been a long time since we updated Falstad, so we took a look at him and saw a few talents that could be improved. In general many of his talent tiers have two choices that players seem to heavily prefer over the third option, so we're trying to create a larger incentive for players to think about choosing those talents that they currently aren't picking.

Updates

Abilities

• Level 4
  • Updraft [E]
    • Shield bonus increased from 40% to 60%
• Level 7
  • Secret Weapon [Q]
    • Bonus damage increased from 60% to 80%
• Level 16
  • Crippling Hammer [Q]
    • Slow amount increased from 50% to 60%

Updates

Abilities

• Flight (Z)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 75 seconds

Talents

• Level 20
  • Epic Mount (Z)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 30 to 40 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Lightning Rod cooldown reduction applied by the Wingman Talent now correctly appends to both Lightning Rod's Ability tooltip and Wingman's Active Bar tooltip.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Gathering Storm (Q)
    • Added functionality:
      • Every Hero Hammerang hits also returns 10 Mana.
  • Wingman (Active)
    • Added functionality:
      • Reduces Lightning Rod's cooldown by 3 seconds
• Level 4
  • Updraft (E)
    • Added functionality:
      • Removes the duration of Shields granted by Barrel Roll.

Bug Fixes

• Lightning Rod is no longer audible to enemies through the Fog of War.

Updates

Miscellaneous

• Flight (Z) will now go on a 10 second cooldown when interrupted by enemy or allied abilities, including self-cancelling.
• Flight (Z) now has an allied chat announcement upon activation.

Updates

Abilities

• Hinterland Blast (R)
  • Added functionality:
    • Cooldown is reduced by 25 seconds for every enemy Hero hit

Updates

Abilities

• Flight (Z)
  • Cooldown increased from 45 to 55 seconds

Talents

• Level 20
  • Epic Mount (Z)
    • Now reduces Flight cooldown to 30 seconds

Developer Comment: We are looking at bringing down the power of global talents. We like what they bring to the game and their draft implications per map but feel that they are currently available a bit too often.

Updates

Abilities

• Tailwind (Trait)
  • Movement Speed reduced from 20 to 15%
• Hammerang (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 132 to 121

Talents

• Level 1
  • New Talent: Wingman (Active)
    • Enemy Minions killed near you grant a stack of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them and permanently increasing the damage of Lightning Rod by 5%. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 80 stacks.
  • Bribe (Active)
    • Replaced by Wingman
• Level 4
  • Updraft (E)
    • Now also increases Shield duration by 40% (1.2 seconds)
• Level 7
  • BOOMerang (Q)
    • Detonation damage reduced from 175 to 165
  • Charged Up (W)
    • Range bonus increased from 15 to 25%
• Level 16
  • Aerie Gusts (Passive)
    • Movement speed bonus reduced from 30 to 25%
    • Cooldown reduction for Tailwind activation decreased from 4 to 3 seconds

Developer Comment: In our ongoing pursuit to create meaningful and Hero-specific generic Talent choices, Bribe was a Talent that got caught in our crosshairs this patch. We have removed it from a few Heroes and have added new flavorful versions to a few others. We have always liked the design and gameplay behind the Talent, but also realize how much players had to give up in order to pick them. Wingman, Pixie Charm, and Covert Mission are being reintroduced to Falstad, Brightwing, and Nova, respectively, with design mechanics more suited to each Hero's unique style of play.

Bug Fixes

• The landing indicator for Falstad's Flight will no longer appear cut off when flying long distances.

Updates

Abilities

• Mighty Gust (R)
  • Movement speed initial slow reduced from 60 to 40%
  • Movement speed decay time reduced from 5 to 4 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Gathering Storm (Q)
    • Damage per Hero hit reduced from 2 to 1.5

Developer Comment: Falstad is performing really well and brings a lot to any team. He's not too far out of bounds, however, so we decided to do a couple minor tweaks. We are closely watching him and will make additional changes if needed.

Bug Fixes

• Will no longer be struck by ground-level objects, such as Abathur's Toxic Nests, while using Flight.

Updates

• Battle Momentum (Talent) removed.
• First Aid (Talent) removed.
• Overdrive (Talent) removed.
• Vigorous Assault (Talent) renamed to Hammer Gains
  • This is now a Falstad-specific version of Vigorous Assault.
  • Health restored per Basic Attack increased from 15% to 20% of damage dealt to the primary target.
• Tailwind (Trait)
  • Flow Rider (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 13.
• Hammerang (Q)
  • Power Throw (Talent) removed.
  • Hammer Time (Talent) removed.
  • Crippling Hammer (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 16.
  • Secret Weapon (Talent)
    • Now also increases Hammerang range by 30%.
    • Basic Attack damage bonus reduced from 80% to 60%
• Lightning Rod (W)
  • Charged Up (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 7.
    • Now also increases Lightning Rod's range by 15%.
    • Number of bonus strikes reduced from 3 to 2.
  • Static Shield (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 4.
    • Shield amount per strike reduced from 5% to 4% of maximum Health.
• Barrel Roll (E)
  • Shield duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
  • Free Roll (Talent) removed.
  • Updraft (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4.
    • Now also increases Barrel Roll's Shield amount by 40%.

Developer Comment: We have been trying our best to support and balance the ‘mage' versus ‘auto-attack' builds that Falstad has access to, but continue to teeter-totter as small changes to popular Talents tend to dictate full build-paths. The changes Falstad is receiving may seem massive (and to an extent they are), but we tried our best to keep his current builds intact while opening some new and exciting combinations. Overall, we are not hoping for a huge swing in power in one direction or the other, but to open up more compelling choices at each Talent tier.

Updates

• Mighty Gust (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds.

Developer Comment: Mighty Gust is an incredibly powerful ability that we had been giving buffs to for a long time in an attempt to get more players to pick it (and win!). It seems that after a long period of time, players have learned how to properly play with and against the Heroic, and now it's time to undo some of those former buffs. Increasing the cooldown should reduce cases where Mighty Gust is used frivolously, but it should still be a powerful disengage and playmaking Heroic.

Updates

• Hammerang (Q)
  • Gathering Storm (Talent)
    • Damage gained per Hero hit increased from 1 to 2
  • BOOMerang (Talent)
    • Reactivation damage increased from 150 (+4% per level) to 175 (+4% per level)
    • Damage radius increased by 25%, which now more appropriately matches the explosion's visual effects
• Lightning Rod (W)
  • Charged Up (Talent)
    • Additional strikes increased from 2 to 3
  • Thunderstrikes (Talent)
    • Damage bonus per subsequent strike increased from 15% to 20%
• Barrel Roll (E)
  • Updraft (Talent)
    • Range bonus increased from 30% to 40%

Developer Comment: We're very happy with Falstad's current place in the game, especially in the professional scene. We have been keeping an eye on some of his weaker Talents, however, and felt we could make some of his Talent tiers more competitive by tuning them up.
We love the feedback we have been receiving on the quest-style talents that some Heroes have, like Gathering Storm, and want to offer more opportunities for players to show off their skill!

Updates

• Hammerang (Q)
  • BOOMerang (Talent)
    • Damage increased from 121 (+4% per level) to 150 (+4% per level)
• Hinterland Blast (R)
  • Base damage increased from 411 (+4.75% per level) to 475 (+4.75% per level)

Developer Comment: We're primarily seeing players run Basic Attack builds as Falstad, and would like to make ‘mage' Falstad a bit more powerful. We also felt that Hinterland Blast isn't doing enough damage with its higher cooldown, so we're further increasing that damage.

Updates

• Hinterland Blast (R)
  • Damage increased from 411 (+4% per level) to 411 (+4.75% per level)
  • Cooldown increased from 90 to 120 seconds

Developer Comment: We are looking for opportunities to increase the impact that some Heroic Abilities have at the moment they are cast. When it makes sense, we are also looking to increase the cooldown in order to keep the big moments more impactful. This is our first pass at doing this and you can expect to see more changes like these as we move forward with this initiative.

Bug Fixes

• This fix will also resolve incorrect damage amounts for similar Talent interactions, such as Muradin's Storm Bolt with the Sledgehammer and Perfect Storm Talents, as well as Falstad's Gathering Storm and Overdrive Talents.

Updates

• Hammerang (Q)
  • Conjurer's Pursuit (Talent) removed
  • Gathering Power (Talent) removed
  • Power Throw (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4
  • New Talent (Level 1): Gathering Storm
    • Permanently increases Hammerang's damage by 1 every time it damages an enemy Hero
• Flow Rider (Talent)
  • No longer decreases Barrel Roll's cooldown
  • Now causes Basic Abilities to recharge 100% faster while the Tailwind trait is active

Developer Comment: Our Falstad changes were geared towards supporting Talent diversity. We wanted to make small changes while still providing a meaningful impact. The new and changed talents will add some higher skill options to confident Falstad players.

Bug Fixes

• Falstad's Hinterland Blast will no longer be placed on reduced cooldown when it is successfully cast at the same moment that Falstad is stunned by The Butcher's Ruthless Onslaught.

Updates

Developer Comment: Mighty Gust can be a great disengagement tool, but it is often outshined by the pure power of Hinterland Blast. We feel we can bring this Heroic into play more often with some simple tuning changes. Internally, it's been much more powerful and can even be used as a counter to a hard engagement or aggressive dive teams.

• Mighty Gust (R)
  • Cooldown decreased from 50 to 40 seconds
  • Slow duration increased from 2 to 5 seconds